The girls have been gone only a few hours and the apartment is already mess. Except for the speed this is normal. In my defense, the dishes were dirty before they left.

I, of course, agreed that I would wash them, and will, eventually. First, though, I confirmed what day the girls would return so that I can plan what day to wash the dishes.

As I’ve written before, this is the old normal. I’ll also have a couple days to do some running around–I did some today, but more on that in a future post.

The trick, of course, is to revert to primeval only those rooms that were already kind of messy. That way I only have to return them to the state they were in. If I can improve them, and quite frankly, there’s little incentive to do so, then I earn bonus points.

Any other room that gets messy, though, is work that has to be done. The rooms that were nearly pristine before the girls left have to be returned to their nearly pristine state.

On a good day, I can do this quickly.

I could do that on a bad day, too, I suppose, but just can’t be bothered usually.

They are out of date, but I’ll eat them anyway, because it if it doesn’t kill me, it will give me a writing topic.

I was cleaning out the earthquake kit because it’s time to replace and upgrade the perishable components. As I was digging, I found a few items I’d forgotten about. Two of them are only two years past their “best by” date. One is approaching three years.

Many of the things around them are also past their “best by” date, but if they pass a visual test and a smell test (performed by someone else) I’ll go ahead and consume them.

All this gives me data I can use when I restock the kit. What holds up well? What was a waste of money? Why is the afterlife more full of fire and brimstone than I was expecting?

If I have any doubts, I will throw stuff out. A few years ago an entire bag of beef jerky looked suspicious even though it wasn’t past its “best by” date yet and it ended up in the trash.

I’ve also eaten ancient ramen soup and tried to use ancient instant coffee (the former was okay; the latter wasted water and time as it was one block that didn’t dissolve).

I also have to update the other bags and try to make better notes about the contents.

Or, I’ll just wait a few years and see what’s still edible.

Had a surprisingly good day off, but alcohol was involved. And food. Lots of food.

Since I’m finished with all my marking, I tracked down closer to Tokyo to join a picnic one of my colleagues was throwing in honor of his birthday. There was chicken of various sorts, including a jerk chicken that was to kill for, steak, brownies, beer, whiskey and, somewhere, salad.

Unfortunately, all the girls were busy today for various reasons so it was just me there. Granted, this earned me a surprising amount of respect from those at the picnic who thought I’d manipulated events to achieve that end. The truth is, I was learning about events almost as they happened.

I ate too much and drank more than I should have at around noon. (Note: Jameson Whiskey melts the seals on cheap paper cups.)

When I came home, all I did was relax as I’m in the “okay, so now what?” phase of post-marking. Eventually, I’ll know what I should do, and then find something else to do.