Play, and flow.

It happened last night. I picked up part of my costume on the way home from work, grabbed party tacos from Bueno, took everything home and inhaled my dinner, then went to Hobby Lobby to get scrapbooking paper on which to print the critters which Batman drew for me. The cake turned out well. I used a pound cake mix, substituted coconut oil for the butter (because I forgot to take the butter out to soften) and half-and-half for the water or milk.

The bag is packed, my costume is on my bed, I've paid my tithing online (!!!) and internet bill as well. I need to mail off a bill, but that can wait until tomorrow. This is the part where I throw various items onto the "to shred" pile, move various bags to the door (remembering to grab the cake from on top of the stove), sluice off, and get the heck out of Dodge.

There will be pictures of the decorated cake later. That part is going to be a team effort.

Halloween is my second favorite secular holiday. Today is going to be so much fun!

And in other news, my knitting is not arguing with me, and I think I put the last coat of paint on the skinny strips of wall by the doors. Looking forward to a long weekend in which to paint and craft.

The wall is (mostly) done.

I need to touch up the long, skinny strips to either side of the door mouldings where they meet the adjacent walls. That is fiddly work, because the space is a little too narrow for my trim roller to be effective. Which means that I have to use the foam brush.

Yesterday was a good day off. But I should probably begin with Tuesday night. Lark's dog does not like me. He is part black lab, part pit bull, and very protective of her. Apparently he got the 1970's memo "don't trust anybody over 30," except he likes Firstborn and 1BDH. So Lark took him to Willow's to spend the night.

Backing up a little farther, Knit Night was good, and I got Fourthborn home safely. But during that drive, and to Firstborn's house, I realized that the new glasses are still not quite right. The distance adjustment is fine. However, I am still seeing what I call stars, because of the [I am blanking on the word, because it is 5:30 and I haven't eaten breakfast. All sorts of A words are bubbling to the top. Aardvark. Asparagus. Amblyopia. Aha! Got it!] astigmatism. It's not noticeable during the day, but it is quite evident when the sun goes down and the traffic lights and tail lights turn into red and green stars. Most annoying.

So I slept well on Lark's daybed, and I got Batman (he who was formerly known as Fiance and is still her best friend; I'm trying new nicknames for him, but this one might stick, as he draws a wicked Batman) to his appointment for the driving test. Which he did not get to take, because the VIN number on the Tardis did not match the VIN number on my proof of insurance. Two typos. So we drove straight to my insurance agent's office and got that fixed. I should have the new, permanent copies well before Batman's rescheduled driving test. I also called into work and confirmed that I could take that day off. It's in December. Batman is philosophical. I am frustrated for him, but he was gracious about it. We agreed that this was probably a blessing in disguise. He will be even better prepared for the driving test in December than he was yesterday.

I finished reading the book on "play" yesterday and added six more books to my "to read" list on Evernote. [Plus another one this morning.] Also spent the afternoon with Firstborn, who had taken the day off, and we got some chocolate from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Note: the pumpkin truffle is smooth but rather bland, and I could detect nothing pumpkin-ish about it. The dark chocolate caramel sea salt is excellent. So we celebrated National Chocolate Day in style. We also blitzed through the art supply store. I came home with another dozen Prismacolor pencils for my stash. These were all blue, and bought only in the interest of having a full spectrum, though no doubt they will prove useful at some point in the future. She came home with two dozen beauties. It was interesting for me to see her color preferences and compare them with my own.

I have an appointment for a recheck of my prescription on Monday afternoon, after my quarterly diabetes checkup. I'm hoping that third time will be the charm.

The knitting project is perking along. I've mislaid the label, so I don't know the yarn, if it's commercial or hand-dyed by one of my friends, but it is lovely and is playing nicely with the seed stitch. I'm just going to knit around and around until I run out, and if I like it, it will be a cowl. And if not, I will frog it and start over.

Time for me to start getting ready for work. Tonight I'm baking a cake for the cake decorating contest at work tomorrow. Batman drew some cake embellishments for me, and they are perfect. I need to scan them and print them onto paper that looks like granite or sandstone, if I can find some. And I need to cobble together a costume. I have that spyglass from Beloved, and I found my eye patch when I was mucking out a drawer or a box. Pier One has Lolita-style hats attached to headbands for not a whole lot of money. Maybe vaguely goth Lolita pirate? If I run out of ideas, there's always the generic Halloween T-shirt hanging in the back of my closet.

