+ I am eating banana cream pie from the Skillet. Bananas, puff pastry, pudding, whipped cream. The baby demanded it. I had no choice.

+ Brian is going to SF for work again soon. I'll miss him as usual but now more than ever I am just jealous. I want to go to San Francisco! Or anywhere, really. *Sulk*

+ We're canceling HBO right after I watch the "Grey Gardens" movie. I figure their shows can all be seen on the interweb or netflixed at a later date. And I'm sorry but "Flight of the Conchords" season 2 was deeply disappointing. You can tell they were pressured into making it.

+ My boobs are getting awesome. My sciatica is not. I found a place very close to home that does physical therapy and takes my insurance.

+ Twice last night I woke up and ate a handful of walnuts. Works much better than crackers.

Some things that please me today:

+ these shiseido oil-blotting papers. Oh my god they are miracle workers. They are, how you say, my holy grail of mid-afternoon shiny face fixing.

+ my latest manicure: cut fingernails nice and short and applied two coats of Chanel "Splendeur" last night while watching "Jeopardy!" So pink they're almost red.

+ the cup of Peet's I just poured for myself. Brewing coffee at work on my desk is satisfying.

+ thinking about taking Kona to dog school tonight.

+ I just finished cleaning up and organizing my project file on my work computer; moved all my projects from last year into a separate directory and have a fresh clean one for 2009.

+ The book I am reading: "A Writer's Life" by Gay Talese.

+ Carrying my old Botkier Trigger this week, a sturdy metallic pearl white leather handbag that was manufactured in the United States before the designer outsourced their factory to China.

+ Things on their way toward me in the mail: a set of two hurricane lamps to hold the unscented beeswax pillar candles I got for 75% off; a framed print of The Empire of Light II, and the Mystic Eyes eye shadow quad from Chanel.

So that said, I'm clearly now on a spending freeze.

The other day, whilst crossing the Sound by boat, I decided to make a list of every boy I have ever kissed. By kissed I mean "frenched". I started at age 18.

I came up with twenty-three names. I remember the first names of all of them, last names of most of them.

( the list )

I keep wondering if I forgot anyone. But I don't think so... There were a couple boys who tried to kiss me but were de-nied; I did not count them. There were many other boys I wished would kiss me but never did.

I married #23 on the 23rd of April. OOoooooOOOOoooo numerology!

Today was busy and full.

+ took kona for a walk

+ vacuumed entire house

+ put laundry away

+ went to driving range with dad and Brian and watched Brian get a golfing lesson. The range is very small, north of our town, adjacent to a pasture full of black cattle, and uses the honor system for buckets of balls. I put a couple bucks into a cookie tin for a bottle of water and some oreos for us to share. The empty lobby was full of old leather furniture, books, and thick rugs.

+ went grocery shopping. dessert tomorrow: two-bite brownies (local bakery, no I'm not making them, I fail at brownies).

+ Back home, we steam-cleaned the living room rug, then as it dried Brian got all heavily involved in cleaning his office.

+ So I decided to prep tomorrow's dinner -- we are having the neighbors over. I made two cups of bbq sauce, chopped up a walla walla sweet onion, and rubbed salt and pepper on the country style pork ribs I got at the market. It's all going into the slow cooker in the morning.

+ then I made tonight's dinner: green salad with farmer's market greens, steamed rice, and some chopped chicken breast sauteed in butter, tarragon, lemon juice, and mushroom soup.

+ now what? long hot shower, olympics

+ got up around 7 and made a loaf of banana bread

+ a little later we took a bike ride

+ brian pulled zillions of weeds; I went grocery shopping

+ it was overcast all the live long day

+ we didn't hear from puppy lady :/

+ going to have pasta and red sauce for dinner

+ oh and I transplanted my tomatoes that I started from seed, they are now in planters outside

+ had a dream that I got a job in a restaurant -- I was a waitress, it was a very classy and busy place, and I have never waited tables in my life. so I was kind of anxious about what to do. but I woke up before I ever had to do anything

One Hundred Best Novels, according to

Time Magazine

The Modern Library

The Guardian

A survey of librarians

Great Books Guide

Madison Public Library (female authors)

Publishing Triangle (lesbian and gay)

"Cotton" by the Mountain Goats is such a beautiful song and it has kind of been in my head all day.

I am sitting here with wet hair, fresh out of the shower, watching the baseball game.

I scored a crapload of samples of this today. How I love freebies from Sephora. I was downtown buying a little present for Tamara tomorrow -- she is making dinner.

Wow, the A's are all a bunch of long-haired hippies. Except Rich Harden.

Okay weekend plans:

+ exercise both days
+ buy groceries -- Rainbow and Trader Joes
+ writing (I have a huge to-do list)
+ dinner at Tamara's

I just noticed that Rich Aurelia's goatee is salt & pepper in color. Oh, Giants. Give Todd Linden a chance before he turns thirty, why not.

I have a stack of unstarted and unfinished books. Using a gift certificate from my dad, I just bought three more. I have another stack of New Yorker magazines, stretching embarrassingly far back into 2006. So, here are two of my goals for the upcoming year: read at least one piece in each of those magazines, and read all of these books:

The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
The History of Love, Nicole Krauss
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Stories, Anton Chekov
Complete Short Stories, Graham Greene
The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem
The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead
The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2004, Eggers (ed.)
Underworld, Don DeLillo
Bel Canto, Ann Patchet
Light in August, William Faulkner
The Devil in White City, Erik Larson
Atonement, Ian McEwan

Oh and I guess it goes without saying that my other goal is to finish my novel, or to at least make long strides toward finishing it.

Any other goals regarding conception and shedding eight pounds of fat are wastes of time.

+ I am in my new cubicle. Boy have I been spoiled for the past five years. This lack of privacy is going to make me a lot more productive. I guess that's good.

+ Today I pre-ordered two re-issued Spoon CDs. They come out next month.

+ I think I have an ending for my novel. It's not "happy." Well, kind of? But not really. Sorry.

+ I'm probably going to ovulate tomorrow. TMI?

+ We seriously have the best cats I've ever lived with. How do people stand living with cats that they don't have a ridiculously close bond with? I donut know.

+ Giants - A's series this weekend. This is when being a two-timing fencesitter hurts.

+ I will be having watermelon with my lunch tomorrow. And I need to see if this year's cherries were spoiled by the winter deluge. I can already tell the nectarines were.

This weekend:

+ hot sunshiny weather, so hopefully much time spent outdoors.

+ sopranos season finale

+ writing stupid book no one will ever read

+ practice guitar

+ handwash my delicate panties and such

+ eating far more healthily than last weekend

+ assemble my new office chair, which was finally delivered to me yesterday after languishing in the company mail room for two weeks. Why was it stuck down there? Because the brainiacs at OfficeMax addressed the package to "Jane." Just "Jane." No last name. While I will concede that my first name is somewhat unusual and exotic, for some reason I think a last name may have made the box easier to deliver.