That blur you see? C'est moi!

Work has been so crazy-busy that it makes the crazy-busy of yesteryear look like a Sunday School picnic. I am thoroughly enjoying this. I go home six kinds of tired, but with an enormous sense of accomplishment.

Have been puttering a lot at home. While cleaning off the desk (an ongoing project) I discovered a sheaf of unused Pottery Barn gift cards, which I took to the store after work last night. I came home with a dozen green napkins to go with my new salad plates and the rest of the stuff they go with. And I still have enough on the cards to buy two-thirds of a dining room chair, if I chose.

I am blogging after work. I desperately need to go get my nails done, but I will have to go home and let the cat out first.

I found a note that said fax title to [sister], which reinforces her statement that (somewhere) we have possession of the title to the truck. I will keep digging.

I was supposed to bring black bean soup to work today, and I put everything into the crockpot last night. Sometime during the past year, it gave up the ghost. The good news is that those two crockpots that I gave away last month, were working ones, so far as I know. And I think there is a ginormous oval one up on the top shelf in the kitchen. (Note to self: get the step ladder and find out.) The bad news is that half a dozen cans of stuff had been sitting out overnight, and I was not willing to play Russian roulette with the health of my coworkers, so down the disposal it went.

On the other hand, there are now half a dozen fewer cans in my pantry, which is somewhat helpful.

Our stake president has given us the challenge to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. Not a challenge for me, as I listen to it on my drive to work every day, and when I am running errands on the weekend. To make it a bit more of a challenge, I have assigned myself the pleasant task of rereading it in French, and as of last night I am through the third chapter of First Nephi.

Zut alors all around!

I may have found a home for the case and a half of Ensure that is taking up space in the kitchen and the fridge. One of our friends is also fighting cancer, and she is a little bitty thang, as we say here in Texas. I think Beloved would be happy to try to fatten her up a skosh.

This morning I found his notes for a week of breakfasts, dating back to the fourth week of our marriage. Light fare for most of the week, and a big country breakfast for Thursdays, because that is (was, and will be again, as of next week) my long day: work, then temple.  My leave of absence will be over next Thursday, and I am looking forward to going back, although I fear that I will have forgotten much of my training.

Lovely message from his best friend, out near the West Coast, thanking me for something small that I did, and expressing the wish to meet me sometime in this life. I replied that later this year, I will be visiting my sister for a few days, and I could easily swing down there and meet the friends who still live in that old ward. I have a number of people I could visit in the Pacific Northwest.

That is all I can come up with for now.

Trying this on my phone.

Really good day at work. Had a honey-do list as long as my arm. Got quite a few items checked off. Printed bank statements do I may reconcile tomorrow.  Canceled Beloved's subscription to the Scouting magazine. Ordered new checks for my primary account. Sent the legal description to my attorney. Learned that I need the original ppw if I want to file those affidavits. Got a ton of stuff done for my attorneys. Picked up Chinese for a drive by fooding. Came home and gave Mel and Squishy some mail and loaned them all three seasons of Downton Abbey in exchange for three slices of pineapple upside down cake. Ate half a slice. Watched half of Cat Ballou until the sound went out. Heading for bed now.

Probably another short post.

The family council went well. I think we have come up with a plan that will keep me here in the house, without having to live on ramen noodles (much as I love them) or cat food. We are hoping for a meeting with my attorney sometime next week to get the ball rolling on probating the estate. Then, I think, we renegotiate the interest rate on the mortgage. And I have already begun the process of canceling the credit cards. Apparently since I was an authorized user but not a co-owner, I am not legally responsible for the balances??? I sent two emails out and have heard back on one of them. I will fax a copy of the death certificate while at work tomorrow.

Deep cleansing breath. And Knit Night tomorrow night. Blogging might be a little sparse for awhile until I choose a new internet provider.

Things I did today.

Slept in until almost 7:30. I know. Made myself a cheese sandwich, grabbed the cable box, two remotes, and a cord, and put them in the back seat. Grabbed the new license plates. And a death certificate. And a bottle of Ensure. And my knitting.

