That is a wonderful family picture! Sparky's glowing, pass it on

Attention: Peanut butter toast is the best. Breakfast. Evar.

Yum. I like to add a bit of cinnamon sugar or sliced banana sometimes.

Todd, that picture makes my eyes itch!

The pear tree in our front yard looks pretty, though.

Understatement of the year! That's a storybook front yard. And you all look wonderful.

I'm now on Easter break. (Despite the prominence of American Christianity, it's in Australia that I get a four-day weekend for Easter.) It's been confirmed, they'll be announcing layoffs on Wednesday. They've set up the lay-off room - papered over the windows on an internal office (well away from external windows, I'm assuming that's just a coincidence). The IT guys, as I understand it, are at the ready to shut people out of their computers as their number comes up. (Which I confess I find a little cool, in an A-Team kind of way).

Obviously, I'm curious to know whether I'll be laid off. I won't be surprised if I am - reasons which ultimately all come back to my boss, who's run the section into the ground lo these last three years. He's also the reason why I think I'd prefer the redundancy. (Although there's also the chance that I keep my job and he loses his, so let's not be hasty.)

Thanks, everyone.

bt, layoff ~ma for the best outcome for you.

I think all the medication working its way out of my system is wreaking havoc with my brain-- or the hormones readjusting or something, because I'm very moody and touchy and liable to burst into tears at the drop of a hat and this has only shown up in the last couple of days since I finished the Lortab.

I'm over it now. It can stop.

My ex-boss - who is on a contract through the end of April - seems to have been really applying himself to making sure that he'll never get any more contract work out of this association ever again. He's supposed to have been working on getting people to write stories and provide photos for the next couple of issues - when asked what he had, his response (according to our COO, who's theoretically managing him) was "uhhhhh". He's supposed to provide a spreadsheet of information on past authors - result, um, nil. Turned up for a meeting with nothing substantive but his attitude. Bye!

{{{Barb}}} That is just the worst feeling. I hope it passes quickly. How are you doing as far as pain is concerned?

Tea:

My mother is here early, and I haven't finished my tea yet. Gronk.

Thanks sj-- pain's really not an issue anymore unless it's pressure-oriented. (Pisces got up on her hind legs and put her paws on my stomach and it was like, "Oh, ow!" but it was momentary.)

Right now we're more into dull achy territory and just general tiredness if I do too much, which is frustrating, but I'm trying to be patient. Right now, it's the lack of control thing that's making me nuts. If I could concentrate, I think writing would help, because THAT I can control. In theory, at any rate.

OK, bit of a meara here because I've been too busy to come by Bitches:

Ugh Barb, I hope you feel better soon.

Sparky, I will happily send it to you once I verify it with my cousin. I'm working on memory, he has it written down. It is delicious, although really such an artery clogger it should only be eaten like once a year.

One of my favorite historical Haggadah stories -- back in the twenties or so, the coffee companies in the US realized that a lot of Jews weren't drinking coffee during Passover, because they thought that coffee beans were included under the prohibition on beans. So one of the big coffee companies, Maxwell House, consulted some rabbis and got them to write statements saying that coffee was allowed, and the company printed these statements in newspaper ads. To further emphasize "drink coffee during Passover!" they printed a Haggadah, with the text in both Hebrew and English, with Maxwell House ads on the front and back covers. These became really popular, and the kept printing them every year, and they're now among the most-used Haggadahs in the US.

HA! You know that's our family Haggadah. I mean, we have another one as well, but we usually default to Maxwell House.

WRT breast cancer: there are other genes involved beside BRCA. A biggie is the newish discovery of breast cancers caused by HRT overexpression, and I know that has a strong genetic component.