I knew Dick Clark could be propped up and could make somewhat understandable sounds, because they propped him up for about 10 minutes New Year's Eve. It was pathetic.

I wonder if they found the painting in the closet.

like he'd had a stroke and recovered only 85-90% of his speech ability.

That is what happened, several years ago. Maybe as many as 10?

I am annoyed by how many people I have to tell things here -- no one talks to each other, apparently. So telling the boss and most-directly-related person a piece of news does not mean that the news will get to another interested person. @@

What is Junior Achievement? They seem to come to my kids' school all the damn time and as far as I can see it's some capitalist indoctrination gig. Am I wrong?

Also, we got a letter from a realtor in GA whom we don't know, with a printout of the MLS listing for our house marked up in red, and his business card, and "I know why your house didn't sell. Call me." This is asshole behavior, right? He's trying to poach us as clients? Should I tell our existing realtor? Or call him up, as him why he thinks the house hasn't sold, and then ream him a new one?

What is Junior Achievement? They seem to come to my kids' school all the damn time and as far as I can see it's some capitalist indoctrination gig. Am I wrong?

You are not wrong.

And the realtor thing does sound like shitty business development, but I don't actually know.

I don't think I'll get it, and will likely humiliate myself in some way during the interview, but hey, they called me, right?

Allyson, perhaps you should instead consider that the hiring team knows what they want, and have decided that you are qualified for the position. If you weren't qualified, they wouldn't have called you: they simply don't know if you're the most qualified.

Shooting yourself down in advance is pretty much guaranteeing you won't get the job, and that's fair to neither yourself nor the people going to the trouble of interviewing you.

And why should you assume you'd humiliate yourself? You are a competent, funny, professional woman. Give yourself a chance.

Can't help with JA or with the poaching realtor.

I just showered an hour ago. The pleasure of workig from home. Though work is driving me nuts, I can't run any of the database queries I can usually run. They just get stuck and never err out.

I did a total health facepalm earlier today. I had shoulder surgery where they removed some bone that will end up growing back as scar tissue. I have chronic anemia. Is it really any surprise that my iron levels bottomed out really quickly over the last month? I see my shoulder doc today and my hemotologist on Friday.

thank you for the birthday wishes

Suzi! In the Draw Something game, I really appreciated the Pi pie you drew for "crust." (Or was it "piecrust"? Either way, the pi symbol made me giggle. I wish that game let you do screengrabs.)

What is Junior Achievement? They seem to come to my kids' school all the damn time and as far as I can see it's some capitalist indoctrination gig. Am I wrong?

I'd say more entrepreneur, but that's a quibble. When I was in high school, I asked for more info on JA in response to a card. Instead of giving more info, they assigned me to a company. Tungsten was involved, if I remember.

What Consuela said, Allyson.

Junior Achievement is a capitalist indoctrination gig, but it can be a useful and interesting indoctrination. I was a JA adviser a million years ago, for students who were putting out a city-wide high school paper. I like to think they learned a fair amount about ad sales, planning, making a profit, and writing and editing.

I am frequently tempted to write to a business owner: "Your website sucks. It is offending my sensibilities. Pay me to redo it, and the internet will be a better place." It is Not Done, though, because what it implies the business owner is too stupid to realize his website sucks. The same is true when a real estate agent says, "If you had been smart enough to hire me, your house would be sold." Tacky.