Friday I left work and ran a couple of errands. Got my new contacts...still need to break those in though and will start on that tomorrow. Got home and was deciding what we wanted for dinner when Paul called for dinner out. We got to meet his new boyfriend (Tim) and see Ari as well. Ben was a handful but he was exhausted and tired but he ate good. It stormed really well while we were gone too. Got home and headed to sit on the couch after getting into comfy clothes. I was beat. I didn't stay up too late but did finish Spider's Bite. Mel was up playing Minecraft for a bit.

Woke up nicely on Saturday. Mel fixed the pantry cabinet which mean I spent the morning reorganizing it and throwing lots of weird stuff out and finding I had 5#s total of cous cous. oops. I guess I kept buying it thinking I hadn't?

Got into the studio and started serging fabric. I figured out I would need to head to the store later for other serger thread to match the blue. Got my machine figured out on how to do a rolled hem and then started building the tiers of the lolita skirt. And here is where scribe_ari and danabren and I scream "fucking ruffles. The bottom tier alone is 12+ yards of fabric. I attempted to do them gathered and kept breaking threads so I just hand pleating everything. I'm used to it for the Rus pants.

First tier and cat helps:




Benton as came in and helped pick up pins and clean up the thread off of the floor for me which was actually really helpful. He also handed me pins while I pinned the first tier. Which is also helpful. I sat down to teach him to handsew a bit and he didn't do too bad. Still needs to finish it though.

Now as I was working Mel and I had an argument about dinner. I didn't realize I was grilling and would have set things out, got the grill going etc. But I managed to get it settled and done just before the storm moved in. I ate and then headed out to Joanns (serger thread and coupons), ulta (20% coupons), old navy (school uniforms for $5, Icing (hair supplies) and Total Wine (booze). Got home and then started in on serging the rest of the tiers since I was going to have to switch colors so I did all the white first and about 930pm the serger started growling. I shut it down thinking over heating....game it 15 mins and it still did it. Snarfed on Twitter and the awesome swordmage came over with hers at 1015 at night. We got it running, figured out how to do the turned hem on it and I got going. Woot. I ended up with insomnia and got a shower after I switched to the blue thread and got it setup for the gauzy fabric. I read until 1am on the next book in the series Venom.

I woke up early and got up about 730. I just couldn't stay abed. Ben slept in until 830! (which was good for him). I got dressed and headed out to shopping and got Donuts at the new Queen Donuts near the subway by the base. Their donuts are huge and the price reflects that but they were tasty. Mel said their old fashioned is not as good as Donut Wheel. Got home and started in on ruffles and there is where I made a mistake. I read the directions which weren't clear and I missed a location for a set of ruffles and well, I realized that when I got to a tier about that. Ari saved my bacon with a suggestion and I made another layer to go in there and added another layer at the top. Sighs.



That white shouldn't be seen....sighs. So....



To final!


Though I think I will bring the white fabric up by half its height. The weight of the bottom tier is pulling it strangely and it looks odd. bewilde agreed this AM.

I got that done and then had a beer..it was 930 pm but I was wired. I made a peach cobbler and decided (smartly) to not attempt to make the AB Blueberry Buckle. I saved that for this AM where I put on an apron and made a wonderful confection like a 1950s housewife. I'm in a skirt and lowish heels and "gussied" up a bit. Bridget and the kids arrived about 10 mins after Ben woke up and got them settled. The buckle was not out of the oven yet but Bridget says it turned out fabulous.

So, in all a frustrating weekend in some respects but not too bad. Ben was okay. I know he missed his friends but a week of Maddie and Mark should be good for him. We have the appt with the school today and then we will be hopefully set for Kindergarten minus me being school supplies. I hope to get that done on Friday.

oof.

( To Do List )

Friday was spent relaxing and getting things organized for the next day crafting fest. I had a nice breakfast out with the hubby, spun, did some reading and then had a massage and pedicure before picking up Benton from school. We had a nice night. Saturday we got up and headed to the zoo with Ari and the kiddos.



After that it was home to have lunch and rest. It was damn hot that morning. I headed over to Ari's with Ben for a play date and crafting time. What sucked was that my back threw out when I took stuff out of the car. Sighs. I put on a corset to try on for my costumes and just wore it while I cut out fabric for my Star Wars Lolita dress for D*C.

I'm using the riding jacket pattern that Ari had draped on me for the Victorian Baroness and it works great for the top of the Loli. I'm using the rest of the pattern for the peplum on the jacket and the skirt from Simplicity 1300.

The directions are awful. Sighs. I'm okay with following directions but man, when veteran sewers look at these directions and shake their head its annoying. I managed to get the jacket, peplum and sleeves all cut out before my back told me to fuck off. Got home and rested. Mel made a great dinner and I laid down with a tennis ball to pressure point my back. Sighs. I spun a little bit but the day really wiped me out and I was in bed after we watched some tv.

