Getting ready for Christmas

This was our big preparation weekend for Christmas. Since Detour is a climber, we haven't had a Christmas tree since we brought her home, but this year, I haven't even put up the stockings for the mantle. I was going to, but then decided I didn't want to move that many other boxes to get to them. We did manage to accomplish a lot this week and weekend, however:

- address and mail the Christmas cards
- finish up the Christmas shopping
- make all the Christmas cookies and candy
- go to the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert

...plus take Alex to the vet and pick up a prescription for Rusty (we're unfortunately getting pretty good at giving pills to our geriatric cats)
...plus take one of the cars in for some warranty work
...plus take the truck in to get new tires
...plus get some training to take over as the bookkeeper for the library Friend's bookstore (maybe I have trouble saying no?)

I'm looking forward to that mandatory vacation next week. And happy to report that the restrictions are lifted for next year, and I can take my vacation whenever I want.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Twelve inches officially, but the blizzard conditions resulted in bare spots and drifts...the bird bath is buried, but you can see grass just a short distance away.

Yes, I'm wearing my Christmas socks

Are you?

Still here...

Work has been a bit overwhelming lately, leaving me depleted of mental energy. I'm really looking forward to our mandatory vacation next week. It will be my first full week off of work since March. Thankfully, there don't appear to be any plans for a repeat of this year's vacation policy, and I'll have the freedom to take time off during good weather.

A return to "racing"

It's been about 18 months since my last road race, but I finally ran another 5K last weekend. After the plantar fasciitis, and a slow return to running, and then a recurrence and another slow return to running, it felt really good to run with the crowd again. I have lost all of the relative speed that I had built up in my first few years of running, and finished around where I expected, 129th of 134. But my time was actually better than I expected, so I'm happy.

It was a brisk, cold, windy morning (upper 30's), typical for this time of year. I ran this race two years ago, and really hated the finish, because the start line is at the top of a hill, and therefore the finish is all uphill. I just died at the finish that time, gasping and panting and out of energy. This year was much better though - even though I haven't been running much in the past year and a half, I'm smarter about doing some training on hills, and much better at pacing myself, and just kept trucking up the hill and across the finish line.

In spite of the cold, Mike came to watch, and I had a great time. There won't be many more 5K opportunities now until spring, but I'm already looking forward to increasing my speed and running fitness over the winter. It's good to be back.

No, it's not your imagination...

...your toilet paper really is getting narrower.

Enough blocks, already?

I started making these courthouse steps blocks in February 2008. This is what they look like today.
I've run out of the dark grey fabric that I was using for the center square, and now have enough blocks for a decent lap-sized quilt. I may add borders, but after laying them out on the floor the other night, I'm ready to quit making blocks and start sewing them together.

I think I've gotten log-cabin variations out of my system now, and am already thinking about what to work on next. I honestly am only working on this quilt right now, plus some HeartStrings blocks. But I have plans for another T-Shirt quilt for Mike, and I'd like to do another Quilt of Valor and some baby quilts for the local neo-natal unit, but haven't started anything.

I'd get a lot more quilting accomplished if I didn't have to work for a living.