Got back from our San Francisco vacation last night! (MonkeyMama, did you see me waving to you from Japantown? ) It was fabulous. We spared no expense since it was only a five-day vacation; typically in the past we do a nine-day vacation and have to watch our spending, so this actually felt more luxurious than a longer vacay. I took today off too, so now I have a 3-day weekend in which to catch up on things and relax.

I was sick the entire week before, so I do have some things I'm behind on. I don't like being late on things, but I'm trying not to stress out too much because it's nothing earthshattering, or that I won't be able to catch up on today or tomorrow.

First off, my budgeting; I use a manual spreadsheet to track our balance, different line items, and future income and expenses, so if I don't update it every couple days it becomes a mess. I think it was the Wednesday before last that I updated it, so I've got a heck of a lot of work to do, especially with all the vacation spending. I may not get a to-the-penny balanced budget and will then need to take money out of (or add to, if I'm wrong in the other direction) one of my standing line items such as grocery/household or the lawyer fund, to get my bottom line back where it should be. That sometimes happens when it's been a while since I last updated it.

Besides the budget spreadsheet, I have to send in a character reference for my friend who's applying to the MN bar. (He's been a lawyer in other states but recently moved back here.) It was due Wednesday but I didn't notice the deadline when I was sick, then forgot to bring the form on vacation with me. But we called them while in SF and they said a day or two over the deadline wouldn't affect anything. Whew! I'll try to get it filled out and scanned/emailed or faxed from somewhere.

I'm a little late on the daycare check, in that it was due Monday. But they haven't had to watch AA this week so I doubt they noticed. They still owe me a receipt for the first four weeks anyway, which I've asked for three times now. I'll take the check over today. We're going to drop AA off at daycare today so we can have the day to relax. She was a fantastic travel companion, and I'm not sick of her by any means, but we'd like a few hours to ourselves today. We'll probably go get breakfast at this Cuban cafe that's only about a mile away from daycare, after we drop her off.

I also am overdue writing a check to my job for some shipping I did. It's so stupid because the shipping was back in 2007 or 2008 but they just got around to reconciling the books now. I'd honestly forgotten I'd had them ship some eBay sales back then. They tried to charge me for some 2010 shipments as well but when I questioned them, they said it was a mistake. That annoyed me and I decided to write the check only just before the deadline. However, the deadline was while I was on vacation, so now it's going to be late. Oops! Well, I guess if they waited three/four years, they can fudge the books for a couple days and get their check next week.

In a way I feel I've been on vacation for two weeks, since I was so out of it with whatever illness I got from my adorable daughter (or one of her cute little friends at her birthday party). One of my March resolutions was to blog more often; instead, this has been my worst month yet for blogging! However, I'm feeling pretty refreshed and hope to get my life back together over the next couple of days. One thing I do want to do is weigh in on Sunday night, see where I am weight-wise, and then decide what to do to kickstart my healthy eating/exercise/weight loss journey. If I've gained a lot of weight I might do something a bit more extreme like a raw-foods cleanse, but if I'm OK on weight then I'll just focus on toning up. I definitely look like I've put weight back on, but it could be that more of my muscle went away and I have more fat so that I look bigger. Hard to tell.

One great thing that happened while we were gone was a big thaw in MN that got rid of much of the snow. There's actually dead grass visible in big patches now! The big snowbanks have dwindled and look to be a couple inches high versus a couple feet. Maybe I'll get to walk and bike outside soon.

I had a dream last night that was so vivid. AS had invited me to a workshop about women and careers with some group she'd gotten involved in. NT had volunteered to make lunch, because they had men take turns cooking for the events. Anyway, the discussion at the workshop led me to make a pros-and-cons list of my job, and in the dream the "cons" side kept stretching longer and longer, while the "pros" side remained only a couple items. It got me curious to do this in real life; I don't think the list would be as imbalanced as it was in the dream, but it would be an interesting exercise nonetheless. I've already been thinking about it. Unfortunately, all the "pros" are about the conditions surrounding my job, such as the short commute and good location. The job itself pretty much sucks now. Too bad; when I started it was the best job I'd ever had, but most of the elements I liked have receded, while several things I don't like have been introduced.

Well, enough rambling. I was woken up early by our cat, who is being yowly and clingy since we got back. Now NT is up too, so we'll probably head out as soon as AS gets up. I'll try to write an entry about the vacation itself, and post some pictures, sometime this weekend. Good to be back in SA land as well as my real life!