Once upon a time, in a country far, far away, I could get up early in the morning. I need to be in Ascrick, Texas by 7:30 am? Hey, no problem. I'll get up at four. I'll even be cheerful. Maybe not right away, but certainly by the time I get there, provided I get my liter of hot tea before leaving the house and I don't forget the mini-cooler of Mountain Dew for the road. You want full brain function? No sweat! All part of the service.

Just don't expect to see me in bed before midnight.

And I am still able to get up early. Slightly less cheerful, to be sure, but I'm up.

See? Look at me. I'm up right now.

I am, however, no longer guaranteeing full brain function. The warranty's run out on that one, I'm afraid.

Already this morning, I've gone into the kitchen twice to do something. What, I don't know. By the time I get there, I have no idea, aside from the fact that I wanted to do whatever it was right away so that I don't forget to do it.

Wednesday evening, 7:00 .m.

After I wrote the above, I remembered what it was that I needed to do.

By the time I'd gotten to the kitchen, I had forgotten it.

This is sad, folks.

As I was getting ready to leave before class, I remembered what it was. I had forgotten to put the jeans I wanted to wear in the dryer.

To recap, I spent the morning walking around in my panties without it occurring to my exactly why I was doing so and what needed to be done to remedy the situation.

Not that I don't tend to wander around the apartment in my undies. Hey, it's my house, and I'll do what I want therein.

But it's still pretty pathetic.

Today was gloomy, all rainy and dark. Inexplicably, the sun has come out about half an hour ago, but given the time, it's hardly enough to save it. On the bright side, all that rain washed away the guilt I might have felt in taking a taxi to make up for the time I lost changing into a new outfit.

But the virtue continues. We were up at 5:30 yet again, and I managed to unblock the bathtub drain, clean the bathroom, wipe up yet more cat piss from the bathroom floor (I'm not sure Calliope's even bothering to stand in the litterbox anymore), do some dishes, vaccuum, sort laundry, have breakfast, and get the dry-cleaning ready as well as some trousers Elvis wants fixed at the tailors. But not my portuguese homework, because I did that yesterday. I contented myself with going over my vocabulary flashcards. I made myself more of those yesterday, too.

Much more of this, and I'm going to bore myself. Surely it's just a phase, and I will never reach the level of prissiness.

This early to bed, early to rise crap must be getting to my brain. Even if I aspired to prissiness, I have a long, long, long way to go.

A friend gave me a ride back into Cascais, and dropped me off at the Jumbo. I had a productive time at Jumbo today. At first, I was all excited because they'd moved things around a bit, and I thought the catfood was no longer housed right next to the bacahlau. Bacalhau is more commonly known in English as dried salt cod, and it stinks. And I say stink in the sense of it smells awful. There are many people, mostly Portuguese, who love the taste of the stuff, but I'm not really one of them. It's always too salty for me, despite all efforts. To each his own. I, for example, adore some cheeses that make plants shrivel and die, and Calliope run in fear. But I digress.

As I was saying, bacalhau is noisome. So the good folks at Jumbo stick it in the very back corner of the store, next to the pet food and the automotive supplies, presumably on the basis that pet food doesn't smell too good either and those frequenting the automotive department have other things on their minds than a honest bit of pong.

They had moved the cat food. Unfortunately, they had not moved the brand that Calliope will eat, so it did me no good at all. Such is life.

Aside from cat food, I bought some drill bits for my cordless screwdriver so that I can hang our dartboard. Sadly, I later discovered our walls are too hard and that I'll need to borrow a power drill after all. But at least I know I'll have the correct size bit for the job.

I also bought an automatic coffee maker. I have moka pots in varying sizes, that make espresso type coffee on the stove top. However, I have not owned a real coffee maker since before we left the US. I had a french press, but that got pulverized by the movers. In any case, I never really missed having one. I drink tea in the mornings, and I have really grown to love strong espresso-type coffee since moving to Europe. Although, come to think of it, I had an espresso/cappucino maker in the US, too. Anyway, I've been craving coffee lately. Not just a weensy little cup, but an entire pot. Great big mugs of it.

With milk and sugar.

So at Jumbo, I checked it out, and coffee makers aren't really expensive, especially by European standards. So I bought one, and I'm pretty happy with it. It has markings on the water reservoir for real-life cups as well as Aunt Milly sized ones, and a clever little anti-drip filter. I suppose they all have that these days. Don't bother to tell me-- I prefer to remain impressed.

I bought a sweater shaver. It's pink and boring, but necessary.

Finally, I bought a new CD by Solomon Burke, the King of Soul: Don't Give Up On Me." It's full of brand new songs written by Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, Nick Lowe, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan and I forget who else. Every single one is an instant classic: in fact, they sound like you've been hearing them and loving them for years, until you realize that you couldn't have done. I urge you to buy it right now.

I'm not joking.

Immediately. Go on.

I'll go too. Elvis has just returned from the gym (more virtue!), and wants to go to the pub.