Stop in Boston on your way to Portland!

1. It's cold in Florida -- currently 43 degrees.

2. My husband and I have a good system: I make the breakfast and the kids' lunches. He bikes with them to school.

3. I got my hair cut, colored and highlighted yesterday. It has more layers cut into it. It was looking a bit blunt for my taste.

4. Yesterday I watched Y tu mamá también. They night before, I watched Lorna's Silence. Both were very enjoyable. Today I will watch the original The Vanishing. I'll also do laundry and bring the kids to piano lessons. Tonight is spaghetti with turkey sausage and salad.

5. I should be exercising today. I should be doing Zumba with my mother-in-law at the Y, or sweating on the elliptical. I am unmotivated to exercise.

1. 66 and 67 passed! This is huge for Oregon. Schools and other public endeavors were going to face a huge cliff to jump off, and that has been put off, for now.

2. It's 5:22 AM and I am just about to get on my bike to go to the gym. Yes Lori. . .they gym. . .*smile*

3. My wife caught my cold. . .she's not happy with me. I sterilized my neti pot but can't get her to use it.

Man, I'd kill for access to an elliptical. There's no way for me to get exercise right now, and I'm pudgy and creaky.

Eid, I SO wish that we could stop in Boston! Alas, it is not to be. We will be flying to Florida to visit family for a while, then driving cross-country. Route 66, baby. Gotta show the Brit some of the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Cold? I believe the expected high today is 18 degrees.

1. Not dressed yet. Wednesday mornings I do the expungement legal aid desk at the courthouse, so I have an extra 90 minutes in the morning. BUT I always forget what floor of the courthouse and it's not on the legal aid group's website or the courthouse website or the reminder email the coordinator sends. I eventually found the room number buried in a Spanish language website. SIGH

2. I have a Red Cross Ambassador gig tonight. We're still raising money for Haiti relief efforts.

3. seven and a half work days left at the old job. Yesterday I started telling clients and co-counsel at other firms. Listening to the reactions is interesting.

1. Already at the office (only 15 steps from the bedroom - the joys of working from home) and my to-do list is growing much faster than I'd like.

2. 4 cats are sleeping in the office while I work (the real joy of working from home).

3. Mrs Agogo is about to head off to work - once she leaves the morning news goes off and the stereo goes on. First on the playstack - Chris Knox tribute album followed by the new Spoon.

1. Working from home, listening to Robert Elms on BBC Radio London. I like his show - he's the same age as me, I remember him as a much-admired young man in the clubs during the late 70s and early 80s, and he plays some good music.

2. The little wall at the end of my garden is falling down :-( Four blocks so far have tumbled from it. The roots from the shrubs behind it have pushed it over. Stop, nature!

3. I had fun last night at the BBC. I went with sueinnyc to a taping of Mock The Week. We were right at the front, which was kind of a mixed blessing, because we had all the camera operators right in front of us, but what we could see, we could see really well. Sue could see the half of the set I couldn't see, and vice versa. But we might be on TV on Thursday night. I'm wearing a blue top and glasses, Sue is in black.

4. On Monday I bought something described as 'enchiladas' from Morrisons. You fucking liars, Morrisons. It was dogfood in dough.

5. Dentist tomorrow, doctor on Thursday. Hopefully just a scale and polish at the dentist. Nothing serious at the doctor's, just a checkup on something.

essexjan: listening to Robert Elms on BBC Radio London. I like his show

I listen to BBC6 often via the web, but haven't really dug in much further. Until I saw your comment, I didn't even realize that there were so many regional BBC broadcasts - especially available online. I added BBC Radio London to my online stations and am listening now here in Chicago.

1. At work, dealing with the joy of a development machine that isn't on the same network as the svn repository; I'm sneaker-netting like I'm back in college.

2. Put the first layer of stain on the home-built media console last night, and hope to sand and put a second layer on tonight. Nice to have progress after half a month of no time for it.

