Up much too late last night.

Went to bed a little after midnight, having worked some on The Albatross and read a whole bunch in the fourth Percy Jackson, which I finished a few minutes ago.

I am having a great week at work. When I log off at five, my eyes are ready to do something fun, and my brain is tired. I feel as if I were lifted up on angel wings, and quite possibly I am.

I completed a huge trial notebook for SemperFi today, and I thought I was done with the one for my other attorney, but there are still a couple of things I need to check out and print off. Both of them will be in trial on Monday. And theoretically SemperFi has a trial date in a second case, but we are way down on the docket, and you never know: that one could always settle before we have to show up. I may be putting together a third trial notebook tomorrow and Friday, or not. On the one hand, I'm getting a bit faster with each one that I do, and I genuinely enjoy the process. On the other hand, it would be nice to have a little break. I did get all of the mail read today, and most of my To-Do's worked, but tomorrow I have a trial date to calendar in a different case, and all of the paperwork that goes with that.

Every day is different, and I am thankful to be busy again, after the slow days before and after Christmas.

I'm a little ticked with the POTUS and the bureaucracies. When I got to work this morning, there was an email about a new form that I will have to file as part of my tax return this year, because of Obamacare. I thought I was home free once my W-2's arrive, because I have everything else, but this form will be mailed out by February 1, and it may take a week to ten days to get here. Oy to the veh.

I put in a few minutes on The Albatross this morning before leaving for work. I'm going to work on it a few more minutes before bedtime and hope that I don't get sucked into "one more stitch, and then I'll put it up."

And the good stuff spilled over into today.

There were only 45 emails waiting for me at work, after two days off. I got through all of them, responded to others that popped up throughout the day, participated in an hour-long meeting with the other secretaries, worked my To-Do's, got through three days' worth of mail for both attorneys, chased after a scheduling order that we should have gotten copied on three months ago, ate wisely, and remained focused, even after the text messages from Middlest regarding ER and kidney stone and morphine. Worked so steadily that I forgot to put on lipstick after finishing my breakfast. Oh well.

I was saddened to read of Glenn Frey's death. I imagine he is relieved to be free of a broken body, and I hope he was warmly welcomed when he went Home. I feel his loss far greater than I do David Bowie's, and about on a par with Alan Rickman's. It has not been, thus far, a good month for 60+ year old artists and musicians.

I made some progress on The Albatross before leaving for work, and more while the cornbread was baking. After that, I set it aside to finish book three in the Percy Jackson series. I may work on it for a scant few minutes before going to bed, or I may give some attention to the stealth Christmas presents. They come pretty close to being instant gratification.

I hope my kid sleeps well tonight. I hope Brother Frey's family is surrounded by angels to comfort them, as I was comforted when Beloved died. I am grateful for the moments of inspired silliness that happened throughout my day. There are brothers and sisters on the Widows and Widowers board who lost a spouse to cancer and are now fighting it themselves. When they post, I send a prayer skyward. I might be on to the next thing five seconds after the "amen" leaves my head, but I hope my oh-crap-not-another-one prayers do at least a little bit of good.

Tomorrow night is ward temple night, and part of me wants to go, and part of me wants to come home and do what I did tonight: make stuff, eat comfort food, and read. The singles are gathering for a session on Thursday night.

Random thought: I just realized that I stopped sneezing some time ago. I wonder why? I woke up yesterday morning very early, my CPAP nose-piece aimed a little off and irritating one of the little hairs deep inside my nose (sorry), and all of a sudden my nasal cavity was hollering "invasion from Mars! panic! run in circles, scream and shout!"

I told myself firmly, we do not have time to be sick. We have a talk to give, and we have family to visit, and you're not sick, you're just having a nasal hissyfit. Apparently my nose finally got the message. (When I sneeze it's kinda like the cannons in the 1812 Overture, only timed like a gatling gun. Ark! Ark! Ark-ark-ark! And approximately C#. Just in case you wondered.)

OK, I'm done.

One hatchet, buried.

I had a lovely visit with OlderTwin and his family tonight. Mel and Squishy were also there. The spirit was one of quiet and peace. I could detect nothing of hypocrisy or set-up.

I am so thankful. I have dutifully prayed for them since they became a part of my life four years ago, more often than not without any real hope. It will be ever so much easier to pray for them now.

OlderTwin said that it will take longer for his brother to come around, that it always has. But he seemed to feel it would happen.

My heart is full, and my eyes are heavy, and I'm heading off to bed shortly. I am invited back again when they host the family dinner next month.

Night, y'all. I have some blessings to count.

It's Greek to me.

In The Lightning Thief, one of the characters uses ergo in a way that seemed unusual to me. I knew it from cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore, I am." So I googled it and learned that it is both Latin (which I knew) and Greek (which I did not), and in Greek it relates to work. Which got me to thinking: ergonomics to economics to ecology. Which led me to wonder, what is a nomic, and what is an ec?

Nomic: relating to a musical nome, melody, custom (what on earth is that?) and maybe related to nimble; having the force of natural law or generally valid; from the Greek nomikos ~ usage, custom, law. (From the Merriam Webster online dictionary, which did not want to let me back in to link after I'd done the links below.)

Eco: habitat or environment; from the Greek oikos, home. (Ditto.)

So, ecology is the study of habitat or environment. That one's easy. Economics = "a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services". Which, naturally, benefit the home.

Ergonomics = an applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely. Yeah. I just did a redneck chiasmus. I know a (very) little about chiasmus, because the Book of Mormon is filled with it.

Yesterday I read the second book in the Percy Jackson series. I also worked on The Albatross, and I took myself to lunch at La Madeleine, where I had a cup of tomato basil soup, quiche Lorraine, and strawberries Romanoff. Then I came home and played with the dead people for about four hours, ate a very little, fought chill (I don't think I'm sick; I think I just didn't eat enough yesterday!), and threw an extra quilt on the bed after praying that I would would be able to keep my commitment to help clean the meetinghouse this morning and go to a family thing tomorrow evening.

I didn't cry once, yesterday, because it was Beloved's angelversary. I did cry a little upon receiving a text message from Older Twin, inviting me to their son's birthday party tomorrow. I have been persona non grata with that part of the family since shortly after Beloved died.

And now if you will all kindly excuse me, I'm going to make a huge cheese omelette in the hope of  (A) having enough fuel to ma'am the vacuum or whatever and (B) warming up. Thankfully I don't feel ill. Just cold. I can fix cold.

Happy anniversary to us!

Four years, three of them in a distinctly long-distance relationship.

I crack myself up.

Today I have worked on The Albatross, read my scriptures like a good girl, and spent hours upon hours hanging out with the dead people. Who have strangely forgotten that mortals need to eat. I finally had to say, "No more, dudes! I'm so hungry that I'm getting crabby, and I'm no good to you if I'm crabby, so we're done for now."

I made a vat of soup for the missionaries and delivered it in a giant disposable loaf pan resting in the cardboard box bottom that came with my dozen cans of chicken broth. Plus two crisp apples and the last four snickerdoodles that I bought on Tuesday after Knit Night.

I went to Half Price Books and spent part of my gift card. The Percy Jackson books in paperback, and a Nigella Lawson cookbook. Dinner was four party tacos and a mug of pumpkin cheesecake ice cream, and I'm still vaguely hungry with no idea what sounds good.

I've read the first 103 pages or so of the first Percy Jackson book, and I really like it. Riordan's style is very American, very conversational, and I snort with laughter about every other page. This guy is good.

Facebook tells me that a year ago I made a field trip to La Madeleine. I was vaguely thinking about it today but only got out of my jammies in time to do the drive-by fooding of the elders. Maybe I will go have brunch there tomorrow before firing up the computer and playing some more with the dead people.

Successes: I found my Uncle Kenny's second wife's maiden name and the name of her parents. I have a surname for her first husband, but no hints yet as to anything more. I mostly worked on the kids of one of my great great grandmothers, and it got a little teary from time to time. I think she's happy to be remembered, and to have them found and connected together. I've started a spreadsheet, color-coded, to keep track of whose work is finished, who is still alive, whose work needs to be done, and whose work needs to be done but has been reserved by FamilySearch. (I don't know what that's about.)

I am now officially more than vaguely hungry. Time to forage, make one last dash through Facebook, and call it a night. Tomorrow is the angelversary, and I will probably need to have my wits about me.

There's your straight line...

Chick time.

Work was amazing today. Just amazing. I got through the To-Do's, the mail, kept the inbox in line, and toward the middle of the day was caught up through tomorrow. When I looked at the To-Do's for Friday, I discovered three trial notebooks that need to be done. I emailed SemperFi about two of them, for trials scheduled to start the same day, asking if either was likely to settle, and which one he would like me to do first, and that until I heard back, I would be working on the notebook for my other attorney.

I'm out for the next two days, but I've nearly completed the innards of that notebook, and I am poised to finish with a big huzzah when I get back to the office next Monday. I also had my end of year performance review, and I am pleased. I won't know how that translates into raise and bonus for a few more weeks, but there will be some of each, and for that I am immensely grateful.

Met a friend from my ward for ice cream after work, and we talked for two hours, and it was wonderful. She's the Gospel Doctrine teacher, is freshly divorced, and is a hoot. We've agreed to get together once a month for something like this. Like me, she has a job that she enjoys that she's been at this side of forever. (Her chunk of forever is two decades shorter than mine; I'm just barely old enough to be her mother.)

So that was good, and I grabbed a burger at In N Out on the way home, and that's settled, so I will post this and turn off the lights and go to bed. If I were a betting woman, I'd lay odds that I'll wake up within half an hour of when I normally would (assuming that the Insomnia Fairy does not decide to grace Chez Ravelled with her presence).

Tomorrow is my fourth anniversary. I plan to spend a good bit of the day hanging out with the dead people. They've been somewhat neglected of late. And I'm doing a drive-by fooding of the elders tomorrow night.

