Any excuse to wear a pirate hat and eyepatch and brandish a fake sword at work is an excuse we are going to be ALL OVER.)

And discuss the ins and outs of pharrrmaceuticals.

Some doughnut chain (not Dunkin) is giving people a free doughnut if they talk like a pirate. And if you dress like a pirate, you get a whole box of doughnut.

ION, did I ever mention I live on Jarrrrrvis Ave, close to the Jarrrrrrvis CTA station?

Also, can't spell today. Arrr.

That's the kind of good news that needs spread so it can be catching.

Indeed.

Ooh tommy, that reminds me that Dunkin is doing something for World Alzheimer's Day on Friday, so maybe I'll get donuts for my coworkers.

It's Krispy Kreme

ION, did I ever mention I live on Jarrrrrvis Ave, close to the Jarrrrrrvis CTA station?

I live on Arrrhmour.

Holy crap, my co-workers are hilarious and extremely good sports. Big!Boss (who had his left arm amputated above the elbow several years ago, because of an lnfection) wore a plastic costume hook on his arm. Good man.

Pictures are forrrrrrrrthcoming.

I don't mind some PM work: I'm good with spreadsheets and gantt charts and proposals--but managing teams of subcontractors and multiple conflicting clients was making me completely stressed out and miserable.

Consuela - that is basically how my job came about. I handle a lot of the internal project managerment for our PMs so they can concentrate on the external stuff. I'm in the middle of rebaselining a $25M project right now. So much fun.

The thing is, Romney's remarks are not at all defensible. They keep saying: "release the whole tape", which MJ did except for 1-2 minutes when the recorder was accidentally turned off.

What could possibly have been said in that 1-2 minutes that could make the rest of what Romney said okay?

Paul Ryan criticized Romney's words - which perhaps also explains why Ryan is running ads for this Wisconsin Congressional seat.

That's so much better than the moment I usually have of

Oy.

My house.

Gotta say, this is where I am right now. Arrrrrrrrgh, house. We move in on Friday, and still have a huge amount of packing to do. I will probably have to take tomorrow off to pack, deep-clean Rose's new bedroom (where the ceiling collapsed), and finish painting.

Also, just heard from my parents that my grandmother is probably dying -- she had several small strokes recently and is now pretty much confined to her bed and hardly eating, so hospice has taken her on. She's 96 and has had a remarkably good run, with a steep decline in her mental faculties over the last few years, so this is neither surprising nor even especially sad (for me, anyway), but I will miss her all the same. And I'm really glad she got to meet Rose this summer.

Awwwww, Kate. I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother.

It was definitely comforting to me that both of my grandfathers were content with their amount of time on earth and were ready to go (they both made 90+). But I still miss my gramps, especially my Grampa Cranford, tremendously. Just last night I had to remind myself that he is still living, in my actions and thoughts. Every single time I have a generous moment? That is my grandfather, still living.

So today is the 15th anniversary of the death of Rich Mullins, the Christian rock musician who lived on the Navajo reservation, and whose vision sprouted our work. He wrote the song "Awesome God." At the time of his death, he was musical partners with Mitch McVicker, the musician with whom the SO toured this summer in support of our work. Rich & Mitch were in a car wreck that killed Rich and put Mitch in a coma for a long time.

Rich, when he was alive, was the kind of Christian you guys would have liked, politics aside probably. He was irreverent, unfiltered, and raw. He was offending the church all the time, telling them the difficult truth and challenging them.

He didn't take a (what could have been sizeable) regular salary from his music, instead he lived on the median income. That left a whack of cash in the bank when he died: through the generosity of his surviving family, that money funded our ministry for ten years, plus many others.

I only knew him peripherally. The summer before he died, the SO sat on a panel on Native missions with him at the big music festival we always go to, along with his then manager and some friends, who were also friends of ours. But after his death, his friends and family came together and wanted to continue the work he had been doing. They formed an organization and called us. Hope in Transit split off from that org later on.

His friends and family have been a huge and important part of our lives ever since, and they, too are an extraordinary group of people. I'm grateful to them for the opportunity they gave us, and to him for his work and vision that has informed so heavily what I do today.

And I'm sad he's gone, but I think of him every day, and I think the way he valued Native youth is the same way that God does, and I hope I can live that love out in my work.