i pretend i scraped them climbing in the trees

I think today was the first day since getting sick that I didn't take a nap. That's not to say that I didn't need one, but I didn't need one as badly as I've needed them on previous days. I also left the house for the second day in a row, which was exciting - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I spent the morning drinking coffee and lounging in my living room. I also, v. surprisingly, fixed my gas fireplace without electrocuting myself or blowing up my house, so that was really exciting. The fireplace hadn't ignited since last winter, even though the pilot light was clearly going steadily the whole time, but I hadn't had time / inclination to find someone to check it. However, I did some research and discovered that the likeliest culprit was that the connectors in the wall switch were dirty or corroded - the fireplace switch takes such little electricity that any dirt or corrosion can potentially stop it from completing the circuit. So, I pulled the switch out of the wall, cleaned the connectors, replaced the switch - and happily, it worked perfectly. So now I have a fireplace to lounge next to, and that makes everything better.

Eventually, I scrambled to shower / eat so that I could run some errands. I took some stuff back to Nordstrom, but I didn't shop at all, so I was in and out of the mall in record time. Then I went to Room and Board and browsed the whole store - I'm daydreaming about couches, and while nearly any couch would be better than the one Marvin left for me in my house in Iowa, I would like to do better than that very low bar. So I sat on every couch in the store and got a lovely associate to give me some fabric swatches. No decisions yet, and of course everything is backordered, but hopefully I'll get a couch sometime this year.

Then, I drove so far into Aurora that it felt like I was basically in Kansas, found a house in a random residential neighborhood, and bought a lehenga for Terry's wedding. I'd found an Indian dress shop on Google and made an appointment for today - the seller runs it out of her basement, but she has some really lovely stuff. I bought the first thing I tried on because it was perfect (and extremely sparkly - I think the skirt has every sparkle that I didn't get to wear during the pandemic), and she's going to tailor it and get it back to me next weekend.

So, that errand was accomplished quickly, and I was delighted. Then I drove home, with a stop at BookBar to pick up an order that had been waiting for me since the covid beforetimes. And then I spent the rest of the evening talking to my parents, messing around, eating fish chowder, talking to [censored], etc. And now, I want to actually try going to bed at a better hour than the after-midnight times I usually go to bed. Goodnight!

the thug life baby, it chose me, i didn't choose this city

Happy new year (pt 2)! Today was my last full day in Iowa, unless the roads are dire tomorrow, and I spent it taking care of a bunch of tings - but the most important was, of course, winning Ticket to Ride. The win was made more sweet because I beat [censored] by exactly one point, and I also did it after my dad inadvertently blocked me (as it turned out, completely unnecessarily). So, for the last Ticket to Ride game of this holiday season, I will most certainly take it.

I also went into my dad's shop in town and helped [censored] install a new hitch on his truck. This was treacherous for two reasons: 1) we got several inches of snow today, on top of the layer of ice we got two days ago, so the roads were not ideal, and 2) installing a hitch involves lying under a truck and holding a heavy metal hitch bar over your face while putting in the bolts necessary to attach the hitch to the truck. I can safely say that my v. brief apprenticeship in automotive work has confirmed that I do not want to pivot into a career as a mechanic. But I didn't smash my face and [censored] has a new hitch, and so I think it was pretty successful. I also helped [censored] move some bookcases he'd built into the house and down to the basement and into his room, so I think I've done my sisterly duty for both last year and this year.

I also did a test run of making gluten free onion rings with my air fryer - they turned out v. tasty, although the batch sizes are small, but I intend to keep experimenting with them in the future. And we closed out the evening with a new york strip roast (basically cooked like prime rib, delish) and fried potatoes and salad, and then I packed as much as I could pack tonight.

And now, it's time for bed - I need to get some decent sleep if I'm going to drive tomorrow. Goodnight!

train in vain

I have once again stayed up slightly too late (although I am doing better than usual on this trip), and so I need to go to bed immediately. However, I do want to immortalize that I won Ticket to Ride tonight, so that's worth an entire blog post. And I did some work (personal work), hung out with my family, and made zucchini lasagna for dinner, so all in all it was a decently productive day. Goodnight!

cut the dead weight, burn the red tape

I was not in it to win it today - I have a headache, and my skin is so dry that my thumb spontaneously cracked, and I didn't feel like doing anything at work. However, I forced out some productivity anyway - I didn't write this morning because I had to spend that time reviewing and signing a bunch of papers for my house refinance, and I also had an earlier start than usual to record a podcast for work (not exciting, just a minor internal thing). I took a break from the day job at eleven to greet a notary - we sat in my back yard so that I could sign all the mortgage papers that needed a wet signature, and while it's strange to sign that kind of paperwork in your backyard, covid times call for covid measures. And now my refinance is confirmed, and I shaved 1.25% off my mortgage rate, so that's pretty sweet.

