Mail Problems

Just a quick notice: no matter what e-mail address you normally write me at, I suggest using susannahx@hotmail.com until after next Tuesday. My other addresses are flaking out because I'm having to use AOL to connect. So use the Hotmail address for now.

Happy weekend!

End of an Era

I'm home from work early today, because it was my last day. I came home and looked back at my Today Page entry for January 11, 1999:

Good day . . . yes, I went to work today. I really, really liked it. The people are cool, the place is nice, the work seems interesting . . . and I'm getting paid . . . what more could I want?

And I did like it, very much, especially for the first year. Things did change a lot after that, and I haven't been doing that same job for a very long time, but I sure learned a whole lot over the last three-and-a-half years. It was my first real job after grad school. I've been there through three layoffs, five different supervisors, and thousands of projects. I learned so much about working in a corporate setting -- and also learned that maybe it's not what I want to do for the rest of my life.

The best part was that I made two wonderful friends while I worked there, the kind of friends you keep after the job is long gone. Clarissa, who left last year, and Amanda, who took me to On the Border for lunch after I turned in my badge today. I feel so lucky to have met them both!

So, goodbye to B. Now that's just another exit off the highway to me...

The AOL fix is working. Thank you thank you thank you to the person who told me to do this. You know who you are! Maybe I would've thought of it myself but you know, I was so strung out from internet withdrawal that I really wasn't thinking straight.

I am back in business, baby!!!

Thank Goodness

Bad news first. My internet service is down at home, and the technician can't come until next TUESDAY. Yeah, um, like six days from when the cable modem quit working (yesterday morning). The timing on this sucks so bad, because I'm trying to do all this research about Munich and moving to Germany and stuff, and it's just a terrible time to be disconnected. But a wise woman talked me down off the ledge last night, and gave me a good idea for a workaround... I am going to get a free AOL account and use my dialup modem until the cable internet comes back again.

See, every cloud has a silver lining.

Here are the things I'm grateful for today:

• The meeting with HR went well yesterday. I am mostly feeling a lot better about things, just not so stressed about getting over there. It's a huge job, a giant project, but they do it all the time and it is all going to work out okay. I'm almost positive.
  
  
• Thank goodness for friends who talk you through freakouts late at night. And friends who bring over KFC for dinner and agree to come and help you hang wallpaper. And friends who send care packages that make your day. And all the others who do all those other things that make life easier when it gets crazy. What would I do without these wonderful people in my life?
  
  
• I only have one more day at work. Well, all day today, and tomorrow morning. Happy!!!
  
  
• Marty's helping with making the calls and stuff... this is something that stresses me out a lot, and I appreciate anything he can do before he heads off.
  
  
• I may get a househunting trip to Munich after all! At first they were saying they might not send me because the time is so short, but after the meeting yesterday it seems a lot more likely that they'll send me over for a week to help Marty look at places. I would feel much, much more comfortable about this move if I knew what type of place we'd be going to. After all, I have to figure out what we need to take, then divide up the stuff between what's going and what's staying, supervise the packing, all of that stuff.
  
  
• The relocation person seemed to think everything would work out okay with taking Ziggy over. Such a relief. Although I still need to confirm that there's no quarantine coming back into the US from Germany (I know there isn't on the way over).
  
  
• One way or another, I'm gonna get connected back to the internet from home tonight. It's terrible to be so dependent on it, I guess, but this is not the time for me to try to go cold turkey, when I am researching all this stuff and corresponding with the relocation counselor by e-mail. Terrible, terrible timing. But I'm going to find a fix. You watch me.

Okay, that's it for now. That's probably enough, right?

It's Vanilla

Have you tried Vanilla Coke? I have drunk it the last two days. As a long-time Coca-Cola fan, I was curious...

It is sweeter than I expected. I remember when Cherry Coke first came out (man, I'm old!), and how it tasted like the real cherry Coke you could order at the drugstore or the diner, just not as cherry. Vanilla Coke seems different to me. I guess it's because when you order a real vanilla Coke at a diner (if you ever do), every place may use a different kind of vanilla syrup... cherry Coke seems to be a little more consistent at different places, for some reason.

