I worked at Lowes both days and it was packed with folks since the nice weather has given everyone spring fever. I'm trying to pick up a cabinet designer gig there since I'm sick of the abusive world of architecture.

I read a book that was meh, did a few outside chores and generally slugged around.

Monday is my day off so I'll catch up on chores; especially outside work since the weather is decent.

It was great. But too short.

Friday was a vet visit, and scheduling a tooth cleaning/extraction this week for our older dog.

We saw Jennifer Nettles at the Fox on Saturday night, and she put on a really good show, plus our tickets were amazing. It was a little odd, as I hadn't gone to any of her Sugarland concerts, but remember her from college. Still, good to see her, and a fun outing.

Actually managed to clean off my sewing table and get a couple of projects wrapped up at the house, clearing the way for more projects! I think I caught the spring fever, too, but have no house projects, just craft/sewing ones.

Fairly quiet. I had coffee with my sponsor and ran some errands on Friday (super pissed that someone bought all the on sale white candles at the local grocery store) and dance class in the evening and did most of my chores. Saturday I was going to go to a hafla and perform with AKD but 2 out of the 4 people couldn't make it and so the other person and myself decided to not bother. So I spent most of Saturday dithering around and reading books (Amazon makes it much too easy for me to buy new Kindle books!) and finished up my chores and got lost in a Wikipedia hole until 1am. Oops.

It was fine.

Friday was the piano bar. It was, as always, a lot of fun.

Saturday was a quiet day - a little food shopping, I made soup, I watched a fair amount of TV. A very late night (3am) because I was reading and had drunk coffee too late in the day.

On Sunday I went up to town because I needed something from Planet Organic. I had a wander round Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury. I'd thought about seeing The Stranger By the Lake at the Renoir, but there was only one showing on Sunday, at 6.25 and I didn't want to hang round for four hours. I'll try and catch it next weekend.

Sucked. Friday: just-married-guy-who-I-thought-liked-me started harassing me again at work. Saturday: had dinner with a different guy who rejected me years ago. He was in town to be with his mother on her deathbed (made it in time), and later he kept going on about how until the end she kept wanting us to be together. Sunday: went to visit aunt in hospital, it was the first time in a while I'd seen her, and it hit me like a ton of bricks that holy shit, she's going to die soon.

So ready for something that is NOT death and heartbreak.

It was packed, and hence too short! My Bear had a horrid cold all weekend, so I went on my own to an incredibly beautiful and moving performance of Bach's St. Matthews Passion on Friday night. Not Xian, here, but cried anyway. Wow. I wish I'd found someone for the Bear's seat to come along.

Saturday was almost all day doing some mock trials for very, very talented high school students. It was exhausting! The Bear and I curled up under adjoining blankets and caught up on some Olympics that night.

Sunday I had a blissful sleep in, then spent the day on errands, laundry, and catching up on computer work. Somewhere over the weekend I finished Sycamore Row, which was definitely not Grisham's best, and started The Leopard, which I must finish fairly soon as it is an e-loan from the library. Not bad so far.

Lazy. Stynxno was busy for much of the weekend so it was just me and Oliver. On Saturday, we went to the playground and ran some errands (he had a great time licking all the frozen cases in the grocery store, lol), and on Sunday we went to church. Other than that, we just sat around.

Friday:Saw matinee of In Secret, did some shopping and had dinner with family in Westwood.

My dad seems about the same as the last time I saw him; he didn't bring his O2 into the restaurant. My cousin's gf was at school with one of my high school teachers.

A horrible woman told her daughter to clean the seat after I came out of a bathroom in a bookstore. She didn't answer me when I confronted her and asked if she thought fat people were dirty.

Saturday: Went to see Omar, didn't punch in the right parking space # and got a ticket. Hit up VRomans books in Pasadena and had shrimp mole at the best rated Mexican place in Zagat.

Sunday: was supposed to meet Daddy for brunch, but he thought it was today. Visited cousins, the mother is in her 90's and has become very frail. She does not want to be seen with a walker or wheelchair. Had yakitori for dinner and saw Child's Pose.

I had asked Daddy when my mother was out of the house and he didn't let me know until yesterday. It turns out I could have come over thursday and met the greyhounds.

I leave for AWP tomorrow.

My 5 yr old was happy to show off to her papa that she could ride her bike without training wheels. ≡ Click to see image ≡
Also: when you go off a (slight) slope you go FAST.

Learning to ride your bike is an important step here in NL. So this was as big a deal to me as to her. Next step: off to university. :-)

busy!

Friday: went to memorial service for the mother of a colleague; it was a moving, touching ceremony that was a real celebration of her life and helped me understand Colleague better. It was one of those situations where the deceased, a single mother, had been terminally ill for awhile and had taken steps to do all the advance planning on her own to take the stress of making the arrangements off of her son and family. I was deeply touched by that and not sure I'd have the strength of mind to do it myself tbh.

Friday afternoon/evening our boss chased us out of work early so I went to the nearby wine shop, got into a wonderful conversation with someone tangentially involved in the local bike racing scene, and had 2 separate very nice ladies compliment my dress and ask where I'd gotten it (!!). Since my normal public persona is an equal mix of "obsolete hipster", "marginally employed bike messenger" and "dragged backwards thru a hedge" it was quite encouraging.

Saturday I helped a friend of mine (who is young and far away from her family and social network in the hell that is grad school) prepare for and successfully execute her first ever bike race. Then I rode home 40 miles from said bike race in pretty dire weather conditions, and lived to tell the tale.

Sunday mr lfr and I went up to the local Nordic center and went skate skiing. It was lovely weather for it (sunny and positively balmy) and I succeeded in NOT falling on my arse for the first time ever during a skate session, and just in general had a good time and felt ridiculously accomplished for still being pretty new at it.

Wife was busy all weekend facilitating a coding contest for the city so I hung out at home mostly and watched old movies and studying for my new job.

I performed in an improv show Friday night, my first as a member of the troupe (as opposed to a class show, or one of their short term projects) and helped close the bar down afterwards. The next day I dyed 5 pounds of homemade play dough and made two trifles (Mexican Chocolate and Lime Margarita) for the big annual fundraiser for my church. Only six out of ten play doughs sold, grr, but the trifles were a hit and we raised more than we'd budgeted, yay! Got up early next morning to go to church and assistant teach Sunday school (a fun gender equality lesson, complete with a Free To Be video) then went for family brunch to say goodbye to a cousin moving to New Zealand for a year to be a nanny, then ran errands on the way home, but did not get socks because Costco had the wrong kind and Target hates fat people (and inspired me to start a Facebook group, which is a whole 'nother story) and went to bed far too late Sunday night considering the rest of the weekend.

Today, I am WIPED.

Beautiful weather in NYC. Saturday we took the kiddo to ballet and then to see Three Little Birds, a kids musical based (of course) on songs of Bob Marley. It was just wonderful. Then we walked up to Central Park and climbed on rocks for a few hours. Sunday we were out the whole day in playgrounds and wandering around our neighborhood.

When we weren't out, I was in bed getting over strep throat. Blah. Better now, though.