Well, my
spring break is coming to an end … and a little quicker than I
expected because I realized today that I had forgotten all about report
cards that are due on Monday. 



We never got around to
doing the flooring, but I do have other exciting news.  I finally
bought my new car on Tuesday!  It’s a RAV4 with all the bells and
whistles and a pricetag to match.  It is by far the most
extravagant/frivolous purchase I have ever made, and I don’t think it
has completely sunken in yet.   I have occasional flashes of
wondering how many people I could feed or how many countries I could
travel through on that money.   
And I’m still white knuckling it when I drive and parking in the most
remote corner of the parking lot;  I’m almost tempted to put the
first scratch on it myself … just to get it over with.

In other news, our house is now almost completely clean.   
We had my father, stepmom, and “uncle” over for dinner last
night.  Having company is always the surest way to a clean
house.  I say “almost” completely clean because much of the mess
migrated into the bedroom for the time being.  Once that is sorted
out, I’m sure a new mess will have developed in some other part of the
house.  I’m not sure if completely clean is even a realistic
possibility around here.  My stepmom is hiring a housecleaner for
one day because she says she just once wants to know what it’s like to
have the whole house clean at one time. 



My sister also cut and colored my hair yesterday.  I was there for more than 3 hours!   
I know that a lot of women find such “pampering” relaxing, but if I
could have the whole thing done in about five minutes, I would be a
happy camper.  And because my hairstylist is also my little
sister, there’s only so much dishing we can manage … we run out of
material after about twenty minutes.   But, I like my hair
color and the cut … unfortunately, the highlights are a little
brassy.  My sis says she just needs to put some toner on it. 
How long is that gonna take?  Maybe I’ll just live with the yellow
stripes. 



Today I went to school to
clean up a little bit and drop off all of the school stuff that had
accumulated in my old car.  Then we went to the movies.  It
was great; matinee price and almost nobody else in the theater. 
We saw “Take the Lead”, Antonio Banderas’ ballroom dance movie. 
It was Toshi’s choice, if you can believe that!  Slim pickins
these days at the theater.  (On a side note, am I the only one who
thinks Antonio seems gay?)  The movie was okay … a little Coach
Carter meets Dangerous Minds meets The Substitute meets Sister
Act.  You know the genre … outsider comes in and in a matter of
a couple weeks completely turns the toughest kids in school
around.  Sloppy editing, a few totally laughable “teaching”
scenes, and pretty shallow character development … but fluffily
entertaining nonetheless.



Tomorrow we are going to
the outlet mall to return some jeans Toshi bought that are too small
and then off to Santa Barbara for a trip to the zoo, walk on the pier,
and window shopping on State Street … giving Carbaby her first
workout.   

If
your house is really a mess and a stranger comes to the door, greet him
with, “Who could have done this? We have no enemies.” 
           
           
           
           
           
                 
–Phyllis Diller