Marginal Improvement

• I finished my homework for next week tonight, so I won't have to think about it this weekend.
• My payment plan for my taxes is reasonable: $100/month--for the rest of my life, basically.
•  I finished everything by 9:00pm, so I'll have time to read my book before I go to sleep. I'm reading The Leopard, by Jo Nesbø, a Norwegian thriller. It's pretty good.

That's all. Seriously.

• I finished my homework by 9:45 pm.

No. I can't think of two other good things that happened to day. Zilch.

Small Stuff Today

• Kitchen is clean.
• Enjoyed eating other half of my Muffaletta sandwich for lunch while watching a 1980s British miniseries starring Judi Dench.
• After much trial and error, I think I'm finally getting chapter 7 of my accounting homework.

• Went to Waffle Window for breakfast, and shared the Spicy Bacon Cheddar Jalapeno waffle (pictured above) and a fruity one whose name I don't remember, but it had whipped cream, raspberries, strawberries, tangerine, and lemon curd. So good! And so cheap!
• Drove around getting ideas of what's available in terms of rental homes for when we're ready.
• Derek was able to shuck oysters without too much consternation.

Setback

• The vacuum cleaner I bought a couple of months ago is super great. It's a Dyson, and it sucks EVERYTHING up, and I really enjoyed using it today.
• I made Tom Kha Gai soup for dinner (Thai chicken-coconut soup), and it was excellent.
• Had a quarter day at work, so I was able to meet Derek for lunch, which was fun.

Today, I got thrown another obstacle. I was expecting it, but it still sucks.

First Warmth

Today's plusses:

• Eating lunch outside on the balcony IN THE SUNSHINE at work while reading a new Scandinavian thriller. Plus, I got half a donut because there were leftovers from a meeting earlier that day.
• Our first barbecue of the season (pictured above): mojitos, grilled Moroccan lamb brochettes with tomato and cucumber salad and Syrian bread. Thank you sweet cook named Derek!
•  Hearing that the health problem of a friend's husband isn't as dire as it could have been.

Blog Reborn?

I pretty much gave up on this blog, since it seemed like for a while, it was just an outpost of my complaints, and no one wants to read that. But I have a new idea.

I recently finished a book called Radio Shangri-la by Lisa Napoli, and early on, before she journeys to Bhutan, she participates in some sort of self help group where the leader tells them to write down three good things that happen to them that day, every night. I've been having a hard time lately, (OK, more like for the last several years) and often get stuck in a "poor me" attitude. But, if I'm being objective about things, I'm not actually doing THAT badly, and need to remind myself of that. So I've decided to try to write at least three nice things that happened each day, every day. Thus, blog reborn. We'll see how long this lasts, but whatever, it's a good exercise for me.

So here's the inaugural list (in no particular order):

1. It's team appreciation week at M Financial (where I'm working as a temp), so today they gave us all ice cream in the afternoon. There was even chocolate sauce.
2. Had a nice chat with Daphne, the other temp, about Hawaii, Asian food, Spam, and restaurants while eating aforementioned ice cream.
3. It was still light out when I got home from work.
4. Since I get most of Friday off due to team appreciation events that temps can't participate in, I made an appointment to get my taxes done. Relief.