TIME TO CHANGE

Many things have happened in the last few months. Why don't you go over here and get caught up?

When I was down with the flu I got a bunch of hats done. I went back to work this week, and my knitting productivity suffered a bit. I wrapped this one up last night.

So here's a list of random things:

1. Super Bowl tomorrow. I keep forgetting who's playing who. All I know is that we're having yum-yum dip, and I'm pretty excited about that.

2. We have to put the headboard/curtain up in the bedroom, and then that room is completely done.

3. We bought a SodaStream, and playing with the flavors is making me happy. Today I'm going to try orange + cream soda.

4. I'm on level 7 Italian and level 8 Swedish on Duolingo. I'm enjoying the Swedish more than the Italian. It's challenging, and so different from any other language I've learned. Pojken tycker om glass = the boy likes ice cream. Who would have guessed that?

5. I need a haircut, because my hair seems a little less flippy.

6. SATURDAY!

And then there was that time that I was down for A WEEK with the flu. Well, almost a week. I was off work for four days in a row. I don't even know the last time that happened. But, because it's pretty much impossible for me to just sit and do nothing, I logged in every day for a while. Hopefully I won't get bombarded when I get back to my desk this morning.

I'm still not really 100%. At this point I'll take 90 or better, though. The aches are gone, and so is the headache. I'm still a little wrung out. I wonder how much sleep would be enough at this point.

ANYWAY - on to not-sickness talk.

Ragazz' came home early from the race, which was a nice surprise. We got a Sunday back which we weren't planning to have and we spent it at IKEA (getting a missing piece for one of the nightstands) and Brasa (because Brasa).

I watched the whole first season of Transparent. Wow. Jeffrey Tambor is so much more than George Bluth. Now he's George Bluth in a dress. No, no. I kid. He's great in that role. Bring on the next season, please.

Let's see if I remember how to do work AT work.

Now, that was a party. We're really good at throwing parties, and equally as good at cleaning them up. That makes life a lot easier.

After all the cleanup, we got some Chinese food and had lunch with Dad. The assisted living home where he is lets families reserve one of the private dining rooms, free of charge, for any occasion. So we got to have a nice leisurely lunch with him. He asked all about our trip. The fact that he remembered that we went on a trip, and then had a conversation with us about it, is amazing. A year ago I never dreamed that we would be doing that. Last year at this time he needed help with eating his meals (and was eating mostly pureed mush). This year he tore into his sweet and sour chicken and egg rolls like a madman. Heh. He still spills a little bit (but, hey, so do I), and his right hand is a little shaky. But I watched him tear open the plastic bag that had his fortune cookie in it, and then take the fortune out of the cookie. That's some pretty fine manual dexterity right there.

He's a testament to how the brain heals and rewires itself. Wow.

We watched our terrible hockey team last night. That's a testament to what devoted fans we are (or that we are complete idiots that are following a bad bad team). The national sports commentators are saying that the coach has to go. From your mouths to management's ears... we can only hope.

And now we're back around to Monday. Let's do this.

In this post, I congratulate myself on surviving the first week back at work. Not only was it the first week back after a long, excellent vacation, it was the coldest freakin' week of the century. Or at least the year. The temperature rarely climbed above zero, and on Thursday I had a 90 minute commute home because we were having a mini-in-town blizzard. The roads were glare ice, and there were over 650 accidents.

So, that's been fun. On to the better stuff.

We decided to have the pre-Christmas party on the post-side of Christmas, so that's happening tonight. I had thoughts of keeping the tree up, but on Monday I decided that I couldn't stand it anymore so it came down. We've had this one for going on 5 years now, and the many of the pre-lit lights were now not-lit lights. I left the window lights and decorations up, and our entryway is still all festive and stuff, so it'll still feel somewhat Christmas-y in here. And holy moly... that tree DOES take up a lot of space. It was like we gained about 25' in the living room when it came out of there.

Other happenings of the week were knitting, and dinner with my girl Aviary (that will always be her name in my head!), and brunch with my niece (the last time I'll see her again until her next semester of law school is done, I suppose), and a couple of really, really terrible hockey games.

My Wild boys are just.. well, they're awful. And yet I'll still watch them (and yell at the TV a lot while doing so). I keep hoping for a rally. Or maybe the season will just end, and then I can root for the Avs or the Ducks in the playoffs.

Oh, and the duolingo Swedish and Italian are going well. I can now say "I read the newspaper" in TWO languages!
Jag läser en tidning.
Io leggo il giornale.
THAT will definitely help when I take a trip around the world.

Saturdays Like That One

It wasn't all dash and excitement, but I love days like Saturday. Chatting with friend for a few hours at the coffee shop, taking care of the racer boy who needed some TLC (nothing that a couple of tylenol and a heat pack couldn't cure), and watching my hockey team get absolutely annihilated in Dallas. 

Well, that last part wasn't the best.

Today it's so so so cold... -2 and it feels like -23. Eeep. Better bundle up when I take the niece to breakfast.

It's the last day of vacation. Right now I say I'm ready to go back. Let's see how I feel about that at 6:35 tomorrow morning (after I've been at my desk for 5 minutes. Heh.).