Later, gators.

Happy teeth. Happy dentist.

We were budgeted for an hour apiece, Fourthborn and I, but the cleanings went so well that we were both done in a little over an hour. So we ate some Bueno, went to the art supply place, stopped in at the comic book shop where Fourthborn has an entry in their art contest, then to her place briefly so she could walk her dog, and maybe an hour walking about in an antique mall where we saw several lovely bits but nothing that needed to come home with either of us.

We found ourselves strangely hungry after our stroll, so hit Arby's on the way to Knit Night and picked up kid-size sandwiches to stave off the jumbies. Stayed until about 8:00, headed back to her place by way of Braum's because snickerdoodles sounded good, and we could get a dozen to split for about what we'd pay for a single brownie at Starbucks.

Dropped her off, and alternately prayed and sang my way home. Spent an hour working on The Albatross, took my meds, and am about ready for bed. Brain would like to stay up and read awhile. Eyes and body-at-large are insistent upon being horizontal and unconscious as soon as decently possible.

It's been a good day. Tomorrow I have a full day of work, and then I'm meeting a girlfriend from church for ice cream and to get to know one another better.

Over and soon to be out.

Another short one.

Work went well. I have a couple of interesting tasks waiting for me in the morning. I managed to stay busy all day, even if some of that busyness involved researching places I might like to go on vacation.

Dinner with the Empty Nesters tonight. Applebee's. The food was generally good. The service was not quite as we might have wished, and the parking was abominable. I didn't foresee a problem when I parked the Tardis, but there was another truck parked behind me, on the other side of a narrow passageway, and I had to back and file half a dozen times before I was clear to leave. Not. Fun.

A little over an hour's work on The Albatross tonight. Hands are tired. Eyes are tired. Have just read one article regarding the status of women in Israel in the time of Lehi and Nephi, so my mind and spirit have something to chew on overnight.

Speaking of overnight, last night I was sufficiently weary when I went to bed that I forgot to change the alarm from 6pm to 6am. I awoke from a slightly frustrating serial dream to find that I was forty minutes past my usual hour. It made for an interesting scramble to get ready, but I made it to work on time, and I had a tender experience while listening to the Book of Mormon on the drive in. More on that later, if I remember. Which is not necessarily likely. A couple of weeks ago I asked Fourthborn to text me three words as a cue to tell her a funny story. I am still trying to figure out why I thought "LittleBit" "zombie" and "bee" would be enough to do the job.

Night, y'all. The bed is ready for me, and I am more than ready for the bed.

Veryquickpost.

Yes, I know it's nearly 11:00pm.  Yes, I know that that is an hour after the time I try to be in bed. I had a short nap this afternoon, and I've been waiting to feel sleepy, which I now do. Am hoping that I got just enough nap to be useful and not so much that sleep is a laughable concept. Knock wood, I think I'm OK.

It's been a lovely, restful Sabbath. I made brownies to take to Mel and Squishy's to watch the second episode of Downton Abbey. It's fun to see various bits of plot begin to be tied up in neat little bows. Anna is no longer in danger of false arrest and imprisonment. There's about to be another wedding. Mary has shed much of her queen bee attitude and is becoming a modern woman in nearly the best sense. There's an outside chance that poor Edith may find happiness and escape her middle-child neuroses. Thomas is being his usual crabby self. Daisy is no longer the little mouse that she was in the early years. Education and opportunities have opened up her world, it it's fun watching her learn how to be assertive without being overbearing. The Earl's sister, who was rather a pain early on, appears to have softened and mellowed. She had a particularly poignant line tonight about the dangers in being comfortable, living alone. I thought to myself, right on, sister!

There was a modicum of knitting during Sunday School and Relief Society today. More grist for the Christmas boxes.

I suspect that tomorrow morning I will wake a little ahead of the alarm, and my hands will reach for The Albatross. I have dinner with the Empty Nesters to look forward to, and then more work on The Albatross, and then bed.

But I mustn't get ahead of myself. I did a little reading in supplementary material after coming home from the kids' apartment. It's an online book that was referenced in one of the KnowWhy links at Book of Mormon Central.

Night, y'all.

Much progress.

Fourthborn worked on the door mouldings for my bedroom and the smaller doors for the linen closet, plus several coats on the framework for the linen closet.

I worked on The Albatross. I am beginning to feel greater affection for it. The most fiddly bit is done. I have gone back over previous portions and improved a few of them. Before I took her home, I had begun a section that was entirely new territory. I was even hopeful that when I got back I would have the energy and the inclination to finish that bit, but no.

My hands ache, my neck and shoulders are stiff, my eyelids are drooping, and I have no wish to do anything more ambitious than sleeping. So that is what I am going to do. I'm very pleased with what we accomplished today, and enough is enough, and I'm ever so thankful that tomorrow is the Sabbath. When I awake on Monday morning, I can pick up where I'm leaving off, with a clear conscience and a rested body.

Night, y'all.

Taking a little break.

Because I was turning into a pretzel, sitting in bed, working on The Albatross. Yes, as in Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Only not as stinky. And I am making progress. As soon as I get my back and neck stretched out, I will get back to it.

I was able to calculate my sales tax deduction for last year. It is a very nice number, and it does lovely things to my refund, assuming that I haven't forgotten something crucial. I'm basically done until the W-2's and 1099's roll in and I can check my numbers.

Had another good day at work today. Got all the mail worked, and all the To-Do's worked or touched if I couldn't complete them. Did a quick special project for the office manager. Completed one item of mandatory annual training and began another. I'm hoping to finish the second one tomorrow.

Cousin emailed me the date of this year's family reunion, so I can now calendar that.

One of the women in the Knittin'Tiny group on Facebook posted a link to a really cool cast-on. It's called the Chinese Waitress Cast-On.  It was published in a book by Cap Sease (who is not the person in this video, but she credits her). This video is kinda talky, but in this case I think that's helpful.

OK, I'm done, except to say there's also a Chinese Waitress Cast-Off, but I haven't checked it out.

Inching forward.

A little progress on one of the stealth projects for next Christmas.

I listened to the first seven chapters of 1 Nephi while working on a different project. I also hauled four books out of the bookcase to serve as supplementary reading material, and I also checked out Book of Mormon Central.

I figured out the hymns for next Sunday and the one after that, and mailed the list to the powers that be.

I ate leftovers. Huge salad followed by about half of the purple potato and red onion jollop that I made last weekend.

My brain would like to color. I'm going to appease it by knitting to the next decrease on the stealth project. Something like two or three minuscule rounds. Because my eyes and my hands are crazy-tired.

It's been a good day.

More stuff made like Elvis and left the building.

I love Tuesdays. Trash goes out to the street. Every other Tuesday (this is not one of them) recycling also goes out. I dropped off a bag of miscellany behind Salvation Army on my way to work. I dropped off three pairs of glasses at my eye doctor's before picking up Fourthborn for Knit Night. Squishy picked up the affidavit of heirship that I signed for him so he can get Beloved taken off the title to his car. A friend from church is picking up the ice cream dishes. That was supposed to happen today, but did not.  If the box is still there when I get home tomorrow night, it gets donated.

I spent about twenty minutes this morning working on the resurrected project. I'm too tired to work on it tonight, but at least there was some progress today. There will be more tomorrow. I plan on giving it another 15-20 minutes before work and however much I can stand before bedtime.

Fourthborn and I are going to have to tweak her pickup and delivery this weekend. As I now have midday church, taking her home immediately afterward will interfere with a social commitment she has made. She needs to be there by 1:00. I will be zipping down the hall from Gospel Doctrine to Relief Society at that time. What we're both hoping is that she can hit the floor running when I bring her here on Friday night, work steadily beginning early Saturday morning, and then go home Saturday night (but not too late for me to make a safe round trip).

OK. I've nuked the bag of deer corn that warms my feet during the cooler months. I've topped off the reservoir in my CPAP. The phone is plugged in for the night. I don't want to read, or knit, or color. I just want to be asleep fifteen minutes ago.

Night, y'all. I'm handing over the baton.

So I crunched the numbers.

Came home from watching Downton Abbey with Mel and Squishy, and remembered to open up Lorelai (who has been sitting idle at the head of my driveway for a couple of months now), fire up the engine, and take down her mileage.

It ain't pretty. 215,303 of intermittently-maintained miles, dings and dents and peeling plastic from the rear bumper and a big gash on the driver's seat where my shoulder blade has rubbed along it for nearly ten years as I slide down into the car. Fair condition is probably a stretch. Looking at a trade-in value range of $287-792 (likely value $540). About three times as much if I sell her to a private buyer.

I want to empty her out and offload her before I have to re-license and reinspect her. Firstborn and 1BDH are willing to help me sell her privately. I am sorely tempted to forego the additional cash and have a friend follow me down to CarMax and take the $500 just to be done with it, as I did with Earl, her predecessor (as in, Earl's in the trunk; I used to be a Dixie Chicks fan until they got tacky about W after 9/11).

In other car news, I have a quitclaim deed to sign on Beloved's behalf for the car that he co-signed with Squishy, so they can get Beloved's name off the title. I'll get that notarized tomorrow and take it over tomorrow night after work.

I've written my visiting teaching letters, stuffed the envelopes, and need to weigh them so I can put on the postage. Pretty sure they will all require an extra stamp. I bought some of those last month. They have penguins on them! (Yes, I am easily amused.)

First episode of the final season of Downton Abbey did not disappoint. Spending time with Mel and Squishy is always the best part.

In other family news, a friendly tag on Facebook by one of the twins, and a brief, civil response from the other twin to a group text I'd sent to all three of the boys.

I feel as if I had been eating all day (I haven't), and it's nearly bedtime, and I'm ravenous again.

