That's awful, Jesse. I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry, Jesse. You really don't.

On a pettier note: I really wanted something sweet (a lot of sweet somethings, to be honest) and talked myself into being okay with feeding my $20 bill into a vending machine and dealing with having tons of change that I will inevitably fritter away. Turns out, the biggest bills the machines take is $10. Woe.

I really should have gone to bed when I got home from seeing Eddie Izzard last night, but I didn't, and now I am paying for it with gronkiness.

I don't remember if I've mentioned it here, but my work team was going to spend a couple of days in a house together for team bonding, but that's been pushed back. I'm relieved, because while I like my team fine, there are a VERY limited number of people with whom I'm happy to share a house with, and work people are not on that list.

Yipes, shrift. I have a great working relationship with my boss, but she took me out to lunch on Friday, and even that was a little much.

Thinking about candy reminds me of my father's roommate in the hospital yesterday -- he's diabetic but REALLY REALLY wanted some candy. Before or after his lunch, it didn't matter!

I bought my house from my previous landlord and we didn't use agents. But I have a dear friend who is an agent and Sara gave me advice (not more than a bit, though, because I didn't want her to be liable for anything and get into weird gray areas - also didn't want to exploit our friendship). It was a lot of paperwork, but I got to say what I'd pay for the place and have that number readily accepted (my offer was 10K less than the appraisal landlady got when she refinanced) because of all the money my landlady saved not hiring an agent. I did buy a few books on how to buy a house so that I would know what I was doing. Best of luck, to you, Flea!!

Jesse and Shrift, speaking of awkward colleague time, I learned on Friday that one of my favorite Tweeps, who I've been twitter friends with for over 3 years, IS MY BOSS'S UNCLE. We figured it out when we finally "upgraded" our friendship to include Facebook and he could see what company I work for. Thankfully I genuinely love my boss and I make it a point to never complain about my job anywhere in social media. But STILL!!!!

Oh my, shrift, I would not be up for that. I mean, maybe I could hack a couple of days, but I would be very tense the whole time. Which might lead to bonding, I hear stress can have that effect.

That's hilarious, java. Small world!

My boss brought in cupcakes, hooray!

That reminds me, I think I forgot to mention that the cake my mom's friend will make for their party will be vegan and wheat-free because my family has complicated dietary needs (and chocolate because yum). Such a good friend!

I have no advice, but good luck on the house-wrangling, flea

Burrell, what's a game truck??

It's either an RV or a trailer--in our case it was a trailer--that's been outfitted with a long couch on one side and about 4 wide screen tvs on the other, plus various game systems. Like a rolling arcade. It could easily seat 16 kids and let them all play at once. I personally avoided going inside, but there were parents playing in there along with the kids, and wee kids playing along with the bigger kids.

Yeah, I just found out that somebody I knew from Kenyon and saw at the reunion last summer died unexpectedly.

I wasn't close to him, but he was the best friend of somebody I know well, and she's devastated.

I know, right? For some people, spending a few days stuck in a house with their colleagues sounds like a grand old time! For me, it sounds like the definition of hell on Earth even though I like these people. I want to maintain healthy boundaries. Oh cohabitation no.

Every "bonding exercise" I was ever subjected to made me want to spend less time with the people involved.