I have a new piece of kid art here in my office! Thank you, Morgan!

Didn't stay with the diet today, I worked at a reception (but I didn't eat cake, just fruit, spring rolls, and a couple of pot stickers) and I had an early dinner with an acquaintance from work. More non-diet food, but not a lot of it. I did climb the stairs a couple of times.

The friend I ate with was mostly his normal self, but when we walked out of the restaurant he asked if I had a few more minutes, and we talked in my truck. He cares for his senior-citizen brother, mentally retarded and high-maintenance. His family is spread around, several other brothers are glad to not have to help. This friend was diagnosed with prostate cancer this week. He doesn't seem to have a lot of information, and needed to tell someone, but doesn't want to talk with any of his former co-workers (he retired this year) or family. I'm not close, and though I like him as a friend, I don't want to be in a relationship. I'll keep an eye on him, and hopefully steer him into a support group.

It's chilly out tonight; I have been puttering around the house, doing a few dishes, folding laundry. I'm going to start smelling burning fire wood more often now, but I don't build a fire here. I have some great candles in the fireplace, though. I'll clear off the hearth, a lot of stuff has accumulated there. It's time to start looking into some of the decorating stuff, in particular, the lights I'll put on that limb I put in the pot in the house.

I cleared off a table in the kitchen, moving the microwave and the toaster to other surfaces. I'll put the table in the folded down position in the hall for now (with two drop leaves in the down position the table is only 12 or 14 inches deep and about 3 feet wide.) I'd prefer to keep this and get rid of a couple of other pieces that take up space, but those other pieces hold more stuff. So what to do with the stuff? But something I have thought about a lot. I could stack my flat shipping shipping boxes on top of the table I just moved and stack sales items underneath. And move out the hutch--it's a pressboard WalMart piece that I painted to make it look better. It's a thought.

I think in addition to putting away folded laundry and cleaning the hearth, I'll go scrub down the tile and tub in the master bath. It's getting cool enough to be hot bath season.

SRS