Man, I can’t even get the hang of posting every Monday, apparently. I was doing good at that for a while, but you can see that I fell off of that particular wagon, too…

My birthday’s in a few days. I took yesterday off partly as a birthday present to myself (the day itself is Monday, but Kylanath couldn’t get that day off, I couldn’t get today off, so yesterday was the best I could do) and partly to recover from the intensely horrid stretch of work, and partly to enjoy City of Heroes’ double-XP “weekend”.

I have writing to do, here, and some good habits to reestablish. (It’s stupid to try to “break bad habits,” I think, and smarter to replace them with good habits, since I only have so much time in the day I figure the new will replace the old, or something. I’m quite mentally worn out, so maybe I’m blowing smoke up my own backside. Time will tell.)

So. Let’s see if I can manage my 38th year better than I managed my 37th.

While Kylanath and I were out and about yesterday we picked up a set of shelves for her (“What do you get the girl who loves books?”) and a set of shelves for me. Thankfully Ikea now offers $20 65-pound-capable handcarts for those of us who take the MAX to and fro.

Tonight I assembled my set of shelves…

…and filled them full within five minutes of assembly. The new one’s on the left. Sadly, the ducks on the right are just for show: I have another box of books to unpack. Eventually I won’t have any books remaining in boxes, they’ll all be shelved! I figure that’ll be about five minutes before I found out I’m moving again, but hey, whatever.

Usually, I can’t smell much of anything.

I’m not entirely certain why, but it’s a fact I’ve grown to live with. Of course, if something is particularly powerful, it gets through. Too bad that of the strongest odors are actually unpleasant, eh?

Today is different for some reason. I woke up being able to smell all kinds of things; that ability has remained with me all day long. Now, had this been a weekend I’d have enjoyed this more. Going to work was already unappealing, never mind that my nose and I would be stuck in an office all day long.

Yes, folks, this is what counts for nose news in my world lately…

$2264.

That’s the difference in my gross income between 2008 and 2009.

Negative difference.

At least I have a job, yes, I know. But.

Yesterday, my contribution to the improvement of my living space consisted almost entirely of replacing the old tub mat with a handful of rubber duck-styled mini-mats. Yes, now there are duck eyes watching me bathe. C’est la vie. At least that mildewed old ugly mat is in the trash, finally. (Turns out that the bottom of the tub isn’t all that slippery normally… I just like having some extra insurance on that front. I nearly made a mess of things during one of my first showers here, owing to my complete lack of physical grace.)

Today I rearranged a bunch of junk… hard drives into a drawer, computer parts into the container set aside for that purpose, cards-and-letters into the newly-assembled Ikea cardboard drawer thingy, and so on. Also, a fair bit o’ junk’s been just plain thrown out. Hooray, me.

I didn’t get any comics done. I have one pending for Monday already so I’m not really hurting on that front, though. I’d have liked having a couple more in the buffer but I think the tidying up in my living space was a better use of my time overall.

And that nearly concludes my three days of vacation time from work. Am I ready for Monday? Of course not, but I’m at least a bit more rested and relaxed than usual…

I spent a bit more than I originally intended (thus, my “spending” budget for January is already shot the day I get paid) but…

• I have a standing lamp, complete with “reading” lamp off the side, filled with those “Reveal” branded CF bulbs. I can now offer lighting options between “puny, dim touch lamp” and “ZOMG the room overheads are bright, man.” It’d be outright unbearable in here if I turned on the standing lamp, the overheads and the gooseneck “webcomic lighting” lamps, but at least I have options.
• After many long years of devoted service, the rubber-duck shower curtain has seen its last bathing. In its place goes a proper liner-and-curtain combo, the curtain in a very stylish black fabric with narrow vertical stripes.
• Nothing to do with home decor, but I finally replaced the cutting heads in my electric shaver. Less sandpaper-face = Good.

If I can work up a bit more energy then I’ll see about hauling away a bit of the unused, pointless clutter in here with an eye toward picking up another bookshelf (or two?) next month… if nothing else, I need shelves for the growing flock of rubber ducks!