1. I am irritated that I have to spend much of my Sunday working.

2. But I'm looking forward to going to a Super Bowl party tonight.

3. I made chocolate covered pretzels for the party and they turned out well. Win!

1. There is no football-watching here. (The Fella is taking a rare Sunday off to visit his dad, who was also his football coach. They'll have a great time, and it is sooooo not my bag, man.) I have a stack of David Lynch movies to watch while I'm all alone tonight.

2. But I am reconsidering the wisdom of watching The Mystery Man segments of Lost Highway [warning: one of ~3 film clips ever to scare me silly, though plenty of people find it just plain silly] when I'm going to be alone in the house all night. Happily, I also have a stack of traditional horror movies, which I find muuuuuuch less scary.

The oatmeal bread I mentioned in the Wednesday 4-point update was so delicious that we snarfled it up. I made more last night, so dinner tonight will probably be toast and honey, toast and honey, and maybe a spot of tea.

... though chocolate-covered pretzels sound pretty tempting, too, amro. I might have to dash out to the store.

Wow, typos much? I'm off to make my coffee. Obs, the oatmeal bread is point #3 and by "Wed 4-point," I meant Wed 3-point.

1. Have to decide whether to go with the SO to his mom's very cigarette-smoky house for lunch and to set up her new printer. (I'm thinking no but I will feel guilty about it.)

2. Also feeling guilty about the fact I have not listened to even ONE of my Jan/Feb MeFi swap CDs. I'm not sure why, but I have to be in the mood. Maybe later while SO is at his mom's setting up the printer. :)

3. I want some chocolate covered pretzels and/or homemade oatmeal bread toast with honey.

I will be immensely happy if the only snow I see this year is in senyar's pictures. So far, so good. :)

1. I went grocery shopping this morning and managed to scrap the bumper of the car next to me while pulling into the parking spot *sigh* I left a note since I couldn't tell whether I caused any damage. When I spoke to the owner, she was very nice about it and didn't think there was any damage. I think that will be my last left hand turn into a parking spot.

2. Added together with leaving my front door wide open last week and I'm thinking I need a vacation terribly bad. I still have 3.5 weeks before I can (officially) take any days off.

3. I brought stuff to try a few new recipes: honey sesame chicken in the crockpot, mac & cheese from scratch and queso to eat while I'm watching the commercials. I hope they turn out decently.

1. Basking in internet access. I don't know where I should just watch episodes of PR and ANTM All stars I missed or write a history of the internet with links for a professor who doesn't seem to know what her potential research field is. Or I could keep investigating this incompetent who gets defense grants and the work of this conservative who is completely fueling his work in the prejudice of left-wing liberals with his agenda.
Hmm.

2. I'll be walking into an anti-Super Bowl party filled with board games and sober kids in their early 20s when I get back. It will be like a filthy rumpus room. But there should potentially be endless amounts of various cheese dips.

3. I should just blow off class Monday, what in the world is wrong with me. With gas at these prices, my future punitive exercises, ministerial duties and finally understanding that "keeping my personal and private life separate" in that Chinese New Year horoscope may have not been a typo after all-- it's really time to start making a list of all the things I have avoided doing. Oy gavolt.

had guests and ate foodz. whatever. I am putting together my FEARSOME TODO LIST OF DOOM (FTLD?) in preparation for hacking through it over the next 24 hours or so:

[next 8 hours or so]
* work project #1 to be finished
* work project #2 to be finished
[then]
* sleeping to happen
[after that and onwards]
* haircut
* need to buy some clothes & facewash etc
* work out
* personal project #1 to get started

1. The Friday-Saturday 24-hour car rental errand, chore, shopping and everything-else-I-needed-to-leave-the-house-for marathon totally wore me out. I am so run down, I'm showing tire tracks. I'm so exhausted, I need a catalytic convertor. I'm so burned out, I have nothing left but my carbon footprint. I'm so fatigued, I look like I'm wearing camo. I'm so bushed, I'm a hedge. I'm so spent, I'm the Gross National Product (with emphasis on Gross). On my last leg? My last leg fell off a half-mile back. Running on empty? I'm running on fumes... from the exhaust of the car in the next lane... and it's an electric car.

