"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

I've been shorting myself on sleep lately, and I was planning on catching up on some of it today. But it's a beautiful day! I don't have quite enough energy to *do* anything (take Rupert for a ride somewhere, go down to Rock Creek Park and hike), but I hate wasting the day. I miss the old house--what would be perfect right now would be a hammock to nap in in the sunshine (OK, so I'd need to wear a fleece and some wooly socks, but still...)

I got something quite remarkable the other day--a letter from the DC Department of Motor Vehicles saying that I had overpaid a parking ticket and they would be sending me a refund check for $25! Now, I'll believe it when I see it, and I think they're right (I paid a ticket in full during the recent amnesty, when they were supposed to discount tickets, but their online system didn't know about the discounts). But, still. DC Parking giving money back. Remarkable.

Also, after having helped john_arundel and gr_c17 empty a minikeg of Newcastle yesterday, plus a few other assorted bottles, I checked my BG this morning, and it was lower than it has been in weeks! Confusing. I've put on a pound or two, but I've not been eating as sensibly as I ought in the last week--that I can fix.

I am going to try and clean at least one room today. If I can do that, and then do one more each Monday and Tuesday, that will be half the flat tidied up, any way... And in other good news, I seem to have managed to save enough to erase my standing deficit (the result of doing most of last year's charitable giving right at the end of the year) and begin putting money into savings again. Thinking of doing away with the cable and landline phone so as to increase the weekly Micawber Figure.

Added some more photos to the library, stuff from my birthday and from one or two recent wargames. And I've been doing some reading; but that needs its own entry.

All this and no April Fool's joke yet!

Foof! That's enough cleaning for now. Bathroom scrubbed (well, salient parts of it) and mopped. All public rooms hoovered (bedroom and study I'll do later). Major items dusted. Kitchen floor mopped and most counters scrubbed. Dishes washed. Boxes broken down and put out for recycling (but I saved a few boxes of packing materials. (Some) bookshelves dusted. Cat toys retrieved from various hidey-holes and consolidated in toy box. What's disheartening is how much more it would take to make the whole place look really *clean*, as opposed to just mildly tidy. Ah, well. Open the windows for a bit to get some fresh air in and then time for a quick shower before company arrives.

So, beautiful weather out, but lots to do inside.

• catch up on readings for current class (Intelligence in Low Intensity Operations)
  
• complete this week's assignment for class
  
• complete *next* week's assignment for class
  
• write personal statement for St Andrew's CSTPV application
  
• write personal statement for U of E criminology application
  
• write personal statement for U of E Islamic studies application
  
• clean apartment
  
• take Rupert for tune-up
  
• complete and file US and MD tax forms for 2009
  
• participate in Battle of Bosworth wargame on Sunday

Yes, a full schedule...

ETA: Slow progress, but progress. Six applications now submitted; one completed and ready to be mailed (e-submission not available); two others require me to have hardcopy of my references for them before I submit. I expect I won't actually get into any of them, but if I got into more than one it would, at this point, actually be hard to decide among them.

And I got the grade back for my last class assignment; 50/50 despite it being late and the prof having some niggles about the formatting (why, tell me why it matters which pitch and font an electronic submission is made?)

There are time I think it's probably just as well to be a bachelor.

I mean, if I had a partner, I'm sure there's some silly reason she would find for making fun of my vacuuming the apartment at 8 in the morning wearing a t-shirt and a pair of fuzzy slippers.* Instead of focusing on the salient point (look, a guy! cleaning! without being asked to, let alone complaining first!), it would be "Mr Sulu, light up the sarcasm torpedos! And warm up the mockery batteries--we may need them if his 'nananana--I can't hear you because of the vacuum' shields are up."

Of course, who am I kidding? I'd love it. Especially since it would mean she was here at 8 in the morning to mock me. :-)

And lest any of you get suspicious (avast loading those torpedos!) of course I'm cleaning up because I have a date tonight. I'm even putting a clean cover on the duvet. But it's not because I'm *expecting* anything. Us old (formerly) married guys know better than to have expectations--you just greet whatever happens with pleasure and surprise. :-) But all the time I spent with the Army** taught me the importance of CONOPS--contingency operations. If someone totally out of the blue _volunteers_ that they would like to come back for a coffee, and the place is two inches deep in cat hair, do you seriously think they're going to stay, let alone come back again? And what's the worst that could happen? You get some healthy exercise and your flat is clean. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bathroom to clean and a kitchen floor to mop...





* No, of course I'm not doing it in the altogether--are you kidding? That would be cold!


** Yes, yes, of course I wasn't actually *in* the Army--you had to bring that up, didn't you? But I got to watch them planning operations a lot. One observes and learns.