Love that, Hil. I will never understand the cousin nomenclature, but I am ok with that.

It kills me that there's a PBS show in the style of Project Runway, but about winemakers. "You're going home. Please leave the vineyard."

Doesn't that take years before they can judge the results? I am boggled.

Ma to your sis, Burrell. Lots.

Shiny toes!

Sis~ma, Burrell.

Doesn't that take years before they can judge the results? I am boggled.

That's what I was wondering.

Also, I would like today to be over, and it keeps not being.

What are people doing this weekend?

The pool was open for basically 30 minutes between storms. I got 29 laps in before the thunder started, and walked onto my porch as the floodgates opened. Eh, 29 > 0. And it is seriously loud out there right now.

I'm going to a country party out at my neighbor S's family home out in the boonies. Her boyfriend's band is the entertainment.

someone just tweeted that she knows 2 people (who don't know each other) who thought the reason pluto is not a planet anymore is because it exploded.

Oh, I am in trouble. I tried the new tapas place that just opened up a half block down the street from me, and it is both out-of-this-world delicious and fairly expensive. I had stuffed mushrooms, brie, and a small portion of seafood & cheese-stuffed baked salmon that was the best thing I've eaten since getting back from Florida last month.

My wallet is really going to miss the days when I lived upstairs from a great Thai restaurant where my favorite dish was an $8 lunch special that was enough to make two meals.

Cincinnati has this amazing 200,000-square foot grocery store called Jungle Jim's. Incredible international sections, a produce section larger than some grocery stores (and they sell durian, although they don't keep it out; you have to ask for it), cheese for days, etc. etc. I think Neil Gaiman has shopped there when he's been in the area.

Anyway, you can explore the entire store -- inside -- through Google Street View. Apparently a photographer spent more than 6 hours inside taking pictures of it. Check it out: [link]

t edit Not as interesting as GeoGuessr, but it's still a big fucking store with a lot of cool food. The hot sauce section has some hot sauce locked up, not because of the scoville units, but because it's $1,400. (Not a typo.)

t edit again I keep trying to find the hot sauce section and keep ending up back at the hookah wall. It's like one of those dreams where you're trying to get home but all kinds of things delay you and you can't quite make it.

I have been to Jungle Jim's once, and I must say, it was definitely impressive.

I know my sister and parents have both (separately and together) taken trips two hours away to go to Jungle Jim's and IKEA, and make a day of it.

My boss got dinged by the CIO for micromanaging me. In effect, I got dinged for hot being senior enough.

Ugh. And now my old boss has told him I work well if you spell it out for me. Which is, surprisingly, what I hate. I want goals, and I want freedom, AND I WANT INFORMATION. He asked me for a presentation today I'd written under my own steam two weeks ago. I keep planning for meetings that aren't even happening yet because slide decks are our shibboleth. He got dinged for delaying producing a document which he never asked me about, but that I had written the first draft of and given him over a week ago.

But I'm hoping the more leeway he's been instructed to give me comes with more info, and we should both be cooking with gas.

I know my sister and parents have both (separately and together) taken trips two hours away to go to Jungle Jim's and IKEA, and make a day of it.

Dang, I can spend a whole day in either one. Well, okay, not a whole 8-hour day, but easily 3-4 hours, which is exhausting.