It snowed last night. Quite a surprise.

Both my daughters got in last night. #1 daughter used to tell us funny Texas stories, but now she lives in Louisiana, so she tells us funny Louisiana stories. #2 daughter had no funny stories, oddly enough, but she did bring a friend.

They had arranged to text The Computer Guy when they got into town. They had texted when they hit the county line and learned that he was still at dinner, but since then had been texting without response. I suggested that they call him.

"What?!" the friend said in mock horror. "You expect us to pick up the phone and call?"

This is No Longer Done.

"Well, you've tried texting. Maybe you should try calling. Maybe the party has gotten wild and he can't hear you."

They assured me that everyone can recognize their text message noise more easily than the phone call noise, since of course no one but their mother ever calls them.

I thought it was silly to continue being vexed at someone's failure to respond but not to try some other means of communication.

"You don't talk with The Computer Guy on the phone, do you?" #2 daughter pointed out.

Of course, I don't, or only in extreme cases. I talk with him via instant messenger. Who talks on the phone? That's so 2005!

Anyway, the three girls were collected shortly after that by Arkenboy, who has lost the beard but still has the elfin grin. Arkenboy is also a computer guy of some variety --network specialist, I think. I assume that both he and The Computer Guy had their reputations enhanced by being out on the town with three pretty girls.

I cannot explain why the girls went on the town with a couple of computer guys. Possibly coincidence, or perhaps they felt they should introduce the two, since they are both local computer guys. A little networking thrown in with the clubbing. However, we have a law student coming for coffee shortly, so I think I will make some quiche and muffins.

From 4:30 to 6:30 this morning, I graded papers. It was on my to-do list for yesterday, but I had meetings, and the gym, and then quantities of work, and of course it was Amazon Vine day so that took up some time as well. Then there was rehearsal last night, and since I didn't drive myself, I was there quite late and got home just after 10:00.

Rehearsal was more fun than grading papers.

Today I have class, and then a meeting, and then I'm doing a storyboard for a video, which is a new experience for me, and finishing up a few websites. Then I have another rehearsal, and then my daughters will be arriving for the weekend, so I hope I will get some housework done in there somewhere. And groceries. And the encyclopedia deadline is tomorrow, and I had a "hurry up" message from the Amazon Breakout Novel Award people, so I plan some further progress on that today as well. Also a visit to the gym, but I have to be realistic.

The next Life@Work question is, "What areas of your life should you start saying 'no to?" Apart from bell choir, where I am stuck until I can find someone else to play the bells for which I am responsible, I can't think of anything I want to say no to.

Oh, well, sure, I'd like to say no to housework and doing my taxes and stuff like that, but I wouldn't enjoy the consequences. I have a meeting today with The Computer Guy, who will be giving me the last 1099 I needed to collect, so I can at least go ahead then and do my taxes and get it over with.

I went to the gym yesterday. I ate no sweets. #2 son said it was fine with him if I gave up sweets for Lent, as long as I provided sweets for the family anyway. I stopped working a couple of times during the day, once to make a healthy lunch and sit down and eat it, and once to walk outside for the mail and refocus my eyes. I stopped working for the day at a reasonable time, made a proper dinner, and walked to church.

The next question in Life@Work is, "How is stress affecting your health?" I don't actually think I'm experiencing any particular degree of stress. But I do think that "the health effects of the geek lifestyle," as internet articles put it, are an issue for me.

Partygirl and I were talking about this recently. Both of us are placid people, or serene if placid sounds too dull. But we also both get our first inkling that we have too much stress in our lives from physical symptoms. She gets a painful, tight jaw, and grinds her teeth, and stuff like that. I wake up in the middle of the night.

Right now, I'm waking up at 4:30 a.m. every day, which feels like the middle of the night, but it's not stress. it's my husband's alarm clock.

Anyway, for both Partygirl and me, we first have these signals and that causes us to think, "Oh, I must be feeling stressed," where I think most people first feel stressed and then have symptoms from it.

That might be because for both of us, stress is often the result of too much good stuff, or change, or some other element of our lives that isn't distressing. We learned that in school -- the difference between distress and eustress -- positive events that are nonetheless stressful because they involve change or problem-solving or something like that.

