I'm occasionally surprised by how unreasonably happy gadgets can make me. A while ago, we had to start carrying our work IDs all the time, and wearing them on a neck chain drove me nuts: the IDs bounced when I walked (I walk fast) and the chain felt cold on my neck and it was all generally unsatisfactory. I found some cheap clip-on reel holders, and every time I clip it onto a belt loop or waistband, I feel happy. Same thing with the roll of bags that clip to the leash for cleaning up after the dog (no more stuffing grocery store bags into pockets), and—well, you get the idea.
This was a good week for gadgets. I got a laptop cooler (flat, two fans, plugs into the USB port) which works beautifully; I'll miss the warmth on my legs, but the leg under the power supply was starting to look mottled, which can't be good. I got a headset with retractable cord for my cellphone; no more tangled mess in my bag. And I got a bunch of kitchen gadgets today: a #30 scoop, hopefully a better size for cookies than the #20; a couple of bowl scrapers, just the thing for cookie dough bowls; and a set of flexible plastic chopping mats: they can be curled to funnel stuff into pots and bowls, they're marked to prevent cross-contamination, and they're very cheap, so when they get nicked up, I will actually toss them and get new ones like I should.
Plus I bought Chad's birthday present and part of my mom's birthday present. I was fairly productive considering that I went back to bed this morning after walking the dog and didn't get back up for quite a while.
I was looking for extra sleep today because Chad was away from Tuesday through very late Saturday night. The dog and I did better than I'd expected: she did wake me up one night at 4:30 a.m. crying, and then the next night at 11:30 p.m., but other than that she was pretty good. The key seems to be extra-long walks, so she's too tired at night to pine demandingly. She was so happy to see him Saturday, it was cute enough to almost be worth it. But it was very tiring. I am so not cut out to be a single parent of any sort.
I watched Master and Commander Saturday, because
I've been in the mood to re-watch it for a while and Chad hasn't. I
really like that movie; it just makes me smile. 
rysmiel
has said that Maturin had a Trinity College accent, which I hadn't
noticed the first
time, so I was really startled when Maturin said something that
sounded just like rysmiel. Strange. (Speaking of accents,
it was a big help to have the subtitles for a few of the more
nautical scenes.)
Elsewhere on LJ, jonquil wants to know who you'd kick in
the shins if given the opportunity (various restrictions in the
post). I don't think my history is good enough to answer this
question, but it's been fun thinking about in spare moments.
And I appear not to be caught up on sleep still, so goodnight, all.