Anyway, it got me thinking... I wonder what Coke with vanilla Stoli would be like? Does that sound gross? I used to drink ginger ale with raspberry Stoli a lot, but I haven't in a long time...

I like the Vanilla Coke. I don't think I would ever like it as much as Cherry Coke, but I think it's kind of neat they decided to make it.

What do you think?

Primal Scream

I am so overwhelmed by all this moving to Germany stuff tonight. We have a big meeting tomorrow with Marty's HR guy to try to work out some of the details. But I keep looking around this house and thinking, god, how are we ever going to get out of here? And there is so much ambiguity about what is going to happen... I can't even begin to list everything that's making me crazy right now.

But okay. Everything's going to work out all right. It is normal for me to be feeling this way when things are so up in the air. (I'm not saying it's a normal response on an absolute scale, only that it's normal for me to feel this way.)

The truth is, in a month or so we will both be over there -- and Ziggy too, most likely -- and we will be living somewhere and our furniture will be somewhere and something will have been done about our house here, and in the end, things will be okay. So I just need to keep focusing on that and not wigging out.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

What would YOU do for a Klondike bar?

Apparently, I would watch pay-per-view professional wrestling. Yep, this past Sunday night found me at a gathering of the Hamden Slashers, watching the WWE "King of the Ring" ppv, live from beautiful Columbus, OHIO!!!

Mmm, that Klondike bar sure was good...

Okay, life is totally out-of-control crazy at the moment. I have three more days left at work (actually more like two, if you just count the time I'm going to be in the office) and sure enough, I have a ton of work to do. I am busier than I've been in weeks, months! I remember this from when I graduated from college, that last week of finals and papers before graduation, being totally strung out and overworked and overtaxed so that it was hard to realize it would all be over soon. That is how it feels.

Thank goodness for yoga. I missed a few weeks of this session and so I decided to go back into the beginners' class rather than stay up in the second class. I went last night and it was so great, just a really wonderful workout. I needed it.

I think the hives have mostly faded away, although I still look a little pink in the face. I'm certainly feeling a lot better and thank you all for the suggestions about benadryl. That stuff really works (although it also seems to make me kinda loopy).

So! Enough for now. Back to work.

Edited to say, oh my GOD!!! How did we ever live without this???

How to meet a Pep Boy

Just got back from the Pep Boys parking lot, where Marty called me to bring him some tools so he could put a new battery in his 1966 Dodge Monaco. He'd been out driving it around this afternoon, and finally it became clear the car needed a new battery. Luckily, he was in the Pep Boys parking lot when it happened.

So I drove over there with an adjustable wrench, a straight slotted screwdriver, and Marty's leatherman, and waited while he installed the new battery. It took him twice as long as it should have, because so many men kept coming up and striking up conversations with him. Everybody wants to know about the car and what Marty's doing with it.

I got to thinking about that, and realized that if anyone is interested in, you know, meeting a man, maybe they should get a classic car and take it around to auto supply places, raise the hood in the parking lot, and just rake 'em in.

I'm just sayin'.

When I was leaving (after the battery was installed), I saw a kid, a teenager I guess, wearing long baggy shorts and a Nelly bandaid. I cracked up laughing... luckily my windows were up because I was cackling stuff like "You big loser! What a tool!" Of course, it would be sad if he really had an injury on his face, wouldn't it?

I kinda doubt he did, though. The bandana tied around his head really gave it away. I think maybe he thought he was Justin Timberflake.

As for my face -- thanks for all the suggestions. I took an antihistimine and I do seem to be feeling better, although it still looks about the same. And sitting in the Pep Boys parking lot aggravated it a little bit, just the heat I guess. But I am hopin' it will clear up soon...

Does Your Face Hurt?

I believe I am in the middle of an outbreak of hives. I don't know that I've ever had them before; if I have, I don't remember. But my face is all red and splotchy and itchy, and I have bumps on my arms, too. I really don't know what caused it. I haven't done anything unusual in the last day or two, not that I can remember. (It started before the skunk incident last night.)

