Thank you, Dayle, for my very favorite Muppets clip is the one of the aliens talking to the telephone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKX0RN19zc0

Fri Aug 18 - Meet N Greet: After staying up late, I wasn't really inclined to wake all that early, but I did hit the computer by at least 9:30 or so in the morning. Not bad. The best point, though, was being done at an early hour so I could drive down to San Diego for a "Meet and Greet" with folks from work. Many of us never meet each other, and so one of the guys had put together a dinner at Dave and Busters (which is sort of a Chuck E. Cheese for Grown-Ups).

It took just under four hours to do the hour-forty-five prescribed drive (eep), but I'd brought my iPod and had lots of radio podcasts to catch up on. The only thing I'd forgotten to do in advance: Bring anyone's cell phone number with me, so that I could find these people I'd never met before. But at the beginning of the month, I'd upgraded to a Blackberry phone, and this one has very good internet access—something I'd missed having for several years now. I gave it a try, and managed to log in to my work email, retrieve a number, and connect up with folks.

It was a fun evening. Dinner was fairly good, and the girl next to me ordered fondue for dessert and shared with me. Yum. The people are pretty fun, and I had the good fortune of sitting next to some interesting folks. Then I hung out with 3 of the gals while they played different games for the next several hours. I even helped win some of the tickets, though not nearly as many at the basketball game as at the coin-flip machine. We had fun shopping for silly desk toys with our tickets, and then it was to home with me.

Sat Aug 19 - Girls' Night In: After a leisurely breakfast, the major task of the day was to prepare for an informal party that night. There's nothing like scheduling a party to make me clean house. *grin*

I took down the silk sari from the ceiling, that hangs to hide the storage in the upper level of my loft. Then I took all the boxes down, every single one, and actually emptied them out and sorted through them. I found that several boxes really should have been unpacked a year ago, but no harm done. I threw out a bunch of junk, consolidated office supplies, art supplies, pictures and awards in frames, nick-nacks and chotskies, and generally shifted stuff "where it belonged."

Then I brought all my camping equipment in from the living room, and re-did my loft storage. My band CDs are all neatly packed and accessible, and my camping equipment is stored out of sight. The few items that "should be" stored are tucked away, and the files that need to be reduced and shredded are out and ready for my next big project day. And when I re-hung the silk sari, I managed to get it fit all the way around both sides of the loft, so it's all neatly hidden away. Yippee.

After lunch, it was time to attack the living room. And I was successful at throwing out probably 4-5 boxes worth of junk from that stack of boxes. I also finally put all my loose photos into my photo boxes (yippee The Container Store!), although I didn't sort or order them. Several photos were exciting to see, many were ones I wasn't really ready to deal with, but no rush for that project.

I'm exceedingly happy that I've reduced so much more junk, and again I know where everything is. Yippee.

And since it's not a party at our house if the guests haven't arrived while I'm at the store, I had to head out and get a few items. Our party was made up of Adrienne, Lilya, Sara, Melissa, me, and later on Theresa, and we had a great time over snacks, chatting, and eventually a chick-flick. Then both Adrienne and Theresa stayed overnight (yippee! slumber party!) and that wrapped up our lovely evening.

Sun Aug 20 - Some Quiet Recovery: We had some nice tea and coffee together, then everyone headed out for the day. I had a nice quiet day, balancing receipts in my checkbook, paying bills, planning for the next few bills for the month, and reading email.

I'd hoped to try a new Teryaki Grill for dinner, but after walking several blocks, I found out it was closed on Sundays. Ah well. I spent another hour after dinner enjoying browsing the local book store, and coming home just finished sorting a few more items on my desk. It's very comforting to have so many details organized and put away at home. It makes facing the morning that much easier.

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Watched Recently: Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, Farscape, Xena, Black Adder

Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Sara. It was so nice to have you spend an evening with us, for me to get to know you just a little bit better.