Just this evening I finally unplugged my Itty Bitty Book Light and took it down from where it was hanging on the headboard. Geeze. Think man, if you want to read, you turn on the room light now. Who am I going to disturb? I'm slow.
I sorted out a whole mess of stuff all over the house. I've got to start packing up all the stuff that I don't need every day so that I can save some hassle when it's finally time to move it. With a lot of luck, I can be gone by the end of January. Actually, even though the house-hunting is going slowly, I am kind of excited by the prospect. There's nothing like being fifteen short minutes from work again, after five years of ninety minute commutes, each way. I posted a question about why Martinez was so affordable on the 
sfbayarea community (and found out that Martinez was a toxic waste dump) and 
bellacrow kindly informed me that there were actually affordable rental houses right in Alameda! Hey! There's a surprise. That might actually be nice! I'd be right on the Bay and not ten or fifteen minutes from work. What will I do with the extra time? Perhaps I can start hanging out in San Francisco! Since moving to California in 1996, I've only been there three times, even though I work right across the Bay in Alameda. Perhaps that can change now. Hmmm, I wonder what kinds of interesting things there are to do over there. I guess if I get a house in Alameda, I will aim to find out. I feel really good about this.
Well, I feel like I've accomplished a bunch today, even though I didn't get to check out any houses this weekend. I think I'm going to have to take some vacation days from work to go looking. It is to be hoped that I will be able to get myself together a list of propects this week. Nevertheless, I did accomplish some things:
- Returned some movies to Blockbuster. "Six Feet Under: the First Season", disks three and four, and "Tomb Raider II" (eh, all right, so it's dumb)
- Cleaned my watchband. This thing is stainless steel and it gets kind of cruddy between the links.
- Cleaned all the construction debris out of the shower and gave it a test run. Oh YES!
- Got a second sewing kit for fixing buttons and the like. I bought one last week and now I can't find the damned thing anywhere! I hate losing stuff.
- Took a bunch of insurance papers and reference books for the girls to the ex's appartment in Sacramento. Why the heck does Jackie's "YM" magazine come to the house when I told those people specifically to ship it to the Sacramento address? These people are not the genii of the publishing world.
- Went to the grocery and restocked a crapload of stuff. I hadn't been since Christmas. I bought a pair of new skillets (10" and 12" Revereware) as the ones the ex left me were losing their Teflon coating!
- Sorted a whole bunch of junk out in my bedroom. Ah, it is looking less and less like a war zone in an accounting firm every day.
Here it is, without further embellishment, My Grocery List!
- 1 box Bigelow Peppermint Tea (good for nausea)
- 1 box Bigelow Chamomile Tea (sometimes good for insomnia)
- new mop head
- 1 box Ritz Crackers
- Smuckers Strawberry Preserves
- Philadelphia whipped Cream Cheese
- 1 pkg Thomas's Bagels
- 3 12-can-packs of Diet, Caffeine-free Coka-Cola
- Skippy Crunchy Roasted Honey Nut Peanut Butter
- 1 box Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn
- Bar-S Sliced Deli Ham (2 lbs)
- Old Spice Red-Zone Anti-perspirant
- 1 box Triscuits
- 6 Assorted color Scrubbing Sponges
- 2 pkgs Alpine Lace Swiss Cheese slices
- Oxy-Clean Spot and Stain Remover
- Shout Wipes
- Pack of 25 sewing needles
- 1 bag Washington Red Delicious apples
- 2 Mangoes
- 7 assorted Budget Gourmet (Grommet) frozen single-serving meals
- 10" Revereware skillet
- 12" Revereware skillet
- 1 Bottle Dishwashing liquid
- 1 pkg 60W decorative lightbulbs for the garage light and porch light
- 1 bottle Pert shampoo for fine or oily hair. (Yeah, it's fine and oily, but I still got it!)
- 1 box Dole California seedless rasins
- 1 bottle Pace Medium hot salsa
- 32-load bottle of Sun Free Laundry Detergent
- 1 bottle Old Spice Aftershave
- 1 carton 18 Large Grade AA eggs
- 1 6-pack of Tic-Tac breath mints wintergreen flavor
- 1 tube of Binaca breath spray
