many of you are too ambitious this morning.

Not me. I took oatmeal bread out of the bread machine, which was too short: I think my yeast was kinda dead. And my sister woke me at 9 am to ask if I'd take her daughters into the city to shop for shoes. Woe.

I love the girls but I really didn't want to go back into the city this weekend. Ah, well.

I need to run errands and do some writing.

Have fun in Denver, Lee! Play with the puppy!

George Kennan was a diplomat who wrote the Long Telegram which outlined the policy of containment that the US State Dept. adopted in 1946. He saw the actions of the USSR as worrisome not because they were communist but because of Russia's history of imperialism.

Anyhow, when containment was implemented primarily through military, he totally argued against how it was working and pressed for a more political solution.

Most recently he spoke out very strongly against the Iraq war becuase entering a war with any fuzzziness of purpose means that the outcome becomes even harder to predict (my version not his).

His book, American Diplomacy was a favorite of mine. I liked the man';s writing quite a bit and thought that his realpolitik vision of the world matched what I was observing. I studied his work often when I was doing Foreign Policy stuff.

Turns out that in putting it together, it was the wrench that got stripped, mostly. So taking it apart wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Still, one screw is de-threaded, and it never sat right and was funny shaped anyway. So I'm getting a new one, with more concave legs, for the balcony here.

Eventually.

Also, lori took down the wall bracket I'd had my video stuff on, and I spackled big holes.

One box of trash and one last box of stuff to come here, and I'm done.

I'm listening to Wall to Wall Sondheim right now AIFG!

Yay for almost being done!

Cool, Katie! thanks!

t clicks

From the link in Betsy's Beep me post about our favorite word geek:

"I try not to play favorites with words because they get their feelings hurt."

Oh, that's a GREAT article, and a marvelous picture.

pretty cloud formations. my dad sent me this link

Rows and flows of angel hair,
And ice cream castles in the air,
And feather canyons ev’rywhere,
I’ve looked at clouds that way.

Yeah, she's such a cutie! Proficient and hot!

Today I have cleaned my house. Yesterday I only got as far as the bath. But today all the public spaces are presentable, just in time for our guests to stop by. They are waiting to have lunch with us, which is much of a bummer, because they're waiting, and when they get here, they're still going to have a half an hour to go before they can eat, and we're all hungry now.

But oh, well, and it'll be nice to see them. And the house is clean, even if they don't spend any time here.

This afternoon is Cooking Day wherein I cook a bunch of meals to freeze and take with me on vacation. However, I have discovered that the efficiency suite that we have booked has a full kitchen! Yay, not just a microwave and mini-fridge. So that'll be nice. And maybe I should just take ingredients instead.

Then tomorrow is Clean the Rest of the House Day, and then vacation!

Okay, and then after that, seven straight weeks of teaching. But okay.