Insufficiently Obsequious

I'm not necessarily going to all these but consider this my info-mercial for live music in the DC area:

The Smithereens 1/10 - Ramshead Annapolis (2 shows)
The Smithereens 1/15 - State Theatre
Enter the Haggis 1/21 - Ramshead Annapolis
Blue Oyster Cult 1/23 - State Theatre
Reel Big Fish 1/25 - 9:30 Club
Gin Blossoms 1/29 - State Theatre
Gin Blossoms 1/30 - Ramshead Annapolis
The English Beat 1/30 - Ramshead Live! (hard on my feet)
The English Beat 2/2 - Birchmere
Bloodhound Gang 2/16 - Recher
Young Dubliners 2/19 - Wolf Trap (Barns)
Jonathan Coulton 2/20 - Birchmere
Jonathan Coulton 2/21 - Ramshead Annapolis
George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic 2/21 - Ramshead Live (very tempting!!!)
Toad the Wet Sprocket 2/23 - Ramshead Annapolis
Toad the Wet Sprocket 2/24 - Birchmere
Carbon Leaf 2/27 - Ramshead Annapolis
Battlefield Band 3/19 - Wolf Trap (Barns)
Colin Hay 4/2 - Ramshead Annapolis
Nightwish 5/5 - Sonar
B-52's 5/13 - Ramshead Live
Blue Oyster Cult 6/4 - Ramshead Annapolis

I'm sorely tempted to catch a Legwarmers show sometime - anyone seen them?

Garnet Rogers will be around later in the year.
October Project looks like it has gone away again.
Grey Eye Glances are reportedly going to be back on tour soon - watch this space.

Go listen to Shower the People (James Taylor or your favorite version).

It's helping me tonight.

I think, in the last X years, I've tried every weight-loss eating plan out there.  As a result, I have some number of books from the various plans taking up space in my universe.  I am getting rid of them all.

Here's the list:

Protein Power
Atkins New Diet Revolution (probably a late'90s edition)
Eat to Win
Eater's Choice
Eat More, Weigh Less
Eat Right For Your Type
The Low Calorie Cookbook
The New Fit or Fat
A (probably incomplete) set of Jenny Craig booklets

If you're interested in any of these, leave a comment or shoot me an email.
Preference will be given to people I'm likely to see in the semi-near future (and yes, this might be an excuse to make a lunch date!)
I can mail if needed, contribution towards postage nice but not required.

Any remaining will be freecycled locally.

If you're interested in pix of the house in its current state.

I have the following mostly-full (right at or just below top of label) BPAL imps available to a good home:

Othello
Whitechapel
Hamadryad

I'm also looking for anyone who has bought any of the Neil Gaiman-inspired scents and is willing to give me a sniff/test. I'm too cheap to buy a whole bottle based on description....

Drop me a comment!

Lessee. Weddings. Planning. A certain amount of rushing about. Work. Family.

Now I'm housesitting for a few days.

Everyone should check out the previously-recorded interview with Nuala O'Faolain on Fresh Air yesterday. (www.npr.org, click on programs & Fresh Air) She had some fabulous things to say about growing older, being childless, etc. Very insightful. "The reason to earn money is to pay for the nursing home." Great interview and now I want to get her books.

Not much else exciting going on. Anyone have experience laying floating strip flooring (the snap-together kind)?

I wanted to post something about the passing of Gary Gygax, but couldn't figure what to say. We'll never know what the world would have been like without D&D (and all the things that followed on....)

I'm loving this teasing spring weather.

I'm tired and having a bit of a rough patch, but this too shall pass. Midterms, etc. Bleah.

But I'm thinking of people, and reaching out a little more.

Saturday I'm celebrating with friends at a wedding. Sunday I'm celebrating a birthday with friends. Monday I have a lunch with an amazing woman and dinner with a different one. Last weekend I spent Saturday with *three* amazing women.

I happy.

Which is good, cause work is a zoo, school is a zoo and I'm ready to kill our contractors.

