Neat! It's cool how little ethnic enclaves develop -- years ago a friend of mine with an obscure Czech last name was driving through Texas and accidentally stopped in a town where it turned out that her name was shared by a significant percentage of the residents.

I realize I'm being talky meat this morning, but there's nothing like having four guys doing major work in the basement to keep you slightly manic.

Going back to an earlier conversation, put me in the anti-time change group. I'm awake, and it's dark out. In 12 hours, I'll be heading home from work, and it will be dark out, or getting that way.

What's the upside there?

I'm taking a sick day today. I just feel like hell, and got no sleep last night.

Yes, I'm with the people who'd prefer their light after the work day. I rarely sleep later than the sunrise, so having it "later" means that I may get more sleep that way.

(But today, I was awake by 4-ish and couldn't fall back asleep so it's all moot anyway.)

My town was also a place where there were a lot of Japanese businessmen + their families. My mother tutored a lot of the wives and children in English after school - they liked her because she spoke a little -very little- Japanese from living there for a few years. I grew up thinking, "Ikimasho!" was some colloquial expression of hers from the backwoods of Maine until I read The Ginger Tree.

Last night a patron with significant ($500+) library fines was very angry about those fines and was yelling at a staff member. He claims never to have gotten the multiple notices, that he already pays so much in tuition, that he's an Iraq veteran, etc., and we should waive them all.

Turns out he is an Iraq veteran, and there was some dust up when he left the service because he didn't return equipment and was billed for it (which he said he returned, or shouldn't have to pay for).

So, unless the disability office tells me otherwise, I see no reason to waive his fines.

You had furnace excitement! And the process is really loud. And bangy. When my neighbor had hers taken out, I could feel it all the way on my second floor and was rather alarmed before I figured out what was going on.

In 5 minutes, I commence the comedy of 3 cats, 3 carriers and a car ride.

HATE the time change. Being woken up at 6am by a three year-old who insists that because the sun is up "IT'S MORNING TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!!" is so very much not my idea of fun.

We live on the Western edge of the Eastern time zone (an hour to the W of us in Alabama they're in Central), so before the time change it was still full dark at 7:25 when we dropped the kids off at school. That sucked. Now we get light by 6:45 am (when we get up) and it's not dark yet when we get home at 5:30pm, so it works for me.

I would know that Zuisa, but that is because my mother works in an ESL classroom too. She has mostly people from the Congo and Myanmar now, since we sort of...disappeared a lot of Spanish speakers...1070 is creepy, I don't care what anyone says.

Ugh. My boss is MIA -- hasn't checked her email or anything. She was out sick yesterday, but her sister is also dying, so we're all trying to figure out if someone should call her or not.