good call. Although I totally pick my friends' brains for tech support all the time.

I keep forgetting I'm on LinkedIn because I haven't updated my profile in ages and I've never used it for networking. I feel like I should when people say they'll look for me there, but then I also don't want to get harassed because of where I work and what I do.

I just logged into work to check on a document from a graphic designer. He noticed that some things in the list of references weren't italicized, so he italicized them.

I'm going to fucking kill him. A 100-page report, with all of the references that entails, and he's fucking with my formatting?

So the cats (P&L) wanted out on the deck. It's snowing (disco snow- so sparkly it looks fake!)

So I let them.

Pumpkin rolled in the snow. Loki was digging in it. I have cats, right? Not dogs?

Now Loki is roaring around attacking the melting snow on his back and between his toes, and Pumpkin got all inflated as she was indignantly washing and encountering clumps. Yep, cats.

They'll probably still want to go out later

oh Dana.

I love cats and snow so very much.

Our Outlook client has the LinkedIn plugin, so you can see the headshots of the senders and recipients under the body of the email. It's perhaps not the most useful thing--it prioritises the LinkedIn search over your address book or the company one, so you don't always get the most useful email address when you search. But looking over and seeing the CIO's face under her emails is the best thing short of a flashing red light to get me to sit up and pay attention.

I also let certain recruiters add me--the two companies that have placed me, for instance--I'll network with anyone from either of those. The places that still call me two years after they didn't find me a job? NO for god's sake. Don't leave a message about me "still looking for a position". If I am indeed in my third year of unemployment, you're framing this too casually.

I keep getting Linked-In invitations from people I've done tech support for.

I've gotten at least one request from the oustourced tech support company we use for a tiny fraction of our support--most of the support people are sitting within earshot of me, but some strange guy halfway across the country working for a company whose name I keep forgetting who kept me on the line while he narrated himself through fixing my LiveMeeting issue then sends me a LinkedIn request? You seriously search on people who open tickets with you? I am not letting it become the same sort of out of control group of strangers that contributed to me drifting away from FB.

And I love finding ex co-workers, especially the ones from Michigan.

I turn 45 next weekend and have no plans

I am the unobserver, so I have no ideas, but I discovered today that I'm skippy again--I'm thinking of myself as 45, not 44. But 44 is a nice number. 43 was fucking useless, but I always remembered it. Why is 44 slipping my memory (and so soon)? I mean, apart from me getting old and forgetful.

I just had to do the math to confirm 42, not 43.

I'm thinking of doing a massive prune-down of my facebook list, now that the business page is so successful. I am thinking about doing it under the guise of a Lenten social media fast. Not from you guys, though, of course.

And Devi jumped in the shower while I was steaming her. I think she didn't notice the water cause it was hot. Her fur wasn't matted down, but she required toweling. She was sitting there in the tub, just outside the spray.@@