October 08, 2004 - 8:29 p.m.

Phew...

For a while there, I thought I had jinxed them. See, I bragged earlier that I was having a great night, eating my homemade curried squash and apple soup, sipping a glass of wine, and watching the Red Sox winning 6-1 in what could be the final game of their first playoff series. Not long after that, Anaheim managed to tie the game in a single inning. Yikes! Luckily, in extra innings Ortiz hit a home run - game over, series over, bring on the Twins/Yankees! So incredibly cool! Three playoff games, three wins, and they sure made the last one exciting!

I've had a very productive week. I cleaned my room, which was quite a feat since there was several months worth of clutter, mail, and general detritus of life all over the place. There remains some disorder, since much of my furniture has been replaced due to construction work on the window and duct work. This week I also made a framed set of silhouettes of the kids for their mom's birthday. Then there were rehearsals, volunteering, and errand-running. Plus, just while watching baseball, I've entered info on around 60 recipes from my collection of Cooking Light magazines into my database so I can easily browse, search, and locate them. I feel proud.

I don't have a whole lot planned for the weekend except rehearsals now that I don't have to worry about keeping tabs on the Sox until Tuesday. If the weather is nice, I would like to go for a hike - time to dust off my New England trails guide. If I am feeling motivated, I could even do a day trip tomorrow. If it is rainy, I will probably go to the movies and visit the bookstore to spend the generous gift card my bosses gave me for my birthday. The bookstore card was labeled as from the kids, and from their parents I got an even more generous gift card to J. Jill where I got a flowy, lightweight denim skirt, two super cuddly chenille sweaters, and a necklace and bracelet set. I like shopping, but I love shopping when I don't have to spend any money!

Fall is here in full force, and it is really lovely. Today was perfect, since the leaves are gorgeous, but we got a bit of Indian Summer. I really love fall as long as is isn't as cold as it was at the beginning of the week.

Meanwhile, construction on the house continues. The project was supposed to be done weeks ago, and I think we still have at least a week or two left to go. Oy. S, the kids' mom, and I have had a couple conversations about how contractors have no sense of accountability for getting things done on time. It's ridiculous. It seems they consistently run way past their deadline without consequences. They have all the power, since if the homeowner threatens to withold the latest payment, they won't complete the job. They can take their sweet time finishing while juggling multiple contracts to rake in the dough. You'd think there would be contractors that would build their business on word of mouth recommendations based on on-time completions, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm sure there are issues with supplies and sub-contractors that make meeting deadlines impossible for some projects, but as long as you build in (oh, bad pun...) a little extra time, that shouldn't be an issue most of the time. It all makes me even more inclined, when I have a home of my own someday, to do any home improvements myself!

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flutter back - fly ahead