Procrastination is fun... not

OK, I'm going to waste a bit of time here and then go back to gainful employment, which given the current state of the newspaper business, I should appreciate while I still have it. I did two phone interviews with authors this morning and now should be turning them into copy for the paper, really! Soon, soon...

My $29.95 investment in a Chris Thiele mandolin instructional CD has already been worthwhile, I believe. I am roughly 15 minutes into it (I think it might be as long as 85 or 90 minutes) and already I have learned a good up-and-down pick exercise AND most importantly have grasped at long last the timing involved in "pick stroke theory," which was so totally eluding me it was embarrassing. What I really want to know is why god why did my erstwhile music teacher NOT bother to lay down the basics with me???????? So now, two years after acquiring this instrument, I am FINALLY going back and learning the basics of timing. It's v. exciting as I can combine tablature reading with musical notation reading (at least in terms of time values of the notes, if not where the heck they fall on the fretboard). Have been working assiduously on "Red Haired Boy" for the last few days and now have gone back to the previously-learned but never mastered "Liberty" and trying to get that timing down as well. At the end of the week I will reward myself with moving to the next lesson on the DVD. Progress may finally be made!

Happy new dishwasher

I know, not that exciting. But our dishwasher, original equipment in the house, was noisy and didn't do that great a job. Finally it died, once and for all, after the top rack had been busted for what, a year? I followed my usual method of shopping for major appliances: look it up on Consumer Reports, call Mullet's Appliances, arrange for delivery. Despite a minor foul-up on timing (call my cell phone? Why would you do that to tell me when you'd come?) all worked out, and a nice new Whirlpool dishwasher is installed. Too bad we won't be home for dinner the next two nights so won't run it before Sunday, probably.

In other news, had a great time in Wichita and Winfield last weekend. Drooled over the whole cheap real estate scene there but would be astonished if Steve acted on the offer that he be the breadwinner, me the domestic goddess and move back to the Midwest.

Thrilling weekend plans: Galloway tomorrow, balance the evil checkbook, file some papers, see if Sarah can help me get my address book coordinated with the Franklin Covey software. Woo-hoo! And some knitting. And mandolin playing. Starting right now.

So low-tech

You know, technology would be a wonderful thing if only I could master it. I decided that it's time to stop scratching out entries in my address book, so I got the software from Franklin Covey to input my address book and print it out -- keen, huh? Except I can't figure out how to get my addresses from Outlook Express into the Franklin Covey program. I can always just type each thing directly into a form and then print it out, which realistically, is all I need. But grrr all the same.

I'm taking a break this weekend from the worst of the Katrina news, after a week of saturation of the world's most terrible story. Well, maybe not the WORLD's, but certainly those three states. Heartbreaking and horrifying. The governmental response to this, especially on a federal level: unconscionable.

Tomorrow I will either bypass the Outlook Express database or give up on the whole thng and spent part of the day revamping C's room from teen bedroom to my own space. The trick is to not have it look like I've taken over her room. Shouldn't actually be that bad, since I like the basic decor in there and can just box up the teen posters and so forth. I may wait on the new desk thought for a few more weeks. Not essential; there is a working surface in there that, especially if I took all the kid stuff off, would be fine. I do need an actual chair in there.