How complicated is it to figure out how to make a cell phone ring longer before kicking over to voicemail? I've been on hold with the customer service agent for six minutes while he looks it up.

My co-workers: So you're telling me that your fantasy is to run a bed and breakfast in hell.

I think I came in mid-conversation.

It was actually longer than six minutes, I hung up at 26 minutes.

Dana, I didn't see the ads air live but I really like this one on YouTube.

Fuuuuck, I'm such a nerd -- I'm all happy that someone semi-fancy here at work was like, "You're so responsive and really Get It" EVEN WHEN the next part of that sentence was, "so can you do yet another round of revisions before you leave for vacation in two hours?"

YES I CAN THANK YOU.

Thank you, Sir. Please give me another.

Well, exactly.

I listened to an interesting podcast where a woman with Asperger's underwent some treatment that let her understand emotional cues. The effect only lasted about ninety minutes and doesn't work at all for most people, but it was interesting to hear her talk about getting a glimpse at what it was like. I could really relate to what she described in people's responses not always making sense. Made me wonder what it's like to be able to 'see' emotional nuance. Maybe the reason I find it so hard to talk to people in person or over the phone, but can do a lot better in text is because I don't get that sensation of missing things or not quite getting it. I always feel like talking to someone in person takes so much calculation while text is so much less effort.

Timelies all!

Here at Balticon. I have a tiara!

Well, Casper pulled it out and passed both latin and math. No summer school! Phew.

One of the things I never expected about parenting is that I would be so happy about a couple of Ds.