Yay Senyar! Happy to hear that you have found a nice fella to date.

1. Olympics Olympics Olympics.

2. The in-laws are visiting for the weekend, they are both doing Weight Watchers, so cooking with point counting in mind has been interesting.

3. Theoretically hanging out with a new friend this afternoon. She is the girlfriend of our mechanic, visiting from São Paulo. He has to be out of town for the day, and she doesn't know the town - or speak a lick of English. I may drag her along to my husband's rec league basketball game. She might get a kick out of that.

Oooh, that second-date stage can be so much fun!

1. Today we're throwing my birthday party (a few days early). In three hours, friends will start arriving and we'll pop the first bottle of champagne.

2. And that first bottle will be #100! I haven't listed #99 yet, but I opened it this week during party prep.

3. I'm tired and sore. I had back spasms Friday and yesterday, and might easily have them again today. But most everything is done, so now I just sit back and enjoy the party!

Yay to second dates, new friends, and imminent birthdays!

1. My fitness boot-camp buddies and I ran and did drills on the beach for an hour and a half yesterday. Today's my day off, but it's hard not to race out to the sand again before the rest of L.A. wakes up. Addicted to endorphins.

2. I've been told to get out there and file some great stories for a theoretical new position at [a highly influential public radio station]. Trouble is, I'm a producer, not a beat reporter, and I've never done news before; I'm more of a behind-the-scenes showrunner/manager type, so this is a real challenge to my introverted, studio-bound nature. I'd better learn fast if I want the gig, though; they're willing to create a job for me even though one doesn't technically exist.

3. Started reading a well-respected translation of the Qur'an last night. I've been to so many Muslim countries, and plan on visiting more, that I feel like I should have a genuine baseline beyond my general empathy and reading of balanced current affairs. I'm afraid I can't quite submit myself to it fully as a philosophy, because I'm long past the "guy in the sky" framework in my personal theology, but I have a deep love of Islamic art, literature, architecture, music, ritual, etc., so it seems important to acknowledge the source. Plus, I need to have more concrete ammunition against the virulent Islamophobia in American culture nowadays. (Hello, people, it's an Abrahamic religion just like most of yours...)

1. Just got back from Fires of Venus. I could have stayed longer and really finished tearing down things, but I was wiped out and wanted to get on the road. But it was a wonderful event. I really enjoyed the work I got done.

2. I got McDonalds on my way home because I was hungry, but I'm probably going to regret that in about 20 minutes or so.

3. Still tired, need to take a shower, and finish grabbing my gear out of the car. Then I need to go to Ashton, unfurl my tents so they can dry, drop off the rest of my gear and swap cars.

1. Contractor is here doing a test patch on the side of the house to see how hard it will be to strip the paint off all the brick. Having problems because we don't seem to have enough water pressure to run his powerwasher.

2. Trying to figure out an escape route from my job. Working on my PHP skills because a lot of the opportunities around here seem to be web stuff and I'm pretty limited in what I know about that whole world.

3. And there's this. My sisters and I are having a memorial for my mom who passed away last month. I'm the keeper of the family photos so I've been working on scanning a lot of them to show in a slide show during the service. We're not having a minister or a strictly programmed service but more of a Quaker style thing where anyone who has something to say will talk. No idea how many people will show, she was well known in the community but she dropped out of site about five years ago due to her illness and a lot a people probably lost track of her.

1. My boss is kitten-sitting for a vacationing coworker so I'm going to meet the tiny kitten. Kitten is named Gracie Ford as she was found in the engine of the coworker's husband's Ford truck and is about 6 weeks old.

2. I was greatly productive today between laundry & hair washing & dishwashing & air filter changing. I'll probably crash after seeing the kitten as ...

3. As of tomorrow, I will be 8 weeks pregnant. Naps are wonderful things. I haven't thrown up yet which is happy making but also a bit concerning that it'll be all down hill from here.

I spent about an hour in Bookmark Manager last night, but I have my doubts that the result was worth the effort.

I had a free pass to LA Fitness for the last ten days, and even that short period has shown some remarkable quality-of-life improvements. Tomorrow shit gets real.

I am working on my first truly serious effort at songwriting (as opposed to the crap I wrote 30 years ago).

1. My plans for today fell through because I got sick last night.

2. Very humid day. Normally I never find Maine humid, since I grew up down south, but it's *southern* humid today.

3. Cleaning up the house a little in anticipation for one houseguest (possibly 2) arriving on Wednesday. Items 1 and 2 are NOT helping with this.

