1. Was supposed to go shopping with mum today but I somehow managed to get a pinched nerve in my foot that had me hopping around and swearing like a sailor. So I'm sitting at home playing games isntead.

2. After people ignoring my online shop, I got a flurry of orders within five minutes of each other plus a couple of enquiries. Where were you people three months ago??

3. I am having home-made sushi rolls for lunch. Spicy tuna salad for the win!!

(Also, so jealous, Jan!)

Pips is a Pip!

Good to hear about the flight.


I don't care how many butch points I lose, I'd so want to have a facial with gaspode.

It is almost Thursday now (here)! Also, I would love to get facials with you and gaspode! I wish I could have met you while you were here... So close and yet so far!

1. Spent the morning lost in Trenton, New Jersey. That was exhausting. Don't give me an address that is unmapquestable or GPSable, mmmkay?

2. Hoping I start to see some results from all this time at the gym. The trainer has me doing all this weight training on the premise that building muscle helps you burn fat. I kind of get it, but geez louise I just want to lose some weight already.

3. I have had such insomnia for months. It is really getting to me.

4. One more: Seeing The Back-Up Plan on Sunday with my mom. I hope it doesn't totally irritate me.

1. I have the flu and I'm sneezy, coughy, and feverish.
2. I hope I'm okay at work tomorrow.
3. I just ordered birthday presents online for two of my sibs.

1. In an effort to help end my back problems, I have been going to a Core class at my gym, and oh good lord does that hurt. I'm not sure that making one's core muscles so sore that one can no longer move is all that beneficial, but I am trying to stick with it.

2. The gym class is at 7:30 in the morning, and I am not usually a morning exercise person, but it's been kind of nice to get up and get out of the house and work out and then it's still only 9am.

3. I have determined that in order to get 100% of the supervised client-contact hours that I want each week, I need to actually schedule 150% of the hours that I want, because so many people no-show or cancel. So I'm kind of alternating between feeling very industrious for having so many clients scheduled and overwhelmingly panicked that I have so many clients scheduled.

Ooh, a 3-point update I can get in near the top of! Well, it's about time, but I have good news.

1. Spent day at the Wisconsin Bike Summit. Really cool stuff about building bike-friendly communities. We want to make Wisconsin the #1 bicycle state (#2 isn't good enough).

2. Getting very good responses to my advocacy for Bike to Work Week. I'm the man on this one, and it's really great to have a focus and what looks like an incipient success, as well as all the social capital I'm amassing. Totally different from my old approach to life and it's starting to reap reinforcing rewards.

3. I'm crushing on someone. Hard. I've only met her twice and I could go swimming in her eyes. She's cute and at best 2/3 my age and smart and interested in some of the same things. And I think, today, she gave me the big "I'm single" signal. Considering my considerable disadvantages ... I hope I don't wake up from this one anytime soon.

1. If I never have a meeting again, it will be too soon.
2. I found out last night that I've met someone who's met someone who met Elvis.
3. Is it hometime yet?

1. had an amazing dinner last night cooked by my stranded Spanish friend Emy! invited a few people around (which is not at all easy in UK) and we had ourselves a party.
2. it's the 6th consecutive sunny day on the South Coast and my vegetables actually need to be watered, can't believe it!
3. Very unusually hubby has been home for 4 straight days, so the three of us spending ages catching up (his Spanish is really improving!!!) I love this volcanic cloud!

It's Thursday for me already. (And I have no idea how I missed this when I got home from dance class last night, but I love updates.)

1. I got mentioned in our library paper. And I got lots of warm fuzzies from the person who wrote that article (that has been giving me my orders for said collection) when she came down to visit and give me my next set of instructions.

2. Dance class (Wednesday night) was spectacular, which was a nice change from last week's, where I felt like an idiot. This is the next level up and it shows very badly, but at least I'm starting to get settled. We did lots of folkloric stuff, which I like more than cabaret.

3. I am finished for the winter term of school. (One down, 4.5 to go.) I'm looking forward to getting a breather for the next two weeks (including a celebratory/commiseration trip out of town to visit my homie) and saying goodbye to the condo board nonsense tonight. (Thursday is our annual meeting and I'm not running for reelection because I hate them all don't have the time to dedicate in order to really do the job properly with school and work and having a personal life since the condo is so fucked up I think it just might be beyond repair.)

1. Feeling low for no particular reason.
2. Doing a lot of reading.
3. That's about it.

1. Got in VERY late the night before, from LA due to mechanical probs. In bed after 2 then at my desk at 7:30. Very grouchy all day. Got in a stupid argument with wife in front of visiting adult daughter.

2. In CA Hertz gave me a Prius, at no upsell charge, probably because that was all they had. Weird to drive, more like booting up than starting a car. But fun, and great milage.

3. Daughter has been uncommonly candid about her relat. with her gf. She's at the point where it's getting hard (don't we all get there?) and I think it's good for her to talk about it.

1. Imposter syndrome! I has it! I doesn't want it! (I always get it when hired to teach a new course).
2. New Droid phone! I plan to pre-order it! I wants it!
3. Seriously, I need some drinking with fun people, but I am totally booked solid with meetings &c until my head explodes.

crush-onastick, I so hear you on the imposter syndrome. Why do you people trust me enough to give me all this fellowship money? I so obviously have no clue what I'm doing.
1. Submitted a midterm for a class yesterday with just minutes to spare. Way too stressful. Need to stop doing that!
2. After that, had the actual class during which the most exciting thing was the professor showing us a video of someone's Tobago vacation which was just a first-person drive through the town. This was shown at the beginning of the class and at the end he handed out a short questionairre about details from the video. I sucked at it. Today he's posted another short assignment about the video with longer answers required this time. I'm not sure where he's going with all this (short-term vs. long-term memory?) but it's making me feel crappy about my memory.
3. Attended a short two-hour workshop on running jobs on the cluster with my advisor and a postdoc from the lab today. It was fairly straightforward and I feel happy that some bash commands seem to have finally sunk and I don't have to resort to googling every five minutes.

I read amro's update as " going ..Buck-Up Plan with Mom..hope it doesn't irritate me", and thought amro's Mom was laying down the law!

Must stop skimming MeCha.

1. 'Pode and I had our treatments - I had a facial, which also involved neck and shoulder massage and my hands being covered in lotion and encased in plastic gloves. I am SO SOFT now! Gaspode says she had a massage, although the floor she had to go to also does Botox ... hmmm ...

2. We had a great lunch, with dessert eaten in Central Park, shared with a couple of sparrows. I studied gaspode's forehead, and it still moves, so I think she probably did have a massage.

3. I'm packing now, getting ready for the journey home. I miss my cats.

we are so fetching in our robes...

1. Got my first choice for a thesis adviser. Very pleased.

2. I hate the 'workshop' section of my creative writing class. Mostly because a good chunk of my class simply can't write and replying with "a thesaurus isn't used the way you seem to think it is" isn't exactly the intention.

3. I'm working on a novel. I don't expect to stick with it, though.

1: I AM HOME and not in Milan where I was stuck, due to ekyuahowdoIpronouncethat-volcano-ash-stuff.

2: House turned into epic mess while I was away. Gee, thanks.

3: Scored 1950's doll house lamp, for the 1950's doll house. Spent afternoon 'cleaning' that house instead. Ha! Take that! yeah yeah I'll clean the real house tomorrow