I have my mom visiting me from NJ and we spent Thursday visiting the continuing care community (apts/nursing home on premises; you start in apts but assisted living and nursing home are also within when/if needed) about a mile from my house and I think she's going to apply there with the plan of moving this spring. Between that and work deadlines, I haven't had two extra minutes to catch up on email or even do much stitching.
Youngest DD turned 21 on Wednesday so we all went out to dinner at a trendy new bistro downtown. Nice that g'ma could celebrate with us. And I have another hour free while mom visits DD#1 and her fiance and his g'ma and sees their new house. It's *gorgous* outside - 57 degrees, so I took my lunch out on the deck to soak up some sunshine. Now off to the library (on foot) to pick up a book, before going back to pick up Mom.
Never a dull moment. Tomorrow's worse: church/take mom to airport/afternoon concert (my voice teacher's trio)/evening class at church. Not much breathing room in there. (Maybe I'll bring some stitching to the concert. It's in a sunny church in the afternoon....)
LOL - I picked up some authors that I hadn't really read. All light. Ericka had given me a Rhys Bowen (Her Royal Spyness) and I liked it. So I got what I thought were the first 3 of her Constable Evans series - but actually I think I got 2-3-4. I've read the first 2 now. - they're good and quick. Also, read the last 2 Joan Hess "Claire Malloy" books - the last was pretty good, think I already had read the prior one. And read "Riding Shotgun" by Rita Mae Brown. A little bit lecturish, and I will confess that during the first section I had a "where is this going" set of moments - but she adds a pretty good twist of fancy - and on the whole I really liked the book. Plus - I'm eating with admiration at the gorgeous horse in her cover pic - she's MFH (Master of the Hunt) with a hunt near Charlottesville, and the horse in the pic is a stunner. So, now I think I'll read her mystery series that's horsey oriented. I can live vicariously while life tumbles around. I also have the latest PD James.
I'll be able to return all of these I bet on Monday. I was in arrears with the library - and had found my 2 long-lost books. So, I bravely went in to return them, and they weren't even showing on my account - evidently I'd been "forgiven" - and I just had to reactivate my account. Woohoo. DH is worried I'll both neglect the gajillion more important things, and also start being late again. Oh, well.
Can't be too far then! DH is doing Tier I kids tonight - double that started at 5, so we'll have dinner around 9 when he gets home - he's in Arlington at the CAPS facility - which is a good 35-45 min depending on traffic. For who knows what reason, he's on at 0'dark thirty - again in Arlington - in the morning.
I'm reading. But, did get motivated this afternoon and have been making a batch of Posole - which requires watching 'cause you have to keep adding liquid. It smells really good - but the batch was fiercely spicey hot. I think I put in more red chile pods and cumin than usual. Plus, it's a different brand of hominay (the corn) than I've used before. The kernels are huge, huge things. So, after it had simmered for about an hour, I actually had to pull out the chilis. It's a big batch - about 5-6 quarts. Oh, well. I played with it a little and seem to have tamed it down a bit - not the kind of thing where I can add yugurt into it - but it can be served with a dollop of sour cream - so that will help.
Why aren't these kids getting their skates sharpened during the myriad hours of at the rink? You actually had to make a run????
Well, what exciting lives we're all leading. I'm going to go start another load of laundry, and start another book. And eventually finish writing my instructions for class that I'm teaching tomorrow. Woo hoo.
Too bad. We're lucky that all the rinks here have some sort of pro shop, though I would only get my skates done at a couple of them. So, DH get's his done when he's at Ballston or in Rockville . Preferably Rockville, where our nice Canadian ex-pat (he's been here 11 years) pal Drew, owns the pro-shop (for the last 3 years) and we trust him.
