august 3, 2002.

Yesterday was kind of a weird day for me. I had planned to finish all of my projects (novel critique, church website, convergence, stanfest), which in retrospect seems a bit ambitious. What happened instead is that the phone started to ring. I heard from Scherezade, my dad (twice!), Palaver, the Boy, the bank, my webmistress successor and a wrong number. I spent so much time on the phone that I didn't get to start even one of my projects, let alone finish all four.

I was also supposed to clean the bathroom and do the dishes, but of course I put that off until the last possible minute. It's easy to procrastinate with dishes when you're baking; why would you want to get the sink all hot n' foamy when you're just going to dirty a new batch of large and somewhat esoteric kitchen implements? The Boy wandered in during the baking, and after he helped me with the last 2 batches of cookies, I was able to suggest a tag-team approach to the dishes. End result: I have 4 dozen cookies and a countertop full of clean dishes. Pretty sweet.

The bathroom, however, was pretty much mine for the scrubbing. I got out the Vim & went to work on the sink, toilet & floor, marvelling at the sheer amount of dark hair the two of us shed in the course of a day. And I was going great guns until the drain backed up. Big! Wet! Clog! Of! Dark! Hair! Those awful hairs didn't disappear down the drain! They were banding together in the pipe, laying plans to fuck with me!

Since we didn't have Drano, I wondered what a little baking soda and vinegar would do. The Boy, automatically attracted to anything with a vague whiff of science fair about it, shouldered me aside at the sink and I sat down to Google some household cleaning information. Holy Cow! Baking soda (with or without vinegar) has a million useful uses! We immediately began pouring mixtures down our drains and scrubbing the pan I set on fire. It was midnight before our baking soda enthusiasm had tapered off.

We are people of sudden overpowering enthusiasms.

Speaking of sudden enthusiasms, I have become totally enamoured of BookCrossing, the site that attempts to make a lending library of the entire world. And although now would be a perfect time to release many books that are not worth cargo space, I'm doing better with the read and review than with the release. I suppose that's the Cath-22 of booklovers - those that are instinctively drawn to the site feel a great deal of pain in letting books go.

I'm working on a very promising angle that will make this site part of my curriculum next year. For the first time, I'm actually looking forward to being in the classroom!

4 years ago today: Such is swing