don't *want* to sell my house; I don't *want* to live in Cincinnati (sorry, Teppy); but if I have to do these things could someone please buy our damn house?

I'm sorry, flea, that sucks.

Well, Nora, I feel bad complaining knowing your situation. Though you did get New Orleans.

Ha HA! I did my other two things! Semi-crappily, but DONE. And isn't done the most important thing about a thank-you note?

Well, Nora, I feel bad complaining knowing your situation. Though you did get New Orleans.

Oh, don't feel bad! I'm just commiserating! And, yes, at least we moved someplace that we wanted to be and enjoy very much. Makes a lot of difference, and makes the frustration easier to take on a day-to-day basis.

The bidders have an inspection on Monday. I hope it goes well! Then we just need to get the bank to sign off on it. Since we've been consulting with them every step of the way, hopefully that will be relatively smooth.

What are people doing this weekend?

Tonight I finish setting up Mom's new (ancient) laptop so it'll be ready for the ISP/cable guy to work his magic and connect to the interwebs. Then tomorrow hiking, Cabin in the Woods (which I feel I need to see after hiking in the local forest), and then drawing for most of the remaining weekend. Probably need to fit a couple loads of laundry and dishes in there too, and repot my snapdragons.

flea, may the house quickly and the move go smoothly, and may you all be happy in Cincinnati.

Typo, I meant to say, the cookies idea was great! I'd test all day for cookies.

I got so much mail today, they left it on my porch in a US Mail crate.

Work rant: There are some serious changes in the works at work, and no one in management will (a) give a straight answer, or (b) agree with anyone else's answers. I don't think jobs will be lost, but some people may quit. Check this out: our turnaround time, from receiving a manuscript for publication to actual final-form publication, will go from 6 weeks to 3 weeks. (It was 12 weeks when I started here, 13 years ago.) 3 weeks for conversion to our format, editing, back-and-forth with the author, and final layout. I have 145 papers in my queue right now. I asked my boss how we were going to keep up with it. She said airly that "all the time lost will be on the conversion vendors' side; they would be required to get papers back to us sooner. So we won't be affected." This is patently impossible. Right now the vendors take a week. How can they cut 3 weeks from a week? (She's not lying, mind you. She's just stupid. I've known this woman for 13 years. She simply hasn't thought it through.) I don't even know.

our turnaround time, from receiving a manuscript for publication to actual final-form publication, will go from 6 weeks to 3 weeks.

WHAT.

She said airly that "all the time lost will be on the conversion vendors' side; they would be required to get papers back to us sooner. So we won't be affected."

Oh my god, you really DO work for my company. How does the magic "they will be required" even WORK? Just saying it doesn't make it possible.

3 weeks for conversion to our format

I'm curious about this, though. We just get Word docs in and edit in the Word files.

(Our acceptance-to-publication time, BTW, is about 3-4 months. And we keep accepting ever larger numbers of papers, which just makes that time longer and longer. Makes us look AWESOME, let me tell you.)

omg, drama chick at work is now having major drama on the phone loud enough for me to hear about paying a toll fee late. Jesusita. I feel for the operator.

Okay, I did my one thing!