I just ordered myself a duster. One designed to attract the dust instead of just moving it around. One that is large enough that it won�t knock my stuff over as I dust olover it.

Goodbye Swiffer wipes. Hello 28-inch duster that won�t require me picking every item up to dust it and around it.

It�s amazing the difference in the house when you do cleaning tasks on a regular basis. For instance, I sweep a clean floor every other day BEFORE the floor has a chance to collect hair balls from both me and Hambone, dust from wherever it is that dust comes from, and a bunch of random funk.

I vacuum once a week and now barely get the canister full since everything stays clean.

I wipe down counters after each time I use them, so they�re always clean.

My dishes are never sitting in the sink.

It may sound weird, but having a clean house makes me feel better than I�ve felt in a long time. Maybe I had allergies and didn�t know it, or perhaps I�m just a lot more calm since I don�t see a bunch of crap all stacked up in random corners.

It�s rather nice. I highly recommend it.

Tonight�s task (after more reading at the library and hitting up Ace Hardware for some propane) is to scrub my cabinets with some wood cleaner.

Late last week I finally returned some library books that I checked out back in May. Since I�m pretty sure they have my picture up at the circulation desk, I�ve decided to spend a couple evenings a week at the library, reading there instead of at home. (Now that I�m a cleaning freak, there�s plenty to do at home.)

I read the intro to Football for Dummies (at Benito�s request) the other night, and I picked it up again on Saturday to pass a couple hours and maybe learn something. However, as I settled into a reading spot that was far away from the homeless people who come into the library to stay warm (yes, in August), another book caught my eye. I read three chapters about this supposedly famous family of crooks in New Jersey. After 50-ish pages, the library was closing and it was time to head home to meet up with Benito.

I love me some library time though.

I�ll be working a bunch tonight more than likely, but I want to head out there again in the very near future. There�s some learning that needs to continue, and my brain is craving it. I�m really just sponging things up lately. Oh how I wish there was a real community college system around here.

Did I ever mention how I was previously a fiend for the community college classes?

A list of classes that come to mind that I took at one time or another after I graduated college with no intention of getting a further degree from:

-- Public Speaking
-- Cultural Anthropology
-- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
-- Macroeconomics
-- Trigonometry
-- Texas Government
-- Marketing
-- Business Calculus
-- Gymnastics

Okay, so there�s one blow-off in there. Whatever.

Classes I would like to take:

-- Any non-lab biology (labs take up too much time)
-- Physical Anthropology
-- Accounting
-- Calculus
-- Algebra-based Physics
-- C++ or Java
-- Home Economics
-- Boxing

Classes I would never take:

-- Chemistry
-- Anymore economics
-- Anything past calculus
-- Calculus-based Physics
-- Graphics design
-- Statistics (zzzz�)
-- Swimming

So there. Not that it matters.

Today�s been a very busy day at work where people have added more and more and more tasks to my already-full list, and it�s making me incredibly lazy.

Where there�s an end in sight, I�m all for getting stuff done. But when I can�t see over the mountain, it�s hard to even get started.

I think I�m going to stay late today to give me something to look forward to later on this week. Working OT now = getting off early later. And since I�m all about going home at 3:30 on Fridays, OT on Monday it is!

I get these things on my tonsils, and lately they�ve been in crazy amounts. I haven�t noticed it with weather changes, feeling particularly run-down, or a pre-sick indicator. They just pop up for a while and then disappear again.

They�re quite annoying, as you can feel them back there, trying to push their way out of your tonsils -- YUCK!

Anyway, I had a bad bout of them on Friday where I picked a few out before I took me pre-going-out shower. Mid-shampoo I felt one become very uncomfortable, so I wrung my hair out, quickly patted dry, and got to the bathroom mirror to inspect what was trying to dislodge itself from my tonsil�s flesh.

From outward appearances, this looked like any other tonsilolith that was ready to free itself to be spat into the sink and rinsed like the others. However, after a minor amount of poking, I saw that I was wrong.

A monster of all tonsil stones popped free -- about the size of a dime folded in thickness and length. For reference, they�re usually about the size of an uppercase O typed on this page. (Like a size 11 point font O for those of you viewing this with your own pre-set fonts and whatnot.)

See, small. Not at all like a dime.

So when that popped out, I freaked out a bit. People don�t just lose a dime�s worth of tonsil goo! All seemed fine though, so I finished my shower without continuing to think about it.

A couple days later, though, it�s on my mind. Apparently the monolith tonsilolith took a piece of tonsil with it, and my left tonsil feels quite sore. I saw that the site where it come from looks unhappy, so I picked me up some Listerine in the most antiseptic flavor I could find to help take care of this.

Let�s hope this helps. I really don�t want to take down a tonsil like this. They�re likely useful if we�ve got them in the first place.

(For those of your curious but not curious enough to google what the heck tonsils are good for, they help with antibiotic stuff and releasing a bunch of white blood cells to each up bad things.)

Enough of that.

I spent this Friday out and about with friends. I was supposed to meet up at a friend�s house, but her place was deserted when I arrived. Whoops! Happy and I ended up at Ceser�s for some killer margaritas before she trekked home and I headed back into downtown.

There I met up with a friend I haven�t seen since I moved to Chicago, someone I�ve known for about eight years. My friend and I caught up over beers at the bar near my place and walked around the empty city. We talked until 3:30 in the morning before he headed back to his hotel. I�m sure I�ll see him again before the week�s end when he returns to Colorado.

On Saturday I was out and about all day long, cooking an awesome lunch (*sauce recipe to follow), and spending a couple hours at the library, as I said above. I came home and got pretty as Benito made his way over. Then we walked to the movies by Navy Pier. We ran into one of his work buddies and his girlfriend, and they invited us over for dinner after our movie.

Collateral was all right. I enjoy Jamie Foxx�s acting, although I�m told he�s an ass in real life. Oh well. Whatever. The movie was more than watch-able, and we enjoyed it. (Benito more so than me, but again with the �whatever�.)

We cabbed it to his friend�s apartment, where we were met with a wonderful assortment of vegetarian dishes in all sorts of awesome sauces, spices, and flavorings. Cumin cauliflowers, steamed broccoli, a red curry tomato dish, a yellow curry potato dish, and a cucumber peanut salad. And lots and lots of red wine.

Lots of red wine.

To the point that I am sore today from the play fighting Benito and I did toward the end of the night (my punching muscles hurt -- ha!) To the point that my bathroom sink is somehow clogged. To the point that we slept until noon before walking for some gnocchi and pasta, only to return and sleep until five. To the point that I took it easy around the house for another few hours before going to a long, long walk that went until after dark.

Yesterday was what Sundays are made of.

Gotta love �em.

Okay, it�s time to get some more work done. I�m going to try to stay until seven to knock some of it out. Have a great night, everyone.