2. Lowlight of the marathon: going in to French Hospital (the local hospital named after Frogs) for some lab work. First, they had moved the Outpatient Laboratory facility from one end of the Medical Center to the other, so I was totally spent when I wobbled in. I was semi-thankful there was a 10-minute wait. The blood-taking went smoothly; I have had past problems with the lab assistant having trouble finding a vein to open, but this one was smart, effective, fast and almost painless. But when I was given a cup to fill in the adjacent restroom... (TMI ALERT) I was totally dry - that had NEVER happened to me before. They let me take the cup with me to bring back later, I did two other errands then went home, and even THEN I had nothing for over an hour. Finally filled the cup in time to return it to the lab about a half-hour before closing. (I parked on the right side of the building, and close to the entrance because EVERYONE HAD GONE HOME FOR THE WEEKEND) Well, we'll see what the results bring, but now should I start worrying about having Old Man Prostate?

3. Another part of the marathon: a mega-grocery run for everything that was too big for me to carry on the bus, so I test-drove the Vons/Safeway "Just4U" deal of using their website to pre-load coupons and other discounts onto your 'club' card. I've always been less than enthusiastic about customer card programs, but this ALMOST makes the 'letting them store data about what I bought there' worth it, especially since it includes some significant 'Personalized Savings' on items I've frequently bought there before. Also a printed-out shopping list with all the available savings on it, which I checked afterwards to see if their computer gave me everything it promised. Oops, it missed ONE out of 20-some, so I went back to the Customer Service booth with documentation to get some more money back, thankyouverymuch. If I'm going to give up my privacy, finally somebody is adequately paying me for it.

1. Visited psychiatrist yesterday. It was a short, amiable meeting in which we agreed that things were going very well. I complained about some crap assignments I'd had at work. He commiserated and said that his day job at a hospital was doing similar things to the doctors, sticking them with grunt work that admin staff had previously done. Left with a prescription for happy pills and another for bloodwork.

2. From there, walked to Washington Square Park, where a piano player had attracted a crowd of a few dozen. I headed south, crossed the street and bumped into an itinerant bookseller who had set up twenty feet of tables' worth of merchandise. I bought weathered old paperback copies of:

- A House For Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
- The Secret History by Procopius
- Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
- Ressentiment by Max Scheler
- The Golden Ass by Apuleius

All for the low low price of $28!

3. Super-stoked by the aforementioned bargains, I decided that I had caught a book-buyin' groove. A book-buyin' fool, if you will. So I took the F train north to 57th street to Rizzoli's in the hope of finding a copy of We Own The Night: The Art of The Underbelly Project which, unfortunately, had not been released yet. I browsed for a while, checked out expensive coffee-table books on the Arctic, Old Havana and voluptuous, chesty women (this one rendered in 3-D).

1. Nastassja Katski is being a particularly irritating little shit this morning. She's expressing her Tortie attitude, so it's nothing for concern.
2. I tried a new brand of coffee and it is soooooo boring. Even fairly strong, it is little more than caffeinated hot water. Not all Seattle brands are created equal.
3. Yesterday I discovered Spotify's ragtime collection. Wow, I have been looking for some of this stuff for decades.

1. The Ever Patient Spouse and the Wee Bairn return to Stoat's End tomorrow after a week and a half back in the States. I will be glad to have the family together again but there is something kind of lovely about being apart, too.

2. Our first snow in Britain came last night. I'm driving down to Heathrow tomorrow (see #1) and am not excited about the prospect (especially since I live in the relative boonies--no county services like sanding/salting/ploughing).

3. I'm all out of updates, but I've been playing with the idea of blogging(?) about how & where I live, particularly vis-a-vis the fact that I ain't from around here. Then I realize I wouldn't keep up with it and I hasten that idea to another well-deserved death.

