A Place On the Shelf

Since it was raining when I got up and gloomy for much of the morning, I spent most of the day inside. I'd wanted to reorganize the living room for a while and try to make my books and other media look less bunched together. Any entertainment non-fiction that relates to film, animation, or television was moved into the entertainment area (where the TV is) on the Ikea shelf that also holds the DVD player. Entertainment non-fiction relating to music, theater, or radio stayed in the music area (where the CD player and record player are). All other books were moved into my bedroom. The Christmas CDs and cassettes were moved to the Ikea shelf, over the books. All other cassettes are now on the tall ash-stained heart-cut-out-shelves next to the antique dresser that holds my tools and household items like duct tape.

Worked on the DVDs next, now that there was a shelf empty. I moved the home-made copies of the Bowery Boys and Danny Kaye's movies from Lauren in clear cases to that empty shelf, along with all Christmas movies more than an hour in length (such as National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation or Christmas In Connecticut). Holiday specials less than an hour in length and DVDs for other holidays (Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving) were left on the cherry-stained heart cut-out shelf.

The sun was just coming out when I finished...but there wasn't enough time for a walk or to clean the bathroom, my other plans today. I did decide to try a chocolate chip cookie recipe, though. The Sweet & Natural baking book had something that used no eggs, no dairy, and whole-wheat flour. I did use regular chocolate chips (the malt-based ones they recommend aren't easy to come by), but replaced the usual sugar with apple-cherry concentrate and the butter with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spread. They came out delicious, soft, nutty little morsels. I even had enough time for a decent Broccoli and Swiss Cheese Omelet lunch while they were in the oven.

Work was pretty much the same as yesterday, and the same I suspect it'll be all week - steady for most of the evening. It's now officially the beginning of the month. Thankfully, my relief was the kid who is already at work when he comes in for me - he spends half of his shift organizing tags in the back office.

When I got in, I had a call from Andrew, my late landlady's nephew. He wanted to know if I'd had problems with leaks in my place. We had a high water bill. Not that I knew of, unless it was behind the walls. I asked him if he was going to get Miss Ellie's grandsons to do the yard again, like she did in the fall, or if they wanted me to do it. He said "go ahead," so yeah, I'll be raking this week or next week.