I go blogging, after midnight, I go blogging, just the way we used to do.

No, I haven't stayed up until all hours. I took a five hour nap after church yesterday, and while my eyes are tired and I think the prudent thing to do would be to go back to bed, I just tried that. For fifteen whole minutes, during which my eyes recovered and my brain kept whirring.

So I got up, turned on the lights, bound off the toe of the eighth pink baby sock and wove in the ends. Here's how the stats played out:

Sock 1: 16.7g
Sock 2: 16.4g
Sock 3: 16.8g
Sock 4: 16.8g
Sock 5: 16.7g
Sock 6: 16.6g
Sock 7: 17.6g
Sock 8: 17.3g

The last two socks were completed or knitted entirely on Magic Loop, because of the 4" DP that went rogue on the floor of the Tardis. I have no idea why they came out nearly a gram heavier than the other six, but they did. I have 13.4g left, not enough to make another sock, which is just fine by me. That remnant will probably go to Middlest for some doll knitting.

Church knitting yesterday was the start of a cowl I'd begun who knows when, in an Aran or DK weight yarn, lovingly mottled in a deep cerise that will tone wonderfully with a dressy T-shirt hanging in my closet. I frogged the earlier cast-on, frogged a second cast-on, decided on 165 stitches for a final number, and am working seed stitch until I run out of yarn. I don't remember who the dyer was, or when and where I bought this, but it is scrumptious, and it's not ballet pink Jitterbug; for the moment that's the only thing that matters.

I am trying to resist the temptation to put on my painting clothes and slap another layer of paint onto my bedroom wall. I got three rounds of cut-in done before the Sabbath began, and one coat of paint on the wall proper, plus random dabs from when I was loading my foam brush to fill in the gaps between the edging roller and the painters tape at the top of the wall. Right now the wall looks like modern art. I am not adamant about having a perfectly uniform finish on this wall. I think it might look cool with a little variation in the color: something like unto gently worn leather. For a first coat, this looks far less scabby than when we did the salmon on the short walls in the living room, and as I sit on my bed and look across the room, I am pleased with the promise this wall shows. I can picture the headboard up against that wall, and lighting, and various bits of art in place. Right now I am thinking of moving the two teal benches (my bargains from Pier One) into my room to serve as end tables on either side of the bed, to bring in touches of teal from the rest of the house. We shall see.

I spent a little while before my nap, working on Schedule A expenses for my 2015 return. Next month I need to calculate how much to have taken out for my medical reimbursement account. I budgeted 25% more for 2014 than for 2013, because I knew I wanted to replace my glasses, but I won't need to do that next year, so I think I can take it back down to the 2013 amount and come out pretty even. I don't mind if I can't get reimbursed for all of my medical expenses. I would mind if I left more than $10 to $25 in the account at the end of the year.

It feels really great to be making forward progress on the house again. The maintenance aspects (cleaning out and removing Beloved's desk, cleaning out and shifting his dresser to the other side of the room so I could paint) were needful and a huge relief, but less aesthetically satisfying.

Time, I think, to knit a round or two, rub some lavender oil on my temples, and see if I can catch more Z's.

Another good night's sleep!

You come here for the excitement, right? Last night was my second good night's sleep in a row. This is one of those "after the trial of your faith, come the blessings" things. I wish I knew what made last week so rough, and what is different this week, so that I could avoid the former and embrace the latter. Meanwhile, I am thankful all the way down to my bones.

After eight (!) hours of sleep, yesterday went smoothly at work. I kept up with the mail, my To-Do's, and various other tasks during the day. I had no difficulty staying alert and was able to shift easily from one task to the next. Which left me not-exhausted at the end of the workday, and that much more able to enjoy Knit Night.

After work I dropped off my sister's birthday package at the post office, then a bag of Beloved's clothing plus a rusty axe head and wrench (I have no idea what either of those were doing on a shelf in my bedroom) at my favorite thrift store in Arlington. This would be the one where I found the Jessica McClintock dress with the Neiman Marcus label for $7.57 for Fourthborn when she was baptized at age eight. White cotton batiste dress and slip, dripping in lace, which she loved and wore until she reluctantly outgrew it. Her princess dress.

I also hit the art supply store for another dozen Prismacolor pencils, and when I got home from Knit Night added those to my inventory list on Evernote. If I buy them a dozen at a time, they are 30% off, which makes them a little cheaper than buying the collections in tins and way cheaper than buying them individually. The discount will increase to 40% for the holidays. I am tackling this the way I did my DMC floss collection, a few items at a time each payday. I have enough clear stackable plastic bins from earlier projects to corral the pencils by rough color themes. There was a clear bin on the bookshelf in the hall that I appropriated last night. Reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks are now in the first box. Everything else is in the second. There is a third one in my room, currently containing two or three pieces of silver flatware that need to be polished and put with the rest of my silverware. And I bought silver polish last week, so there's light at the end of that particular tunnel.

I am nearly done with the eighth pink baby sock, and I am heartily sick of this ball of yarn. There is nothing wrong with it; it's just that there was so much of it, and I got a little bit stubborn and decided to polish it off for good. It's taken weeks and weeks and weeks. Right now the ball is about the size of an extra-large egg. I would not be surprised if there were a black hole wrapped inside it.

I priced plane tickets to Middlest's when I got home last night. The date that I want to fly out is beyond the reach of the airline's booking calendar, but I got a decent estimate and will transfer that much from my tax refund to my vacation savings account.

I will have a couple of funny stories from work to share with you in the near future. You might have to remind me.

Big Hairy Project is done.

The box with Beloved's garments is empty and on the curb with the rest of the recycling. I've contacted the bishop and the high priest group leader for what to do with the unopened packages and the jacket from his ordinance worker suit. (He was cremated in the suit pants.)

The weekend did not get any better, in terms of sleep, but it was still wonderful and blessed. I came home from work two hours early and slept on Friday night, then went to the fireside, the workshops the following day, the evening session of stake conference, and the general meeting on Sunday morning. I got to see friends old and new at one meeting or another. I learned (not from personal experience) that it is possible to have a charley horse somewhere other than one's calf. I have a friend who gets them in her side. Oye.

One of my 4" DPs went rogue and is somewhere on the floorboard of the Tardis. I switched to magic loop and whipped out sock #7 in no time at all. I am on the home stretch of sock #8. And I think I am officially done with that ball of yarn. There might be enough left for another sock. Maybe two. But I am ready to knit something else, and I don't much care what.

I got two drawers emptied in Beloved's dresser. I got the top mostly cleared off. I hung a few items on the south wall of my bedroom. The dolls are dusted and relocated. I like how that part of the room looks. I've calculated how much flooring I will need for my bedroom. I'm hoping to have Beloved's dresser moved to the east wall by the time I go to bed on Saturday night. I've found the bottle of Chomp in the breakfast nook. A little more sleuthing will uncover the tool we used to score the wallpaper there and in the kitchen. I'd like to repaint the west wall in my bedroom over Halloween weekend. I'm off that Monday for my quarterly blood work.

I did not sleep well night before last. Down at 10:00, up at 1:00, down at 2:00 and right back up again, down at 3:00, up at 5:00. It made for a very long day, but was capped off by dinner with another widow at my new favorite Mediterranean restaurant. And I was in bed by 9:00 and slept until nearly 5:00 this morning!

I did put the time to good use yesterday morning. I wrangled two loads of laundry, wrapped my sister's birthday present and the shipping box, gathered up stuff to give Fourthborn when I pick her up for Knit Night, and tossed a few more items into the donation bag.

This morning I ordered my AncestryDNA kit. (Last day to get free shipping.) That was a prompting while at the family history conference on Saturday.

I'm going to wear my Knit Swirl to Knit Night. Huzzah!

Susan, in answer to your question, yes. I am friends on Facebook with several of my blog friends. If you know Tan or Tola or Alison or Ruth, you can find me through them. If not, send me another comment with your email address (which I will harvest but not publish), and I will tell you how to find me. Thank you for asking.

Speed bump. And my hands ache.

So the plan was to come home, deal with the contents of one smallish box, and maybe get family photos hung on the newly freed-up wall in my room. However, the box contained some of Beloved's old clothing, including seven one-piece garments which needed to be properly decommissioned.  I got two taken apart before bedtime. Two more this morning, since I awoke at 3:15 and couldn't get back to sleep. I'm beginning to think that the white noise machine is not right for me. I used the "thunder" setting night before last and slept until my new-normal time of 4:45. Last night I set it to "rain" and hoped that it would not cause my suggestible kidneys to keep me up and down all night.

I finally gave up around a quarter to four and played on Facebook for awhile, then got out the scissors. This is going to be one exceedingly long day. Tonight I have a family history fireside.

On the other hand, my paycheck and my tax refund have both hit my bank account. I paid my tithing online (huzzah!) and have the check made out for the utilities. My lunch is packed, and I know what I'm going to wear, so it's just a matter of sluicing off and scooting out the door to be there when the drive-thru opens at 7:00.

I'm hoping to have just enough oomph left when I finally get home tonight, to decommission #5 and #6, which would leave the last one for tomorrow. I'm not sure how everything is going to get done this weekend. I have a family history conference during the day tomorrow and the evening session of stake conference.

I need Hermione's time turner.

But I'm grateful for Beloved and the opportunity to serve him in a small way by taking care of something that he probably meant to do before he passed. Somebody will be getting a couple of nice pairs of walking shorts, and my hands will move on to the next task.

Another small pocket of order.

Last night I shifted my pretty painted dresser from the west wall to the south wall. It's sitting under the shelf which had been covered in dust and clutter but is now cleared and dusted and sporting my four MSD dolls: Melody, Harmony, Steadfast, and Honor.  I rediscovered an IKEA candle-in-a-glass, also swathed in dust, and got that cleaned out and lit for awhile. My bedroom now smells like warm sugar cookies, although my head is a little stuffy from all that raised dust.