1. Woke up this morning feeling like today was going to be a good day (and I haven't been listening to Ice Cube lately, heh). I suspect this is due to the fact that I took a vicodin before I went to bed because my back was being cranky. Unfortunately, that's not something I can really repeat regularly.

2. So far today I've planned when I want to take some vacation time, attempted to do my taxes (see #3), and finished writing up my notes from the last Wicca class.

3. I have to run home as soon as the courier gets here so I can get my old checkbooks and December bank statement because of course, those are the two other things I need in order to do said taxes. Argh.

1. Spending a very relaxing week at my best friend's house in Sao Paulo. She has a great kitchen set-up, and I have cooked almost every day that I've been here.

2. As expected, my friend is campaigning hard for me to move to her town. I can't say I'm not interested. The husband, not so much.

3. Speaking of the husband, back at home he is stuck in bed with a nasty stomach bug, and I am not around to take care of him. Poor guy.

1. I finally slept last night. I've been waking up at 2 AM no matter when I get to bed and then NOT getting back to sleep. Last night was started off falling asleep on the couch then waking up at midnight and going to bed then not waking up till 5 AM. Had realization that I've been taking a plain mucinex prior to bed which may make me wired. Good night sleep has made for very productive day of house cleaning.

2. Neighbors invited me over for ham sandwiches at lunch. We sat and visited and they filled me in on the latest home break-ins in the area. Sigh. I'm considering a security system since I still don't feel at ease since I interrupted the guy breaking into my place. But dang, those monitored systems are expensive.

3. I'm trying to make myself follow sperose's lead and start on taxes. - You go girl! - But instead I'll probably do anything else (see cleaning in #1).

1. My car is not running properly. Unfortunately, the only shop around with expertise in this model seem to be grasping at straws as to how to fix it. We're stuck in a "Let's try this and see what happens" loop of fail.

2. Made blueberry muffins for my daughter's breakfasts this week. She commutes to college and needs something quick in the morning. Hope she likes them. One can never tell with her. She has a predilection, despite my best efforts, for box-made crap. :(

3. I might watch football tonight, seeing as how the game is a mere 60 miles away. OTOH, I might just crawl into bed.

1. I am really having a hard time with my back/neck pain. I highly suspect arthritis, (as my left shoulder "crunches" when I rotate it, as does my lower spine), but this neck/back pain is new, and not much seems to help (though my beau gave me prescription Motrin and THAT seemed to help a bit). Aarrgghh, I'm only in my mid 40s..I'm too young for this.

2. Writing this with my nearly 15 year old cat across my shoulders. He is inside for a rare visit (two years ago he decided that he simply HAD to be an outside cat, to the point where he was clawing through my window screens). Even bad weather is no incentive for him to come inside.

3. I've been invited to a Superbowl party/meetup at a local restaurant with my friends, but I'm debating. I hate driving at night; I won't drink because I have to drive; and I like lazy Sundays. Plus, both my kids are out and about and I'll need to pick one of them up later. Whine, whine, whine.

Één: went running in the snow today. The cold wasn't too bad.

Twee: deployed an application in the cloud using a development framework that's still work in progress. Poring over log files to see what's going wrong with the build. One needs a high frustration tolerance to be a developer.
Still, I got it working. Good to freshen up my core dev skills.

Drie: I should be sleeping already

1. Frustrated that my back hurts too much to work out. The Marathon is only three months away and I'm fat and out of shape. Sitting here watching TV when I should be out on the trail. Beautiful and sunny here too. Grr.

2. Just watching the game at home with Mrs. O. Rooting against the Pats ('cause they cheat).

3. Just clipped both cat's claws and now my shirt is spotted with blood I'm not sure who's it is.

Update to #3: Got my taxes done (after much fretting and having to run home in the middle of the day to grab last year's checkbook and my December bank statement) but I think I did them wrong, so I have to send them to pops to look at. Damnit.

