Laundry 2 minutes from done. Then sleeeeep!

Hello all. The following is an enormous catch-up post. We were in Torquay (the seaside!) for three days. It rained, mostly, so there was no going to the actual beach. But we did a boat ride around the bay, and miles and miles of walking along the coast, and other fun little things. My grandparents lived there for fifteen years, so it was cool to see everything again. Also nice to have a little break before moving starts.

Talking of which, we were meant to complete on our house today (is that a phrase you use in the US too?), although I'm not overwhelmingly hopeful, as the whole process has been fraught and complicated and slow. Please send house~ma for completing very soon! We need to start the moving process or I won't be able to start my PhD at the end of September, and The Girl is going to Israel for the holidays right when we'll be wanting to move in (but that can't be helped).

In happy money news, I just paid off a student loan. I'm so happy I could cry.

Congrats!

I got defriended again on Facebook for having and stating my opinion and not being the right kind of Christian!

Congrats!

Thanks for the Simon's Cat link, Andi. I love that cat.

Shir, good for you for speaking up about your classmates. That situation sounded horrible. I hope you get a positive, useful response. Also, do you want a copy of my CV (resume)? I should have offered when you sent me yours to proofread - sorry for not catching on to what you needed.

Does anyone know anything about lithium orotate?

Yes - a friend of mine takes it for ADD and Asperger's. It's related to the form of lithium carbonate that's taken for bipolar, although the ororate form's not meant to be quite as good for bipolar. Um... that's about all I know, except that my friend finds it helpful. (I hated being on lithium carbonate - the side effects are nasty. But they may be much fewer with the other form. Worth checking, all the same.)

I put all of my winter clothes into under-bed boxes

This is a great idea that I'm going to do, in the new house. My current, rented place is part-furnished, and the bed has no space underneath. Always thought that was a terrible waste.

The thing that gets me about how freaked out the right gets about Obama is that Obama isn't especially liberal. A lot of people on the left are not exactly happy with him.

This is what makes me *boggle* about the right in the US at the moment, too. A lot of us socialist Brits are incredibly disappointed he hasn't gone further with reforms, so I can only imagine what left-wing Americans are thinking.

MY wall is currently playing host to "I get to decide what you do with your hard-earned money, you food-stamp-(ab)using lazy slob, you."

Gaah. That stuff is exploding over here, too. Benefits reforms, starting with stomping all over disabled people, in a way that's causing absolute terror for an awful lot of people, while the media calls us evil scroungers every day. I contribute to a new team blog about it here - but it might not interest non-UKers. Some of the writing has been great so far, though.

Trudy, as Zenkitty said, I'm glad for good news about your aunt, and very sorry to hear about your cousin. ~ma to you and your family.

Seska, thanks - I think I've got enough Buffistas CVs/resumes by now to get a cluestick on how an English resume should look like.

IhomefrontN: I'll have two English Couchsurfers today, until Monday. One of them is an anarchist-vegan youngster who wishes to bring world peace and everything, which I find adorable. What I find less adorable is that he is traveling without a cell phone, and quite sure he'll be able to find my place without calling me first. In one of the hottest days ever recorded in Israel's history. 39 Celsius degrees, 65% humidity. My will to send a search party if he'll get lost on his way is... not quite there.

The other guy sounds cool, though. (Yes, I judge people by their emails).

In other worrying news, I can't seem to stop listening to The Sound of Music soundtrack. I regained appreciation to Maria (the character) from a new perspective, and hate Rolfe even more than before.

Good luck with the house, Seska!

Right, house~ma, Seska!

House~ma Seska!

Hivemind question:

Can an Ace bandage wrapped around a bare calf cause blisters?

For the past year and a half we have been battling an infection on my right calf that started as a scratch and went nuts, eventually leading to me going to a wound care specialist.

Andi has been very patient helping me medicate and wrap my leg thoroughly, and slow but steady progress has won the day.

Wednesday my leg seemed to be healed enough to put just an Ace wrapped around it for compression/protection. It irritated me a bit, so Thursday we put on a layer of roll gauze first, and it felt better.

When I took off the Ace and gauze last night I had a small blister that had formed. It doesn't feel particularly painful, but annoying nonetheless. It seems to me the last time I had tried just an ace a blister showed up the next day. Coincidence?

Andi has been very supportive of me int he recovery of the leg, but we had been seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I hate to have to tell her we have one more.

I have no idea how to respond to this email from the department head. It's making me all paranoid.

Hello Hillary. I am looking forward to meeting you, and other new instructors, at the welcome event being held in the department tomorrow (Friday) morning.

I am writing now because I heard (via one of those unlikely chains of communication that are only possible in a small town) that you were worried about your teaching schedule. I was sorry to hear this, as I had thought we'd discussed your concerns several weeks back and arrived at a solution that is satisfactory to you.

I certainly understand that it is difficult when you're new to a place, but I do hope that in future you'll feel free to share any concerns directly with [other supervisor] or with me.

The concerns we'd discussed several weeks back was that I had classes fifteen minutes and three blocks apart, which was too far for me to walk in that time. I asked whether I needed to register with Disability Services in order to get something switched, and he reworked the schedule so that any time I had two classes in a row, they were in the same room. I'm not really sure what he's talking about with me being worried about my schedule now.

I'm guessing that, as might be expected, those "unlikely chains of communication that are only possible in a small town" are a little behind, so I'd just say thanks very much for reaching out but you were very helpful and were able to resolve things as of the last time you met, so no need for concern.

Trudy, I'm sorry for your loss, and glad for your good news. Punctuation as needed.

Talking of which, we were meant to complete on our house today (is that a phrase you use in the US too?)

Seska, we usually say "closed".

I'm not really sure what he's talking about with me being worried about my schedule now.

Funny how small town scuttlebutt transmits problems but doesn't keep up with solutions, isn't it?