I am itching to get out to the path but even though the snow is melting you just wouldn't believe the icepack it's left behind. Clear and glossy and slick as hell. I've done 90 minutes of Wii Fit Free Step the past couple of days but that only converts to three miles and I want to be moving more than that. Any suggestions?

I spent most of it in the car, speaking of Michelangelo, but once I disembarked things were swell. Monstro and I gave books and cards to the boys and then showered each other with sparkling wine, chocolates, sushi, and a song. (No, not literally. Well, except for the song part.) Incidentally, he loved the song and its message, which is terribly filthy and NSFW. I think you should only get to write songs like that if you're over 35 and have been in a committed monogamous relationship for at least seven years. But enough about the Bill of Rights.

Monstro bought me a beautiful necklace and pendant and it fits just so in the hollow of my throat. He's out tonight so I'm going to go eat a chocolate I bought for him. It's OK, I just finished 60 minutes of vigorous Wii Fit free step.

Thanks Erica for contributing my one-thousandth comment on this blog! Here's a toast to all my beloved readers. xoxo

Monstro is getting a card with the most romantic sentiment a wife with two children can offer… “The pregnancy test was negative.” Also, I wrote him a song on my ukulele about what I want to do to a certain part of his anatomy. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

My first uke was a Kyle gift when I was p.g. with my first son; he figured I would grow too big for my guitar. He was right. Kyle always gave the best presents. Hence, “Kyle gift.” I noodled off and on with it for a few years but then pretty steadily the past two years as a deva bard in a D&D campaign. It's a bright-orange Mahalo. Jake Shimabukuro autographed it on my fifth wedding anniversary; Jim Beloff did likewise during his October 2010 uke workshops at the Northampton Community Music Center. Kyle put a bunch of stickers all over it, including puffy hot-pink “L Y N N” along the base that I had to move to the bottom of the neck because they were digging my name backwards into my skin. I felt kind of guilty admitting it to him but he replied with a nearly French insouciance, “Usability upgrades are allowed. No, not allowed: they are imperative.”

I bought a 1950s ladies'-bathroom pink Makala as a uke we could take to the beach last summer — it was cheap and I didn't want to mind if sand got into the tuning pegs. Also, Kyle died late last spring, and plus it's signed by Jake Shimabukuro.

So this afternoon when A E I O Ukes played on the same stage that once featured the vocal stylings of Jenny Lind, a stage I've wanted to perform on since moving to Western Massachusetts six-and-a-half years ago, a stage where I met my longest-term local client (at a Chamber of Commerce Arrive at Five mixer; I think it was around Christmas), I sang mic'd with them on the stage w/ my uke mic'd, too.

“You didn't know it, but you were the lead,” Monstro said before he left w/ BK at intermission.

It's been hard digesting that Kyle is gone because of his widespread imprint: from the memory of my first kiss with Monstro (…while Kyle was in Butler Hall finding me an EGSC conference t-shirt); Cthulhu/BP/Totoro mash-ups on South Park (pretty sure “My Neighbor Totoro” was in that ukulele box, too) ; to any matter of Pop Surrealism.

Kyle I can't help but think of that today, having sung lead on a 110-year-old stage thanks entirely to a Kyle-gift ukulele. It's so funny, because the diabetes rendered him blind –such a cruel loss to a man who read and made pictures, but a loss you faced bravely and with vim– but nevertheless Kyle had a… vision about him. The stuff he'd been into years ago will resonate as popular culture maybe 5-20 years from now.

Kyle was a blind visionary and he gave me my first ukulele. For his gifts and his friendship and love I will ever be thankful.

[And, oh, he was so proud that Monstro was graduating. “Brian's going to walk,” he announced to his mom the week before he died. His mom didn't understand the context so she responded, “Was he in an accident?”]

Lord knows I should be cleaning my house; we've all except Monstro been sick, Lex has croup. While I've managed to bang out a bunch of loads of laundry and also tackle the worst chore in the house (one I've been putting off since I discovered it but was completed by me this morning by 9:00), it's left me virtuous –but those dishes aren't going to clean themselves, you know. I have to clear at least one side of the sink so that I can run the dishwasher and then quick empty-and-reload-and-run again. I also need to parboil some split peas for tonight's hippie dinner of pea soup and Monstro's mushroom empanadas.

What I'd actually prefer to do is nap, but there hasn't been a whole lot of exercise this week, what with the gloppy snow and freezing rain, so puttering and cleaning can be rendered aerobic: who needs ankle weights when you're wearing snowboots? Nobody. And, this house is in desperate need of scrubbing up. Maybe I'll catch a quick Z or two later, outside w/ the boys, whilst pretending to make a snow angel.

Just back from running 3.5 miles on the snowy path and now I'm going to walk the 1.5 mile roundtrip to get Lex from school, so yay! Not sure where that puts me and frankly, with all these snow days I'm afraid to look!

MFM's new care plan is going well and they're talking about releasing her to acute rehab in the next few days. I will be happy because it will only be 20 minutes from my house, which is a grand improvement over 90 minutes from my house. The next couple of days are also supposed to bring much snow/ice so we'll see if that impacts anything. Your good thoughts are helping, thanks!!!

I drove 90 minutes to sit with MFM for 85 minutes and then drove back home this morning, but while I was at her bedside, her weekend neuro attending/resident came in and that was GOOD. We moved forward with a couple of care-plan items and they told me flat-out that it'll be rehab and not hospice, and moving her back home after rehab is probably fine, so yay. Also, I've driven 600 miles this week and I'm not even getting from Houston to North TX.

It's 6:45 and I was about to pour a bourbon and Coke but dang, when you start with a full glass of ice and a shot of Maker's 46, you don't really need the Coke, do you?

Prayers still bigly needed over here. Thanks.