Headed over to the garage for what I hoped would be an easy fix on the trouble light and then a safety inspection plus the installation of the new plates. Got a lot of knitting done. A lot. Enough that I finished the first repeat of the second motif of StellaLuna and inserted another lifeline and made a good start on the second repeat. I was in a comfy chair at the garage for the better part of five hours. I left with a new catalytic converter (still on warranty from last year, huzzah!), no more trouble light, and new plates.

Came home and dropped off my knitting and various bits of paperwork, made another sandwich (this time with some spicy allegedly-brown but suspiciously yellow mustard to unbland it) and lit out for the cable company. They have an electronic waiting list. And a popcorn machine. And bottled water. I was #22, but a lot of folks apparently got tired of waiting, because half a dozen or more of them did not step forward when their names went up on the screen.

A very nice young man helped me to disengage from cable TV and the land line. I had planned to keep the internet, at least for a few weeks, but their company policy is that if you only have one type of service, you cannot get direct billing. I was disinclined to give them my debit card number, so I cancelled the whole shebang and was very glad that I had taken that copy of the death certificate. It came home with me and will be available for the next time I need to prove that Beloved can no longer be held to a given contract.

On Monday I will unplug the modem and take it to work with me and drop it off on the way home. No more collection calls for people who might have lived here sometime. That is what this woman calls one truly swell foop!

My new salad plates are out of the dishwasher and up on a shelf. I am thinking of making a run to a discount department store for which I have a gift card, to see if they might have a dozen napkins that would tone with the plates and everything else. I am also thinking of staying home, washing a couple loads of laundry, and putting in one of the movies we have, to see if it is a keeper or not. I can always stop at the department store after work next week. And I have spent quite enough money for one day.

Maybe I will bake a pan of cornbread and enjoy it with some of the buttermilk I brought home after work last night. So nice to have the evening ahead of me, a day of productivity behind me, and enough energy remaining to cross a few more items off my honey-do list.

As V-days go...

Probably in the top five, definitely in the top ten. I came home to find notes tucked into the wooden Viking that stands by our front door, a plate of cookies, and more valentines in the mailbox. May I just say that my friends and family are amazing?

Long-time readers will remember my elation at picking up a dozen Waverly dinner plates on closeout at Target for $10, several years ago. These were followed by a splurge at Hobby Lobby, resulting in a dozen earthenware bowls shaped like poppies and a dozen wee heart-shaped ramekins. Then a dozen hand-blown goblets from Pier One, followed by gold-leafed glass chargers brought home one or two at a time until I had a full complement.

I have been using some of my scarlet glass salad plates but wishing for something that toned a little better with the dinner plates. (I am long since past the days of matchy-matchy, but the red plates were an artistic stopgap and nothing more.) The night that I scored seasons two and three of Downton Abbey, I nipped into Pier One for a little visual inspiration. Boy, did I ever find it! So yesterday I put one of the plates into Lorelai before leaving for work, and I made a beeline out of the parking garage.

Bingo! Not a perfect match, because that would be boring, but I now have a dozen salad plates that pick up the whisper of darker green in the border of the dinner plates. I need to take a few minutes and remove the price stickers so I can run the dishwasher and get the plates up on a shelf where I can admire them. I am not ready to start having friends and family over for dinner (the dining room table is still out in the garage), but this is another small step forward into whatever the new normal will be.

Work went very, very well. Another day or two like that, and I will feel like I know what I am doing.

I finished the last of the thank-you notes, a blessing of having awakened at a quarter past three. You would think that among all those cards (fifty or more over the past month) there would be some duplicates, but I don’t recall any.

The respiratory yuck of the past week appears to be more or less over. I am so thankful.

It’s been a month, today. I have a whole new appreciation for the elasticity of time. In some ways it feels like yesterday that he died. In others it feels an eternity. And through it all, for the most part, peace and joy and calm have prevailed.

