I ordered a leather pen case and then repented by fixing up the 2022 budget tracker.
It's financial experiment time: buying a home would be more than we pay in rent. If we set aside the difference between rent and a mortgage payment into savings every month, are we comfortable or scraping by? Anyway, we used to use this tracker and got out of the habit, I recommend it, very easy once it's set up. Budget tracker spreadsheet fed by Google form just put a shortcut to the form on your devices and fill when you spend money.
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buhrger:
Do You Sleep With Your Closet Doors Open Or Closed?
open, it's how you get to the bathroom
Do You Have Freckles?
on my nose and shoulders with the correct level of sun exposure
Can You Whistle?
no, and don't try to tell me how
Last Song You Listened To.
Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf
Name Something That Relaxes You.
massage
What Sounds Are Your Favourite?
the sound of my dog's ruff hair when she shakes, C's voice when he talks to me, rain
What Do You Wear To Bed?
the shirt that C wore during the day.
Do You Sing In The Shower?
sometimes
What Books Are You Reading?
currently some fluffy historical romance, can't remember the title/author - the family is Scottish, this one is about the horsey brother (the one with brother on the autism spectrum was pretty good, the artist brother one was a DNF). just finished the new T. Kingfisher Paladin book (yay). also reading C the occasional chapter of A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare before bed which is silly fun.
Do You Believe In Magic?
it's complicated
Can You Curl Your Tongue?
yes. it's pointed, i'm told that means i'm a demon
Have You Ever Caught A Butterfly?
yes
Name One Movie That Made You Cry.
Blackfish
Peanuts Or Sunflower Seeds?
meh to both. peanuts i guess.
Are You A Heavy Sleeper?
yes, and it takes me a long time to become fully functional in the morning
some years we do lights and greens for solstice and some years we don't. i've not traced how the decision gets made but it's some calculus of mood/time/financial situation; this year i have Hallmark movies on tap and vacation time, so i was going to at least see if our old icicle lights still worked and string them on the balcony.
by the end of the day, i had:
cleaned the entire balcony
replaced the old and hung some new icicle lights
got some random star-shaped lights and hung them
made an electronics recycling plan
taken a load of propane canisters and empty spraypaint cans to household hazardous waste disposal
bought a tree and wreath
found my missing thimble
decorated wreath and tree
set up all the lights with timers
and C had vacuumed the living room carpet, vacuumed the couch (finding a lost stitch marker and a lost sock), and washed all the pillows and throws on the couch.
i probably would have done less with the balcony, and C wouldn't have touched the living room, but we had a string of party lights (the sort with round incandescent bulbs that are a little larger than a golf ball) clipped to the tops of the windows, which provide pleasant illumination if you hang out outside in the evening. unfortunately the clips failed when i gently moved the extension cord and five bulbs EXPLODED when they hit the floor, sending little shards of glass not only all over the balcony but in a spray into the living room because somehow i had left the door open. the good-ish news was that i had exactly enough bulbs from its previously damaged companion string to replace all the broken ones. anyway, everything on the balcony got swept and wiped down, and the dog was fortunately in another room.
the balcony (especially in cold weather) can end up storing things that we need out of the way or don't have a place for, like said household hazardous waste. so i did some research and got a car and we went on a little adventure to SODO and got rid of that shit.*
we had extra time left on the car, so we went to the Boy Scouts tree lot, ostensibly to look for a wreath but they didn't have any. i was able to sell C on getting a wee tree because Boy Scouts (and i think he secretly wanted one too). then it turned out the nearby store had a wreath.
what we didn't have, it turns out, is the tree stand. i have absolutely no idea where it went. i would be shocked if we got rid of it, it's just in the storage unit...somewhere. so the tree is in our large stock pot. at least i won't have to add water very often?
since we won't be hosting dinner this year, the tree is on the end of the table. it's very shiny and i do love the ornaments we've accumulated over the years. some are from my childhood, others we bought together, others gifts. every one of them has some memory or story attached.
*if i ever physically assault C, it will have been over something like the bag of empty propane tanks or the box of Darn Tough socks with holes in them that have not been sent for replacement. i'm still pretty shocked that "hey they're open again, want to go on an adventure?" worked yesterday because normally any suggestion that i resolve or help to resolve the situation turns into a fight.
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scans_daily designed a ridiculously huge crossword, which they are sharing for free. it's not my thing, but i thought crossword fans i know might be interested: ubercross philotera's possessions. most excitingly, pyrex graduated cylinders and a large (maybe 2L?) beaker. i'm looking forward to using them in my kitchen. 
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mimerki's birthday party was our hassock fan. (it's gone now, but it was at least 15 and more likely 20 years old, so it had a good run.) 
timeasmymeasure
