Visiting the Pocanos after class today on a trip my coworkers planned.

Yes, I have a Saturday class.

No plans in particular. I've just been given a bunch of Yma Sumac music so it will be very exotic around my house. [turns on string of tiki god lights]

Seeing the phrase "late night at a piano bar in London" reminds me that I need to expand my horizons.

I haven't listened to Yma Sumac in ages - I might be joining you in the exotica.

1) First weekend in ages with NOTHING on my to-do list, which feels a bit weird. Mrs Agogo is out with her Mom most of the day, so I'm on my own. Hoping to relax and actually do a little bit nothing.

2) Hoping to review a few records for my "blog", which is really just an excuse for me to give multiple listens to new albums and think about them critically. Plus it gets me ready for my excessive year end list.

3) Beer. I'm sure beer will be on the agenda. We have a fridge full of several great craft brews, but I'm thinking I might get out off the house and enjoy a beer or two at one of the local tap rooms.

Continue recording my current song project.
Watching old Hammer and Amicus movies on youtube.
Nascar races.

1. I have just decided that I want a steak for dinner tonight, so I am gleefully considering side dishes. I think I've decided on Savoy cabbage gratin, but my internal taste imagination (there has to be an actual word or phrase for that?) thinks there also needs to be something "brighter," and I keep picturing oranges, but I'm not sure where my head is going wit that yet.

2. Went out for a late lunch with my father yesterday to our standard Friday place, which was an old blacksmith's shop and home in the 1870s and is now a tavern. I had a grilled cheese with bacon and tomato, which I think is genius.

3. I cleaned out my father's pantry this morning, which hadn't been done in seven or eight years. Oldest can had expired in April 2003. Many cans were bulging in ways that made me afraid to touch them. But now it is cleared out and vaguely organized and the olive oil bottle is way less likely to fall out when I get my cereal in the morning, so I feel productive and helpful.

(Also, I filled FOUR GARBAGE BAGS with expired food. Four!)

1. We are in Seattle, watching east coast college football games in our jammies. That feels kinda weird.
2. Heading to West Seattle tonight for dinner with some of my SIL's friends. That and some fancy cocktails should make for a pleasant evening. If it doesn't rain, we will walk to Sunset Hill Park in Ballard, which is just a couple of blocks from SIL's house.
3. Weather permitting, we are going to the Fremont Street Fair tomorrow afternoon.

1. Went to Wakehurst today, toured the vault of the Millennium Seed Bank and saw the gardens.

2. Going out to a local restaurant tonight.

3. Going to a pub meet up tomorrow afternoon (not Metafilter, another community called HuSi)

Oh occhiblu, you reminded me -- I decided to make corn muffins this weekend as a work snack. Turns out it's been a LONG time since I made them. My baking powder, for example, had an expiration date of 2008. Oh dear. Has it really been that long since I've done any baking? Egad. That discovery led to cleaning out the fridge and pantry, where many other disturbing dates, not in this decade, were found. At least the paper liners for the muffin pan are still good . . . .

*Paper* liners?! No no no. Silicone!

1. We currently have an empty bedroom closet but an absurdly full front room. My goal: reverse those!

2. Sitting here painting my toenails. New purple nail polish.

3. The Fella will be home to cook dinner at 5:30. I could get used to this temporary schedule of his pretttttttty fast.

I cleaned out my father's pantry this morning, which hadn't been done in seven or eight years.

Oh, yikes. Last time I did that at Mom's, I found ELEVEN cans & jars of whole black olives. That's not counting the small cans of sliced black olives, btw.

My baking powder, for example, had an expiration date of 2008.

You know you can test double-acting baking powder for effectiveness, right? Mix a teaspoon of baking powder with ~1/3 cup hot water. If it fizzes vigorously, it's still good.

A few years ago, I finally started labeling my baking powder: right on the label, I write the date it was opened. Sometimes that's a simple explanation for a less-than-optimal cake: oops, I opened this [X] years ago.

Expired baking powder has become less of a problem lately since The Fella discovered how to make cake. What is a problem: discovering halfway through a recipe for cornbread that HEY WE ARE OUT OF BAKING POWDER... because he has discovered how to make cake but not how to write "baking powder" on a grocery list. But I get cake, so TOTALLY WORTH IT.

1. I've finally gotten up my nerve to socialize with a couple of neighbours that live a few doors down from us. The mister and Kaylee (the dog) are already quite friendly with them. They have two Shelties and a Shih-tzu and all four dogs get along like best buddies. So, we're going over there this afternoon for "tea". They have been making noises about getting together for dinner and movies (dvds), but this is a good first step.

2. There is no 2.

3. See number 2.

1. Rest. Glorious rest. Laying in bed this very moment, watching what's turning out to be a rather interesting movie -- The Thirteenth Floor. I intended on napping, but I may need to see how this turns out. Kind of a sci-fi murder mystery by the looks of things, set partly in the year my birth mother was born, 1937. Very atmospheric.

2. Lots of papers to grade, with first Marking Period grades due Tuesday. Gonna be a long week, with Parent/Teacher Conferences Thursday and Friday. Maybe I'll take Wednesday off, just to avoid complete exhaustion. Thursday, with evening conferences and travel, will be a 15 hour day.

3. Chores. What else are weekends for? (Feels that way sometimes anyway--) Laundry, groceries, dishes, a little cooking -- there are these spicy shrimp I saw on Pioneer Woman I wanna make. They look yummy.

