the definition of procrastination

I have 5 books to review and I feel like a tool because that's all I seem to do here at Holley's House anymore. Not that it isn't a good thing to do, but this is Holley's House, not Holley's Book Review Blog. So, while books are certainly an important part of my house, there is so much more here...or at least I want there to be. I'm certainly going to try to do better.

In an extremely ADD/oh look there's a chicken/I like glitter move, I'm going to change the subject drastically!

Katie invited her mom, her sister, and I over on Saturday for margaritas and to view some recent super special home improvements. The new carpets were v.v. nice and Doug's margaritas were RoCkIn (as usual!) so after dinner we obviously had to celebrate our tequila buzzes with a few rounds of Mad Libs! Do you know of the wondrous Mad Libs? If not, get thee to a Cracker Barrel or book store and ask for them by name! This was the Adult Mad Libs version so we kept having to shoo the girls out every now and then as the fun sometimes strayed into more crass areas but it was SO much fun! Zippy got all of the funniest rounds. Either my reading or my luck was rotten with all of the ones I filled in and read but even those got us to giggling. I'm hoping Katie might blog one of the more innocuous but funny stories. We'll see.

Can I tell you just how much I hate having to ask my mother for money? A-LOT! It was just enough for a few groceries and gasoline until payday on Friday but it is still very humiliating to just barely miss supporting yourself. I have got to get my more frivolous spending habits under control but I have become accustomed, over the past several years, to having just enough money to pay my bills and do a few fun things but now those few fun things are not quite so easy to come by but I still feel entitled to them. If the weather will just cool off enough to make the grass quit growing, I'd free up $200-$300 a month. Now that I type this, that must be where the majority of my extra money is going.

I may have to break down and get a lawn mower next summer...maybe a little cheap one this winter if I find one on sale. I'll just have to buckle down and do it myself. I did do it before I started grad school but I didn't have time afterward and fell into the habit of letting someone else go to the trouble. Now I'm two years removed from graduation and the thoughts of resuming the task are odious. With a push mower (like I can afford), I have to cut the grass every 6 days and it takes me two week days to do it or a half day on the weekend. At least it was good exercise.

I did not have a good week food choise-wise and it will no doubt show in the morning's weigh in. I'm not going to get all hung up on it since I'm about 80 pounds down since Feb 2008 and it would be foolish to go off the deep end because I had a bad week. I think I'll read The End of Overeating again to re-adjust my scope, so to speak.

I'm reading The Art of Racing in the Rain right now and there is a great quote that sort of runs throughout the book from the perspective of several characters: "That which you manifest is before you." So true. I've really got to work on what I'm manifesting for myself because it isn't heading in a great direction right now. I'm stressed about my money, I'm 99.9% sure I have a mouse under my dishwasher, and I'm eating everything in sight like that sand-devouring Transformer from the last movie. I've come too far to have a serious stumble now.

So, exercise in the morning! Ask me about it if I don't post it here first thing in the morning!

P.S. Oh yeah! I'm also freaking completely out because a fellow librarian and I are doing a radio interview on Tuesday morning about Alabama's statewide Big Read next spring. I will not vomit. I will not vomit. I will not vomit.