(Also, you should fly over to this part of the world and come to some sociology conferences with me. Yes.)

Sure! Yes! Oh wait, no money!

Oh wait, no money!

Excuses, excuses.

Sorry about the bad nights, Hil and smonster. May the day improve.

Happy Birthday to Laura's baby boy!

Nora, the second "this", to the "Keen Commuter Bag : A Trail Tough Street Bag" made of hemp? That would be my choice, just because the inner layout looks well thought out and adequately padded. My second choice would be the Haiku bag, your "Option 2". I have a bag similar in appearance I got at B&N, and have gotten scads of compliments on. I have carried my 15.5 laptop in it, with peripherals, but it's not really designed structured or padded well enough to do that regularly. It works well as an oversized purse-briefcase-messenger bag. I would strongly recommend a bag with a padded adjustable strap you can carry on either shoulder, worn cross-body to distribute the weight better, with the bag carried at the hip, or in front or in back of the body depending on circumstances.

If you can find the neoprene bag locally? Go take a look, and more importantly, a sniff of it in person. One I ordered I had to return because the smell of it was too gaggeous to endure, despite a week of "airing it out" before I tried to use it. Kinda tragic, it was really cute!

Believe it or not, I feel you on this, Windsparrow...we already fight about politics too because my brother has a real establishment streak that I can't share, being, like, Snot Boogie and shit. "They were supposed to let me play. This America, man." I really believe he's what our district needs...it's just easier to believe that when he isn't a butthead cause he hasn't eaten in hours and bitching cause people aren't buying life insurance.

Paging Seska! A little elf told me to let you know your Secret Santa gift is on the way, and to thank you kindly for your patience.

(crossposted with Goodbye)

I just started following a couple of y'all on Twitter. I haven't Tweeted yet, nor do I promise I will, but I am [RL!FirstName]r[RL!LastName]. Email me if you don't know my names and want to follow me.

I just started cooking my first meal in my new kitchen! Nice, deep earthy beef stew started on the stovetop and moved to the slow cooker. My house smells divine. And in terms of slow cookers, may I recommend my All-Clad deluxe slow cooker? I know it's pricey as hell, but it's totally worth it to save your pennies. The insert rocks the house-- being able to brown meats, etc on the stove and just plop the insert into the cooker to finish things off.

And I really, really freakin' love my kitchen. For lo, I have lusted after a gas stove these many, many years.

Amy - do tell the little bird that I am grateful for the news!

Ooh, thanks for the rec, Barb. I will need to replace mine at some point and I`d looked at that one but couldn`t justify the price. Good to hear it`s worth it.

I was about to be all "I'm going to Barb's house for dinner!" and then I realized I COULD be all "I'm going to Barb's house for dinner!". HOW COOL IS THAT????

(note: I am not ACTUALLY inviting myself to Barb's for dinner, both because I just ate some food, and because I'm supposed to go find these roller derby girls from Canada and show them around town. Ahem. BUT STILL!)

Also, I went and impulse bought some new eyeglasses today. And might go buy another pair. But they end up being $500-600 a pair. So that's kind of an expensive impulse buy. Ouch. But the one pair I really wanted, and the other pair is on clearance and if I don't buy them NOW, they might be GONE. Sigh.