Well work was tiring. I was tired, things were boring and I was tired. It drug on. But I did have my mid-year which went well but the complaints to HR about my "totally accurate things I said" (May 29th) may backfire on me but we shall see. I have a good case and performance and I forwarded my paygrade compare to my section head and my dept manager. But we shall see. Actions/consequences etc. Sighs.

But I finished work about 20 mins early and headed into town cause we were out of coffee. I also had a list for ace and got a few nice things we needed but then left one at the store. I will have to go pick it up. Sighs. But I was able to get home after 4 stops (Dollar General, Ace, Grocer, Gas) in a bit over an hour. The boys were in the garage rearranging things. Now this task really should have been on the to do before the family got here but oh well better late than never. I also did some digging and figured out how to put the kubota in neutral to push it forward. So now we can park another car in the other garage bay as long as its small. Plus they took the forge down and moved it to the side for easy storage and rearranged the shelves and cleaned stuff up. We were under a heat advisory due to the humidity. I managed to get us dinner from leftovers and then I disassociated while Benton was in the shower and Mel was finishing up the weed spraying. We will put that on the list for earlier in the stay so we don't have quite so much to do? We shall see.

I did spin for a bit and then worked on mel's shoulder once he baked in the shower. Its sore and had to have help lifting things but this morning he woke up and it was sore but not as stiff as the day before so that is good. We both slept really well and I only woke up at some point cause my fan had turned off? I may have hit the timer button when I set it back to level 2 when I went to bed. lol.

Today will be cleaning things (floors etc) and getting things set to rights. I really wish we had another week. But if wishes were fishes? Also, we need to not work the day before we leave. Cause there is just too much to do in general and its easier to do things not in a rush.

About 50% through #17 for the year and things are getting interesting. I think after this book I will get back into the other part of this world. This one is slow and I like it but I want more fast paced lead up and action.

I've left a message with Arsenda. I have not called cause my brain is dumb. Sighs

I really wish people would 1) do their jobs and 2) think before they do things like tell us what the problem is first with data before you tell us what the corrective action is that engineering needs to approve. 4 times in one meeting I needed to ask for the basics of those issues. We never had the first simple of part of "what is the issue?" UGH. So damn frustrating.

The day just got more of the same so when I headed out it was lame that I walked into a dust storm and then the rain hit while walking to my car. Sighs. I grabbed poke and then hit knitting. I got one pattern row and one return row done in my time there between eating my dinner, chatting and then knitting. It was nice.

Managed to get home, relax and have beer while Mel was playing Dredge. I may have to start playing this...its neato. I'm trying to crunch through to perfection on Stardew but its a PITA. Animal crossing makes me sad cause its real time and weird and I'm still missing a few things to complete and yeah. Also, mel sucks so bad at driving that boat. Ugh.

I finished up #13 but there is an added story at the back which sets up the other stories in this world and locations we had seen in the previous books. But tonight I will start #14 which is Lore Olympus 8 which I accidentally ordered a second copy even though I had been given it for xmas by the BIL/SIL and it shipped when released. oops. Linnet gets a bday gift. Lol.

My goals are next week gym time. I'm letting my lungs get back on a good clip. I still have issues and have to hit the inhaler a few times per day. So we shall see. I may get a wild hair and go tomorrow afternoon since I need to be on site for a meeting in person (bleah). It will be dead but that will be nice to get things done. My inbox is crying.

So the task I've been putting off for a bit, wrapping gifts, got 2/3 of the way done last night. I got home from work just as the boys were leaving for kung fu. I'm not hitting the gym this week since I'm still woobly from blood loss and we have plans other parts of the week etc.

So, I played a bit of stardew while I got the sushi bake prepped. I'm out of mirin so the rice wasn't perfect and I'm almost out of kewpie and used a sweet sauce so it was different but still tasty. Got that out of the oven, picked up the sullen teenager who had "homework, shower, dinner" as his priorities. I was like okay. So I had my dinner and got prepped for wrapping. The new Holiday White Ale from Sam Adams is killer. I put on Ghost Hunters and wrapped for 3 hours. Benton helped me out with getting the tree area picked up of ornaments the cats had knocked off. I then fixed all of the branches spicy and Tasha had mucked with and then we stacked things under and around the tree and the cats haven't been up in it since. So for next year I do need to get presents wrapped earlier so I can get them under and block access to the base of the tree. I was hella tired by the time I was done and took my second beer to the couch to sit and relax. It was well after 10 when I did this.

