Some little things

 I decided to take today fully off. Got up and dressed and did Duolingo and ran to the wal-mart. Wrote a check to pay (which meant  I had to wait for a staffed checkout, but I am NOT using a credit card there again, at least not on the self-checkouts, given that I think that's where my number got stolen).

It was a pain, sort of, but at least I was able to get real (-ish; it's farm-raised Atlantic) smoked salmon for lunch

Then I did a little house cleaning; my new thing is to have a set number of "things" I have to do before I can take a break, where a "thing" could be as small as "put this item away in its appropriate place" or "take out the trash" or as big as "vacuum a floor" or "scrub the tub." 

I got a fair number of things done but should do more - in fact, I should start boxing stuff up with the plan to take them over to the storage unit after school Monday. 

One of the things I did (and it counts! Because the thing is no longer sitting on a table and is now in use) was to take the old match holder I bought ages ago (way back in the before-times) at an antique store and never deployed (partly because I couldn't figure out where to put it: they are designed for kitchens, back when there were gas stoves where you lit the pilot with a match, but my stove is electric and I rarely use matches any more - preferring one of those stick-lighters when I burn candles)

Then I realized: this is the solution to "where are the dang stamps?" I have small books of stamps scattered around because I lose them and wind up buying more. And also, if I fold up the freebee sheets of address labels that places like Nature Conservancy send, they fit, too.

So I put it up near my front door, where it's convenient for me to grab stamps after paying a bill or writing a card:

I also tucked my dad's pocket knife in there; he often used it to open letters and I suppose I could do the same - or use it to slit the tape when I get packages. At any rate: less likely to get misplaced. I also stuck a couple extra ear-savers in there. Yes, I am still wearing masks in public, at least in crowded places.

After that, I wanted to go to the quilt show - there is a quilting group in town, I just can never go because it meets exactly when my ecology lab meets, and I can't ask to totally disrupt the department schedule (people have to take classes in a particular sequence and we need to avoid conflicts in labs, so changing one lab means several other classes must change). But they do have a show (most years - didn't during the pandemic) and it's nice to go.

It was small but nice; there were several quilts I REALLY liked (and a few that left me cold, but that was more a color-choice thing, or they were ones based heavily on one of those pre-printed panels, which is less interesting to me than one that's a mosaic of smaller pieces). They have you vote for your favorite; I chose one called "ancestors and orphans," partly because it was the Depression-era prints I like, partly because it was nicely done, partly because it had a cool backstory (it was basically "marrying" old blocks from two different sources, one of which, if I remember correctly, was the quilter's grandmother). 

There's also a small merchant's mall - I got to say hi to one of the owners of Lulu and Hazel's and bought a couple small notions (including a magnetic pin-holder you can stick to your sewing machine) for my mom's birthday. And I did buy a layer cake (you can see it here) of "jungle" themed prints (there's one with a tiger, and one with elephants, and I just really liked the colors) from the Quilt Asylum people.

There was also a knife-and-scissors sharpener and I admit when I found out he was doing knives I kicked myself for not bringing my kitchen knives but the woman working the table said "Oh, you could come back with them, he'll be here until 3 when we close" so I ran home and grabbed my chef's knife, boning, knife, and paring knife - I've used them for 20 plus years without REALLY having sharpened them (I have one of the little "kitchen" type sharpeners but it never worked well) and I've done stuff like hacked up chicken wings so I know they needed it. And also grabbed my sewing shears even though I doubted they REALLY needed it, because you don't often get a chance here for this.

I had to leave them, and I admit that made me nervous, but only about 10 minutes after I got home, the guy texted me - they were done. It came to $22 for all of them, and that seems really reasonable. He did compliment me on what good shape the sewing scissors were in but I laughed and said I lived alone and there wasn't anyone else to grab them to cut aquarium tubing* or wire with because they were convenient (And I keep several other pairs of scissors on hand for things like cutting paper or cardboard, and I have tinsnips for wire). 

(*My brother got in trouble with our mom for doing this once)

He even said the knives were in pretty good shape, but then I know AT LEAST you don't put good knives in the dishwasher (well, when I had a dishwasher). But now they're sharp - and ironically, you are less likely to injure yourself on a sharp knife by accident because you don't have to use so much force to cut. 

Now I need to do a little more clean up/boxing up, and also put together a pot of black bean soup for tomorrow....and I need to get an onion for that, but at least now I have good sharp knives for that.