Clearly I have woken up as someone else today

I've been seized by the oddest urge to do all sorts of minor tasks that I've been putting off for a while. Really all things considered I shouldn't do any of them because I already had another list of minor tasks that need to be done, and tasks which I'm happy to do so it's not as though I want to do this other stuff just to procrastinate or something. Also some of these tasks involve buying stuff and I'm a bit cash poor at the moment so again I really really really shouldn't do this but, OTOH, if I don't do it now who knows when I'll get the urge to try again?

How the heck did I end up inside of a productive person's body today? I ask you.

It's like being inside but without walls

So I gave in to the urge to do the little productive things. This resulted in me making a few trips to various stores and ending up with a quick eye makeover, a hanging box to put one of my planters in, a cheap plastic chair and a teeeeeeeeny little charcoal grill named, I kid you not, Sparky. It has a smiley face on it. How could I not buy it?

All of this (other than the eye thing) was my effort to make my back porch-y type thing into a more welcoming area. It's a fair enough size but it's all concrete and black metal railings and, until this past Friday, was covered with my dead plants. But now we've got living plants both high and low, an actual proper chair to sit in and, of course, Sparky. And with my new chair angled the right way - viz towards the courtyard and my plants rather than towards the parking lot and the clotheslines - and a nice breeze going it's actually kind of pleasant.

Later on I'll try grilling some corn and burgers. I predict fine charcoal will abound, and not just under the grate, but I gotta start somewhere.

I've also realized that some of the projects I had slated for today were part and parcel of an offshoot of my packing anxiety, wherein if I've got advance notice that someone might be visiting then suddenly I'm regrouting my tiles. I have put the urge firmly on hold and there we are. Today I shall enjoy my new grill, do yoga and, if time permits and I feel like it, work on my slashficathon assignment and/or the co-op newsletter that I need to edit.

Or I may try to bead some more. Who knows? I have to admit I just hate the thought of being stuck inside on one of the few days when it's nice out. Far too soon it'll be too frikkin hot for me to tolerate so I figure I should lap this up while I can and not coop myself up in front of the computer all day - or at least not until it gets dark.

Sparky the Grill - yay!

So I BBQed. This was actually the first time I've BBQed on my own ever. All other times I tend to stand by the person who's working the fire and say things like "Good job" and "Sure I'd like a cheeseburger."

But no, tonight I was on my own!

And I've got to say - I did pretty good. Cooked the burgers and corn a smidge longer than necessary, but otherwise they came out mighty tasty and at no time did I set anything but the charcoal on fire. Go me!

I ate dinner on the porch, then relaxed with more of my reread of Goblet of Fire, and then finally went inside once I'd decided that the cats had gone without petting for long enough.

Once inside cats were petted, yoga was done, I love the 80s was watched and I made 2 more earrings. Much like the ones I made yesterday they are not the platonic ideal of earrings, but at least I'm getting my practice in. Plus I was able to fix the ones I made yesterday (sorta). So slowly but surely I'm learning a new thing.

I also called up the plumber and snarked into his voice mail. He and I have been playing phone tag for over a week now. Granted, it's not an emergency situation but OTOH how hard is it for him to leave a message saying "I could come over on blah day, that good for you"?

Still, plumber issues aside, t'was a very good day.