a longer route than anyone has ever taken

To internet connectivity, that is. CMOS battery failure confirmed, blessings on the head of jo&stv, who, despite lurgification of epic proportions, unearthed and lent me one of their elderly laptops which, after much sweet talking yesterday, I have persuaded to connect to the Internet. I feel less grumpy already. I think, though, that the overall character of this laptop is a bit curmudgeonly - it does stuff, but reluctantly, as though I'm hoiking it out of its rocking chair and forcing it to totter across the porch. It possibly detects that I am not generally a laptop-using lifeform and don't speak the language. Admittedly, the ten-minute search for the "@" sign was a bit of a dead giveaway. (They've swopped the " and @! How counter-intuitive is that?)

I believe that wolverine_nun has sent a blow-by-blow account of the Shire Conflict Resolution Meeting, Part 2, to interested parties, and I suspect she'd be more coherent than I was. I achieved an almost zen state of detatchment from the proceedings by doping myself to the gills on muscle relaxants half an hour before, and was able to parse a degree of egotism, wilful misunderstanding, manipulation and power-tripping from certain parties which under other circumstances would have had me incoherent with rage. One of the participants evinced a stunning ability, one I suspect has been honed through a lifetime of boardroom ducking and diving, to simply refuse to take responsibility for anything, mostly by dint of suggesting, with a completely spurious air of wounded innocence, that the really difficult questions were simply not relevant to the current discussion. I have to admit I was taking notes: watch out, English dept.

Cooks' Guild last night, with addition of (a) Bombay Sapphire, thanks to w-n's Nice Man, and (b) a newcomer who bears an uncanny and striking resemblance to bumpycat. Military gear, short haircut and general air of sweetness. This is not, may I add, an excuse for bumpy not to come back to CT. Au contraire.