Wow, that's fun, Jilli!

The weather here is nuts -- we've had several bursts of rain, hail, sun so far today. My colleague sort of abandoned me, but I'm sitting in the conference room where other people are having (professionally) interesting conversations, some of which are in English! So I guess I'm learning stuff? This whole trip was ridiculous. But I think still worth it, for the parts that will be later this afternoon and tomorrow.....

Glad your father's all right, Maria! Whew.

Glad about your Dad, Maria.

Oswego is not exotic- unless you are interested in college students bar-hopping in the snow...

It took me a moment to remember that you weren't talking Somerville weather, Jesse. Because we've had a small thunderstorm, but no hail so far. I guess you're not missing much weather-wise!

I realize how blessed I am to have really good, accessible, visible veins. Total luck of the draw, eh?

Oh! And such good news about your father, Maria! No, it's not going to be fun, but still so much better than heart attack!

The funniest thing I've ever seen about the "friend zone": Dinosaur Comics - April 23rd, 2014 - awesome fun times!

Relief~ma, Maria.

I need some hivemind help. I was contacted by three different recruiters yesterday for a contract position that pays a lot more than my current job, but (a) 12 month contract (b) no benefits (c) longer commute. So, I can work out for myself the intangibles, but I'd like to get a handle on how much of the ~$20/hr pay difference goes away when the lack of benefits is figured in. Is there a rule of thumb for that?

In grantwriting the rule of thumb for benefits is 20%. You might want to actually quantify 1) retirement 2) sick/vacation and 3) health care, though.

Thanks, flea. Using the 20% and considering the commute time and gas expense, it's really not worth thinking about any further. Kind of a relief!