3. The wedding and engagement rings commissioned via Etsy shipped yesterday, much to our delight.

1. So nearly finished my week's work and can't motivate myself for the final push.

2. Lovely sunny day outside, so I *should* be motivated.

3. Baby updates:
A - She seems to love Johnny Weir (it's not the music - she'll watch with the sound off, and it's not the skating per se, because she has no interest in Sasha Cohen.) Hence, I think she loves Johnny. Kid, I got some bad news for you...
B - She's moving up a "class" at daycare. Nap time change!! Next week is going to be rough, I think. The nap time is at a much better time, because at the moment she is supposed to still be having too, but has refused her afternoon nap for oh, 3 months or so, which means that she's a little grumpybum by the end of the day (she will happily go down for her 10.30 nap and zonk out immediately).
C - still working on weaning off the bottle. I'm about to say fuck it and just go cold turkey. She's old enough now that she's super attached to it ("Bobble! Bobble! Bobble!") so it's just going to get harder.

argh. she is supposed to still be having two

1. Took on a new volunteer project with a group that provides legal aid to migrant farmworkers in the southeast. This group is always fun to work with.
2. Looking into whether or not my dog qualifies to train as a therapy dog, because I think she would be a TOTALLY KICK ASS therapy dog. I personally find her very therapeutic, and I think others could as well.
3. Lots and lots of good solid high-paying work coming in. We have had one huge lawsuit after another to translate, and that means $$$$. A very good way to start the year, indeed.
4. We need the extra ducats, because the boy has just gotten a job and a car (he got the job, we got the car), and he goes to college in the next town over. Gas, insurance, gah.
5. Looking forward to watching the BSG movie The Razor tonight, dinner will consist of broiled salmon, creamy spatzel mixed with crispy sage, and sautéed spinach.

1) This weekend I got barely any sleep, between being sick with two different things and, well, I don't know what other complicating factors were. At any rate, I've been trying to get back to normal, which has necessitated going to bed at 8:30 on Sunday and last night. I'm sleeping sitting up, propped by 5 pillows creating a wedge, and when I got up this morning my butt was asleep.

2) I've been constantly stressed over the last year, and I really, really need to get on top of it. I'm trying to eat more healthily and sleep, but I know there are many other steps to take. Lifestyle changes are hard, though, and so I've been avoiding them a little. Which doesn't help with the stress. I hate it when I know *what* to do but don't do it anyway.

3) All that said, a lot of the "bad" stress is situational and there's more of it that's coming from positive changes.

4) Overall, though, I'm a lucky gal, and I'm glad I know it.

1. Whew. We had a twelve-hour open house yesterday for The Fella's birthday: noon to midnight, with hot and cold running food and drink all day long. Terrific fun! We were startled (and delighted) how many people came, and how long they stayed!

2. Today, I am exhausted.

3. Beer cans and glasses EVERYWHERE. Otherwise, it doesn't look too bad!

6. Woot! I biked with the dog for mile and went to the Y and did a half hour on the treadmill and a half hour on the elliptical. I'm very proud of myself.

1. Just got done with crazy busy morning in the museum, fifth graders and preschoolers, all milling around together, and then the Cracking of the Geodes, which is always a hit.

2. Supposed to be another big snowstorm on Friday & I'm already planning my Thursday evening shopping list. This time I'll have actual heat - we have central heat! Central heat is pretty kickass! Even though it was 14 degrees outside last night it was warm inside! - so I won't have to bake all day but I think I want to anyway.

3. Daughter's best friend broke up with boyfriend, arrived at my house at 1 a.m. Gave her tea and son's bed because son rarely comes home anymore. Then son came home. I guess he slept on the floor. It's a good thing I function well in chaos - in December my house contained me, 3 dogs and a part time teenager. Now it's me, 3 dogs, daughter, daughter's friend, part time teenager who may at any minute become full time and a cat - a persnickety cat at that.

4. Don't think I can afford to carpet downstairs room. Sigh. Considering buying bunch of cheapass carpet remnants, duct taping to concrete floor, pretending is artsy carpet project.

1. I finished the first sort of all the building plans yesterday. I've been cursing them for the past few days but I felt kinda sad as I was clearing off the back counter (which I've been using to pile the boxes). The next step with the boxes is to go back through the massive piles of them on the loading dock and sort them by neighborhood so they can be numbered in order. I have no idea how I'm going to do this with the limited space I have.

2. Of course, now that I've moved onto my next project and need to use my database--it has decided to shit the bed. Fantastic.

3. Tonight is dance class and I am so fucking stoked for it because I've been having issues with a part of the Arabian Spices choreo that I'm trying to learn and I need to use the big mirror to find out what I'm doing wrong. (Of course, I'm afraid that by taking my few minutes after class to do this that I look like a major overachieving asshole, but 'tevs.)