We have stake conference this weekend, and I am looking forward to it. I love the Saturday night meeting best. It’s adults-only, and I always seem to hear counsel that is meant just for me. Heaven knows I could use some now. We are having a family council on Sunday night, so I’m glad that the Beloved side of the tribe will have had a weekend of inspiration and instruction. We have a lot to discuss and decide. The boys are good men, with good hearts. My kids will be there, in person or via Skype, to support the rest of us.

Happy Valentines Day!

Yesterday was another remarkably productive day, notwithstanding the phone interview with Social Security, followed immediately afterward by the monthly support staff meeting.

The woman at Social Security was informative and kind. I typed all sorts of notes into a Word document and later emailed it to myself at home. I’m to apply for Medicare Part A when I turn 65, and I’ve calendared that. She also informed me that since I was married to the children’s father for more than 10 years, I might be want to file for divorced-spouse benefits prior to filing as Beloved’s widow; it might be equivalent to what I would get from Beloved. (Currently there is about a $300 difference between the benefits.) She says that it is perfectly legal and appropriate, and that many ex-wives do that, even if they have remarried.

I will do what makes the most sense financially when that time comes. It would take nothing away from what the children’s father draws from Social Security. And the very-human part of me thinks that it might be a good karma cleansing activity, considering how much unpaid child support there was. If I decide to file on the children’s father’s account, I would need my original marriage certificate and original or certified divorce papers, both of which I have.

I cancelled Beloved’s subscription to the newspaper via email before leaving for work and got a lovely, old-fashioned response from one of their customer service representatives. There is another $29 a month, found.

I called Squishy on the drive home to see if he might be available to come disconnect the cable box and hook the air rave to the router. He was, and they both came over, and we had a nice if brief visit. Mel’s mom had a sudden emergency at home: her refrigerator gave up the ghost and started spouting water all over the kitchen.

Whatever did we do before cell phones?

So now I can take the cable box back and cancel the land line as well. That alone will save me another $110 a month, and if I tether the computer to my smart phone and stop paying for internet, that would be another $60 saved ($70 on internet, less a $10 increase on my portion of Firstborn’s family plan for my cell phone service). That’s nearly $250 a month back into my cash flow, plus the $400 I am now saving on benefits at work.

I am in no danger of having to eat cat food. I am simply retrenching so that I am not tied down to services I no longer need. I have lived hand to mouth for much of my adult life, and those skills are quite useful at present. $600 a month equals over $7,000 a year saved and turned to another use, whether it be emergency savings or debt reduction or some combination of both.

I want to be debt-free again. I want that more than anything else of a temporal nature. I want to be living where Heaven needs me to be, doing what I am supposed to be doing. And until we get the estate settled, I’m not sure I can trust myself to receive or understand the right answers as far as that is concerned. Nevertheless, I am content to make a little progress on all fronts, every day, until the peace in my temporal affairs is as clear and sure as the spiritual and emotional peace which I already feel.

I am so blessed. I know that Beloved has not forgotten me, that the connection remains and will only get stronger with time. I am still waiting to hear back from Salt Lake on the sealing cancellation, but I have enough on my plate for today, and I will just deal with today’s portion and not worry about tomorrow’s.

Happy Valentines Day, everyone. I am taking half a sleeve of Thin Mints to work, in order to celebrate enthusiastically but (somewhat) sensibly.

Edited to add that the financial changes I am making are in no way to be construed as a criticism of Beloved’s financial priorities. He was passionate about football and cooking, so it made perfect sense for him to subscribe to cable TV. He used a prepaid cell phone, which he used chiefly as an electronic address book. He made most of his phone calls on the land line and did not text. At all. And he certainly never criticized me for what I have been spending on my own cell phone each month for unlimited this and that. My job has encouraged me to embrace technology; he was far from being a Luddite. What worked for us, two months ago, no longer works for me. And so I am making changes.

Veryquickupdate.

I have the phone interview with Social Security this morning, followed immediately by the monthly staff meeting. Work is going rather well. I still do not feel entirely in control of my workflow, and I am nowhere near as productive as I used to be, but I am gaining ground on both.