I've been reading online about hives -- causes and treatments -- and it does not seem that there's much to do about it.

Ouch. It's unattractive and uncomfortable. Not a happy way to spend a Sunday.

I love nature!!!

After dinner tonight I decided to give my mom a call, since we hadn't talked in a couple of weeks. So I took the cordless phone outside into the back yard to enjoy the evening while I was on the phone. It was so cool and quiet out, and I was sitting out on the bench in the middle of the yard, with the sound of the brook down the hill and the crickets chirping... so idyllic.

Then I heard a sound behind me, and I turned around, thinking it was one of the many neighborhood cats. Um, no. It was a skunk, a big old black and white skunk, six feet away from me. I could see its white stripe glowing in the dark.

My poor mom. I freaked out on the phone, whispering frantically, "Mom, mom, there's a skunk six feet away from me! What do I do?" Of course, my first inclination was to get up and bolt for the house, but I figured the skunk was faster than me, and it was in between me and the house, anyway. Besides, you're probably not supposed to make unexpected movements, right?

Luckily, the skunk seemed as shocked as I was. After a few seconds it backed away carefully, then turned and slinked off to the neighbors' yard. I jumped up and ran into the house. Close call.

Just call me nature girl.

Many Thanks

Just a quick thank you for all the lovely comments and good wishes people have sent about the move. I don't have many more details at this point than I did when I wrote on Monday, but as soon as things start happening I believe they will happen quite rapidly.

To give you an idea of what I'm looking at in the next month... we need to get the house ready to sell (that means finish the bathroom and get the wallpaper hung in the hall) -- then sell it, sell our cars, drive Marty's classic Dodge down to his brother's in Virginia, have a giant tag sale to pare down our belongings, separate the things we are taking from what will go into storage, get Ziggy certified (with a letter in German) to move to Germany, figure out what to do about prescriptions and other medical issues that will be challenging, see as many of our parents as we can, and oh, yeah, find a place to live in Germany.

That was just the big picture list. Every item on it requires quite a lot of doing. But we are going to have help, thanks to the amazing support of friends and family, and of course the relocation package from Marty's company, and I know I'll be able to get everything done. (I say "I," of course, because Marty will be gone in another 2 or 3 weeks.)

I do expect to keep up Raspberry World while I'm over there. I plan to start a new section of the site for my writing and pictures from Germany, but the front page will most likely stay the way it is, with the weblog. But I may pare down some of the other sections, particularly those with lots of graphics, so if you want to save my desktops or anything, now's the time to do it. (I'll give a final warning before anything goes; don't worry.)

Roy G. Biv



We're having summer thunderstorms today; in fact, we had hail tonight when I was headed out around 5:00. When I got back home around 8:00, this was the view from my street. It's hard to see in the picture, but it was a double rainbow. Gorgeous.

The other night I made black bean burritos for dinner and they came out great. I am headed down to have leftovers now. Marty's out for pizza with his softball team, but he'll be home soon too.

Happy tonight, thanks to rainbows and toolboys.

Doing My Civic Duty

Just back from the New Haven County Courthouse where I had my first jury duty experience (well, my first if you don't count last January when I blew it off by accident). It was interesting to see the inner workings of the judicial system. I was on the panel for a jury in a criminal case, but wasn't chosen. It was a good thing, too, because the trial was scheduled to begin on July 8. Which, you may remember, is the day Marty is moving to Germany. My work is going to be just beginning at that point.

A nice bonus: I was lucky enough to remember that Amanda was working in downtown New Haven today, so we met for lunch at Anna Liffey's Irish pub. The food was good, and it seems like a nice pub atmosphere. I am sure Amanda and Frank will go and check it out further some evening.

I can't believe I'm moving away from here. It keeps hitting me unexpectedly, how much I'm going to miss everyone. I guess I go back and forth between big excitement and mild befuddlement at the thought of living in Germany. Okay, and once in awhile, abject terror. But mostly I'm excited.

