If you take the doll in yourself, they will bring her out in a wheelchair.

!!!!!

Now I want a broken doll just so I can ship her to the doll hospital. Which sounds all kinds of creepy. I take it back. Still, as kid, I would have LOVED getting a repair done like that. So cool.

I just bought a battery-powered lantern. I'm not even in the danger zone; why am I getting prepared?

Maybe not this time, but now you're prepared for anything!

I have to pack and roll on up the pike. Blergh.

I'm sorry, but I have to: Danger zone!.

Ha! I'm not clicking, but I'm still earwormed. Ooh, but now I can turn to my restocked iTunes to save me.

What would you do for free? Well you must find out what it is and quit your job so you can do it. You will enjoy your work much more and will become an expert in your field.

I suppose that academia is the poster child for jobs that people think they might do “for free.” In fact, there are folks in my department who have been retired for 10 years, but who come to work every day. And some of them are doing excellent work that gets published in the best journals. I guess you could say that they are doing it for free. I hope that when I am 75 I’ll be in an emeritus office doing the same thing.

But the thing is, they aren’t doing the whole job. They aren’t sitting on endless committees. They aren’t teaching large lecture classes full of indifferent undergraduates. They aren’t pulling all-nighters writing grants. They aren’t grading papers. Or essay exams. Or those other damn papers they forgot that they assigned. If their manuscript gets rejected by a high-status journal, they don’t spend weeks revising it to meet the demands of dimwitted reviewers. They just send it somewhere else. Because, why not? No one is going to evaluate the quality of the journals they publish in. They don’t do the whole job. They only do the satisfying, self-expressive parts.

Even in academia, you get paid to do the tedious stuff that you would never do for free. That’s the cost demanded for the opportunity to do the things that really interest you. It’s not that different than working a day-job full of tedious stuff so you can spend your spare time writing fiction or working in local theater. There is a nice advantage that you know all of the people you work with will share your avocation, and there are rewards for succeeding at it. But if you try to do only the parts you like, you won’t last long.

I totally thought you were suggesting an alternative to the doll hospital.

I hadn't thought of that--but I like it.

That's a great point, Rick.

yay for Maria!

Cashmere, a woman in my office has a daughter whose American Girl doll had a SPA DAY - had a "facial", had her hair done. At, I think, about $100. eek

Kat, it's kind of ironic that K bought a new car with seat warmers when you're enduring 100 degree heat, no?

Jessica: There's apparently a chance the entire NYC transit system could be shut down this weekend.

What, do they think they're DC's Metro? the subway system that shuts down for snow ....

Irene ... it's the big news story (now that the earthquake fuss has settled down a bit). I was listening to the radio this morning and they had their gardening expert on, advising on protecting plants (anything in a pot, bring inside). Asked if packing extra soil around plants would protect them, he said, "lighting a candle to the Blessed Mother" would work about as well.

I had to send quite a number of American Girl dolls in to the "hospital" when I was a kid. I loved them. My father bought me three of the original ones when I was really tiny and they are so old their bodies were signed and numbered and dated. I wasn't even allowed to touch them until I was 9, and then I played with them so hard and for so many years they are basically ruined, which is sad, as I bet dolls that old from a company that huge would be worth something now.