Found a penny in the parking lot
Heads up.
I'm pretending it's an omen
Of good things to come.

We had another busy weekend: bought our new mattress, reserved the photographer for the wedding, and had dim sum with Mom for New Year. Next weekend we'll take delivery of the bed, and trek up to Julian to taste cakes. The following weekend, I'll try to get the last of the boxes in the guest and living rooms sorted while M travels to Hawaii for work. Then we'll have guests, and the great furniture swap, on our long weekend. And finally we'll have the whole wedding party together four weekends from now to try and nail down some details and enjoy each other's company.

Then we've only got a florist and officiant to find, our rings to design, the engagement photos to shoot, invitations, and a million other little things to sort out for the wedding.

Meanwhile, the list of things to do around the house grows. And I will be heading back out into the field soon, meaning my travel schedule will get thrown into the mix once more.

We finally got around to returning the extra shower curtain, but immediately spent that store credit on new sheets for the bigger bed. I did get the paperwork in the office more or less sorted, and shoved anything marked "Important Tax Document" into a manilla folder for easy identification when I sit down and tackle my 2008 returns. Not that I'll be seeing anything from CA but an I Owe You.

I <3 the state budget crisis. With bricks.

M intermittently makes fun of me for my excel sheets, graphs and file folders, but it's the only way to keep track of what goes on in our very busy lives. I've made the 2009 versions of our budget, savings, and utilities spreadsheets so we can get a snapshot of how our costs vary month-to-month, keep track of our wedding budget, expenses and outstanding payments, and try to plan for becoming a single-income family this fall. You'd want graphs, too, if you were juggling all of this!

One year ago this weekend we saw the house for the first time, and kissed our free time goodbye. What a year it's been! One more busy year like this, and then I'm ready for quieter times and rediscovering my social life.