Actual gold stars are remarkably effective, 4 days in.

Also, I have felt the pain of the malfunctioning drier. I do not envy you it, even though I currently hang my clothes, rather than spend the money down in the basement (one day I will have a real place to live).

Cass, I don't even...I mean, I'm starting the "Straight White Dudes Don't See What the Big Deal Is" tv show, but, damn.

Ugh, Cass, that's just...ugh.

Yeah, Debet, this beats the thing last year where the heat element was working, but it stopped tumbling. The clothes were SO HOT when I figured it out, I'm pretty sure we're lucky it didn't start a fire. That was, of course, about 10 on a Sunday night, so I just had to drape clothes over...everything to dry them, since no clothesline and no laundromat available at that hour. So better than last time - still less than fun - ding, ding, ding...

Anyway, looking more and more like washer and dryer shopping will be happening in the next month or so when the Christmas bills are all taken care of.

Pfeh! This "grownup" stuff, you can keep it!

Yeah, he's a 6'4" straight, white dude and quite successful. Privilege and entitlement coming out of his ass. It's like he wants to live in Mad Men. But he'd also vote for HIllary Clinton. He contains multitudes and I like about half of them.

I should pick up some actual gold stars. I bet I'd do more on tough days if I gave myself gold stars. First one would be getting up for yoga tomorrow morning. Because we're under a hard freeze warning and I am not going to want to hustle myself to the class so early tomorrow.

Mattresses question. I asked this on my Facebook. Noise Design responded (thank you!). Seems Consumer Reports rates Ikea mattresses pretty high. Given their prices seem rather reasonable, I was curious if anyone had first hand experiences with them?

Next, how does one test a mattress? I've had this one for so long, not sure what is normal, and what I've learned to live with. When sitting in bed, how long is acceptable before your leg 'falls asleep'? That's the one that's been bothering me of late. I guess I need to get past the feeling strange laying in a million beds some afternoon, and just doing it, and feeling which is most comfy. No clue what I like. I don't think I've ever purchased a mattress new before. Strange, no?

Now let's hope the bed I found is made from real wood, and not wood byproducts, so that I can go mattress shopping!

Beau and I went to Macy's when they were having a sale and Beau tested out mattresses that I narrowed down based on price. He got it down to 3 and then I selected from the 3.

He knew immediately which one he hated and laid on the one he liked for several minutes.

That said, can you get a mattress topper to tide u over?

Figure out the firmness you like. IKEA skews, IME, to the harder. And my Dad bought the one IKEA mattress I had so it was super firm and I loathed it. Which sucks given I slept on it for about 15 years. But they might have other options and the guy that would probably happily sleep on a slab of wood just chose something he liked. Or you might like Crazy Firm.

Lie on them. See what is comfy. And stay there for more than a minute. Mattresses are expensive, will stay with you a long time and you spend a bunch of time there. Take some time to pick something you'll be happy to own.

I have an irrational (and it is) hatred of IKEA mattresses but only because mine wasn't comfy to me for so long. Which was probably down to the wrong person choosing it. I can see that now. It certainly held up well and was still in good shape when I gave in and got a new, better for me, mattress.

Cat claws have no traction on tile floors. I am cruel for laughing but it's kinda hilarious. Puppycat can't corner at speed.

You can't blame yourself for laughing at Puppycat. Blame cartoons.

She's got oversteer!

I did a 30 minute yoga video this morning and then a few weight exercises. Where's my gold star?