Dancing, skating, mansions, shopping... THIS is the post you've been waiting for!

My last post was a pretty good arbiter of how my week was going. I've had better days than the last few, but to spare you a whiny, on-the-verge-of-tears post, I'm going to make this about all the things that haven't caused my nose to snot up this week.

1) I am finally all caught up on Grey's Anatomy. 9 weeks is a long time to be without Tivo, but I survived. I've avoided web sites that rehash my favorite shows; I've fled the room with my hands over my ears whenever GA, (and a bunch of other shows) came up, and I am finally out of the darkness. And oh is it good! (And ok, the thing about the old woman dying and her daughter flying in from wherever she lived with her lady-lover totally had me all asnot, but good snot). I love that Meredith is hooking up with George (at last), and that Izzie and Alex are finally getting naked in the bunk-bed room. Even Addison is starting to warm the cockles of my heart. I am totally starting to respect her as a neonatal surgeon, or whatever the hell she is. If I am ever in a complicated labor delivering a litter (as a result of the IVF I'll have to resort to as a result of my advanced maternal age), I want my surgeon to be Dr. Montgomery Shepherd.

2) Olympic skating. Yes, I like the skating. I love Sasha Cohen. I was very bummed when her long program didn't live up to the short one. She is so cute, and nobody skates like she does. She's like a graceful Gumby. And I just found out that her mother is Ukranian, she's fluent in Russian, and once acted as an impromptu translator for another winning skater at some competition they were both in. AND.... I'm pretty sure she was listening to something cool on her iPod in the workout room.

3) I got to hear these words come out of my boyfriend's mouth: "I'd like to eat some breakfast before we go dancing... "
Breakfast? Dancing? What could that mean? It means, people, that we are now ballroom dancing on Saturday mornings. We had our first lesson this morning, and I am pleased to say that we are not so bad. We only had one flaw highlighted in front of the whole class by the instructor, and it really wasn't that embarrassing. We now know the basics of Swing, Salsa and the Cha Cha. Next week I am definitely wearing heels and a skirt.

4) Skype is saving me a huge amount of money in international phone calls. David got it while I was gone so we could talk daily, and it rocks, that's all I can say. If you have DSL, and make international calls, go get it. Sitting talking to my parents with headphones on and a microphone in front of my face does unleash the overwhelming urge to pretend I am a radio announcer, but I think even my parents (who have high tolerance for my humor) are sick of my "stay tuned" and "more after these messages" quips.

5) We did lots of fun stuff with my sister over the weekend. Indian food at someplace on La Brea I can't remember the name of, Farmer's Market, shopping, plant shopping for our "deck", Venice Beach, Joan's on Third for one breakfast, Le Pain Quoidien for another. But the best, the best thing ever, was our grand tour of open houses in the Hollywood Hills, listed at 2 million or higher. My niece is obsessed with fine homes and if it still exists, is probably the only person who still watches Robin Leach's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and my sister loves to play the game of: "if we sold our large flat in San Francisco, what could we buy down here..." ) And believe me that number is far from 2 mill, but we thought it would be fun to go big. And it was. We saw beautiful 1930s mansions, some with their original kitchen and bathroom fixtures, super-modern "Dwell" magazine style houses with swirling 360 degree views of the city, cute Spanish "bungalows" with terracotta tiles and lots of dark wood. There was one monstrosity, a HUGE Italianate-style mansion with new construction that looked like something you'd see in Vegas. Don't even ask me about the humiliation my niece and I suffered when my sister decided to bust a move on one of the very top floor bathrooms to pee. She said she just couldn't hold it, and there was no one else up there so... Were we proud when we heard the flush from TWO FLOORS DOWN? No.

Ok, five good things is good, right? Well that's all you're getting. I'm off to the bookstore to find a new book or two, now that I am getting a pay check on Monday, and the library is just taking too damn long to procure my requests from other branches.