Tonight I went out and bought most of the ingredients for this recipe. Tomorrow night I start it, and Thursday night I cook it and, hopefully, eat it.

I am excited. This will be my first time cooking anything, really.

Oops I hit post.
I now know what Cilantro tastes/smells like. It's the stuff that makes salsa salsa.

And I don't think I have a third point.

So incredibly stressed out about a deadline. Have not really slept in quite some time. My back hurts horribly and I so badly want to curl up in a ball and sleep on my office floor RIGHT NOW. But it looks like I will get very little sleep again tonight.

On the upside, I had a terrific weekend visiting friends in San Diego, costuming it up and having a delightful party. If not for that brief distraction, I would be more stressed.

I expect to be done with this by Friday and I will sleep like tiny babby all weekend long (I hope).

1. I feel like I have a foot up my throat -- I just took a Bikram yoga class.

2. My house was clean two days ago. It is falling apart fast. The kids have their quilts, sheets, and pillows in the computer room. Why, kids, why? The bed linens are on top of a tennis ball that has been shredded into a million tiny pieces by the dog. I will be cleaning all day tomorrow because a friend is coming over tomorrow night. That is the good thing about guests, they prevent you from sitting in squalor.

3. I'll try to make it to the shower without collapsing. I have two movies I want to watch tonight. Two Lovers (seen it, loved it, want to see it again) and Into The Wild. I wonder if I can stay awake after sweating for 90 minutes and putting my body in positions that inflict great pain.

1. I am happy, and:
2. Could care less about the little irritations in the world that might get in my way, and:
3. I'm still gainfully employed and can afford to self medicate should the need arise.

1. I have a headache
2. My back hurts
3. I'm nauseated

PS: I'm going to see UP tomorrow no matter how I'm feeling - yay!

1. I got the property tax bill today. I know I should wait until September to pay it, but I always get worried about those sorts of important things and always would like them to GTFO my desk.

2. I've got a burnout vacation planned (just a few days off work since I feel like I'm just losing my mind there) and my homie is coming down at the end of August so we can party. I wonder if we're going to end up drinking mixed drinks that come from stranger's backpacks again.

3. Oh yeah, and for 'foot-up-in-yo-ass'ness: I was happily making food (mac and cheese and BUNDT CAKE) and my mother comes over with my father when I thought it was just going to be him (and he was pissed that she decided to tag along too) and she just started bitching about how I was cooking and that I used too much non-stick spray on my cake and that you're not supposed to frost bundt cakes and OMG you made the mac and cheese wrong and when I tried to do the polite thing and offer cheese straws that I had made before, she got all pissy and was telling me that since she has to go to the doctor tomorrow and be weighed that she's not eating anything and then she did that slow look up and down and mentioned that I obviously haven't been weighed in a while and it just made me feel like I was all of 2 years old again and ugh. FOOT IN HER ASS. FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.

I'll just leave this pile of whuffles in warm laundry here for those who need them.

1. WE GOT THE APARTMENT! (Post with pics to come.)
2. Chicago Monthly meetup at the goat tomorrow, crush and I will be at the lame table.
3. Waiting for the neighbors to come home for a nightcap. Glad to be moving, but they will be missed.

1. Job interview today with an internet startup. The technical interview part with the engineering VP went really well, but the talk with the CEO was very odd. Mostly he just quizzed me on the names of managers at my previous jobs. And criticized me because I couldn't remember the name of the senior VP at the job I got laid-off from last year. WTF was that?

2. But the flip side is that while I was interviewing, I got a voice mail with a job offer from another startup that I interviewed with two weeks ago. So one way or another, I'm not working for [giant defense contractor] anymore.

3. I have no idea how to quit a job, I've never done that before. My manager is going on vacation too. I guess that I talk to HR. Do I give them two weeks or just bail?

1. Allergies and germs are making my voice go away

2. BFF did her capstone today to rave reviews! yay!

3. I don't have a three point foot. But it sounds useful.

Am finally moved to San francisco
got an iPhone
won't have dsl till next week

Foot-up-ass theme? OK, here goes.

1. Car parked for weekend in front of our rental. Monday, the plates disappear. While my nephew and I are out looking at it, guy down the street yells "Do you want to buy it?" I yell back, "Are you the owner?" He says he knows the owner. I say "It looks abandoned, it needs to be moved. Tell him if it isn't gone by tomorrow, I call the cops." I suppose this might have gone over better if we weren't yelling halfway down the block at each other, but he shoots back, "You call the cops, I hitchu in the mouf." Ah, I'm in the Baltimore ghetto, I see. As a neighborhood activist I don't take kindly to intimidation (recall last year I got whacked with a 2x4) and so I yell back, "That's a verbal threat, so guess what? I am calling the cops."

His girlfriend hustles him inside, I guess he was fixing to come down after me. Anyway, 911 asked if I was in immediate danger and I said no, so it was almost two hours before an officer did arrive, and by then another neighbor had given me the guy's name. Apparently he's on probation, so the officer got some decent cooperation, and explained that -- after all -- an abandoned car just needs to be moved off the street. It's not a citation in and of itself.

2. My dad with dementia is doing OK in the nursing home, but his (my mom's) insurance has run out, so now he's on Medicare. The Long Term Care insurance doesn't kick in until mid-August. There's a co-pay period, and Medicare expires completely after 100 days (many people don't know this). At least we have the LTC. It's a lifesaver.

But, I was just adjusting stuff on his Upromise account today so I can get credit for a bunch of upcoming pre-bankruptcy appliance purchases. (My mom has suffered with no dishwasher and four-decade old washer and dryer for too long. And yes, you can do this legally, as long as you don't buy it on credit.) A couple of years back he was obsessed with Upromise, a rewards program for putting money away for college. He would even buy coupons from McDonald's with Upromise, then use the coupons to buy McDonald's for the family, to get 2% back on the Mickey D's bill of $20.00. It was always so much hassle. And my mom and I doubted that any of the kids would actually go to college, but maybe tech school. Well, the upshot is that seven years of rewards earned equals ...

$158.00

That's not the worst of it. The worst of it is that he never set up the qualified 529 account so that the reward money could then earn interest tax-free. All that work, all that hassle, nothing to show for it. It's exactly the kind of thing we have learned to expect from his early symptoms of frontotemporal dementia -- not getting the big picture.

3. Hmm. Maybe the tenants can fit here. Not paying, so we have to evict. Hate doing this, but it's just as much my dad's fault as anything, so the boot gets waved at him too.

*fist bumps LFR

I've been trying to be more productive lately, so I should learn some yoga to put my foot up my own ass. However, today was good:

1) Looks like I may be on the board at my apartment complex. It's a non-profit kind of place that offers a lot of rental assistance. We're one of the few households to work our way back up to paying full rent. This is all kind of a maybe big deal. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

2) Trained the new guy at work. He's bright and I hope he works out ok. I almost always start out with high hopes and wait to see what happens with the fresh coworkers.

3) Spent 4 hours this evening helping a friend move. I'm pretty sore. Bonus: She showed me her new boobs. She just finished reconstruction a couple months ago after beating breast cancer last year. Her doctors did amazing work. She's an incredible lady.

Just as an add-on, I feel privileged and moved by the showing of her new boobs. I mean, they certainly are HERS. She custom ordered them and all.

Also, I've been an acquaintance of this lady for 8 or 9 years now and I feel like I got adopted into friend status tonight. She probably doesn't realize it, but she's one of my local heroes.

I've been trying to expand my friend list in ways that are healthy. I love my crazy neighbor lady like a sister, but I'm having to set boundaries. That can be hard.