I shall try the vinegar and the salt/ice. Buffista hivemind to the rescue, again!

In fact, I have a shit-ton of work to get done today. Meh.

Okay, sister. Let's do this. makes gang sign, or something

I adore that pic but *what* is the name of that business in the background?

I did a gigantic double-take at that too, but the smaller writing on the window made me think it might be some kind of Hungarian/Eastern European coffeehouse, and Babelfish confirms that it does indeed mean "Slavic House." But, yeah, extremely unfortunate placement in that particular picture.

free- one extremely moody tween boy. must pick up.

It's disturbing, how many people I know who are in this situation of overworked and understaffed, how long it's been going on, and worse of all, that there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. This is the new normal, and I hate it.

This is absolutely the case at my school. The staff in particular are doing what used to be 3-4 people's jobs on their own. Unsurprisingly, people are burning out and morale is very low. It's why I'm considering a potential job that a colleague in a local Pasadena school approached me about. I doubt any school will have the magic and whimsy of my current one, but so many years of flat pay and more and more work on top of the two plus hours a day commuting is making me seriously consider it.

ETA: The other school is one of the oldest and wealthiest independent schools in LA county and has barely been touched by the recession.

Okay, sister. Let's do this. makes gang sign, or something

Okay, I did a month's worth of data entry and I restrung a guitar. Next I need to get the chili in the crockpot, I guess.

Good lord. I slept too late to go to yoga, and haven't done anything since except watch Face Off!

Man, a nearby school would be such a huge thing for you Kristin.

I know, Brenda. It's about three miles from my house (as opposed to 30 miles through the worst rush hour traffic in the country). It is so difficult to consider starting over, though, especially at a school like this one, which is very old and very prestigious and where I would go from being a big fish to a tiny minnow. I don't know if I'm willing to spend the next eight years building my reputation all over again, you know? It's also a K-12 coed school, which is very different than my tiny little 6-12 all-girls school. On the other hand, three miles plus probably at least $10K more than I currently make.

I'm putting the cart before the horse since I've not even started the interview process, but the teacher who asked me to apply is a big fish at the school, and she contacted the Head to recommend me. I suspect I'll be a finalist just on her recommendation.

There's now national uproar about another German ad that involves Jamaica. Our flag accidentally catches on fire in a cafe, and people witness the attempt to douse it, and it starts a huge incident and suddenly there's a riot outside, and the cafe people haven't even realised.

There are Jamaicans mad about flag desecration, and very "they'd never do that with the US flag!" I'm pointing out that although it might be diplomatic suicide to have done that with America, flag burning is allowed, although disliked. Also, if you burn a US flag, people take sides. If you burn a Trinidadian flag, no one knows what just happened (my spellchecker is okay with Jamaican, has no idea about Trinidadian--so there you go). If you burn a flag from the land of Marley, marijuana, and Usain Bolt, you're really mean.

That's why it's us in the ad.