Worked Sunday, will work this coming Sunday, too--we do all our maintenance when Congress is gone. Plus regular M-F 9-5. Good to have a job, for sure.

Dinner with my daughter Tuesday, the end of our 15-year tradition of having dinner together every week before she goes off to COLLEGE Thursday.

Working on the 3rd-annual parade float. The workspace is my back yard this year, so I'll have lots of fun folks over in the next few weeks.

Had a phone date last night, our first contact after a few emails after meeting online. Hoping to IRL it this week. Should be interesting.

I'm going to spend this week feeling alright about myself (or working on it). I think I'm ready to be cool with me.

Worked yesterday and will continue to do so until Thursday, which is a half day for me like usual. The boss isn't in until Thursday, which is going to be nice.

I have zills class tonight (it's still the props class, but we've finished with sword and are starting a new session of zills) and it's also Vinalia Rustica so I'll have a glass of wine when I get home to celebrate. Tuesday night I've got my very last basics class! Then I'm dance-free until Saturday, when I've got bootcamp in the morning and then a shopping trip to the local dance costume store. I have negative dollars to spend at the store, but I'm willing to do some window shopping. :)

Friday I'm probably going to go back to the shop and spend all day working on copying more lessons out of the book. Unfortunately, lesson 3 is history, which is a huge handkiller of a lesson. :( Maybe I'll come in Thursday afternoon and at least start that one.

Yay, Eideteker, that's as good a plan as I've seen!

Today's my day off. I'll work my one part time job Tue thru Fri, and then my other one Sat thru Sun.

Nothing exciting going on here.

Surviving tomorrow's stomach surgery ::Fingers Crossed::

Tonight, trial run of the pugs at my dad's with his new couch (pre-new couch, they were allowed on the couch at his place only, now they will not be) to train them not to jump on it. He'll be taking care of them a couple of times this year, if it goes well.

Tomorrow, followup exam with the younger pug to see if she is cleared for stairs (post luxating patella surgery - we are 6 weeks out). Plus her regular exam. She's still favoring that leg - we may need to do more physical therapy and walks, although it's been too hot for that lately.

All week, costumes costumes costumes! Vest is done, and now I have perhaps unreasonable hopes for what I can finish for myself. :) At the very least, a bolero jacket that matches the vest for my partner.

Trying to fight off the overwhelmed feeling - partner is traveling for work this week, for the second time this month, and I feel like it completely throws me off kilter.

Rollick - will think good thoughts for you that all goes smoothly.

Here's to an easy recovery, rollick!

Me... my mother gets here for a three week visit at midnight tonight.

It will go better than last time.
It will go better than last time.
It will go better than last time.

Ai yai yai. My mother and I do not get along that well. There's no real overt animosity; I just have nothing really to say to her, nor her to me. She has called me exactly once in the 12 years I've lived away from New Zealand - to tell me my grandmother died. I call her three or four times a year.

She's hard work to have as a guest - she expects to be entertained, but when you ask her what she'd like to do, you only get a shrug or a non-answer. She doesn't like museums, history, touristy stuff and if we eat out (which we try and do more of when we have a guest, because hello, NYC!) we get snarky comments about how it must be nice to never cook.

Just lots of little annoying things.

Anyway, this time I have a plan. I'm taking extra time off work, more than I usually do, and we are doing all our Christmas shopping. Running errands. I am putting her in charge of organizing all of our houseplants, as well as being in charge of designing my daughter's birthday cake. (baking and keeping plants alive being two things that she does well.) So hopefully if I'm more proactive about keeping her busy, then we will get along a bit better.

Strength.

I am hoping to get more settled in the new house and organize our closets and put up some shelves.
We want to rearrange the bedroom and buy some plants for the balcony too.
I am going to try to not procrastinate at work and somehow also start updating my blog again.

The students move in this week so it will be a little hectic. Trying to keep a positive attitude and open mind towards living with students again.

First day back from vacation so I'm spending most of the day reading email.

Vacations should be longer than a week, I could have stood at least a few days more away.

Good luck, gaspode. I loved my mother and vice versa, but she drove me nuts. It is better to have one that makes you insane than miss her, though.

