The Salvation Army microwave that was $14.99 and looked like crap last week was $FOUR.99 last night and looked GOOD, so we now have a nukerator for the upstairs home office/guest suite. It matches the set of dishes I allocated up there too, LOL, as well as the room decor.

It joins the rest of the mini-kitchen appliances already up there (the room used to BE a kitchen, with countertops, etc.), where it will mean that I do not have to come downstairs for morning tea and then go back up to go to "work," thereby eliminating AM TV time, too. The "suite" now has all the appliances you'd expect to find in a good motel room, in about the size most suites would have. Healthy midnight snacks (for both Hardi and me) will now be possible as well.


I finally feel like I can start to wrap my arms around the new work on the horizon, because it's been a real SOB getting resources of various sorts organized for it this past month in time for the things that I need to get DONE.

Also at Sallie's was a box of hanging file folders-- the small quantity I lacked for the portable file I already had, and just needed to beef up.

Another nice item was a craftsman-style magazine rack of the type I have wanted to set next to my autoharp stand at church, for years. It will replace the too-large, too-round basket I reluctantly took there from home, so that means I get my favorite LR wastebasket back, too, and the tiny, crumbling one I've had in the LR can ALSO go up to the office, where I need a small one by the workstation.

I found 4 bathing suits for a friend to try (hard to find sizes), and a handful of the tiny stuffed animals I like to give to fussy kids at church and that fit so well in the tiny drawer I have by my ushering station there (where a few of maire-anne's hankies live).

TMI warning: And an outrageously-large sleeping tee, extra long, in can't-kill-it orange, for the boondocker and the trip I'll take in it Monday. Long enough to cover no matter how I splay out in my sleep, AND long enough to cover the essentials at portapotty time in the back of the van.

One used bag a few weeks ago joined one we had to make a mega-bag that can hold two. This afternoon I set it up in the Boondocker with the foam mattress that goes inside it. Hardi came home with Sat. sammiches as I was enjoying an experimental stretchout in all the comfort. He crawled right in to try it out, and pronounced it luxurious. Inside that Boondocker, it is not at all like sleeping in your car, feeling cramped or cold or homeless. It feels quite camp-ish, and in some ways is cushier than our camper. It's all set up now, except for portapotty, for the trip Monday. When I pull in I will be able to complete setup for the night, entirely from the interior.

Got another used sleeping bag from Sallie's I'll whip-stitch into a leg sack for the cold recliner in the LR. The LR here will be cold, days, till June and nights, most of them, all summer.

Got two picture frames that match the house decor, one of which will hold a really pretty new pic of Hardi looking straight into the camera, that I've set upstairs looking down at me at the workstation. We played a Tom Waits song coming back last night from the hockey game, for it, that we both love, "Picture in a Frame."

~S~