01.26.05 - 10:41 p.m.

Missed opportunity of the week:

SCENE: Phone rings. Abby picks it up:

Abby: "Hello?"
Caller: "Hi, is Kumar there?"
What Abby SHOULD have said: "I'm sorry, he went to White Castle with Harold."

Sigh. I'm not one to talk, but there are moments when you should carpe diem,, babe!

So I get back from Arizona. And then we go to DC. And though we missed the "inauguration," we're still punished by having the first blizzard of 2005 dump ALL OVER US, forcing me to stay indoors and be subject to ETK's "cooking," also known as "just this close to raw chicken-induced food poisoning," and then to drag my suitcase all around the Mall looking at culture. Oh, and to be invited to another dreaded BABY SHOWER! I should have just stayed home and buried myself under snow drifts.

Arizona, on the other hand, was delightful, if only for the fact that we got to avoid my father for a good portion of the trip and we got to stake our claim at Pizzeria Bianco. (See Turophile eventually, maybe tomorrow, for a full rundown of that experience.) What with the sun and the BW3 and the Coffee Bean and I swear we did more than eat at chain restaurants unavailable on the East Cost, it was a perfect diversion from the tedium of January in the Tri-State Area. Sleeping past 9:30 multiple days in a row is a vacation in my book.

But now we have gone past the mini-break, and past the snowstorm (which did give me the opportunity to wear the AWESOME STRIPEY WELLIES all week, so OK) and we're in the long stretch until President's Day. My next day off, to which I will cling like a crazy rabid cat to its unsuspecting owner's leg. I will use this time to reinstate the morning yoga practice, getting me into Wedding Shape, to cooking myself a lunch rather than depending on Balducci's for a soup-and-sushi extravaganza every day, and to make more mixes for Pierre. Because one should not neglect Le Pod.

I've had three martinis tonight, by the way. Can you tell?