One of my coworkers is long distance and pretty much has either the shittiest cell and computer microphone because I cannot understand 75% of what he says. My boss is always translating. I've repeatedly asked if we can get him a new phone or upgrade something. It's fucking annoying.

::secretly hopes Dana's demo guy busts out with "Oh my stars and garters!"::

I'm all at sixes and sevens today. Just a bubble off.

Maybe exclaiming "oh my stars and garters" on occasion would get me back on track. Worth a try.

I am never having a house without a front porch again. I have had my coffee out here every morning since we moved in and have a little table (a TV tray) set up to write on. The dog is in heaven, as he very quickly learned to Stay On The Porch, even in the face of rabbits, squirrels, a chipmunk and once, a fox nonchalantly trotting down the street late, late at night.

ION, I have had my annual mammo, think I have an interview at Sephora pretty much nailed down (hello discounts, anyone? My mom and sister would flip their shit) and have done housecleaning stuff. Today, finally, the home office, which has been the Black Hole of Random Crap since we moved.

Oh!! I need to publicly acclaim dcp as Big Damn Hero, as he is lending me his backup laptop while I save/get Xmas money to get a new one. There is nothing like a full sized keyboard and screen. I tell you. I feel like I'd broken both hands and now they're healed.

And it looks very much like D might be offered the job he wanted. HR is talking salary, and they want him to come in to meet the team he'd be part of.

Go Strix! Good luck to D

On the last home tour we went on, my mom and I were talking about how much we like big porches and when we have shopped for houses that is like the one thing we want and neither of us actually have one. She has a nice deck out back, and I have a porch but it's not a nice big one you can spend a lot of time on, really. How Things Work Out.

I think my company has regressed some in how we schedule ourselves for the Outlet Sale (coming up, Dec 3-14). There has got to be an easier way (or better instructions) than "email this one person" considering every employee is required to work two shifts.

Shoot, my reliable contact at my biggest account isn't there anymore. I hope she's moved on to something better, but starting over with someone new is going to be a PITA.

It's not a very big porch, about 15 feet long and 4 feet wide, but it's covered, and has a nice protected corner if it's raining. I spend a LOT of time out here, but I spent a lot of time this summer out on the back deck too.

Arthur is in hog heaven; he always has had a big backyard to run around in, but now he had a big, better backyard, AND a front porch and the HBIC is always hanging out with him, and occasionally throwing sticks and balls. And he has a chocolate Lab puppy (HUGE since we moved in in May) who races up and down the fence with him. He's asleep by my side, as I write.

I am going to go buy new drip pans for my stove, have Indian for lunch, vote early, and come home and organize the metal recycling for a trip tomorrow. Then maybe set up another round of eBay items and try to figure out why I get panicky at finally having several days in a row where I can get things done. Stupid brains.

I just spent over an hour on a conference call with three people who kept talking over each other, and all the while my stoopid cats were wailing and fighting. Now I have to shove down lunch and go to the dentist for a filling, which I hate. I want stickers and lollipops for this. How come adults don't get stickers and lollipops?

Stop fighting, stoopid cats.

I have been waiting for two hours for a call back about an appointment related to yesterday's clusterfuck.

I need to vote today, because I do not want to be part of the ridiculous city of LaVista Hills. We have been having a vicious political fight over forming a city out of what is now an assortment of subdivisions with no historical identity or anything like a city center, unless you count a mall. The people behind it spend a lot of time talking in code words that add up to "let's make a white enclave in a majority-black county." The map of the new city is so poorly drawn that not only does the line go through the middle of a shopping center, it also goes through the middle of a grocery store. One assumes that the county police would respond to crimes in aisle 2 and the city to crimes in aisle 5.

I wasn't too concerned about the local races until I saw that the probably-corrupt former mayor was running for city council. It's nice to have something concrete to vote against.