1. I'm trying to finish packing for my holiday, and I also have to do a mega-clean of this flat, as people will be coming in to feed the cats. Fortunately I have all evening tomorrow, and once I get started it won't take me long to get everything ship-shape.

2. I also have to get a job application in before I leave. I can do this online so may well carry on with it tomorrow in the office.

3. Anticipating the end of the vajayjaycation. Oh yes.

I wish i'd listened to zack replica's radio show last night. Well, not listened to it, but been there to comment on his playing of Joolz. A woman who hates my best friend for no reason other than possible jealousy. A woman who I've seen perform on and off since 1989. A woman who tells some great stories, and who writes some awful poetry.

I'm pretty happy at the moment. With a woman who loves me and who I love. I've finally managed to work out my frustrations with my job. 39 years old (and I didn't get a metachat birthday callout) and I'm not regretting anything. There goes the mid life crisis.

Two weeks to go to the cake competition. I'll be asking people for recipies soon.

1. I'm throwing away some old ratty t-shirts. Also a pair of shoes that my dog ate yesterday. Why, dog? Why?

2. My sister and are discussing that some people are stupid and we're one of them. "You know how people are. They're stupid." Yeah. "We're one of them." Yeah.

3. We're also watching Ratatouille for the umpteenth time and playing Pac Man. I'm washing my bedspread because I have a wild animal that jumps in the pool and then jumps on the bed. Why, dog? Why?

I'm on the internet too much today as well, DarkForest. We've been having some thunderstorms and we're shut in. It's only expected that I would not be able to stay off the laptop.

*seanyboy, a very happy belated birthday. I'm sorry. We suck.

1. Drunk
2. Psyched for Pips' b-day dinner at new local southwestern restaurant tommorrow. Blue Crab Quesadillas, woo-hoo!
3. Soulssekers are fucking with me. If you have good stuff stay on and let me get it, asshole!

Happy belated seanboy. 39 is the new 37.

DarkForest: there is something extra sucky about a summer cold. Beat it and get on with your summer.

1. Drinking beer (a growler from a fave brew pub) and getting ready to grill up some hot italian sausage.

2. Avoiding doing anything practical and opting to surf, listen to tunes, and enjoy the nice breeze and comfy couch.

3. Trying to decide what DVD to start watching tonight. Many to choose from between recent birthday booty for both mrs Slack and myself.

2. Avoiding doing anything practical and opting to surf, listen to tunes, and enjoy the nice breeze and comfy couch.

Dude, I wish you lived in NYC. We'd sit on my porch and get loaded and listen to tunes while you hoovered up my USB drive full of tumes as a b-day present.

1. Just finished cleaning apartment. Yay, decluttering and scrubbing!

2. no plans for the rest of the evening. May go up to the roof and have a drink and watch NYC go by.

3. Orioles are in a nasty slump and now have sole possession of last place in the AL East. Sigh.

jonmc

Dude, I wish you lived in NYC.

You and me both!!! That sounds like a blast. I try to get to NY once or twice a year to hang with one of my best friends, and we cram a lot of living into the 70 hours or so I'm there. But next time I'm there I've got find a way to meet you and check out this porch (and of course it goes without saying, the tunes and beer as well).

1. Got a fair amount done at work today but I'm a bit nervous to hear about what happened at the meeting that took place on Thursday.

2. I'm feeling tired and frustrated and really in need of kicking or destroying something. I wish there was other way for me to translate this energy into something useful, instead of just crawling back into bed.

3. I'm quite excited for the end of this month (long weekend up in NY with my homie and a Playgirl show and possibly some renfaireness) but I'm anxious about what my car situation is going to be. (If I have to drive the fucking Equinox 5 hours, I'm gonna be pissed.)

1. Friend treated my girl and I to breakfast buffet for his birthday.
2. Almost killed myself using some knockoff Dremel drill I got at ALDI.
3. Fixed a broken G3 iBook that had the dreaded logic board problem. I used a shim against the GPU chip instead of resorting to more drastic measures. That's too bad, cuz I wanted to play with fire.

