There is nothing like a fantastic work-out...

...To get your creative juices flowing. I've been having in an academic idea stalemate, which while not solved, might be getting better. I was in line for spinning class and ended up talking to a women's study professor about dissertations. Something about the stories she told me triggered something in my brain, and I had to go to the front desk to get a pen and scrap paper to write down my thoughts. Then I had a few more ideas during class. I'm sure everyone in the locker room thought I was crazy sitting there writing as fast as I could. Now if only something will come of one of these papers.

All By Myself

Mr. DB is away at a conference in Vancouver for the next five days (lucky duck!). That means I have the apartment to myself. I have big plans. I would like to think that I am going to give the place a complete spring cleaning, work out every single day, and come up with a brilliant dissertation topic, but that would be unrealistic even in my wildest dreams. So instead, I'm going to limit myself to five achievable goals (five days - five goals, cute huh?).

1. Pick up my knitting needles again and knit at least a few minutes every day
2. Clean my desk
3. Work on the paper that has been hanging over my head for over a year now
4. Finish all the laundry (working on that right now!)
5. Work out three times

Let's see how it goes. Do you have any big plans for the weekend?

I Think I Have a Problem with Twos

Within the first half hour of getting up, I:

• Woke up to the alarm from one of the 2 iPhones (mine)
• Got up and fed my 2 cats
• Turned on one coffee grinder and espresso machine and then made my coffee with another grinder and the drip machine (that's 2 grinders and 2 coffee makers*)
• Had to choose between 2 open types of coffee
• Turned on my 2 computers

I'd like to pretend all the duplicates are because we merged households, but in all honesty, most of it is mine. I guess I have not mastered the art of simplicity. 

*This is a total necessity. I do not know how to use the espresso machine- that is Mr. DB's territory. But I get up before him and need caffeine to function. We got the second grinder yesterday because both of our grinds were not quite right because we were switching back and forth between espresso and drip. I think in the long run, two grinders will mean much less wasted coffee and much better tasting coffee. Oh, and if you do not normally grind your coffee, go buy a grinder and some whole bean coffee today. I was skeptical, but I am now a convert. The coffee is MUCH better and it does not take too much longer, even for someone like me who makes coffee still 75% asleep.