Technically right now I am violating my self-imposed Internet embargo for today, an exercise in self-restraint that I've been calling "Internet Free Sundays." But if a weekend in the future is as productive and rewarding as this one has been, I would gladly do it again.

Elissa and I were busy little social bees this weekend. A got a late start to the day and spent a few hours blissfully relaxing in the hammock in between cleaning the kitchen and my bedroom and doing laundry. I have many obvious mosquito bites on my leg from those hammock forays but due to a constant influx of loratadine, I feel no pain. In between I managed to sneak in 3 successful (out of 11 attempts) Field Day contacts from my home station.

After a morning at our respective houses, Elissa and I met up at mine and headed out to the first of two evening parties: Melissa's going away party. We arrived before anyone at the scheduled start time of 7pm and were entertained by the host with a viewing of Dark City, nacho dip and offers of beers and soda. Sometime around 8:30 the guest of honor finally arrived (with an excellent excuse and to friendly jeers of "Melissa time" anyway) and after we got a chance to hang out in the lovely weather on the back porch with her, Elissa and I made our way back up to Parkville for the PDF Decom BBQ at Mike and Joanna's place.

This morning in lieu of sitting on the Internet and being boring, we went out to the Shambala Center in Charles Village for morning meditations, followed by brunch at Tambers (an old custom for Elissa, a fairly new one for me). We were going to head directly over to Phil and Rebecca's place for Phil's 32nd birthday, but had scheduled it a little early in our calendars.

With some time to kill before the party we did some essential shopping for pet supplies and new shoes. Now my kittens have yet another 40 pound supply of cat litter, a water bowl with a stand-up reservoir and a less tippable cat food bowl. Elissa's sister's dog Roger now has a new dog bed and tennis balls. I have a lovely new pair of work-casual shoes to replace the white sneakers I've been wearing for the last few weeks since I threw out my last neglected pair of shoes.

Phil's party was lots of fun and featured a series of 80's movies including Labyrinth and Dark Crystal. We had an excellent time but I was still exhausted from the night before, the meditation this morning, and a series of somewhat sleepless nights lately. We left after a few hours and proceeded to descend on the messes in my house in a fury.

I inspired Elissa to an energetic state by sweeping up my office/bedroom and putting all my books and reference stuff back into place. As I headed down to finish laundry, she was attacking the bathroom with a vengance. I've been pretty good about keeping up on things so there was only the usual cleaning and disinfecting for her to do. Meanwhile I loaded up the dishwasher, turned over the compost in the backyard, and washed the sheets and the week's (small load of) collected laundry.

Now I'm laying back in a clean room, with only a few soaking dishes from my delicious chicken breast, rice and vegetables dinner in the sink, every article of clothing I own except for the clothes I wore today clean and waiting to be sorted, a tidy backyard, happy cats, and a spotless bathroom.

#6951

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