.jeri.

Hi everyone,

Welcome to another week! I am feeling much more rejuvenated in the past couple of weeks at work, as opposed to a rather drastic tiredness I was feeling not too long ago. I am a production machine though! I am really trying to make a point of doing as much non-work web visiting and writing on my off hours, and as a result, and am trying to be in the office and starting work as close to 7:30 as possible each day, and 7 on Mondays since that's my audit day. Speaking of audits, I have been enjoying the text for the Kurosawa class and feel like it will benefit me a lot. Maybe I'll just need to start picking up more books on directors to help my understanding and appreciation of them.

Anyway, this weekend has been a productive one without much time for rest. Friday night I came straight from work to the store to pick up some items for the cake I planned to make. I got home and decided I was also in the mood to make an interesting dinner, so I worked on a Welsh lamb pie for a good hour or so. After that was done, I sat down and looked at my cake recipe again and realized I actually needed double the amount of cream and chocolate chips as I had thought, and Ric and I went out to the store to pick up more. I then set to work on a cake that takes far too long to make when there are perfectly good ones out there that take a quarter of the time. I finally got to bed around 2am.

Saturday I got up early because I thought it was the day of M's paint party. I got up and cleaned and organized around the house, got on my painting clothes, and called a friend to see if she was heading to the painting party too, only to find out that the party was on Sunday. Whoops! So I recycled some bottles and got some gas, then came home to do more chores around the house, from dishes to finances and beyond. I also watched some of Howard Goodall's Big Bangs in music history, which I am starting to dig. I learned all about the man who invented musical notation. Interesting stuff! We had dinner with my family at Zi Teresa's, which we were happy to discover exists! It's basically Gaetano's reinvented! Gaetano's closed only because they moved to uptown Whittier and opened this new restaurant where Ambrose Pizza once was (RIP). We all had cake and ice cream at my parents' house, then Ric and Jenny and I went to the movies to see 9.

On Sunday, we wentn to church and had lunch with the Andersons, then I got geared up again for painting and headed out to M's new house in Diamond Barto get my paint on. I think a paintparty must be like the modern version of a barn raising. With so many people at the party, the work was completed fast, and the house was completely transformed! I'm excited for M and her husband, and glad their place will be ready for the little one who's due any time now. Since I worked so hard all weekend, my body needed some rest and I watched Sicko with Ric at home and did a little bit of reading.

Updates time! I ordered a cheap guitar and got a good deal with Sam Ash online as well as a coupon from the great Retain Me Not, and it should be arriving sometime this week so I can get started with it. My back is a little tired after all the jogging last week, but I can tell it's mostly about getting stronger and not as much about it being too early for me to start jogging.

We got a message from Ric's mom about his grandparents. We've been told to prepare for anything we might want to do at Grandma's funeral, because she will probably pass any time now. The real struggle for most of the family is Grandpa, who's really acting out regarding visitation of Grandma and who's allowed to help him in the house. It's been very hard for Ric's mom, and she loses sleep worrying about these things. I fell really bad for her.

Up this week, I'm not sure we have much on the table! Just the usual errands and shopping, and I think we may have a movie night as well. Saturday my sister and I are going to see the Psychedelic Furs with the Happy Mondays. She got tickets for only ten bucks, thanks to the cool deals on Live Nation's website.

That's all for now! Hope you have a great week.