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July 8th, 2017
 | 11:26 am - Almost done with this week
The two things I really wanted to do yesterday were make a visit to Grandma (if I recall correctly, I ran out of time to do so Tuesday, so I had already missed her once this week) and go see the new Spider-Man movie. So naturally I wound up coming home and crashing on the couch till 3pm instead of doing either.
So now I'm sitting in Grandma's room and she's asleep and I'm doing this entry on my phone. If I go home and spray and deadhead the rosebushes, that'll be one less thing on tomorrow's "to do" list, and maybe I can go see that movie after I get home from work. Or even Monday, if I have a productive Sunday. (Mind you, just hitting the gym and the grocery store would make for a more productive Sunday than I've had for a while.)
There was a lot of work left over this morning, so I'm not expecting an early finish for tonight's shift. Though if I let myself dwell too long on the prospect of starting the week with overtime, I'll be likely to come in tonight to find my shiftmate came in hours early and someone else came in who wasn't even scheduled for tonight, leaving me barely enough work to cover my entire shift. (Which is what happened the last time I came in on a Saturday night anticipating a long, tiring, but lucrative shift...)
Still, I'd better get home and get as much sleep as I can manage, just in case. Even if I don't have a long shift tonight, I have a lot on my schedule to deal with at home.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with  comments made.
Current Mood:  tired
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July 5th, 2017
 | 05:45 pm - Somewhat wasted holiday
Started a series Saturday night at work that turned out to be really good (Charles Stross' Merchant Princes series) and wound up reading all day and night (aside from a few involuntary naps) until I finished it Tuesday morning and had to cram three days' worth of tasks into a single day. It was a very productive day and I finished everything that needed doing (aside from blowing off a lot of computerage).
Unfortunately, it was also a day in which Dad was expecting me to visit -- and I wound up not arriving till 9pm, and passing out on the couch as soon as I got there. Also there was family visiting for the holiday that I didn't get to see much of, although we went across the yards to my uncle's house for breakfast this morning. Aunt Susan had gone home last night so I missed seeing her entirely, but my cousin (with her twelve-year-old daughter and a pair of her daughter's friends) didn't leave till after breakfast.
A pity I woke up this morning with a headache. I took a caffeine pill and a goodly amount of water, but I turned out to be out of Naproxen in my pill stash in my purse, and neither my aunt and uncle nor my father had any. Dad and I came back to his place after breakfast, and eventually I wound up puking up my breakfast. That and a stint of lying on the couch with the lamp and my glasses off helped a lot -- as did getting a bottle of Naproxen at Brookshire's when I went to gas up my car. Feeling much better when I got home this afternoon.
Happily I don't have a whole hell of a lot that needs doing before work tonight. Dishes and a nap, in no particular order...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with  comments made.
Current Mood:  sleepy
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June 30th, 2017
 | 11:59 am - Taking care of something I'd been ignoring
Going to the doctor to have something done about my urinary tract being full of aggravation and sadness turned out to be way less of a pain in the ass than I thought it would be. (Which had been why I postponed making the call till after limping along for a week and a half failing to flush the infection out on my own.) Yesterday I googled on "kidney infection" and alarmed myself into calling for an appointment -- only to discover her office closed at noon on Thursdays and I was too late.
So this morning I called from the parking lot before leaving work and was offered an appointment in an hour. (Another surprise. The last time I called for a genuine issue instead of an annual checkup, I had to wait a week or two to be seen.) I drove straight there, arrived half an hour early, and was in and out with an antibiotic scrip by a few minutes past my original appointment time.
And turns out I had no copay, and most of what I spent at the pharmacy was on cranberry pills and a couple of essential oils blends because my scrip was covered, too. I like my current insurance. It's going to suck if Trumpcare gets passed and my coverage gets watered down to the point of uselessness.
So that's why I've been short on sleep this week. I've been coming home dehydrated and with my lower back hurting, chugging water to flush my system out and then unable to get to sleep because I keep having to get up and go pee just as I'm dropping off. I'm looking forwards to clearing this crap out of my system...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with  comments made.
