14 December 2023 What I bought myself for Christmas

[KathyB]

Not that I really can afford this, as I still need to pay off my car repairs and my tree pruning. But I treated myself to some Wolferman's English muffins and a ticket to the Vintage Theatre's production of Fun Home. I actually wanted to get myself something else (LL Bean has free shipping on all orders placed through December 18 ) but they didn't have my size in what I wanted to get, so I took it as a sign that I shouldn't shop more. (They didn't even have "sorta close to my size, and I can make it work")

It is a partly cloudy day, expected to get up to 40°F.

[scenicdesign71]

Not that I really can afford this, as I still need to pay off my car repairs and my tree pruning. But I treated myself to some Wolferman's English muffins and a ticket to the Vintage Theatre's production of Fun Home.

Yay theater tickets! (and English muffins — those look ridiculously tasty).

On a sobering note, your "not that I really can afford this" sounds all too sadly apropos these days.  The Broadway League's annual demographic report came out a few days ago, and while Theatermania's headline about it ("The Average Broadway Theatergoer Earns a Household Income of $271,277 a Year") may have been (effective) clickbait, a full perusal of their article did little to dispel the unease that brought me there -- indeed, its tin-eared conclusion flirts with unintentional dark humor:

What may be out of reach for a poor teenager has the potential to become an expensive hobby once they become a rich adult.  This is how you build the audience of the future.

I recently finished reading a historical novel based on the life of Marie Antoinette -- given to me by a friend who'd picked it up at a Brooklyn sidewalk giveaway -- so I couldn't help getting a whiff of Ancien-Régime obliviousness (or perhaps pitch-black irony, though I doubt it) from Stewart's last sentence.

[scenicdesign71]

More about the demographic report, in case anyone's interested:

Broadway Journal:  League Touts Silver Lining in Smaller Audience

[KathyB]

Today I treated myself to two toilet fill valves for $600. I was thinking I could probably get new snazzy toilets for not too far off of that price, but then I'd need to have them installed and who knows how much time and money that would cost. The good news is that one of the toilets is the downstairs one that hasn't been working properly for a year or two, which I never got fixed before because it wasn't high on my priority list. So now I can get used to having a downstairs bathroom again, which will be especially convenient when somebody (unnamed) poops in the house.