Mon Oct 07 2002 19:38: I am back from San Francisco, where I hung out with Leonardr and Sumana and saw the Broadway production of The Full Monty with Leonardw and his friend Jeff. I thought The Full Monty was sweet and humorous; very affirmational of different kinds of love.

Doug and Leonardr and I went to the Alemany Blvd. flea market in Doug's antique Chrysler. It was fun, and we got a few things, including a plastic dinosaur for Leonard.

Gretel cried when I left her at the kennel. She certainly was glad to see me this afternoon.

Wed Oct 09 2002 20:07: Today was Paint the Patio Furniture day. I did the spa steps, the BBQ cart, and a loveseat as well as the top of the round table. The YM were supposed to come help, but they didn't show up until 7 p.m. and it was dark; however, they did the other loveseat and the rest of the table. The furniture looks really good and I look really bad. Am going to go try to scrub paint off now.

Thu Oct 10 2002 18:02: Visit to Dr. Amin. My viral genotype shows the virus is resistent to all the protease inhibitors, but there are other things he wants to try. I talked him into waiting until I get back from London to start a medicine changes. I have to go in for a colonoscopy. Bleah.

Fri Oct 11 2002 14:09: So far today I've done nothing but fill out UCLA paperwork for Rachel, write checks to UCLA, run to the post office to mail her package. It occurrs to me that I would have never been able to trust my mother to do stuff like that for me-- she just wouldn't do it, or she would "forget". She wouldn't have even been reliable to check the mail and make sure I got admitted; in fact, she would have mislaid or thrown out the letter. I look around and I see people who have supportive parents, people who have a husband who would come get them if they were in a wreck and who helps with their callings, and I wonder why I have had to go it alone all my life. This bites.

Sat Oct 12 2002 10:54: Poor Xochitl. I was out doing maintenance in the back yard and she took a running leap right into the spa. She's used to having the cover on, but this time she did a big splashy bellyflop. What a look on her face: shock, anger, wetrattedness. She swam frantically for shore, but couldn't climb out, and I had to fish her out. I've been keeping it heated to 104 degrees, so I'm sure she thought she was going to cook up into catsoup. She's exhausted now from bathing and bathing and bathing trying to dry herself. She wouldn't let me dry her with a towel as she felt somehow that the drenching was all my fault.

Wed Oct 16 2002 17:13: Yesterday I broke a glass stopper I have had since I was a little girl. It was on the [already proven unstable] kitchen curio shelf, stopping the top of an antique asprin bottle I also found when I was a kid. I remember when and where I found the stopper; it was in the rubble that remained of a miner's cabin in Rico, the ghost town where I grew up in Colorado. I found an old ink bottle in the same rubble. This bottle is a square one; by the time I found it ink came in round bottles and had done so for I don't know how long. There was dried ink in the bottom of the bottle when I found it, but my mother ran it through the dishwasher. I don't even know if you can buy ink in bottles anymore.

My father had bottles of India ink in a dozen different colors on his drafting table at work. He used it when he drew his topographic maps.

Fri Oct 18 2002 13:52: I went to Costco and bought (among other things) film and a case of instant oatmeal for the London trip. I think I figured out what I hate so much about going to Costco. It's the other people-- the ones who LOVE going to Costco and who are there blocking the asiles, chitchatting, wheeling the wrong way against traffic, and generally having the time of their lives.

Did I mention that they have had aisles and aisles of Christmas stuff out for some weeks now? Absolute junk.

Sun Oct 20 2002 20:33: People are constantly amazed at my dramatic weight loss. I tell them the truth; I got sick. "Well, you must feel much better now," they hazard. Not really.

Sun Oct 20 2002 20:35: The church chili cookoff went really well. I was worried that nobody would show up, but more came than I had bowls for. We had to borrow some bowls from the Boy Scout closet. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time, and it wasn't too much work for me since we were organized. I don't know what I would do without Doris and Cheryl and Jill however.

Mon Oct 21 2002 19:47: Appropos of the memory of our 1998 road trip: Captain of an airliner: "Coming up on the right, you can see the Meteor Crater, which is a major tourist attraction in northern Arizona. It was formed several hundred years ago, when a lump of nickel and iron, roughly 150 feet in diameter and weighing 300,000 tons, struck the earth at about 40,000 miles an hour, scattering white-hot debris for miles in every direction. The hole measures nearly a mile across and is 570 feet deep." From the cabin, a passenger was heard to exclaim, "Wow! It just missed the highway!"