This week looks busy at work. I'm starting my Vinyasa 1 yoga class this week and hoping I can keep up. Our dog is still much too interested in scratching and biting at himself, but no hot spots to be seen. Weather should be fabulous, which is great now that I'm back to biking regularly. Got a pedicure this weekend and am enjoying my purple toes -- a brand new shade for me! All is great with the Bear.

No big plans for this week. I have a lot of work to do, mostly from home. I also now have a deadline for when the cleaning company is coming in to give my place a good going-over, so I'll be sorting out a couple of drawers and cupboards that I need to clear out. I'll also have a root through my wardrobe and see how many clothes I can get rid of. I've lost 35lbs since 1 June, so there are some old worn-out too-big garments I can discard.

Good luck, gaspode.

Good luck, gaspode, that does not sound easy! 3 weeks is omg I would prob die. Sounds like you have good plans.
Maybe take her to 28th st to see the flower stores, too?
Or just set her up in front of Orange is the New Black and that buys you 13 hr.

Sterkte rollick with the operation.

Me I'm considering buying a soprano saxophone. 2nd hand and all but still a bit of money.
So I've made a deal with myself that I have to make my home work and such to earn it.
(I'm not talking about home work: just the typical stuff that you put off as a grownup)

Or just set her up in front of Orange is the New Black and that buys you 13 hr.

Ha, I was going to do that too, but I didn't want to say it out loud.

oops.

Flying back to NYC tomorrow- hope the baby will be calm; his two front teeth broke through in the last 48 hours so maybe his bad mood is mostly over. Get in around 2:30. Back to work Wednesday! I peeked at my e-mail and it appears the place only fell apart in my absence in predictable ways, which is good. Baby goes back to daycare Wednesday- I need to figure out a plan to pack his lunch every day. I'm feeling a lot of pressure about it; I don't know why, I keep reminding myself his father ate the same lunch every day for years, so do I, so I'm sure he can survive without massive lunch variety.

Thanks for your kind thoughts everyone

I'm back to work after 2.5 weeks vacation, and the first day went pretty well. Granted, I have a lot of stuff on my plate, but I think it's going to be OK. I now have a team of people instead of it being just me, due to another organization getting a nice grant to do the same work. Our funders collaborated for us to be working together, and I really love the people on the team, so that rocks.

I got back from vacation on Saturday, and on Sunday I was feeling really weird and unsettled. So I decided to do something productive and that I had wanted to do for ages but depression had taken away my ability to act. I'm coming out of that depression now, so I have much more energy. I cleaned the floors of my house. Which doesn't seem too hard, right? But it took me about 4 hours, because I really went to town on them. For the hardwood floors, I swiffered, swept, and mopped, and for the carpeted room, I vacuumed twice very thoroughly. First to just vacuum, and the second time after applying carpet cleaner and scrubbing at some stains. It was really satisfying, and I felt so accomplished!

Tiny the neighbor cat has come by to visit three times in three days. I hadn't seen her in about a month, so it was very lovely to snuggle her. However, I am very allergic, and have had to survive on benadryl. Now I have a weird rash on my face, so I'm going to lay off of Tiny.

Good luck Rollick. I hope that it went well. . .

Gaspode, I hope that you all make it through. 3 weeks is a long time. . .No chance she's a baseball fan? *smile*

The usual alternating days of volleyball and yoga at the gym. This morning, wife and I go to the usual Tuesday morning yoga.

It is birthday season at our house, so Daughter is coming tomorrow through Sunday. All 3 of our Bdays are in the space of a fortnight. Like Gaspode, Daughter's visits require planning so she will not get bored. Although we miss her terribly and love to have her here.

A bookstore here in town had a sort of Mothish story night. It was a bit more loose, in the you could read stuff and even sing a song, if it was a personal story. I had this song from decades ago, which sort of ended up in the bin because I did not think it was very good, but I am sitting there and realizing that this song would kill, in this setting. So, next story night it'll get played maybe. But for the life of me, the first verse is not anywhere in my brain. I have this stack of cassettes with music of mine in various forms of completion, and found this song. The only problem is that the vocal plays backwards because of the machine I recorded it on. But with computers and recording interfaces, it should be possible to put it on my Logic Pro program and reverse it. The learning curve is hugely steep but this week, it is one of the goals to be able to hear this song and relearn it, for the next story night.