(no subject)

Interesting article from the Post about the clusterf**k that was the creation of DHS.

Some of the decisions were almost random. Falkenrath thought it would be nice to give the new department a research lab that could bring cutting-edge research to homeland security problems. He called up a friend and asked which of the three Department of Energy labs would work. "He goes, 'Livermore.' And I'm like, 'All right. See you later.' Click," Falkenrath told historians from the Naval Postgraduate School. He did not realize that he had just decided to give the new department a thermonuclear weapon simulator, among other highly sensitive assets of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

In June, after just six weeks of meetings, the department was ready for unveiling. The secret had been kept so well that even secretaries with major turf on the line had no idea what was coming until Card put out calls to the Cabinet the day before the president's announcement.

"They were just totally bamboozled," Falkenrath said.

(no subject)

I just made a bunch of gingerbread cookies. (Don't get too excited, I used refrigerated dough because it's late enough that I didn't want to start from scratch.) The bad thing about this is that I'm now alone in the house with a couple of wire racks full of hot gingerbread cookies.

Tonight I'll try not to make the mistake I've made for the last two nights in a row and avoid picking up "A Game of Thrones" when I crawl into bed. Three or four hours and several hundred pages later, I find that I've got to get up for work in four hours. "Oops." Speaking of which, I should go snag some valerian and melatonin and think about getting ready for bed. I must get some actual sleep tonight.