It's been a while since I updated by 101 Things list (not to mention added some stuff to it to actually make 101 Things.)  Let's see where I'm at.


Green items are actively in progress, blue items are semi-in-progress, strikethrough items are complete. 


1. Read a book a month (3/33) -- (Read 2 in January, 2 in Feb., 2 in March, none in April.)
2. Keep a project list
3. Carry and use reuseable grocery bags (2/286)
4. Plan my 42nd birthday party
5. Buy used first for at least three months
6. Write a will
7. Create a beautiful border space between our driveway and the neighbor's. (*)
8. Create and tend a potager with M. (*)
9. Update the filing
10. Take voice lessons
11. Get behavioral therapy
12. Draw, paint, or color at least once a week (0/143)
13. Stop swearing in front of M.
14. Exercise (gym, yoga) 2-4 times/week
15. Plan sabbatical (*)
16. Reduce internet time to <2 hrs/day
17. Submit at least 5 things for publication (0/5)
18. Purge clutter from walk-in closet
19. Schedule installation of new countertops
20. Purge clutter from my office. (*)
21. Pay off the car
22. Save for E's new car
23. Maximize IRA annual contributions (1/4)
24. Create M's education investments
25. Organize papers for M's current investments
26. Back up computer files, then maintain backups weekly
27. Identify 3 writing contests to enter in 2008, then enter them
28. Write year-end (2007) newsletter to send to family and friends (abandoned)
29. Mail newsletter with New Year cards to family and friends (abandoned)
30. Contact local elementary school re: pre-K for M  completed -- they don't offer Pre-K
31. Contact other schools re: pre-K for M
32. WW2, 2008 -- write and publish neighborhood newsletter (moved to WW20 or 21)
33. Paint exterior trim of house
34. Consider putting in climbing plants in front porch area
35. Identify several educational goals (a language? certain skills?) and work toward them
36. Write every day -- a page, a paragraph, a sentence at least
37. Identify 43 things that make me happy. Keep the list with me all the time.
38. Identify 43 things I am good at.
39. Identify 43 things I want to be good at or to know more about
40. Write for publication about my first year of motherhood.
41. Create and maintain a goals calendar
42. Create a standard grocery shopping list
43. Create 28 days worth of dinner and 14 days worth of lunch menus to simplify planning
44. Create a reasonable (monthly) grocery budget and stick to it (0/33)
45. Build retaining wall behind yard
46. Repair/replace/remove the back fence
47. Organize kitchen pantry
48. Get outside and walk every day it's possible (3/1001)
49. Re-do powder room (sometime in 2010)
50. Before then -- save up for powder room re-do
51. Research all-season tires for Outback
52. Purchase new all-season tires for Outback
53. Get new cellular blind for M's room
54. " " for master bedroom
55. Redecorate guest room
56. Get water filter installed under kitchen sink
57. Install my special towel bar in Master bath (& toilet paper holder, too)
58. Keep adding to this list til I get to 101
59. Read at least 20 pages/day (25/1001)
60. Get garage organized and cleaned up
61. Get shelves and/or table and/or file holder for organizing stuff downstairs.
62. Get estimate for installing ceiling fans
63. Get ceiling fans

"Give me your ear," Maggie said, and I stepped out of my office, bent down my face near hers.  Would she pinch my ear?  Pretend to put earrings on me?  Play that she's the doctor, looking in it with her otoscope?

No.  She proceeded to tell about something important to her. 

Maggie used her first metaphor!

How cool is it that Albert Hoffman lived to 102?

What's the difference between putting a toddler to bed and putting a drunk to bed?

The toddler is shorter. 

A Bad Thing has happened in my writing life, and it's taken me a long time to come to terms with it. Since 2000, I've been a part of an amazing Monday morning writing group, where several of us get together to practice writing on a suggested topic, or whatever we wish, and then share our writing.
But a Good Thing has happened, now. I've gone on too long to go into it at the moment, but I have a New Place to write, and I've decided, for the moment, to take leave of my group and write here and see what happens. I'm in the New Place now. And look, at the very least, I've written what just might be my longest ever LJ post. More on the New Place in a few days. The words have begun again. That feels good.

Why are there police driving through my neighborhood with their lights on?

Why have sirens been going for the past 15 minutes somewhere (but where?) nearby?

After just 50 starts as an Indy racer, Danica Patrick took the checkered flag yesterday at Motegi, Japan.  Go, girl!!

