DH has been after me for about a year or so to take some time off. Go somewhere. Rest. This weekend I finally took him up on his offer. After a little bit of hemming and hawing (OK, a lot of hemming and hawing) I decided to avoid wasting any of my precious time off on traveling and just hole up in a very nice downtown hotel. I found a great deal at a little boutique hotel with a lovely view, twenty-four hour room service and a patio with a hot tub.

Last night I went out to dinner with a couple of girlfriends, (Hi, Denise!!!!) followed by a luxurious nine hours of sleep. I’d forgotten that it was even possible to sleep that long.

Today it became clear that I had cleverly managed to time the weekend off to coincide with the onset of the latest version of the Pacific Northwest Creeping Crud. I managed to venture out for short while this morning, walked around in the rain, got a latte and shopped at Nordstrom. By noon I was done for the day. I spent the afternoon resting. Sounds dull, but it was actually nice. I knitted and watched the clouds roll past the Brewery Blocks. It was really beautiful.

My big evening plans are to eat, sit in the hot tub and then perhaps watch a pay-per-view movie. By tomorrow I should be completely healed and ready for our local FCC Chinese New Year Celebration.

Researchers at the University of Iowa are reporting that they have observed chimpanzees “skewering a tree creature for supper with a spearlike tool”. To the best of my knowledge this is the first time chimps have been seen making weapons.

The bush baby-stabbing chimps were most commonly adolescent females.

Don’t mess with the ladies.

Judie brought the Cupcakes a little gift for Valentine’s Day.

Cupcakes!!!! Judie brought us CUPCAKES!!!!!

Cupcakes are yummy!!

This beats the heck out of creamed spinach.

When does Valentine’s Day happen again?

I clearly got a double-dose of the Protestant work ethic, at least the part of it which taught us that idle hands are the devil’s workshop. I’m absolutely no good at idleness, or “relaxing” as my husband calls it. And all it really takes to make me proud of myself is a nice list of Things I Got Done Today, preferably one which includes a lot of dull, dreary manual labor I would rather avoid.

Todays’ list was a good one. We now all have clean clothing. The Cupcakes have clean sheets, blankets and daycare blankets. I assembled the girls’ daycare Valentines (bonus points for making the envelopes and leaving the envelope decorating supplies as an art project for DH to do with the Cupcakes all by themselves this afternoon). I cleaned the kitchen. I actually cooked a real dinner. I started my project for my sewing class. But, best of all, I made chocolate pot de creme for dessert.

Ahh…I love a nice feeling of accomplishment.