But there is also the cumulative effect of stress. In doctor's offices, you can see a chart with points for various events and how stressful they are. You add them up for the past year as you wait for the doctor, so you can see how stressed you might be. Back when I was in doctors' offices a lot because I was having babies, I always did this while waiting for the doctor, and the numbers were always very high. So last year,when I lost my job and developed a new one (or two, actually -- I always forget that teaching is a job) and family members moved in and out and my husband was laid off and my daughter divorced and whatnot, well that might have added up to a high stress number. There was actual distress involved in some of that, too.

On the other hand, I also have the benefits of very satisfying work, lots of interesting new friends and colleagues, less financial stress, and the mental elasticity that comes from learning new things.

And the health effects of the geek lifestyle have something to do with stress, too: physical stress. It's bad for our eyes, because we're asking our eyes to do things they aren't adapted for. It leads to "really poor sleep hygiene," as one article quaintly put it, because we're ignoring the physical demands of our physical bodies for sleep, as though we were part of the software for our computers rather than animals. We get back troubles from sitting at a computer for ten hours a day instead of moving around. I think living on delivery pizza and Pop-Tarts is also probably stressful for the body.

Not that I eat Pop-Tarts. But I read that they became much more popular when people started eating in front of their computers instead of having proper meals. They don't leave crumbs on the keyboard, they can be kept in a box next to the computer, and there is some pretense of their being nutritious -- more so than a candy bar, say.

So the health effects for me? Weight gain, and stern words from my optometrist. Are stern words a health effect? I guess the point is that, while I am not currently experiencing any health problems, I see myself going in a direction that clearly isn't good for me. Balance, for me, needs to include better care of my physical health.

Today I am determined to go to the gym again. I have an encyclopedia deadline, papers to grade, and a couple of websites to work on. I have a meeting with the pastor to set an agenda for Sunday's worship ministry meeting. And one of my Brit IT clients wrote me last night to say he would be sending over "a load of work" this morning. Except of course that's this morning his time so I don't know when that will be.

I also need to get music ready for tonight's rehearsal. Last night's rehearsal involved a bunch of '80s Easter music. I don't dislike everything that was composed in the '80s. I don't even dislike all '80s pop music. My boys were teasing me for this, after I admitted that I quite like Steve Winwood's "Higher Love." But much of the music written for churches in the '80s, including the stuff we're doing, makes me feel that we need bouffant hair, lip gloss, and that just-about-to-snap-the-fingers move singers took up during that time period. You know, the arms are bent at the elbows and the fingers are curved together and the singer sort of turns from side to side... no? You missed that? You can see Steve Winwood doing it if you click the link above.

On the up side, I do have all these great pieces from Brian over at BrassMusicOnline. I sang through his "The Holy City" last night, and I'm excited about it. It's dramatic, with a Bach-like accompaniment. I was asked last year to sing this song for Palm Sunday, and I wasn't excited about it at all. It's an 1892 sappy thing, one of those Irish Tenor bits. Brian's arrangement is more like singing Mendelssohn.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, a religious observance among Christians. Some Christians are required to observe Lent by their religious traditions, and given specific guidelines for doing so. Some disapprove of it on the grounds that it isn't scriptural, but a human invention. In the mainstream Protestant churches, Lent is, as our pastor said on Sunday, not a requirement but an opportunity.

It's an opportunity for some deep thought. We can have a Lenten sacrifice or Lenten discipline to help us think.

Lent is a remembrance of the forty days that Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness before the crucifixion, and many people spend Lent contemplating that. They give up soft drinks and, every time they want a soft drink and then remember "oh, no, I can't -- I gave them up for Lent," they consider the suffering Christ endured and compare it with their own suffering and are humbled. This single-minded focus can make Lent a very contemplative time.

I like to do a Lenten study. I already know my own thoughts, and focusing on someone else's thoughts can be surprising and enlightening. I've done studies on Handel's Messiah and on hunger, the environment, God and physics, simplicity, the women of the Bible, and a variety of other topics which must have made less of an impression on me because I can't remember them now. Lenten studies are different, for me, because a well-chosen sacrifice or discipline causes me to be reminded many times during the day of the subject I'm learning about. Done right, Lent can be a spiritual journey that leads to real change in my life.

