I’m at the dining room table, Sunday night, 6:40PM. A candle burns (some…pumpkin kind, I think, it’s orange, anyway) to the laptop’s right and my class text sits to the left. I suppose I should do tomorrow night’s homework. Now, I’ve read all of a fifth of the chapter, but that never stopped me from completing grad school assignments before. I’m taking this class for fun, right? Sorry, Dr. D.! I doubt you’ll ever be able to tell I’m skimming the chapter.

So today was busy. I woke on the couch at 6:30 or so when the boys moved around upstairs enough to alarm the dogs. A cup of coffee later I was at the gym knocking out thirty minutes on the stairmaster before upper body weights and abs. After breakfast I started laundry, watched Anthony Bourdain’s Hudson Valley episode, and started cleaning. M and the boys left for The Lightning Thief after lunch. I fired up the new Zune (more on that in bullet points) and watched the excellent A Serious Man between download checks. The movie concerned a Jewish professor’s midlife issues, so outside from the Jewish part I was on familiar terrain, and Coen brothers rarely disappoint. Great film. The house was still quiet so I wrote a quick review of Fante’s 86’d and starting baking a chocolate cake. I forgot to put in baking powder (need to pay more attention to recipes that call for baking soda AND powder) but the end result turned out fine. After the cake I made Italian veggie rolls. Cooking was fun today, really, and staying busy was probably smarter than I intended.

And the rest of the week, you ask? Shall we go with bullet points? We shall.

• Tuesday afternoon through Saturday afternoon became my longest non-workout stretch, I believe, in 21 months. I suppose I was sick once or twice but I don’t think I missed an entire week. This stretch, however, emerged from exhaustion, both physical and the celebrity kind, in which I felt mentally drained and needed to sleep for about a week. So I canceled Wednesday’s class/meetings and made this week’s cake #1 (see below), setting the mixer on fire in the process, but still taking the day more or less easy. I need to change some professional behavior; I haven’t taken a complete day off in many years. This dissonance, I trust, will lead me on the right path. By Saturday afternoon I was back in the gym rhythm.

• Winter is starting to wear me down. No particular event has caused this reaction, but the sense that every single fucking day I walk into the cold, well, I assume you know what I mean. But we’re past the worst of winter. I’ll be ok. I feel the same way in September as far as summer is concerned.

• Oh, I bought a Zune. The first few days with a new device of this nature are always frustrating. How the fuck do you load music on, you know? After screwing around with the files and sync settings I’ve managed to add 150 albums.

• I’m reading the first Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood novel. Honestly, the book sucks, way sucks, but I’ll finish, the end is near. I think I’m starting Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying next. A GR review renewed my interest.

• What else? The kids are watching the Olympics. Oh, I skipped Mary’s party last night. I am one anti-social motherfucker. But the day had grown so busy…two kids had basketball games, one had swimming, add a birthday party and lunch with a friend and fuck it, get me home early.

• I feel like I’m forgetting something but I can’t remember now. If I’m responsible I should finish my homework, take a shower, and lay out tomorrow’s clothes. Maybe I’ll throw on the Goldberg Variations and turn out the lights. Have a good start of the week, ladies and gentlemen. More soon.