2 June 2004

Last night I was putting things back in the fridge and knocked one of the guys' root beer bottles onto the floor. It sprayed root beer all over, including into my hair. So I got to rinse my hair out last night. I was at that stage where you don't know whether to laugh or cry about having root beer in your hair. I ended up giggling hysterically. A lot of guys probably dig chicks who smell like root beer, but I didn't wait to find out.

The dishwasher person has not called back. I must call the dishwasher person back. Also, the person who said he'd come by and give us a bid on the concrete for the front step has not done so, and it's been weeks, and he loses. It hasn't rained the entirety of those weeks.

In fact, it's not raining now. The sky is blue. Which means that I should put together our new mower and our new spreader and mow the lawn and spread junk on it and then rake (but the rake isn't new) and spread shade mix on the bare bits. Yep. That is definitely what I should do. And it can join the club.

I know I'm cranky when I get annoyed at people misspelling Teresa Nielsen Hayden's first name. But on her own webpage! She puts it right there, right there, in most of the comment threads, and then further down the comment thread, someone will address her repeatedly as Theresa. No h in her Teresa! Example written neatly just above the comment! You can perhaps see why this would be more of a hot button to someone named Marissa than to someone named, say, Jennifer or Benjamin.

Here is my problem: I keep thinking of stuff that would be good to do. More and more stuff. I smelled strawberries this morning and thought, "I could make strawberry shortcakes for dinner!" And in fact, I could, and it wouldn't even take me that long. But at this point, "not that long" is still more work than I had on my list before. Instead of making strawberry shortcakes tonight, I'll stick fresh strawberries on the table. We can eat them. If we get really dessert-minded -- and hey, this is me here -- we can throw them on some ice cream or sorbet.

Mantra for the week: "I don't really need to do that."

It doesn't apply generally, of course. Finishing off my contract work? I really need to do that. Battling Melvin the Laundry Monster? I really need to do that. Calling the house-fixing people back? I really need to do that.

But strawberry shortcake, sadly, is not on that list.

The problem right now is things in the middle: how much do I try to get at the University library beyond my contract work research books? I'm not going to be running back and forth up there every week, so how much should I try to get research stuff for my own work? I looked up a bunch of stuff on Finnish history and wrote down the call numbers so that I can just fill up my armload as I usually do at libraries. I've got a whole bunch of unrelated stuff I should look for up there, but I'll have the time. First thing is this week's contract work; second thing is finishing Sampo and editing it and Thermionic Night. Other things can come after that with whatever research they require. Okay? Okay.