Mel got home at a bit after 1030 from the Knight Light Tourney. I had only known it was happening on Sunday cause there has been no communication other than I guess FB. I would have gone if I had known more than 2 days before. But that was okay. I had things to do, aka presents to wrap. Plus its a school night the last week of school. So it was okay. Anyhoo....by the time I had settled for bed and was in bed it was 1140pm I then read for a while and was lights out just a bit after midnight.

I will hopefully finish wrapping tonight after we get back from the botanical gardens...if not tomorrow after the dentist if I'm up for it. Today is my last work day. I have a few small tasks to do and that is it. Everything else is basically on hold until the new year. The gov't folks are basically done as well. So it feels weird. But I guess that is okay.

Got lots of small things but the big thing is Friday afternoon I will cut out my fabric for my dresses. I need to pull things for the shift but I need floor space to pull the bins out. My goal for the new year is to have some of the fabric storage in the closet but we need to purge the closet of things and my studio of things. I dont' know if I will have time for that but we shall see. The studio will be guest from for the 23-26th and then from the Jan 2-6th so not a lot of time in there but yeah sewing. I will probably also get my short sleeve coat cutout so I have that for the war too. I've been putting that off for literally years. We shall see. I'm trying not to be too ambitious. I also need to rest and recoup my brain meats.

Thus far the only thing I've been having is not wanting to sleep at night with being on a lower dose of my meds. I think that will settled down once I have my projects set...I want to work projects and not work my paying job. But a few more hours and I will be free.

I'm looking forward to the gardens tonight. That will fun. I've never been there for anything other than weddings and that has been years. So this will be fun.

Just a few more hours.

Sunday (21) finished getting Benton setup and had him pull his clothes for the trip and get laundry done. He has serious executive disfunction on clothes washing. Sighs. Not sure how to fix that but I know that we need to purge his clothes when school gets out which is in less than 18 days. Yikes. Maybe Sunday then for clothing purge. Anyhoo..I was feeling less than stellar and it wasn't any one thing but I was tired and kinda strung out on people and errands and it was fecking wimby out and I was just done.

Woke up Monday with a throat that felt like I had swallowed golf balls and I couldn't talk...at all. I was trying to cough and couldn't and almost threw up trying to cough cause my throat hurt so bad. I tried my saline rinse for my sinus, I tried gargling with hot salt water. I took all of my allergy meds and crawled back into bed after a quick text to work hubby. It was bad. I slept until 2pm and then snuggled up reading etc. I drank what I could but stuff hurt. When Mel got home with the boy I managed to pack snacks for the boy and then headed to urgent care. Hours later I was diagnosed with acute allergy attack, given a pack of steroids and a lidocaine syrup to apply to my internal throat pieces. IT was not strep, they tested and I got home miserable at like 930 pm. We had to get up at 3am the next day to make sure Benton got to school by 4am for his trip. I got up with them after some horrible fitful sleep, gave hugs and saw Benton off and slept in. I managed to have a bit of voice and was able to work off and on. I took a very large nap after work and that was basically the week for me. I was a lump on the couch. But the steroids worked and then that mean I was a snotty fucking mess cause my body could finally expunge all of the mucus it ahd been storing in my lungs and in the back of my sinus. Additionally, my hand swelling went down so I got rings on I haven't in a while which means my allergies really aren't under control. So I think I need to get tested for food stuff and see what else I should be eliminating. cause inflammation sucks.

Benton had a great time in DC though he had a camera fail...he didn't know how to open the camera to charge it and didn't ask an adult or have them call me. So he only got photos the first day. I was pretty wiped all week and to add insult to injury a work issue of not my making reared up on Wednesday that resulted in my work phone getting shredded and my laptop was taken to be lobotomized. So I had no assets until about 3pm on Friday. I left work a bit after 5pm and then Mel and I headed to Kon Tiki for my belated birthday dinner. IT was nice, I had a few nice Tiki drinks, Mel got to have Tiki drinks and I went to bed early that night. I was so tired. Mel played video games till late. Lol. Saturday I slept well and got a really good shower and cleared up my sinuses and I took sudafed and Mel and I got out of the house and went out to antiqueing. We hit the new location for Midtown Mercantile and it was meh...more mid century stuff. We headed to the 8th Anniversary Sale at Speedway Antique Mall and got a few things, and then finally on to 22nd Street where we got the big hello's from their staff. They had missed us and were happy to see us.

