02.24.03 - 10:55 a.m.

Such an odd weekend. It was sunny and fifty degrees on Saturday, and then it stormed. Sunday, it grew colder and colder. I turned off the heat on Friday, but by Sunday I needed it back on. Unfortunately, I couldn't reach the heater since I'd tossed the great big box from the new computer chair in that general direction, and it completely blocked the heater, and I was too cold to cart the damn thing outside to the dumpster (where cold = lazy. Hey, I fixed my toilet (I think). What the hell else do you want from me?

So, today: the streets are wet. It's cool, but not cold. Except, it was cold enough recently that it snowed, and there's a tracery of snow on the trunks of cars, a dusting on some roofs, and here and there, a melting lattice-work of lacey ice (recently, snow, but devolving now on the fresh, green-looking grass. Green grass. It was warm enough this week, and this weekend - warm and wet enough - that the grass has begun to change again, from the sere winter brown back to springy green, rich and darker than any such color we've seen for the long winter's night.

I'm tired. I played for a bit last night, with the stated intention of going to bed early. I quit playing early, or relatively so: 12:15 p.m. But, I was up later, reading my new book about the year 1000. It's... one of those histories written for lay people, conversational - perhaps a bit too conversational, really - and scattershot as allll hell. As a conceit for the book's structure, they choose to follow the yearly calendar, but more than that,

(ugh. three hours later, sometime after lunch (i've been WOOOOOOOOOORKING.) and all I have to say is this: susan buys the most SOUR. FREAKING. APPLES. my face is all puckered and whatnot. that's one sour apple.)

and... another pair of hours later. I'm tired.

and. FOUR HOURS LATER: it's now six p.m. i billed 7.9 hours today. i need to bill: 8.025 hours PER DAY for the rest of the month in order to make my f'ing budget. i thought it was less than that, but i forgot that i had a fair number of non-billable hours this month, which don't count toward my budget. f'. f'. f'.

billable hours are very stressful things. the only reason i would ever work for a plaintiff's firm is to escape billable hours.

god. i barely made my budget last month. i should be 15 hours ahead for the year, at this point. instead, i'm barely treading water.

bleh.