So I didn't hit the store last night. I was tired after work (final huge report was VAULTED!!) and I sat and spun for a bit while meat for dinner was defrosting. I made dinner (my panko encrusted chicken dish) and once we were done with dinner i trudged outside into the grey not raining evening for a walk. About 5 mins in it had started to drizzle but I trudged with a podcast in my ears just a bit over a mile. I was wet and bedraggled when I got in so I changed clothes and put my hair up before sitting down to spin some more. I finished up the 3rd bump of fiber out of the 5 and got the 4th started before it was bed time. I had a nice shower and then set down to finish my book. I was writing up my good reads commentary when mel came to bed and then I pulled up my next book #16 Bitter Waters by Vivian Shaw which is a novella in the Dr Greta Helsing Series. I then crashed.

Today is a flurry of performance reviews and a data dive into an issue and then I'm off work for 10 days. Tomorrow will be a crazy train of banks, county offices. Tonight will be knitting. I hope to get going a bit earlier this week so I can eat dinner before going. The shop doesn't have a central table to sit at...just a circle of chairs and a coffee table so I don't want to be awkward. Heck, I may just grab a sandwich at home to eat on the drive. I also need to hit the grocer for milk products but will do the main shopping this weekend with Mel. I'm excited to see the family who will arrive some time on Sunday.

Well, my hopes for last night was to get all of mom's gifts done. Yeah, not so much. Now, I can either stay home from knit night and work on them or just send her two packages...with the second not getting there till after the holiday. I think the easy way out would be good for me. Less stressful. I hope to get home tonight, get the gift number 1 unpinned from blocking...take a photo of me wearing it and then mail it off. We shall see though if its dry. The blocking is really helping it though. (I'll post a friend's locked post to show it off btw, don't worry). So, I think I've made my decision.

I did manage to make dinner last night though with some pretty good pantry kung fu. I took london broil and chopped it up and added it to the dutch over where I had sweated garlic and onions. I cooked the meat with cinnamon, fresh ground cumin, dried diced jalapenos, pepper and kosher salt. Once that was cooked I added a can of corn and a can of crushed tomatoes and let it simmer until it thickened up. I added a bit of cornstarch to thicken it a bit more and it was nummy.

Pour mel found out when he went to get his cavity fixed that he needs a root canal/crown. That is scheduled for monday am. Poor guy. Course he's lucky. He's never felt a problem at all in the tooth and I guess that is a blessing.

In the rash of weird...I got one of the speeding tickets in Phx when american_knight and I came back from Kingman. That is a bill I wasn't expecting. It was right where the speed limit drops on I-17 to 55..I was going 71. le sigh. Oh, well.

And more in the random file. The commercials from Sunmaid about "fruit and sunshine!" being the only thing in them are LIES! Seriously. they should say "fruit and sulfur dioxide and sunshine!" Asshats. All this means is that I will be heading to trader joes for my fruit cake supplies, like I expected but I was kinda hopeful I could have knocked that off my list last night too. Oh, well.

Time to crunch down and get things done at work.

So, if you haven't heard duchess_asa's water broke and she and american_knight are the the hospital. Squee! So, I'll keep you posted.

Yesterday was very busy on the paperwork front at work. Finally got information pulled out from one of my coirkers that can never answer my questions 1)on time and 2)actually answer the question I asked. Its like pulling teeth. But I got the variance and the change notice written and just a few more tweaks and they can get into review. DOM Dave and I got together for our weekly data pull and the numbers are looking good. We both got bonuses for our work on it and that is a good thing...still more work to do but its all good. Then I left a bit early to get a jump start on the house cleaning and boy did it need it.

cayswann commented recently that she's never really unpacked from trips etc in the last little bit and I can completely relate. Also, we haven't been having game night due to SCA things and the house has not been getting the weekly pickup and clean it used to..plus you add that we've both been sick for over 2 weeks and well, its a mess. So, I got the front room pretty much taken care of and I had started in on the kitchen when mel got home. He took the initiative and got the family room clean and he picked up and vacuumed both of those rooms as well as wiping down his bathroom. The kitchen wasn't too bad but I had dishes to put away, wash and load..plus the counters and the stove needed a wipe down. I need to do a deep clean before my fall baking blitz happens. Fruit cake will be made early this year since Baron Christopher was scoffing at my ability to make good fruit cake. Well, he's getting some! Coronation is gonna be fun!

So got the house cleaned and then headed out for sushi with the old crew + a few new faces. Wow, such good stuff and good company. Mel was all about me getting out to have sushi which made me happy. Though, seriously, we need to have home cooked dinner tonight cause man, I'm sick of eating out. Plus I need to make some extra stuff for the household to share. All good. missdoom thanks for sending some rainy weather...it was just at 68 this am when I went to my car and the horizon is full of rain clouds. Plus, I heard some on the patio roof sometime in the night. It smelled almost like fall...so close now. Well, sushi was good and we ate not to bursting (just close). Then it was time to pile in cars and head to scribble at my house. richarddbrewer was awesome sauce and was over working on things so a few of our early arrivers were already there. Thank you! Got things organized and then Princess Cecilia arrived and we had a good time. Scribble stuff happened, paper was cut, designs got hashed out, assignments got given and we had a good time. I even got some research done for my last A&S project and had things pulled for my docs for my other. Its gonna be a busy month. Sighs.

Mel had made the comment that we don't seem to every get less busy, its just different busy. Well, time to get cracking.