There it is!

I went out last night with the binoculars to see what I could see, since the clouds over the mountains dispersed rather quickly with the setting of the sun. After a little searching, I found what I think is comet Ikeya-Zhang, looking like a little fuzzy spot in the sky just above the horizon. Unfortunately, the light-gathering power of my binoculars is low (they appear to be optimized for magnification, with very small-diameter lenses), so I could see no tail, much less be absolutely sure it was Ikeya-Zhang I was looking at.

* * *The client for the "gastro" job sent a note of thanks, with a query as to why the word count was so high. She noted that it is normal for translation word counts to rise by about 15% when going from English into Russian and asked me to "enlighten" her.

I am probably more keenly attuned than most to the sterility of the e-mail environment (that quality that impels so many of us to pepper our electronic notes with smileys :^), but in trying to compose a neutral response to my client, I ended up sending off something that was equally sterile and that could easily be interpreted as having been sent by someone in the offended state of mind.

When the reply to my note said that no offense had been meant, I knew it was time for a phone call. Almost after the first exchange over the phone, everything cleared up like a light morning fog in strong sunlight..

Gotta watch them e-mails!

* * *Yikes! Three o'clock and there are two jobs due tomorrow! Gotta get cracking...

Cheers...