Congratulations, Tom and Nora!

Burgers: at least ketchup, mustard (ideally spicy), and either pickles or relish. I also like bacon, cheese, lettuce, and (when locally available) tomatoes.

Hot dogs: chili and onions. Or ketchup, mustard, and relish.

Tuna salad: tuna, celery, onion, mayo and nothing else.

Egg salad: hard boiled eggs, celery, onion, mayo, and mustard.

Fries: ketchup or aioli.

That is so exciting, Nora and Tom! What is the job? Nora, how far is your house from Boston?

In the book Fast Food Nation while every other fast food chain was ripped for its horrible nutrition and methods, In 'N Out burgers was put forth as a proper model for fast food.

They use all fresh ingredients for one thing. You can watch them cutting up the fries from actual potatoes while you're standing in line. Anyway, it's pretty straightforward but it's fresh and well made and cheap. Also they taste really good. Much better than any other chain burger I've had.

The other thing about this burger joint is that they pay good wages and have benefits (good wages for fast food). When they opened the one near Pier 39 a few years back, the starting rate of pay was something like $11 per hour; lines were around the block to apply for a job.

Have we discussed this "nice guys" article here? [link] Aside from the myriad other issues with it (like, it's an article about what women want with only one quote from an actual woman, way down at the end of the article), this part is really puzzling me:

Neil Strauss, author of the "The Game," a best-seller that explores ways for men to pick up women, once found himself in the Mr. Nice Guy category. He was friends with a girl he liked. He was painting her walls one time when she left to go on a date with another guy. Strauss quickly figured out that women desire someone who is kind but also has a backbone and is confident.

So he's friends with a woman, wants to be more than friends, and doesn't tell her this. And then, when she goes out with other guys, he blames the fact that he helped her paint her apartment? If a guy friend offered to help me paint my apartment or something like that, it would never occur to me to interpret it as him wanting to date me. The lesson I'm getting from this isn't "Women don't want to date guys who are too nice," but "Women aren't mind readers."

Strauss quickly figured out that women desire someone who is kind but also has a backbone and is confident.

No shit!

Nora, how far is your house from Boston?

It's in Salem, which is a 25-30 minute train ride from North Station. The commute is actually not too bad about 95% of the time. If your BF wants to buy our house without realtor interference, we can sell it for under market price and include shit like the washer/dryer, gas grill on the deck, couch, and dining room set! Also, perhaps an awesome and beautiful but enormous dresser in our bedroom.

Probably just for the price of a couple lawyers to make sure everything's legit.

The neighborhood is nice, it's convenient to town and has plenty of public transportation. Salem is really coming into its own, as well.

That sounds so lovely, but his job is a half hour south of Boston (Brockton), so I think he wants to stay in Boston. But I loved the pictures of your house I saw.

I have literally accomplished almost nothing today. Which isn't the end of the world, except that I feel like working from home is a privilege that I don't want to abuse. But still, I've gotten nothing done. (I did spend several hours researching something and deciding it was the wrong way to go, but you can't actually show that to anyone.)

The lesson I'm getting from this isn't "Women don't want to date guys who are too nice," but "Women aren't mind readers."

Don't get me started.

So we're not going back to the Moon, but it was just announced that Obama Aims to Send Astronauts to an Asteroid, Then to Mars

By 2025, the United States is expected to begin testing spacecraft for deep space exploration, vehicles capable of exploring beyond the moon on the first-ever manned trip to an asteroid, Obama said.

"By the mid-2030s I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth," President Obama said.

So we have to wait 20 years just to send humans to orbit Mars? Bah.

I feel like we need some sort of quadruple patient/donor liver transplant situation (like [link] to get Nora & Tom's place, msbelle's place, and Bob's place in Chicago sold (forgive me if there's anyone I've forgotten).