First Day of Spring

and it's raw as hell out there. I need the mittens with strings-- somehow mine have managed to walk out on me, and my hands did NOT appreciate being out in the raw, windy cold of Back Bay this morning.

But hey... over the summer, I can knit myself new ones. :)

I know the updates have been few and far between lately. March has turned out to be a whirlwind of work, extra work, house craziness, car craziness, and birthday parties. And I have lots of topics to ponder this week, so I actually will be writing. :)

Anyway... the month so far has been thus:

March 4- Seth's birthday, complete with Boston North End Italian food (yum) and hanging out afterward in the speakeasy in Boston (only place left that it's legal to have a smoke and drink at the same time) I thoroughly enjoyed the houka that evening, complete with lemon tobacco. And the "Naughty Nikki" martinis were rather nice, too. And no, I don't smoke on a regular basis. The houka was a special occasion, and I had to try the "ladies cigars" (rum flavor) just 'cause. My lungs were NOT happy with me on Sunday morning.

March 8- My boss brings me in to reveal that bonuses this year paid at 198%, and I'm getting a fantastic bonus that (after getting to a spot where I could do this) allows me to bounce and yell in joy. Erich will be paid off, and I can upgrade my 3-year-old computer, which is NOT liking the latest editions of gaming.

March 9 - World's Largest Dungeon game, in which Erich's character displayed an obsessive-compulsive disorder by trying to stuff a handy haversak with every pillow he could find (for no reason.. we're in a dungeon). Derek (the owner of Battleground and our DM) gave Erich a challenge to find a way to kill one of our enemies with a pillow. Oh, Derek... trust me, he'll find a way.

We buy my nifty new 'puter-- that Gateway media edition one you might be seeing TV ads for. I also buy a 19-inch flatscreen monitor to replace the Apple blue & white monitor (that looks like a giant iMac) that I've had for eight years.

March 10- Two months after discovering the antifreeze leak in my Jeep, it's finally warm enough to safely drive it over to Pep Boys to have them take a look at it. It turns out that the radiator has popped a seam. Thank you, that'll be $650. But hey... the Jeep still lives. :)

March 11- Erich works the first of two Saturday "Disaster Recovery" shifts for work, which basically means he has to drive out to his company's emergency site to upgrade the computers and do some regular help-desk work. I stayed home all day in an attempt to get some stuff caught up around the house. Spring made an appearance with beautiful mid-60's temps. I opened up all of the windows to let some fresh air in as I did laundry and dishes.

And then Erich calls me on his way home from work-- a statie has pulled him over just before the Rhode Island border. Turns out his registration on his car had expired... MONTHS ago... and so they had to impound his car. Thankfully, we have a newly fixed Jeep, and I'm able to pick him up. We spend the rest of the evening blowing shit up on World of Warcrack.

March 12- Barry's birthday party at Minado, which is a sushi-lovers heaven. The entire Boston-turned-Providence crew (plus those who have stayed in Massachusetts) attended.

March 13- Erich has reregistered his car and picked up the new sticker so we can get the car out of hock. We plan to leave work early... say, 3:30 ish, so we can get back and get the car out by the time the place closes at 5. But no... won't work that way. We discover that on the ONE day we actually need to leave early, we screwed ourselves by parking at Providence. Most days, we park at South Attleboro because the parking is $3 per day (as opposed to $7.70 at Providence). There are trains in the afternoon going to South Attleboro, but the only trains to Providence are 12:05 p.m. (getting into RI at 1:10) and 3:45 (gettng in at 4:45). So... an unexpected half-day it is.

Thankfully, all goes well. The car comes home.

March 18 - Erich's 2nd Disaster Recovery shift. This time, he takes my Jeep. :) After weeks of irritation, I finally deal with the frightening task that is scrubbing our kitchen floor. A wet mopping just wasn't doing it, so Saturday morning was spent with a bucket and a scrubber brush on hands and knees, trying to get every spot clean. And of course, no cleaning regimen in our house would be complete without having to shoo away cats every two minutes. Nor would it be complete without me being a klutz. Bare feet + wet floor = Measi go boom. It didn't hurt that much at the time... but Erich discovered a seven-inch long narrow bruise on my ass where I hit the floor. Sexy, eh?

But it was worth it-- we now have a thoroughly scrubbed kitchen floor and a top-to-bottom scrubbed bathroom. The rest of the house remains a disaster, but we can focus on another section next weekend.

March 19 - Lots of recovery. My body is feeling the pain from yesterday, so I spend most of the day either stitching, catching up on penpalling stuff, or playing WoW. Our belated St. Patrick's Day dinner goes off without a hitch, using my mom's tried-and-true recipe for corned beef ("Boil the shit out of it") and cabbage.

So yeah... it's been a month.

My knitting and extra stitching updates will come tonight. I need to take photos.

And this weather has me counting down the less than three weeks until we go to San Diego...