I woke up 21 minutes ago, and first thing, I dropped a can of wet cat food upside down on the floor. It's been all uphill from there.

Awesome is that I am nearly finished my work for the day. I have to call up a place in astoria to see if we can have my daughter's birthday party there, and will go out there this afternoon, hopefully, to check it out.

I might do some dvd yoga and watch an episode of Friday Night Lights. I only have two episodes to go. They've been sitting on our dvr for so long now, and I've only been watching an episode every 2-3 weeks, trying to spin it out. I love that show so much, and am sad that it's finished.

Then I'll pick up the kid early and we will go run around like dorks in the playground. I might take bubbles.

Ardiril: You made me think of this. Feed your cat(s) buttered toast.

BUBBLES!!!

It's been all uphill from there.

I never understood if that means things have been improving, or if they have been difficult (like climbing a hill. Similarly for downhill. All downhill from here can mean easy to traverse or declining.

\ wink
That's the exact reason I used it. O.R. indeed.

MOAR AWESOME: Chicago won a Starbucks contest and we get the pumpkin spice latte a week earlier than everyone else - today instead of next Tuesday. I have acquired my first PSL of the season. YES!!!!1

You are not the first to have succumbed to that vile brew. You won't be the last.

LIRR service is still suspended on my line, so I can still work from home (instead of having a 2hr. commute each way). I hope they take their time.

I tracked down a bug that's been plaguing my computer, and I think I know how to fix it. This caused me to lose all my work this morning. But I'm making it back up, so it's all good.

I just saved my company a bunch of money by designing some pretty decent icons for our documentation. Sorry, graphic designers. I have lots of respect for you, but I am trying to look *good* at this job.

Have to do two phone screen interviews of job applicants today. Hate doing those, I never seem to know what questions to ask never feel like I'm really filtering effectively. We're having a tough time filling software QA jobs here, either the applicants are way unqualified or if they are qualified, they end up turning down our offers for someone else.

Today's my partner's 5th day of not smoking, and he's doing great. I know it's tough for him, and I know he'll continue to have to fight it as he gets weaned to lower and lower doses in the nicotine patch, but... I'm still so proud of him.

We are almost done furnishing the apartment! One last trip to IKEA tonight should do it, and then we start putting books on shelves tonight. There are a lot of books, and we get to organize them into "Okay for people to browse through if they come over" and "Whoa, don't want people to casually look at those titles" books because in addition to a bookshelf in the office, there's two in the hallway and two in the bedroom (technically, one full and two halves). Hooray for living with a fellow book nerd whose taste compliments mine!

And speaking of books, tomorrow night, I'm meeting with an author who I know from high school who wants to do some publicity with us for his first book. Even though I knew this person years ago, seeing him/her again for the first time is going to be interesting as I've kept in touch with so few people from those days.

On preview, BoPo: As a recovering smoker, I applaud your partner's strength!

A bug plaguing your computer? Select him! INTERVIEWS! NOT SMOKING! BOOOOKKKSSSSS!

I processed accessions for 2 collections today (and might be able to finish a third by the end of the day, although I might just let it sit until tomorrow while I decide how I want to box some photographs)!

And I found an internal revenue agent badge from Puerto Rico that might be from the early 1900s, if the newspaper clippings it was in are any indication!

And both my courses for the fall term are open!

And my tattoo seems to be healing quite nicely!

I am so very confused by the Puppet Bike.

BoringPostcards - that's awesome.

1. Got home around 1 last night (that counts, right?) and ate a bunch of really delicious cookies on the stoop with my new buddy.
2. Got to sleep in my new bed. Man, nothing makes you more grateful for your bed than sleeping on the floor for three weeks. I recommend it, really.
3. Free lunch! Delicious pizza.
4. I finally have a free evening, so I'm going to take care of a few more apartment things and I'm so happy about the space I get to live in now. I feel so awesome and happy and safe in the new apartment, and I'm incredibly glad that past-me made this choice. Way to go, self.
5. If I lose another two-fifths of a pound by tomorrow, I'll have lost 15 pounds in August. And in any case, I'm at my lowest adult weight, which is neat.

This sure is a lot of awesome in here today.

I am experimenting with making votive candle holders:

≡ Click to see image ≡

It's kind of nice to see them all glowing.

I had one of those rare "Saying the right thing at the right time" moments.

I was in the clinic for an eye exam, and just as the doctor asked me if I was having any problems seeing, the power went out, leaving us in pitch dark.

"Now that you mention it......"

Those are gorgeous, occhiblu.

1) the mechanic just called to let me know that my car does not need a brake job, the pads just needed deglazing, which he did and he's not going to charge me for it.

2) due to my car being in the shop, I'm working from home and skyping into meetings. However, I left my work laptop in the trunk of my car so I had to frantically install skype onto my desktop only to realize there's no microphone on this computer (duuuh). Skype for iphone to the rescue: I didn't even know there was such a thing but it was downloaded, installed and running in less than 2 minutes. I love the modern world.

