Do You Suffer from cold palms?

I bought a pair of fingerless gloves today. I just had to admit it.

I've always considered fingerless gloves, for most people, to be an odd, Madonna-of-the-80's-esque affectation. Sure there are always the people who need them for medical reasons, or the people who have to be outside/somewhere cold yet still retain dexterity that is lacking with gloves. But for most people: trend-victim! Get some real gloves, since the tips of your fingers are generally even colder than your palms!

But then I was outside typing the other day. It was beautiful and sunny out. I brought the laptop outside and let the kids play in the sandbox while I wrote for a half hour. But no matter how beautiful it was, it was still November. It was cold (okay, technically it's November today, too, and it's not cold, but it was cold last week when I was out there!)

My hands were cold. I couldn't wear gloves since it would interfere with my typing ability. What did I need? Fingerless gloves. All those years of judging people for their fingerless gloves, and now here I was, seeing the usefulness of them.

I put it out of my head. How often am I going to be sitting outside with my laptop in 40 degree weather? Not that often!

But then today I was at the store, and I saw fingerless gloves. Fine. Then I saw the sign above it: 60% off. Which makes sense, since it's really only 40% of a glove. I looked at the price: $3.50. Sold!

So I'm now the proud owner of fingerless gloves. I can't wait until the next 40 degree sunny day, so I can head out to the backyard to type in comfort!

And I apologize to all those fingerless glove wearers I've unfairly judged in the past.

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Current NaNo Word Count: 31,695. I hope to get in another 1k or so tonight. We'll see.

Current NaNo Attitude: Wanting to take a day off. Yo, that's what December's for!

I complained yesterday about my typing skills. Then I tried out this awesome thing called Write or Die on DrWicked.com. You enter your word goal and time, and then it brings up a window for you to type in. If you stop typing for too long, the screen turns colors, and eventually sings you annoying music. So you have to keep typing constantly.

It's so fun.

I wrote 928 (crappy) words in 20 minutes yesterday, right after I'd complained that about 750 was my max typing speed. Yeah, it turns out it wasn't. I guess it's not my typing skills slowing me down regularly, but rather my thinking skills.

I don't know how often I'll use this. It was great yesterday when I was on a roll. I think it would be really good for when I'm stuck as well as it would force me to barrel through the block. But today I've been writing a hard part. I have the idea, it's just a complicated, emotionally rough section. It's been SLOW, but I've needed the time to think. So I've resisted the urge to speed things up, even though today I wrote a paltry 1,000 words in nearly two hours. See, yesterday I did about that in twenty minutes. I would hope the writing today was more gooder*, but I'm not sure the slower pace really helped all that much :)

Back to banging my head against this part of the novel!

*"More gooder" perfectly describes the incremental improvement from complete and total junk to total junk.

Hypocrite? Does that have something to do with a hippo's blood?

Am I a hypocrite? I think so. I recently made a comment about people who spend a ridiculous amount on a preschool, that they should send their kids to a reasonably priced preschool and sponsor two or three other kids to go to preschool with the money they've saved. I feel the same way about many things, like people who spend $500 on a pair of shoes, or $1,000 on a purse. If I had that kind of money, I hope I wouldn't spend it on status symbol products, but would instead continue buying more reasonably priced things and then use the extra money to donate to charity.

However, I wonder where the line is drawn. I don't buy the cheapest products available. I just bought a pair of $60 sneakers. I could have gotten a $30 pair, but I didn't because I didn't like them as much. But should I have? By my reasoning, I should have bought the pair that was half as expensive and sent the extra $30 to the March of Dimes or something.

Maybe sneakers aren't the best example, since there is a health risk...bad sneakers could lead to hurt knees or sore calves or just uncomfortable feet. But what about other things? I buy my kids a lot of new clothes rather than used. I don't buy haute couture for me, but I also don't buy the least expensive things I can find. I live in a comfortable house in a very expensive area. We could certainly cut back on our spending. What is the level of comfort that is okay, and where does it cross the line into over-consumption?

And, here's where I really get hypocritical: if we do have some money leftover at the end of the month, we rarely give any more than normal to charity. It's earmarked for the boys' college fund. So I should probably get off my high horse and stop judging that guy who drives around in the ridiculously expensive car or the woman who buys face cream that cost $1,000 an ounce.

But it is kind of fun, isn't it? Is there anything more rewarding than laughing at the people who think you're going to be impressed by how expensive their stuff is?

Random unrelated thought: Here it is, the complete list of good things about having hands that are always freezing cold:

1. Chocolate chips don't melt in your hands.
2.