Insomnimusing: Allons-y!

I made my munchkin some candy sushi for her Christmas party at school. I kept it a secret until she watched me make them. Sushi (real sushi) is her favorite food, so when she saw these, she was ECSTATIC!

I'm a Who-phile, a Whovian, or just another Who down in Whoville who cries boohoohoo during the far-too-long breaks of this most excellent and engaging series! Check out this work of brilliance! (I've even forgiven the typo of "Shelock Holmes") And just click on the graphic to see the original if your screen is too narrow to view it in its entirety. Via: CableTV.com

Every day seems to grow more frustrating, with more being piled on me just as I've reached - and passed - my limit. Mondays are supposed to be the day for catching up at the office, because we don't publish a paper on Tuesdays. It never seems to turn out that way. I only had one item on my schedule, so I thought I would be able to get some of the assignments done that I have coming up and then leave a bit early to try to get rid of some of those "vacation hours" I have remaining. No such luck. I came in to find an assignment to attend a meeting at 8:30 tomorrow morning. But my boss didn't know where the thing was supposed to be. Well, more precisely, he thought he knew, but he was wrong, and I knew he was wrong. I also had no contact information. So I called the location where the meeting was held six months ago - the latest agenda we had. They didn't know a thing. So I called the local police chief, who would certainly be attending the meeting. Got his voicem...

Throughout her school career, every parent-teacher conference I've had for Munch, my 10-year-old daughter, has been the same. She's obviously smart. She undeniably happy. She's incredibly creative. She can't focus. Every assignment takes forever. She's constantly distracted. This year, the school assigned an intervention team. We've met to try to resolve her issues, which are taking a terrible toll on her grades. The ability is there. The intelligence is there, but she's starting to miss out on important basic skills because she can't pay enough attention to learn them. Her evaluation - not a medical diagnosis, I'm reminded - points to ADD. I can't say I'm at all surprised. Considering she has no personality issues and no hyperactivity - and frankly, even if those were issues too - I don't want to medicate her with the typical pharmaceuticals. We've all seen the stories, and we know the side effects can be and often are very, very bad...

The busy season is in full swing for me. It's not the holidays, per se; it's the end-of-the-year-scramble-to-get-vacation-time-used-up-before-the-company-takes-it-away season. And I get slammed on it. I start out in November the same as everyone else - with piles of unused vacation time that has to be used up before the end of the year. It's a "use it or lose it" policy. The problem is that there's no time for everyone to take their time. So the calendar fills up with a week here and two weeks there for everyone else in the office, while I'm left scrambling to take an hour here and there just to use it up. That's how it is every year. Everyone else gets weeks of vacation - I get an hour at a time. Why? Because I'm the one who knows how to do everyone else's job. I've spent two weeks picking up extra work for one reporter on vacation for two weeks, then I get the next week picking up the work for the other reporter on vacation. The news edit...