The weekend was good, up until a point. (More about that later.) The weather was gorgeous, I spent a lot of money, and I puttered around the house, and enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Saturday we hit the Farmer's Market early, trying to beat the stroller brigade and the dog walkers. I hear that they don't allow you to bring your dog to Farmers' Markets in California. I wish they didn't allow it in Denver, but at least there weren't any fights or overly friendly, licky doges this week.

I picked up, among other goodies, a pint or so of fresh blackberries. Yesterday, I searched the 'net, found an "award-winning" recipe for blackberry cobbler, and cooked up what I'm not ashamed to say was a delicious pan-full of yummy. (Okay, anything that starts with a cup of sugar and a stick of melted butter is bound to be delicious. But my cooking skills aren't so impressive that I take success for granted.)

I also grabbed a few more fresh peaches. They're now ripening in a paper bag on the kitchen counter. I thought about cobblering some of them, but I'm not really a fan of peach cobbler. Apple or cherry are the cobblers I like. And blackberry, of course, but blackberries aren't a fruit I think about much. (Except that I'm thinking about them now and already planning to buy more next weekend.)

Right next to the Cherry Creek Farmer's Market is a nice, big Bed, Bath, & Beyond store. I needed one of those thingies you hang in the shower to hold shampoo bottles and whatnot, so we wandered in there. I wound up with a basket full of small items (stocking stuffers for the upcoming holiday season--it's never too soon to get started), a new humidifier ($35--that's the "a lot of money" I was talking about), and a new shower curtain.

I have a shower stall, but those are ugly, so for the last six or seven years, I've been hanging a shower curtain over it.

And I have walls, badly painted (20 years ago) in a light shade of yellow that I don't like. So, this coming weekend I'm planning to buy a gallon of paint, a one-short roller and disposable paint pan, and some edging tape, and transform my bathroom into something a little less dire. My new shower curtain is waiting for the new paint job, so I can do an all-over transformation.

I also have a loose tile at the base of the shower. The maintenance guy showed up a week or so ago, looked it over and announced that it would have to wait until they could redo all the drywall behind it. (The drywall I could see has gone all yucky and black. I assume this is an unseen consequence of a roof leak we had a few years ago.)

This is one of those times when you're glad you rent--I'm going to get a pretty-clean shower at no cost!

Or, I will be once the maintenance guy comes back and does the work. He used a plastic shopping bag and duct tape to make a temporary fix, so I could continue bathing on a regular basis. I guess it was optimistic of me to think he'd tell management that the problem wasn't actually fixed, so I'm going to call them myself today.

And then--painting fun!

Workwise, I was on time today. I expected to be late since Jason had made a point of how everyone was expected to be on-hand to greet the incoming training class, and I did oversleep a bit, but I raced through my morning routine and got here with almost 30 seconds to spare. Jason? Was a no-show. I'm thinking about speaking to him about the inadvisability of considering yourself an exception to "everyone."

Today I'm waiting for the next NutNews files. My own personal ChaosManager, Vela, is leaving on her honeymoon on Wednesday and she's making a frantic effort to get everything in the world done before she leaves. I volunteered to do this week's editing, to free up some of her time. (I'd have had to redo any editing anyone else did anyhow.)

I heard yesterday morning that one of my aunts was in the hospital. After surviving a bout with cancer and living for many years with Lupus, she suffered a massive stroke last week. The L-i-K-S found out yesterday and let me know, then she called back in the evening to tell me that our aunt had passed away.

It's almost invisible, you know? The moment when you transition from buying everyone you know wedding gifts or baby gifts, to the day you realize you're ordering flowers for funerals more than any other kind of offering.

Take care of yourselves!