Happy day after your birthday, 'Suela! I hope this is the start of a great decade for you.

Work is kicking my ass this week. Not quite to the point of tears but it was a near thing a few times today. I am thinking I will go straight to happy hour when I am done with the office tomorrow.

Happy birthday yesterday, Consuela.

My mood has been swinging rapidly from Fuck Everything And Its Horse to Life Is Good Look Birdies! for over a week now. I don't feel depressed but I'm still kinda acting depressed, what's up with that. And I really don't want to deal with the holidays. Next week I go on vacation, driving 8 hours both ways, to spend almost a week with my BFF and her teenage daughter, and lord, I don't want to. I want to see them, but I don't want to spend that much time away from my home and in someone else's. And my feet have been so swollen and numb and achy, I really don't want to go on a long drive. It will be utter misery if the doctor can't fix them. And then Christmas with my family, we'll only have one day that everyone's together, and I should be sad we don't have more time instead of feeling like why are we even bothering. Ugh. So not in the festive spirit. I guess I'll just get drunk a lot.

Shared on fb, but needs to be here too: [link]

I've always wanted a fancy dress of Hubble images. I've got ones in mind. Not that I'm getting a Nobel ever or anything.

That dress is so cool!

Congrats Anne....

No news, ita? That sucks.

Okay, people, I have a gigantic favor to ask. If you have any college t-shirts floating around that might fight a sorta busty large woman and you want to get rid of them, I will happily take them. My school does college shirt day on Wednesdays which also makes college shirts a reason to wear jeans. I would love any and all colleges (because UCLA/USC is not mind opening enough). I'd love to get your old college shirts.

Yeah, Sara, since the designer was named Hubble I thought maybe it was going there...

My first design at the Goodman and my first design for Second City opened tonight. Woo!

Kat, school logos or anything college related? I probably have t-shirts for college organizations/events stashed somewhere.

My parents are stupidly hard to buy for

I've stopped buying things for my parents and get them tickets to concerts or plays instead. And I think my brother will get a movie theater gift certificate this year.

One grandfather served in Europe in WWII and saved pictures, letters, maps... all kinds of stuff. He was a company clerk (because he could type) so I doubt he was ever too close to the front lines. My other grandfather served in the Pacific. He never, ever, wanted to talk about it. He wouldn't even go into the WWII section of the Truman Library when we visited.

My father died when I was 9, so I don't know any stories of his service in WWII, except that he was a sergeant in Army artillery in the South Pacific... somewhere. I gathered that he helped maintain and repair guns and cannons, rather than firing the things, but that's maybe the kind of thing you tell a little kid.

It would be a cool thing to investigate what he did (service record) and where he went. If he made it to sergeant, he couldn't have been too much of a screwup. I don't even know if he was drafted or volunteered. (As the son of German immigrants, the Army sent him to the South Pacific.)

In a fit of enthusiasm, I volunteered to come back this morning for Hour of Code at the grammar school, even though I wasn't originally scheduled. There were five volunteers at one point yesterday, which meant at one point one small person was getting coached by three adult programmers. Small person wasn't cowed, however.

Only one other volunteer scheduled for this morning, though, so more hands onboard is good. Polgara, there are so many kids that I'm not actually learning names, or rather retaining them, except when the spelling is so... creative that it sticks. I have to say, I'm really impressed with this grammar school and staff.

Hope you had a good birthday, Consuela!!

Kat, any interest in a sweatshirt?

Zenkitty, would it help any to shorten the trip?

ION, I went to bed plenty early last night, but woke up a couple of hours later so cold I thought my heat had turned off. It happened last year -- the boiler needed more water or something -- but I couldn't deal with thinking about getting up and going to the basement. So I got my heating pad, but had the worst time trying to get back to sleep! The heat was not broken, and when I got up at least, the house was 62 like it normally is, so I'm not sure what my problem was. But now I'm tired and not that mentally prepared for my day.

My dad was in WWII but he never spoke of it. He had enlisted in the Air Force and was a pilot. He had always had allergies, but they stationed him in SoCal, and for the first time in his life he had asthma. They kept him in the hospital there and grounded him. He never got to go serve the way he wanted to and it was devastating to him. Men of his age, graduating HS in 1940, served. They talked about it. It was like a horrible shaming experience for him. He was angry and bitter about it since all other geographical areas weren't an issue, and there were no enemy in San Diego.