I can dimly perceive where the dedicated clotheshounds get it, that drive to go out shopping and cycle through their wardrobes, filling their closets with a neverending supply of new duds. Because there’s nothing quite like the feeling of putting on a new article of clothing the morning after its first run through the laundry and seeing that it fits. Not only fits, but it looks good.

Mind you, in my case this is something of a rarity, so don’t worry that I’m going all shopping-crazy. I still hate the challenge of finding, for instance, pants that actually fit me. (Common problems: Slacks that are all weirdly poofy in front, and way way way too long of inseams even though supposedly they’re the same length as the other three pairs of pants I’ve just tried on.)

Still… this morning, I’m moderately pleased. I take my victories and my pleasures where I’m able.

(Bonus points for knowing the song which gave me the post’s title without Googling for it…)

And a hearty, jolly, “thank you so very little” goes out to the schmucks working at the industrial supply outfit just down the street for making sure I was wide awake by 5:00am with a mixture of carrying on conversations at yelling volume, banging metallic things around, and setting off someone’s car alarm.

I mean, I didn’t need that hour of sleep, especially after the Daylight Savings change. Naaaah.

For a few days it was just an occasional cough. Sunday evening it became cough plus fever. Monday morning? Full-on migraine, complete with swaths of light across my entire field of vision and a painful reaction to any bright light source or sharp sound. (This is my first experience with migraines, but I have it on good authority that my diagnosis is accurate.) Oh, and the aforementioned cough & fever.

No, I don’t know if it’s the so-called “swine flu,” and I don’t care. I just want it to hurry up and get over with. I’ve barely left my room since 8pm Sunday, and I’m beyond tired of the sight of these walls. And ceiling, considering how much time I’ve spent in bed. Today I went from mostly-feverish-and-nauseous to hacking-up-a-lung (and feverish). MY, WHAT FUN.

And it looks like I’m not the only one who came down sick, damn it all. I hope everyone else has an easier time of it than I’ve had so far. I apologize to those of you that I’m responsible for infecting, too.

Bleh.

The daughter turned sixteen yesterday, so we threw her a big silly party. (Well, okay. The Lloyd Center skating rink people threw her a big silly party. We just paid for the thing. Heh.)

Near as I can tell, she and the half-dozen friends who showed up all had a good time, and she was delighted by the party and the presents and especially the chance to go ice skating. (She’s only been asking to do so since she was, oh, maybe six years old?) I may not understand the big deal about a girl’s sixteenth birthday, but I’m not enough of a brainless lump to let said birthday slide on by without at least trying to make a decent event out of it.

So: Happy Birthday, kiddo!

So, my son turned 17 on Saturday. He doesn’t look any older than he did a year ago, but that’s probably because his face has been half-covered in fur for the last couple of years. We went to what has become a little tradition for his parties: Ultrazone, down along McLoughlin. Hooray, laser-tag! (This wasn’t a good showing for me… 10th out of 12, then 4th out of 14. I blame it on the blue jeans that fluoresced very nicely under the black lights…)

Spud’s just glad I gave him a Rifftrax DVD instead of another math book, of course. Heh.

The other notable event of the weekend? Irvington’s “farmer’s market” launched, taking up one small piece of road between Broadway & Weidler next to the Kitchen Kaboodle. (I think we spent more time there than we did at the market, but there you go.) It was a modest assemblage, though I hope it goes well and they can attract a few more merchants. A cheese vendor, for instance, would be nice. A hike down Broadway on Sunday beats waking up early enough to get to PSU before the insane crowds make that market unpalatable…