1. Going home and making a big bowl of spaghetti, because today sucked. Trying to decide between cheese sauce and pesto...probably gonna do both.

2. Tomorrow: I'm getting a facial in the morning, then meeting a friend to plan a going-away party. Meeting a bunch of friends for dinner and ballet.

3. Sunday: Writing grad school application essays and then having dinner with my brother, his wife, and their landlord. Suspect that their landlord wants me to take over their lease, which would be awesome (after the initial creepiness of living in what has been my brother's apartment for three years.)

1. New car shopping tonight. I really wanted to get a hybrid, but my husband (6'8") doesn't fit into any of the hybrids we can afford. That sucks, because I really wanted to get either a hybrid or flex fuel vehicle.

2. Boys high school basketball game tomorrow night. I didn't even see the end of last week's game because I was too busy sighing over the sleeping three month old in my arms. She slept! During a basketball game! With all of the accompanying screaming and yelling! I was impressed.

3. Now that football is over, I don't know what Sunday will hold. Since the weather is supposed to be nice, we will probably take a nice long hike with the dog.

1. Running a Valentine's Day 5k with the great theme of love 'em or leave 'em tomorrow AM, though sadly the forecast is rain and wind. But there are free brownies at the end and my Bear is going to come along to cheer me on.

2. Making next vegan Indian slow cooker recipe in my cookbook this weekend. This means I get to shop at the Indian grocery again! Love that place and the fabulous way it smells of delectable spices.

3. Another guitar lesson on Sunday. Really enjoy those.

Can I just add that I feel high on joy over Egypt, which feeling I expect to last and last?

1. Tonight: Oscar-nominated animated and live action shorts.

Our friend has a big Oscar party every year with dopey prizes and a weekend of affiliated activities (it has a huge website, with a freakish picture of our friend made up to look like Natalie Portman in Black Swan... it's just glorious). So I guess we're in the thick of it now; we go see everything we can, sometimes with her.

I don't want to see all of those downer feature documentaries!

2. Tomorrow: maaaaybe the Oscar-nominated documentary shorts at 11, then going to J's friend's house for HER friend's birthday party, at which their band will debut. J. was a touring drummer, so he's spent like three months buttering up their confidence and convincing them that everybody will like it.

The theme is '80s stuff. They're playing "Don't You Forget About Me"and apparently I am being drafted to read the Breakfast Club letter from the audience :P

3. GOD, I need to pay the wedding caterers and do other wedding stuff. NOW. Maybe I'll go get measured for foundation garments. Won't that be nice? (Ugh, ugh, ugh.)

Friday: "Date Night" at Target.
Saturday: Errands and a birthday party (for my ex-boyfriend who is also Mr. Arkham's ex-roommate).
Sunday: Ikea! Again! Bought the wrong size storage boxes...

1-just found out that I don't have to babysit grandbunny (grandbeagle?) this evening.
2-going shopping instead.:)
3-my father, who's been sick, is doing well. Between that and our spring-like temps, this is shaping up to be a good weekend.

Date night @ Target? Sounds like my kinda fun.

1. My new guitar. ≡ Click to see image ≡
2. Making stuffed peppers or cabbage if I get to the store.
3. Untangling and redoing all the wiring seen in the pic above.

Tonight: Meetup

Rest of the weekend? Wallow in the crushing pit of my despair.

1) Make duck confit
2) Make a key lime pie, or at least juice and zest the thirty tiny limes we have on our counter.
3) Knit a shrug I owe to my co-worker Anne

1. Just got home from NARA and am eating because I realized on the drive home that I was starving. (I'm working on letting my body tell me when it's hungry rather than trying to schedule meal times but it's been a strange process.)

2. Planning on doing some baking tomorrow. (I got a breadmaker for Christmas and so I'm going to give that a test drive tomorrow because I am out of bread and my normal homemade methods won't work in my cold house. I'm also planning on using a red velvet cake mix and thickening it up and making red velvet whoopie pies with some cream cheese frosting. I haven't baked for the people at work lately and my boss did give me a nice set of measuring cups for the holidays, so I need to do my duty.)

3. Attempt to not let everything go to hell. I don't know what it is about my moods but when the sun goes down on the weekends (Thursday night-Sunday night), my mood just fucking craters. It's irritating and not at all conducive for ALL THE SHIT I HAVE TO DO.