1. Just got home and showered after Baltimore Pagan Pride Day. Got some AWESOME jewelry that I'm super excited about.

2. Tonight I've got my 101 class and will have to explain to folks about the party next weekend since the guy who normally does that isn't going to be there.

3. Work tomorrow. It's going to be a long fucking week.

1. Stayed up way too late last night. Hubby was out of town, baby went to bed at a decent hour, but I stayed up late finishing up season 3 of "Parenthood" on Netflix. Plus the roof alarm went off around 2:30 a.m. and woke up the dog and I. BOY, do I feel crappy today! Early to bed tonight.

2. Went to CT for a fabulous 1st birthday party today for a lovely little boy! Oliver had a great time, too. Now we are home and I am *dead*.

3. Church tomorrow. My formerly-pregnant friend is planning to bring her baby to church for the 1st time, huzzah! And grocery shopping is desperately needed as well.

1. Went to see this dance performance tonight, pretty amazing and moving. (Yes that review is from two years ago but culture gets to Pittsburgh slowly).

2. Spent the day working on windows. Unbolted the five wooden framed screens from the outside of the first floor side windows. Need to take them down so that I can work on painting the windows. Ripped off all of the sheet metal that someone had nailed to the outside window sills in some dumb attempt to protect them from the weather. All it managed to do was to trap water on the sills. Then my friend and I pulled out both sashes from the bathroom window and screwed a sheet of plywood over the opening. Going to strip and re-finish the wood sashes in the garage.

The house has 22 double-hung windows and 20 of those are around 150 years old. Doing our best to preserve and restore rather than replace.

3. Doing Weightwatchers with my wife and have managed to lose ten pounds over the last two months. Slow but down is better than up.

1. Hoping to catch some of the Orinids Meteor Shower tonight. I've got a lawn chair, a blanket, a quiet neighborhood with minimal lights and a good view of the sky. Please let me see something!

2. The weather tomorrow will be too nice to stay inside, so I'd like to go fall photographing. This is my favorite time of the year. Now, to find the perfect place..

3. Should clean house/grocery shop but the house isn't bad; can shop on Monday; see #2!

Welp, it's Sunday morning, and so far I have slept a lot (average 10.5 hours/night since last Wednesday).

Friday I stopped work early to go get a beer, which was fun! That meant, though, that I had to finish up some work yesterday morning, which was fine. I got it done, the accomplishment felt good, and then I was free for the rest of the day.

I went into work to pick up a new keyboard/cover I had gotten for my iPad, and then I went to run some errands. Picked up some meds at Target and ended up buying three dresses, some leggings, and a long sleeved tshirt. Then I stopped at the discount store next to Target and got a pair of gray jeans that fit me perfectly. Fun!

Then I went out to lunch and made friends with the bartender and a woman who was there picking up some lunch to go.

I went to the grocery store to get one thing and ended up with three shopping bags full.

Today I have done some more work, and I will need to do laundry and pack for an upcoming trip to San Francisco. Oh, and clean the kitchen. I will utilize my Unfuck Your Habitat app, which I adore.

I AM SO EXCITING!

1. Flew to LA to see my mom. I have a little mini-essay on my facebook feed about my trip from the airport.

2. My mom is OK but seriously slowing down. The trip was sorta planned to help my brother build a ramp for her to get out to the front yard, but he and my sister decided to contract it out, which is just fine.

3. So pretty much hanging with my mom, watching a lot of TV, unable to get on wireless until my brother has time to show me why the password he wrote down will not work for me. Took her shopping at a slightly organic grocery (Sprouts) and in front of me in line, a woman, when asked about the codes for some bulk items, straightens her spine and says "I'm here shoppin'. I'm not here code-checkin'!" So the checker had to look up all the codes. Welcome to LA, hippie!

I will utilize my Unfuck Your Habitat app, which I adore.

I AM SO EXCITING!

Stewriffic, I am SERIOUSLY EXCITED about the small steps today.

I set a timer for 45 minutes and tackled the front room. That empty closet is now ~1/3 full and a giant stack of Stuff is out of our overcrowded front room. I set aside a pile of mending, found a sack of clean laundry that disappeared under some blankets, put together outfits for the next week, and have washed several favorite handwash-only things.

I. AM. MIGHTY.

And thanks almost entirely to Un#^@& Your Habitat, this time I made myself stop when the timer went off. It will take maybe one more 45/15 session to sort out all that closet stuff (even with reorganizing it for winter and swapping from our other closet). I was pretty amazed when I stopped and saw the progress I've made.

I still haven't taken the much-needed step of figuring out a permanent substitute for a bureau. I hate bureaus, so I do without... but UfYH's completely obvious motto "Laundry has three steps: wash, dry, and PUT AWAY" pretty much blew my mind. It's so obvious that I didn't even notice it: there's always clothing all over because WE DON'T HAVE ANYWHERE TO PUT IT. No kidding.

Thanks for reminding me of UFYH. Didn't know they made an app, although the Android version isn't around yet. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for it.

Until then, I do have my trusty egg timer. I need to get better at following it, but it does remind me that time exists, so that is a good thing.

Oh, yeah, I don't do the app. I just use a timer and IT. IS. SUPERDUPER.

Am setting another 45/15 right now! Goodbye, mess!