In other news:

• I love my new job. It has it’s challenges, but they’re good challenges and I work with good people.
• M2 is finishing off the last of her medicine for a strep throat diagnosis that turned out to be staph instead. Not the whatsit resistant one, “they usually tell us when it’s that”, just run of the mill. Makes me wonder if that’s what it was the times last year when it was diagnosed as “Not Strep.” I might have to ask from here on out assuming treatment is required for it. It looks and hurts suspiciously similarly…
• Our back deck is now finished and stained. Hoorah! It looks so nice. Now that we’re past the dog days of summer and starting into my favorite season of fall. Not that I didn’t get a massive sunburn on my shoulders. UGH.
• Mmmmmm, fall…
• We went and saw Julie & Julia. It was lovely. We followed it with dinner at Persimmon where we were the only people in the restaurant until about five minutes before we left. The lovely owner brought us two candles to sit at our table with us, since we were re-attempting our anniversary dinner. The dinner was perfect & tasty. It really could not have been lovelier.
• The prior weekend I had a gyrokinesis class with the ever charming Mia. There wasn’t really any doubt in my mind that I would love it. Now I’m just plotting how to get a regular fix. The length of class I want is at the same time I *should* be sitting/exercising at the Y while the little girls take swimming lessons. I could take a class half as long, but… it’s half as long! Anyway. LOVE. No surprise. I am what I am, for sure.
• I gave the tortle a new home this weekend. She has responded by burying herself gleefully in the dirt. She comes out to eat, wade, bask, & wander around, and then buries herself under her little log again.
• Aaand, I think that’s about it. Probably stuff most of y’ins reading this already knew…

At home? Not so much with the priorities or accomplishing or organization. I am a bad wife/mother (by organizational standards, of course — I adore & take care of my family appropriately) & an even worse housekeeper. I was reading the time/productivity book we’re going through at work this weekend & thinking about all this. Thinking maybe I need to create a dashboard for home stuff. And I thought about it. And I thought about it a little more. And it dawned on me that I’m so abysmally organized at home because I spend my 40 work hours so ridiculously well organized & prioritized & hyper-functional, that by the time I get home, I’m all productived out. Try as I might, I can’t muster a whole lot of additional energy to move at anyone else’s pace but my own, to the occasional annoyance of my family’s. The important stuff gets done. Sometimes by someone who is too impatient for me to get around to it in my own time, though I would eventually work around to it.

My own time. Those three words are really problematic. As a wife/mother, “my own time” is supposed to be sublimated into taking care of the hearth. I fail at this miserably. And even worse, I have trouble feeling any substantial guilt about it. That said, while I’m selfish & don’t get shit around the house done in any sort of efficient or organized way, I’m not very good at using the ‘my own time’ that I squander doing actual nice things for myself. I spend a lot of time on the internet. My own [cyber]space, of sorts. Friday night I’m going to the spa with JB. This qualifies as something nice for myself. Something nice for myself would also be learning how to take vacation. No. I really don’t have any idea how to “do” vacation. It’s a fairly alien concept to me & it confuses me & I end up squandering time off in a similar way to my weekends.

I recognize that these things are largely a symptom of an imbalance that requires correcting, but I’m uncertain how to bring balance. I can’t very well become less productive, organized, prioritized, at work…

And that’s about enough thinking along those lines tonight. I’m going to go practice guitar and look at my email and eventually wend my way to bed.

Yesterday I went for an 11 mile ride on Elby, my electric bike. Came home and took a long hard nap — if I start riding to work (around 13 miles), I won’t have the luxury of recovering from my ride with a nap! I think this will require working up to since the round trip will be closer to 26 miles by EOD. My time is not all that fast, even with the electric assist — I averaged 10 or 11 or so mph yesterday (11 miles in 1h:1m). I’ll need to pick up the speed some too. My goal is to get to work in an hour (or less). I have work to do, kids to pick up, blah blah blah blah. I do wonder if I’ll ever make that time without showing up all bright red. I guess people would get used to it… Hopefully I don’t prove myself to be too much of a princess to do it semi-regularly.

The ride itself was pretty lovely — going past fences of honeysuckle, hills covered in wild roses, the lake. I will say that warm lake was not my favorite smell, though. I will have to get used to the seat too. About eight miles in, my girl bits were objecting. Happily my sit bones were quite content with the state of affairs though, which is an improvement. My hands & arms also didn’t freak out from the ride. Hoorah! I was dumb and didn’t put sunscreen on. I got a faint burn, but it’s gone already today — but for the future, I will be remembering the sunscreen, even if it’s earlier in the day than freaking high noon. I meant to start out earlier, but the first ride was an epic fail when I switched gears… too fast? In combo with a pause in pedaling? I’m not entirely sure what happened, but I managed to derail the chain off the front gear, and it was a bitch to get it rerailed. Things like this make me apprehensive of making a regular commute on bike, although I think it was just noobishness on my part and trying to get gears switched & being uneven, etc. It’s not like occasionally shit doesn’t go wrong in a car too, hello clutch & clutch stuff my first week of my new job…

My new job! Is awesome. I have lots to catch up on that I’ve not been paying attention to, since my focus the last five or so years has been pretty much taxonomy, but… I’ll get there. And since I’m kinda in the deep end of the pool, I’ll figure out how to swim fast. :) It’s mostly a matter of following up on the questions as they come up and making sure the information gets filed away in my brain in a way that enables retrieval.