I love my job. But today I just want to stay home and play. Repaint and replace the door moulding. Paint the inside of the bedroom door, and the front of the door to the master bath. Start ripping up the carpet. (Not quite ready to do that, in reality, but seriously aching to begin. Finish-itis has definitely struck, chez Ravelled.)

This is only a test! (Naynie no pit!)

The first thing I did when I woke up, was to put on my painting clothes and add a third coat to my bedroom wall. The second thing was to do the electronic linking for my AncestryDNA test, which was waiting for me when I got to work yesterday. The third thing was to spit into a tube. Which reminds me of when Firstborn was little, and I was attempting to civilize her. I taught her, "Ladies don't spit." To which she replied, "Naynie no pit!"

So that's done, and my bank account is reconciled, and it's only a little after 6:00a.m. Time to cobble together my lunch, figure out what I want to wear, and gather everything I will need for today, tonight, and tomorrow. I'm spending the night at Firstborn's after Knit Night, because tomorrow I take Fourthborn's roommate for his driver's test, and crashing in Arlington means I get to avoid morning rush hour and eliminate an 80 mile round trip.

Work went well yesterday. Wrangled all the mail, did my To-Do's, remembered to send my "I'll be out" email to the people affected. Note to self: change the voicemail message, too. I closed one file and finished opening another. I need to come up with a nickname for my new attorney. He's a lot of fun, and he does a spot-on impression of Goofy, but somehow I don't think that's the best code name for him.

On the way home from work, I dropped off two pictures and a bag at Urban Thrift before heading to Costco. I'm slowly filling another bag with stuff to give Squishy. On Sunday I offloaded a box of merit badges to the young men's president, as the Scout-specific people were not at church.

Today there's work, and Knit Night, and Firstborn's. Tomorrow there's schlepping of the roommate, hanging out in Fort Worth until evening, dropping off socks at the home of some dear friends for the sock drive she organized that will benefit the homeless in Fort Worth, with a bonus of getting to see their new house.

Time to pack, and sluice, and scoot. Later, gators.

I go blogging, after midnight, I go blogging, just the way we used to do.

No, I haven't stayed up until all hours. I took a five hour nap after church yesterday, and while my eyes are tired and I think the prudent thing to do would be to go back to bed, I just tried that. For fifteen whole minutes, during which my eyes recovered and my brain kept whirring.

So I got up, turned on the lights, bound off the toe of the eighth pink baby sock and wove in the ends. Here's how the stats played out:

Sock 1: 16.7g
Sock 2: 16.4g
Sock 3: 16.8g
Sock 4: 16.8g
Sock 5: 16.7g
Sock 6: 16.6g
Sock 7: 17.6g
Sock 8: 17.3g

The last two socks were completed or knitted entirely on Magic Loop, because of the 4" DP that went rogue on the floor of the Tardis. I have no idea why they came out nearly a gram heavier than the other six, but they did. I have 13.4g left, not enough to make another sock, which is just fine by me. That remnant will probably go to Middlest for some doll knitting.

Church knitting yesterday was the start of a cowl I'd begun who knows when, in an Aran or DK weight yarn, lovingly mottled in a deep cerise that will tone wonderfully with a dressy T-shirt hanging in my closet. I frogged the earlier cast-on, frogged a second cast-on, decided on 165 stitches for a final number, and am working seed stitch until I run out of yarn. I don't remember who the dyer was, or when and where I bought this, but it is scrumptious, and it's not ballet pink Jitterbug; for the moment that's the only thing that matters.

I am trying to resist the temptation to put on my painting clothes and slap another layer of paint onto my bedroom wall. I got three rounds of cut-in done before the Sabbath began, and one coat of paint on the wall proper, plus random dabs from when I was loading my foam brush to fill in the gaps between the edging roller and the painters tape at the top of the wall. Right now the wall looks like modern art. I am not adamant about having a perfectly uniform finish on this wall. I think it might look cool with a little variation in the color: something like unto gently worn leather. For a first coat, this looks far less scabby than when we did the salmon on the short walls in the living room, and as I sit on my bed and look across the room, I am pleased with the promise this wall shows. I can picture the headboard up against that wall, and lighting, and various bits of art in place. Right now I am thinking of moving the two teal benches (my bargains from Pier One) into my room to serve as end tables on either side of the bed, to bring in touches of teal from the rest of the house. We shall see.