I am about one-third up the first repeat of the second chart on StellaLuna. I think I will insert another lifeline when I get to work.

I thought I would finish the last batch of thank-you notes this morning, but I discovered another handful of cards when I tidied the trays in the living room this morning. So maybe tomorrow; definitely by the time I leave for work on Friday, unless there is another influx.

I have the insurance disbursement and paid the mortgage yesterday.

My bags are packed for work.

I slept for nearly seven hours last night.

Life is good.

I missed the FedEx driver.

Came home from dinner with the Empty Nesters last night (crab and corn soup, duck on rice, both very tasty) to find a sticky-note on the storm door from FedEx. So I sent an email to the office manager and SemperFi (because I do not yet have my new attorney’s email memorized) and left a voicemail for the receptionist and my new attorney, letting them know that I would be in after making a quick run to FedEx for a package pickup.

Unless I miss my guess, this would be the package of drafts for the insurance policy, one day before I was going to have to write a check for the mortgage out of my primary checking account. I have more than enough funds to do that, but a limited supply of temporary checks, and I haven’t taken the time to order new checks.

I am nearly to the bottom of the stack of cards and letters that have poured in since Beloved’s death. I had to print off a fresh sheet of return address labels and break open the third box of note cards. I have done a much better job of keeping up with this than I did after we got married last year. We had two Christmas cards that we had not sent out, to the elders serving foreign missions from our ward, because Beloved had wanted to insert a personal note. I wrote those notes this morning, and the cards will go out today.

I am starting to make serious progress on StellaLuna. I worked on it a bit last night while watching and/or listening to one of the episodes from season three which I watched on PBS a couple of weeks ago. I am planning for a quiet evening at home, more knitting, a load or two of laundry, and maybe catching up to the broadcast I missed on Sunday night. I am hoping for sufficient self-discipline not to watch ahead and spoil the rest of the season for myself. I think I can: there are two boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my sock drawer, where they have been for two and a half weeks, unopened, demonstrating that I do have a modicum of patience. If only a modicum.

Time to log off, pack my lunch, and take one last bag of trash out to the can, which I set out on the curb last night. I love trash day. Not so much the schlepping of cans to the curb and back, but the sense that at least one day a week, I am making inroads upon the chaos that is mortality.

Poor Anna. Poor Mr. Bates.

I came home early from work on Friday (more on that, later) and have spent much of the past 40+ hours napping, snacking, and watching the second season of Downton Abbey.

When I began watching the series a few weeks ago, there was much going on that made no sense to me. Having now watched from its premiere to the end of season two, I have a greater understanding of the multiple story arcs and a much greater appreciation for the richness of the writing. Even the minor characters are treated respectfully, from William’s father to the shell-shocked veteran who briefly serves as footman. (And I have a grudging respect for Miss O’Brien, who is allowed to show tenderness and compassion as a respite from her usual Machiavellian doings.)

The patient Anna and the beset Mr. Bates marry and have one glorious and tastefully photographed night together before he is whisked away to stand trial. She is my favorite of all the characters, because she embodies so much to which I aspire: devotion, patience, loyalty, determination, perseverance, respect for others and for self, and a willingness to tackle the hard stuff.

I love Robert’s remark that we must be mindful of the ladies’ delicate natures. (This, after Anna, his daughter, and his wife have just smuggled an inconveniently dead man out of his daughter’s bedroom.) A good woman is frequently far more pragmatic than an equally good man. I know that I have learned to be more so, over the years. When I was young, it was all about pleasing a man. I learned a lot of helplessness while married to the children’s father. Thankfully, the fallow years gave many opportunities to unlearn it, and I think I have most of it out of my system.

I paid a few bills yesterday, and I used the pattern in “One for the Money,” a pamphlet published by the church many years ago, to set up a spreadsheet to pay off the charge cards. I paid off the smallest one and am saving that receipt in the “Estate” envelope for when we probate. The card itself will go into the shredder as soon as I post this, and tomorrow I will contact the company and request that they close the account.

