Work was work and frustration. I think that is all I can say.

I did make yoga and knitting and that was nice. I've now stuffed teh pumpkin part way and am slowly decreasing it down but its hard to do with the stuffing. But I should finish that this week.

Thursday I was able to leave work before time and had OT which was okay. Got home and Benton wanted to carve two more pumpkins which we did have time for. He got one of the bumpy ones done and a tiny one that he made look like the one stitch carves with his ray gun.

We got to Mary and Andrew's and I got handed a Moxie and Rum by Andrew who I had found out that day is retiring on the 8th. Work has fed him up and he's done. Mary has a good job and insurance and he may do some side work for some other friends who had left the company.

We had a really nice time walking and getting the kids around Civano. We put in a few miles and the kids made bank on candy. I was happy my Beetlejuice dress fit and I got lots of compliments during the day on it at work. I even did my makeup for spookieness. Mel came along and we were all glad it had cooled down and got our jackets out for the walk. Benton wore his mask and coat he had from the other dance last semester. So he was set. We had exactly 2 trick'r'treaters who when they tried to ring the bell pushed on the camera. Lol but they got candy from the bin we left out.

Got home with time to unwind and have a beer before bed. We slept in a bit for Friday and I got us burritos when I got the boy to school. I sat and watched movies and knit and played games on my phone. And was tired. I almost took a nap. I probably should have. I did a few errands and then ran up to maguires to get the ring and pendant. The chain was on order to get delivered that day. I cried when I saw them. I really didn't realize how pretty they were going to be. And how big the ring is. Its really a cocktail statement piece. wow. That's okay.

Oh the way home, I thought I was being emotional and my nose kept running. By the time I drove the 45 mins home I was was not feeling well. Had dinner with the boys and then made the executive decision to hit bed early and try to sleep off the suck. Well, I did sleep it better but not perfect and I texted Willa that I was still a snot monster at 615am to then go back to sleep until almost 11am. 13+ hours of sleep. I took things slow and laid down in the afternoon, didn't nap but rested reading. Managed to have dinner and planned to go to bed early but my brain turned on. sighs. I fell asleep fully by 3am. Oof.

But it was okay sleep. I got up and had breakfast and then after puttering on my phone I got a good hot shower, nettie potted my nose and felt tons better. I felt well enough to hit my hair appt and to pick up scrips at the pharmacy. Then it was home to relax a bit now armed with sudafed to Wander's dinner. The sudafed hit the last of the congestion out my head and I felt normal. We had a nice dinner and good conversations. We came home and Benton get into his night time routine and Mel and I chilled on the couch. I went to be at a reasonable hour but slept fitfully after 130 am. I'm sure I was anxious that Mel get on his flight okay (work trip to Florida this week, yuck). Anxious for Monday? Who knows. He got up for his flight and I dozed until my alarm. I got up and enjoyed a cuppa in peace and quiet before getting Benton up for School.

I've been doing laundry between meetings and getting things back to rights after my neglect of the last few weeks. I have to clean things up and get ready for Melee camp this weekend. My goal is to pack my clothes tonight, get the house picked up tomorrow. Benton needs to put his laundry away and find the other two tunics I bought him. Sighs. That room is a disaster. I need to text our house cleaners since I would like it cleaned soon hopefully next week? They didn't come in October which is sucky.

So Mel comes home On Thursday afternoon, we were supposed to get on site Thursday with the household trailer but now its Friday after I drop benton at school. I will have to come back to get him and then drive back to Sonoita. So fun times.

I also have a work offsite Thursday which I will have to go to and then leave early to pick him up from school. Which is slightly before Mel gets home. I've got meat thawing to start making a venison/beef chilli for tomorrow night. Let it cook over night. Busy week.

Well the last two weeks I've focused on my mental and physical health and hit the gym/yoga for 4 days last week and thus far 3 days this week as well as doing various walks and getting moving... I feel better in my head...my anxiety has not been as high and the scale is slowly inching lower. Consistency is a thing that has to happen. I've changed my work schedule to accommodate this so I'm in office Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I forgot how much laundry I have to do now since I have to wear work clothes versus just workout clothes. Oh well. Its okay. Just a thing I need to do today.

We have crown tomorrow and Mel may fight but he's sick and we shall see. I have projects ready and an outfit and I will pack everything tonight so we can get on the road by 630 AM. Ugh.

