Had a good dinner #1. Lots of duplicates of everything because my mother-in-law worries about there not being enough food, even when it's not her house. But good. Surprise party tomorrow for the SO's high school buddy who came from Florida to Indianapolis for his 30th birthday and from Indianapolis to Arizona for his 40th. So we figure we owe him this one. But we still don't know any details about it. Like, where it is. Or when.

I have no interest in an iPhone. I am jealous that some apps don't come for the Android, but I can't honestly get upset that I can't auto pick nail polish on my phone or tablet. It really does do most of the magic I want. And the iPod fills the frivolous gap.

I called my mother and whined that she doesn't love me. Felt good. I feel like I paid her back for the leafy greens assault.

Except I'm eating asparagus. Well, thing is, all I'm eating is asparagus, so that's not how she wants to win, but that's as much as my stomach is taking right now. I'll check back with it later.

Kate--I will be trying the nausea bracelets soon, I think.

You shoulda come over. Homemade cranberry sauce, and it was amazing.

Oh, I have no doubt. No doubt at all. However, sitting at home and feeling sorry for myself was all I was capable of today.

I was just posting "ritual sacrifice, with pie" as my fb status and the iPad was insisting on correcting "sacrifice" to "acrid ice." What a strange machine.

Erin, IMO it's almost impossible to do Hannukah wrong. It's a festival, not a holy day. Traditions tend to be family based in terms of gift-giving, so do whatever seems comfortable.

Q1: Is this sacrilegious? And is it ok to put the menorah on the mantel, because putting it by our out-facing windows means a cat or dog will no doubt light itself on fire.

No problem with any of that. It's tradition to have the menorah in the window, but it's fine to have it elsewhere if that works for you.

Q2: What are we supposed to say/sing, and does anyone have a link to them in phonetic English and a link that I can hear? (M remembers "most of the words" but hey, he's nine. I need a print out!)

[link] You say the "Blessing over Candles" and "Blessing for Chanukah" each night, and "Shehecheyanu" only on the first night. I can't listen to the recordings right now, but they're from a source that's usually good. If you want something with more of a normal person singing it (that one might be a bit overly operatic), I can find it later.

dinner was nom. yum.

Where's Jesse? And bon bon? Jezebel linked to a House Hunters drinking game. I *need* to play this.

I can only imagine. If you have to drink every time they say "spacious," I'm out already.

One of the commenters said they knew someone on House Hunters International, and they didn't even start on the show until they'd already bought their house--that's how much of a fix was in on the show. It wasn't that they knew what they were going to buy, and the rest was for show--they had already signed on the dotted line.

Unrelated stuff in next post.

I'm not entirely sure where to post this, I thought about the Business Talk thread, but it's not business, and I'm no entrepreneur.

But I'm really acutely aware of things I have to do in order to stay on top of my job, because it's got a lot of potential for chaos, and emotionally and psychologically, I'm in high crisis mode.

I've been spending a lot of time reading up on productivity, poring through Lifehacker and its ilk through many back issues. I worked out that GTD stood for Getting Things Done, but I didn't realise it was a specific methodology. It's been kind of what I've been stumbling towards, in terms of externalising what I rely on to just...get shit done. I've been going through and experimenting with tools of many sorts (high tech and low), trying to work out what sort of automation, to do lists, shortcuts, etc, I can implement to streamline both my work life and my home life, and kind of making less concrete distinction between them--just getting what needs to be finished finished.

Has anyone here used GTD specifically? Something like it? When your life is going to shit inside your head, how do you stop it from following suit outside? I've been doing a crazy and probably self-destructive overcompensation in the office, and have been letting my home slide terribly. I need to even shit out. I need to stop filling in for everyone at the office, and I need to clean my apartment and feed myself and make sure all my bills are paid in a timely fashion.

How do you guys do it? I mean, I'm only trying to cope for one person. I don't have anyone in my immediate vicinity relying upon me, thank god, otherwise I'd be letting down more than just myself. But I have to stop letting me down too.