Mom leaves today. I'm sad about this fact, but thrilled she doesn't leave until this evening.

Mom asked if we could still head out for frozen yogurt, which I had promised her a couple days ago, and to which I happily agreed. On our way back, I suggested, since we're unable to stick to the four hour work day, that we set monthly goals for ourselves. I was struck by Erica Douglass' tweet question last month:

Biz tip: 1st day of the month! Have you plotted out your goals for this month? What will be awesome to achieve by 6/30?

and wanted to try out a list for this month.

Mom was enchanted by the idea also, so out came the cards and down went the list. My list is:

1. A working demo of themegeni.us
2. Theme support for open source themes working on the site
3. Weigh 125#
4. Balance lengthwise for 5 seconds on the foam roller with both arms and legs straight up in the air
5. Blog daily
6. Call Mom and Dad every week
7. 30 pushups without stopping
8. Donate clothing
9. Doctor appointments for neck, knee, lyme and tentatus
10. Have the kitchen clean before going to bed each night
11. Redesign my blog

The first one is the hardest, but I've already started on it.

The theme support is an idea I've had for a long time.

I didn't think weighing 125 pounds was going to be hard, until I realized my scale is off by 5 pounds. In the wrong direction.

If I can balance length-wise on the foam roller for five seconds, our pilates instructor said she'd buy us all a frozen yogurt. Given that this seems to be the only way to get her to come out with us, I'm up for the challenge.

I've been blogging daily, just haven't been pointing much, since my blogging server ran out of disk space a month or so back.

Calling Mom and Dad weekly I don't think will be difficult. I was humoured, however, that Mom wrote down the goal as "Call Mother/Dad weekly," since "Mother" is how she addresses her mom.

Thirty pushups will be a challenge, since I can do only about 15 in a row at the moment. I'd like to do these from my feet, not my knees, also.

Donating clothes is going to be more tedious that difficult, as I'm more able to part with ill-fitting (think: men's large shirts) clothes than I used to be. I'm not, however, able to part with them without taking pictures of them so that I know where they went.

Doctors appointments are ones that I've been meaning to get to or in the process of doing for a long time. My neck I've been complaining about for a year or so, with the doctor pooh-poohing me each time. My knee is in the process of getting magnetized to see what's up. I need to be checked for Lyme's disease, based on various symptoms I've been having and the multiple tick bites I've had in the last four years. And, since I work in the soil a lot, a tetanus booster would be a good idea.

With the heat these last few days, ants have been coming in and seeking the relatively coolness of the house. The compostable items in a bowl on the counter hasn't been exactly a deterent either. So, keeping the kitchen clean has been a complete necessity. That, and I'm in the process of cleaning out the kitchen window anyway, so it works for me.

And, I've been meaning to redo this site, removing the focus from the ME ME MY-LIFE ME personal aspect, and more into the ME ME ME THIS-IS-INTERESTING-TO-ME personal plus not-so-personal aspect.

So, lets see how this goes. I'm doing okay so far.

Mom and I were going to head out a local fabric store to purchase supplies to make a good cover for Homer, my new Kindle. I didn't really want to take the Kindle with us, since, well, the purpose was to make a good cover to protect the Kindle, and I worried about taking it without a cover. So, I did the next best thing to taking Homer with us: I made a mock-up.

I've been walking around with this for a couple days. It needs a third layer of cardboard and about 20 pennies taped to the inside so that the weight is correct. Other than that, it's a good, entertaining likeness.

Before today, I had never made a chocolate souffle for Mom. Which is sorta odd, given how many chocolate souffles I've made, especially recently.

So, before she left, I fixed that.

Yes, there actually is a chocolate souffle under all that whipped cream.

Mom and I celebrated my birthday today. She told me about the surprise party she had planned, how both my brothers were going to be there, and how Kris was going to fly in, and Sam and Jackson were going to be there, and how everyone was going to meet up at a sports bar where we were "waiting for Eric to come over after work." My nose flushed and I, once again, started crying at just what I had messed up by not flying out. Stupid stomach flu / food poisoning / sympathetic pains!

This evening, to celebrate, I made Mom (and Andy who came over - yay!) chocolate souffle, as I had, to my surprise, never made a souffle for her, and she was craving chocolate cake. I have to say that tonight's souffles were probably the best I'd ever made.

While various parts of dinner and dessert were cooking, Mom asked me if I wanted to celebrate my birthday exactly now, and open up the various gifts she brought with her. Gifties? Sure!

She handed me the first one from Eric, which was, I have to say, a little rumpled from the travel.

Before:

After:

To Kris' completely honest statement about his wife being a shaker, I shook the box. I noticed it looked smaller than its before picture from earlier this week. Wondering if I mis-remembered the picture she had sent earlier, I felt the box's shape, tested its indentations, sniffed it, and, just to make sure it was really mine, licked it. I then started to open it.

As soon as the box was exposed, I started laughing. Mom started to say something, but I was completely incapable of answering, as I was laughing so hard at the box. Yes, it was smaller than the before picture, because it was cut in half:

When I pulled out the gift, I noticed I had one of a pair of earrings. "It's a pearl earring," I said looking up at Mom, who was sitting there smiling ear to pearl-earring'd ear. She tilted her head and my new pearl earring's twin flashed on her ear. "Yes," she answered.

Eric had given Mom and me matching earrings. Mom often wears singleton earrings of matching styles, a single pearl possibly being a singleton. The earrings were different than any other set she has. I pulled out the alcohol to clean my ear lobe and the earring stem, received a lesson in pearl care, and popped the earring in.

I have to say, we are quite the matched set.

Mom and I may have to work out a timeshare on the full pair, but for the moment, when I wear my earring, I'm going to think of both the wonderful woman wearing its match, and Eric for the reminder of how amazing she is.

Thanks, Eric!

Five years ago today, we were standing here.

Five years ago today, we were surrounded by over a hundred amazing, accomplished, wonderful people, who, magically, were here to see us.

Five years ago today, to the heavy shaking yes of my mother's head, I told you I would always use an argument not to win, but to understand you better.

Five years ago today, to the heavy shaking yes of your mother's head, I told you I would always be waiting outside of that cave, waiting for when you decide to come out.

Five years ago today, I promised you I would try my hardest to live up to the good I see in you.

Five years ago today, I promised you a baseball team for your 50th birthday party.

Five years ago this hour, I smooshed a cupcake up your nose.

I totally won that one.