I spent a little while before my nap, working on Schedule A expenses for my 2015 return. Next month I need to calculate how much to have taken out for my medical reimbursement account. I budgeted 25% more for 2014 than for 2013, because I knew I wanted to replace my glasses, but I won't need to do that next year, so I think I can take it back down to the 2013 amount and come out pretty even. I don't mind if I can't get reimbursed for all of my medical expenses. I would mind if I left more than $10 to $25 in the account at the end of the year.

It feels really great to be making forward progress on the house again. The maintenance aspects (cleaning out and removing Beloved's desk, cleaning out and shifting his dresser to the other side of the room so I could paint) were needful and a huge relief, but less aesthetically satisfying.

Time, I think, to knit a round or two, rub some lavender oil on my temples, and see if I can catch more Z's.

Another good night's sleep!

You come here for the excitement, right? Last night was my second good night's sleep in a row. This is one of those "after the trial of your faith, come the blessings" things. I wish I knew what made last week so rough, and what is different this week, so that I could avoid the former and embrace the latter. Meanwhile, I am thankful all the way down to my bones.

After eight (!) hours of sleep, yesterday went smoothly at work. I kept up with the mail, my To-Do's, and various other tasks during the day. I had no difficulty staying alert and was able to shift easily from one task to the next. Which left me not-exhausted at the end of the workday, and that much more able to enjoy Knit Night.

After work I dropped off my sister's birthday package at the post office, then a bag of Beloved's clothing plus a rusty axe head and wrench (I have no idea what either of those were doing on a shelf in my bedroom) at my favorite thrift store in Arlington. This would be the one where I found the Jessica McClintock dress with the Neiman Marcus label for $7.57 for Fourthborn when she was baptized at age eight. White cotton batiste dress and slip, dripping in lace, which she loved and wore until she reluctantly outgrew it. Her princess dress.

I also hit the art supply store for another dozen Prismacolor pencils, and when I got home from Knit Night added those to my inventory list on Evernote. If I buy them a dozen at a time, they are 30% off, which makes them a little cheaper than buying the collections in tins and way cheaper than buying them individually. The discount will increase to 40% for the holidays. I am tackling this the way I did my DMC floss collection, a few items at a time each payday. I have enough clear stackable plastic bins from earlier projects to corral the pencils by rough color themes. There was a clear bin on the bookshelf in the hall that I appropriated last night. Reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks are now in the first box. Everything else is in the second. There is a third one in my room, currently containing two or three pieces of silver flatware that need to be polished and put with the rest of my silverware. And I bought silver polish last week, so there's light at the end of that particular tunnel.

I am nearly done with the eighth pink baby sock, and I am heartily sick of this ball of yarn. There is nothing wrong with it; it's just that there was so much of it, and I got a little bit stubborn and decided to polish it off for good. It's taken weeks and weeks and weeks. Right now the ball is about the size of an extra-large egg. I would not be surprised if there were a black hole wrapped inside it.

I priced plane tickets to Middlest's when I got home last night. The date that I want to fly out is beyond the reach of the airline's booking calendar, but I got a decent estimate and will transfer that much from my tax refund to my vacation savings account.

I will have a couple of funny stories from work to share with you in the near future. You might have to remind me.

Big Hairy Project is done.

The box with Beloved's garments is empty and on the curb with the rest of the recycling. I've contacted the bishop and the high priest group leader for what to do with the unopened packages and the jacket from his ordinance worker suit. (He was cremated in the suit pants.)

The weekend did not get any better, in terms of sleep, but it was still wonderful and blessed. I came home from work two hours early and slept on Friday night, then went to the fireside, the workshops the following day, the evening session of stake conference, and the general meeting on Sunday morning. I got to see friends old and new at one meeting or another. I learned (not from personal experience) that it is possible to have a charley horse somewhere other than one's calf. I have a friend who gets them in her side. Oye.

