Saturday Rediscovered

I’ll be the first one to admit that down-time is a good thing for anyone, but the fact is that I’m just not terribly good at it quite yet. After mowing not only my own lawn but the back lawns of the three adjacent neighbors (yeah, I’ve got a little nervous energy working), I did spend about two-and-a-half hours watching the second season of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer because I hadn’t and a friend told me that it was necessary. In retrospect, I see her point, but that was all I could take before I had to get up and actually do something.

I sent out more resumes, and I followed up on a couple of housing options. I spent some time reading, I did some laundry, I did the breakfast dishes (oh, and the omelet was eggcellent), I folded laundry, and I did a little necessary shopping. While in the car with my mother on speakerphone, I was told in no uncertain terms that I must eat something other than the omelet today (a little tense tummy action working this week, and I’ve not been eating much), so I did finally stop at KFC for a sandwich and fries.

Now I’m back at the house, and I’m going to do a little braindump before I head to bed. This whole unemployment thing can be tiring.

Saturday Morning Fever

I rolled out of bed at 9:38am.  On a Saturday morning, I got out of bed at twenty-to-ten.  You don’t have to get how nice that was, but I do, and it was glorious.  Busby was still snoring in his crate at the head of my bed, and Tate was curled into his accustomed little fox roll at my knees.  I rolled over, powered up the Blackberry, and scrolled through several good tidings after last night’s posts.  Thank you to everyone.  I sincerely appreciate your concern and fond wishes.

As for today, though, I’ve just watched the morning fog lift off the river.  I’ve had my shower and powered up the laptop to wish the world a good morning.  I’ll be heading downstairs to mow the lawn shortly, but I don’t hear much activity up the block so I’m hesitant to rev up the mower.  For now, I’m enjoying the view over the river and Riverwalk and into the park across the way… the view that sold me on this house to begin with.  It’s been my little corner of pastoral life in the middle of central Lansing.  There’s a blue heron wading in the shallows, and I hear the ducks bickering from time to time.  The trees across the water are just starting to show the first signs of changing leaves, and I likely won’t be here to see them in their full autumnal finery.  I have, however, gotten a lead on a potential replacement.

I’m heading downstairs to let the dogs out, put on coffee, and start breakfast.  As I mentioned last night, I’ve got my heart set on a nice, fat omelet and crisp, buttery toast.

There’s a kayaker on the river, now.  Good day for it.  Better days are coming.

I rolled out of bed at 9:38am.  On a Saturday morning, I got out of bed at twenty-to-ten.  You don’t have to get how nice that was, but I do, and it was glorious.  Busby was still snoring in his crate at the head of my bed, and Tate was curled into his accustomed little fox roll at my knees.  I rolled over, powered up the Blackberry, and scrolled through several good tidings after last night’s posts.  Thank you to everyone.  I sincerely appreciate your concern and fond wishes.

As for today, though, I’ve just watched the morning fog lift off the river.  I’ve had my shower and powered up the laptop to wish the world a good morning.  I’ll be heading downstairs to mow the lawn shortly, but I don’t hear much activity up the block so I’m hesitant to rev up the mower.  For now, I’m enjoying the view over the river and Riverwalk and into the park across the way… the view that sold me on this house to begin with.  It’s been my little corner of pastoral life in the middle of central Lansing.  There’s a blue heron wading in the shallows, and I hear the ducks bickering from time to time.  The trees across the water are just starting to show the first signs of changing leaves, and I likely won’t be here to see them in their full autumnal finery.  I have, however, gotten a lead on a potential replacement.

I’m heading downstairs to let the dogs out, put on coffee, and start breakfast.  As I mentioned last night, I’ve got my heart set on a nice, fat omelet and crisp, buttery toast.

There’s a kayaker on the river, now.  Good day for it.  Better days are coming.

What's up

My mom’s had another cancer issue. It is being resolved as quickly and as effectively as medical science allows, but it’s still a pisser. She’s tough, my sweet Southern Moma, but I worry about her. And I try not to get her involved with drama here. That winds up meaning calling less, though, and she’ll string me up by the short hairs if I call her any less. Like I said, my sweet Southern Moma can be tough. So we stay in touch.

