My my my, but haven't we been busy. Yesir, yessir. But yesterday I managed to grab the whole day to lie out on my deck, buy flowers for my pots, read trash, and take a ramble along Lake Padden with the little puppy-man. It was splendid, but things have been pretty sweet lately, with the two flaws of 1/3 my students failing & not enough friends in Bville.

I spent Saturday running around with CR, as he is doing the wiring necessary to put in track lighting for me. We basically went back-forth, back-forth between Salvation Army, Re-Store, and the hardware store, looking for cheap lighting fixtures, and then the actual goods we'd need to make them work. I found some cheap tracks at the Re-Store (recycle-store), but haven't yet located the blocks they need to plug into, although I've found an electrical supply store that carries that particular brand of tracks, so I figure I might luck out in that regard.

One of the perks of the whole running around deal was cutting my hand at the hardware store and bleeding all over a number of items before even noticing that I was spurting blood from my thumb, then trying to race out the door to get to a cloth bandage or something, bleeding on the self check-out line, getting to the car and realizing I'd left my keys in the store and having to run back. I couldn't help but to feel guilty for all the people who might look at the blood smears on this or that switch-plate and think of the horrible diseases that might be coming their way (for the record, I am disease-free).

Anyhow, despite the multiple price-shopping and scrounging, it's still a costly little venture, and I'm gonna have to ask the landlord whether he'll knock off some of the last month's rent in exchange for me not removing the fixtures. Sounds like a jerky move, but dang, between the electrical conduits (we're trying this new "aluminum-clad" electrical line so we don't have to bend pipes), the boxes, and the fixtures themselves... I figure I don't have much else choice.

Anyhow, I think the electrical will get finished later this week, and then I have to figure out when to have CR help me build a work-bench (at the desired height, so as to prevent further back stoop). Once that's done, I'm good for the go, and the plan is to spend 24/7 there (minus my two days at the clinic) once my teaching gig is over, so as to prepare for 'opening' (mostly just family I imagine) on July 3. I have several projects on the move, but working on them has proven very slow. Partially it's finding time between the other work I'm doing, but partially it's about finding the groove again. (I originally wrote "grove" there, wondered for a few seconds why spellcheck didn't pop up the little red line, then realized that maybe I do need to find my grove too.)

It's a little scary sinking this much into a studio when I'm not writing regularly and my paid work is, for a large part, taking a break until August when I have an intensive comp class lined up. I mean, I'll still have the clinic, but the clinic doesn't pay more than my loans and gas, so I'll be sucking in my belt for a bit... maybe skipping a term of yoga or something.

Oh, on that note, my new Yoga class and teacher rocks and is quite a better fit with me... same place, but different teacher, and she doesn't spend any time talking voodoo, and she's much more respectful of my physical boundaries (I don't know when I became so sensitive, but it freaks me out when people I don't know touch me unless it's just a brush-by). She's also just a better teacher for me, and the class is pushing me a bit harder to developing those necessary muscles... so my back continues to do better overall. While I am still fat, particularly in the "eating too much food" mid-drift, I show signs of toughening up a bit, which is very cool. But I think I have enough yoga knowledge to go solo for a couple months until I'm back in a paid position.

The nice side of not having a job will be more time at the studio, I must also note.

Herald went with me to the studio for the first time, and he seems pretty cool there--a little whiny, so I might have to get him some toys, but he didn't bark all over the place or jump on the children as we came through the downstairs part. Later, when I went to grab a beer with my Dad (who still calls me "Miiii-haaaa," but I've settled down about it and every time he says it, I pointedly correct him that my name is J-, but then leave it at that with the hopes that he one day will hear me), I took Herald with me and tied him up to the bike rack outside the brewery where I could see him and watch how he does by himself. He behaved excellently, but spent most of his time shmoozing the ladies so well that I saw no fewer than 15 women stop to pet him (he rolls over on his back and wiggles his paws and gives them the Angel eyes), and no, Louie, that's not just like his mom. Not even in the slightest. Sigh.

Ooops, my time is up for writing and it's a long work day, so I must be off! Even if there's more.