Dear Diary . . . day by day

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Wednesday, April 7th, 1999

Let's see. Last night I got a ride home from work with Kimio, which was nice as otherwise it takes me an hour to get home by bus. Because of daylight savings time (which we don't practice back in Indianer), it was still very light outside, so I went and worked in the garden. I wanted to do *something* to save my purple pansy and my marigold from the slug attacks. Didn't have any sandpaper, copper won't work here...hey! Eggshells were mentioned in that snail and slug faq. Those of you that know me well will not be surprised that, although I did not have empty eggshells lying around, I *did* have eggs that were 3 months past their "best if used by" date. I cracked three of them into the sink, spent some frustrating minutes peeling the membranes out of them, and headed out to the garden.

I scooped out one fat mother of a slug from under the purple pansy. He probably made that little hidey hole right when I first planted the pansy, and has been living there ever since (and not getting any sluggy exercise). I found several little slugs too. I crumbled the eggshells best I could (I'd loaned David my mortar and pestle awhile back) and made little white rings around each plant. I had enough eggshells to sprinkle some in every pot too (and I have a lot of pots).

Of course, they're both so eaten, it's really hard to tell yet whether this is going to work or not.

I watched one Simpsons, and a part of a Friends rerun while I was making myself dinner. I don't like preparing food as it is, but trying to do it while there are 2 other people cooking/cleaning up around the same time makes me want to go hungry. Anyhow, I managed to skip Buffy and went right to my room (closing the door so I wouldn't be tempted to socialize*) to clean.

I tackled the clothes first. The mess in my room consists of two materials: clothing and paper. Once I'd gotten the clothes picked up, the room was noticeably neater, so I called David for a break (read: to procrastinate). We had a nice long chat where I discovered that he *can* be bought:

Me: Would you like to manage a baseball team?
David: Sure, but I'm not qualified; I've never played the game, I'd have no credibility with the players...I couldn't.
Me: Would you like to own a baseball team?
David: Sure.
Me: Hey, if, for some weird reason, inherited a major league baseball team, would you marry me?
David: Yes.
Me: Really? No matter what?
David: A-yup. I guess now you know my price.

You should know that David hardly ever tells me "yes". He says "sure" a lot, which I maintain does NOT mean the same thing as "yes" (there are no synonyms). Anyway, I don't really want to marry David. I mean, maybe, someday in the future, but certainly not through a bribe like that.

*Not that Aron was in a good mood or anything. He'd been up late (remember, that baseball game?) the night before, and had to go work like the rest of us.... Now we know not to pester Aron when he's hungry or tired! Grumpy boy.
After that I worked on the "paper" portion of my clutter.

Eventually I could see most of my floor and had the piles arranged just so and covered with fabric that match my floor pillows...not too bad, but I need more room. I lit a bunch of candles (most of which were on my "altar") and relaxed on my bed.

After a bit, I decided to play with my "dark mirror". Mine is a piece of wood shaped like an eye, with a circle of black glass for the pupil. Now, when I bought this, Elle told me "Ohhh, be careful with those things". You're supposed to be able to gaze into these by candlelight and discern the future (or something like that). I held it up and stared into it until my eyes glazed over. The dark outline of my face faded...oh, this was getting exciting....then the outline came back, and standing behind me was a demon!

I shrieked quietly and put the mirror down, spinning around so fast I almost caught the end of my hair on fire. I took a couple of deep breaths, trying to convince myself that I was being silly. Finally, I sped through the house and knocked on Aron's door. I had him confirm that there were no demons jeering over my shoulder, tried to reassure him I wasn't crazy by explaining what happened (bad idea - remember, Aron was tired and grumpy), and finally, reluctantly, left his room and slunk back to my own. I sent David an email, asking him to call me to reassure me with the sound of his voice before I went to bed, but I guess he didn't get it. I lay awake for quite some time, dissecting strange noises, before I fell asleep.

Today I walked several blocks to the bank. I stopped at the market to buy milk for work (thereby justifying the walk), and came back. Along the way I saw the strangest sight. There's a house on 10th street in Berkeley (between Allston and Addison) that is being held up by 6 columns of wood. The wood is stacked in squares--oh, you know, with two 2x4s lying parallel, then 2 crossing those, then two on top of where the first two are, etc. Anyway, this house, which was once a one story, was now floating above the earth well above the second floor level. It looked very strange. My guess is that they're repairing the foundation, but I've never seen anything like it before.
Tonight David and I pick up Shel and Rob from the airport! Yay! It's going to be so much fun the next couple of days....
And, that's all for now. I may be a bit sporadic over the next couple of days, but I'll have lots to write about. I've been wanting a guest to go do touristy things with for some time now.
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