Sunday we did our bit to get the economy on track, we bought a new mattress. Our old one was 12 years old, it was time for a new one. We ended up buying one made our state, take that cheap Chinese mattress factories!

Despite sleeping it two nights so far, I'm still tired, it's been a busy week. The kids are going with my parents to Disneyworld Monday for Spring Break, so we'll have time to sleep in, I'm even taking a few days off.

Eleven year old's class is giving a class gift to their school, Saturday night was a fund raising babysitting night. I ended up chaperoning with two other adults, which helps us meet our 20 hours/year commitment. It was better than watching TV, and I even played a little chess against a kindergartner. I took it easy on him, I was one move away from my knight forking his king and some other piece, I never had to use that threat.

Speaking of gaming, I'm moving on to the second scenario in the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit 1, a Stalingrad scenario. It's not the Guards Counterattack, but it will do.

The Australian film streak continues, last week it was Rabbit Proof Fence, this week Lantana, a film of four couples who lead extremely intertwined lives. Anthony Lapaglia plays the lead, a police detective tormented by an affair he's in (with one of the other 8 main characters) investigating the disappearance of a therapist the dingoes ate her, and it all gets tied back together with each other. Lots of talking, usually in Australian, with a few sex scenes, dancing and some funky looking cars.

I finally got around to reading the hot book of years ago, The Years of Rice and Salt. To recap, the Black Death kills 99% of Europe, leaving China, India and Islam to rule the world (with a dollop of the Iroquois). The story follows some continuously reincarnated characters over the centuries and centuries.

I liked the Hodounusee (Iroquois) scenes, because some of them took place in western New York, but in general this book was a struggle. I like KSRs work best with this usual stock characters in a classic science fiction type mileau, this felt like more of a long tedious ramble.

I also picked up Dune one night (it has a permanent place on my nightstand) and reread it over a few nights while waiting for the girls to get ready for bed. It's still good. On to Dune Messiah. An odd thing about Dune Messiah is that Paul is much younger than me in the book, I used to think he was ancient. Now I'm ancient.

We had some real nice weather at the beginning of the week, so I was able to work outside a lot (despite staying late for a conference call with a midwest customer who may buy six more $product). Our front garden was covered in maple leaves, we raked them there for the city to pick up, but the snow came before the city leaf sucker. Instead, they get bagged up and thrown away. I also did some work on the garage, pushing the snowthrower to the back of the garage and getting my Kawi out (no riding yet, the starter clutch got screwed up in the fall).

No chance to work on my Kawi or get the other bikes ready, it's been busy and social all week, we even had preschool mom and her daughter over on Wednesday.

I bought a 12 pack of Genessee Bock beer, in cans. It tastes too much of adjuncts, but it is stronger than my usual. I need to rack off my honey lager this weekend.

I'm playing to my strengths fiscally, by using an online checkbook for balances, and making spreadsheets to track prices and CC debt. I had tried to do this with paper, but a computer makes it much easier, RSI be damned. It's still too early to draw good conclusions, but we do spend a lot on food.

Speaking of money, it looks like our state return may have arrived, have you done your taxes yet?