Calli, from bitter (and painful) experience I'll tell you, wear a shedload of sunscreen, and take a shirt or coverup. I was slathered in sunscreen reading in one of the chairs on our boat and then laid out on the back deck on my front, not realizing the sunscreen where my back touched the vinyl chair had all sweated off. I had a blistered outline of the chairback--so not fun.

I'm glad the evil hand isn't hurty, Tep. May the numbness subside after the pain meds are no longer needed.

Chamois shirt! So soft.

Echoing meara's yay eating, boo smoking! Meatloaf and cottage cheese sounds pretty tasty, but all I had for lunch was a yogurt.

The weather here has been glorious, but I'm starting to do my raindance. Mudslide season from snowmelt and spring rains is pretty much over, and I'd like to get the ground pretty soaked before wildfire season starts.

Also we have woods behind our house, and trees all over the surrounding neighborhood. The owls have been having nightly parties, or singalongs, or hootenanies (little bit of hoot, not too much nanny). Living in the middle of the owlalujah chorus, here.

I'm glad the evil hand isn't hurty, Tep.

I don't think it's even a little bit evil. I should get a refund.

wear a shedload of sunscreen, and take a shirt or coverup

Oh, definitely (and ouch). I’ll learn from my red-haired dad’s example, too. He forgot that being on a boat meant that the sun would reflect back from a lower angle and had not sunscreened appropriately (i.e., he thought his hat would shade things it didn’t). Blisters for days.

I’m glad your hand is recovering well, Steph.

And I’m glad your brother is back to eating, Laura! As for smoking, I guess it’s good to feel up to doing things you shouldn’t.

I found out today that my department’s budget was cut by 25%, and there will definitely be layoffs happening over the next few months. Will I be among them? Hard to say. But at least I’m now physically in the location I want to work, so I hope that’ll make it easier to job hunt successfully around here, if it comes to it. But I’d rather it didn’t.