Saturday afternoon

Got a kick out of this newswire headline: "Obama's State of the Union agenda: Yes, I get it".

Guess I'll go over to Starbucks with a magazine for a while, but first I must get cleaned up.

Lately I'd been having some aches in my upper back and the vertebrae in my neck have been, like, grinding. Made me more than a little worried. Last night, however, I discovered that my special wedge-shaped memory-foam pillow was upside down on the bed. Apparently I'd been sleeping on it like that for a week or so. No wonder. I made myself stay in bed late today. When I got up, my neck and back were back to normal. Whew!

Some progress around here. The condo manager thinks her crew can fix the leak in my toilet tank. It needs new guts. (The leak is slow but getting faster, and I'm catching the water in a container.) Originally she'd told me to call a plumber after one of the maintenance people looked into it. But apparently they had confused my apartment number with someone else's. (Someone else has a cracked toilet, which needs to be replaced.) The management office has advertised its handyman services in an attempt to bring in more money for the association, and so I'd approached the manager about it. She said the contraption inside the toilet costs about $10 (doesn't include the handyman charge). She said a plumber would charge $150 to fix it. I know a plumber would charge at least $75 just to walk in the door.

I also found out yesterday that Goodwill no longer picks up furniture, etc. -- according to their website, the cost is prohibitive now. I need to get rid of the big, broken rear-projection TV here, which I'm sure can be fixed and donated to a nursing home or whatever. The condo manager gave me the names of some other charities to contact. (And, no, I can't throw it in the dumpster.)

Got rid of the last vestiges of Christmas here. Threw away my cousin's evergreen arrangement (still green!) and the Christmas cards, which were still lying around. Feel better already. The uneasy grabbing sensation in my solar plexus is now gone.