Got home and I was tired so I spent a few hours working on trying to use my new Flair58 Espresso Machine . Mel got me it for my birthday and it is way more a thing than I expected. I was a design of experiments to finally pull two good shots of espresso and a slew of other things I needed to buy like a new grinder. Mel ended up hand pestle grinding the coffee into powder. But its tasty and kinda fun and fucking bougie and did I need this? No. Is it kinda neat and I'm glad he thought of it? yeah.

So we had two nice shots of espresso after dinner and then hung out until it was time to pick Benton up. His plane was late so they didn't land until 1145 and then the kids all waited for everyone else to deplan before mobbing down the concorse to baggage claim. Benton was happily carrying a bugle he had bought at Mount Vernon. We got hugs, he gave us our gifts when we got home (I got a book on the A10 and a trex key chain, MEl got a cook Trex coffee cup). He bought some other books and things but basically made money on the trip. Lol.

So, all good minus my allergies kicking my ass and being down for a week. This week is slightly better but I've taken it easy..though work has been a PITA. And setting up the new brained computer has been ugh. My new work phone arrived last night and I'm still waiting for it to download all of the apps.

This weekend is coronation and I'm going to get dressed, knit and watch the show. Sunday I think we are helping Wander move things.

This week has been long...so long. With the ankle and us being in Flagstaff I started the week tired and we've had a super busy week. I had to be in the office three days in a row and start PT and I had a meeting at the gym, I hit knit night and I was a good mom and took my kid to the skating rink to get to skate with his friends for the school take over night. But I'm tired. The ankle seems better. I've backed off on the pain meds (only at night now), its not as swollen. I have PT today and a massage and my plan for the weekend is some crafting. I hope to rework some quilting I had done on the grandma quilt. I didn't use the "scant 1/4" and that made things wonky. I've also learned that you trim up the squares as you go and I have the templates to do that. So I will pick out all of the squares and then re-sew everything that way. So I will have some standing time with the ironing board but that is okay. I hope its a nice quiet weekend.

I did volunteer to sketch stuff for Mel for a box for HRH to have a foot box. She likes mermaids, shells and scallops so that will be fun to make like birka stuff. The creative part of anachronism right there. So, all good.

On the gym front...Keith is closing Impact. I'm surprised he's kept it up this far but am sad to lose my friends and the comradery. Lisa is coming home from her mom's place after all of her surgeries (she's now a quad amputee). She will be going to OT for 3 weeks, 24-7 and then home to her hours and Keith and the kids. I personally believe that they need lots of help in house and not just keith and her mom. But I know he is stubborn. I was too and then I wasn't sleeping and that wasn't good with my mom. So yeah. him closing the gym is the right decision. The nice thing is the BJJ dojo next door needs more space and they are buying out his lease. We will have a move out day to help pack stuff up into storage.

looking at gyms, I will probably head to Tucson Strength where Mary and Andrew go. Its about equidistant from me to there versus Impact. I hope I like the people there. Dom and Willa will be heading there they think. So I will go and try it once the ankle is healed up.

Book front I'm about 25% through The Enchantress and the writing is very stilted in odd ways. The world is interesting...they've become so dependent on magic they don't know how to make arrows, basic medicine? It seems a bit contrived? And the essence they use for magic is toxic? I will finish and then read something more well written. But interesting first book in a series at least.

I also need to pick up the house a bit and get Spooky time decorations up. I also want to look at Micheals and see what else I can add to the outdoors.

Other than that I want a nap so bad.

Friday work was just hellacious and I was grumpy and tired and had to drive to work due to needing computer help and a meeting in another building that had to be in person. So I dropped Benton at school and then managed to get to work while on meetings. Arrived at the company that handles our IT and had a fun time chatting with the tech. She ran through things since its been two months since we 'diagnosed' the issue. Well, with software/bios updates and her going through troubleshoot she wanted to try a few things before replacing the card. So she started taking the laptop apart and found that it was not assembled per the instructions from Dell in a few spots and then we got down to the speaker to find out the ribbon cable to it was never plugged in. thus it was not working. Rule number 1 is always MIL-TFD-41 which correlates to "is it plugged in? (The acronym means Make It Like The Fucking Drawing For Once).