Off to do more work now.

A prize for least-frequent updates.

I guess I feel like I've been posting the same things over and over, with not much variation.

So. Work proceeds. House stuff proceeds, although there've been some hiccups. School has started. I need to exercise more.

Yeah, pretty much the same stuff.

So far, 2008 is okay. Nothing spectacular but not bad.

Lessee. House renovations progress, with a goal of being in the new space in the next two weeks. Then the old space is renovated and we're done. Might actually happen....

Work is going okay, although we're both busy.

School hasn't started yet.

Families are holding together pretty well.

Friends are much-neglected. Working on that more this year.

Didn't put on too much weight over the holidays, and I'm back to trying to get it off. Plus being more active.

Am I forgetting any major life areas? *chuckle*

I know I haven't posted in a million years. Or it feels like it.

Let's see.

The house progresses - the kitchen & family room are 95% done, and progress is being made elsewhere. We're perilously close to running out of money but we're also nearly done so that's kind-of okay, I guess. We have been bold in our use of interior color - we'll have to see how that carries through. We're now in a position to have small numbers of visitors although there are still issues with the front steps & walkway (it's been too wet to pour concrete).

We have been sick. Right around Thanksgiving we got the flu, and we're still dealing with the dregs of it - I'm fairly certain I went into bronchitis briefly and I'm still coming out the other side. On top of that, PS got vicious food poisoning or something Thursday and we've had a long couple days as a result.

Work is going well, but very busy for both of us. To give an idea, I am already pretty solidly booked for the month of January and into February.

The holidays are...weird this year. We have very few plans - I think we're going to a movie on Xmas. Maybe I'll make a big breakfast or something. I haven't sent cards yet although I'd like to. I'm terrible about New Year's Resolutions, but I think maybe one of mine for this year will be to keep in better touch with people. We're both working this week except for Christmas Day, so there are fewer extravagant plans than usual. We're celebrating Xmas with my family the weekend after, due to my sister's call schedule. That should be fun, but it means I've hardly done any present-shopping....

So that's our life in a nutshell right now. Hopefully the coming week will be low-key enough to allow us to catch up on our rest, get the house in order, etc.

And speaking of rest, I should do that.

P.S. At this point, I'm not reading LJ with *any* consistency - I just haven't had time. So if anything is up, email or call or whatever....

You miss stuff. I'm usually the person in the loop and now I'm not as much, which is weird. Found out a friend lost a very dear pet. Two friends lost parents recently. Makes one even more thankful than usual.

We had a lovely thanksgiving dinner yesterday and I got to see my bud, whom I haven't seen in two months.

I'm getting sick again? still?

Our kitchen cabinets are going in....

Actually, long time no read either, although I skimmed the last few days.

Lessee.

House stuff progresses. In theory our kitchen cabinets are being delivered today and installed Friday. The tile in the family room is done (and gorgeous) and everything got primed yesterday. Slowly but surely, progress is being made. I'm cautiously optimistic about being "moved in" for Christmas, in which case there will be a big open house or something.

I have been on & off sick for about 10 days. I'm sure some of it is not having heat in the house, and the quantity of dust & ick floating around.

I had my biggest cranky-moment to date with the construction manager over...doors. How dumb.

Work is very busy, although hopefully we'll put a big project we've been working on to bed today and then have a smidge of a lull.

House stuff makes me disorganized about stuff, and frustrated. PS's work schedule has been crazy and we end up having to make decisions and stuff when we're tired. He ended up having to work Saturday, which sucked, and then Sunday morning (his birthday) I was up and out early to go to the laundromat, and we didn't get over to S&C's on Saturday 'cause of the aforementioned working thing and then crankiness and then having to pick flooring. I'm starting to get tired of this. I miss important dates and events 'cause I'm all discombobulated. I can't find *anything*. I'm sick of eating at my desk. It's the national holiday of cooking and I had to tell my charming hostess "I'll bring anything I can cook at your house", which is lame in the extreme.

That said, my life isn't bad. Its just chaotic right now.

