Lots got done

 Busy day today, but I accomplished a lot

First: I went into campus this morning and ground away on the manuscript. I now have an acceptable draft. Oh, it still needs more work and I need to skim through my reading notes to see if there's any more background I want to put in there from other papers, but it feels more like something that will be possible to submit by the end of the summer.

Then I came home, to do more cleaning. I got four of the things on the list done: clean out the guest room closet completely, cleaned under the guest room bed, sorted the books in my bedroom and cleaned under my bed (a shocking number of books had gotten shoved under there), and sorted books in the living room and rearranged this shelf:

The pineapple-shaped lamp was a graduation gift (when I earned my Ph.D.) from a couple of my labmates. I've moved it around over the years but never had a permanent place for it. (It uses a nightlight bulb so it doesn't take much electricity). 

But things seem a lot cleaner now. My house will never be "magazine clean" because I'm not that kind of a minimalist and I need my books and such. But it had gotten bad, and it seems a lot better now.

I will say that the Bissell vacuum I bought back in early 2021 when the older, cheaper one I had burned out its motor is aces. It's much easier to maneuver, it has good suction, it's easy to empty. It has a lot of tools though I admit with my hard floors I mostly use the narrow "corner" tool to suck up dust and bits of paper and the like. And it has a retractable cord (I think it's basically the old mechanical system that some old vacuums had - sort of like the "friction pullback" toy cars. You hold down a lever and the cord retracts, which is SUPER handy and is easier than having to wind the cord)

I've also been doing a little knitting, mostly very simple knitting, because with the house stuff I sort of lack the energy or concentration for other stuff (maybe next week though? When I'm done with this spurt of cleaning/pitching stuff). I'm working on the color-shifting blanket. This is a simple "recipe" that I think Louise Tilbrook (I think it was her) posted on Twitter - it's basically the "Grandma's favorite dishcloth" knitted big, and with knit-front-and-back rather than yarn over as an increase. (And then ssk as the decrease on the back end). You just knit until you're halfway through your yarn (or it's as long on one side as you want it to be - it's a square).

I'm using a "Mandala bonus bundle" - a big colorshifting cake of yarn. (I have three, but am not sure I will use all of them, I'll have to see how large it is once I finish the first cake)

Finally, I got to the next color change - from light, medium, and dark teal into a sort of bluish purple: