Long time no post. Mostly I've been preoccupied with finishing house projects, and as such, nothing interesting is going on.

I did have a couple of good adventures that I wanted to make a longer post about, but then I have to sit down and write it out, and that conflicts with getting morning momentum going. So I haven't posted because I have both too much and not enough to write about. I'm sitting here thinking, I can't spend too much time on this because I want to do XYZ. But I've been meaning to post for a while.

Spring has more or less sprung. We have plenty of daylight now and we're seeing the first days of above freezing temps overnight. The snowpack is melting quicker than I expected and the yard is slowly clearing, which means the Cat is going bonkers because he can poop outdoors again. April is an ugly month in Alaska - filthy dust and gravel everywhere from snow maintenance, and nothing is growing yet. Just grimy rotted drifts of snowpack slowly shrinking, revealing castoff garbage from the past 5-6 months. Don't visit Alaska in April, it's gross.

Nothing too dramatic on the house front - just chugging along. I got another shelf up in the project corner for art supplies (needed just one more shelf) and then I put some LED strip lighting on them, which makes for a nice indirect light like a floor lamp without needing to dedicate floor space or worry about tripping over a cord. Since the shelves are done I've been unpacking the art supply boxes in the office and organizing that stuff, so we can create the exercise corner in the office. I did a lot of organization work in the kitchen. I added extra shelves to the two narrow bottom cabinets, plus added racks, so they are actually useful. I fixed up the large main cupboard which was suffering from some half-assed repairs, and added bins that fit just right. The kitchen is in pretty good shape - things have found homes - and I am working on prep stuff for painting the cabinets, once temps warm up and I have the garage and outdoor space to work in. Painting the cabinets will be a big dramatic thing that will really help the kitchen. The current paint job is so awful. We replaced the ratty fluorescent kitchen light with a big 2x4' LED panel just yesterday. It's like a skylight - I love it. I've got a second panel to replace the dining room/project area light. With the panels and strip lighting, it can go from energizing bright to cozy and mellow. I think it will be a big help next winter. Good light is really important.

All the stuff I have been doing seems small and boring and it all takes way longer than it should. We've been in the house over and year and it's embarrassing - I don't know what to tell people when they ask what I've been doing. I still don't have the TV mount up, because I need to stain the wood, and I haven't stained it because I have several other small shelves to stain at the same time that I've had to cut and route and sand. Anyway, I think back and realize I've done a shitton of small things that nobody but me and maybe spouse would notice or care about. I changed the toilet flush lever to a satin nickel one because the shiny chrome one bugged me (I also put in a satin nickel shower curtain rod). Not exactly BIG EXCITING CHANGES! I want to get the house to a point when we're ready for visitors and I don't feel the need to apologize for the half finished projects taking up all the tablespace. We're getting closer. I'm a little miffed at spouse because I have to harass him to get him to help. I make a list of a few things to get done on the weekend, I let him know ahead of time, but I always have to supply the momentum to get it started. I don't like feeling like a nag. We're not talking all-day commitments, just a couple hours and then he can do whatever. So it feels like things take forever but also I'M THE ONLY ONE DOING ANYTHING. I adore spouse but god damn. The project clutter is probably bad for our mental health. Spouse's mom is a clutterbug/borderline hoarder (worse than me) so I think he grew up feeling helpless when it came to his living environment. But it gets exhausting being the one to supply all the momentum. I put him in charge of some tasks and none of them are done. I had to harass him for a week to help me with the ratty kitchen light - if I could have done it myself, I would have. C'mon, dude. I know it's not fun, but the only way out is through.

I've been trying to avoid nightshades and it's really really hard - tomatoes and potatoes are not hard, but peppers and chilies are everywhere and I love them. I still get one headache at the tail end of my period like clockwork and I dunno ... everything helps a little but there's no big change, no obvious "AHA!!". I'm still doing the low histamine diet somewhat. I'm completely off coffee and soda. Unfortunately I like to fill in the missing drink variety with adult beverages, and that's not low histamine. I should knock it off, but it does feel like sticking to just water and chicory is depriving and boring. I'm being more disciplined about intermittent fasting - lately I've been pushing it so I just eat once a day at dinner. I've lost a few pounds since I bothered to weigh myself. Ideally I'd like to do some longer fasts. I've figured out that if I avoid sweeteners (regular and zero calorie) I don't seem to get hungry. Chicory root has fiber, so if I have my hot chicory root beverage black in the morning, I don't have a problem with appetite. I find I anticipate dinner a little more and have more energy to cook something nice. Food is always better when you've got a craving for something specific.

That's about it for now. The Internet seems to be dying a sad, undignified death and I'm counting the days until reddit hoists itself by it's own petard in the name of profit. Stopped being angry that the Internet is garbage and have come to acceptance. Probably for the best. Will still take some time for me to spool up and figure out what I'm doing on that front. Is this just a normal aging thing, or is the dumpster fire especially bad right now? Because it seems really bad. Not hopeless, there's always fresh innovation somewhere, but we're definitely on the wrong side of the "best by" date for a lot of the Internet. Also just culturally. I have thoughts but would take too much time to get them out. More later, just wanted to do a post.