7QT: Sadly Overgrown Lawn Edition

Gosh, I haven't done a quick takes post in ages.

1. I am awfully tired. I finished grading one exam and writing the other, but midterm season is always a little nuts. Please pardon any word salad-ing.
2. I'm reading Blackout, by Connie Willis. And I'm reading Britt-Marie Was Here, by that Swedish author who wrote a novel called something like My Grandmother Wanted Me To Apologize Because She Was A Little Nuts. Backman, maybe? I am feeling too inertiated* to look it up. I liked the first half of My Grandmother better than the second half, but I liked the book enough to get Britt-Marie Was Here out of the library. I finished The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, and found it sweet and earnest.
3. *I don't think inertiated counts as word salad, do you? English lacks a verb suitable for conveying the squashed-down immobilized feeling that sometimes makes a person think ⌘T-ing to look up an author's name would be too effortful.
4. Both Blackout and Britt-Marie are actual physical books, as was Arthur Pepper. This is a switch for me -- I've turned into an all-Kindle-all-the-time sort of reader. I had sort of forgotten that if you try to read a book-book while lying in bed and feeling inertiated, you can whack yourself in the nose when you drift off.
5. I think we are going to buy that van tomorrow. Fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly.
6. Also on the schedule for tomorrow, deciding whether napalm or the Augean stables approach would be a faster route to a less loathsome house. Fire or flood, what's your preference?
7. One of my other books in progress is called Self-Compassion, recommended by my boss. It's a good book that I have to read in small pieces. It contains an exercise in which you're supposed to identify things you're good at, areas where you're average, and sub-par stuff. When I went back to the exercise I was a little surprised to see what I'd identified as "things I am bad at." (I guess that's part of the point: it's hard to assess yourself realistically.) Tonight I was thinking about it again because I bumped up against something I am TERRIBLE at: negotiation. Elwood handled the price negotiations with the van seller, and we were laughing afterward about my "negotiating" skills. I am like a giant marshmallow when I attempt to negotiate. "Okay, negotiation partner, you are offering me a tiny crumb, virtually invisible, after I have made a reasonable request for accommodations? I LOVE tiny crumbs! Invisible ones are my very favorite kind. This looks like a really superlative crumb, in fact. Huh, do you think you are being treated fairly in this crumb negotiation? Because I could be flexible here if need be." (He was asking for my input during the phone conversation, but we are both glad that he was the one making the counteroffers.)

More QT posts at Kelly's.