This is randomly my calendar image for November.

( priority setting fail... )
So, what should the priorities be? Embroidery? Cleaning? Laundry? New Shoes? I need to tend to them all, but the embroidery is the most enjoyable and lazy-like on the list.

Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful, and reminded me of things to truly be thankful for.

We drove down to Mike and Kirsten's for their Lost Lambs Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday morning. We skipped traffic, and were greeted by many friends and soon-to-be friends. It was great to see a whole host of folks, especially the ones rarely seen like Evja and her Tom, as well as the Caitlin and Naro. The food was plentiful and delicious, and the company was beyond compare. I was able to sit and chat a bit, embroider some, examine a simple antique loom and research information on how it may be warped for the new owner, showed off pictures of T-bone's eldest daughter with her pink rifle at the range, as well as help with some of the set-up, and redirect a child who was trying to open a nut with the pointy tines of a gardening tool that a rock might be easier and safer. There was no football, no Macy's Parade, and yet the day was full.
For friends, old and new, present and absent, I am blessed with a richness of company I am proud and humble to have around me.

We spent the night at Two Dog Hill, and after a leisurely morning of leftovers for breakfast, as well as Caitlin's fabulous blueberry bread, we kidnapped Kit and stole her away to Jamestown. We only worked a half day at Jamestown Settlement on Friday, but were kept busy by the wealth of visitors with interesting questions and a thirst for knowledge. I spent most of the four hours with Sandy at the Devon Oven, not baking, but being the mouthpiece to her activities to engage those interested in the methods of cooking of the past, and some of the daily life experiences those first folks to Virginia may have endured.
For the opportunity to participate in such a fun volunteer activity and have some faith restored in the creativity and search for information on history by the visitors, I am thankful.

Afterward, we retreated to Carla's rental condo for showers, easy pannini sandwiches for dinner and yet more interesting company. While a tired lot, we had Jimmy to entertain us, fun time with Cindy from JYF and excellent tales of the visitors experienced that day.
I am grateful for the gift of laughter.

Saturday we decided against a return to Jamestown since someone's back was unhappy from spending a day in armor, and someone else was a bit peopled-out. We helped pack up the condo and make cookies for breakfast using tin-foil and got back on the road home to Two Dog Hill, in a car full of fine conversation. Once returned we were greeted by a treed Corby, and very happy pups, and settled down for a bit more of a visit, and a nap, and some more embroidery before whisking off to downtown Charlottesville to join Rich and Genie in a post charity hockey game meal. The food was yummy, and again the company and conversation was fine. We were again captivated by stories of minor, if anticipated, family drama, and I only had a little of someone's Liquid Love (cocktail drink) spilled down my back, with good natured ribbing on the wet stickiness. :) Alan and I made it home safe and sound that night and crashed into our own bed with a happy belly of food and fun music in our heads.
For the freedom to do as we please and alter plans, I am lucky.

Sunday was spent sleeping in to the sound of the rain, taking care of some of the minor projects around the house, like hanging the hall bath mirror, hanging shower curtains, putting away parts of the kitchen into the upper cabinets, and given the opportunity to really consider placement and usage, and enjoy the new space. (Kirsten, the tea has been moved to be mostly over the electric kettle instead of crammed in a cabinet beside the stove.) I looked at the leftover paint chips from the bathroom consideration, and used it for a first level weeding out of colors and tones for paint, but I think we really need the countertops in before a final decision is reached. I meant to do some shopping, but the rain and inertia kept me home snuggled on the couch.
I am thankful for a comfortable home, and my Alan to share it with.

Last night was the delayed shopping for my Salvation Army Christmas Angels. I shopped for 3 hours trying to carefully choose items needed and hopefully desired by the disadvantaged children chosen. Normally I try to get two angels about my nieces ages so I can shop for twice the folks in the time given. This year I took on three siblings of different years, primarily due to the eldest daughter being a larger girl at only age 11. I hope most of all for her I was able to find clothes to make her feel pretty and boost her confidence. I also used some coupons at DSW to get her and her brother shoes that might last them a while, but still appeal to their youth. Naturally gift receipts are included so that color preferences or incorrect sizes can be exchanged. I bargain shop, but also try to get a good haul for the children I host, knowing that they are lucky to be loved, but not lucky enough to have extra for even some necessities. I spend more on these children than I do for my own nieces likely, but my nieces rarely need clothes and shoes, and mostly do not want for goods, activities, nor affection. And while I love to give to the Red Cross (good), Doctors Without Borders (great), and Heifer International (amazing!), I know that these gifts go directly to the children who may not expect much of a celebration despite the time of the year.
For the ability and inclination to be charitable, I am thankful for my job and my upbringing.

