Started Typing: 3:41 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 5:32 PM ET
I actually left my house today (for the first time in 8 days)! 
At lunchtime I took advantage of the sunny, 40°F weather and put gas in the car, took a box to the UPS Store for shipping, and went to the grocery store – which was busier than I expected. I actually had to wait (just a few minutes) for a self-checkout machine to be available, because 2-3 of them weren’t working: it was amus-i-tating* to watch person after person walk up to machines with screens that clearly said “CLOSED” in big red letters (I felt bad for the store employee monitoring the self-checkout, who had to say “this one isn’t open” time and time again). The line for the one open cashier was long and I didn’t have much stuff, so I didn’t mind waiting a little. This store’s machines are a lot better than the other big nearby chain’s machines, which are constantly yammering at me to “place your item in the bagging area” when I already have. They need manual overrides pretty often, but the machines at the store I went to today seem to work pretty smoothly.
*that’s amusing and frustrating at the same time
I haven’t saved any money yet today, and am not likely to save any in the next 8 hours. Whatever I gained by using my loyalty card at the store was offset by the small bag of strawberries-and-cream white chocolate truffles that jumped in my cart. 
I generally prefer dark or milk chocolate, but every now and then a little white chocolate is good (even if the name is divisive)!
Here is the completed Pac-Man set, including a little mini-scene that came with it:
A bigger version of this photo, plus pictures of my other completed sets and two main displays, can be seen in my Lego photo album. The mini-scene can be stored in the back of the main set (the back opens), but right now I have it displayed next to the set. So far I haven’t been able to get a good video of the mechanical game board action: when you turn the handle on the side (just visible above the white buttons), two separate “chains” move a Pac-Man and some ghosts around in circles – while the “trapped” ghost and the cherries below it also move. I need to keep trying different cell phone/iPad/stand configurations. All in all, this was a fiddly and painstaking set to build – hundreds and hundreds of tiny pieces – but it was also super interesting and a lot of fun.
What’s next, I can tell that you’re dying to know? Why, that would be the X-Wing Starfighter, which I ordered on Wednesday and is supposed to be delivered this evening was just delivered. I likely won’t start it until after work on Friday. Happily, I’ll have a 3-day weekend to build it (the 20th is a holiday).
Seems like everyone missed my heads up last Tuesday about Thursday’s holiday…
…but here’s another heads up to not check your mail on Monday! 
Oh, I definitely need reminders for all of my meds: Google Keep reminds me at 9am, noon, and 6pm (and the way I keep track of whether I took them is whether I’ve dismissed the reminder). I just tend to put off the 6pm meds, and before I made them ridiculously easy to take I wound up simply ignoring/dismissing that reminder more often than not.
The latter: compartment = segement. When I first started taking pills after my bariatric surgery some of them were quite large, and there are always multiple pills taken at the same time, so I needed a pill organizer with bigger compartments. 
“Paint me like one of your French girls!”
Some coffee-flavored frozen Greek yogurt bars also jumped into my cart at lunchtime. And the protein shakes I drink twice a day are “cafe mocha.” I don’t have the patience for actual coffee*, but I like coffee-flavored stuff even more than I like banana-flavored stuff.
*It starts off too hot so then I start doing stuff and next thing I know it’s too cold. I have the same issue with all hot drinks, which is why I’ve never owned a coffee maker and no longer own a Keurig.
That’s because you’re mispronouncing “pasty.”
(It’s pass-tee.)
Been there: my 2008 Mazda RX-8 would randomly stall – my top speed would suddenly and gradually start reducing until it would just stop a few minutes later – while it was in gear/while I was on the highway, and it wouldn’t restart for a little while. The first time it did that was right after I’d crested the Delaware Memorial Bridge: luckily (a) I was able to coast to the shoulder, and (b) I wasn’t actually on the bridge!
That car broke my heart. It was still under warranty when the bizarre behavior started, and Mazda could never figure out the problem so I wound up getting rid of it when it was less than 3 years old. It was only my second new car (I’d bought the first one in '94), and my first sports car. I loved it so much! I overcorrected and got an ultra-reliable Honda Accord, but the only reason I could tolerate driving it was the V6 (I got the coupe). A perfectly nice vehicle, but so boring to drive! As soon as I drove it off the lot, I knew that I really wanted another sports car: the minute I wasn’t upside-down on the loan I traded it for a used Nissan 370Z, which I kept for 7 years.
Now I know that you and I get paid on different Fridays! I love three-paycheck months, but I don’t have another one until March.
Oh, and I vote for treating yourself!!
My “gift with purchase” with the X-Wing is a Year of the Snake set. My 23-year-old nephew’s GF wants it, so I’ll give it to her…along with the Lucky Knots that came with Pac-Man.