1. Got my feet up and relaxing after another crazy day at work. Scrambled to make everything nicey-nicey for the new District Manager (and then never got to meet her).

2. Work, which will be nice because my immediate manager is taking the day off. Whoo Hoo, I will be in charge!

3. Mom coming by on Sunday morning for coffee and to see my new laminate floor/entranceway tile. It's a grand thing to have a bored handyman for a friend!

1) Take a big mess of clothes and such to Goodwill to regain some space.

2) Roast up a backlog of root vegetables.

3) Walk a lot.

1. I just made some salted walnuts. I had to approximate a recipe because of an odd amount of walnuts and an odd dearth of recipes* on the internets. I think a bit less salt and less cooking time next time around will be better but they are quite nomable as is.

2. There will be TV watched (looking forward to the 2 hours special on QE2 (the person) on TLC on Sunday).

3. Playing a bit of WoW, I'm sure.

*Most recipes I found were calling for the use of salted nuts, not how to salt nuts.

PS: Pretty guitar, Ardiril!

1. Studying for the GRE
2. Elementary school basketball game tomorrow
3. Nice weather on Sunday - maybe some sort of something with that. I don't know.

1. I spent this evening with theora55! It was so great to catch up with her, and you guys want to know: her new hairstyle looks crazy-good. Like, CRAZY-GOOD.

2. That was a good way to end a day that went off the rails pretty fast. Let me summarize by saying: this morning, I managed to put on every article of clothing either inside-out or upside-down. Or both. Things went downhill from there.

3. I am drinking hot cocoa with dark rum! Mmm, toasty warm.

1. tonight = watched The Kids are Alright. Hope Annette Bening wins the oscar, because she was great in it.

2. Saturday = birthday party for one of the kid's friends. then brunch with TPS and Lola_G, then getting our nails done (I have never had a manicure before and am a little nervous).

3. Sunday = chilling, shoe shopping and a playdate in the afternoon. Now that are Sundays aren't organized around football I'm feeling a little lost. At least until baseball season.

1. Today, low-level panic/high-level anxiety all day long because OMG how the hell are we going to pull this wedding together????

2. Tomorrow, we go to a tasting at a caterer that better work out because otherwise OMG how the hell are we going to get a caterer on board for the wedding?

3. Sunday, I need to chill the fuck out because OMG I feel like such a cliche that this wedding is taking over my life.

1. Tonight - stopped by Little Egypt to see the festivities (which are still going on according to Twitter) then sat around eating Combos.
2. Tomorrow- Brunch + manicures, grocery shopping, homework, fondue
3. Sunday- Church, Hosting fellowship with the choir, talking to member about taking over Treasurer's duties, additional V-Day celebrations? Dunno.

1. Event at work today -- which I've been organizing all week -- was canceled because the person around whom it was centered (and who flew here from Houston) came down with stomach flu yesterday.

2. I spent most of yesterday afternoon and some of this morning frantically trying to get the event re-organized for Monday. And then *I* got the stomach flu.

3. At home with the stomach flu. Will be recovering over the weekend, as well as finishing up preparations for Monday and hoping that it all goes well and no one pukes.

+. There hasn't been a single weekend so far in 2011 that I haven't spent either injured or sick. Not kidding.

1. I dunno. I don't really have any plans.
2. I guess I'll exercise. Grocery store. Laundry. Read. Stare at the tv screen. Cook something so I'll have leftovers for work next week.
3. Probably should take some gray out of my hair, although these days I don't really see the point of trying to maintain my old appearance.

1. spent all of Friday evening and half the night exorcising work thoughts/worries. I really need longer weekends. I lose half of it to thinking about work. Which I do not get paid for. I'd be rich if I got paid for thinking about work.
2. Today : new paint! new paper! also some grocery shopping and possibly laundry. No evening plans, so either more art fumbling or netflix and sock knitting. I should probably plan some kind of nice-ish dinner.
3. Knit group tomorrow at someone's house I've never been to. thank goodness for GPS. I should bake cookies but probably will not make the time.