I am hoping that when we complete our tax return, the medical expenses will zero out the lack of withholding on Beloved’s disability income, and that we will owe less than $200. A refund would be lovely, and I am not holding my breath. I just want to break even, more or less.

I am trying to look ahead, over the next six months or so. I hope we will have the estate probated by then, that I will have another card paid off, and that each of us will continue to strive to be kind to one another. I am calling a family council for next Sunday night, as today is the twins’ birthday, and I think it should be strictly for worship and celebration, not for family business.

Poor Anna. Poor Mr. Bates. But not, however, “poor me.” I feel calm and steady today. I am certainly well-rested. I am tucking season three into the media cabinet, unwrapped. I want to enjoy the broadcast tonight and anticipate the remaining ones in the season, with no spoilers.

And I shall have to save the account of my wild ride home from work on Friday for another post, although if we are friends on Facebook, the Readers Digest version is there.

Just like Beloved and me.

Movie Mom had this link. It is precious. And I had to grab a few tissues afterward.



Who would have thought that Fourthborn’s gift of a doll for my birthday, back in 2009, would have led me to Squishy and Mel? Or that a mutual friend’s introduction would have borne fruit (i.e., an age-appropriate man did not run, screaming, in the opposite direction as had so many of his fellows)? And that I would have been the last petri dish in the experiment when Project Wife was over?

Some would call it a fascinating series of coincidences. Others might say that we were foreordained to meet (and it will be interesting to find out if we covenanted to find one another, before we came to earth).

I call it Magic, in the best and most Godly sense. Heaven’s fingerprints are all over it. And Valentines Day is still my favorite holiday, no matter that Beloved and I will be celebrating it just out of reach of one another. He is still my Beloved, and I am his, and I would do it all over again.

Day One with two.

Thankfully, SemperFi was in court all day. I got all the outgoing mail, out. I got all of SemperFi’s incoming mail read, uploaded, and dealt with, and most of my new attorney’s. I wasn’t bored or looking for work, once, all day. (Today I will deal with the new attorney’s mail first, after I finish typing a report for SemperFi.)

The biggest challenge was that every half hour to forty-five minutes, I needed to get up from my desk (which is good for me, at least in principle) to go track down my new attorney and find out how we do things. I put a sticky note on his desk, telling him that I needed to put a bell on him. Maybe I just need a clapper?

His former secretary was only in the office the first part of the day, so she was unavailable for consultation. I got a lot of exercise, walking all over the office until I found him. He’s a seasoned attorney and a hard worker, and he doesn’t sit still for long.

Well, I was wanting a way to incorporate more exercise into my day. I just didn’t think it would be during working hours.

We will have a docket meeting after lunch, as all the attorneys will be in the firm meeting this morning. That will give me a chance to finish SemperFi’s report. I have two, maybe three, new cases to open next week, between them.

Sufficient unto the day are the weevils thereof.

The training meeting last night was wonderful and inspiring. Among others, Sister Esplin of the General Primary Presidency was there, in the flesh. Twelve stakes (=dioceses) and 120 wards (=parishes) were represented at the various meetings in various locations (training for Primary, Relief Society, and Young Women).

Firstborn, were you in training too last night?

Hardly any knitting got done yesterday, just a little before the meeting started last night, and then I came home and read the funnies and went right to bed. Woke up at 3:00 with cranky sinuses (much better now after being vertical for an hour and a bit) and am going back to bed until the alarm goes off.

I think it’s going to be a terrific day, once it starts for real.

(PS to Alison: I don’t think Ensure tastes bad at all. Reminds me of Metrecal from when I was young.)

“Did you flat-iron your hair?”

No, unlike some of my coworkers who have to spend hours laboriously straightening their hair or spend a fortune on the Brazilian Blowout (which, to me, describes a meal at Texas de Brazil, but I digress), this is the hair I was born with. I forgot to grab a headband yesterday (will not make that mistake today), and I spent a good chunk of the day tucking my hair behind my ears.

Straight. As. A. Stick.

