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Saturday, when Kam picked me up at the airport, she suggested that we could go to a hardware store that evening (she needed to get something there); I had been wanting to buy some tools (since all of mine have mysteriously vanished over the past couple years), so I said that sounded good. But then we forgot.

Sunday morning, I decided that my goal for the day was to check ten items off of my to-do list, notably the ones about buying tools and buying bedding. (I figured if I could get to nine items, then I could add "check off ten items" as a to-do item, and then check it off.)

So Kam and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and I bought a whole bunch of stuff: a comforter (I have two guest rooms, but only one set of guest blankets/comforters), an extra set of sheets, an extra pillow (again to provide enough for both guest rooms at once), some extra pillowcases (because guests often end up with more than two pillows per bed, but sheet sets come with only two pillowcases), a towel set (never seems to be enough towels around), a clock (I've been meaning to get a nice wall clock for a year now), and probably some other stuff that I'm blanking on.

At which point it wasn't even noon yet, and I had already checked off at least five items on my list! ("buy pillowcases" was a separate item from "buy pillow," for example.)

Then we crossed the street to Orchard Supply Hardware, and Kam helped me pick out a full set of basic tools: power drill (nifty little compact Makita) + bits, flat and Phillips screwdrivers, a tape measure, a set of precision screwdrivers (regular and Torx), three adjustable wrenches, regular and needlenose pliers, a hammer, a level, a set of hex wrenches, a utility knife, and—unrelatedly—a small air-blowing fan (because M said something the other day about a fan being a nice guest-room accessory). And just as we were getting ready to leave, I remembered that one of the main things I'd wanted from OSH was a kit to repair my broken toilet handle, so I got one of those too.

And it was only about 12:30, and I had checked off another four or five to-do items. (I hadn't thought of several of the tools, so I hadn't listed them as to-do items.)

We had lunch, and we talked about how to lay out stuff in my garage so Kam can keep her workbench there, and then Kam went home and I kind of zoned out for about an hour. At some point (maybe then, maybe later) I paid my iPhone bill, which was complicated due to Australia but meant checking off another task. Then I decided to head over to Kam's place.

Only as I was leaving, I realized that I didn't want to lose momentum on my errands and tasks.

So I checked the new toilet handle and discovered that it wouldn't fit, and I happened across the hammer I already owned, so I decided to go back to OSH to return stuff.

And I grabbed the bag and a half of clothing that's been sitting in my garage waiting to be donated to Goodwill for most of a year.

And I decided to stop by work, where there's an ATM for my credit union, and cash the half-dozen checks I've been carrying around for a week.

But when I got near work, I realized I'd forgotten to bring my badge. So I skipped that step, alas.

But I did return the hammer and the toilet handle, and got a new toilet handle that I thought would work, and stopped for a chocolate shake at Rick's Rather Rich ice cream, and dropped off the clothes at Goodwill.

Then I went to Kam's and did some magazine work (and checked off a couple more items, including a couple of them that I did a while ago but neglected to check off). And I ordered a bunch of clothes from Lands' End (also on my to-do list for ages).

We got dinner and hung out some more and then I was sleepy and I came home.

But I couldn't resist getting the toilet to work before going to bed. So I did that, and put a check in the mail, and checked off some more items.

All in all, I checked off about 21 tasks from my to-do list today, without even having to resort to adding a “check off a bunch of items” task.

Which is great. But I have about 60 items on my to-do list for today, even after triaging and postponing a bunch of items to later days.

And as I may've mentioned at some point, I generally have 40ish items on my list for any given day, and I generally get about 3 to 5 of them done.

So on the one hand, getting through 21 items in a single day is great!

But on the other hand, there's still a lot to do.

Perhaps I will start with breakfast. (Maybe I should put that on the list so I can check it off!)