And looking ahead

I am in a better mood today.

A big part of it is the headache - which had hung on for a couple days, and which I now suspect WAS a low-level migraine - is gone, and even the garden-variety sore neck I have (pretty much always, probably a legacy of having broken my collarbone a few years ago) isn't so bad.

Part of it is - no evidence of mice this morning. At least not out in the laundry room, no, uh, "sprinkles" left on the floor for me to find. (They could still be in the undersink cabinet, I didn't check). But I did install the ultrasonic things (how ultrasonic, I don't know. I swear I can hear a buzz from them and humans aren't supposed to) and I mopped with a strong lemony cleaner (I mopped the bathroom first, on the grounds that its floor was less unhygienic - it was just me in there, no evidence of mice, and because I'm a "setter not a pointer" as the old joke goes, there's not even that much, uh, unwanted liquid that gets around).

I'm also thinking: if I have energy this afternoon after lab, I maybe attack the dining room, really put stuff away in there, move some of the floor-occupying stuff out, and make up another bucket of water and wash that floor. And maybe even do part or all of the living room (and I could hit the hall, very little I have to move there). I like the idea of having the floors be CLEAN clean instead of the half-@$$ed kind of clean I usually do. Or I sort stuff next to my big chair and move some stuff out of that room with the aim of putting up my tree tomorrow night.

Or maybe I move stuff out of all those rooms temporarily, and do one big pass with the mop. (Shoot, maybe I even throw all the stacks of books on my bed and wetmop the bedroom...)

It all depends on if I have the energy when I get home. (Next week I have several evening meetings so doing it then is less possible). But I like the idea of leaving a clean, nice, decorated house when I go for Thanksgiving and being able to come back to it and just relax and enjoy after.

I also started the pair of fingerless mitts for me off the "Soccer Mitts" pattern I referred to. They may come out a bit big; I will have to decide whether to drop back a needle size but maybe this is the "make over break" thing - I will need to take a couple of small, easily-portable projects just in case I wind up sitting over at the eye surgeon's when my mom is having her cataracts done.

(If I can find my short size 4 circular, maybe I also take the Kelvin-Helmholz Waves Cowl pattern I've been itching to start for a while (I have a cake of purple laceweight for that.) Though that's more complex and not a good project if people are talking at you or there's a lot of stuff going on, IDK. If not now, it may well be Christmas-break knitting.)

But yeah. I am ready to switch to "holiday mode," which for me is really "Christmas mode" these days: I want to make nice food and share it with people I care about, and knit things, and maybe make some toys, and laugh over the goofy commercials for gifts that are sort of strange gifts (Chia Pet and The Clapper are forever wedded in my mind for this; I don't know if they even still advertise them or not. I have seen lots of goofy toy ads, for animals with flippable sequins or little toy foods with eyes, or things that are called "unicorn poop" but that look like the "Slime" that used to come in little plastic trash cans when I was a kid*)

I dunno; I kind of enjoy the goofy toy commercials even if other people are all "oh no, it is making our children too materialistic!" Though I suspect wanting lots of things - like believing oneself the center of the universe -are more traits inherent to being a young human than traits our current society has specifically engendered. Encouraged, I will accept, created, I don't think so much.

Heck, I'm kind of materialistic and some of those toys are things i might want, even as an adult. (Not the "unicorn poop," though, not a fan of slime and messy things)


(*I remember Original Slime, Slime with Worms (the younger brother of a friend had that one) and Slime with Eyes.)