I'm becoming nocturnal
I don't know what the problem is, but I'm only sleepy during the day time any more. That's rather unusual given that I'm solar-powered. My whole sleep schedule is being thrown off by stress, travel, a goofed-up work schedule and trying to give up caffeine too quickly. I think the cure will be to get up at 6am tomorrow even though I don't have to work and just stay up as much of the day as I can.
Today's bit of non-sleeping may be due to the diet Mountain Dew I had to kill my headache earlier this afternoon. It may also be due to the fact that I apparently spent 5 hours packing up the "scary closet" and part of my office. The scary closet is a combination coat closet, tool shed and crafts stockpile. Now it is mostly boxes and I even sorted through my tool, boxes. About all that's left to deal with in there are the big power tools (half sheet sander, circular saw, two jigsaws and a drill). Yes, I'm a girl with power tools. Just watch and see what I start to collect once I have a big, secure two-car garage to put it all in.
Reading/Listening/Watching
Continued to listen to Terry Pratchett's Going Postal on CD. I started listening to it on the last trip south. It's pretty funny and is hilarious in some places. Reminds me a lot of Douglas Adams and even a little of P. G. Wodehouse. Very dry sense of humor. I like Mr. Pump, the golem.
Speaking of books, I discovered that I own a copy of Pride and Prejudice. I tried checking it out of the library twice this summer but didn't have a chance to read it. I have listened to the book on tape when in the middle of my mosquito-rearing experiment/research. It's at the top of my list of classics to read real soon now. I started on a classics-reading kick several years ago and read quite a bit of Bronte, Hemingway and Edith Wharton. It was much better than I had expected. I feel the need to read something intelligent and weighty again.
Watched The West Wing while trying to wind down tonight. I can make it through about 2 1/2 episodes before I start to lose interest and my brain gets antsy. I'm almost to the end of the fifth season. I'm hoping to get through the sixth season before I move away from the Urbana Free Library. My new library doesn't have nearly the DVD or video selection that Urbana has. Heck, they don't have 1/3 of the books either. I was really surprised and somewhat disappointed. I suspect I'll be doing a lot of interlibrary loan requests and purchasing more books. (Like I need more books. I'm already short on bookshelf space.) The new library does, however, offer downloadable e-books and audiobooks.
But, if I need more bookshelves, that gives me a fine excuse to buy more of those powertools I mentioned before.... A girl's gotta have nice solid matching bookshelves, right? :o)
Landscape/Garden Design Plans:
Been going through oodles of garden design books. One of the is definitely way too involved for me. I don't care how much space I have, I am not going to install a planting with 218 different kinds of plants, even if that does include trees and shrubs. The actual number of specimens was almost 500. I'd need a staff to maintain the silly place. At least the author mentioned that in a similar design it take her and an assistant 5-8 hours on one day a week to maintain everything. I'm just not likely to have that kind of time or dedication. I could see maybe 30-40 minutes each of three days during the week and a couple hours on weekends. But not eight hours a week. I want more time to relax and pursue other interests, never mind the time to actually ENJOY the garden I planted. But the designs were beautiful and took into account the necessity of having blooms and plants of interest during all four seasons of the year. Most other design or planning books focus on a single season per design. I'm definitely never going to replant the silly beds three times a year. That's even less realistic than 5-8 hours a week of dedicated garden maintenance (not counting mowing the lawn or playing with the veggie garden).
Where does this stuff come from?
Packing tonight revealed that my computer accessories and peripherals are apparently multiplying in the dark. I have four modems, two switches, an external CD-RW and a bazillion cables. I thought I was being all sorts of organized a year or two ago when I bought a sweater-sized storage box at The Container Store to corral that stuff. What I need are three more of the darned things and I'm not sure even that would be enough. Every time I turn around there's another stupid device lurking. On the other hand, I can't think of any reason not to completely pack up my Mac desk and the office desk. I can leave out a selection of envelopes and stamps. The rest of it can go in boxes. The miscellaneous desk detritus and knick knacks are already mostly in boxes.
Tomorrow's packing task:
Tackle the corner china cabinet in the dining room and start in on the kitchen. Speaking of kitchen, I think I'm going to make more blueberry bread tomorrow and foist it off on whomever doesn't flee fast enough, like co-workers and colleagues. So, the Champaign PD detectives better be hungry on Wednesday morning. :o)
Other stuff to do on Sunday:
Today's bit of non-sleeping may be due to the diet Mountain Dew I had to kill my headache earlier this afternoon. It may also be due to the fact that I apparently spent 5 hours packing up the "scary closet" and part of my office. The scary closet is a combination coat closet, tool shed and crafts stockpile. Now it is mostly boxes and I even sorted through my tool, boxes. About all that's left to deal with in there are the big power tools (half sheet sander, circular saw, two jigsaws and a drill). Yes, I'm a girl with power tools. Just watch and see what I start to collect once I have a big, secure two-car garage to put it all in.
