1. My nose has been itching and running all day because of the second wave of tree pollen in the air.

2. Cooking an experimental dinner of venison curry and cilantro rice. A starter of Asian-inspired devilled eggs turned out well, so I have my fingers crossed for the curry.

3. Fancy birthday lunch with family tomorrow for my mother-in-law, then staking things in the allotment that are getting out-of-control crazy big.

1. Went to a bar for a friend's birthday last night. Did a little drinking, a little singing, a little giggling. Was fun.
2. We have nothing else on our schedule this weekend. We're being very lazy at the moment.
3. Colorado next week! Yahoo!

1. Had two job interviews this week, both went well as far as I know. I've got homework for one of them, a set of programming problems that I have to figure out. Both jobs are with small CMU startups.

2. Finally going to see UP tonight.

3. It's alternately raining as hard as it can here or sticky hot and humid.

1. My distant but much beloved aunt died. I spent last night telling my partner stories about her and cracking up at the memories. I'll raise a glass of gin to you tonight, Aunt P, wherever you are. I love you.

2. I'm currently doing big-batch catering cookery for the wedding: prepping sheets and sheets of savory pastries, flash-freezing them, and moving them to the big commercial freezer. (We're hiring cook/servers to bake and plate them on the wedding day.) This is going well so far, much more relaxed than I had anticipated.

3. You know you might be spending too much time online if, while standing before the stove making an omelet, you feel the urge to interrupt the 2-minute bowl-to-plate process to go check your email.

For a while now I have been in a mental funk that I am unable to get out of. It is getting worse and worse and about to hit some breaking point. Don't know when it will happen or what might happen. I hope I can break out of it soon.

Trying to write a proposal. Have not done anything for weeks now and finding it very hard to get motivated.

Mefi meetup tonight. Feeling ambivalent but I will go since I called it. Might have to refrain from drinking since I've been doing that a lot lately.

1. Husband's uncle killed himself a couple of days ago. Been dealing with the fallout. He's off to Florida tomorrow for the memorial.

2. Ridiculously stressed on top of that, with loads to do in my final week of work.

3. Also have visitors at the moment. Lovely, but still adding to the stress level.

Bonus: haven't found a job, but still applying. Sigh.

1. One of my buds from Chicago is getting married this weekend, but I can't be there. Frack.

2. High blood glucose all week. I'm really trying to watch my sugar and carb intake, but it's very hard when the kitchen is right next door. My Mom is not adjusting to the drop in people in the house -- we've gone from three adults (counting me) and three teenagers to basically three adults (counting my niece) period, becuase my niece and nephew don't really live here now and my dad is in the nursing home. So there's always way too much food around. Yeah, that's just an excuse for me, but it's also true, because we throw way too much stuff away. Every shelf of freezer and fridge is packed so tightly that opening the door risks stuff falling out. And still she buys.

3. My mom is still scared that the nursing home is going to dump my dad back on us. "He's all better physically! Take care of him now!" But the evaluation showed that he was clearly unsafe at home even though he can handle most activities of daily living pretty well. He just has a type of dementia that makes him unable to exercise judgement and he would be, oh, climbing up on the sink to wash his feet again, or taking too much cough medicine, or hitchhiking with cash.

1.) Pissing down rain all day.

2.) I wanted to go to a local park to do some pullups but I think the bars will be wet and slippery and, hence, not terribly useful.

3.) Wait! A towel! I'll bring a towel! I'll wipe off the bar and then I'll do the pullups. Fucking genius, I am.

ohmygourd I think jason's_planet just inspired me to go to the neighborhood park and hang from the monkeybars. That sounds great.

1) Husband's step brother and his family visited for a couple of hours while they were passing through NC. Their eight month old may be one of the smiliest babies I have ever met.
2) Slightly hungover from our unexpected night out last night. We tipsily hung art at 2 o'clock this morning. I am actually not so much hung as I am tired. We stayed up super late. Very uncommon.
3) Friends are coming over in a little while and more alcohol consumption shall ensue.

1. I went to the beach with my sister and kids for a couple hours today. It was gorgeous as usual and I saw a ton of dolphins.

2. I was invited to a nice restaurant and comedy club last night. I stayed home and played computer games instead. I kinda regret it.

3. I have another invitation to go out tonight. I'm debating. I have such bad hangovers and I generally can't pace myself so I might stay in to prevent feeling like hell tomorrow.

1. GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY it's hot outside. It was 100 degrees F / 38 C a little while ago while we were coming home.

