3 things:

1) Last night very stealthily aquired 1 hotplate and 1 hot shower. (R and I don't want to have to admit to my parents that they have shut off our gas, so we had to maneuver carefully while we were over there last night. I casuallly asked my mom if she had a hotplate and if I could borrow it. She didn't ask why, but had she I would have told her that it was for melting wax for encaustic - which is more than a bit of stretch considering my painting stats lately, but anyways, the important thing is that now we can cook food. R got his shower basically by giving my mom puppy dog eyes and l00king really, really dirty. We escaped, as far as I can tell, undetected)

2) It has been confirmed that I am being sabotaged by Dr. Veruca Salt. (Not only this, the obviousness of how little work I have had to do lately has been discovered. This is for the best. Really. As great as it is to be able to read and write at my leisure during working hours, it makes you feel miserably useless. So I guess it wasn't all in my head that Veruca hates me, which I'm not sure is as comforting as I had hoped. She really does hate me, and really is trying to make me look bad, and maybe even fired. That this has been confirmed my my parents, forever astute observers and not to mention her boss, makes me a little sick to my stomach. I haven't been in a playground fight since the 4th grade, and I have to say I am a little out of practice. )

3) Last week I submitted my writing to a magazine for the first time. (Each day that passes I more deeply understand how lame the cover letter I enclosed with it was. I won't repeat the error by posting it here - sorry, I know you were probably anxious to see how badly I bombed. Other than this post submission shame, I really don't expect anything. which doesn't explain why I am obsessively checking my bulk mail folder for misdirected emails.)