So, Today

was actually a lovely, quiet day.

-Took the kids to a "new" park, meaning a park with pretty much the same equipment as every other park in Salt Lake County, but in a different location.   This was Kids Off Track Idea #2.  Already did Kids Off Track Idea #1 when I took them to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel at the dollar movie last Friday.  We sat in the back and I read bloggernacle blogs and articles on Slate and EW.com on my phone the whole time.  Four dollars well spent!  Anyway, today was sunny, but a little chillier than I thought it would be--yet the birds were tweeting and the clouds were puffy and I'm continually amazed at how such things affect my mood for the better.  And we had a nice time at the park.

-Went on a run/walk instead of going to the gym.  First, because the big kids are home and it's so much quicker to go on a run/walk.  Second, because of the aforementioned bird tweetiness and cloud puffiness, I wanted to be outside.  Third, because as much as I'm still wanting to exercise, every time I think about going to a Lifetime class and pushing myself to the limit and waking up sore in the morning I get all lazy inside and before I know it, I've talked myself into believing that my run/walks are just as efficacious as 75 minutes of hot yoga taught by Kasey the Scary Wonder Trainer.  Ummm . . . 35 minutes of random jogging interspersed with brisk walking is NOT the same thing, self.  Oh, but the other reason I wanted to run/walk is because then I get to listen to . . .

-My new audio book.  Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime.  Sooooo interesting.  Yes, yes, I realize this is coming from a girl who still mourns Tim Russert as the host of Meet the Press, and that some of you might find such topics as interesting as I find a quartet of washed-up athletes yelling at each other about some basketball player whose mother thought it'd be a great idea to christen her son Carmelo, which, to me, is the name of a delicious Hershey's candy.  Anyway--not only does this book rehash some of the stories we all know about the 2008 campaign--a campaign full of so much drama that it seems like the writers of The West Wing dreamed it up--but there are all sorts of gossipy little tidbits that appeal to my weaker nature.  Like Elizabeth Edwards?  Scary shrew.  Yes, I know she has cancer, and yes, she's been completely dumped on by her dork of a husband.  But still a scary shrew.  John Edwards?  So deep in Denialville, if he'd been a fictional character he'd be completely unbelievable.  Hillary Clinton? A lot more complicated than you'd think, both surprisingly nice and surprisingly ruthless, if that makes sense.  Mitt Romney?  Nobody likes him.  Nobody!!  Bill Clinton?  Still slick, still smart, still dumb, still messing around, still reaaaaaaalllly cares what everybody thinks about him.  John McCain?  King Potty Mouth.  (Seriously: potty mouth warning once you get to the McCain part of the book.)  Also: mean to his wife.  Also: history of messing around that had the campaign all jittery, along with Cindy's history of messing around.  Which is maybe why they're mean to each other?  And my boyfriend Barack Obama?  (I say this just to get a rise out of the people I know this will get a rise out of, of course :-).  He is what everybody says he is:  smart, self-possessed, cocky, loves his wife & kids, extremely ambitious, likes to get lots of opinions before he makes a decision, and the beneficiary of some good strategy but a whole lotta luck as well.  I've just barely gotten to the part of the narrative where Sarah Palin is brought on board and I can't wait.  I keep cleaning the house and exercising just so I can keep listening to my audiobook in good conscience.

-I also wrote for an hour and a half straight today.  Doesn't sound like much, I know, but to be able to carve out an hour and a half of quiet and get a good half-dozen pages written for my new novel during an off-track day?  That's a good thing.  I'm liking this new novel, but I'm still so early on that who knows the damage I'll inflict upon the thing in the coming months.

-Gearing up for Spring semester to start tomorrow.  As of right now, I have 6 students enrolled, so looks like the class might carry.  Part of me is glad (the money always comes in handy), part of me is nervous (teaching Tuesday nights AND Thursday nights during baseball/flag football/Forrest-traveling-heavily season is going to be  quite a juggling act).  I've also never taught a condensed term schedule, which basically leaves my students with half the time to produce something half-way decent.  Should be interesting, to say the least.

And now Wyatt is asleep on the couch next to me, snoring away.  He's such a Bubba.  Time to wrestle him out of his pants and into his jammies, tuck him into bed, wrangle the big kids into theirs, load the dishwasher, put away the whites, finish my New Yorker article on the ordination of female bishops in the Church of England (don't ask me why it's interesting--just is), randomly open my Book of Mormon and read a dozen verses (my method of late, no judging please), put the cat in the basement so she doesn't wake me up at 3 a.m. to go out and again at 6 a.m. to come in (I put her in the storage room with food and water, no judging please), and then go to sleep.  With the window open.  Don't you love sleeping with the window open on a nice spring night?  I do.