I had a very pleasant surprise at work. I had been under the impression that the new attorney was my responsibility only while my coworker was on medical leave, and that I would have to give him back when she returned. My office manager clarified: I get to keep him! So I am even happier than I was when I went to work. I moved all of his red ropes over to my file cabinet, and I rearranged (slightly) the organizing bins above my desk to separate the bits that are personalized for Attorney A from the ones I will need for the new attorney.

I really need to come up with new names for them. OK, Attorney A, who served as a Marine, is now SemperFi (you might have to remind me), and I cannot call my attorney the new guy, because that’s what I called Beloved before I felt free to call him Beloved, and that just would not do.

Speaking of Beloved, he made a cameo appearance in the dream I was having just before the alarm went off. We were traveling, and I think we were staying at a hotel in Turkey, and I was emptying out my bag onto the bed, looking for something or other. Beloved and I were planning to visit an allegedly famous something (which is probably not in Turkey at all), and he suggested that I ask the concierge, or possibly one of the servants, for the best way to get there. And then he walked out of the room, and out of the dream, but it was nice to visit with him and to be planning an adventure together.

And it was very nice that he was the husband in my dream, not the children’s father or some random stranger. (Not that there was any mushy stuff.) He was just there, and everything was lovely and matter-of-fact.

I blame the setting in Turkey, and the servants, on season one of Downton Abbey. I watched episodes four and five after coming home from Costco. I am pleased to report that even though Turkey and servants featured in my dream, my behavior was (unlike Lady Mary’s) entirely suitable.

I seem to have been smacked upside the head by the Italics Fairy this morning.

The Costco trip was uneventful. I picked up Squishy and Mel, opened my own account, which they will share, and had the nice woman at Costco shred Beloved’s card (on another son’s account) while we were there. I also purchased at least $150 less than I would have, had Beloved been along for the trip. I miss him, and the grocery stores miss him, and the garden will miss him this spring, but my food budget is heaving a sigh of relief.

No more supplements that are useful in fighting cancer. No more massive quantities of frozen fruit for smoothies. I am drinking up the case and a half of Ensure at the rate of two or three bottles a week. If I slug one down on the drive to church on Sunday, I can get through three hours of meetings without falling over. I simply adjust the other components of breakfast accordingly.

Speaking of breakfast, I had better get moving. I changed up my routine a little this morning and have already performed my ablutions. And I laid out part of what I want to wear today, before retiring last night. Consequently, it is now a little after 6:30, and I could walk out the door in ten minutes if I chose. (I don’t, but I could.)

Work went well.

Which is not to imply that other things did not. I spent half an hour or so with the secretary who is going out on medical leave, and another fifteen minutes or so visiting with her new attorney, who beginning tomorrow will be my new attorney, at least for the next four weeks. We will have a docket meeting on Friday, but I sent out some of his mail yesterday and will send out more of it today, and I read the incoming mail; she worked most of it. I have a scheduling order to calendar today.

My other attorney is still in trial on one of our oldest cases. That should end sometime today, and I will be glad to put that case to bed.

I headed straight for the church after work, and I got to help with a bit of the decorating for the Blue and Gold banquet (Cub Scouts). I ate a little lasagna and a bit of salad, then came home and re-watched the third episode of the first season of Downton Abbey. And then I went to sleep. One of the options on our alarm clock, is to wake to music. Beloved had it set to the classical station, which I much prefer to that infernal electronic beeping. I no longer wish to chuck the clock through the bedroom window in the morning, and it goes without saying that the snooze alarm is a thing of the past.

There is up. There is not-up. There is no snooze.

Another two rows on the shawl, but lifeline not yet installed. That should happen later today.

Tonight after work I am going up to Costco. If the twin who had Beloved on his account is able to meet me there, I will take him up on his generous offer to substitute me in. And if not, I will use my corporate discount to get an account of my own. I have already made my shopping list. I don’t need a lot, not anywhere near what we would have bought if Beloved were still mortal, but I do need a few things, and I want them now, rather than fighting the crowds on Saturday.

And then I will re-watch episode four, which will put me in position to watch the one I missed on first viewing and couldn’t figure out how to get to via the remote.