Current Mood:  cheerful
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June 27th, 2017
 | 04:10 pm - Before the storm hits
I need to vacuum. And go visit Grandma. And add the finishing details to my mani. But a thunderstorm is impending, so I think what needs doing right now is finishing this entry so I can post it and turn the computer off.
I'm not really sure why it feels like I've been such a slacker the last few days, when I've got so little left to do before work tonight and so many hours left to do them in. Maybe it's because I had a very busy Sunday and was able to do so comparatively little yesterday, yet only had the dishes, vacuuming and trip to Grandma left over till today. Maybe it's because I woke up early this morning and it feels like later in the day than it really is...
Anyway, I bought a few more plants on my grocery run Sunday morning (and a second long pot so we can have two rectangular terra-cotta-colored pots that should eventually be filled with lavender). So Sunday morning I did a lot of transplanting, to follow up on Saturday's transplanting, and now I've got a lot of pots to water each day and I'm starting to think ahead to building up that side bed so I can have more plants in the ground and fewer in pots.
( A large container gardenCollapse )
The thunder rumbles outside seem to have died down. Still, I got all the cats inside before coming into my bedroom. I hope it does indeed rain -- and save me having to water today...
No knitting photos this week. There has been a tiny bit done since last week, but not enough to feel like going to the effort of taking the photos. (Though I did some knitting in front of the TV this morning, and yesterday as well.) I have a night off next week for Independence Day, so I should have a few good photos after that.
Oh, and I got an Amazon package this week that included the goodies I'd ordered for the new phone. New case is fairly nice, though I still haven't added the screen protector. The screen protector came with two different types of wipes for cleaning my phone's screen, plus guides to stick on to align the protector perfectly when applying it. I opened the package, inspected the included peripherals, and decided it looked like something I didn't have the spoons to deal with at that time. (The package is still lying on the coffee table, where I'd better deal with it soonish, before Mom gets in the mood to clean up the living room and puts it where I'll never find it again.)
( Butterfly maniCollapse )
And here it is 4pm. I may not want to leave the house to go see Grandma -- it's a short drive, but there's a risk of getting rained on moving between car and building. But then again, here I am with only a few things left on the "to do" list, and even if I wind up posting this and just napping for the next few hours, I'll be pretty satisfied with my day...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with  comments made.
Current Mood:  productive
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June 24th, 2017
 | 08:59 pm - A quietly pleasing week
Thursday on the way home from work I stopped by Lowe's and got some pots. A couple of plants in the backyard needed to be moved to larger pots, and Mom and I had discussed the desirability of having more lavender -- specifically, a long windowbox-style pot of it. So next I stopped by Calloway's for a couple of lavender starts.
Yesterday I got an oil change and visited Grandma on the way home from work, then came home and crashed and slept until Mom got home from work -- and afterwards, until my alarm went off. Just barely avoided being tardy to work -- so it's a very good thing I had shifted my alarm times to fifteen minutes earlier.
Today I transplanted. I couldn't get the lavender starts into the new long pot (thirty-six inches long by maybe seven inches wide) because it needs holes to be actually drilled into the bottom for drainage, and we don't have a drill. I delegated that task to Mom, of visiting her sister's house and getting my uncle to drill those holes. (She said she'll take care of it tomorrow. Today was my second nephew's second birthday party and Mom spent the afternoon at that. Note that his actual birthday was last weekend, but Lauren wasn't up to dealing with it only a week past giving birth to Son #3.) But I got the baby pine and the older lavender plant moved up into bigger pots. And then I snoozed on the couch while trying to convince myself to get up and go brush my teeth.
And I've got a bit of time for another nap before work, so I'm going to try to take advantage of it.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with  comments made.
Current Mood:  satisfied
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June 20th, 2017
 | 06:21 pm - Midsummer's Eve
Came home from work thinking if I just got my grocery run in on the way home then I could come home and snooze with a clear conscience, going to the gym later in the evening. Only there was a farmer's market perhaps a mile away from Wal-Mart -- one I'd seen the previous Sunday while passing by, too late to actually pull into the parking area and take a look -- and I decided to assess the produce. Turned out to be minimal produce but a fair amount of handcrafts. I came away with a pot of strawberry-chocolate-banana jam and a fresh-baked loaf of bread from one stand, and a few essential oils (including a sinus-and-allergies blend that I've been loving) from another. And then I came home because I didn't want to leave the bread (or the jam) in the hot car while I shopped. Put my food away, lay down across the love seat -- and woke up at 9pm.
