Today I was working with one of my clients, who is three years old. He found my little Yoda figure and started to play with it. When he wasn't looking, I stuck Yoda in my pocket.

It brought to mind a similar incident from a few years ago. One of my clients, with whom I had worked for several years, was moving to Staten Island, so I closed his case. During our last session, I told him he could choose anything from my cabinet to take home. For some reason, he chose a little figure of Greedo. I tried super hard to talk him out of taking it because I knew he probably didn't even know who Greedo was and that it would be lost within the week. As with any 11 year old boy, the more I tried to talk him out of it, the more he wanted it and I gave in. I decided that this was the nicest thing I've done for one of my foster children. However, I won't be that nice again, and therefore, Yoda is safely in my pants pocket.

p.s. Han shot first.

Glee quote of the week -- 4/27

After Mercedes and Curt make a joke and do their secret handshake, Sue asks, "How do you two not have a show on Bravo?"

Journalist guy: "When I met you, I instantly disliked you. You're bossy, insulting and the fact that twice you called me 'Re-run' makes me think you're a little racist."

And music to my ears, from April: "I smell a duet coming on! 'Fire!' Springsteen! Hit it!"

30 Rock quote of the week -- 4/22 "Khonani"

The Khonani/Conan, "the tonight shift" janitor emergency storyline was pretty clever!

Tracy: "I yelled 'Baba Booey' at Walter Cronkite's funeral so I actually have no idea of what is rude or not."

30 Rock quote of the week -- 4/22 Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter

I finally got around to seeing this episode, and now I know why everyone keeps asking me if I had seen it yet. This show officially does too many John Mayer jokes. I'm not going to repeat it. It makes me sad.

and here's your quote of the week, from Jack: "The grown up dating world is like your haircut. Sometimes awkward triangles occur."

Glee quote of the week -- 4/20

Sue Sylvester: *sniff* "Oh, hi William. I thought I smelled cookies wafting from the ovens of the little elves that live in your hair."

Jesse: "I picked the Stephen Sondheim biography section for our clandestine meeting place because only he would be able to express my melancholia. I'm sorry for what happened at your house the other night. Do you still have my Care Bear?"

more pictures

Now that the shower is two weeks behind me, I'm missing all the fun we had with all the family around. Here's another photo of the sisters together, with our adopted sister, LT.


And here's the gang at Ft. Tryon.

Moving day

Yesterday was moving day. I took the opportunity to take some last photos of my beloved window after my office was completely empty. It has a nice arch, which is partially covered because of duct work in the ceiling. Not only do we have a great view, but we get great light all day long and we can open these windows when it's nice out or when the heating/cooling system is not quite right. We were told we'd have to move at the end of March, but we were able to finagle it so that we could stay until after this tree bloomed. The blossoms are all gone by now, so we got the best part of spring. (See how positive I'm being about this whole thing?)

Here's my supervisor's windows (she has a corner office and thus gets two). This is the western view, of beautiful, tree-lined Christopher St.

Here's the southern view, which is of an apartment building and another tree in front of the building.

My new office is actually not so bad. It's probably 3x as big as my old office and I still have a huge window. Here's my new view. I probably wouldn't mind the move so much, except I know there's another one to come, probably two, and possibly three. (long story.)

And here's the wallpaper in my office. It used to be a bedroom (which is part of that long story about why I'll be moving again in the future).

All of this aside, I'm grateful to have a job. We just got the results of our RFP, so we'll see if that's true come June 30 (the end of the fiscal year).

Top three questions I've been asked this month

...at work, anyway.

1. You're moving again?
2. Why are you moving again?
3. How many times have they moved you?

My answers:
1. Yep.
2. I don't know.
3. I lost count.

Glee quote of the week -- 4/13

"Glee" returns!! I'm glad I have DVR because I would have missed it -- it's been gone that long. In the meantime, I found out that Lea Michele is one of my peeps! She's a Jersey Girl!