I need to buy spray starch tomorrow. They warned us at the quilt shop yesterday that the next three blocks have many, many long bias-cut edges, and that spray starch and careful pressing will be the only way to complete the blocks with any semblance of sanity intact. Heading out to the kitchen to nuke a mug of dark chocolate almond milk, take my meds, and call it a night.

I managed to avoid a nap after church, but it was a near miss. I leave everything in your capable hands.

What the grownup does on the second day of the year.

Procrastinate. Big time.

There is something I need to do, and I don't want to do it (but I will). Instead of working on it today, I have spent six hours scanning and organizing paperwork and files on my computer and external drive. A worthy project, and it needed to be done, but perhaps not today.

I also cleaned the silver earrings that I made in the silversmithing class in Fredericksburg in 1992 or early 1993, when I was teaching community education classes and taking them in an effort to stave off despair.

I re-glued the amber heart into its setting. Those earrings were Beloved's last Christmas gift to me, and I haven't worn them in months. I'll let them lie fallow for two more days, and then I should be able to wear them safely again.

I picked up the January quilt block for Fourthborn's quilt and the penultimate monthly kit for the medallion quilt. I bought two silver Verithin pencils to mark quilting lines.

I confirmed with Mel what time I should show up tomorrow for the lead-in to the final season of Downton Abbey.

I tweaked my 2014-2015 and 2016-2017 spreadsheets.

I thought about my assignment for Gospel Doctrine class tomorrow.

After I publish this post, I am heading over to the shredder to eliminate all of the paperwork I have scanned today. My desk is looking pretty good at the moment. There's a half inch sheaf of papers on the floor just behind me to my right. It won't be there much longer.

And then I am going to head into my room and climb up on my bed and spend at least 15 minutes working on The Thing, after which I will have the satisfaction of having begun. When it's well and truly done, which is not likely to be for several weeks, I will 'splain, Lucy. In the meantime, you may expect intermittent grousing, as this project involves not only my creative skills but some spiritual deep cleaning.

What the grownup does on the first day of the new year.

Add year-to-date interest from the credit union to my spreadsheet and to TurboTax. Attempt to do the same for the primary bank, only to be foiled by end-of-year number crunching on their end and the suggestion that I try again after 10:00a.m. Remember to add the new name of the primary bank to TurboTax. Add up the medical mileage, put it on the spreadsheet and into TurboTax. Put the log book into the storage box along with the 2014 log book. Eat a piece of Godiva in celebration.

I had a very quiet New Year's Eve, just the way I like it. Leftovers, a bit of knitting, pressing the fabric for the monthly quilt block, some coloring, and a modicum of reading that I think will have to be redone, as I brained very hard at work yesterday.

What am I doing today? In a moment, I will lay out my clothes (still in jammies at 7:24, woohoo!), sluice off, then head over to Fort Worth to visit with Secondborn and family, and to pick up the chairs I left there on Christmas Day. Thence to Arlington to give J some driving time. When I get home, there will be more knitting, some sewing, a bit of laundry, and I might even run the vacuum. I'll change the filter on the AC unit.

I bought two on the way to work yesterday, and when I change the filter in three months, I'll buy two more, repeating until I have a year's supply stashed in that closet. I also created an updated reminder system on my phone, as these filters do not need to be washed monthly, just switched out on a quarterly basis. If I have the next one here, and I change it on the first of each month, then my wonderful new AC will reach its maximum life expectancy. I don't know that I can expect it to last 44 years like the previous one, which was original to the house, and which was obviously the beneficiary of tithing blessings, but we shall see.

That's all I've got for you, for now. Happy New Year!

You get a post. Because I'm not asleep.

Last night was fun. I made a salad as big as my head. It wouldn't stay politely in its bowl when I tried to stir in the dressing, so I had to dump it into a medium size mixing bowl, and dinner took the better part of half an hour to eat, because I was reading. Bite. Paragraph. Bite. Interesting sentence. Bite. Likening unto my experience. Bite.

I've finished the first chapter of Mimesis, and I have to say that it's far easier going than the introduction. I read as little as possible of The Iliad and The Odyssey when I was in school. Now, I loved the Greek myths. I devoured Bulfinch's Mythology in fifth grade. I just didn't give a damn about Odysseus/Ulysses, although I had great admiration for Penelope. Still do. No, you bozos*, my husband's not dead. He's just not here, and I have no interest in dating any of you.

*These would be metaphorical bozos. Nobody is hanging around my living room, eating my food, and trying to get me to marry again. Any frogging of knitting projects is due to inattention on my part, and not the unwelcome attentions of one or more men.

When I finished that chapter, I resisted the temptation to start another, and I decided to crowd-source recommendations for good translations of Homer, because Auerbach juxtaposed his analysis of those classics against the Old Testament, and I have more than a nodding familiarity with that after forty years in the church.

It may take me years to read this book, if I keep getting intrigued by the source material.

I also worked a little on the stealth project for next Christmas, and I grabbed the other knitting project, worked a row and set it aside, then rooted around for a size 6 circ because one of my Options ends has a couple of rough spots where the wood might be thinking of coming de-laminated. I've been knitting a 7" wide scarf on 8" DP needles, which means that if I turn my back a few ~ or a lot ~ of stitches fly off one end of the needle or another. Fortunately, I had some size 6 ends in the new(ish) Caspian colorway, and I put a circ together and worked a final row and pronounced it good.

And then I colored a very little, took my meds, and went to bed, hoping for something like seven and a half hours of sleep. I woke about 3:30, near as I can tell (the clock and my glasses are across the room from my bed, and I could not see the one without the other). Since then, I have washed a load of laundry, which is now tumbling merrily in the dryer, made myself some toast, and played on Facebook.

The alarm goes off in half an hour. My toes are cold (it's 40 degrees out in the garage). I'm finally sleepy again, when there's no point in lying down. I am going to assemble my lunch, nuke the bag of deer corn that warms my feet when I go to bed, and go color for fifteen minutes or so. We get to wear jeans and sneakers to work today, and I'm hoping to have enough actual work to stay busy. I'm backing two extra attorneys today, which might keep me a little more occupied than might otherwise be the case.

What I want right now is two vats of hot chocolate. One for my innards, and another for steeping my feet. I may have to stop by Racetrac on the way to work and get a small hot chocolate, or swing by Kroger instead and pick up a half gallon of dark chocolate almond milk, which would be significantly more healthy.

Mmm, yeah. That's a plan. Later, gators.

I'm awake, I'm awake.

Went to bed at a reasonable time last night. Awake at 4:00. Poured myself a mug of chilled herb tea, knitted a few rounds on a project for next Christmas, and went back to bed. No luck. So now I am up, playing with my 2016-2017 spreadsheet, and thinking it's going to be a long, long day.

I have a few more pieces in place for my 2015 tax return. Next week I will be able to finalize earned interest, update the spreadsheet, update TurboTax, and be that much closer to submitting my return. I'm thankful that my medical expenses were low enough that I couldn't deduct them. Financially, that's a bit of a pain, but in the eternal scheme of things it's a plus. I spent less than $40 out of pocket on prescriptions. If I hadn't left my Metformin under the car seat, necessitating an emergency prescription when we were in Minneapolis this spring, it would have been closer to $25. I'm a little over a year away from official senior-citizenship. And I am in remarkably good health. And I am so, so thankful.

Work was interesting yesterday. The courts are kinda slow this time of year, so I'm waiting on a couple of dismissal orders before I can close more cases. The mail is lagging because of Christmas. The entire office got something like four pieces of mail yesterday, which makes me wonder if we are going to get a large bucket of oops-this-got-mislaid in the next day or so. I filed an answer on a new case for SemperFi. I worked as many of the To-Do's as I could, given that there was minimal mail. And I sent out a will type for food email, which resulted in a small but labor-intensive project for the office manager that I will finish sometime today.

Last night I attended a ring ceremony and reception for a young sister in our ward. She has consistently been one of the most friendly and affectionate Young Women since I moved in almost four years ago. Always there with a hug. I don't remember if she graduated this spring, or last year. But she's in love, and she's married, and she was radiant last night in a very simple dress. Long sleeved white knitted top. Big floofy white skirt. And a faux or otherwise fur infinity scarf around her neck. I got at least two hugs from her in passing, and I had great visits with several friends in the ward. Then I came home and crunched numbers until I was sleepy.

I have no idea why playing with numbers is so calming and satisfying. But it is. I love watching my mortgage balance go down. I love watching my tithing and other contributions increase. I like sitting down when I get my yearly raise and figuring out how much more to add to my 401K each payday, how much more to savings, and which buckets. It looks as if I will get another tax refund, and I know where some of that will go.

When I inspected the house Saturday night after the tornadoes struck nearby, I saw that the temporary fix that Wes did to my garage door in back, is coming undone. He used interior plywood and screwed a panel on either side of the door. Et voila! No more possum romping in my garage. When I get my refund, the first item of business will be a new back door to the garage. And, depending on how big my refund is, possibly a new garage door in front as well.

Projects for the coming year will include repainting the cabinets in the kitchen, new countertops if my bonus is large enough, and ripping out the carpet in the middle bedroom. When Middlest moves home at the end of spring semester, that room will have to serve as a functioning bedroom as well as food storage central. I want to buckle down and get the new baseboards in place. If all goes according to plan, the kitchen will be done, the middle bedroom will be done, the studio will be reorganized, and I can spend 2017 working on the bathrooms.

This is the part where I pack my lunch for today and get ready for work. Although today it is more like, ready or not, here I come. So glad that I will be off on Friday. I need to go to Secondborn's and pick up the folding chairs we left there on Christmas Day, and spend some time with J so he can practice his driving for his driving test in February.

Passover. And some exceedingly busy guardian angels.

Some of you are aware that the destroying angel had a field day in North Texas yesterday. Vehicles swept off overpasses, neighborhoods flattened, pets carried away or frightened off, and miraculously only a handful of souls sent Home.

