Wooo. That was a total adrenaline dump. Still vibrating. Will post a link once it's up on the web. My parents said I did very well, and I think I managed to hit all the main points. Nora, I gave you a nameless shoutout - mentioned a friend who had moved down after volunteering and that I was getting to experience Mardi Gras through you.

And thanks, Ginger.

"I'm tired of pretending I'm not a total, bitchin' rock star from Mars."

Where's your tag from?

That's Charlie Sheen, smonster.

Wishing you luck on tv, smonster, that lots of people will see and respond to the fund raiser. I know you are lovely, smart, and passionate. You'll be great.

I wish I could have seen it live, looking forward to the link, I'm sure that you knocked it out of the park!

Well, darn. I was participating in an exercise challenge at work - to get at least three ten-minute periods of physical activity each day for six weeks. Active housework like vacuuming counted (I got some mileage from shoveling). I was hoping that after getting into the habit, it would be easy and automatic to keep it up. It ended Saturday (I was on track the whole 6 weeks), and yesterday, all I did was laundry. That's nothing to sneeze at, hauling the load down two flights of stairs, then hauling the wet load up one flight and hanging it on the drying racks - I figure, it counts, but as only one 10-minute slot. Well, today, at work, I will get at least 20 (doing range of motion exercises with a couple of people, plus they make laps around the house, and if I walk with them, that could add up to more). On the other hand, the local nature center is hosting a 5k run/1k walk in April, and I'm thinking about participating in the walk. I suppose I had better check if it is on a weekend that I'm working.

You were on the magic box where the people live, smonster? How fun. Glad to hear it went well!

I am vindicated (yet still bitter at losing half my day Thursday)!

The goddamn printer told Big!Boss that the overprint error was their fault. Damn right, it was.

The problem is that I *needed* that wasted time on Thursday to get the journal ready to go out today. Can't meet a deadline if you keep sucking up my time on things other than the journal whose deadline is looooooming.

So I stayed until 6 on Thursday and came in at 7:45 this morning (I normally come in at 9). It'll get out today, but I will be Twitchy McBugeye by the time it does. (Actually, I already am. My co-workers told me I can't have any more caffeine.)

I could say I'm All About The Company, but really I just like being a martyr.

Good on the Printer, Steph. Badbadbad on them for wasting your time, making you argue the obvious, and running with world-is-flat statements.

Can you take time off at the end of the day? Big!Boss needs to hook you up with a mani/pedi gift cert somewhere.

Andi, darn? When I read your post all I could think was, you kicked butt! I'm missing what feels wrong to you.

I'm actually taking inspiration from your efforts to make up for my big calorie day yesterday.

Yay teevee smonster. Can't wait to see it.

Can you take time off at the end of the day?

I'll probably leave early, assuming the journal gets out on time, which is never a guarantee. Five people look over the final paginated proofs, and sometimes they just let them sit on their desk until 3:30, at which point I still have to correct errors, add in house ads to fill white space (I can't do that ahead of time, because 1 of the 5 people who review the proofs is the person who selects the ads), output to postscript and then PDF, and FTP them to the printer. And THEN I go back and make individual PDFs of each article for our website, and FTP those to the webhost.

I have asked, explained, cajoled, demanded, and begged that people get these proofs back to me quickly. After 16 years, I don't think they're going to start respecting my time now.