A "me" day

The past month or two it seems like I've been either working or traveling almost every weekend. I'm not complaining--I like my job, some of it's my own fault, etc. But the bottom line is that I've been feeling the need to take a day off. A "me" day, if you will. So I decided that today would be that day. How nice to have a day to do nothing! But I didn't actually do nothing. Instead I did the following:

--Slept late (all the way to 8:15am...crazy!)

--Watched a DVD I had rented and had to return by tomorrow (Dirty Pretty Things, about the shadow world of illegal immigrants in London. I enjoyed it even if it sometimes lacked subtlety...and really, two hours spent watching Audrey Tautou is never a bad thing.)

--Avoided shoveling the wet, heavy snow that accumulated on our sidewalk overnight because it would probably melt anyway (which it did).

--Caught up on a month worth of filing and paying bills.

--Chatted with Gretchen, who is having a great time in Wisconsin but of course misses me more than words could ever possibly describe (she didn't necessarily say that, but I think I heard it in her voice).

--Went to a real live movie theatre to see Syriana. It's confusing, perhaps paranoid, features a rather unpleasant torture scene...but I would still have to give it a thumbs-up for being well-made, well-acted and timely, and seeing it get ripped by the Washington Post's resident neo-con almost made me like it more.

--Had a nice bratwurst and rösti and beer dinner in the stübli
at Zum Braunen Mutz.

So, a good day. And more about curling tomorrow...