I haven’t given her the good news, though. I think we have a very strong candidate for the new great grandbaby’s knitting project. Kathy came up with it, and I think it’s great. Unfortunately, it’s at the shop, and I’m at home. So, that will have to be revisited.

For today, though, I’m home at the dining room table with Busby baking into the carpet at the screen out to the deck. There’s light traffic on Oakland, and the mowers have been out in the park across the river. A young woman’s walking a chocolate lab up the Riverwalk path, and a jogger in State shorts coming the other way has slowed to a walk with his jersey over his head catching his breath.

I’m forty, now. We had a party and everything. I was delighted by the black balloons particularly once I realized that I was still nearly if not the youngest person in the room. Since, I’ve had a stomach virus, picked up a taste for Gatorade G2 Strawberry-Kiwi, picked up smoking again briefly (don’t comment… my mother’s already been all over it), and am now still kind of trying to put a diet back together. Not a Diet, mind you, but a diet. A food plan. A sustenance plan with room for delight.

I like food, and I miss cooking. I just recently uncovered a copy of How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I’m hoping for great things, but a decent meal every once in a while would be satisfactory. In the meantime, I’m glad it’s summer. Produce looks fantastic at the local shops. Even my favorite Asian market appears to have some fresh seasonal offerings. I haven’t a clue what several of them are, but maybe I’ll get a chance to find out. Maybe not.

I’ve been working on getting a new ThreadBear website up and running over the last several months, and we’re hoping to get that open to the public soon. Of course, given the time of year, we’ve been meeting with sales reps from various yarn, pattern, and accessory companies in anticipation of the fall season and the TNNA Market in June. That’s always entertaining. I’m sure this year won’t disappoint. I’m most intrigued by the idea of getting to see what’s new coming down the pike. That’s this show for most yarn shop owners. There’s a fashion show the night before the Market opens, and vendors from all over show you when they’ve got. It’s very cool… and very tempting. We try to shop there primarily for chocolate jimmies to put on top of what we’ve already ordered with sales reps. It’s easier to browse if we’re not pressed for getting our fall orders in, and it’s helped us find some of the more interesting products that have graced the shelves at ThreadBear. Personally, I can’t wait.

For today, though, I’m going to finish up K1CToo and Rowan and see what else remains to get online at the new site.

Whirlwinds, Ruby Slippers, and Friends of Dorothy

Ok, yes, I did notice this week that Oz is back on HBO, and while there’s nothing quite like a men-in-prison serial for mature audiences to get my attention, that’s really not what I intended to talk about. After a few beers, oh, yeah. But not today.

Chaotic is a polite way of describing the last few weeks. A lot of it is boring technical stuff for anyone but the most die-hard web developer, but there’ve definitely been a few notable breaks. Most particularly was a visit and classes with Lynne Vogel of Twisted Sisters fame.

I do spin. I’ve been doing it for several years, off and on. But I’ve never really considered myself a spinner. It was a fun thing I did occasionally, but I didn’t really feel like I had the bug.

I got the bug.

After two days of classes, a few very pleasant dinners, a wonderful visit to Elderly Instruments, and a little musical bonding, I have made a delightful new friend and gotten the spinning bug bad. God knows there’s no extra time for it, but my wheels (yeah, I actually have two already, though I supposedly didn’t quite have the bug) are out and loaded for bear. This bear, as a matter of fact. And I’m strongly eyeing a third wheel that I’ve had in the corner of my eye for about a year, now.

DOH!

I also spent a day totally rearranging the main floor of the house. We live in a two-story house right on Grand River in the middle of Lansing, and during recent (about six weeks ago, now) flooding, we had warnings to get everything we could out of the basement. That meant that for a few weeks, I had a dining room full of boxes of yarn, old patterns, and unfinished projects. On top of that, we’ve had unfinished projects behind both sofas, stacked in corners, and on shelving in the living room for the four years we’ve been in the house. All of that’s changed.

In anticipation of Rob’s upcoming birthday, a friend and I rearranged the furniture so that both the living room and dining room furniture are in our long open riverfront room, and what was once the dining room is now our yarn/project room. I still haven’t touched the upstairs, but we take our victories where they present themselves.