This weekend will be the first in approximately 31/2 months during which I will be...not so much unbusy as not so insanely busy as to have to a) stay awake until 5am or b) get up at 3am. In fact, it may be the first time I will be able to plan to take an afternoon off! That's right, an entire afternoon.

During the past 31/2 months, TheLimey and I have been able to see each other only approximately every other weekend for quite a while now. That comes out to twice a month, in other words, which is pretty shabby. At least we spent entire weekends together, but were nearly always both engaged in parallel frantic keyboard tapping on our respective laptops for 10 to 12 hour stretches those days. I know, what could be more romantic, you say. What indeed.

Well, as it turns out, we can both have an afternoon off this weekend. I am giddy with possibility. The Ann Arbor U-M Art museum! Watching my VHS copy of Barbarella, which I still have never seen! Feeding squirrels on the big, sophisticated U-M campus for a change! Perhaps a real full-size film, since we haven't seen one since Supersize Me came out! Walking around Ypsi fantasizing about remodeling houses! (Yes, we are a party couple.)

My secret desire: a combination of drinking and baking. Some nice warm Glögg (really, I didn't like mulled wine either until a German friend of mine gave me this stuff as a gift), and my favorite recipes for mini custard-creampuffs, dried-cherry biscotti, and perhaps even the onion-rosemary tartlets. [drools].

I have the grocery list of ingredients and the wheeled shopping basket awaiting me as soon as I get done with school stuff today.