We are under a flash flood watch until noon tomorrow (it is 100%-ing out there, again, with varying amounts of Wagnerian thunder) and have been bracing for a blizzard or an ice storm, although the current forecast from the National Weather Service says maybe just mixed sleet and snow, with some quarter sized hail for punctuation, and everything melting away tomorrow.

It has been so heartening to see the people of North Texas offer their homes, their backs, and their pickup trucks to help and comfort the afflicted. I love living in the Bible Belt, where religion is not just a Sunday thing or a Christmas thing or an Easter thing, and so many of our fellow Christians walk the walk.

For me this has been a day of relief and gratitude. Fourthborn and I were safe last night. We actually took counsel and sat in the guest loo for half an hour while the tornadoes went around us. I was able to get her safely home after church (it’s about an hour’s drive on clear roads, and we were driving into the leading edge of the next wave of rainstorms: cats, dogs, little fishes, the occasional rhino as we passed under an overpass with water cascading over its edge) and to return home safely as well.

Bonus: the Relief Society lesson was one of the most serene I have experienced in 40 years of church membership. The wife in our senior missionary couple taught from Neill Marriott's address at the most recent General Conference. The sisters shared pertinent stories about answered prayers and Heaven's timeline and patience. I thought about when it felt as if some of my prayers were never going to get answered in this lifetime, and then they were, and it was always worth the wait.

I feel wonderfully blessed. We didn't sleep well last night. At one point Fourthborn and I were both awake at the same time. I caught a nap after taking her home, and I'm half an hour late in taking my meds, so I'll take care of that and read a few more pages of Mimesis and call it a day, I think. The house appears to be unscathed. Lorelai and the Tardis, ditto. There are still a few stubborn leaves on some of my bushes. I joked last night that we felt pretty safe, because there are so many dead people waiting for me to get their temple work done that they were watching over us, and that may very well be true, but I think the fact that I live about two blocks from the chapel as the crow flies, had a good deal to do with it as well.

Repainting, with (improvised) tackcloth (and no ashes)

We have pun-ished this day severely. Hangry eyes (I want a drumstick and maybe some thighs ~ that second line is contributed by Fourthborn.) I've gotten the double toggle switch plate installed in the master bathroom, since we won't be repainting it.

Found a framed print of a Chris LeDoux quote: "Saddle up and follow your dreams." (I miss that man. So gifted.) Purchased a one of those sproingy metal frames for displaying ornamental plates. I already had one, but Firstborn and 1BDH gave me two lovely small rectangular plates with scriptures on them, and they will go up on the wall with all the representations of the Savior. [The plates, not the kids.]

Found my belt sander, which was hiding behind the toolbox on my Mormon bar cart, and roughed up the finish on the frame and doors to the linen closet. Did some prep work on a stealth project for next Christmas. Knitted a little.

Went to IKEA to get one of those Billy bookcases with the yellow shelves, but they've been discontinued (the nerve!), so we came back by way of Costco, as planned, and tanked the Tardis after picking up the last bits of stuff I needed to restock fridge and pantry.

Did a drive-by fooding of the missionaries.

Before the sky clabbered up, Fourthborn got a coat of paint on the moulding for the doors in my room. She brought everything inside when we had the tornado warning, and we hung out for half an hour in the guest loo, making bad jokes and posting them on Facebook.

We didn't get any actual painting done on the linen closet because of the tornado warning, but after the skies cleared, Fourthborn taped off the frame, so next time we just need to jump in with the brush and git 'er done.

I'm edging into crazy-tired land and am hoping the washer is done so I can toss everything into the dryer and call it a night.

The improvised tackcloth? Numerous sheets of antibacterial wipes to get the dust off, since it was raining dogs and cats and little fishes, and I was not about to dash out in that mess to Home Depot for the real thing. Those wooden bits are cleaner than at any time since Beloved passed.

Sorry. You just get random brain droppings tonight.

Sluggish.

That would describe my internet connection for the past couple of weeks, after the most recent spate of rain. I was too busy getting ready for Christmas (insert huge grin) to take five minutes and see if turning off my modem would beam me up, Scotty. It would. It did.

The gifts for the grandchildren on my side of the tribe are wrapped and gathered up in a tote bag. The adult gifts are mailed out (my sister and Middlest) or boxed up and collected in more totes. The birthday gifts for LittleBit and BittyBit are bought and wrapped. I'm done shopping. I'm done cooking, at least for awhile. I blitzed through Costco last night and picked up a five pound bag of clementines, two ginormous bags of organic tortilla chips (as opposed to the inorganic kind?) and two vats of Wholly Guacamole, all for the tribal feast on Friday.

Work has been going well. We are a skeleton crew this week. Tomorrow I will be wrangling SemperFi, handling both halves of my other attorney's docket, and backing up three other attorneys whose secretaries (and their backups) are out. Only three of those attorneys will be in the office and likely to ask me for something, and the courts are all closed tomorrow, and the post office closes at noon but deliveries and pickup will happen as scheduled. So I may still be looking for stuff to do, and ways to help.

Fourthborn will be coming back with me after Christmas dinner, and we will spend Saturday working on projects. I'm looking forward to that.

I may be picking up a waif-and-stray from the ward and dragging him along to the tribal feast. Yes, I said "him". No, this is not a romantic thing. I do notice him as a disturbance in the Force, for lack of a better term, but I'm not feeling flirtatious toward him, and I'm pretty sure he's not feeling flirtatious toward me, either. But he's a long, long way from home, and I got this prompting, and the next thing I knew I was asking him if he had plans for Christmas dinner. Secondborn has a huge house, and her philosophy has always been "the more, the merrier". There are already 23 confirmed attendees. One more will not mean that we have to hang by our toes from the banister.

If this turns out to be another rich, platonic friendship like the one I have with Brother Sushi, I will be over the moon. Romance would be a Volkswagen-sized spanner in the works, and I just flat don't wanna. I have a job to do, and a mortgage to pay off, and art to pursue and a house to finish and and and and. Not lonely, thank you very much.

Thankfully, I do not hear Moroni tap-dancing on my front porch with this good brother (or any other good brother) in tow, so I think I'm safe.

And now if you will all kindly excuse me, it's time for me to try to wind down and go to sleep. I've already decided that the charming small knitting project will be an excellent start on next Christmas and have firmly instructed the Ooh Good Idea Fairy to knock it off, because la la la la, I can't hear you.

Oh, *man*!

Note: I drafted this on Saturday night but couldn't scrape together enough internet to publish it. Trying again on Sunday morning. And fed up with trying to change all of the time references. You're on your own.

So Friday was all about traffic snarlups, miscommunications, and Plan Z in general. It started out well (and it wasn't a bad day; just didn't turn out anything like we had planned).

I bought what I thought were the rest of the Christmas ornaments for the grands. Discovered that the T-rex which I bought for Bittiest was severely damaged. So when I got to Arlington, I headed to Hobby Lobby to see if I could find another one. Nope. Two triceratops: one with a broken foot, and one with all four feet but a broken front horn. Apparently it's not been a good year for dinosaurs anywhere in North Texas. Found something else that I think will please him.

From there, off to Container Store to get small boxes to hold the ornaments. From there, off to J's work to pick him up for his driving test. Got to the warehouse. Called him. "Marco." He didn't come out. About 20 minutes later I texted him again, "I'm getting nervous." He texted back, "We have plenty of time." Finally, about 15 minutes before he was supposed to take his test, I see a missed call and call him back.

No, I am not in front of the apartment. I am in the next town over, waiting for him to come out of the warehouse, which he is not in, because he took the day off. I'd been so good about confirming that he was testing at the same location as last time. I neglected to confirm where I was to pick him up. I assumed that, because it was the middle of the day, he'd be at work. He assumed that I knew he'd taken it off.

We know what happens when you assume.

He's rescheduled again for late February, on the afternoon of the day when I have my well woman, because I have no more spare vacation days before the first of June. I have a calendar entry in my phone, with a reminder to confirm where I'm picking him up.

So I took him home, and I picked up Fourthborn and her laundry, and we came home by way of Bueno, because I was ravenous, and I was in bed a little after 8:00p.m., utterly knackered.

I woke up yesterday at 3:30 after nearly seven hours of sleep, but still. Puttered for an hour and went back to bed. We were both up a little after 6:00. I cooked up my first batch from the multigrain oatmeal, which I think I will really like once I get used to it (it was way better than not-bad, just different from what I'm used to.)

Since then I have hung pictures and other stuff on various walls. The second short wall in the living room is completed, and I love it. I also hung a picture on my bedroom wall, replaced one of the switchplates and had Fourthborn replace the other, as it sits smack up against the underside of a shelf on the black bookcase. I was afraid that if I got down on the floor, I might not get back up again.

The eagle shelf is hung on the wall above the pictures of Dad that FirstHubby's dad took on a fishing trip. I've tackled two bags and one pile from the perimeter of my room. I found a flobbity-jillion keys in an old cigar box, and I warned a friend in our stake that I would either hand off a quart ziploc bag to them at the special stake sacrament meeting tomorrow, or drop it on their front porch afterward. Either way, it is leaving the building.

Today (yesterday, and I've given up trying to update the time frame) we went to Home Depot to get more of the replacement rollers for the handy tool we use to cut-in on the walls. Apparently it's been discontinued, or they no longer carry it. So I decided that we should go to Lowe's and see if they had it, and I decided to take the back route to get there and avoid traffic. Hah!

We found ourselves stuck behind a parade by a school on a residential street. I posted that on Facebook as well. I was torn between laughing and swearing.

