Much getting better and car~ma for you, Katie Bee.

Much work~ma for you, askye.

Andi, it sounds like you did totally the right thing regarding contacting the supervisor. Good on ya, and I hope that situation calms down asap.

Other, saner coworkers think it is pointless to talk to the D's supervisor about the crappy things that she does, because he has as of yet taken no action that involved more than jaw-flapping. I am of the opinion that if each and every one of us who observe D being unprofessional in some way tell him, eventually he will get sick of having such an unprofessional, potentially abusive twit doing that job. Also, if everyone tells him stuff, it will look less like any given one of us has a personal grudge against her. I, myself, have found myself saying less to him about D than I might have wanted, as I had applied for the job, when they hired her instead.

That does sound like an awesome lecture series, Shir.

I don't know much about the Druze. On my first group trip to Israel, we visited a Druze village, and we went to this house that had the front room set up as a sort of visitors' center, and we ate Druze food while some of them told us about their religion and culture, but it wasn't really under circumstances where anybody was paying much attention. (We'd had a hike that morning that was much more challenging than we'd been told. If the leader had given me an honest description of the trail, I would have honestly said that I couldn't do it, but what she described to me was much easier than what was actually there. About twenty minutes in, my knee just gave out, on the side of a mountain. The group was going down the mountain, but with the way my knee had gotten screwed up, up was way easier than down, so I went back up to the bus with one of the guards while everybody else finished the hike. I got dehydrated on the way back up. Everybody else was exhausted by the time they finished the hike, because it was supposed to be just a morning hike, then over to the Druze for lunch, but it ended up taking until 3 in the afternoon, with no food. One guy, who actually knew enough Hebrew to have read the warning sign if he had bothered to actually look at it, leaned against an electrified fence. So, by the time we got to the Druze place, we were all pretty much in "Give us couches and food!" mode. And they did have couches and food, but also education, and we were all a bit too tired and hungry to really pay attention.)

I say! I'm watching Jeeves & Wooster, season 1. Hmm, I wonder where I got that idea from.

Jeeves still wakes me up in the morning. i love it.

El Al are refusing us seats at the front of the plane, on our flight to Israel in a couple of weeks. This is against European legislation, which they should be following on a flight that starts in Europe. Gah. I hate flying these days. The only good experience I've *ever* had of a flight, since becoming a wheelchair user, was a tiny charter company. No one else seems to take the law seriously, ever. The Girl is calling them in Israel to see if that helps!

Today, writing that essay I've been putting off, and thinking about PhD applications. Wishing everyone a good day!

{{Katiebee}} Sorry about the accident. I'm glad you're ok!

A little help from the preggo Buffistas. My niece is due in February and she is huge, and from the pictures I have seen not too comfy. They live in the snowy north and she is a HS teacher with a mountain road commute daily. (she does carpool)

I want to send her a pampering package of some kind. She has lots of interests. She reads, cooks, gardens. I'm just trying to think of something that would be pampering for her.

I'm just trying to think of something that would be pampering for her.

Vicodin?

Laura, the only thing that has been helping me is baths. I've been enjoying Lush butterball baths, which are okay during pregnancy according to the FAQ on their site:

Q. What can I use when I am pregnant?

A. All of our products are safe for use, however we do feel that those products milder in their actions are the ones you should choose. If you have any concerns about ingredients, any of the essential oils, for example, we make plenty of alternative products for you to choose from.

Recommendations: Our Therapy Massage Bar is especially lovely for mums to be as you can use it to moisturise your tummy. Our Butterball Bath Ballistic is a good choice with its soothing vanilla fragrance and pieces of real cocoa butter for moisturising your skin. Dream Cream hand and body lotion is great for particularly dry skin and Sympathy For The Skin is a moisturising cream which can be used after a bath or shower to keep your skin soft and supple to help prevent stretch marks. Ultrabland cleanser and Celestial facial moisturiser are also ideal choices as they are designed for sensitive skin.

You can even get the butterball bath bomb in snowman form this time of year [link] They also specifically mention the Therapy massage bar as being great for pregnant bellies, but I haven't tried that [link] So for preggo me, a gift of Lush and reading materials for the tub would be heavenly.

Hil - nobody, unless a religious Druze, knows much about the Druze. Their religion is a secret one and there's a difference between religious and secular Druze (though they can marry each other).

Arggh, Seska, I'm sorry you have to go though this, but this sounds like a typical El Al. If there anything I can do from here that would make it easier for you, please let me know. I know lawyers who can threat them into action, too.