As a general rule, I don't wear skirts. I like skirts, I think they're cute, and I look good in them. But I don't wear them because my thighs rub together when I walk. It's the first place my jeans wear out, and if I want to be at all comfortable in a skirt, I have to wear shorts underneath. I've always been envious of that space. Professional runners amazed me with their outfits until I realized they could wear what they did because their thighs did not indeed touch. What a concept!

In high school, I played volleyball my freshman and sophmore years. The number one reason I quit is because the varsity team uniform included bunhuggers. There's no way I could make it through a game night without heat rash, even if I sat the bench. I know I'm not the only person with this problem, so having bunhuggers as a uniform is just a stupid idea. But then, the coach was skinny. She wouldn't even think of that problem.

Every time I set out to lose weight, I think "Wouldn't it be fabulous if I had just a little bit of space right there?" I think I'm losing fat - my cellulite is getting worse, and stretch marks are appearing on my hips. At least I hope that's what's happening. I don't think I'll ever have a space, though; it's just the way I'm built.

I have a horrible, horrible headache. I should just drug up and go to bed, but I want to savor my last day off before the shit hits the fan tomorrow. I got a fax from a client last week, and we screwed up very badly. I don't know who's fault it is, but it's at least partly mine, and since no one was around last week to resolve it, it's been hanging over my head all weekend, including nightmares.

But other than that, I rather enjoyed my three-day weekend. Saturday afternoon I attended a birthday celebration for my aunt, then ran off to meet with a professor who taught me how to use the online homework system. This is going to be awesome. No more spending hours and hours grading! Wheee! Then Josh and Chelsea and Randal and my co-worker Bruce came over to my place to watch Ultimate Fighting Championship 60. It ended up being a pretty good fight between the guy who revolutionized the sport, Royce Gracie, and the current dominate fighter, Matt Hughes. Hughes won, but Gracie really showed poise and skill. And he took an armbar like nobody's business without a submission. That was impressive.

Sunday I did absolutely nothing. I don't think I even got out of bed until 11:00, and then it was just to wash my face and eat breakfast. Then right back to bed with my laptop, and I read TWOP until 4:00 in the afternoon, with a couple napse in there. Then I finally put my contacts in and watched television and crocheted.

Today was the real work day. I mowed the lawn, and then painted some stakes that Dad let me have. I'm going to rig up a homemade trellis for my raspberries to grow on, so they don't choke my neighbors' redbud bush again this year. I leaned them against the picket fence between the house and the garage, and I really noticed how horrible it looked. I figured I had all the supplies out already, so I scraped and painted the fence. It's not what I was planning on doing this weekend...I had some Inside Projects that need to be done, but the fence needed to be done, and I suppose the Inside things can be done easier in the evenings than the fence would, as it took me almost all afternoon.

As I was working on the fence, one of the stakes I had painted fell over and hit me on the head. I kept working, but didn't realize until later how hurt I was until I reached up to feel my bump and blood was dried in my hair. Gross. Plus, the headache. I've iced it a couple of times, so the swelling is down. Ibuprofin would be good, though. As soon as I'm done here.

My new neighbors, Doug and Amy, invited me over for lunch, since they were cooking for a group anyway (their parents were here for the weekend), and I finally got to meet their two-month old baby, Jamie, who is adorable. I see some quality baby time in the future, as my neighbors are way cool, and offered me the use of their pool. Sweet!

I'm completely going to cheat and back date some posts. I kept meaning to post, but other things distracted me - ooh, pie! Like that. So I advise you go back to like last Saturday, and read in order.

Mom came up at noon, and I took her out to lunch for Mother's Day, since I missed going there to celebrate. We went to Mondo's Tomato Pie, and we both had the spinach ravioli. Mmmm.

Then we went shopping for my new ceiling fan. We started out at Lowe's, but I didn't find anything that really struck me. So on our way to Menard's we stopped at the mall, since Mom wanted to find a beginner's cookbook for JeriAnna's birthday, and I needed new running shoes. They didn't have any Saucony's on sale in my size, so I used a community gift certificate I'd been saving and splurged on Saucony Hurricane. I'm so excited to go for my first run in these, since my old pair is about two years old and way beat down in the soles. It'll be like running on marshmallows!

After a lot of pondering at Menard's, I decided on this Hunter Low Profile ceiling fan. I'm going to go with the oak finish instead of the cherry, to match my floors. I couldn't believe how many ceiling fans there are out there. There were quite a few that I liked, but just would have looked ridiculous in my living room. I think this one will look quite nice. I'll take a picture once it's installed.

I ended up having a relatively normal day, with a couple extra touches, which is just the way I like to celebrate. I went to Takanami for lunch, and treated myself to sushi. Good sushi. I had the Rainbow Maki, which is eel and avocado with various fish on top, which was awesome. An entire roll of sushi, plus miso soup made my tummy very happy. I wandered the Ped Mall for a bit, then went back and ate the little heart-shaped strawberry pie Mom made for me.

