Word count: 79538 | Since last entry: 1215

Day go voom. But I know exactly what I was doing every hour.

We started off by packing up all our Christmas presents that need to be shipped, then got them to the UPS store first thing. From there Kate went off to take our friend M to a dentist appointment.

Next I called an accountant and talked with him for an hour — my current tax guy is not going to be doing individual accounts much longer and I need a new one, someone who understands both investments and writing. This guy sounds like he’ll fill the bill nicely. Next I wrapped up Kate’s presents. All present-related tasks are now done (well, I still have one thing to do for Kate, but that won’t take long). Then the electrician arrived, right on schedule, to fix a dead light fixture in the kitchen and install an electrical outlet on the front of the house for outdoor Christmas lights. I ate lunch while he was doing that.

Shortly after the electrician left, I discovered that the dead light fixture, which we had both seen come back to life as soon as he wiggled it and had both agreed was just a loose wire, was dead again. Wiggling the wire did not help. However, because I’d seen him disassemble it I now could attempt a diagnosis that I’d been unable to do before. I hauled out my old voltmeter and determined that power was making it as far as the fixture (beyond where we thought the loose wire had been), and because all three (low-wattage halogen) bulbs were out it was probably a bad transformer.

Took the fixture down and drove to A-Boy for a new one. They didn’t have that brand, but suggested a couple places that might. Used my fancy-pants phone in the parking lot to call around, and found one place that had exactly one in stock. Asked them to hold it for me. Drove across town, bought the fixture, came home, installed it. One of the (expensive low-wattage halogen) bulbs was broken when I took it out of the box, but I just swapped it out for one of the ones from the old dead fixture. Success! Proper illumination for that corner of the kitchen for the first time in months.

Fixed dinner (broccoli and tofu in spicy peanut sauce, a household favorite). Sat down to write. 1200 words later, watched half of the pilot of ER (a recent DVD acquisition) with Kate. Blogged. Bed. Tomorrow is another day.