So I'm still thinking of a Night Circus birthday party with Fred Steak, zebra pasta, caramel corn, chocolate mice and a big giant black and white cake with raspberry filling.

reading that makes me tired. I don't remember the last time cooked and baked for a meal, much less a party.

Yesterday she took one thing and put it in a box then stacked that box on top of all the other boxes. Lather rinse repeat.

See, I know this sucks when it's your kid and you have to actually pack and move, but my ovaries are groaning, "I MISS THAT AGE SO MUCH."

well she talks as much as the developer?

But at least she has a note from her doctor, and is cutie patootie to boot. And she's volunteering herself for tasks.

And, thank god: the developer sent an "I can't do this!" note to me and her manager, which means it's both escalated and I'm in the loop and I get to respond to "let's break this down into discrete chunks and ask every possible question". Management needs to chime in with their extra special expert answers, but I'm on the record now.

ALSO, muffin recon was successful! The normal cafe was still out, but their sister restaurant across the way had gotten their shipment for some reason. So I've made myself new tea, and am starting the morning again.

If only I had more Flexeril...

I was going to post this in Literary, but I decided I'd see if I could cast a wider net. Totally kills me bogus transition, not least of all because I'm serial posting, but:

Speaking of conflict or actual struggle (okay, I'm cheating the segue, but bear with me), I just re-found this article advocating for a non-conflict 4 act lens for fiction and reality: [link]

Does anyone have any grade school level examples of the kishotenketsu plot structure that I could read/watch to better understand it? Or alternate explanations so I can think more about it?

apparently twitter is down.

I heard some amazing jokes last night.

What's red and smells like blue paint?

Red paint.

What's the difference between a red thing and a blue thing?

They're both red, except for the blue thing.

Apparently red/blue jokes are hilarious to me.

I think the person who wrote this document meant effectiveness. What he wrote was affectability.

What's red and blue and goes 50 mph in circles?

A smurf in a blender.

damn. that's cold.

4 Modern K9s Worth Knowing About

Moscow has had a stray dog problem for almost two centuries, but while plenty of other cities have similar problems, Moscow is the only one where some strays have taken to using the subway just like the rest of the city’s citizens. The 500 or so dogs that have moved into the subway system aren’t feral monsters either –indeed, they’re some of the most civilized homeless dogs in the world. In fact, the dogs have trained themselves to identify which residents will give them food and which they should avoid.

While the animals still live in packs, the leader of these groups isn’t the strongest one, but instead the smartest one. The packs aren’t territorial and often the leaders will interact with one another –something unheard of in both wolf packs and packs of feral dogs. The packs will often deploy their cutest, smallest members to beg for food from people while the stealthier dogs will often sneak up behind people carrying food and then bark, spooking the person to drop their snack. Because the dogs have an easy time getting food, it is rare to see malnourished animals and many will even be highly selective about what scraps they take. While these pups have learned to rely on people for food and many are even very social, none of them are prone to becoming attached to people or relying on one particular person.

Many members of the pack have learned to recognize which subway station they want to get out on and some have even learned to observe traffic lights. As for their bathroom issues, well they may not know how to use toilets (yet), but they still are careful to only defecate outside in less trafficked areas. All of these unique behaviorisms have made them quite popular amongst researchers who seek to understand how the dogs have adapted, how they understand the subway system and how they will continue to evolve.

Fascinating.

(OK, now I'm picturing Spock in a Russian subway.)

eta:

I've never heard of coywolves before:

If you couldn’t tell by the name, coywolves are a hybrid between wolves and coyotes. They generally have more coyote in them then wolf and, while their gene pool is in a constant state of change right now, many scientists believe they are an emerging species.