Back to the grind

This may be the longest I've gone without posting. A bit of catch up is in order, I guess.

Not much posting because I was on vacation, and tried to stay away from the computer. Well, except for Facebook. One of these days I'm going to try a Facebook fast for a week or so. Operative word: try.

One of the things I found myself doing on Facebook was putting up lists of the things I was doing, as if to try to validate the time off, or to remember that I did, indeed, accomplish something over the time off. Heaven forbid that I actually sit around and ... vacate.

From Saturday:
"Bindings done on four small quilts. Sixteen boxes (last from the move) gone through, sorted and rearranged into "donate" and "holy crap I have a lot of books" stacks. Donation pick up scheduled. Cooked and then froze two packages of turkey breakfast sausage. Put together Italian beef and barley soup for the crock pot, to be frozen in individual servings for work lunches. Why no, I still haven't washed the patio, why do you ask? Dinner and early bedtime."

Only the cooking all happened on Saturday. It felt pretty good to go through those last boxes from the move and sort them out, piling half a dozen in the living room for the Easter Seals pick up mid-month. But it left the studio in a mess, with things that need a permanent home scattered on the floor (drill, level, Scrabble game, several Longaberger baskets), a box of Christmas stuff (including the angel tree topper; why no, I've not put up a tree the last two years) waiting to be put in the closet with the rest of the seasonal supplies and nine - yes nine - boxes of books to be sorted out.

I'm tempted to just keep any reference works, and get rid of the rest.

The ugly, overgrown, partly dead juniper bushes in front of the condo are completely gone, or will be when I drag the carcasses over to the garbage pick up later tonight. The soil underneath is spectacular. Since the bushes were overgrown, autumn's leaf fall would get stuck under and behind, then decompose. Their deaths greatly enriched the soil, and many fat earthworms have happy homes in that bed. I've ordered replacement bushes, called "Mr. Bowling Ball". They are darling, low maintenance and just the right size for that bed.

I spent quite a bit of time plugging through the books-that-will-not-end. I now know why it takes George R.R. Martin so long to issue books in the Song of Ice and Fire series: it takes forever for fans to catch up. In spite of my fast reading speed, the kindle insists I still have 25 hours of reading left to finish the darn things. I'm three-quarters of the way through the fourth book, with one book remaining.

Craft day (Friday) was fun. I spent the entire time hand sewing bindings. My fingers are permanently crooked, but it's done. Pictures soon. Pam is still cutting out her grandkids' quilts, and still not completely sure on the fabrics. Makes me a bit crazy (it's been years of craft days this has been going on). Good news - she thinks she will start sewing on the next craft day.

Eh. There was more, but it's hard to remember. Insomnia, sleeping in, making much food, cleaning the kitchen constantly, running errands, going for coffee, watching movies and more. None of the projects was completely finished, but I'm not feeling particularly bad about that. Eventually.