The dresser is also dusted. The four "tinies" (Faith, Hope, Charity, and Temperance) have been dusted, as has the American Girl settee upon which they sit. Chutzpah, Grace, the zombie keychain doll that Squishy gave Chutzpah, and the tiny bear that Beloved gave Chutzpah, are dusted. All of them are hanging out on top of the dresser.

There's a (very) small pile of books by the front door, along with a couple of pictures. A couple more items got tossed into the current "give to Squishy" bag, which is not very full. It's pretty easy to get rid of my stuff. It's harder to know what to do with Beloved's stuff and his mother's. My next big project is tackling the big dresser that was his. It has about a six inch layer of my stuff on top (rather like the desk used to be), and I am dreading the process. I've cleaned out a drawer here and a drawer there, over the past two and a half years, but I need to gird myself and finish the job. It's standing between me and a repainted wall.

I'm home again tonight and hope to make noticeable progress on it. But for now I think I will set the timer for fifteen minutes and tackle something smaller. I love those days when I go to work already having crossed an item or two off the list. I picked up eighteen more Prismacolor pencils on the way home from work last night, and this morning have added them to my inventory on Evernote, in the process discovering that I bought two in the shade they call Pomegranate. Given how much Beloved loved pomegranates, I suspect that was his little joke.

Forgotten poem.

This was another morning when I woke an hour or more before the alarm. I decided to muck out the French laundry basket, which was filled to the brim with books, genealogy, stationery, and the like. I posted that process on Facebook. I also went into my studio, where there was a smaller basket of miscellaneous blank cards, address labels, and envelopes, and put that into the newly organized laundry basket.

In the smaller basket was a folio with the dregs of a collection of Mary Engelbreit postcards and stationery. And the draft of a poem from 2004, six years after my divorce from the children's father.

The fulcrum of my dignity, as a former wife,
was assurance that his spurning was impersonal,
a cool poultice of illness and rationalization
applied to the running sore of my longing.

He had evolved, he thought, above the common need to touch
and lived as contemplative spirit
in a house of breath and bone.

Forsworn, he stands before me now,
telling me of a kindred spirit
whose quiet companionship is present joy,
seeking my blessing.

Eleven years later, I can still remember how devastating that was, though it grieves me no longer. Time, the Atonement which heals not only sin but sorrow, and the love of a most excellent man have done their work. And I am grateful.

A good weekend.

I am ready to hit the floor running when I walk in the door at the office in an hour and a half.

Got an amazing amount of stuff done on Saturday. Attended my young friends' sealing and saw a dear sister from my first ward when we moved to Texas. Was definitely the best-dressed person at the flea market, on my way home. I scored two, two-panel shutters, somewhere between six and seven feet tall. They will go on either side of my bed, once that wall is repainted and my bed is set up. I will attach sconces or wall lamps to them and run the cords behind them to the plug. Saw that on Pinterest and fell in love with it.

From the flea market I went to the grocery store, which is between there and home. Picked up a number of things that I needed. Brought those home, put them away, and headed out again to Central Market to tank the Tardis cheaply and to pick up the glucosamine and a few other things. Stopped at the Lowe's which is across the freeway from Costco and got the switch plates for my bedroom. Came home and put that stuff away. (The shutters are still hanging out in the back of the Tardis, safe from the weather and not re-cluttering the decluttered parts of the house.)

On the way to the wedding reception, I mailed the box to Middlest, dropped off the bags to Fourthborn, and grabbed a quick bite at Arby's in case there was only cake at the reception. I needn't have worried. They kept it simple, but there were all sorts of things that were delicious and safe for me to eat. I did not stay long enough for a piece of cake. I did eat one cookie. I am on something of a cookie kick these days.

It was wonderful to be in my old, Fort Worth ward again, and to see people I hadn't seen since the wedding or the memorial service. There are days when I wish I could scoop up the house, Mel, Squishy, and my easier commute, and plop it all down in a corner of Tarrant County. I know my kids would like it if I were closer.

On the drive home from the reception, I hit three more Lowe's until I had picked up the rest of the switch plates I will need for the middle bedroom, my studio, and the master bathroom. I suspect that this style is being phased out, and given all the colors I am using throughout the house, matching switch plates will help tie it all together.

Tonight is dinner with the Empty Nesters, and I need to call my eye doctor and break the news that my new glasses aren't working. It was hard to keep tail lights and street signs in focus on the drive home Saturday night, and I wasn't that tired. And yesterday, when I was conducting the music in sacrament meeting, I couldn't see the hymnal. I had to pick it up and hold it in my left hand, which made my hand ache. I've been doing business with the eye doctor for twenty years or so, and I have faith in his integrity.

The dishwasher is humming, my lunch is packed, and my bags are at the front door. I know what I'm wearing to work. I am going to set the timer for five minutes and read until it goes off. Thoroughly enjoying The Happiness Project.

Duck! Here come the low-flying blessings!

Well, I was wondering if I could stay busy yesterday, with all the lawyers out of the office. Turns out, I could. SemperFi gave me a 4.5" stack of medical records that he needs to have in chronological order, with the duplicates removed. I got about a third of the way through it yesterday. Maybe more. We will be a lawyer-free zone again on Monday, plus there will be only the mail that's delivered to our box today, so I will have plenty of time to whittle down the remaining pile and maybe even complete the job.

I like doing fiddly stuff, so even though there were mind-numbing, eye-crossing moments, yesterday was productive and mostly enjoyable.

When I got home, the property tax notice was waiting for me. This is not bad news. My taxes get paid from my escrow account, and earlier this year I completed the homestead exemption paperwork that I thought had been done when I refinanced two (!) years ago. I will be paying 27% of what I paid last year and the year before. Which suggests that there will be another escrow refund check come spring, with an accompanying downward adjustment to my mortgage payment.

I got all the clean laundry folded and put away before work yesterday; I was too sleepy to do it when I went to bed Thursday night. I wanted to start my day with a smidgen more progress on tidying my room, so I gathered up the plastic bags that had been stuffed into larger plastic bags and were blocking the doorway to the master bathroom (which I don't use, for other reasons). They are now consolidated into one ginormous bag and waiting patiently by the front door for me to drop them off at Fourthborn's on my way to a wedding reception tonight.

I also found the cassette organizer that I used when I was in college. It is filled with tapes for fingerspelling practice. I texted Middlest: would these be helpful, and do you own a cassette player? Yes, they would, but sadly, no. So I will be packing up my boombox, which I no longer need now that I have all of my music uploaded to iTunes, and the tapes, and a few other things. And I might even get them mailed on my way to Fort Worth this afternoon. I do know where the bubble wrap is. And the packing tape.

I was rather tired when I left the office, and imperfectly nourished. (Hello, three chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon? Must repent.) So on the one hand, pizza with the doll folk was not quite what I needed nutritionally. On the other hand, I sat across the table from two of my favorite doll friends and had a good long visit and worked on the sixth pink baby sock. Came home, read a little, and went to bed.

I woke up a little before 5:00 this morning. Apparently 4:45 is the new 5:30? I am going to look for something large enough to mail the stuff to Middlest, and then I am going to forage breakfast and get ready to attend the sealing of my young friends. I hope to hit Urban Flea after that, and there are a handful of items I need from the grocery store, and I need more glucosamine from Costco. This is shaping up to be a jam-packed day.

I wonder if I can squeeze in a nap?

After the trials of your faith...

... or your patience ... come the blessings. It took me four trips to get everything out to the curb yesterday. When I came home, the yard was groomed (possibly for the last time this year), the various bins were empty, and the desk was G-O-N-E.There are a few small piles in the corner of the room where the desk sat, and I will deal with them one at a time in the very near future.

The biggest and best news is that I have finally e-filed my 2014 tax return. I was expecting a modest refund. By the time I finished with deductions and credits, I was astounded to see that I will be getting approximately three times that amount. I've gotten notification that Uncle Sugar has accepted my return, and somewhere a computer is comparing apples and oranges, chewing its cud, and preparing to give me a nice fresh bucket of moolah.

I also submitted the invoice for my new glasses, for reimbursement from my medical spending reimbursement account. Next month I will have to decide how much to fund the kitty for 2016. (I seem to be overrun with critter metaphors tonight.)

The two library books which are due on Saturday, are waiting by the front door. I'm about to go try to finish a third book. I've started a "to read" list on Evernote. When the author of a book I'm reading, recommends another book that sounds interesting, onto the list it goes. I could probably stay busy for the next six months just reading books that Brené Brown has mentioned in the two books of hers which I've read.

Might not finish that third book tonight. It's getting harder and harder to stay awake while I type. Maybe just a couple of stories and then lights out.

I cannot adequately express how freeing it is to have that desk gone, a chunk of my room uncluttered, and my taxes filed.

Oh, and I officially got half of a second attorney's docket this afternoon. I was about ready to chew a paw off, which would have made typing difficult.

Stuff.

Thanks to the strong arms and backs of some younguns in my ward, Beloved's desk is out of the house and onto the curb, if it didn't get scrounged while I slept. I have a full bag of shredding, two moving boxes, and two recycling bins which will go out on the other curb today, and the trash bag is waiting in the hall. I was shredding merrily this morning when the shredder said, "I'm done. Go play somewhere else." There is another half bag of shredding, but it will have to wait to get topped off. As it is, I will be making multiple trips to the curb before leaving for work.

That desk was huge. The main part was 30" x 60" and the extension 18" x 40". I have, theoretically at least, reclaimed somewhere between 20% and 25% of the floor space in my room. Although you wouldn't know it for the piles, but they will be disappearing over the next couple of weeks. I now feel hopeful that we can get my bedroom repainted and the new bed set up before Christmas.

