My work life and my home life are such opposites right now.

Work is crazy right now. Every time i turn around, another problem pops out of the woodwork, from somewhere. I need to quit asking "What else could possibly go wrong?" in that tone - the universe is clearly feeling the need to show me that there's always more where the last one came from. I don't want to go to work. I can feel the depression settling in, hard. I'm not sure how to climb my way out of it.

On the other side of things, my personal life is fantastic right now. I had a marvelous day helping my friend Naomi celebrate her 28th birthday yesterday. I have wonderful friends, an amazing husband, a darling cat, an amazing house suited to precisely the kind of entertaining i like to do, and my kitchen just plain rocks. I have a slew of good books to read, i'm losing weight, and i have good plans coming up with dear friends. It's great, and i feel incredibly blessed and lucky.

Maybe i should start asking how my personal life could possibly get better, in that tone.

This weekend's house project - assembling, painting, placing, and filling the new wine cubes. I might be the only girl with a wine cellar that includes a mannequin.

The sun has me too whomped to write coherent sentences, so i present to you a list of lovely things from my weekend:

-- First home improvement painting project, outside in the sun.
-- Angie, the cute bartender at Citizen Cake.
-- The hummus and cheese plate at said establishment.
-- Trying a new blue, and loving it: Hubbardson Blue.
-- The names of the sourdough starters at Citizen Cake are fester, o'ryely, and wheatina.
-- A fucking fantastic piece at symphony - Chen Yi's Percussion Concerto with Evelyn Glennie. Stunning.
-- Steak tartare and fries at Absinthe.
-- Putting up the newly painted wine cubes - and them looking fabulous. Filling them with my finally-unpacked wine stash.
-- Getting the house back to clean. Maybe the act wasn't so lovely, but the finished results? Definitely.
-- Tom's Caesar salad, my butternut squash soup, and Zante's Indian Pizza. Mojitos and Navarro 1995 Cab. (No, not at the same time, silly!)
-- Much happy gaming with the PS2. Forrest, Michael, Carol, and Tom visiting.
-- Having that extra hour to cook this morning.
-- Planning and making a great zoo-bound picnic for friends.
-- Whipping out the kitchen torch to finish off the créme brulée at said picnic.
-- Breaking bread with some people i love. (Well, the sandwiches were on bread?)
-- The lion cubs, growing up. Sophie's fascination with the penguins & bidding bye-bye to the polar bears. The black bear fishing apples out of the water and delicately eating them in three bites, and then licking his paws clean. Two baby ringtail lemurs (3mo & 5mo).
-- Realizing we were getting extra action and feeding time because time 'fell back' for humans, today, but not for the beasties. Insta-night-zoo! Totally logical, but i had never really put it together before...
-- Coming home to a clean house and a sweet cat to snuggle.
-- Tasty leftovers aplenty in my fridge and freezer for the coming week. Asian pears on the counter. Cookies in the tin. Yoga on my horizon.

I'm really not sure i should be so fixated on the book Everything Can Be Beaten while i'm finishing up my performance reviews this evening.

(Those who work in QT: do not be alarmed. EOM.)

I don't usually write an entry just to pimp a particular comic strip, but today's Penny Arcade is Not To Be Missed.

It's been a long, long week. But i've had a lovely weekend, thus far. I'm going to avoid talking about the week so much, and focus on the weekend. I was supposed to have a day off on Friday, but wound up working from home all damned day. Good that i was home, at least. (Ok, that's the last of the work talk!) Forrest came over for dinner on Friday night - i tested out some non-dairy versions of recipes i'm playing with. He's such a good testbed! It was great to see him and chat, and good to finallly get to show him the house.

Saturday morning Mike came over to hang out, and we went out for breakfast, ordered wine from Navarro and Bonny Doon, and did a bit of work on the rec room that allowed us to set up some networked Quake3. Coffee, beignets, and killing each other, loudly - a really nice afternoon. Saturday evening we had on our own, and had a chance to sit quietly on our lovely couches and read while sipping chai with Grand Marnier. I really do like my house, a lot.