So now it works and then I got done with my brain drain in another meeting on plant site and then it was driving home while talking with my risk manager. Got home and had lunch and thne it was a slammer of meeting after meeting and I was just done. I was already on OT and told my deputy to cancel the 3pm meeting he had scheduled. I did my time card and then I sat down to play video games (Animal Crossing). I got about 40 mins in and then couldn't keep my eyes open. I saved and then headed to lay down. I awoke 3 hours later and groggy. Obviously I needed a nap. Not sure if it was stress, drugs leaving my system, lack of sleep or C: All of the above. But I still went to bed about 11pm and slept until 730am...I had things I needed to do and after some video game time I got up and took Benton to getting new tennis shoes (he's now a a women's size 11) and after some hemming an hawing he still likes the women's colors and I agree...mens' shoes in sizes 8-9 mens are bland and grey. So this will probably be the last time he can get women's shoes since he will be a size 12 and those really don't exist for a cheap price. I used coupons and we shopped in the 30% off with a $20 coupon. But they were still expensive. I miss payless but I think we'd have the same issues and they were cheap but did pretty good but yeah the cheap is why they went out of business.

Then we got kitten food for the food Spicy likes (grain free please) and then we got ice cream and coffee at Dunkin' They got my iced oat milk pumpkin spiced latte wrong and I made them remake it but the pumpkin donuts were nice and Benton got the strawberry ice cream. I did note that Baskin Robbins is making a few oatmilk ice creams and that is nice. I now know I can get ice cream there with a very limited flavor range. It was nice to get things done and then get back to the house, grab things and head to Willa's for movie afternoon. I got to meet the new pug "Burt" who I figured out likes to be called Malcolm. They are in the process of adopting him and as a good playmate for the Anime pug. We watched The Gentleman and then Bullettrain. The first movie has the man I hate to hear talk or watch move but I dealt with it. It was a very odd story and no one is a good guy, except maybe Coach. Bullettrain is just a delight of crazy violence...just forget what your knowledge of how trains work is. Seriously...its just yeah. But its pretty and fun and the characters are all delightful.

Sunday was getting up, getting to Costco, surviving costco...omg too many people, then taking a lie down followed by going to Target and then home to work for a few hours before making dinner and then being a lump on the couch.

Work today has been special but I'm hitting the gym in a few.

The first week with less meds seems to be okay...though I did drink a lot yesterday...it was more to deal with stress and let my brain hyper focus but still...it does not need to be the mechanism I'm using it for. ahem.

This is the first full 5 day work week I've had in a while.....due to taking time off for labor day weekend, work days off for our 9/80 so this week is 5 days and very full. My calendar for work is very full of meetings.  Oof. So many meetings....and not the kind I can just hang on and watch...I have to actively run and participate.  Darn it.

Monday was crazy.  Mel was at work cleaning out his desk and I had the house to myself which was weird.  The cats were weird and didn't want to spend time with me.  But that was okay. I did have to do 3 runs to school. 1 morning drop off, 2 Benton didn't take his meds and 3 pick him up for his orthodontist appointment. Luckily his appliance came in and they installed it.  www.bordentownbraces.com/teeth/teeth-expanders/  See the link for what it is...he has his for longer (about 4 months) but that is okay.  We have to expand it for 14 days and then they check it and see if we need more.

So lots of driving and only 7.5 hours of work for the day even though I worked late...lol.  I headed to the gym and OMG Keith is making things so hard. But I managed and didn't suck too much.  Then it was home to move the porch project into the studio for a bit so I can have light and no mosquitos.  I got a few words on it for spacing but was too tuckered out and just clearned up the studio and chatted with the girls for a while before just sitting down and reading.  I started the 16th book of the year which is "When Sorrows Come" by Seanan McGuire.  Its sooooo good.

I've been trying to not stay up too late reading.

I have not been good about my to do list...I need to check some easy things off (cat box and towels put away) but Tuesday I was so tired I jsut watched TV (binging through Scooby Doo Mysteries Incorporated) and tried to go to bed on time.

Tonight is strength club and me doing those things on my list I've been avoiding.  I can do it...That means clean slate for Thursday.  All good.