I vacuumed that corner in my bedroom quite thoroughly last night. It took awhile to find a plug that wasn't at least slightly loose and in need of replacement, but one stretch of carpet is cleaner than it's been since Beloved and I were newlyweds and he was vacuuming regularly. It's going to take me a couple of days to rearrange all the stuff that I shoved into the closet so that we (they) could take the bed apart and lift the big part of the desk over the frame. I'm going to try to scoot out the door early enough that I can swing by Lowe's for the new switch plates before work, but realistically that may have to wait until after work tomorrow or Thursday.

However, the most pressing task is to complete my 2014 tax return. My desk was so daunting in April that I filed for an automatic six month extension. Tonight is Knit Night (huzzah!), but I will be home tomorrow night and Thursday night, which ought to be enough to finalize my deductions and file the return. There's a doll meet on Friday, and I may hold that out to myself as a reward for diligence and responsibility and any other adult virtues I pull out of my hat. Or a corner of my room.

Now to brag about superior customer service. I ordered EQ7 before leaving for work on Friday. I had an electronic receipt almost immediately, and a shipping confirmation by the end of the day. The package was in yesterday's mail at work. I haven't opened it yet because hello? Tax return. If I don't go to the doll meet on Friday night, I'll stay home and install it on my computer and play with pixels.

The fifth pink baby sock is finished, and I've made a fair bit of progress on the sixth. I'm looking forward to Knit Night and some quantity time with Fourthborn and my friends. Just wishing I could squeeze in a catnap before leaving for work. I slept well, almost until the alarm went off, but am still feeling a little like Oliver Twist, "Please, sir, may I have some more?"

Sorry - social butterfly

Monday I saw the special showing of "Just Let Go" ~ it will be out in general release a week from today. It's about the bishop in Houston whose pregnant wife and two children were killed in an accident caused by a 17 year old drunk driver. Not an easy movie to watch, but an edifying one.

Tuesday was Knit Night, and Fourthborn was able to join us. She has been battling insomnia for weeks and had to reset her sleep clock to ordinary people time. I also picked up two handheld pencil sharpeners for my new Prismacolor pencils.

Wednesday I had dinner with one of the sisters I visit teach, in a Mediterranean restaurant that recently moved to a larger space. The food was sublime. I had the leftovers for dinner last night while I stayed (blissfully) at home, noodling around on Facebook in a new group for knitters who specialize in clothing for tiny BJD's.

I have no idea why I awoke an hour ahead of the alarm this morning, but I've not been idle. I organized my growing Evernote collection and updated a couple of programs on this computer. Today is payday, and once my paycheck shows up at my bank (that's the one thing I don't like about the merger; the old bank would show my paycheck a little after midnight, and the new one sometimes shows it after I get to work) I will pay my tithing online (!!!) and my internet bill and move money into various buckets.

I found an Electra bike that I like, and it's relatively affordable, and I can get it in red. I could buy it right now, but I think I will simply put a nice chunk of cash into a savings account and order Electric Quilt 7 instead. I've yet to find my CD for EQ5, and I want to redesign the sashing and borders for the quilt blocks we just completed so that I can finish the top, pick out backing fabric, and send it off for quilting. Yeah. I know. I've always been a purist about hand quilting, but there are only so many hours in a day, and I want to sleep under that quilt sometime before I kick.

Very much looking forward to General Conference this weekend.

Little things, before I sleep

A golden day. Time with friends, a 3-4" stack of paperwork sorted, scanned and/or shredded. A dozen new colored pencils. A semi-fruitful hunt for the electric pencil sharpener. (Which is still MIA, but two boxes are now emptied, and the house is a little more decorated and just that bit more tidy.) Dinner at the stake center before the women's broadcast. Wonderful music and inspirational talks. And a lengthy visit with a new friend I met at the General Conference broadcast last year.

That is all. Going to bed now.

Another good day.

Good day at work, and not just because the next installment of the medallion quilt arrived. I kept up with the incoming mail, worked my To-Do's, and finished another special project for the office manager. I'm enjoying the clean desk at the end of my day. There are only five notifications remaining on the first, big special project, and then I'm done with that. Today we have a quarterly secretarial meeting, which will eat an hour or so. And then, depending on my To-Do's and whatever tasks the incoming mail generates, I will go back to work on examining the patterns (templates) we use to generate our documents. I do hope that I get half of somebody's docket fairly soon, but in the meantime I am finding things to keep me productive and happy.

As I worked on yesterday's special project, I realized that the most satisfying part of it was drawing a line through each case as I worked my way down the list. So I took a roundabout way to Knit Night: instead of driving down I-67 to I-20 and exiting in Grand Prairie, I continued southwest on I-67 to Cedar Hill to one of the many Michaels stores I patronized when getting ready for my wedding. There was a display of adult coloring books just inside the front door, right where I couldn't miss it. It took me a few minutes to find the colored pencils, because I was distracted by another white pumpkin.

There are now four white ones and a tiny silver one on the shelf above my wing chair in the living room. Last week I bought a big rough-hewn one at JoAnn's (when I got the buttons to rescue my brown T-shirt). It and the newest one are perched on the nesting tables by my front door; this new one is all lumpy bumpy and blazoned with green stripes. I tried it up on the shelf with the others but brought it right back down again. Rounding out that display is a framed printable I found on Pinterest and popped into the red frame I bought at my friend's estate sale when I got the herringbone covered armchairs for the dining room table. I need a little something to prop up the printable, because the last line or so is obscured by the lumpy bumpy pumpkin.

I bribed myself before bedtime. Picked up the last dab of junk from in front of the closet in my bedroom and ran the vacuum. I colored for maybe ten minutes and shoehorned the coloring book and box of colored pencils into the bookcase by my bed. I bought "The Time Garden" by Daria Song, an English translation; she's a Korean artist. It's very detailed ~ like my medallion quilt ~ so maybe too fiddly for some people's taste.

The plan for tonight is to pre-wash the fabric for the medallion quilt, if I don't have time to do it after my shower and before leaving for work. If I do, then I'll start cutting out fabric. In this step I will assemble the border which is composed of 1" finished squares. I think all the squares are sewn together into two-patch blocks. If not, there aren't many left to put together, and then I'll take over the dining room table to arrange each of the four strips.

In knitting news, I worked the heel flap, turned the heel, and began the gusset on the current pink baby sock. The ball of yarn does not seem to be getting any smaller! I wonder how many socks I will end up with? This is the yarn that doesn't end, And it goes on and on, my friend. Somebody started knitting it, not knowing what it was, And she'll continue knitting it forever, just because... 

Catch-breath.

No further overtime this week. I am glad. (But grateful for what I was able to work last week.) I spent the first hour and a half of my workday, yesterday, saving confirmations of most of the e-filing that I did last week. There were more confirmations that trickled in throughout the day. I have about a dozen stragglers to clean up. But when I went home, my desk looked like that of a grownup.

I also closed two cases yesterday. And wrangled all of my To-Do's. Today I will catch up the mail. I have another project that the office manager gave two of us, that will fill in the rest of the time. One of our new hires has been attached to a bunch of cases in our office. We have no idea how that happened. But another secretary and I have been meticulously detaching her and making sure that the proper attorney is attached for notification purposes. I love fiddly projects like these. I am very, very good at what one of my coworkers calls "minushka" (minutiae).

I dropped off two of the new library books after work, picked up the moldy raspberries to return them, got that done (exchanged them for a cheese spreader with a handle that looks like three stacked candy corns, so the store and I both came out winners on that transaction), and hit Costco for much needed staples and to top off the Tardis' tank. The numbers are all entered on my spreadsheet, and the receipts are shredded.

Today is recycling day. The bin with papers was ridiculously heavy, so I decanted some of its contents into the other bin. We do single-stream recycling here, but I like to keep paper separate from everything else while I'm gathering it, as everything lies more neatly in its bin that way.

I remembered to order my new glasses yesterday. Not much of a change from the pair I've worn for the past three years. These have held up very well, and they will go into my drawer with the last pair, for emergencies.

Lawn dudes come today. I'll get home from Knit Night to a yard free of random sprouts that are approaching knee high. I will probably get a nasty-gram from the city anyway. And my next installment of the medallion quilt should arrive at the office today or tomorrow, because there was a pending charge on my bank account this morning.

That's it for now. I need to take stuff out to the curb, figure out lunch, shred a couple more items, and hit the road.

More overtime.

Last week I worked 9:00 hours past my usual time. Because I work a 38:45 hour workweek, only 7:45 of it was overtime. Yesterday, the start of the second week of this pay period, I worked another five hours, and I have no idea if or how much overtime there will be over the course of the next few nights. We have a special project that is time-sensitive, and the first aspect of it (over which I was in charge) ended when we went home yesterday. I may or may not be in charge of the next phase. There are things that need doing around the house, which I can only do after work, and some of them are becoming urgent.

I do know what I'm going to do with the overtime. It is earmarked for my bicycle.

Notwithstanding my general absence from the homestead, a few things have gotten done. I bought another white fake pumpkin to amp up the fall decor. And a package of brown and cream buttons to rescue my brown T-shirt, which had two spots that did not come out in the wash. In the wee hours of this morning, I sewed them all on and posted the result to Facebook. (Because if it's not on FB, it didn't happen, right?)

I mostly-cooked dinner for the elders and did a drive-by fooding yesterday. And then I came home for a nap that went somewhat longer than expected. I awoke at 12:30 this morning. So, no grocery shopping and no jog through the pool at the gym. Went back to sleep at 4:30 with the alarm set for 7:30 and barely made it to church on time.

The raspberries which I bought at Central Market yesterday were moldy when I opened them this morning. So I will take them back after work tomorrow and make a desperately needed Costco run. I am about out of a whole bunch of things.

I got a nice nap after church. I did not set my alarm, and I kinda hoped that I would not wake in time for choir practice, because I just wasn't feeling it. But I did, and I went, and as usual I was blessed. I am turning into the class clown of choir (OK, one of several). My children will not be entirely surprised, because I'm known in the family for my wacky sense of humor. But I was always the pleaser when I was in school. The idea of acting out, even a little, to get a laugh was light years beyond me at that time. I was firmly in please don't look at me, don't call on me, don't call attention to me mode for twelve solid years.