Benton has his mask for the dance tonight about 90% complete. He was not taking direction or help at all well last night...to the point we told him he was rude and could go work in his room. Mel was cranky and ill and had worked with him since they got home, I did my best but I to was done with the whining and attitude. He refused to listen and then there had to be yelling. Sighs. could we have all handled it better? MAybe? but this is learning how to learn. I know he likes to know the why so I explained that many times on how to cover his wire frame. He's using paper for covering and if we'd had time I would have papermachied it but we were out of time. sighs.

On the book front I'm almost done with #10 for the year Nettle and Bone. I had 25 pages left last night at 1130pm. I was a good girl and went the fuck to bed.

I will hopefully cast on a little cowl with some of the yarn I got from Shanda for xmas. I hope a small project will scratch that instant gratification fix I need right now cause everything is either in time out, takes too much brain power or is boring.

In the saga of the tV i ended up ordering on on Amazon and it gets here today. ITs really hard to find a 32" smart TV in 1080p ugh.

Its been a few weeks and we attended Kingdom A&S Collegium and Competition. I taught my leather care class to one person but handed out a bunch more handouts. Had a nice princesses tea with the Roses. We spilled some good tea while drinking arnold palmers. Had great BBQ from Sir Suttons food truck and at Rudys. I stood way too much and was hurting by the end of the day. I tend to lean to the left naturally and that was not good. But I managed to do some knitting on the musselburgh hat and chat with friends. We also got to watch Master Balldrich get asked to enter the Order of the Laurel and that brings me joy. I will be speaking for him as a laurel at his ceremony.

We had a stressful week of work of finance crap I hate. I thought I was short $3M and its there just odd and yeah...so much annoyance. I was very stressed.

Benton stayed home from me day tripping Melee camp. I had spent Friday doing things with mom's estate and this is a mess with the land. Hopefully we can work it out after a new extensive site survey is done. Cause its going to either be reasonable or messy (like putting Jerry's will into contest). We shall see how my step siblings are about it.

I was given permission to start easing off boot usage. And I wore it Saturday for Melee camp cause that ground was hella uneven and then a chunk of Sunday when I made homemade eggplant DF parmesan with zoodles, and a cinnamon swirl zucchini bread. OMG. very tasty and it makes two loaves. I used one zucchini and we still had enough left over for mel to make fritters (use ritz crackers for the bread crumbs..so good) and still some left over. SO I gave one of the other zukes to my housekeeper.

I'm within an inch of starting the crown decreases on the hat. I've barely read and been playing a lot of games on my phone again. Its okay its what it is...I got a massive migraine on Sunday night at 1am. And I was down for the count for two days. I slept a lot and missed work and yeah. Not great. Probably stress, dehydration and weather change all combined. We got a huge set of storms come in on Tuesday. Spicy kept cowering from the thunder, running to the windows to yell at the rain and snuggle up on my chest. It was cute.

Today I'm at work. I wore the boot to walk in since its like 1/4 mile and then switched to my shoes. I've gone down the stairs just not up them yet. We shall see.

Wednesday was our 20th Wedding Anniversary, we've been to busy to do anything planned. Mel suprised me with Flowers and then suggested we head to dinner out as a family. We hit Sachiko Sushi for tasty noms. We got done and then the boys were in frantic pack mode for the Golden Dragon Tourney. They left in the van just after I left for work today and I will be all by my lonesome until Sunday night. Which will be nice. I have a one shot game with Erika doing D&D on Saturday. I have plans to pick up the house a bit and finish that hat. Enjoy some me time and just relax. I will probably do some work but most of that is dictated by some things going on today to make some new info going through. All good. Not as much stress.

So there were are...I'm still reading the Enchantress and its meh. I hope I can crank through that and move on to somethign on my active TBR.

so update...nuff said

So Wednesday I wanted to go to the gym Wednesday and I did and now I'm questioning my life choices. The ankle was not appreciative of my efforts and even doing modified things it still hurt so I just stopped and did some core work and even some of that was hard cause feet need to feet. Ugh. But I went, I burned some calories, I moved . Went the doc and it was very anticlimatic. I got a referral, not to the doc I wanted but we shall see. Today I schedule with them for Wednesday.

