omg death by expense report. but done, done done done done!

so much for leaving at noon. now I have 3 hours of vaca time for tomorrow.

Liese, those are *nice* knives.

They are, right? It's not like I know knives. I kinda want to do the best I can get, and that's the cheapest I've seen that line anywhere. The stainless handles will be nice because the desert dryness eats wood of all kinds. And our executive chef taught us that we only need two knives. So I figure put more money into a few really good knives he'll actually use.

I've almost got myself talked into this. I have an email in to the company right now finding out if I can get the mail-back holder deal which I'm supposed to get for a $150 purchase if I only spend $149.95. Or maybe I could buy one of the $5 blade guards and that would count?

But if so, and it would come with a sharpener and a cutting board, and then I could send away for the knife block or magnetic strip, that's a good deal, right?

The local newspaper is reporting that police have given a description of a suspect in several recent rapes: "The male assailant sought in three State College rape cases may be of college age, look down on women and use social influence to degrade them, borough police reported Thursday afternoon." There is no physical description in any of the public reports. This is a town with a university with about 45,000 students. How is that statement of any use at all to anybody? They're looking for a rapist, and all they can tell us is that he's probably a jackass?

Timelies all!

That's not a description, it's a profile. And not even a good one.

Why does Opera tell me that shakeable is a word, but that unshakeable isn't, and unshakable is? How does it expect me to keep track? Unsaleable and unchangeable are words.

Plei - I know. I think about poor Teddy O'Connor. Horses sometimes just do that. I've never read any details of the first two horses deaths - which makes me wonder.

Hello from Granada, where you get free tapas if you order a drink! I love traveling with my nieces, but i could do without the sinus infection from hell, which is seriously cramping my style. Anyway, Spain is lovely and i hope all y'all are doing ok. Yay for Maria's benignity.

I would say more but Kindles are crap to type on and we have tix to the Alhambra for 9 am tomorrow, which is... eeks, 9 hours from now.

Be well!

t disappears in a puff of incense

and we have tix to the Alhambra for 9 am tomorrow, which is... eeks, 9 hours from now.

I do hope you post about your visit at length. I so want to see the Alhambra. I am fascinated by it.

Can you get abx for the sinus infection? Those suck at the best of times but are worse when travelling.

I so want to see the Alhambra. I am fascinated by it.

Me too, I want to see the courtyards something awful.

Must start doing research about Madrid and surrounds.

STILL haven't gotten the ok to book flights. Found out that there was serious pushback from the project, and my head of mission totally threw down for us and let the project save face by saying the format of our paperwork was rendered unreadable when faxed. (Side note: we fill out these stupid forms in an excel worksheet. Which are converted to PDF. And then faxed to the project. WHAT THE FUCKING HELL KIND OF SYSTEM IS THAT??? We ARE rocket scientists!!)

Which makes me really glad I made a name for myself in his eyes on certain projects a couple years back because I was one of the people they were trying to cut despite the fact I am the person the partners actually rely on to research problems and I need some of their expertise in some upcoming projects. But see, I'm an ops person, not a scientist or manager. Of course.

The delay is not going to cost me (except flight times might be more onerous,) but sure as hell will cost the project.

And I spent all day coding, which makes me pretty manic (I'm not sure why, but it is enough that I should never become a fulltime programmer,) and chasing down other problems so I'm a nutball right now.