Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Day 173: Trying another one of the treats we brought back from England. We actually got two flavors; orange for me and mint for my wife. The orange was a nice strong orange flavor that we both liked. The mint was also very strong (“imagine an Altoid wrapped in dark chocolate”), which my wife liked but I didn’t even bother trying (I don’t like mint).
Day 172: We went by IKEA this morning, and discovered that there’s currently a space theme in the kid’s sections, with lots of cute goodies. All we came home with was one of the little green aliens (visible at the top right of the photo), but I thought some of my friends might be interested.
We were disappointed to discover that since the last time we were at IKEA, they’ve joined the realm of stores that are almost entirely self-checkout. That’s going to reduce how likely we are to shop there in person.
Day 171: Almost two years in, and today’s all-staff training/community development event was the first time I set foot in the school’s gym. Partly this is because I have very little interest in most sports stuff. Partly it’s because last year sometime in a presentation about plans for upcoming capital projects (big expensive things like new buildings), the need for a new gym space was stressed in part because this building is in such poor shape it could spontaneously collapse at any moment. That’s paraphrased, and probably wasn’t put quite so starkly, but I wasn’t the only person who came away from that presentation with that impression, so it was darkly amusing that this was the chosen location to gather all of the college’s staff for this event.
Day 170: Generally I try to be fairly straightforward, but sometimes you just have to give your spouse a pretty obvious Hint.
Day 169: McDonalds for dinner tonight, and saw that they had two new (limited time only) flavors of dipping sauce for their McNuggets, so of course we had to try them. “Sweet and Spicy Jam” was just what it said, and the mysterious “Mambo” was a little less sweet and notably spicier, with a pretty strong kick. Both were actually pretty tasty, but the Sweet and Spicy Jam was our preference.
Day 168: Two big projects, one for work (a presentation to faculty) and one volunteer (a website launch), both due on Friday. I pretty much feel like I don’t stop moving; a full day at work, and then puttering on my computer after dinner and until bed in the evening. I know a few of my friends involved with the same volunteer project are in much the same boat. Going to be glad to hit the weekend!
Day 167: IKEA bookshelves are simple and convenient (and all Fight Club snark aside, I really don’t mind the IKEA aesthetic), but I really do wish the shelf spacing was tighter, or that they were more adjustable. Hardbacks have a good four inches of wasted space above them, and there’s nearly room to get two rows of paperbacks for every single row that these allow. I occasionally daydream about finding the time to replace these with custom-built shelves. Properly done, I could probably increase my book storage in this room by at least 50%, possibly more.
Day 166: I may be 50, but I still do get entertainment value out of going through a car wash, especially now that they have colored foam and neon lighting. It’s like a disco foam party!
Day 165: Today was this month’s Norwescon planning meeting. Our theme for the meeting was Halloween, so I wore my Jack Skellington shirt, while other people had pointed witch’s hats, Pikachu onesies, a corn costume, an Alf mask, and probably other things that I missed or aren’t remembering. Lots of good progress being made — but lots to do over the next few months as well!
