This week's work projects involved 60 hours of wrangling with words, Word, crashes, and recoveries. My nature isn't used to it. The body still can do it, kinda, and even a little yoga helps. But one deadline's done, and 3 days at the Holiday Inn 60 seconds from my office, courtesy Priceline, soothed the back-and-forth travel. (Yes, it did, but too bad it was spring break on 1 floor.) Best lines of all, in the middle of the crunch: "You're wonderful." "Can I get you a latte." "Did you know your extension is the first three notes of Three Blind Mice?" (No, I did not know that.) Now, back to marigold planting and watching dust motes float in the sun.

On Being Prepared

H dreamed that California experienced an 8.2 shaker. Though I'm being selfish to say so, I hope that we DON'T have a big earthquake here--we're not prepared at all. I'm thinking the following would help instill a sense of security for the 5 of us in the immediate compound, however false that sense might be or assuming that we could all make it to the compound: 50 gallons of water, 50 cans of tuna cat food, 50 cans of tuna people food,  50 rice-in-foil packs (like Indian food), 50 monster-lo-carb energy drinks (double size),  20 chocolate bars, a case of generic beer with the word BEER on the can (even a bottle of vodka + seltzer, in case cocktails seem therapeutic),  20 boxes of vegetable stock, 10 bags of dried fruit, 10 bags of trail mix, self-winding flashlights, a swiss army knife, a pad of paper, some pencils, a bottle of aspirin, lots of clean underwear, a book on identifying edible weeds. Am I forgetting anything? Heck, that might even be enough to barter with. Throw in 20 pounds of flour and a few packets of yeast, for a wood-burning oven pit? I'm assuming bedding will be accessible somehow. And R will have her nurse bag with the good stuff. What about guns 'n ammo, my spouse wondered.

On Being Handy

This morning I am off to look for baskets and hinges, if I ever get dressed. Maybe a new Kitchenaid mixer--or not. The expensive one I bought for B a few years ago broke during my watch, when I was making calzone dough. Apparently, I learned on the inet, this is a common problem when making doughs, and I don't know if I have the energy to try to fix it (here's a funny story about a woman who did). Just knead the dang dough yourself is a point of view I may return to. I managed to half-fix the vacuum because I don't really feel like spending  $400 on a new one (eg, it works well enough on a certain setting but the high-power carpet thing is spotty, but we only have 1 carpet so that's OK).