One of my 4" DPs went rogue and is somewhere on the floorboard of the Tardis. I switched to magic loop and whipped out sock #7 in no time at all. I am on the home stretch of sock #8. And I think I am officially done with that ball of yarn. There might be enough left for another sock. Maybe two. But I am ready to knit something else, and I don't much care what.

I got two drawers emptied in Beloved's dresser. I got the top mostly cleared off. I hung a few items on the south wall of my bedroom. The dolls are dusted and relocated. I like how that part of the room looks. I've calculated how much flooring I will need for my bedroom. I'm hoping to have Beloved's dresser moved to the east wall by the time I go to bed on Saturday night. I've found the bottle of Chomp in the breakfast nook. A little more sleuthing will uncover the tool we used to score the wallpaper there and in the kitchen. I'd like to repaint the west wall in my bedroom over Halloween weekend. I'm off that Monday for my quarterly blood work.

I did not sleep well night before last. Down at 10:00, up at 1:00, down at 2:00 and right back up again, down at 3:00, up at 5:00. It made for a very long day, but was capped off by dinner with another widow at my new favorite Mediterranean restaurant. And I was in bed by 9:00 and slept until nearly 5:00 this morning!

I did put the time to good use yesterday morning. I wrangled two loads of laundry, wrapped my sister's birthday present and the shipping box, gathered up stuff to give Fourthborn when I pick her up for Knit Night, and tossed a few more items into the donation bag.

This morning I ordered my AncestryDNA kit. (Last day to get free shipping.) That was a prompting while at the family history conference on Saturday.

I'm going to wear my Knit Swirl to Knit Night. Huzzah!

Susan, in answer to your question, yes. I am friends on Facebook with several of my blog friends. If you know Tan or Tola or Alison or Ruth, you can find me through them. If not, send me another comment with your email address (which I will harvest but not publish), and I will tell you how to find me. Thank you for asking.

Speed bump. And my hands ache.

So the plan was to come home, deal with the contents of one smallish box, and maybe get family photos hung on the newly freed-up wall in my room. However, the box contained some of Beloved's old clothing, including seven one-piece garments which needed to be properly decommissioned.  I got two taken apart before bedtime. Two more this morning, since I awoke at 3:15 and couldn't get back to sleep. I'm beginning to think that the white noise machine is not right for me. I used the "thunder" setting night before last and slept until my new-normal time of 4:45. Last night I set it to "rain" and hoped that it would not cause my suggestible kidneys to keep me up and down all night.

I finally gave up around a quarter to four and played on Facebook for awhile, then got out the scissors. This is going to be one exceedingly long day. Tonight I have a family history fireside.

On the other hand, my paycheck and my tax refund have both hit my bank account. I paid my tithing online (huzzah!) and have the check made out for the utilities. My lunch is packed, and I know what I'm going to wear, so it's just a matter of sluicing off and scooting out the door to be there when the drive-thru opens at 7:00.

I'm hoping to have just enough oomph left when I finally get home tonight, to decommission #5 and #6, which would leave the last one for tomorrow. I'm not sure how everything is going to get done this weekend. I have a family history conference during the day tomorrow and the evening session of stake conference.

I need Hermione's time turner.

But I'm grateful for Beloved and the opportunity to serve him in a small way by taking care of something that he probably meant to do before he passed. Somebody will be getting a couple of nice pairs of walking shorts, and my hands will move on to the next task.

Another small pocket of order.

Last night I shifted my pretty painted dresser from the west wall to the south wall. It's sitting under the shelf which had been covered in dust and clutter but is now cleared and dusted and sporting my four MSD dolls: Melody, Harmony, Steadfast, and Honor.  I rediscovered an IKEA candle-in-a-glass, also swathed in dust, and got that cleaned out and lit for awhile. My bedroom now smells like warm sugar cookies, although my head is a little stuffy from all that raised dust.

The dresser is also dusted. The four "tinies" (Faith, Hope, Charity, and Temperance) have been dusted, as has the American Girl settee upon which they sit. Chutzpah, Grace, the zombie keychain doll that Squishy gave Chutzpah, and the tiny bear that Beloved gave Chutzpah, are dusted. All of them are hanging out on top of the dresser.

