Some happier things

* I cleaned house this afternoon. There was nothing I HAD to do over at work for tomorrow, and I was tired (yesterday was an exceptionally long day), and I got my grading done this morning, so....

I feel better for having cleaned. When my house is too messy, I think the disorder bothers me, and there's also the low-level worry (probably unfounded) of "what if there were some emergency, like I got hurt, and someone had to come over and help me?" (Unfounded, because I suspect people who care about me wouldn't care and would know how busy and overwhelmed I am).

But at least my house is nicer now. And I did my laundry, including towels. Maybe I take a warm bath before bed. (I don't need to wash my hair tonight and I really only should do it every 2-3 days because otherwise it gets too dried out)

* I also unpacked and set up the new blender. My old blender died a week or more ago (all the days run together) and I ordered a new Ninja brand one. It came, but I was busy, so I just set it in the box on the kitchen floor. And kept tripping over it. But today I took the time to take it out, wash the container and blades, and set it up. Have not used it yet but am seriously considering stopping at Pruett's on the way home for lunch tomorrow to get some ice cream (I don't have any) and making a "yay, I survived another week" milkshake tomorrow evening. (Some people drink cocktails after a hard week; I'd rather have a milkshake. I might use Ovaltine; it makes rather good milkshakes)

Also at some point there will probably be tomato soup. I have a stick blender but I honestly find a good "chamber type" blender works better at blending stuff up. OH, and potato soup - that should happen soon, I bought some potatoes and some shallots.

* This is a good wisdom:

(From Anime_IRL, but I cannot guarantee the entire site is work-safe, I just scanned a few posts)

But yes. I struggle with feeling like "unproductive time is wasted time" but maybe being happy is productive in its own way.

* Some new things to read:

- I bought these Saturday and never got around to them.



- One of my ITFF friends sent me this off my Amazon wishlist. It is a nice companion piece to my much-loved 1970s Disney cookbook: similar feel, and one of the nice things about it is most of the recipes are from-scratch things (rather than "here is how to gussy up a thing-from-a-mix"). And also they have some degree of....maybe cultural sensitivity? Like, Jasmine has a hummus recipe in there, and there's a Mulan-themed recipe for Mu Shu (Most people, I have found, who try hummus, like it. I like it. I don't often buy it because it's hard to use it up for me, but it is good.)




* I finished the first pair of Christmas socks for my mom. I'm really happy with them. As I said, she admired the color of the yarn, and I decided it's colors she wears more than I do, so....It's a modification of the good old Weasley Homestead pattern; I did the feet plain because (a) it's faster that way and (b) my mom usually wears her socks in closed shoes and plain stockinette feet are more comfortable for that.




I also started the pair out of the "sweet potato" colored yarn I bought at Yarn on Youree when I visited my friend Laura earlier this summer. These will be for her, too, even though I admit I really like this yarn myself. (I bought it with her in mind, the colors in it are also ones she wears).



* I figured out a "doing something for Hallowe'en even though I lack the energy for a costume" - I ordered some hair chalk (in a violet and a "sugarplum" - a dark purple) color from Ulta (I had loyalty points I could use, so it was essentially free to me) and I am going to do hair chalk for Hallowe'en. (I had initially thought of a short-lived wash-in, wash-out dye, but I think I like this idea better and people tell me that even on darker hair like mine, the chalk DOES show up.)

If I like the effect, I might even just do it some times for funsies. Though I don't have a lot of places I go where hair chalk would be a cool thing. (I wouldn't wear it ordinarily for work or for professional-type things). Maybe for Christmas parties, though purple isn't a super Christmassy color.

And I KNEW I didn't want to for-real dye my hair because I don't want to risk damaging it more (my hair has been thinning a little, probably age and stress because there's nothing medically wrong with me as per my last checkup.) But also, I don't want to risk my hair still being an odd color for my dad's memorial service; I don't think my dad would have liked that, and I also don't want my mom to be subjected to "Why is your fifty-year-old daughter wearing an odd hair color" questions from Certain Relatives.

(Though I COULD see wearing a festive hair-chalk color to something like a Christmas get-together at church; most of the people my mom is friends with would be all "oh, that's cool....it's CHALK? I have to try that.")

* Another recent purchase. I had been relying on the backlight from my weather radio as a nightlight in the bathroom, but I had to move the weather radio to my living room because it wouldn't always pick up the test tones (and I got sick of resetting it), so I needed something to give a low level of light in there at night.

Voila, a color-changing LED light:






It was not expensive (about $5) and I presume the LEDs last as long as most do (so: something like 10,000 hours) so leaving it on every night is not an issue.