It’s twenty minutes to Friday in my time zone, and while I generally stay up til two, I’m just beat right now.

Appetizer
When was the last time you were surprised?
This morning. I logged into our bank’s website to check the status of a reimbursement check that had been held because it was over a certain amount, and found my paycheck had been wired four days early.

Soup
Fill in the blanks: My eyes are ________, but I wish they were __________.
Right now my eyes are kind of dry, but I wish they were not, and the eye drops are in the bathroom. Seriously, I like my eyes, they’re warm brown, and I’ve never wanted them to be any other color. Also, since I had LASIK five years ago, I can’t even complain about my vision. 20:20 baby!

Salad
If you were a Beanie Baby, what would you look like and what would your name be?
While I realize adults all over the world got into these things, I have zero interest in them. I also didn’t save my Barbie dolls, and my few remaining stuffed animals are on a high shelf in my studio. I may have pink hair, and pink sneakers, but I don’t do “cute.”

Main Course
Name two things you consistently do that you consider to be healthy habits.
Even if it’s just in my living room, I sing for at least half an hour every day. It’s silly, and cheesy, but it keeps me happy.
I walk the dogs at least four days a week. We should go every day, but sometimes life gets in the way. Or weather. Still, four out of seven, regularly, is good.

Dessert
What brand of toothpaste are you using these days? Do you like it? Why or why not?
At the moment, some green gel Colgate stuff with sparkly flecks in it. It’s fine. A good combination of minty freshness and tooth cleaning capabilities. In a pinch, I once used a tube of Crest bought at CCC in La Paz, BCS, Mexico, and the texture was just weird. I sort of miss the fennel flavor of Tom’s of Maine.

It finally feels truly like fall. Temperatures are cresting in the mid-eighties and cooling into the sixties at night, and there are different birds eating the seeds (and baiting MissCleo) in the back yard. As I write this, I have the air conditioning off, and the windows in the bedroom are open wide. Until the sun went down, I was watching the water in the pool reflect the sky, the trees, whatever.

Fuzzy has another trip coming up and I threatened to redecorate the living room. He’s panicked. Now, understand that when I say “redecorate,” I don’t mean that I plan to call strapping young men in cute uniforms and tool belts to install home theater lighting in my living room. I mean I might move one of the couches to a different wall, or move a lamp or two. Nothing major, just a small change.

Fuzzy is one of those people who does not embrace change well. He is also one of those people who cannot find objects that are located behind other objects. I pointed out to him that my couch-moving plan would place the back of the couch against a wall, so that nothing would be behind it. He asked me if I’d measured the space.

I do not need to measure the space to know if my couch will fit. I can look at it and tell.

At least he didn’t ask, “What wall?”