Tom, that's one cute kettle. And looks very ergonomic, too.

I hope the process goes as well as possible, Theodosia.

I'm on hour 6 of an online Moodle conference.

Theo, when I had my colonoscopy a few years back the nurse's predictions as to when I'd be awake enough to leave were dead on. And then I napped more once I was home. So I'm guessing if your friend is late you will be more likely to be dozing while waiting than anything else. OTOH, if she has to wait for you to be ready to go will that be a big deal? Might as well make arrangements that are geared towards maximizing your comfort.

Cute kettle, Tom! I think you'll have a hard time finding anything smaller. You could always buy a small kettle at PJ's or Community Coffee while you're there instead of packing one, I guess. But if you pack it with the lid open and full of socks or something it shouldn't take up much extra space.

Today I am taking my adorable DayPlanner notebook thing (it looks like The Handbook for the Recently Deceased), removing aaaaalllll of the notes related to work and putting them in a folder, and then writing up my To Do lists for the assorted personal projects I've not had time or brain space to think about for the past four months.

And then I might make a devotional candle with an image of Ray Bradbury on it.

The Telegraph defends The Guardian, Greenwald and Snowden. What is notable about this is that the Telegraph is a famously conservative paper, sometimes nicknamed "The Torygraph". [link] I'm always happy when people across the political spectrum understand the importance of freedom of press and freedom of speech. Lack of support of civil liberties, and defense of civil liberties is one of the few fights that often does not break down on a left-right spectrum. Pro and anti civil liberties viewpoints can be found across the political spectrum. I cannot think of many other issues where this is true. Oh there are always outliers, but if you know where someone is on the political spectrum you can predict with 95% certainty where they stand on most issues. For some reason that is not true of civil liberties.

I went for a run and did some laundry and got my hair cut, and now I'm camped on the kitchen table, doing QA on a report that desperately needs some consistency. And my feet hurt: apparently my plantar fasciitis is back, damn it.

Which is not good, because I need to be able to train: I'm going to Kilimanjaro in January, and I have no desire to embarrass myself or my brother.

Now I need to go clean out my toaster.

I just made an ice cream cake for my daughter's birthday. It's in the freezer. I realize this still puts me several levels below Kat and Cash in terms of birthday cakes, but I'm feeling pretty proud right now.

And you should be proud. I don't know that I could finish an ice cream cake. Mostly because I would eat all the ice cream.

ita !, this is best I can do because of subscription shit at the web site, but if it's any help at all I hope...

[link]

I hope. So much.

The up side of the prep is that I'm actually under a doctor's orders to avoid vegetables. Okay, for the next two days, but still.

Well I worked my first Saturday and here are the things I learned that no one had told me about:

1) Drivers' log book goes in their lounge after shipping ends.
2) I was not only working this Saturday I was the official on-call person which means the following
3) on-call person sends a morning update an hour into Saturday shipping.
4) on-call person also sends an end-of shift update when the main terminal is done with shipping and gives update on terminal 2 even if they are not done.
5) on-call person is on-call (phones forwarded to you BBerry) from FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY MORNING and EVERY NIGHT UNTIL THE NEXT FRIDAY!!!!!
6) on-call person is responsible for doing the daily order of product we ship (have never done or been trained on this)
7) on-call person compiles the orders for the next day and makes the driver and foreman schedule.
8) on-call person leaves the schedule message on the phones (again never done or been trained, do not even know how to call in for it myself).

They are such HORRIBLE trainers at this new job.