Apparently this weekend was exactly what I needed.

Helga told me that her shrink once said to her, �If you can�t be decent, don�t go out.� And since I knew that I was a grumpopotamus to the tenth degree, I took the hearsay advice and limited my contact with the outside world to my cell phone�s reach.

Perhaps it was the solitude. Or maybe it was my productivity. Or perhaps it�s that the sun is finally shining. Whatever it is, I�m glad to see that my mood has lifted.

I spent a good amount of time reading old diary entries (and found that I was glum at this exactly time last year too), packing and throwing away stuff, and thinking about what I�ll put in my new place-to-be.

Although this house stuff has been a bit of a stressor, it�s nice to know that it�s going to happen. Tomorrow I go to the inspection at 1 p.m. It can only get more and more real from here.

Ming has gotten to be a royal pain in my ass. She�s taking up residence in Houston after Angel Dad paints my house. She�ll hitch a ride with him on his way home, much to my brother�s excitement.

Benito will likely cry when Ming says Bon Voyage, but I don�t hear him offering to take her with the bathmat shitting, hair shedding, and always being in your face.

Somehow, despite knowing all of this, my parents are cool with my brother taking her. I�m pretty sure it�s a martyr ploy. Twenty years from now, long after Ming�s gone to the catnip pie in the sky, I�ll still hear how they saved my bathmats and ruined all of theirs.

Whatever. As long as there aren�t kitty nuggets left for me to discover with my freshly washed feet when I get out of the tub, I�ll take the martyr speeches.

All right. I�m gonna get back to cleaning. Hope your weekend was productive, mentally healthy, or whatever it was that you needed.