So I had to do my grocery shopping later than planned -- and missed calling Dad on Father's Day (though I tried at around 9:45 that night -- and again a time or two yesterday -- and finally got hold of him this afternoon) -- and came home to put my groceries away and fell asleep again.
Up and moving lateish on Monday morning, visited Grandma on the way to the gym, got home to eat and shower and be appalled at the time, and managed the laundry but ran out of gas when it came to dealing with the rabbit cage. Dozed on the love seat again, woke up when Mom went to bed around midnight and thought I'd sleep on the couch for a few more hours, but I turned out to be up for the morning.
I spent much of this morning clearing the DVR while knitting, which was pleasant, though I should have paused the TV for long enough to do the dishes. I doubt I'll get them done tonight, which leaves them all for tomorrow, along with a gym session.
One good thing about spending some time knitting this last couple of days, though, was recreating some notes lost when my phone bricked itself Thursday. See, I've lost knitting notes that had been kept on an electronic device before -- which is why my knitting notes are now kept on Google Drive (and frequently on the respective project pages on Ravelry, as well). So the only files I lost from my notes app that weren't already on Drive were the sock projects I'm currently working on -- and the Neon Stripes are following a basic pattern I already have, plus an added colorwork chart. And I'd already copied my project notes on the Sunset Leaves socks over to the Ravelry page (though they only covered the toe, not the foot length and heel). So it was just the Shamborough sock whose notes I was having to recreate by squinting carefully at the sock-in-progress. (Mind you, I'm in the middle of the calf increases -- or rather, just finished the last round this morning -- and I did a lot of counting stitches trying to satisfy myself that I'd chosen the first row of the seventh repeat rather than the final row of the sixth repeat.)
( Projects resumedCollapse )
So I'm liking the new phone. I think the only missing data left that I haven't really reconstructed are my music playlists (and I've gotten started on one of them). It's faster, has more RAM and memory and a longer battery life. (Though that last may in part be due to the old phone losing its battery capacity over time.) I'm very pleased with it and just mildly stressing about the case I ordered for it arriving before I drop it on tile or concrete and crack it. (I still remember my sister breaking her phone's touchscreen before she'd gotten a case for it.)
( Blue leopard maniCollapse )
And, right. Time to finish this mani, feed the cats and go sack out for a few hours...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with  comments made.
Current Mood: sleepy
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June 17th, 2017
 | 08:19 pm - New phones are both a joy and a pain in the ass
So the week started out reasonably well, and then Thursday morning my phone bricked itself.
It was a thing where I was in the middle of doing something (jumping back and forth between Docs and Kindle, taking notes on what I was reading) when the screen suddenly went black. I tapped the screen, tapped the power button -- held down the power button hoping to make it restart, but nothing. I put it in my pocket and went about my morning -- but later when I tried it again and couldn't get it to start back up (even plugged into the charger, in case the battery had run down) I got on the desktop and googled for people asking tech forums how to solve my problem.
So turns out the unresponsive black screen is a thing that LGs do on occasion, and the recommendations were A) hold down the power button -- for a longassed time, maybe a full minute -- or maybe the power button and one of the volume buttons simultaneously, B) plug it in and come back tomorrow, see if it magically comes back on after recharging overnight (which is a thing that sometimes happens), C) pull the battery and replace it (which looked really complicated and required a few tools I don't have (though my mother might) since it's not actually meant to be removed by the user), or D) stick the phone somewhere cold for a bit to cool whatever may be overheating (though one techie type strongly advised against exposing electronics to moisture and sharp temperature changes). If none of the above works, the phone is declared definitively bricked -- and in need of replacement.
Accordingly, I left the phone plugged in, spent a chunk of Thursday afternoon getting the Nexus tablet ready for use as an emergency podcast-player at work that night, and came home the next day to attempt to get the phone turned back on. No response to holding the power button down for a longassed time, and yoinking the battery was beyond me, so I did in fact resort to sticking the phone in the freezer for a bit. And wonder of wonders, when I pulled it out and hit the power button, the LG logo came on screen and then the LED started blinking.
