Worse! You know what I ended up doing last night instead? Mopping up water out of my basement. With all the rain we've had lately, it's getting into my basement. It's never been this bad. It's in places that's never had water before - my treadmill is in an island, so I'm glad I picked the right spot for it, but there's never been water in that corner before. I mopped up three 3-gallon buckets of water before I gave up. I'm a little nervous leaving it like this, but there would really be nothing else I could do. I did dry it out a little with the mopping, but it still came back. Stupid rain.

Ack! What am I doing?!? It's 8:00 the night before, I haven't showered, I haven't packed, and I still have to watch two hours of television tonight so that my TiVo doesn't fill up when I'm gone! And here I am, blogging. But I had to update my current consumption, so you knew what I was reading, and what books on tape I'm listening to on my trip, and once I panic, I can get down to work. And I'm starved! Okay, first things first, post, then shower, pack toiletries as I go, then eat, then pack, then watch TV. Then go to bed, then wake up, go to the chiro, then go. Here I go! Don't forget the camera!

Two days! It's amazing! I got all this stuff done yesterday: bundled all the branches from the grape vine I took out Tuesday, mowed the lawn, weeded, cleaned three rooms of my house, and check out this massive dust bunny I collected:



Gross! No wonder I've been getting sinus headaches. I've had a boatload full of "friends" living with me.

I went to bed last night thinking, "And I have an entire 'nother day to myself!" I finished cleaning today, and switched out the antivirus software on my computer, and now Norton is no longer protecting me from Javascript. Yay!

The highlight of my weekend was going to see Calvin's school play. It was so cute! He sang, he danced, he said his lines into the microphone as quick as he could and ran back to his place. Adorable! And check out that face! (Center)



Three days of audit, then vacation. I'm very unprepared for the work, so it's going to suck, but I'll have vacation to look forward to, so that will help immensely. Roadtrip!

Ah, exercise, how I have missed you. I went back to TKD last night, my first exercise in over a month, and I could tell. I'm not necessarily sore, but I was breathing hard on routines I should be able to knock out of the park. Plus, I have to get my callouses back. Even with shoes, my feet are achy from rubbing on the floor. But I'm already starting to feel better.

And that may have to do with only having to work eight hours a day. I feel like I'm on vacation already! Getting to go home at five, working in the yard...Tuesday, I got my front yard raked (it always amazes me how much crap my pine trees "poop" onto the yard over the winter) and worked on clearing out a non-producing grape vine away from my black raspberry bushes. Lots of stuff done, lots of debris still to clear away.

Now to get that massage scheduled...

Same view of my backyard as the post below, but with more snow. It was all melted by the end of the day, but this is ridiculous. I suppose at least now I'll get a chance to thin out my daylilies that are threatening to take over my yard before they get too big this year.


My daily oatmeal! I never used to like oatmeal as a kid, but now, I find it extremely handy to take to work in a jar, warm it up in the microwave, and eat it while I boot up my computer and check my email (and stalk blogs).


My work shelf is so empty! The bottom shelf is for returns waiting for information, next one up is extensions, middle is "to do", second shelf is for items I haven't started yet, and the top is stuff for later. I love empty shelves, it means the end is near!


Jamie, who owns Teaspoons coffee shop across the street, is married to a guy who used to work here, and she still brings us free coffee a couple times during tax season. What a sweetheart!


Ah, lunch. Enchiladas and the Sudoku puzzle. It was very easy for a level three.


More important stuff: choosing lunch for tomorrow. The office has been paying for lunch on Fridays these last few weeks. Tomorrow's is from Vito's, and I chose a chicken pasta dish.


One of my toughest assignments for the day: two 1031 exchanges, one of which included a replacement for a casualty gain. My spreadsheet helped me figure out the basis in the replacement properties.


It's Thursday, so it's a Gym-Nest day. This is the first class of 5-7 year olds, and Randal is lecturing on "What's the most important part of a roundhouse kick?"

The pivot!


Second class, chung-gi form. Testing is in two weeks, and we really cracked down on forms. Practice, practice, practice!


