1. It's also quite slow here in the library today, but that's because the overachievers haven't started requesting everything. Also, the person who sends me collections to work on is at a workshop and isn't back until next Monday. I've been a shining example of presenteeism by staring thoughtfully at my computer while playing Sims Social.

2. Been really off food lately. Everything just seems like too much hassle to do and nothing is really what I want (although I don't know what it is that I do want). I have lots of foodstuffs that I could make, but ugh--I just don't care. And I'm not really hungry either, which is strange, because normally once my appetite disappears like this, my mood goes into the shitter, but it hasn't yet. Hmm.

3. SUNSHINE SUNSHINE SUNSHINE. Apparently it is 66 outside right now and I may have to eat my lunch outside. I wish I could be at home napping right now (because let me tell you internets, sunshine naps are the best naps). I hope that it stays warm enough tonight so I can run home to grab a piece of fabric and then head to the park across the way to find a tree to tie it on to make a Bridget's Cloak. I won't be able to retrieve it in the morning, so I'm wondering if I should just move my rosemary plant outside tonight and tie it on that so I can take it down before sunrise.

1. I get my next check on Friday! Yay! Seattle may be more famous for its coffee, but apparently this town also gives major consideration to the weekday Happy Hour. I am going to like it here.

2. I lived off way too much pasta and other starches over the last month.

3. Today is sunny here too. Nice for a walk.

1. I'm listening to snowmelt drizzling off the roof; the temp is hovering juuuuuust above freezing. It's a very pleasant sound.

2. After my ridiculously delicious dinner last night, I realized "Hey... I haven't had a serving of fruit or vegetables all day." Unsurprisingly, my belly is revolting, whichever way you want to take that. Just a little object lesson that my body would rather have a salad and several sides of fried stuff instead of a big chunk of nearly-raw meat and several sides of fried stuff.

3. Making oatmeal bread! Soon the house will smell heavenly.

1. I slept well last night. Started 2 hours after I had intended to, but it was eight almost-continuous hours of sleep, still, two hours more than I can usually get these days and I actually awoke refreshed. NO bathroom runs, no 'limbs-fallen-asleep' waking me with tingling, only two brief wake-ups for a drink of water (my post-nasal drip puts a ton of gunk in my throat at night), but no clock-checking and only ONE memorable weird quote from a dream: "One we've squeezed out all the olive oil, we can sell the bits of olive as 'fat free', right?"

2. It's sad around here. My neighbor with the inoperable liver tumor died, less than 2 weeks after being given 3 months to live and most of that spent mostly incoherent due to a combination of pain and pain meds. And his housemate/common-law wife is up the creek - she'd failed to qualify for disability when she had to quit a bus driving job due to carpal tunnel; they lived on his Veterans pension/disability money and were working toward formalizing their relationship so she could qualify for survivor's benefits - they both were still 'formally married' to someone else they hadn't seen in years and went through a gauntlet to formally divorce... his divorce was going to be final in 7 days. Meanwhile, I had recently helped her look up info on survivor's benefits, and even if she can get the right to them, they're a lot less than what she was hoping for. She beautifully landscaped the rental house they lived in and now it looks like she won't get to stay there (maybe, if she sublets the extra bedrooms and overcharges for it). It's sad, I don't know what to say, and I'm feeling guilty about how comfortable I am right now after all my past drama and tragedy.

3. Weather-wise, it's beautiful, and about to go from 'unseasonable' for February to 'damn fine for any time of year'. The consensus around here is YAAAAY, with the only dissent from local farmers who need more rain and less sun, or else this year's vintage wines will instead become heirloom raisins. Not a wine drinker, but worrying about some other local crops: strawberries, avocados, broccoli (where the brocchiblu comes from)...

1. Icy cold outside today, but the 6am walk to the station was great. I had to go in today (it's usually a work-from-home day) to give a presentation to some new people. One of them was a young Irishman, about 25 years old, with the most gorgeous eyes, gas-flame blue, with long dark lashes, to go with his black hair and Dublin brogue. Sigh ... As my co-worker pointed out, even if he was 35, I'd still be old enough to be his mother.

2. I went to the cinema after work, to see "Shame". An excellent, but sad, movie. With added bonus nekkid Michael Fassbender.

3. I'm not back in the office until Monday. Woo-hoo!

1. A PUPPY visited our office today!!

2. Weather wet and chilly and gloomy.

3. Did I mention that A PUPPY visited our office today?

1. Totally stirred up about the Planned Parenthood/Susan G. Komen thing. I feel like starting a war over it.

2. Good, calm, normal day at work today.

3. Went with my husband to his formal retirement interview, as he is now less than a month away from his formal severance date. And then we had early lunch together, which was fun, at a nearby bagel shop. He is pretty excited. I'll miss commuting with him, a lot, but know he'll be much happier retired. He does still plan to drive me to and from the train each day, which will get his day a little bit structured, and I do like the train only slightly less than riding with him.

