Came into work with half our power out. Email and some other servers are down. My overhead light does not work, but my wall plugs do (some office have the opposite). Phones were down, but are now back up. No one can do what they need and my boss is asking to re-arrange his whole day which is made 100X more difficult because I cannot access his calendar and today is the only day in 3 weeks that he will be in the office.

A very Monday Friday.

Oh my. I am not sure HOW you can re-arrange his calendar without seeing his calendar?

I was just listening to the "backwards on a pig, baby monkey" song again, and I look up the songwriter. And it turns out that he was in Nerf Herder! I think sometimes everything goes back to Buffy.

Through the years, the Jesuits have been one of the main forces attempting to reform the Catholic hierarchy. Their emphasis on scholarship and teaching has been hugely important. While they were at times misguided, the Jesuit missions were often the only groups attempting to keep the American Indians from being slaughtered. They were a major part of Liberation Theology in South America, and the Jesuits there had some concept of poverty. Jesuits have also have a well-deserved reputation for arrogance, which has not helped their press.

In preparation for my drive down to L.A. today, I went to the library last night, just before closing, and tried to find some audiobooks for the trip.

I was looking for Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book or Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. Nada. They were closing in five minutes. It wasn't well organized and it was hard to find anything. And then a title jumped out at me. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

"Sure, that'll work," I thought.

It didn't look like the original radio broadcasts. It was an actual audiobook. I didn't bother to look at the reader, but it came out in 2001.

So imagine my pleasure when I popped it in and there's a short flourish of music and I hear, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. As read by Martin Freeman."

He does a great Zaphod, using a sort of Jewish-Brooklyn accent. Where Zaphod is arguing with the ghost of his great-grandfather he does the voice of the great-grandfather (Zaphod the 4th - "there was an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine") as sort of Grandpa Abe Simpson.

So, imagine Martin Freeman as Zaphod as Lenny Bruce arguing with the Grandfather on The Simpsons.

It's entertaining. And, of course, he does a perfect job with Adams' own narrative voice.

Yikes, meara - I'm glad there was nothing to it but how scary!!

The only nuns I have had encounters with are our local convent who are Dominican Sisters. They've been on Oprah! They are a teaching order and so the sisters go to EMU and they student teach a lot in my school. There are currently two sisters in my Drama class and one of them is super quiet, but funny and the other is HIGH-LARIOUS. She's in her 30's but only decided on her vocation about 4 years ago. She's from The Bronx and she is outspoken and boisterous and just awesome. I totally want to be their friends outside of class.

So imagine my pleasure when I popped it in and there's a short flourish of music and I hear, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. As read by Martin Freeman."

Oooh, nice, I wonder if he does all of them! That would make a fun audiobook series to do.

My stepfather's Aunt Elaine is a nun. Who taught grammar for about forty years. Interpersonally, she was as fun as that sounds, but I understand she did do some interesting Marian research and stuff that would be cool to talk about.

Unspecified~ma going your way, lisa.

I have an appointment this afternoon with my hemotologist. He just called and said I could come in earlier and he would make sure I got some iron today. I knew my numbers were low, but I'm guessing they are scary low. I'm trying to finish up some work before I head out.

I guess the point of sharing is that despite all the crazyness of the health care system, I have a doc going out of his way to help me. Tis appreciated.

That is good to hear, Suzi. I hope the iron helps!

In random news, I get emails from OK Cupid when I have a message on there, but they don't include the full message. The one I just got opens:

Hi, I'm a married Boston lawyer, early 60's. Are you open to being the friend and lover of an older...

Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and say no.