Tonight was the ward Christmas dinner. I didn't want to go empty handed, and I didn't sign up to make any of the assigned dishes. I am just rebellious enough to not want to be told what to cook or how to fix it. So I nuked four packets of the brown rice and quinoa mixture, put it in an old Tupperware bowl I wanted to get rid of, and took it to the dinner. Just before Fourthborn and I were ready to go (I looked over to my left and saw a good brother scraping the last of the rice onto his plate. Success! Vindication!)

We left before the musical part of the evening. The food was good, and the company was better, and Fourthborn was not the only one of us who was peopled-out. So we scuttled on home, and I can't quite decide if I want to bang a few more pictures onto the wall, or just take my meds and call it a day. I ate sensibly and am vaguely hungry for something but not sure what.

All the stuff that I ordered on Amazon yesterday will be delivered to my office either tomorrow (boo) or Monday (yay). Note to self: once it's all safely here, cancel the free trial of Amazon Prime.

Feeling both wonderfully blessed, and more than a little crabby tonight. What's up with that?

Postscript: still crabby. And it's raining.

Juggling, juggling.

I'm not sure where this week has gone. Dinner with the Empty Nesters on Monday. BittyBit's choir concert on Tuesday. The office building management company's Christmas party at the end of the day on Wednesday, followed by a modicum of Christmas shopping and the first entries into TurboTax for my 2015 tax return. A little more work in TurboTax last night, but mostly frustration due to a slow running computer. I think the installation of Windows 10 has clogged up my memory. I deleted some obvious superfluities and set more to not run automatically at start-up. This morning I was able to add more data to my tax return, and I've done about all that I can until I get hard numbers from end of year statements, W-2's, 1099's, and the like.

I ripped back the current knitting project to almost the first row, because I was doing the yarnovers wrong. Ordinarily, it doesn't matter much how they're done, but for this project they need to lie on top of a slipped stitch, and mine were wrapping around it, creating a faux cable that just looked junky. So I frogged and reknit sixteen rows, and I went to bed a happy knitter.

Today I am helping Fourthborn's roommate (he who was formerly known as Fiance) get his driver's license. Yes, I know we tried doing this month before last, but the VIN number on the Tardis did not match the VIN number on my proof of insurance, and they stopped us flat and told us to reschedule. We drove immediately to my insurance agent's office and got that little problem corrected on our end. I'm hoping that today goes smoothly for him.

I woke an hour ahead of the alarm, happy as a kid at Christmas, because today is payday, and I get to finish buying and/or ordering the Christmas gifts. At least I hope I will be done before the end of the day. I need to make a list so everything gets dovetailed neatly.

Now if you will all excuse me, I need to go drop a small bundle on Amazon.

Milestone.

By the time you read this (presumably sometime on Sunday), the children's father will have turned 75. I remember this because Firstborn reminded me at the quilt shop; she spent a good chunk of the preceding morning with him, so that he could speak with his sister in California for his birthday. She's a good daughter.

Middlest has made the entirely sensible suggestion that we abstain from the tribal Thanksgiving festivities next year, and while I am at least slightly tempted, I want to see my grandchildren. And if being kind to the children's father and his "wife" is the price of seeing my grandchildren, then I will pay that price. We can always come back here and do fun, palate-cleaning stuff when the tribal feast is over.

It's been a mostly terrific day. On the way to the quilt shop, I hit a run of sentimental songs on my favorite Pandora station, and I got a little misty-eyed. There are songs that I've never exactly associated with Beloved (one of which I only heard for the first time this week) that nevertheless bring forth a sweet and tender longing. I'm not sad. I'm definitely not depressed. Nostalgic would probably be the best word for it.

I didn't quite complete my block in time to take it to the shop with me, because when I ironed the white background fabric after pre-washing it, it was a pronounced rhombus, and I lost just enough in the truing that I could only get six of the eight larger pieces out of it. So I paid for the next month's block, and I bought a quarter yard of the white, in case there are other glitches in future blocks.

On the way home, I stopped at Hobby Lobby (Fourthborn: the one with the funky entrance that we went to when we were buying Christmas ornaments last year), and there is now a Trader Joe's in the same parking lot (what a mess that was to navigate!). I picked up the last Secret Santa gift, two boxes of the multigrain crackers I've come to love, and a box of seasoned pita crackers to try (they are delicious, but one serving is eight crackers, as opposed to 14 for the others).

My last stop was at the art supply shop, where I bought another dozen Prismacolor pencils at the 40% holiday discount. I've acquired the last of the greens, I think, and am edging into the brown tones. They're all entered into Evernote.

My own Secret Santa at work gave me a lovely BH&G quilting magazine. My technical skills are way beyond anything used for the featured quilts, but the photos and sketches are wonderful eye candy. I couldn't be more pleased.

I came home from all my gadding and took a shortish nap, maybe an hour and a half? Since then I've polished off the last of the leftover roasted veggies from Thanksgiving, enjoyed some hummus with the pita crackers, read a nice chunk in the Michener autobiography, and finished the November quilt block and the last of the piecing for the current installment of the medallion quilt. I've remembered to take my medicine, and as midnight draws near I am just about ready to call it a night.

After last Sunday's near debacle, when I awoke an hour before church was to start (half an hour before when I prefer to leave the house), I am definitely setting the alarm tonight.

I wish the children's father a happy birthday tomorrow. I am grateful for our children. They wouldn't be who they are if somebody else were their father. And, carefully tucked away, there are any number of good memories with that man. It is painful to see the shell of a human being he has become, although my pain does not begin to approach the pain our children feel in seeing him or dealing with him.

I hope I may be privileged to keep my marbles until my dying breath, and to be lively and feisty and not a burden, but a source of amazement and wonder and joy to our children. Something to strive for, anyway.

Night, y'all.

Sometimes I surprise myself.

Over the past couple of years, I have improved my diet, exercised more faithfully, and learned the basics of managing a chronic disease which I have brought on myself by choosing to do neither of the former, for much of my adult life. Tonight as I drove home, singing loudly to my Pandora station in order to stay awake until I could refuel, and as I was nearly to the house, a song I loved from the late 60's or early 70's came on, and I wanted to boogie. So I paused my phone and popped it into my purse. After I had come in, kicked off my shoes, put away the key to the Tardis and reattached the housekey to its tether, I fished my phone out of my bag, resumed playing the song, and boogied around my bedroom on that lovely smooth floor.

I need to do more of that. I am finding the holiday sweets ridiculously tempting, and I am losing muscle tone. But I did do a couple of good things: I resisted the temptation to hit Bueno on the drive home. I made a simple dinner of salmon burger, spinach-based salad, and the brown rice quinoa mixture I get at Costco. And then I filled a small basin with warm water, set the timer for 20 minutes, and soaked my feet while reading more of the Michener autobiography. Timer went off, and I gently scrubbed my feet with a very soft washcloth, dried them off, trimmed my toenails, and curled up on the bed with some lavender-laced lotion and a pair of white cotton socks

It may not happen again for three years, but I feel as if I have done something deeply nourishing for myself tonight. (And I'm not talking about dinner.) I take my feet for granted. They are battered and scarred, but they do a remarkable job of getting me where I want to go. And I understand, at least on an intellectual level, that as a diabetic I need to be more aware of them, and to take better care of them. I can't stand to have a professional manicure. I didn't mind when Sarah worked on my feet as part of a massage, and I didn't mind if a husband rubbed my feet, but while I've tried on three or four occasions to comprehend why most women like pedicures, I would frankly rather eat cauliflower. Or clean the commode. (The last time I got a pedicure, I also got a resurgence of the athletes foot which had taken two or three years to eradicate. So, no.)

I would love to turn this into a parable for you, but I am tired in both mind and body. I've worked hard all week. Today I got everything done. All of it. A scheduling order calendared. Drafts for letters regarding trial dates in a couple of cases, either already sent, or drafted with tomorrow's date and ready to pop into SemperFi's outbox when I hit my desk in the morning. One case closed. Copies of reports to our clients. Copies of various documents forwarded to claims. All of my To-Do's, to-did, that were doable. I have a running start on tomorrow, and I've made arrangements to leave the office early on Tuesday to pick up Fourthborn so we may attend the Bitties' choir concert in lieu of Knit Night, and I've figured out token Christmas gifts for my attorneys, and delivered the first Secret Santa gift when the recipient finally stepped away from her desk for more than fifteen seconds. When I left the office, I was tired, I was sleepy, and I felt as if I'd earned my keep.

I have not knitted. Not one stitch. I'm going to do something about that: last night while waiting for tithing settlement I bound off maybe a dozen stitches. I'm going to put my library book up, get the bed ready for sleep, take my meds, and bind off at least a dozen more stitches. I'd like to be asleep in twenty minutes, so there's no chance of finishing that cowl tonight.

I think I will be skipping the doll meet tomorrow night in favor of some quality time with my sewing machine. I haven't touched the quilt block that I need to take to the quilt shop on Saturday morning in order to pick up block number three. But I feel well-tended. And maybe within spitting distance of something like refreshed. I wouldn't go so far as to say relaxed. That's not likely to happen until I've been dead for two or three weeks.

But hey, I'll take every scrap of progress I can get. Night, y'all.

And it's Wednesday already.

Work has gone well. I have been busy. I like that. It got a little crazy yesterday afternoon just before quitting time. I was wrangling my two attorneys, and backing up two others. When I got to work yesterday morning, I realized that I had dropped the ball on something important. Thankfully, something fixable, and I won't be shot at sunrise.

My new attorney has two trial settings for next Monday. I have been working on trial notebooks. It is fiddly work. The first one was about five inches thick when I was finished. The second one is going to be that size, or possibly a bit larger. I couldn't find a jumbo notebook like I used yesterday, so the second one will be in two parts: I got the main part done this afternoon, and I'll finish the second part tomorrow morning.

SemperFi was on a tear this morning. He loathes technology. Our paralegal and I have been discussing the possibility of getting him a "Rage Against the Machine" shirt for Christmas, or something similar. I sent her one link. She sent another, but I was up to my ears in the trial notebook and didn't have a chance to check it out.

