Austin, TEXAS, January 12, 2006 — There are so many things for the retired person to do.

Make it to the tennis game on time. (I was only a couple of minutes late and it worked out.)

Do 300 minutes of aerobic exercise a week. I need to do this to get my weight down. Or, at least, keep it from going back up any more. (No tennis doesn't count. But I got up to 189 minutes today. Monday to Sunday is the week.)

Learn to cook in thirty days. (This isn't going well. FFP is going to try to contact caterers as it becomes clear that I'm in over my head.

People who are important in the community or who have restaurant experience keep signing up for the guest list, too. Yikes. My only achievement in this regard today is that I heated the Ranchero Sauce I'd prepared to the blended point before in the vegie oil for FFP to eat over the leftover stuffed zucchini so I know that you can hold that at that stage for a few hours or days. I ate some of it over two over easy eggs, but I digress.)

What other amazing duties were on the Visible Woman's list today?

Get a haircut. (Seems easy enough. Some people would make an appointment and keep it. That's that. But I use a barber who only makes appointments on Friday. Seems I did better when I worked about getting a haircut. I'd go on Saturday morning, lay in wait in the parking lot until she got there. Since it was the only time I could do it, I just did it. Now I have lots more choices and always let it go too long. Today I went just as she'd returned from lunch and got in line behind one person. The big talk was her increased lease and the increase in prices. I got tired of hearing her talk about it and hearing two of the customers try to 'solve' her problem verbally. I did get a haircut, though. I didn't really have to pay more for it, but I gave her my usual tip which is generous so I paid five bucks more. It would be a $40 cut at the beauty salon and haircuts aren't really our biggest budget problem.)

What else made to 'to do and did' list?

Turn up stuff to take to a community gathering tonight that is a preliminary to the Christo and Jeanne-Claude show that AMOA is putting on soon. (So I ended up looking in every archival album and box full of photos until, in the last possible one, I found pictures of the wrapped Reichstag. Which I didn't have as digital shots. So I then had to scan them. Upload them to SNAPFISH. Send them to Walgreen's for printing. Oh, and I had to dump a bunch of souvenirs and found objects — buttons, corks, geegaws — out of a box until I found a souvenir swatch of the fabric for the project. Which was in the bottom, of course. I also had to print some pictures from the Gates and get that swatch but that was easier...pictures were already on SNAPFISH and the swatch was on the metal closet door that serves as my bulletin board. Naturally I didn't really have to do this but it was fun and we were the only wrapped Reichstag people to show up except for my friend and she was the only Pont Neuf person.)

And?

Well, I had to work on the family budget and finances. (Watching day to day changes in stocks and income and outgo doesn't really change anything. But it gives you a false sense of control.)

And so, after all these achievements, did I also accomplish something in the evening? Not much, we picked up the prints from Walgreen's, popped into our club for a drink, went across the street to the museum gathering at AMOA, enjoyed that event, went to Fino after for soup, apps and a wine. Then we went home. While I updated the budget with a few things, I was mostly a newspaper-reading, bad-TV-watching vegetable. Sigh. The Visible Woman's 'to do' list is still long. But, as my friend from Scotland who lives in South Africa says "tomorrow is also a day."