Jenni! I'm so sorry to hear about your car accident. Since you were already having back issues it couldn't (can't?) have helped. I know it's also hard to get stuff done in a new house while on the mend.
I cannot imagine a position with more work and responsibility than your last, Sally. Yowza! You must never have any free time. Dubai is so far away, but from what I hear very nice. Do you think you'll go and visit him? Game design is a fun, but tough field. Lots of pre-ship crunch time and post-ship lay-offs (depending on the type of game). Is she more interested in console, web, or mobile? There are some great studios up in Canada. I just met the head of a Vancouver studio a few weeks ago in an exec ed course, in talking to him, it sounds like there's a great community up there. All of the studios we work with are on the other side of Canada, so I can't say anything based on experience. My little brother is starting college in a few months and wants to be a game programmer. It worries me a little because I know how tough the industry can be on young/entry level workers, but I know he's going to have fun and enjoy his work.
I've been thinking about Lauri & Lu too (and Cho, Brenda, Angie, Nikki, and everyone else too!). I've been assuming that Lu's been busy with her fabulous intercontinental lifestyle, sports team worth of kids, house renovations, climbing mountains, building a nail polish empire, and just generally kicking ***.
I took the maniacs to visit a boarding facility today. My mom will not watch them while I'm on vacation, so I had to find somewhere to board them. Places in the city make me nervous so I found a place out in the valley. I'm a little nervous about the heat (it was 20 degrees hotter there than at my house today), but they have misters on the patios, a dog water park, and air conditioned houses that the dogs have access to. It is a little bit crazy. They have multiple houses on a large piece of land and have done it up really nice. They have bedrooms set up for the dogs to stay in and people sleep in there with them so they have 24 hour supervision. They have multiple play yards and the aforementioned "water park." The part I like the best is that they have layers and layers of fences and gates so my little Houdinis can't escape. It looks so nice that I don't think the girls are going to want to come home. I'm putting them in daycare there a couple days a week for the next 2 weeks to get them used to the place. They were there for 90 minutes today for an eval and did well. The crazy part is that with their multi-dog and extended stay discounts, this place is actually cheaper than most of the other ones I was looking at.
http://www.paradiseranch.net/flash/paradiseranch_home2.html
. I need to make a machine that can fling spare shoelaces.
Hope you are much better.
And MT, the maniacs are adorable!! I've been wondering if they've totally bonded 
and thank him! I can't remember if we posted pics of them or just the cuffs way back when. It's been so long... I've just been in occasional contact with Lu, mostly through FB, and I think she's doing well. Busy with work and Elevation Polish, for sure!
so it's all on mine. But I'm back to hiking, with just the normal back/leg pain. In another month, I'll be back in to see if my new orthopedic guy suggests surgery. The MRIs revealed a lot of arthritis and bone spurs around the previously injured discs