So this year I'm studying about work. I've already read through the books I'm using, the Life@Work Groupzines, and I was impressed by them, but I was also in a hurry and didn't really answer the questions or do the writing or even look up the scripture verses, so I'm looking forward to the opportunity to work through the books and get the most out of them.

My work life has changed a lot in the past year. Two years ago I was writing about the new thing I had discovered -- SEO -- and my new experience of working from my home as a telecommuter. One year ago, settled into and enjoying my new kind of work, I was also going through uncertainty in the business I worked for, and that culminated ten months ago in my change to freelance work. Now I've gone through the business start-up, I hope, and it's time to move past that and into a more balanced life.

The first reading in Life@Work is about balance, about the idea that we have to juggle our responsibilities and opportunities in the areas of family, community, church, work, and self. We're reminded that there are times when it is necessary or appropriate to devote more time and attention to one than to another -- small children need a lot from us, a new business requires lots of work, a crisis in our health may force us to be self-centered for a while, events in our community may demand our concerted attention. But the authors remind us that the main thing about juggling is the need to keep all the balls in motion, and not to concentrate on any one, lest they all fall down.

The questions ask how comfortable we are with the idea that balance requires constant movement and change, and how we respond to dropping a ball or two -- and how we think we should respond.

I'm not comfortable with the idea that balance requires constant movement, as readers of this diary of mine know. Whenever I feel out of balance, and it has happened many times over the years I've been writing this, I yearn for a return to normalcy. I come up with plans for getting back to that fleeting sense of having a normal life, and am always reminded of the scene in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in which the computer predicts that things will return to normal as soon as we determine what normal is. If I went back through this blog and calculated the percentage of entries in which I'm saying that I need to get back to normal, well, I think I'd be embarrassed by it.

Last night in class we read about the people of Israel's whining in the wilderness. They were subsisting on manna and complaining because they remembered that in Egypt they'd had fish and cucumbers and melons and garlic. It had slipped their minds for a moment there that in Egypt they'd also had slavery and harsh overseers and plagues and stuff. They were, our speaker said, comparing their circumstances with their fantasies about how life was supposed to be.

I do that a lot. That is, in fact, my answer to "How do you respond when you drop a ball or two?" I get het up over it and fret about it until I can get the balls picked up and juggle them again.

Lent is a religious observance, and it therefore makes sense, when faced with a question in a Lenten study, to check out what the Bible has to say on the subject. If you are familiar with the Bible at all, then the verse that comes to your mind when contemplating these questions is very like to be the same one that came to my mind, and to the mind of the authors as well: Philippians 4:4-6, "⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

So, yeah, that's how we should respond to dropping a ball or two. How different might our lives be if we did that?

Our director last night was pointing out the brilliance of Brahms. Brahms is of course one of the big guys, but I've never really been a fan. I wasn't wild about this piece that we're doing, either -- I bought the CD, but didn't really enjoy it. Having all the really clever things he did as a composer pointed out helps some.

But then the director asked, as he analyzed the piece, what key we were in. I looked at the key signature, and tried to remember the rule for deciphering it, but people called out "F" and then "D flat" and then "F" again. The key signature hadn't changed. I searched in vain for some clue. The A sections were in F and the B sections in D flat, and then -- oh, clever Brahms -- there was a C section, with a modulation echoing the original motif!

This sort of thing just serves to show how little I know. However, I do have a practice CD now, so I'll be singing the right stuff even if I'm not appreciating it fully.

I'm also caught up. I was, you may recall, working on fifteen websites, which is a lot. I haven't finished with all of them, but I've turned in a draft for each, so I feel caught up. I also completed the editing for an online magazine I'm working with. They're doing the annual Green issue -- environmental topics -- and I enjoyed reading through all the different perspectives. There was one article which took it as a given that environmentalists were pagans, and probably Wiccans. This includes Al Gore. While I was essentially just checking everyone's punctuation, I did suggest that this author might want to offer some support, or else back off a bit. It's one thing to write an article claiming that people who are concerned about the environment are pagans, and quite another just to assume it and write your article around that assumption. "While environmentalists are pagans," this article was explaining, "you can be careful about your energy consumption without falling into that trap, and here's how."

The part about Al Gore and Wicca came later. There was archaeology involved.

I also got to start reading the Amazon Breakout Novel Award entries. I'm sworn to secrecy on that, I'm afraid, so I can't tell you any of the exciting stuff there.

