Oh, Sail, -ma to the whole family.

Part of my cleaning frenzy was also b/c my mom and stepdad came over this afternoon to deliver a small, very old china/curio cabinet that my brother's fiancee's parents were getting rid of. And I didn't need them to look at my apartment filth with that look that says "Thank God our hepatitis vaccines are current!"

The cabinet is lovely, old medium brown wood with dark inlays. I'm actually using one shelf for my wine glasses and the bottom shelf for -- seriously -- wine bottles. It works really well as a wine cabinet.

Then we went and had dinner at Uno's, which was yummy, and we badmouthed the Bush administration for a while. SA called and left me a message while I was out -- I missed her call by maybe half an hour, dang it.

All I have left to do before she gets here is wash the dishes (of which there are very few -- it's not a Lutheran situation) and go get some groceries, which I'm off to do now.

peace ma to your family Sailaway

Sail, much ~ma to Kathy and her DH. Do they live near you?

Cashmere, even with it being a high traffic area, can you tack down a plastic bag or piece of tarp over that particular spot? Seems to be the only thing that works at the clinic when we have problematic pottying kitties.

Dude. I just found a perfect apartment listing. It's a studio with an alcove that the ad says is big enough to be treated as a small bedroom, in one of my first-choice neighborhoods (well, second choice, but somewhere I'd totally be willing to live), two blocks from the metro, for $350 less than what I'm paying now. And it's available March 1, which leaves plenty of time to give my current landlord the 30 days notice that my lease requires.

Just sent off an email asking when I could go see it. Really hoping this works out.

Yipes, Sail. Much ~ma.

I hope that works out, Hil.

Kristin has a new old tag. Is it still way cold over there? It seems to be warming up here. Today, at least.

Hil, that sounds great. Apartment-ma to you.

Sail, I hope everything goes as well as possible.

It's amazing the feats of cleaning that the threat of someone coming over can inspire me to. One of the things I'm working on this year is to keep my house so that I don't live in fear of someone dropping by. I just don't seem to have any natural instinct for putting things up. There was a great description of a character in an Elizabeth Enright book. It said that he felt no more responsibility for his shed clothes than a snake does for its shed skin. That would be me. It seems like all I have to do is sit somewhere for a few hours and I'm magically surrounded by foot-high piles of papers and clothes.

Sail -- ~ma to your family!

Sending excellent apartment hunting zen to Hil.

Sail, lots of ~ma to the whole family.