Today I need to go hack back the roses, they’re getting out of control. I should probably do some weeding & other stuff too. Sounds like not too much — P hacked back the blackberries that were trying to take over the north side of the house. Which means I need to hunt down the sunscreen and a big hat. And thinking of going out in the sun makes me feel suspiciously like a nap would be such a lovely thing… Mmmm. Naaaappppp.

/as you were…

P is out golfing today, leaving me with the girls. It’s a beautiful day, not entirely sure what I’m going to do with them though… not for lack of things to do (clean rooms, fish tanks, parties, etc).M2 came in this morning at 8 — I’m ready for a little nap already. My fault, I suppose, for not going to bed earlier… but really what’s new?

Probably next weekend we bring all our stuff home. I have no idea where it’s all going to go. The books in bookcases, but beyond that… We brought the teapots & teacups back already, and the hats, and a few other various bits of things… So much to go. Such a little house.

Mmmm. Yes. Definitely nap in order. And then everything else…

So on to the parts I *can* go into. I got a new computer! It’s *SHINY*! And NEW! And [vista aside] NEATO! And *SHINY*! And did I mention NEW! And SHINY!? Yes. The jack in the old one was starting to go & the desktop downstairs is dying a slow and painful death and, it just seemed like time. The one downstairs is more than six years old & the laptop was four, so it was probably time. Now to shift the old laptop downstairs, see if I can convince someone to let me keep the old one & install Ubuntu on it. No, I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with curiosity about that, but I am. So there.

Jaina Bee visited last night and this morning. As always, it was an excellent *FANCY* time. She brought the girls <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Explorer-World-Portable/dp/0399534601″>How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum</a>, so we had to do some things from that book. The little girls ran around like crazed monkeys, because that’s what they do. We had a lovely dinner. Eventually we put the girls to bed & then Jaina & I got to hang out and just talk about all sorts of things & get caught up. It was lovely. This morning we got up & P made pancakes & bacon, we had some tea, did a little coloring, & got kinda sleepy. We decided to get the blood flowing and went geocaching. Couldn’t for the life of us find the first cache. Tried a second cache & broke our not-finding streak! Finally! It’s about time! As fun as just finding the location is, it’s a lot more fun when you actually find the cache. We came home & it was about time for her to head on off to her next adventure.

P & M1 finished installing the new flooring downstairs. It’s SUCH a dramatic improvement & So Very Exciting! Hoorah! And now? Now it’s time to walk M2 to a friend’s house for a fancy dinner play date. She’s ready to go & I guess I’d better get that way too…

I had lunch today with a friend from college & once again, I have the good pleasure to be happy to know the people I know. Easy conversation, good catching up, it was nice. Possibly even nicer than when we were actually in college now that we’re actually, y’know, *grown up*. The people who have come crawling out of dark corners in the last six or so months who have grown up into genuinely nice people has been really lovely. For a long time I was worried about meeting up with people I “used to know” — that it would be weird & awkward. And I guess sometimes it is. But I’m more willing to give it the benefit of the doubt now.

M2 has just told me that her favorite dessert is nutella with ice cream in crepes. That’s my girl! TimTheCat is making bread on my belly, earnestly. Earnestly kneady cat is earnestly kneady.

Life is pretty good. Maybe not as good as this critter has it, but pretty darn good, all the trials & tribulations not withstanding.

Been doing good with the exercise stuff lately. Sometimes I even manage to get into That Zone where I can put the book down (don’t laugh! It’s nice to have something to focus on other than the weird little flashing lights on the machine & the seconds as they tick away!) and just “go inside” and think about the interesting body mechanics going on. Funny things like the theory of least effort (for maximum results). I can’t remember exactly what it’s called right now, but sometimes when people are exercising, they over exert for the returns they get on the exertion & it makes them tired & feel like they’re exerting a lot of energy. And they are — more than they need to to get the same results. So, I watched how I was doing that some last week. Sometimes your own worst resistance comes from yourself. There’s probably a lesson in that somewhere. Anyway, when I pay attention to the unnecessary resistance, I find that I can reduce it by around 50%. Interesting. I also have been doing the “random hill setting” or (depending on the machine) interval settings, set to push me to the top of the cardio training & then the bottom of the cardio. Will be waiting until I’m in better shape to push into the above cardio heart rate zones for now… Still puzzling on how to deal with upper body stuff since anytime I do anything with my arms, I end up with carpal/ulnar nerve squickiness. I like being able to use my hands, I really really do!