2. We had a great early Father's Day lunch with my dad and his GF. Enchilades verdes... yum.

3. Planning to do very little tomorrow, because I have a completely hellish work week coming up.

3a. Just went out for a hour run along the rivers, wow the city is gorgeous today (when it's not downpouring). Lots of bikers, joggers, boaters, jet-skiers and kayakers out on and along the water. I think that I lost five pounds of water weight though; I'm sitting here chugging watered down Gatorade.

1. For fucks sake, it looks to be about $1k to reupholster 3 things. :-/ I know they're awesomely antique pieces, but goddamnit, I do not have the money for that. I think I'll put mom on the case to hunt down a cheaper place. And on that note, I should really drag my ass to Target one of these days so I can get the little foot covers so they don't scratch up my hardwood floors.

2. I've been making food like a fiend lately, but I really need to get cracking on making my veggies. (I have a bag of broccoli crowns, 2 bags of baby carrots, and a bag of green beans. Eek!) I made lots of food yesterday and was quite proud of myself. (I baked bread, made noodles with pesto and chicken, knockoff Alice Springs Chicken, and roasted some potatoes with parmesan.) It would also help if I had more people to eat my food. :-/ Or a bigger freezer. And a bigger kitchen. I've slowly learned that I like cooking.

3. I'm also working on knitting a scarf right now. I really need to get to work on some of the other domestic things that I need to do, like painting the one cabinet and making a list of all the little brackets and eye screws and frames that I need to buy in order to finish decorating my place so I can take pictures for the interwebs. (And because I'm tired of staring at kinda blank walls.)

1. Hot.
2. We have our first tomato!
3. Cats on lap soothing me missing my dad this father's day.

1. Hot.
2. First cuke. First tomato is *almost* there.
3. Dug up red potatoes and fried them up with onions I grew and green peppers from last summer. Love.

1. I am single again. We were barely hitting the level of casual dating. I fell for her hard, and this was an agonizing decision for me considering recent events.

2. I want a pizza.

3. Hazard yet onward.

1. elderflower margaritas.
2. videogames
3. tapas, later, with visiting friends.

1. hot
2. fun party last night, maybe outdoor concert tomorrow
3. sad, missing dad. I'll be glad when father's day is over.

*hugs to Ardiril*

1. OMG, I AM STILL AT THE OFFICE AFTER HAVING GOTTEN HERE AT 10 AM AND WILL HAVE TO RETURN TOMORROW TO FINISH THE JOB!

2. HAVE NOT DONE LAUNDRY IN *MUMBLE* WEEKS; RUNNING OUT OF CLOTHES TO WEAR!

3. REALLY WANTED TO MAKE MACARONI SALAD TONIGHT; LUCKILY UES-LIVING BUDDY IS GOING TO TAKE CARE OF ME TONIGHT AS FAR AS FOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT AND PLAYING "RACE FOR THE GALAXY" (FINALLY GOT THE NAME OF THE GAME RIGHT; OMG, I TOTALLY WANT TO BEAT HIS ASS AT IT) AND STUFF.

Um, this isn't a shouting thread?

1. I think I have reverse SAD. I've been so productive and happy since it's been cool and wet the past few days. We got a cheap old door at the Rebuilding Center and partner made two sawhorses and I am SO excited about the awesome table they will make. We laid the door on top just to see and it looked better than I allowed myself to imagine. Yaaaaay.
2. I ordered some samples from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab for the first time yesterday. I'd read mention of them here and there for years but the website was so bad I could never bring myself to actually pore through it. I finally did it and I hope I don't regret it. Any experiences?
3. Told boyfriend a bedtime story about apes last night, their dating sites include batch.com and okstupid.com.

1. Sorry for everyone who's missing Dad. (On preview: Sorry, Ardiril.)

2. Went to the park. This particular workout involves doing one pull-up the first minute, two the second, and so on and so forth. I was shooting for five rounds' worth -- that is, to make it to the fifth minute and finish five pull-ups within that minute. I completed three rounds and gutted through one pull-up in the fourth round and that was it.

3. Tomorrow I might visit a local pool tomorrow afternoon to do a little lap swimming. Their pool is open to the public for a nominal fee.

one: Watched Son of Rambow last night. I wasn't even aware of it until I stumbled onto it while digging around NetFlix earlier this week. It's a sweet British comedy with some great child acting. I'm not normally one for sappy(ish) light comedies, but it was really pretty damned great. I highly recommend it (and you can probably watch it with any children over the age of say, 9 or 10).

two: Had to put on jeans to do a massive amount of weed-eating this afternoon, both on our side of the fence and the other side where the retention pond is. I poured out gallons of sweat. I hate wearing pants in the Summer.

three: Have plans to meet up with someone next weekend for a nice, casual, chatty, long leisurely lunch. I haven't done that in a very long time and I'm looking forward to it.

