I drank more than I wanted to, and thought of a girl that I like a lot.

Other than that, nothing new.

This has been one of the nicest weekends I've had in a long time. Which was good, because I have not been functioning very well due to stress.

1. Friday LT and I had a date. We went to Ogunquit, ME, a town we for some reason don't go to enough (though I remembered the reason - insane summer traffic). On this evening we had the run of the place. We started with a drink at a neat bar/restaurant that has an enormous outdoor fireplace, relaxing with beverages, fire, and duck gyoza. Then we walked a couple miles on the beach and back, then had pizza and headed home. It's so nice to see the beach life coming back, businesses opening up, new coats of paint, etc.

2. Saturday we got up to do an Earth Day-themed beach cleanup with a local marine conservation group. It was fun - they had a little shindig with a touch tank, some table displays, and free pizza lunch and blueberry soda. We cleaned up the park on the harbor downtown. Each of us teamed up with a different family and we had fun running around with the kids. After that was over we wanted some more beach time, so we went and walked on North Hampton beach for a couple hours. Then lessee, we each did our own thing for a while (my thing was reading and then shopping for some dinner) before reconvening for a dinner of angelhair in vodka sauce with chicken cutlets, and some The Office on DVD.

3. Today we got up early AGAIN and went to the community garden cleanup mentioned in my post below. We worked for about 3 hours doing the communal cleanup and then turning over and planting our plot. Then I headed out for some errands and am now doing things like going through this week's receipts and planning my mom's birthday gift.

All in all, an awesome weekend all around, lots of fun outdoors, doing things with a visible tangible result, and enjoying the feel that spring is actually a-comin.

hrm. Yesterday we spent most of the day outside, in Central Park. Took the picnic blanket and chilled with the baby under a tree.

Today was a bit more outside time. A walk to a dog park to watch the small dogs run around insanely (kiddo is getting very interested in watching dogs right now) and back to Central Park later in the afternoon for swings and slides. Went for a run and am about to thaw a chicken to roast for dinner, put teh baby to bed and spend the evening reading.

1. Waffles.

2. Writing.

3. Waffles.

4. Tomorrow (three-day weekend!), we go down to Boston for a Red Sox game. I've never been to Fenway! Or, uh, any other big-league sporting arena. Ever.

I worked on Friday for my coworker because she wanted to pack for her trip to Aruba. My sister was over on Friday afternoon and evening. We cooked chicken cordon bleu for dinner. You can't go wrong with ham, cheese, wine, and heavy cream. At 7 o'clock we scooted out for a half an hour for pictures for my youngest son's t-ball team. We watched a movie with the kids and basically did a whole lot of nothing for the rest of the night.

On Saturday morning I worked. Since my coworker is on vacation I'm picking up all of her hours. Saturday afternoon I put together a new rug from FLOR called "House Pet" while listening to an audio book. My sister was over again and we ordered Pizza Hut for dinner. Two of the neighborhood kids ate dinner with us.

Today my parents, sister, kids, and I went to Subway, had a picnic at the park, played on the playground, practiced baseball, and walked around a lake where a giant ground sloth was found. Right now I am heating up pizza. The neighborhood kids are over wreaking havoc. I'll ask them if they would like to stay for dinner. I hope they had some fruit and veggies today because I don't think Pizza Hut qualifies as a nutritious meal. A few months ago I sewed table skirts for the school's music department. The music teacher wants me to sew Velcro to a few of them. I will be doing that tonight while I listen to an audio book. I will also be ironing my work clothes and getting everything prepared because I am in for a long day tomorrow.

1! Went to Florence to see a great friend get married. Everything insanely amazing.

2! While in Florence, reunited with last-seen-in-the-year-2000 uncle now living there. He is great! We met in front of the Baptistry at the Duomo!

3! Also while in Florence, I got to see my godson, who lives in Latvia but was also at this wedding! We hung out and it was great. He is really good at Eye-Spy.

Friday: Worked, while freaking out about my story segment getting on "This American Life". Did not leave the office till very late.

Saturday: Showed my friend 4 apartments under $1,600 in Manhattan; he really liked the very first one we went to but we'd have two more showings on Sunday. I feel very comfortable now about doing searches for rental clients and how to handle them, now; pity this is the only time I'll get to exercise my license for my own gain due to the low opportunity/cost ratio.

After walking from the UES to the Theater District for dessert at Maison, we went to the Bent Festival and I got to listen to a lot of weird electronica, played using "instruments" like fluorescent lightbulbs, hacked Speak 'n' Spell and Game Boy machines, actual speaker feedback, and someone's own biochemistry. What I heard was pretty amazing at parts, and only by comparing what I was listening to actual musical forms I'd studied in my 100/301 and 305 college music courses, did I grok what was going on. For the record, we listened to a jazz piece, a drum solo, a fugue, an orchestral piece, and saw some interpetive dance.

