1. Took the cat to the vet this morning, and she thinks the cat's skin problems are due to allergies, which means another couple months of experimenting with the cat's food and such. It did occur to me after the visit that it might be the corn-based litter we use, so maybe switching that out will help.

2. I got all the major cleaning and running around done yesterday, so no major To Dos today. Yay!

3. Had a lovely "kitchen picnic" last night with cheese and prosciutto and fruit and olives and crackers and various other yummy things, accompanied by champagne. Also yay!

1. Blah.

2. Blah.

3. Blah.

1. I took the kids to t-ball and baseball practice today. My little kid wanted Burger King for dinner tonight. I went to the grocery store and bought ingredients to make hamburgers on the grill instead.

2. A person that used to clean my house years ago called me last week desperate for work. I told her that it wouldn't make sense for me to have a cleaner because I barely work myself and I should really clean my house myself instead of reading the internet. She called me back a few days later and basically begged me for work. I said yes because she is in a financial rough spot. I am so glad I did. My house is gleaming. I got to get her back her a regular basis. It's a win-win situation.

3. I just ate two cupcakes. What a waste of calories. Gosh dang dammit.

I can't speak properly either but y'all knew that.

1. Amending 2007 tax return, because my better half forgot to list my university expenses last year.

2. Making split pea soup in slow-cooker.

3. Purchasing kitty cat sundries.

(occhiblu, corn was the culprit re: my cat's skin problems, as well. Good luck.)

1. It's 12:30 and I just woke up. Day number 1 of vacation going swimmingly.

1. Still sore from new weight training regimen. But I'm already seeing arm definition. Huzzah!
2. Went to baby shower today. A whole crop of younguns due this summer to include grandbun 2.0. Still no word on whether the model is a girl or a boy-still no ultrasound. Dang.
3. My house is a mess. I would rather relax than clean it. Because I have been working a LOT lately. Sigh...

1. Still on pins and needles because I still don't have word one way or the other from UMD. I've already been shut out of one section that I wanted for the fall and I'm quite cranky about it. Bastards aren't answering the phone either.

2. I spent the better part of today going through and attempting to do a pass at packing for the move in (hopefully) a couple of weeks. I have no idea how I wound up with 7 xerox boxes of things labeled "decorations" but goddamnit, they're all going to move and I will have my homie help me sort it out when I get there. (She has agreed to help me unpack in exchange for some sightseeing around DC.)

3. I'm feeling very proud of my third project for my InfoTech class. It's all CSS-like and shiny (even though I can't do some of the functionality that I want to do, that's not part of the assignment anyways). I just have to wait for two peeps to get back to me with their one-sentence videos so I can finish it up.

1. Caught up with a good friend and his girlfriend last night. She found out on thursday that her brother - and only surviving relative - died in a helecopter crash off the coast of Aberdeen. Terribly sad.

2. I didn't get much sleep, and am cranky. I'm not sleeping well at the moment, which is really not good. Think I need to make more of an effort to go to sleep on time. I wake up at the same time every day, which helps with a routine, but the getting to sleep part isn't really happening for me.

3. Daylight savings ended today, and I'm a little disoriented and confused over times now. a friend is coming over today, and I need to do a tidyup before she arrives, so I guess I should get up and go.

1. As of yesterday at 4pm, I am officially on spring break! Being a teacher rocks. :)

2. Went to Chinatown this morning. Ate way too much dim sum, and bought a plush cat bus (from the movie Totoro) and a bonsai tree. Yay!

3. My good friend just posted a facebook status saying that he is going to be a father. He and his wife are not very far along, and I don't think she planned to tell everyone yet...certainly not like that. I wonder whether he is going to live to actually be a father, once she finds out what he did...

1. Stayed up much of the night trying to make something of the first two pages of writing. It didn't happen, so I haven't sent it. Not sure what's wrong with me that I can't bring something like this to completion, when on the whole, the writing is going extremely well and it's a process I actively enjoy.

2. Having some seriously amazing South Indian food for lunch (and dinner, and breakfast tomorrow, at least). My tongue is on fire because I haven't eaten spices in a while, and it is so good I don't care.

3. Blargh.

1. Dear Neighbor:

2. The next time you puke all over our lobby, could you please be so kind as to clean up after yourself? Thanks a million.

3. Yours truly, jason's_planet

1. Had a good night last night making homemade pasta and drinking wine with a friend.

2. Had plans to get together with same friend and another tonight, which she just canceled. I'm happy about it, because that means I can stay home and root against Carolina.

3. Getting together with another friend for lunch tomorrow. Haven't had such a social weekend in a while.

1. Right this minute, listenting to Older Boy put curses on me for sending him to bed for fighting

2. Gots a headache from not enough caffiene and too little water

3. A mite depressed because I have to buy clothes yet another size higher, when this time a couple years ago I was taking them in.

4. Happy that I have my new sunlamps in, tho.

1. Asparagus season!

2. Asparagus in my belly!

3. Pee smells funny!

(Also cleaned the gutters while boyfriend stood below. Felt mighty! Up on ladder! Doing big kid stuff! While the babies below chatted! Chatty babies! Also planted more stuff, ordered even more seeds because suddenly the idea of watermelon beverages and cocktails is sounding very good and made chicken tikka masala.)