Doing reading over the weekend I may have Acute Tendon Bursitis. The symptoms fit. I see a boot in my future. But we shall see. I could be wrong it could be easier or worse...not sure. Will know more.

The ankle just kind of made me grumpy all weekend. I was tired...cause pain in tiring. Ibuprofen does really nothing. It aches, my calf keeps spasming. It hurts to lay it on a pillow straight since that is where is swollen. I did manage to get things out of the house by dropping off the two bags of towels to Pima Animal Control for use, and 1/2 a lose truckload of stuff to goodwill on Saturday. I also managed to hit whole But that was it all weekend. I did finish #33 (1000pages of smut) on the books, had already read #34 (Squirrel Girl) and started #35 which is "Sleep No More" by Seanan McGuire which takes us from the surprise ending of the last book and tells the next part from October's POV....the next books (coming in October) will be from Tybalt's POV. Things are dire and its so neat to see how things "could have been" had a certain Queen of Faerie not been kicked to the curb for being a bitch. I'm 3/4 of the way through. So good.

My new glasses arrived and I'm still getting used to the prescription. It way stronger and I remember this from when I first got bifocals and this is very similar dizzy feeling. So I loafed most of the weekend. Played a lot of Animal Crossing (I caught a Caelocanth!) and read. I even took a 2 hour nap yesterday. I did manage to make pesto on Saturday night and that was a hit...though Trader Joe's Heart of Palm 'pasta' is not 3 servings per package...just saying. I bulked things up with panko and it was tasty.

But yeah, not sure if I will have the energy to even go to the gym for arm day. I'm just tired and driving, even the truck hurts cause the angle is wrong...bleah. But Wednesday we shall see.

We have Crown this weekend so a drive to Flagstaff to a hotel and then drive to site and hang with a small number of folks from the house. My plan is marshal as I can with the foot. We only have one household member fighting and they are not fighting for a household member...so it will be nice to sit and chat with folks.

I started this on Monday and finished it Tuesday....

Work was nuts last week. My deputy was out and our other Cheif was out so it was so many meetings to cover and I was quadruple booked alot. Sighs. But we made it. Friday was our 9/80 Friday but I had to work. The proposal stuff I have to do takes brain power and quiet to work on and I don't get any extra of that during the week. So I worked about a half day Friday and Saturday. Friday afternoon I had a nice massage and then tooled around the shops to stretch everything out. Didn't buy anything but just looked around. I was feeling very cooped up with working most of the day and then a 90 min massage. I almost just called mel that I needed to go for a drive but knew that was my anxiety talking and it could deal.

Benton was to have a friend over to play so he was cleaning his disaster of a room. His dad and I don't live like that but his Auntie Becca did as a kid so its inherited. Mel was working on getting things ready for the event on Saturday and I was just relaxing. We all went to bed pretty early. With me working during the day I've had movies playing on my ipad to keep me on task. Well that mean my ipad was in the studio and I then just pulled up a different book on my phone cause I'm lazy and I'm 3 novellas short of finishing the #33 of the year (its 1000pages of book). So I started early on #34 which is "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World" its novelization and wonderful and cheerful and fluffy as her tail. Benton has already read these but they were on my list.

So Saturday I got up earlier than I wanted but we were expecting company and my house was not company ready. Benton worked on his room some more while I cleaned up the front room and the family room. So much paperwork...omg. I went through all of the built up mail, the stuff I had set aside, moved stuff on the piano and put cat toys away, recycled a cat scratcher and the like. The couch got readjusted, the corner bookcases got decluttered of stuff. I put the extra impact massager in the goodwill bin and a light we don't use. It was a frantic few hours but the house looks nice and the amount of cat hair i vacuumed up was crazy. I then got to work while Benton played games awaiting his playdate playmate. We one issue was that the phone number Mel had given was our home number which is a land line. so if they were trying to text that wouldn't work. And it was a mess. I feel bad for benton, he was so looking forward to playing with journey. But it didn't happen all weekend. Hopefully we can get the numbers situated and we can try again. Work was annoying and I will admit I physically hot and tired and cranky and was not a good mom. It was not my finest hour and Benton has hit moody tween and yeah. He was also a PITA with his dad when he got home so yeah. The tude needs to change.

Mel fought in two tourneys but had to pull out of the second from nothing left in the tank. But he had a good time and he said it was nice to be back on Ft. Huachucha. Though I guess they haven't had the roads worked on in a while. yikes.