Got a call from the kitchen contractors and our new kitchen cabinets are in. Yay!

They hope to deliver them tomorrow and start work on installation on Monday. Looks like we'll have to spend some time clearing out the kitchen this weekend. I think the most important thing will be installing the coffee maker in the guest bathroom. I might want to pick up some paper plates and bowls so we don't have to worry about dishes for a couple of weeks. Hmm, now that we have a dining room light, perhaps I can add a power cord towards the dining room table for snacks, microwave, toaster, etc. That might work. I hope the fridge can remain plugged in and just shifted as necessary for the workers convenience. Hmm, should clean up behind the fridge, (eek) and stove for that matter. Oh, and  need to go shopping for a new over the range microwave...

yay!
sigh.

At least I asked for tomorrow off to attempt to fight this cold, run some errands and relax. Dunno how much of that I'll actually get done, but hopefully I can at least renew the driver's license and catch a nap.

The pussy-willow paper is down! hooray!

We are scheduled to have our guest bathroom remodel start in a week or less. As I was pulling the towels from the guest bath yesterday to do laundry I realized that then was the time to finally remove the striking wallpaper. So, after starting the laundry, and futzing a bit, I got to work taking off the towel bar, switch plates, shower curtain rod, medicine cabinet, and Alan helped with the mirror and TP holder removal. Then I got to indulge in one of my favorite activities and the wallpaper came down very easy. There is still a bit behind the light that needs to come down, but the majority is removed to allow the workers to do their thing. I still need to wash the walls to remove the glue, but I tried a small patch last night and it shouldn't take too long. (Update: Metro Bath and Tile starts tomorrow morning! Awesome!)

It is a bit of a love-hate relationship. I love to remove wallpaper and I hate wallpaper in general, but I admit to a bit of fascination with the strange paper they put in the hall bath. It is unique, and ugly, but also a bit compelling with the tones of silver and gray, shiny, with streaks of deep red. I did save some large pieces that I hope to comb through to find a good section to clean up and frame for posterity. Alas, I don't think the framed section of wallpaper will fit with the color scheme of the new bathroom, so I'll probably display it in my sewing room or something like that. I also did remember to take some before pictures for comparison after the remodel is complete.

Other than some destruction, we had a lovely Saturday night and Sunday morning celebrating Robear's 50th Birthday with good food and excellent company down at Two Dog Hill. I got a bit of puppy time, and Robear and I indulged in some pumpkin fluff on pancakes for breakfast. Yum! Happy Birthday Bear and Moe!

Gold! The Fug Girls have captured the glory that was Kelly Wearstler's turban. It makes me smile at the absurdity of it all.

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I spent the weekend mostly curled up at home. I slept in past noon on both days.

Saturday was some knitting, some suspense movies on tv, cleaning the toilets and sinks, and then being kidnapped for dinner at Ceviche by Theo, Mike and Cosette. The Aji de Galliano was perfect comfort food for the cold, and I did get to peek at the painting projects of great coolness, but they returned me home to crash. I do now have a decent start on a second set of stockings.

Sunday was knitting, watching tear-jerkers (August Rush and The Jane Austen Book Club), and drawing out my next embroidery project. I've started a bit on a little 4x6" panel for my Mother-in-Law in thanks for her hospitality and support during our many visits up to MA for the Plimoth jacket project. Again, I'm taking from Isobel's Arabella pattern, highlighting the pink carnation, and other elements surrounding it. I need more green silk though, as there are more leaves than I anticipated.

Finished my little 2"x2" sample embroidered pincushion top. I still need to decide if I'm going to add any spangles to it before sewing the backing and stuffing it. Overall I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, though I'll definitely do the vine work differently. I was impatient and used the stitch I knew rather than taking the time to learn something new.

More pictures of it in-progress are available in my Projects set on Flickr.

We went to Lochmere's 20th Baronial Birthday on Saturday for a few hours to brave the rain and hang out with friends. My feet were wet and muddy, but the temperature was mild, and the company was amazing. I got to chat with those from far (Tamma and Terry) and near (Mikey and Tara), and work on my second sock of the stockings I've been knitting since Feb. I also informally officially took gabrell  has my protege. He truly has the heart for service, as witnessed by him constantly braving the rain to check in to see if Her Majesty needed anything, helping out with the cards for the rapier tournament, and doing whatever was needed. I have every faith in him, and only hope I can be a good mentor and example.  We'll do something more official when I get a belt woven for him and we can get the household together for it, so I gave him my favorite yellow sprang bag as a placeholder.

