Problem with being a physics major and general science geek: I can envision all sorts of scenarios causing my suddenly slow sewage line with the onset of cold as well as solutions cheaper if only I were a more manually functional physics major. Which I am not. Please not a collapsed line. Because I cannot engineer a fix for that, only imagineer.

Yes, I've given up on tomorrow as functional.

Oh for fucks sake. Just got home after a very very long day (working then flying home) to find someone fucking graffitied my garage door. Motherfuckers. I want to kick someone's ass. Ugh. Now I have to deal with this bullshit, which I so don't have time for.

I didn't wake up and immediately start coughing this morning. That took a while, until my lungs were vertical for a while. Still on the cough pills, then, but progress, yes.

Damn meara. If it's like Chicago, you might be able to get the city to take care of it. Particularly if it looks like gang tags.

WTF homeownership this week.

I've got to trash the current filter on the shopvac. I've definitely got a mold reaction going from last night's action (and that filter had only been used for dry stuff previously, but they aren't kidding when they tell you to replace often.)

hackhackhack

I have a new boss who started this week. I'm meeting with him later today. Usually my team is super low drama, especially compared to our counterparts. But of course he's starting right when I've been doing some (justified) shit-stirring.

Including dealing with an employee who has gotten herself into a bizarre tangle, but who also came to me to say that she feels she's been stymied and retaliated against when she tries to advance her career and that as a woman of color, she is certain that if she were a "white dude from Dartmouth" it would not be happening.

And you know, the current situation was not caused by her but was escalated a bit by her being a little naïve. But her overall complaint, I can't say she's wrong. Some of the things that have been said to her and the reaction she's gotten for career moves are utterly against our firm culture, and I think she's right about where some of it comes from. So I've got a whole bunch of meetings with the head of HR going on. Because this shit needs some attention and I can't believe I'm her first manager who has taken this forward.

Good Stuff? This little girl's parents are deaf. She wanted them to be able to understand her school holiday concert. [link]

(She can't quite keep up with the lyrics of Rudolph. Also, she signs "Rudof." And seems to not remember the sign for "history" at the end of the song, tries to figure out how to spell it, and ends up at something like "hsre." Which just makes it all the more adorable.)

Buns should be toasted whenever possible.

Hence the popularity of heated seats in cars.

Wow, brenda, that's a lot to contend with. Good luck to you.

...I hate emergency service call windows. Basically, I'm stuck at home all afternoon. I guess I'll go out this morning and buy bleach and shopvac filters and deal with that. After I go next door to use the bathroom.

A neighbor at an apartment I used to live in came home after a weekend away to find that his toilet had erupted. As in volcanicly. Over his all-white, carpeted, bathroom. ew