sortofblue

It's hot.

There have been theories for years about celiac disease. I found a trial and suggested Mum join in (she's in the extreme end of the disease) and she was horrified. Honestly, if I had tested positive for celiacs I'd been keen to give this a go. Having a passenger that would allow me to have a beer and a sausage roll with exploding at both ends? Sign me up.

Not keeping up with the news is the best thing I did for my mental health in 2023. I have a vague idea of what's going on but not insisting on keeping up with the latest and worst has been a good move.

I think the stress and uncertainty of the last few years has left us with no real optimism. There's usually a lot more talk of New Year New Start and resolutions about getting your life generally better but now it feels like it's just dragging yourself past a check-in point on a fairly mundane racetrack.

This year I'm definitely going to try and focus on good things in my journal to see if I can improve my outlook.

I was using a Kensington Profit vertical wireless trackball (the one with the red ball) and that's what broke. I'm replacing it with a Logitech MX Ergo, which is what I had before trying the Kensington. Between the two, the logitech feels much smoother and is charged via cable, so there are no extra batteries to keep purchasing.

I have a wired kensington expert as well and definitely prefer the ball under the thumb instead of in the middle. I tried playing solitaire with the expert yesterday and it just wasn't a natural fit for the repetitive movements or drag and drop.

I much, much prefer either type of trackball to any kind of mouse, since they sit in one spot and are much easier to manage when you're sitting on a carpeted floor - you don't need a clear amount of flat space to use one.

I have compromised by stealing the SO's one.

But the new one is on special thanks to Boxing Day deals, so there's that.

My trackball died after being dropped one too many times and it's not in stock anywhere in town. 3-7 business days seems impossibly long when there are public holidays scattered all over the calendar (first world problems) so in the meantime I'm using a cheap ergonomic keyboard from Ali that has an embedded trackball in the centre and it's actually not too bad.

We're doing Christmas Lunch today, since yesterday was a bust. Mum is hosting and out of all of us she's the only one without a dishwasher but she will NOT let anyone take over from her, lol. We haven't done gifts for several years and have always stressed that it's a low key affair but somehow having it on not-Christmas-Day seems like a much more attractive idea.

Question for the group: will you be venturing out into Boxing Day Sale Madness? What have you got in mind to score cheap?

Thanks :) So far it's been the most chilled, laid back Christmas of my life.

For Christmas I got food poisoning, yay. Not feeling too miserable but a bit guilty that we've now left Mum on her own when she loves all the hype of the day. Have rescheduled for tomorrow when a few more family members will be able to make it.

I compromised and spent the rest of the afternoon lying on the sofa under the ceiling fan with a good book.

It's muggy af, why am I cooking stuff?