19 October 2003

We're getting there. Slowly but surely. We are.

Yesterday morning, Heathah and Dave and the kids stopped by while I was doing house stuff. Gavin now knows how to say "peese" for a cookie. And Heathah thoughtfully brought cookies, so I could oblige him. And Siri assured me that she was going to be a good fairy, not a bad fairy, for Halloween. Whew. Heaven help the world if that child had allied herself with the Unseelie Court. Also, Heathah brought mulling spices, which came with a recipe for mulled cider, so hurrah for that and the housewarming party.

Also, we met some more of our neighbors, and they gave us a big tin of good chocolate cookies. We have lovely neighbors. I should write them quick notes and say thanks.

I went to the library book sale yesterday. Got a library card in less than five minutes, wooo! I didn't manage to check anything out yet, though. This week, for sure, because I need to for my contract work. The library sale was just dangerous. I limited myself to books we do not own, but it was a near thing. It's bad enough to see books we own and love and think, "Oh, but I could find it a much better home than those other people could." It's worse when that happens with books we own and don't even like. I got happy things, though, some YAs and a Stoppard play and a history of Russia and a couple of mysteries. They have joined the pile by my foot.

And then I found my way to Uncle Hugo's, eventually. Turns out going west on E. Lake St. is what was intended by "take Lake west." Also turns out that west is not always magically on my left. But I got there, and Bujold was not, in fact, reading; she was signing and chatting. There was no line, so I chatted with her briefly and somewhat breathlessly. And I bought Paladin of Souls and also Pamela Dean's The Hidden Land, whose re-existence makes me happy, because now I can find out what happens next, and the rest of it will become clear at Christmas.

I went to Ingebretsen's and didn't spend much time, because it's a dangerous place. They gave me a catalog, though -- fiends! I found a hideously expensive bowl that I covet, and a big wool Runestone blanket that isn't all that expensive for its size and coolness and pure woolitude, and would keep me warm in the winter and would look good in the living room or the library, either one...we are not buying the Runestone blanket this week. Possibly not this year. Possibly not next year. Nor its brother, the Yggdrasil blanket. We are not not not.

It's very wonderful, though, and I can look at the picture.

I went to C.J.'s, as long as I was up there. C.J.'s tenant, Mason, answered the door and didn't let me in, even though he knows me, because Mason is what is meant when people are described as "goobers." He is, perhaps, the goober. He is also feckless, dictionary definition. So I sat in my car in the lovely fall afternoon and read Archangel Protocol until a baffled C.J. arrived home from Home Despot and came out to fetch me. We had coffee. We came home and looked at catalogs with Timprov and had some dinner, and then Ceej left and we didn't go with him to the party he was attending, because we were neither of us in any state to deal with a party full of strangers. I talked to Mark. I went to bed earlyish. I slept hard.

Today's most urgent need is for bookshelves. Timprov measured the space for me, so now I have to go pick them out, see if someone at Target/Office Despot/wherever can help me with them, make sure they'll fit in the car, buy them, bring them home. Leave them sitting in the car until Timprov or C.J. or someone can haul them into the house for me. I have paperwork that desperately needs organizing and filing, because people send insane amounts of paperwork to people who have just bought a house, and you're not allowed to just pitch it in the recycle bin. It's important. But the paperwork can be piled neatly; the book boxes, not so much. So. Bookshelves. Also mushrooms. One needs mushrooms for double mushroom chili.

The mushrooms! In my fridge! Are not slimy! Also, the bread in my house? Not moldy! A bit stale, certainly, and we'll need to keep the sandwich bread in the freezer as always. But still: mold is not eating my food before I do. And if I had never lived in California, I wouldn't even think to be grateful for this. Yay California.

I still haven't gotten any of the forwarded mail from our old address. I am wondering if this is because Mark has been picking it up, or whether it's just delayed in the system. We'll find out, I suppose.

Oh, another thing on today's list: laundry. I'm going to wear something nice again today because all of my jeans are either dirty or not presentable to take to Cub and Target and the like. Dressing nicely by default. I suppose there are worse reasons. It's supposed to be gorgeous here, mid-70s, so I have plenty of clothing options in the "nice" category without melding it with the "freeze my butt off" category. That will come later. And I'm okay with that. I will wear my ski sweaters, poor neglected things. It will be good.