All of this "work" is giving me a stiff neck (to add to all my other physical ailments). I guess I've been getting off easy, what with being able to take breaks when I need them. Now that I have to keep at it for hours at a time, I really need that wavy ergonomic keyboard.

It's all spreadsheet stuff, so I never look up from the monitor except to find out where my mouse has slithered off to. (Actually, it's the mousepad that keeps slipping toward the far corner of the desk. I really need the optical mouse I've been coveting, too.)

At least my back is usually okay. It should be, after all the badgering I did to get the Boss to let me buy a new chair last year. But I tend to slouch toward the screen anyway, as if I couldn't see the wee numbers in their tiny fonts. I guess I just never learned how to relax and concentrate at the same time.

No, the backache comes from another source. The only place where the typewriter is out of the way is on a table, up in the loft, shoved against a wall. I use it so rarely and it takes up so much space that it doesn't make sense to keep it anywhere else.

And it's fine up there, until I have to use it. The only time I need it these days is to fill out forms, like the preliminary lien notice I have to file today. I was up there last night, after a trying day, trying to remember how to type.

I found myself hunched over so that my head didn't hit the low, sloped ceiling. It's kind of an awkward position, and I've lost all my typing skills, since the computer makes correcting mistakes so easy.

(Why, it corrects about half of mine automatically, and allows me to make others that I never dreamed of. I never have to type a capital "I" because Word will always capitalize it for me. That doesn't work on my old IBM Selectric.)

Two new sightings: There's a peacock (perhaps a peahen, I wouldn't presume) that I've now seen a couple of times in the field just beyond my back fence. It was flapping around in the low brush, and so I haven't had a good look at it, but by the size and the little curly thing on top of its head, I'm guessing peafowl. (These creatures are not in my Audubon field guide, probably because they're not normally found in the wild in this area.)

Number two: The hawk's nest is at the top of the giant oak at the far end of my driveway, near the road. I spotted it shortly after I moved here, but yesterday for the first time I saw the hawk circle around and land in the nest. Not a big deal for the bird, who probably does it every day, but I thought it was kind of cool.

Now, about those Grammy nominations. I listen to a lot of music. I like all kinds of music (almost). For years, I think I was ahead of the Grammy curve in my tastes, but now I think they've passed me by. I go down the list and see that the only artists nominated that I listen to obviously have no chance of winning. I mean, Paul Simon is going to beat out Radiohead? I don't think so.

But there's a category called "traditional R&B vocal album"? I didn't know there was such a thing any more. I want all five of those CDs! But I can't, of course, on account of my stoopid resolution.

Do audio books count against my resolution? Because I would definitely pay to hear Matt Dillon read On the Road. What a perfect matching of artist and material. I'm serious.

Anyway, if you want the real inside scoop from someone who knows what's going on, go read Pamie's take on the Grammys (even though she hates a lot of people I like).