Liese, was the Valentine's dinner on Sunday? You can take Sundays off and still consider it keeping Lent, right? (I basically figure Lent is a Catholic thing, so you might as well keep Catholic rules, but that's just me.)

That was what I was about to say! Growing up we always took Sundays off of Lent.

Though I don't think I've actually given anything up for Lent since freshman year of college (when I gave up caffeine--but that was before I drank coffee, so it was just sodas)

Do you think you could divert some of the money that was going into the mortgage to some sort of at home help to free up some of your time for writing and other book work?

Excellent plan! I'm also sorry to hear you're so squeezed.

I myself am thankful today that I work from home and thus can do laundry. Because since I was out of town Weds-Fri, busy the weekend, and then gone again Mon-Thurs, my laundry pile is the pile of DOOM.

I'm in the Vegas airport waiting to go home. I've learned that I need a new, softer bed, which will have to wait till I move, and it's amazing how many people in the world still smoke. Vegas may be the last bastion of public smoke.

I'm coming home with 60% of the money I brought to gamble with, and I won enough to buy a rolling suitcase to replace the duffle I had. The cost is well worth not inflicting pain to my back and shoulder. My Puritan self tried to point out that I was not likely to need a new case in the near future so I should be more thrifty , but my immediate pain is worth avoiding.

Now it's time to go home and worry about the oil leak on the Jeep and aggressively clearing out the house.

Glad you enjoyed your vacation, Connie! Rolly bags are totally worth the cost to not carry a big heavy bag anymore.

Oh, and I quite enjoyed the aggressively driving Jamaican cabbie who drove me to the airport , We bonded over poorly marked, broken down oversized load trailers and their lackadaisical drivers.

Yay, good vacation, Connie!

That sounds both awful and like probably the right call.

Yes. I'm so sorry, Drew.

And that sounds hard, Gud. That can't be good for you to have no leisure time.

Interview~ma, DH of Dana!

I hope your vacation is fantastic and your friend has good work to do when you get back, meara!

When I was Catholic, we didn't count Sundays as part of Lent, because they are feast days and feast day trumps fast day. If other Feast days fall during Lent, they don't count either. Did not make a practical difference to me, but it's the rule I learned.My Orthodox grandmother and her deacon second husband kept to much stricter fasting rules and really embraced any exceptions they could make, like feast days and if you visit someone who isn't fasting and they offer you something forbidden it is better to accept the hospitality than stick to your fast (Arkady was always so disappointed when they'd come to my parents' house during one of the several Lents and my mom would serve salmon).

Anyway, what I was really planning on saying was that if you count 40 days from Ash Wednesday you can only get to Easter if you skip Sundays.

I got a headache in the last half hour or so of work yesterday and it didn't go away until well into the evening and this morning it is back.I'm assuming it is pressure changes from the storms moving through, it has that feel to it, but it is not lost on me that it could be my body's way of telling me I just need to stay in bed and not try to accomplish anything.

That all sounds really good, Connie! Good for you overriding the puritan inner voice.

So yeah, I fucking suck at Lent this year. The coffee, now that I should have realized. The problem with giving up coffee is that I'm not coherent enough before my coffee to remember that I was giving it up. So I'm not trying that one anymore. Social media has proven somewhat difficult, plus I have some promotional stuff I need to do. So I've resigned myself to cutting waaay back on time spent over there. (Y'all don't count. You're not social media; you're just my peeps.)

I'm doing a pretty good job of No Browser-Based Internet Use After 8pm.

It's rough, though. I occasionally cheat if I'm writing and need a fact check.

I did not realize how many people have recorded versions of Viva Las Vegas . They all seem to be on rotation on the muzak .

That's kind of a good not-nixing-it rule of thumb. I need to do that shit anyway, because I have got to get my sleep hygiene in order. I might try that.

(Seeing myself quoted also makes me laugh that my religious observance posts are so laced with profanity. 'Cause that's how I roll, I guess.)