To celebrate, I ordered a poke bowl for lunch and ate it outside - it was sixty degrees today and I feel like I need to soak in sun while I can get it. Then I slogged. Then I snuck out slightly early (easy to do when you're sneaking out of your house and not an office, but my office was easy to sneak out of too) and ran a couple of errands and picked up a few grocery items - I don't really need much for my fridge between now and Iowa, but I picked up some eggs and some meat to throw in the freezer so that I'm ready for whatever awaits when I return.

Then I ordered Indian food because I didn't feel like cooking, and then I was v. lazy and very nearly wasted the night staring at my phone - but I rallied and read part of a book (LOVE LETTERING, which has been recommended by several people). And now I'm going to try to go to bed early enough to get a decent amount of sleep tonight and hope that resets my crankiness - goodnight!

little by little we meet in the middle

I need to go to bed immediately, but today was a great day. I got up in time to make tea, meditate, and write before work; the writing came easy and I got a thousand words, which I will v. happily take. Then I slogged all day. I was all geared up to take a break and make fajitas on my new grill, and I'd even marinated the chicken....but then the wind picked up and it looked like it might storm. The risk seemed low (low enough that I walked to pick something up instead), but not so low that I felt comfortable pulling my grill out into the wind tunnel that forms between my front and back gates.

But I'd had my heart set on Mexican-ish food, so when I was done working a little after six, I ordered takeout chips and guac and enchiladas from El Camino. I ended up mostly just eating the guac, since I hadn't had copious amounts of guacamole in forever; I ate one of the three enchiladas, so now I have something easy for lunch tomorrow. So I sat on my patio and ate chips and guac and generally enjoyed life. Then I did a tiny bit more day job work and messed around the rest of the evening.

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

and you're making me feel like maybe i am somebody

I'm finally back in Denver, and I need to water my plants and then go to bed. Today was a long day - I woke up around 5:15 and couldn't go back to sleep because I was thinking about slides, so I finished them while sitting in bed. Then I showered, packed, checked out, stowed my bags, and grabbed a Philz on the way to the office - I drank that coffee while sitting in the barista area at work, which made me look next-level ridiculous because I was drinking coffee that I'd paid for in front of all the people who were getting free coffee instead. But #noregrets because I love Philz and I was happy to have one last cup before leaving SF.

The VP presentation that I had to do today went really well, all in all - or at least I think it did. But I have quite a bit of confidence when it comes to most presentations, so of course I think I crushed it. We'll see when and whether I get any substantive feedback after the fact, but at least it's over and I feel like I did as much as I could to make it successful.

Still, despite my confidence, I felt like throwing up before and had to come down off the adrenaline after (I've been this way since high school Brain Bowl competitions, where I would routinely throw up beforehand and then dominate). So I didn't have lunch at work when it was over - instead, I walked back to my hotel, grabbed my bags and my car, went to the airport, and had a late lunch (burrito bowl) and a glass of wine to unwind while sending a few emails.

The flight was entirely uneventful, and I got home with no issues. Coronavirus is clearly wreaking havoc on travel - my hotel room last night was absurdly cheap, the security line at SFO was the shortest I've ever seen it, my flight had empty seats (and I got upgraded), and when I picked up my car at Denver, the guy there said they've been super slow and that he's scared (as evidenced by him putting hand sanitizer all over a pen before getting me to sign my credit card slip). It's also interesting to see that just about everyone is taking hand washing v. seriously, and I will be curious to see how quickly my hands crack and bleed if I wash them as much here as I was washing them in SF.

sssanyway. It's really time for bed - I need to get to the office early to get some tings done, so wish me luck with that. Goodnight!

gloria, there's easier ways to die

I bought a house! It's all official as of today - I went to Denver this afternoon, sat in a conference, and signed my life away. The only bleak moment was when the title guy cheerfully disclosed that I'll be done paying for it in 2049, which makes me wonder whether the house will end up being directly under some flying-car thoroughfare...but we'll probably all be dead by then anyway, so that's a problem I'm going to ignore for now.

sssanyway, the house buying is exciting, but I'm tempering my excitement because the sellers are renting back for three weeks (does that make me a wamplord?), and so I won't actually take possession until June 7. But still, it's all very real, and I'm pretty excited to make it my own.

