What a difference a day makes. Today, I got up and got dressed in some old clothes and after a quick breakfast of cereal and milk (Honey Bunches of Oats with almonds, in case you wanted to know), I went into the garage and helped Ed sort through stuff and load stuff into the (rented) truck for hauling to the dump or to Goodwill. We've really done a good job in there getting rid of stuff. I love how it feels to purge. Ah! As soon as he finishes building the shelves and putting up the hooks for the yard implements and lawn chairs, we'll be in good shape.

We were opening boxes that we had packed almost 5 years ago at our old house. I couldn't believe that we still had a few boxe that hadn't been unpacked yet! Amazing. We found a lot of slug bait. I kept buying new bottles of it because I couldn't find the old stuff I'd gotten. Slugs are a serious problem around here in rainy Oregon and it's the only pesticide I use. I don't actually put it on the plants, of course. I put it at the edges of the garden boxes to draw the slugs away and kill them. I hate slugs. Slugs are very evil. Yesterday morning, I found the largest slug I've ever seen. It was as fat as my two thumbs put together and it was in my tomatoes. I found several hollowed-out green tomatoes, evidence of his evilness, so I got my garden shears and cut him in half. He never knew what hit him. Bastard.

We had our wonderful new neighbors over for dinner tonight. It was so great--like we were old friends. I made my nearly-famous ribs, barbecued beans, brocolli salad with red onion, bacon, raisins and red grapes, rolls, and delicious corn on the cob. For dessert, I made a fruit pizza. It was so tasty. I started with a sugar cookie crust baked in a round pizza pan, then topped it (after it was cool) with cream cheese sweetened with powdered sugar. Over that, I made an intricate design with succulent peaches, purple plums, sliced strawberries, soft and juicy fall raspberries, and halved crunchy red grapes. It was sweet and creamy and tart and very wonderful.

Our neighbors, Doug and Dianna, are the same age as us (roughly) and funny and smart and silly. We laughed and laughed and felt tremendously comfortable with them. There was never a lull in the conversation and they could dish out the sarcastic humor as well as I could. We played Combat Uno and they totally got into it. They will integrate well with our game playing friends, I can see this already. Next up--we'll have to take them to play Nertz with Russell and D.

They have a pick-up truck and said we could borrow it to haul stuff anytime. Do you have any idea how much money we've spent on renting trucks to haul crap? Sheesh! It's terrible. I'll bet that last year, we spent at least $200 to haul stuff to or from our house.

I no longer have PMS. I just have MS. Things are much better. I'm not feeling so bitchy. In fact, I didn't even get mad at Ed when I had to leave at 4:30 to go bring him a set of keys because he had left his at home when he returned the truck. It was inconvenient, to be sure, but it was manageable. If that had happened yesterday, I'd have chewed off his arm.

Oh, did I mention that it was sunny today? Not too hot, either. Mid-70s. Sun that isn't too hot and that follows 3 grey days of rain makes me very happy.

Life is good again.

--L