Today, i called Naomi - trying to return a call, and i accidentally called my other Naomi. It was truly lovely to chat with friendNaomi, but jeepers, did i sound like a floundering idiot. 8) They're both very cool - i'm lucky to have such a wealth of Naomi!

Ok, so that last entry was a little bleaker than was fair. I did a number of nice things this weekend, including some of the ones on my list!

Completed:
--Clean my house. It's no longer bugging me. Not as much laundry as i'd like, but the house is fundamentally non-embarrassing, and not horrible to live in. Good stuff.
--Pay the bills. Done. Nothing interesting to report, here.
--Met with Naomi-the-realtor! She's fantastic. 8)
--Buy new walking shoes. Done! I even had a bit of a swoon over the wonderfully cute butchy-dyke girl who was really helpful and educational. She was carrying her FIVE WEEK OLD kitten (adopted yesterday) with her. eeegads. Kitten AND girl lust. And new shoes!
--WALK! Did this. Probably clocked 8 or 9 miles, all told.
--Look at houses on Sunday. Done. 8)
--Go to the Farmers' Market on Saturday. Done, and i aquired many tasty vegetables, and farmers' market zen.
--Read in the tub. Done. Used a tasty melty bar.
--See Little Anne. Most excellently done. I also had a chance to catch up with Miss Kate, her beau Gino, and meet two new folks - Stephanie and her brother Scott. An excellent dinner with those folks at Lorca after a low-key cocktail hour at home, and a wonderful loner lunch with just Anne. So nice to see her.
--Cuddle. Done. But you probably don't want to hear about that. ;)

Additionally, we had dinner at Fattoush with Tad and Beca, had a little Ely-lovin', cooked dinner with Forrest (risotto with Capricious cheese, fava beans, and thyme, and a killer salad i'll post about on Gastronome) and a solid visit. All told, a good 3-day weekend! I'll stop my pre-whining, now.

Things i want and need to do this weekend, which will probably be subsumed by work, by meriko borogove.

--Clean my house. It's bugging me. My room scores are so low.
--Pay the bills. Gotta have bills paid on time. Gotta.
--Call up Naomi-the-realtor and see if we can't get an appointment to meet up with her
--Buy new walking shoes
--Send out more Walk letters
--Address all those Walk thank-yous i wrote last month, and send them.
--WALK!
--Look at houses on Sunday.
--Go to the Farmers' Market on Saturday.
--Go to REI and check out the bike skorts the Other Naomi told me about, and buy Russell shoes.
--Ask Andrea about borrowing camping stuff for the Walk.
--cook, and cook and cook. (See previous post.)
--Read in the tub.
--Read Andy's book.
--Catch up on email.
--See Little Anne.
--Cuddle.

The two good things that happened today: I wonderful attractive man who i miss even though he works so nearby bought me lunch today in the midst of chaos, and later on I had a glass of very nice champagne while dandling a very cute 6-month-old baby on my knee. (Note-to-said-man: You'll go crazy if you don't write. Have a good weekend. Go for it.)

I desperately want a house. NOW. (I know, I know - it's going to take time, effort, and there will be lots of compromises. I know all the real-world parts. The exhausted 4-year old in me just WANTS right now, though, in parallel to the preparation and responsible grownup working towards said house.) The 4-yo is trying not to obsess about this house.

I really, really want to have a grille-fest on Monday. I want to make all of my favorites that i haven't had since last summer, but that requires people to come and help eat it. I want to make basque chicken wings, scallops with proscuitto, spicy new potatoes, asparagus with parmesan, artichokes with lemon and butter, filet grilled over rosemary branches with point reyes blue butter, toast, veggies, tofu in peanut sauce. But i won't know if i have Monday off until Friday, and i fear that Friday afternoon notice won't garner me any guests. I know it's late notice. :/

Work sucks right now. Having the pub close by is a big help.

I want to try infusing JD with peaches this summer, in addition to the usual jar of cherry-infused JD.

If i don't take care of my chores and my Avon walk stuff this weekend, someone smack me down hard. (Laundry. General cleaning. New shoes. Thank you notes. Final solicitations. TRAINING WALKS.)

Today, i was standing in the hallway with my boss and one of the QT architects. The following conversation ensued:

bossman: Jeez, it's like everyone is looking at buying a house right now
me: Well, Russell got a full-time job!
architect: Heeeyyyy... that means you can quit now!
bossman, looking directly at me: Buy a house. Now.

Heh. I'm choosing to read nothing into the quitting comment, and everything into my boss'.

I'm not sure there are many things more blissfull than finishing a book in the bathtub, with candles lit, a glass of water & a glass of wine, and just enough book left that you stay in the tub just a little longer than you otherwise would. Lucky me - this is how i finished off my weekend on Sunday night. 8)

I did a lot of reading this weekend. I polished off Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire (quite enjoyed it, time to catch up litwanks, i know), and started and finished Amanda Hesser's Cooking with Mr. Latte. A character in Sterling's HF insists that reading is a disease early on in the book; maybe this is true, but if so, it's a disease i quite enjoy.

Other weekendy updates: It felt a little like a weekend treat to have a leisurely lunch with Miss Carol on Friday - long catching up at the bar over soup and salad at Helios. Friday night was wine and pizza with anne, Dave, Mike, Mere & Tom and a lot of loud Star Wars.

