Four more rounds.

Four more rounds, and then I start the decrease rounds on the doll skirt. Another inch and a half after that, and I will be done with the decorative panel on the back, and then it’s just plain knitting and occasional decreases until I reach the hem, where I will masochistically double the stitches and knit a ruffle.

I took my two hours yesterday afternoon. Went up to the credit union and pulled out some cash, stopped at the Plano location of L&L Hawaiian Barbecue (Lewisville location, owned by different folks, closed a few months ago) just for some of their macaroni salad, almost instantly carbed-out and decided not to go to the temple last night, but to come home and go straight to bed.

Missed the worst of the congestion on Highway 121 and detoured through Arlington, first to deposit the cash in my account so I can pay an extra bill, then by the office where Fourthborn and Fiancé work. (LittleBit is now working for the same company, but in a different office; at Fourthborn’s suggestion, I waved to her purse in Fourthborn’s drawer.)

Seeing them gave me a second wind, so I ran by NailDude’s and did some much-needed personal maintenance. And got a bit of entertainment: he always has the TV on, and he/we were watching a sequel to High Noon in which the talents of several actors were utterly wasted. I got to see Pernell Roberts (the dangerously handsome Cartwright son from Bonanza) be a rogue sheriff, Lee Majors not-be Gary Cooper, and David Carradine grin sheepishly. I don’t know who the blonde was who had the Grace Kelly role; she was lovely and impeccably costumed, and whoever wrote her dialogue should be severely beaten with an editor’s red pencil.

And as I was nearing home, I thought, “I want an ice cream cone. There is a Braums across the street from the chapel. If I go finish entering the visiting teaching into our computer while the other ward is having their activities, I will be safe in the building, and I can reward myself with a cone when I’m done.”

So I did, then proofread the changes to see if any of the people I had assigned were on our do not contact list; two were, and I unassigned them. (In every ward of the church, there are people who do not want to come to church, do not want to participate in the ordinances and blessings of activities in the church, but for one reason or another do not want to leave the church and have their names removed from the membership rolls. Part of my job is to make sure that we do not bug them. And once in awhile, somebody who got mad, or got offended, has a change of heart and comes back to church. Much rejoicing when that happens.)

I was standing in the check-out line at Braums, with half a gallon of orange juice in one hand and my planner in the other, waiting to order my ice cream cone, when there was a quiet “boo!” and a lean into my shoulder on the right, from the husband of my secretary, and the two young-adult sons of another friend on the left. I had a nice chat with the three of them while I waited. Good guys, all.

I am looking at my couch, which is looking more like a junk mail repository than an article of furniture, and at the pile-up of bags and baggage at the end of it. My visiting teacher is coming over tonight. It’s a good thing she’s coming to see me, and not my house. Tomorrow will be the third consecutive Saturday in which I spend the morning doing church stuff. I do have quarters to do laundry when I’m done with more eternal matters. And I need to get over to Secondborn’s to see the recent changes inside and out, and I’d better hurry, because they have a buyer for it.

Quick, somebody, hand me a spare day that nobody else knows about, OK?