1. I must swing by the lab today to get blood drawn.
2. I plan to hit the downtown market for fresh sausage and a loaf of pumpernickel.
3. Work on two songs that I hope to have online by the end of next weekend.

1. Tuesday: Game night with The Fella. I LOVE GAME NIGHT. Probably either Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble.

2. Wednesday: "drinks in the gloaming" with my sister and niece. If it's clear, we'll sit in their meadow of a side yard, drinking champagne spiked with blueberry liqueur and local strawberries and eating a pieced-together dinner of whatever goodies we each feel like making, until the night settles in around us. If it's rainy, we'll sit inside and do the same.

3. Friday: my friend R is coming over to have dinner and start watching (recorded) season 5 of "Mad Men." She said "What can I bring?" I said, "Oh, don't bother!" She said "Then I'll bring something bubbly!" I love when R comes over.

1. Trying to get my slobby self exercising again after being on vacation for almost 2 weeks.

2. Thinking about refinancing my mortgage to lower my monthly payment. So many details. It is burdensome.

3. Might go to the opera on Wednesday.

Mannnn, I miss trivia! Our team broke up due to new jobs and such. Now I am doing exactly nothing in the evenings. Except, hopefully, watching TV with our new TiVo which I really hope arrived today. I was totally doing that "click fruitlessly at the tv and wonder why in the hell you can't rewind it" thing.

I... don't know. This is a pretty darn low-key summer. My husband is playing another show on Friday back in his hometown, but other than that I have nothing planned.

The outdoor orchestra concerts on the lawn of the Capitol start this week, so if it's not too beastly hot, maybe we should go.

1. Husband (who is an attending pathologist) is having all his residents and fellows over for dinner tonight, so i *will* be cooking. All afternoon in fact. Doing some very simple stuff though - loads of southwestern/mexican stuff. Easy to prep and lots of salads.

2. Have thursday morning off to go to my daughter's daycare picnic in central park. Very much hoping that the humidity will not be off the charts.

3. Diet starts today. Vacation meant that I overate like a MFer and am now straining at some of my clothes. Sigh.

1. Aiming for a clear (or at least visible) desk (and inbox <5) before the end of the week.

2. Continuing walking training with my dogs. Trying to teach a sled dog not to pull is a... challenge. Thank goodness for the Halti; I've tried every other type of harness and this is the first one that works.

3. Quitting smoking on Friday!

1. Ladies at the office threw me a surprise shower this morning. So nice! A little breakfast spread and a ton of clothes. This kid is gonna need to remain a baby for 2-3 years in order to wear all the lovely clothes he has been given.
2. Not much on the calendar this week. Good! I like rest and trying to go to bed early. We've started watching "How I Met Your Mother" on Netflix and are enjoying it.
3. I really want to go to the beach next weekend, but they're all so far away and I get tired easily. Thinking about Sandy Hook in NJ, which is accessible via ferry. Or maybe a water park? I'm ridiculous.

In Stewie's hometown ( thought it was also Judy Garland's, but she was born in MN)until tomorrow. Going to the Meijer sculpture garden.

2. Muskegon Art Museum tomorrow.

3.Petoskey Hemingway sites Wed.

Good luck Mirielle!

*fingers crossed for goodness Mirielle*

1. Dance class tomorrow night. We're going to be learning some Polynesian moves from the other sister troupe. (They did a Polynesian routine last Sunday at the performance.) I'm a bit nervous about this since my teacher was so excited and said she bought leis and grass skirts for everyone...but she's very slim. And I'm going to take a wild guess and say that none of the skirts will fit me.

2. I have a class on travel magick on Thursday, which I'm really looking forward to. :)

3. Friday I get to see the pdoc (boo), but get new scripts for my meds (yay), and then on Saturday, Wicca 101 classes start up again.

1. Big event this week is a prostate biopsy on Wednesday. When I got my (clean) colonoscopy, the Dr. took a side excursion and discovered a little nodule. (Which my female NP missed a month earlier on account of having short fingers. Go figure.) Urologist figures is probably calcium, but could be cancer, even with the PSA of a 20-year-old, as he said I had. The good news is that it's very early, if it IS cancer.

2. So trying to get in as much exercise as possible before that procedure. I have started a crossfit class and I realize how out of shape (by that definition) I have gotten. I can play sand volleyball doubles all afternoon (which I did yesterday), but if you ask me to get in plank position and then drag a towel with my feet, well, it's not pretty.

3. I have several use-or-lose vacation days to burn before Friday. But between the prospect of being laid up for a day (maybe) and the summer work load, these days may well be lost. It is pouring outside now, and cool. I do not want your heat, NYC, but I'd send you some mid-60's high temps, if I could. . .

MY MOM IS IN TOWN! I haven't seen her in four years and I miss her terribly! I'm stuck at work but at 5:01 I'll hop in the Antmobile and zoom over to her hotel. Beyond that, I have no plans. Quality time with Mom is what I'm all about.

What, a week in three steps!? Must cheat somehow:

1. Tonight, shopping for berries and fruit, eating either leftovers or Bear's awesome salmon chowder. Tomorrow, going to baseball game after work with Bear and our Yorkshire guest, which should be a lot of fun if cold.

2. Wednesday night, speaking at political event. Thursday, lunch with a dear friend but no events planned that evening.

3. Friday, maybe use coupon to vegetarian Thai place, and weekend is likely going to be showing our guest some of the gorgeous spots around here, maybe via a driving trip around the Kitsap peninsula.