That was all I did. I kinda like ringing in a new age quietly. At least I survived my rock star year. :)

Birthday celebration one day early. We did brats and strawberry pie. Mmm, birthday pie. Only a few people made it, since it was a little last-minute, but that's okay. Mom and Dad are giving me a ceiling fan (with installation!), which will be really nice. Em will be giving me Darkwing Duck on DVD as soon as it comes out in August, and Lew gave me South Park Season 7. I'm contemplating asking him if it would be okay to exchange it for something else; while Season 7 was very good (taco kisses! Casa Bonita!), I think there are several things out there that I might watch more, but it's become something of a tradition, so I'm a little hesitant. Ken gave me Monty Python and the Holy Grail - I can't wait to watch all the extras on there, and Chelsea gave me Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. All in all, it was a fabulous day...any day with pie can't be that bad.

Today was the first annual University Heights Chautauqua. It was pretty primitive, as town festivals go, but it was fun. I took my blanket and my crocheting and sat under a tree after I introduced myself to a few people. They started out with music: a couple guys with guitars singing folk songs, and one of the guys' sons got up and sang too, a little too close to the mike, but he was cute - he was about eight and had wild curly red hair. Then they did a couple skits, one with three old ladies, which was adorable and then the little red head and his grandpa did "Who's on First" and the kid did an awesome job at that, too. A born performer. :)

Then a guy who moved into the town last year told some history of the town.
The house he moved into had been in one family since it was built in 1927, and he found a lot of cool old stuff. Turns out the land was bought in 1927 by the Koser brothers, who then developed it as the Coral Gables subdivision. One of the things the guy found was a flyer advertising the lots, and described the subdivision as having all the amenities of city living, but outside Iowa City city limits (which is laughable now, since we're right smack in the middle of Iowa City). He also
read from a bunch of letters from the woman who built his house, as she corresponded with the Koser brother who was building his house next to his, and kept copies of all of the letters. He said that as the correspondance went on, his replies got shorter and shorter, responding to her questions. That was amusing. Then the guy played his banjo for the rest of the time. So it was pretty quick, but entertaining.

They also made the announcement that our contract with the libraries starts June 1st, so I can start checking things out from the library with my own card! Yay!

I also cleaned my house, and right as I finished up cleaning the tub, it clogged on me. So I ended up going to Mom and Dad's Saturday night instead of Sunday morning as I had planned, so I could take a shower. I hate my plumbing. I should just invest in my own snake.

It's kinda funny, the phone calls we as accountants get sometimes. I just got one of my best ones: a guy who had just recently won a substantial cash prize on a TV quiz show. He wanted to know how to avoid paying taxes. First of all: HA! I know you want to avoid becoming Richard Hatch, but HA! Nothing is certain but death and taxes, and even when you're dead, the tax man cometh. If you've got income, the government will get it, sooner or later. Anyone that tells you otherwise will be indicted for tax fraud within ten years.

In case anyone was wondering, there are a couple ways to avoid taxes, depending on how the income is reported to you. If it's reported as self-employment income, there are a couple IRA-type vehicles you can park some money in, but you'll also have to pay self-employment taxes on the rest. If you're feeling philanthropic, you can give up to half of it away to a non-profit. Otherwise, you're going to have to bite the bill, and be happy you have money to pay taxes on.

So much for doing a bunch of blogging this week. I spent last night being all pissed off at my tenant. I had emailed her to let her know the television volume was getting way up there again, and she emailed back about how she's always trying to "work around your preferences" and "we both need to be a little more considerate and tolerant" and how I should "explain this thoroughly to any potential tenant". So I had to compose a response about what part of "quiet tenant" did she not understand and if I had known she'd have the television on from when she got home from work until she left again in the morning, I'd never have accepted her as a tenant. But in a much nicer and passive-aggressive way.

I've finally finished the hat:



(I'm having issues with the picture - it's either huge or tiny, and I can't get it back to huge again, so you'll have to settle for tiny.)

Isn't it just adorable? I'm working out how to do booties to go with, and I'm going all crazy and not quite following directions and doing what I think will look better. I'm really enjoying this. I used to do crafty stuff all the time, but I kinda quit when I got to high school and started working and all that. It's kinda nice to rediscover forgotten pastimes.

I'm blogging from bed again. I feel so luxurious. That and very relaxed, as it was a wonderfully slow weekend. I worked in the yard most of the day Saturday, and got the rest of the flowers planted that I bought almost three weeks ago. Then I spent most of the rest of the weekend watching cheesy movies. I saw American Dreamz in the theater (which was very funny, by the way - Dennis Quaid does a fabulous President "Bush"), then a few on TV. Did a lot of crocheting...I think I've finally got the hang of this stitch, as my edges are actually quite even on the latest incarnation of this hat. This one might be a keeper.

I also reviewed the teaching supplement CD that goes with the new book, and I am so psyched to have this. There's so much good stuff on it: teaching outlines, classroom excercises, quizzes, homework, solutions manual...this class might just teach itself. At any rate, I am much more inspired this time around, and am looking forward to this class more than the last one.

I'm out auditing all next week, so I may be blogging from bed with my laptop many more evenings. Stay tuned!

I must have forgotten how hard it was, because I've agreed to teach again this summer. The same class: Managerial Accounting, but a different book. I guess this one has on-line homework, with automatic grading, so I'm super-psyched about using that, since grading took forever, and cut into my prep time. I picked up the book on Thursday, and I'm going to try to spend some time this weekend looking over it and doing some planning. I'm hoping I can improve my presentation skills this time around, and make it a little more interesting.

At any rate, I'll earn enough for three new windows.