• Grey project phase 2 is officially a success. Whatever happens after now is gravy. I didn't do some things quite right but it's okay. End result is good enough. I am not sure when I will get to phase 3 and the culmination of the project, but I can do it whenever I choose now. Possibly tomorrow. I looked up my astrological transits and tomorrow evening the moon is in a particularly nice area. Like, I doubt it matters, but astrology comes in handy when I get stuck making decisions sometimes. When do I do such-and-such? Well, check out my chart and see what's going on. I picked my wedding date based on the natal charts of spouse and I. I picked the day when the sun was passing a significant point in both our charts, because I thought it might be predisposed to be a happy day for us each year. Of course, the wedding was a horrible dumpster fire rivaled only by this past Thanksgiving, and I cried for two solid days, soooooo ... not exactly supporting evidence. But sometimes you just need an excuse to set a time, and for me it's the moon passing the 13th degree of Taurus tomorrow. I am still going through this major chart transit with uranus and neptune for another couple months so why the hell not stomp on that button. Fuck me up, universe, I got nothing to lose.

The 21st or 22nd of Jan might be another good date because the sun will just be entering aquarius, which is another point for the pattern in my chart. I'd have six points of the full seven filled. The empty seventh point is at about 10deg sagittarius. My natal neptune is at 13deg sagittarius, but it's too large an orb to count, really. Someone tried to suggest that Oscar Wilde had a grand septile, which sounds cool but it's not true, the orbs are laughable. Look how warped this thing is.

=> https://www.halloran.com/oscar-p.gif

That saturn and mars totes does not count. Septiles don't count if they aren't fairly exact. What good are septiles? NOBODY KNOWS. But it makes a fancy looking pattern, yes?

Spouse is staying at hogwarts for a while due to circumstances forcing them to hold make up classes on saturdays. This is awesome as I don't have to fuss with hiding the project (sub optimal conditions). So basically this has worked out perfectly, and I dub myself a criminal mastermind. A whole year of secret scheming has almost come to full fruition. Suck it, uncle sam.

• I started making the black walnut ink, finally. I had two full gallon ziplock bags in the freezer, maybe 30-40 walnuts worth. I read a half dozen different recipes and I think this is the best one, because they document a hot and cold process ink. I just did the hot process - cold takes a lot more time. It doesn't smell as bad as I thought it would. Some people complained but I didn't think it smelled any worse or stronger than a bag of spinach gone off. Then again, I just simmered the husks over the course of two days (turned the stove off when I went to bed, turned it back on in the morning), didn't go to a full boil. Maybe a full boil is stinkier.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/232797-homemade-black-walnut-ink/ Homemade Black Walnut Ink

I strained the pot of ink yesterday and threw away the solids, and I'm just letting it simmer off some of the excess water now. Lots of ink.

• The move is hitting some stumbling blocks. We're not getting communication from Anchorage and it is gumming up the works, because spouse wants to hammer out how much leave he can take and when they are expecting him to show up to start work. Some of spouse's classmates already have their plans all set and in motion, and we just barely got in touch with the relocation service, nevermind scheduled anything. Get this, it's called "sterling lexicon". It sounds like a name out of a poorly translated anime, like a cover business for the power rangers. But they have a website so I guess it is legit. Spouse says they will even pack up our stuff for us but honestly I do not want strangers packing my boxes, even if they are secret power rangers. Sounds awful, I will be a wreck. So supposedly the household goods will take up to 12 weeks in transit. We have an option of either 700 pounds that gets "quick shipped" in 30 days, or they will give us a baggage allowance of like 7 checked bags each for the plane flight. Normal bags, not overweight or oversized. I think choosing the airline baggage option is best, because then I can make sure that stuff won't freeze (hopefully) and we will have it with us immediately. 30 days is a long time to live without a decent skillet or my spice jars.

So I have to figure out what things stay with us and what will get disappeared for possibly 3 months. Spouse was pushing to have the moving date sooner but then I will have NOTHING here, no tables or chairs or lamps, so I told him no, to try to get it as close to his graduation as possible and I think he listened. If we're going to buy a home there could be painting or some light renovation work we may want to do anyway (before we burrow in and get lazy), and we'll be glad to not have the furniture for a bit. I don't want a carpeted living room - carpet is gross and bad for projects. It would be great to have the option of ripping it out and putting in some sort of smooth flooring. I feel like that's something I could do myself, especially if the couch and whatnot is elsewhere. And I could take time to think about a color scheme for painting the walls, and installing shelving. Pretty sure I can keep myself occupied with stuff like that and be glad for the emptiness.

I'm really sick of white walls. If the only "renovation" is painting the walls in colors of my choice, I will be so happy. It's like marking your territory. A blank white wall just screams temporary. "Don't get too comfortable." "This doesn't belong to you, we just let you live here for now." "Conform peasant, you're too poor to have control of your living space or your life." Like, oooooh, I'm gonna paint some walls FOR SURE. BURNT ORANGE WALLS. (Orange is the color of creativity, doncha know.) If people visit us and just stare at the wall color in awe, unsure if it is hideous or wonderful, I will have won. YOUR SOUL IS DEAD, THAT'S WHY YOU HATE ORANGE. That's what I'll tell the complainers.