P.S.: Thinking of you, danf. Hopefully it is nothing.

Mirielle, you go! Not smoking anymore is one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. Also, FYI the harder the quit, the less likely you will ever smoke again.

1. Do some portion of all the shit one does when trying to put a house on the market.

2A. Fly on plane to Texas, the San Antonio-Kerrville-San Angelo "corridor" along which my family have inexplicably spread out.
2B. Be in shock at how old sister's kids are. The oldest just graduated from high school for fuck's sake.
2C. Meet sister's fiance. Secretly wonder if he is wound tight insanely tight in just the right crazy way that he'll be good with my sister. I'm not talking about like healthy for each other in a kumbaya ~wellness~ way—I mean, will they both survive? Also, I hear he likes board games, but does he like the right kind of board games?! I will be ready to judge.

3. Attend sister's wedding.

(Thanks for all the well-wishes, everyone!)

1. Grilling between rainstorms.
2. Have to hit Coney Island.
3. Diablo 3.

1. More hotels, more hospitals, ah, life on the road.
2. More court.
3. God, I love my co-conspirators.

I'm currently sitting in my driveway charging my phone. We had a wicked storm come through and killed 1/3 of the power in the area. I have every intention of going to bed at 9p (unless the power comes back in the next half hour).

Wednesday I'm going to a surprise retirement party. I need to get a card before then.

A friend I hadn't talked to in 1.5 years (I got tired of making all the effort in our friendship so I refused to call her and she never gets around to it) is in town for AP Biology training. So she'll come over after her classes Friday and hang out for a day or two.

1. Monday is one day off, spent doing chores like mowing and laundry.

2. Tues thru Fri entail working on rush project while relearning autocrud after several years spent using an alternate program.....where are my rote muscle-memory shortcut keys?
Tues and Thurs night spent at Mom's doing things necessary to keep her in her home for (hopefully) a few more years. Beginings of dementia (hers) ... or maybe mine?

3. Sat and Sun bring Odark:30 wakeups and miles walking the concrete floors of a big box home improvement store.

1. Wednesday's my last day of work before summer break... finally, finally, finally. Can't come soon enough. I haven't decided if I'm going to graduation on Thursday. The idea of draggin' back out to the Bronx my first day of summer bliss is not a pleasant one, but there are some kids I'd like to see graduate. I'll see.

2. Managed to get a bogus corporal punishment charge against a senior teacher the administration's been hassling because of budget issues pretty much kicked (no formal charges, just a letter to her file that can also be challenged). And I'm not even official as union rep until the end of the month. Good start, I'd say. (Maybe I should have stayed in law school.)

3. Nice weekend coming up. Saturday Jon and I are gonna go see the ma. I've had such a miserable chest cold, I haven't seen her for a few weeks. On Sunday we're going to see Harvey on Broadway -- front row seats!

Oooh, I've been wanting to see that!

Jon always loved the movie, and I adore Jim Parsons (I love The Big Bang Theory). Should be fun... (I think it's playing into August.)

Well, my Monday started Sunday with all systems down, so I feel like I'm just getting started.

1. The kids and I went to the *new* new gym that our instructor has moved to. He got investors and a storefront and everything. It's been about two weeks since my twice-weekly mopping the floor with my ass so I'm sore.

2. Hubby finally got a job (YAY!) In Austin (yay?) For six months (YAY?) that starts Monday (yay?) so it's kind of a madhouse arranging child care and getting the vehicles fixed and...yeah.

3. Gonna try my best not to smack or strangle my coworkers through this last phase of our system overhaul. Lots of deep breathing and zentangle postcards. Let me know if you want one.

Love zentangle!

Splunge, hit me up. I haven't been to Nathan's yet this summer. And we're already almost a week in!

1. I found out this weekend that I do indeed have sleep apnea. Moderate (on a scale of mild, moderate, severe). I need to call my insurance company and figure out what they'll cover. Ideally, I'd get a mouthpiece because that's less obtrusive and more portable. If I can get a mouthpiece and a CPAP, even better. But this is pretty huge. I've had insomnia since I was about 12 (20 years of my life, for those keeping track). I finally have some explanation why I never have any energy, why I can't sleep through the night, why I never wake up refreshed. It's probably also a factor in my depression. This is huge; literally lifechanging. I expect to be largely a different person within a few months.

Of course, my company switches health insurance providers on July 1st, so I may have to hold off until then on getting treatment.

2. Netflix has me almost caught up with both HIMYM (like TPS) and Avatar: The Last Airbender. The appeal of Avatar is clearer to me now; very broadly, it's a Mysterious Cities of Gold for a new generation. Man, I fuckin' loved that show when I was five. I still do, albeit somewhat nostalgically.

Of course, then I'll have to get caught up with Korra, so I know wtf my geek friends are talking about.

3. I made a pair of papercraft tesseracts at work the other day (hush, it was during lunch). That, and I've started keeping a tumblr. It's pretty much the worst stuff (the tumblr, not the hypercubes, which are pretty boss for a quick job).

Yay Eid for finding the problem!!

1. My birthday was yesterday; went out to dinner with Mom, as the birthday is way more important to her than it is to me.

2. Unexpected cat-sitting for some friends who had a death in the family. Cats like to lick, both me and each other.

3. Going to start watching the famous old 1970s mini-series "The World at War". Looking forward to it.

Today - Westfield Mall

Tomorrow, Friday and Saturday - Paris

Sunday - Geffreye Museum

Monday - Back to work :-(