Now I realize that I said that I don’t plan to be on a schedule or working to accomplish a list of things on this vacation, but I’m NOT supposed to be sick either!

I think what I’ve experienced today is the revenge of the House of Enormous Excess. At about 11:30 this morning I got ill, and it never seemed to go away. It became very clear very quickly that this was not a day that I was going to be leaving the house.

Not only did I have this stomach upset, but then I would feel so drained that I could barely move off the sofa. I think I gave a new definition to the word lump.

I kept thinking that I wanted to take a nap, but then if I tried to fall asleep I couldn’t.

It was a very weird pseudo-illness.

So I watched a couple of stamping videos and stayed glued to HGTV the rest of the time. I kept surfing hoping that there might be some ice-skating on television, but I never found any.

I did finally get to see "Erin Brockovich". What a fine movie. I do tend to like Julia Roberts anyways (I love Runaway Bride), but she was so not herself in this. It was a really interesting movie and a great acting job.

Glad I got to see one of the Oscar nominees before the awards are given out. That is one of those things I rarely seem to manage to do. Three years after something gets an award I finally get to see it.

But I do manage to catch the musicals that are on Broadway sometimes even before the Tony nominations, so I guess I have better luck that way.

Which is a bit bizarre when you consider that all I have to do to see a movie is drive five miles down the road, but to see a musical I have to go 400 miles.

I like the live things better.

So I’m sitting here looking at the same unfinished projects and the same piles of craft stuff that has been sitting here since early January.

But I’m just too exhausted and achy to do anything about it.

It’s hard to give up that idea that on a vacation I’m OBLIGATED to clean and organize.

I forgot to note this yesterday. It’s for my dad.

February 16 marks the anniversary of Lithuania's declaration of independence in 1918; the state was founded on democratic principles with Vilnius as its capital. In 1940, Lithuania became part of the Soviet Union under an agreement between Stalin and Hitler. In March 1990, this country was the first to declare its independence from the Soviet Union; its new independence was recognized in 1991. The First Lithuania Council signed the act on this day in 1918: http://webcenter.ru/~ltemb/aktas1.htm