I'm in an Uber, and the driver is deaf! He liked that I knew the sign for (terminal) A, but it's a good thing they only have the first few letters of the alphabet!

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Market done. Eating empanadas, mobbed by cats. Then shopping.

I'd really rather nap.

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Thanks, shrift

And I'm sorry, because the interview process is kind of terrible.

yeah, the fact that it began on a Friday, late afternoon, for one thing!

Your day sounds wonderfully productive sarameg. Mine so far has involved only coffee, laundry, dishes, and listening to my daughter whine about having to get up. That last part is pretty funny. Oh wait! I forgot the best part: kitty snuggles. Luna always likes to start the day with purrs and cuddles. It's incredibly gratifying to have someone that happy to see me in the morning.

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My morning started early st the stables, training new volunteers. It just stayed snowing.

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Working and looking at my Christmas tree. We bought it last night but I don't think it drank enough water overnight so I want to take it outside and cut off another inch from the bottom. It should be soaking up more water.

But I am continuing to work instead because sitting at the computer is less effort.

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Timelies all!

Tried to feed rice cereal to the little guy. More on him than in him, but that's normal for a first feeding.

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I'm in an Uber, and the driver is deaf! He liked that I knew the sign for (terminal) A, but it's a good thing they only have the first few letters of the alphabet!

I was reading a thing that said that there are a lot of deaf Uber drivers. They usually have some system -- either keeping pencil and paper handy, or handing you their cell phone open to the Notes app -- if they need to communicate and can't communicate in spoken English.

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The website of the goat caroling pisses me off. They advocate goats in climates too dry to grow crops. Totally glossing over that goats almost certainly helped destroy the original ecology of Greece.

The Greeks inherited a land covered by rich stands of oaks, pines, and other trees with thick, drought-resistant leaves . . . Soil erosion on the slopes of the rugged Greek hills helped prevent reforestation . . . as did grazing and browsing animals, which killed the seedlings before they could establish themselves. Especially prominent in the latter role were goats . . . the "horned locusts" that have destroyed so much of the vegetation of the Mediterranean region and other areas where they've been introduced. (In fact it's not unfair, today, to describe much of that territory as a "goatscape.")

[link] The effing goats are part of the problem, not the solution. There are other ungulates that don't do as much damage!

Good luck to your brother, Consuela.

I'm enjoying your travelogue, shrift, as I do all travel stories, but also -- I remember when you were working in a basement with some idiot coworkers and writing some of the funniest posts *ever* but yay for you for how far from that this is!

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First solid food is a very exciting milestone, Sheryl. Yay for the little guy!

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I had to run the AC in my car. For cooling. In December.

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