1. It's a gorgeous day after a week of rain, but I woke up today with wooziness and muscle aches. I can putter but I can't do major stuff.

2. One of those major stuff items is two leaky chimneys on my parents' house. It looks like it's a simple augmenting tar job. And it's such a nice day to do it.

3. Tenant in duplex finally moved out (had promised July 2). They left it pretty much as it was except for a few things like putting nails into the woodwork as hooks (instead of in the plaster, which is loads easier to fix). The rain has left trickles of water in everyone's basement (remember, we're just getting over the worst of a flood here), but theirs turns out to have actual puddles and the place smells like a swamp. They could have mentioned this! I put a dehumidifier in, I'll have to see if I can paint/seal the walls better. But anyway, "as it was" still means a lot of work undone, because my dad just has no idea anymore how crappy his rental properties are and how embarrassing it is to move someone into them.

(I was going to make those 1a and 1b, but decided to stop here.)

1. Slept all day. All day. I mean like really, all day. Just got up half an hour ago at 5:06pm.

2. Was thinking of going to see some friends play tonight: Elfin Saddle | Shapes & Sizes

3. My dude Ninja is sitting here next to me with his tongue peeking out of his mouth. I'm not sure what this means.

Bonus!
4. Apparently it means "I'm about to yawn."

1. Left the house today! Walked up to the fair in the park and watched some excellent African drummers. My leg is heaps better, I might actually go to work tomorrow.

2. There was an Avon catalogue through the door today! I hadn't seen one in years.

3. I apparently cook ossum steak. Three years ago I would have said it was impossible.

1. In a blue funk with a headache that won't go away
2. Frittered the day away instead of cleaning. mad jealous of all these clean places!
3. The Boys are trying to kill each other in the bath.

I think that's to keep the updates from getting too long

1. Too nice of a day to spend indoors, so I went outside and puttered around the yard, moving things, oiling bikes, refilling the fountain.

2. Spent a good amount of time chatting with one of my neighbors. Very nice woman. She's fostering kittens for a local shelter - I see them playing in her windows on occasion.

3. After spending hours rigging up a tarp to shelter my hammock I've decided what I really need is cheap gazebo thing. Heck, at least I was out in the fresh air!

Happy belated birthday, seanyboy!!! I'm sorry I missed it.

Yrrrr!!! Happy belated seanyboy !

1.Lucerne is beautiful and serene, but I'm not drawn to it like Ireland.

2.I found out a family secret a week and a half ago...the trip my grandmother made to DC with my father when he was two was not an innocuous family visit; she went because she wanted to leave my grandfather. All I know is that his family was very cold to her because she wasn't a relative. The only person still alive who might be willing to tell me more was only 9 at the time.

3.The Swiss franc is only a few cents less than the US dollar, but things cost from 75% to 300% more.

1. Feeling crappy and tired and generally out of sorts
2. Really busy week ahead at work and there's still stuff left over from last week that I should have done over the weekend, but didn't
3. Bleh.

1. Beautiful day, but we have a lot of those in L.A., so I feel no guilt at sitting in bed reading novels and listening to the Conet Project.

2. 100+ miles of biking a week, and I've actually gained a bit of weight because my body has been in !!OMG!FEED!ME!! mode from all the exercise (plus lifting 3x/week). Trying not to become a Hollywood body fascist against myself, but that's a life-long problem.

3. I'm in mourning and happy about being alive at the same time. Emotions are complex.

1. Spent the entire weekend packing 32 boxes of stuff to ship to Seattle. Leaving on Wednesday to drive up.

2. Horribly stressed and sad because:

3. Splitting up with wonderful awesome boyfriend when I move, due to some complicated ideas about Personal Growth and Figuring Out Who We Are As Independent People and Getting Our Shit Sorted Out Before We Get Married Or Spawn Or Something IF such a thing were ever to happen, and I was mostly the one who made this call and I feel like I'm making a horrible horrible mistake because it really is a wonderful awesome relationship complete with Really Good Sex AND Conversation AND Love AND Lots of Other Good Stuff (and some not-so-good stuff that needs to get worked on, ergo the splitting up).

