Things Accomplished over Spring Break

• Number of Sophie Kinsella books read: 4
• Meals involving chips and salsa: 2
• Biggest event: flying to Fort Worth to visit my parents
• Prettiest seat cushions (American vs. United): United (dark blue)
• Best moment involving a gadget: highlighting and annotating Bill Bryson's Shakespeare on the Kindle
• Number of overdue Kindle reviews written: 0
• Number of new words appearing for the first time in Shakespeare's works: ~2300, and 10% of Oxford's Book of Quotations.
• Rate at which new words appear in Hamlet: every 2-3 lines
• Number of ways in which Shakespeare spelled his name: 6, and none as we do
• Percent of brides who were knocked up on their wedding day, in Shakespeare's time: 40%
• Meals involving menus with the word "Tuscan" splashed everywhere: 2
• Number of consecutive days spent visiting the new M casino/resort late at night, drinking free Mr. Pibbs and playing Star Trek slots: 3
• Number of times we heard "Win Warp... Engaged!": not enough
• Number of Doctor Who DVDs, which arrived from NetFlix five months ago, watched: 0
• Number of times we re-watched Apollo 13: twice, including once in Spanish
• New (to us) shows we temporarily made our favourites while in Texas: Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Chopped, Throwdown with Bobby Flay
• Time spent researching, again, bargain homes in the guard-gated country club development with the DUCKS, and what it would take to put us in one: 9 hours
• Number of emails sent to realtors: 1
• Number of emails already regretted, because moving sucks and having savings is fun and I just remembered, again, that I don't want to buy a home until it has a reasonable chance of being a "forever home": 1
• Number of adorable squirrels in my parents' backyard: 6
• Number of photos taken of adorable squirrels: 0
• Beverages Dad stocked in the refrigerator, just for us: if it was made with cane sugar, it was there... including sugar-based Dr Pepper and Coke
• Number of times Dad presented us with a full breakfast of eggs, tomatoes, toast, bagels, English muffins, blueberry scones, sausages, pork chops, bacon, potatoes with onion and green pepper, strawberries, peeled orange slices, and a selection of juices: every morning
• Number of times we posed in front of houses of relatives who weren't home: 2
• Number of unintentional dognapping messages texted to soon-to-be-frantic relatives, when what I meant to say is "Hey, I'm at your house, playing with your dog" but then forgot to sign the message or send it from a phone number they recognized: 1
• Loaves of bread purchased at M's bakery: olive, ciabatta, sourdough
• Biggest purchase: a new subscription to Ancestry.com
• Number of new ancestors found: 5
• E-ticket event in Fort Worth (family aside): The Fort Worth Water Gardens
• Unadvertised use of Water Gardens: calibrating one's gaydar
• Obligatory new thing: visiting Colorado for the first time... although 57 minutes in the Denver airport may not be fully representative of the state
• Most surprising revelation: ongoing neglect of moisturizer has turned already dry skin into... scales? Almost.
• How guaranteed your seat request might be if booked on Travelocity: 0%
• Number of times our seats were changed: 5
• Dwarf hamsters smooched, snarfled, bothered, and indulged: all 6
• Plans for wildly imaginative home-based Iron Chef realized: 0
• Other obligatory new thing: A&W's prefab root beer floats in the bottle. Only recommended for those who like drinking scented candles.
• Tidying done: most
• Laundry done: lots
• Swiss-Mushroom Omelettes eaten after a course of French Onion Soup, and accompanied by buttered rye bread, all served at the Red Cup Cafe at M: 1
• Overdue library items returned: 0
• Valentine presents finally opened: 1
• Chocolixirs consumed: 2, one with caramel
• Number of paper bags purchased for upcoming Shakespeare unit where I'm going to "try something new": 600
• Amount of sadness in head about going back to work tomorrow: only three-tenths of a plathic, because only 30 instructional days, three exam days, and two staff days remain until summer.
• Amount of brave talk in last statement that will crumble away during the early morning commute tomorrow: 72%