HAH. All the hand written is, I just have to decide to type it all up. Doesn't take much time for this class - I have to update the standard sort of syllabus thing. There is a coil bound book for this pattern, and I think it will work best for them to actually make notes on the pages. Though in the morning I may make copies of marked up pages with thread counts on them. Fortunately, this isn't a beginner class (at all), and I'm very comfortable with 2 of the women - the 3rd I think I know, but she may need the most coaching. Tomorrow they have to do a lot of boring stuff - getting in some basic lines so that we can do some "fun" stitches. But, the class is scheduled for 5 hours, which is plenty of time to do that. I can't really assign pre-work for a shop class, or I would've. If I was doing this as a guild class, it would be different. The nice thing, is with this class, there aren't a bunch of corrections to the pattern - which is often the big hand-out I have to give. This class is really about technique with doing these precise stitches with slightly difficult to work with threads. The stitches that aren't diagrammed out - well they're basic enough - like Smyrnas and Mosaics. The more complicated do have diagrams - but I will say that the doing gets a bit hairy on some (this chart was done by hand, and the symbols for some of the stitching could be a bit confusing. But, all the info is for the most part in the book, so I'm going to hand-out highlighters and we'll go thru the directions carefully, then they can do notes. I have a white board to draw on in the class - that helps - so besides doing a demo, it's nice to actually draw the stitch on the board so people can clearly see it.
Anyhow, I have to go do something useful, I suppose.
(snipped rest so I could butt in with a book recommendation)
I just finished "Fidali's Way," a first novel by George Mastras. It's about an American traveling in Pakistan/Afghanistan/India border regions
- w/o a passport, so trying to make it across border eluding police. Adventure novel with a lot of cross-cultural influences, particularly insights into Muslim philosopy. It's very good - good plot, good characters. Stylistically, very respectable, especially for a first timer.
There are some passages that really stick with me, so that's a point in its favor - makes me continue to think about the lessons imparted.
I just spent the weekend in exciting Cape Girardeau at (what else?) a swim meet. The kids all swam horribly - the team parents' joke was if you added less than 10 seconds you did well. We (the parents) had a great time on Saturday night though - got a card game versioh of "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" from the dollar store and about 10 of us played it, together with some adult type libations. It was a hoot!
Got home last night and crashed on the couch - I do not sleep well on these trips - and was in bed by 9:30. This week looks to be busy as well - big swim meet here this weekend (dd not in it - it's for Olympic or near Olympic level swimmers and mostly much older - 16+), board meeting, ds has baseball workouts all week. Tryouts are the first week in March. So, normal life - at least my boss is gone and maybe I can clean my desk at work!
After an exhausting day yesterday, I'm doing a mini crash. I'm not leaving the house to do errands until 12:30 and nothing will be more than 5 miles away. Buy gas, return shirt (hope they have it one size up, leer at purses), return library books, check out more books, pick up DS at HS, go home, leave again to drop him off at hockey and pick him back up.
Yesterday, it was up at 5:45 for 7:15 ice (won that game), stayed for practice (maybe should have skipped it), went to breakfast, went home, did laundry, at 2:30 PM went to back to the same rink we were at 6:30 AM (lost, but DH FINALLY got to see DD score a goal) and drove to next rink for 5:30 game (they won - got the cheesy medal) came home and collapsed.
Today - I'm catching up on paperwork, some cleaning and making soups from leftovers. Sort of beef stew from the Xmas (frozen) prime rib and a vaguely Thai style chicken and rice.
And at 11:00 AM I will take a stitching break while I watch The Price is Right.
I'm stuck in for the day and I'm bored as can be. I suppose I could catch up on paperwork, or work on the Laura Perrin piece, or straighten a few shelves and drawers, or read something, but I doubt I will do any of those things. I can hear my long gone mother's voice in the background yelling "go and bang you head against the wall." She always said that when I got into an I'm bored mood.
Is that show STILL on ???? When my mother was dying (1975) she fell in love with the Price is Right and it sent me up the wall. She had never in her life had television (they never lived where there was any English television) and she was riveted. She had a brain tumour and she would start the moment she woke up reminding me she did not want to miss 'that programme I like' - it was either that or 'what time is it' - there were so many times when I really wanted to say, four minutes later than when you last asked lol It was very sad because she had been a very intelligent woman.
You sent your sore throat to me over the net didn't you ??
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.