1. I got the winter blues. January and February and most of March are such a waste. There is nothing exciting going on. Can we fast-forward to spring please? Not that it's even all that cold. It's been in the 50s and 60s in NYC this week, which is freaking everyone out.

2. Started my new position; I sit in the Jersey office now (it's a very short, comfortable shuttle ride from the NYC office). So far, so good, though I'm not exactly sure what my new title is- need to make sure they do an official title change, especially because I hope if they do that they'll give me a raise, too. But that could be wishful thinking.

3. Anatomy scan tomorrow to find out if baby is a boy or girl! (Didn't know I was pregnant? Surprise! Due in early July. I've mentioned in on Facebook and Twitter some, but mostly I've been lying low.)

Update to #3: Lunch outside was quite tasty and super warm, even if I did sit on the sidewalk and eat it because I was too lazy to go move the picnic table out of the shade.

Congratulations TPS!

1. Kind if excited and scared at the same time that I'm doing this again this year. My team-mates and I swore that we'd never do it again after last year, but we've all missed the preparation and training as well as the anticipation of doing something that is just so hard.

2. Back at work at 6:30 am this morning after leaving at 7:30 last night. Feels like I haven't left. I spent alld ay yesterday writing speeches for some of the government back-benchers to give during the debate of legislation we've been working on for over a year now. After all these years of writing formal briefs (strict word limits, just the facts, dot point style), it's been a real struggle to unleash my 'inner BS artist' and write in a conversational style. First draft completed last night - I ended up with about 2,500 words but must have written and deleted that much again.

3. Still waiting to hear back from my new employer about my on-going salary negotiation. Running out of time - the deadline to accept the job offer is looming.

1. Half day today did work out! But mainly I've been doing housework since then, although I did get a milkshake. Vaguely annoyed that I'm missing nice weather, but I really do need to do the housework.

2. the name of the polish I have on my nails is "trophy wife" which makes me very happy.

3. We hung out with our new upstairs neighbors for an hour or so last night. Nice people. Couple of glasses of wine and they made a shit-ton of nibbly foods. So good. Then the kid started to melt down and we had to beat a hasty retreat. Feel bad about that but not as bad as if she had had a full-on tantrum at their place.

TPS, I think I congratulated you on FB, but if not... Congrats!

1. Getting together at the beach next weekend with three of my best friends from high school. I can't wait.

2. Also looking forward to Vegas trip at the end of April. I read a book called The Fear of Flying Handbook and I am sooo much calmer about the idea of flying now. Which is good, since we bought our tickets.

3. I have a secret and I suck at keeping secrets!

Ooo, Vegas! Where are you guys staying, amro?

amro: the exclamation point at the end of your (3) leads me to hope/suspect it's a happy secret.

Tell us your seeeeeecrets, amro.......

Congratulations, TPS! That's exciting news!

We are staying at the Bellagio... So excited, especially since I hear they have Dale Chihuly glass on display there and I love that stuff.

gaspode: could be!

I have never been to Vegas by the way... Any recommendations for restaurants or activities?

Amro, the lobby ceiling in the Bellagio is made of Dale Chihuly glass. It looks like a sea of a thousand iridescent jellyfish. It's amazing.

Also, if you go directly outside from the lobby and walk to the left, you will get an absolutely fabulous photo opportunity down the Strip from across the dancing waters lake. I always wanted to take that picture myself, but I never had a camera with me when I was at the Bellagio.

Ha, TPS, that doesn't surprise me at all! Your baby-readiness was pretty obvious. :-)
Gefeliciteerd!

1. Irishmen...I had a simmilar expirence yesterday, too, at the PO. God, i'm old enought to be that boys old old father but that didn't stop the "what if" sighs. Spring, i think, is comming earfly this year and it looks like I've become an old troll.

2. Sleeping through the night.... Me Too! It was the first time in a LONG time, too. Oh, it felt so good.

3. Puppies did not come to my work today. I will be writing a stern letter to the management, immedietly!

Congrats TPS! Wonderful news!

amro, I'm going to e-mail you a ton of Vegas ideas!!!

Mazel tov, TPS!!!!!

And mazel tov, it sounds like, amro!

Congrat TPS! Yay babies! Though you're the 6th person I know expecting. It may be the start of another baby boom in my little world.

1. It was in the lower 70s here. I love it. I went to lunch with some coworkers and we sat outside and it was lovely. I think Mother Nature is apologizing to me for all the snow the last three years (please note I brought my house 3 years ago).