The rest of the day was also lovely - I went into the office and did meetings from eight to twelve before leaving for Denver, and then I played hooky this afternoon and went to the mall instead of working diligently at a coffee shop as I intended. Then I met up with Katie for #girlsnightout at Bar Dough - we celebrated the fact that we're now basically neighbors by having v. v. delicious salad and pasta. Their food is incredible but the pasta portions are relatively small - probably the 'right' size, but rather than ordering dessert, we got another pasta to share. I'm sure their real pasta is amazing, but their gluten free pasta is pretty incredible in its own right, and I'm getting hungry just thinking about it again.

So Katie and I had a great time together, and then we drove by my new house, and then I gave her some career advice that revealed how ruthless I can be (shhhh, don't tell anyone). And then I drove back to Boulder, and now it's time for bed - goodnight!

don't want no misplay, put on no display

Having days off is dangerous, because it reminds me of the best of times when I was entirely in charge of my own schedule. Of course, just as often as not, those days resulted in many hours spent on twitter and despairing, so I shouldn't idealize them too much.

But today was pretty great, all in all. I probably should have left the house, but I was feeling v. hermity - so instead, I alternated between writing, researching, taking care of house stuff/laundry, and messing around online. I've been writing this book entirely in first person, but I decided to try a new way into it with a different character - and what I wrote for her, about her childhood, which took place in a totally unexpected place/time, actually made me tear up a little bit. Yes, being a writer is super weird, thanks for the reminder.

sssanyway...that felt really good, considering how long I've been blocked for, and now I just want to do it all again tomorrow. Instead, I need to go to bed so I can get up and go to work early and do the things I probably should have done this weekend - I only have to get through three days at the office, and then I'm off Friday and all of next week, so my dreams of a vacation and freedom will have to wait another seventy-two hours.

And on that note, it's time for bed - goodnight!

achtung baby

It's official, so I can say it here - I got promoted! So while it's probably true that I've been working too much, my covetous workaholic heart got exactly what it wanted. Now I shall pop all the champagne and buy all the shoes....

sssanyway. That's not really news, at least not to me, since I knew it was official last week. Today was mostly a normal day - some meetings, a lunch, some coffees (probably too much coffee), some desires for naps. But I took a break from 7-9:30pm and had a leisurely solo dinner at Charlotte Quay - a pretty restaurant overlooking Grand Canal, in an area that didn't have anything when I lived here in 2006 (a third of my life ago, I realized, which made me feel SUPER OLD). I intended to not work at all when I got back, but I made the mistake of picking up my phone and seeing congratulations messages because the promo email went out while I was eating...so I started responding, and now here I am.

But now I'm ready to sleep, so wish me luck with that - goodnight!

you ain't getting over him

Today was pretty great, all in all. I slept until almost eight, and then I drank some coffee, showered, and said my fond farewells to Terry. Then I went to the office, where I slogged most of the day - but my morning presentation (not super high pressure) went well, and my evening presentation (v. high pressure) went very well, so that was all great news.

So, high on life and needing a break, I left the office at 6:30 and went to Sephora, where I dropped a lot of money on products to make my face look like I've been hanging out in Bali instead of getting a tan from flourescents and laptop screens. Then I came home, drank a couple of perfect glasses of wine (Banshee's Mordecai, a red blend which I adore), and read a romance novel. This was partially work, since it's that time of year when I need to judge RITA entries and realize that I've put it off so long that I have to read a book every single night. But the book was decent enough, and reading for a few hours with a glass of wine was way more relaxing than anything else that's going on, so I'll totally take it.

And now I must sleep - goodnight!

eye of the tiger

Today went about as well as it could have gone, I think - my presentation (to three hundred people!) went pretty well, or at least well enough that my boss and team were pretty complimentary after, so that was good news. And I didn't introduce myself as Sara Ramsey by accident, so that was even better.

