Meltdown
1) The Cubs are about to complete one of the biggest chokes in a long history of chokiness, falling behind the Dodgers 0-2 in the NLDS and looking embarrassingly bad in the process. I feel sick. I couldn't sleep last night.

2) Shrill, folksy Sarah Palin actually seemed fairly competent in the VP debate, though she's still not able to think on her feet under pressure. "Can we talk about Afghanistan for a minute? I know it's not the question I'm supposed to be addressing but I prepared all these remarks and I'd hate to waste them!" I'm unimpressed but unfortunately I only get the one vote. How many undecided voters did she charm with her "nuculars" and "say it isn't so, Joes" last night?

3) I have unbelievably huge amounts of work to do and deadlines are rushing at me like a headlight in a tunnel. At least the PCRs started working again... curse those damned nucleotides for getting together in the freezer and saying "Pssst! This will be a great joke: let's stop working today!" Evil little saboteurs.

4) We found out yesterday that our 12-year-old furnace needs replacing. The furnace guy himself said he'd be uncomfortable running that POS in his own house. So what recourse does one have when an expensive and dangerous piece of equipment turns out to be a lemon? Since the warranty at this point only covers a part that's working fine, I suppose we could sue Lennox, threaten Lennox into partially compensating us, or just roll over and pay for a new one like the pathetic sheep we are. I'm so pissed off right now that option 2 sounds rather therapeutic but I'm sure #3 will be the way we go.

I'm so filled with nervous energy, rage, and despondency right now I just don't even know what to do with myself. Within minutes of getting to the office today I had worked myself into a silent fury about inept students who can't figure out the link between their yogurt and coffee cups in the trash and the disgusting fruit flies in the office. Even right now I'm stabbing at my keyboard raging about freaking FRUIT FLIES. I need to get out of here before I start taking this out on anyone else.
- posted by Diane @ 9:59 AM