 At work I'm taking a job one level up the hierarchy on my program and my electrical equivalent is taking one with program management. That means our jobs are open. I already got my former deputy lead in as my position but they just posted the official reqs for my job as having a pay grade above me.  When I took this job I was a paygrade below where I am now...so why am I not that paygrade after busting butt for 4 years and now moving up? I sarcastically pointed out I'd like some back pay for all of this work I was doing at a paygrade above to my chief engineer and he was like...huh, yeah that isn't really fair is it?  And he said he would be talking with my dept manager.

Then I got a kudos personally on IM from a senior VP for something I did that they didn't know just knew my name was in the pay stuff....this week is so bizarre.

I had 3 weeks off and would have preferred another and I could have taken it but....yeah. It took me a full 2 weeks to "shut off" and come down and relax into things. The lead up to Christmas was easy minus a bit of weird with pie crust. Mel decided to make homemade and I couldn't get it to work. I ran to the store on Christmas eve to get things we missed and pie crust. While I was out he redid the crust and it just needed more moisture since we live in a desert. It was just fine with rehydration. Lesson Learned. My pies turned out great. We had peach, cherry and rhubarb.

We had a socially distance visit with Shanda for Christmas. She got in about when we got up. I made the french toast casserole from Binging with Babish and it was perfect. Seriously good. Will be doing it again. It did not hurt that mel made cranberry swirl bread for it and that was perfect. It was good to see her for a few hours...damned Covid.

I had big plans for over the vacation and then my back decided it didn't like the fact I spent a weekend reading and refused to work. Its my stoopid hip muscles being assholes and I've been trying to stretch etc but I only got like 2 walks in the whole time and no gym time. But I did read a lot of fic since it was the finale for a Stucky collab and there were a lot of 100k+ word fics. Seriously Good stories. So I lost time to that. Mel played lots of video games and I knit a 2020 Dumpster fire ornament and cast on a new shawl with yarn mel got me.

My CC project took a detour after I finished up all of the seams and tried it on and realized I inset the sleeves too high...6 hours of taking things apart later and I was back to sewing it all again. But now its almost done. I need to finish the sleeve ends and bind the hem. But its rather pretty.

Usually I look at my old journal entries to see what my goals were and the beginning of last year was....not great...so I didn't make any. This year I hope I get my love for a few things back (read SCA clothes) and I've been itching to work on a few wayward projects. I have two commissions I need to do/finish. I need to just sit and do them but that will be after the CCC is done on January 31st. I have to make at least the over dress and maybe the coat...we shall see.

I managed to make 1 huge blanket, 1 stuffy, 1 hat, 1 cowl, a 2020 dumpster fire ornament, 1 shawl and I painted 6-7 scrolls painted. compared to 2019 I only did 5 knitting/crochet projects so I compelted one more and I don't know how many scrolls I did in 2019. I could look I guess but I just know last year was a shit show but I did manage to read 45 books a millions of words of fanfic So I did something.

Well, when last I wrote we were planning on going to SD for Thanksgiving. We did not do this. Things are so bad with the virus and SD is one of the worst states at that time. Things are even worse now due to people getting together for the holiday. Mom and I were sad but its way safer.

We had a very quiet thankgsgiving at home. I only made 3 pies and I delivered food to Ari so she had good noms. We did a nice turkey and some salmon. Green beans, grilled sweet potatoes, sweet rolls, and the best stuffing I've ever made. Seriously. We used herbed bread mel had made as the croutons. It was so good.

On the craft front I've had a bit of enuii but I did manage to get my shift done. I still have my underdress to finish..its together but I need to sit and pleat it. The hand finishing has been triggering my tendonitis and I've not beem feeling great overall. The weather change gets to my sinuses badly.

Work has been...special. I've had to give large presentations for a new proposal to my new director who is back east due to the merger. Its been a big learning experience and frightening as well. Talking casually about millions of dollars just freaks me the eff out. But its going okay. I have 8 working days left in the year. Ugh. But I've made some progress on some career goals for a cert I've been working too.

The girls turned 2 over Thanksgiving and that is so surprising. It doesn't seem like we've had them a bit over a year and a half but they are.. they are enjoying having the weather cooler. We did get the furnace fixed and that has been nice. The house is now reasonable. My studio is still too chilly but I have a space heater.

The boys got the xmas lego train up and have been putting up a lego xmas building kit from last year. It takes up the entire piano and that is okay.

The dress:


The legos:


I felt very pretty for my big presentation and tried out new lipstick: