1. Got a six mile run in today for the first time in a week, need to get back into that groove.

2. Working on my resume and starting to ask around about job openings. I'm more than a little nervous about leaving my job but I'm sort of stuck in a career cul de sac and need to jump out if I'm going to stay employed for the next twenty years.

3. Tickets to Dark Night in IMAX tomorrow morning; the only tickets we could get were for 11:00AM.

1. Friends new and old are coming over for a bbq in a little while. It will probably be our last big shebang of the summer, since lots of folks are soon heading out of town to take their big vacations before school starts.

2. Tomorrow is going to be as quiet a day as I can muster. We have been uncharacteristically social this week (three nights out! and a party at our house tonight!), and I need to recharge before the work week starts.

3. Last night we went to a local dive bar that hosted a showcase for young artists. REALLY young artists, girls ranging in age between 6-16. Eight bands played (a friend's daughter was a drummer in one of the bands) and it was a rocking good time.

1. I went to see a parade this morning, which wasn't as much fun as it sounds like it should be.

2. Watching The Thomas Crown Affair this afternoon.

3. I am making this for dinner in the slow cooker. I am having my usual problem with the slow cooker -- the entire house smells TERRIFIC for HOURS and the smell is ramping up my appetite ridiculously. Will I make it until dinner?

1. For the first time in weeks there was sun today, so I was able to get all my laundry dry outside. That might not seem very exciting, but it lifted my spirits to not have to run the dryer or have damp clothes drying on the indoor rack and to be able to go out without a raincoat, and not have my satellite signal disrupted by rainclouds. Honestly, it's been so, so depressing to have grey skies day after day.

2. Tomorrow morning I'm going to see the Olympic Torch Relay in Redbridge, but I have to be at my friend's house at 6.30am, so I'll need to go to bed soon.

3. I have a first date tomorrow afternoon with a man from OK Cupid.

1. Fridge died. Had to order a 3.3 cubic foot mini because we'll be moving in a couple of months. I was really hoping this one would last just a bit more.

2. The brother's wife is giving him shitty advice about the trust we have the house in. So now there's back and forth crap over the phone. I hate this shit.

3. Had lunch at Lupa yesterday. It was a Restaurant Week special. Great food and service as usual. Something I'll really miss once we move.

1. Making gardens. While it's good to be getting back to making house stuff happen, it's back-breaking work. The bonus is - there's plenty of it to do!

2. Have the cold/flu thing that the rest of the family had last week.

3. Hve to get up at 3 am tomorrow to catch a flight to Sydney for a single meeting.

Soooooooooooooooooooo jealous about Neko Case and Kelly Hogan that I just stared forlornly at the screen with my lower lip jutting out for several minutes. Man.

Also jealous of the Lupa lunch; that's one of my favorite restaurants, though I haven't been in years.

1. Had a bunch of crappy anxiety-provoking legal and medical paperwork that I've been putting off, but managed to power through it today. Huzzah! As most anxiety-provoking things, it was less horrible than I had imagined it would be.

2. Went out last night and had crab cake sandwiches that were really good, especially when accompanied by equally good martinis.

3. Craving ice cream and I keep forgetting to buy it. Partly because I keep imagining myself eating ice cream but cannot quite place what flavor I'm eating. Maybe I'll just have to buy a variety and have a tasting. And/or binge.

1. Did grocery shopping with my wife this morning. It's our weekly "date".
2. BLTs tonight for dinner. And a Bells Two-Hearted. 'Cause it's too hot to grill.
3. Watching the final round of the Open Championship tomorrow morning.

1. Watching way too much news.

2. Need to purchase a clock/timer thingie (it's to help to get me off of my ass and move around instead of hours of not moving in front of my computer AND I need to take my insulin at a different time than I'm used to and it's so hard for me to make a new habit). Any recommendations? Cute/funny preferred but not required.

3. Researching what we need to make a decent first aid kit. We have tons of regular bandages (Star Wars! Glow in the dark!), gauze and tape, etc., but need some ointment type things, scissors, etc. Should be fun.

1. Officially wrapped up my Summer online/independent study course yesterday. Took a big final push to get everything done this week (writing essays on the Agricultural Impact of the Water Buffalo or Camelids after a long, hot day at work is not my idea of fun), but it's done and man, am I glad. Grade pending, but I feel pretty strong about it.

2. Really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. Hope my brain co-operates. I've woken up at 4 AM at least four times this week and struggled to get back to sleep in spite of being flat-out exhausted. Probably stress related, but man, it's getting old.

3. Should be social tonight, as it's been a long time and I've been holing up, but I just don't have the energy. So, I'll make it another movie night. Leaning towards Mary and Max, but I'll decide when I sit down to watch. May be "Raising Arizona" (been at least a decade since I've seen it), or "He Died With a Falafel in his Hand" or some live concert I have on DVD. Regardless, just want to chill with the dog and turn my brain off for a bit.

Writing cat music.

Working up a recipe including pork chops, cabbage and hungarian smoked paprika. I thought this would be a natural combination but I am not finding much on the cooking sites.

Not much else.

Ardiril, I recently saw a chicken smothered in cabbage recipe in a Marcella Hazan cookbook; maybe it'll help inspire?

Chicken Fricassee with Red Cabbage

Yum. Red cabbage is its own little monster, and pairing it with chicken is a new one on me. Roasted thighs, perhaps? I'll give that a try next week.

1. Had an all-day picnic in Central Park today with a bunch of families from the kid's daycare. Very good ppl, and mostly boys. Kid is SO MUCH happier when she plays with boys. Yes, yes, generalization, but also true for her at this stage of her life. Some of her female playmates are turning into little mini sociopaths (mean girls) and after she's around them she turns into a bit of an asshole too. Cause and effect may be the other way, who knows, but anyway, she's a lot nicer kid when she's not with girls. Or, those girls anyway.

(jeez, they're freakin' 3 and 4 years old. Oh what fun I have to look forward to)

2. Upstairs neighbors are coming down for dinner and drinks tonight. They are super cool and interesting and we are boring and I always feel kind of inadequate around them. oh well, after enough wine I can fake it.

3. 7 mile run tomorrow. Good times, good times.

Splunge: we're having dinner at Beacon on Monday for restaurant week. I love Lupa though. Haven't been there in years, yowza. Should remedy that.

1. Worked today (like every Saturday.)

2. Tomorrow Mr. Ant and I are prerunning some dirt roads & trails in preparation for a BMW ROK (Riders of Knoxville) dualsport ride I will lead on August 5. We'll be trying to get lost, but in a repeatable way.

3. No plans for Monday (which is my Sunday; see #1 above.) Perhaps a lake hike/swim combo with workerdog?

1. Went to NARA yesterday while quite hungover. Yeah, that sucked. I'm working on when I want to tell them that I'm resigning. It's only a volunteer position, but still, there's a procedure and I use my supervisor there as a reference while hunting for jobs. It just costs me $40/month to go down there for train fare and parking, which is unsustainable.

2. Today I went shopping with my mother (as is our usual weekend thing) and got a new plant for my garden--thyme! It has already been repotted and is hanging out on the patio. I also busted out the drill my dad bought me when I first moved in here for the first time and put in two new screws above my patio to hang up this awesome Moroccan lantern (that I've had for a while) and windchimes (that I got today).

3. I still need to do some chores before Sunday (which is the start of my week) and I don't really want to do them.

Update:

- Made a conscious decision to NOT watch any more news, it's not helping them and it's certainly not helping me.

- The mister reminded me of a small clock that I have on my desk, right in my line of sight that I totally forgot that was there except that I look at it every day because it also has the temperature on it. I am such a dolt. But I do still need something that I can set for an hourly beep/alarm. Is there something on the internets?

Occhiblu, do you mean the NYC or SF Lupa? NYC's is part of the Batali empire.


1.Movie glut, Dark Horse, Kumare, Peloteros and The Imposter. Curious to know if the guy who made Kumare is familiar with the BOOK The Wizard of Oz.

