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Hi! logging in from mymagritte's brand new computer. Just wanted to say hi. Next week I'll have some pictures; I haven't taken many, but there have been some neat moments. The weather is beautiful here. Oh, and yesterday I took a very long walk around DC, and I went to the U Street Farmer's Market! It was so much fun.

More later, hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Oh, and this morning there was a fabulous segment on CBS Sunday Morning about Arlington National Cemetary, you should check it out online. I started crying.

So, the outcome of the whole Admin Gift Saga I spoke of a while back ended up being SpaFinder gift certificates purchased on Monday afternoon for Wednesday, outcome being that the actual giving of the gifts has been postponed until THIS Wednesday because they arrived too late and we were too busy to distribute them last Wednesday even if they'd been here.

We've been undergoing construction on a new floor in this building, that was purchased just before I started here.   The end of last week was the shifting of people which put some departments on the new floor while others just moved around existing space.  I got out of work at 9:30 last Wednesday, got in at 8:30 am Thursday (to put that in perspective, my commute is about two hours) and by 10:00 Thursday night when I was still at work, I decided to just crash with my bosslady at the hotel she had for the duration of the move.  I would have been there just as late Friday, but I got to cut out at 8:30, because MY BROTHER IS HOME FROM IRAQ!!!!

He and his wife and the Cutest Niece in the Universe (TM) just beat me home by half an hour or so on Friday.  We were expecting it to take another week for him to get home, so it shifted everyone's plans around a bit, but it was still a great way to end the week.  I'll have pictures of the (not so much anymore) baby up soon.  She spent most of the weekend trying to get the cat to talk to her.  You could have died it was so cute.

What with the visitors, the house has been noisy and crowded, and we've been running around to visit people or having people over to visit us. after the 12 and 13 hour days at work, there was little rest to be had over the weekend, so I'm hoping I can leave early one or two days this week, or possibly even take a day off.  Not an exciting prospect, since I have no paid vacation time, but I would rather not be so tired and get to see my brother and his family than buy more books.  

No, I can't believe I said that either.  I really am tired.

My alarm was all set for 8 this morning, so I could jump in the shower and dress before 9.  I was up at 7:15.  Which, it turns out, was not all bad, because I remembered that I forgot to pick up a few things for today when I was stumbling home intoxicated last night (not drunk, just happy).  So, between posts I will be running my happy butt over to CVS. Don't worry, I'll bring my phone in case the line is incredibly long, as it sometimes is.

Last night I was out in Adam's Morgan with happynonoplace  and her boy for a quick tour of the crowded street and some drinkin' fun.  We meant to do karaoke...Really, we were gonna sing...But I had to leave before 1 so I could come home and sleep.  Drat!  Funniest thing was the fact that while I was getting there, I spent a good long while on the phone with my family.  While standing outside a bar.

So, my brother and his wife, her mother and mother's boyfriend, my parents, my sister-in-law's sister and her boyfriend, and a couple of other odd family friends are going on a cruise the first week in September.  This is what my brother decided he wants to do with the 9 days of leave he gets before he is deployed to the green zone in Iraq for 15 months; so of course everyone who could get the time off is going.  My sister-in-law squealed 'we're going to Mexico!' in my ear twice last night; she's very cute when she's excited.  My brother is planning to spend the entire time drunk, I'm planning to sit by the pool.  Who wants to bet we both spend more time in the gym than either of us expects at the moment?  We both have a tendency to get self-righteous around one another, so I just know something like that will end up happening.

Both of my roomies will be gone for large portions of the weekend, so for the most part it'll be just me and my computer...And you.  Enjoy!

I've been organizing my CD's, in anticipation of the big move coming up, so I've taken out a few of the oldies but goodies.  No clue why ABBA gets such a bad rap.  I mean, sure, it's not Mozart; or the Beatles for that matter; but as far as dance-pop goes, it's good.  

In other music news, I was pleasantly surprised by original song night on Nashville Star.  Last season, most of the songs really sucked. Really, REALLY sucked.  This year, even the songs written by the people I didn't like were good.  Who knew the non-threatening male of the group had such unexplored depths?  He did a great job, the boy has a bright future as a song writer, even if I still don't think he deserves a record deal.

I also caught up on Rome today (gotta love on-demand).  I love that show, I don't know why the press on it isn't better.  Guess it has something to do with the fact that it's ancient history.  Silly viewing public.  Attia is such a great character, she's like the ultimate soap opera villian.  And I love the fact that you can recognize some of the characters from how their names survived history, and see them grow into the people we remember.  I'm really looking forward to Marc Antoni going to Egypt.  He's on such a downward spiral right now, to see that relationship develop will be interesting...Even if I do already know how it ends.

My brother got his marching orders this week, so to speak.  He's in the Army in Korea right now, and he and his wife and my lovely nice are due back in the states in the spring.  Well, this week they blocked his exit from the service.  So he's not out in October, he's in for another 3 years.  Heather and Merae will be back stateside, though, so it increases his chances of being sent to Iraq.  My mother keeps saying that if he'd really wanted out he would have found a way, but I think she just wants to think that.  I've heard stories about people being called back up after being out for over a year, so why would they let him out, since he's highly trained and still in shape and under orders.

It's scary, though, the thought that he could die before Merae grows up.  I've known he would enter the military since I was in college, long before he even thought about it, but it's still scary to think about my baby brother going into a war zone.  He just turned 21, he's really too young to have a baby, let alone be dying.  But I know I have to think about it, because if it does happen I'll have to hold my Mom up.  I love my Dad more than anything, but he's not capable of being depressed and taking care of anyone at the same time.  He can't take care of himself very well in a crisis.

We haven't had to think much about something happening to Mike in Korea, because even with the political stuff going on over there right now, the DMZ is pretty quiet.  If he ends up in Iraq or Afghanistan, it'll be a lot worse to think about.  I'm not really used to him being in danger.  Well, unless he was driving.  His driving is dangerous.

So, that's all the news around here today.  I'm hoping I can wrest control of the TV from everyone else in my apartment sometime this weekend, and get Chapter 11 of FAA banged out.  More cleaning, and likely making sauce tomorrow.  More latah!