1. I have today off, but woke up at my usual 5:30 AM anyway. Argh.

2. Have to take my cat Kayla to her vet appointment soon (catching up on vaccinations). I had to separate the two cats this morning, because Bob is feeling all hyper and kept jumping on Kayla, pissing her off. I don't need her to be ALREADY pissed off before I try to put her in the cat carrier, so Bob is isolated to the bedroom/bathroom for now.

3. Took some great pics at mygothlaundry's party in Asheville this weekend! I hope to sort them out and upload the good ones this afternoon.

1. I went out to North Weald Market this morning, took my camera with me. The market was a bit too crowded to start taking photos, but I got some great shots of the Spitfire that's on display as you enter the market site (it's an airfield which was used in the Battle of Britain).

2. Traffic was horrendous coming home - it took me half an hour to get round the M11 roundabout at Harlow.

3. It's cold and raining, typical weather for a Bank Holiday Monday in the UK, so I'm in my old sweats, the heating's on and I'm holed up for the rest of the day. I can feel a nap coming on.

1. My sipping the barest amount of fluids yesterday paid off; dropped 4 pounds and no chest pains last night or this morning. Still calling the doc though.

2. Only got 7 hours sleep last night but feeling fairly chipper this morning. I will however probably need a nap this afternoon.

3. I am alternating between books of short stories by Mary Gaitskill and Neil Gaiman. I am going to be so warped by the end of this week, but that's good, because I need that mentality to finish my current short story. I think this one is publishable, but it's going to need massive rewriting. That's ok, because rewriting is my favorite part. Also, I got a great idea for my next bit of writing that I will be fleshing out this week as well -- the part I absolutely detest.

1. Baby still not drinking much but doesn't seem otherwise bothered. Hrm.

2. Had a lot of fun at the mefi meetup on Saturday night.

3. Husband and I are having a date night Wednesday night! A friend is babysitting every other Wednesday or so for us, from this week onwards. Woot!

1. No holiday here - our labor day is in September. I got great sleep finally last night. I put my memory foam mattress on the floor for more consistent support on my skeleton. After three days, I'm feeling fantastic.

2. The mystery garden has peas and a sunflower and echinacia, plus a ton of baby carrots sprouting.

3. I'm enjoying some homemade greek yogurt straight from my kitchen. Yummy!

1. I'm not working today. Yay! I was working nearly every day since I was filling in for a coworker. She is back. Now I can return to my previously leisurely lifestyle.

2. My house is less than tidy. I am going to listen to a book on tape and some good music and clean until the kids get home.

3. I just ordered clothes from JCrew. I bought two pairs of "Cafe Capri" pants and two scoop neck tops a few weeks ago and they are fabulous. The quality is nice and I feel great in them, so it's totally worth spending a bit more than I usually do. This morning I bought two cardigans (one cashmere, one cashmere blend), two polo shirts, another pair of Cafe Capris in white, and a pair of gold flip flops.

1. Slept very well last night after 7.5 hours of gardening. I think that I've finally undone about ten years of neglect off the poor little yard.

2. Still waiting for a job offer/rejection.

3. Inspired by watching the Pittsburgh Marathon yesterday, I'm pondering a run in the 1/2 marathon next year.

1. Spent a lovely weekend in Long Island getting my geek on with a friend. Bought my first set of role-playing dice, a Munchkin cards set, and watched the Wolverine movie.

2. Now broke, and waiting for my boss to get her act in gear enough for me to get my commission check so I can start paying off 2008's taxes.

3. From the lack of people here in the office, you'd think that we were having a bank holiday over here, too.

1. Technically, I'm on day 5 of not smoking which besides a tiny slip yesterday during "Let the Right One In" movie with husband, has been 100% perfect. I highly recommend the lozenge. I've always gone cold turkey before and was climbing the walls for weeks. This time I'm feeling pretty calm and happy to do this. Indeed, I think this has helped me be the happiest I've been in months. Been down in the dumps for a while now.

2. I am planning my first wedding anniversary (yay!). Even though we've been together a decade, still feels pretty special. Suggestions for Boston stuff to do?

3. I have so much backlog of work to do but feeling up to it. Aja! Aja!

1) Didn't even get an interview for a job at the county extension for which I am overqualified.

2) The ducklings are large enough to stick their heads over the edge of their crate and stare balefully at us as we watch TV.

3) My neighbor has requested to borrow my welder for a project that is "top secret, but way better than the anaerobic digester" that he was going to use to sell power back to the grid. I'm hoping for some sort of flying car or giant robot.