2. Split my pants open and have to change them.

3. The guy from the car service last night refused to give me my change last night, claiming that "he worked for tips". I WAS going to tip him, but he demanded more than I was going to give him. Have to call the company.

I meant the NYC Batali Lups. Is there a Lupa in SF?

Yes.

1. Mom's here until Tuesday morning. We're having a nice time. Yesterday she went off on her usual NYC adventure- visiting all the high-end department stores and going to see a fashion exhibit at the Met (this year it was the Schiaparelli and Prada exhibit). She had a ball. No plans today; tomorrow we're going up to a shopping center in the Bronx. I wish I had the energy to do more; mentally I'm there but physically I still exhaust easily.
2. Baby is a good eater and sleeper (knock on wood)! I'll be interested to see how much weight he has gained at his next appointment, he looks bigger to me every day.
3. I could be sleeping right now but I'm looking at birth announcements and stamps instead.

1. The Olympic Torch Relay was awesome, but we got our feet soaked walking across the park to Fairlop Waters in the dew-soaked grass, only to discover that we could've gone an hour later and parked in the car park! But it was really great to see the torch go past and the torchbearer looked so proud and happy.

2. My date was lovely and I hope to see him again.

3. We've had sunshine for two days in a row! I hope-hope-hope it stays like this for the Olympics.

1. In Portland. Went to the Portland Cello Project's Extreme Dance Cello Dance Party at the Doug Fir last night. Wiped out now but I wish you could all experience this. Basically 4 cellists with about every musician they know in Portland, (including Janet Weiss from Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag on drums) playing these raucous club and disco music in a very sweaty, crowded basement of a club. I had no idea exactly what I was in for, but it was huge, loud fun.

2. Dragged ourselves out of bed and got in line (we were first!) for breakfast at Tasty n Sons. Since there is usually at least an hour wait, our getting there a half hour before opening (a line way down the street soon formed behind us), we felt it was very worth the time. My new favorite breakfast-brunch place even if I did forego the bloody mary.

3. Right now, typing this from Stumptown on Division, killing some time until dinner with in-laws tonight and the drive back down the freeway after that.

3a. This problem was apparently solved right before we left the house yesterday. A gallon of vinegar followed by two huge "canning" pots of boiling water finally cleared the drain. It took almost to the end of the second pot of hot water but it appears that the drain is running again!

2. (Updated) Just couldn't bring myself to work on my resume this weekend. Hate my job but can't face the process of job hunting and interviewing, plus the fear that I'll jump to a worse job. Blah.

1. I just returned from a friend's very laidback birthday party: we met in her garden, everyone brought something to drink and some nibbles, and we sat there chatting and laughing until the dark closed in around us. I'm uncharacteristically relaxed now.

2. I'm starting to get exciting about my own birthday party. It will take a good bit more planning/cooking than tonight --- but only because I like the planning/cooking part.

3. Especially now that it's cool enough to cook a bit, which means it's also cool enough to be interested in something other than salad and ice water. I got quite chilled through sitting in that garden --- what a pleasant change!

1. Just completed one of those very-near-perfect summer days. Woke up before too much day had passed, made breakfast sammies, then went with LT to check out a new-to-us neighborhood beach. The water was perfect. We lazed, read, and swam for two hours, then had a late lunch of pizza (B), and then took an hour-long drive to a part of the coast around here we hadn't peeked at yet. After the grocery store, headed home where I hacked at the crabgrass-infested border in front of our house that I'm planning to finally dig out and plant. All afternoon was sun-drenched, green, and breezy with the perfect warmth, and the evening as well, the perfect coolness.

2. Short work week this week; planning to head to NJ on Thursday for a visit with my folks, some beach time, and my 25th (GASP) high school reunion.

3. Had only 4 alcoholic drinks this week which I'm proud of. I'm trying to keep to under 7 which my doc recommends. We had fallen into a steady 2-beer-a-night habit almost every night of the week, which is fattening, expensive, and not healthy. Glad to be making a change.

Saw Dark Knight Rises. It was good. Everything else was canceled. =\