10:16 p.m. | 2005-01-16 Hook, Line and Sinker I�ve spent my weekend doing three things: errands, chores and work. Not exciting yet there it is. As far as errands go, I set off to finally find a stopper for my tub. The built in apparatus hasn�t worked for a while. My normal tendency is to guess the size I need and by it. Impulsively. That doesn�t work so well. This time, I purposely went to a local hardware store (that has every thing for older homes) armed with the hair-catching device from my tub and a previously purchased too-small plug. It�s taken me a long time to get this accomplished and I was excited. Upon my arrival at the store, I received instant help. He did some measuring and figuring and I did some purchasing. Stoked about that, I went to brunch. Then, I headed to a store in order to buy a shower curtain. See, the old one? Yeah, always hated it. It came with the place; it was tired, sorry and just awful. I found one I liked but decided to forgo on the rings. The shower curtain rings. I thought the ones at home would match. Let�s just say that I�m bad at guessing. The plug is just slightly too big and the shower curtain rings don�t match at all. I did good with brunch though. And, I must say that I�m loving my new shower curtain. I had no idea how much I hated the old one. Now I do. When I got home, I did laundry. Plus, I wrote out a long list of things to do. Thirty things to accomplish this time. I must say I was feeling quite ambitious. Especially considering that I included work on my list. Work from my work place. On my chore list. It�s ghastly, I know. I didn�t do any of that on Saturday. Today was a different story. I put in eight hours of work today and will do eight more tomorrow. Notwithstanding that tomorrow is a holiday. In regard to work, I read a legal document, an official report and a grammar book. The first two things I needed to do in order to complete one of my many current projects. The grammar book? Mandatory reading. Which is fine. Would�ve been better assigned when I didn�t have so many projects with deadlines, but whatever. I�ve been a professional writer for many years so it seemed superfluous however, it was a good refresher course. (In case you�re wondering about my skills, I check them at the door of this diary. My diary isn�t supposed to be correct and it�s full of typos and really bad writing. It�s my guilty pleasure. Or, one of them.) Not a lot of chores were completed. Only twenty out of thirty. Seventeen if you don�t count work-related duties. It�s going to be a long year indeed. Of course, I cooked my breakfasts and lunches. This week�s menu? Spaghetti and salad for breakfast and bratwurst and fruit for lunch. And, for the first time, I cooked spaghetti in the crockpot. Knowing that noodles easily absorb fluid, I added wine, the juice from stewed tomatoes and canned mushroom liquid. Still added too many noodles I think. At least for my taste. It turned out good though. My lunch experiment? I�d call it brave. You�d probably call it weird. Bratwurst, chilies, jalapenos, black olives and cheese. Had I been thinking, I would�ve added tomatoes. Or salsa. I�m not sure that bratwurst has been subject to such testing before, but it actually turned out well. Probably better with tomatoes or salsa, yet pretty tasty I think. I�ll know more tomorrow it�s my sustenance and not an experiment. Oh, and I talked to a really good friend of mine for a long while. That always buoys my spirit. I know so many incredible people. I�m really blessed that way. your thoughts? seed flower