We spent Saturday night up visiting with the Toscano's for dinner and conversation. I got a good dose of beagle love from Pearl and Boogaloo, did some more knitting, and pawing through Sandy's Dress in Ireland book. Sandy fed us some tasty pot roast, and we had Craig and Frances for company for the evening, and a great time was had by all.

Sunday morning, after a good long session of sleeping in, I randomly decided to document and archive the fridge-art. It was really about time, there was no room for any new incoming photos, and soon I'd have to clear it whenever we get to the scheduling and installing of the new kitchen cabinets so nothing gets lost or destroyed.
Here is the fridge in the before state:

I made sure to take close-ups of the front top and bottom, as well as the left and right sides before I cleared, cleaned, put the photos and postcards away in a photo album, and rearranged the magnets back on the fridge.

While I was cleaning off the fridge, theodorad  calls to see if Alan has time to spend with halowenslut  playing with swords in the backyard. She also invited us over for dinner for pot roast. After I was done laughing, I cheerfully accepted the dinner offer since I'm not too good to refuse Theo's cooking, ever, and know it would be different but equally as tasty. And so another fine evening was spent in the company of friends, joined also by Tara, Bess, Schecky and Ziggy. My belly is full of yummy home cooked food, and so I must now go to bed.

hmm... nom nom nom

I saw another little mousie on Saturday night, put out the live trap with cheerios instead of peanut butter and caught the little poo-machine (and no ants) on Sunday morning. Had yet another long chat with the tiny rodent on the walk to release it far from home. Set out the trap again, but have not seen or captured another mouse. sigh. Cute little feet and twitchy whiskers with large ears that poo and pee indiscriminently.

We've had meetings with a variety of kitchen contractors (Thurs, Fri, and tonight) and explored cheaper options too (Lowe's and Costco). So far we are happiest with the cabinets we found at Lowe's, in the style and color we want, nice price and quality, can then afford better counter-tops. I've also been distracted by looking at new lights, for the kitchen, for our hallways, and for the front of the house. Shopping is fun, deciding is tough.

My eyes have been very irritated today. I've been hitting the eye-drops like a seasoned stoner. I blame the house cleaning we did this weekend. Vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing, windows, floors, sinks, cleaning up my mail-avalanche. I think the stirred up dust and chemicals have been less than kind to my allergies. But the house looks so much better. I even accomplished a little sewing on the unfinished blue scoop neck doublet. Sleeves closer to done. Not sure what to do for the front closure.

Headed to Plimoth this weekend. Will be fun, and get to see some of gold work in person. A little too tired at the moment to get too excited, but I'm sure that will pass and proximity to embroidery and fun will stir excitement. Perhaps I can get more colors of the GST from Tricia... ohh...

Saturday, I was a slug. Slept in embarrassingly late, watched Blue Crush on TV, laid about, and only left the house to collect takeout dinner from the Old Hickory Grille. Alan, meanwhile, mowed the lawn, both front and back, washed the car, cleaned up my mouse storage tank, cleaned up the dishes, and other non-slug-like activities. Sunday was less slothful in that I finished the vacuuming of the den (including the mouse droppings off the mantle and ledge), hallway and laundry area, stairs, and went back over the dining room. I also did the laundry, other cleaning tasks, and did some travel research.

See, I'm back to having longings for Hawaii. I could blame the movie Blue Crush (I have a fondness for surfing movies despite that I have terrible personal balance) and also the news that my little brother-in-law is graduating from college in December. So I've been looking at plane tickets, lodging options (hotel in Waikiki or B&B in Kailua?), and coordinating with my folks on finding rooms in the same facility so we can share a rental car. But looking at the pictures of beaches and ocean views and gardens, and contemplating what to see, only makes the longing stronger. The best part is, of course, that I'm taking my Alan with me, hell or high water.

In other news, the second mouse has been found.

Now if we could only get the birds nested in the chimney to get their flight feathers and fly away. They are really noisy little bastards. Alan thought of starting a fire to drive them away, which of course might kill any that weren't ready to fly. We'll just need to be vigilant to get the chimney swept and proper cap installed to avoid nesting birds next spring.