And I should go scavenge a food unit before my conference call.

Some things make me more nervous than others, for no real reason. Today it's because two of the all-around-guys (Omar & Angel) are here moving all the crap out of our loft/attic space and down into the crawl space so that the attic can be insulated properly (and no longer used for storage). The noises and everything just make me nervous - I should have arranged to be out of the house during this process. I hate the attic ladder and worry that it will break. I worry something will break. Or someone. The hazard of growing up in generations of po' folk is that I worry about *things* a lot. Then I listen to the radio stories of the folks in California who have lost everything, and I start to quiver. On some level, it would be so healthy for me to just get rid of everything, but it would also break my heart. There are all these issues tied up in having enough, and having the right stuff, and being able to replace stuff. Bleah.

I was supposed to wash the car today, but that seems pretty pointless, given that it's pissing down rain. Even vacuuming it seems silly, since I'll just track in more mud - our front yard and driveway are a swamp - they delivered fill dirt right before the rain came.

I need to run out to Staples for report covers for work, and we need a couple of things from the grocery/CVS, and I need to do laundry. Ah, the excitement that is my life. And I need to do some work-work - mostly organizing stuff and transcribing notes.

But I'm not sure what.

I went to the gym today. First time in a long time.

I'm tired. Like bone-deep tired.

The house is coming along. Tomorrow they're coming to do tree work and then they can grade the yard. The fireplace was supposed to go in today - not sure what happened. Bathtub might be in tomorrow too.

This weekend is my grandmother's memorial service. I'm kind of excited to see my cousin, who is home from Iraq for it.

I got screwed by school though - the midterm is being released Thursday due Sunday. Sigh.

Not much else new.

The wedding was fabulous. More on that later.

Getting home was less-so - we made it fine, but the contractors had changed the door and locked us out so at 9pm I'm wandering the very dark back yard trying to find a key, etc. (And this after I had *specifically* had a talk with the contractors about this so this *wouldn't* happen!) They also didn't get nearly as much done as they were going to, and I'm a little suspicious that the Ozone treatment didn't happen. And it's freezing in here - we need the heat on ASAP. (Okay, it's 65, but I'm cold, and I don't like waking up in rooms that are 60-65....)

But we're home and tonight we'll have felines and hopefully all will continue to progress....

I'm officially behind on LJ. If anything happened and you want me to know about it, tell me here or via other means.

Work is going well. School needs a bit more attention but is going okay. House stuff is proceeding at an amazing pace. (I will update over at housenoodling right after this!) But we're busy and I'm too far behind to catch up.

*air kisses*

It's a good thing that I'm not a person who worries much about personal space.
My "personal" space has now been reduced to three bedrooms and a bathroom, and there are random people wandering in and out of my house. Or what's left of my house. This morning I washed my first load of dishes in the bathroom sink (okay, it was just some tupperware and stuff, but still....) I have to dress completely (including shoes) before leaving my bedroom in the morning - Flylady would be so proud of me. To get to the fridge, I have to go thru a three-layer baffle-curtain of plastic. (PS assembled that last night - it's much better than the earlier version the construction guys put up.) The temperature difference in the back versus front of the house is... astonishing. I hope it does not get too much colder before they get done - in fact, I wouldn't mind a few warmer days.... The feline members of the family are irritated at being confined to the master bedroom. Last night we blew a breaker trying to operate the microwave and the electric kettle at the same time.

I know it's going to be worth it in the end. I keep telling myself that. And I see glimpses of it, every once in a while. But in the meantime, I wish I could just go on vacation....

I have two new projects starting at work, one in Alexandria and one in Arlington, that will likely entail my presence on that side of the river somewhat more than is customary. Those folks on that side who'd like a breakfast, lunch or dinner date, holler.

In other news, house is chaos. School is okay. Work is busy (obviously). Emotional life is okay. I need to exercise more.

housenoodling continues to be updated more often than over here.

I need to go to the gym. I'm not sure when that will happen. At least eating is semi under control.