9/9

I am not at work! This is great news. My job may not come with standard benefits but I will tell you, a day off here and another there is a huge health benefit in itself. I've vowed not to take any personal days off this year (barring of course the event that I get really sick from toddlers sneezing with uncanny aim straight into my eyes -- sick days that I count as personal days because I have been known to enjoy them just as much as hooky days.) Yep, last year, May and June-ish, I was really bad. A personal Monday here, a Thursday and Friday there, anything to lengthen the weekend, shorten the week, otherwise alleviate the pain. Now that I don't even get a bathroom break during the day (I'm serious) I wonder what the hell was so bad about last year? I had a lunch break where I could actually eat my lunch, the kids understood the majority of what I was saying and vice versa, the vast majority had perfect use of their major limbs, etc. Needless to say, it's different now. So no personal leaves is kind of penance for last year, and a personal goal as well as a financial necessity. Besides, one day leads to another, which leads to "Who cares already?" ... and the real reason: too many disappearances and the Nun will have my head.

Any time away from work is spent doing a bit too much online (window) shopping, and watching way too much television. I can't remember being excited by anything on TV since having to wait for Dylan to choose between Brenda and Kelly. And UH volleyball circa the time of Sivan Leone. Oh okay and all of Sex & the City. But now I'm psyched enough to use the word "psyched" about the arrival of my Buffy DVDs (fricking finally) and the new season of Angel and Gilmore Girls and CSI and Tru Calling. I seriously think TC will tank in under a season but won't it be fun while it lasts? This week's Entertainment Weekly features "The Scoop On 37 New Shows & 65 of Your Old Favorites" ... whoa, who knew there was SO MUCH mind-numbing goodness out there??

The yarden is done ... the wall and herb planter anyway. That was the major stuff, and now we can get on with our lives. Eugene's Brother thanks brother B for all his hard work (unpaid labor), Don Knotts for his good advice and shoddy masonry so that E's B could aspire to greater greatness, and me for occasionally stopping by and promising to make him a bench so that he can sit outside in his spare time, admiring his own work and making sure no more gardenias are stolen. He said something about adding a rock-hopper penguin habitat (he's such a fan of Tacky, who incidentally is not to my knowledge a rock-hopper but is E's B's favorite penguin. Who's yours?) ... but I think I convinced him that Ping and Shiro would eat them.

All those other ducklings that E's B picked P & S from last-last Easter ... I wonder where they are now? The other Easter babies, Djali and Shumai, are fine ... Today S got his tank cleaned for a record second time in a month. The tubifex conflict continues. I'm sure I mentioned a long time ago that Shu actually came from the residential pond of none other than the Messy Nun. Almost all the other babies from his clutch are no more, having died at the paws and claws of territorial dogs, rats and other patio vermin. Djali, (s)he just hops around a lot. (S)he's a happy hoppy loppy, but I wish (s)he had a friend to hope around with in the long afternoons.

The much less elaborate yarden in my own neck of the woods is flourishing. We have tau gok every night. Two squashes are getting nice and fat, should be ready to give their lives for soup sometime before Halloween. The unending supply of bittermelon remains ... unending. In a minute I'm going to check on my soybeans (still a little skinny for edamame the last time I checked) and weed out more mysterious mushrooms from the ground.

Oh yeah final note: Friday! Friday! Movie night Friday! The bartender lives again on Friday! Eva Mendes looks like Gina Gershon this Friday! Antonio Banderas has good hair once again on Friday! Cheap thrills abound on Friday!