The experimental pear and bergamot marmalade crumble is about to come out of the oven. Wish us luck.

Dinner tonight was interesting, I ate alligator for the first time in years (decent, but the crawfish etoufee I'd intended to order would have been better) and sat next to a bunch of Australians who'd traveled here on a job and were excited to order blackened chicken. Chicken's not an unusual food in Australia, is it?

Thank you, Gud. *heavy sigh*

Matt, maybe it's the "blackened" part that's novel?

Reached out to a colleague I've been friendly with for help on the hiring stuff. I suspect we'd be friends if I were more extroverted & we both preferred less to distance our jobs and lives. Anyway, gives me good feels. I've got 41 candidates, maybe 15 pass first muster, maybe. But I need an outside voice & some guidance. She'll help.

What is this, old dead home month? Beloved professor dies, people come outta the woodwork(including me) then I find old college best friend's ex-girlfriend committed suicide, she really needs to talk it out with me, as I'm one of the few privvy to the Kate episodes, her first big love. Though we haven't spoken but fb in 15 yrs. Is what it is. At least I'm a better listener than I was back then.

And of course, ita.

I'm examining shit I let go of 20 years ago. Is weird.

That sounds great, msbelle! And Dana.

Augh, sarameg. That sounds rough. But you seem like a good person for your friend to be leaning on

Work party was... I dunno. Fine, I guess. Nice to see my old department, and those I talked to about it were supportive of being pissed off at the whole layoff/department switch. Danced to a couple of songs with girls in my new department. I have no problem with them, it's the actual work I don't like. Food was OK. We didn't get called to the buffet last this year, which was nice. Did not win anything in the raffle, which is par for the course.

My ex-grandboss was named leader of the year. I don't know how I feel about that. He's a good guy but (a) he sat there saying not a goddamn thing as I was told my position was being eliminated and (b) he's really good with logistics but doesn't seem to want to expand his vision beyond that as Director of Customer Support. Which has never seemed very supportive of the customers' needs to me. But maybe that's the direction we're going. My ex-boss was Player of the Year last year (it's a sports metaphor I think? IDK) nd that was kind of incomprehensible, too. So.

Anyway, nice to see my old coworkers.

I am here for self-driving cars. Willing to admit they are preferable to flying cars. Crawling into my own car and saying "take me home" and then taking a nap? Yes.

I went dancing as per usual but a few non-dance friends showed up and then we ended up at another bar and met some random (but super hot) straight boy visiting from Minnesota and his queer brother at the second bar and somehow even though I'd been drinking water all night I ended up doing a shot and having a drink? I don't even know but the straight boy was shockingly pretty.

I suspect I will not be making it to early morning running. Normally I'm in bed asleep by 1030 and here it is almost 1230! Which back in the day used to stilll be early. Dang.

that's so awesome, Consuela!!

Timelies all!

We're planning to go up to a nearby mall which has a bounce playhouse place and a kids play area so Mr. S can expend some energy without being outside in the cold weather.

Be sure to spray him with Lysol afterwards!

Congrats on the successful climb, suela! I can't even imagine what the view must be like from the top of Kilimanjaro.