What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Today was one of those days where I didn't manage to get started on anything besides eating until like 7pm. I've been listening to this book on the basics and history of physics, and even though I've studied physics before, it is both a nice reminder and a bunch of interesting background. One of the things that took a bunch of time was the whole how fast things fall question. Here is a video taken on the moon of a hammer and a feather falling at the same rate.

Phew! I got the monthly budget done (or whatever you call the "what we spent our money on" list). I need to start work on the podcast tomorrow, so I wanted to get the budget out of the way.

I think I said yesterday that I want to make a couple of long-sleeve shirts so I can avoid sunscreen, so I ordered some nice "washed cotton" in blue and "old green", which just sounds like the crappiest color. * laugh * I also got some more (slightly nicer) t-shirt fabric in colors I don't have. I had been planning on cutting out green fabric for the leaves for my nature themed shirts, but I don't look great in green (especially the bile-colored green that I was considering getting, since it looks more like leaves than kelly green), so I decided to go with white fabric that I can embroider. I could also dye it, if I wanted. A leaf in white (or, you know, grayish from having been washed a bunch) will still be recognizable as a leaf, so it will be fine.

It's time to get out there and go on a walk now. I'm having a weird brain day (even though I've been good and worn my glasses when going outside). I keep having the feeling I was working on something else. Probably, it is memories getting sorted incorrectly. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that I need another round of neurofeedback after this one to fix some new weird thing.

I need to cut back on calcium in addition to magnesium, but not enough magnesium was making me depressed, and I was worried that I would be an actual zombie tomorrow, roaming the city searching for brains, if I didn't have enough calcium either. So, I took half the usual amount of magnesium and half a calcium pill. I'm okay now. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll be okay enough. After that, it will be fine, because I'll be home, and I can take more or less as needed.

Not surprisingly, I'm not getting a whole ton done right now, which is frustrating, as I feel like I've got so much (especially sewing) that I need to do. Maybe I can get some work done on Sunday. We'll see. Now, I'll do some painting.

Friday's are always so busy, as I get ready for my Saturday away from home. The end of the month is always so busy, as I prep things for the next month and finish up things that I want to get done before the month ends. That means that today is extra busy. I have gotten a bunch of stuff done so far today, but the podcast is still looming. There is no way I'm getting the whole thing done today, but maybe I can get the script written so that I can record it on Sunday.

I finally finished one of the paintings that has been hanging around for weeks. Okay, I didn't actually finish that painting, but I did finish a painting for the person that the original painting was for. However, the painting was going to be one of a bridge, and I couldn't manage it in my current state. I have another one that has also been lingering about for quite a while. I have a plan for that too. A simpler plan that can hopefully be finished tomorrow. I really want to get these done. I also have a bunch of other stuff going on that I'm not excited about (doctors and other appointments), but I'm going to finish these damn paintings so that they aren't hanging over me. I'm a bit annoyed, as I made it a good chunk of the way through one of them before I ceased to function.

In other news, I got a big shipment of fabric yesterday and washed it today. That's always a pain, since it takes up so much space that it is hard to dry it inside. Luckily, the rain has mostly stopped, so I was able to hang it all outside. I would really like to get to sewing it. And fixing the upstairs wall. And woodworking. But right now, I'm focusing on just getting everything ready and finishing these paintings.

As usual, there are a ton of things to do, and I'm having trouble getting them done. I did manage to work on my painting of the little succulents, go on a walk, do the laundry, and start my breakfast soup cooking. Oh, and I cut back a bit on magnesium, which was too much, I guess, as I'm now exhausted again. I'll have to increase the dosage by one hundredth of a gram tomorrow.