1. The spawn and I are preparing to make Kow Neuw Moon, otherwise known as mangoes with sticky rice. Among the many things we have in common, we agree that this dessert is the bestest in the whole world.
2. STILL waiting for a closing date on our new house, which makes packing feel so useless. I don't know when I am going to move, why the hell should I be packing? I hate packing. Did I mention I hate packing?
3. Husband is not feeling well, I am trying unsuccessfully to get him to go back to bed, but evidently, the world will cease to function properly if he isn't at his computer for the allotted 10 hours.

1. Bought tickets for NYC last friday. . .be three Sept 29 thru Oct. 12, in Chelsea. I would humbly bring up the prospect of at least one meetup. I have MeFi references.

2. I can tell high humidity days by how long it takes me to quit sweating after gym - biking to work (and if the shower "takes" or not). Today's a high humidity day.

3. Got part of our garden in over the weekend. Now to become snail-slug vigilantes. It was easier when the neighbor with the chickens was there. Now they just get pitched into the street.

1. Very sick - hit me like a sledgehammer yesterday while I was out beach cleaning.

2. Have no food in the house.

3. Steely Dan is telling me to drink scotch whiskey all night long and die behind the wheel.

1.) Got a call from a temp agency at 10:00 a.m. about a possible long-term assignment working for the Feddle Guhmint.

2.) Have an interview tomorrow for a possible permanent position.

3.) My nephew is a catcher on his school's baseball team. Last week, a wild pitch broke his nose; he had to go into surgery to fix it. I talked with him on the phone yesterday and I'm happy to report that he's doing much better.

1. I've been feeling just a lil bit crappy since last night and I really hope this isn't the beginnings of some sort of sickness. I hate being sick. (Plus, since everyone here is on red alert, I'll have to stay home. I have the sick days to use and I know I won't be berated for it, but I've still got that nagging voice in my head [most likely my mother's, ugh] telling me that since I'm a woman that I shouldn't take days off because people will think that I'm a slacker.)

2. I made all the real food in the world last night (chicken parmesan, pepperoni chicken, sweet baby carrots) and was able to pack 3 very bitchin' lunches for this week and I also have enough frozen veggies stockpiled in my freezer from a sale at Food Lion (and if I could've purchased more, I would have) so I can have very quick but still somewhat nutritious dinners this week to. I still haven't quite mastered breakfasts yet, even though I did make some interesting eggs this morning, but felt crappy enough to not really want to eat them.

3. Still no word from UMD. I plan on leaving them an angry message this afternoon. I'm quite glad my class that I'm taking as an 'advanced special student' because I couldn't get letters together in time last year is almost over. I really hope I don't get dinged for not having things like access to a server because my thing is pretty awesome (I think) and took quite a bit of time to create. I did get my registration notice from the county, so once the summer class schedule is posted, I plan on signing up for a knife skills and very beginner's bellydance class.

1. Almost finished one of my 15 sewing projects. Unfortunately, I bought another one when Ardiril was here visiting, so I'm still at 15. Oh wait, 16 actually, I did sneak in another one a few months ago. Some of these projects have been waiting to be started for, I think, at least 8 years.

2. I had a wonderful day yesterday: Practiced viola, then watched a True Hollywood Story episode of the cast of Married with Children, Grey Gardens again on HBO, and a DVD of The Devil Wears Prada with the commentary turned on. All while working on sewing project, not talking to anyone, eating some fresh mozzarella and Smartfood (not together).

3. Absolutely no change to acne on neck after changing washing habits and trying two new products. After three weeks+. WTF?

1. Apparently, one should not place the boxed chicken broth next to the boxed almond milk in the refrigerator, because shredded wheat with chicken broth is really just not very good.

2. ikkyu2 did a bunch of planting yesterday, and now all the birds are coming by to partake of the critters-of-the-newly-turned-up earth buffet. It's a pleasantly chirpy morning.

3. I went back to the gym yesterday for the first time since being sick last week, and it pretty much knocked me out for the rest of the day. I would like some energy back, please, universe; thanks.

2(revised). Bah, rejection letter. *Comforts himself with the fact that it would have been a long commute*

1. Took six strawberry plants off neighbor's hands yesterday. Planted them in the area I'd been hemming and hawing about possibly planting strawberries in. Free sealed the deal.
2. I'm supposed to get milk delivered today. A dairy that delivers to my doorstep, I'm finally up to a 1950s standard of living!
3. It's cold and grey. My hot hot shower is going to feel super great today.