3a. And I turn 25 on Tuesday. Fuck.

3a - just remembered that I have to write a job application this week. I don't want the job, but have been pressured into applying by my team of loyal followers with the sole intent of pushing a certain person down the list of candidates, hopefully far enough that they don't get an interview. There better be some big payback for this, is all I can say.

Hey, Fuzzbean, I know that song! Stay strong!

Hey loiseau, I like Shapes and Sizes. It's cool that they are your friends. I picked up their album at a record store because I liked the cover

1. Just got back from Breeders concert at the pool which was fun, made some new friends
2. Wish I could have been as relaxed all weekend as I was this afternoon. Camping isn't fun when you are a nervous wreck and your head's not in it.
3. Wish this was the 60s so I could just go out and get some valium and be able to unclench and get on with handling all the stressful parts of my life that are paralyzing me now

Went for lunch and ice cream with the roommate at andersons

then we did the shopping. a fan (since our living room on hot days has been compared to "hanging out under a fat man's ball sack." those exact words.) and cheese at target (great price this week), and the normal groceries.

I think I may do some sewing in a bit. I'm currently doing a shrink-test on a teadye treatment for some twill tape, it'll eventually be a summer cage corset for a bit photo shoot I'm working on with some other local craftspeople.

Oh, and bonus four... I talked to my mom today. She sounded better than she has in a long time. She'll be in town next weekend, too.

and I didn't get a metachat birthday callout

happy birthday, Seanyboy!

1. My daughter got the "just friends" talk from her crush tonight.
2. That would be the guy that is coming over for dinner tomorrow.
3. He is still coming over for dinner tomorrow.

At least my house WILL be clean...

Dang, I hate having to see a gal encounter her first heartbreak, tho. Guys, don't be sending out mixed signals, y'hear???

Guys, don't be sending out mixed signals, y'hear???

*mutters something about interpretation*

1) I'm finally all moved out of my old place, and, apart from the bike on the porch whose lock I've lost the key for, and the mail redirection which I haven't organised yet, I'm pretty settled into the new place.

2) I got a baby pay rise at work today! only about $40 per fortnight, but, YAY!

3) I have the house to myself for the next week, which will be great. Although it means more cooking. Hrm.

1. Since elizard missed my show as well, here's a link to the podcast, and here's a link to the tracklisting. The mp3 file is 167 meg, so be warned.

2. It's really hot in my apartment. really. hot. ugh.

3. Don't want to go to work because I just don't want to (probably because I won't sleep well as it's too hot). I will though.

1) I got a job as a registrar for an English-as-a-second-language program at the Juilliard School; I'm sitting in my own office high above Lincoln Center, reconciling payments and smiling a lot. I had forgotten that not all work engenders self-loathing. I rather like working with kids (17-21) and I'm a pretty good listener; I remember being a novice at Japanese and French, so I've developed a knack for parsing broken English. Plus, I care.

2) My neighbor is moving back to Slovakia and I'm a little blue. She only moved in a few months ago, but I helped edit her graduate thesis (on challenges faced by Africa's Least Developed Countries -- she works for the UN) and we spent a fair amount of time together. A bunch of her friends and neighbors threw her a BBQ party on Saturday night, which was lots of fun, but a little bittersweet. Such is life.

3) I played in my first kickball game of the season last night at the Parade Grounds in Prospect Park. Got on base twice, sac'd in a run, made three catches and one bean-out at short. Our umpire sucked; he wasn't paying attention, and I kept calling him on it: "Hey, that was a great play! Too bad you weren't watching!" "Either wake up or lie down, this sleeping standing up isn't cutting it!" "Does your boss know you sleep on the job?!" Plus, the organizers tried to squeeze six fields onto enough space for three, so our left field was another game's infield. We lost. Still, it was fun.

Hugh, I used to have almost the exact same job. I really enjoyed it at the time, but I'm too old and jaded now to deal with all that youthful enthusiasm.