1. Friday- went to see the live action Oscar shorts with the bf, they were all great! it was hard to choose a favorite but I am hoping either Confession or Na WeWe wins. We ate really good pizza beforehand at Keste and didn't even have to wait to get in!
2. Sat- just booked a really great hotel in Bali! We are getting a villa in the rice paddies that has its own private pool. Sounds awesome. Later today I am going to a clothing swap then seeing my best friend for dinner and the Oscar animated shorts (I love short films and I always have to rope separate people into going to all the showings with me).
3. Sun- no plans yet, guess it would be a good time to clean up my apartment and pack for my big trip on Monday. I can't wait to go! We are spending 2 nights in Singapore with my dad and then 3 in Bali on our own.

(Wow, I did this 66.6% wrong.)

2. Tonight I will briefly attend a Party For No Reason. (It was going to be a Groundhog Day party, but the hosts had to reschedule... so they made it a Chynna Philips Birthday Party.) I love these guys but they do get a little boisterous for me, hence the "briefly" part.

3. Today and Sunday, I am making truffles. I've never made 'em before. I think I'll make one batch dark chocolate with Grand Marnier and one batch stuffed with chile-glazed almonds.

1. My day yesterday. . .3 out of 4 planes were broken: Got up at 3:15 to make a 5:20 flight. Got to the airport and the TSA guy told us that we better check because he thinks our Horizon flight was cancelled. Sure enough it was. We were going Eugene-Portland-Phoenix and then renting a car and driving to Tucson (more on this later). The Horizon guy is trying to get us out on something so I say that if it's easier to go to Tucson, great because that is where we are going. He gets us a Delta flight Eugene-SLC-Tucson an hour later. So we wait, and then get on the plane then sit on the plane for 90 minutes while they try to figure out why the front wheel won't steer. They finally figure it out and we leave, but get to SLC and miss the Tucson plane. No prob, Delta says. . we will get to the Phoenix and then connect to Tucson. We get on the Delta airbus at SLC then proceed to sit there for an hour while they worried that one of the internal PA speakers does not work, then get it working and do the paper work. We finally take off and get to Phoenix with about 20 minutes but Delta booked us on USAir for the last flight which is another fucking terminal so we go OUT of security, take a bus to the next terminal and then this HUGE LINE at the other security so my wife takes over and we jump the employee line and get through, run to the gate and they are finishing boarding and we barely get on, panting, sweating, and since this is a 20 minute flight, no water or anything but we make it to Tucson.

Then since Daughter is flying in from Portland 10 minutes later, we wait around to suprise her. Her Alaska plane lands, half the people get off then the jetway COLLAPSES! and they shut the door while they are fixing it. I text daughter to deploy the chute and she texts back that she is THIS CLOSE to doing just that. She finally deplanes after another 30 minutes and we get picked up by wife's sister and taken to their really nice house on the edge of the desert with a view down to Tucson.

2. I am in Tucson because wife's mother died over the summer, and since this is her birthday (the mother) we flew down to commemorate that the spread her ashes in the desert. Well my wife and her sister do not get along so it is always rather fraught and especially since unbenownst to me the rest of the family decided to take the ashes to Forest Lawn in LA at their convenience since the dead father is there. Lots of tension but wife, daughter and I took this plastic bag of ashes out to the desert and we each spread a handful (eww) and then re-sealed the bag, but it back on the box and re-taped it and now they can take the rest to LA.

3. Wife's sister is a great cook, so lots of food and drink and the house is SO pretty, right under the Catalina mountains and I plan on eating and consuming lots of fancy alcohol to get through the rest of the visit until Monday, when we will hitch with other family to Phoenix and drive to LA.

3a. Daughter is pissed in that I told her Alaska has always had free beer and wine but when she ordered a beer she had to pay for it and she wants the satisfaction of saying I was wrong but every other time I have flown Alaska the flight attendants have roamed the cabin with bottles, refilling for people but they must have changed that since last spring, when I flew with them last. We shall see on the way back if we can actually get on an Alaska/Horizon plane.

1. I had planned on catching up on the cleaning that got backed up since the pipes were frozen
2. Instead I'm laying down in the dark with a migraine
3. Occasionally coming up for air.

I was assaulted last night so I'm staying in until the scratches heal on my face. I'm
Eating comfort food.

omg Grace are you OK? what happened?

yep, I'm fine. Attack of the drunk girl. She's already apologised.