Be safe, be happy, be good. And if you can't be good, be good enough not to get caught.

I hope everyone threatened by a blizzard is okay.

I know this is nothing compared to that, but yesterday, it was around 70. Today, it's in the 30s with a miserable wind blowing. Both my door and my trunk lid were ripped out of my hands when I opened them.

I can see a potted plant outside my window. (It's a lavender that's overwintered surprisingly well for a few years now.) And I can see the sleet pellets bouncing off of it. As long as they keep bouncing, things should be fine. I suspect there'll be a line where the sleet changes to freezing rain within 10 miles of us here, and it'll all come down to which side of the line we're on.

Eh, worst case scenario, I end up in bed snuggled with a book and a cat. There are far worse worsts than that.

Stay safe and warm, everyone getting a storm today.

Steph, can you send her the revised proof, ask her the questions again, and inform her the paper cannot be published until you receive responses to all the queries? That's what I do with these snippity authors. I get a lot of them.

She replied this morning saying "I am out of the office this week (as well you know), and you are making it impossible for me to complete this task while taking vacation time to care for my sick family. I cannot answer your questions without a copy of my extensive edits."

So, (1) I didn't know she was out of the office, because her email didn't bounce back with an OOO message; (2) I'm sorry her family is sick but maybe I should get to be even shittier to her in return since my cousin fucking DIED on Tuesday; (3) she doesn't actually need a copy of her changes to answer 4 simple questions; and (4) if her changes are so frigging important, why didn't SHE keep a copy?

Good god. So I did, of course, send a copy of the PDF with all her changes, but I want to punch her so hard. I have never, EVER had an author be this difficult, and I'm sorry her family is sick, but OH MY GOD.

Maybe her family is just sick of her?

My boss said "Now we know why she's so stressed," and the thing is, I think the author is just a shitty person all the way around. It's too bad her family is sick, but that's no reason to act like a whiny entitled petulant jerk in every single interaction with us. I think she's always like this, because adults can manage to act professional even when they're under stress. Give me a fucking break.

I'll stick everything in the fridge outside!

It's the way of my ancestors. You could make traditional pelmini! The recipes all end with "put outside to freeze".

Some authors are just jerks, I guess. I don't suppose "maybe we should wait until you are back in the office to publish this" is a permissable response.

I'm in that weird limbo time where husband thinks the interview went well, but we're waiting to hear back, but we still want to plan a bit in case things happen fast, but we don't want to plan too much and then have all of the planning be for nothing, but you still can't help thinking what if.

It's exhausting.

Holy crap. Bus service is suspended midnight until Monday morning. (I'd heard they were going to stop @ 5, but apparently not.)

All my damned devices are going batshit with alerts.