We went to Brasa last night. Mmmm. Just so you know, if we know you and we see you in real life, we WILL take you to Brasa at some point. Because it's just that good.

The one disappointment I had was that whole "no soda for a year" thing.. and they have the really good Mexican Coke (with REAL sugar) and Original Dr. Pepper (also with REAL sugar). Man.. those drinks taste so different - and so much better - with the real stuff instead of corn syrup. But, alas. A resolution is a resolution.. and I'm really trying to stick with it. So there was no soda for me, and instead I had Sweet Cafe con Leche. Very good. Also very caffeinated at 8:00 at night. Ooops. I didn't go to bed until 11:00, and I remember having some kind of yelling-out bad dream around 3:00 this morning. Poor ragazz'. So when my alarm went off at 4:30 I was already half awake, and truthfully I'm *still* a little over-caffeinated from last night, and now I'm drinking more coffee. Full-on meltdown forecast for later this afternoon. Viewer discretion is advised.

Speaking of resolutions.. I'm re-thinking the whole "pitch one thing everyday" thing. Mainly because I really don't have ALL that much to pitch anymore. I think I will still dedicate February to decluttering.. but that doesn't feel like a big enough stretch anymore. So I'm trying to think of another goal. Of course, I should be doing this BEFORE the last day of the previous month.. but I'll come up with something. Suggestions are welcome (and encouraged).

Finally - I tried a new fudge combination last night: peanut butter, buttercream, and mini chocolate chips. BoyHowdy. THAT's a little rich.. but very very good.

Ciao.

There's just a little bit of snow on the ground, but yesterday was COLD. That bright, clear cold with wind that stings your cheeks. (It's pretty, though. Look at how blue the sky is.)




So we spent some time in here. The Como Park Conservatory.. where it's always about 78° and HUMID. I'm not a big fan of humidity in the Summer when it's 90°, but yesterday it felt glorious. We plunked ourselves down on a bench and just took it all in.






We agreed that it was an almost-acceptable (and way cheaper) alternative to hopping on a plane and flying to Cali. And there was a bonus:




SLOTH! About 1 second before I took this picture he peeked his little head up and looked around. CUTE. So cute. It was one of the best days of Winter thus far.

We went to the 1968 exhibit at the History Museum. It was interesting, but just on the edge of way.. too.. crowded. It was hard to get any pictures, but this one made me laugh.




How much do I love that dress and hat??

The day wrapped up with dinner, of course. Ms. Malachi and I spent time chatting over the kitchen counter while I marinated and boiled and even did some microwaving for good measure. She left around 8:00, Ragazz' fell asleep on the couch, and we were sleeping by 10:00. Like I said - stellar day.

Last full week of work before RELEASING THE TENDONS. There's so much to do. Ciao.

Hello, Saturday morning. I kissed the boy and sent him off to race cars, and now I'm sitting at the counter.. drinking coffee, making errand lists, planning meals and avoiding the ginormous pile of laundry in the bedroom.

Just exactly the way I'd always dreamed my Saturday mornings would be. Ahhh.

Later today I'm going to attempt to replicate the famous family yeast rolls. We can't get her to cough up the recipe (and I can even understand that, I get that way!) - but it seems pretty basic. Worth a try, anyway, and  at the very least we'll get SOME kind of yeast rolls from it. Some is always better than none.

I need to get this thing out of my system in the next couple of weeks.. because once the RELEASING OF THE TENDONS has happened there's going to be no kneading of dough for a few weeks.

Enough stalling, chele. Make the day happen. Ciao.

Hanging out at the Capitol was fun. Government in action.. more people should see how it happens. And my papa was around all morning to make sure I got the good parking places. When we got to the Capitol, the hunt for parking started. I turned onto the closest street with public parking and got one of the first metered spots. I put 3 quarters in.. and the meter went crazy and gave me 2.5 hours (which should have been 45 minutes). Thanks, Mike!

Then we got back to the office ramp, and it's never easy to find a spot after about 8:00 AM.. but my favorite spot (the one I always get, and which I had earlier that morning) was open and waiting for me. Thanks again! It makes me smile every time.

We had to walk a couple of blocks, which I did sans earmuffs ($5). It was cold, and a little windy. By the time we got back to the office my right ear was starting to hurt. My mom wasn't right about a lot of stuff, but the one thing she DID get right was "Wear your earmuffs! You know how your ears get in the winter!" Yeah.. within about 3 hours I was in so..much..pain. Stupid bad ears. I got home and grabbed HWB (hot water bottle, my good friend) and kept that on my ear for most of the night. It's still a little twingy this morning, but at least I can hold my head upright. When my ear gets that sore, I walk around with my neck crooked and my shoulder pulled up....... I'M PRETTY. (shut up.)

It's FRIDAY, peeps! I can hardly wait to get home and throw myself on the couch for a while. Ciao.

Yesterday started on a less than stellar note.

