Week of Crazy

Well, I have gone through some pretty terrible stress in the past week. With everything going on, I just don't know where my head is these days.

Friday
I'm pretty sure Friday had a lot going on, but really all I can remember is one thing: Mini Book Club. A few of the ladies from my knitting group got together at our last potluck and decided to start a mini book club that will meet here and there to discuss a book we've been reading. The really big reason I'm mentioning this is that it's a very good book. I've never really been one to read books in the adolescent fiction genre, but honestly I didn't think that this matched up with my original concept of "adolescent fiction". I seem to mentally equate the term with Twilight, which I know is erroneous, but the author actually uses some great vocabulary and doesn't have me wanting to gouge my eyes out with a spoon with inanity of writing. The book is Sabriel by Garth Nix. We were supposed to read the first five chapters for our meeting and I sort of inadvertently read the entire book. I know! I'm bad! It was a great book, though. Check it out.

Another book I'm reading is The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin. That is the third in a trilogy a good friend suggested to me a while back and I waited forever for this book to come out. It is amazing, though. Just absolutley amazing. I really enjoy the writing and the Universe is very unique and unlike anything I've ever really read before.  If you're interested, read the trilogy. They are phenomenal.

Saturday

I weighed in and met my 10% goal. Huzzah! I have an awful lot of pride for that and am looking forward to doing well in the future! I got my 10% medallion but it broke on my keychain because I wouldn't stop fiddling with it. I'm hoping to talk to my leader on Saturday to see if I can't get a new one. But... yay! 10%! That, according to my mother, is 97 sticks of butter. I think I'm going to have to start putting my weight loss in terms of sticks of butter. It's just amusing.

Then, I went up to Austin for our Disablot. It was a lot of fun and I was very happy to see everyone. It has been too long. The kids were very entertaining and I endjoyed seeing them. We were asked to bring an item that we felt represents someone we believe is one of our disir.  I brought my great-great grandmother's practice violin.  According to my great-grandmother, Beatrice the Younger or "Bebe" (and this may be shaky, as she suffered dementia near the end), this violin is the one that Beatrice the Elder played when she met her husband, Frank.  Sort of an interesting story and rather weird to hold that same violin in my hands, many years later.  Anyway, the violin was given to me when I was starting to play in the orchestra in middle school.  It has since been reduced to storage state, with strings loosened or taken off altogether.  It is in need of a new chin rest since the fastener for the original finally gave up the gost a few years ago, at which point my parents decided to retire it and get me a new violin.  I have since stopped playing, but I would really enjoy getting back into it again.  Music is something that has literally created my family, in many ways, and I have many fond memories of my great-grandmother Bebe and music, as it was one of her many creative passions. Anyway, I thought that this particular instrument was a rather huge piece of my family history and I am sure my cohorts are well aware of how much regard I have for my great-grandmother, maybe it was time to go back a teensy bit further and go into that bit of family history.  Family history is certainly not something I am lacking, per se. The rest of the gathering was wonderful and Jenn made a fantastic stew. Very tasty stuff, I must admit.

I ended up staying overnight due to the just... blahness... of not wanting to drive all the way home afterward. I mean, really, who can blame me?  Fun people, great atmosphere, interesting discussion as opposed to two hours of driving home? Decision made fairly easily. I must say, also, that they have some crazy comfortable recliners. Really. Anyway, it was good that I stayed because this meant I could partake in the interesting late-evening activities. The night involved mead and a lot of interesting discussion about runes. I have never been particularly interested in the runes for divinatory purposes, though, so I did not have much to say on the subject.  However, the meanings behind them are very fascinating and I was very interested to learn more about them. More reading is in order, of course, but I'm quick to point out that that seems to be the case for all of my knowledge about Heathenry, and I'm hoping that there will never be a point at which I say otherwise.

Sunday
Well, a good part about Sunday is... that I woke up. That was very good. The recliner was good to sleep in and rather comfortable, so there was no problem with that. We had pancakes for breakfast and it was really great to just sit and have breakfast with my peeps, you know? Yep. We had a bit of amusement trying to rouse some of the folks who stayed up a bit later than we did. I would say we were only marginally more wise, but the margins are very slim on that one. Anyway, it was soon time to go home. I was not excited about the trip, but it wasn't so horrible.

The interesting times really began when I got home. My sister and her fiance were leaving to go horseback riding and my little brother was rather upset about the entire thing. So, I talked to him and we decided to go bowling with my friend, Chris. It was good and we had tons of fun. I even won the first game. Can you believe it? If you've ever been bowling with me, the answer to that should be a resounding "no". Anyway, it did happen. I swear it. Dax got very upset at the end because he didn't win. He gets very upset and down on himself. It just has a lot to do with all of the things that have been going on lately. Anyway, we did go home later and he calmed down quite a bit. It was pretty fun, all in all.

