Another "what a day!"

Well, dinner is almost cooked, and then we can eat and hit the sack.

We started the day with Jack's karate class. Actually, Rod and Jack did that while I stayed home and salvaged the kitchen and then finished up preparing our notes for today's astrology class.

The prep seemed to take a long time, but the class went pretty well, give or take some dropped notes and missing charts. But the folks were very interesting and most seemed to get more or less what they came for. (Not everyone did, but it was an "Astrology as the Ultimate Parenting manual" class and single, child-free folks who didn't send in their data were bound not to have a terribly interesting time. ) I have a few more charts to read for folks who wanted to but couldn't make it, and I have invited a few people to continue the "class" in a few weeks on a more private basis. That should be fun. :)

After the class ended, we headed out to get the last of the stuff for the baby boxes I am packing. My granddaughter is due in a few weeks and a friend is expecting her first, also a girl, a week before Sara is due. I have to say, it's a lot of fun to shop for little girls. Anyway, that stuff is packed up to go out on Monday. Kim and Alec will have theirs in plenty of time, but I am cutting it close for Marika. I hope it gets there on time.

Then, finally, we headed out to get groceries since Rod wasn't up to his usual Friday shop yesterday. We finally got home at 9:00pm and I started dinner.

On the journey, Rod and I discussed food storage again. We have agreed that for our purposes, we'll start with a goal of three weeks without shopping. Once we're there, we think that a solid six months with minimal shopping would be the ultimate goal. Our assumption is that the most likely "crises" we'd be facing would be unexpected bills or some other financial crisis or weather related emergency like August of 2003. But the real advantage is that we could stretch our budget further is we put away more food so that we only had to buy what wasn't too expensive this week. That level of frugality is important when we insist on high quality food, but our budget barely stretches to cover what we need. This way, we might be able to save more quickly. Most of our storage foods will be things we've put by ourselves, so that we can count on local and organic for the most part, though tuna and coconut milk and things like that will be canned. So, now to start figuring exactly what we need most.

I had an interesting experience today. I discovered that my greatest wish for my looks had come true. Of all the things about my appearance that had ever dismayed me, the one I had had every day of my life and had never really made peace with was my very, very full neck and jaw. I could never quite bring myself to consider surgery, but if there was one thing I'd have considered, it would have been a reduction of my jaw and throat. Today, after I got dressed for the class, I caught sight of myself in the mirror unexpectedly and realized that my wish has been granted. I will never have a long, swan-like neck, of course, but most of the fullness is gone, leaving only a gentle softness that seems suitable to my age and not unattractive. It was a weird experience. Good -- but also strange since that fullness was evidently something that was very much a part of my self image. I don't think I'm going to have a great deal of trouble getting used to this. ;)

I'm way beyond tired. No photo today, but I'll aim for two tomorrow.

The photo above is one I took of my niece and her son last summer. Gorgeous shots are so easy with gorgeous models!