Mmmm, weekend.

+0: Bar-b-qued on the 4th with spazzkat, mamishka, risu, and annathepiper, then walked down to the lake for fireworks. We found a good spot, and then played Uno for a while until it finally got dark around 10pm and the fireworks started shortly thereafter. The weather was perfect and viewing was good.

+1: Thursday night, an editor I've written for a couple of times before talked to me about whether I could pop out a short sidebar-type article - 750 words - on email headers, for a new magazine his company is starting. I had the assignment more or less on Friday; it's in his mailbox for tomorrow morning, at exactly 750 words. I hit the exact count by accident. (Meaning, no exact-count edits to meet the exact wordacount artifically.) Sometimes I feel so professional I can hardly stand it. ^_^ Of course, we'll see whether I still feel that way after he reads the thing!

+2: Zoo day! spazzkat has this tradition of going to the zoo the day after a contract ends or being laid off. His contract ended last week, but he held off until Anna's ended too, and we went today. We saw the new Jaguar habitat, which was very nice, and the new spider exhibit, which wasn't as interesting but was still okay. Tarantulas may be harmless, but they're still creepy as all hell. Good otter and king cobra milage, along with lots of funny monkey noises, and the brown bears were in their den with the window, so were right on the other side of the glass, even if they were sleeping. Lots of visible fun in the day-for-night exhibit, too, and we saw both the wolves and the owls and raptors, so - really, it was a good day for animals running around doing interesting things. Then after annathepiper and I got home, we both fell asleep on the couch for about an hour, after which I got up and finished the aformentioned article.

-3: Lots of phone calls tomorrow morning, one to people who should already have called me back on Friday and didn't, two more to doctors to set up for allergy shots, because this is stupid. I mean seriously.

4: Lost all my money at poker at kathrynt's by working the very last hand as far as I could - and lost with matching hands of three of a kind, but kathrynt having the higher kicker. It was still fun, but mothrafarker! That was one of two good hands I had the entire night, too, and I was just trying to get back to even. (I would've, too, if she hadn't had that stupid queen as her fifth card...)

+5: W00t, I forgot I hadn't entered this already - my show opened on Friday! I didn't see any reviewers and didn't sell anything opening night, but the owner (Scott) was actually really enthusiastic about how it went. Apparently the comments were good, and he's got at least one person he thinks will buy something of mine. One painting sold (by the other artist). A couple of people I'd hoped might make it didn't, but that's not so bad - the place was pretty packed. There was one supreme asshole moment which pretty much punched a hole in the middle of the night for me, but otherwise it went well. I finally got to wear that other red silk dress I bought back when I bought the one I wore to Jessica's wedding.