It wasn't until I was in college for the third and possibly final time, when I was getting my associates' degree in interpreting for the deaf, that I discovered a love of performance.

OK, I think I'm done for now. I have an intermittently interesting home organization book to plow through. I did get one good take-away before choir practice: keep a first aid kit in my toolbox. Most of the rest of what I've read so far is mildly interesting and not particularly useful. I'm making myself finish this book before tackling the Katie Couric book of quotations from sundry famous people, and the book of Folkwear designs. I've bought and made various items from the pattern line over the past 30 years. My favorite was the Afghani Nomad Dress. And I did a couple of smocks for the girls but burned out before I got one made for all of them. (I figure the Katie Couric book will be entertaining, given the range of people she got quotes from, and my belief that even a stopped clock is right twice a day.)

Being a girl.

Cue the soundtrack. One of the fun things about being female, is accessorizing. This shirt. That scarf. Those earrings. Back in the day, before multiple surgeries for ingrown toenails, the cute shoes to go with. (Now it's just: brown clogs or black?)

I bought four new layering tees last night. On sale, of course. And this morning I will wear the pumpkin shirt with the scarf my sister gave me and the shell flower earrings in a slightly darker shade of rust. Hair up in a bun, the better to show off those earrings.

Here's hoping the workday is not so busy that I forget to put on lipstick after finishing my breakfast! I've put in nearly five hours of OT this week and am anticipating more before the special, rush project is over.

Love it. OT is rare in our office. In the spirit of tomorrow's Talk Like A Pirate Day, yarrrrn money!

The Dread Pirate (Desk) Roberts

I tackled the desktop last night. I'm nowhere near done, but there are pockets of order, and I am encouraged. This morning I worked on the top left drawer. Found the receipt for the first Christmas gift he gave me. Three two-dollar bills. A picture of my mother-in-love on one of her birthdays, when the twins were very young and Squishy was still bitty and a towhead. Two copies of Beloved's birth certificate. FirstWife's driver's license. Multiple checkbooks, the contents of which are now shredded. A copy of two un-notarized wills: one for 2009, after FirstWife's passing, and the other midway through 2012, as the cancer was gathering strength but before we went to my attorney to draw up a formal will for Beloved and an updated one for me. Fifty bajillion index cards, some of them in dayglo colors. (What was his fascination with index cards?) His draft card. A picture of him in martial arts garb with two other guys in their mid-20's. Wax on, wax off.

I have done enough shredding this morning to qualify as runner-up for the Rosemary Woods Memorial Document Destruction Award. I've worked through half of the contents of the front third of one drawer. There are five more drawers. I might get the top of the big section of the desk cleared off tonight before bedtime. I'd already made a pass through some of the drawers at one time or another in the past two and a half years. So it's not as bad as it could be. But between Beloved and his mother, I am probably set with office supplies for the rest of my natural life.

It would be ever so much worse if Beloved had been a hoarder like the children's father. Thankfully, he was not. But there is still a whale of a lot to sort through. I entertain myself with the vision of how pretty that corner is going to look with the desk gone and my rocking chair or the chair-and-a-half of my friend installed in that corner.

I'm about half done with the gusset on the second pink baby sock.

And now if you will all excuse me, I'm going to tuck those $2 bills into my purse, knit one and only one round on the sock, and get myself ready for work. This is ward temple night, but there's a distinct possibility that I will be working overtime, instead. I put in an hour and 45 minutes last night on a somewhat urgent special project.

Yarn money.

After the trial of my faith/patience/whatever...

...come the blessings.

So: church was good yesterday. (We are not surprised.) I was a supportive friend in the afternoon and went to choir practice, even though I didn't want to, because the choir director is my dear friend and my visiting teacher, and I had raised my hand to sustain her when she was called as choir director. We worked on some glorious stuff. Mack Wilberg arrangements of two old hymns. My personal reward for choosing the right? I hit the A below middle C which was only marginally possible earlier this year. I do those Nee-ee-ee-ee-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah scales when I'm driving home and having difficulty staying awake. First I go up. Then I work my way down, exploring the chest voice I've only discovered this year.

After church I took a nap, which helped immensely with the overwhelm. When I lay down, I told Heavenly Father that my body needed to rest, and my spirit wanted to go to choir practice, and that I was not setting the alarm, and to please be in charge. Because I'm bossy like that. I awoke half an hour before I needed to leave for choir practice, feeling a little more put-together, and choir practice did the rest.

During that half hour, I moved my Mormon Bar Cart (bought at a ward member's pre-moving estate sale) into the dining room after moving two chairs away from the wall and relocating them to the dining room table. Which I could do because a couple of weeks ago I had wrangled the underbed wrapping paper holder out into the living room, reorganized it, and put it (for now) under the coffee table in front of the dining room window. It will eventually go under my worktable in my studio, but I can't get to that space, yet.

And I transferred my French laundry basket, which holds my book of remembrance and the two packets of copies of family group sheets from my brother-in-law, from the square yard or so of floor space in the living room where it has been sitting for the past couple of weeks, to a corner of my bed temporarily. I bent the Sabbath slightly and ran the vacuum.

After choir practice, my home teacher / visiting teacher couple came over and settled in for a good visit. I love it that they do not do the obligatory fly-by twenty minute visit. They come. We talk. I get listened to. We trouble-shoot. We talk about our families. We bond. It wouldn't work for everyone, but this is the best of three very good fits that I have enjoyed since marrying Beloved and moving into this ward. They are both creative types, so it is all very simpatico.

I had two family issues that I wanted to discuss with them. One of them is definitely my monkey and my circus, and I have two fresh perspectives to ponder and take to the Lord. The other is definitely neither my monkey nor my circus, and I have lovingly handed it back to its proper ringmaster, which felt wonderful!!! (I'm not sure that three exclamation marks are sufficient.)

In sock news, I finished the heel flap on the second pink Jitterbug baby sock before I went to bed. The case with my crochet hooks is in my bag to take to work, along with the sock and an only slightly diminished ball of yarn. I have a feeling that I will be knitting little pink socks for weeks to come.

One of my last rational acts before bedtime, was to hoist the to-the-brim French laundry basket atop my pseudo-semainier, where it rests like a crown. So all my dead people are hanging out in my closet, but I won't be tripping over them as I navigate the living room.

I posted a picture on Facebook last night. The living room is about 95% decluttered. Mel and Squishy came by and picked up the three bags that I had set aside for them. The floor in front of that bookcase is officially clear. And the morass in front of my closet is about 90% decluttered. My focus for this week will be the top of Beloved's desk, which is littered with some of his stuff, and a whole lot of my stuff. I'm not sure that one week will be sufficient, but I can at least continue where I left off.

As I write, I am uploading my Book of Mormon CD's to iTunes. I'm on disc 11 of 22. I think that's a good stopping point for now.

Andrea, thank you for your kind words yesterday. I had a blessing a couple of weeks ago. The visit with my friends, and the tweaking of this weekend's decluttering, seem to have done the trick.

Overwhelm

I am not Wonder Woman. And I am not in control. I've been feeling very mortal this week, particularly since the accident. I'm still processing that, as well as all the stuff I sorted yesterday. A whole fruit salad of mixed feelings. Delight at finding the third page of my rough draft for Avery's sweater. Chagrin at finding unopened birthday cards (from April) and worse, Christmas cards. I read them, and felt a portion of the love that came with them, but mostly I felt embarrassed. It reminds me of when I was living alone, before I married the children's father, and found a package of unused sparklers in a dresser drawer right before the Fourth of July. When I lit them, they would barely smolder, much less spark and fly.

I remember when Sarah was working on my body, and she asked if I ever felt as if I were drowning, and I had to answer yes. I feel frustrated because the house is progressing so slowly. I feel ungrateful, because there is so much stuff to wrangle, even after two and a half years of reasonably steady chipping away, and I don't want to make a mistake and throw out something valuable. I feel determined to have a home that works for me, and which is easy for our kids to deal with when my time on Earth is done. I feel tired. I haven't been to the gym in weeks, and I feel guilty because it's a lot of money down the drain in that time, and I feel confused as to whether I should cancel my membership and buy a bike now rather than later.

I feel undernourished. I've been doing so much reading of late that there hasn't been much time for cooking. I felt better when I was eating more vegetables. I feel broke. And a little broken. And scattered, very scattered. I am trying very hard not to be so busy that I cannot feel my feelings, but to be busy enough that there is forward progress around here. I wish I could talk to Beloved, to ask him Where does this stuff need to go? Who could use it? And I wish that I could feel his arms around me.

On the other hand, when I look around at what I have accomplished, either on my own or with Fourthborn's help, I feel pleasure and pride and artistic satisfaction. There are oases of order and calm amid all the unfinished business. There is a smidgen less overwhelm at the end of most weeks. I think part of what I am feeling today is because I wrangled the contents of a small plastic grocery bag that has been kicking around my room for two and a half years. Expired tubes of hydrocortisone cream. A cheapie compass that will go into one of the cars, because it makes me grin. Notepads and index cards he might have taken along when he was having chemo. (There is yet another briefcase which needs going through. I'm not sure that today is the day for it.)

Choir practice resumes this afternoon, after a summer hiatus. And my home teacher and visiting teacher will be coming over today or next week. I'm looking forward to their visit. I wish I could say that I'm looking forward to choir practice. I know that once I get there, I'll enjoy myself, but right now it feels like just one more thing.

I woke up at Weekday Standard Time. I wish there were time for a nap before church. Thankfully, I am not depressed. I think this might be a very subtle wave of grief, and I am just going to roll with it, knowing that it will pass and I will go back to feeling productive and capable and a whole bunch of other Girl Scout virtues.

Words to live by.

