But that does make me wonder if your dress code defines "mini."

No. It says skirts of appropriate length, which I've been interpreting as "longer than where my fingertips reach when standing straight."

But I understand that's miniskirt territory. I just thought it was okay for LA. However...financial industry.

I'm being kept out of the loop on something I'm normally in the loop on because my boss wants me 100% on another project. I don't like the feeling. I want my old spot back.

There's always touring the Atlantic coast--you could go to Nova Scotia and work your way down, eating lobster and fried clams all the way...

We did that when I was 16. Actually, we started in Chicago, drove towards Maine along the eastern edge of the Great Lakes, stopped by Niagara Falls and then the White Mountains in New Hampshire, then stayed four days in Bar Harbor, took the ferry to Nova Scotia for two days, then down the Maine coast to Boston before driving home. Ate too much lobster in those two weeks, to the point where I actually decided on fried shrimp for lunch one day because I was sick of lobster. Back then, in 1982, lobster was available at the cheap harbor shacks for only $5 a pound for fresh-caught lobsters. Have no idea what it is now, but it has to be a lot more than $5!

My vacation is August 27 through September 18.

You should go to New Orleans for the early part of that and then come Westward and go to LA, SF, and Seattle! :) ...ok, maybe that's overly ambitious. (ETA: if you do want to come to Seattle, I've got a guest room!)

You you come to San Francisco last, you can be here for my birthday again!

Maybe this year will be less cancery?

I went to Yosemite last year.

D'oh! t clicks on link to see pretty pictures

Dear coworkers: It's nice that you're trying to help, but if you had actually clicked on the three "helpful" links you just sent me, you might have noticed that two of them are actually not helpful at all.

I want to live in that small city in...Delaware?..where they recycle seven ways, compost, and the water treatment plant is...wetlands!

Our neighborhood is good about recycling most every kind of packaging. We have places for used/reclaimed lumber, intact wall tiles, bathroom, kitchen, and lighting fixtures. Unfortunately the neighborhood rules against composting, and oddly, clotheslines. Man, I miss line-dried sheets and pillowcases.

We have a disposal but we rarely use it. We buy small and use most of it. What's left goes in a bag in the freezer until garbage collection day, and then goes out with the communnal garbage. The disposal is our first. It's loud, and I've read too many horror stories (and seen Home too many times) to trust it. So we use vinegar and baking soda to clean and deodorize the drains instead.

I clean my disposal drains by grinding up the lemod rinds that I've just squeezed into whatever I'm making. Smells so flipping good.

There's always touring the Atlantic coast--you could go to Nova Scotia and work your way down, eating lobster and fried clams all the way...

I have an extra bedroom!!!

I love that everyone is vying for a Tom Scola holiday! Personally I am with the West Coast tour brigade.