Too Many Sixes

Gainesville

Today I kept busy at work by planning out even more exactly how to deploy the rest of my vacation days, using a spreadsheet to make it more precise. (We get 6.176 hours of vacation for every two week time period, so the math is a bit dicey.) I think I've got a good plan that allows me to never have to work two full weeks in a row for the duration. It also leaves me with 5 extra days to spread out ad hoc as needed, such as when Bill has an ungodly early meeting, or when I just don't feel like going in. This was fun work!

Yesterday I got three comics-related books from Amazon (finally) -- Hatfield's Alternative Comics, Jeet Heer's Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium, and The Sandman Papers, a collection of academic studies. This latter I took into the office today-- I usually save my professional reading for the telecommute day, but things have been so slow I finally broke down and decided to read some at work.

Even later getting home tonight. I flew around the kitchen and produced a surprisingly good Crab Newburg (one of Leanne's), a dish I'd never eaten before, let alone fixed, in less than an hour. Blanched a batch of haricots verts to go with it, with enough leftover to make a four-bean salad tomorrow night.

Poor Bill-- just before 5:00 he sent out an announcement that the elevators were working again, and the staff move could resume. Just after 5:00 they stopped working again! These elevators are just way too high-tech smart for their merely-mortal operators-- what probably happened was they were accidentally set to turn themselves off at 5:00, but who knows. We won't know until morning if the problem has been fixed. It's a good thing Bill has his WoW game to escape to-- at least he has some semblance of control over things in that space.

Thanks for the rest of Chris' letter, Mom. Wonder what that haircut was all about?! I'd forgotten about the adventure of raising baby chicks in the bathroom! Those were very different days...

I'm so proud of you for keeping going on your Nordic Track. That is such a great habit to have acquired. Also happy to hear you continue to play the organ, even when it doesn't work perfectly.

I am struggling with my new habit-- eating breakfast before work (or otherwise starting the day). Yesterday I just plain forgot (again). The best I can manage when in pre-work mode is instant cheese grits, but it's a start. Brought myself good lunches of leftovers yesterday and today. Good thing, as I've purposely let my desk munchie collection run out. If it's time to calculate vacation use, it's also time to start moving out of my cubicle. There are boxes in there that I never opened since moving out of the tower. I hate the thought of dragging yet MORE boxes of clutter into this already over-burdened house.

And I should confess: I broke a FL cardinal rule when I started reorganizing my comics studies collection a week or so ago and got out more than I could put back in an hour. The collection is still basically assembled, in stacks on the cedar chest-- but I've been unable to make myself take the next step, as it involves even more disruption-- where to put the books that get displaced by the consolidation. Every time I contemplate it, my brain goes into vaporlock. The shelf space just ain't there. And the Clutter Monster sits atop its horde, daring me to challenge its supremacy.

No rain yesterday or today. There was a fire near Hawthorne, but I think it's under control now. A dry Florida is almost as scary as one battered by hurricanes, as there is so much jungle vegetation ready to act as tinder when dried out.

Only half an hour of 06-06-06 left as I type this -- and of course, for one magical second this morning, it was also 06:06:06! Needless to say, I slept through that particular numerical milestone.