“Don’t try to win over the haters; you’re not the jackass whisperer.” Scott Stratten, quoted in Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly, p.171

Because I am not always kind and forbearing.

Significant progress here at home, last night and this morning. I set the timer for half an hour both times and worked on the morass outside my closet. When I went to bed I was able to hang up the clean clothes that have been on hangers since I washed them, were laid in a neat stack on the bed while I was in the shower, and hung up on the shower curtain rod when it was time for bed. A grocery bag of stuff is ready to go out to the trash bin. The non-recyclable plastic boxes that held the rolls of window film are out in the trash bin. The recycling bin which holds paper is significantly more full. It was thirsty work, so there are more empties in the bin which holds plastic and metal. (We don't have to separate the recycling, but I do so because I can fit more into each bin that way.) There has been some shredding.

I slept in until 6:30 this morning. Bliss! I picked up Fourthborn for Bittiest's birthday party, dropped her off at home again, and hit the flea market. Thankfully, I found nothing that wanted to come home with me, but I had a great conversation with the owners of the booth where I bought the corner chair and the table which has become my computer desk. They are very much interested in the church pew that is in my garage. I can't get to it to measure it, although I tried last night, but I've estimated it to be 9-10 feet long. There is only one wall in the house where it truly fits, and I have other plans for that wall. Finding another home for the church pew would open up a corridor in the garage and greatly simplify cleaning and decluttering it.

I really really really want a nap. But I think I will make a dash to Hobby Lobby first. I need a small to medium piece of foamcore board so I may work on a handful of small projects.

I got the toe bound off for the first of what are likely to be an unending supply of pink Jitterbug baby socks. And maybe a dozen rounds worked on the cuff of its mate.

Shame and vulnerability and shopping

I am reading Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly and squirming, just a little. Yesterday was a difficult day, and I am still processing it and likely to be so for some time to come. We got some much needed rain, and I'm trying to reconstruct what happened. I was driving carefully in a light drizzle, and there was a blue car, and I needed to take evasive action, and I stepped on the brakes and skidded, crossed into the next lane, hit the curb, and got rear-ended. It all happened very fast. I pulled into a convenient parking lot, the car that hit me pulled in after me, we got out and compared damages. Cosmetic, only, as far as the cars were concerned. Lorelai's back bumper is scuffed. Her front bumper was about the same. We were both unhurt. Exchanged insurance information, confirmed that neither of us intended to make a claim, and went on our way, feeling relieved and grateful and immensely blessed.

I took my sweet time coming home last night, first by way of Pier One, where I bought candy corn votive candles and a beaded placemat. From there to Trader Joe's for some chocolate covered ginger. Then to Bueno for a black bean burrito, and Michaels for faux pumpkins to put on the shelf above my wing chair. The pumpkins are up on the shelf and utterly charming. The candles, which I'd thought I would be using somewhat differently, are lined up on the other end of the shelf. I returned the beaded placemat after work tonight, as it was the wrong size for the place I'd had in mind for it.

I realized, amid the reading and the pondering, that I went shopping in order to reestablish some sense of control over my life. I might not have been able to keep that car from pulling out in front of me, but I can decorate a shelf. I might have wanted to eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's, or a slice of cheesecake, but I can choose a more sensible comfort food. I might be shaken at how quickly I could have been gone had Heaven not chosen to protect the other driver and me. I thought I would probably wake up this morning stiff as a board, but I have moved with relative ease all day. I am grateful for the protection we received, and that we did not cause a multi-car pileup, but I am also still a bit rattled.

What I think happened, is that a car pulled out from a side street to my left and cut in, in front of me. There is a side street in the right place, and a cutout, shortly before where it happened. But I don't have a clear picture in my mind, because it happened so quickly. Swerve, skid, curb, TAP, oh bleep.

And everybody in front of us and behind us just kept on going.

I know what didn't happen. I know that I did not black out, that I was not distracted, that I was not speeding or zipping from one lane to another. Thankfully, we were a little bit south of a light which had just changed, and we were not going very fast.

I've prayed to see what happened, but so far no dice. Maybe in my dreams tonight.

In other news, the crickets are going nuts outside. Ick. And I ordered my Christmas present from the corporation yesterday. I'm getting a white noise machine. And the first pink baby sock is on the home stretch. I am going to grab some ginger and take my meds and read for maybe two and a half minutes, and then go to bed.

Tired. Grateful. Amazed. Tired. Did I mention tired?

Good news and ... more good news.

Dental checkup: my teeth are happy. Ergo, my dentist and hygienist are happy. There are a couple of spots which want to be cavities when they grow up, but they're no larger than they were at the last X-ray.

Eye checkup: my eyes are happy. Optomap reveals no signs of diabetes or cataracts. I've picked out new frames. And they will cost less than the current pair, which has lasted three years. My eyes are slightly less astigmatic than they were five years ago. My left eye, which has always been the worst eye, is slightly less near-sighted than it was five years ago. (I was curious. He had time to show me.)

In the most recent bout of tidying, I found four more music CDs. They are uploaded to iTunes, and I'm about to go file them with the others in the boxes in my studio.

My visiting teaching letters and handouts are done for this month. And might even go out in the mail today. Just need to create more mailing labels, put them on the envelopes, and slap on the stamps.

I finished putting together the final block in the 2014-2015 First Saturday quilt. And I've found the manuals for my Electric Quilt 5 program. Now all I need are the blocks from Firstborn and Fourthborn, and the actual CD so I may upload it to this computer.  The finishing kit is waiting for my attention in the hall, but since I am making a king size quilt and not a twin or full, I don't need six inch sashing between the blocks. Once I have the software in place, I can truly make this quilt my own.

I also found a printout of a quilt I designed about twelve years ago that begs to be made up. Alternating nine patch and solid blocks set on point, creating a medallion quilt with shifting colors, and the fabric requirements neatly calculated and color coded on the second page.

Had a good day at work yesterday, in the four hours I was there before leaving for our dental appointments and my eye appointment. Only 25 emails waiting for me, as opposed to the 177 that greeted me when I came back from vacation in July. I got my email wrangled, my To-Do's to-did, and the mail for last Thursday calendared. (Scheduling orders: the bane of a legal secretary's existence.) I'll need to polish the drafts for the letters to our clients and claims and get one of the attorneys to sign them. SemperFi is still out of the country on his mother's bucket list trip.

I'm hoping for another good day at work today. At the very least I should be able to get through Friday's and yesterday's mail, blow through my To-Do's (which at this point are tasks related to cases which are in the process of closing), and keep up with my email.

Last good thing: I have a huge ball of pink semisolid Jitterbug that has tried to be one thing or another. I am turning it into baby socks, to be set aside for future giving occasions. It's perfect church knitting. Yesterday I finished the cuff, worked the heel flap, turned the heel, and completed the gusset at Knit Night. Loving the new venue. I did not need to take Fourthborn home afterward, so I was home in about 40 minutes, as opposed to the hour and a half it used to take from the prior venue. And even when I brought her with me last week, I was home in a little over an hour. If she and her roommate move to an apartment on the east side of town, that will shave off even more time.

Life is good, and I have stuff to put away, and I want to tank the Tardis before work, so I'd better get moving.

It was a Plan B weekend.

But I did get this month's installment of the medallion quilt finished, and the fabric is hanging to dry for the final block in the quilt we've been working on since last October.

I've printed off the Relief Society newsletter and the message for this month, and I created a letter and printed it onto the back of the handout I brought home from RS yesterday.

Ward picnic was a blast. So glad I went, and glad that Fourthborn was willing to go with me. She got some good pictures of my participation in the pie eating contest, even if both of us were laughing so hard it's a miracle they were not all blurry.

I made killer brownies and quite happily left them at the picnic when we were ready to leave.

We did not get anything done on the house this weekend. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

It's time for my Rx and bedtime. If there's any justice in the world, I will sleep like a rock tonight.

On the one hand.

We met at the quilt shop, picked up the final blocks for this year's quilt, and signed up for next year's. Fourthborn gets all twelve blocks. It's in navy and green, and the sample block they showed was luscious.

I finished sewing the last of the flying geese blocks and laid them out to stitch into strips for the next border on the medallion quilt. If Fourthborn were not asleep in the living room, and if the light and noise would not disturb her, I'd be seeing how much more that I could get done before church. I got distracted by family history after my friend's wedding and a much needed nap, so only two pieces from each of the four strips got sewn together before I went to bed for good. Those four bits look really good.

I need to figure out breakfast and get ready for church, which starts in an hour. So I wouldn't get all that much done, even if Fourthborn were awake on her own and not because I'd been inconsiderate. And I need to figure out my church knitting.

Remind me to wax contemplative on strapless wedding gowns.

Scraps of progress

None of which involved quilting yesterday. Or clearing the morass on the floor in front of my closet, but I have time before quilt club this morning. And I will have more time after my friend's wedding this afternoon. And a good chunk of Monday, before and after the ward picnic.

So what did get done? Wrote checks for all the bills. Ran the dishwasher. Took all but one of the library books back to the library and did the grocery shopping. Mailed the other video about China Lake (they were not two identical videos, but parts one and two) to my sister-in-law. Bought the birthday gift card for Bittiest and a wedding gift for my friend. Took my Isiah stitchery out of its frame, smoothed it more firmly to the adhesive backing, and put it in a frame that had been holding a generic architectural print which I bought after the divorce. It's now hung on the wall by the front door next to the other prints about the Savior.

LittleBit came for dinner after she got off work. I made bread cheese pudding, salads, and my Fage/Nutella jollop for dessert. We talked and laughed, almost like old times. I showed her the results of my BYU Relative Finder search. The Spirit was with us, sweet and strong.

I read a (very) little after she left, and I slept like a rock. When I went out to the kitchen this morning to make breakfast, I discovered that I'd left the last dab of cream cheese out overnight.

