* SO CLOSE to being done with my mom's mitts, and I realize I have just over a week now to do the little critters for my niece (so I can pass the present to her family at Thanksgiving). Fortunately, I can take the weekend "off" so I know what I'm going to be doing. (And I hope these things are as fast as I think they will be).
* My Insinkerator broke last night. I went to plug it in (long story there and that may actually contribute to its death) and heard a "pop" and there was a tiny curl of acrid smoke. I worried less this time about burning down the house because it's just like what happened before.
I have to call the plumber this morning to get a new one. I plug it in to use it rather than flipping a switch because the switch that controls it broke, I got it repaired once, the person who helped me said, "If this doesn't hold it will probably require rewiring from the attic" and wharrgarrrble I can't do that right now. I'm wondering if the surges of power from plugging and unplugging killed it, and am also wondering if maybe a power strip with an on-off switch is the answer now. Oh, it's a kludge, but when you live in an old house in a town where many repair people are hard to get in any timely fashion, EVERYTHING is kludges.
* Of course I had another "house falling apart" dream last night: my brother and I were sharing a house (he was younger and not yet married and I think I was also younger) and there was another person there who may have been related to an earlier dream but he was mostly off writing a book so he didn't factor in, but the big feature of the dream was me going into the "laundry room" and finding that the back door of the house wasn't locked, couldn't be locked, and when I tried to fix it so it could be, it totally came off the hinges and I was all WHY HAVEN'T WE BEEN ROBBED BLIND OR MURDERED IN OUR SLEEP AND WHY HAS NO ONE TAKEN CARE OF THIS?
Also, the house was inherited and there was all kinds of weird old stuff (in the laundry room: a whole cabinet full of vases and pitchers) that didn't belong to us. I couldn't decide whether it was okay to dispose of the stuff (sell some of it) or if it had to be left out of respect for the former owner.
I think one of the features of my house-falling-apart dreams is I never have any help to stop, prevent, or fix it: it's all on me even if there are others living in the house with me; they turn out to be useless. I'm sure there's something psychological there.
(The first dream, which I don't remember as well except for one scene: me, sitting in a pub, with a fellow I kind of had a crush on who had a voice like Liam Neeson's, and he was ever-so-slightly tipsy and therefore less reserved than he ordinarily was, and at one point he put an arm around my shoulders before telling me a little joke and I felt that weird electric thrill that some introverts feel (or at least I do, maybe it's only me) when they are touched unexpectedly. Don't get me wrong - when it's someone you like-like (like this guy in my dream), it's not at all unpleasant, but it is noticeable.
There was also some confused thing about children rehearsing a procession either for Advent or some saint's day, and the couple that ran the pub was scurrying around trying to get the costumes to work by pinning up hems on gowns and things. My dreams are odd.)
* So anyway. My half-plan of running to Sherman for groceries and a quick trip to the Five Below for silly gifts for people is wiped out now, but that's okay. I hope I can get someone in this afternoon to take care of the insinkerator.
If the guy gets done early enough I might run to the gourmet shop downtown, or I might go tomorrow.
* ETA: they can't get someone out until Tuesday. That's fine with me; I get that emergencies like busted pipes take precedence. I'll just have to remember to dump my used tea leaves or scrape my plates into the trash for a couple days. This is the "good" plumber and I won't use someone else.
So....hm. I could still go to Sherman for lunch and some quick shopping if I wanted to. I heard a rumor that some Five Below stores have Princess Luna Christmas tree ornaments and I kind of want one, but no idea if this particular store has them because they're all kind of random. But at any rate: funny stuff for stocking stuffers (last time I was in they had googly-eye thumbtacks and I might give a pack of those to my mom) and maybe for a few small surprise gifts for friends. Just part of my "I need to shift over to Christmas Brain now" feeling.
* I'll be really glad when my Christmas knitting is done; I want to work on something for myself. I have a couple of exams to give early this week and am contemplating trying to do the AAUW gift-mitts then.
I am thinking my plan for the between-Thanksgiving-break-and-Christmas-break project is going to finally be making my G4-ized Minty. I know I have all the yarn I need for her.
I really just want to give over to Christmas-brain early. I should get out my Christmas craft/nostalgia books and start looking at them.
* Apparently the "wellness coordinator" they are bringing on campus for a program is not very popular. They started out with "seats are limited!!!" and then started offering a free blood-pressure cuff to the first however many people. Now they're sending multiple e-mails about it.
I'm hoping it doesn't escalate to shanghaiing people to come to the presentation. I think it's at a time when I'm not free, but really: I am not a stupid woman. I know what I need to do to stay healthy:
1. Wash my hands regularly to avoid infectious disease
2. Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables
3. Limit consumption of added sugars and "artificial" fats (the jury has gone back for another round of deliberation about things like butterfat and I am feeling somewhat justified in my decision to use butter or olive oil as my cooking fats of choice depending on application, and also I feel less bad about the volume of cheese and eggs I eat than I once did)
4. Get regular exercise
5. Not smoke, drink excessive alcohol, or use "street drugs" (What are they called now? When I was a teen they were called "street drugs" but that sounds very 80s right now to me)
6. Sleep enough
7. Wear my seat belt when I drive places.
I definitely do 4, 5, 6, and 7. I sometimes forget about 1 but I do wash my hands before eating or after I've been in the lab. I try with 2 though there's a limit to how many vegetables my digestion can handle. And 3: I could be better on the avoidance of sugar but I don't eat THAT much (I almost never drink sodas, for example: my main sugar consumption is either the occasional piece of dessert - often dark chocolate - or as sweetener in my tea, either golden syrup or that "La Lechera" dulce-de-leche stuff which is really pretty amazing and probably has slightly spiked up my sugar consumption but whatever). I'm pretty good at avoiding "manipulated" fats as I don't eat fried food (as Satchel Paige said: it angries up the blood) and I don't eat a lot of processed stuff.
But anyway: I don't do well with being nagged or nannied at because I also know I suffer from all-or-nothing thinking and am a perfectionist, and would fixate on the "must eliminate even more sugar" part of it and make myself miserable.
But here's the thing: everyone here is busy. Many people are doing the job of two people, some even of three. We've been through some very ugly budget cuts and more may be coming. And it does feel a tiny bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic to tell people, "Cut back on sugar" or "do an additional half-hour of exercise a week." I'm already doing my best without making myself miserable (and miserable to be around: I have known people with what bordered on orthorexia). So anyway. I keep hoping they will realize that this kind of stuff is really unpopular with the workforce but I suppose the insurer pushes so hard for it they have no choice but to do it.
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