Could use another long weekend.

The last one was so nice. And the one which begins when I shut down my workstation tonight, will be filled with friends and family. I would love an extra day, just for sleep.

Lark graduates from high school tomorrow afternoon, over at TCU in Fort Worth. (She attended the rich-kid public high school in Arlington, and apparently Nokia/Verizon/whatever they call it these days is not good enough for those kids or their parents. [Firstborn and Secondborn graduated at the Arlington Convention Center, if memory serves me right. Fourthborn and LittleBit graduated at Nokia in Grand Prairie. I think I graduated with my AAS from TCU because (then) TCJC did not have a large enough facility. That was May of 1998, and I have slept since then.] Maybe everyone is graduating from TCU this year, but I rather doubt it: at that school, many of the kids drive more expensive cars than the teachers.)

There is only one ticket, for me, because she has a plethora of grand-folk. Beloved is quite understanding. And I am touched to be invited (while wondering if the woman Firstborn calls Egg Donor got an invitation; you might need to pray for me to remember my manners).

After Lark graduates, we have a wedding reception tomorrow night, for a lovely friend who is graduating from the singles program. (I keep telling you, we started something back in January.) And I also need to mail off a card to my great-nephew. Thankfully, we have a savings account just for birthday and wedding gifts.

Yeah, I know!

I need to scoot, because in a little over an hour I am picking up Mel and Squishy to ferry them downtown for A-Kon, the big anime convention in downtown Dallas this weekend. Made no sense for them to have to pay to park their car all weekend, when I am already going downtown. Besides which, I like them.

In knitting news, progress has been slow and mostly steady on the first section for the back of the pillow. I have had two, maybe three, times when suddenly the cable pattern was off, and I realized that I had inadvertently short-rowed. Looking forward to some uninterrupted knitting time this weekend.

Clever title goes here.

Long day, good day. Steadily productive at work. Came home to all kinds of crazy-good food. Hemmed Beloved’s white trousers and am hoping I guessed right at the length. We pin-basted while he stood on a stool. Then I pin-basted some more, and he tried them back on, and we decided they needed to be a little longer. So I moved the pins, and then I hand-hemmed the pants, and if they’re not quite right, they go to an alterations dude with more experience hemming men’s pants than I have, or want to have.

I don’t do alterations. It is a measure of how besotted I am, that I hemmed them cheerfully. How could I not, when he has steadily been turning the guest bathroom into something amazingly wonderful? I walk in there, and even with the inner door molding removed, my heart just sings.

I need to decide on a color for the molding (currently it is either dark peach, or brown), because I want to carry that color throughout the house as we repaint from room to room. And I think a rich warm cream will play nicely against the vivid colors and the possible jewel tones that will follow.

I have mentioned how fond of the snooze alarm is my beloved. He is also fond of his digital timer, which bleats annoyingly, as opposed to my happy little ladybug timer, which rings properly, long and loud and once, and then is done. We tease one another about our timer preferences. Tonight he was timing something using the ladybug. I applauded his wisdom. He retorted that he still preferred his timer as being less annoying. I commented that I was discovering a pattern: he likes to hit the snooze alarm in our room, and he likes the digital timer, which (like many microwaves) sounds periodically until it is turned off. I wondered aloud if it felt like hitting the snooze alarm while cooking, and if the ultimate test of doneness was either a charred lump or the obbligato of a smoke alarm?

He harrumphed that he’s never scorched dinner in his life (I will have to ask his boys about that). I knew better than to claim the same.

I need another day between now and tomorrow morning. I suspect I will not get it. And I suspect that tomorrow will be a Cherry Coke day, as it is nearly 11:00 with no sign of our going to bed anytime soon. No idea what I want to wear to work tomorrow, and I have yet to put my temple bag by the front door. My hands want to knit, my brain wants to write, and my eyes want to call it a day.

I wonder what causes eyeballs and eyelids to ache when one has had enough? All I know is that I love the sensation of melting sideways into the mattress, easing into my nighttime breathing, and feeling the world spin away from inside my eyelids.

“Captain America” is almost over, out in the living room. Beloved has Really Good Speakers. I think a tank just ran over my right foot...

Look, Ma! No moustache!

