Weekend, weekend... Hmm.

John and Sam came over Friday evening just as I was fixing dinner - I'd asked them to come a bit early, so Penny would have time to warm up to them before Matt and I left. That turned out to be totally unnecessary, so Sam supervised Penny's dinner while Matt and I ate, and we admired John's new camera (and he took a bunch of pictures of Penny making a mess of her dinner) and then Matt and I fled.

We went to the bookstore and wandered around aimlessly for an hour or so - not really shopping for anything, but enjoying the freedom to take our time browsing. Most of what I found that interested me were second or third books in series, though, and of course the store didn't carry the first books. If I'd had half a brain, I'd have written the titles and authors down for later internet shopping, but I was still working on only four hours of sleep, so...

I came away with four books and a lovely sense of relaxation. We'd timed our browsing so we'd get home in time to put Penny to bed. We got home to find Penny sitting on John's lap on the floor, looking at books. She got up and ran over to us, spouted some indecipherable babble, and then climbed back into John's lap to finish the story.

So, um, she did pretty well with them, and behaved herself well, so they're willing to come back and babysit again sometime. Whoo!

Saturday afternoon, we took her down to visit my parents. Mom invited us to stay for dinner, and since I'm a big fan meals I don't have to cook, we accepted. Dad took Penny outside to play, and then called us all to come and see.

Penny had found a pile of mud, and was very industriously picking up handfuls and rubbing it all over her arm. Matt took one look, and sprinted for his camera-phone.

Sunday, I had a scrapbook event to go to. I actually managed to nearly finish almost a whole album while we were there - all of it except the journalling. But the journalling is easy. I brought it to work with me today, or I can finish it while Penny's watching Elmo or after she goes to bed. It's getting all the trimmers and punches and papers and such out and getting set up that seems to take forever, with scrapbooking, so I'm glad I got that bit all done yesterday.

It's looking like a relatively light week at work, at least. I've got some meetings to attend, and three documents on the schedule (so probably five or so in actuality). Not too bad. I should have some good time to work on my own stuff.

K.T. and I were talking yesterday about all the stuff we should do, which keeps getting pre-empted by all the other stuff that seems to suck up our time, even when we want to do the stuff we should do, like writing.

She said she was thinking about actually getting herself a calendar and scheduling time for the stuff she wants to do/should do.

I already do that for work - if I don't see "monthly status report" on my calendar, I don't remember to do it until it's a couple of weeks late; and if Outlook doesn't pop up with a reminder to check the front desk's voicemail when it's my turn to do that, I completely forget about it. And it helps when I write down all the documents that are coming up, so I can see in advance where I'm going to be busy, and where I'm going to have plenty of free time. And I write down major personal things, things that I expect to take several hours, like plans to visit friends, or scrapbook shows, et cetera.

But maybe I should start putting more personal stuff in my calendar system, as well. The stuff I should try to do regularly, but keep putting off. Things like, "Writing/editing time." And, "Log out of IRC and go take a walk." And, "Work on the attendance list for the toy party."

I'll think about it, anyway.

--Liz