Sleep is a battlefield. That last pill wasn't up to the task. I know I was still awake at 3am. I resorted to a small half glass of wine because what the hell, it could work. I know that I slept at least an hour, possibly two ( Read more... )

"Well, it’s zucchini time. Backyard gardeners everywhere are sneaking around, laying baseball-bat-sized zucchinis on people’s doorsteps, ringing the doorbell and dashing off into the night."

One of several good things that came from the New York weekend is renewed resolve keep this thing updated. Writing in this medium pushes me to give more thought to, well, everything. I'm sure I have more profound thoughts about the benefits of blogging, but today's not a good day for wordsmithing. Work intrudes bigtime, with words, like "urgent," " ( Read more... )

I was afraid that spending all day Saturday in bed would make my back even worse, but rest, heating pad and aspirin took the edge off, so now I'm functional. I didn't turn into Superchick or anything, but we got grocery shopping done and I got the downstairs tidied up and the kitchen and WC scrubbed and threw together quite a decent dinner (turkey ( Read more... )

Today got off to a slow start then we finally got cracking around 2. Downstairs cleaned: vacuuming, dusting, kitchen, WC, inside of fridge, dishes, trash, recycling, 4 loads of laundry, sheets changed, bedrooms tidy, bills done and the calendar updated. My vacation payout showed up in our account - more than I was expecting (yay!) will probably all ( Read more... )

If I had my druthers, I'd be at work right now finishing up Hell Project. I want that thing out of my hair. But Gary's Mom has an appointment at Duke on Tuesday, so she's staying here Monday night. I think it's all for the best. I've been neglecting the house. This is a good kick in the pants to put in some quality time here ( Read more... )

Apart from a half hour on the ski machine I did next to nothing today.  Polished up an unposted blog entry from a few weeks ago and wallowed in the internets.  The evening ended with a discussion with Gavin involving Japanese wrestling, taiko drumming and George Carlin's take on religion.  Eventually he put me in a leglock.  There was much flailing ( Read more... )

Gavin moved in the last of his stuff last night.  Since his apartment was just up the street he didn't have to get too technical about packing.  So we now have lots of loose stuff all over the house.  The Plan is to get more boxes and carefully pack and label anything he won't need to use for the next year and store it in the garage or in Gary's ( Read more... )

Lots of shoveling going on today (seven impressively tenacious inches in the Triangle), but mine was confined to my warm, cozy (and messy) study.  Stacks of loose paperwork filed, existing files re-organized and several bags of stuff shredded and/or tossed.  I can see the floor now.

More stuff to go, but feeling too queasy to tackle it right now.  ( Read more... )

Yule at the Quillen household was a low-key affair this year.  Isaac made it down from Asheville for Christmas Eve and Day, and Gavin came over as well.  Made a big batch of spanakopita triangles and apple pie for Christmas Eve nosh / DVD night.  Yule dinner was a decent batch of rogan josh with spiced rice, spinach salad and pumpkin pie with Isaac ( Read more... )