There's a (very) small pile of books by the front door, along with a couple of pictures. A couple more items got tossed into the current "give to Squishy" bag, which is not very full. It's pretty easy to get rid of my stuff. It's harder to know what to do with Beloved's stuff and his mother's. My next big project is tackling the big dresser that was his. It has about a six inch layer of my stuff on top (rather like the desk used to be), and I am dreading the process. I've cleaned out a drawer here and a drawer there, over the past two and a half years, but I need to gird myself and finish the job. It's standing between me and a repainted wall.

I'm home again tonight and hope to make noticeable progress on it. But for now I think I will set the timer for fifteen minutes and tackle something smaller. I love those days when I go to work already having crossed an item or two off the list. I picked up eighteen more Prismacolor pencils on the way home from work last night, and this morning have added them to my inventory on Evernote, in the process discovering that I bought two in the shade they call Pomegranate. Given how much Beloved loved pomegranates, I suspect that was his little joke.

Forgotten poem.

This was another morning when I woke an hour or more before the alarm. I decided to muck out the French laundry basket, which was filled to the brim with books, genealogy, stationery, and the like. I posted that process on Facebook. I also went into my studio, where there was a smaller basket of miscellaneous blank cards, address labels, and envelopes, and put that into the newly organized laundry basket.

In the smaller basket was a folio with the dregs of a collection of Mary Engelbreit postcards and stationery. And the draft of a poem from 2004, six years after my divorce from the children's father.

The fulcrum of my dignity, as a former wife,
was assurance that his spurning was impersonal,
a cool poultice of illness and rationalization
applied to the running sore of my longing.

He had evolved, he thought, above the common need to touch
and lived as contemplative spirit
in a house of breath and bone.

Forsworn, he stands before me now,
telling me of a kindred spirit
whose quiet companionship is present joy,
seeking my blessing.

Eleven years later, I can still remember how devastating that was, though it grieves me no longer. Time, the Atonement which heals not only sin but sorrow, and the love of a most excellent man have done their work. And I am grateful.

A good weekend.

I am ready to hit the floor running when I walk in the door at the office in an hour and a half.

Got an amazing amount of stuff done on Saturday. Attended my young friends' sealing and saw a dear sister from my first ward when we moved to Texas. Was definitely the best-dressed person at the flea market, on my way home. I scored two, two-panel shutters, somewhere between six and seven feet tall. They will go on either side of my bed, once that wall is repainted and my bed is set up. I will attach sconces or wall lamps to them and run the cords behind them to the plug. Saw that on Pinterest and fell in love with it.

From the flea market I went to the grocery store, which is between there and home. Picked up a number of things that I needed. Brought those home, put them away, and headed out again to Central Market to tank the Tardis cheaply and to pick up the glucosamine and a few other things. Stopped at the Lowe's which is across the freeway from Costco and got the switch plates for my bedroom. Came home and put that stuff away. (The shutters are still hanging out in the back of the Tardis, safe from the weather and not re-cluttering the decluttered parts of the house.)

On the way to the wedding reception, I mailed the box to Middlest, dropped off the bags to Fourthborn, and grabbed a quick bite at Arby's in case there was only cake at the reception. I needn't have worried. They kept it simple, but there were all sorts of things that were delicious and safe for me to eat. I did not stay long enough for a piece of cake. I did eat one cookie. I am on something of a cookie kick these days.

It was wonderful to be in my old, Fort Worth ward again, and to see people I hadn't seen since the wedding or the memorial service. There are days when I wish I could scoop up the house, Mel, Squishy, and my easier commute, and plop it all down in a corner of Tarrant County. I know my kids would like it if I were closer.

On the drive home from the reception, I hit three more Lowe's until I had picked up the rest of the switch plates I will need for the middle bedroom, my studio, and the master bathroom. I suspect that this style is being phased out, and given all the colors I am using throughout the house, matching switch plates will help tie it all together.

Tonight is dinner with the Empty Nesters, and I need to call my eye doctor and break the news that my new glasses aren't working. It was hard to keep tail lights and street signs in focus on the drive home Saturday night, and I wasn't that tired. And yesterday, when I was conducting the music in sacrament meeting, I couldn't see the hymnal. I had to pick it up and hold it in my left hand, which made my hand ache. I've been doing business with the eye doctor for twenty years or so, and I have faith in his integrity.