Today: Saw the last 2 apartments for this weekend, he's putting in an application on one of them. He went back to Connecticut, I moseyed on over to the Greenwich Village Bistro for the very first eggs benedict I have ever ordered (I'm not afraid of poached eggs anymore!) and to confirm that my friend could hire one of the bartenders to help him move. Then, I got a text message from my boss asking me to do an apartment showing tomorrow morning, so I'm here at the office pulling my friend's application together and making sure my boss' Monday is adequately scheduled.

And I'm still not done, because tonight I blog for MovieMake-out.com.

I did something on Friday, but I don't remember what. Oh, right. Birding! I worked on Saturday morning and then stopped by a friend's house who lives nearby where I was. She wasn't there, but her partner was, and he gave me a tour of their garden. Most. Excellent. I had an asparagus. They'll soon have a glut and be sending it away like people do with zucchini, but they're not sick of it yet. :-) Today I looked at houses, found one I really like, and volunteered for a Pie Social and Skills Sharing Auction (caps!) at the community garden. I had some awesome pecan pie, ran into a friend, gave one of the teens some condoms, bid on and won a learn-how-to-corn-row lesson, and brought in a nice sum for the skill I donated. Other skills: Learn some Teen Dance Moves (Skanky leg, Superman, Roy, etc), Public Speaking (also from a teen), bread baking, russian lessons, german lessons, garden spanish, didgeridoo lessons, capoeira lessons, etc.

Overall good times, but I was a little lonely yesterday. And then I found out that a friend had a party and I wasn't invited. I don't think it was a slight in the least. I've just not kept in good-enough touch!

I got to save four turtles from being roadkill on a little country backroad today! I haven't seen a wild turtle in, like, forever. I guess all the rainfall brought them out of hiding, and so I pulled over, picked 'em up and took 'em to the other side of the road.

Turtles can't cross little country backroads very quickly, you know.

1. Lots and lots and lots of rain. Stayed indoors and worried about my plants a lot. Figured out how to work my sewing machine, yay!

2. Got my consumerism on. Setting up house from scratch really costs a lot >_< and every week I realize I'm missing yet another something (right now it's a vacuum cleaner and a big umbrella). I'm pretty uncomfortable with making big-money purchases - had to swear off all knitting activities until all the furniture was obtained, otherwise I'd still be eating dinner on the floor.

1. Went out to dinner with friends Friday and then had them back to my place for some tv watching and wine.

2. Spent Saturday in the park and looked at apartments, decided that the one that was my favorite from a week ago is still my favorite and put in an application.

3. Went to see Merce Cunningham at 90 and really liked the second act. The "music" was interesting, and we had fun attempting to describe what the sheet music for it would look like ("ok, now bang that thing twice and then blow into the mic for 4 seconds...")

4. Got approved for the apartment today! :) And went with my best friend to the Whitney to see the Jenny Holzer show which was really cool and better than I expected/had read it would be. Then we went back to her place and tried on all her dresses to see if any of them would work for a black tie wedding I'm attending in a few weeks. There was one crazy awesome red one, but I think it is too sexy. The slit goes alllll the way up one leg. It looks awesome but I think I want to be more demure at a Connecticut wedding.

Friday: lots of odds-n-ends packing, finished the bedroom and kitchen. Put some donation stuff in my car and swung by ColdStone Creamery for the tail end of a meetup. Then a midnight drop at the thrift store, fully convinced their signs of CCTV meant cops would be there any moment to arrest me.

Saturday: moving. Boyfirend's brother and friends brought their trucks and their muscle in exchange for beer, soda, and pizza. We moved 90% of our stuff to the new apartment. The day was so pretty, probably in the mid-40s. Hour nap, then one more car load before crashing for the night.

Sunday: unpacking kitchen stuff enough to make breakfast. Meetup at the dog park with some new dog friends and their people. So much mud, Olive had the best time. Took my Sunday self-portrait in the mud with a knife and cigar, but cant do anything with the photos until i get the computer setup. Making a list of things still needing fixing at the new place, and a list of things to get. I really love the feel of this new apartment, it's bigger and nicer and in a quieter neighborhood.

It's all kind of a blur, but I've got every stitch of clothing in this house washed dried, and put away. Winter clothes are put away, and the kids' clothes have been culled drastically. I got about 25 pounds of kid clothes to give away, and they still have what I think is a metric ton left.

There were some that I just couldn't part with, so I'm trying to look up easy quilt patterns I can use to keep them around. I'm a fair hand with the sewing machine, but my sister's got a Serger, so I'll pin it together and save it for my trip to FL. Whee!

