Vacation - Day One.

.....I turned off the cell phone, but being the paranoid dork that I am couldn't help but check it at least a half dozen times today. But guess what, work left me alone. Absolutely no messages. Huzzah! But the Project Manager could tell I was pretty stressed out last week and told me that he was going to make an effort to see that I wasn't bothered unless absolutely necessary. I'm rather grateful and now that I see he was sincere will make an effort to actually start relaxing. :-)

.....Although I should say that with caveats, because I started off the day by relaxing with two hours of 'The West Wing' on Bravo. I love that show almost as much as brighidross does.

.....Then I decided I should do something constructive and actually replaced the garbage disposal. Things went a lot faster than I thought they would. Took about an hour, with most of that being just cleaning out the cupboard so I could actually get to the disposal. But it works. Way Cool! It's actually embarrassing to think that the replacement has been sitting next to the wall for about a year waiting to be replaced. :-) Oh, well, it finally DID get done.

.....Then I felt absolutely industrious and cleaned the kitchen, including actually mopping the floor. It looks actually like a kitchen now. Probably for just a very short time period, but a kitchen none-the-less!

.....Then I packaged my Sekrit Santa present, as well as my own 'emergency circlet order'. :-) Someone is getting married on December 18th in LaMesa, California, and begged me for a Wyvern pattern circlet for the wedding. How can I turn down a Bridezilla in true panic in time for a Christmas wedding? Although I may have cooked my own goose as she still hasn't paid me for the Express Mail shipment. I have only been stiffed twice in all my time running with Ingasbo, so I'm crossing my fingers that putting a little trust in this bride was not a bad move on my part.

.....Especially after the HOUR-AND-A-HALF-WAIT in the Post Office. Holy Cow! What a riot! But what made the wait truly tremendous wasn't the Post Office itself, or the clerks. It was the people in line. There were a number of them that were truly RUDE! Come on, people. Do you REALLY think that the clerks are being slow because they want to listen to you whine and complain about them? Hell, if I were them I'd want to get the line done as fast as possible so I wouldn't have to listen to you any more!

.....What made the wait tolerable though was a discussion by the two people in front of me. One of them was eighty years old and was recollecting what times were like waiting in line at the Post Office during the depression. There are a lot of things that have changed with technology and the electronics age, but there are things that haven't changed at all. Like waiting in line to get packages mailed to relatives at Christmas time. :-)

.....Did a little more Christmas shopping. And harassed Mom some more in the hopes that she'll get her apartment cleaned before Christmas. Right now the plan is to have dinner on Christmas day with Mom, Tamm, and my brother Sean over at her place. Tamm hasn't met Sean yet, and I'm rather excited to see him as well. It has been at least four or five years since I last saw him.

.....Still in the queue for this evening are the watering of the plants and a little bit of Seneschal paperwork.

.....Tomorrow will be a little more cleaning in the house. If the weather is half-decent I may clean out Heather. But I'm not betting on that. More likely I'll probably start off on the storage racks next to the work area in the garage. I'd love to get them organized enough where we could actually find things again and use them as shelves.

.....Fight Practice tomorrow night. Wednesday I'm toying with a trip to the hot springs, but that will be weather dependent as well. Thursday will be a June Faire meetings. Friday will be a trip to Olympia.

.....Man, this vacation thing goes by way too fast. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.