I also sat through presentations all day, and when I wasn't watching presentations, I was talking...and talking...and talking. Today's conference time ended with a dinner/mingle situation, at which I continued to talk to people, and I didn't get back to my hotel until almost ten p.m.

So, needless to say, I really need to sleep and unwind for a bit - so that's all you're getting tonight. Goodnight!

i sprinkle holy water upon the vampire

I'm fairly exhausted, but at least today went much better than yesterday. I woke up sometime after seven, showered, dealt with the fact that I don't know where anything is, made it out the door at 8:15...and was still on time to my 8:30 meeting. This, my friends, is incredible. Granted, if I were still self-employed I wouldn't have to go to anything at 8:30, but compared to my previous stint in the corporate salt mines, the lack of commute is fairly magical.

Anyway, I spent the day mostly holed up in a series of conference rooms with the two managers who I will be managing - they're in Boulder to visit me this week, and we spent today doing all the usual updates, deep dives, planning, etc. Granted, we couldn't plan much since I'm two weeks in and don't know anything, but it was fun to pretend!

By the end of the day I was exhausted from thinking/talking too much, but I had to keep pressing on - we had a team dinner, which was only five people since the team is still growing here. We went to a place called Next Door, which was super yummy. Getting there was a hassle, since parking was terrible - I tried to park in a garage, but the car two cars ahead of me broke the entrance gate, and there were cars behind me at this point, so no one could back up. The attendant very blithely said they'd called someone and it would be five or ten minutes before they showed up...but that wasn't good enough for me, so I got out and examined the situation and convinced him to remove a stupid traffic cone from a lane so that we could back out and turn around there. He did that, which saved me and a few other cars (with difficulty - it wasn't an easy turn), but since no one at the top was stopping cars from coming in, I predict it became a total cluster. But I got out, which was #winning.

Then I went to dinner, which, as I said, was tasty - I had one of the best greek salads ever. The conversation was fun and I was enjoying myself, but rather than going shopping after, I came home and wrestled with my new mattress. It's an organic latex mattress (supposedly less carcinogenic since it isn't treated with the same flame-retardant chemicals as regular mattresses), and it shipped in three three-inch layers of latex, which had to be wrangled into a wool mattress cover. This was, as you can imagine, not an easy task...but I succeeded. And I tested the comfort by immediately taking a nap (so far so good!). But then I dragged myself downstairs and spent the last couple of hours working (no doubt at great cost to my phone plan, since I still don't have internet here and had to use my hotspot). And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

hey shorty, it's your birthday

It's my birthday! and also a national day of mourning. and also I went back to my former place of employment today (based in the Boulder office) - and by that I mean I took a job and am going through new hire orientation in a couple of weeks for the third time.

There's way more to that story, of course, but I'm tired after a day at the office, and I need to sleep. But I had a great first day and a great birthday - I got all dressed up and Katie took my picture like it was the first day of school, and then we grabbed coffee before I headed to Boulder. When I got to the office, I discovered that my friend Natasha (whom I told all this news to on Friday) had left a bottle of champagne and some birthday balloons on my desk, which made an odd complement to my new hire decorations. I met a bunch of people, had lunch with some teammates, ran into some old friends, etc., etc....

Then I peaced out and came back to Katie's. Katie was a super friend and bought a big gluten free cake and made homemade ice cream, and James grilled up a delicious steak, and the girls jumped and screeched and sang to me, and it was all totally delightful. This was the first time in forever that I neither cooked my own birthday feast nor organized the festivities, and I have to say, it was rather awesome. Of course, past festivities involved more wine and less screeching, but on the whole, this one was a winner.

But now I'm desperate for sleep - goodnight!

the most she will do is throw shadows at you

Seven drinks and a whole duck later, I *definitely* blame Ritu. Goodnight!

smoke on the water

If I write this really quickly and go to bed immediately, I can get eight hours of sleep tonight, so that's going to be the priority. My book came out today - too soon to tell how it's doing, especially since I'm 6-9 hours ahead of the US and have scheduled my newsletter to go out shortly, but so far so good. If you're interested, you can find more at sararamsey.com/taking-the-earl. Prego!