And today is Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday. A woman at rehearsal last night was telling me that she's going to give up broccoli cheddar soup for Lent.  I'm thinking about giving up sweets. I normally don't consider doing so, since my birthday is always during Lent. I wouldn't want to be forbidden to have birthday cake. However, our pastor says that Sundays are "little Easters" and I could therefore eat birthday cake as long as I did so on a Sunday.

The point of the Lenten sacrifice, for Protestants, is to be reminded of the things you're supposed to contemplate during Lent. Every time you just naturally reach for that bowl of broccoli soup, you're reminded. This is why broccoli soup totally wouldn't work for me -- it just isn't part of my daily routine. Last year I gave up novels. I have in the past given up tea, critical thoughts, and complaining.

However, some people take things up instead. I am taking up a study, along with my friend CD, of the Life@Work GroupZines. I read through them, but I didn't give serious study and contemplation to the points they make, or do all the exercises and questions and stuff. So I think that will be good.

I have no Mardi Gras festivities planned, though I will be making pancakes for breakfast. I'm meeting a friend and prospective client for coffee and talk this morning, and I have a good amount of work to do. I may listen to Brahms, attempting to appreciate his genius.

Princess Smartypants very sensibly suggested that I not hem the blouse if I wasn't going to wear it, so I won't. I did, however, gather up a collection of nice fabrics -- linens and cottons -- for a summer wardrobe. I was always pretty resistant to the idea of having a stash of fabrics, but it's nice to be able to do this without having to go shopping.

I could make a wardrobe of blue and beige, with one wild fruity red blouse.

That is a tropical print lurking in there. Those who read my blog all the time and have total recall will know that my daughters have told me repeatedly that I can't wear tropical prints, and that I do it anyway. However, the print doesn't work with the red at all. It may have to go.

Let me explain about the SWAP concept. The letters stand for "Sewing With A Plan," the idea being that you plan out your sewing ahead of time, and end up with a wardrobe of clothes you can wear together. The rules of this idea were developed by some Australians, but I think they really got solidified as rules when some Canadians began an annual contest. If you follow the rules, then you make 11 garments with two colors:

1 jacket, from a basic color
1 skirt and 1 pair of pants from the basic color
a two-piece dress from a print including both the basic colors
1 skirt or pair of pants from the second color
5 tops in coordinating colors

The object is to make these things with TNT (tried and true) patterns -- that is, patterns which you've made before and fitted properly. That way, the whole process is quick. Everything you make can be worn with every other thing. So when you go to get dressed for work, you can grab any combination of these garments and fling them on and be dressed. If you've done this right, then you have two months' worth of outfits with no repetition, though I think that long before that people would begin to refer to you as "that women who always wears blue and beige."

I'm thinking that I'll make one thing a week and have my SWAP completed by the time I start teaching summer school. If not, then I'll still have an additional piece or two to wear, and that'll be good.

In order to do this, of course, I'll have to corral my work time and schedule some sewing time. Today I have my gym bag packed up, because I am going to go to the gym on the way home from class, as I am supposed to do. I am going to work for eight hours or so, not 10 or 12. I am going to have proper meals, and go to bed early enough to get a reasonable amount of sleep. I have one class to teach, a bunch of papers to grade, one website to write and three needing some other kind of work, and a rehearsal. This is a realistic amount of stuff for one day. This is the plan.

Here's the top I sewed yesterday, waiting for its hems.

It's actually quite  cute. Past papaya, clear to watermelon, but strong colors are nice in warm weather.

And we might have some warm weather at some point.

I have enough more of the fabric to make a matching skirt, and I could wear it at Easter

The trouble is, this fabric is some kind of "linen look" fiber. If it were actually linen, it would drape beautifully and feel nice. Being "linen look," it feels like a very thin and flexible plastic and stands out in improbable poofs. Washing it might help, I suppose.

I know that people wear synthetics all the time. I just can't seem to do it myself. What made people think this stuff was a good idea in the first place, I wonder?

So the decision here is this: do I put in the time to hem this, and figure that I might wear it occasionally, or do I cut my losses, call this a muslin, and make it in linen?

I sewed this yesterday while watching BBC mysteries. They're always so well tailored in those programs.