I signed up for the office's Secret Santa exchange this year. Got my name this afternoon and have picked up and wrapped two of the three gifts, which I'll smuggle into the office tomorrow. I haven't done this in several years. First there was the engagement and wedding plans. Then Beloved was dying. And that year I had just enough oomph to put up a tree. Last Christmas there were massive, unexpected expenses toward the end of the year, but this year I have both the means and the desire to participate.

And in knitting news, I am binding off the dark cerise mystery yarn cowl. I started while waiting for tithing settlement tonight. I don't think I'll finish before bedtime. I would rather read a few more pages in the Michener autobiography. The first half covered his life as if he had never become a writer. The second half is written as if he had never done anything else. Right now he's talking about how he figured out what kind of writer he wanted to be, what his native gifts were, how he's worked around his shortcomings. The first half of the book was interesting-to-fascinating. This half is riveting.

As the house draws nearer to organization and completion, I can feel the creative juices starting to simmer, drawing me in multiple directions at once. I am feeling a bit like an amoeba.

A sleepy one, so this is what you're getting tonight, and I'm going to grab a handful of chocolate covered ginger, pour myself a small glass of buttermilk, and go learn something.

In which we invent a new holiday: Black and Blue Friday.

There will be a Thanksgiving rant, but not just yet. A few minutes ago I finished upgrading my system to Windows 10, and I'm still sighing with impatience. I need to get that out of my system by counting some blessings.

My boudoir, to all intents and purposes, is done. I have several small stacks of Things Which Must Be Dealt With, and a few bags that need to be emptied. Eventually we will need to add the new baseboards. But the flooring is down, the furniture is rearranged, the new (old) drapes are up, and Fourthborn's thumb is not-broken after she smashed it with the rubber mallet while tamping planks into place. We finished the job; she decided she wanted to get it X-rayed; and so her first personal trip to the ER is now a memory. Thankfully, she has her own insurance (such as it is), so the only cost to me is a bit of gasoline, an hour or so of hanging out with her in the triage room while waiting for her thumb to get nuked, and a bushel of mommy-guilt.

Pain meds are utterly wasted on her. They gave her 800mg of Motrin in the ER, and it made no difference in her pain level at all. They splinted her thumb to help her remember to baby it, and they told her it will probably be bruised for a couple of weeks and swollen for half that long. We drowned our sorrows in bean burritos at Bueno.

I am reveling in the spaciousness of my bedroom, even with the little stacks and bags which march around the perimeter of my room. I think I will wait for a few days before hanging pictures. I wrangled one stack after taking Fourthborn home this afternoon. Found a handful of credit reports for Beloved, since shredded, and an envelope marked "honeymoon plans - confidential!" that mostly contained information on the place we stayed, antique shops in the general vicinity, and the like. Mostly. The non-mostly made me grin, then blush, then hightail it for the shredder.

I love that man.

I got another patchwork border attached to the medallion quilt in between other tasks this weekend. While waiting for Windows 10 to stop rebooting (and rebooting and rebooting) my computer tonight, I pieced eight strips together to make four plain strips for the next border. I am not in the mood to cut them to length and attach them. That will happen before or after work tomorrow, depending upon when I wake up, how many errands I need to do after work, and how badly I need to sleep once that is done.

We have gotten rain in Biblical quantities this weekend. A young father died in the flooding locally when his car was swept away. Tola emailed me to check for a pulse, and I reassured her that we were just fine.

Fourthborn got the routing filled in on the doors for the linen closet, and we bought the new paint. I'm not picking her up next weekend, because next weekend will be filled with church activities. But I hope to complete the painting and decoupage of the linen closet when we get together in two weeks.

I'm sorry that this post is all over the place, but about the only bits that don't ache are my tonsils (gone when I was three) and my gall bladder (gone in 2001). I may have said the same thing after last weekend, but this weekend we worked hard two days in a row, and we're both feeling it.

OK. Thanksgiving. I was able to gracefully excuse myself from picking up the children's father and his "wife" for the family dinner, because I'm not driving Lorelai these days (and will attempt to sell her for a fair but not negligible price before it's time to renew her tags), and it would have been cruel to try and fit them into the jump seats in the extended cab. 2BDH picked them up. We all had plenty of delicious and varied food. As we were about ready to fill our plates, the children's father asked where I would be sitting. My immediate, unvoiced thought was as far away from you and her as decently possible. He followed quickly with, "Because I'd like to visit with you and hear what's going on in your life." To which my inner, unvoiced snark retorted You had the chance to listen to me for 20 years, why start now? But my better self stifled a sigh and sat at the same table with him. It was fun (kind of) to tell him all the ways in which Heaven is blessing me. I think I managed to avoid smugness. I hope so, anyway.

He asked about LittleBit, who apparently comes to see him about once a month, now that she's cleared for driving again. I told him I didn't know, that we're not close. He asked why. I told him, quietly, about her choices and actions which have shattered my trust, and that we are working to rebuild a relationship, but it's very slow going.

As one of the sisters expresses it so ably, LittleBit shares her father's gift for thinking things are perfectly fine, when they're not, or if they're not, it must be somebody else's fault. As much as I have wept over Middlest's choice to join the transgender world, that choice does not feel like a personal betrayal. The relationship that I had with LittleBit, which I had thought was rock-solid, turns out to have been built on quicksand. Time and the Atonement will heal it. I have time. And I trust my temple covenants and the work of the Dear and Glorious Physician.

At another point in that somewhat bizarre conversation, the children's father said something mildly funny and moderately outrageous. I looked at his "wife" and raised one eyebrow. "Do you want to smack him, or shall I?"  She raised her own eyebrow and said, "That's my job now." I grinned and said, "Well then, you're falling down on the job."

Thankfully, Fourthborn and I each got peopled-out at about the same time, said our goodbyes, and came home for much needed naps. We both find dealing with him to be heartbreaking and exhausting.

So it's Sunday night, and I think it's raining again, and I hope that when I put out the recycling tomorrow night it does not turn into a big mass of papier-mache. There's a whole bag of shredding, which is in no danger of that, but there are three boxes that contained vinyl plank flooring or the junk tile we put down between the concrete and the planks, and we've had winds strong enough to blow the empty plastic bottles (of which there are a plethora) from here to Louisiana in a heartbeat.

I think I'm going to nuke the deer corn bag for my feet, take my meds a little early, and call it a night.

Be careful what you ask for!

(Sometimes it's even better than you thought you wanted.)

The activity at what I lovingly call Chilton Academy was delightful as always. Hard to believe that all three of the Bitties are now in school. From there I picked up Fourthborn, and we came back here and started work on the house.

We had to make another trip to Arlington when I discovered that the transfer I had made on Thursday went into the wrong account. The bank where they'll let you transfer money in, but not out. So we dashed to the grocery store which houses that bank, pulled cash, and drove back to deposit it in my main bank, because it was cheaper to make the round trip than to pay an NSF fee, and there's an automatic debit which should hit this weekend. (Not to mention I wanted/needed to pick up a few things for the house.) So thankful for the ability to laugh at myself.

When we got home, we tried to remove the bifold doors from the closet in my bedroom and quickly discovered that while we could do part of it, some of it would require that vaunted superior upper-body strength that men have. Posted that on Facebook and decided that I would emulate Miz Scarlett and worry about that "tomorrow". Went to bed.

Worked a little on the medallion quilt while Fourthborn snoozed on Saturday morning. Looked at my phone to see that I'd gotten a call and voicemail from an unknown number with the same area code as the third cousin I discovered earlier this year. The one whose family reunion my sister and I attended  this summer. The call was from a son of my cousin, in town with his son, and needing the name of a skilled family lawyer. Could I help?

I called him back and told him I'd get in touch with people and get him a list. He asked if there was something he and his son could do for me. Yes, as a matter of fact. Want to come extract a pair of bifold doors? They agreed to come over in about an hour. I rousted Fourthborn from her hobo nest on the living room floor. We put on bras. I started making calls, texts, and emails.

Our cousins made short work of the bifold doors. They helped us (mostly Fourthborn; I'm still convalescing) take the bed apart, get rid of another small section of carpet, and get the flooring down where the new bed would go. They did the heavy lifting to move the bed, which is wider and longer than I had thought. There's a gap of about six inches between the end of the mattress and the footboard. Maybe Beloved could have slept in this bed after all? We all worked together to set up the bed. Then we went to Bueno and grabbed a late lunch and talked for four hours. (Yay for mini family reunions!)

I’ve got the list of possible helpers ready for my cousin. Just waiting for him to get back to me with his email address.

When we were at Bueno, Fourthborn was chatting easily with both of the cousins. This is a miracle on the order of the loaves and the fishes. She freely admits to being the poster child for social anxiety, and there she was, alternating war stories with the rest of us. It was so much fun to compare notes, find out all the ways in which we are similarly broken, similar tastes in music and art, how we cope with stuff. Love those guys.

One extended family, made stronger through mutual service. This, folks, is how we build Zion. It has put the most marvelous glow on my weekend.

Grandparents Day

First up: I had a great day at work yesterday. I prayed like crazy on the way in, because I needed to do Wednesday's work (from when I was home, sick), yesterday's work, and as much as possible of today's. Which meant dealing with the emails that had invaded my inbox, going through two days' worth of mail, calendaring anything that the mail or the emails had generated, mailing copies to our clients of items I had printed off after the mail went out on Tuesday, printing copies of other items to go out in yesterday's mail or when I get back to the office on Monday, staying focused, remembering to take my meds on schedule, and fielding phone calls. By the grace of Heaven, I got everything done that absolutely had to be done, and I know where to start on Monday. So, whew!

