October Round Up

Shawn killed a HUGE mosquito today on the wall. It was FULL of my blood, judging by the mark it left and by the various bug bites on my body. Especially troubling are those on my elbow. Hope its friends go away and die soon, and that it wasn't infected with West Nile.

There was a flier in the basement saying "be careful" of the virus and it's been spotted in the West Village ... hard to do that when the windows in the building have no screens. A screen wouldn't work because the windows open out and you need access to be able to open them. I wonder if a weighted drape of screen-like material would do the trick.

Going to the gym every day is not a welcome ritual, but it is a ritual none-the-less. Today we got to see the men's basketball team working out. There are about 18 of them, and they're pretty good, at least against each other. They're all white. I have probably mentioned that before when we were watching them last year (only in double headers with the women's team).

Work is the same, which means there's plenty to report if I were to get into the habit of recording my reactions and thoughts about that. But we ALL know that's not in anyone's best interest, so for the time being Shawn is the sounding board and so it goes. I'll survive.

Lots of potentially fun things coming up. Shawn has a conference next week in Lubbock. I should have invited someone to come visit me over Halloween. The parade of crazies should be pretty fun -- especially since it's a Saturday night.

Shawn's cousin's birthday is in November (a couple weeks older than me), so we've been invited to her soiree (had to spell check that one). Shawn has another trip in mid-November and then we're off to Danville for Thanksgiving.

One week after we're back we'll be on our way to Miami for a week. I'm actually taking a week off from work! I haven't really done that since the wedding (and even then I'm not sure if I took a full week off because Memorial Day was involved). Shawn has a conference there and I'm tagging along. Then just a couple weeks after that and we'll be on our way to Oklahoma for Christmas.

We also checked out the NYU ticket website, and there are cheap Knicks tickets and a couple plays we'd like to go see, so we can certainly have a few date nights in the midst of the travel and excitement.

My crochet is trudging along. I've done about 12 snowflakes and stars for the upcoming church craft fair. I'm going to keep making them because I can't starch them (make them stiff so they can hang from Christmas trees) until it's a clear day (strict instructions from Gran on how to do that). I am almost finished with the green Tiramisu blanket, which I also plan to donate to the fair. It's a really pretty spring green and I'm left with excess yarn, so I'm trying to come up with a project for that. I think I might do a quick scarf, either as a gift or an additional donation. The fair is coming up quickly though, so I don't know if I'll have enough time to get another project done.

I also need to revisit my "wedding" bedspread. I think I've done five of the ~24 or so squares I need to make. Each one takes HOURS, and I haven't done one in probably a year. I'm also pretty sure that the one's I've done don't match each other exactly, so I'm not sure how hard it will be to piece them together. Crochet is flexible, but thread crochet is less so. The bedspread is something I definitely want to see finished. I guess the additional year in NYC gives me that much more time to shoot for having it done before we move into a real house. I won't beat myself up if it doesn't happen though. I'm always better at meeting my deadlines creating things for other people than creating things for myself.

The rain's really coming down today. Very soothing.