I'm still vaguely hungry. I want to work on the quilt, and I need to make a card for the wedding and wrap the gift properly. I guess I will set the timer for an hour and see how much sewing I can get done in that time. Because right now I need to Make Stuff more than I need to be logical, or organized, or a host of other virtues. I'm feeling a bit more scattered than usual.

Very very quiet at work today.

SemperFi is on vacation overseas with his mother for a bucket list trip (her bucket, not his). My other attorney's last day was Friday. Today I helped with a lot of little piddly things related to her Outlook case folders and various categories of mail. It was so weird to get all the way through today's mail, not just the reading of it, but calendaring various activities and creating letters for three upcoming trial dates. All my To-Do's are to-did. My inbox and "sent" folder look better than they have in months.

In other news, at this writing I am about halfway done with the cuff of the second sock. My eyes are a little tired, so I'm going to fix a light snack and grab my library book and maybe be asleep in half an hour. I can hope, anyway.

Tomorrow after work I'll pick up Fourthborn to attend the first meeting of a new offshoot of my knitting group that will gather at a place not quite so far south as the current location of the first group. And it meets on not-Monday. I foresee much happy knitting in the weeks to come.

A quiet weekend.

Fourthborn and I did very little in terms of the house. She got the grille back up on the kitchen ceiling. I noticed that the grille is coming down in the living room. She got up on a chair and determined that there's nothing left of that bit of sheet rock to tighten it up. By using my drill, I was able to get the hardware bits with the stripped screws out of the remaining unpainted hall door. We got the doors off the linen closet and learned that the wood filler in both tubes had dried out. We watched the pilot for this fall's new series, "Supergirl". And we laughed a lot. I finished the first baby sock while at church. That's about it.

Insomnia Fairy paid another visit about 3:00 this morning.

Awoke out of what I thought was a sound sleep, and not from an anxiety dream so far as I can remember. Just awake and thirsty and groggy. Stumbled to the loo, more on general principles than anything else. Drank half a mug of smoothie and am finishing that batch off as we speak. Went back to bed and lay there doggedly. Waves of sleepiness came and went until they finally became strong enough to wash over me.

Now that I'm awake (more or less), I'm wondering if I've absorbed other people's anxieties. It wouldn't be the first time. SemperFi is taking his mom on a two week bucket list trip (her bucket, not his) beginning next week. My other attorney's last day is tomorrow. As for myself, I have the usual assortment of nigglings on my mind: I've covered the bills, but will there be enough fun money if I want to hit Bueno the night before payday? And then there are work concerns. Will I get one of the two new attorneys who will be coming to the office shortly? Will I get half of the docket of an attorney who is already working in our office? If so, I hope it's not one whom I like very much as a human being, but who has been a factor in the last three secretaries who left our office. With the frustrations I have felt since taking on half of the docket of the attorney who is leaving (who has become a dear friend but has one quirk that made my workflow unnecessarily complicated), retirement has been looking more and more attractive.

I want to do a good job for as long as I can. My hope is to have the mortgage paid off in five more years (instead of 13 more years) and then rebuild my 401K from the depredations of the past two years. I like my job. Most days. I'm good at my job. Most days. I look forward to going to work. Most days.

When I was at my sister's last month and remarked that I used to be afraid that I would go nuts during retirement, and that I used to dread the idea, but that now it was looking like something that might actually be fun, she replied, "Oh, you will do just fine during retirement!" It was good to get a second opinion from someone whose opinion I trust.

In other news, Firstborn handed me a friend's sweater a couple of months ago and asked if I thought I could fix a seam that had come apart. Turns out that I could. It was crocheted together, and that thread was unbroken, so it was a simple matter of picking up the loops that stuck up along one edge, and a not so simple matter of making sure that I distributed them evenly along the other edge. Took a bit of trial and error before I got that right, but her sweater is fixed and neatly folded and bagged and waiting by the front door with the penultimate quilt block, for when we get together at the quilt shop on the 5th.

And the baby sock is coming along. The yarn had gotten chomped in several places since I bought it, even though I'd kept it in a plastic drawer, so there was some ripping and spit-splicing. Yes. I can spit-splice superwash merino. (If I were going to have a headstone, you could put that there, right below the dates on either side of the dash.) Heel flap has been frogged and re-knit, and I'm going to simply weave in ends on the cuff "owie" as I did not want to frog back that far. Today I'll turn the heel, pick up stitches and gallop away toward the toe.

The fabric for this month's installment of the medallion quilt got prewashed Tuesday night. Last night I pressed it. It's hanging out on the ironing board, and most likely tonight I will start cutting out the pieces. There are only five pieces of fabric this time, but I read the instructions, and I will finally get to put together and add another border. Firstborn looks at the sample quilt every time we're in the shop and says variations on the theme of "It's lovely, and no way would I want to sew all those tiny pieces together." If I had to do it all at once, neither would I. But broken up into monthly installments, I haven't found it onerous.

OK. Semi-icky smoothie is down the hatch. Frugality has been satisfied, even if I'm still wrangling bits of pomegranate seed. Time to throw together lunch and then sluice off.

An exercise in memory.

When I was clearing dust off Beloved's desk last night, I unearthed a box that I didn't remember seeing (between his clutter, now largely gone, and my own, it's something of a miracle that the box has surfaced only 2.5 years after his passing). Condolence cards, from when he lost his first wife. In my pre-bedtime reading there was a passage about knowing when it's time to let something go. So I promised myself that this evening I would read through those cards, and then the cards I received, feel whatever feelings came to me, and release those cards. I've saved a few personal notes for the boys, and a handful of cards from people with whom I want to reconnect, and the rest will go into the recycling bin.

It was a good evening. I read some great stories about her, and was reminded of others about him, and I only needed to cry a very little. What remains is a smidgen more clear physical space, and an equal or greater increase in spiritual and emotional clarity. And peace. Just a wonderful sense of peace and comfort.

My knitting is arguing with me. Again. More specifically, it's the yarn. I bought a bunch of single skeins a few months into the marriage, with the idea of making pairs of baby socks for future baby showers. The current skein has been chomped repeatedly by something that flew in, or crept in, the drawer where it used to reside. And since it's superwash wool, spit-splicing will be less than effective.

It's time for me to take my evening meds and potions, clear off the bed, and call it a day. My brain wants me to frog back to the first break, create a non-bulky join, and work back to where I stopped. My eyes are saying enough.

The eyes have it.

More gems

One of the things that I found, over the weekend, is a large printout of Beloved's family tree, possibly made as a visual aid for teaching a family history class (and possibly by my mother-in-love). Spent a good chunk of time yesterday entering those names into Ancestry.com. In the process I found her profile, but when I searched for it specifically this morning, I was disappointed. It only showed her as "private", with her father, and absolutely nothing else.

Went into FamilySearch and searched for a name where I wasn't sure who the father was, because the printout was a little ambiguous. Found that one and clarified matters. First cousins who married, four generations back from Beloved. Bookmarked that page, because I'll be going back to it. Their daughter isn't listed among the children. This would be the daughter from whom Beloved is descended. So yeah, kind of important to fix that!

In other news, I am nearly done knitting the cuff of the first baby sock, for a baby shower that will take place on Thursday. Last night I knitted while watching a documentary on The Mormon Channel that was filmed in eight to ten minute bites over 5,000 days, following four brothers. I'm ten episodes in, out of sixteen. I'll probably finish watching tonight for Family Home Evening.

This is the part where I get off the computer, carefully roll up the printout that I no longer need, that I may pass it on to the boys, and get ready for work so I may knit until it's time to be at my desk.

I keep finding stuff.

The big project, for the past several days, has been the sorting, scanning, and shredding of a mass of paperwork which had accumulated atop a storage bin in the living room. I am pleased to announce that, with the exception of a thin stack which prompts phone calls this coming week, it has all been wrangled, the bin emptied and stowed in the garage, and the quilt which it had contained, refolded and displayed in a bookcase in the dining room.

I also investigated the contents of a large rolling underbed box which has been hanging out in the dining room since I turned that closet into an alcove. Wrapping paper. All of it in impeccable condition. I added my own small stash to it, and it will (eventually) go under the table in my studio. I will first need to clear a path, which will involve much more work than I think is appropriate for the Sabbath. Puttering, yes. Bending, stretching, hefting, and possibly swearing, no.

I have frogged the doll sleeve and am winding ball after ball of laceweight, preparatory to swatching for a miniature Kaffe Fassett sweater. But which? I've been paging through my vintage copy of Glorious Knits, and each is more tempting than the last. A couple of nights ago, I wound a mile and a half of yarn. Six balls. They partially fill a plastic shoebox. And there's more to wind. You'll know where to find me for awhile.

Speaking of finding, I rediscovered a small green rag rug and vacuumed it thoroughly. It's now hanging out in front of the sink in the guest loo. This morning I picked up a book from the dining room table. Gifts from A Jar: Soups, Chilis & More. With tear-out recipe cards. I also took the wedding quilt my sister made for us out of safekeeping, and it is airing on a chair in the living room. And I've pulled a ball of sock yarn from the stash. Baby shower on Thursday. I'd best get knitting.

Followed by bittersweet stuff

My wonderful, lovely half-a-docket attorney's mentor from an outside firm made her an offer she couldn't refuse. I am so happy for her, and more than a little bummed for me. She's one of a handful of people in the office who truly get me.

In other news, the house continues to get more orderly. And I've cast on the first sleeve for Middlest's doll's sweater. I'm still learning the pattern I've designed, so it's slow going. But I'm already a lot happier with it than I was with the alpaca swatches.

Work was mostly great today, except for the last hour or two, where I ran into technical glitches due to our Office upgrade, compounded by need-to-eat stupor and the discovery, as I talked in the loo after work with the managing attorney, that the (new) attorney who signed the drafts I had so laboriously created did not, in fact, have authorization to do so, as the boss and I both thought he had. So I will have to create new drafts tomorrow and tweak the cover letters and then upload everything. But I'm going to have about eight spoiled drafts out of a book of fifty, and the office manager will be thrilled about that.

