zesty_pinto | I got PLANS, buddy

All right! Gonna get this gummy thing figured out for tonight!

Tonight's menu will be: orange soda, grape soda, elderflower, and maybe cider if I have any left. This time it'll be for friends and family, so hopefully I got most of the kinks out. Now it's about making sure I get the right flavor.

I have five different varieties of spread to toy with and maybe less than a pound of chocolate: just enough to work with for a few test cups. I think I have enough clean pots to temper some chocolate and prototype some ideas.

Need to do the sheets along with a light load of the other laundry things.

Going to see if any of my old NiMH batteries are salvageable: so far the death toll is at 12, and I'm sure there are more to come.

I'll probably start looking into the cost benefits of getting rechargable D batteries versus my current system that uses a modded RC car battery. I don't want to destroy any more battery cases for a Sunpak 622. They're old, but they're strong and great strobist/hotshoe flashes if you don't mind how they make you look like you got your flash equipment from a time machine. I bet you the irony of this though is that by the time I get this figured out, I will have finished my Christmas food things and I'll be back to griping about other things like updating my rig or trying to get back to drawing or looking into some business ideas running in my head. It's hard to take advantage of studio lights when you don't have anything to really sell with the gear to begin with. Either way, maybe I'll give the old Metz hotshoe some proper time once I get the chance.

While I'm on projects, I should add we added a wheel mod to one of those folding IKEA tables which has found a prominent home as a modular desk for Michelle's computer (and currently the Cricut). The wheels are not placed in the best place for me to feel comfortable with it, but as long as no one decides to put any significant weight on it, it should be fine. I worry about it potentially stripping otherwise and might switch to wood screws instead of the typical metal screws that you would expect to come with these wheel kits.

I'm tired as I spent last night sleeping in the living room because Michelle's snoring was loud and directed into my ear. I don't think I normally notice, but sometimes it's so cold that she faces me so the snores go right into my ear and I can't sleep for the next few hours as a result. The beanbag makes a workable cot.

I will add that somewhere between this state of dreaming and attempting to zone out mouth noises, I dreamt again (a sign that I am probably really tired these days because of how vivid it was) where I was in a house that had a urinal-shaped well in the kitchen that was supposed to be a source of water and was covered by a folding countertop. I forgot what the name was, but I really wanted to save the name of it in my head before I woke up. It's going to drive me crazy.

The day job has been thankfully quiet but progressing as per. My supervisor walked in on me during my second job while I was using the wet vac and bragged about it openly to one of her other supervisors, which was nice. I honestly do stuff like this to get free hours into my timesheet (gotta be honest, wintertime is a great time to do that anyway since there's always salt stains in carpeting and flooring).

I made little Christmas hats for my stuffed fish. Yes, I have that much free time at the moment (thank god I'm caught up, Thanksgiving was a mess).

I still need to work on potluck desserts for the Christmas party which is on Friday. Eep! No rest for the weary, etc. I'm off to the market once I finish this post.

Which should be now. I probably have forgotten some things, but my head is a bit of a mess anyway. Off I go!