I got to work and had to call and leave messages for approximately 208324 various doctors and pharmacies (this is all the prep work for RELEASING THE TENDONS! Heh. Kracken.), asking them to call me back on my cell phone. Then, as my cell phone had been nagging me for a "system update" for about a week, I performed said update.

That's when my phone turned into a brick.

The phone rang, but I couldn't answer it. If I tried, the whole thing froze up, then rebooted itself. I could make outgoing calls.. but the display randomly turned itself on and off during the dialing process. And then ALL MY CONTACTS AND APPS DISAPPEARED.

Bad swears ensued. And my wrist hurt. And my boss was.. having a challenging day.

It got a little better after work, when I met up with my friend, the ever-vanishing Luuuuucy. This girl has lost SIXTY FIVE POUNDS, 35 since her surgery. I always thought it was cliche to say that someone "looked 10 years younger".. but it's true! She does! She looks fantastic, and I'm so proud and happy for her. YAY!

Then my ragazz - that cute boy in the picture up there - picked me up and went with me to buy a shiny new phone. He said that, really, his job was to just keep me from throwing the old phone at the poor Sprint person. Heh.

But I had a really great SprintGirl helping me. She was funny and sympathetic, AND she gave me $63 for my old piece of junk phone.. I warned her that it turned into a brick from time to time, but she did so anyway!

Then we had Chipotle, and Ragazz' got free food. He gets free food there on an alarmingly regular basis. I don't know how he does that, but we'll take it. We ate and began the long and painful phone set-up process.. It's like moving into a new house, setting up a phone from scratch. I've emailed and facebooked (?) almost everyone I know to get phone numbers and contacts back. So I'll say it again here.. If I should know your phone number or email address and you haven't heard from me.. you'd better send it to me. This time I'm backing everything up to Google, so I'll never lose you again.

It's off to the Capitol this morning. Time to do some government work! Ciao.

I thought I'd just go in and get another shot in my wrist and that would be the end of it. Except, not so much. I get to call in today and schedule up some surgery on my wrist.

Woohoo!

I gotta tell ya, the specialty clinic has this down and is a model of efficiency. I'm not even kidding. The PA did an exam and sent me down for x-rays. By the time I got downstairs, they knew I was coming. I'd barely sat down to wait when they called me into the room. Got those done, went back upstairs, re-checked in with the doc's office and sat down. Literally 30 seconds later they called me back into THAT room. They did another quick x-ray in the casting room (there was some weird bone-thing going on in my left wrist. Turns out my right wrist is the same way. I'm unusual, but at least I'm symmetrically unusual.), saw the doc one last time, then saw the surgical nurse who gave me the lowdown on what comes next. I was in/out and DONE with all that in just under an hour. Wow.

It's an outpatient procedure, but there's still a little bit of hoopla that goes along with it. And I don't quite understand this - they do it with a local anesthetic, but I still have to fast the night before, AND have someone there to drive me home? I guess I'll learn more today after I talk to the scheduler.

They cut the sheath in my wrist to release the tendons (and you KNOW I'm gonna run around that whole day yelling "RELEASE THE TENDON". Heh.) and then, hopefully, all this nonsense stops. The weirdest part of all is that they don't know WHY this happened. They swear up and down that it's not from all the knitting or all the typing. I guess that makes sense.. if those were the issue, wouldn't it bother both wrists? After surgery, I'm splinted for 5 weeks, but only out of commission for a couple days. Not too bad.

It's always something, isn't it? Ciao.

Whew. That was a tough Monday, what with the meetings and the crabby boss and lousy commute and all. I got home and all I wanted to do was retreat to The Fort. So I did.

Well, first I grabbed my ice cream.

So I had frozen pizza for dinner, ice cream for dessert, knitted a bit, texted Ms. Malachi.. then I was DONE. I went to bed at 8:30. Sometimes a girl just needs 8 hours of sleep.

I feel about a million percent better this morning. It wasn't painful to get up, anyway. I'm hoping *knock wood* that it's a happier office day. It'll be a short one, anyway, because I'm gonna go get my wrist shot up. And then, hooray, I get to hang out with my extraordinary niece, because we haven't seen each other in way too long.
Well, too long except for those 12 or so years that we DIDN'T see each other, but those hardly count anymore. Heh.

Thanks to my friend Jenni-from-the-internet, I found a new online photo editing tool. So I can breathe a sigh of relief and not care if Picnik goes away. Now there can be NO MORE CHANGE for the rest of the year. Not that I mind change. Or really, I do.

I just remembered that I dreamed last night that I was supposed to play the clarinet in a concert, but then I remembered that I didn't know how to play clarinet. So instead, I grabbed a baby who needed changing and put a new diaper on it.
What? Oh.

"To see or play a clarinet in your dream suggests that you need to adjust your tone of voice."


"To dream that you are changing diapers suggests a need to clean up you behavior and change your childish ways. Perhaps you need to change your attitude and approach regarding a new idea or project."


Ciao.