They are in the middle of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven right now. Today was the Pizza Fest, and down around the Green this morning there were lots of trucks unloading tents, tables, all kinds of things.

Competing with the festivities and work going on down there this morning was a huge rally of abortion protesters with 6-foot placards showing pictures of aborted fetuses. I walked halfway around the Green and maybe thirty of them tried to speak to me. I am fine with ignoring people who want to engage me in discussions of topics I don't want to talk about with them; I do it all the time. But they had their kids out with the signs, too, the fuckers. I would have more respect for them if they didn't use their children as ammunition. It's a grown-up issue. Let's keep it in the realm of adult discourse.

Man, I'm cranky. Hee!

Himbeere Welt

You may have noticed, lately, that I've been skirting around topics and making veiled references to things and basically just not putting out in the weblog here. It's not that nothing's been happening, of course; it's more like I haven't been able to really talk about what's on my mind. Lots of big changes have gotten underway in the last month or so.

So here's the scoop: Marty has been doing a lot of work in Germany for his company, and they have decided they want to send him there full time for a couple of years. So we are going to sell our house and move to Munich. I can hardly believe it's really happening -- mostly because I want it to happen so much -- but today I gave two weeks' notice at work and so it is starting to feel a whole lot more real.

There are about a million details to work out and I am sure I'll talk about them here on Himbeere Welt (ha!). But for now, it's enough to say it looks like Marty and I are embarking on a huge adventure together, and I think it's going to be one of the best things we've ever done. I can't wait.

Oh, yeah, and they want him there on July 8. Yes, July 8. Of course I'll be staying behind to get things finished up around here, but I plan to be over there in August at the latest.

Phone Weirdness

I think there may be something wrong with my phone. Normally, I come home from work and the light is blinking. "You've missed some calls," it says. So I pick up the handset and scroll through the five or six calls I missed -- "Out of Area," "Out of Area," "Out of Area," etc. etc. etc. No voice mail. Generally, this means I've had five or six calls from telemarketers, who never leave a message. (If the call comes from a private number, the number usually shows up, and sometimes the name.)

Yesterday I came home to zero missed calls. That never, ever happens. We even get calls from telemarketers on the weekends here. And today? Again, no calls.

The only thing I can figure is, the phone's not working right. Because we never go 48 hours without any telemarketer calls. We generally get at least 5 a day. So if you've tried to call me and gotten no answer, maybe my phone's broken. Who knows?

Tonight I went to see The Importance of Being Earnest with Trish. We had a great time, and laughed a lot. Colin Firth is very enjoyable, although I have to say he didn't grab me by the throat the way he did last year in Bridget Jones's Diary (you may remember the effect that movie had on me, if you've been reading here awhile).

Today's a big birthday -- my biggest birthday day of the year. Laura, Clarissa, and Renate are all celebrating today. I believe this is the only day I have three birthdays to celebrate in one day.

Marty's coming home tomorrow and I am glad!

Shoe Malfunction

When I stepped out of my car this morning, I felt something give at my ankle. I'm wearing some black sandals I bought earlier this year, and it suddenly felt like the sole was flapping more than usual on my right foot. Sure enough, my shoe had started falling apart. I guess I can't complain too loudly, since I bought these at some place like Marshall's (if I remember correctly) and didn't pay very much for them. Still, I like the shoes. I hope I can fix it when I get home.

In the meantime I am stuck at work with a shoe malfunction. I don't think it's very noticeable visually (especially when I am not walking), but I am very conscious of it. I'll probably run out to Payless at lunchtime and pick up a pair of sandals.

The other treat this morning is a splitting headache. I get these icepick headaches from time to time -- side-effects of a medication I take -- and there seems to be nothing that really alleviates them.

But mostly things are going well. Last night was fun with the Hamden Slashers. We had pizza and watched videos. Then, before I went to bed, Marty called from Germany. It was 11pm here, 5am there. It was great to hear his voice.

Tonight is yoga. And I need it. Bad! I am feeling all... in limbo, you know? Like waiting for something to happen -- which I am -- and feeling all disoriented until things are settled around me. Yoga helps with things like that.

