so I did this odd thing...

... and I stayed away from the Internet for the majority of this past week.  My intent wasn't so much in the vein of those popular experimental projects, like a giving-a-possession-away-each-day-for-a-year or a not-consuming-chocolate-or-peanut-butter-individually-or-in-combo-for-a-month kind of deal (the first of which I might be pretty cool with, and the latter which I would fail miserably at before the 60 minute mark).  The reason behind my absence had more to do with the fact that I've yet to be successful at either cloning myself or moving at hyper-speed.  The fun, fun, fun of some significant spring cleaning tasks trumped my usual hobbies of slothfully laying on the couch, spending long periods of time squirreled away in my home library (aka the bathroom), or tap tapping away on the netbook.  At the end of the week, my inbox may have been exploding, missed Facebook statuses (stati?) may have left me very much not in the know, and a crapload of items in my reader may have necessitated a one-click disappearance, but damn if my kitchen cabinets aren't sparkly clean, the wood floors no longer capture our bare feet like fly paper, and my windows allow for a view that is uninhibited by toddler-sized handprints.  Yippee!

But the happiness doesn't end there.  It was a week that was also filled with some pleasant surprises, some of which are bloggable, and others that will simply have to be represented by a check mark in the figurative win column. (LOVE YOU DAD!!)  My feeble attempts at actually moving my body enough to break a sweat every now and then got a major boost recently when I learned that random.org showed some random.love for my number in a giveaway for a Wii and a Wii Fit Plus package!   Yup, soon enough, I'll be sporting the white capris and striking yoga poses whenever I please.  The much-anticipated package arrived this week, and while lovely hubby cheered at his first "Wii Fit Age" of 32, I shamefully hung my head when the freaking gigantic 45 flashed on the screen for me.  Apparently because I have sucky balance and hand-eye coordination, I'm eleven years older in Wii World than I am in real life.  The irony is that I've had these same balance and coordination issues since, um.... how about FOREVER?  Yeah, it don't matter the age, Wii Peeps, I'm always going to be leaning slightly to the right and having trouble with video game controllers.  Eh, no matter.  I've been having a blast with the game, and if there's even a tiny bit of weight loss, even if it won't allow me to ever dress in head-to-toe white, I'll certainly be one happy Wii camper!  Thanks so much, Stimey!

And when I'm not having my name pulled out of the online hat, I am apparently wielding some pretty hefty power with my elected officials.  Last week, I added my name to another of the Human Rights Campaign's email your Congressman initiatives.  Since I do definitely feel that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy should be repealed and I said as much to my Congressman, Steny Hoyer, I was delighted to receive an email response directly from him.  The thought that he took time out of his obviously busy schedule to craft a personal reply seriously made my day.  See for yourself.  I'm clearly a person to be respected and not ignored.

Yup.  While I was away from my bloggy home sweet home, I was cleaning, winning, and influencing people in high places.*


Knowing you wish you were me,



*And for the record, I have great respect for Representative Steny Hoyer, and I fully realize that this was simply a technical glitch that had nothing to do with him at all, but I really couldn't resist using this for my own bloggy humor. And lovely hubby was the one who suggested it, anyway!