Sunday I slept in a bit but not much past 730. I played Animal Crossing and then after more consternation from the tween about things I got his character off of my Animal Crossing Island and onto his Switch and a new island. this will make it so I can get a new person on my island from my Amigo pack (Hello Kitty people!) and also help in general. He ended up playing AC all day while Mel and I did things. I got the bed stripped and into the wash and Mel dumped everything from the linen closet onto the bed. There I sorted into the style of thing and sorted out things that could be donated to our vet or a shelter. I ended up culling two large kitchen garbage bags full of towels. I then got bins out to sort and fold what was left into and then organized them in the closet and finally got them labeled with my label maker. From looking at things...I'm not ever allowed to buy napkins again. I will be culling all of those shortly for SCA largess and not buying anymore. OMG.

But it looks awesome. I then took a breather and started in out the studio. It had been bugging me something fierce and I want a space I can craft in. Seriously. I want to be able to finish a few things and not have to clean. I managed to find a few home projects to complete (new hanging thingy for ziploc bags that Mel hung on the inside of the upper pantry door and I needed a reinforcement for my shelves. they are sagging after almost 20 years and need to be replaced but its been too hot for mel to have shop time. The lowest shelf with my sewing machines is the worst and I put a support up to prop it until we can fix things at the end of Sept. So, I measured and had mel make me a post...which he said I measured wrong and I told him I would fix it. It was perfect and I unloaded shelves and put it in under the shelf and then reloaded it. All good. I also realized when I was filing away all of the god damned paper for two houses that I don't need to keep utility bills. I chucked them all. I also got out all of the paperwork I need for the probate and cleaned out the file I've been carrying around with all of the mom stuff and got it down to just the final few things I need to take care of. Woot.

The studio is now useable and though I really need to purge all of the drawers of things do I use or not and I still need to get the closet cleaned out. those are activities with the girls since I will need help sorting and figuring out what I want to keep or not.

I went to the gym after Spicy's vet appt. She's up to 3.8 pounds which means she's gained 3.1 pounds since June 1st. She did really well with her shots, course they feed her a tube of Churu to keep her happy while they do it. The gym was good and Keith had mixed things up between legs and chest. I was tired but made it through two sets on each items 1 and 2. Did modify a few things cause the ankle is a not happy. But it was good. I grabbed a burrito from Viva and then went to Ari's for the restart of scribble.

I kept on my cleaning binge and while Ari cleaned all her nibs, I pulled every last thing out of my scribal kit and purged all of the crappy worn out brushes, dirty crap, old dried up and cant be used paint tubes and packaging from things. I then purged my folders and sorted out patterns, ducti and lining sheets into separate folders in my file set. The goal will be to get that set to fit in my case but I need to move a sketch book around. All good though. Bridget and the kids (who are now 19 and 24!) arrived and we went trhough and cleaned out her case and set assignments. Basically we will make things until told we have things needed by the signet. I have a commission from 2017 that I did some research on and pulled some exemplars for. I have a partial plan in my head. I hope to start sketching things the next scribble or Monday I may go to baronial and see what I can do. Its a holiday but it would be nice to go and see the baronial folks.


With the 3 day weekend....I have plans to try to finish two projects. 1) the quilt project for my grandma's quilt and 2) the seams on my black dress. I also want to go through bins of fabric and start really purging or at least organizing but the closet also does need to be fixed before I purge fabric. But some lose plans are better than no plans.

So, yeah I think the new med dosages are helping me be more me...I still have anxiety and I know its there but that energy I can use to focus on something else that I want to do or that is buggging me. So I care about things more.

I have started the probate paperwork for moms estate and I hope I can get someone to call me back about the wall around the Tucson house. I'm hopeful I can get a call back. If not I may implore some help from Thyra who knows folks in the business. But things are better. I made it the whole weekend with 4 drinks total. And I've been doing good with eating and moving. So just trying to keep the momentum and get my work finished without doing too much OT.

