Thu Jul 28 - *blech* Another gigantic project at work, done this morning (well, actually just before lunch). I only say "blech" because I really wish I'd had another week to work on it. Sometimes I love short deadlines, because I feel all pumped up and motivated. I get in early, stay late, and I'm thrilled at the challenge. Other times I can barely force myself to get through the day, and the deadline just seems like a brick wall.

And I sorta scared my boss when she overheard and misunderstood something I said in the hallway, so I felt like I was back-pedaling and trying to put a spin on it to fix it. *blech*

I missed Band rehearsal on Tuesday to work late on this project, and now the keyboardist will be away tonight and Saturday. So no new studio time. I've *got* to start scheduling some weekly band-only time into my personal schedule, to get caught up on some of the filing, projects, and sales receipts. I also want to work on the next new website design and the CD artwork for #3, write more lyrics to one or two songs, and some miscellaneous support of the band.

Dinner last night was supposed to be with some former co-workers from the Marine Corps base, but they were swamped with work too, and had to postpone dinner until later. This was good for staying late, but not too late since I was meeting Mel to assemble/build the loft. It seems there was a lot of "cancel this because of work" this week, and I look forward to some relief from that for a while.

Finally, some friends are going camping on the beach this weekend, and a few of them unofficially invited me. I think I may have to decline afterall, just to keep getting everything moved out of the old apartment. Next week Lilya may spend a few days with me, helping me move, organize, catalog, and clean. But there's still plenty I should be doing myself. And I've put off paying bills for three days (work, sheesh) so I've got that to look forward to, tonight. I'm thinking it's going to be an evening full of nesting and organizing and relaxing.

Oh. And food. I definitely need to go grocery shopping plus move all the rest of my food and kitchen stuff to the new place. I only have a pewter goblet and tap water for drinking, and all my pantry foods need to be cooked to eat them, but I haven't brought over any pots and pans yet. *shakes head at self* Silly me, the order in which I do things sometimes!!
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Over my lunch hour, a co-worker and I went over to Home Depot to pick out some wood so I can make a new niddy-noddy. Now, for those of you who haven't seen me work on my spinning or just don't know about the funny tools we use, here's some images to help you out. The first one is a commercial niddy-noddy, the second one has yarn wrapped on it, and the last one is a mock-up of how I had built a niddy-noddy years ago.



So I picked out some redwood for the end pieces and a hardwood dowel for the center piece, and we spent some time in her woodshop tonight after work to shape the pieces. Now I'm the proud owner of three new niddy-noddies, one for me, one for a gift for someone (I already have someone picked out in mind), and one extra for a spur-of-the-moment gift later. I still need to do a little more sanding, and maybe find something to seal the wood. But my replacement projects are going well! This weekend I'll be able to pick up the Angora that I bought off eBay (in a "buy it now" purchase). I've just made my replacement niddy-noddy. And this evening I won my first eBay auction purchases: A Peter Collingwood Weaving book (a review copy from 1974!), and an Ancient Spinning Whorl (a rock with a hole in it, you put a stick in the hole and you make yarn or string or thread with it) from the Holy Land (dated 2000 years old). This will replace the spinning whorl that Eichling gave me from the Holy Land, dated 200-300 BC. I'll need to get some silk to spin on it, but I may try some of the soy silk I already have at home.

I'm bidding on some other spindles this week, so we'll see if I win any of them or if I try more later next week.

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Quote of the Day: My boss's sister-in-law, about a co-worker: "It's not that he's short a coke can in a 6-pack. He's missing the plastic thing that keeps it all together."