Stories: IRL
New York Times

It's been snowing for the past 20 minutes.  

M: Last day of antibiotics -- pinkeye seems resolved, ears TBD
E: Vertical most of the day
K: Vertical all day, snotty but functional, pinkeye improving, ears also TBD

Taxes:  Done but not filed, we don't owe after all!

Weather: Sunny and 70 today, Sunny and 74 tomorrow.  Hallelujah!

M's day off school today
K developing the pinkeye, slight improvment in the tiredness and sinus departments
E sick in bed

M: Third day on azithromycin and antibiotic eyedrops -- approx 15 days since the sniffles started
K: Third day of sore throat, congestion, mild cough, extreme tiredness
E: Day one of sore throat, tiredness, congestion

Expressions of sympathy welcome.  A simple one will often keep me going at least an hour.

Thanks.

Looks like for the first time in my life we didn't have enough tax withheld this year.  We're gonna owe.  :-(

I always seem to choose to post when I have almost no time.  This time is no exception, as I'm making dinner, doing laundry, needing to attend to Nature's call, sorting tax papers, and looking at the Web right now. 

Still, I'll post something....

It has come to my attention that my daughter is a nicer person when I am a nicer person.  I'm not taking entirely kindly to this news.  See, I'm a curmudgeonly she-bastard in my head, and I'm comfortable that way.  Being nice and having fun is okay for a few hours, but it's so alien and unfamiliar to me that it feels like work to maintain it for very long.  Bitching about stuff, on the other hand, is easy.  Natural.  Comfortable.

I guess when They say that being a parent will make you a better person, it's this kind of thing they're talking about.  You know, getting nicer and grumping less.  I don't know.  It's all very mysterious to me.  I'd like to record developments as they, well, develop, here in my LJ.  But considering my history, it may not happen.  After all, I've recorded so few other developments and significant events here (did you know I finally had my medically-indicated colonoscopy in January?  No, because I still haven't gotten around to writing about it here.  Because I seem to be waiting for something before I post here.  What am I waiting for?  Maybe I'm waiting til I have happier, less grumpy bitchy things to write about.  Again, I don't know.)

That's all for now.

As Maggie climbed into her chair (right next to mine) to eat breakfast this morning --

Me:  You look very pretty this morning

Maggie: Uhhh...you don't.

Spring Cleaning:  No kidding, we just got the last of the Christmas decorations put away a couple of hours ago.

Discardia: Haven't discarded much, although I took 2 bags to the consignment shop last week and have at least another bag to go to Goodwill, so it's something.  Also, I'm trying to make a point not to buy anything but consumables right now, although Wednesday I forgot and bought two magazines.

Earth Hour:  My PC is usually on 24/6 and about 18 hours of day 7, but I'm shutting down now for the night (an extra night, as my "night off" is, inexplicably, usually Thursday.)  Maybe I'll try shutting down 6 nights a week (gotta save one for backups and virus scanning.) 

Offline time:  I've been trying to spend much less time online for the past three weeks, and, more or less, it's working.  Not staying away as much as I'd like, but on the other hand, not wanting at all to go back to the way it was, so this is good. 

That's it for now.  G'night.

I don't know when or if I'll ever get around to writing my reviews, but I'm risking losing track, so here's a place-keeper entry:

January 2008:  The Carhullan Army
                      Daughter of Night

February 2008: Odd and the Frost Giants

March 2008:  The Treasures of Weatherby
    ongoing: The Golden Notebook

Also, in case any of you are wondering what's going on with me, I quit drinking coffee about 12 days ago and have been pretty much incapacitated by the shockingly severe symptoms of caffeine withdrawal since then.  Just started feeling human again about 24 hours ago, which was when I finally realized why I felt so hideous.  Don't be surprised if it's another week or so before you hear from me again.

We've had a couple of doozie storms move through this afternoon and evening -- intense, but brief.  Now I can look out a South-facing window and see the full moon, with cottony clouds reflecting silver light moving purposefully past, as if migrating.  I feel both peaceful and hopeful.  I trust the clouds. 

Giving a preschooler a cupcake one hour before bedtime is not "nice" or "fun," it just means I have shit for brains.  

7:15 this morning, M has crawled into bed, Eric has crawled out, I'm playing possum because it's all I'm capable of (after 2 hours of unwanted wakefulness between 4-6am) and M says:

"I want a snake
    for a pet."