Another slow evening. I dropped the Cavalier off at the dealership for an inspection and an oil change. I expect they'll call me around 9 or 9:30 this morning to tell me things I already knew, like the headlight being out. I only hope they don't find too much wrong with it that I didn't know about.

It felt weird driving it, already, even though I've only had the Prius for a couple of weeks. It's lower to the ground, and the gas and brake are closer together, and the steering wheel is closer.

I made shepherd's pie for dinner. I've been wanting it for a little while, but never remembering at the right time. Finally, I managed to pick up the ingredients at the grocery store this week. I made a big batch, so we could get some leftovers out of it.

I didn't do everything quite right. I needed to let the liquid simmer out a little longer before I baked it, and I should have baked it a little longer. But it tasted pretty good, all the same, and I'll have leftovers for lunch today.

We had no plans for the evening. Thursdays are the days I've set up to work on clearing stuff out upstairs to get ready for the baby, but my shoulders ached too much to even think about packing. I'll try to get some time in this weekend.

So instead I put in a movie - Ferris Bueller's Day Off - and spent a couple of hours goggling at the awful 80's hair and clothes and makeup.

I'd meant to go to bed after the movie was over. Matt's been nagging me to get more sleep lately (It's just a hunch, but I think he's tired of me being grumpy all the time) and I've been battling insomnia all week. But I had some puttering to do, and Matt turned on a weirdly fascinating show on Comedy Central, and before I was done with everything, Karen logged in.

What was supposed to be a 10:00 bedtime slipped to 11. Which, technically, is earlier than I've been going to bed (11:30), but probably not enough to matter.

At least I got to sleep fairly quickly, instead of lingering and staring at the backs of my eyelids until 1.

The weekend should be fairly quiet. There's nothing planned tonight, other than picking up the Cavalier if it's ready. Maybe Matt and I will do some more cleaning upstairs. Tomorrow I'll go down to K.T.'s and edit (guess that means I should finish the week's editing) and - as long as I'm down that far anyway - I may go the rest of the way to the Other Mall, and see if I can find some maternity pants that actually fit.

We may also wind up taking comics to various charities, if I remember to call them today to find out whether they'll take them and where we should drop them off.

Sunday we've got a Hall session scheduled, but not until evening (and I'm only participating in the first bit of it, anyway). I don't know what we'll be doing during the day, besides the laundry. Maybe I'll swing down to visit my parents and show off my new car, if the weather's nice.

But before all that, I have to get through today. Why, oh why, do my stupid deadlines always happen on Fridays? When I left yesterday, the software wasn't quite finished, and the documentation was still subject to last-minute changes. Before I leave today, I've got to verify that the software is being properly tested, and edit the documentaion (150 pages of it) and hang around to sign off on it after they fix the errors I'll find.

But it's Friday, so I'll toss in a silver lining for free: If I have to work late, it'll make up some of the time I took off Monday getting the car situated.

--Liz