1. My attention span SUCKS nowadays. I have trouble concentrating on ANYTHING. I do not have ADHD or ADD. I blame the internet. Anyone else have this problem and come up with a solution? Should I try to spend less time online? HOPE ME!

2. One of my eyes is bloodshot from allergies and not the other. It looks kind of odd to me; I don't know how noticeable it is to other people.

3. I have been dieting and so far I GAINED a half pound this week. Sigh.

1. New job is awesome, but the commute sucks hard. I think since I started, the most sleep I've gotten on a single night (including weekends, and factoring in naps) is six hours. I'm hoping my sleep schedule adjusts soon (I'm not tired until midnight, and even then, I duel with insomnia). I really like this place and don't want to have to leave just yet. At least I get my first paycheck on Friday.

2. I don't remember if I mentioned I'm in an improv class. Our second class is this Sunday, yay! This is currently the main thing sustaining me through my days.

3. Got a day off of work next week to see some doctors. I've been noticing my eyes have been straining a lot more recently, and the last time I saw an eye doctor was probably 2005 (yay, not having health insurance for most of my 20s!). New glasses, yay! I'm coming off my old insurance through the Freelancer's Union, and my new insurance only covers glasses every 2 years. Once the new ins kicks in, I'll go back and stock up on contacts (I've been on my next to last contact lens for probably a year now--lucky it's lasted this long). Once I get my new scrip, I'm sure I can get some of these cheap Internet glasses that people are always raving about (and might I say, TPS, looking quite fetching!).

Optional 4. As soon as I get my tax refund, I'm going to build a new desktop. I need to play Portal 2! What do you recommend?

1. Between a week-long bout of head-achey sinus crap, pointless dithering by co-workers, the ever-present hum of stupidity emanating from US politics, and a (manageable but irritating) financial hiccup, my patience with folks around me is REALLY REALLY short today. I don't like feeling like this and look forward to it being over.

2. It's barbecue day here at work, and good barbecue makes ANY day better.

3. I've really been digging this band/song and playing it loud in my earphones lately.

Eide, an improv class? That's really cool.

1. My brakes failed again, so it's time to buy a new car! Driving without brakes is a skill I'm happy to lose. I'm looking at a Kia Forte, Hyundai Elantra, or a Ford Focus.

2. I signed myself up for a bunch of classes and activities (Thai cooking, biking, glasswork, kayaking) and I want more. I'm not sure what else I'm interested in, though. But I needed to book up more of my time, I'm becoming hermit-like and sad.

3. I'm supposed to run a half-marathon in ~2 weeks, and I really don't want to. I took a longer break than I should have and I don't think I'm going to be able to either run the whole thing or beat my brothers, and I want to do one or the other. And if I can't, I don't want to try at all. Because I'm easily defeated like that.

msali: I think it's a little ridiculous. See, now I want proof that Trump is a human. When will he release medical proof of that, hm? I want to see his 23andme results.

I'm looking to go semi-pro, ptth! Gonna stick with it for the long run, yeeeeah.

I remember when I bought my first car. It was raining on my drive home when the brakes failed in the giant Buick LeSabre that I was piloting (awesome car, btw, and surprisingly good mileage). Fortunately, I thought quickly and hit the parking brake with my foot (and grabbed the brake release with my hand so it wouldn't lock into place, since I had to feather it to simulate ABS). I managed to stop with 2-4" to spare. Fortunately, I wasn't the typical Jersey driver and had started decelerating well before the light changed, n/m before I got to the intersection.

Who doesn't have a fun "brakes failed" story? =\

1. It is lunchtime. I am eating salad and drinking ice tea.

2. Today is payday, blessed blessed payday. As a former coworker of mine used to say, "Well, we're not here for love . . . ."

3. I have a ticket to hear the wonderful Dmitri Hvorostovsky sing this Saturday. Via movie screen, alas, so I can't wait for him outside the stage door to get his autograph, but it will be live, anyway.

msali: I can't find a purpose either! Can I come to Brazil too?

1. You know when someone you're working with you comes up to you and says, "Just checking -- are we cool? Because the last thing I want is a turf war..."

That turf war is juuuust around the corner. And there ain't a damn thing you can do about it.

2. Despite the aforementioned person getting into a shouting match in front of a visiting journalist, I totally have a new pal to visit in China. What's up, Mr. Liang?