So work was nuts before I went on PTO. Friday got there and on my morning call I said I was having problems with my sight. I stated "I can't see myself working past noon" which was fine since I had to pack and do laundry and things. It was very nice to take things slow though so even though I was panicking it was a slow panic. We got up at 4am and to the airport for our 6am flight and it was all fine. We made our connection and our gate was right next door to our landing gate. We got to SF and I texted Rob and Becca. They were getting some gloves etc for the boys and then got picked up, played suitcase tetris. BTW, the Pacifica has way less space than my Grand Caravan. We got lunch at Taco johns and then to the house. We had issues getting the water working again. But the local water folks were awesome and helped us figure that out. Becca and I did the grocery shopping and made it easy for use to make dinner that night. Or well for Mel to make dinner. Rob did the dishes. The boys were ecstatic to be able to play in the snow. They dug fox holes and built walls and just had a good time playing in the snow until it got too cold. Sunday we started working on clearing out closets and doing some other shopping. Mom had clothes she had not worn that were $300+ dollar silk Anne Taylor suits she got for less than $10 at Macy's/Daytons. She had an entire dresser full of new socks. She had a closet full of creams and hair stuff and like unopened. Wow. Luckily, the family (Me, Becca, Mel and Rob) had all done the clean out at Grandma Doodles. We have a rapport and a way of doing things that gets all of teh snark but this time we all knew the clothes mom wore or things we found and it was special. I know that doing it by myself that would have not worked well. Rob was awesome and got a load to goodwill taken while we were out on Monday. Sundy was just general things around the house and we got visited by Aaron and Ali.

Mel and I met with the funeral home and the church. It worked well and we got things settled for the funeral and the funeral director John was so pleasant. I had brought the kit from Eterneva. He would return it at the funeral all filled and ready for Mel and I to send off. We still need to decide what stones we are getting. But One will be a ring and the other will be a solitaire stone necklace. yes its spendy but well, I might as well. I've inherited things and she loved the idea of being a gem. We got groceries and hit Ace and did a few other errands before we got home. We had Ellis visit for the afternoon and that was so nice to catch up.

Tuesday Gretchen and I attempted to get the land stuff taken care of and the bank is reading the wills with a very conservative approach. We are trying to get ahold of the original executor for her dad's estate and I will talk with Tom. So that was a bust. Got home in time for mel to get his suit on and me to put on makeup. Gretchen was awesome with getting the luncheon. All of the boys, including Paige and GRetchen's played foos ball in teh church. The service was good. Pastor Chris did a nice sermon about mom. Sue's speaking was good and I'd forgotten some of the stories. I got a recording of it all including my ( Eulogy. )

Then we headed out into the very cold snowy weather to do the graveside service. Her ashes were interred with a cross that she had been given by Diane. It was a quick service and Benton had a bit of breakdown at the end which I completely understand. I was teary too. I don't think I ever looked at her shared gravestone with Jerry but he side had cats on it. Benton got lots of hugs and I told him i was so proud of him and how well he did. This is his first real loss and we spent time talking about it before I noticed we had all of the college crewe show up. Aaron and Ali, Chris and Karla, and Kim and Zane.

We got down to the luncheon and I quickly ate while I chatted with my Aunt Shirley and Aunt Linda. I did learn that my mom's first husband was best friends with my Dad her second husband....huh. That was interesting to note. I knew something had happened to get mom to divorce her first husband and come back to the states to marry my dad but wow....that was crazy. I then mingled with everyone and chatted and part of her funeral we had put out angels for folks to take from her collection and people loved that. It made me very happy to give people a momento to remember her by.

After the luncheon we headed back to the house and the college crew followed. WE had food and talking and the kids played downstairs in the family room there. One thing we will be buying for the house is more couches/love seats and chairs for the dining room. But I think we have a plan for our dacha aka summer house. It was very nice to have folks over and see people and relax. I did go to bed pretty early...I was just so plum tired. I slept way in on Wednesday which is when the blizzard was in full effect and then I took a 2 hour nap. I was tired. Emotionally exhasted etc. I felt like a lump but Mel, Becca and Rob were like...dude, relax...we got this. Thursday Rob was able to get out and snowblow after we figured out you had to plug it in to start it. lol. Thanks mom! But he and I got out to run the plethora of errands. 5 towns, 4 banks, the courthouse, the lawyer, goodwill drop off, and truck service. oof. The roads in the county were fine, the roads in Canton/Alcester and Beresford were fine. The main roads in Sioux falls were weird. And secondary/tertiary roads were dicey. Was glad I still have the knack for driving vehicles on snow...every great big trucks with no weight in the back. We took the interstate back and that was good cause it proved that the oil road wasn't going to be good for Becca and Rob to take to get to the airport on Friday morning.

