The PMS fairy whapped me with her wand this week. I know she visited because yesterday on my way home from work I really, truly wanted to drag a soccer mom out of her SUV in the supermarket parking lot and beat the hell out of her because she took three tries to park in a wide, angled parking space. There was plenty of room. Ray Charles could have parked it for her. Three tries, while I waited to get around her. I really, really wanted to drag her out the window by her perky little soccer mom 'do and whack her empty little head on the hood a few times, just because she really, really deserved it. But I didn't. It's just the PMS talking.

The PMS also drove me to spend most of yesterday cleaning my desk at work. I just couldn't stand it anymore, the piles of papers, the CDs of document productions, the mountain of unsorted filing, it was making me insane. So I cleaned all day. Boss will see my strangely barren and tidy work space and think I'm quitting. I keep threatening to take a job at the firm where L is now - they're expanding like crazy and pay really well and treat their people very well - but I'm having fun where I am. It's just nice to know there are other options if I want them.

The pond filter is working fine again (swearing at mechanical devices often does improve their performance) so I will spare its life once more, and just buy some new hoses and clamps - the old are brittle with age - and a new supply of the glorious Microbe-lift. I'm trying to avoid having to get a new UV filter and rework the entire system, it's expensive, hot and messy work. As long as the biofilter and I maintain our understanding we will go on as we are. I have so much more on my plate right now.

Cabinet installation is scheduled for the first week in June - rip-out is the Friday before, installation is June 2-4. The installers are a husband-and-wife team. I've also got a line on guys to do the new lighting and the patio.

Off to Miami tomorrow afternoon, back sometime Saturday I believe. I'm hoping to make a side trip to
Elegant Stitches before I come home, but it's a ways from where I'll be. It'll depend on my mood after Friday's document production extravaganza - I may decide to drive straight home. But who can resist a visit to "the largest shop in the Southeastern US?" I have to stay over and go, don't I? I could get there when they open on Saturday and then drive straight home from there, and get home by late afternoon.

But there goes half my weekend, and May is going to be a very full month.

It's time to make a list of every task I need to get done before Rip Out the Kitchen Day arrives, and start working my way through it.

Oh, Crate and Barrel warning - I bought this pitcher and matching glasses last Saturday. One of the glasses broke as I was drying it with a towel. This morning I made iced tea in the pitcher and as it's sitting there steeping, I heard the "chink" noise of the glass cracking. Sure enough, there's a hairline crack around the handle. Fortunately it didn't fall apart entirely and flood my kitchen with hot tea, and after it cools I will gingerly slide a big cooking pot under it and dump it out. Sunday afternoon the entire set (minus the one glass that I threw away in sharp pieces) is going right back to C&B. In fact, I think I'll call the store today and let them know what happened.

Kiss this weekend goodbye. Shit.