The dishwasher is humming, my lunch is packed, and my bags are at the front door. I know what I'm wearing to work. I am going to set the timer for five minutes and read until it goes off. Thoroughly enjoying The Happiness Project.

Duck! Here come the low-flying blessings!

Well, I was wondering if I could stay busy yesterday, with all the lawyers out of the office. Turns out, I could. SemperFi gave me a 4.5" stack of medical records that he needs to have in chronological order, with the duplicates removed. I got about a third of the way through it yesterday. Maybe more. We will be a lawyer-free zone again on Monday, plus there will be only the mail that's delivered to our box today, so I will have plenty of time to whittle down the remaining pile and maybe even complete the job.

I like doing fiddly stuff, so even though there were mind-numbing, eye-crossing moments, yesterday was productive and mostly enjoyable.

When I got home, the property tax notice was waiting for me. This is not bad news. My taxes get paid from my escrow account, and earlier this year I completed the homestead exemption paperwork that I thought had been done when I refinanced two (!) years ago. I will be paying 27% of what I paid last year and the year before. Which suggests that there will be another escrow refund check come spring, with an accompanying downward adjustment to my mortgage payment.

I got all the clean laundry folded and put away before work yesterday; I was too sleepy to do it when I went to bed Thursday night. I wanted to start my day with a smidgen more progress on tidying my room, so I gathered up the plastic bags that had been stuffed into larger plastic bags and were blocking the doorway to the master bathroom (which I don't use, for other reasons). They are now consolidated into one ginormous bag and waiting patiently by the front door for me to drop them off at Fourthborn's on my way to a wedding reception tonight.

I also found the cassette organizer that I used when I was in college. It is filled with tapes for fingerspelling practice. I texted Middlest: would these be helpful, and do you own a cassette player? Yes, they would, but sadly, no. So I will be packing up my boombox, which I no longer need now that I have all of my music uploaded to iTunes, and the tapes, and a few other things. And I might even get them mailed on my way to Fort Worth this afternoon. I do know where the bubble wrap is. And the packing tape.

I was rather tired when I left the office, and imperfectly nourished. (Hello, three chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon? Must repent.) So on the one hand, pizza with the doll folk was not quite what I needed nutritionally. On the other hand, I sat across the table from two of my favorite doll friends and had a good long visit and worked on the sixth pink baby sock. Came home, read a little, and went to bed.

I woke up a little before 5:00 this morning. Apparently 4:45 is the new 5:30? I am going to look for something large enough to mail the stuff to Middlest, and then I am going to forage breakfast and get ready to attend the sealing of my young friends. I hope to hit Urban Flea after that, and there are a handful of items I need from the grocery store, and I need more glucosamine from Costco. This is shaping up to be a jam-packed day.

I wonder if I can squeeze in a nap?

After the trials of your faith...

... or your patience ... come the blessings. It took me four trips to get everything out to the curb yesterday. When I came home, the yard was groomed (possibly for the last time this year), the various bins were empty, and the desk was G-O-N-E.There are a few small piles in the corner of the room where the desk sat, and I will deal with them one at a time in the very near future.

The biggest and best news is that I have finally e-filed my 2014 tax return. I was expecting a modest refund. By the time I finished with deductions and credits, I was astounded to see that I will be getting approximately three times that amount. I've gotten notification that Uncle Sugar has accepted my return, and somewhere a computer is comparing apples and oranges, chewing its cud, and preparing to give me a nice fresh bucket of moolah.

I also submitted the invoice for my new glasses, for reimbursement from my medical spending reimbursement account. Next month I will have to decide how much to fund the kitty for 2016. (I seem to be overrun with critter metaphors tonight.)

The two library books which are due on Saturday, are waiting by the front door. I'm about to go try to finish a third book. I've started a "to read" list on Evernote. When the author of a book I'm reading, recommends another book that sounds interesting, onto the list it goes. I could probably stay busy for the next six months just reading books that Brené Brown has mentioned in the two books of hers which I've read.

Might not finish that third book tonight. It's getting harder and harder to stay awake while I type. Maybe just a couple of stories and then lights out.

I cannot adequately express how freeing it is to have that desk gone, a chunk of my room uncluttered, and my taxes filed.

