All peace~ma for Ginger.

I've been off the board for a few days (busy times at work, then a messy weekend that I'll discuss when things are less -- focused here).

for a conference in DC next week.

???????

And I handed in my FY2017 budget weeks ago.

My DH texted that his beard was accidentally shaved off. I don't understand how that happens, but he's not generally a liar. He seems to understand that he needs to grow it back immediately.

So many memories to treasure, but one in particular. For the Atlanta F2F, Ginger put me up at her house. Insomniac, awake alone into the wee smalls, snuggled on an antique daybed in her den, which was lined with bookshelves and All the Books! Antiques, vintage, eclectic, amazing. It would have taken years to read through them all--and this was just one room. I loved seeing everybody and talking and catching up and giggling and story-swapping. Askye voice-impersonating Angela from Bones, Vortex and Donna off to whiskey-tasting, Bicyclops lugging luggage and running wires for speakers for the prom, smonster's dancing, Sail and Theo and -t and their thrifting prizes--and the feather boas! Laura and Brandon's smiles, Zen watching the rest of us watch and squee over an ep of SPN, which Ginger carefully made sure to record for us. And an afternoon of beading with Ginger, Katie Bee, and Sail, after lunch, when Ginger found us a fabulous local bead shop. But the den and the daybed were welcome refuge after So Many People.

There are other memories--Cleveland, San Francisco, DC--but Ginger in her natural habitat--her house and garden--is my fondest memory.

Sparky, I keep planning to email you and get distracted. Would you like to have dinner the Monday or Tuesday night? I'll email ya!

Sparky, Maria, good ~ma for you. And for the rest of you with outcomes in the balance. MM, thank you for what you wrote. It's so wonderful to see familiar names here again. I don't mean to neglect responding to anyone. Can we put it down to distraction and preoccupation?

Oh, I had forgotten that that was where my boa came from! It's draped over the mirror on my vanity.

Ginger's kitchen is where I first drank Fernet. And where I last drank Fernet.

Random good news - The Right Step, the therapeutic horse riding program where I volunteer, won $1,000 today in the pre-Colorado Gives Day festivities. Tomorrow is the big day of giving but there was a rally at the capitol today for all the participating non-profits. We have recently had to stop accepting medicaid clients (bureaucratic mess), so any "extra" money like this can go to providing scholarships to these same riders.

I don't know what kind of magic ita put into the Board, but, no joke, I just got handed a letter from the Provost reappointing me. No one else among the 8 has heard a thing, and our Dean was quite surprised that it happened so fast/smoothly/without a fight.

Clappay hands!!!