After the third class, I experimented with trying a self portrait, since I haven't posted a picture of myself in my new black belt. Several tries on this picture. It's much easier to keep your balance if you're not trying to take a picture at the same time. :)


After the Nest, it's a weekly tradtion to go over to Randal's to eat and watch The Ultimate Fighter. Chelsea does most of the cooking, since she teaches on Mondays, plus she loves to cook. I try to contribute most of the time. Here, Chelsea and Josh are showing off Josh's latest batch of Amber, which has a great hoppy taste to it. Randal designs the labels. I should do a close up picture of them one of these days.


Watching the show. I don't know what it is about putting these guys all in a house together, but they're mostly all asses. What did you *think* was going to happen when you wrote "Suck It, Team Pulver" on the wall? I did enjoy the show after TUF5 though, "Tito vs. Dana: Bad Blood". I was pissed we didn't get to see a fight at the end, but I loved how the whole show was basically a big "F-you" to Tito.

I woke up to this view of my backyard this morning:



Someone got March and April confused this year. March was warm, sunny and 60. April has been cold, 30, and now snowy. The worst part? I planted tons of bulbs last fall: tulips, lily of the valley, peonies, and now I don't know if they'll make it. :(

I made it to church on time, got my nap after breakfast, ate an immense amount of food, and went to bed at 8:30, so I feel rested today. What a great Easter!

Two of the best stories from the day:

Mom, Aunt Joyce and I played Trivial Pursuit against Uncle Tim, my cousin Nicole and her boyfriend Ben. Ben and Nicole are in high school, so we were playing the Young Players edition, which I think we've had since the late '80s, so it was either going to be easy or difficult, and ended up being a combination of both. My team was down four pies to two, because we kept getting out-of-date questions like "On the Young and the Restless, who shot Jack Abbott?" If it had been an All My Children question, we would have gotten it, because Mom was the one who got me watching AMC in the first place, but that's how it was going. Anyway, then we staged a phenomenal comeback. The other team had been trying for the last question to win the game for the last two turns, and we made it to the center. Mom was on the phone with Lew, so we were kinda waiting for her. They chose "Good Times" as the category, and then Ben and Nicole looked at the question. Nicole said, "Oh, this is so obscure, you're never going to get it." I said, "May as well give us the question and see if we can answer it without Mom." The question: "Whose November 1983 death saddened Big Bird?" Duh! "Mr. Hooper!" Nicole and Ben's jaws dropped. "How did you know that?!?" "In 1983 I was five years old! I was devastated when Mr. Hooper died!"

Mom got new drip pans for the stove. Uncle Shawn (an appliance repairman) had to special order them for her, and she put them on the stove late last week to make sure they fit. She was going to take them back off again, but said, "We should use these all time." And Dad said, "No, you should save them for Easter." Mom was relating this story, and this was the point where I burst into giggles: "You have 'company' drip pans!" I can understand "company china" but "company drip pans"? Hilarious. Mom didn't think it was funny either, until we had ourselves all worked up over a game of Power Uno, and I was relating the story to Emily. We had really gotten the giggles over this game, and we were laughing at things that weren't funny. I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time.

I'm finally getting that light-hearted feeling today. There's as much work as ever on my shelf, but that trigger inside has been flipped that says "You're almost done!" I'm still putting in the hours, but in good spirits.

We'll see how I am on Monday. I'm not going to get my Sunday of relaxing because of Easter, and I'm not anticipating getting a lot of sleep. Church is at 6:30 a.m. Sunday, and Saturday night is a fight night, so the earliest I'll get to bed will be 12:30. So I'll have to aim at leaving at 5:45. Ouch. This whole recreation of the Marys going to the tomb is picturesque, but will sure wreak havoc with my sleep cycle. (Does one ever wreak anything besides havoc?) At least I'll have pancakes to look forward to after services. Mmm, pancakes. Maybe I'll have time for a nap between breakfast and Sunday dinner. Or I could help Mom cook. Damn that ingrained guilt complex! (Say Em, did you just hear kitchen cupboards banging, pots rattling, and a loud sigh?)

I don't know why I sometimes forget about the awesomeness that is the combination of apples and cheese, but when I rediscover it, it is sublime.