Monday, Monday...

How is everyone today? The day dawned partly sunny and cool, not bad for March.

As we march ever onward toward Spring, I have begun planning my annual home improvement schedule. Last year at this time I was deep into planning my kitchen remodel project, which took place last April. This year it's bedrooms--mine and my brother's former room. It will involve refinishing the original wood floors, new paint, baseboards, etc... Also tentavively on the list is repairing my sometimes-leaky basement. It leaks in the same spot every time it rains unusually hard or over a prolonged period of time. I've scheduled a basement waterproofer to look at it today. I expect it will be a very expensive project, so that's why it's tentative.

My garage door has gotten things off to an unexpected start by breaking a spring on Thursday so I'll be shelling out $300 for a pair of new ones. The repairman clamped it together temporarily and advised me to use it "sparingly," which means 'don't use it because it could break again while your car's inside and then you'd be screwed.' So my car gets parked outside during the 5 working days it takes to get the new springs.

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Enjoyed a nice time celebrating my sister-in-law's birthday Friday night. Her birthday is exactly one month later than my brother's, believe it or not. The Parents and I and them had a nice dinner at Cunetto's House of Pasta (I tried Tiramisu for the first time ever!) then The Parents adjourned to see a movie while the Young Folks adjourned to a hip birthday bash with friends in the city.

I finally saw Cinderalla Man on Saturday night. The roles were cast perfectly, in my opinion and I liked the film.

Another concert with the Metros on Sunday afternoon. The rehearsal was rough Tuesday night so I wasn't expecting a great performance, but we "acquitted ourselves well" as the critics say. It was a gray and gloomy day more suited for sleeping than singing, but we overcame and sang pretty well. One of the singers hosted a swingin' post-concert party at her home deep in the woods of Wildwood, in far west St. Louis county.

The Oscars went pretty much as I thought they would. I'm not a big movie-goer so I had no favorites picked to win. I do like Philip Seymour Hoffman, so I'm glad he won for Best Actor. Especially glad that his career has recovered from "Twister." : )

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