Good: TGIF! And hoping to ride my bike and maybe see a movie with my husband tomorrow.

Bad: I have to ride the crazy stinky slow bus home tonight because I have an after work appointment. It was that or drive in today and I'm getting very committed to public transportation

Good: My car is back from the collision repair place (and parked at the park and ride lot) and looking spiffy.

Bad: I won't be reunited with it until around 8:30 pm tonight -- see above -- and it cost a pretty penny. And I suspect our insurance rate will go up.

Good: I spent 6 hours today in the shop copying the book.

Bad: I only did 2 lessons. Out of 13.

Good: I picked up a bottle of wine to celebrate.

Bad: I wound up taking an epic nap when I got home and now it is probably too late to drink any of it since I have to be up at 345am to meet with my sister at 445am so we can go to Delaware to go race.

Good: I think have some energy to get my chores done tonight.

Bad: It's already 9pm. See also: having to be up at 345am.

Alors je prends de l'avance, en prenant du recul,
Car prendre du recul c'est prendre de l'élan.

Does that mean 'reculer pour mieux sauter'?

Btw trying to rap in french is a nice challenge

Bien sûr, 'reculer pour mieux sauter,' that's what it means.

French rap is tough. I like what Solaar does, he's from Sénégal. IAM are good, they hail from Marseilles. Doc Gynéco, from Guadeloupe, brings a Caribbean sensibility to the oeuvre. Kamelanc' is pretty dope, he's from Morocco. Of course, all these guys are based in France, and most began rapping while they were coming up in the banlieues. I've heard some French Canadian rappers that I thought were okay. Thick-tongued and maladroit, Canadian French lends itself quite well to rap, but Canadiens tend to favor wack beats. I think the diversity of the Francophone world and the variety of its creoles -- I've also heard good Haitian rap -- gives us an awful lot to choose from.

Woa, you're well versed in this. You even use the word 'dope' casually. I'll have to admit to complete ignorance about this. And all 'rapping' beyond Poes Nevermore.

My in-house expert (my son) tells me that there is controversy about Solaar around Guru's death from cancer.

Please tell your son he's got it (understandably) wrong. French rapper MC Solaar, born Claude M'Baral, is not the same person as producer Solar, aka John Mosher. It's such a sad, sad story, though.

Unfortunately the extra "a" isn't enough to distance Solaar from this unhappy ending.

Correction: M'Barali with an "i," sorry.

He has been corrected.

Good: My birdie and I bonded today in a big way.

Bad: My birdie bonded too much and now tries to ignore the wife. Much work has to be done.

BTW I got my bird's Hatching Certificate from the pet shop. Seems that he is 5 months old and not 4 as we were told. No matter, he's still a baby and a total handful!

Good: I had a great holiday, saw wildlife, went snorkelling, ate food, all that.

Bad: It ended, and now I'm back at work.