But then it just wouldn't boot up -- and I foolishly tried hitting the power button again. The LED stopped blinking and that was that.
So I went to the T-Mobile store down the street and laid the situation out. The good news is the phone was paid off -- months ago -- so I was merely rueful at the inconvenience of needing a new phone right now when I'd been ignoring the signs of impending electronic senescence. The part that had me really stressing was not having a backup file more recent than February 2016. That was why I was struggling to get a dead phone to boot up one. last. time... -- to hook it up to the desktop and get at what I needed.
Here is the great thing about having an Android -- so much of it is linked to my Google account, that when I just logged into my Gmail on the brand-new phone it started downloading apps. Just about all the apps I'd had on my old phone, in fact -- there were maybe a couple I spotted in my library in the Play store that I needed to tell it to go ahead and bring across. And all my contacts were right there immediately -- even a number I'd added to my address book less than a week ago.
Pictures and music weren't automatically included in the process -- which is why I have a couple of folders on my desktop to keep backups of what I have on the phone. The Pictures folder I'm good at keeping up-to-date -- I pull the week's photos and downloads off the phone on Tuesdays, and if I keep an image in my phone's Gallery I add it to the backup folder.
Music was trickier, since I hadn't been staying on top of new additions to my phone's music library -- but most of those were Amazon purchases available for immediate redownloading. (I've just been tweaking my Music backup folder, having ported the whole thing to my phone hours ago and now having noticed some obvious omissions. I need to start making a habit of remembering that folder exists and duplicating any changes I make that involve physical file transfer. Or possibly just every-so-often re-backing-up that folder off my phone.) The major inconvenience there is going to be creating new playlists.
The two forms of data that I was specifically most upset about losing were the financial data in my mobile checkbook app -- and the various checklists in my GTO app. Specifically, the Budget, the Groceries, and the To Do list that helps me maintain a pretense of responsible adulthood.
Both of these were my own damned fault, of course. The checkbook app has a backup/restore function -- which creates handy little files that I could have been copying to my computer along with the weekly photos, had I ever taken a moment to wonder how I'd get to last week's backup file if my phone were lost or completely borked. (So I'm going to be making a habit of copying it over with my pictures, now.)
The checklists were supposed to be a part of the Google account, too. The problem is that the GTO app stopped synching with the Google Tasks function -- possibly back in October 2015, according to the note on the developer's website regarding the program updates that supposedly fix it -- and I knew this, had discovered it when I got the Nexus tablet and was trying to convince my "To Do" list to work on it. So I had ample time to test-drive other checklist apps and if necessarily retype list items from the old, borked app to the new one. But, no, that was too much trouble, and I never got around to it. So.
That was the task that filled me with horror -- and yet, I think I've about licked it. The weekly stuff is such routine by now I could indeed recreate it from memory, and the groceries list involved memory and a bit of checking the fridge and bathroom for if anything was running low. I'm annoyed I've lost my fertilizer schedule for the garden -- the various packages advise how often to dose my plants with, but without knowing when the last dose was given, I'm basically guessing at when to schedule the next round of rosebush all-in-one and blueberry soil acidifier. I've even gotten the budget mostly licked -- and I'm about to get into my online bank account to get balances and recent transactions for the three accounts I need information for. I'm going to look back through the checking account transactions for at least a month or two back to make sure I haven't missed anything recurring...
Okay, done with sorting out my money. I hope. I'm going to be paying close attention to the daily text from the bank giving my checking account balance, but I scrolled back through several months and I think I got all the recurring transactions.
Also, the podcasts... I had too damned many of them, and last time I switched phones the downloaded eps were all gone but at least my subscriptions were passed along intact. This time I'm having to remember them from scratch -- and some of them I had suscribed to (generally on the recommendation of others) but hadn't yet gotten around to listening to. Which means there's no way I'm going to remember their titles now... (I scrolled back through a friend's journal looking for the post in which she asked for podcast recs. Not only did I get a couple of shows from that set of comments back when I read them, but I had mentioned some of my faves -- and two of them I hadn't remembered to resubscribe to today.)