3) my kitties are happy I'm home and there's a growing shrine of cat toys on my desk that they've been steadily adding to at half hour intervals.

I am petrified of all of the things that I have to do, but I'll put the good things here anyway.

--My brother got his suit altered, and it looks awesome. And my dad, Mr. "I wear a purple daishiki to work -- and I'm an old skinny white guy," is buying a suit, too! What is the world coming to?

--We MIGHT have a string quartet for the wedding, which would solve the problem that has been causing me grief for months.

--I went to showtunes karaoke last night, and people LIKED me! They really liked me! They said I sounded amazing, and when I sang, "Though I've got a great high C" in "Alto's Lament," someone yelled out, "YEAH, you do, girl!" I might even do a duet next time with someone I don't know but who was nice.

(TPS and other theater dorks: I sang "Shy" from Once Upon a Mattress, "My Friend The Dictionary" from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and the aforementioned "Alto's Lament.")

--I wrote a story that the provost said was "fantastic."

--My big toenail did not actually do something terribly gross when my friend stepped on it last night, so I should still be able to wear the expensive and sassy wedding shoes. (After a trip to some sort of nail place, I think... ick.)

I FINALLY finished a thorn-in-my-side project that was haunting me for months and holding back progress on a number of other projects. Now that it's done, I can easily get all the other projects done. WINNING!

OH! Also, I accomplished something which I have been trying to do for years: get my parents an HDTV (for under $100 -- I lucked out and got a Samsung from my ex for 80 bucks) and an Apple TV so they can join the 21st century and watch Netflix!

My mom was terribly flustered and fussy, which meant that she wanted to like it but couldn't figure out how to say TAKE IT BACK, IT IS OF THE DEVIL. It was pretty great.

Also also, said ex (who is moving, thank goodness) sold me what was originally an $800 futon with all the bells and whistles... for 40 bucks. We have a guest room with actual adult-looking furniture, people!

My little bit of awesome is someone I hired and trained got promoted and due to that training saved me a bunch of work today. I really needed that.

wanted to like it but couldn't figure out how to say TAKE IT BACK, IT IS OF THE DEVIL.

That's just making me giggle so hard. I do that, too. Usually when it's something my kids have done/made/thought up. Must be a parent thing.

I had a doctor's appointment today. The awesome part of doctor's appt. is a script for pain meds for my feet, yay! I should be able to give up the OTC sleepy pills that I take so I can sleep through the pain.

I am, as we speak, watching a documentary on the Discovery Channel called

COLOSSAL SQUID

Could anything be more awesome than this?

Also I ran 5k this evening, which to me is also pretty awesome.

I got my Ninja Pro Warrior Blender and Food Processor delivered today. I go it from Woot for $34.99. It is so cool. Time to go make snow out of ice cubes.

Splunge, that blender has had great reviews, outperforming most of the more expensive ones. I've wanted one since I saw one demo'd at Costco in Ohio last Christmas. My cheap food processor from Lidl has a cracked bowl and the plastic around one of the blades is chipped. I didn't think the Ninja Pro is available in the UK, but I just checked and found it on eBay, new, for £35. New blender/food processor is now on its way!

I'm still quite new at talking with customers on the phone after years of only reading their typing. My first calls had all gone well. But today is the first time I had some one draft me into service as an ear into which they could pour their assorted woes about the policies of my employer - many of said woes towards which I'm sympathetic, but none of which concern my department, and none of which I could do jack shit about even if they did. Being an Aspy Boy, I tend to shut down when confronted with demands for sympathy. But I stumbled through an imitation of what normal people sound like - and because I thought he had his points, I think I may have sounded convincing. So, yay, me.

Either I'm closer to Asburger's myself than I realize, or we all do that anyway. Either way, Way to go!

Great day at the Open today. I was courtside for a couple of fun matches, and both players I was cheering for won, which is always cool. The sun was wicked for a few hours this afternoon, but the evening was lovely (hard to believe there was a hurricane a couple days ago). I'm all pink-cheeked and blue-eyed from the sun. Tomorrow I'm going up to CT to see my mom, but there'll be more Open later in the week.

Books books books! We scored a stack of good books (what I always think of secretly as "reading books!," even though, um, what other kind of books are there? I suppose my brain just means "pageturning fiction" by this odd locution, instead of heavier fiction or research texts) at Goodwill, and another stack at the locally owned music-book emporium, as well as DVDs of Kill Bill I & II.

New shoes! New skirt! I feel so smartly dressed and pretty! My teenaged niece admired my shoes, which is a most unusual state of affairs.

New phrases! "TAKE IT BACK, IT IS OF THE DEVIL" is pretty amazing. "COLOSSAL SQUID" can't be beat! And I just know I'm going to be murmuring "Ninja Pro Warrior" a lot --- especially after I re-watch Kill Bill!

Oh, occhiblu, those are lovely! Nice work!

Thanks, elsa and jamaro!