My ear is plugged up and won't clear out. I feel like swatting at it like a confused cat.

I feel your pain, Dana. Mine finally cleared on Wednesday (five days later!) but I'm still all congested and so on.

I am trying to convince a friend that she really wants to go on vacation with me to Mexico, and rent a house for a week. And get a bunch of our other friends to come with. I am dreaming big.

I'm already getting approval for my two vacations I've got planned for the year. One to see my sister in Vegas in April (flying out on Thursday so she can pick me up at the airport on her way home from work, then hanging around her house on Friday while she's working, then I get to spend time with her and her family on the weekend and fly home on Monday morning), and the other to NJ to see my mom for two weeks in August, when we're going to take a drive up to Maine and stop by Boston on the way home to see my cousin and her family.

Definitely looking forward to getting some away-from-here time!!!

STINKY OFFICE.

I kinda drew a chick in one of our meetings. Only kinda. I only reproduced her hair. It was fabulous, complicated hair. I did not try for a resemblance. The hair came out very well. I don't regret a thing.

So there!

Sparky, I got your message. I need to bug my dad for his promised contribution so that I can book the airfare.

Flea, as a person who almost never has a snowday, I am boggled and insanely jealous. Though, I understand how cabin fever would set in after a day or so.

Yikes, flea.

Now they are predicting a foot here, starting tomorrow night, and I am excited because I think that means I can cancel the date I don't really want to go on, AND potential for a snow day!

I have a hivemind-librarian request.

I am currently surrounded - literally - by information about Sudan and their politics. I'm looking for a reputable source (as in, not Wikipedia) that would support the idea that the government in Khartoum used to (pre-2003) forcibly recruit Darfuris into their Army to fight against Southern Sudan and that the North focused their forced recruitment efforts on Darfur because they didn't like the Darfuris for some reason.

(btw, did you know that forcible recruitment into an Army that wants to use you as a human mind detector, and torture when you try to escape, is *not* enough to get you aslyum in this country. Unless you can prove that they recruited you in the first place because they didn't like your people.)

Jesse, with the date-cancelling luxury.

I feel completely unprepared for this upcoming meeting, but my usually-hyper boss seems totally unperturbed (I can't believe my brain just suggested "nonplussed" for that sentence...I plow on, irregardless).

Jesse, with the date-cancelling luxury.

Yeah, well.