Reasons to be happy despite being in a fog, however mundane they are.

1. The Saturday midterm was tough but didn't go as badly as thought. At least I hope it went well. I am sure I bombed one of the cash flow problems but accidentally got the future value one correct.

2. The professor complimented me on my use of notes during the exam. (It was an open-book, open-note exam. The only reason it was tough was it involved a lot of computation that can be very time-consuming.)

3. I have now replaced everything about my work laptop except the power brick. The new 6 hour mega-battery is fantastic. Much better than the wimpy old 2 hour one. Even better, I can claim in jest my mega-battery was swiped off an intern.

4. I did quite well on the first Thurdsay midterm.

5. I believe I have made some inroads with the Dean and our invited guest that evening, a professor from a local university.

6. The new Trader Joe's has opened.

7. They will be opening a new Costco in a month. It will be very close to a rather decent 99 Ranch, assuming they didn't build on the 99 Ranch site. The 99 Ranch is in the same plaza as a lovely dessert place that sells one of the more passable mango desserts you can find in the states. It's not mango pudding, but then, hardly anybody does mango pudding for some reason.

8. I had a coupon for the pizza.

9. I haven't had ribs in a long time.

10. The weather is nice and mild.

11. The ancient water filter still works.

12. Dried black currants are surprisingly tasty.

13. The Harry Potter book arrived. If I had checked my mailbox earlier, I would have received it on the day it was released. It's not like I have any time at the moment to read it. Pity it's so thick. I will be rather grumpy when I lug the thing on my next plane trip. But it's here! And it's an easier read than 99% of the other books on my to-read pile! So it will fly by quickly and weigh a ton.

14. 247 people registered so far.

15. Dark chocolate mints, with the gooey center.

16. The grapes from two weeks ago haven't molded over. They are a little shriveled, but that's to be expected.

17. Slightly molten peanut butter cups.

18. Clean dishes.