The managing attorney dashed back into the office and retrieved the "carbons" of the drafts, which would have been scanned and faxed tomorrow, thus averting unhappiness with our bank.

I was tired enough, and hungry enough, that I just wanted to sit in a corner and cry for about five minutes. Instead, I put on my big girl sunglasses and drove home with bagpipe music blaring from my Pandora station, and the closest I got to actual tears was during Amazing Grace.

You better believe I hit Bueno on the drive home. I refrained from a side trip to Braum's for their oatmeal raisin cookies, opting instead to find an allegedly healthy recipe online that makes a small batch and even with my "independent as a hog on ice" substitutions is quite edible.

This is the part where I put everything away and go to bed. I've salvaged the day by the grace of Heaven, but I am tired.

Weird stuff

I posted this on Middleaged Mormon Man's page on Facebook but am sharing here, and then I promise that I will email my kids via FB so they do not freak out.

Middleaged Mormon Man has this thing where every Sunday night we post the single best thing that happened that day. The stories are really great, and I look forward to reading them each week. This is what I posted tonight:

Not-falling-over while conducting the opening song in sacrament meeting. There was this brief sense of listing to port, possibly half a second of heading toward sleep or unconsciousness, and then I righted myself and kept on going. I don’t think anyone noticed but me. (It would have made for a memorable sacrament meeting, but not necessarily a reverent one.) My home teacher and visiting teacher couple were already scheduled to come over after church, so I got a blessing (that would be the “single best thing”), and she (a physician’s assistant) asked me a bunch of questions that eliminated any of the really scary stuff. I got the sense from the blessing that this may well happen again, but that I/we will figure out what caused it, and with or without the assistance of my doctor, I will be perfectly fine. I do love a good mystery…

In other news, I finished the current installment of the medallion quilt, and the August quilt block is done, folded neatly, and waiting by the front door for the first Saturday in September, when we'll pick up the final blocks for this quilt. And also decide if we want to do next year's quilt.

I hung one wall quilt and two decorative items this evening. Have sorted through much of the stuff on the fallow side of the bed and have started to corral the really important stuff by putting it into the giant French laundry basket that's floated from one room to another for the past fifteen years or so. My goal was to have the bed entirely cleared off before bedtime last night. Obviously, that did not happen, but at least there's been progress in that direction.
I took a longish nap after church but am feeling unusually sleepy, so will email the kids, take my meds, and call it a night. Tomorrow's going to be a long one. One of my dear friends is getting his US citizenship tomorrow, and I'm joining the celebration after work. Like me, he's LDS, so the celebration will involve ice cream, not booze. I will try to find some frozen yogurt or limit myself to a single scoop.

Another good day.

Even if it began at 3:45. Really? I've made a lot of progress on the medallion quilt. The stealth project is ready for blocking. So the next item of business, since I've yet to find the modular blocking pads, is to clear off the fallow side of the bed in order to have room to block a couple of projects and let them dry while I'm at work one or more days next week.

I got another small corner tidied and cleaned in the living room this morning. And I got a good nap, which seems to have worn off, so I will bid you all a gracious good evening and turn off the lights.

Busy week.

I am finally caught up at work, from being gone on vacation. My emails are down to a manageable level. My To-do list is more or less current. My pending folder does not make me cringe. This bodes well for the day ahead.

I finished knitting the stealth project last night and have no idea where my modular blocking pads might be. Not in the IKEA cabinet in my studio. Not in the small filing cabinet out in the garage. Not anywhere visible in the studio. Not here in my room. Which leaves the storage buckets in the studio, or random boxes in the middle bedroom or (shudder) out in the garage.

I have most of the bits gathered to take another stab at a doll sweater for Avery, who is one of Middlest's dolls. I found the schematic for the sleeves last night, but have mislaid the schematic for the body.

I think this will be a weekend for general tidying. I'm feeling a little meh this morning. Due, in part, to the finish-itis which ate my Wednesday and Thursday, getting in the way of any meaningful exercise. I'll be back at the pool tonight.

BittyBubba's baptism, rescheduled from last month until tomorrow because of my vacation, has been moved to the 22nd.

The quilt shop will be showing samples of next year's quilt series tomorrow, but I think I'll just wait until we pick up our last blocks the first Saturday in September. I think tomorrow will be spent cooking and cleaning, with frequent breaks for reading. I'm still enjoying the biography of Fred and Adele Astaire.

All music, all the time

Had a whimsical thought this morning as I got ready for church: wonder if there's a Pandora station for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? Turns out there is. Added to my burgeoning list, along with last night's Stevie Ray Vaughan station.

For our intermediate hymn today, we had "Be Still, My Soul," arranged by/accompanied by the mother-in-law of our RS president. Singers were the RS president, hubby/MIL's son/seminary teacher, one of our organists, and a relatively new member of our ward. So beautiful. I definitely got misty-eyed. That was one of my comfort songs when everything was going down the tubes in Fredericksburg. It's pretty much guaranteed to make me cry. L's MIL is a new widow. I met her and her husband several months ago when they were doing a lightning-round visit of all their children before he passed from cancer. Lovely people. Lovely music.

I came home from church, more than a little wiped out, and took a nap that turned into a borderline nghtmare. Definitely an anxiety dream. I was in Mom's house, expecting guests for a dinner party, and could find nothing that I needed to make it happen. I didn't recognize the dishes, or the tools and equipment to fix the meal, and people were talking talking talking, and I just needed to think.

I was very glad to wake up. And quite hungry when I did, which may have been the source of the anxiety. I felt somewhat better after eating, but there was a lingering sense of confusion which only dispelled when I pulled up my Sabbath playlist on iTunes and worked on the medallion quilt for awhile.

Since then, I've added a few rows to the stealth project, finished reading a chapter in the biography of Fred and Adele Astaire, and followed up on a comment my brother-in-law made while I was visiting last month. McMinnville, Oregon is named after McMinnville, Tennessee, where a whole bunch of my family came from. It was settled by a brother of my great-great-grandmother, William T. Newby. I have FB friends who live a short distance from Newby Elementary School. And Linfield College sits on land donated by William T.

End of history lesson. I'm still a little hungry, and it's time to try sleeping again. Tomorrow will be here in a little over an hour, and it's likely to be a busy day.

Craving healthy food last night

Which is pretty amazing, given how hard and fast I worked yesterday. Definitely a "prayers are answered" day. I got through nine days of mail for SemperFi and seven days for my other attorney. (I think I gave her a clever name the other day, and if so I can't remember what it was and am not in the mood to go searching.) When I left the office, I had filed a fourth(!!!) answer that was due on Monday and caught up the mail through 2:00 yesterday afternoon. If more came in after that, I don't know. I didn't work my To-Do's. I just wrangled old mail all day and eliminated a few more emails. If all goes well on Monday, I'll catch up my To-Do's, keep current on the mail, and make great strides on my inbox. Maybe I will be entirely caught up by next Friday.

At any rate, when I left the office, feeling tired but not frazzled, hungry but not for drive-thru, I spent a good part of the drive home putting together dinner in my mind. When I got home, I sliced the faux Vidalia onion and sweated it in a mixture of avocado oil and coconut oil, then added a discounted box of sliced baby Bellas. To finish, I added an entire small clamshell of baby spinach and let it wilt down. That went to the back burner while I fixed a salmon burger in the leftover oils and nuked a package of brown rice and quinoa (from Costco) and sliced a small apple. Made for a pretty plate and about an hour's worth of dining as I read one thing and another.

I finished eating around 8:30, which is later than I like, and dithered for another hour before the debate between feet and eyes got resolved. As I posted on Facebook, my eyes wanted to go to sleep. while my feet wanted to go to the pool. I went to the pool, knowing that while I didn't want to leave the house, I hadn't done any real physical exercise all day, and I needed it. I came home much refreshed. Normally when I exercise late at night, it revs me up again, and I have trouble winding down for sleep. Not last night. Even though my hands wanted to knit "just one more row." I slept like a rock. Something like seven hours.

I will be going back to the local flea market this morning. That's where I bought the corner chair last month. I want to be done with everything outside well before noon, and to spend the heat of the day here at home under one ceiling fan or another, puttering, until it's cool enough to go back to the gym for another jog in the pool. I have the next step on the medallion quilt all lined up on the ironing board in the dining room. I am enjoying the biography of Fred and Adele Astaire. Lorelai and the Tardis are both covered with drippings from the crape myrtle, and I either need to wash them myself or take them to the car wash. I don't think I've ever washed a car by hand. Could be fun and count as exercise if I get right to it.

I think I will begin with a walk around the block. The neighbor's house that provided me with the new black ladder-back chair on my front porch (which I intend to turn into a planter) has a large, nondescript pot set out on the curb. I do believe I shall mosey on by and take a squint at it.

The plants in the front yard are still alive. And my air plant (inside) appears to be happy. Proving once more that Heaven is still in the miracle business.

Progress?

Eye is definitely feeling better. That's a plus.

Filed three answers today that were due in court next Monday. That's another plus. Scheduled a couple of telephone conferences for my attorneys. Wrangled *one* day's mail for SemperFi and that was it for the mail.

I think I probably got more done than it seems to me on reflection.

When I came home, I worked on the sacrament meeting music and got that emailed to our committee. We are going to have another special musical number on Sunday, one of my favorite hymns, sung by a mixed quartet. Looking forward to that. Note to self: put fresh Puffs in the church bag.

It is hotter than the hinges of Hades outside, and the forecast is for even more of the same through the weekend. Possibly 107F on Monday. That's actual degrees, y'all, not heat index. Heat index would be "medium well". Every ceiling fan in the house is running, on medium, because when some of them are on high, they shimmy. Or yodel.

I am now going to assemble what I plan to wear tomorrow, slip into something significantly cooler, and knit until it's time to crash. Have messaged Fourthborn not to expect me to pick her up this weekend. I will miss her. But I will be staying inside as much as possible. Possibly not leaving the house except to jog in the pool after dark and go to church on Sunday.

