I learned some very interesting things. My first family, the Fan family (Tami, Felix, Lord Jim, and Randy), are all cranky slobs. I had to figure out how to hire a maid to come in and clean up after them. Felix, my alter ego if you must know, is very depressed about the house and constantly complains about the decor which makes me feel bad because I like the decor. Tami, who wears leather chaps when she's not in the hot tub in her teeny orange bikini, refuses to go to bed even when I command her. Wow, lifelike! Lord Jim is the biggest slob of all and has gotten fired from two jobs already. Randy is charming, hard-working, and prefers the computer to the hot tub. It just cracks me up.

My second family, the Heartfelt family (Sei, Trish, Michael, and Jessie), are just as tidy as can be, plus they're much more independent, cheerful, and self-amusing characters. I really don't know what I did wrong with the Fan family.

I did other things this weekend, though not much. I went to the gym Saturday, of course, and messed around with my rubber stamps. I worked in my garden, repotting a few things and giving all the roses a good feed. John discovered the side of our laundry room is bowing out slightly, making it a smidge difficult to fit the new door frame onto the original beams. He took out a rotting board and cut a new one to fit the funny L-shape, and then he got the new board up. I kept meaning to help him, but I couldn't concentrate and kept wandering away.

My contribution to the hard work of the weekend was to take our cotton quilt over to the laundromat and wash it. The quilt sort of needed a wash, but I kept putting it off. I loathe, loathe, loathe laundromats. I was so happy when we moved back to California and I had my own machines again. Well, one of the cats barfed right in the middle of it so I had to grit my teeth and head to the local washeteria. I washed the stupid quilt ($5! In quarters!) then stuck it in to dry for 30 minutes, but that's all I could take of families jabbering, kids screeching, everyone jostling for dryers, and no place to sit. I pulled it out, nearly dry, and took it home where I laid it out on the grass under the hot sun to finish drying. It smelled really good two hours later.

I meant to go to the ocean, but somehow that was too much work. It was more fun to sleep late, drowse among the roses, read books, eat popsicles, amuse the cats, watch the Goodwill Games, and mooch around home improvement stores looking for trim to match the back door's original (we failed, not surprisingly -- it's the original trim from 1939). I had a latte at the Persian restaurant down the block instead of making my own coffee, ate lots of restaurant food, and barely managed six loads of laundry in three days. I feel very rested.

Except for the fact that it's 3am and I get up in less than 5 hours. Monday's going to be a doozy.

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