But, okay. Here I am with just a couple of hours left to sleep in before I need to get ready for work -- but the new phone is up and running!
Though I have to order a protective case for it -- and a screen protector -- and a new freaking set of power cords or adapters or some such, because after I'd had a few lovely years to be used to my two main electronic toys -- Kindle and phone -- both being on micro-USB chargers, the new phone demands USB-C. And I have micro-USB chargers in my purse and in my car, in my bedroom and in the compartment under the coffee table and on a shelf in my cubicle at work. Needing a whole new set of everything would be a pain -- and expensive -- and can I get away with just a few USB-C to micro-USB adaptors, or do I need a set of special USB-C charging cables instead? There were warranty-voiding threats made about using the wrong kind of charging equipment...
Hmm, okay, the top review I saw of the pair of adapters was a lengthy discussion of testing the specs of the plugs that impressed me with its geekery. I'm willing to accept the premise that I can get away with a couple of plug adapters (plus the cord-and-charger combo that came with the phone) and keep using my existing charging supplies for the next little while... Okay, placing the order -- and getting offline now!
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with  comments made.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: VAST - Touched
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June 13th, 2017
 | 11:02 pm - Weekend sucked away somehow
I'm not sure where today went. I started out waking early with a few hours before Rupert's appointment at the vet's and only the dishes and my laundry left from yesterday's "to do" list, thinking I could take care of all of those early and spend the afternoon doing my nails and computerage. Yet somehow it took me till midafternoon to deal with the dishes and then I zonked on the couch for a while trying to nap a bit. (I finished my book before showering and taking Rupert to the vet, eating my laundry time, and I lost a chunk of the morning to browsing on Etsy. I got a $50 Visa gift card from work as a fifth-anniversary present and spent some of it taking Mom to On the Border last night. Probably what's left goes on my Amazon account, but there are some things I'd like to get on Etsy...) I'm not sure if I managed any sleep but it was past 9pm when I got on the computer (and started polishing my nails).
( Neon maniCollapse )
The alarm is being snoozed, but fortunately I just need to change clothes for work, feed the bunnies and grab my gear. Hopefully my nails won't be wrecked by my gloves tonight... (I should put a quick-dry topcoat on and hope it has time to cure by midnight. After I change into my work clothes...)
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with  comments made.
Current Mood:  rushed
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June 10th, 2017
 | 10:07 pm - Rough week
Just a little while ago I installed a series of reverse lookup apps and tested them out on my recent call log. The one I kept was the one that was able to tell me the number that called six times in the last week was a local roofer, rather than being stumped or demanding a ridiculous amount of my own personal data before it would function.
Since we had a hailstorm a week or so ago (not golf-ball-sized, but large enough for the tocks on the roof to be audible -- and watching the hailstones bouncing in the yard was interesting, too), we've been harassed by a series of vendors going door-to-door offering us either repairs to the dents in my car (claiming my insurance would cover it at no cost to me, which I kind of doubt since I go with the legal minimum of insurance, but anyway I'm not bothering with mere cosmetic damage to a car I'm going to be driving until the wheels fall off) or else free roofing inspections (as a lead-in to a sales pitch for repairing our shingles, which, yeah, we know we need the roof fixed since we had a damned tree fall on the house last year, but we didn't have the disposable income to do anything about it then, either). So we've got quite a few fliers for roofing repairs and the part that I find personally offensive is having the people leaving fliers and doorhangers and business cards actually ringing the doorbell to give us a salespitch in person because they see my car parked out front and can tell there's someone home.
And this is a week in which I haven't been getting as much sleep as I needed -- but it's also been a week in which there are enough people out on vacation or whatever to make an opportunity for overtime for the rest of us. And management has gotten tightassed about overtime, wanting people to get it cleared in advance before staying late and specifically griping about people who aren't working fast enough during their scheduled hours picking up a little extra at the end of the shift. The single biggest factor affecting how fast I'm working is how much sleep I got that day before coming in to work -- and this week when they've been making a general call to the whole department to put in a little extra time, I've been working in slow motion. (Which hasn't stopped me from picking up a few hours of overtime -- I've just been feeling a bit guilty about it. Or worried a supervisor is going to complain to me about it. Whichever.)