We survived another Landing Days at Jamestown, but this time the trek home was the most dangerous part of the weekend.

Since attack_laurel's Bob was unable to attend Landing Days this year, we had her-entertaining-self along for the ride. Last week had been a tough one and I was waffling on going to Jamestown this weekend, but as we were waiting for traffic to die down and Alan to complete his conference call, she and I chatted until I finally snapped and started packing. We got on the road kinda late, but meant that we had no traffic to deal with on the after-rush hour drive down. Our room was fine, if you don't care about having a fan in the bathroom, and at least nice and spacious.

Saturday was lovely, and I got to spend most of my day hanging out with Carla and stringmonkey in the barracks. They made food, a couple of dishes in the dutch ovens, but I mostly sat near the herbs and tried to engage visitors in identifying them. I plucked some rosemary, thyme, sage, hyssop, mint and lemon balm, and a staff member had picked an impressive fennel stalk, which was used in the pork, apple and onion dish. After the busy day was done we retired back to the LaQ and tried to motivate towards the shower, and rounded the day out with take-out from Red, Hot and Blue, and hanging out with friends, and even social time with Lara, Fred, Cin and folks. I did bend Cin's ear on sprang, but need to find some of the 18th Century examples for her to explore for use at Yorktown. I also played with my knitting and screwed it up twice, and eventually got it right after a bit of ripping out of rows with a bit of stringmonkey guidance.

Sunday ended up being cooler and comfortable and quieter, but not without fun. I spent much of the day with attack_laurel in the Governor's House so we could take turns and spell each other to take breaks. She worked on hemming curtains for the bed and trimming a cushion, and I did knitting, sewing and some servant-like cleaning up of cobwebs, and such. It was a good day, and we even got to start the day with a bus load of visitors from England. I was even able to take a little bit of time to do some shopping in the gift shop for some books and pamphlets. Alas a tornado watch was announced, and as attendance was down, we did decide to take our tired selves out about an hour early.

The drive home ended up being the worst part. I-64 became progressively packed, so we dove off for 17N to 301N which had much less traffic, but became slow due to the rain. There was also a bit of a back-up crossing the Nice bridge over the Potomac's choppy waters, but luckily there was no accident, just volume. Alan drove the first part and we took a break for dinner at the Outback in La Plata, before I drove the last bit in the driving rain on the beltway home. Despite leaving around 5pm, and noting that we did take an hour break, we still didn't get home until after 10pm. Once home and unpacked in as much as we cared to, we fell in bed and slept the sleep of the ded.

I am glad I went, and had a lovely time with friends, but am justifiably sore, with sore hands and arms from the knitting, sewing, cleaning, and gripping of the steering wheel to guide us home safe. It was awesome to see attack_laurel's lacing of the petticoat to the bodies in action. Really inspiring to make a new petticoat and bodies, but I should finish my new shift and convert an old serviceable back-closing petticoat to front closing so I can try lacing it in as well.

Upcoming is a fun trip to the MFA and more embroidery at Plimoth! excellent.

Brain fart. It is 5:20, and I am obviously not making my 5pm acupuncture appointment. DOH! I hate it when I flake out. But I called and apologized and rescheduled for Thursday. I'm sure there is a fee for forgetting an appointment and I wouldn't blame them. sigh.
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Remember this: "Oh, and yes, I do look over the sign-in sheets and will call out anyone I see who I noticed did not sign in." from Thursday's post?
Yeah, had to do that a couple of times. It is probably true that not all MOLs will continuously scan the field all day to check and see if they spot someone who didn't sign in, but I do. Heraldry works. Frankly it is not our jobs, but one I can't help but do. Oh, and the proper response to being called out from not signing in the weekend before is "Yes, I know, I'm sorry. I will do my best to not let it happen again."  Your answer should not be "yeah, I was running late, and besides, its only fencing..."  Really wrong answer buddy and you do not make friends with that sentiment.

Okay, it's not like it is difficult. You bloodly well will sign in at the list table when there is a tourney you want to get your name in. Why does that seem to be the only motivation? Are we not normally happy and smiley and glad to see you when you come to us at the tables? The rules haven't changed in years. If you want to fight at an official SCA event, you have to sign in at the list tables. You don't even have to be a member anymore. All you need is a fighter card and the ability to sign a waiver. How easy do we have to make it? (No, I will not roam around the list field going from shade to shade offering to sign you in.) End of story.

