I just finished reading The Information Diet, which I think I mentioned before - it's all about how we need to stop ingesting the equivalent of twinkies into our brains, and spend more time on the stuff that's important to us. I can happily report that I haven't looked at The Huffington Post all week, nor have I watched The Daily Show.   I miss it a little bit - I do have a crush on Jon Stewart - but it's nice to have time to listen to the podcasts I love, read the magazines I enjoy, and not get all riled up about politics.  I also started using Rescue Time, which is a bit of software that sits in the background analyzing the sites you spend time on, seeing where you lose productive time.  So I can't sneak little breaks checking out the new Jason Wu collection at Target without Rescue Time noticing.  It's a little creepy to be honest, so I might not use it forever, but it's definitely nice to be able to get a reality check on my attention span.

I haven't been as good about meditation lately.  It seems so difficult to set aside 20 minutes to just sit and do nothing.  Yet I know it's important.  I know the difference it makes for people, and could make for me.  So I keep trying.  Eventually it will become second nature.  Like the oil pulling I do every morning.  I know it sounds crazy and new agey, but I haven't been sick at all yet this winter, and normally I come down with every cold that passes through the neighborhood, so I'm stoked about that.

This week I'm going up to my office in San Mateo, but the highlight will be Saturday, when I go to the American Bach Soloist's choral workshop in San Francisco.  A full day of singing the choruses from the St Matthew Passion.  Ahhhhh, bliss....

It's been a while since I posted a Funny Local News video, and when I searched for one on youtube, I found this one, from LA's ABC 7, filmed in a Target parking lot in Fontana, which is, coincidentally, the Target I most often go to.  I park in that parking lot!  It's a good thing the rogue carts don't get my car. Man, if you only watched local news, you would be forgiven for being afraid of your own shadow. If you're ever looking for something to be afraid of, watch local news. They'll make sure you know about some new killer disease or rogue shopping cart that you should watch out for.

More Spring Weekending

Oprah says to declutter, so I'm decluttering. I had a big yard sale yesterday, and after lugging tons of bags down the 32 stairs from our house to our driveway, there was no way I was lugging them all back up again, so the stuff that didn't sell got taken to the thrift store, where I got a tax credit thingy. It was a good time. I was happy that a bunch of stuff got sold, and by 2pm I was ready to wrap up. After going to the thrift store, we went to the Mexican restaurant by the lake and sat outside enjoying the breeze and watching the water.

Now that my life is decluttered, I am amazed at my closet. Everything in my closet fits and looks good on me now. It's such a great feeling.

Today I am having a Recession Spa day, which includes having my hubby do my highlights and cut my hair (he's good at it!) and having him help with my pedicure. It's nice having a husband who's secure enough in his masculinity to help me with my girly things.

After the Recession Spa day I will work a bit in my garden, but it's a bit too cold outside to do a lot, so I will work with my pots in the kitchen. And then, the highlight of my week, the Tudors.

I love peaceful quiet weekends like this.

Maternal Visits

I'm in the midst of a Maternal Visit, with all of the stressiness that entails. Fortunately I thought ahead and the whole thing is only lasting until Thursday. Then I'm going to target for some retail therapy including new shoes. New shoes fix all stresses, I've found.

Today we went down the back of the mountain to the high desert. We ate buffalo burgers at this kitchy cowboy place in Littlerock, and then went to the poppy reserve, which isn't in full bloom yet, but will be in a few weeks.

Later tonight I tried to explain the humor of The Daily Show, and we have now reverted to watching Golden Girls reruns. I'm planning to make my escape to the bathtub to read soon.

I'm giving up Diet Coke for lent. No more artificial sweeteners, mostly because I want to get off of them when I get pregnant, so this is good practice. J is giving up meat so I'm going to have to learn more veggie recipes. So that's the news from here.

Snow Day

We had some snow today which was nice - only a few inches, so not enough to disrupt my planned travel on Monday and Tuesday, but enough to coat the trees and look pretty. I had a fun indoor snow day. I read an entire New Yorker in the bathtub, and started reading my new CJ Sansom book - he writes these amazing Tudor mysteries that will definitely end my reading drought. I also rearranged my books a bit tonight - J and I have been switching around storage units which has necessitated a bit of reorganization - and I found a lot more books appealing than the last time I looked. I forgot I have a new biography of Henry VIII waiting to be read, some chick-lit that looks actually grown up, and a new Paulo Coehlo book. So I'm excited. I'm also still listening to books, which is something I never did before, and finding it very enjoyable, though I'm not sure whether to count it as reading it or not. Anyway, that's for me to work out.

J and I made a homemade pizza and watched the new Dragons Den. I absolutely love that show. It's my new favorite tv. I wish it was on every day and not just once a week. I also am happily not watching Idol this year. I always used to wonder why I watched it anyway, but it seemed like everybody else in the country did, so I went along with it. Not this year though. I am happily off of Idol.

I also did mundane things like clean some kitchen cupboards, do a bunch of laundry, and clean the bathrooms. Good snow-day things to do. And I played Oblivion for two hours. I've finally completed all of the quests except for those in the Dark Brotherhood line. My story with Oblivion is that I've been thoroughly addicted to it for almost a year, on and off. I love RPG games, and this one is a whole other level. With most games you follow a very clear quest line, and while you can choose your armor, and maybe even enchant your weapons, it's all very scripted and you do it in a certain order. With Oblivion, you go through the beginning tutorial, come out, and while there is a main quest line, you don't have to do it. You can go on and join the Mages Guild (magicians), Fighters Guild (private fighters for hire), Thieves Guild (yeah, thieves) and lots of other factions. There are like seven or eight towns and the Imperial City, each of which has lots of quests from random people. You can collect/harvest ingredientes from the countryside and make alchemical potions which you can sell for loads of money, you can hunt for rare plants called nirnroots, you can randomly wander around and loot caves, forts, and ruins. You can buy houses in the towns and become a merchant. You can just about do everything in this game, except get married. So I've completed all of the quests outside the Dark Brotherhood. I saved that for last because they are the assassins and it makes me a little queasy being a paid assassin. There are supposedly lots of plug-ins you can get to extend the game, so I'm going to check those out and maybe that will give me more to do, too.

Anyway, that was my snow day. I'm going to bed soon. It's only 9, but I've been waking up early every morning to get on an early schedule so that on Monday and Tuesday when I have to get up at 4:30, it doesn't kill me so much. Am thinking I will get up at 5 tomorrow. Sheesh. Wednesday, after my travels, I'm sleeping in till 8.