Sunday mel got up early and got on his bike and if my back wasn't a bitch I would have loved to have joined him. My last ride was Sept 13, 2014. Damn. huh. Anyway, he got back, got a quick shower and we headed to Joe's for breakfast. It was nice. Got home and I worked off and on on the studio clean up and the front room cleanup. We all went to costco in the afternoon and then back for dinner. I managed to cut out two skirts and sew the top of the loli. I figured out I am missing a piece and have to piece fabric to cut it out. Sighs. It was late when I realized this and well, I'll cope and fix it tonight and then cut out a tremendous amount of ruffles. A metric butt tonne of ruffles.

So plans are a foot. Need to order a few things and just make stuff. All good though. Minus my back.....

Should hear from the doc tomorrow on the eval at the school and plan forward for Ben. He was very happy that "Mommy's friend who he sees in her office was at school" LOL.

Work was exciting last week. But as a team my folks are in violent agreement on things that aren't going well. So that is a plus.

Thursday we celebrated Pi Day at work and I won a pie for participating in a pie eating contest. It was fun and the pie was good but pumpkin was not the pie to pick for eating. My friend Jen won a pie for a trivia contest and gave it to me so I brought home 2 pies (cherry and strawberry/rhubarb). The boys were very happy to have pie over the weekend. And we shared with elinor_dear and scribe_ari.

Friday I did some work, took girls to the vet and went to see Glenn. He was not amused at how effed up my body was and didn't even bother to touch my arms since they were so inflamed from how effed up my neck and chest were he wanted everything to stabilize before he touched them. Course that explains my hands being effed up if all of the nerves were inflamed going to them.

Mel and I saw Kingsmen at a matinee and it was lots of fun. Not the movie I expected at all and the ending was a bit cheezy but all in all a fun romp. And there is a pug...nuff said.

Saturday the family and Elinor traveled up to Prescott Valley to go to Fiber Frivolity. We had lots of fun. Elinor cast on a new shawl with some mohair yarn which according to here is "like knitting a kitten, soft and snarly". I took a spinning wheel maintenance class and did some spindle spinning. I also started to teach Ben how to spin and he did really well I think. He got the hand of spinning and holding things. Next we will work on fiber. I think for his Bday we will take him to grandma's to pick out some fiber of his own.



I also finished a hat. I had made the Capucine hat while I was queen and it was a bit small and I gave it to Queen Cassandra of Caid and so I made another one and it was just right for me except that I had very little of the handspun yarn left for tassels. And honestly, the tassels make this hat. So I let it fester in my queen box and when I repacked it for Estrella as a project box I realized that I will just have to measure out and divide the remaining yarn to make tassels. And that is what I did. I got the tassels made with Elinor and Sekmet watching and it was good.


We had dinner at Lonesome Valley Brewing Co and watching Mel and Brian geek the heck out over beer was awesome. The food was tasty too. Benny was a tired monkey by this point and just plain work out and whiney. Course my growing boy is rail thin and not eating dinner cause he's tired. But soon I'm sure he will be back at mass quantities.

We got home about 10pm and then slept in till about 8am. I was headachey and allergy ridden but got up and going. Picked up Elinor for a trip to the Heirloom Farmer's market. We had a good time and i got eggplant, coffee, peirogies and roasted tomatillos. We stopped at Twisted Tandoor to get brunch and they were out of their famous beef/feta samosas. So I got the boys the vegetarian ones and me some tandoori chicken. I also chatted up the owner's daughter and got the skinny on the chutney of awesome and determined that I could easily make it myself.

Got home and mel and elinor chatted bread making after we all consumed the nummy Indian food. I then got her home and went grocery shopping. We were out of a lot of staples and I got the ingredients to make the chutney. Got home and Mel wanted quiet and had a talky, doesn't want a nap almost 4 year old. Then I spent over an hour trying to get Ben to put his clothes away....sighs. Then I went about dinner making. I made the non-spicy chutney which is just approximately: 1/2 bunch of cilantro, 1/5 cup of lime juice, 6 leaves of mint, 1.5 cups of greek yogurt. I added this all into the quisinart and blended until smooth. For spicy I added 3 Serrano chiles. I had put onions and red pepper into some olive oil to saute and then added the chicken thighs. I let them cook both sides for a bit before adding the non-spicy version to simmer for a while. I served it with Israeli couscous which I had spiced with dill. It was tasty as I served the spicy over the meal for Mel and I and we had a Ballast Point Indra Kunindra which is a India-style Export Stout of awesome.

Spent the evening doing laundry and playing Russian Revolver solitaire and we went to bed early for us.

Well part of it was LJ was down and part of it was we've been busy.

I posted over on my Ianuk At Dreamwidth for a posting last week. I'm wanting a safer place to story this journal and the interfaces are almost exactly the same.

So, last week work was slowish. I'm coping. I head off on business travel on Monday till Thursday next week. This will be the first time I've spent that much time away from the Benton and Mel is going to have a fun time with that I think. He can do it but its a lot of work when we both switch on and off the responsibilities. Its gonna be a trick for me to pump while on travel but I think I can manage things well. Probably just gonna pump and dump since we have plenty in the freezer and I won't have to deal with the transporting it.