Getting down to a bit of sewing has caused me to think about the SWAP (Sewing With a Plan) system. I'll be teaching five days a week this summer. It could be fun to come up with a nice little SWAP for the summer. I think I own enough fabrics and patterns to do this with no further shopping, and I have three months in which to do it -- one garment a week, that would come to. It might, by giving me a goal to work toward, encourage me to take the time to sew.

I'm taking the new Easter arrangements to church today. I don't know whether anyone will have time to run through them, or whether my cold has abated enough for me to be able to sing them if anyone wanted to, but we can at least look at them.

We're having another lovely spring-like day, though there are rumors of another ice storm coming our way. I'm still sniffling and sneezing, but feeling reasonably normal otherwise. Somehow, when I have a cold or something, I feel stupid and unable to think clearly. It's probably all that self-pity clogging up my brain.

Last night, #2 son got a voice mail on his phone:
"Ummm... this is Dr. [garbled] calling to say that your HIV test results have came back. And you might have AIDS. So you should go consult with your parents right away.Cause there could be very very bad consequences, like you might die of AIDS and stuff. So call us right away. This is Chet, right?"

#2 son gave blood recently, in celebration of the fact that he now weighs enough to be able to do so, so he had a moment of alarm.

I suggested to him that a) doctors don't call people at that hour, b) if they did, they wouldn't leave a voice message, c) they wouldn't say "have came back," d) they wouldn't tell him to consult his parents, e) they wouldn't be giggling while they said it, and f) the part at the end about Chet was probably supposed to be the punchline.

Phone pranks must be even more appealing to kids now than they used to be, since cell phones allow you to target someone very specifically. On the other hand, cell phones also show your phone number, so it does take away the anonymity. #2 son could just call the number and say "Who's this?"

It gave me an opportunity to talk with him about risky behaviors, of course. What boy doesn't like talking with his mom about risky behaviors?

Today I have to clean house and do grocery shopping. I have a bit of work to do -- I've already done some, including arranging a phone interview for tomorrow afternoon for a new job assignment -- but I'm determined to get some domestic stuff done. I also hope to do a little sewing. I have netflixes I haven't had time to watch, so this seems like a good chance.

Among my hand-me-down fabrics from La Bella were several good lengths of silky stuff of unknown fiber content in salmon and coral shades. These shades are very big for spring, and generally becoming . 

Pantone's color predictions for the spring include a "salmon rose" that is an exact match for one of the fabrics. The others are in the TFL palette predictions for spring and summer, with the cryptic names "ruler" and "net":

And of course all the RTW catalogs are showing these shades, often calling them by fruit names -- mango, papaya, stuff like that.

So I'm thinking of making some interesting tunic or blouse or something with one or more of these fabrics.

Those who know me are scoffing gently at my pretense of following fashion trends. You know that it's mere coincidence. Or, indeed, that it's possible to find practically any color in the predictions if you look around a bit. Never mind. Allow me to pretend.

I'm thinking about this pattern, on the theory that it's fun and easy, yet also allows room for some creativity.

I think it could be worn under a jacket, which is important since I teach in a jacket -- three days a week this spring and five days a week in the summer. It also seems as though once I've made one I could make a few more with variations, getting the TNT benefits without the drawback of feeling like you're wearing the same thing all the time.

I'm also considering Simplicity 2936, which you can see below.

As you can tell, I really like pretty, girly kinds of blouses. I do worry about looking like mutton dressed as lamb in such things, but I'm hoping that making the more unadorned versions and avoiding flowers will at least keep me from looking like the aging choristers in community productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.

Ozarque pointed out, in a comment on my book review from last night, that people in their 50s (like the author of the book in question) can't really be considered "aging." This is no doubt true in medical terms, but in fashion terms, I think the 30s are a cutoff point.

Remember that, oh readers in your 20s, and make a point of wearing as much in the way of satin, lace, frilly stuff, mini skirts, and baby doll tops as possible right now.

There will come a time when that stuff will only work for your nightgowns.

And thus it is also possible that I will use the fabrics in question for a few plain tailored shirts. This will be less fun, but more practical from the point of view of my wardrobe.

Anyway, that's my plan for the day. I intend to take it easy and rest a lot for the sake of rejecting the False Claim of Satan that still has some residence in my throat and sinuses, too, possibly even taking a nap.

