So I'm waiting for a plumber.

Is there any possible way to make that sound better?  All he or she has to do is move a shower drain.  I don't know what's down there but if it's just PVC, heck, I have a saw and PVC cement, and I could order the couplings on Amazon.  I don't even have to leave my house.

But I want to!

The plumber was supposed to come yesterday, but there were delays.  So I walked the dog and bummed around.  Eventually, I found out how much I've already forgotten about linear algebra, which I never understood completely.  I got an A- with possibly haphazard proofs and definitely sloppy matrix computations, shots in the dark...that subject is STILL under my skin.  I'm not used to not understanding something.  I've read that the best way to get past that is to struggle and fail to understand higher and more abstract concepts.

Anyway, I was watching a bunch of lectures (FYI, the gold standard are Gilbert Strang's), including this demo, whereupon I got hung up on visualizing something orthogonal to two separate vectors--but they're in the same space!  Duh! Fortunately, I sorted it out, but in my sleep. 

This was the second dream that woke me up last night, even worse.  The only thing I remember about the first dream was that it woke me up about 2 hrs after I fell asleep, but maybe I dreamed that too.  At any rate, I woke up again, and then slipped back into the zeds, this time into an office.  Then I went to the London Olympics with a choral group dressed in Tudor clothing (I was also listening to Tudor music again yesterday).  I wasn't part of the choir, I was just tagging along, although I split off to run laps around what appeared to be a train station (?!).   It was a highly unsatisfying run.  I kept messing up the laps and I had to weave around people and obstacles, including a large bin full of mail, and I wasn't even wearing running clothes.  However, I made it to the stadium in time for the performance, but one woman in attendance started dissing it (I was also watching episodes of The League yesterday, and she reminded me of Gina Gibiatti) and I ended up pushing her purse against her mouth to shut her up.  What?  I felt bad, and I felt even worse when another woman, a much nicer woman who had been helping me out throughout in the dream, asked me if I knew her name.  She knew mine but I was at a loss for hers: Enlerp/Ernlerp.  Something like that--and I've forgotten it again!--except that the Rs are rolled like French Rs.  That was really important to her.  I felt so guilty that I woke up so that I wouldn't forget the name, in vain.  Ernlerp?

Where did that come from, anyway?  I so rarely remember dreams; the ones I do remember usually have significant elements which I can usually trace back to whatever I'd done the day before.  Ernlerp, though, is mystifying.  So I googled it.  And now I'm even more confounded but at least I found somebody's cool site and an amusing coincidence.  I don't remember reading about nlerp before, but my memory is decidedly faulty.

By the way, I really like this woman's presentation and boardwork. Just got to throw that up here. 
Oh, and she does not resemble Ernlerp at all.  Ernlerp had no accent but was Asian.

And while I'm slinging around algebra videos: this series looks promising.  Meanwhile, I must go to Germany sometime.  Occasionally, I find something that seems so incredibly German, but I'm too ignorant to know for sure.  But maybe I shouldn't go because I might be disappointed.

Anyway, now I'm waiting for the plumber again.  Just walked with the dog this morning and it was already almost 20 C, and clammy.  I feel like I need another shower.  Actually, I DO need another shower, which the plumber is supposed to work on.  I also need another brain.  I haven't been sleeping that well this week, but nothing terribly out of the ordinary, until last night.  It was the pits.  It was a lot of work.

I also need new clothes.  But not from Sally Ann this time: new running bra, take four.  Whole other post, I think.