What Up, Dork?!

Okay. Marty's off on a business trip to Munich. I miss him already. But I'm holding down the fort, taking care of the cat, and gorging myself on fiction.

I have lots of plans this week... tomorrow night two friends are coming over for a pimpin' party. We're going to show each other videos of our favorite fandoms and try to pull each other in. Can you guess what they'll be watching from me? Yep, 30 minutes of *NSYNC footage. I believe they're going to show Farscape and WWE, respectively. Get the F out!

I am still trying to decide what 30 minutes of footage to show. "What up, dork?"

We'll also order pizza and probably giggle a lot, if I know us...

Wednesday is yoga. Thursday, I may be going to see The Importance of Being Earnest with Trish. We'll see if it works out. Friday, Marty will be home.

But tonight I am just relaxing, killing time, amazed that it's still light out at 8:30 pm. Love the summertime. Love it.

Okay, that's all for now. I'm going to find some dinner.

Why is it...?

You may remember that Marty and I began a healthy eating and exercise kick a couple of months ago. I started being a lot more conscious about how I cooked, what we ate, etc. I began taking yoga classes. Marty started exercising more too. It's been good; we've definitely felt better and had more energy. I've lost a little weight. So I've been feeling pretty good about it.

Well. As of yesterday, Marty has lost twenty pounds. I know this is how it is with men. They lose weight more easily, and faster. But it's just kind of irritating. Actually, it kind of pisses me off.

Hee!

In other news... he's leaving on another business trip tomorrow. We have a ton of shit going on here, lots of big plans and things we need to accomplish around the house. Things have just gotten really weird lately, and we are rearranging priorities like crazy.

June is a huge birthday month for me (7 important birthdays within 3 weeks) so I have been working on birthday stuff this weekend. Big trip to the post office on Monday for me...

Saturday!

Oh yes. It's the weekend! Everyone is busy. Amanda and Frank are off on a trip to see a dance recital. Marty is volunteering at the Special Olympics Connecticut Summer Games. And my girlfriends across the country are gearing up to buy tickets to see Challenge for the Children in Orlando this July (on sale this morning at 10).

I am pondering things and overcoming a slight, well, I wouldn't call it a hangover, but the kind of grogginess one might have the morning after a couple of pints at Eli Cannon's. Because that's where we were last night. I had a Bellhaven Scottish Ale (very sweet) and something else I can't remember the name of now...

Blogger has started putting the wrong time on my posts -- an hour earlier than I actually do them. So that is why I may have seemed to be posting at strange times lately.

Highs and Lows

Happy it's Friday. Yes I am.

It's been quite a week of ups and downs. I'm handling it, handling it all, but I just wonder what can be next? There's been lots of good news mixed in with some sadness, and today I fell victim to a particularly frustrating incarnation of Murphy's Law...

Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to be so vague about everything today. I know that isn't why you come here to read this page. I will be able to talk about some of it soon, anyway.

In the meantime, I am so ready for the weekend.

Those Who Know, Understand

Okay. This is really, really wrong. And I can't even tell you what the funniest thing is about it, but maybe you can figure it out for yourself...

Thanks to Amanda for the terrifying link!

No Nukes

Couple of things I forgot to mention about last night.

Dinner at O'Lunney's was good. I had a Boddington's ale, which they had on tap. It reminds me of our trip to England this spring, because we drank Boddington's while we were over there, too.

From the concert:

when you're three days down the highway
and you're looking like i feel
and it takes a lot to keep it going
it takes a lot to keep it real
take some time for yourself
and learn to yield

After the concert, we saw a great big New York subway rat. I tried to take a picture of it but it moved too fast!

Indigo Girls at Radio City Music Hall
June 4, 2002

The concert was great. Amy and Emily were just so on, and their band (just a three-piece) was tight, and they all just seemed so tickled to be playing onstage at RCMH.

