Pictures of finished objects will come later (and probably one-a-day, as I've done in the past).

I anticipated spending the rest of this day in a cool dark room with a damp cloth over my forehead (I had the preparatory work done for having a crown installed on one of my molars today). It was, surprisingly, not that bad. I had built it up into some terrible, Dante's-Inferno-like punishment (Ring Six: where people who don't brush immediately after eating raisins* are consigned)

(*Yes, raisins. Supposedly one of the worst foods for triggering tooth decay, according to dentists - worse than chocolate. Because raisins tend to stick, and are slightly acid, and seem to be tooth-decay-bacteria's favorite food).

It was really not that bad. And now that the Novocaine has worn off (really, the worst part of the process for me is the whole "numbing" and its aftermath), I actually feel kind of OK.

I do need to run out at some point to replace several of the fluorescent tubes that apparently blew their ballasts (thanks to one of the unpredictable power outages we have). I should do it today to avoid any more potential bias in my experiment.

And I need to charge up my camera.

One bit of progress though is that I finally named the three amigurumi critters I made. Keeping a bit with previous "tradition" of using Japanese words, the octopus will be Otako (tako, I am told, is the Japanese word for Octopus; Otako is more common for the sort prepared for sushi, but I like Otako better as a name). The pink bear is Sakura (cherry blossom).


The duck, however - the best word I was able to find online was Oshi-dori (which is Mandarin duck, the typical "white duck" that we think of as domesticated ducks), but I'm leaning towards using "Gabby" as the name instead. (It will make sense when you see the duck). I'll have to think on it. (I've also seen "Ahiru" used as a word for duck).