People who get pregnant get paid time off from work. There is no real cap on the number of times you can take that paid time off, provided you've got the lump to show for it. (Can you imagine the fall-out from suggesting one of your direct reports ought to stop getting knocked up so often?)

So. Pregnancy is rewarded with vacation time.

Why is breeding a rewarded business behavior? Here's a more fair solution: Everybody gets an additional 30 days paid vacation per two years.
Or, pregnancy leave is unpaid. After all, you are not doing your job, nor are you being rewarded for your achievements. How many of these women actually come back to work afterwards anyway?

Ask yourself: Why is it a right to contribute to over-population? Why should your company be obligated to pay you to do it? (Contribute to over-population, that is. What sense of "do it" were you thinking?)

Because today is the 17th of a month, Jon wrote an email to wish me a "Happy 1.9167th anniversary!" I love my geek.

More role-playing and fresh bread last Sunday. I'm playing a fighter who's so good and noble it makes your teeth hurt. And I keep being all chivalrous at Natosha's elf. Hee hee.

Giving my Toastmasters speech in just over an hour. Brain useless. Bleah.

Tonight, Jon and I are getting together with our friend Dave to have a photo shoot. It should be fun. Dave knows everything. He even used to own a printing company. That's kinda relevant.

If you're the same kind of geek that I am, you'll enjoy these constructed languages links:

• Lojban


• Esperanto (well, no contructed lang list is complete without it, anyway)


• Tolkein's languages (and I think it's a fan site. wow.)


• Klingon

shamelessly using my blog for my own convenience

Spanish learning links: Grammar and pronounciation. Found, along with a whole mess of other grammars, on yourDictionary.com. How sweet it is.

I did it. I did it! I sat still for about an hour and had plaster of paris strips applied to my face. I've got the beginnings of a Halloween mask. I can't wait! (And the division of Dell I belong to likes to have costume contests and dress-up days. This'll knock their socks off.)

Also, I've signed up to give my third Toastmasters speech on Tuesday. The talk will cover physics, physiology, and philosophy. My topic? The ear!

(Making use of my major every time I can...)

Last weekend: the Texas Renaissance Festival with Natosha and the entire Texas contingent of the Gibbs clan. We got quite rained on, finally justifying my moving that huge wool cloak, taking up a whole box by itself, to Texas from Pennsylvania. I was nice and toasty.

We had a great time watching the Fakespearean players, Sound and Fury, in their production of Testaclese and the Sack of Rome. (*cough*) Their website has a cool, addicting message board that they, the players themselves, often post to. They're cute, clever, and vegan. What more could you want?

Driving to work this morning, I realized it was only 12 hours after I had left the evening before. And then I realized that I didn't mind. I'd been turning over my programming puzzle all night anyway; now I'd just get to go see if I'd figured it out.

This, my friends, is bliss.

Walking out of the grocery store, Jon and I spotted a "Last Day to Register to Vote" sign. Our steps slowed in unison. We glanced at each other. We envisioned a country run by George dubya Bush. With a singularity of thought, we registered.

What an international week I'm having! I'm attending a class on SQL (database), and there's no refrigerator available to us, so I'm resigned to eating out all week. I've hooked up with four of the other students, and we've been trying all the different restaurants around here. Monday was Chinese; Tuesday, Thai; and Wednesday was Korean (with sushi! eek). Today, we're debating between Mexican and Indian. (It wouldn't be a big deal—just do one today and the other tomorrow—but one of our group is Indian, so she won't eat during the day on Friday (is this every Friday, or something special about 10/6?). It will probably be Mexican today, since she's been wanting to try it all week, and Indian food is kinda old hat for her.) Austin is so cool.

When the radio kept announcing the Barenaked Ladies concert, I had no idea they meant it was this soon. It's today! ...and I don't have any tickets. *sniff*

(Do you know how hard it is to find a link to that band without pulling up a lot of embarrassing sites you don't want fellow computer classmates noticing over your shoulder? Yeesh.)

I also ended up sitting in the parking lot with my radio on for about 10 minutes (ate my breakfast) to hear just who it was who deserved so much hype and drama about holding a concert this weekend. Heh.

We already saw that concert, also in San Antonio, back a few months ago (and you read about it here first, folks).

The "happy hour" invite turned out to be on the up-and-up (oh, well), and I had a nice time. Duane, the invitor, treated for everybody. I did not abuse this as much as I could have. I'm just nice that way.

The callig workshop went well, but nobody but Beckie and the host showed up. Call it a good practice run, then. And Beckie still gave me a nifty pair of scrapbooking scissors and a template for my troubles.