Polenta with eggplant, plus Franz Ferdinand

How's that for a bachelorette Thursday night? Meg and Jo are both mate-less these days, and I enjoyed that illusion this evening while Darren was off seeing House of Flying Daggers. Went out for a pint after work, then came home a bit giddy to be alone, bopping to FF around the kitchen as I chopped onion and garlic, then sauteed them and cut up an eggplant. Was just enough buzzed - from ONE pint! - to splash tomato juice on my knee somehow, and get the cornmeal and water mixture on my pretty, fuzzy, blue-green sweater.

One other bright spot: At the post-work beer, I learned that a co-worker's contractor roommate, who I know vaguely, SPECIALIZES IN BATHROOM REMODELING. Hallelujah. He apparently has a several-month backlog (which is good news, from a quality-of-work perspective) and has done bathrooms for several friends (ditto). I feel as though I just broke through some haze of indecision and paralysis about this project - we can just have L. come over and check the place out, see what he recommends and go from there. Phew.

In other news, this week has been all about budgeting for 2005 (which, yes, I know, it's already begun, but sadly I am not in charge of the financial activities of my company...) and prepping to do performance reviews for all my staff. Oh, and picking out our submissions for the Big Deal awards we enter every year. The ones at which we have won some very significant recognition in the past, under my predecessor. Which means this year's awards are a sort of litmus test on my editing. (At least I see it that way.)