Oh, and I officially got half of a second attorney's docket this afternoon. I was about ready to chew a paw off, which would have made typing difficult.

Stuff.

Thanks to the strong arms and backs of some younguns in my ward, Beloved's desk is out of the house and onto the curb, if it didn't get scrounged while I slept. I have a full bag of shredding, two moving boxes, and two recycling bins which will go out on the other curb today, and the trash bag is waiting in the hall. I was shredding merrily this morning when the shredder said, "I'm done. Go play somewhere else." There is another half bag of shredding, but it will have to wait to get topped off. As it is, I will be making multiple trips to the curb before leaving for work.

That desk was huge. The main part was 30" x 60" and the extension 18" x 40". I have, theoretically at least, reclaimed somewhere between 20% and 25% of the floor space in my room. Although you wouldn't know it for the piles, but they will be disappearing over the next couple of weeks. I now feel hopeful that we can get my bedroom repainted and the new bed set up before Christmas.

I vacuumed that corner in my bedroom quite thoroughly last night. It took awhile to find a plug that wasn't at least slightly loose and in need of replacement, but one stretch of carpet is cleaner than it's been since Beloved and I were newlyweds and he was vacuuming regularly. It's going to take me a couple of days to rearrange all the stuff that I shoved into the closet so that we (they) could take the bed apart and lift the big part of the desk over the frame. I'm going to try to scoot out the door early enough that I can swing by Lowe's for the new switch plates before work, but realistically that may have to wait until after work tomorrow or Thursday.

However, the most pressing task is to complete my 2014 tax return. My desk was so daunting in April that I filed for an automatic six month extension. Tonight is Knit Night (huzzah!), but I will be home tomorrow night and Thursday night, which ought to be enough to finalize my deductions and file the return. There's a doll meet on Friday, and I may hold that out to myself as a reward for diligence and responsibility and any other adult virtues I pull out of my hat. Or a corner of my room.

Now to brag about superior customer service. I ordered EQ7 before leaving for work on Friday. I had an electronic receipt almost immediately, and a shipping confirmation by the end of the day. The package was in yesterday's mail at work. I haven't opened it yet because hello? Tax return. If I don't go to the doll meet on Friday night, I'll stay home and install it on my computer and play with pixels.

The fifth pink baby sock is finished, and I've made a fair bit of progress on the sixth. I'm looking forward to Knit Night and some quantity time with Fourthborn and my friends. Just wishing I could squeeze in a catnap before leaving for work. I slept well, almost until the alarm went off, but am still feeling a little like Oliver Twist, "Please, sir, may I have some more?"

Sorry - social butterfly

Monday I saw the special showing of "Just Let Go" ~ it will be out in general release a week from today. It's about the bishop in Houston whose pregnant wife and two children were killed in an accident caused by a 17 year old drunk driver. Not an easy movie to watch, but an edifying one.

Tuesday was Knit Night, and Fourthborn was able to join us. She has been battling insomnia for weeks and had to reset her sleep clock to ordinary people time. I also picked up two handheld pencil sharpeners for my new Prismacolor pencils.

Wednesday I had dinner with one of the sisters I visit teach, in a Mediterranean restaurant that recently moved to a larger space. The food was sublime. I had the leftovers for dinner last night while I stayed (blissfully) at home, noodling around on Facebook in a new group for knitters who specialize in clothing for tiny BJD's.

I have no idea why I awoke an hour ahead of the alarm this morning, but I've not been idle. I organized my growing Evernote collection and updated a couple of programs on this computer. Today is payday, and once my paycheck shows up at my bank (that's the one thing I don't like about the merger; the old bank would show my paycheck a little after midnight, and the new one sometimes shows it after I get to work) I will pay my tithing online (!!!) and my internet bill and move money into various buckets.

I found an Electra bike that I like, and it's relatively affordable, and I can get it in red. I could buy it right now, but I think I will simply put a nice chunk of cash into a savings account and order Electric Quilt 7 instead. I've yet to find my CD for EQ5, and I want to redesign the sashing and borders for the quilt blocks we just completed so that I can finish the top, pick out backing fabric, and send it off for quilting. Yeah. I know. I've always been a purist about hand quilting, but there are only so many hours in a day, and I want to sleep under that quilt sometime before I kick.

Very much looking forward to General Conference this weekend.