Oh, night shift, how i did not miss the slowness. It's not even 3 am yet (when it traditionally gets slow) and yet i've only handled 5 calls in the last 3 hours. Seriously, i usually handle about 30 in that time frame. Slooooooooooow. I might run out of internet AND my current brain candy book before i get to go home at 6am!

eta: ooooh, i found my sunday newspaper still untouched! all good here for at least another hour.

A French tribute to Star Wars: [link]

I am fairly positive that I would not have been able to keep saying no if I weren't thinking of you guys, so thank you again.

P-C, you are AWESOME. It's hard to stand your ground at first, but it gets easier. I swear it.

Somebody living in Chicago is Most Definitely not a dealbreaker!

I was gonna say!

Well done, P-C. And it sounds like your father is trying to keep the peace by cutting things off before they get out of hand -- a good sign.

David, best wishes for your best man and his family, now and in the future. Kidney transplants change your life and the lives of those around you.

I was also an early reader. I pestered my mother about it, and she finally started to teach me when I was 4. Though I don't remember how much she taught me and how much I did on my own.

I also taught myself cursive writing when I was in first grade by copying the letters from the front of a notebook. And at some point, I just started cursive writing. Then my second grade teacher demanded that we write her way, which was supposed to be easier. In some ways it was, but Capital F was almost impossible. Which, of course, is one of the letters I use most frequently.

Apropos of nothing, but because I'm thinking about it today - we're changing our names really soon, like REALLY soon, because of having to postpone our civil partnership. (I send off a paper for publication this week or next week, so we start using it then.) On the one hand, I'm nervous as hell over what people will think. Which is funny, because if I were marrying a bloke, it would be entirely normal that I was changing my name. But also: yay for having a whole new family with its own little name! Happy-making.

And my sister just sent me a picture of my niece next to a snow-dog they've made. It's bigger than her. Heh.

I am now in San Francisco. I'm not sure what time zone my body thinks it's in. I just slept for 12 hours. Now, I've got to go eat breakfast, and then be awake and alert and enthusiastic for giving a talk and then having three interviews. (I've got six interviews total, of which there are two that sound really good, two that sound OK, and two that don't sound great but I'd take the job if it were the only one offered. I've got one of each category today.)

Somebody living in Chicago is Most Definitely not a dealbreaker!

Hey! Stop stealing the Chicago boys. Hard enough around here as it is.

No kidding.

I am taking a Very Buffista class this semester. Well, actually all of them are, but my Tuesday night class is quintessential. Intro to Linguistics. And I, quite simply, adore it. Prof told me I have a very sophisticated sense of linguistics and language use. t preens I blame and thank you guys. I also have a hunormous crush on him. He became a PhD in Linguistics because he wanted to understand his childhood stuttering and lisping better and make it so that kids who stutter and lisp don't get labeled "learning delayed" anymore. He is so amazing and passionate about the class. I think this might be my favorite class this semester.