ION, I took the initiative and approached my boss. He was actually very nice about the whole thing and I left feeling fine.

Oh, yay!

So I should get a call today either offering me this job or not. If I get the offer, I'm going to ask for a day or so to consider - that's normal, right? And I'm making a list of things I want to know - salary, vacation, health insurance, and a little more about my responsibilities. What am I missing? Oh, what tools I need to supply, if any.

JAXA uses origami to test potential astronauts during isolation training.

Not really parenting related except it was linked to on ParentHacks - this app looks really useful for Clean All The Things-ing:

[link]

(But I hope there's a light/trial version because I don't like spending more than .99 on apps I'm not sure about.)

Under the heading of "Where there's an internet, there's a kerfuffle," I'm now subscribed to a listserv on lead paint safety and there's a tit-for-tat going on between a state health employee and a woman who's very angry about the way her daughter's health problems were addressed. He just invoked the Kubler-Ross stages of grief and ended with "Occasionally I have to deal with someone who can't work through the process and remains in one of the stages (ie ANGER) for years. This is not healthy and is, in fact, a self destructive behavior. In those rare cases the person would benefit from the services of a mental health professional."

Oh, mansplaining SNAP! Because, you know, if your daughter suffered lead poisoning and the state sided with your landlord, you just need to get over it.

"Occasionally I have to deal with someone who can't work through the process and remains in one of the stages (ie ANGER) for years. This is not healthy and is, in fact, a self destructive behavior. In those rare cases the person would benefit from the services of a mental health professional."

SMASH.

I mean, I don't know who's in the right and who's in the wrong for sure, but he sounds like a massive self-righteous douchebag. And I'm pretty sure it's inappropriate for him to be trashing her on a semi-public forum.

This is why I try not to advertise my hippie greanfreakitude at the playground unless specifically asked for advice on an individual topic by someone I know reasonably well. Because as soon as I say something like "I wash my cloth diapers with soap nuts" - BOOM. I've just labeled myself a Certain Kind Of Mommy and suddenly half the people in hearing range think I'm looking down on them.

Heh. Yeah. People! Stop assuming I'm judging you!

I just got some great news from my former job, which makes me feel good about myself, but doesn't help me in my current job at all! Oh well...

I judge people for assuming I'm judging them.

Happy Birthday, Sue!

x-post with Bitches: Thank you all for the ~ma. My sister-in-law's father passed away Sunday morning. My brother said that they are probably going to have to knock him completely out for the radiation, but he's totally up for that. Turns out the anxiety attacks are a physical symptom of the brain tumor, along with the speech problems, etc., and consequently, are very difficult to treat.

I'm still not sure when a good time to go up to NY will be. I'm thinking that I may want to let things settle a bit, and see how he's feeling after a few weeks of treatment. As my boss reminded me, I'm not going up there to fall into a caretaker role like I fell into with both of my parents (not that my brother and SiL would ever tolerate that from me in a million years). I'm just going up to visit, and to be there.

Stephanie, I'm glad the talk with your boss went better than you expected.