So today was good, but I was way too tired to be #inittowinit. I got some good stuff out of the writing exercises this morning (all about talismans and dying worlds), but I wasn't feeling super psyched about staying awake. Then I had lunch with Veronica and Rachael, and then Rachael went off to do her duty to the group (since she's the leader/teacher) and Veronica and I played hooky. We were going to work/write at a cafe, but instead we ate more food and drank half a bottle of wine and talked about writing for two hours. This was probably more important than me actually working since she had some good advice (she writes young adult), but it still felt like I was getting away with something...

Then I came back, took a nap, and did promo stuff for a couple of hours. That's been frustrating only because the wifi here is quite slow and uploading images is like pulling teeth. But I took a break to have a solo dinner - I hit my introvert wall awhile ago, so I wandered to a place I hadn't been before, found a cute, quiet restaurant, and indulged my need for some journaling and some reading. I also tested out the gluten situation by having both spaghetti bolognese (outstanding) and tiramisu (I realized I don't really remember tiramisu anymore - I remember loving it, but it's not something that can easily be made gluten free). I'd heard that some people have less of an issue with the wheat in Italy, so we'll see. I currently have a headache, but that could be the extreme lack of sleep and ongoing slight dehydration...we'll see.

Anyway, the food was great and walking back over the bridges and along the canals at night was magical. Then I did another ninety minutes of work, and now I need to sleep.

Finally, happy birthday Aunt B! Goodnight!

all of the lights

DONE. omg omg omg. I mean, I'm still doing some formatting stuff (namely the paperback, which won't come out the same day as the ebook), and I'm also doing laundry even though it's two a.m. because I have stuff that needs to hang dry and in 36 hours I'll be on a flight to Venice. But I thought I'd say I'm done so that those of you tracking at home are in the know about my mental state (mental state: manic, super hyped, about to crash). Goodnight!

the words that i sent to you, never got into you

Today was another slog, and I need to trek to Mountain View and pick up my new glasses tomorrow, because I think my eyes will be happier if I stop subjecting them to contact lenses and computer screens for sixteen hours a day. But I'm really happy with what I got done - I finalized the cover and title for Lucy's book (which will be announced on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter tomorrow, although the preorder is already live on iBooks because I set it up tonight). That took me a ton of time because I made the cover myself - this is not typically advised in publishing circles, but I decided to abandon the cover that I'd paid for a year and a half ago because I realized the guy was too ugly to salvage, and I couldn't wait the 2-3mos to get on my cover designer's waitlist. So I decided to try doing it myself, learning more about photoshop as I went - and I think it turned out pretty well. Well enough that it looks professional and pretty, at least. And now I'm itching to redesign all my covers...but that's definitely not necessary at this particular moment.

So anyway, I played with photoshop until almost two, when I realized I was incredibly hungry (two scrambled eggs and some iced coffee before that weren't enough to last all day). So I made some fancy tuna (which is just tuna, but with celery and shallot and parsley and s/p/cayenne and lemon juice, along with homemade mayo, because I had all those things on hand and fancy tuna salad in a bowl with no bread feels marginally less sad than regular tuna salad). Then I went to the grocery store, came home, and made dinner....

...which took four hours because I used a slow cooker, which was about four hours longer than I wanted to wait, but I really wanted to try this recipe. I made slow cooker chicken tikka masala, which turned out superbly - it was really tasty and the spices were balanced, and it was really easy to make (and would be even better if I set it up in the morning to cook all day, rather than impatiently waiting for it to cook in the late afternoon). I also tried a new technique for cauliflower rice and thought it was great - rather than sauteeing it (which takes work), I microwaved it (per this technique from epicurious), and it was perfect.

So, my dinner, at least, was a success. And the rest of the night wasn't bad either - I did some more work, made some lists, took care of some admin stuff, and quietly contemplated Lucy's story while all that other busy-work was going on in the foreground. But now I really need to sleep so I can slog all over again tomorrow - goodnight!

this was all you, none of it me

I'm back in San Francisco and I need to go to bed, but I had quite a successful retreat. I slept a little later this morning, but I considered the story while I was in the shower, and I'm feeling good about where it might (maybe, possibly) be headed. When I went downstairs, I spent a couple of hours chatting with Barbara and Lisa + taking care of a bunch of other random to-dos and emails that I'd neglected over the weekend. Then, Lisa and I went across the street to Starbucks to get coffee, since the french vanilla flavored Keurig coffee wasn't doing it for me at all - I probably should have sucked it up and driven to the real Starbucks, since the coffee at Safeway was lukewarm and tasted like burning, but the caffeine content was what mattered, so at least that was a success.