I haven’t done anything further to prepare for our tax return since yesterday morning before work, but I did write another six thank you notes today. The pile of unanswered cards is steadily diminishing.

Minutiae, and good news.

I am still slogging through receipts for our tax return. I picked up summaries from the pharmacies on my way home last night, which really helped me to separate prescriptions from ordinary purchases. Right now I am working on our meals for the trips to MD Anderson.

I got some great news yesterday at work. One of the secretaries will be out on medical leave for a few weeks. (That’s not the good news, although she will feel much better when she is healed and back at work.) I am assigned to her attorney for the duration! It’s the new one who was hired late last year, and I thoroughly enjoy him as a person.

I am getting together with her today to discuss her workflow, and we will have a docket meeting later in the week, which will include him. I don’t need docket meetings with my primary attorney, because he works two weeks ahead of his docket and is exquisitely organized. He also does his own scheduling, so I will be scheduling for the new attorney, which will be a stretch. But I am very, very excited about this prospect.

I am re-watching season one of Downton Abbey. After picking up the prescription summaries last night, I headed over to Barnes and Noble to spend some Christmas money. Renewed my membership, which had been lapsed for six or seven years, and picked up season two and season three at deep discount.

Tonight is the Blue and Gold banquet for Scouts. Strangely, the prospect of spending the evening surrounded by hordes of little boys does not make me twitch. (Much.)

And I may have a buyer for the truck. (The first one fell through.)

In knitting news, I am nearly done with the first pattern section in StellaLuna. The point protectors have done an excellent job of keeping the stitches on the needle (no more disasters, huzzah!), and I am almost ready to insert my first lifeline. Heading into my studio to grab a ball of #10 crochet cotton.

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

On the one hand...

Insomnia is a most annoying visitor, particularly when I did not take a nap after church yesterday. On the other hand, I wrote seven thank you notes while I was up. The one from my sisters in the temple still makes me weep: the love just pours out of that envelope.

I am not quite ready to resume serving in the temple, and I still have another month on my leave of absence. But I miss that weekly booster shot of holy peace, and I miss my friends with whom I serve. I think I will be ready to return when the time comes.

Several rows of happy knitting yesterday. I am farther along in the pattern than I was when I frogged it and started over.

I would really like to stay home and sleep this morning, but I have no idea what is on our calendar today, or for the rest of the week. So I will head in and see how it goes, and if worse comes to worst, I can take off early this afternoon. Thankfully, I am not sick. I am just sleepy. And I have a litre or so of Cherry Coke remaining at work.

I found another gift card while working through the piles of paperwork on Beloved’s desk. And I am nearly ready to turn over receipts, etc., to our CPA for our tax return. I just need to make sure that none of the figures I have are duplicates. I added the numbers from the credit card statements after coming home from church yesterday, but I haven’t yet matched them against the paper receipts, especially for the parking.

I think she will be really pleased to have an envelope or two sorted by type, and in alphabetical, then chronological, order within each type. (I know I would be, had I completed my accounting degree. I do not want to be one of those clients who walks in with a shoebox full of unsorted receipts.) And I have already taken steps to assure that the 2013 return will be a cakewalk.

Time to tuck that gift card into my wallet and start organizing my day.

And I would walk 500 miles...

(Actually, I drove 3270 carefully-documented medical miles last year.) And he would walk 500 more...

But he drove 3294 equally well-documented medical miles. I made more progress in the gathering-of-stuff to give to our accountant. I took the mileage log out of the truck, and I found the one I had taken from Lorelai shortly after the first of the year, and also her title, but still no sign of the title on the truck. I am not done looking yet. Also the original of our marriage license. Thirty-five cents in change. More stuff for the shred pile. Several square inches of clean desktop.

I attended Little Philmont this morning. It was mostly terrific. We have Blue and Gold Banquet on Tuesday night (although I am not entirely sure that food will be involved) and another regional training meeting with a member of the General Presidency of the Primary.

And I watched three episodes of Downton Abbey. And knitted two rows without losing any stitches, or my mind.