Alison had posted all sorts of Trader Joe goodies on her Facebook page, and I already needed to make a TJ run, so that's how I went home from work. Came home with two boxes or packages of everything on my list or in her post and the comments appended thereto. Kind of like the ark, only edible.

When I got home, the final dividend check for 2015 was in my mailbox. This is the packet of shares I inherited from Beloved and got switched over into my name at the end of 2013. Since then, the quarterly dividends have risen from $3.00 per quarter to a whopping $3.80. I noticed that the company was really clever this year. Instead of the usual formatting of the page attached to the check, it's my 2015 1099-DIV. I don't remember it being like that last year, but it may well have been. At any rate, two birds with one stone, and no doubt a massive savings in postage.

I suspect there will be another tax refund for 2015. No idea at this point how much. But if so, I may use some of it to buy another ten shares of the stock. Something to think about, anyway.

I've preshrunk the fabric in the October kit for my medallion quilt. While I was home on Wednesday, I finished attaching one of the borders, but not all at once. I awoke ahead of the alarm yesterday and got the pieces cut out. I may get the plain borders pieced (they are now a smidgen longer than the width of fabric, and from here on out will have to be pieced) and attached before it's time to leave for the Bitties' school.

Secondborn emailed me the class schedules. This year will be a little more complicated, because now all three of them are in school. BittyBit is a fifth grader. BittyBubba is in third grade. And Bittiest is in kindergarten. When I'm done in Fort Worth, I'll pick up Fourthborn, and we will go to town on my bedroom floor. Today we will finish the north end of the room, into the closet. I'm hoping that tomorrow we can finish the rest of the room and set up the bed frame. We will need to be well rested for that, because it is massive, and if we're too tired it would be easy to hurt ourselves.

I've eaten a token breakfast but am still vaguely hungry. Will sluice off and grab a little something on the way. I want to leave in half an hour to beat the morning rush. The fun in Fort Worth starts in two and a half hours. If I'm clever, I can eat breakfast at Ol' South Pancake House just like the good old days. I'll just have to opt for a Dutch Baby instead of the full-on German Pancake.

Camille. As in the last act of.

The drainage did not just go away. But more on that in a bit.

We got an incredible amount of stuff done on the house done, last Saturday. Carpet ripped up from the doorway along the just-painted wall to the bathroom door, and down the middle of the room to the opposite wall. Junk vinyl tile laid down on the newly freed concrete. And vinyl plank flooring extended through the doorway to where the closet begins, and into the room far enough that we could have set up the new bed frame on it if we hadn't been so tired that we were afraid of injuring ourselves. That new bed frame is heavy.

Dragged myself to church on Sunday. About the only bits that didn't ache were my tonsils, which have been gone since I was three, and my gall bladder, which went bye-bye in 2001. Skipped choir practice in favor of a nap. Home teacher and another good brother gave me a blessing. We had raised a lot of dust, pulling up the carpet. That didn't make me feel any better, so I took the first steps in getting well by calling in the priesthood.

Monday was a good day at work. Coughed a little but sailed through my work. Came home and emptied out the black bookcase, moved it to the newly painted wall so we may yank the carpet there and in the closet this weekend, and refilled the bookcase. Yesterday I was coughing more. I could tell that the yuck was trying to dig through to China by way of my lungs, so I called my doctor to see if they could fit me in. She was booked all day but scheduled to work the night clinic, so I took off early, picked up my remade glasses (which seem to be, finally, correct), then Fourthborn, who accompanied me to the night clinic with the plan that we'd go to Knit Night from there.

I was seen pretty quickly at the clinic, but not by my doctor, and I was able to pick up two prescriptions at a nearby pharmacy instead of at the one around the corner from my home. By that time it was a quarter to eight, so we blew off Knit Night (I did post a message that we wouldn't be there, after all), and I took Fourthborn home.

Have just taken my second dose of both medicines. The cough medicine is a little gel cap with an advisory not to drive or operate machinery. I've called in sick (my voice is convincing testimony of that) and am planning to sleep as the impulse strikes and will hope to be back at work tomorrow, as I'm off on Friday for Grandparents Day at the bitties' school.

I've eaten an English muffin with some Wholly Guacamole. Time to take my vitamins, maybe grab an apple, and settle in with one of my library books. I'm currently reading The Medici Effect and pondering how my life has been lived largely at what he calls the Intersection. Twyla Tharp's book on creativity is next on the list, and the library has notified me that the autobiography of James Michener is waiting for me. I've added the latest dozen Prismacolors to my inventory list on Evernote. If I get really ambitious, I may attempt to shake hands with my EQ7 program and begin entering the last series' finished quilt blocks preparatory to redesigning the sashing strips.

Not holding my breath on that one. (Because that would make me cough.) I crack myself up.

In the time required to more or less proofread this, the sleepiness has kicked in from my cough medicine. So it's likely to be vitamins and a very light snack, then back to bed.

Down the rabbit hole.

Brought home a book from work a day or two ago. Read it in two nights. No sewing. No knitting. Just quality time with the written page. About 500 of them.

I think if I had not been taking my antihistamine every night for months, I might be feeling pretty miserable now. As it is, I have a bit of drainage but no sign of infection. Which is good, because I have a lot planned for Saturday. Fourthborn will go with me to the doll meet tomorrow night. And I'm hoping to get enough of the carpet ripped up and the flooring down that we can set up the bed. I think I'm also feeling brave enough to try replacing an outlet or maybe all three in my bedroom.

But for now I need to call it a night.

Door is done.

One of the guys at Home Depot was able to do what two friends at work, and I, had been unable to accomplish: he got the brass thingie separated from the pretty part so that I could connect the two halves of the lever handles with long screws. When I went to bed last night, it was in a room with a door that could be locked if I so chose, which I did not.

Today I assembled the first block in what will become Fourthborn's quilt and picked up the kit for the second block. I also assembled and attached two of the four checkerboard strips on the medallion quilt. The third strip is laid out on my ironing board for when I'm ready to sew again.

I've mailed my visiting teaching letters, dropped off the exceedingly boring library book in the night slot. (It was about some weird new theory of architecture and probably better as a textbook than for casual reading. My attention span is recovering from widow brain. I can read longer articles without chasing rabbits in my mind. But my patience for jargon and/or gobbledygook is probably gone for good.)

I am taking my meds and going to bed now, because it is after 10:30 and my left eyelid has begun twitching. I'm taking that as a hint that it would like to lower the shades completely and call it a night.

Very much looking forward to church tomorrow. We have a bonus, broadcast session of stake conference. Something on a regional or area level, because multiple stakes are involved. Our stake will be meeting in three of our buildings. I declined the opportunity to sing in the choir. I want to go, and sit, and knit, and ponder. Sitting in the choir seats would put a definite crimp in the knitting department. (The only downside to my current calling as sacrament meeting chorister is that I don't think it appropriate to sit up on the stand and knit.) What functions as a "quiet book" for me should not be a distraction for the others in the congregation.

Momentarily stymied.

I need stronger hands than mine to disassemble one half of the lever. The bolt is screwed into the door, facing the right direction. The fourth coat of paint last night was all I needed to call it done. I've popped the recalcitrant lever half into a Ziploc bag to take to work, in hopes that somebody there will be able to wangle the bits apart. The Tyvek pulltab just isn't getting it for me. (And this will have to be repeated six more times, just for the interior doors.) I'll hold off on replacing the strike plate until I've repainted and replaced the door moulding.

Tonight I will sew up the October quilt block so I may hand it over to Fourthborn tomorrow. Which means that I had better stir my stumps and preshrink that fabric.

I made a great, simple dinner last night. Salmon burger, big salad, and one potato, mashed and divided into two portions. A little later I mixed some Greek yogurt and Nutella for dessert.

Big announcement from the Church yesterday, equating same sex marriage with apostasy, and outlining how it will impact the children of same-sex parents. I may very well lose some friends over this, but I stand with the prophets. Children are best served by parents who are in a covenant relationship with one another, with God, and with their children. Same sex unions frustrate the eternal plan of happiness, because they cannot in and of themselves bring children into the world. And children have a right as the spirit children of Deity to be born into the covenant of eternal marriage.

As Cecil B. DeMille said, we cannot break the commandments. We can only break ourselves against them. #mormonwomenstand

Almost there.

I think one more coat will do it. The vinyl plank flooring is going on sale today, and I plan to pick it up tonight or tomorrow, as well as the new handle for this door. Still need to repaint and replace the moulding.

I colored last night, between the first and second coats and while doing a load of laundry. I figure that by the time I've finished this coloring book, I'll be quite comfortable with colored pencils and can think about moving on to original work.

Sometime between tonight and Saturday morning, I need to preshrink the fabric for this month's series quilt so I may hand it off to Fourthborn when we pick up our  next blocks. She has plans for Sunday, so she won't be coming home with me to help on the house. I need her phenomenal carpet ripping-up skills.

Time to pack my lunch and decide what I'm wearing today.

Blogging from my phone.

Because last weekend's winds and rain have messed with my cable. Again. I was a little too busy at work yesterday to call the cable company and set up an appointment for a service call. Maybe today?

In Elvis is leaving the building news, I have found new homes for the faucet which has been hanging out on top of the bookcase in the middle bedroom since I moved in almost four years ago. The son of a coworker may or may not have broken theirs. And a friend at Knit Night mentioned that she needed to find another memory foam pillow for one of her dogs. I said, "the kind that goes bump swoop bump (gesturing)?" Exactly. I have two. I'll keep one for when Fourthborn spends the night, but the spare will go to work with me as well, because that friend works in my building.

When I pulled the painter's tape around the wall in my room, I also pulled up a bit of the new paint behind the door. That's fixed. And I've decided to use the coral from the short walls in the living room to paint the back of the bedroom door. I think it will be a nice pop against the dark cherry wall. I hope to start that tonight. If there's time, I'll wipe down the door before heading to work.