Mr. Schu: "Let's bury the hatchet."
Sue Sylvester: "I won't be burying any hatchets, William, unless I happen to get a clear shot to your groin."

And how can I ignore this one from Sue: "Ladies, you may be two of the stupidest teens I've ever encountered, and that's saying something. I once taught a cheerleading seminar to a young Sarah Palin."

Little visitors

My sister Val came to town last week. It's the first time the kiddos have been here to the city for a long time and clearly they didn't remember anything about it.

Experience #1 -- the subway. They were a little confused about the fact that I don't have a car.






Experience #2 -- Museum of Natural History





Here's my niece's reaction to seeing the dinosaurs.


Experience #3 -- The Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park.


Here's my niece, who suddenly became shy half-way through the day. I got this picture by telling her there was a bird outside the window.

Here's me and the sweetest baby in the world!

Showering

My little sis is getting married this summer. Saturday night was her bridal shower. While planning it, the usual question came up: games or no games? Since most people don't enjoy the bridal shower games, especially if they are the object of the games, we decided against it for Jill's sake. If there are no games, what do you do besides eat, drink and be merry?

Valerie came up with the great idea to go to Color Me Mine. Here Jill is on crutches, but still looking cute.
Everyone painted a dish for the bride, using beachy colors and themes.

We had a delicious cake baked by my friend, Marci. I could seriously drink that raspberry filling.

The two hours went by really fast and somehow, even though we had tons of food, some of us were still hungry. We crashed the pizza place next door, ordered a pie and opened presents. The only downside was that some people had to leave at this point and didn't get to see the presents.

Here's Jill with her salt cellar. Everyone knows that Jill is crazy for kitchen stuff and likes things that a lot of people haven't even heard of.

Not exactly a conventional shower, but I think a good time was had by all. I love this picture!

To sum up...

The highlight of my short little vacation was John Mayer, of course, but the rest pretty much sums up my friendship with Esther and all the things we like to do together....

We went to the Tulip Festival, with better results than last year. They were beautiful!

Cupcakes.... (Sweet Lorraine -- chocolate w/white chocolate ganache, red velvet, chocolate w/raspberry filling)

Mac and Cheese (It was very similar to my #7 on this list)

Star sightings... ( Sir Mix a Lot)

and a movie (The Runaways, which we all liked a lot).

Spring...

I can't help it. I don't know if it's because we had a pretty hard winter, or what, but I am so enjoying spring this year so I have been just going around taking pictures everywhere.

Thirty!!

Last night was my 30th John Mayer show, and my sixth of this tour. I was not expecting a lot, since my other shows were all in NYC and CT, but I actually think it was the best of the tour (despite the boring Seattle audience). I was so hoping that he would play some of my favorites that he has not done in the past few shows I've attended. Song #2 was "Belief" and I literally almost pushed Esther over when I heard those initial notes because I was pretty surprised. Part way through the show, the band left the stage and it was just my boy John and his guitar. He did "The Heart of Life," "Dreaming with a Broken Heart," and then my super favorite, "Clarity" which included a bit of "Human Nature" and which I am posting here for your enjoyment.



Since I was going to the show with Esther, who has accompanied me to seven concerts previously, and Paul, who has only been to one show before, we had lots to talk about. Esther made the comment that she thinks he is trying to tone down the crazy facial expressions because of his growing fame. But just as if he had heard her and wanted to prove her wrong, he treated us to a few, like this one here.

JM said he was in a really good mood, and it showed because he really put on a great show. I left feeling so happy that I decided to fly out. Paul enjoyed it so much that he talked about going again this summer, if JM did a summer tour. Although this sent Esther over the edge, considering she'll have a tiny baby this summer and won't be able to go and therefore neither can he, I got excited thinking about the possibility. And when I checked johnmayer.com this morning, I found that he has announced some summer tour dates and there are plenty for me to look forward to! Including a show in southern California on my birthday that I will be dragging Anne Lise to for her first JM live experience. No dates in the Seattle area, so I guess Paul is off the hook.