Trish and I got to NYC about 4, and parked in the garage up at 70th and West End (where I always park). We took a cab to O'Lunney's Pub and had a beer and an early dinner. Then we wandered around for a little while -- Times Square, Rockefeller Plaza, etc -- ending up at the Metropolitan Museum shop where Trish found a garden book she'd been looking for for a long time.

I'd heard and read that security at RCMH was really tight, that you had to line up and it took a long time to get inside after the doors opened, etc, so when it got close to 7pm we went and lined up at the barricades they'd set up outside the entrances. We were the first people in line, and when the doors opened we were the first people into the building! (Even better -- the first people into the ladies' room! If you've ever been to an IGs concert, you know how long the line gets for the ladies' room...)

Radio City Music Hall is very cool. It was opened in 1932, I think, but refurbished in the late 1990s. It's just gorgeous inside, very art deco. I have to admit that one of my favorite parts of it was the bathroom. It had this very cool tile floor, and these gorgeous green sinks, and old-time electric hand dryers that you start with a foot pedal. Like I said, we were the first people in there, and as soon as I saw those green sinks I whipped out my camera and started snapping shots of them. (I do know how weird that sounds, no need to tell me.)

The auditorium is really pretty, and it's bathed in this golden light that just makes everything feel warm. We had a good time watching the place fill up before the concert. As I wrote yesterday, this was my third IGs concert, and I was thinking last night that the IGs crowd has been one of the nicest crowds I've ever been in, every time I've seen them play. I just get such a friendly, happy vibe from the crowd at an Indigo Girls show. That's one show where I never feel self-conscious about standing up to dance. When I get into that crowd, I always feel like, hey, these are my people! I embrace my inner lesbian!

The opening act was Danielle Howle, from South Carolina, whom I'd never heard of before yesterday. She had a great voice (really an amazing voice) but didn't connect with the audience too well. Tonight (at the second RCMH show) K's Choice is opening. I would have really liked to see them. I have two of their CDs.

So. Then the IGs. Well, they were just great. The music was so good. They played so many of my favorite songs, I can't really even begin to name them all. I will maybe post the set list if I find it sometime later. They did several of the songs I like best from the new album, too. I was happy they did one of my favorite old songs, as well -- Tried to be True. They sounded great. Emily's guitar playing seems to have reached a new level in the last couple of years. And they seemed so happy to be there, so thrilled when the audience sang back at them, all of those things.

And they looked great, too! Amy was smiling all night. She was wearing this red and black plaid skirt/pants combo thing, very distinctive, with black combat boots and a black tank top. The best part was she had her hair in two braids, pigtails. Oh my god. She looked adorable. Emily was looking good, too, very relaxed, in jeans and a t-shirt that said, "Don't ruin this with words," with another shirt open on top of that.

During one break while Amy was tuning, Emily took a few questions from the audience (I love it when they do that -- they did it at Penn State when I saw them, too). Then she noticed this kid who was up on his dad's shoulders wearing this big rainbow hat, and asked him how old he was. Turns out he just turned seven yesterday. Emily and Amy seemed duly impressed by that, and asked him his name (Jamie), and then they started singing happy birthday to him. And the whole audience sang it with them. It sounded so cool, echoing down off the balconies and the huge ceiling. Can you imagine?

Even considering all the music and musicians I love, really love, I think I can still say that the Indigo Girls are my favorite act, ever. So many of their songs just mean so much to me on a really personal level. All those songs from Swamp Ophelia leave me in tears every time. Even last night. And I don't even care, it just makes me so happy to hear them again.

I took a few pictures. Click on them to see the bigger versions.

Today's the Day!

I'm off to New York to see the Indigo Girls tonight at Radio City Music Hall. My friend Trish is coming with me. I can't wait!

I first saw the Indigo Girls perform on April 15, 1997, at Penn State's Rec Hall. I went with my friend Shannon, and it was just a great, great show. It was just the two of them, acoustic duo, and it was maybe a week or so before the release of Shaming of the Sun. I remember them talking about watching X-Files tapes on their bus, and joking about how much they loved Mulder.