3. My Easter present to my brother was late (and thank you SO much, Christian Ed Warehouse -- really, why did I pay priority mail if you're not shipping it for two more days?). Still, I eagerly await the report on what happened this morning when he stumbled into the bathroom to find a six-foot banner screaming "HE IS RISEN!!!!!!!"

Also: matching stickers.

(We're not particularly sassy about religion, but let's just say our great-grandma REALLY loved Jesus -- 18 exclamation points' worth.)

1. Spent last two days cleaning out my father's apartment. Rented cargo van, drove to L.A., his apt. bldg. maintenance guy loaded everything I wanted to take, Salvation Army gets the rest, drove back with white knuckles under 'wind warnings', neighbors helped unload, returned van this morning, all easier than expected.

2. Now, my residence and its front porch is full of Dad's stuff. So glad my place HAS a front porch. Lots of sorting, organizing, nostalgia to do. At least he had a large dresser, shelves, chest, etc. plus a better refrigerator than I have; I was short on storage furniture before. Keeping busy packing was a great way to distract from mourning.

3. To further distract myself (and to give him a bit of a 'legacy') I am so going to focus on improving my quality of life (like keeping junk food out of the new fridge). Getting nothing of monetary inheritance, but the 'emergency money' he kept has more than covered the moving expenses. But first, I think I will spend today catching up on sleep in my own bed.

re: msali's #4... I'm kinda glad Obama waited as long as he did, just to make the Birthers (and Trump) look REALLY STUPID. Still, as a rational human being, what does this say about his old campaign pledge for more transparency that he sat on it so long? And my big Trump question is: if he, as rumored, announces his candidacy on his Apprentice TV show, does that mean the Equal Time rule will give Obama a weekly one-hour show on NBC? (When Schwarzenegger ran for Governor, every California broadcast TV station had to stop showing his movies or else give the dozen other candidates free time)

1. I've had a good day so far - I went shopping, to some home stores and bought a barbecue chimney starter, an outdoor security light, a new non-slip mat for the shower, a silicon spatula and an alarm for my front door, a really basic one where you get ten seconds to switch it off when you get through the door.

2. Beautiful weather again, about 70F, just perfect. I'm enjoying this break from work so much.

3. My jeans are falling off me, I need to go down a size. This is all relative, however, because I gained a lot of weight last year which is only now beginning to shift.

Eid, you'd better end every improv scene by pulling a gun, ok?

Why thank you, Eide! :D Yay Zenni Optical! I'm very much enjoying my new frames, although one pair is a teeny bit narrow for my head. Any way to stretch plastic frames? I keep applying light pressure, which will surely lead to my snapping them in half.

1. Today is my Friday- I'm off the next two days! Yahoo! Going to Florida tomorrow morning for 3 days to hang out with Mom and watch the Royal Wedding! Double Yahoo! And then once that trip is over, I can look forward a trip to the beach in May! And THEN after that is over, I can look forward to finding and moving into our new apartment! I like having things to look forward to.

2. We lent out our cat for a few days to some friends who are having a mouse problem. I miss her, but at the same time, the house is blissfully quiet with only one animal around. I don't miss her causing mischief all day, every day! Like being woken up at 6 a.m. with a cat jumping all over me. The dog is good, she never wakes me up.

3. I've been regular about exercising lately (thank you, Health Month), I think I look gooooooooood.

Hm, amro, I believe there are a lot of people who recognise your story.
I certainly do. For me it's not so much the fragmentation of my attention that bothers me. For me it's more the procrastination that finds in the internet its perfect medium.

1. I received a 2nd hand copy of Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex from Germany. The condition of the copy is a bit disappointing. But still; nice read to look forward to.
2. Watching The Borgias. Quite enjoyable so far. Not as tacky yet as The (Sexy) Tudors.
3. I'm reserving point 3

1. I had an idea about another article I could write last night and so now I'm trying to do research about it and it's not being as easy as I would've hoped. (It's something about the differences between dealing with memoriabilia collections as a museum curator, an archivist, and a librarian, but I haven't ironed out everything yet. Just another artifact of me dealing with the Sarbanes stuff way back when.)

2. #1 is likely due to the fact that I am extremely bored at work. I know that I've been slacking on my actual work duties (running the queues), but it's just so fucking dull. My processor training keeps getting pushed back (right now we're aiming for the week of the 9th), which isn't helping matters. I've brought my ACA reading to do, but I'm so lazy I don't even want to do that, even though it really needs to get done.

