oh god it is so cold why did I leave California

• Reports of my getting a new cat have sadly been exaggerated. On the plus side, this means my aunt and uncle have found a way to keep their cat, which is very good, because no one wants to give up their cat. And I'm basically prepped for another cat... so... we'll see. If I'm timing it myself, I won't be getting another cat until I will be in town for a month straight, anyway. Or any other pet. Maybe I only need one pet? I don't know. Anyway.
• School starts super soon! I'm really excited for this semester, and not sure what to expect, although I guess a little more sure than I was last semester. Probably we will read a lot of books, have discussions in class, and I will have to write two or three long papers and a number of shorter papers. There might be a small group project or two, and probably I'll go to a conference or two. There will be at least one book that bores me to tears and at least one that takes thirty hours of my time and I am thinking about for months after. At some point I will get ahead and be able to genuinely coast for a little while; at some point I will get behind and freak out for a little while. Yup, it's graduate school.
• For some reason I made two loaves of bread today. The foccaccia turned out delicious if slightly misshapen; the loaf of half-wheat-half-white bread is delicious but I put too much yeast in and... well, here, let me show you a picture:
• 
• I am not sure what I am going to do about this or how I will clean the top of the bread machine. I may have to disassemble it. :/ At least I have confirmed that the issue I was having earlier is "the zojirushi demands more water" not "the zojirushi demands more yeast." The zojirushi definitely does not demand more yeast. You can tell from the that.
• Today has been an absurdly productive day for me. I have done almost all of the things I wanted to get done this weekend, and it is only Saturday evening. Expect tomorrow to be spent playing video games. Maybe I'll take a walk if it isn't hideous out. Ooh, or maybe I will try to find something social to do! I could take the bus into town and sit in a cafe maybe. That seemed to work pretty well for me in San Francisco. And the cafe I like has vegan cookies...
• Speaking of video games, I started Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light. I agree with my brother that it's sort of hard to figure out what to do; miss one person in the town and don't talk to them and you can be completely lost for an hour wandering places you should not wander and being stomped. Oops. It's still fun overall, so far, though, and it does have that old-school flavor in a way other recent Final Fantasy games have not. Will it hold my attention strongly enough for me to finish it during a semester? ...With Pokemon White/Black coming out March 6th? ... I'm not counting on it.
• I woke up this morning at 8:30 AM without an alarm. Given that a week ago I woke up at 2:30 PM local time, this is pretty incredible. I only need to get to 7:30 in order to have a reasonable sleep schedule for the semester. One more hour, three more days. I can do this.
• I am still dealing with insurance fallout from the fire in November. This is an irritation. Hopefully it will be done soon.