1. Slept late, but in my defense only because I didn't get to bed until 3am, and was woken with breakfast ready
2. Only up for a couple hours and I was back in bed; I've been doing that a lot lately and don't know why
3. Going to watch the last few episodes of season four of Six Feet Under and five is on order

1. Busy weekend again - now have almost all the stuff in the shed that belongs there - just some leftover building materials to sort through. It's good to come to work so I can have a rest ;-)

2. Got a phone call this morning to say our car has died. From what I can gather, the fuel filter has developed a leak, letting air into the fuel system (diesel engine). At least, I hope it's that simple and will find out when I leave work three hours early to have a look at it. The turbo has been making some noise lately, but we've been holding off replacing it because it's Expensive, so I hope that's not the problem.

3. Expecting a counter-counter-offer for the salary for my new job today. Don't know what to expect, but hoping they come to the party with my counter-offer, as it was well researched and I'm not asking for anything outlandish.

1. Went for a run today which involved 4 miles down the east side of the East river (from north of Hells gate bridge right down to the Pulaski bridge) at sunset, and it was just stunning. 7 mile run in total and just home in time to shower, put kid to bed and settle with a beer in front of the football. Yay.

2. Less than 2 weeks until we leave for New Zealand and Australia. Can't wait, but stressed about how much we have to do in the interim.

3. Yelled at the kid today, in a way I never do, because she was bugging me and bugging me and getting under my feet as I was tryign to cook, and then opened a drawer right into my leg which hurt like fuck. Felt so guilty and many apologies and hugs followed. Parenting is hard, sometimes :(

(Hugs, gaspode. Been there)

1. Didn't bother with the game, but will check out the commercials tomorrow with woork bandwidth.

2. Finally fiigured out where myy OMGIKILLURAGE is coming from - Singulair. I cut my pills in half now and I'm feeling a lot better.

3. Looking for a cheaper place cuz having hubb out of work is really making things hard.

Oh, and I'm blaming the nook for anyy typos today.

I think lysdexic's tyypos are kind of styylish. :)

1. One of my best buds in the world here visiting us, and will be here for a couple more days, so yay for that.

2. The three of us went up on top of the world's largest granite outcropping today. (This is almost within sight of our house, so it wasn't a road trip or anything.)

3. No work this week! (Which is why my buddy R. is here) It's so nice to be up at 2 AM on a Sunday night/Monday morning and it just does not matter if I go to bed anytime soon or not.

1. It was a quiet day. Did not stir from the house.

2. Had a long conversation with my mother. She has decided I need cable tv in my life and offered to pay for it. Okay, I guess . . . . Just what I need, something else to keep me at home.

3. Watched The Game. Found out that if you watch online you don't get commercials (yay), but you also don't get to see Madonna's halftime show (boo).

1. Start of a long two weeks until winter break. Wish we could take a little trip somewhere, but it'll have to wait (money, vacation time for Jon--). New Orleans may be on the agenda next spring, though, if all goes well. For now, I'll continue to live vicariously through the travel channel. (Those commercials for the Caribbean are cruel.)

2. Got to see my mom Saturday, which was really nice. I hadn't seen her for a few weeks (I was sick last week; the week before it snowed and the roads were bad; the week before she and my sister-in-law went to a baby shower). I brought a pizza and we hung out for a few hours. My brother's in the process of getting the house cleaned out and ready for sale. It's so sad. I took a few things, before it's all gone (a lot was already gone); the estate sale's in two weeks, apparently. If I want my mom's good china, the set she used for holidays and special occasions (lots of memories there), I may have to buy it.

3. Good game Sunday. Had fun watching it with Jon. My father always said pro football was fixed, though (and, once upon a time, he knew people who knew, if you know what I mean), and I do wonder a bit about a couple of those missed Patriots passes in the 4th quarter, not to mention the Giants' last touchdown, but I'm more than your average cynic. Still a fun game, regardless, but I wonder.