If thine eye offends thee...

Call your eye doctor. Which is what I did yesterday, as soon as I got to work. Thankfully, his office is open late on Tuesdays.

I have a stye. (Not the same as the sty which is the area in front of my bedroom closet, but every bit as annoying.) Last night I improvised a hot compress by wetting a chamomile teabag, then a white washcloth, and binding them to my head with the aid of a hand towel and the chin strap for my CPAP. The CPAP harness itself provided the last of the anchoring. I probably looked like a scary space monster ~ more so than usual ~ but I slept reasonably well, and the itching is less this morning.

I am beginning to make headway on the backlog from when I was on vacation for six consecutive days plus this Monday for my diabetes check. I am doing this only by the grace of Heaven, because there is far more work than any one human being could reasonably manage, and I am too stubborn to ask for help. Well, maybe not that, in this particular instance, because I'm the only one who can navigate the depths of my inbox. My backups handled the mail quite ably in my absence. Yesterday I dealt with the dregs of two days' worth of mail for both attorneys. I am hoping to accelerate that when I get to the office today.

And I just made a Draconian purge of my personal email, which had over 300 items. It is now down to 77. I'm not done, but I'm also not cringing when I open my inbox.

The stealth project is coming along nicely.

Time to pack my breakfast and lunch, sluice off, grab my bags, and GIT!

Friday was better-than-OK.

I came home and picked up Elder Bednar's Increase in Learning, my scriptures in book form (mostly I just read them on my phone, or listen while driving to work), and bounced back out in to the living room to grab a volume of talks from a BYU Women's Conference many years ago.

This weekend I've preshrunk the fabric for the medallion quilt and got all the pieces cut out. I knitted on the stealth project until I reached the point where it is time to add another series of beads. I have no idea where my crochet hook case is. In my room, yes, but it could be buried under the clean laundry on the fallow side of the bed, or it could be in the piles that are slip-sliding away at the entrance to my closet. At any rate, knit did not happen today.

I roasted a pan of vegetables on Friday night and have enjoyed some of them yesterday and today. I did some experimental cooking today. A variation on almond-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, wherein I added some Greek yogurt cream cheese and used turkey bacon and did not have enough toothpicks to break in half to hold the wrapped bacon shut. So visually I had a large pan of Pinterest fail, but they taste sublime. I'm already thinking of variations on variations for next time. These will be an intelligent and tasty treat for the next week or so.

I've preshrunk the fabric for this month's quilt block and may get that cut and sewn tomorrow after my quarterly diabetes checkup.

Thursday and Friday were exhausting. I am not necessarily looking forward to Tuesday through Friday, but I hope to make sufficient progress each day that by the time Friday rolls around I will have my desk more or less under control again.

I did not have to do trial notebooks on Friday, and my other attorney's case settled, so I won't have to finish those, either.

My stomach thinks my throat's been cut. I've been eating healthy, delicious things all day, and as of the top of the hour I'm not supposed to eat anything else until after my bloodwork tomorrow. But I think I will grab one last bacon-wrapped date and savor it before brushing my teeth and calling it a night.

Have begun a biography of Fred Astaire and his sister Adele. Thus far it is interesting and enjoyable.

Night, y'all.

Changes at work. Big changes.

When I went back to work today, there were 177 emails awaiting me. And a file from Mellow's docket, which I took over to the next cubicle.

"I think this is your file?"

"No," she said quietly, "he's not here anymore. The file's been reassigned to your attorney."  I've only gotten snippets, and it's not my story to tell. But I will miss him. He was a good friend to me, and I wish him only the best.

We also had a software upgrade, which will probably be wonderful once I learn my way around, but there were several small glitches today that hampered my productivity.

I got about 40 of the emails dealt with. Maybe more. There were a few new ones throughout the day. I got all the way through both attorneys' calendars, and I got all of the emails from SemperFi wrangled, and reports saved for both of them, and was led to catch a couple of things that I absolutely had to do today, but as far as formally touching my To-Do's or working the mail, that did not happen. And unless the Court grants our motion for continuance, I will have to assemble trial notebooks tomorrow afternoon for a trial that will take place on Monday.

Tomorrow could get interesting, in the Chinese sense, in a Noo Yawk minute. But I will pray like crazy and work like crazy, and hope that I am working smart as well as working fast. And I am not going to give it one more thought until morning prayers tomorrow.

I'm off on Monday for my quarterly bloodwork. So next week might be crazy as well, at least until I get new cases opened and old cases closed and wrangle seven days' worth of mail and catch up my To-Do's.

For now I am going to open the package of quilt fabric that was waiting for me when I got to the office today, and I am going to knit at least one row on the stealth project. I finished reading Standing for Something, by the late Gordon B. Hinckley.  I highly recommend it.

Last night before bedtime I finished the travel reading, a first novel that was mostly wonderful but had one foul-mouthed character and his mother who continually admonished him, "Language." while ironically harboring murder in her heart. Interesting bit of irony, there. I cannot explain why I continued to read the book. I'm not going to recommend it to you. But I am going to continue pondering plot details and literary devices.

Ack. It's nearly 10:30. I meant to be asleep half an hour ago.

Did I mention that I shredded my toes in the pool last night?

Hopkinses 246; Ms. Ravelled 0

My brother-in-law has several meticulously organized notebooks of family group sheets. I innocently picked up one on Thursday. Entered those people onto ancestry.com. Started linking records. And family started pouring out of the woodwork like ants at a picnic. I have one pile of new family group sheets in which all the parties have been entered and matched to records. Another, smaller pile that I am actively working on linking records. And a third pile that I hope to finish before going home. All of these will stay here. And I will tag a bunch of sheets for him to photocopy and mail to me. I need to remember to ask cousin Norm if he wants them when I'm done.

I've walked with my sister every morning except Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday we walked with one of her friends. I am taking home a couple of that friend's recipes; she dropped them off earlier this morning.

Making steady progress on the stealth project. It's a pattern I've worked before, and I'm tweaking the decreases a little. My flight home tomorrow is nonstop, and I have to guess whether, if I knit up to and including the next beaded rows, there will be enough knitting to keep me occupied until I get home. 'Tis a puzzlement.

Today we're going to Powell Gardens, the site of a former gravel pit. I love how lush and green it is here. My sister's fuchsia blossoms are somewhere between the size of ping pong balls and golf balls. Unopened, they're the size of large cherries.

I think I will go tag the family group sheets that I want my brother-in-law to copy for me. And then knit a bit. They'll watch the Mariners game tonight, and I'll listen to them having fun (or groaning) while wrangling the dead people.

I'm on vacation. And loving it.

The new (living) cousins are delightful. Everything you could wish for: smart, funny, kind. You know that's a home run for me.

(Sorry. Sister and brother in law are watching the Mariners game downstairs.)

Stealth project is coming along.

Body is tired. Going to bed after I read my scriptures.

The dead people are ganging up.

Brother-in-law and I spent several hours on genealogy today. My mind, heart, and spirit would like for me to stay up all night connecting more dots. My common sense (stop laughing) tells me to put down the phone, turn off the light, and go to bed, dadgummit, because tomorrow we are driving to Olympia and then heading toward Portland for the family reunion on Saturday.

There has been minimal knitting on the current stealth project. There will be more while we're on the road tomorrow.

Walked a mile with my sister this morning. Uphill both ways, as her neighborhood is all ups and downs. But only 61F, so I didn't even break a sweat.

Bed. Now.

*Fine!!!*

Learning curve.

I realized yesterday that I had forgotten to water the air plant mid-week. I scooped it up and took it to the kitchen sink, where I cradled it in my hand and spritzed it like crazy. I think it's forgiven me. Maybe.

Picked up beads for a stealth project yesterday. I may be picking up more beads on Friday. I've started collecting the items that will need to be packed for my vacation: vitamins, toiletries, et al. And making a honey-do list for Fourthborn, who will again be house-sitting for me.

I've been a scanning-and-shredding fool this week. There's a full bag that will go out with the recycling, Tuesday after next.

The July quilt block is done, after a blunder on my part. When I was cutting out pieces last week, I cut the red ones 3/8" too short on all sides. So yesterday I had to make a run by the quilt shop and purchase another block kit.

I would really like to finish the scanning before I go to bed tonight, but I think sleep will win out over diligence. I did not sleep well Friday night, although I got a respectable night's worth last night. But I'm still feeling as if I had been dragged through a knothole, sideways.

The house is warm. Very warm. I keep meaning to call the AC magician and ask him to drop by a copy of the manual, or send me the link. I don't know how to program my smarter-than-I-currently-feel thermostat, and the ambient temperature is now 83F. Which is several more F's higher than I would like.

I am working on another stealth project: supervising drive time for Turnip (Fourthborn's nickname for her former fiance, previously referred to here as Fiance. You get Turnip instead of an unpronounceable symbol.) His mom and stepdad are lovely people, with good intentions of giving him driving hours so he may get his license. Something always comes up. So as of yesterday I am quietly furthering his ambition. When he's officially licensed, his grandfather is giving him one of his cars. And then I hope to be able to see more of him, because he's one of my favorite people. We spent an hour and a half in the parking lot of the church, while he practiced turns, head-in parking, back-in parking, and approximations of parallel parking.

Then he came back here with Fourthborn and me, because he's never seen the house, and I parked the Tardis on the street, and he practiced parallel parking some more. I took them home and came back by way of the gym, where I walked in the lap pool for half an hour. I spent six-plus hours in the car yesterday, two two-hour round trips and some miscellaneous stuff around town, with none of the whining from my right knee that used to be a given, anytime I spent more than an hour or so behind the wheel. This tells me that if I choose to drive to Galveston for my birthday next year, I will not arrive so crippled that I cannot enjoy myself.

Now that is a happy thought on which to end this post.