small extravagances

The last few days have seen me indulge in a few very small extravagances that make me feel good. The first was a trip to Woden Library a few days ago, made ostensibly to access the interwebnet for job stuff while the swerver was down, and because the building is well heated. I wandered out with two Pratchetts (Night Watch and Monstorous Regiments), plus 2061 by Arthur C. Clarke. Which wouldn't be a problem if I weren't already chewing my way through Permutation City by Greg Egan (I'm on quite the sci-fi kick right now in case you hadn't noticed), and if I didn't have another book out as well. Admittedly the other book is 3001, so finding the third one before I read that is a bonus, especially since the third is supposedly the best of the series. It's a good job I get to keep stuff out for six weeks on account of the blinky thing.

Other indulgences happened today. I went hunting for some tea to take with me on the trip to Melbourne, and instead of coming out with one small bag of tea, I left with three. I bought two of my own volition and happened to be just under their EFTPOS limit of $10 without enough change, so of course I was obliged to buy the caramel/vanilla blend (with bits of real caramel and real vanilla beans) to gank it up. How tragic.

After that, I headed over to the gaming shop to buy myself some Dungeons and Dragons dice that I could actually see, and left with a nifty, if somewhat large, set of bright yellow ones with big black numbers. Hopefully they'll make it easier for me to at least figure out what the hell I'm able to do in an immediate sense, even if I still have a very limited grasp of rules and possibilities.

Came home dreading a catastrophic showdown over the fact that I'd shut the dishwasher door, which has been failing to open, promptly causing it to stubbornly stay shut again. Thankfully someone else had prised it apart with a screwdriver and we now know what the problem is (and no, it's not the mouse living in the dishwasher staging a housing protest).

Have been playing Civ 3 since last night, though my humble little Iroquois nation isn't doing so well. It's smack bang in the middle of the continent and blocking off two countries from the rest, and everyone keeps declaring war on everyone else. This, for those of you not familiar with the game, pretty much means I'm getting invaded from at least one side at any one time. Losing cities and then having them revolt back to me is getting tiresome.

I ended the day with a puppy on my lap while I watched some crappy TV. This particular puppy is a bit schizoid - one minute, she's all bouncy and you have to forcibly instruct her that, no, the old dog is not for use as a footstool, the cats are not edible, and the humans do not like you jumping up and suddenly poking your tongue in their ears, and the next she's a placid lap-warmer, ready for cuddles and looking insanely cute. Tonight she's been the latter.

Hmm. I'm just dying to try the caramel and vanilla tea. Maybe it's time for another small indulgence...