Yes, color me a bit frustrated at having to hunt down and report fighters for not signing in.

Again, I say Thank You to the 95% of fighters who are patient, kind and just who do sign-in every time. You stand as a good example to others, and have my gratitude.
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Tournament of Chivalry boasted 84 fighters upon the field, 20 of whom were knights. 3 members of the Order of Chivalry took the black and gold staff to marshal all day instead of fight, with several other volunteers, so that those 84 could fight in safety. I think this must have been the first Tournament of Chivalry to have enough marshals, as Alan signed in to marshal if needed, but relaxed in shade instead. Folks did seem to have a fun time both on and off the field. I just made it over to our dayshade to witness Sir Corby taking Girard as a squire of his household, and welcome him to the fold. I was blessed with excellent company at the list table as Gabrell helped me sign in fighters, and random other entertaining folks brought food and stopped by for a visit.

We departed the site fairly early to retire back to our house for cleaning up, starting the grill and eating some of the metric ton of food I made available. I forgot the chips though. We had a lovely full house of friends and "family" and much chatting took place throughout the evening. Eventually, all the tired folks crawled up to bed, I gave Gabrell a ride back home, and read a bit before hitting the sack myself. Sunday dawned nice and rainy, and everyone beat me out of bed to wakefulness but Corby. We made a breakfast of left over sausages and burger meat, scrambled eggs, and waffles. Mmm... waffles. Alan then napped on the couch as I checked email, and as soon as I turned off all the lights and TV, and went to nap on the living-room couch, he awoke, so I got to snuggle into a pre-warmed couch for my nap.  We watched some of John Adams, did the dishes and clean up, started the laundry,  and did more clean-up for the rest of the evening. I then read a bit, but my brain decided at midnight that the kitchen floors must be cleaned, so I swept and swept, and spot cleaned a few places before finally crashing in bed and calling it a weekend.
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Since we've decided we're not going to Crown, I contacted Ingvild and offered to come up and help out at the MD Sheep and Wool Festival in the Medieval and Renaissance Textiles Showcase tent. I've been assigned sprang to demo, which should be a ton of fun, and has me inspired to pull out the loom again and play with it some more so I'll have more examples to display. I wonder if I could set-up the banner stand Alan made for whipcording at the Children's Fete last year for a really tall loom to work on a belt or sash or something? The mind reels. Is it safe to assume we are to be in garb for the demo? Who else can I look forward to seeing there?

I love my truck...
I love my truck...
I love my truck...

Hadn't filled up in a while. Gas was 3.38/gallon on the way home from Kynny's birthday dinner, and that was at the cheap place.

sigh.

On the plus side, I was able to donate the two large bags of styrofoam peanuts from our pottery shipment to a shipping and packaging store, so that they will be reused. And the rest of the packaging was recyclable cardboard. yay.

When I got home and brought in the trash bins, I was attacked by the bushes flanking the path to our back gate, so after stowing the bins, I got the loppers and attacked them with vim and vigor (or piss and vinegar) and cut them back so I could walk between them safely. Sadly, I can only cut the boxwood back so far or else it looks ugly (Alan thought trimming it twice a year was enough...), but I felt no problem mutilating the side of our neighbor's thorny shrub that was encroaching in my path, and at least tried to smooth it up and over the top so it doesn't eventually form a little thorny arbor overhead. I did leave the raked pile of clippings for Alan to collect and truck up the hill and over the fence to the brush pile, cause I'm like that.

I will be at the MOL table at TOC this weekend, so again, find me or avoid me there. Alas, you fighters and marshals who wish to take the field will not be able to avoid me. Oh, and yes, I do look over the sign-in sheets and will call out anyone I see who I noticed did not sign in. Yes, I am looking at you, person who forgot to sign in last weekend who I expect to see on Saturday...
And be nice to my MOL in training, since he just autocratted NOTT last weekend.

Night on the Town was lots of fun.

However, our pottery shipment had arrived, from our expenditures at Glades Pottery the weekend before in Florida, while we were at the event, and I simply could not resist unpacking the treats. So Alan indulged me and we unpacked all the pretties and  sorted them into piles, and admired the wonderful colors, and then contentedly headed to bed. I really should try to take some pictures of Walter's work in the sunshine to really show off how lovely his stuff is.