It took a bunch to get us all packed. I kept forgetting I wasn't packing for a flight and we got things settled and folks got out the door about 930am, we stopped off in Beresford for gas and to drop off a tax form. And then we were on the road. The roads were really good and we stopped seeing snow as we got into Kansas. At that point we started angling towards the SW. We ended up in Dodge City for dinner and then pushed on to Amarillo, TX. Got into the holiday inn express at 1130 and were up and moving and on the road by 745am. We were tired but that was okay. Stopped in Alamagordo NM to see the World's Largest Pistachio and grab lunch. We got home in Tucson about 530pm and that was great. We had pizza for dinner and weren't up late.

So that was our trip....it took me days to write that up and then the work week was nuts and then we had a huge SCA event and road washout drama etc. But that is another post.

Friday ended the rollercoaster week of hell with a margarita the size of my head and more when I got home. We had dinner with Ari at Guadalajara Grill which was nice and kinda more symmetry I needed since that was where we went when I got back to Tucson in March. But it was what I needed. Got home and Benton headed off to bed while we made drinks and I had too much...not stoopid but I was tired and my brain turned off and I sent to bed at 930pm. I did not wake up in time for hitting the gym and that was okay. I needed to sleep and rest and just not be for a while. I visited mom for a bit and then picked up Ari for the Street Fair. We ended up parking at the Tyndall Garage and walking to the site 5 long blocks away. ITs just easier. We started at pretty much the top of the fair and then got settled into a bar spot at Magpies for food and beer. It was so nice to bum around with Ari and get things on our lists. She found a lovely jacket, I got a nice necklace at Silver Sea and found the best gift for Mel. He will like it I hope. I got home and mel was in the shop with Kung Fu mike working on his walking stick and Benton was taking a nap. He was not feeling good. I was tired and just sat watching TV. I don't recall the rest of the evening. I know Mel and I finished up season 5 of Clone Wars and started Season 6. OMG why did we not know any of this.

Sunday I went and saw mom and she was really spacy and was at least up and sitting at the table but her fine motor control is slipping. Its very hard to watch. I picked up Ari for a costco trip and had a nice time going there with her. I hate going to Costco by myself and another human made it so nice. Then I had my massage and got home after a quick trip to Safeway and checking in on mom. She was no better. Very tired and asleep.

At home I got Benton to help me put all of the xmas boxes away until things are settled for that . He was feeling somewhat better but we made sure he got a hot bath and to bed early. Mel and I then put things on TV and got presents wrapped. I have stuff to ship to wrap and stuff for Mel and a few things coming in still. But that helped me a lot. Plus it blocked access to the xmas tree skirt that Tasha has been balling up and snuggling under.

Monday was busy at work. This is the last week of work for me. Mom had called during the day and wanted to see me and I said I would see her after work. When I stopped by she had had breakfast out and about but didnt want dinner. She had not recollection of stating this at all. They brought her a meal and I sat her up so she could eat and it was obvious she can't really feed herself any longer. I got her to eat but had to basically feed her and remind her to swallow. She would just check on the same piece of food for minutes if I didn't. She had thought I left her in a nursing home in South Dakota. Sighs. She's scared and confused and thinks she's losing her mind. Which she is. I think she is scared of dying but I'm not mentioning it. But every day I see her slowing down more.

We shall see what I see tonight when I visit. I got to the gym about 15 mins late but I needed the self care/stress relief. Then it was home for a nice dinner and working on performance reviews. Benton was home sick yesterday but was doing better by the evening. I have a lot to work on for work. But its okay. Just taking things day by day.

On the book front. Finished number 42 "That Ain't Witchcraft" which was awesome. I started #43 which is "Imaginary Numbers" which lets us be with Cousin Sarah of the Price clan...she's fun. I have 2 more books in this series to be caught up which will be books 44 and 45. I will be very close to getting the 50 this year. Which makes me happy. I guess that is something.

