She can see some of them at recess, but every class sits at its own table at lunch so no go there. One girl is in her aftercare program, so hopefully they'll get to see a lot of each other there.

Right now she's with Hec visiting Japantown, in hopes that chocolate fish waffles and anime trinkets will cheer her up. He just texted me to say that she seems to be rallying a little. Oh, chocolate. Is there nothing you can't do?

Oh, flea. I fight the same toothbrushing battle out here every night. I've been known to plead with M., almost on my knees, to just once please please do a thing when we ask her to do it, the first time we ask, instead of delaying and dawdling and lawyering us to death for 25 minutes and then doing it anyway, after we're down to our last frayed nerve. And, Kate, ugh. That is a completely no fun, draining work atmosphere to be returning to.

Why did I look at those plates, -t? Curse you and your link of beauty! I shake a shaky fist in your direction! (It's the hummingbird plates. Sigh.)

That's the set I basically bought all of to use at work, JZ! I got myself the tea set because pretty and I do drink tea every day at my desk, and then added a coffee mug and a bowl and a couple of plates and a platter from the sample sale because I could. Oh, and a divided dish to hold the candy I keep at my desk as a service to my department (and so people will come talk to me (and so I can have candy whenever I want and still tell myself it is not really for me)).

I have a dinnerware (and cookware, really) problem and if I can channel my buying urges into stuff for other people rather than myself it's better.

David loves hummingbirds. I can almost-for-sure say that if those had existed when we were engaged, they'd be our plates (though the ones we have now *do* have monkeys and satyrs on them, so there's that; still, hummingbirds are even better).

I think I'm out of spoons. I'm exhausted and all I want to do is curl up and nap, but while the air bed is fine for temporary use, it's not my real bed. (You're not my real dad!)

I just have to kill an hour or two until I can get a shuttle back to San Francisco. Then I probably will assemble the chairs that were delivered this afternoon, which will not be restful exactly, but will lead to me being able to sit on something that isn't the floor.

For now, I shall browse plates.

Monkeys and satyrs are pretty good. We had a rug that had a Garden of Eden theme (I think that was the idea, trees and animals anyway) but we bought it mostly because it had a monkey. I miss that rug, if I could find it again I would be thrilled.

Anyway, I'da snagged some of the 25-cent plates for you if I'd known, JZ! I'll keep an eye out for you next time.

Sitting is good.

My new shoes arrived! Probably won't get a chance to really wear them until Monday, but have slipped them on and confirmed that the nice person who emailed me with size guidance was correct in advising going up a half size. I think they'll need a little breaking in to really get comfortable and a weekend with two 5Ks is not super conducive to that. Super sugar, as expected.

I can barely even think about Matilda and how lonely and disappointed she's feeling, or I'll start bawling at work.

She's doing okay. I frivolously spent tens of dollars on her in Japantown and she got her first two manga which she's been reading avidly. She went from big whopping tears of "None of my friends are in my class!" to a philosophical "At least I've got Reece and Sophie" while eating a chocolate macaroon.

And in truth, she and Iris and Satchel will get on famously, and with so many 5th grade girls in her class, I think she'll have some older girl mentor friends.

Also, I remembered that math class is broken out first thing in the morning so she's likely to be doing math with some of her other friends as well. So between math, soccer, recess, new 5th grade girls, aftercare and playdates she'll be okay.

How sensible of everyone.

I never went to a school (until high school) where I hadn't known everyone in the class from the first grade--to the chagrin of some people, such as the quarterback in high school, who knew I'd been a witness to an epic throw-up event in the 2nd grade and was very polite to me in high school.

Edit: I was so glad to get to college, where no one knew me and I could get rid of twelve years of history.

I have epoxied the water garden container, and will refill it after it's cured for another couple of hours, watered the grapes, and washed some dishes. Time to take off my shoes and have some dinner, provided it has thawed enough. If it has not thawed enough, I believe tonight's wine has breathed sufficiently.

Connie - here's the I Hate to Cook tuna casserole:

7 oz can of tuna
2-3 cups cooked noodles
1 can cream of mushroom soup + 1/2 can milk
1/2 frozen or canned peas
salt, pepper
grated cheese

Put in a greased casserole dish, sprinkle cheese on top, and bake at 325° for half an hour

-t's tuna casserole recipe looks like the one I learned as a child.

How on earth do people like this get hired??? Padded resume?

Nothing so deceitful, really. We put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to 10 or so contractors with whom we have a contract relationship, asking them for 4 engineers and one environmental planner. The 4 engineers were people who were already here on contract, but that contract was expiring and in order to keep them we had to switch them to another company. (This happens all the time.) But we didn't have an environmental person because that person is retiring, so we needed someone new.

I was asked to find someone to recommend, but I really couldn't: anyone I knew who was looking for work was someone I couldn't actually recommend. So the contracting firms just scoured LinkedIn until they found someone they could claim fit the qualifications of the contract, and submitted their resumes.

According to my boss, very few of the firms submitted anyone who was truly qualified, and this woman came closer than everyone else. Based on the resume that was submitted, she should be able to do the job, but she's apparently had some sort of life disaster or breakdown and cannot manage even something as simple as putting a CD into a computer, or opening a file on her computer desktop.

I've tried to be kind and helpful to her, but it's exhausting and she never stops talking, which in our open-plan office is very annoying to everyone around her. And I don't think she realizes that. Also, she's a smoker, which wouldn't be so much of a problem except I can smell it on her clothes, and ick.

The down side of all of this is it will be months before she's actually useful, if they don't cut her loose immediately. She will have relocated to the Bay Area from LA for no purpose, and we'll be scrambling to find someone to pick up the slack. What a clusterfuck.