Senyar: Hooray for second date!

msali: You're really nice for agreeing to escort a potential new friend. I did that once for the ex-girlfriend of a friend who was in NYC for the very first time. They had only recently broken up, and had been on good terms and it had been a trip they had originally planned to take together, but after the trip, they became bitter enemies. Still, karma points!

Elsa: Happy pre-birthday! Hope the champagne is a good one!

mykescipark: It sounds really awesome that you're with an employer who really wants to help you succeed in furthering your career.

sperose: What's Fires of Venus?

octo: I'm so sorry about your loss, and I'm sorry that this is belated.

bluesapphires: Many hugs for the continued ease of your pregnancy!

Ardiril: If you can write music, I may have a weird collaboration idea for you. I hope to be able to email about it in a month or two.

My turn!

1. My boyfriend and I have been extremely lazy this weekend, and he's needed it, what with an emergency family court appeal to draft, having to reset passwords for all the returning law students, and other ISP-running things. I wish I could help him somehow, but he says that almost everything that he might be able to pass on to me, he can't because of the intricate nature of things.

2. Today, we are going to duo Blackrock Depths, because we haven't played WoW together in a very long time. Also, see previous re: laziness.

3. After that, I will be making meatloaf! And will also be making gravy to go with it from the drippings! I'm so excited about that last part.

TrishaLynn--it's a weekend camp in Darlington MD. It's a sacred sexuality event, but this one is more spiritual than Beltane, which is alllllll about the sex.

Update to #3: Well, I got most of my stuff out of the car, except for the big rubbermaid bin. Then I came upstairs and passed out cold. Just now got up to take a shower and talk to my folks. Waiting until the storm passes so I can feed Anubis and head over there to drop off my stuff.

1. It is beeeeaauuutiful here, and I have spent as much of the day outside reading as I could, except for the part where I watched the live broadcast of the men's Olympic gold medal tennis match, which I enjoyed, but I think I liked the women's match better, and only partly because of Serena Williams' awesome little dance after she won.

2. Planning on making very garlicky pasta this evening and looking forward to it.

3. Had a lovely steakhouse dinner last night with good food, good service, and good drinks. And good lighting. Steakhouses need to have a certain kind of lighting (i.e., mostly dark with pools of warm light where helpful) and this place had it down.

4 (I'm a rebel). I saw a bird this morning that I think may have been an immature summer tanager, and it was really elegant and spectacularly colored (which I realize tend to be contradictory attributes). I love finding out about new birds.

1. What Trisha Lynn said about everyone's amazing, life altering updates.

2. I've been cast in a very huge important Shakespeare role. Stoked.

3. Olympics. I so worship Misty May-Treanor. Let's hear it for the big butted, mid-size girls not juicing.

Oooh oooh ooh, what role, rainbaby?

1. So damn hot and humid. Ahhhhhhh. Took the baby to church today for the first time. Everyone was so happy to see him. But so muggy, so hot. Wish they had thought to put AC in the place back in 1924 :P
2. Dad's in town. It's hot. He's at the theater this afternoon, seeing "Porgy & Bess". I'm here in my bed trying not to feel hot and failing. Also, watching season 6 of "West Wing". I know I've seen seasons 5-7 (I must have?) but I cannot remember anything about them, so it's all new.
3. Tomorrow we're doing a little bit of sightseeing. It better not be so damn hot. Clearly I'm about to crack.

1. My body tells me it's older than I believe. Last night I was trying to tip over a 800 lb round bale of hay and my knee joint flexed/pivoted in a direction nature didn't intend. I crumpled. It kept trying to go askew when weight-bearing but I carefully hobbled home and it decided to move forward/backward as designed. Spending 8 hrs walking on concrete floor today at work has left it a swollen mess.

2. Am medicating with milkshake for dinner.

3. I've picked up 2 part time CAD jobs, so it looks like I'll be able to pay some bills.

Yay to all y'all with good news!

Wuffles to the sick and sad-news burdened ones.

Congratulations and hugs where applicable!

1. It's so freakin' hot and humid here (yes, really) all I want to do is hide in our air-conditioned bedroom.

2. Sunday is our WoW Guild night for doing dungeons and I really don't want to, but I'm guild leader so I will.

3. The mister's first week back at work went well. He's pretty excited about being back to work - crazy man.