3. I've been feeling really restless and agitated lately. Nothing is satisifying me, which is getting really irritating as I'm running out of options. (Of course, this also requires determining what would satisfy me, which is even more problematic because I've been hiding from myself for so long that I don't know which way is up.) I thought that planning a vacation for this time next year would help, but it only helped for about a week. Shit.

Optional 4. That birther shit is such nonsense. My dad is one of them and I know that at least for him, it's very thiny veiled racism. I'm slowly working on distancing myself from the batshittery but it is difficult when they're still helping me financially. (Damn you, low-paying job! Even the fulltime hours will only bring in about an extra $100 or so a month.)

Eideteker, I once had my dad's Subaru electrical system completely shit out on me while I was driving downhill in the rain. Lost headlights, power steering--everything. Luckily, I was able to cut someone off to get into the parking lot of some dress shop at the bottom of a hill. Braking was an interesting experience, using the emergency brake combined with attempting to turn a very stubborn wheel on a gravel lot. Thank fuck for AWD.

Yay Hyundai Elantras and yay Jeffery Eugenides!

1. You guys are making me want new glasses EVEN MORE. My pair hurts my nose and also is chipped a little. And I just like getting new ones. I fell in love with a pair at the fancy glasses store--going there was a rookie error--that I so cannot afford b/c my prescription is so crazy.

2. Mischievous cats! Man. Mine got into a loaf of freshly baked bread last night, tore through the foil, and ate the top off. BAD KITTY.

3. My best friend and I accidentally scheduled back-to-back hair appointments for this evening, so that should be fun.

[...] My brakes failed again, so it's time to buy a new car! Driving without brakes is a skill I'm happy to lose. I'm looking at a Kia Forte, Hyundai Elantra, or a Ford Focus.

Good lord yes. Lack of confidence in the brakes was the main reason I got rid of my 1990 Chevrolet Lumina years ago. The rear brake design was horribly flawed and basically un-fixable. Many types of car trouble can be put up with, but not brakes or steering problems.

1. This past weekend was already an extra-long weekend for me, and I took another couple of days off to make it a 6-day weekend. I spent about half of that helping friends pack and move to a new house. They hired a moving company for the actual moving day, but there was still a hell of a lot to be done and it was very tiring. And now it sounds like they are both not enjoying their new house at all, and I feel really bad about that. I hope some positive feelings emerge soon.

2. There has been some turnover at work at levels above mine. As a result, I currently have N bosses where N is an uncertain number between 1 and 3. Of those, X of them seem to be interested in talking to me at all, where X is somewhere between 0 and 1. As a result of this power vacuum, everyone now wants their requests to be done before everyone else's, especially things they just thought of today and need tomorrow, and there is no one at their level to tell them otherwise. It's going pretty much exactly how I expected it would, though I hate being right about this.

3. Despite whining about the above two points, every day I think about how many people have it a lot worse, and a lot of things are going just fine for me (too many to try to list them all here). That seems to be a useful exercise right now. Other useful exercises planned for the next couple of days include getting back to a normal sleep schedule, and resuming my workout routine, both of which have been a bit disrupted over the past week.

4. I just impulsively signed up for pilates, zumba, and body sculpting classes.

3. I'm reserving point 3

If you keep reserving point 3s, jouke, eventually you'll be able to do a massive 14-course update. Epic!

But they'll all be nr. 3 points. So that won't work.
Maybe somebody has extra nr. 1 and nr. 2 points to trade.

That opera from the Met sounds great btw. Quite possibly you'll have a much better view from the camera work compared to a fixed point of view from a seat in the theater.

1. My seemingly random ankle pain is getting worse and I'm starting to get freaked out. Seeing my doctor tomorrow, hope I do not end up on crutches or having to go for an MRI or something.

2. Ravenous, but lunch in a ways away.

3. Feel pulled in 80 different directions and I'm all kinds of frazzled. Need to find and push the reset button.

4. This is all just ridiculous and maddening.

Trump and his crew don't really believe Mr. Obama was not born in the USA. This birther nonsense is pandering to the conservative idiots out there, pure and simple. They were ready with their response should Obama produce his birth certificate:

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus: "The president ought to spend his time getting serious about repairing our economy. Unfortunately his campaign politics and talk about birth certificates is distracting him from our number one priority — our economy."

Donald Trump: "I am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role."