Sunday I had planned to head back to site for clean-up, but accidentally slept in and we didn't leave for site until almost 10am. When I called Gabrell he said that they were almost done and we didn't need to come out if we didn't want to, so we delivered Matt and Susan's pottery to them, and left Lisette's for pick-up as well, and chatted with the Susan a bit, and then headed home to work on cleaning and putting away and other chores, such as a much needed nap.

I've still got a bit of a sore throat (but am on the antibiotics so no worries) and am working my way out of grump and funk to life again.

Bob's Super-Party Pictures


We've survived yet another one of Bob's birthdays. Happy Birthday Mr. Quatermain, and may your study of anal-ogy and anal-bum-covers go well. Heroes, Villains and those unclassified others all came together for one heroic night. Dr. Jekyll tended the bar, Mina Harker lay out an impressive buffet of tasty foods, Ursula was the best villain costume in attendance, and Rainbow Brite was determined the best "hero", although my money was on Black Canary. Sadly the karaoke machine didn't get used, but the trash and recycling bins are full so folks seemed to have a good time just the same. I think the total head count was 49; 45 heroes and villains, 2 lame folks not in costume (Matt? Freddy? Do I need to costume you next time myself?), and 2 super dogs.

Sunday morning, the secret hideout hosted yummy brunch to 16 secret identities. We had coffee, OJ, waffles, scrambled eggs, and 4 kinds of sausage; chicken and apple sausage, and 3 different types from Gunther's farm thanks to Drea's trip to the Raleigh Farmer's Market. Then we worked together to set the house back in order so little clues were left to the party the night before. Thanks for your help folks!

Alan and I spent the rest of Sunday napping, curled up by the roaring fireplace, and doing other little cleaning tasks. I love hosting this party every year, as we get a wonderful gathering of friends at our house, and we are also guaranteed to have a clean house at least once a year. :) We ended the night by catching Superman Returns on TV, which seemed very fitting given the weekend.

The two things that are certain.

Luckily, and sadly, the death was small. We lost another of the new tiny rainbow fishes in the den tank. This batch doesn't seem to be as hardy. And it seems there is a small bit of ick in the living-room tank, but Alan is working on battling that. At least one of the new small discus seems to have a puckish nature and attacks some of the snails periodically, which makes me giggle.

But our taxes are done. That took a larger portion of Sunday than I had planned, but at least they are done. It would be so much easier if I'd just collect everything needed before even starting, but I thought I had. Our mortgage company has made the required info available online, so they didn't send us a statement, since we could access it ourselves. Good for the environment, bad for the distracted. Alas, despite getting a return, the process still made me cranky, so I needed a nap afterward.

This was a bad weekend for health food, as in there was little. There was pizza delivery on Friday night, Indian carry-out on Saturday, and Alan fetched HardTimes chili on Sunday night. We had eggs with chicken and apple sausages, and then fresh made waffles with maple syrup for breakfasts. All of it very tasty, none of it very good for me. sigh. oh well.

We decided on Friday night, as we were both feeling fairly puny, and lazy enough to order pizza, to cancel our trip to the Caer Mear event on Saturday. It sounds like it was fun, if a bit damp, but home tasks were mounting, and the rain was pouring. Instead we slept in to the sound of raindrops, and worked on installing the new TV stand in the den, cleaning up the wiring, and ended up doing a thorough cleaning of all the side tables, purging of the periodicals, and even vacuuming behind and under the furniture. We'll think of it as prep for the party at the end of the month.

Sorry to miss folks on Saturday, but we were much more productive at home.

Stage Four of the guest room closet redo is complete. We installed the Elfa system last night and put everything back away in the closet. Except, somehow, regardless that we have a better system, I now have stuff that won't fit back. Hmm... bad space-time warp I guess. Must try it again. Of course when we get our attic stairs in, we can put some lesser used things, like my ginormous suitcase, in storage up there. The good angel on my shoulder reminds me patience in a virtue.

Need to run by the glass place in Jessup to pick back up our broken dining room lamp tonight before 6pm. It was very nice of them to give me a price estimate for the repairs, but it just seems more costly than I'm willing to pay. Must think more on options, for either purchasing a new pendant or alternate repair options. isenglass, I may call on you after all. Feel free to refuse.

My brain is relative mush. I can't wait to see Beth Patterson at Baldwin Station on Thursday night, even though it means packing the truck for Ymir on Wednesday night. Wednesday night we should also have the new tank and stand here, but won't have time to work on installing it until next week. That's what I forgot to do, start clearing out the items in storage under the 45 gal take to prep for the swap out. Maybe later tonight after practice, or I could skip practice...

eh. My apologies to my readership for this terrible post. Oh, and happy Fat Tuesday!

