We’re talking budget at work. My brain is numb. That is all.

(I got the effect in the second photo by moving the phone, by the way. The shot expresses exactly how I felt when I took it…)

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My #photo365 project on Tumblr.

If I were in the habit of swearing on my blogs, I would swear. It’s gotten seriously cold. Yesterday morning I was so stressed, I drove to the local 24-hour Metro (grocery store) to buy some chocolate. This was what I saw as I walked back to my car. (That’s not my car, by the way. It’s the only other car that was parked by the grocery store.)

Something about the light – the pre-dawn gloom, combined with the glow from the parking lot lights – felt very tundra-like. Like noon in the Arctic, in the dead of winter. Or something.

(I like the way Camera+‘s HDR filter worked on this shot.)

Above is the thermometer in my back room, after three hours of space heating by my blessed oil-filled radiant heater. My iPhone told me it was minus 17 Celsius out. Normally the temperature in this room can get to plus 26 with the space heater. Brr.

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My #photo365 project on Tumblr.

This is where I go to forget. And feel better. And rest. And restore myself. And feel born again.

Also: Clean.

Out of all the things in my life right now – all the things I love – my tub is my best friend, and the only thing that truly seems to calm me.

What calms you?

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My #photo365 project on Tumblr.

RRRRRAWR! (Actually, that’s just him yawning. But doesn’t he look fierce? I need me some of that.)

Seriously, though – very lazy day. Lots of napping going on. Laziness. Good for me.

Made a frittata (below). Was trying to improve on my own technique, after sampling someone else’s at brunch. Very satisfying.

Do you ever do that? Try something for yourself, when no-one’s looking? I had an idea about the frittata – a way that I wanted to cook it, that might be an improvement. Fun to experiment…

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My #photo365 project on Tumblr.

Yesterday when I was bagging up my kitchen garbage to take out, I spilled garbage juice all over my work pants and wool socks. Nasty. I immediately took them off and soaked them in a bucket of water with a few glugs of vinegar added, to help deodorize them. I’ll be laundering them today…

First thing in the morning (after sleeping in a little) I did yoga for the first time in a couple of weeks, and of course the boys had to join me on the kitchen floor. This is pettingcatasana…

Later my little guy curled up for a nap on my lap while I worked at the computer.

Vegetable scraps in my kitchen sink.

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My #photo365 project on Tumblr.

It never fails. I make a grocery store run, I end up with a green bean massacre on my hands. (My cats will eat all sorts of plants – including lilies – and green beans are one of their favorite things to snack on. When I bring my groceries in, they immediately go on a search-find-mission for fun, edible things. Below is a shot of one unrepentant cat and his mess…)

Another shot of my kitchen sink.

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My #photo365 project on Tumblr.

I usually don’t use pharmaceutical drugs. Lately I have been. For my migraines, mostly. Gravol and triptans. Both make me feel awful. Thursday I went rooting through my (admittedly small) stash of drugs for some Tylenol 3, in order to get through a long day.

(In case it isn’t clear, I still had a migraine.)

I slept in as much as possible before going to work. I didn’t make myself a lunch. I made the fastest breakfast I could think of – fried eggs.

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My #photo365 project on Tumblr.

The above photo was taken early in the morning while I was preparing my breakfast and lunch. I lay on my kitchen floor beside my refrigerator to take it. This is the towel (rag, really) that I use to wipe my hands while I’m working in the kitchen. I change it every day for a clean one. It hangs from a hook with a clip – the kind you’d use in your laundry room, to hang a small item to dry.

My kitchen sink on Wednesday morning.

The day didn’t end well. I woke up with a migraine which got progressively worse as the morning went on. I left a community meeting partway through the noon hour, afraid I was going to vomit. (I did, later in the afternoon. Twice.) Spent the rest of the day in my bed, sick as a dog. When I have a day like this, where I don’t feel well, I get really down. Enough said.

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My #photo365 project on Tumblr.

I park in an underground parking lot at my office. It’s a good day when I can pull through into my spot, so that I’m facing out rather than having to back in. Perfect parking. The perfect parking spot. It’s funny how good that makes me feel.

Another thing that makes me feel good is a made bed. It’s very rare that I don’t make my bed every morning – the sooner the better. After I’m done, the room feels ready. Perfect, just like the parking.

Above and below are what my stove looks like pretty much every morning. I love to cook fresh meals. It’s an Ayurvedic thing, although I don’t follow Ayurveda much anymore. But I still like to make things from scratch each day. I always put my hard-boiled egg pot in the back right corner, and my kettle in the back left – until it’s boiled. The wooden board is to protect the burner from splashes from my vegetable stew pot. It’s complicated.

Below is a new kitchen sink shot. The scissors are to cut up snow peas. I also use scissors to cut the ends off green beans. If you were a detective in a mystery novel, you would be able to reconstruct my vegetable stew from this photograph…

This is the desk in my front room this morning. It’s been so dreary lately, it was nice to see the sun.

Finally, here’s an impulse buy for supper: Panzerotti. I’ve been promising myself that I’ll start a primal diet soon. This is like a last carb hurrah…

Do you ever binge on “forbidden” foods? Do you ever feel like it’s beyond your control? It’s part of why I want to give up a high carb diet – I’m hoping that the cravings will disappear…

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See the whole #photo365 project here.

I store produce in two glass-fronted cupboards in my kitchen. Each cupboard holds several bowls on shelves, and to a friend of mine, it looks like the bowls magically replenish themselves every week.

I wish.

This whimsical idea has been entertaining me, though. What if I really did have magical bowls? What if they really did fill themselves with fresh produce whenever I emptied them? How would my life be different if I never again had to shop for groceries?

It’s also got me thinking: How would my life be different if it were full of magical objects and machines that did all my work for me? Clothes closets that magically washed all my dirty clothes? Pet food dishes that magically fed my cats? A car that magically drove me around the city? Computers that magically wrote blog posts for me…?

Do you wish you had magical things?

Some other photos from my day: My new iPhone 5, above. It’s for work. I bought a case for it on Sunday. I’m quite pleased with myself – the case seems quite durable, which should protect the device when I inevitably drop it.

I burned this pot yesterday morning when I was making my breakfast. I include it mostly as a salve for my friend Andrew, who seems to think that I’m a perfect cook. Note to Andrew: I’m not.

Some people have been asking me about my cats, after they ate lilies and had an unexpected visit to the emergency vet. They’re fine now. None the worse for wear, thankfully.

Finally, I am seriously addicted to chocolate these days. I bought a bunch of this Lindt chocolate on the weekend, and I’m plowing through it much too fast. This photo is likely blurry because my hands were so close, they were shaking with frustrated desire…

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See just the #photo365 photos, here.