Now they have a new spin: "Trump said, there are still questions about President Obama's background. 'The word is,' Trump told the press, Obama 'was a terrible student when he went to Occidental [College]. He then gets to Columbia. He then gets to Harvard.'

'I don't know why he doesn't release his records,' Trump said. 'Why doesn't he release his Occidental records?'"

I hate that the endless whining and poking goaded Mr. Obama to this point, but it keeps the issue visible and makes the Republicans look like imbeciles.

janetland: the singing, how awesome!

1. Lots of seminars, CLEs, receptions and nonsense coming up and all I can think is: I'm bored and don't have enough fun.
2. I wish I were riding my bike more.
3. Going to a wedding next weekend (Guy's cousin). Although I know that as long as I don't show up in a wedding dress or hot pants with stripper heels no-one will care in the slightest what I am wearing, I am consumed with irritation that I have nothing to wear and everything I try on looks awful or bland.
Opt. Birther #4: When I saw the headline about the release, I had flashbacks to Ice-T's Cop Killer press conference: "Song's off the album, so shut up."

I'm happy to hear of so many people with so many things going on, especially those of you who are staving off inertia; I know well how that goes.

1. On my walk home from coffee this morning I happened upon an argument on my block over some parking bullshit between an older man and a woman around my age. It had gotten to the point where they were just swearing at each other, she was threatening to get her husband to come "talk" to the old man, and there were workers watching and laughing and little kids watching and learning. I walked right between them and said, "Hey, you both sound like you're making yourselves sick. It can't feel good to raise your voices like this." I turned to the man, "you gotta watch your health, you can't get so mad, people are gonna miss you and you can't let your anger be the reason why." I turned to the woman, "You too, this isn't good for you, and it's a bad example for these kids. You don't even know this guy, and he's important enough to you to ruin your morning?" They both responded in the most amazing unison, "Mind your own business," so I said, "Well, you agree on one thing," and walked away as they picked up the fight where they left it off. It was if anything louder and more vulgar than before.

2. My fiancée's mom is walking again after having had surgery to remove a tumor from her lung on Monday. Of course, it will be a little while before she recovers fully, but it's been on my mind. I'm not big on spending anger these days so I'm not gonna waste my energy being mad at the cancer. When she came out of surgery she told my love, "Tell [Hugh] I'm okay." When I heard this I was moved to tears. Her positive outlook means a lot to everybody, herself especially, and I know she wants to stick around to see her daughter get married. I can't help thinking about my own mom, which pulls forth a lot of different emotions. My mother-in-law-to-be is probably the most relaxed of all of us. She has a nice quiet room and a big stack of sudoku puzzles.

3. Yesterday I had a great early dinner. I had, left over from Sunday, chick peas and rice with fresh jalapenos, green bell pepper, three kinds of onion, diced radish, toasted cumin, fresh oregano, and chopped cilantro. For a second dish, I made a miso-dashi-wakame-based stew with ramen noodles, chopped brussels sprouts, abura-age, spring onions, and chunks of tilapia steamed in garlic and soy sauce. I always have carrot and celery sticks around, so I served these with umeboshi as a garnish. I enjoyed my dinner with a Magic Hat No. 9 Not Quite Pale Ale, then went out for a walk among the tree blossoms and returned home to nap on the couch by the open window.

Optional 4. I imagine no amount of paperwork or number of witnesses could possibly convince the birthers that a black man could legitimately hold the office of President of the United States of America. It's a matter of faith for them; if this shit won't stick they'll try something else.

1. Been dealing with plantar facitis since fall. Sorta ignored it, but can't anymore, so trying to get exercise without much walking or running or jumping. Swimming and biking, but no volleyball. Also, it's amazing how much walking I do for my job.

2. My mom is improving. . .she is 84 and has been sedentary, for no good reason, for the past 30 or so years. Just getting up and away from the TV to go grocery shopping and stuff. So it's caught up with her, and she has been in a lot of pain, bedridden, with microfractures in her lower spine. My brother and sister are down there and have been helping her, and after an epidural, she is feeling better and they are trying to force her to get up and move around and build some muscle back. I am relieved, in that I was concerned that this was IT. . .

3. We bought an 02 Honda Civic for our Daughter. We did it through a dealer and paid too much, but it has a dipshit (power train only) warranty and only 66K miles and is really clean. Daughter is delighted. We waited until she is 21 to buy her a car, not by design, but it just worked out that way, and she's always lived in places that have good mass transit.

