Magically, I have gotten this far and I don't think I've ever had that used in a meeting I was in. Or, well, not in any context in which I could have (or wanted to) worked out what it meant.

Blissful sort of ignorance, this is.

However, a Chinese fire drill was always the game you played at the lights were everyone got out the car and went in a different door.

For us, a Chinese fire drill was when everybody got out of the car and ran completely around the car and then got back in (the same door one got out of).

Granted, I'm not so much the corporate type, but I was completely unfamiliar with "fire drill" other than (a) Chinese, with car doors, or (b) the literal kind which used to happen several times a week at the looni, usually mid-meeting.

No fire drill is a drill to me any longer... Even the head of mission know not to joke about it to me. Last actual drill, he actually came over and asked if I was ok. I must've looked REALLY bad when the halon went off.

That cat video is hysterical. Cats!

Kat, hoping for decannulation for Grace next week. I love that she's vocalizing "bowtie"! So random and hilarious!

Not actually so random. She wears a split piece of gauze between her trach and her skin, beneath her ties. We call it a bowtie. Today she asked for water.

I got to see meara which was awesome even if all I can do these days is kvetch about my kids (whom I love, I swear! Even if they make me nuts).

Amazing to think she's gone from whispering 'mama' to water and bowties and stuff since November. I'm already missing TG this year, but hopefully will pop by for 24 hours or so on the Australia trip.

Hah. Kat tried to convince me kids are not a helpful gift with purchase. Or something. :)

Also, how the hell do you LA people not go on murderous sprees more often due to the traffic? Because seriously.

However that meant I got to hear ALL of NPR, and find out that 80 year old Senator Lugar runs a 5k as fast as I do (apparently neither of us are "breaking land speed records", per NPR). Jim Thune, however, managed to run one in 19 minutes. I don't even get that. How?!?

I didn't find the traffic in LA nearly as annoying as DC and Baltimore. They follow rules in LA! They know what a merge is! Sure, the volume is insane and slow, but people are polite!

That cat video is awesome.

meara, there are reasons I don't live in LA. The traffic is definitely one of them.

I'm on a downswing: between my parents & the job situation, I'm just unable to summon any forward momentum. It's hard to get anything done in the office while I wait, endlessly, to see if I'm ever going to get re-hired.

Although at least I'm getting my $600 back. Woot.