4. Although I've got millions of other things I should be doing this weekend (like a paper that's due on Wednesday that I only started researching on Monday), I'm excited about my homie coming down to spend the weekend with me. We are meeting in Shippensburg to hang out with another friend of ours and the stoop boys, then Friday we plan to go shopping and have dinner reservations at some random Morrocan place that has a bellydancer that night, and Saturday we are thinking about doing some touristy stuff in DC.

5. I slept for only 5 hours last night. And I had to fight to get those 5 hours. I really hope this isn't the start of badness. :-/

1. Throwing a baby shower for my friend on Saturday, and I'm obsessing over it. Am I getting enough food? Will there be enough parking? How will I fill three hours?

2. Trying really hard to get all my hours in this week for the month so that I don't have to work this weekend, for once.

3. Wondering if it's true that stress causes weight gain even without a higher calorie or fat intake, and thinking that's maybe why I gained weight. Now if only I could get rid of it. It seems determined to stay.

1. Woke up dripping and sneezing, and had to rinse the sinuses first thing. No good, so on to medications.

2. Trying to hire a good guy away from another library. Crossing fingers.

3. Knee hurts, so I guess more damned pills.

4. Pissed because the scale at the dr.'s office says I haven't lost any weight. Either my scale or their scale is fucking lying.

5. Really irritated with users who make every single work order a "high" priority. Did you break a printer? Did you break the website? No? It's not a "high" priority.

6. I just am not motivated to work at all this week, and really, due to budget cuts, there's not a lot to do anyway. There's a thing I really really want to do, but it takes so much buy in that by the time I get it, the moment may well pass.

7. I'm depressing myself here. I'm gonna go take a walk.

1. Sick! Caught the kids' cold. Runny nose, sore throat, achy. Shivered under a blanket all day on the couch pretty much.

2. Tired. The baby is teething his top front two, and it's making him so grumpy. Formerly a very good sleeper, he's been up half the night the past couple in a row.

3. Unmotivated. Should be exercising, and writing, and am not.

4. Paranoid. Large plans are afoot; I cannot relax until the paperwork is all signed and done. I keep worrying there will be a jinx on it.

All of the above combine to make me 5. Snappish.
Do not like.

1. Father leaves for UK tomorrow, and after that I won't see him for several months straight, which has me pretty down. Mother will follow him in a few days, but she's at least flying home a couple of times during the spring. I'm very happy for them and know they'll have a fantastic time, but I'm really going to miss them very much.

2. Entered second stage of debt-tackling strategy, and spent a long time on the phone with creditors today trying to plan the next six months' worth of payments. February is going to suck- at least it's the shortest month. Another year, or perhaps eighteen months, and then maybe I can start to think about Having Nice Things occasionally.

3. Classes have started somewhat rockily, mostly because I zoned out intellectually last week while worrying about moving. 87% on my first quiz in lecture, and a zero (until makeup) on the one in lab because I came in late after trying to find a parking spot (curse you, North Shore). Also taking Java, which only started two days ago, so there hasn't been a chance to make any mistakes there yet. The classes themselves are interesting and challenging so far, and there's a slight- haven't really weighed all the implications yet- chance that I might direct the degree more towards some form of biotechnology. We'll see.

I worked late tonight, but it was worth it because:

1. I met with one of the co-founders of Facebook to go over his board package and he was really nice to me. Not telling you which one, but when I told him I loved his work, he assumed I meant Facebook and when I told him it was the other stuff, he smiled.

2. I also learned how to use Adobe InDesign, thus increasing my value as an employee not just to my boss but to future bosses and realized that if I ever get a copy of InDesign for PC, I can maybe do my own Smut Peddler and/or book layouts(!). I'm totally putting that on my Amazon.com Wishlist.

3. Today, I wore my new Victoria's Secret 38C bra (went down a cup size, what?) that also has push-up inserts under a pink button-down shirt with a cardigan-ish vest over it, nice-fitting jeans and my calf-high black boots because I just felt like it. I was rewarded when I was complimented by my boss' male associate for looking nice earlier today and told by my boss' e-Newsletter designer as he was leaving the after-hours tutorial session that it looks like I lost weight and look great.