AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 18, 2005 — There are things that need doing, things you want to accomplish. Well, not you. Me.

So...why am I lying in bed with the covers over my head smelling FFP's after shave and wondering why he is getting groomed instead of going to the gym? I don't think he already went to the gym. It's only sevenish. Oh...he has an appointment. So, OK I get up and get dressed for the gym and make the bed. We wanted to buy a stock and he's taking off before the broker arrives at the office. I'm assigned that duty. It is also exactly a month until I want a lunch reservation for New York. Must call them. So, I make the calls and deal with it.

No great shakes that. (Although the stock can be bought with a simple phone call...the restaurant will fax a contract and we are in negotiations. That's the world today.)

Finished The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (the definitive guide) last night. I still assert that it is a great coming of age story. Anne Frank would be seventy-five had she lived. Unfortunately, she probably didn't get to completely come of age. It adds a voice to the Holocaust, though. A voice of a child, of a child of German refugees who didn't flee far enough. A voice of a child protected for a long time by some good Dutch people.

The maid comes on Tuesday. So, what do I do? I decide to peruse papers from the last few days that I haven't managed to get through. I watch some Simpsons and Northern Exposure while I do. The maid comes around one and rings the bell. She can't make her normal way of ingress work. I don't undertand why. Works for me. I gather up my stuff out of the bedroom and go to my office. She gives me the gossip on other people she cleans for. (What does she tell them about me?) We know other people that she and the other maids in this company clean for because we have passed on the number of our maid service to people who asked. They also clean Dad's house although they usually send a different person there. Then she borrows a phone book to try to look up the number of a doctor. Then the vacuum starts. I finish reading all the papers except today's. Well, and except for the three foot high stack accumulated in my office for some reason. I'm at least caught up with the recent ones. Don't get me wrong...I don't read every word, but I flip through all the sections except ads and sports.

I decided I needed to limit mindless TV. And do something more enlightening. I decided, while whittling down the papers to give up working so many crosswords. Must use time better.

Since I don't like being in the house while a maid cleans, I go to the gym and have an OK workout. Not great but OK. Fifty minutes on the bike and a few other exercises.

Back from gym, I tuck into a round of finanacial stuff. I manage to make a new spreadsheet section, and look up a few things. I spend over an hour on it. I work on it up in FFP's office where our records are and I stop a few times to help him do something on the computer.

FFP decides it's time to eat. He's considering going to get some meat and making burgers but instead we have leftover salmon and some salad. I have a few cheese and chips, too. In fact, I eat until I feel too full. We sit down in our bedroom and I read the day's newspapers and glance at a book. We end up watching bits and pieces of TV. Priorities or not, I didn't accomplish much today. Sleep comes.