Besides the brother thing... I had a great, though somewhat non-productive long weekend. I had all these plans to make jewelry, clean out the garage, organize my clothes and finally get rid of all those size 4s and 6s that I will most likely never fit into again. How are we going to have room for a kid when our own stuff takes up all the spare room in the house? How will I ever be able to work from home if I haven't made a damn single piece of jewelry?

Well, I had very good intentions, but on Friday morning (the Fourth of July) it was hot, and Dan and I watched "Lawrence of Arabia". It was good, beautiful cinematography, and Omar Sharif was HOT, but Peter O'Toole was kind of dorky. Too much eyeliner and pancake makeup. His character bugged me. Taking ridiculous risks at the beginning, then falling apart later over nothing and acting all crazy.

When it was over we went to Vasona Park with Bugs, laid out a sheet under a tree, people-watched, and took a nap. Very nice and relaxing. I brought all kinds of games, smackball, frisbee, but we just laid under the tree and chilled. Around 6:30pm we left for Dan's parent's house, where we had dinner and then walked over and watched the Shoreline fireworks from the Corn Palace cornfield. Sylvia and the kids came over.

Saturday we went to Capitola for lunch with Bugs and he practiced his Parisian cafe dog techniques. He was OK, but since he didn't walk too much first he was all restless and kept moving around instead of laying on his blanket like a good cafe dog. We sat up on the hill and people-watched for a while....the surfers, the people walking by. It was packed in Capitola, and a gorgeous day. But no dogs allowed on the beach, and Bugs needed a walk still, so we looked at the map and headed south to Seacliff Beach, where leashed dogs are allowed on the beach.

It was less crowded there, we walked down a ways and found a relatively unbusy spot where we could let Bugsy off the leash and let him run a little. I went in he water up to my knees. It was ice-cold at first splash, but then it felt good after that. Suprisingly, Adventure Dog went in too, all the way up to his belly! We ran him back and forth between us, and since I stood in the water he zoomed past me and tore into the surf. Pretty brave for a dog who avoids sprinklers like the plague, and tiptoes on his absolutely *tippy* toes through wet grass.

Another little nap in the sand and we headed out when the sun started to go down. Home for an evening with "Apocalype Now Redux", which I thought was fantastic. Amazing camera shots. Good characters, very gripping story.

Sunday I cooked and worked on Resumix bullshit that I was supposed to do on Thursday when I was "working from home". Screening Questions wireframes. What a waste of time.

Today I had lunch with Cheryl (new VP Engineering) and Peter (new UI Architect). I *guess* I'm not getting laid off, though no one as told me directly. It appears that I will be reporting to Peter in the future, and people actually realize that there is too much work for one person to do, especially if they expect himt o actually be able to meet with customers and do usability studies, valuable stuff like that. So I'm glad I still have a job for the sake of the money at least. God, I wish Dan were still making money like he used to. I wish he loved his job like he used to as well. I feel pretty stressed out that our finances are so precarious compared to before, and the only ways we have of making money right now are by doing jobs we hate. It's really unfortunate.

Anyways, since I'm turning over the Screening Questions project to Peter, I suddenly have nothing to do. Well, I could fix bugs, but no bugs have been assigned to me, and that will take time. I am supposed to help Angela put together the next newsletter, but she hasn't sent me any content, so nothing I can do there. This place is such a pain in the ass. Well, I'll just leave at 5:00pm and go to my clasp-making class, learn some jewelry-making skills, and try to put it in practice this week when Dan goes away on business. I have a three-hour class tonight and tomorrow night, then he leaves on Wednesday for New Jersey. So hopefully I can get something done.

I want to sew, I want to knit, but I am just going to do one thing at a time and not be too dillettante for now. Bil emailed me today and he is addicted to knitting. He knitted himself a hat that says "fuck" on it in different colors. What a crackup. He is going to knit a hat for the baby, and has offered to give me knitting lessons, which I would love. Like I said, I don't want to get to distracted though, but it loooks like my knitting circle is getting started. Who would have thought that it would be Bil? Well, more power to him!