Optional 4. Although I have bought a few of her CDs in the past and enjoyed them, I have now joined the Church of Polly Jean.

4a. Hugh, I did not know that you had an s/o. Not that I had to.

4b. I cannot be civil, any more, with Republicans, if politics come up.

4c. Back to item 1 -- it sucks to think that getting up from this chair and walking is gonna hurt. I guess I have taken it for granted, NOT being like this.

amro, I just joined a running group at my gym. It starts on 17 May, for us to do couch to 5k in 10 weeks, with an experienced trainer. We are all at the same basic level of (un)fitness.

Hugh, congrats on your engagement.

It's all pretty new, danf. We fell in love over the new year, and were talking about where to raise our kids by the end of January. Timing is complicated by visa issues, she's currently with her family in Kagoshima, southwestern Japan; thankfully, the earthquake mess hasn't complicated things further. I expect I'll be heading over there to meet her family at the end of May.

Sometimes everything can seem a shambles. Then something like love comes along, and you wake up to the possibilities. There's a lot to do, but there's finally a reason to do it.

On preview, thanks, Senyar. I'm really excited.

1) My back is spasming irregularly, hard enough to make my whole torso twitch. Bah. Humbug.

Oh, also, to you people in pain, I hope it eases. Take care of yourselves.

Hugh, that is so very cool. Congratulations!

Damn, Hugh Janus is engaged! Tick another one off of my imaginary internet boyfriend availability box....

1. It's damned cold in the office now that they've switched to cooling mode for summer. I can't concentrate on anything.

2. Not that I want to. I did a presentation on how to migrate your data and so I've been going through ALL my old hard drives saving STUFF on a new spiffy drive. So I'm going down memory lane and enjoying the show.

3. Plus distracted by Older Boy needing an emergency extraction tomorrow, and I can't afford it but I'm gonna have to - basically it's pizza at home for the next month and sundry other cuts.

oooh! Congrats, Hugh!

And sorry for the folks in pain, that's such an anchor.

1. Craaaaaaaaaaamps. Hate. Stabby. Ow.
2. Waiting for the plumber to come re-fix our kitchen faucet. He is late.
3. Cat is running around being hyper. I tried soothing the savage cat with a top-of-the-lungs rendition of "I love kitty cat!" (to the tune of "I Love Rock n Roll"). I see no evidence of soothedness.

Hugh, that's wonderful news! Congratulations and best wishes to you both!

it sucks to think that getting up from this chair and walking is gonna hurt. I guess I have taken it for granted, NOT being like this.

I hear you. For me, the bright side is the greater appreciation I have of my body, even in its sometimes-limited abilities. Now I'm grateful for what it can do and mindful of what it can't, and I'm much more mindful of my body's abilities than its appearance.

1. I have a sort-of job interview tomorrow --- a part-time thing, a weekend position a friend's been trying to fill for some time. A little money coming in would be nice, and I'd like to have some externally imposed structure, even if it's only two days a week.

2. My "routine visit" to the dentist yesterday took about three times as long as expected, and he had to novocaine me literally to the eyeballs; my left eye socket went numb up to the eyebrow. That's... let's see... six out the past seven Tuesdays spent at a dentist's or oral surgeon's office. Here's hoping my mouth is all fixed up for the moment. On the bright side: I have not had one of my frequent crippling migraines since they yanked my wisdom tooth. This is potentially life-changing.

3. Next, the optometrist and optician. I order my contacts and primary glasses locally, but I think I'll get a pair of cheap back-up glasses from Zenni --- glad to hear more good experiences from MeChazens!

1. I discovered the source of the mysterious back pain from a couple weeks back. Sleeping in my recliner. Cuz I did it again. Ouch.

2. Two stress situations this week have left me in a less-than-desirable state of health. How does one take a vacation from already doing nothing?

3. I think I may do a Kickstarter for this next project because funding it myself is slowing progress to a crawl.

4. Where is JC's birth certificate? Hmm?

Optional #4: I don't think any possible evidence will convince the people who have ostensibly been clamoring for said evidence, because this isn't about the facts but about their feelings.

Madamina: I like a good turf war, but in my experience, they were always between two people for whom I cared little.

1. First day back after April break. I was basically a hermit the last week, so it felt good to get out in the world again. When did the trees get all those leaves?

