A lucky 3 for me today.
Wordle 488 3/6*
IRATE
CHIEF
DENIM
Like @psychobunny, I nearly went with PENIS but then reasoned the same that it was probably not a Wordle word. DENIM was just the first word I hit on that placed the E and I where they were, and it turned out to be the correct word. According to WordleBot, there were 14 other possible solutions when I picked DENIM, so lucky for me I thought of none of them. Some days are nice like that.
Wordle 488 2/6
OPIUM
DENIM
I think it’s fair to say I actually earned this two. I racked my brain trying to come up with another word ending in M with an I in it. Came very close to giving up and putting down a test word, but I resisted until DENIM finally came to me. Perseverance pays off!
Turns out my other possible choices were MAXIM and CLAIM, so I’ll admit there was a little luck involved.
Mine’s worn, but not tired. 
There should be an ‘opium den’ joke in here, but I can’t quite find it.
Still stuck in the four rut.
Wordle 488 4/6
POISE
EIDER
BIPED
DENIM
Between various nuisancy things through the night, I got about 3.5 hours of sleep, and it wasn’t good sleep, either. “Tired” was really on my mind this morning.
I feel your pain. I got a good night’s sleep last night, thank goodness, but I’ve been having more than my share lately of nights like yours.
Wordle 488 4/6*
Adieu
Sidle
Fetid
Denim
Retrograde botched
Wordle 488 5/6
STERN
NEIGH
FENCE
VENAL
DENIM
After guess 3 (for which I foolishly forgot I had an I), it was a slog through the alphabet to find something not yet guessed, with no R, S, or T, an E in second position, and an I and an N. “VENAL” seemed like it must be right (as I’d again forgotten that I!)—but no. So it was back to the top of the alphabet again; I realized that my trip through D the first time had missed DENIM.
Not my most enjoyable day with Wordle by a long shot.
QUIRK → Starting off with a cyclops - one I. Though a misnomer, because not in the middle. So, common letters…
STAIN → Hit on the N, and placed the I. So where does the N go?
CYNIC → I placed the N, but otherwise this was pretty much a wasted guess. A little early to be guessing repeats… so naturally I did it with the next guess too
GENIE → My first thought after this was a little phallocentric - plus, I had already guessed the S. So, hunt through remaining consonants to find…
DENIM
Broke a nice streak of 3s I had going.
Wordle 488 2/6
MANOR
DENIM
Quick-n-easy 2! With the M not being first, and N in 3rd spot, the M had to go last, and I could only see one word it could be from there. 
Wordle 489 5/6
RATIO
GROWL
GROUP
GROOM
GROVE
Wordle 489 5/6
CROPS
LEMON
ERODE
BEGAT
GROVE
Played this one like a rank amateur. After 1 I was thick with options; broom, broil, droll, drown, grown, groom, etc… So I immediately abandoned hard mode and went with lemon to just narrow it down. Then foolishly tried to guess for the win once I saw erode; I should have kept looking. Because when that wasn’t it I had to do a third research word to distinguish between trove, grove and broke. This 5 was a struggle.
Wordle 489 5/6
EARTH
LIONS
DUMPY
WHACK {G F B Z V X J Q}
GROVE
After the four standard words I thought I had enough to guess it. My fifth standard word would’ve been BEFOG, but I didn’t need it.
After a few minutes I saw it — GROVE!!
Three 5s to start us off, ouch. Who will be the first to use fewer than 5 guesses for Wordle 489?
Wordle 489 3/6*
BEARD
GRIME
GROVE ← very nearly went with GROPE !
Another quick 3 !!
It helps to remember to NOT use letters that have been eliminated.
Wordle 489 6/6*
NICHE
BEIGE
GLARE
GORGE
GORSE
GROVE
Wordle 489 3/6
SLANT
CHORE
GROVE
After guess 2, I saw BROKE and DROVE before GROVE, and then I thought about the past tense in Wordle: it doesn’t show up much. So I eyeballed the nearly 500 solutions so far, and there seemed to be exactly zero instances of a verb that was five letters both in the present and past tenses showing up in the past tense. There were a couple of oddballs like UNMET and UNFED, and there was FOUND, and that was about it for the past tense here. So that’s why I went with GROVE over DROVE and BROKE. (Also it would have eliminated one of the other two, but so would DROVE.)
Wordle 489 4/6
HEART
SIREN
WRECK
GROVE
Wordle 489 4/6
CRANE
PIVOT - searching for letters, found two
DROVE - before grove
GROVE