I’ve been knitting and spinning a lot more lately. I finally finished that fleece — it’s downstairs drying now. Yesterday I pulled out some yarn that had been bagged and threw it away. It was in shreds from casing moths. Dumb things. Dumb house on the market not letting me hang stuff out in the light & air. I wonder what’s going on with the stuff that’s actually in storage. Could be ugly. Ah well. It is what it is. An excuse to spin more! I need to knit a bunch. I think I’m about 600 yards short of sweater from the fleece, so I’m not entirely sure what to do with it. I finished P’s gloves, started a scarf for M2, I’m helping M2 learn to knit. I’m spinning a really soft-like-buttah merino silk blend. It’s spinning up fine, wheeee! I want to make a fulled hat. I want to make a fulled water bottle cover. I suspect I need to figure out some other stuff to do with what I’m spinning up too. Especially since I can’t do a whole sweater. Maybe. When it’s dry, I’ll actually count the yardage. The estimate I’ve got right now is based on weight (X ounces was Y yards, so XxN=Z yards). Yes. I know I probably mangled the math equation there, but y’all will have to forgive me. The prospect of counting out all the five foot loops out of ten hanks of yarn doesn’t inspire me.

It looks as though we’re going to pull the house off the market at the end of this set of months. It’s not going anywhere & the stuff that’s selling is stuff that’s all gussied up. No thanks to the open house where TimTheCat got out, we have the back deck to repair. And it needs rebuilt anyway, so, whatever. And various and sundry other things. It just is what it is. Everyone has an opinion on what it is that they see that they think we can improve on it. And if we did all that, we’d have a new house. Building up/adding on would make us the most expensive house on the block. But then, assuming building up could be done, does it matter, because if we do that, we’d just stay here & maybe after a zillion years when they cart us away to the old folks home or whatever, will we care whether or not we were the most expensive house on the block? I don’t know. We’re going to go talk to our nice money manager fellow tomorrow next week. The alternative is to pull off, do some stuff & try again next spring. Oh, goody.

There’s a showing in 1-2 hours. We’re fourth on a list, the lady said she’d call & give us a 15 minute warning. Depending on the broker, that’s anywhere from “we’re in your driveway” to never. It’s too early to take the little girls to the Y — total pita to have M2 sit by me & try to watch the tv on the machine, assuming one with a tv is available.

We’ve reached the point where we need to talk with our financial advisor about staying on/pulling off the market, but I think it’s just a formality. At this point we’re exhausted & need a break & the house needs work that we just don’t have time to schedule for between our work schedule, open houses, showings, & life. At the end of this three months, I think we’re going to pull off for a year & do stuff like get floors taken care of, downspouts, new doors, fix the back deck that’s part rotted & part pulled up from trying to rescue poor TimTheCatDude last fall… there’s other stuff that needs done too that we just haven’t gotten to…

And here comes M2 in her fairy wings. My sweet toofless wonder singing Oats & Beans & Barley Grow.

Had a lovely time with friends last night. It was the first time they’d met trailofstars & the girls. We had a lot of fun. Friends are good to have.

And now it’s time to get ready to go in case they actually do end up showing up on time. I’d rather go back to bed & back to sleep.

And there they ring. Ten minutes & I’m not dressed or hair brushed. Ah well…

The little girls have been writing letters to the fairies lately. M1, ever inquisitive… & considering how little 19th century/early 20th century reading she’s done, she sounds funnily formal & Edwardian. “Dearest fairy friends… xoxo, lovely fairies, M1.” And M2, who is sounding words out, learning to write, and not always realizing that you can’t just write words any which way to get them on the paper…

I wishd at
I was a
yraf
2.”
[*adorable* picture of a little fairy-person.]

Each girl has a fairy they correspond with. The first night they wrote, M1 hid the letters outside in one of the rosemary bushes & in the lavender. The first night, “Rosemary” & “Bee” wrote back & said, “We hide inside at night because the cold makes our wings ache!” and left their response perched precariously in the little lemon bush. I am, of course, collecting as many of the correspondences as I can find when they’ve been read & set aside. They’ve also built fairy houses outside. It’s oddly sweet.

I’ve been very good since we joined the Y. Aside from the week that I was miserably sick, I’ve made my goal of exercising 4 times each week. I’m pleased by this. This is good. I’m probably not stretching enough. I’ll get there.

M2 just sounded out my shirt. “So what does this say? Goooo-gooooool Mooooorrrbelllloooooow. Gogol morbellow.” Gogol Bordello. “Oh. Gogol morbellow.” < runs off > Gonna have to start watching out for both of them reading email/etc over my shoulder pretty soon & not just M1.