Sunday Breakdown

Re. the subject of how much time childless people actually have, here's a breakdown of how I spent my relatively obligation-free day yesterday:

[Disclaimer: Not all of my weekend days are like this. Even yesterday, my sister was supposed to bring my nephew Punky Doodle down for a visit, but he was sick, so they couldn't make it. Jackspatula was also sick and spent most of the day sleeping on the couch. And, since I didn't have anything else planned for the day . . . well, you'll see.]

(Times are approximate.)
9:00 a.m.: Get up.
9:00 - 10:00 a.m.: Read New York Times, drink coffee.
10:00 - 1:00 p.m.: Play online poker, drink more coffee. (Yes, for THREE HOURS. My time is truly my own.)
1:00 - 2:30 p.m.: Eat snack, read. (Snack: half a honey-mustard chicken breast and two pieces of toast with pepper-berry jam. Current book: Clinton's biography. How is it? Well, it's kind of like reading this list, documenting every minute of every day of someone's life, for about 50 years, in narrative form. Sound tedious? Yes! But I'm over 200 pages in now and feel committed.)
2:30 - 3:00: Clean up kitchen
3:00 - 4:00: More online poker (so bad!)
4:00 - 4:30: Walk to local hippie store to pick up stuff for dinner
4:30 - 5:00: Drive to Giant Eagle to pick up single key ingredient that the hippie store doesn't have (a common occurrence)
5:00 - 5:30: Take dog for walk
5:30 - 6:00: Watch World Poker Tournament on ESPN
6:00 - 8:00: Cook dinner (Roasted squash and potato enchiladas. This is a very time-consuming recipe involving a food processor that tends to spew bits of sauce out from its ill-fitting lid. You can see where this is leading. See below.)
8:00 - 8:10: Take 10 minutes to eat meal that took 2 hours to prepare. Jackspatula still sick and can't eat; lies on the couch looking pathetic while I eat.
8:10 - 9:00: Clean kitchen. (Not only did preparing the enchildas involve using about 3/4 of our total stockpile of dishes, pans, bowls, and utensils, but the sauce from the food processor managed to land bits of itself all over the splashboard and on all the canisters, the coffee pot, the toaster, etc.)
9:00 - 11:00: Exhausted from hours in the kitchen, I veg out in front of the TV for the rest of the night. Shows watched: "Desperate Housewives" and "Boston Legal." Time wasted? You decide.
11:00 - 12:00: Up to bed for an hour of reading. More Clinton minutia. No problem falling asleep after that.

So, that's it. A whole day. The major accomplishment? We will have enchiladas to eat all week! The major un-accomplishment? FOUR HOURS of online poker. But think of it this way. How many people would think nothing of spending four hours on a Sunday watching football? LOTS! And how productive is that? Not very! Kind of puts a different perspective on it, doesn't it?