My kids and her kids had a video conference this evening that they all enjoyed. Mostly they enjoyed hamming for the cameras. They're all getting so big!

I have succumbed to the temptation of paperware - plates, cups bowls, and plasticware for now. The dishes have been kicking my ass and there's some major cleaning that I have to do before I go bugnuts.

Oh! and I dug up a bit of the backyard and the kids planted some Mammoth Sunflowers. Store-bought seeds, alas, but maybe next year I'll have something for the exchange.

Friday after work I went to the gym, then I made a lovely dinner of steaks and roasted spaghetti squash and roasted (purple!) cauliflower.

Saturday ikkyu2 was at the hospital most of the day, and I watched a lot of crappy tv and did some housecleaning and otherwise lazed about. Then ikkyu2 came home and we went for a really nice drive through the countryside and communed with some cows, and then we came home and I made mango salad with shrimp and it was so so so good that it was totally the highlight of my week.

Today we went out to a winery that was having an open house; the wine was, um, variable, but they had a few good wines and they had a live band and they had a really f'ing fantastic barbecue that was included with admission. So we hung out and listened to music and such, and then came home and lazed about, and then I made a big salad nicoise for dinner (because, like Lori, I feared for my vegetable intake!) and we watched The X-Files and now ikkyu2 is watching noisy things on youtube and I am typing here while our sheets finish up in the dryer, after which point I will go to bed.

Friday: MBTA train (which MA is talking about cutting back ????!!!!) to Concord. Walked over to and around Walden Pond. Walked back to town and explored Sleepy Hollow cemetery. This was done with plantar fasciitis. Missed train and had an ice cream near depot. Found Irish music mag in Harvard Square. Lobster with ginger and chive in Chinatown.

Saturday: Shipped some stuff home via UPS. Diner recommended as best in Phoenix closed at 2. Went to another one in the Dorchester industrial/shipping area. Train home to NY. Do not want to be back in NY. Watched Grey Gardens. Had seen screening of original doc with Albert Maysles in attendance at which he confirmed Little Edie had hair, but projection was slightly out of focus so one couldn't tell. Presence of hair confirmed at screening of companion film at IFC center.

Sunday: Movie glut; second movie had to put up with untreated manic sitting near me who complained when I drank from the soda I had bought. Went to reading of a friend at KGB. Had sushi with him, his wife and two others afterwards. He told me I was Auntie Brujita to his kids. Wish I could be this for real.

I took my son to see the Gorillas at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston.

This is not my son and these are not my photos but Flickr has some awesome photos of the Gorilla family there. I'm fascinated how, both at Franklin Park and the Bronx Zoo (the only two places I've seen Gorillas) the Gorillas spend so much time sitting as close to the glass as they can, and interact with the public.

Friday: Signed settlement papers, finally met the previous owner and his agent. Damn near hugged my own agent for being so fucking awesome about everything. Started moving and cleaning.

Saturday: Moved remainder of boxes and furniture. Not too much swearing but lots of muttering and dirty looks from all family members. Spent first night and realized my mattress is fucking toast.

Sunday: Went to work. Came back to my place where I set up my shower curtain and finally showered. Everyone came over to watch my brother put in my super nifty self-ratcheting paper towel holder in the kitchen. (It's an expensive ass thing but it's his default housewarming gift.) Mom keeps bringing over food that I don't care for and leaves it in my fridge. Ew. When they all left, I made my first real meal of fettuccine alfredo with chicken and broccoli. I've got leftovers for dinner tonight. Yay!

Saturday: drove an unusually long way for me to have dinner with a couple of friends who are having a baby soon. That was fun.

Sunday: weeding, lazing around, Chinese dinner.

(Monday: sore legs)

psst sperose: giving parents the keys to your apartment is optional, surely?

Parents' are paying for part of it. (kinda and I might post about it here once I get unpacked, which is priority #1 at the moment since my homie is arriving on Friday for partying)

Saturday: Went for a long walk, tired the dog out.

Saturday night: Went out for a long evening of great music, seeing Mood Area 52, a hard-to-pin-down local tango band, several of whose members live around the corner from where I am typing this. Then Vermillion Lies, a sister act from Oakland, who are even harder to classify, but had the room in the palms of their quirky hands. Then the latest iteration of The Squirrel Nut Zippers. Great show.

Sunday, drove over to the coast to whale watch. The whales have moved on, we didn't see any, but had a nice sunny warm day at Yachats.

Came home, crashed.

Had my first session with a personal trainer on Saturday morning, then went home and spent four hour cutting grass, because it's been so we I haven't been able to for weeks. Washed and vacuumed the cars.

Sunday, worked on the house.

Boring, boring, boring.