Life is great.

I'm in a wonderful mood. I think I must be getting too much sleep.

I had a great weekend so far. On Thursday I went out to Carson's for some wonderful pork chops. I even enjoyed their salad, and I got desert. I slept very well after all that food. I feel this was a respectable way to celebrate Rami's middle name day. I think that also started out the weekend on the right foot.

I then got up early (5 not 9) in the morning and wore a suit to work, so that I could head from work to Pete's wedding (my old college roommate.) It is amazing the reactions you get when you wear a suit to work at a place where jeans and t-shirts are the norm. It was fun.

The wedding was also fun. I think Pete and Sarah invited close to a majority of their friends from college and from work. It was a great time. I felt obliged to enjoy a gin and tonic and some wine, despite my Lenten resolution. However, unlike some of the "Catholics" at my table, I opted for the eggplant (which was excellent) over the steak.... which actually looked a bit over-cooked.

It was fun to see all the old faces. And I got to dance too. Not well, mind you, but if somebody needs a dance partner, I'm there. I love it. In this case our old neighbor Allison --whose name I couldn't remember at the begining of the night-- wanted to dance, and her boyfriend Mayo (with a short A) was having none of it, so she recruited me. High heels and a deficient sense of rhythm didn't help, but the enthusiasm was there at least. The old people have it right. Dancing is fun, and when the music is playing you should be dancing. Good for the calves and lower back.

Anyway, speaking of "good for the lower back:" at nine am on Saturday Davy came past (as promised) and got me out of bed to first go buy a wheelbarrow and then shovel dirt for a little over an hour. With two people and two shovels, a lot of dirt can be moved. I think I am going to try to make a routine of shoveling some dirt for an hour or so every night when I come home. I suspect I can fill that trench myself with enough time, and if I don't pull any muscles I'll end up with less back pain and stronger shoulders.

At 1 pm on Saturday I headed out to our soccer tournament. I was feeling exhausted after we won our first game. All I had ate was some left over linguini and water before the game. We had an hour break and then played the second round. It was a tough game, but we won, I think the score was 9 to 11. I spent a lot of time in goal. We were up for the whole game, I think, and we tried to play a defensive game. But I think it wore us out. Our third game at four pm was too much for us. I got my second wind after eating an orange. (Amazing what a little sugar will do.) I had been taking it easy, and at the end of the third game I actually scored two goals and almost a third, but we ended up losing 7 to 4 or so. At least the team that beat us was genuinly good, good sports, and worthy of the win. A lot of the teams we played to get there were poor sports, overly agressive, and whiney.

We then went out to celebrate and watch the illinois game. I had a beer in celebration. (Okay, I think this was probably a poor exception to my Lenten resolution, but we did play some excellent soccer, faught hard for second place, and they gave us coupons for free pitchers of beer at the bar.)

I then stopped past Kevin's St Joseph dinner party. I was sweaty from playing three hours of soccer, hadn't shaved, had shoveled dirt in the morning, had eaten a burger out at the bar, so wasn't even that hungry for the food that Kevin had prepared. But I decided to stop by, because it was on the way home anyway. The food was great. Pasta. Appropriate. Everyone was supposed to bring a bottle of wine, so there was lots of that. (St. Joseph day is a good excuse to drink wine, right?) My teammate Wendy came with. We both bailed early though, because of sheer exhaustion after such a long day.

I miss my hot-tub.

I woke up without an alarm today, and feel great. Very sore, but in a good way. I am now sitting in front of my computer listening to music in my studio. I'm very happy with my decision to buy the new monitor speakers. I won't regret it.

I found my inhaler before the soccer game. Thanks St Anthony. I got an email from Chris, saying Katie is doing much better, although she can't remember the last 72 hours, and is still in the hospital.