1. I spent the weekend with a friend. She's standing up with me at the wedding, and we had planned to tackle some projects. Instead, we did nothing but sit around, drink wine, and cook. Refreshing. As Marlene Dietrich said of Orson Welles: "I feel like a plant that's been watered."

2. I have a ginormous burn on my forearm from an unwise move in the kitchen. I left a strip of skin seared to a hot appliance. Wah.

3. Mom's birthday this week! I have some gifts, and I'm making some things at home, too.

1. Wondering what Ardiril thinks of the Mary Gaitskill.
2. Stressing my dog's surgery tomorrow. Hard.
3. I wish I could take a two week leave of absence from my day to day life.

1. i am truly horrible cat furniture. It should be effortless but no, i can't reward the effort or interest my cat offers me in endeavoring to perch upon some body part of mine for very long at all, and this means i suck. i suck because at some point i'm going to have to move because the blood is draining out of something, something is aching, or i have to move or adjust something, and this makes me the most rubbishy piece of cat furniture in the cat furniture catalog. i've been maintaining for over thirty minutes right now and i don't know how much longer i can last. Boy howdy, i suck at this. Poor Bees.

2. Every time i say "Woo!" on Metachat, i mean it. i mean it like a burst to the solar plexus erupting from the depths of my diaphram, if i had some kind of super power energy surge instead of more of the chesty high end sound it would actually be, but loud, of course, and full of sincerity, like a heavingly relieved sigh but all inverted.
i'm just saying those "Woo!"s should not at all be taken for granted. i do admit that sometimes i function with a full steep of irony but not usually when there is a "Woo!" involved.

3. Oy.

rainbaby: I have Bad Behavior. It's pretty good but it reads like an editor went through and leveled off all the peaks (iow tamed down the really dirty parts). I would love to read Gaitskill's actual submissions. Her description of the prostitute doing the girlfriend experience in "Something Nice" is dead on. (Don't ask how I know that? ;-)

1. I woke up feeling like I might get sick, and new Company Swine Flu policy dictates that I work from home, but I really wanted to go in and bother some people who owe me work. It's less effective to tap your foot with your hands on your hips via email. Also, I feel like crap and my nose is a faucet. :(

2. I sent my mom gourmet pears for Mother's Day, and that made me feel good. Not feel good in a "aw, I did something nice for my mom that she'll appreciate way" but more in a "Take THAT! I defeated your stringent present requirements again in a new way this year!"

3. My friend who I hired as a freelancer just got a permanent job elsewhere, which makes me happy for her but sad for me. It's also uncomfortable because she will be leaving mid-project which is not cool. I think I am going to ask my boss to handle the logistics of her leaving so things between she and I will be as untouched as possible by this.

Went to see matinee of Tyson on 42nd st. Crackhead in the last row told me she" would pay me five dollars if I moved".I ignored her and she then proceeded to block my view and wiggle her ass at me when she went to the john, babble through the whole picture with her fat thug boyfriend and threaten another (black) woman who told her to be quiet. The manager came in and spoke to them but it still didn't shut them up. The movie didn't change my opinion that he is a scumbag narcissist.

Have just discovered that I need to depend on the doorman to enable the button in the elevator for my floor. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Need to clean up in dining room so the floor can be refinished.

@brujita: It's not a key-locked elevator, is it?

1. I can't believe it's been almost a year since the last Bubble Battle. It felt like yesterday that my cousin was here and we were going to that. Time flies.

2. I got a free skin cancer screening today, at one of those vans sponsored by a women's magazine, and I don't have cancer, yaaaay.

3. Tonight- "The Marvelous Wonderettes" off-Broadway.

1) am home from work. it was a long day. lots going on, hopefully good. when things have resolved, i'll post about it.
2) I just had a well-deserved beer. Yum.
3) am thisclose to making an offer on a house. A house that has neither phone nor cable jacks. Weird.

@TL: the building owner's cousin said this would be the case when the condo owners were told about the renovation,but there's now a command panel at the building entrance that the doorman controls.The last few times I've come in I was able to just push the button, like a NORMAL elevator. I would MUCH rather handle things myself...and I hope with the recession, there will no longer be two doormen at the entrance. It's not that big a building.

I'm making a list of the things I need to do before I go to Georgia.

I've never been to Georgia! Novelty index is up!

1. More rain; cold, chilly, but not enough to have to put the heat back on.

2. Dating Mr. V more often. This is a good thing.

3. At the moment, I'm feeling quite content with my life. This is something I haven't really felt in a long time. I am liking this very much.

UPDATE:
It turns out I do need an elevator key, but the super's workday had ended when I came in. I hope the new situation will crack down on one of the night doormen's laziness.