God, I am selfishly glad I no longer work for the DOE. I can't imagine the stress levels in my old workplace right now.

It was nice to read the reports of the Obamas escaping to Branson's island. If ever a couple deserved a luxurious retreat it is surely them. May they be able to unwind. The transition can't be easy.

For a while it has to feel like you're forgetting something all the time, I bet. "Wait, did I...?"

I miss them already.

I enjoy flipping through the traffic cameras on the UDOT website, sometimes just to check road conditions, sometimes because I have strong voyeuristic tendencies. There's a camera in one of the side canyons above the valley, on a road that I think is officially closed for the season. I checked it a couple of days ago and saw a couple taking pictures. I kept checking back over the next hour, expecting to see a still-frame adventure of "Oh, my god, we're stuck, do we have cell service to call a tow truck?" but they apparently got out on their own.

Huh. You can apparently add a warming drawer to an existing range. Or maybe just install it under the counter? Unclear.

I didn't go looking for this info, just a plate of shrimp moment.

Timelies all!

I did make it to practice and danced a few dances. Not as rusty as I feared.

I just sent an email to a local restaurant (of a local chain) because when we went there for lunch for my mom's bday, the bill included a new "surcharge":

Regarding the 3% "Surcharge to help cover increasing government related costs" - Whoever decided to handle the minimum wage increase in this fashion should be ashamed of themselves. You could easily have absorbed the cost by raising prices a nickel or a quarter and people would barely have noticed, or maybe would have flinched the first time but then gotten over it. Instead you make it obvious that you're foisting the cost of paying your employees a living wage off on your customers. And you're doing it in a way that, I assume, you hope will make people angry at hourly workers instead of corporations (who would already want their employees to live above the poverty line, if they were decent human beings) so they won't vote for a living wage again in future. I am appalled.

I hope I'm not overreacting, but this came on the heels of, 2 days earlier, our favorite Italian place telling us that they were no longer refilling the breadbasket for free, "to pay for the new minimum wage" (seriously, the server told us that specifically), and I'm just a little irked at this attitude.

You're not overreacting, that's straight up bullshit.

Football is not too relevent out here right now, alas.

Hating the Patriots is always relevant! (Even though Ballghazi was also bullshit.)

I took Oz to the vet tonight to have his ear rechecked. It was all fine until we got home, and I opened the door of the carrier. He had had a poop explosion in there and he and the poop were suddenly all over the place. Of course, he headed for my nicest rug to clean himself off.

An hour and a half later, Oz, the rug, the floors, his carrier, the bathtub, my clothes and several towels are all clean. I'm waiting for the last rinse to be finished before I can get in the shower myself. Ugh.

I hope I'm not overreacting

That is some bullshit, and you should ass 'em in the ear.