I have to tell the story of what my Fun Ex Mike has done.

A few weeks ago his niece in NJ called him and asked if she could come see him in NYC and go to the mermaid parade. Alas, the parade had already happened. She was very sad and went on and on about how wonderful mermaids are. A normal uncle would have said "I'm sorry, sweetie, mermaids sure are cool, but the parade is over," and maybe sent her a Mermaid Barbie. Not Mike! Oh, no.

Mike called a professional mermaid he happens to know (Mike knows everyone) and arranged for her to go to NJ and swim with his niece for an hour. When he called to tell his niece about this, it turned into a party with 11 other little girls. Who could have foreseen that?! Apparently, not a man with no children of his own. So he arranged for all the little girls to get treasure chests filled with mermaid toys and gear as party favors, in order to take some of the pressure off the poor mermaid, who now has to swim with 12 girls instead of 1. Supposedly he doesn't have to supervise, but his sister and his mom are going to be "in charge" and those two are among the most flitterbrained incompetent people I've ever met, so I bet at least one of them will have a spectacular meltdown about an hour in.

He's the Best Uncle Ever, and I can't wait to hear this story.

Zen, that sounds wild.

Jilli, those songs have been known to cause feelings in this department too. To the point that when the "Muppet's Greatest Hits" album didn't have the second, I made a point of hunting down an MP3.

Yay Amy! Nothing stupid about that excitement!

Maria - didn't see it until the sale was over for today, but there is usually another on Monday with even bigger markdowns, I will look for your stuff then. There is a ton of bowls, any guidance you can give me as to size, color, number you want would be helpful. There's quite a range, so tell me exactly what you want and I will do what I can (they'll probably be 50 cents each)

Lee, I kinda got you two presses. Because.

Also got the Halloween cake kit and cupcake liners with cartoon spiders on them, but those are for me...

Oy, Ginger. I'm sorry. I bet the Germans and Japanese and several Scandivanian languages have appropriate words for that feeling.

That sounds really swell, Steph!

Wow, Mike sounds really great! I kinda want to get him and Tim in a room together, I bet there would be fascinating conversations.

This weekend - I should be doing a lot of cleaning. I'm going a Ren Faire on Sunday (in San Jose, by train, so that's the whole day) and I really want to focus on figuring out my meal plan for next week and grocery shopping needs and exercise plan for August tomorrow. And who knows what I will have energy for, although I'm sure I will be able to do more this weekend than last weekend...

Oh, god, and I need to watch the Grateful Dead reunion shows before the webcasts expire.

Yay moving Amy! Boo feverish Ginger--there MUST be a language with a word for longing-to-be-in-your-own-bed.

This weekend I...am meeting a new friend for a drink at happy hour tonight (unclear if this is a date--either she has a partner she didn't mention the night we met, or she's recently divorced, is the scuttlebutt). Maybe going dancing after that. Probably. Tomorrow is my last pole-dancing class, which I'm a little sad about--I'm not great at it, but I would've liked to do the drop-in classes or consider another series--but this series was $100/6 classes, which is fine...but that was with a discount. Drop in classes are $29/class, or $195 for the series! So I'm thinking no more, I didn't love it THAT much). Not sure what I'm doing in the evening, was supposedly hanging out with friends, but one canceled on me and the other is flaky. But Sunday I'm bringing friends breakfast and meeting their week-old baby! And then having lunch with a friend's husband who is in town. And then maybe more dancing. At some point I need to consider running 5 miles, because I realized my next 10K is NEXT WEEKEND, and I've only been doing 2-3 miles at a time, for the past many weeks.

oy, so tired. Ran 7 miles this morning, ouch. Then took Dad to an appointment and then to lunch, where I had a huge sandwich (see long run) and half a beer, and now I'm just wiped out. Napped for an hour and I'd love to keep going.

But I must order cabinet hardware, and work on this story.

So excited about shrift's move!

Lee, I kinda got you two presses. Because.

Awesome! That means we have to go to the Slanted Door with Juliana (eta and others) soon, so that you can give them to me and I can give you money

I managed to make the NY Times recipe for genuine gazpacho. THrowing everything in the blender is certainly easier. I figure a giant glass of vegetables should have a medicinal effect.

That is an excellent plan, Lee!

Giant glass of vegetables does sound restorative.

I have eaten less than 400 calories today. Oops. and I know I did not keep up with my hydration schedule. Those should be fixable problems, though.

Now that I home, it is clear that the lawn needs mowing. The weeds are too damn high. And I my need to do some plumbing but I am in denial about that for the moment.

Oh, hey, I have one more jar of pudding than I thought I did! Not for long...

I think gazpacho is one of the world's perfect foods. It's like sunshine in a bowl.

Funny, I don't love gazpacho (I think it's the tomatoes), but I had a gazpacho once that was basically cucumbers, olive oil, and garlic, and it was amazing. Someday I must figure out how to make that...