Today we'll be checking out the annual Bernal Hill Festival, hopefully with Carrie - and then i'll be working on Duane's 40th birthday dinner. I've settled on a Creole menu, and am finally getting to serve up Ramos Gin Fizzes - i'm gonna try and shake the first one by hand (90 seconds of shaking! Jeeeeeepers) and then will probably resort to the blender for the rest. Look for a menu and recipes on Gastronome next week...

Speaking of Gastronome, Miss Beca has posed a lovely topic for discussion over there. I invite you all to drop by and join in the commentary!

(This chattery update brought to you by my Sunday morning coffee, Goblin, and an apple.)

It's been a bit since i've written an update on the house - what we're doing, how things are going - you know, the homeowner drivel that you may or may not love to read, but i love to write. 8)

The first big news: the couches & the armchair arrived yesterday! Fantastico, really - except that the foot of the armchair is marred, and one of the couches is assembled not quite how it should be. It's useable, but not something i'd be willing to pay quite as much as i did for. The pleasant surprise: the call to Pottery Barn took less than 3 minutes; they're going to send replacements with no fuss, and asked us to please use the ones we had until the new ones arrive in December. Not bad. Very simple. Of course, i wish that they had arrived in good condition to begin with, but if this had to happen, i've had the best resolution possible. Last night we hung the first of the art - some pictures that Bob did at Art Center as a school project. I think they look gorgeous - i'm very pleased with the framing and how they look in the room, and next to the couches. Next for that room: curtains!

In other projectey news, Andy spent some time here this week, and fixed our deck up; some boards and posts were rotten, and needed replacing. He thinks we'll need to do a full replacement sometime, but this one should now last us another 2-3 years. He also sealed up the ceramic tile stairs in the front against moisture, installed a dryer vent in the garage, and cleaned the last of the glue off of the flooring in the rec room. Now i need to research outdoor paint, and get the deck repainted before too long (read: before it becomes truly rainy).

The house, overall, is coming together. I'd like to get the curtain situation straightened out, and the art unpacked and hung, and the rec room cleaned up. Then we'll be able to finish unpacking the bedroom, and things will be good and cozy for the winter. Other projects on the horizon: ripping out the grass, and starting my garden in the back. Cleaning up the garage & hanging the bike rack so we can use the passageway to the backyard. I have so many house projects right now that i just don't want to go to work...

The sunrise is particularly beautiful this morning. Goblin's sitting on one of the new couches, watching; and i'm sitting on the other. The house is cool, but not too cold. I have a cup of coffee, and am plowing through my morning work. Everything is very quiet, and peaceful. It's lovely.

I love the SF Zoo. I do. I've struggled in the past dealing with my feelings about zoos, and animals in captivity, and it was a difficult struggle - it sometimes still is. I think the SF Zoo is doing a lot of good - with various programs, redesigns, and the community. I'm proud to be a member.

For the last few months, i've been excited about stealing some of my friends on one of their weekly Sundays, and taking them all to my Zoo - getting to share my lemurs with Soph & Aimee & Heidi (and hopefull Patrick!), making them a picnic, and leisurely moving through Sunday.

Just yesterday, we finally booked a date, for a Sunday at the end of this month. And today, in the food section of the Chron (the only section of the Chron i read regularly, as it turns out), there's this lovely article about living in the zookeepers house. Serendipity strikes - it's time to share it.

I can't quite fathom how appalled i am. Went to yoga. Cleared my mind. Centered. Came home. In my inbox, already:
Subject: 'Arnold The Governator' T-Shirt - Exclusive collector's item.

All i can do is shake my head.

The couches! They are coming! Early! (Not 10 weeks, 6 weeks! Still too fucking long, but hurrah, they're coming!) Delivery is scheduled for the day after tomorrow....

Next: Curtains.