 I had a good weekend. (Too good of a weekend if you ask the bathroom scale...) 

Friday night we were lazy and ordered a pizza while we watched the Tomb Raider Double Feature on HD TNT. It was cool, with limited commercial interruptions, and I got to contemplate outfits for Bob's next party. Alan had also started a fire in the fireplace, so I watched much of the movies from the floor near the fire with my knitting in hand. I got a start this weekend on a pair of stockings for Plimoth Plantation, and so far things appear to be going well. 

Saturday was alisandramel's Bridal Shower of amazing pinkness. The pink was apparently to annoy her, but there were pink balloons, pink napkins and cutlery, and folks mostly came in pink-ish PJ's. Though Mel in her custom pink union-suit was the best part. We had a great afternoon of sitting around and chatting, and reading from a 1950's book of articles on a Successful Marriage (yes, I found the article on petting amusing), and playing the TP dress game, and eating way too much tasty food, including the biggest, densest, and tastiest cake I'd had in a long time. We all had such a ball that we even overstayed the time allotted, and finally removed the burden of playing hostess from Christy and left. 

I had carpooled to the event with Theo, and got a ride home from Vic who was staying with us overnight. I had offered to those who wanted to continue the Slumber Party theme into the night that our home (with bartender) was available. I also called the attack_laurel  and her Bob to come on over since I had a feeling she'd like some Vic time too. We hung out and partied well into the evening with delivery chinese food and sushi, as well as purple drinks from the bar, pool and girlie movies in the basement, and lots of fun chatting in the living room. I ended the evening knitting in the basement, after folks had gone home, and watching Firefly. I then went upstairs to clean up from the party, re-load the dishwasher since Mel's sis had put in items that aren't dishwasher friendly, re-stacked to include other found items of glassware, and dug through the trash to find the missing spoon, japanese soy sauce dish, and pair of permanent chopsticks, before setting the dishwasher to run overnight.

Sunday morning was waffles and chicken mango sausages with Vic before she got on the road to visit with a friend before heading back home. (Vic was kind and helped me unload and reload the dishwasher before she got on the road.) Hooray for fun guests. Then we settled down to the work at hand. Alan had plans to take down and rebuild the 90 gallon fish tank in the living room to do a fish rotation before the delivery of the new 90 gallon fish tank and stand for the den. While Alan was playing with fish and fish poo water, I set to working on the closet re-org in the blue guest room. Phase One was planning and buying materials from the Container Store Elfa shelving sale a few weeks ago. Phase Two was demolition of the old cheap closet system trying not to tear up the walls too much. Phase Three was completed last night before the bulk of the Superbowl, which was spackling, sanding, painting and cutting in on the edges of the closet. Now that those are done, we can get on with Stage Four which is installation of the Elfa closet system and putting back away more organized of the pile of stuff currently taking up residence on the guest bed and floor of the guest room. We pack a goodly amount of stuff in that 7'x5'x2' space. :)

Sadly the weekend ended with the Patriots losing, me screwing up a row in the knitting and having to take it out and re-doing it poorly (twisted stitches), and us losing our two pink-striped torpedo barbs and the jawless rainbow fish in the trauma of moving them to a holding tank while the living room tank is redone. sigh.

 While I had a great weekend, it was not so good for my poor feet. My left big toe has still been sensitive from the severe stubbing I did to it during Labor Day weekend, but as long as I don't stub it again, or even lightly tap it on something, I'm okay. Thursday night I dropped my nightstand on my right big toe, and boy has it been letting me know since then. I was good and iced it immediately afterward, and again later that night, as well as putting a little neosporin on the scratched skin, but man is it still sore. And then... And THEN! I was vacuuming upstairs and stepped on a needle with my left heel. Either the needle was bent by the vacuum cleaner, or it got bent when it struck the bone, because pulling said needle out was the suck. It had a nice fishhook like tip now that I had to figure how to extract from my heel. I tried to squeeze as much blood out as possible to clean the wound, and put some peroxide and neosporin on it, but that thin of a wound means that microscopic stuff likely is left inside. Luckily I'm already on antibiotics for a sinus infection, and I've made an appointment tomorrow to get a tetanus shot, and until then I just want to take drugs, eat chocolate, and elevate my foot. 

But it really was a great weekend.
So good weekend, pictures are coming, and I really need a nap, or something.

