Tuesday mornings, Kris is usually up and out the door by 7:30 am, taking Annie for her happy, happy, joy, joy, all-day hike. Since that isn't happening, I seized on the free morning with Kris and suggested breakfast together.

Imagine - breakfast together on a weekday morning. Together. Breakfast.

Uh, yeah.

Sleep holds a much stronger draw, unfortunately.

We woke up late, snuggled under the comforters for a long while, then finally crept out of bed when we realized the squeaking noise we kept hearing wasn't construction noise from across the street, but rather Annie's stomach growling. "I guess I better feed the dogs," muttered Kris as he rolled out of bed.

We went to Starbucks for a quick pastry for me, pastry and coffee for Kris. We've been ordering much the same items each time we go, that Kris has started handing me cash and standing to the side to see if I can get the "grande drip, room for milk, morning bun and chocolate croissant" order correct. Apparently, coffee drinkers use the term "room for cream" not "room for milk," so I deliberately use milk to annoy them all.

The cashier was very friendly to me. "How are you doing?" "What do you have planned for today?" "Oh, what fun!" and "I hope everything works well for you today!" I usually don't have conversations with the Starbucks people, though I'm sure they recognize me by now as the woman who never buys coffee. "There she is, the milk lady again."

So, I handed Kris his coffee, and walked with him to the milk table. As I was reaching for the napkins, I saw a flash of white to my left, followed by a, "Sorry, babe."

I looked over to see Kris covered in milk from his stomach down, a puddle of milk at his feet. I looked up to his coffee, to see the lid of the half and half floating in his coffee cup, the half and half thermos still tipped in his hand.

I looked up at him. "I blame the barista and her 'hope everything works well for you today.'"

"Yeah, she jinxed us."

"Yeah."

Good thing these getting organized tasks have easy ones in the middle. Given they're building up, and I'm up to 7 organizational tasks each day (turning all of Kris' hangers every day is getting tiring), and I'm running out of work time with all of them.

Not really.

But today's is an easy one:

Years ago, I learned the trick of touching mail once. Each piece of mail is touched once before dealing with it. If it's a bill, it's opened immediately, check written (yes, I still write checks, I like writing checks!), envelope stuffed, flap sealed, stamp added. If it's junk mail, the envelope goes into the trash if it has a plastic window (which are retarded, by the way), any paper with my address on it goes into the shredder, and all other paper goes into the paper recycling bag.

If it's a catalog, well, the pages with my address on them go into the shredder, an the rest goes into the paper recycling bag. I'm currently working on the austerity program, and spending money from a catalog doesn't really work with the program. Chances are, if I don't have a gift certificate, it's not in the budget. It happens.

So, yeah, another easy day, since the suggestion is already a habit.

Today's suggestion is actually a pretty good one:

It's basically reducing overwhelming tasks into smaller, managable tasks, but for physical objects instead of non-physical things like to-do lists.

I wonder if I can compartmentalize my index cards...

Probably not. So, I tried my desk drawer. I really should have taken a before picture, because 10000 words would not describe the disaster of that drawer. It was basically full to the top with stuff: office supplies, paper, keys, stamps, return address labels, more office supplies, and crap.

I had one little dish in the drawer that was overloaded. The dish was from Max and Rosa's wedding, one of the guest gifts. I asked if I could have a set of the extras they had, after snagging Kris', Ben's and Lisa's dishes. They're adorable little fishes.

They're also perfect in my desk drawer:

I give this desk drawer one month before reverting to disaster state. It'll be a pleasant month.

Somehow I managed to wake up this morning to go to class with Kris. I think it's the first time in about a month I've managed to go. Given how much I hurt this afternoon, I'd have to say I shouldn't have waited so long.

This morning's workout was three rounds of:

10 squats with weight
20 each leg of inverted hamstring Ts to one legged sprinter's stance
30 GHG situps
8 x 50 runs

The 10 squats with weight were standard squats with a weighted barbell across the shoulders. I managed just the barbell in my squats. At least it was the heavy barbell. The squats were lower than Kris normally goes, but my normal depth, with hamstrings parallel to the ground.

I should have realized when Breanne emphasized the hamstrings in the first exercise this was going to be a hamstring focused workout.

I couldn't really figure out how to name the inverted hamstring Ts to one legged sprinter's stance exercise. Start standing on one leg, bend over at the waist, keeping the upper body straight, to touch a cone, forming a T with the outstretched arm and the backward leg. Then, stand up, staying balanced on one foot, bringing as the back leg forward, knee up high. The stance is very much like a sprinter's running stance with the high knee and opposite arm up. That's one. Do 20 on one leg, then 20 on the other leg.

Phew!

The 30 GHG situps where on the back extension machine, but face up. The situps are supposed to be from way low (Breanne does a backbend to where she's nearly looking over backward at the floor), all the way up. The closer the two machine pieces are together, the harder the situps are. I moved the two pieces close. The situps were hard.

My only thought on the 8 x 50 runs was, "Thank goodness they weren't supposed to be 8 x 50 meter sprints." My legs were tired after the third round.

Kris managed four rounds during my three rounds, but I was happy to finish the three rounds in the class time.

I took the train back south to Sunnyvale after class. I had breakfast/brunch/lunch in downtown Sunnyvale, and spent some time working in the morning at a cafe. I couldn't justify staying longer than an hour or two, though. I felt I should buy more food to use the wifi longer. I was probably fine, as I've seen people site at that cafe all day before, and there were other people there before and after me. I didn't feel comfortable with it, though. Maybe I'll check out the library later this week.

I did see one of my city's councilwomen meeting with various men at the cafe, listening to them for over an hour. I was impressed.

After a while, I decided to head home. I packed up my bag and headed home. The walk home is only 2.4 miles, but my bag was way too heavy. I had reduced the weight before leaving this morning, but just didn't take enough weight out. I'll need to reduce even more. Maybe carry 2 magazines or a tech book, not both?

Today's Getting Organized tip read:

Clearly the author of this tip doesn't have dogs, and definitely doesn't have beagles. Leaving food out overnight? Uh, that's as close to being sane as enjoying the sensation of white hot forks of displeasure.

Besides, pouring liquid into a bowl of cereal is NOT the proper way to eat cereal. As if any sane person would put the cereal into a bowl, then pour milk over it. Way to guarantee yourself a miserable SOGGY bowl of cereal. Yum.

This tip also assumes you don't eat Sugar Corn Pops, er, Corn Pops, the "sugar" part gone the way of the dodo in this "healthy" breakfast world. The Corn Pops would be staler than a two week old loaf of bread.

Ick.

Stale and soggy cereal?

No thanks. I'll pass on this tip, and eat my yogurt cold and my oatmeal hot, thankyouverymuch.

Oh, and the "coffee" part? Yeah, that would be the other K in the house. The one not getting organized.