My stomach has been bothering me, but today it seems to be doing better. It is hot here right now, and we don't really like running air conditioning. That could be the problem, or it could just be coincidence. Anyway, I made sure to take anti-inflammatories for the last couple days, which seems to have convinced my intestines that they don't need to swell up. I'm feeling kind of wound up, probably because I'm trying to do too much or else because I get wound up when I travel and haven't crashed from that yet. I did a bit of cleaning (an excuse to listen to book 5 of the MurderBot Diaries) and worked on a birthday card painting. I'm going to try to do some work on the podcast before going for a walk (which I will also use to listen to the book). So, I'm not really overdoing it. I think.

Oh, and did I say that yesterday we tried out the grout that we plan on using to repair the spaces between the big blocks of stone that make up the kitchen floor? The other grout we tried had been awful (and was white, so it wouldn't have worked anyway), but this stuff is like grout or concrete, so it should be just fine. We mixed 100g with 20g of water (just like they told us to), and it was the perfect ratio. The grout stuck without being messy or sloppy, dried nice and hard, and looks like it is sort of a warm light gray, which is pretty much the color we need. Maybe tomorrow, we can remove the sections of the old grout that are falling apart (which will hopefully decrease the number of bugs in our house further) and replace it with nice, new grout. Maybe then on Friday, I can clean the test spot where the refrigerator used to be and, when it is dry, put on the sealant. If that all seems okay, then we should be able to clean the rest of the kitchen floor and seal it. I expect that the floor will be much darker after we do that. There are some spots that we haven't talked about sealing, so Joel and I will have to talk about it and decide which parts beside the actual floor should be sealed. For example, the walls in the kitchen for the first two feet from the floor are stone or concrete (both?). I _think_ Joel may want to tile those. There are steps going up into the kitchen, and on the side of the steps is a rock that is above the level of the kitchen floor. And what about the basin that the crushed grape juice used to go into? It sheds bits of rock onto the floor. Should I seal that too? Stay tuned to find out!

My toes continue to improve. I cut out a toe-spacer out of cardboard, which is helping the part between my toes dry out.

I finished reading At The Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft. It was both better and worse than I expected. The ideas are great, though. It really makes the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game make even more sense.

I also finished my latest podcast and posted it. I'm so glad that my new organizing scheme is working. Now that that is done, I need to work with Joel on figuring out our woodworking plans, so that we can build some furniture.

Progress has also been made on organizing my Mass Effect fanfic. I'm outlining a new subplot at the moment, which I'm pretty excited about, and I figured out which elements of the game I will use in my story, which I really needed.

Today has not been a day of easy physical movement. I have been more anxious and more floppy than usual. I'm annoyed that I missed the opportunity to go on a walk with Joel, but there will be other walks. In good news, my plants are all still alive, and I feel like my plan for how to organize my time is really starting to work. If I do just one really time-consuming hobby a day (plus all my other usual daily stuff), then I have time to get enough done. Also, if I focus on finishing one batch of each time consuming hobby (be that a painting, an episode of the podcast, or a month of the budget, which isn't really a hobby, but whatever), then I have time to get several projects done each month. I'll start painting birthday cards again on Monday (I have plans for two semi-abstract paintings and two beach paintings, which should be super fun if I can get them to work), but I got the podcast mixed today, so I should be able to post it tomorrow. Since I can't really walk today, I took the time I would have used for that to work on fixing some pants. I made the waistbands a bit too tight, so they bother my stomach when I wear them. I do not need anything making me more anxious.

I have an electronic to do list that I use to handle all my upcoming events plus, obviously, all the things I need to do. It is great and does exactly what I want it to do, because I wrote the code for it. However, it is super easy for me to think I can do a whole lot more than I can actually do in a day. Finally, yesterday, I decided that what I should do, instead of guessing how much I can do, is to make a new table that holds the duration for each activity on my list. Then, I can choose 8 hours, for example, of activities. I have _way_ less time than I think I do, and as I discovered today, it takes _way_ more time for each activity than I imagined when I wasn't actively thinking about how much time each activity would take. I may have to abandon some activities or something, as there are just so many things I can't get done that are on the list and so many activities that I should do daily. Maybe I should try modifying some of the daily activities to be every other day? Once a week? Well, at least now I know there is a problem.