Looks like I'm headed down to PA on Friday -- that way I avoid some of the holiday traffic. We're going to stay at the apartment and hopefully can get much of everything packed up/disposed of.

Also, my aunt & uncle will be going over to the beach house -- what's left of it -- to start sorting through what is left of their possessions there. Not clear if I'll get to go (I'm not even sure if I really want to).

I can't begin to say how unfair it is that my aunt and uncle now have to deal with the problem of TWO properties like this. The Shore house will eventually be rebuilt, but because of the disaster and limited access it could realistically be multiple years if things drag. (Currently, there is NO water, NO electricity and NO gas in their stretch of shore.)

Well, Theo, I did read that some Teen Wolf Sterek shippers are willing to donate money to Shore reconstruction if their showrunner makes their OTP canon. Your relatives should keep their fingers crossed for gay makeouts!

In case there's no tone implied--those people's "Oh, humour is a coping mechanism!" excuses don't make them sound less churlish.

everything you send him is being deleted while he's gone, which I think is a good call.

I would not be able to get away with that. I still need to catch up on what was sent to me, and I can't make that anyone else's problem. But I'm assuming there's enough different between our jobs or workplaces to make that feasible in a way I don't understand.

We are having the most boring presentation on our tools right now. I severely hope me talking about any of my realms of expertise aren't this mind-numbing. But this is the sort of thing that makes people hide their heads in the code and flee the business. Too low level for me.

Ultimate British tabloid headline - Boing Boing

Alex Balk spotted the best Daily Mail headline in recent memory: "Love-rat dad of nine children to eight women who headbutted ex-girlfriend in row over cheese toastie jailed for just 20 days."

Theo, where down the shore is your aunt and uncle's house?

I would not be able to get away with that. I still need to catch up on what was sent to me, and I can't make that anyone else's problem. But I'm assuming there's enough different between our jobs or workplaces to make that feasible in a way I don't understand.

Well, he sent out a huge memo detailing which parts of his job were being done by which other people in the month or so he's out, and the work moves fast enough that most things that are happening now will be done by the time he gets back. So he doesn't really need to catch up on what's happened.

Did you all hear about someone who was at Paul Rudd's play "Grace" in NYC in the balcony and who puked on patrons in the orchestra section?

It is an unbelievable story. The comments section of this article have me laughing and crying.

I loved "That disguise doesn't fool me, Lindsay Lohan." and the follow up "It's not a disguise, just hard livin'"

No way I am reading that article about the vomit.

God, I'm exhausted. I suppose, in hindsight, scheduling a blood donation for the first day of the week I move my parents was a bad idea. And I can't sleep in, because (a) too much to do today; (b) I can't sleep because I just lay there thinking of everything I have to do; (c) my cleaners are coming today.

And my second cousin (not really a cousin) emailed me yesterday to ask if he can sleep on my couch tonight. BAH. I of course said yes, but seriously I don't know how I'm going to get through the day.

And somehow I have to get copies of ALL my mother's prescriptions from all her doctors. I don't even know.

ION, good luck Grace!

My aunt's house is midway between Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights -- if you've see pictures of the Mantoloking Bridge pretty much destroyed, that's less than two miles north of their place, which they've owned for nearly 50 years.

It's the only house still in my family that was a childhood "place" for me. The others have all been sold, and in two cases so rebuilt as to be unrecognizable, even -- that didn't hurt as much as this.

Oh, Theo, I'm so sorry. It's so heartbreaking. I can't even imagine what LBI is like, or will be like for years to come. Wishing them strength.

Indeed, I'm so sorry, Theo.

I'll be cleaning out my parents' condo in the next few months, but there's minimal emotional connection to it, as they've only been there for three years.

The hardest thing is sorting through their stuff and identifying what goes to the new place (and can fit), what gets excessed (sold or dumped), what gets distributed to the kids. Dad has two plastic tubs full of old newspaper articles (like about the Kennedy assassination) and diplomas etc. I have no need for it, but it seems a shame to dump it, so into the garage it goes...