In order to do this jam-packed list of fun stuff, I must go right now and get some clothes on. enjoy your weekend.

I've just read What's Age Got to Do With It? by Robin McGraw.

I'd never heard of Robin McGraw before reading this book, though I gather that she's a TV personality.

What kind of job is that? being a personality?

Anyway, this is a fun book. It's a guide to health and beauty for older women, but it's not a serious book that's going to tell you to eat right, exercise, and learn about options for managing menopause. Oh, I mean, McGraw tells you that stuff, of course. It would be irresponsible not to include those things in a book on the subject. But she invites you in, gives you a glass of sweet tea, tells you your shoes are just adorable, asks you to sit down, tells you all about her grandma and how many calories are in a bagel -- girl, you wouldn't believe it! -- and then tells you to eat right and exercise.

So it's basically much more fun.

McGraw seems like a very nice, down-to-earth woman, and we should all have her positive attitude toward aging.

I had a good walk yesterday with Janalisa. We strolled around and about the cemetery, admiring the geese and talking. Janalisa had had a dream about me and my need to plan meals.

I don't know how many billable hours I've had this week, but a lot. I have lots lined up for next week, too, and a couple of interesting new prospective clients: a color analyst (actually, that should be colour analyst) and a hairdresser who is apparently based in the Cayman Islands, or possibly in San Francisco. One communication appeared to be from Tijuana. I always use hairdressers as my example of people who have to work on site, no matter how flat the world gets, but I may have to change that. He wants to negotiate on price, which I don't normally do -- I have different categories of service at different prices, but I'm not a discount house -- but I'm hoping I can work something out for him, just because of the sheer coolness of his web work.

I have a class for the summer and three for the fall, I have steady work from a variety of sources, I've mastered the whole billable/unbillable thing, I should at this point be able to focus a little on daily life again.

• Getting to the gym or out for walks regularly, not once a week.
• Planning meals and then cooking and eating them, not throwing out pounds of fresh produce after a week of carry out and cold cereal for dinner.
• Spending time with my husband and children, not just being in the same room with them wishing they'd be quiet so I could work better.
• Enjoying music, not racing to and from rehearsals and never looking at the music in between.
• Keeping house and enjoying my home.
• Knitting and sewing with the pleasure of creating (I'm not sure that hemming #1 son's pants counted).

I really love my work, so if I can attain some semblance of normalcy in my non-work life, I would then have complete happiness and perfection.

Obviously, this is not a realistic goal.

It does seem to me, though, that I should be able to clean house and take minimal care of my health and watch my netflixes. This seems like a reasonable goal.

The arranger over at BrassMusicOnline has made for me an absolutely amazing arrangement of "Behold the Lamb." I've only had time to glance at it, but it looks as though he put the melody in the alto line, in which case he's an absolute baa-lamb for doing so, because we hardly ever get the melody. He's made a couple of soprano harmonies, and then he put in two flutes, a violin, a piano, an electric bass, and a couple of different percussion parts, one of which he suggests could be played by the violinist in her spare time. I'm not sure we have the personnel for this piece, but it would certainly be cool if we could get it together.

You can tell that he's an orchestral musician. I think my commissions for him have probably contributed to the elasticity of his brain.

He doesn't know where to put the vocal parts in the score, because as an orchestral musician he doesn't see vocal parts. When you sing with an orchestra, as I usually do a couple of times a year, you learn that those guys don't have the same music we singers do. This is the point of rehearsal letters, so that the director doesn't have to give a different page and measure number for each instrument. He also doesn't care much about the lyrics. He sticks in "Ahh" or "ooh" or even "uhh," a syllable I've never previously seen suggested as something to sing, whenever he wants to put in some notes and can't see a way to hook it up with the words. Sometimes he just stops adding any lyrics at all to the vocal parts -- he'll have three bars of notes with no suggestion of how he thinks the lyrics might fit in. We'd feel silly going "uhhh" all that time.

But, man, his stuff is beautiful. I'm looking forward to the Easter music.

Ash Wednesday is coming up. I have a Lenten study planned, with my friend CD as my study partner, but I haven't settled on a Lenten sacrifice. One year, The Empress and That Man decided that their lives were hard enough without attempting any sacrifice. My life is not hard, but it is on the complex side. Possibly I should give up whining.