Kitchen Logic< showed me how to link to stuff so now I'm going to link all over the freaking internet.

Today was a great day. Nothing amazing or anything, just a day where I was able to do a lot of things and not have anything pressing that I needed to attend to. I mailed birthday gifts to my friend and her children in Virginia. I dug up and replanted a miscanthus in my front planting bed (it was too close to the walkway and I feared it would grow too large and then be difficult to move), and planted a Jacob's Ladder in front of one of my boulders. I weeded some, too. There were only tiny weeds to destroy so it wasn't much work. I pulled some of mom's hens and chicks from my planter and planted them in my little raised bed and in some holes of the woolly thyme. I think I'm going to get more woolly thyme for the front planting bed.

I made my acupuncture appointment for next Thursday. I'm getting treatment for my allergies. They haven't kicked in terribly bad yet, but the grass hasn't bloomed yet and I want to get treated before things get hairy (and snotty!). I tried to make other appointments, but I couldn't get through. I found out which eye doctors I can go to so I'll be able to make an appointment soon. I was delighted to find out that the eye doctor I wanted to go to was on the list. Yay.

I tidied up the house--put stuff away mostly. I'm one of those split personalities--I hate clutter but I can't seem to keep stuff put away where it belongs. Of course, part of the problem is that there is stuff that doesn't seem to have a place where it belongs so that makes putting it away more difficult. Joey and her art supplies are a big mess maker, too. It just seems like there's always several pairs of shoes, a few jackets or sweaters or fleeces and some mail and some papers that I need to attend to *sometime* and some magazines laying around. That kind of stuff. Clutter. I hate it. But there is hardly any clutter now. More Yay.

I did some laundry. Well, one load. I would have done more but we're out of Era. I need to get more. Seems we're out of a lot of things. We need body soap, too. Another yay.

I colored my hair. That *would* warrant a yay, but the color didn't turn out right. I was expecting a very nice orangey-red but what I have is a slightly reddish brown. Heck, that's practically my original color. Who the hell wants *that?* I'll have to recolor it next week to get my delicious orange hair back. Yay minus.

I made delicious banana bread with pecans and chocolate chips. I wanted to use up some spotted bananas and try out baking in the toaster oven. And it didn't make the whole kitchen hot. I think I shall do more cooking in the toaster oven. I bought some cookware for the toaster oven last weekend when I was at the beach (outlet mall). Yay.

Tonight was Joey's therapy. It was really good. I think we probably won't be having to go to therapy for much longer. One thing is very apparent to me--this therapy is more Ed and me than it is for Joey. I mean, indirectly it is for her but a lot of the most significant stuff has been for us, teaching us techniques for dealing with her effectively yet respectfully. I really like Joey's therapist. She's funny; she's smart; and she has helped our family a lot. By the way, tonight was the 10th night in a row that Joey was able to put herself to sleep. She's even reading a chapter book to herself to help her fall asleep--Frog and Toad Together. This is something like a dream come true. This is the biggest, fattest yay of all.

I read a new diary tonight. She signed my guest book (thanks!) and listed me as a favorite. Turns out we have tons in common! She lives in the state as me, is about the same age as me (I rocked out to all of her favorite bands when I was in high school), is going to back to school, is a doula and apparently studying to be a midwife (I think I need to hear the whole story there), had mucho trouble becoming a mom and we're both trying to lose significant amounts of weight. It's like some kind of parallel universe.

Now it's time to finish folding these clean clothes so I can go to bed. It's 11:45 now. Bobby Flay is cooking octopus and I want to be in bed before they taste it. Better get a move on (as my grandmother used to say).

Later...

--L