Things I've learned since breakfast: it takes an 800 mg ibuprofen pill at least an hour to start de-flamatizing an inflammation (and it's not doing a thorough job of it, darn it), and Garnier Nutrisse products are significantly less expensive at my neighborhood Kroger than at a CVS down the road.

Things I've re-learned since breakfast: some days I cannot get strokes or spacing right for love or money, but some days I am capable of enjoying the process of drawing guidelines.

I made an overdue grocery run before lunch, and subsequently spent some time doing prep work for this week's meals. Some days I can't help marveling at being able to purchase such a variety of food, and also at the sheer tactile pleasure to be had in transforming it. Such as the cutting up of tilapia for marinating:

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Eggs to be hardboiled for potato salad:

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Aging red potatoes, finally cleaned and chopped up -- half for salad, half for some other quickie dish:

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Yellow wax beans from Fresh Harvest, before de-tipping:

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Coffee beans from Zingerman's, before grinding. Brewed a full pot - drank one cup hot and poured the rest into travel mugs for "iced" servings later:

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I felt like putting bacon bits into the potato salad. Used the resulting grease to coat the bottom of the slow cooker...

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...into which I put some stew beef...

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...and also what could be salvaged from two partial bulbs of garlic that had overstayed their residence in my pantry:

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I love scallions. Added them to the potato salad, and also to the tilipia (now marinating in lime juice + black pepper + olive oil + ground coriander):

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Today's soundtrack: Cristina Branco's Post Scriptum and assorted baroque Jewish cantatas:

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Lone lisianthus:

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Checking on the beef and garlic:

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This afternoon also involved moving assorted bound materials to their new location in the living room. In this case, the top shelf consists primarily of reference materials; the middle shelf contains some of the print publications in which my poems have appeared, a couple CDs I've sung on, + a pair of reference tomes; and the bottom shelf consists of reference works I've contributed to + books I've copyedited:

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Neither yesterday nor today's stints at the easel resulted in finished pieces. *grumble* I need to re-organize and re-assess my stash of nibs once I'm done with deadlines - all the Mitchell #3s I picked up today were too pliant for my liking, and I can't tell if that's just how #3s are in comparison to #4s and #5s (the sizes corresponding to the bulk of the lettering I did in July), or if all my #3s have gotten flabby and need replacing (#3 being the size I've favored for most envelopes and certificates this year).

And then there's grinding the ink to the right consistencies (different size nibs tend to respond to different viscosities). Warm-up/testing scraps:

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Some attempts at the real thing:

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There's a fresh sheet of diploma parchment on my dining room table. Tomorrow...