I'm sad I'm about to use up my Rwandan coffee, but I bet I can get more... We were just pondering if our folks in Mexico could get any there, or if it all goes straight to GMCR, I mean Kuerig.

Wow, amazing coffee sounds soooo gooood right now!

Timelies all!

The little guy keeps going back and forth across the fever line. His temp was borderline, so we brought him to daycare. He was fussy and his fever went up while there, so they called Gary to get him. Gary called me, but I didn't hear the phone ring(its usually in my purse, in a desk drawer) so I didn't know about it until I was about to leave for the day. Now I feel guilty.

Dag, I was hoping when Theo said "the neighborhood," it didn't also mean me, but alas! No cable, no internet.

Went out to lunch with one of my co-workers today to a new bakery/deli that opened up down the street from my apt. Extremely nice, has the feel of a cafe in an antique store or book shop. The food was really good, enough so that I didn't mind the kind of high price but instead regard it as a flipped mealtime with dinner for lunch and a lighter salad/quinoa dinner tonight. I had the herb-roasted trout with saffron rice and green beans: [link]

Very nice!

The hatred and bigotry is just insane, not to mention the basic lack of understanding how things work.

It's very discouraging. I feel like it's actually worse than it was the last two presidential election years.

I both can't actually believe it and feel like I ought to be laying groundwork for contingency plans if it somehow comes to pass.

This is me. I can't believe it, but I couldn't believe it when Bush won twice, either. Obama's elections made me hope America was becoming a better place, but I underestimated the backlash of bigotry. The most dangerous thing now is the low turnout among Democrat voters. I'm hoping that Dems aren't turning out to the primaries because they either can't decide between Clinton and Sanders or they don't much care which one wins the nomination. Which is sort of me - I'll happily vote for either one over any of the Republican candidates (where are the sane and compassionate Republicans? have they all abandoned the party?). But I will be voting in the primary, dammit.

where are the sane and compassionate Republicans? have they all abandoned the party?

Abandoned by the party, arguably.

I suppose the logical thing for me to do is to become more politically active but my argument against Trump, Cruz, et al is really nothing more than "is that seriously what you believe? What is wrong with you?" and I can't see that doing any good.

I had soft corn tacos for lunch. Street taco level, so decent comfort food. The woman I went with, started at ST about 6 months after I did. Back in our 20s, we & another woman who started at the same time I did used to go out to dinner pretty much every Tuesday. Then lives got more complicated, there were husbands and then children and moves and that pretty much ended during our 30s. Other woman is in VA now, distance worker, but Ilana reached out and we're trying to do lunch once a month or so. Catch up, bitch about work, reconnect. It's nice.

And I spent the afternoon helping plan my supervisor's retirement party and gift. Standard gift of her favorite Hubble image, signed by everyone, but we're also making an autographed quilt (I say we, really, a quilt making coworker) using a Michigan star pattern- where she's from originally-using celestial fabrics. And I had the idea to use cafepress to make some custom buttons with Hubble and Kepler stuff with her years of service because she has this flannel "office coat" which has the pins and buttons from every mission and event she's been party to. Which is a lot. She's not a big stuff person, very pragmatic, but she can tell you about every one of those pins.

I'm actually pretty maudlin about her retirement. She's been a big inspiration and mentor to me. And she's fiercely protective of us.

Those both sound swell, the lunch and the retirement party plans. What good ideas.