Tue Oct 22 2002 20:23: If anyone is wondering why they haven't heard from me, my outgoing mail is not working.

Today my hours for Spring Semester got cut in half. I guess there is no chance I'll ever get all the bills paid. Life can be so aggravating.

Wed Oct 23 2002 18:21: I'm working very hard on Christmas projects--spending a couple of hours a day at least, and getting a lot done. I have decided that not having my bathroom finished is driving me C-R-A-Z-Y and I will do it as soon as I'm done with Christmas. The back yard is making me nuts also. So much to do.

Thu Oct 24 2002 17:50: Marlene and I went to lunch at La Mina. Then she came over and took away some stuff I was selling in the garage sale.

Joel Ellsworth has Rachel's car, so the driveway is clear. I need to figure out where to set up the tent I'm trying to sell.

For what it's worth, my outgoing email still isn't working. Rachel, you are on a waiting list for on campus housing which you may or may not get. We'll have to find somewhere for you to live. Are you SURE your financial aid transfers? They sent another form from Riverside about where are you living. Incompetent turkeys.

Thu Oct 24 2002 18:09: Quake! http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/

Fri Oct 25 2002 17:30: I worked very hard today planting gazania and getting ready for garage sale tomorrow. If it rains, oh well. Marlene and I loaded up her truck with yard debris, and then Mejie came over to work this afternoon. The trash bin and the green waste bin are also full.

I hope I get rid of a lot of stuff at this garage sale because I'm sick of the mess!

Sat Oct 26 2002 13:04: The garage sale has been survived. I took in $125 plus a plastic bag full of change that I haven't counted. Got rid of all the big ticket items except the rug. Killed two black widows. Sold two of Rachel's old costumes. I am going to go through everything and take things that have gone unsold through three sales to the Salvation Army.

Surprisingly, what sells best is my clothes.

Now, to get cleaned up for band practice. The football game tonight is going to be miserable--It is COLD! Plus we are gonna lose. Even the Californian thinks we're going to eat this one. Too bad it's homecoming.

Sat Oct 26 2002 17:27: More appalling history from Tuchman: "One of those phrases of mysterious power which appear and disappear in hisory, leaving nothing quite the same as before, "continuous voyage" was a concept invented by the British in the course of an eighteenth century war with the French. It meant that the ultimate, not the initial, destination of the goods was the determining factor. Prematurely buried by the Declaration of London before it was quite dead, it was now disinterred like one of Poe's entombed cats with similar capacity for causing trouble."

Sat Oct 26 2002 19:32: Poor Xochitl went up the Chinese elm tree and cried and cried and couldn't get down. I climbed the tree but couldn't get high enough. Eventually I had to get a ladder and go up after her. She was so glad to see me she purred, all the while clinging desperately to me with all claws out. It was a fairly unstable and dangerous thing to do.

I wonder if it is true that the fire department will come rescue kittens from trees?

Sun Oct 27 2002 18:51: I finally made it through The Guns of August. It took a while because I usually only have time to read before nap on Sunday afternoon, or sometimes on Saturday. Now to start The Proud Tower.

This study reconfirms my childhood conviction that the world went to hell in 1914.

Sun Oct 27 2002 18:52: Today in choir practice we sang every Christmas song in the hymnbook. It was really nice. I can't wait for Christmas! Yay!

Mon Oct 28 2002 12:29: The Proud Tower is a little better written than The Guns of August, but still quite florid. It is absolutely jam packed with people and information.

Tue Oct 29 2002 10:49: I started a Scrabble game called "Sore Losers" for Giants fans. It filled up within minutes, all people who have way over a 20 point per word average. My, my we are an intelligent lot! (sez the Giants fan who is going to get slaughtered)

Wed Oct 30 2002 09:54: Last night I visted Ernestine Boonstoppel and she gave me a slice of real Gouda from the Netherlands. She had bought a whole wheel at Costco. This is how you say "Gouda" in Dutch: gclearyourthroathouda.

Thu Oct 31 2002 10:40: Marlene and I are discussing the advisability of voting for Wesley Crawford, former student radical and troublemaker, for Kern Community College District school board. "They deserve him," Marlene argues. "Think of the wonderful chaos it would cause!"

Oh yes indeedy, a very tempting thought.