The good and the bad. I went out last night for the first time in ages and it made me see what I've been missing by staying home so much. I have got to change that. I went out with friends for dinner and then to a concert by Janis Ian, a folk singer whose song, At Seventeen, was a favorite of mine in the 70's. Janis sang like an angel and played acoustic guitar beautifully in a wonderful venue. A great time was had by all.

My big accomplishment today was cleaning out the cabinet that holds all my spices and baking supplies. It was not on my to do list. I never realized how many bags of chocolate chips I have. McCormick & Co. has a brilliant ad campaign going informing us consumers that any spices labeled 'bottled in Baltimore' are at least 15 years old and need to be tossed. I emptied so many containers of spices. My trash is very fragrant. I found a new organic market that sells bulk spices by the ounce. I'll be restocking in that fashion, as needed.

It was family time later in the day to celebrate my mother's 74th birthday. That's a lot of birthdays. We were 5 for dinner at Tony Roma's, then back to my parent's for cake and ice cream. I'll say it, cause I think we'd all agree. We're a dysfunctional family. I think most families are??

This is the bad. A client of mine, a warm and caring woman, died 10 days ago after a 7 year battle with cancer. I found out on Saturday when someone brought me her obituary. I will miss her a lot, and can't get her out of my thoughts. Another client, who's hair I did 2 weeks ago, just found out she has 12 tumors in her brain and stage 4 bone cancer throughout, and they still don't know the primary site. She's so wonderful and so optimistic. Another client is undergoing chemo and radiation. Two others are done with treatment but it will be quite some time before they have enough hair to see me. I am praying for all of them, and when I wish for anything, it's always for health.

Hate to end this on a bad note. Tomorrow's a new day. That is a great thing.

What to do on a Saturday night? Go to the mall with your teenage daughter? Hang out at the Apple store and take pictures with their photobooth software? It was a lot of fun, actually. The only money we spent was on our food court dinner. So, it was a cheap night out and some good mother/daughter time. We came home and went to our respective computers. I finished watching all the episodes of Jericho. I LOVE watching TV on my laptop. The picture is crystal clear and there's a minimum of commercials. I've become a real TV junkie. I remember when I watched nothing. My old hairdresser friend Louis told me I had to watch TV so I could be informed and have things to talk about with my clients. Well, I watch TV now. Do I talk to my clients about it? Not much, but I am entertained.

Ever wonder how many people have the same name as you? I got this link from my blogging friend Jonathon.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 279 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Ya know, I think it might be more relaxing to work than be off. It feels like I never stop on the weekends. At work, I only have my job to do. I don't have to cook, clean, mother, shop, etc. I'm surrounded by people that like me. I never get attitude. Can you tell I have a 13 year old daughter? That's a happy face you see in the picture. Must have something to do with getting her very first cellphone. Happy Birthday Emily.

Last night was my daughter's birthday sleep-over. I actually had a good time trailing behind the girls at the mall. I was totally entertained watching the hordes stroll. My daughter wasn't thrilled to have me there, but the others seemed to like me. I was a cool and accommodating mom (I have hopes my daughter will appreciate me one day). The girls stayed up late and slept in till 10. Changed my routine, but I didn't mind at all.

My frog's still around. I think that's cool. He moves off the handle when I need to use the grill, and reappears on the Char Broil lid when next I take off the cover. I like that. The nights are getting chillier and I wonder what will happen to him.

I went to two Starbucks this weekend. The first one was a free-standing store and the other was a Safeway. I got some kind of caramel drink both times and the first one was so much better. Safeway has a machine that dispenses a finished drink. I'll have to watch how they do it at a regular Starbucks store. Border's is my first choice but the cafe's are closed for remodeling.

La de da...

I'll start with a picture of my frog. Yes, my frog. It lives on my gas grill, under the canvas cover. I haven't grilled much this summer...It's so much easier to use my George Foreman. A couple of weeks ago I decided to grill some chicken and was surprised to find a frog staring at me when I pulled off the cover. I tried to nudge it away, albeit half-heartedly, but my daughter protested loudly. We took pictures, ooh'd and aww'd, and decided not to grill outdoors. The next time I wanted to grill, the frog was not to be seen. Yeah! Last Thursday, steak in hand, the frog was back, just la de da, sitting on the handle of the grill. I just didn't have the heart to chase him away, so the steak went into the refrigerator. Last night, I was determined to cook that steak. I took the cover off, and there he was. I decided to give him time to move. I checked from time to time, and the wind must have made him seek a warmer shelter. He attached himself to the line going from the propane tank to the grill, and there he stayed the entire time I cooked. When the grill was cool and ready to be covered, he was back at his regular spot. He has a name now...McJagger. I'll be sad when he does leave us.

