Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Between having my modem tied up with ludicrously large downloads for work, feeling like I've got too much to do to spend time on "fun stuff" (always a bad mental state to let myself get into, but there it is -- I'll try to break out of it but it's where I am now), and being distracted by how much my friends (and some interesting strangers in shared communities) have been posting lately when I to take time out for LiveJournal, I didn't write much yesterday and probably won't be too amazingly chatty until Sunday or Monday. I'm days behind on email again, too.

But I still wanted to post some sort of quick update.

Small thing to be thankful for: decent instant mashed potatoes. Feels like "cheating", certainly, and I know how to make better mashed potatoes from scratch, but when I just want a quick snack, this is instant comfort food that's even less effort than instant macaroni and cheese. And if I toss in some shredded cheddar, a couple spoonfuls of salsa, a dash of chili powder (a big dash) and a little black pepper, well that jazzes it up a couple of notches. (Uh, yes, that's my idea of "instant convenience food". When I in too much of a hurry, or too tired to deal with even that much work, I grab a banana, or chocolate, or Slim-Fast, or toast, or just a chunk of cheese. Or I drink some orange juice to shut up the complaints from my stomach, and postpone eating something solid until I feel like dealing with food.)

So instant mashed potatoes are in the same league as couscous, in terms of time and effort.

I actually made it to both of my rehearsals this week, though I got to Homespun Ceilidh Band rehearsal about an hour late, and wasn't feeling all that great at Thrir Venstr Foetr rehearsal. Both groups have performances coming up: HCB at Pirate Feast this coming Saturday, TVF at Winterfest on the first, then HCB at madrigal dinners in Laurel and Gaithersburg other weekends in February. I need to update the performance calendar on my web site. I need to update several pages on my web site.

One of my bandmates (one of the dancers, actually, but "groupmates" sounds a little forced ... or maybe it doesn't -- I'm not sure) gave me an electric massager for Christmas (Tuesday was the first time I'd seen her since the holiday). The last one was stolen when my house was burgled two years ago. My legs -- mostly my calves and knees -- have been bothering me very badly for the past week or two, keeping me awake at night, feeling like I'm going to fall during the day, and just hurting a lot. After I got home Tuesday night, I spent a while using the new vibrator on my legs, mostly around my knees (pretty much any spot not on the kneecap itself) when I went to bed. Yesterday my knees felt much better! They still hurt, but it's not constant, and working the pedals in my car last night only made me wince a few times. Between this and the wheat-bag that butterfluff gave me, I've got more non-drug options for managing pain again. Now if I can score another TENS unit to replace the one that was stolen, I'll be back to where I was before the burglary, health-tools-wise. (My electric heating pad was taken then as well.)

I've got a small, underpowered microwave oven that I'm not using. (It belongs to my ex-landlord bandmate -- I use a more powerful 1970s unit that I've had on indefinite loan from Mom since the late 1980s.) I wonder whether I can get away with plugging in the small microwave upstairs so that I don't have to run down to the kitchen to reheat the wheat bag. I'm not sure I want to try putting it on the same circuit as the computers in the office, so that means adding it to the extension cord from the 3rd floor that feeds the space heater or air conditioner (depending on the season) in the front bedroom, or running another extension cord from the other room on the 3rd floor. Or picking up some 3-prong outlets and getting around to replacing the wall outlets in the bedrooms on the 2nd floor, which I keep putting off.

Okay, time to work on my knees a bit, maybe nap, then run off to the Post Orifice to mail a sheaf of papers to my insurance company. And get my nails done -- they're in no shape to make it through a Homespun Ceilidh Band performance.