Storyettes

• I had my second quinoa dream in two nights. Are these food storage messages from Slumberland?
• Natasha wrote a great post on marriage.
• Kim was in Utah for the weekend but never near enough to visit, so we talked on the phone this morning instead.
• I watched the city cement guys pour two slabs of fresh sidewalk to replace the broken ones next to our driveway. Rob and I both withstood the temptation to write our names in it. Graffiti = regret. No graffiti = regret. What a choice.
• I discovered that a shirt and jacket I recently bought on sale make a great outfit with an orphan skirt in my closet.
• Ralph the German accordion superhero called us for a repair consultation today, so we drove to his shop in the next valley up. He kept calling me Virginia, but must have liked us because he offered to squeeze some lessons into his crazy busy schedule. Ralph is an incredible character with knobbly fingers and many cool trophies. We had a bug planted in Rob's man-bag, so I'll soon have our stealthy recording of the lovely and talented Ralph to play for you.
• Rob and I might be sharing a stomach bug. We split a brown Swedish fizzy drink, something to do with the holidays (Santa on the label), from Ikea. It helped diminish the urps.
• If you can't talk yourself out of eating fast food, at least go to Taco Time because they play great music. I always end up dancing in the restroom when I duck in to wash my hands. (Scroll down for today's solid gold hit.)
• Tonight I gardened by lamplight—two LED shop lamps. I think I killed my back harvesting the Great Tomato Landslide of 2009. Anyone have any especially good green tomato recipes?
• I put the next-to-last coat of paint on the baseboards in the office tonight. It's almost time to move the furniture back in and put up bookshelves.
• We share a city with some of our family. It feels good to be near enough to help each other out when there's a need.
• When Chris cut off the end of his finger tonight while chopping basil, Amy's gram—a nurse—was just walking in their front door. She got him first aided and ready to make it safely to the E.R.
• Rob and I made a beautiful new friend, an old one. We adored her while she got her storytelling groove on.
• Tomorrow Annie flies in from Hawaii!