*whew*

...
Way too much running around today, and I may go out later again... but by myself, which would count as recreation, not an errand. Hee.

Let's see... hauled myself out of bed, got DD and DS2 up (gently, gently, else they are so cranky it would've been better to let them sleep and just be late), breakfast, dishes, off to school!

Then: an hour, literally, in Home Depot. DS2 has now a pathologic fear of riding in shopping carts and I'm not supposed to pick him up, anyway. So, little legs = long shopping trips, especially in hangar-like stores like Home Depot. We bought everything we need (save one thing) for the Furniture Project. All told, I've spent over $150, and it probably would've been cheaper and easier to just buy DD new furniture, but the old furniture is way sturdier than any new stuff we would buy would be, plus the coolness factor of having unique furniture.

So, I know how I'll be spending my next few weekends. I expect it will be both simultaneously fun and frustrating. I can't wait to start, honestly, but I have to get DH a new dresser first, otherwise I'll be dealing with his clothes all over the place until we do -- forget that!

So, after Home Depot (by which point both DS2 and I are both exhausted) we popped over to Borders (just 4 doors down) just in time for story hour; dashed from there to get DS1 from his school -- early release -- then more dashing to get DD at her school, where we were only 5 minutes late.

Then, lunch at Chili's. I splurged and got the new "knife-and-fork fajitas" which actually came with big lettuce leaves for wrapping, and it was awesome. It would've been perfect except the lettuce was a bit too wet, but that was not a fatal flaw. I was able to shake most of the water off, and it was just fine. mmmmmmm

Then, over to the nearby mall where we found the perfect chest of drawers for DH, the bow front that matches our 4-poster. Lovely, and on sale. I want the trunk/chest that matches the set, too. And the little two-step thing. All in all, about $700. Oh, and lamps, did I mention lamps? Nevermind, I'll probably just stick with the chest-of-drawers for now.

Then we actually went BACK to Home Depot (did I mention that there were THREE bathroom trips within about a 45-minute span during these excursions? It was ridiculous...) to see about wallpaper or cut-outs or wall decorations of some sort, Care Bears for DD, Star Wars for the boys. They do not exist (yay!)... we'll figure out something. I think.

By that time we were all thoroughly exhausted and I took 'em all home, even though they protested they did not want to come home. They've been parked in front of the TiVO and I've been online doing nothing productive ever since we walked in the door. I don't have the energy to do anything else... I suppose I should be thinking about dinner, but I'm totally NOT hungry.

I just want to sleeeeeeeep....

A couple of friends sent me a really sweet "get well" wine country gift basket. They are insane, but really really sweet. I love that kind of stuff. I have to call them up and gush, but first I have to open it and inspect it thoroughly.

So far, so good a day, really. We'll see how the rest of it goes.

My second column was published today in LCL Online Magazine -- I wonder if it'll generate any more emails? I hope so. I'm peeved that their editing is so bad, though -- there was some info missing in the draft I sent them, and they never even followed up on it. I needed to get the carb count on my old favorite coffee drink, or even just make up a number, but I hadn't yet, and just said "(XXX carbs)" in the draft I sent them, and that made it into the final version. Did they even read it? I don't know... yeesh. Does that make me look bad? Eh, I have no control over what they do with what I give them -- plus, I have emailed them a few times and got zip response...

I hope to get back to work tomorrow, now that all the running around is done!