I registered for the overnight walk. Here is my fundraising page: http://theovernight.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=501&participantID=4349

I am going to scan more pictures of Patrick and do more publicity-related things . . . after this week, though. This is a busy week, but after this week I think my workload will be light again. Yeah, I keep thinking that.

On the actual anniversary date I didn't do a heck of a lot special except to register for the walk and think up and type in the text for the page. I also went for a 4-mile run. How training for this walk will affect my running schedule is something that I will need to figure out.

I am in possession of ingredients for removing and replacing hair color. I'm planning to do a streak before Patrick's Yahrzeit date, which is the 19th. Won't a certain someone be surprised. Well, not surprised, but he will get used to it.

(meme courtesy of fionnabhar)

January 25:

Robert Burns
Virginia Woolf
Corazon Aquino
Etta James
Steve Prefontaine

My birthday came and went and we didn't do quite enough to celebrate - nothing, really, on the actual day. Oh well. Niki and Levi both called, and I ran for 20 minutes without stopping for the first time since 1991, and I had enough work to finish that I had to put off going to Costco until the next day. (Aside: Going to Costco, which I do once a month to get my prescriptions filled and pick up the usuals, always leaves me exhausted and kind of wrecks my day. What the heck that is about, I'm not quite sure. Oh yeah. Shopping.)

Thursday we saw the Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble at Reed for free. It was an educational event: the director was onstage between dances talking about what they were doing and having the dancers demonstrate warmups, different positions, etc. At one point some brave volunteers went onstage and did stuff. It was all quite entertaining and my knowledge of ballet was exponentially increased.

We sort of celebrated on Saturday by sleeping late and going out to lunch. We ended up in NW so I spent an hour browsing shops along NW 23rd (I had gotten the idea to do that from an article in the Tribune about how businesses there were having trouble because of the streetcar construction project) while William browsed the camera store. I didn't buy anything, but I had a good time and saw a business card case that I might buy later and a couple of other stores that I wanted to check out. That night we went to see A Serious Man at the Kennedy School, but we missed the first few minutes so I'm withholding a verdict on it until we've seen it again. We went to New Seasons afterward and picked up a rotisserie chicken and a couple of vegetable sides from the deli. (I forgot about that carrot salad! I'll have to look for it tomorrow or whenever I get hungry. It was basically just raw julienned carrots with a little vinegar and salt or something and some capers, but, I don't know, I might make something like that at home and eat it. I've got enough carrots.)

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done this year.
- You have no clue what it's going to be. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well. We all can make stuff!

[To the people who replied when I did this in 2007: I have your stuff; I'm going to send it this year! I promise! By the end of this month!]

Not only did I teeter on the verge of a cold all day, but my period started, and I had fiery back cramps and mild queasiness with it. I'm so ready to be over with the fertile phase of my life and into the amazing postmenopausal athlete phase. Gack. I didn't run today; I didn't even walk to the vet to pick up Raziel's stuff. I drove. A mile and a half each way. I need to fix my bike brake to avoid these paroxysms of guilt.

Going back over last week. I highly recommend OMSI After Dark! It was so awesome to play with the exhibits and to see other adults playing! And to drink while playing! The current featured exhibit is on the science of fear, and there were several simulations, including putting one's hand into a dark hole below an animal (snake, tarantula, or scorpion) in a terrarium; putting one's head in a guillotine; and being strapped onto a platform that dropped rapidly backward. The latter was the only one that really scared me; it was also the only one in which the participant's response was recorded on video. I had the mask of fear going before I was even strapped in. That's how I feel about amusement park rides, too. On the other hand, I think snakes and tarantulas are cute. Niki was just the opposite; the animal holes creeped her out, but she was smiling (a little) during the fall-back video. As for the guillotine, it was obviously a fake, but you couldn't really tell until you put your head in it; Niki went first and that's when I got scared.

(to be continued)

Niki arrived on schedule around 9:30 tonight. We took her to the Hawthorne food carts and had crepes and fries. She is interested in going to OMSI After Dark tomorrow, so we might do that. Thursday there's an art exhibit that might be worth a look. If anything, there are more things to do than we will have time for. There's so much more going on the first week of December than there is later in the month.

So tired that I might actually not have trouble going to sleep tonight. This is a good thing.