Homestuck update!!!

OMGWTFBBQ!

( cut for spoilers, obviously! )

(I had to install Chrome to get past the 98% stall-out that I kept running into in Firefox, but oh well, it never hurts to have yet another backup browser even if I'll probably keep on using Internet Explorer out of habit.)

greetings from New Jersey!

I am flash-housesitting for my parents -- in other words, I am watering my mom's thicket of houseplants (the tendency to collect a thicket of houseplants is one way you can tell we're related, btw) and picking up their accumulated mail from the post office tomorrow morning. I am also, just by being here, making the house look inhabited in a way that lights on timers can never really duplicate. :-)

Tomorrow my friend Susan and I plan to get together and do something. What exactly that something will be is very much up in the air, but there is a strong chance it will involve lunch, a movie, or maybe even both.

I will also be doing a bunch of laundry tonight and tomorrow (because why not take advantage where I can? laundromats are expensive!) and then heading back up to Ithaca around 5pm-ish.

I came down via the alternate route I use at Thanksgiving -- everything as usual until the point where 17 and I-81 split, after which I take 17 east to US-209 south to US-206 south to NJ-15 south to I-80 east and then on as usual -- because my parents told me there was nasty construction on I-81 and I-380 when they visited a week ago. This did not actually help much because there was annoying road work on 17 and 209/206 as well, and I got stuck behind some really annoying drivers who could not hold a consistent speed on those latter roads, which are mostly one-lane and often without passing zones. Bleh. I think I may just drive back northwest on my usual route -- I-287 north to I-80 west to I-380 north to I-81 north to 17 west to 96 and 96B north into Ithaca -- and if there's construction or horrible Labor Day weekend congestion around the Delaware Water Gap, so be it.

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In other news, we may be getting a new employee at the smoke shop! PM has been calling Potential Hire's references, and his informal interview seemed to go well, so I have my fingers crossed that his test results and driver's license come back favorably. Training new people is a massive pain in the neck, but at this point I don't care. I just want another person on staff ASAP, because while we are surviving with only PM, JM, MS, BW, and me, we're running very thin, tight schedules (so there is no slack to compensate for unexpected time-consuming problems during the day) and we have no way to cover if anyone gets sick.