Coming home late from work of course eats an hour or two from my available sleeping time. And then there was insomnia Wednesday, and having shit to actually do Thursday when I finally got home before I could lay down and crash. But having the doorbell ring twice on Thursday afternoon, startling and interrupting me, and knowing that had I been asleep by that point (like I should have been) I would have gotten woken up by door-to-door salespeople, was enraging. (I didn't bother to answer the door either time. But a pair of roofing fliers were left on the door when I ventured out to check the mail after the second one had gone. Actually, if I recall one flier had been dislodged and was lying on the ground -- possibly on purpose by the second seller.)
I left a nasty note on the door -- on the back of a roofing flier -- saying the person parked out front works nights and is probably asleep when you're coming by to ring the bell to sell something. And I specifically mentioned not being interested in hail damage repairs to roof or vehicle. (That night at work I shared my complaint with a coworker, who's been having similar issues and has the added aggravation of roommates who took the "NO SOLICITING" sign off the front door because they hadn't noticed a problem. At least Mom left the note on the door. But she grabbed one of the fliers from the Thursday afternoon bell-ringers, because I'd used the ad from the ones she was previously contemplating calling to make my sign.)
In other news, this is the second week in a row of me falling asleep on Saturday and missing my window to go visit Grandma. I have it on my Thursday "to do" list and basically never bother to do it then. I'm "supposed" to go Fridays but that can be a busy day for me. I know I need to do it on the way home from work or there's a real risk of not leaving the house early enough to catch her, but I've found myself stuck sitting in the lobby waiting for her to come out of a little onsite church service (or worse yet, coming in to sit next to her during the activity beforehand and then being trapped there for the mini-sermon and hymn-singing) just a few too many times on Friday morning to want to go straight in from work anymore.
I should have gone there before coming home this morning -- I knew it, planned to do it -- but it was already so close to noon and I thought I'd pop in to let the bunnies out of their cage and set out my clothes for tonight and then go see Grandma. So of course I passed out on my bed and woke up past 8pm. Ah ha hah. At least I've gotten caught up on sleep before going in for what is sure to be a long shift...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with  comments made.
Current Mood:  aggravated
Current Music: Fleetwood Mac - Never Going Back Again
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June 6th, 2017
 | 11:01 pm - Rainbow week
If I'd spent a little less time on Twitter today, I might have actually gotten a chance at sleep before work tonight. I guess I'll have to settle for not having any computerage left to deal with tomorrow when I get home...
And I've been fairly productive with my weekend, too. Aside from messing around with my phone too much, the main interference with my schedule came from taking Rupert to the vet yesterday (since he has some wheezing and sneezing going on, his shots were postponed for a week or two, but I'm getting billed for both visits together when I bring him in for the shots because of some timekeeping thing to do with when the vaccinations are billed for) and fleabombing the house this morning. (Two hours spent outside messing around in the yard until it was safe to come back in. That was longer than I really wanted to spend killing time, pruning trees once I was done deadheading roses and weeding the flowerbeds.)
( Gardening has been productiveCollapse )
In past weeks I've been clearing my account info from Facebook, because it was eating up so much phone memory and because having to jump through the hoops of logging back in each time (and dealing with the setup over again each time) instead of just clicking on the app was succeeding in cutting back on the amount of time I wasted scrolling down endlessly. I reached the point of only logging in once a week to post my nail art photos -- and today I noticed the FB app had somehow restored itself from being wiped the last time and continued taking up an excessive amount of storage space. So I deleted it and from now on any photos I share are coming though logging into the site with my mobile browser. (But now Twitter is taking up that time-wasting space in my schedule.)
( Benefits of more time spent in front of the TVCollapse )
I think I need to start making a point of getting onto the computer on Sunday afternoons if at all possible. Because I'm making too much of a habit of finishing the Monday things on Tuesday and then not finishing my "to do" list at all, let alone with enough time to nap before work...
( Memorial Day maniCollapse )
My alarm is going off (and has been snoozed twice already) so I need to get changed into my work clothes and head out the door...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with  comments made.
Current Mood: out of time
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