Steph, I was talking about you earlier today! We had a catered breakfast and one of the caterers had a semi-colon tattooed on his forearm. When I asked him about it, I told him I had a friend who's a big fan. Then I noticed the interrobang on the opposite arm and he was impressed I knew the name of it. Of course, I probably owe it to you guys that I did know it. Anyway, the liveliest part of a looong meeting for me.

one of the caterers had a semi-colon tattooed on his forearm.

I've said that if I were to get more ink, it would be a semicolon. That's excellent.

I told him that the only punctuation mark I feel that strongly about is the Oxford comma, and I'm not sure how to designate its Oxfordiness.

The emblem - logo? coat of arms? seal? - of Oxford university is mostly round. Could use that as the dot to hang the tail of a comma on.

That is a coool idea!

xposting from tech:

I am looking for opinions on a decision I'm contemplating.

Originally, I was looking at getting an iTouch to replace the iphone I've been using for the last 6 years.

Now, I'm wondering about an ipad2 mini instead.

My pro thinking is that I might be able to use it as a replacement if my macmini gives up. (mini is 4gb, pad is 16!)

My con thinking is that I want to carry the device for audio and photos/video but it won't fit in a pocket. This makes me nervous about breakage or loss. Much higher target for theft as well.

More than anything, I want something that won't be obsolete in a year!

You all have roughly 1000 times more experience with devices. What should I do?

I should say that I do not have/want wifi or a cellphone. I would be relying on usb connectivity for as long as possible.

The emblem - logo? coat of arms? seal? - of Oxford university is mostly round. Could use that as the dot to hang the tail of a comma on.

Iiiiinteresting. Although the amount of explanation required would no doubtedly be, well, Epic.

ION: Aaaaargggghh! Just got off the phone with the shop my truck's at. It's still not going to be finished today! The 2-3 day job is now on Day 7 and STILL NOT FINISHED! And San Diego is just NOT a good city to be carless in! And I'm really sick (as is she) of having to borrow my mother's car like a 16 year old! Aaarrggghhh! (Feel better for having vented. Still pissed, but feel better).

Two inches of snow will shut the city down like 2 feet have fallen, and I am not exaggerating. We have plows. We have salt trucks. But we cannot handle snow. It would be comical if it weren't so pathetic.

We're not much better...and we're in Canada. It's not so much that we don't have the infrastructure to deal with snow, but, for budgetary reasons, they often keep salt trucks and plows off the streets until the snow has done it's thing. That makes it harder to get around for all involved. And there are always people who drive like jerks in the snow and cause accidents.

Also, because we're fairly temperate, winter storms often involve snow, freeing rain, and rain, which causes some kind of slushy, icy hell that's heavy to shovel and hard to get around it.

To sum up, is there anyone I can talk to about human hibernation?

Also, because we're fairly temperate, winter storms often involve snow, freeing rain, and rain, which causes some kind of slushy, icy hell that's heavy to shovel and hard to get around it.

We had that the other morning. I'll take three degrees and real snow any day.

Remind me I said that tomorrow morning.

I can appreciate Tim's dad's situation as someone who needs a lot of help to do...whatever. But, really that does mean that I don't get elaborate decorations or to throw impromptu debate-watching parties and so forth. Because it really is making work for others for me to say "Six dozen sugar cookies? No problem!" even if it would make me feel good about myself to do it.(I do sometimes wish that Mom wasn't such a homebody so she'd get it more when I'm all "I need to talk to somebody who hasn't known me since birth, stat!") But who freaks out about two days over on decorations? I mean, they call it a season for a reason, unless he's got an HOA, which is unholy, as I've said before.