Hi!

So I didn’t go to work for three weeks, but my back still hurts. Oh well, we gave it a shot. I think maybe with a year off, my back would heal. But that ain’t likely, so we’ll go with cortisone shots and acupuncture.

I am a believer in acupuncture. But it does take time, esp for an organ like the back. Last week the doctor stuck a single needle in my foot for 15 minutes, and for the rest of the day my foot pain had vanished. It did return however. I am going to ask for a lot more of that on Thursday.

What else has been going on… I wrote a polite/nasty letter to the manager of the Macy’s store where Brian bought my engagement ring last year. I had picked it out, and in our naivete, we didn’t notice at the time that not only was the ring a piece of junk, but the one we picked up after the “resizing” may have been a totally different ring. The stone was nearly black. I grew disillusioned, and we chose last fall to do something different, and repurpose a ring my mother gave me by setting a diamond into it. So we planned that, and I finally took the sapphire ring to an appraiser last week.

It’s worth about $400. Oh I didn’t tell you what Macy’s was selling it for! $1800. Except it was “half price” (only a 200% markup!) when Brian bought it. The whole thing was a swindle. The appraiser was very derisive. “Made in China,” he sniffed, derisively.

So I relayed this whole story to the manager, Mrs Randolph, in writing, and put it into the mail on Monday. I should be quite shocked to get any reply. But I did let her know that this whole situation made it very easy for me to delete my Macy’s wedding registry, which I have done.

Anyway. The cats were very happy to see me every day. Sasha wanted to play a lot, and he had a lot to tell me about, too. I discovered a few weeks ago that my indoor-only cats have developed fleas. WTF. Oh well. I bought the skin treatment for them and hope it will do something. Could the rodent problem in our garage have anything to do with it? The pest guy came and set these gigantic traps next to the garage door. I don’t see why we don’t just let the cats down there for a couple hours a day. If anything it would scare rats away. Since I don’t know that my spoiled and lazy cats would be any good at hunting.

It rained a lot while I was on leave. Magically the skies cleared this weekend, and now that I am back at my desk, it’s 70 degrees every day. SIGH. But that does signal something else: baseball is about to start again. I wonder how it will go this year. The Giants have such an “old” team. The A’s have the opposite problem, very young pitching rotation. Maybe it will all work out, I don’t care, I’m just glad baseball is back. Poor Brian has to put up with me and my game for the next six months.

We are planning to get the new car in May — a red Toyota Prius. I’m giddy about it. Every time I am standing around for 30 minutes waiting for a goddamn Muni bus, I am even more giddy about it. We have to get on the 8-week waiting list this month. I did some car insurance research this weekend, I am thinking we may use AAA. I have a spotless driving record, and Brian only has the one little spot, so we should be okay.

This weekend we tasted our wedding desserts and they were divine. Stephen has some creative ideas. The crust for the lemon tartlets is made from crushed pine nuts (plus the usual flour, butter, egg). The chocolate cake is just perfectly bitter. That was something I enjoyed about it; nothing was too sweet. Oversweetening ruins desserts for me.

So I guess I have been pretty busy. And with the wedding in less than seven weeks, I guess I will only get more busy. I think we have planned everything pretty well though. There are only a few loose ends to tie up: Brian’s shoes and shirt, the vows, catering last meeting, and planning some stuff to do on the honeymoon. I’d like to get massages or go to a hot springs or something. And lots of hiking.

It will be nice to not be “planning a wedding” anymore. It really is a year-long project. I want the marriage to start! We even have the license…