good news, bad news, food, and an unfortunate wiring problem

Bad news first: we didn't feel very good this morning, and the cork underlay we wanted to put down today really has to be offgased more, so we didn't make much progress on the floor.

The good news is that we figured out why we felt so bad. I felt bad because we had a roll of cork underlay in the house, so we fixed that by taking it outside and putting it in the sun. My husband felt bad because the sewing machine was inside, with tiny bits of linen fluff in it. For once he felt worse than I did, so I got a turn at cleaning items with no perceptible (to me) contamination. I know the drill, but I've said this before: when your ESP doesn't work, it's kind of disconcerting.

So we learned that we have to air out cork, and linen, although gorgeous, is really freakin' evil.

In shopping news:

• The frozen wild salmon is only $6.99/lb at the regular grocery store across the street from the closest regular grocery store.
• I've gotten comfortable enough shopping in regular stores using my respirator that I bug employees to find things for me and chat with cashiers. And this is a big measure of progress: today I made an impulse purchase. It was only a $2.50 package of cheap mechanical pencils, but I was able to recognize something I didn't quite need, evaluate the price, and make a decision, all no more than 15 yards (15 m) from packages of Bounce.

Here's a quick round-up of everything else I learned today:

• Spelling mistake of the day: 'creamate.' It just sounds like something you'd put in coffee.
• Product of the day: Cocaine. It's a new energy drink with upwards of twice the caffeine of coffee that reportedly numbs your throat just like the real thing. So, apparently cocaine numbs your throat, but I hope people aren't going to try snorting the drink. Or, well, if they're going to drink something like that anyway, they probably wouldn't care if they got it up their noses. I mean, what do I know?
• Wacky medical problem that made the news of the day: stress-related amnesia.
• Headline of the day: Toddler gets stuck in vending machine.

Also, I seem not to be able to shut up.