Whee!

I am far from being a word geek, but I just finished my best Sunday NYTX e-ver! I had help with just, like, four letters, and didn't Google a thing! I am totally stoked. What a good week for crosswords. And, at least one answer I got because I learned it in the past few months doing these regularly, which tells me I may just be able to hold my own at the tournament someday.

In less exciting news:

We tried "Bottle Rocket" tonight.

One word: Do Not.

I keep giving Wes Anderson movies a shot, but I just don't get them. People call them subtle and genius and lordy knows what else, but I just call them boring, ill-acted, and a waste-of-my-time. I won't even get into why I didn't like it specifically (unless you want to hear me rant--then just ask me why), but after being pressured into watching that FLIPPING AWFUL movie "Idiocracy" last year (one other word: REALLY Do Not), I wonder if I should give up on Luke Wilson. His acting style just isn't something I'm comfortable with. I remember seeing "Legally Blonde" and thinking "Okayyy...now why is everyone saying this dude is the next big thing?" I can sort of see Owen's gig. The accent, the nose, the blond hair--he's appealing. But Luke is like his awkward ugly brother who never gets invited to parties, or if he does it's only because Owen was being nice and told the host he'd only go if his loser brother could come.

Look at that--I ranted anyway. That's surprising.

Onto better things.

Oh my goodness, was today productive! So many good things:

1. We erranded around town, first to a pre-errand lunch treat at Hardee's, then to Hobby Lobby for gold and red cardstock to label our boxes with. We then took the party to Westlakes (always buy local, kids) to find screws for the IKEA boxes that had theirs all screwy, which I found the first time just by looking at the bins, thank you very much (well, thank you to Doc Marquardt, who helped me learn to love tools and hardware). Our fourth stop, Barnes & Noble, where I got a Figure magazine (and totally picked up a Real Simple Weddings magazine because I'm engaged and I think engaged people are supposed to do that. As a kid, I always thought 'being engaged' would be the happiest time in anyone's life, when you feel pretty all the time. It's true in many ways). Next was Wal-Mart, where we looked for an analog scale (I have totally stopped trusting my digital, since if you climb on it twice in a row your weight may differ by three pounds in a single minute), but they only had tiny stupid ones I didn't like, so we just got Sean some kale. Then we drove home.

2. I put Neil down for a nap, and then printed off a Linens n Things coupon online, figuring they had to have scales. I took down the twinkle lights from the balcony, and the empty suet cages (sorry birdies, you'll have to wait until winter) and left again.

3. All I found at LNT was a good pencil holder for our desk (really a bathroom tumbler, but I like it because it has a very sturdy bottom, not unlike my own [hee!]), because their analog scale selection was even more limited than Wal-Mart's. I remembered Dad found his really good quality scale at Sam's, so I drove over there. I found nothing, but was successful across the parking lot at Lowe's.

4. When I got home, Neil had completely cleared off our long bathroom counter of everything unnecessary, and it looks fantastic. Just our toothbrushes/paste in their little caddy, liquid soap, and one or two other sundries, and all else is pure counter. It's so great.

5. We began Operation Organize. We went through all our junk boxes/tubs (compiled from desk drawers, kitchen drawers, and the like) and put everything we might use into six of the IKEA boxes, which I temporarily labeled with Post-Its until we get the cardstock labels put in.

6. I did financials with all our receipts, paid all the bills due until Neil gets paid again, and figured up our true balance.

7. While I did the above, Neil put our entire DVD collection on the floor, so we can separate into genres, alphabetize, and put into the IKEA boxes for reshelving. We were both way too beat to attempt this today, so it will be tomorrow's project.

8. I emptied my PaperBackSwap books, which were sitting ugly in the dining room on their bookshelf, into Neil's decorative fabric box from The Container Store, and the empty bookshelf is by the door to return to Dad's tomorrow, when we go for a homemade pizza dinner.

9. And last night, we made our other set of shelves beautiful, and minimal, not cluttered! I am so not used to this. We still have the Harry Potter shelf, and one red/black alternating books shelf, and the bottom-most shelf is reserved for my housekeeping books (Hints from Heloise, Junior's Restaurant Cookbook, How to Clean Practically Everything, etc.), but the other three shelves are artful and have actual empty space. One has our to-date collection of hardcover Lemony Snicket books (#s 1-9 & 11), bookended by the alabaster hearts Neil gifted me for our first Christmas. The other two have two black boxes (with red labels, it's a neat look) with our CD-art filed in them (just the booklets, not really any cds), and a decorative element in between the boxes (on one shelf is my vintage "Grinnell Homecoming '31" cowbell and on the other is Neil's black-and-red wooden boxed Charlemagne game, with Emily's Altoid-tinned Noah scrapbook on top of one box). I have never been one for empty space on a shelf, but it's time I learned to let it be. It's calming not to have clutter every which way I turn, and I want to keep them as they are.

We did so much work today, it felt like a real workday. At 8:30 P.M., I could barely keep my eyes open. I changed into my glasses and drank some diet red soda (caffeinated, from Gerbes. It's so great) and brightened up a little, but it was all very tiring.

It's Earth Day today, I guess. (Sunday, now.) Or the 22nd? What?

Whatever. I'm going to go watch a "Freaks & Geeks" commentary and pretend Bill is my friend.