Yet another quiet weekend for my husband, The Gryphon, and I. It was important for us to get some things done, especially since my father will be in town next weekend, and we will spend time with him and his girlfriend.

Saturday, after we went to breakfast at the Koffee Korner in Media, we checked out a few stores at the Granite Run Mall to see if we could find a dress for me to wear at the black-tie-optional dinner at my dad's convention.

We didn't have any luck. The closest we got to finding something was The Limited, which had a nice strapless cocktail dress, but unfortunately, not in my size.

At home, I caught up with e-mail for Otakon press relations, which is always a time-consuming task. By the time I had finished with that, walked our doggie, Una, and worked on a poem, it was past our usual dinner time.

To make up for dragging The Gryphon dress shopping, I told him I would buy him dinner, and he requested we go to J.B. Dawson's, so he could get some ribs. I had the crab cakes, which were delicious.

Back home, we watched a movie we'd rented, the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, however I kept falling asleep. I'm going to rewatch it before I return it, then we'll rent the original film, so we can watch it and compare.

On Sunday, we spent more time out and about. After breakfast at Redstone American Grill, where I got the Spa Breakfast (which includes yogurt, granola and fruit), we saw the movie The Soloist at the King of Prussia Mall. I was very impressed with the film. The movie is based on the true story of a Los Angeles newspaper reporter (Robert Downey Jr.) who befriends a homeless man (Jamie Foxx) who happens to be a talented musician. The newspaper reporter tries to make a difference in his life.

I liked how the director used sound and imagery to emulate the mental state of the homeless musician, who suffers from mental illness. I wouldn't be surprised if Jamie Foxx gets another Oscar nomination for his performance.

Anybody who has known someone who suffers from mental illness can identify with the reporter and his struggles as he tries to help somebody who may not want to be helped.

After the movie, we walked around the King of Prussia Mall, where I hoped to have better luck finding a dress. We started at Nordstrom Rack, the outlet store for some of the high end department stores. While we found many possibilities, none of them worked.

Next, we tried The Limited to see if they had the cocktail dress in my size, but they didn't either. So we checked the sales racks at Neiman Marcus and Lord & Taylor's (since I'd had good luck a few years ago finding a dress for the same event). No luck this time. Currently, a lot of formal dresses are either cut n the bias (hugging the hips) or as a sheath dress (which goes straight down). Neither is flattering to a pear-shaped person. Considering the majority of women are pear-shaped, this is a bit frustrating!

It's a testament to The Gryphon's character that he was willing to keep looking despite our continuing bad luck. Finally, we tried JCPenney, which had a much larger dress department than the one at Granite Run Mall. There, I managed to find a pink American Living dress that was very flattering. It's a V-neck sleeveless dress with an empire waist, fitted bodice, and a very flattering pleated bottom. As soon as I put it on, I knew it was the dress. While it was available in both pink and white, I went with pink because I thought it would stand out, and it's nice with my coloring. I found a white bolo jacket to go overtop, since it tends to be cool at dinner until the dancing begins. I even have shoes already that can go with it, so I'm officially done.

Now all I have to do is clean our place before Dad arrives with his girlfriend.

By the time we finished, it was time for dinner, so The Gryphon suggested we try a place called Spamps in Conshohocken. They're closed on Sundays, so we ate next door at Viggiano's, an Italian restaurant run by a large family. We started out with the Caprese Salad, which featured tomato slices with mozzarella cheese, basil and balsalmic vinegar. Then I had the salmon, which was served on a bed of greens with roasted red peppers. The Gryphon had the Rigatoni Country-Style. We shared a serving of escarole.

For dessert, we split a piece of ricotta cheesecake, which was light and delicious.

Back home, The Gryphon worked on the Wild Violet redesign while I wrote another poem. Then I had to do my bills, which is never a fun task. It spurred a discussion between The Gryphon and me about how to save money, as well as how to bring in more income.

He observed that when I'm externally motivated, such as by the LJ Idol contest or National Poetry Writing Month, I tend to produce more, whereas otherwise I tend to put things off. To make myself more publicly accountable, once a week, I'm going to provide an update on my goals. I will do this on either Sundays or early Monday, since I often get a lot of work done on the weekends. I'll summarize what I've done that week towards the goals I had set earlier in theyear.

The hope is that, if I make myself publicly accountable, I will be more motivated to stay on track and make progress.