Dear God, please let winter be over while I can still button my coat. Amen.

Tonight a certain Grengulia killed herself an owlbear in three rounds, all by her little bitty half-orc barbarian self. Then she cut off its head as a trophy. It was really neat.

When I woke up it wasn't snowing, but within 30 minutes God was hocking big snow loogies at us, which dimmed any enthusiasm I had for the day. Hung out with Lex watching Wiggles stuff and re-reading Amy Hempel for the zillionth time, then put the boy to bed and hit the transcription trail. Happily, it was a recording-that-wasn't. I don't think they knew the recorder was on: four minutes was of them trying to get the computer up on the Internet, followed by 20 minutes of typing. No talking. Just typing. I buzzed through it in half an hour and then went to the store. Monstro's cooking dinner tomorrow night so I bought stuff for that plus what we call “Boo Food” (yogurt, waffles, and bananas for Lex). And I was so very lazy that I bought a tube of Nestle's Toll House Cookie Dough because I was jonesin' for cookie dough.

At least I made some of it into cookies, too. Some of it.

The Comtesse and I have been drinking from the same well because I've been a cranky mama-bear all week, too. It's pretty childish to say “I miss my mommy” when you're 36 but I totally do. And then I feel guilty because my kid and my husband should be my top priority. But then I feel guilty because I'm not in California helping my mom. So that all pretty much sucks.

I've been doing some transcription work (which would not be possible without the shareware program Express Scribe, to which I totally owe the eleven bucks an hour I'm earning doing transcription work) and even with Express Scribe, it's taken me three times longer than I thought it would. My client isn't upset — I think he's just happy he found someone to do it — but I really wasn't planning on this taking three weeks.

After finishing another 110 minute recording today I shoved off and cleaned the bathroom, with the iTunes rockin' at a hundred percent power on the old PowerBook G4. The playlist on Party Shuffle has done quite a bit to lighten my mood:

Walking on the Sun — Smashmouth

#1 crush — Garbage

Obsession — Animotion

F*ck the Spice Girls and Hanson — Limp Bizkit

Mental Boy — American Beauty soundtrack

At Last — Etta James

Have I the Right — Gene Pitney

Do you Believe in Magic — Lovin Spoonful

Breathe — Smartbomb <--- BEST COVER TUNE EVER

Who will Save Your Soul — Jewel

THe Background -Third Eye Blind

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone — Leater-Kinney

Save the Last Dance — Davis

And now the boy and the husband are home. Dinnertime!

…another dollar. Off to teach a little later today. While finishing the dishes this morning I got an idea for, of all things, a short story. But it's a pretty effed-up idea, so we'll see if I do anything with it. I don't know that I've ever written a real short story in my life.

Been reading quite a bit this Spring Break: Joan Didion's _Year of Magical Thinking_, a two-book Doonesbury compilation (including one book called _Revenge of the English Majors_), and I'm mostly through Sarah Vowell's _Assassination Vacation_. Man, she knows a lot, but I don't think she goes on a lot of dates. Of course, she's also voiced a Pixar character, so that's one up on me.

Finally managed to finish unpacking from our vacation. That only took five days, which is truly a record for me.

Easter dinner last night was amazing. Say what you will about Monstro, but dayum, my man can cook! He made cornish game hens with a praline-mustard glaze, stuffed with a pannetone-dried apricot-onion stuffing that was innnnncredible. Thanks, Jesus!

Lex continues to exhibit his inner two-year-old. Guess I'll let him, seeing as he's two and all.

Time to shower and start my day. Happy week, everyone.

Happy Easter, people. I spent yesterday doing taxes, then dreamt last night that I was late on one student loan payment so they bumped my total from seven thousand dollars to seven HUNDRED thousand dollars, so that wasn't a great dream. It was a joy to wake up to Easter, and the promise of raiding Lex's basket while he naps in the nursery. Parenthood does have its privileges, indeed it does.

I've been wracking (racking? I'm pretty sure it's wracking) my brain to figure out where I've seen LOST actor Ken Leung before. Finally resorted to IMDB, where I read that he's the karaoke-machine salesman in “Keeping the Faith,” one of my favorite movies from way back. His is the funniest scene in the whole movie. Maybe that's why I want to laugh whenever I see him on Lost Island.

In other news, it's Good Friday, a day with personal significance to me beyond the sacrifice of Christ. Miss you, Alex. Miss you, Gordy. I was supposed to visit my matron of honor today — she's in New York visiting her sister — but 50+ mph winds kept me from making the two hour drive. So now, it's just another sucky Good Friday. Oh well. Guess I'll go do some laundry or something.