I have edited out all mentions of the teacher's name.

What is it with that? I have had people make the most strenuous efforts to get in front of me, and they then stop. Believe me, I make a big fuss about walking right the way around them.

NYC pedestrians. Especially when I'm late for dinner.

edit: speaking from a Jersey driver's perspective.

Oh- and what about the people walking 3 across towards you- you are squeezed on one side by a building and can't move in the other direction because of the posse, AND THE BITCH ON THE END DOESN'T MOVE OVER! So there you are, stopped, because you can't get passed her or move any closer to the skyscraper on the other side, and this annoying twit (just replace the vowel with another vowel to understand the depth of my annoyance) pushes into you as she's walking and talking to her friend, and has the unmitigated gall to sigh loudly and roll her eyes.

Can you tell that this happened to me yesterday? And I was hungry and cold at the time which ups my ability to be annoyed by a factor of 10.

EDIT: I suppose this is what I get for walking to and from work through the Times Square area.

People who think that doorways are an appropriate place to stop and have conversations. With carts.

People who stop at the top of the escalator.

People who get on the elevator and push the button for the next floor. Take the freakin' stairs!

people who stand abreast on the escalator so that you cannot pass them. The best part about DC was the escalator etiquette

I hate to admit it, but Mongo is right. Have I ever told the anecdote about when I was a lecturer, and I suggested to the class we move from a ground floor to an upstairs seminar room because the heating was out? One student said she'd find it difficult, and fortunately I was sensitive enough to take the hint. I had noticed she walked with a very slight limp. She later told me that had been born with no legs.

On a much more trivial note, I sometimes put on an extra-painful limp when I am having an arthritis attack so that people understand why an otherwise healthy (indeed near perfect) physical specimen can't get out of their way fast.

Not that I am any more patient with other people than anyone else here.

People often take the elevator one flight because in most office buildings, fire doors are locked from the stairwell, to hamper burglars, I assume. If you make the mistake of taking the stairs, you end up having to walk back down to the lobby -- or the exit -- and start all over again.

There's a Larson cartoon of people waiting for an elevator to take them to a step aerobics class.

Pago Pago syndrome.

Not that I've done a survey, but i'm willing to bet that the vast majority of people who take the elevator one floor have no medical reason why they can't walk up one floor of stairs.

The American remake of The Office starts tonight at 9.30, NBC. Now, is this going to be good or another annoyance?

Good review in the NY Times.

They don't tell you this up front, but if you happen to design your iPhoto book with Postscript Type1 fonts, it will be rejected when they go to print it. This will add at least two days onto your turnaround time.

I just had to go through 400 fonts and categorize them so I don't make that mistake again. For the record, for the time being anyway, you need to use TrueType fonts.

So the office is closed today and I decided to come in for the morning and take advantage of the peace and quiet and plow through a ton of work. My boss showed up about a half hour after I did and has been distracting me and generally driving me crazy for the last three hours.

Ran to the Union Square market before work this morning, planning to buy some spareribs from Flying Pigs Farm, only to find they're sold PRE-CUT. Who cooks spares that way??

Yeah, okay. But who slow-smokes spares that way?

New FedEx person on home route who apparently doesn't know to leave packages with our super. I'm hoping 3rd time's the charm today so I don't have to slog out to Maspeth tomorrow. Orbitz, alas, would only send the FedEx to my billing address.

On the other hand, UPS got my Calphalon here just fine.

edit: entirely redundant

Pulling books off shelves all evening, now they have to go back

v

The NCAA Hockey tournament isn't being shown by our cable provider. Fuck basketball. I want some hockey.

Three charges to my account from the same vendor: two are completely bogus (orders cancelled) and the third, charged $8 higher than the invoice states. If I protest or request an investigation, they'll lock my bank card until it's resolved.

Nuck fitwits.

Apartment is a mess (it tends to accumulate over the week ) and BF got out of work early. Instead of taking advantage of that and cleaning up a bit, he went disc golfing.

So when I get out of work late, after a hell day, I come home to the same mess, only with the addition of crusted scrambled eggs in my cast iron skillet, and dried-up pizza shit all over my fucking Wusthof.

I guess they wanted eggs and pizza before they went out disc golfing.

Then, he called from the bar and said he was bringing a bunch of our (drunk bastard) friends over. It is truly amazing how many times they end up at the bar after they go out on the course.

So now:

1). I have to clean up before they get here, and will have to clean up again after they leave;

2). I have to soak the fucking eggs off my fucking pan and probably reseason it, and try and scrape dried-up cheese off my wickedly-sharp French knife without severing a digit, and

3). I'm pissed off. It's Friday night. They have a buzz on already and I will never catch up and I'll have a shitty attitude because I had to clean up the mess instead of going and having a beer with my BF and our (drunk bastard) friends.

I miss my old roommate.

So when is the wedding date?

it's 9:15pm. flight was supposed to leave at 6:45pm. They're now admitting to 10:40pm maybe.
weather in North Florida.


Free wireless and airport's electricity should be put in cheerful thread

Cat vomit underfoot. And somehow I'm the only one who sees it.

Stressed lobster

v

Yes, a nice hot bath and some melted butter.

The realisation that a particularly rare book I have treasured for some 25 years, Good English Food by Florence White, is gone from my shelves, who knows when and how. I'd been hoping it was just mislaid but that seems not to be the case.

More than an annoyance really

v

Trying to cook Easter dinner with my mother in the kitchen, talking so much that I can't keep track of what I'm doing.

Edit to say that she is the one doing the talking.

yesterday in Soho 3/4 of the stores were closed for Easter. This is NYC, people! You're not supposed to close. Ever.

discovered today that someone else just published my book. well, not exactly, but now my project is no longer original. this is why i hate to do research.