Well, damn, Tom, now I want a burrito.

Other onerosity items report:

File cabinet purged, giant stack set aside to go to the shredding bin at work later today. Also, pancakes made, old dry dishes put away, new wet dishes washed and put on now-empty drying rack.

Still to do: Three more birthday cards and/or letters, heckle Matilda into actually EATING the pancakes I made, clear away the ancient Christmas tree trimmings still sitting on the back porch, try to rehab Jerry the lemon tree, who seems to be dying from overwatering with no proper drainage.

I also have to get over my rage at the maintenance guy -- he's been in the backyard trimming the giant loquat trees and rampaging ivy, and while so doing he completely beheaded the two little azalea bushes we rescued from last year's Easter display at church and had been slowly nursing back to health in a nice shady corner. THEY WEREN'T DEAD, THEY WERE DORMANT, AND THEY'RE MATILDA'S MIDDLE NAME, AND YOU BEHEADED THEM. They're just a pair of tragic little stumps now; it makes me want to break his face.

But he's truly not a bad guy; he just knows fuck-all about plants, and it's hardly worth it to try to fix the yard because he's likely at any given time to just bumble on through and swop everything dead.

Second sleep was much more restful than first sleep. CJ sent me a beautiful sunrise picture. Even if he doesn't appreciate a lot of what I do, I love that he gets the little things like a sunrise.

I have a hungry 7 year old I'm watching. Two fruit snack packs, one cut of fruit, two Eggo waffles, and another cup of fruit. Lazy breakfast but he is still hungry. I'm trying to distract him with Legos.

Charlie Pierce on a long day in Watertown: [link]

Such a good writer.

Went to yoga, where I got to do my favorite-named pose: reclining pigeon. My afternoon plans seem to be falling apart, which is just as well, as I need to go to the bookstore and grocery store, and probably make some meringues.

Now I want Spaghetti-os. Or a burrito. I have neither. (American Spaghetti-Os aren't vegan, but the Spaghetti Hoops that they sell in the UK are, and I can get those in the international section at Wegman's. They're not quite the same, but get pretty close if you mix in a handful of mozzarella Daiya.)

I'm getting set to shut down my computer and go do my Tom waits tour.

I Pricelined a stay at the Doubletree Hilton in downtown LA (Little Tokyo, actually) and it's fab. They have a great rooftop garden where I took my coffee this morning to review my material.

Kim walked me around downtown last night after dinner and showed me more cool spots, including The Biltmore Hotel which is ultra deluxe and old school and the last place Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia) was seen alive. They start their Black Dahlia tour from the lobby there.

Then we went to The Last Bookstore which was a massive old Crocker Bank converted into a bookstore. It's great! Huge, great selection of new stuff on the main floor, LPs, and then you go up to the mezzanine and they have a labyrinth of 1 doll books. I found David Niven's memoir The Moon's A Balloon (my mom's favorite) up there for a dollah.

I'm off to tour.

Good luck, -t!

I washed dishes this morning. I may not do much more than sweep today. I think I'm okay with that.

Kids over for mac's birthday. I am such a bad, lazy head parent that aside from the storebought cupcakes - the rest of the food offering are pulled from whatever I had in the house.

spicy peanuts
chili lime cashews
tortilla chips (honestly kinda old)
mixed candy (leftover from easter and maybe even halloween)
like 5 slim jims

AH I just remembered I have corndogs in the freezer. great, that will save me having to order pizza.

Send the 7-year-old over here, Suzi.

I want to walk through a book labyrinth! Instead, I shall continue hacking through the paper avalanche, after I finish basking in the sense of accomplishment from making a Freecycle post I've been meaning to for mumblemumble months without actually *doing* it.

Have fun, David!

I went out and did a bunch of little errands like CVS run for my prescription, and the supermarket, saw my fellow citizens out enjoying the day and working off a little cabin fever, I think. I feel absurdly patriotic today, and especially proud of Massachusetts today. It may not sound like a hell of a big contribution, but staying inside so that the police could get their manhunt on without more complications really did contribute to public safety. And the local government(s) and various police entities kept communicating to tell us what was going on.

At this point, it looks like a bunch of planning and pragmatic decisions paid off, maybe not in the way they expected (note to self, make it a TWENTY-ONE block sweep next time) but when you really don't know if there's a bomber with an unknown amount of ordinance leaving little gifts around, you've got to err on the side of public safety.

It wasn't wasted effort -- it wasn't security theatre.