2. My AP Literature students are taking their exam next Thursday, and I just found out that almost half of them are going on a school trip to D.C. from Saturday until Wednesday, which I'm happy for them, but it means my last prep day with them is this Friday instead of next Wednesday. Ah, well. I suppose we'll have done about all we can do anyway. They've worked hard and I'm proud of them whether they score well on the test or not (we've read twelve books together this year so far, including Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, but it's a bitch of a test -- 55 Multiple Choice questions, with reading, in 60 minutes, and 3 essays, with reading, in 2 hours). We don't get scores, though, until July.

3. Survivor's on tonight. Goody, goody! And I have Reeses Peanut Butter Cup sundaes in the freezer. Sometimes life doesn't suck.

(I'd say congratulations, HJ, but like the Obama birthers, seeing is believing. ;)

Update on Mr. Turf War:
We (colleagues and I) had a meeting this afternoon to straighten all this crap out. Mr. Turf War came in and gave us all sorts of stuff about how he knows some guy at the Wall St. Journal and blah blah blah...

As my colleague reported to our boss, "I don't think I've ever been in a meeting before where [my supervisor] steps out and immediately mouths, 'That guy is a DICK!'"

1. Feeling really good diet and exercise wise, thanks to Health Month. Lost my Fitbit yesterday and am so into it I immediately ordered another with overnight delivery. I NEVER pay for overnight delivery. Speaking of health etc, despite a heritage of MDs in the family, I really recommend acupuncture, galadriel and danf. It totally took care of my spasming left shoulder blade back pain, and my plantar fascitis. '

2. I am buried in reading this week. Trying to scheme and strategize how to get it done around my other work, the class I teach tonight, and the Johnny Clegg concert coming up tomorrow with my dear Bear.

3. Finally finishing audio version of Book I of Game of Thrones. Absolutely engrossed and engaged, so much so that I am still feeling the emotional reverberations of the penultimate plot developments. I think I'll just launch right into Book 2 without pausing for another audio book in between.

4. I think the birther stuff is idiotic, racist, anti-Muslim and xenophobic all at once, but I think getting the long form birth certificate out was a smart move that takes the wind out of a lot of sails at once. This issue was already starting to blow over, with even idiots like Gov. Brewer and Michelle Bachman backing away from it, but this ends it that much quicker. BTW I already have a 2012 sticker on the car from barack obama.com and have no doubt that our Pres will be handily re-elected no matter what Munchkin the Rs run. (And it won't be Trump or Palin, that's for sure.)

1. Wha who wha who wha? Everyone's lives have been moving on while I haven't been able to pay attention. There are woes and whoas and I can't keep up.

2. I should feel accomplished at this point but I just can't. I do not feel it. Must endure.

3. Anything for relief, but everything is just a stalling measure in an endurance trial of ever increase stakes. All I can hope for are pockets of breathing room amidst the effort.
I'm a size four because I have no appetite and that doesn't seem to be a good sign at all, but people are enthusiastic about it. It makes me wonder about people, but mostly I feel nothing about them, good or bad.
I await silent the return of something significant.

1. Feeling really down and hopeless about my work situation. I've worked hard for 10 years, busted my rear to get a degree, and I'm not qualified for anything but what I'm doing now. And I have got to get out of my current job. All the things I once hoped to accomplish in my career feel so far away and impossible now.

2. I know I'm stupid/selfish to feel this way when I have a loving family, my health, enough money and other resources, beer in the fridge, etc. First world problems.

3. Hugs and whuffles to everyone who is hurting or frustrated. Or very happy!

4. ugh.

Congratulations on the engagement, Hugh!

I'm gonna go all maverick here and add a 5!

5. Yay Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire. So far I'm liking the HBO series. Casting is really terrific. It still feels like everybody is getting their bearings (episode 2), but I think it can come together nicely. I can't wait for the next book to come out in July.

I feel for you jeoc; I'm experiencing some of the same feelings regarding work.

1. I think I've been contorting myself strangely in my chair at work. My upper back hurts a lot...

2. My little mouse, Harvey, is super duper. I'm really enjoying having him.

3. I had never heard about the Fitbit before bearwife's above comment, but now I think I might want one!

Yes, you will want one. They are the Super Pedometer of all time and also track your sleep. Here's the website. (Just don't lose yours as I did.)

Ethylene,are you OK? You sound horribly depressed. Worried. Your hump day sounds like a big dip, not a hump.