1. Asparagus season!

I took some interns to visit a rural farm museum up here last year. We heard some oral history interviews with oldsters who had grown up on New England farms in the 20s and 30s, when a lot of the region didn't have electricity yet. One of the interviewees remembered going to the schoolhouse in town, which didn't have indoor plumbing. There was a big privy out back.

"It wasn't too bad," she said, "except during asparagus season."

1. Drove around eastern NC taking pictures (see a couple posts up).

2. Helped out a buddy who got out of prison 8 days ago.

3. Tomorrow I'm going to my parents' condo to reattach their dryer hose (it fell off). I believe they will feed me.

3b. Not watching basketball.

1) I went to the 9th NW Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum. I've never been been to the TAM and honestly have only been to Tacoma a few times. The area around the museum (which is a very nice new building) has been really developed though walking around post art viewing it seemed to fall off fast. Need to spend more time down there. Anyway the Biennial was pretty nice, though they rather overfilled the room. There were three artists there I really liked and a couple more who had a lot of potential. That's pretty good for a regional show of contemporary art. There was also several nice things from their permanant collection in a couple of the smaller galleries and a very fun exhibit of David Macaulay's (of Cathedral fame) preliminary material and stuff related to his working process.

2) On my way home I decided to stop by Whole Foods and I picked up stuff for dinner: fresh organic asparagus, prawns and a new favorite these chocolate covered caramels with smoked salt crystals on them made by Frans. So I grilled the prawns with bell peppers and sweet onions and the asparagus was also on the grill with olive oil and sea salt. Stuff the prawn mixture into a hoagie and ate the asparagus as an appetizer. Now enjoying the Frans chocolates. I'm normally not a huge fan of this kind of candy, but the salt/caramal/chocolate combo is pretty much completely addictive.

3) Now I'm going to kick back, have a couple of more Liberty Ales and watch a couple of the new(ish) Rifftrax Shorts.

1. Spent the afternoon up on the garage roof troweling tar onto the seams of the tar paper. Hopefully that will stop the leaks.

2. Went to see the community college production of "Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" that my son was doing lighting for. Lots of fun. They'd gender swapped half the roles witch made it even more fun.

3. Managed to get to the gym four times this week. Woot.

1. Shopped till I dropped, quite literally. Spent afternoon at Staples for new fax ink cartridges and sundries, then Menards (regional Home Depot) for stuff mostly for the apartment I'm rushing to get completed and rented by, um, March 1 or so, then groceries. I did so much walking in my newish work boots that my feet felt like hell. At the last stop I picked up some arch support inserts.

2. Alas, it's probably just as much the diabetes as anything, and another reminder that I need to lose 50 pounds or so if I want to live. Or live with, um, feet.

3. Dad's dementia update tonight was that he ate half a green banana even though we told him when they came home two hours earlier that they probably wouldn't be edible until Monday at the earliest. He also still seems to believe that all we have to do is bill our two remaining, non-paying tenants for their back rent and it will magically appear in our bank account. Uh, they don't have any money.

1. went to women's seder at temple, rabbi wasn't there, the temple co-president ( who I KNOW for a fact has attended this event in the past) refused to follow the haggadah and gossiped to the woman next to her the whole time. I went because I needed the ritual and am rather peeved. I miss the seders led by my grandfather.
2. Managed to clear out living room.
3. trying to make plans with a college classmate when I'm up in Boston.

1. The round trip to see the new babby niece (and get back home) took a lot longer than expected, which is why I'm still awake at 3 AM.

2. My sis-in-law managed to piss off my mom AND my husband during the visit, which is no easy feat, and is also a bad idea. I still got a couple of great pics of my mom holding the new niece, so I'll use those as deflector shields the next time she's ready to throttle my sis-in-law. Which may be when she wakes up tomorrow.

3. I'm already wishing my three-day weekend was four days long.

1. First weekend back in Canada after spending 3 months working in Vietnam. Oh sweet water pressure and hot water, how I have missed you! My Canadian apartment is wonderful.

2. Wishing I knew when I was going up to the sub-Arctic to work. "Sometime between April and August" is vague but that's all my boss will say until Tuesday at the earliest. I love my job.

3. Life is really, really, really awesome. 40 hours of traveling last week and a 12 hour time difference, yet I have barely experienced any jet lag. Not sure how I did it, but score!

1. Left my fresh eggs from my friends who have chickens at the nice, mellow party of old friends last night.

2. Am now killing time until it's late enough to call the hostess of said party so I can go over and get them.

3. Been wanting to garden but snow is in the forecast so yesterday did NOT buy a hydrangea. Next weekend I think we'll be past winter for good and then I'm putting in a hydrangea at the very least.

1. Found two nice apartments for my friend Nate yesterday; hope he can get at least one of them.

2. I'm doing actual other work today! Papers being cleaned off of my coffee table and shredded, other papers will be filed. Taxes will be done today!

3. I am a little sad that my friend Nate may not be over today to hang out. Because I like the idea of going with someone to work tomorrow again. ^_^

1. Had an unexpected, wonderful date with Mr. V last night.

2. Went to a flea market with my 12 year old today. I love shopping with him! No, really!

3. Did more yard work while talking long distance to a chatty friend. Bonus doing two things at once! In gorgeous weather!

3a. Had rib roast for dinner. Life is good!