Escaping jury duty

I got a summons for federal jury duty. I was due to report in downtown Portland at 8:30 this morning (talk about a traffic nightmare). Fortunately, when I called the recorded message last Friday to verify whether I needed to report, they said that my panel wasn't needed. Hooray! Double-bonus: they were foolish enough to tell me when I would get called again (April 24, 2007), so now I know exactly when to plan a spring vacation. Ha! I've never been called for jury duty before, so in a way, I was kinda looking forward to it. Not so much the hassle around it--getting there, missing work, potentially sitting around all day doing nothing--but for the actual process. I'm sure my day will come.

I'm still fighting off a really annoying sore throat. I have it every morning when I wake up, and it comes back in the evening. At least it hasn't been bad enough to keep me from work. I suck on Cold-Eeze every day, but it's not helping.

The diet/exercise plan is still going strong. I lost a few pounds last week, but then I gained some back. I like to think that it's because muscle weighs more than fat, but that's probably a bit wishful at this point. When I used our little body fat monitor thingy, it did say I was down 1 percent of body fat. That's promising.

This weekend, Marc's deserting me and leaving the country. He and Ben are going up to Vancouver, Canada, to see Claus. Marc's gonna meet with Claus's new boss to discuss some sales possibilities with biological security products. It sounds really promising and exciting! But being left alone means that one thing is sure to happen: I will clean the house. For whatever reason, that seems to be the first thing I gravitate toward when I'm alone at home. I think it's because I don't have someone to hang out with on the couch, and I know I won't bother anyone with the noise (clanking dishes, noisy vacuuming, washers and dryers, etc).

Saturday is our free eating/no workout day, and it should be interesting by myself. I'm already making a list of some foods I'll require when I don't have any restrictions. We didn't have ice cream or cookies last week, so those are at the top of the list. And pizza. And biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

On Sunday, probably before Marc gets home, I'll be down at Saturday Market with my recorder quartet, Piping Hot, for a performance. We haven't played since Christmas down at Pioneer Place. It should be fun. I'll try to refrain from walking around and spending money at the market afterwards.