Catching up...

Ginger, I am so glad you had the board and friends close by that were helpful. If need be, I can come down over a weekend to help you with anything you need.

Work~ma and health~ma and let's-not-kill-the-idiots~ma to all that need them.

Travel is going to be crazy over the next two weeks. Why does everyone wait until December to get things done?

I checked in for our flights earlier, and Southwest said "upgrade for as little as $16". So I clicked through about three screens, and for 2 of us it would have been over $900. Hilarious, Southwest.

"upgrade for as little as $16

They didn't lie, they just stated the starting amount.

Where was the $16 upgrade seat, on top of the landing gear?

Where was the $16 upgrade seat, on top of the landing gear?

Technically, I hope all the seats are on top of the landing gear.

Above it, at least.

Newly-acquired knowledge I did not need but now cannot stop thinking about: Talenti makes peppermint bark gelato.

I need to finish up the last of the farmer's market ice cream so that I can justify buying some of this.

My folks are not tech savvy, so an Amazon gift card wouldn't work. (They get books in e-mail, and transfer them to the Kindle. I don't know if they even have Amazon accounts set up.)

This is awesome: tardigrades, possibly the most indestructible animals in nature, have a genome that is 17.5% not-animal. [link]

They've picked up genes (by direct transfer) from bacteria, viruses, fungi and plants. They think it's from their best survival mechanism. Tardigrades can survive near-complete dehydration. But that breaks up their DNA, and when they rehydrate, environmental DNA can infiltrate the cells and get stitched in.

In conclusion, here's a picture of one. Awww, so cute. [link]

I am going to have to keep thinking about that for a while. Wow.