 So, as planned, and mentioned by Theo and Padraigia, Theo and I went shopping on Tuesday night. She and I are very different shopper types. She goes in with a goal, and is done once she finds the solution to her problem. Me? As attested to earlier, I like to make sure I haven't missed anything in the store. While I can do the occasional surgical strike missions, I don't necessarily need a goal to go shopping. Ah, another successful night of retail therapy. I think for Theo it was like the torture of physical therapy, my amusing antics aside. But for me, it was like chocolate and peanut butter therapy.

Wednesday was taken up with some errands at CVS, the dry cleaners, the chiropractor, and the grocery store before coming home to put stuff away and start on the laundry. Sadly I got a later start on the laundry and also wasted time trying to paint my toes (that I really need to remove and start all over on) so I didn't finish the laundry and still got to bed very late. (I swear, I'm a pretty good girly girl until it comes to the areas of make-up and nail polish, and then I might as well just give up, because I end up looking like I had a turret's attack during the application.)

So, last night I finally finished up the laundry, and did a little beading/jewelry making. One of my sweet faculty members brought back a beautiful lozenge shaped tiger's eye pendant for me from his recent trip to Taiwan. It is so lovely, but it has been sitting around in its plastic baggy waiting for something to be done with it. Inspired by a recent LJ chat with Courtney and by looking at Isobel's lovely jewelry at MOD, I decided it was time to get this done. I had a peach colored strand of jasper beads which would do, but not directly against the pendant itself, so I needed some other stuff to make it work. So, Monday I had swung by a JoAnn's to get some basic supplies (wire, tools, clasps, additional glass beads in the right tone, etc.) and I spent that night organizing the materials a bit. Last night I sat down in my comfy chair with the supplies and laid the pattern out and went to town. Once I finished the necklace, with glass pearl spacers between the pendant and jasper beads, I started noodling around the idea of a matching bracelet. I had enough beads to make two interesting and coordinating bracelets (with no clasps, b/c bracelet clasps are from the debil) and finished up the entire set before midnight while watching Tim Gunn's Guide to Style. (I love this new show on Bravo btw.) I thought about wearing my new necklace and bracelets set today, but it's causal Friday, so I will end up debuting it for the wedding tomorrow. 

I really need to spend some quality time with my laptop and the camera to get some pictures of my new jewelry and our new organization furniture up onto my Flickr site. This is just pitiful. 

 Wow, Invisible Power went fast, but I still have an extra copy each of  The Book of Margery Kemp ISBN 0-14-043251-5 and New Worlds, Lost Worlds by Susan Brigden ISBN 0-713-99067-8  that no one has spoken for. Free to a good home. Seriously.

So last night I took a nap when I got home. I was just too tired and the lure of the comfy bed too strong. Once I woke up though, I found a burst of energy, or at least cleaning desire. So I emptied a bunch of the bathroom and bedroom trashcans and then went to work on my dresser-tops. 

See, I have this dirty little secret. And it is that I use the horizontal surface on the top of my dressers as a dumping ground. I theorize that it all came about from sharing one bathroom with two sisters. I just got in the habit of not storing my toiletries in the bathroom on the counter, they just went on the dresser instead. This worked well in a dorm, and also in the college apartment, since the potty-room was tiny. I think the only time I've actually used a full counter-top in a bathroom was when I roomed with Mel and we each got our own bathroom with lots of counter. And it has served me well in living with Alan since we seem to have small bathrooms without lots of counter space. 

The main downside of this practice is that I tend to pile and then never readdress. In the bathroom, you have to clean it every now and then. On my dresser tops, the piles can simply grow and grow and Alan only occasionally picks on me about it. So, I finally decided that last night was dresser-top purge-time. It took an hour (or more) but I finally cleaned up the old clothing tags, CVS receipts, extra button-bags, small purses, used hair ties, random notes, and lots and lots of dust bunnies to make the dresser tops presentable again. Wow, Alan came to check on my twice since I guess he was worried. Really, since I've been thinking of needing new bedroom furniture anyway, it is the first logical step to upgrading. After that cleaning spree, I had a low-key dinner, watched the Closer, and then spent some time adding new books to my online library listing at LibraryThing.com. That was productive, although there are still a few new books that need to be added and resorted or something. Apparently I've just been in a purging and organizing streak lately. Gosh I hope it continues.

Tonight is ideally shopping with the superfantastic Theo, and then post-practice dinner with friends. Hooray.