In Other Good News. . .

I'm hoping to get some posting done this weekend. Maybe I'll even catch up on e-mail.

It's almost March, always one of my favorite months. (In like a lion, out like a lamb.)

My wonderful boss has cleared my schedule for the next couple of weeks, so instead of working on promotional e-mails, I'll be writing up new features for the Help system. This is good news, because (A) the deadline is approaching fast, and (B) I really want to do something different for a while. Also, because it was a rough week, she gave several of us little thank-you gifts with heartfelt notes of encouragement. A lovely mug, Ghirardelli hot chocolate packets, and a Toblerone bar — because chocolate is a pharmaceutical. I give thanks every day that I have a good boss.

Also, my new PageMaker 7.0 arrived at work. I am thrilled beyond words. (Yes, I am a geek.) It will make my work life so much easier. Though I only have a few large documents to lay out every year, they are complex enough in design that I need PageMaker (or Quark or Frame) to do them. (My opinion of Word's formatting would burn a hole right through your monitor and possibly into your brain, were I to express it here.) I literally spent two weeks laying out the bloody things last spring, and they still were not right. Now I can do it properly. I've been using PageMaker since version 4.0, and I think and dream in it.

I went to SF Tuesday, a trip I'll write up later this weekend. But the trip was a good thing. So was finding some books and some beautiful cobalt and silver salt shakers at the Goodwill store in the Mission District. So was dinner with my old friend Jay, where we discussed the perils of dating after ending a long relationship, and I made him laugh so hard I thought he might asphyxiate.

On the SF trip, I missed getting into SF Herb by about sixty seconds. Not good news. But I ordered from them online, and the box arrived today. Definitely good news. I spent some time sniffing ecstatically at the fresh cinnamon, jasmine tea, vanilla powder, dried orange and lemon peel, and black peppercorns as I poured it all into jars and labeled them. That's a good thing to do after a week of too many pixels.

I've also been getting more walking in, which is a wonderful thing. I need the exercise, and I love walking.

My new laptop may be here soon, courtesy of my friend Rob.

So let us all be thankful for whatever good things have come our way this week.