2. Oh so busy at work. I don't feel like I have time to work on the major stuff my manager wants to focus on. So I need to figure out how to do some rejiggering. I also had my end of year review today (for the 4 weeks I worked here) and found out how much my bonus will be. The fact I get a bonus for the 4 weeks I worked is pretty awesome; at the same time it's rather sad I don't get the merit increase too. At least I know how things will go with reviews for this year.

3. I'm contemplating a new washing machine (since Dad said the transmission in mine is dying and it's cheaper to buy a new one than fix it) and the window coverings with the bonus money. I haven't figured out yet what I'm going to do about the windows though.

Yay for good news above! Congrats!

1. Finished 2.5 weeks of simultaneously working 2 jobs w/ nights and weekends non-stop. whew! Was good to have the work, but I'm in need of good sleep.

2. I'm keeping up with my resolution so far. Am even keeping pictorial record so I can see a year in retrospect. Go me.

3. Am becoming annoyed by my year old injury which seems to be getting worse instead of better. I did something stupid: jump ditch full of water, (ahem - too old for that) and felt pop as I was midair. I figured it was hip flexor tendon and have been ignoring it, but it's worse. It's angry at me just for sitting or lying down or standing or walking, and forget running. And, then it shuts up and I go about my doings till it gets angry again.

1. If one more person tells me some variation I'm a smart kid who doesn't live up to his potential, I'm going to lobotomize myself. So there.

2. Have not yet found where I fit in in this world. Getting tired of looking.

3. Congrats to everyone! Sorry for venting.

Congratulations TPS!

1. Came back from the UK last night. Wish I'd had more time to spend in Cambridge and Oxford.
2. The star poet of my class at Iowa is in NY and wants to get together;I'm thinking of calling a group meeting with other local classmates .
3 The president of the condo board refused to get into the elevator when he saw me....HE'S the one who put cameras in them! What does he think I'll do?

TPS! TPS! TPS!

1. Internet service abruptly ceased last week when my roommate's ex-roommate cancelled our service without warning (long and stupid story). No service until the 8th and I'm about to max out the data plan on my phone.

2. The dean is a lovely person. Meanwhile, my bioanthropolgy teacher not only does not know biology, he is at best a patsy, at worst actively evil. He works for the Department of Defense on research used to validate Homeland Security. Besides the fact he is arrogant and ignorant.
I do believe I have him terrified.

3. Man, where to start. There is just way too much going on. yay for the yas, boo for the boos. School labs block you tube so I can't update This Is My Jam. I'm trying to think of something sufficiently anti-establishment. With the fragility of egos and active agendas, maybe I am not suited for academia after all. Maybe I can just write comedy pieces in academic format or work conventions. Apparently flattery gets you everywhere.

1. We've had a couple nice sunshiney days after a lot of gloomy rain. Wish I could go for walks with the mister and the dog.

2. BOTH season 3 and 4 of Six Feet Under are ready for pick-up at the library - w00t!!

3. Now I have to gather the energy for a shower - *sigh*

Congrats to TPS and Stynxno!!

2. BOTH season 3 and 4 of Six Feet Under are ready for pick-up at the library - w00t!!

WOOT right back atcha! We rewatched all of SFU this winter and loooooooved it. (I got a little emotionally bogged down and frustrated in the last season, but that's pretty clearly an intended effect.) I'm a tiny bit envious that you're getting to see it fresh! Enjoy.

Thanks, Elsa! I had seen most of season one previously, but everything from two and on are new to me. It's such great television and I'm so excited to see the rest of it. The mister was going to watch it with me, but finds it too dark. Plus all the hospital stuff (even the morgue equipment) bugs him since he's spent so much time in hospital the last couple years. I can't say I blame him.

And I forgot:

4. The ablation scheduled for Feb 15 is probably on hold due to our family doc being stupid (long story). Grrr.

Congratulations TPS!!!!!! And amro, I have an idea of your secret, a happy one! I could be wrong, but something you said a while back made me think of it.

1. Took my younger son for a physical because he wants to run track. His best friend is running track again this year, and now Younger Son wants to join him. He has to keep his grades up to be in a sport, so this may be just what's necessary to keep him on track. (no pun intended).

2. Sadly discovered that the best friend mentioned above's house next door is for sale. Long story short but BF's mom died last year of lung cancer, and left the house (mobile home) to BF and his older sister. Sister and boyfriend moved in with BF (who's only 13); then dad moved in. Apparantly, sis is being a "bitch", everyone moved out, and now it's for sale. I feel bad for my son - they've been best friends ever since BF moved in next door seven years ago.

3. I love snow, and I'm a little disappointed with this year's lack thereof. But my daffodils are growing, hyacinths are poking up through the soil, there's leaf buds on the trees...I do love spring, so bring it!

1. Lots o work
2. Not enough down time
3. Too many cats
4. No fun trips planned