1. The tea rule: when markgritter is out of town, you must remember to make your own afternoon tea. This is a good rule. 2. The miso rule: in months when you would by default wear socks, you must have something warm with at least one and preferably two meals a day. This, too, is a good rule. 3. The salad rule: no more than one meal a day can be solely composed of cold raw vegetables, or...

I'm fairly sure that I'm not going to finish either of the things I'm reading now before the end of the day (since I am tired from the concert, probably more on which anon), and anyway one of them is a manuscript, and I don't talk about manuscripts in my book posts. And it's the whole month this time, because I left for Michigan midmonth and then was sick when I got back, so it got put off. So. ...

1. I can't figure out whether I was supposed to clip this comic for Mom or whether Mom was supposed to clip it for Grandma. 2. We have a bathroom in the basement! There's one tiny fixture thing to be handled so it's just the way we want it--and, of course, cabinet drawers lined and pictures hung and all that--but hurrah for the new bathroom! We're talking to the same contractor about the rest of...

So timprov and I had just finished getting burgers and malts with the folks, Grandma, and Johan before he goes back to Sweden. (Yes, laurel , I give you permission to imagine me sitting at the Malt Shop with Johan Santana, even though that is totally not what happened.) ( markgritter is in California or he'd have come too.) And there is a new store along the stretch there with...

I love the first day I really, really don't feel sick any more except for a few lingering symptoms. It's like I got superpowers overnight. "Able to sort laundry in a single bound!" Hmm. So they're mediocrepowers, actually. But still: ability to accomplish stuff, oh hurrah. The down side to waking up with markgritter 's alarm on the days he's going to California--and being able to do stuff...

We (this being markgritter and I) have arrived in Michigan in the same number of pieces as we were in when we left Minnesota, I believe. The new niece is a very nice baby. The old niece remains a very nice little girl, curious and fun to be around. We do not, unfortunately, see enough of her that she remembers us very well from visit to visit, but we are not the sort of grown-ups who expect...

This week my steady time came on Tuesday, and I used part of it to go out to the garden to harvest tomatillos, since I'd heard we were due for a frost Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. I don't think we got one here in Eagan, so there may be more tomatillos when markgritter goes to pull the plants out. It was still trying to grow more. Still, I got hundreds of the little suckers. For those...

Upon reading the manual to our new car, markgritter was startled to discover that it can be taught to open garage doors. ( timprov and I were startled, too, but did not read the manual. Suffice it to say that this is not a feature we would have been willing to pay for separately, but it's kind of cool to have it around.) markgritter : Okay, I've programmed it now so that 1...

It's kind of sad talking to the competent contractors we decided not to go with on this basement bathroom thing, because they're all fairly clearly hungry for work. I didn't mind telling the incompetent one that I appreciated the other contractors sending out people who could do an actual estimate for me, but all the others seemed like they would produce reasonable bathrooms in our basement. In some...

I have been an aunt for three years now, nearly three and a half. It is a wondrous fine thing, being an aunt. Today I am an aunt again. seagrit and jffgrnfld are parents again. But Amber--this is the completely new part--Amber is now a big sister. So I'm not sure if we will have "the niecelets" or if "niecelet" will be passed down and Amber will become "niece" or what. We will find...