Played a little with my spreadsheets this morning, particularly the one for 2016-2017. I've eliminated some of the pages from prior years. I don't really need to track the activity in each savings bucket each month when I now have the capacity to check into my work related accounts from home and download the electronic statements to my computer. Just plug in the totals onto my balance sheet page at the end of each month and let those speak for themselves.

Line upon line, precept upon precept.

The knitting, you will be pleased to note, is not arguing with me. I spent a few minutes at Knit Night weaving in ends, so it looks a bit more tidy on my needles.

Lunch is packed. Outfit is picked out. Time to log off, sluice off, and hit the road.

Play day.

That would be my yesterday. I love Halloween. I woke up at ridiculous o'clock, ate some breakfast, and went back to bed, waking again a little before 9:00. Got dressed and hopped in the Tardis for a Costco run, so there would be sufficient candy for the little monsters at a price I was willing to pay. (I think last year I spent $40, but maybe that was the year before.) Ginormous bag for $15+. That, I could live with.

Came home and sewed. And sewed. And sewed. I made substantial progress on one of the borders of the medallion quilt. When I go back to my sewing machine, I will assemble the checkerboard border, which actually comes before this one. But this one is composed of 60 blocks that needed to have corners attached, turning a 2.5" block on point so that it became a 3.5" block. We are talking 120 2.5" squares that needed to be cut on the diagonal. I broke that up into increments and had cut maybe a third of the triangles that I needed a couple of weeks ago. So before I sat down yesterday I had a bit of a running start. (Would we call that a jogging start?) I did not have all of the blocks sewn and trimmed to a square before crashing last night, but I did quit just after it stopped being fun and started being work. So I'm getting better at that.

I finished sewing those blocks after my post-church nap today. Sixteen of them are not squared, yet, but they are essentially done, and I have emptied the Ziploc bag that was dedicated to them while I was gathering 1.5" squares over several months to begin them. I have the totally finished pieces lined up in four columns on the seat of a chair by the head of the dining room table, so that when the checkerboard border is assembled and attached, I may lay out the next border one side at a time.

My Facebook friend (and distant cousin), Middleaged Mormon Man, has a thing every Sunday night where he asks us to post the best single thing that happened this Sabbath. This was my post tonight:

Three years ago, as my husband was completing his mortal journey, I was dragged kicking and screaming into Primary. For a while, I taught the nine-year-olds, who this year have entered the youth program. Today, the lone boy from my class was sitting in the “gopher” seat behind our bishop. A dear sister, who has been a friend since she lived in one of my old wards, has had a number of health challenges this year. As she slowly made her way to the front of the chapel, “my” deacon quickly walked down the steps and escorted her up them. When she finished bearing her testimony, he escorted her back down them and returned to his seat.

He is going to be an effective missionary if he keeps this up. And he will make some young woman very happy when he's old enough to marry.

I am trying to figure out how much to eat today before I call it a night. Tomorrow is my quarterly diabetes check, and I have to go fasting (ick!) for the blood work, and my appointment's not until 8:50. So yes, there will be cheese sticks in my purse when I leave, and I will head straight for breakfast when they're done stabbing me. I printed out my list of questions to ask, before bedtime last night.

Please keep Middlest in your prayers and positive thoughts. I got a text yesterday: my child was in the ER after blacking out at the cash register from a massive migraine. Diagnosis is atypical migraine on top of the bipolar disorder, with a referral to a neurologist.

At some point in the future we will look back and see how this was part of a series of events intended to bless my child. At present it is an occasion for prayer and pleading on my part, and endurance on Middlest's.

Play, and flow.

It happened last night. I picked up part of my costume on the way home from work, grabbed party tacos from Bueno, took everything home and inhaled my dinner, then went to Hobby Lobby to get scrapbooking paper on which to print the critters which Batman drew for me. The cake turned out well. I used a pound cake mix, substituted coconut oil for the butter (because I forgot to take the butter out to soften) and half-and-half for the water or milk.

The bag is packed, my costume is on my bed, I've paid my tithing online (!!!) and internet bill as well. I need to mail off a bill, but that can wait until tomorrow. This is the part where I throw various items onto the "to shred" pile, move various bags to the door (remembering to grab the cake from on top of the stove), sluice off, and get the heck out of Dodge.

There will be pictures of the decorated cake later. That part is going to be a team effort.

Halloween is my second favorite secular holiday. Today is going to be so much fun!

And in other news, my knitting is not arguing with me, and I think I put the last coat of paint on the skinny strips of wall by the doors. Looking forward to a long weekend in which to paint and craft.

The wall is (mostly) done.

I need to touch up the long, skinny strips to either side of the door mouldings where they meet the adjacent walls. That is fiddly work, because the space is a little too narrow for my trim roller to be effective. Which means that I have to use the foam brush.

Yesterday was a good day off. But I should probably begin with Tuesday night. Lark's dog does not like me. He is part black lab, part pit bull, and very protective of her. Apparently he got the 1970's memo "don't trust anybody over 30," except he likes Firstborn and 1BDH. So Lark took him to Willow's to spend the night.

Backing up a little farther, Knit Night was good, and I got Fourthborn home safely. But during that drive, and to Firstborn's house, I realized that the new glasses are still not quite right. The distance adjustment is fine. However, I am still seeing what I call stars, because of the [I am blanking on the word, because it is 5:30 and I haven't eaten breakfast. All sorts of A words are bubbling to the top. Aardvark. Asparagus. Amblyopia. Aha! Got it!] astigmatism. It's not noticeable during the day, but it is quite evident when the sun goes down and the traffic lights and tail lights turn into red and green stars. Most annoying.

So I slept well on Lark's daybed, and I got Batman (he who was formerly known as Fiance and is still her best friend; I'm trying new nicknames for him, but this one might stick, as he draws a wicked Batman) to his appointment for the driving test. Which he did not get to take, because the VIN number on the Tardis did not match the VIN number on my proof of insurance. Two typos. So we drove straight to my insurance agent's office and got that fixed. I should have the new, permanent copies well before Batman's rescheduled driving test. I also called into work and confirmed that I could take that day off. It's in December. Batman is philosophical. I am frustrated for him, but he was gracious about it. We agreed that this was probably a blessing in disguise. He will be even better prepared for the driving test in December than he was yesterday.

I finished reading the book on "play" yesterday and added six more books to my "to read" list on Evernote. [Plus another one this morning.] Also spent the afternoon with Firstborn, who had taken the day off, and we got some chocolate from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Note: the pumpkin truffle is smooth but rather bland, and I could detect nothing pumpkin-ish about it. The dark chocolate caramel sea salt is excellent. So we celebrated National Chocolate Day in style. We also blitzed through the art supply store. I came home with another dozen Prismacolor pencils for my stash. These were all blue, and bought only in the interest of having a full spectrum, though no doubt they will prove useful at some point in the future. She came home with two dozen beauties. It was interesting for me to see her color preferences and compare them with my own.

I have an appointment for a recheck of my prescription on Monday afternoon, after my quarterly diabetes checkup. I'm hoping that third time will be the charm.

The knitting project is perking along. I've mislaid the label, so I don't know the yarn, if it's commercial or hand-dyed by one of my friends, but it is lovely and is playing nicely with the seed stitch. I'm just going to knit around and around until I run out, and if I like it, it will be a cowl. And if not, I will frog it and start over.

Time for me to start getting ready for work. Tonight I'm baking a cake for the cake decorating contest at work tomorrow. Batman drew some cake embellishments for me, and they are perfect. I need to scan them and print them onto paper that looks like granite or sandstone, if I can find some. And I need to cobble together a costume. I have that spyglass from Beloved, and I found my eye patch when I was mucking out a drawer or a box. Pier One has Lolita-style hats attached to headbands for not a whole lot of money. Maybe vaguely goth Lolita pirate? If I run out of ideas, there's always the generic Halloween T-shirt hanging in the back of my closet.

I love my job. But today I just want to stay home and play. Repaint and replace the door moulding. Paint the inside of the bedroom door, and the front of the door to the master bath. Start ripping up the carpet. (Not quite ready to do that, in reality, but seriously aching to begin. Finish-itis has definitely struck, chez Ravelled.)

This is only a test! (Naynie no pit!)

The first thing I did when I woke up, was to put on my painting clothes and add a third coat to my bedroom wall. The second thing was to do the electronic linking for my AncestryDNA test, which was waiting for me when I got to work yesterday. The third thing was to spit into a tube. Which reminds me of when Firstborn was little, and I was attempting to civilize her. I taught her, "Ladies don't spit." To which she replied, "Naynie no pit!"

So that's done, and my bank account is reconciled, and it's only a little after 6:00a.m. Time to cobble together my lunch, figure out what I want to wear, and gather everything I will need for today, tonight, and tomorrow. I'm spending the night at Firstborn's after Knit Night, because tomorrow I take Fourthborn's roommate for his driver's test, and crashing in Arlington means I get to avoid morning rush hour and eliminate an 80 mile round trip.

Work went well yesterday. Wrangled all the mail, did my To-Do's, remembered to send my "I'll be out" email to the people affected. Note to self: change the voicemail message, too. I closed one file and finished opening another. I need to come up with a nickname for my new attorney. He's a lot of fun, and he does a spot-on impression of Goofy, but somehow I don't think that's the best code name for him.

On the way home from work, I dropped off two pictures and a bag at Urban Thrift before heading to Costco. I'm slowly filling another bag with stuff to give Squishy. On Sunday I offloaded a box of merit badges to the young men's president, as the Scout-specific people were not at church.

Today there's work, and Knit Night, and Firstborn's. Tomorrow there's schlepping of the roommate, hanging out in Fort Worth until evening, dropping off socks at the home of some dear friends for the sock drive she organized that will benefit the homeless in Fort Worth, with a bonus of getting to see their new house.

Time to pack, and sluice, and scoot. Later, gators.