I am, however, surprised at how often I am asked to spell my first name.

I always ask people how to spell their names. John Smith? Jon Smythe is a completely legit alternative. As to your first name, this guy has a alternate spelling (admittedly one that is often a feminine variation, but not always). [link]

smonster, we're upgrading to Environmental lightbulbs right now and it's fucking great(we hope so, anyway)

Dammit. Drew's mom is back in the hospital with a bad infection. Health ~ma for her and coping ~ma for Drew would be appreciated.

{{{{Drew and Drew's mom}}}}

{{{Drew and family}}}

My advisor is now averaging one response for every five emails I send him.

Oh, man. I hope his mother is okay.

Pix--I didn't mean to skip past your coffee post of earlier. You're right--my weekends are a crapshoot. If you're okay with the idea of something last minute, I can let you know if a weekend looks good. But they're usually very quiet around here.

{Drew and Drew's Mom}

Thanks for the well wishes. At least it looks treatable. First call I got this morning was that they were worried she'd had a stroke, at least it wasn't that, just a really bad infection that was leading to some dementia.

Ma for Drew and fam.

I do feel I should try to do a bit better with your name. That 'r' is tricky in Hebrew, though. I say it like a French 'r' and The Girl cringes.

Damn, so it's not? Now I'm going to have to track down a Hebrew speaker and figure this pesky r out.

erika, crap. I only replied to you in my head, I think. But good on ya for going there. Did you get CFLs? They can take some adjusting to. The light is generally much bluer than incandescent.

Sorry to hear it, Drew.