Reading: Diana Wynne Jones, The Lives of Christopher Chant

Moving: none today, but I walked 3 miles yesterday

House: Cleaned the dining and living rooms, except for vacuuming the upholstery. Emptied the sunroom.

Garden: the Battle of the Bindweed is not yet over.

13 October 2002: weekend

Haitch's new school had a fall break this weekend so she came home. Here, that is. McCarthy gave a dinner party as a prebirthday shebang, in the house for which he is caretaker, and I forgot to bring my camera because I am an idiot.

It's a good thing I didn't, though, because I would have been tempted to take inappropriate photographs. We dined in the formal dining room, distinct from the informal dining room, distinct from the breakfast nook. There were a living room, a library, and a solarium. There were a foyer and also a hall with a curving staircase. There were two staircases from the first to second floor, the main showy one and the back one for servants (see, our house had so much in common with it); there were two staircases between the first floor and the basement.

And I came away loving my house even more. Because it's mine, and mine, with its tacky bathroom, broken tile in the basement flooring, grotty other bathroom, and see-through garage, is mine.

But we don't have a houseboy who's also quite a cook.

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Hey! The band in the bar Crazy Horse in "The Sopranos" this week is called No Soap, Radio. It's not in my head! What is the joke that goes with that punchline? I'm probably better off not knowing. It can't be as funny as not remembering it.

Also, that horse is a Just There horse. Bay with a white blaze.

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I watched "The Last Seduction" again last week. I love it still, but I noticed a plot hole I hadn't before. Spoiler: when his lawyer asks Mike if there's any physical evidence at all to back up his story, the only thing he can remember is the fake name on the bell list of the apartment building, and the final scene is Bridget burning it up. But there is a piece of evidence, a huge one: the letter Bridget wrote purportedly from Trish was the impetus for Mike to go along with her plan, the catalyst for him to get out of town. Mike might not want Beston to know about Trish, but he'd probably prefer its knowing to his own dying. Sure he could have destroyed it, but since I the audience didn't see him do it, it's a plot hole.

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More items for my list, which Haitch said was overwhelming:

• An open resting jaw. Shut your teeth, close your lips. Thank you.
• Snowmobiles and jetskis.