However, right before I was going to go to bed... my mom's dog decided to pick a fight with our new porch cat, named Sage. I have the feeling that she's some sort of Maine Coon mix because she is just absolutely ginormous. Here is a picture for reference:

Anyway, the stupid dog got a scratch on his eyeball so my sister and I went to take him to the vet. He was fine, but there were hours of waiting just to see him have a cone put on his head and given eyedrops. However, the wait was very amusing! There were some interesting signs in the examination room. I have an example.

I have no idea if it was the exhaustion or what, but for some reason this was absolutely amusing. Anyway, we had quite a bit of complaining to do before we had someone finally see the dog and we got his silly cone put on at about 1:45 am. Ugh.



Monday

Nothing happened. I was sick. I did do an awesome marathon of Bones, though.

Tuesday

Well, I was miraculously better that morning but decided to stay home, anyway. I have quite a bit of interesting fun times when I am sick and don't realize it, so I decided to stay home. I'm glad that I did, because my dad very crankily went off to the emergency room complaining of a stomach ache and lo and behold! Appendicitis. My sister caused mild panic when she translated this as a ruptured appendix, but he did have surgery and everything is fine. He came home yesterday and is doing very well. I just hope he doesn't decide to go running around all willy-nilly while he's home on "vacation". Bah.

I have a lot going on in the next few days and, because this week has been a week from hell itself, I have not been very good about exercising. Ugh. I'm going to have to work a bit harder at it next week, but I'm trying to do well. Really. We'll see how it goes. The Internet connection at the house has been fixed, so I am going to hopefully be able to update as things happen. Hopefully.

The Pink is Upon Us!

So, today was my cousin's baby shower. She's having a girl. The shower was a lot of fun with some interesting games. One of which included melted chocolate and baby diapers, which was oh so much fun! So, now that the gift has been given I can now post pictures of the awesome and utterly humongous baby blanket I made for her. Yay! (I'm sorry the picture is blurry, the camera on my phone is a bit iffy these days.)

I actually started this blanket back in late February and it was in the car during the accident. It was salvaged, washed, and I continued working on it to make it into the huge monster it became. I love it and hopefully my cousin and her new baby will, as well. 

After the baby shower, we went to the Blanco Lavender Festival. It was on the way home, and very interesting. We shopped and got some nice sundresses and I got some awesome yarn! It's 100% merino in a sockweight. I'm considering either socks or a shawl. It doesn't much matter, I love the colors. :)

The lady selling it also sells soap, her shop is called Soapmarked. I didn't buy any due to lack of funds, but she has this chocolate scented soap that is absolutely to die for. I'd consider eating it, seriously. Anyway, we got to chatting and I found out she lives in San Antonio. Hooray for having another local yarn hoar, right? Anyway, she seemed neat. She doesn't sell her yarn on her website, but either way her items are worth interest.

We also stopped and got some tasty Fredricksburg peaches. They are absolutely delicious and my grandmother plans to make a peach cobbler tonight with some of our bounty. I am sure it will be beyond yummy. :)

Oh, also! I began the Yggdrasil Afghan. It looks really awesome so far, but I only have a picture of the beginning supplies. I already have had to frog and restart due to being not quite right in the head when I began and screwed up the cast on, somehow. Okay, so the way it works is you have to do an invisible provisional cast on, but I didn't think that was working out too well for me. The pattern says to do it "into a slipknot". Well, I decided to take it at its word and made a slipknot and used that as my waste yarn and then pulled on the tail to tighten it. Basically, a magic loop. It worked fabulously and I am pleased with the way it's turning out, now.

Oh, also I finished the socks. I absolutely love the way they turned out and my sister does, too. They fit her and she wants them. They would fit our little brother better, but it doesn't really matter. She likes them, that's all that matters. They are definitely fraternal twins. The second was knitted while I was on the road to Arkansas with my grandmother. I guess I was having highway anxiety, because it knit up a bit smaller. The colors spiral rather than flash. I like that they're fraternal twins, and the size difference is marginal, but I wish they weren't different. Ah, well. 

Also, I will have you know... I got a new job. I'm excited about it, but everything is happening so quickly lately that I don't really have time to be running around screaming woo hoo about it. I start on Monday, it's doing data entry. Mom is excited about going shopping tomorrow to get me some more office-type clothing. I'm sure I will do well and it may end up being a wonderful fit. I just miss my old job.