Saturday was blissfully lazy. A lot of reading, a clever late supper with lots of reuse of things in the fridge, and tasty fava beans. A nap with R that was just delicious in the stolen time.

Sunday i got up early & met Heidi, Aimee, Mo & Patrick for Bay to Breakers. We made it up the Hayes Street Hill, and realized that if we bailed then, we could make it to brunch before the crowds hit Ti Couz. And so we did, and shared a decadent repast of crepes, salad, cheese & charcuterie. Home again, and R & i plotted a walking tour of some open houses, and struck out again for another couple hours of walking. Somehow the 8+ miles felt like a lot more when much of it was up steep, steep, steep hills in Bernal Heights.

After our early brunch, we were hungry for dinner early, so we hung out at the bar at Last Supper Club. I definitely need to develop a signature pasta e fagioli soup for home consumption. Some more reading, some working, and we circle back to the bath i opened with. A restorative weekend. 8)

We made our reservations for our mini-vacation to Seattle - we'll be staying in the Capitol Hill Inn in the Sherlock Holmes room. Double Jacuzzi tub next to a fireplace... excellent. The B&B was a bordello around the turn of the century - how tawdry! I'm so looking forward to the brief respite...

Andrea recommended we eat at a place called Matt's in the Market (94 Pike St #32, Seattle; (206) 467-7909). Any other advice for us? I know i want to go back to Cafe Septieme, and the Bleu Bistro looks intriguing...

Ok - Marilyn (Adam's mom, cool, cool lady she is) had the best dream about me -- that i've heard about! What have you dreamed about me lately?

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I dreamed about ...Meriko last night. She was having some problems with people at work, but she found a grand solution to the problem. She had the floor in her office waxed and polished to a high shine and every time these people came into her office they fell flat on their asses!

Don't know why this came to me, but I pass it along. :)

While i was freaking out pretty hard about work when i went to bed last night, and had work-driven nightmares all night, i managed to have a pretty darned lovely weekend. Another list of good things:

--A new friend, growing ever closer. I realized this weekend how rare it is to meet someone outside of one's social circles as i get older - and what a treat it is to happen across someone new who quickly becomes such a good friend. Thank you, Mary Anne, for bringing me a Naomi. 8)
--A lovely trip to the farmers' market. A solitary prowl, and then a second one with company. Arriving reasonably early, smelling the water, gazing at the bridge, inhaling the scent of the produce, and so many people so close to the source of their food. I'm not sure i can convey the simply joy i was filled with all morning.
--Three-quarters of an hour with my Sterling and a large cup of Peet's, looking over the bay.
--Lunch with Naomi at the Tadich Grill, the oldest restaurant in SF. (Established in 1849! A proper lunch counter!)
--A long tromp downtown, with tasty bath treats from Lush.
--A new knife, and a leisurely meander around Williams-Sonoma.
--A tasty dinner, just for me. (photo op soon to be posted at Gastronome)
--A long morning cooking with Russell
--A long lunch, with my Mom-in-law, Sis-in-law, and Russell.
--A long walk, including a turn around Dolores Park, admiring the men and doggies and kids lolling about in the sun and racing about.
--Looking through a few flats & houses for sale - one which we could even afford. ;)
--Dressing up for Mo's birthday cocktail party - visiting with so many lovely friends who i haven't seen in a while.
--Knowing that Tammy graduated and we'll get to see her again soon!!
--A husband who takes very good care of me, even when i'm really difficult to deal with due to work angst & hormones.

Sylvain, i miss you.

The last 48 hours have been pretty spectacularly bad. I could make all manner of lists to show you why, but taking a cue from Naomi, instead i'm going to try and list the GOOD things that happened over the last few days...

- As hard as things have been, it's still been over 6 months since i came home from work crying. I'm getting better at this, becausee i think overall work is getting harder. (Ok, maybe not a GOOD thing, but i have to warm up to this, ok?)
- Wednesday night i took my book down to Last Supper Club for a late dinner when i finally got home. R wasn't around, and while perched on a corner barstool, two sweet men gave me one of their long-stemmed red roses from their dozen.
- Proving once again that it's good to cultivate relationships with neighborhood bartenders, John from LSC managed to put my venting into perspective when he poked fun at one of the streams of vitriol pouring out of my mouth (after R finally showed up).
- And he comp'd us two of our drinks.
- My work coffee/tea cup has Babar on it.
- I took a bath last night, for the first time in MONTHS.
- My Bruce Sterling novel is REALLY good.
- Whole Foods Cupertino now has a chowder bar, as well as a soup bar, with 5 or 6 seafoody soups. This enabled me to have reasonably good lobster bisque for dinner last night, with minimal effort.
- I mostly completed the menu planning for Mother's Day Brunch on Sunday.

Ok, so maybe not the longest or fanciest list, but ALL of those things happened during two truly awful days. I'll work on appreciating the little things instead being beaten down, today. And tomorrow? The new farmers' market! I hope to find spring morels. 8)

I have so many half-completed entries, and so much work to do. It's going to be a crazy week, here.
Summary: X-Men2, good. Friends, good. New Adams piece, good. Comic books, good. Yummy food, good. Connie Willis & other scifi peeps, good. Much cuddling, good. Stress about work, bad.

Dad's in town tonight. Good. We won't discuss the rest of today yet.