So I had the Friday off and things went oddly. I guess I forgot that I had a Thursday massage not a Friday one and got charged a cancellation fee cause I had confirmed on text but hadn't looked at the date (22 versus 23) but in the end this is okay. I had gotten my flu shot and the new shiny bivalent pfizer vaccine. This was after I dropped off Benton for school with his boat and after breakfast burritos. Then it was shots and a drive into work to get my brain washed for another year. They added 20+ pages to this years info and wow that was a lot to digest. But all good. Then I went and spent time with Mom. She looks much better than the last time and got a bit more color and flesh in her face. She's still weak though and I don't think that will change. We talked while sitting out on the porch and it was nice. I knit and we chatted. I do think that she's still not quite getting that she's dying and its not going to be a long. Covid really took the wind out of her. We shall see what the doc says in a few weeks but I was very blunt about what he said so she would listen. He mentioned hospice multiple times mom, that was to clue you in that its your choice when you want to be done with things. So we shall keep on trucking but I still don't think she will last till Christmas.

Anyhoo, after that I came home and chatted with the boys and then I went to read and fell dead asleep for a few hours. Seriously, passed the fuck out. But that is what my body needed. Got up about 830pm and had some water etc and ice cream cause why not. Then I was back in bed by 10.

Saturday was nice and I slept in, read and finally got my shower and started to move things from my studio to storage from my work office stuff. Got that done and relaxed, we had pizza for dinner cause Mel had spent time in the shop after a hard workout/black belt testing and pizza was good. Mel played video games and I read. I went to bed early cause I had an "plans" for sunday which I will chat about on another post. I managed a 12 hour day and got Willa's scroll to 80% done. now the heavy lifting. Much thanks to folks who helped me with that.

Monday I worked hard and was able to make it to the gym even though my right ear canal is unhappy. its got a raised sore bit and using my endoscope and can't tell what is causing it...it so I will let it be and see if it clears up but its bothering me enough I can only wear one ear bud. Anyhoo...went to the gym and did the crazy ass workout. It was good. I got home had dinner, watched the new Baumgartner video and then started in on getting the studio converted to a sewing studio. This time versus putting my work table in the middle of the room I kept it in the back...when I cut fabric out I will have to move it out but its okay. This will work. The cats are happy that I have ironing board up and immediately have covered it in hair. sighs....

But I will be sewing this week which is good as well as getting materials and path forward on the last 80% of the scroll project. Woot. But muse is happier and that is good.

On the book front I'm 75% done with Nona the Ninth and really enjoying it. This is more straight forward of a story telling experience than the last two books but things are still building to some crazy ass plot twists. I'm here for it...I just got confused last night of a character showing up and now I need to go back to the previous book and go..."oh...now I get it..."

Mom's birthday was happy and disheartening. For those of you in IG I posted pictures of her and if you compare them to pictures August 20th you can see how skelatal she looks. Covid did its best to kill her and even her oncologist has lost any spunk with here which I think is poor beside manner honestly. But she's so weak she couldn't walk the whole way to his office from the closest parking spot. I had to get a wheel chair. But she enjoyed her Squishmallow cat I got her and that was good. I made sure she had donuts and then just kinda am numb and sad with her. Its hard. Had to have some frank conversations with Mel on what we do next.

With things being dismal and dealing with work personnel issues have been rough. Have a lead who just can't deal with things in a sane manner. Back talks, has delusions of grandeur about their own importance and just can't take instruction. We've failed to get this lead to deal with how we do things and they are a micromanager. Well, the weekend proved their downfall and if you are going to shoot yourself in the foot, make sure your boss is on copy. just saying. Now we have lots of repercussions but that is better to deal with than before and my morning was rosy and bright and not stressful even though I have a ton of work today.

So the weekend was busy with SCA stuff. We had crown tourney and only had 2 in the house fighting and none of them serious enough to worry about winning. But we made a good show. I brought out my bar for Ukranian Mules and G&T's and made sure folks had drinks (even N/A ones). It was a great success and I'm well pleased with my setup. The only thing I need to add to it is an ice pick. I used our ice bucket for ease and kept things sanitary with a scoop and it was really nice. Plus I got to introduce folks to good ingredients (Ryoku, Hendricks Orbium, Khor Vodka and Ritual Gin alternative). Plus good tonic and gingerbeer from fevertree as well as fresh squeezed lime juice and the lazy trick of Simply Limeade for other drinks.