Other than that I finished reading Ghost Story on friday and Mr. Butcher did not disappoint at all. Wow, such a good series. If you haven't read it yet, go get Storm Front now.

So, friday I got up a bit later than normal and got the boy ready for daycare. I got him transpo'd and then headed to the gym. Now, it being an off friday hitting the gym means driving to work, working out and driving back home. Its a pain and traffic was the suck to and from due to the hours but I was able to make it home just in time to hit a very quick shower and then we headed off to see the early show of Captain America. It was fabulous! Such a good WWII epic and a rather sad story. You really see what a hero has to sacrifice to be a hero. Hugo Weaving was awesome as always and the rest of the casting was spot on.

After that mel and I grabbed lunch from Chipotle Grill and then drove to pick up Benton for his 4 month Checkup. He did really good with the shots and stuff and he's in the 99th (27.5") percentile for length, 57th percentile for weight (16.1 #)and 30th percentile for head circ (13"). The one thing that Dr. Macmahon was concerned on was his head. We've noticed its been flat but he gets tons of tummy time but he sleeps for 11 hours at a crack and doesn't move. He only likes to turn his head one way and its causing it to be flat on the back and sloped on his forehead.
You can see it here a bit but its really hard to see the forehead thing in pictures. ( Read more... )

So, we got to an orthopedist in two weeks to see what they can do. If he gets a little helmet it will be a few months of wear but hopefully then it will be normal. We also got some vitamins to give him but reading the ingredient list I'm allergic to it. So I have to figure out how to administer it to him without coming in contact with it. I was supposed to give it to him and then feed him but having an allergic reaction on the boobs doesn't sound like the best plan. Any ideas?

Saturday we traveled to Mon's for their A&S. What they lack in quantity of entries they always have in quality. Some really nice pieces. I just wish the documentation could have been better on some things which would have made judging easier. I did judge music and that was fun with Magdalen and Victoria because we all have very different strengths in that category. It was hard though cause the entries were so different and it was hard in one case to give good commentary cause the documentation was poor. Benton did really well but he was tired and a bit cranky from his vaccinations. We gave him some tylenol and that made him feel way better. Course his fussy is not what people call fussy. He fed while I judged music, though i had to apologize for a loud eating baby and he played or slept in the judges room while mel and I were in there. Magdalen had rode with us and she is an awesome traveling companion. Got home and we cleaned up and then headed out to dinner with Tati and Mingo. Our party of 5 ended up growing to 9 when weaverdancer and dverning showed up for sushi. It was awesome family dinner and all of us had a good time.

I had used the The Nose Frida on Benton in the mornings since he had a snotty nose. He didn't like it any more than the aspirators but it sure works great. Crazy to be siphoning my kids head but it works really well.

Sunday I worked on the house and Benton was fussy. He was very hungry all day which I'm sure was in reaction to being so sleepy on Saturday and not eating well enough but I wasn't quite prepared for feeding every 2 hours again. But we managed. I went shopping for a bit before we headed to Matt and Jaylee's for Abigail's 2nd Bday. It was a very different party with almost all of us having kids under the age of 2. Oscar, Oliver, Benton, Holly and Abigail plus 2 other babies made it a very kid friendly event. Benton got his feet wet in the pool which he did not like so we just sat on the yard swing for most of the afternoon. It was cloudy and only in the 90s so it was pleasant. We left about 530 and Benton was uber happy to play when we got home. Fed him and then gave him a bath and put him down for bed and he was cranky. We let him cry for a while but I got him back up and he was hungry again. yeah, I should have figured it out but we had just fed him and a bath is 15 mins. crazy.

Mel worked on getting all of the achievements for Plants vs. Zombies and I knit on his dad's cowl. We were indulging in some beer and I was a bit tipsy when I went to bed. I hadn't had a strong beer in quite a while and well, it was strong. I fell asleep immediately upon getting into bed and then was wide awake at 245. I got up and had water and some pain meds and then tossed and turned for a few hours before finally falling back asleep shortly before I needed to get up. Sighs.

So, its monday. Yup. If my head is still hurting I might not hit the gym we shall see.

The drive up the mountain was good...minus the almost pasting of us upside the mountain by an empty asphalt truck. Seriously, was cruising around a corner at 25 mph to come bumper to side with a truck. I had to back up for him to complete his turn and not paste me. Got to sight to a tent that was already set up...yeah! Got unpacked pretty quick and was greeted by lots of folks. Got dressed, had dinner, chatted with Jakob and Darine while I warped up the loom and then hung around the fire for quite a while. Went to bed about 12:30am and couldn't sleep.

( Things that go slurp in the night )
( I see barbarians... )

( Packing up )

Things Said/Heard/Saw at Barbarians
"Is that hot!"
"I have reserve nutter butters for you, your excellency"
CJ & Blossom witnessing me making sean spit gatorade out his nose.
"Its the cats..." "Yeah, pole cat"
Some people need to moderate their drinking.
A&S by firelight
"Creepy like a 70's spy movie"
"Pluck you!"