1. Today, we buried a five year old girl who was murdered by her father. For the first time in my professional career, I decided that I couldn't handle it. I called my brother and he worked the funeral for me.

2. Though it happened in my hometown, this is not me.

3. I still cannot see, two weeks after my Lasik surgery.

1. Mom turns 70 today; Father's Day tomorrow. So we will haul ourselves down the road to my folks' house tomorrow for hot dogs, hamburgers, and birthday cake (which I ordered and will be bringing with me along with ice cream....mmmmm)
2. Worked all day at the flower shop-I had an easy day while the florists worked like fiends as there was a ton of funeral work to get out. Our boss is in the hospital recovering from her mastectomy so we had extra help in. (She is gonna be fine and if the doctors are telling her the truth, she'll be totally rid of the breast cancer finally.)
3. My husband (yes, the famous Ralph) was off work today so he mowed the yard and is now lovingly picking up a gallon of milk and some grub from Taco Bell. I am meanwhile waiting for it to cool off a tad so I can do a bit of laundry (My laundry room is accessed from outside.)

extra: I was a goof and overpaid the gas bill accidentally so the latest bill is a negative balance-I won't have to pay this time and most likely not next time either. That. Is. Ossum.

Rain
Rain
Rain

Doom

((((Ardiril))))

(((ColdChef))))


1. More rain. My lawn has never looked this good before, though. I think it's a combination of rain and raising the settings on the lawn mower.

2. Date night with Mr. V. Actually, it's a Three-Date Weekend.

3. As of right now, I only have two payments left on my car. WoooHooo!

1. Finally did those dishes that'd been in the sink and on the stove I don't know how long. Some it was a close call whether to wash 'em or throw them out.

2. I got copies of my grades and attendance together for collection next week. The thought of no more students until the fall is a wonderful thing. I just have one more week of grading state exams and whatnot and then, summer!

3. I made Hamburger Helper.

(so sorry CC)

uno - went on a nice long bicycle ride in which I connected to of my favorite routes with an equally nice completely new section. What with projects wrapping up at workI've not been getting the normal long weekend rides so this was good return to form.

dos - now am home have showered change clothes and am waiting on pizza. A beer is about to be cracked. Will spend the evening on the couch watching the legendarily bad move The Room fortunently with a Rifftrax to make it entertaining.

tres - tomorrow it will be a nice restful day at home with some computer related projects I want to work on

((Ardiril))
((ColdChef))

1. Looked for airplane tickets today.
2. Very sick with flu.
3. Had steak for dinner.

3. Older boy needs crowns. There goes half the vacation money. (*&^%$#
2. Had a date with the Ex/hubby. Went well.
1. Mowed the lawn and hand edged the curb. It takes forever, but the results are awfully nice.
0. My "mammoth" sunflowers are maybe three feet tall and they're already starting to push the flowers out.

((hugs to all))

1. I may have personally bailed out NYC's retail economy with all the shopping I did this weekend: D&G sample sale (hot pink bathing suit, belt, gold dress for July wedding, 2 pr shoes), Catherine Malandrino sample sale (pink sweater for best friend, red cardigan for myself, pink dress), new gray nailpolish, new water glasses, new toiletries.

2. Had a really nice father's day/me and my sister birthday lunch today with dad, sister, grandmother, dad's gf and then brief MOMA stop. My grandmother gave me and my sister a generous and meaningful gift that made my sister cry. I was too out of it and hopped up on last night's codeine to feel much, unfortunately.

3. Why hasn't tonight's codeine kicked in yet? I want to be asleeeeeeeep. At least I'm not coughing. I just sorted through and reorganized all my toiletries and now my bathroom is more organized.

4. My doctor said that I had perfect blood pressure and that made me really happy, not that I was worried about it, just that I haven't gotten an A+ in anything for a while.

5. Made lasagna with 7 layers! Veggies and cheeses abound. I'm going to bring half of it over to my friend who just had a baby and try not to breathe on anyone. The baby is cute and still has a bit of a cone-head from the birthing process. She's my first close friend to give birth and I'm really glad I live a few blocks away and can visit a lot and bring them food.

1. Had to deal with two suicidal clients this week. Very glad that it's the weekend.

2. Just had a *really* great evening hanging out with some fellow interns. Talked and laughed so much that I'm losing my voice.

3. I'm shamefully addicted to The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

*Hugs elsa, ardiril, occhiblu, ColdChef, gaspode and Mr.g*

Need to pay bills and do laundry.
Had shpilkis and went to the NY historical society instead.
Am looking forward to Houston meetup and NOLA mefi 10th ,but not quite sure why I'm delibarately going where it's hot and sticky.

Whoa. Nthing hugs to all.

