Much ~ma for quick recovery for your mother, Scrappy.

For a $20 gift for an office mate I might go with a nice desktop novelty item. Well my office mates it would be booze, but with the restraint.

Coffee shop gift card.

Some fancy coffee or tea?

Last year I got my Secret Santee an LL Bean swiss-army-type-knife. She's made a point of telling me how handy it's come in, several times. :-)

Ch-ch-ch-CHIA!

In the future, if you feel yourself hypothesising "Maybe it grows like pineapple?" that answer is pretty much usually wrong. I'm sure if pineapple had a chance they'd go for some sort of low bush-like tree, but with thick, , supportive branches from which to dangle.

Which now makes me wonder--what is like the pineapple. I'll need to dive back into google.

My google bouncing got me to this page:of a Playboy bunny potential prospect (she may have nudie mags to her credit--there are some cover-naked-boobs-with-other-body-parts, but no pornier than that Janet Jackson mag cover (perhaps less, because they're her hands..) ANYWAY: [link] the magazine stresses there's been no post camera manipulation of the images, and I'm trying work out what we need to be protected from, such that so many magazines, etc, go to town.

The most "obvious" flaw, I think, is the thinness of the skin of her upper thighs, since you can see the pattern of blood vessels underneath. I'm also assuming they will take out creases, even those formed by twisting, etc. Make more of a waist-hip contrast..what else on a woman of 21 needs to be fixed for our delicate eyes? There is one "what if we did photoshop" pair about 2/3 down, but even so...

Now I need to learn more about this magazine.

Oh, and no gift cards, that is also the rule.

Shoot, maybe I'll blow twenty bucks at the wholesale florist and make an arrangement.

At least then there'd be heart-felt-ness and personal touch. And totally moonlighting it.

Oh, there was this fantastic book of natural art . . . but how many of them would be interested?

Speaking of, our DD is resigning, and we've all but hired the new Director of Development, and I could not be more excited to be rid of this old weight. Now, she's a boon and a resource and knows the place inside and out, but she's also beyond stale and tends towards last minute additions to projects already pusing at an unrealistic deadline. We've pretty much settled out to a good work group, except that the ED's awesome friend M will probably quit because the ED is resigning.

Well, good on you that you can choose your jobs based on friends. Fuck you, thank you very much, I really don't want you around if you will quit because your buddy isn't around anymore. Obviously you aren't here for the benefit of the organization as a whole. I wish that I could quit a job when a friend of mine resigns. Oh wait, I don't have a rich husband and I'm not 60 yet. Yeah, get gone, even though I love you and want to keep you. You don't want to keep me, so, yeah, fuck off.

Would a ceremonial sword (a knock-off) count as a blue-law violation?.

Which now makes me wonder--what is like the pineapple. I'll need to dive back into google.

It's a bromeliad. I don't think there are any other bromeliads which are grown commercially. (Some ornamentals, that's about it.)

There's a widely grown Jamaican plant that's marginally like pineapples, but it doesn't have fruit. The leaves are maybe 18" long, green and a little bit of white, firm in that succulent way, and doubly good to use as a sword--first the basic shape matches, and then there are thorns all around the edges. Long since forgotten what we call them.

And aloe is similar--but no fruit. And that's definitely sold like it's grown commercially.

I am not even sure how to start googling that--I guess you start with bromeliads and work your way out, but I don't know if the two I remember from jamaica are.

I'm trying work out what we need to be protected from, such that so many magazines, etc, go to town.

At this point, it's got to be just because they can, right? I mean, everyone knows that people have (for example) armpits.