To do list: untouched. It was, however, a productive weekend. I think I'll put aside that list and write down all the things I do get accomplished. I spent a good amount of time outside sifting wood chips from the soil that is the mess of my side yard. Be prepared if you ever have a tree removed and they ask if you want the roots ground up. Did I know that meant my yard would be sliced and diced and the chipped roots would be whisked together with the dirt and grass? And that no grass would grow back due to the acidity of the wood? Sifting seems to be the only way to get the wood chips out. I'm far from done. New dirt and grass seed will be the easiest part of this endeavor. Help! Emily, in the meantime, totally cleaned the neighbor's lawnmower that she had so kindly lent us this summer. It sparkles.

As it was Saturday and I was fueled with my usual high-test caffeine, I went on to the more domestic art of sewing. I completed putting together my valences for the living room. I spent most of today finishing them and they're hanging very nicely on the new rods.

Neither big job was on my to-do list. They should have been, huh? I feel good.

Hard to believe its Saturday, again. I'm home from Border's. I used to sit in the cafe and drink coffee and read People magazine. Now I read PC World or other magazines like that. I decided that if I were starting out on a career, that I'd choose something to do with computers. I'm just so interested in them. I should probably take a course to have a better understanding and satisfy my curiosity. Today I bought a magazine about cleaning up your computer to make it run faster. The upstairs one is so, so slow. Emily only wants to use my laptop, and I don't blame her. I want to fix the one upstairs so she'll use it more. Anyway, I drank my 2 cups of high-test coffee, read my magazines, went to the library and then home. That's my usual Saturday after work routine. I cooked ribs for dinner; they came out perfect. Yeah! Ribs, baked potatoes and strawberries. Good dinner. I finally went through all my CD's and weeded out the ones I don't want anymore. There weren't many of them. I want to spend more time listening to music. I finally finished putting everything away that was out of place from my painting job. Tomorrow I buy the fabric to make the valences for my living room and dining room. That will be a big job, but I need to do it. I found beautiful fabric.

Well... That was quite a ramble(its the coffee). Let's see if I can do that again soon.

It looks like my blogging life is going to consist of complaining about not blogging.

I really have good intentions when it comes to this blog. Why do I find it so hard to take, not find, the time to write? I'm so busy checking everything else out, that I don't take the time to write about me. I will do some writing this weekend.

So, I guess there's not much sense in having a blog if you never write anything. Its like buying journals. I just love them. I own quite a few. Some have a few pages filled in; most are empty. Its not that I don't have a lot to say, I just keep it all in. I saved all the journals I kept from my high school days and treasure them. I keep all my calendars and look back on the events in my life and am happy that I have a record. Why can't I write in a journal? Maybe I'll be motivated and write on this blog of mine.

One of my favorite things to do is read blogs. Some of the writers I follow are just so interesting and have a great way with words. I've become kind of addicted to reading their posts. There's one or two that I really care about.

So anyway...the weekend's almost over, though for me there's still one more day cause I work on Saturdays and am off on Mondays. Its a great day to be off. Every Saturday I go to Borders after work. I love to drink coffee and read magazines in the cafe. The coffee gets me really wired and I come home feeling motivated and creative. Yesterday I tackled some projects in the yard. I had a big limb come down in my backyard a few months ago and I've just let it lay. The leaves went from young and green to dry. Thank goodness they held onto the branches. I broke off all the branches I could and have them bundled up for the yardwaste pickup. Now I just have a 15 foot dead limb on the ground, but it looks much better. A neighbor is going to come over one of these days with a chain saw and cut it into sections that yardwaste will pickup. I also have a area on the side of my yard where I had a Maple tree removed. They asked if I wanted the roots ground up. Little did I know that it meant the ground would be shredded along with the roots. Well, nothing grows there because of the acidity of the chipped up roots. I've started raking it out, but its a huge job. I'm going to need a lot of new dirt, then do all the grass seed stuff, etc...Waah, I don't want to do it. Luckily you can't see this area from the street and my neighbor doesn't mind how it looks. Just one more thing on my to-do list.