I just got into Chicago about an hour ago. Actually, no, that’s not right. I got into Chicago an hour and a half ago, but there was another plane at our gate and they made us sit next to it for 30 minutes. Just. sit. there.

Which wouldn’t have been bad, except we’d been on that plane for five hours already… for a two hour flight.

Mechanical trouble bites my ass, let me tell ya.

I started the day all damn cheery and now ::boom, splat::, after sitting on the tarmac at my home airport for TWO hours, the plane finally took off. Then we got here and sat for another 30 minutes. In those 30 minutes, I missed a connection. Not my connection, oh no, that left three hours ago. This was the next flight they could get me on.

And I missed that. Because we were waiting for the other freaking plane to move.

So now I’m waiting to board the third flight I’ve been booked on today, charging my laptop (went through both batteries on the last flight) and knowing that somewhere Grampa is laughing right now, happy to see that my “joy” bubble has been popped.

Stupid airplanes.

Stupid flight people.

Stupid airlines.

I’m now on iced doppio number three and I have a four hour flight ahead of me… and oh joy, two of the little babies (three!) that were on the last flight are on this flight and they are still crying. (Mind you, they haven’t stopped for about six hours now… you’d think they’d be tired, but no.)

I need liquor. Stat. Anybody I know in Chicago and that wants to bring me a ridiculous quantity of vodka?

(Oh, bright spot… an adorable Aussie (no competition baby, don’t worry) just wanted to chat about my Apple and if I had wireless. Love the accents, gotta say.)

John Spencer died today of a heart attack.

I would have to say that Spencer (who played Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on The West Wing) was, and will remain, my favorite actor.

I’m sad now.

I haven’t been comment spammed since I started this thing many months ago, and now, within ONE day of being plagiarized (well, technically that was in August but follow me here), I’m getting comment spam.

I wonder if it’s from posting my URL in her comments? ‘Cause I mean Yahoo! is notorious for spam proliferation.

It kinda makes me feel noticed though, so eh. 😉

Going shopping now! Off to NYC I go… anyone need anything? (I’ll be looking for a job for Anne… she doesn’t know that yet though… and granted it will be more like shouting at well dressed people as we shop down Fifth, but still—I’m trying.)

😉

If you are boiling eggs, and you get busy doing something else ::coughfixingwendysblogcough::, the water will boil away and bad things happen to the a) pot, b) eggs and c) smell in your apartment (yech).

For your perusal…

Edible or not? Will they kill me?

I think this is one of my grandmother’s pots… and that means my mom is going to kick my ass.

Lovely.

And really, the Internet should be scratch-and-sniff—or click-and-sniff—because my apartment smells terrible right now. So terrible, in fact, that I had to open a window—and it’s 18 degrees outside.

I am now chattering as I type. Must. go. shut. window.

The Fiery One has, of late, been posting about someone who took his content, changed the names, and posted it online. Someone with an Open Diary account who clearly plagiarized his content.

He’s funny—I can totally understand why someone would want to lift his conversation. It’s wrong and he complained and it looks like her site was finally taken down.

I, however, would not expect that to ever happen to me. Imagine my surprise, then, when I find this. Which links to (via the title that absolutely doesn’t look like a link) this… and looks remarkably exactly like it. (Save for the name changes, of course.)

WTF?

Is there a policy about this? Because she linked the title to my blog, is that considered a citation… even though she changed all the names?

If so, I am going to prepare an ENTIRE POST on proper citation techniques. It will be long and arduous and you will be tested.

Alright, so tell me… should this bother me? It kinda does, to be honest. Why take my content? You’re supposed to take content from funny and brilliant people. WHO ARE DEAD.

I. am. flumoxed.

UPDATE: After looking around her blog… guess who else she is plagiarizing? Wendy. And it’s not just one. It’s several—post after post after post—with no attribution whatsoever. BTW, she is who I mean when I said you should steal from brilliant and funny people. Fortunately, she isn’t dead. Which kinda messes up the thought, but nevertheless.

Now I’m righteously pissed.

It snowed again. Lots.

And it’s very cold, the Boss emailed with a list of changes (big ones, not little ones… ones that require me to re-paginate the table of contents, among other things… ::giant tears, uncontrollable sobbing::) and while it’s yay! Friday, that means nothing in my world of perpetual work.

Sigh.

But at least there is Leo… what, you mean I haven’t told you about my newest blog love? The Daily Kitten.

Yes, I know it is sick. Shush. It will make you smile.

If it doesn’t, then you’re a cold, heartless sad-sack of a human being. 😛

Aren’t I pleasant this morning?

The coworker and I are staring at the first actual copy of the book. 724 pages of annoyance.

Ironically, the second I opened it at Staples, I found an error. Grrrr.

Even though I know the whole point of the first draft is to find errors and edit it, I forgot an image, so a page is blank, aside from a caption—and I checked for that twice. But nooooo, the moment I open it… boom, first thing I see.

Argh.

The coworker and I are supposed to be driving to NYC right now. With a conference tomorrow, we were planning to drive down today, go shopping and have a nice evening. Tomorrow, when she was done, we’d do a bit more shopping, grab dinner and head home late.

Except the conference head cancelled her press credentials—and there aren’t any seats left. So now she’s very pissed and cranky, and I’m sad ’cause I wanted to go shopping. Chinatown people, and Bloomingdales, Sephora, Bang and Olufsen, Prada, Tiffanys… sigh. The not-so-pleasant man (who had already agreed to her credentials) said she could attend the networking reception tomorrow afternoon—but it’s two hours, and roundtrip, the drive is six. We contacted the Boss and are waiting to hear from him… should we go for the reception? Should we ignore it altogether? Can we PLEASE take the day off and go shopping?!

Yeah. Cranky.

Coming back to work, after almost a week off, sucks uge donkeyballs.

There’s way too much stuff to do, and the coworker and I would much rather be anywhere else.

Particularly when we’re facing emails from the Boss that he sent on Thanksgiving.

His home life must really be subpar.

I learned an important lesson today… always call ahead to make sure that the ONLY coffee shop in town is still open… and didn’t close six months before I arrived.

It was truly a disheartening lesson to learn this morning. 🙁

Other than that, I’m still here (I almost wasn’t this morning). And it’s going well.

🙂