Reading/Listening/Watching
Continued to listen to Terry Pratchett's Going Postal on CD. I started listening to it on the last trip south. It's pretty funny and is hilarious in some places. Reminds me a lot of Douglas Adams and even a little of P. G. Wodehouse. Very dry sense of humor. I like Mr. Pump, the golem.
Speaking of books, I discovered that I own a copy of Pride and Prejudice. I tried checking it out of the library twice this summer but didn't have a chance to read it. I have listened to the book on tape when in the middle of my mosquito-rearing experiment/research. It's at the top of my list of classics to read real soon now. I started on a classics-reading kick several years ago and read quite a bit of Bronte, Hemingway and Edith Wharton. It was much better than I had expected. I feel the need to read something intelligent and weighty again.
Watched The West Wing while trying to wind down tonight. I can make it through about 2 1/2 episodes before I start to lose interest and my brain gets antsy. I'm almost to the end of the fifth season. I'm hoping to get through the sixth season before I move away from the Urbana Free Library. My new library doesn't have nearly the DVD or video selection that Urbana has. Heck, they don't have 1/3 of the books either. I was really surprised and somewhat disappointed. I suspect I'll be doing a lot of interlibrary loan requests and purchasing more books. (Like I need more books. I'm already short on bookshelf space.) The new library does, however, offer downloadable e-books and audiobooks.
But, if I need more bookshelves, that gives me a fine excuse to buy more of those powertools I mentioned before.... A girl's gotta have nice solid matching bookshelves, right? :o)
Landscape/Garden Design Plans:
Been going through oodles of garden design books. One of the is definitely way too involved for me. I don't care how much space I have, I am not going to install a planting with 218 different kinds of plants, even if that does include trees and shrubs. The actual number of specimens was almost 500. I'd need a staff to maintain the silly place. At least the author mentioned that in a similar design it take her and an assistant 5-8 hours on one day a week to maintain everything. I'm just not likely to have that kind of time or dedication. I could see maybe 30-40 minutes each of three days during the week and a couple hours on weekends. But not eight hours a week. I want more time to relax and pursue other interests, never mind the time to actually ENJOY the garden I planted. But the designs were beautiful and took into account the necessity of having blooms and plants of interest during all four seasons of the year. Most other design or planning books focus on a single season per design. I'm definitely never going to replant the silly beds three times a year. That's even less realistic than 5-8 hours a week of dedicated garden maintenance (not counting mowing the lawn or playing with the veggie garden).
Where does this stuff come from?
Packing tonight revealed that my computer accessories and peripherals are apparently multiplying in the dark. I have four modems, two switches, an external CD-RW and a bazillion cables. I thought I was being all sorts of organized a year or two ago when I bought a sweater-sized storage box at The Container Store to corral that stuff. What I need are three more of the darned things and I'm not sure even that would be enough. Every time I turn around there's another stupid device lurking. On the other hand, I can't think of any reason not to completely pack up my Mac desk and the office desk. I can leave out a selection of envelopes and stamps. The rest of it can go in boxes. The miscellaneous desk detritus and knick knacks are already mostly in boxes.
Tomorrow's packing task:
Tackle the corner china cabinet in the dining room and start in on the kitchen. Speaking of kitchen, I think I'm going to make more blueberry bread tomorrow and foist it off on whomever doesn't flee fast enough, like co-workers and colleagues. So, the Champaign PD detectives better be hungry on Wednesday morning. :o)
Other stuff to do on Sunday:
- Get more small boxes from U-Haul. Perfect for books, software and heavy stuff. I think I have eight small boxes left right now. Need to buy some rope for securing all the boxes inside the moving truck too. Heck, while I'm there, I ought to confirm the dates on the truck rentals. Which reminds me, I don't know where my calendar is. I should find that.
- Trying to decide if I'm going to take the books I no longer want to the used book store or to the library. If they go to the library, do I want to save them for the Jackson Library, which I think needs them more, or to the Urbana Library, which means I don't ahve to pack and move them. I hate selling books. It always makes me feel slightly guilty.
- Go see Pirates 2 at 2pm.
- Bake something with blueberries.
- Clean what parts of my apartment I can still reach around the boxes, like the ever decreasing patch of carpeting. It feels/smells dusty with all the boxes.
- Clean out my small storage space and haul the stuff up to my apt. That'll probably take two trips. But would enable me to get all of my holiday decorations and wrapping paper in one place for sorting and packing. I think I've got a rogue box of three-ring binders in storage that just needs to be recycled/donated.
Comments
Giving up caffeine, huh? Gosh. Good luck to you.