OUCH! I don’t know if it was from the run Saturday or the cleaning frenzy Sunday, but my shoulders and neck have been incredibly sore for the past two days. Like, pain, stiffness, and cramps to the point of nausea. I’ve been taking hot baths and using a heating pad, which have been helping, but it’s driving me crazy. Any home remedies for sore muscles?

Postmodern architecture is FUN, y’all. I just saw a picture of the Longaberger Company Headquarters for the first time. It’s a giant picnic basket! How cool is that?

(For any non-Americans – and possibly non-Midwesterners, because I fear this is a regional thing – Longaberger makes wicker baskets and charges obscene prices for them. This does not stop Midwestern housewives from collecting hundreds of the darn things. Don’t get me wrong; they’re nice baskets. But if I’m going to pay $200 for a basket, I want it to be studded with diamonds.)

Burn it down and salt the earth.
I reached the end of my patience with the pantry moth infestation. We’d thrown everything out that we thought they might be in but they just didn’t go away. So today the Snook and I went on the offensive. We took everything out of our cupboard and checked each and every package for tell-tale grubs or webs. They were in packets of tea; they were in pasta; they were even in the sugar. (Luckily they were mostly in things we haven’t eaten since we started Atkins.) All of it got chucked. Then I cleaned and wiped the shelves and walls with bleach. The remaining food is now back in place and a lovely little packet of moth balls is resting in the corner. We will be victorious; I swear it.

Since the pantry offensive left us feeling all grown-up and responsible, we decided to tackle two other problem areas in the house: the fridge and the stairs. While the Snook scrubbed gooey spilled soy sauce off the fridge shelves, I dragged the vacuum up and down the stairs while laboriously scrubbing the dust out of the carpet. Suddenly our steps are two shades lighter. We’re such pigs. But at least today we’re mature, slightly less disgusting pigs.

I’m sure my favorite New Hampshirite* will be grieving the loss of the Old Man of the Mountain today. That’s too bad. I’d never heard of it before, but based on the picture it really did look like a face!

(* What does one call a person from New Hampshire anyway?)

Tracey‘s bandwidth is taking a hammering, so if you’re linking to the Mayday Project with one of her buttons, please upload it to your own server and save her some headache. I just did!

I did five miles at the gym tonight. Five miles! I averaged 12:30 a mile too. Which is weird, because that’s, like, my default pace. I keep adding distance, but it always seems to work out to 12:30. Maybe I should push myself harder when I run shorter distances. *shrug* Anyhoo, I was about to throw in the towel at the 4.5 mile mark tonight when the gym manager put on the 8 Mile soundtrack. Suddenly I was starring in my very own Nike video to the tune of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”. I never even liked that song before, but it became my damn anthem. It was like… transcendence. I was just pumpin’ along and pushin’ up the pace and feelin’ the rhythm and suddenly there I was at five miles. (Or should I say 5 Mile?) It felt so good. That song is now going on my permanent workout playlist.

Wow. The Sydney evening news actually did a segment on the new Cedar Point rollercoaster tonight! It’s so weird whenever I come across a reference to the Midwest over here.

Good News: We bought our round-the-world tickets today. We fly from Sydney to Chicago, Chicago to Boston, Boston to London, London to Venice, Rome to London, and London to Sydney via Singapore.

Bad News: An Australian flight attendant has just been placed in isolation with a suspected case of SARS after working the Singapore to Sydney flight. Crap.

Friday Five:

1. Name one song you hate to admit you like.
There are so many. Just tonight I was trying to hide iPod from view so the cool guy waiting near me at the bus stop wouldn’t see that I was bopping to “All the Small Things” by Blink 182.

2. Name two songs that always make you cry.
People actually cry from songs? Seriously, people. I mean, sure, if your boyfriend has just dumped you and you’re listening to the Smiths, maybe. But I don’t think a song on its own has ever made me weep. I guess if I had to answer I’d say Ani Difranco’s “Untouchable Face” and U2’s “One” make me choke up a little bit. A very little.

3. Name three songs that turn you on.
REM’s “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?”, Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”, and Indigo Girls’ “Romeo and Juliet”.

4. Name four songs that always make you feel good.
“See a Little Light” by Bob Mould, “I Won’t Be Your Yoko Ono” by Dar Williams, “Fight Test” by Flaming Lips, and “New York City” by Cub.

5. Name five songs you couldn’t ever do without.
What, in addition to all the ones I’ve just named? Let’s see… “Like a Prayer” by Madonna, “Knowing Me Knowing You” by ABBA, “Say Goodbye” by Dave Matthews Band, “Islands in the Stream” by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, and “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” by XTC. Man, I didn’t realize I was such a fan of pop music. I guess everybody likes to think of themselves as a “serious” and discerning fan, but I can’t hide behind that anymore. I am an unabashed crappy pop music whore.

I was telling my co-workers this morning that one of the pub trivia questions last night was: “Which company invented the dot matrix printer?” They all laughed because the answer, of course, is Epson. Well, to be technical, it was Seiko who then started Epson. They built the “EP-101” for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. (Hence the name “Epson”, which expresses the company’s determination to produce many worthy “sons” of the EP-101. That’s from our company magazine; I kid you not.) Anyway, afterwards one of the IT guys called me over and showed me the EP-101! We’ve got one in a display case. It looked like a lawnmower motor, to be honest. I thought it was pretty funny though.