The second time I saw them was February 17, 2000, at UCONN's Jorgensen Auditorium. Again, they were touring as a duo, without their band, and the show was just amazing. They were supporting Come On Now Social, which they'd released the previous September. I went with Marty, his friend Bill, and my friend Trish (who is coming with me tonight).

So today will be the third time I'll see them in concert. I think they are touring with their band this time, so that should be different. I love their new album, Become You, and I can't wait to hear them do the songs live. I am just so excited!

It's funny, because I was in college in Athens, Georgia, during the time the IGs were getting popular in Atlanta (1986 - 1990). I was living there when they played their concert at the Uptown Lounge (which became the video "Live at the Uptown Lounge") and I didn't even consider going. I just wasn't interested. It was a few years later, when I was living in Pennsylvania, that they became such big favorites for me. But now it's hard for me to remember a time when their music wasn't part of my life, even though I know that time existed.

The Amazing Kartoo

Wow. Kartoo is a very cool search engine. Results are returned in a circular map format, and you can add and subtract terms easily just by clicking.

Definitely something a little different.

More on Those CDs...

Sonal sent me this link to a page at The Dent: Corrupt (Copy- Protected) CDs. Lots of info here for those of us interested in the issue of copy-protected CDs.

Here's what I wrote about it a couple of weeks ago.

Progress

Here's a picture update on the downstairs bathroom. Now you can see how my panels are going to be installed. (Click on the images to enlarge.)

Another Saturday Night

A productive day! I got lots done, and when Marty came home from work he primed the walls and ceiling in the downstairs bathroom. Go, Marty! Tomorrow morning we'll paint in there.

I made up a new pasta recipe for dinner tonight and it turned out great. Used the leftover grilled chicken.

List update:

• Paint moulding for bathroom
  
• Paint ceiling and walls in bathroom
  
• Laundry
  
• Buy new J-14 magazine
  
• Yoga (maybe)
  
• Work on "I Wish" mix - next on the agenda
  
• Make easy *NS ballad mix
  
• Write puppyfic
  
• Update non-RW sites
  
• Tape *NS concerts to share with Joanne and Amanda - halfway done
  
• Burn copies of Pop Muzik mix
  
• Pick up shirts
  
• Use leftover grilled chicken

And now I'm playing the Pop Muzik discs to make sure they all turned out okay.

Update:

I've already crossed some things off my list.

• Paint moulding for bathroom
  
• Paint ceiling and walls in bathroom
  
• Laundry - in progress
  
• Buy new J-14 magazine - couldn't find it even though I know it's out
  
• Yoga (maybe)
  
• Work on "I Wish" mix
  
• Make easy *NS ballad mix
  
• Write puppyfic
  
• Update non-RW sites
  
• Tape *NS concerts to share with Joanne and Amanda - in progress
  
• Burn copies of Pop Muzik mix - in progress
  
• Pick up shirts
  
• Use leftover grilled chicken

Now I'm off to paint the moulding...

Music Orgy

I recently got a bunch of new music, the first I've bought in awhile. So far I am really enjoying the new Sheryl Crow CD, C'mon C'mon, and Under Rug Swept by Alanis Morissette. Wow. Both such great albums.

Another weekend, another two days off with way too many things to accomplish. So much that I need to do. Here's a partial list of what I'm hoping to get done today and tomorrow:

• Paint moulding for bathroom
  
• Paint ceiling and walls in bathroom
  
• Laundry
  
• Buy new J-14 magazine
  
• Yoga (maybe)
  
• Work on "I Wish" mix
  
• Make easy *NS ballad mix
  
• Write puppyfic
  
• Update non-RW sites
  
• Tape *NS concerts to share with Joanne and Amanda
  
• Burn copies of Pop Muzik mix
  
• Pick up shirts
  
• Use leftover grilled chicken (pasta? pizza?)

There's more I need to do, too, but who knows how much I will get to? We'll see.

More good news on the music front: I found someone to fill in for my date for the Indigo Girls concert on Tuesday. Marty is standing me up, but Trish and I are going to have a good time in New York!

You do know that I write about music in the music log, right?