Beloved has shaved off his moustache, and the beard he has been growing since we wed, because he starts training as a temple worker on Friday; the policy/preference is that male temple workers be clean-shaven. (There are exceptions, for those who have distracting skin conditions or facial deformities. I am rooting for the chemo rash.) He looks a bit like (a very tall) Michael Caine. He has a nicely shaped upper lip. I am just not used to seeing it. And there is the vague suspicion, when we smooch, that I am cheating on my husband!

We got something like eight hours of sleep last night. I woke a little ahead of the alarm, hands itching to knit. Lunch is packed, and dinner as well. Hard to believe, but it is Knit Night already. We are waiting to hear back from some of the kids. One of my new daughters has a birthday today, and a family party will trump Knit Night with no grumbling from me. Her present is up on the hutch if they opt for a drive-by gifting.

I heard aerosol whooshing in the master bathroom a few minutes ago. The man who sounds like my husband is about to emerge and fix our breakfast.

Thankfully, he also kisses like my husband. I guess he can stay...

Up to my ears in yummy goodness.

Of all sorts. Finished the front of the first chair cushion this morning and have about two and a half inches done on the first back. Still in love with the yarn, just taking a wee break to let dinner settle while Beloved watches a movie that involves neither singing nor dancing. Something to do with WWII and perfectly apropos for this holiday, just not my thang.

We fed the missionaries a couple of hours ago: smoked/baked/barbecued ribs with his own custom rib rub and an amazing glaze. I ate about half of one rib, a serving and a half of potato salad, some of the best baked beans ever, the usual steamed-veggie suspects (delicious as always), watermelon, and for dessert? I baked a batch of Ghirardelli brownies in little tart pans, and Beloved made raspberry/strawberry sorbet that is to store-bought as East Coast Swing is to frog-in-a-blender. I think we outdid ourselves.

The bathroom is half painted, and it looks terrific so far. There are a few little spots that need touching up, but between us we have it pretty well covered. I think we are probably too tired to do another wall tonight. I am weaving a little, here at the keyboard, between sentences.

I bought two new watches this morning, using gift cards. My sister gave me a lovely watch several years ago, but it is still in a box in the middle bedroom, and I really need one for when I am teaching Primary, as the classroom does not have a clock. It is far more discreet to glance at my wrist than to pull my phone out of my pocket during class. One watch has a mixed-metal band and bezel; the other is silver(ish) with a white leather(ish) band and will go into my temple bag.

I like my students. Three lovely girls and a handsome and blessedly quiet boy. There are two others on the roll for whom I am also responsible, and once I get my bearings I will see if we can get them to start coming to church, dragging their parental units behind them.

The first batch of dishes is humming away in the dishwasher. It is not quite 8:00p.m., and I am ready to sleep. Time to tote everything that got taken out of the bathroom (in order to paint) and put onto the dining room table and then onto our bed, back out to the dining room.

It has been a good weekend. Wishing that it were a four-day instead of three, but I will have a bit of vacation in three weeks.

Beloved has an appointment with New Oncologist on the 15th. One of our friends sees that doctor and swears by him. Which is far better than swearing at him, which is what we would like to do with the current one.

Taking my happily weary self offline and seeing if Beloved is ready to call it a day.

Severely Punished

So, I am going with Beloved to his family reunion, held locally, in a few weeks. We received two envelopes: one for him to vote for something-or-other in the family organization, and one with the registration paperwork. I mailed off both envelopes from my office.

The relative [presumably a cousin] who is in charge of the registration paperwork has an unusual given name. Sufficiently unusual that were I to spell it out, it would identify her as one of a handful of individuals in the United States with that name. [Yes, I consulted the Google and Thummim.] So I will simply say that in number of syllables, and in how they are stressed, it brought to mind a certain song, which led to a brief but sidesplitting ~ at least to me ~ parody that I then PM’d to Beloved.

“[Cousin’s Name] is not my cousin,
She’s just the one
To whom we send in the forms,
But the clan won’t stay in dorms.”

Kept me grinning, and awake, for the rest of the afternoon. Not an easy task, since I had nothing more to do, and another hour and a half in which to not-do it. I hope it brightened Beloved’s day while he was sitting in the chemo chair yesterday. [I take my job as class clown quite seriously!]

We got to leave an hour early today, and to wear tennis shoes to work. I am immensely thankful, as I was running out of knee high hose to wear with my skirts and didn’t want to shell out for more before payday. When I got home, there was a quick catch-breath and then we hopped in Lorelai for a quick trip to Home Depot.