It was bonkers hot for us though...oof. 103 and barely a breeze on Sunday. Saturday wasn't too bad. Even though I had fixed my peplos dress the fabric is too thick for that kind of heat and I wore and older dress from my first reign that I've since made short sleeved. The Saturday I wore my dark teal dress which Anya made...super light linen as well.

Anyhoo, I drank and knit and chatted with folks in our tent and only ventured out to watch the finals with the rest of the Roses. Courts were too short for 3 peerages IMHO and then it was home each day without issue. Sunday though I was so hot and tired, I took a shower and passed out for a few hours during which Benton lost 2 more teeth. So that is 3 teeth in two weeks...which is still a larger time span than my 4 molars in two days when I was his age.

Jackie did come out all 39 weeks preggers and socialized for about an hour or so. Her family and 3 false labor scares are making her crazy. I'm glad I didn't go through that with Benton. It was I'm pregnant and then I was just BAM in labor.

But it was good to see people and chat and work out some things for the scroll...though that may get pushed sideways due to my mentor/help is getting knee surgery. But I think we can make it work. I also had a very shocking spark of muse for my dress for my Apprentices elevation especially after she convinced the crown to make it a performance piece during the performing arts section of A&S. It will be short but lively and explanatory for the audience. Plus everything that she wants which makes us happy and it a bit of malicious compliance on our parts. I'm all about malicious compliance which brings me to my muse stating I need to make a Slytherin colored laurel dress for the ceremony. I have the black linen and I will be ordering some more green silk for the placard, I have plenty left over trim from Becca's coat in other greens to do some matchy fun. We shall see. But the muse is awake and cranky and wants me to look pretty so yeah. I need to order more silk...oh noes! But one of them is ectoplasm for the color which just makes me happy.

On the book front I'm really enjoying #33 The Enchantment Emporium. I really like the family dynamic and if you like the Fey wacky relationships. Some people are freaked out by that, I'm not. Its been interesting is and that is what I need right now. After this I have some Charlie Stross Laundry files to read so that will be less enjoyable maybe? We shall see.

Well I made it through all of the appts with Mom in July. It was a lot. Not gonna lie and then I had to deal with her getting brain radiation as well. She had more tumors appear and they wanted to zapp them to at least try to get her to hang on longer. Work has been atrocious and I've had more OT in the last 3 weeks than in the last 6 months. Its weird. But hopefully this week means that things will get back on track.

What have I been doing...working, working, taking care of mom and reading. No gym time, drinking too much and probably eating too much. Sighs. My anxiety is very high and other work stressors are making that even more dizzying. Hopefully that issue will resolve itself in the next few weeks as well.

For reading I finished the following books:
Book 23 - Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Book 24 - Broken by Jenny Lawson (I love the Bloggess and this book was just what I needed)
Book 25 - Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs (got the rest of the Mercy Thompson series I was missing)
Book 26 - Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs
Book 27 - Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs
Book 28 - Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs (Soul Taken comes out tomorrow but I only by paperbacks for this series)
Book 29 - in progress is Life and Limb by Jennifer Roberson, I picked it up from an indie local bookstore at PHXFF and thus far its interesting. I have the second book to follow it as well.

We surprised mom with her friend Diane flying in for the weekend so I played chauffeur and host most of the weekend which was tiring. I have not been to the gym for weeks due to work and I dress the day of the gym with the gym clothes on and then I'm in meetings till 7pm. Hoping to break that curse today but its all starting things over again. I did bbq on Saturday and mel did nummy brunch on Sunday. My mom ate a lot which is good. And my food was tasty...mels' waffles were a hit and that was good.

Still trying to get benton to not be a trash monster. His back pack was full of crap I just tossed. we had to have a fight over his room this AM since he is supposed to clean it for housekeeping days and it wasn't. Sorry kiddo, when you keep your own house you can live like a slob but not under my roof.

I did manage to finish one small piece of knitting for a baby shower gift and I am about half way done with one sock for mel after tearing it out and starting again. Everything else has stalled and that is not good. I'm hoping to get some good work on the scroll this week and then make plans over the next few weekends to get the final details hammered out so maybe I have time to make myself a new dress for my apprentices elevation and a new tunic for the boy?

One nice highlight was seeing Dominique and Steven who stopped by on the way back home from Ed and Candaces. Got hugs and to see her shawls she had finished with all of the pretty beads.

So, yeah life in a nutshell the last few weeks. I need to get back to writing since it helps my brain