1. Shopping fail. I want a maxi dress that does not look like I'm wearing only a bikini on top.

2. Stayed in and did not do anything social, which I needed.

3. Excited and nervous about going to London. Other than 2 trips to Canadia I haven't been out of the country in 10 years.

crush-onastick: I want to hear more about these margaritas. I love St. Germain but have only had it with champagne and soda.

((coldchef))


(I didn't see his post on preview.)

(we did a lot of funeral work this week, one massive funeral for an unexpectedly stillborn infant girl. Sadness.)

went to the gym

foot got sore at gym

bought new shoes cuz my old ones were worn out

1. I am stressed by clearing out stuff, but I have made a start and I have cleared out the cabinets in the living room and have made a start on the bedroom. I'm listening to Johnny Walker's Sounds of the 70s, and it's really taking me back. Today's featured band is the Rolling Stones and he's played some great tracks of theirs along with some other great 70s stuff that I haven't heard for years. Currently it's "I Fooled Around And Fell In Love" by Mickey Thomas/Elvin Bishop.

2. I've decided to get rid of all my old VCR tapes except for the Tom & Jerry tapes and my box set of The Jewel In The Crown (until I can afford the DVD set). Most of them will go down to the tip, but the few that are ok (including a full box set of The Beatles and a few decent movies) can go to charity. A ton of old CDs can go to charity too.

3. I can get the council to collect my old mattress and sofa for £24. The bed store wanted £39 to take my old mattress. The mattress looks as if a tramp has pissed on it, and I'm the only person ever to have slept on it. I didn't realise how horrible years of sweat look on a mattress. I expect it'd steam clean ok, but it's a quite a few years old and isn't all that comfortable. I fancy one of those mattresses that has a memory foam top layer.

::hugs:: to everyone who needs them. My problems seem so tiny in comparison.

1. Kitchen sink is clogged on the disposal side and I don't own any Drano - the pipes are PVC so Drano is probably a bad idea anyway. Baking soda + vinegar so far hasn't been helpful. I don't really want to buy a snake because chances are I'm not going to use it again for like 5 years and it will just sit around collecting spiderwebs, but maybe if I feel spendy when I go to the store later today.

2. Car needs washing. Som damn spider has built a web across the right rearview mirror.

3. I'm having a real problem with food habits - I live by myself and don't eat much, but I also generally dislike grocery shopping, so when I do go I end up buying loads of fresh vegetables and then they go bad before I can get around to eating them. Especially dark leafy greens which are supposed to be good for you and all that. I mean, I like veggies, I just don't like that they get pathetic so fast (sorry, frozen spinach = yuck). Or that I seem to not be able to grow them in any appreciable amount (so far this year: one tomato, one bean pod).

Update to updates:

1. I have defeated the sink monster! \o/

I'm a bit late to this one and I usually avoid these - why three? do I have even one point that's even remotely worth the bits used to transmit it? who'd care? - but anyway...

1. I put some drum-machine handclaps over a couple measures of 7/8 toward the end of a new song I'm working on, and it works great and it puts a grin on my face. Humans are pretty shit, but music is one of the things that at least partially redeems us.

2. It's been hot enough the past few days that I have to sleep downstairs, but I kind of enjoy that for some reason. I also enjoy going down to the river for a dip in the afternoons when it's hot like this.

3. I went and listened Momentary Lapse of Reason for the first time in years and years and years. It seems to be not a particularly esteemed album, but I'm happy to find I still really love it.

1. I have a blister on the ring toe of my left foot, possibly from getting something in my shoe during one of this weekend's long walks.

2. Today's long walk took me to Rainey Park, along the East River just south of the Costco in Astoria/Long Island City, Queens. Down the hill, by the rail at the edge of the water, I was just about to pop open an ice-cold paper-bagged Tecate when I saw a few kids on bikes tear down the hill. The first couple took good lines, but the third kid, on a brand new bike, angled right into the wall and banged his head against the rail.

I handed my unopened beer to my buddy and jogged over to help, told the kid to take his (already bloody) shirt off and press it against the gushing cut on his forehead, asked him if he could walk, told his friends to grab his bike, and sat him down on some steps while I called for an ambulance.

Then we called home, told his aunt, making sure to reassure her that he was okay and that she shouldn't drive too fast on the way over, and when the ambulance came I went over to a bench and drank that beer. Then my friend and I tried to take off without being noticed, but the kid's aunt cornered me and thanked me and blessed me, so I told her she should make sure he wears a helmet when he rides his bike.

3. So treated myself to pork chops grilled in lemongrass marinade and served with fish sauce alongside a salad of pineapple, fresh red chiles, fresh ginger, and spring onions, with a bowl of white rice on the side. Magically delicious.