We have paint stirring sticks, an attachment that will fit into his drill for some power-stirring, a fresh roll of blue painters tape, and an assortment of medium-quality brushes. After dinner we will slap some color onto the walls so that I can figure out which one I want to live with for the next fifteen years. And then he will first repaint the ceiling, after which we will tackle the walls.

I found some mosaic tiles I like, for eventually redoing the tub surround (not critical; there are a couple of tiles that have broken and been properly patched, so we are talking aesthetics rather than function. And I found ceramic flooring tiles that we both liked, that are inexpensive but not cheap.

We will have to call in the kids at that point. Beloved has the expertise and the strength, but I think the neuropathy in his hands will play hob with his using a tile cutter. And I barely had the strength to wrangle one 25 years ago, when we redid the bathroom in the house in Irving. We will get enough tile to do both bathrooms, and maybe the entryway as well. There was a rich neutral marble tile I liked, but to him it just looked dirty, so no.

Right now he is pan-frying hamburgers and baking sweet potato fries for dinner. After which I will put on my painting clothes and prepare to put swathes of color on the wall, for pondering over the next couple of days. We are hoping to do the actual repainting on Monday before feeding the elders. The smell of fresh paint does not bother me.

They carry a stain that might work well for refinishing the cabinet under the sink. We definitely need a new sink (but the bathtub looks fine to me), and he has a box with a new faucet and handles (which I have yet to inspect for aesthetics; as Ms. Scarlett was wont to say, tomorrow is another day).

We will take before and after pictures.

And Beloved has an appointment with a new oncologist (in the system) three weeks from today.

Forgot to mention

After I went shopping for the accessories with my gift card, I went over to Hobby Lobby (at the suggestion of Beloved, who informed me that they were having a 40% off sale on baskets) to see if I could pick up anything for the shelving unit in the kitchen. I did. Six anythings, and at 50% off. They are now filled (five of them before I left for work yesterday) and in their new home.

I did not quite finish off that ball of yarn yesterday. It is quite likely to happen before work. Today is Big Chemo, and we will be leaving in half an hour to take Beloved off to assume-the-position.

We also got our referral to a different oncologist, one in our system, and Beloved will be calling for an appointment when he comes home today.

In other news, we are firing off our registration for the family reunion which will take place next month. The fun starts on that Thursday night, so I will be requesting it off from the temple. As we are now fully-staffed on Thursday nights, that should not present a problem.

My temple bag and lunch are packed. My knitting is next to its bag. I have one quick note to write, and then I need to figure out what I will be wearing to work.

Oh, when I got home from Knit Night with the bling and the baskets, you will never guess what Beloved was watching? Dancing with the Stars, and rooting for the football player. Do not ask for his man-card: the guy is a Green Bay Packer. Beloved was just being true to his school.

Not 28.3495231g of sympathy.

Anonymous Spammer offered this comment yesterday: “When I initially commented I appear to have clicked the ‘Notify me when new comments are added’ checkbox and now whenever a comment is added I recieve [sic] 4 emails with the same comment. There has to be an easy method you can remove me from that service? Thanks!”

So. Not. My. Problem. Gotta love it when a spammer gets spammed! (I was amused to find his/her comment in my spam-comment filter when I logged on this morning. This is the primary reason that I have comment moderation.) Karma, as they say, is an exceedingly disagreeable wench.

I had fun spending my Mother’s Day gift card after work last night. A pair of earrings with orange gingham ribbon or fabric glued to them. As I have three orange dressy/layering T-shirts that get regular wear, I am over the moon!

A purple headband with artsy fabric flowers and minimal bling. I have a couple of shirts where that will work.

And a card with three pairs of faux pearl earrings, since I cannot seem to make time to properly re-glue that other pair onto its backing (but I know where the E-6000 and earrings are: in a sandwich bag in a bookcase in the dining room, with Col. Mustard and the lead pipe). One pair of white pearls, one pair of rosy purple pearls, and one pair of bronzy-purplish pearls that I think will tone perfectly with the Moebius scarf from my birthday yarn

Now all I have to do is decide which shirt I want to wear this morning.

Much happy knitting yesterday. I am nearly ready to spit-splice the fifth ball of yarn into the pillow top. Four balls. Doesn’t that equal a walk?