What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

First off, I tried to watch Die Hard last night, but it was such a pain to actually get access to it with all the restrictions for regions and other stuff that I decided that it isn't worth it. I'm going to skip watching movies. I don't love watching them anyway, so I shouldn't plan on doing something that is a challenge.

Today, I finished reading another novel by Iain M. Banks. It was not as amazing as the last one I read (Look to Windward), but it was still totally enjoyable. Then, after breakfast, we went to the hardware store to pick up the order made online for the varnish I need for the floor at the new house. First, we went to a notions store in the same mall, where I got the embroidery floss for my New Year's project: a cross stitch embroidery of a capybara with a duckling on his head with 2024 over them. Then, we went to the big food store to pick up more peanuts, because I've been stress eating my way through them. Lastly, we went to the hardware store, where they pointed out that I had ordered the varnish to be picked up at a different location, and I had an hour before the store closed. The bus was going to get us there 15 minutes before they closed, which seemed sketchy, so we took an Uber, which cut 40 minutes off the time. We picked up our stuff quickly and then walked home (about 1 hour) through a couple of parks. It was so lovely, as spending time with Joel always is.

While on the bus to the first hardware store, I had tried to find a book for my Christmas Eve romance novel reading. I was getting all kinds of "just published in 2023" lists and "I don't like romance novels, but these are the ones I recommend" lists, which were not what I was looking for. These days, instead of fighting to get Google to give you what you want, you can just ask ChatGPT. I did, and it gave me a nice list. I looked up the first book, which was well-reviewed, and it sounded good, so I got that. Once I got home, I finally had the time to sit down and read it. The book is "A Holiday by Gaslight" by Mimi Matthews, and it was delightful. The best part is that I would be happy to read it again, so if next year's book isn't great, I can read this one to make me feel better.

Tomorrow, we're going to have our one-shot, Christmas-themed roleplaying game. A guy from my writer's group suddenly had nothing to do for Christmas, so he will join us. Should be fun!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving! A bunch of friends came over, and we talked and talked and talked. Today, we managed to get our state medical insurance numbers, which is something we needed to do before moving. Yay!! Unfortunately, it is pretty chilly in our apartment now. I am _really_ looking forward to having heat in the new house.

Ears: I'm going to the doctor tomorrow. The ear that was infected is doing better, but they are both bubbling and popping a lot. I'm really on the fence about going, since my ears seem better today than yesterday. However, in a month, I will get on a plane, so they have to be cleared up by then.

Roof: No change from yesterday.

Sphinxes: Done! I'm pleased with how they turned out. The next step is to cut paper for all of the artwork for the hutch and to paint everything (drawers, cabinet doors, and paper) with gesso.

Programming: I made some progress. There is something going on with one of the calendar files that is making my code not parse it. I had it mostly working, then I cleaned up some other stuff, which caused it to stop working. * shrug * I'll fix it. I also am trying to put the information about our next trip into my travel database, but there are errors from that awful php upgrade to php 8, plus some barfing that may be because I changed something in a library. I'll get that fixed too.

Holidays: I am going to try to make gingerbread houses. Ideally, I will make the gingerbread tomorrow. We'll see how I feel after the doctor.

It turns out that I have an ear infection. Hopefully, the antibiotic drops that the doctor gave me will clear it up.

I made good progress with the test version of the Neverending Story sphinxes. I should be able to paint the general areas of color tomorrow or the next day. Since it will be the solstice, I'm planning on cleaning the apartment and painting a mandala of the sun.

In great news, even though it rained, the roof didn't leak. The chimney in the kitchen did, so that was a giant mess, but at least the roof didn't.

I don't really celebrate holidays. Or birthdays. Or really much of anything else. I used to make food for holidays, but I can't really eat much that is holiday related these days. I'm not interested in partying or going to church. The thing is that I really do enjoy holidays. I think that perhaps, as with so many things, I've been so drowning in mental health issues that I don't make the effort to find creative ways to celebrate. However, I'm in a better place than I was, and I can come up with ways to celebrate that I will enjoy. Obviously, they won't revolve around food, since I can't eat most holiday foods. I'm going to spend some time thinking about this over the next few days. If I do one or two things per holiday, even if it means writing a cute story, playing a holiday-themed RPG, or painting a holiday-themed picture, I think it will help me get a lot more into the mood.