BH: 1151

We just got a refund cheque from the State of California. The return address says “Kathleen Connell, Controller of California”. What a cool title. I want a title like that. I want to be in total control of something. Something big. “Dayle Dermatis, Controller of Destiny”.

It’s very windy today.

We had a good weekend. We actually did get up and out on Saturday, and ran several errands in Ventura. We bought a baby present for the shower. We went to Trueblood’s, a funky thrift/antique store, and sold them all of my old Rolling Stones I had left from the 80s. Looked at the Playboy picture of Tommy Shaw’s ex-wife. Wasn’t worth buying for $4.50. Then we went to Heart’s Delight, a store that sells knicknacks and ornaments and soaps and Ren Faire clothing. I tried on a wildly overpriced shirt and made Ken examine it closely so we can figure out how to make it. Heh. We also bought a small picture frame and a Yule present for one of my sisters. Then, happily, we even had time to eat lunch at Franky’s, a fun healthy-food restaurant with frogs painted on the walls. I had a pita with avocado, cheddar, lettuce, and tomato, and Ken had white bean soup and a pita with curried chicken.

The shower was fun; we knew most of the folks there. There were silly games, one of which I won (some scented candles and a $10 Barnes & Noble gift certificate! Huzzah!). Afterwards, even though we weren’t really hungry after a late lunch and nibbles at the party, we went out to an early dinner with Morgana and Brian, because they’re totally cool people and we love to hang out with them. Had Thai food. We shopped some more at Journey Home, a new age store near the Thai place. We bought a birthday present for a friend and an iron Celtic cross to hang outside on the outbuilding. I also made a suggestion to Ken for a Yule present for me, and then absented myself for awhile. He seems to have bought more than just what I specifically mentioned. Hmmmm…

Morgana looked at my Day Runner pages and announced that they were the William Morris acanthus leaf pattern. How cool is that? (And how pathetic am I, for not knowing? It’s the sort of thing I _want_ to know.)

Traffic was a bit heavy on the way home, so we swung by Meg & Matt’s. Meg wasn’t home, so of course we had to hang out for a couple of hours because if we left before she got back, she would have been very sad. So we hung out and Julian wanted to watch a Magic Schoolbus episode with me (and only me), but she picked the one about spides. I think she did it on purpose. I don’t care if she’s only 3 years old. She’s evil. Mark my words. Anyway, Meg gave us our Pennsic presents (several gross of black grommets, and a beautiful wooden hairpin for me with a triskele cut out of it. I promptly stuck it in my hair. I was already wearing triskele earrings and necklace, and another triskele hair thing.). We watched South Park with them and then hied ourselves home.

Sunday was my first pain-free day since my surgery. Amazing! We spent five hours at a meeting—the Great Western War VI post-mortem and the Great Western VII first planning meeting. I learned that I am not just Publicity Steward, but I am the head of the Publicity Subcommittee! And I get to assemble my own team of sub-publicity people.

I’m not entirely sure what this means. I’m sure it will become clear eventually.

Afterwards we stopped at the Joanne’s Fabrics that always looks closed and empty when I go by it by myself, but exists when I go by with someone else. Joanne’s mostly sucks; it’s messy and doesn’t have most of what we’re ever looking for, but it does carry waxed linen thread (which I need so I can use an inkle loom), which Michael’s apparently does not carry.The barely helpful salespeople said no, they don’t carry gauze cotton at this time of year.[grumble]

Came home, grabbed something to eat, and went out to the sewing room. None of the projects I’ve been working on were working, and I made the decisiont to scrap two of them. (They were essentially cobbling new garb from old, which really isn’t a wise idea.) Then I came back in, made a drink, and awaited the planned call from Sarah. We watched Larry videos to celebrate his birthday, which was Friday. And then we discovered that VH-1 was playing the same show (even though we are three hours apart). Which seemed to amuse us quite a bit. We should call each other more often.

Today… It’s already late, but I should finish this. Got up, went to my chiro appt, went to Costco. Called Ken from Costco because I was feeling silly. We discussed going out for lunch, but as we’re trying to be good about money now, and as I was in the process of buying a bunch of food, we decided he should come home instead. So I got home and heated the oven and cooked a couple of individual Wolfgang Puck’s four-cheese pizzas that I’d just bought. And I got to spend lunch with my honey.

My surgery had been hurting, though, so I spent a good portion of the afternoon soaking in a hot bath, which did seem to help some, at least for a while. I did some writing (yay!), then half-lay on the sofa to watch “Charmed” and do some cross-stitch, because I was hurting again. Ken came home before the show was finished, we ate leftover pandemonium tacos for dinner, and then we both did some computer work before heading out to the sewing room. Only one other person showed up. I made a velvet bag in which to wrap a birthday present, tore apart the dead projects (stealing the nice trim off of one), then ended up putting together a cotehardie for Meg that we’d discussed a few months ago. Despite some minor glitches along the way, I got the whole thing constructed. [beam proudly] It just needs hemming, front fastenings, and the neckline and sleeves hemmed. Ken, meanwhile, made a pile of linen coifs. We were Industrious People.

Hm. I’m not tired. I’m going to stay up for a little while longer and write.

Ooh! Finished Chapter 4. I’m 1/3 of the way done. Too cool.

So, now to sleep.