When I got back to the house, I did a bit more work, and then I made myself an omelette (with cheddar, leftover salmon from last night, and pesto on top with some roasted potatoes on the side - last night's leftovers turned into an awesome breakfast). Barbara sat with me on the deck while I ate, and it was so idyllic - the beach and lake were mostly empty since most people were back at work, and the view and the weather and the sun were all perfect.

After I ate, I wrote for another hour or so and got several more pages of Lucy's story, so that's great. But at four p.m. I had to throw in the towel so that I could pack all my stuff (it's remarkable how much my stuff got strewn about the house in less than seventy-two hours) and load up my car. Lisa and I said our goodbyes to Barbara and were on the road by five, and we made excellent time - there was no traffic, and I got out of the mountains before the sun started shining directly into my eyes, so we made it to Walnut Creek (where I dropped her off) by 7:45, which is a new record. After I dropped her off, I found a Chipotle and grabbed dinner since I was starving and knew I wouldn't be able to make it home (and that there would be no food in the fridge when I got here). Then I drove the rest of the way home, making it here by 8:45, which would have been good time from Tahoe even if I hadn't stopped to drop Lisa off and have dinner.

When I got here, I failed to unpack - I just messed around online and got ready for bed instead. And now I need to sleep - I want to work in the morning, and I have a writing date in the afternoon and dinner plans in the evening, so it's back to my usual grind. Goodnight!

hanging out the passenger side of his best friend's ride

I think I need to call it a night early - I didn't get nearly enough sleep after last night's drive, and the sleep I did get was fitful (the combo of sleeping in a new place + it's hard for me to sleep past eight even if I'd like to sleep until ten or eleven). Also, altitude is not my friend, and the combo of the altitude + my sugar detox seems to be totally draining.

However...despite the bleakness of all of that, today was pretty fucking great. For one, there's sun in Tahoe - lots and lots of glorious sun to help me get over the gloom of San Francisco (where it apparently only got over 70 degrees once in August, which explains a lot of my malaise). For another, while I didn't write new scenes, I had a fantastic idea for the hero...which translates into a fantastic idea for a new series. So fantastic that even Barbara was excited about it (and she doesn't get excited about historicals, for the most part).

That idea came in the shower, which is where many of my best ideas come from - so I'm glad I took a break in the middle of the day to shower, since I might not have had the idea otherwise. But I spent the rest of the day (before and after the shower) either talking to Barbara and Lisa or messing around in my journal/on my laptop while playing with the story, and I'm feeling happy about all of that. But I'm at the point now where I just need to pick a path and start writing - I have a month before I have to turn something in to my editor, and I'd rather not fuck around anymore.

So I think I'm going to play in my journal for a bit longer and then go to bed and hit it again tomorrow - goodnight!

drive out of the city, away from the crowds

Happy release day to me! But I think I hit the wall this afternoon - I finished and uploaded the book a little over a week ago, and then I flew to Iowa, and I've split the last week alternating between family stuff and prepping promo stuff, and today I suddenly ran out of energy. I managed to get my newsletter sent out, which was the key task for today (fan newsletter, not friends and family newsletter - that's going to have to wait for tomorrow), but by the time I hit send on it, it was 12:30pm and I hadn't eaten anything at all, and had been working since 9am with only a cup of coffee to sustain me. Oops.

But I got some more stuff done in the afternoon, and then at four p.m. I stopped working and opened a bottle of rosé and sat on the back patio with my mom and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. And I'm happy with how the release has done so far - it's in the top 200 overall on both B&N and iBooks, and it's cracked the top fifty historicals on Amazon, which is all pretty good. I need to keep pushing it, but this is off to a great start.

So I spent the rest of the afternoon drinking and staring at the fields and talking to my parents, and I ate supper (steak and baked potato, yum), and then I was basically falling asleep in my chair by 7:30. I've tried to stay awake until now, but I think I need to go to bed and try to get eight hours before the sun wakes me up, and then another two or three of dozing before actually getting up and getting stuff done.

Thanks to all of you who messaged me today - I appreciate it! Goodnight!