Now with 100% more substance!

I realized that pretty much all I've been posting here is End of the Work Week Wisdom, and while that is entertaining (at least to me), I should really post something of substance.

Crocheting has been a little bit on the slow side, as I haven't had a lot that I really NEED to be working on right now. My shop is more than well stocked, and we're entering into the time of year when sales are slow for me. When it starts to get warmer, people look at yarn and just sort of shudder. (Not all yarn is ridiculously warm! Really!) I started working on a couple of new things, but decided that the legwarmer idea was right out, and the patterns are taking me longer to deal with than I had hoped as well. I'm beginning to think about working on some new amigurumi stuff to pass the time, though today I was having fun trying out a couple of different star ideas on the bus. There's a plan for those, but I haven't quite gotten the star how I want it yet.

I've been trying out a lot of new recipes, though they've mostly been recipes that come from the internet. Last night, we had homemade mac and cheese that ended up a bit soupier than anticipated. I've got leftovers in my lunch today, so I'm going to see how those turned out before I start tweaking that recipe. I'm planning on jambalaya for dinner tomorrow night, which seriously already has my mouth watering. :)

Been doing a bit of writing and editing, which you can read more about at my writing blog. The short version, however, is that right now Jeremy is reviewing my novella. When he's done, I'll make some revisions based on his suggestions, and then it will be going out to some beta readers. Then it'll undergo another round of revisions, and then I get to start shopping it around. This is going to be all new to me, because I've only shopped short stories previously, and that's a very different sort of process. So fingers crossed that it works out!

Roller derby is still going strong, though we have a couple of weekends with none. This is planned, however, since we'll soon have three weekends in a row with bouts, followed by a week off, followed by four weekends in a row with bouts. Whee!

Back to normal!

Jeremy's surgery and recovery has gone swimmingly well. There have been a few little difficulties here and there, but nothing insurmountable. So we're both back to work in our respective offices today, armed with a list of physical therapy appointments a mile long. This mainly affects me in that for the time being, I'm the only one in our household driving. So I've shifted my work schedule a smidgen to be able to come in late some days and leave early on other days to drive him to his appointments.

One thing this whole process has convinced me? It's gonna be a while before I think about getting back on skates. I stopped reffing for adults about a year ago. I stopped reffing for junior derby a few months back. I'm only doing non-skating officiating now, and I haven't even been to the rink for fun. Ultimately, I stopped because it seemed like skating hurt every time I tried, and also because I was enjoying NSOing a lot. I also am paranoid of getting hurt, and Jeremy's surgery has just reinforced that in my head. And while I'm fully aware that I could suffer a similar injury without having skates on my feet, I figure it's best not to tempt fate.

Still hanging on to my skates for a while longer, just in case I change my mind. But the odds of that keep decreasing...

Vintage Roller Derby Skates from Sit and Sing Vintage

Stuff and nonsense

1) I'm working on an epically awesome crochet project of epic awesomeness. If the initial epic awesomeness works out, there will be spawn of epic awesomeness as well. (This is all suitably vague, dontcha think? There will be a picture in a couple of weeks. :) )

2) I have somehow slated myself to write four stories by the end of the year. Not sure what I was thinking with that, since I have pretty much NO writing time when derby starts back up next week.

3) Derbyderbyderbyderbyderby. :) I think I'm going to be going to practices 3 days a week starting in September. Maybe 4 days a week, once Booty Camp starts. Yeah. Eat breathe sleep derby. :)

4) We watched Whip It last night. Jeremy has decided that he shouldn't watch derby movies with a ref. I couldn't help but comment on legality and illegality of some of the stuff they did. I guess that means I'm picking some things up. :)

5) I'm currently working my way through The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, who Jeremy met in Kansas (and introduced me to as well). This mainly entails reading about 4 pages each night, while Jeremy is feeding Delilah and I am already in bed. Not the most productive way to read, but I'll take what I can manage. (This is, at least partially, a bit of research for one of the short stories I plan to write.)

6) My mom will be visiting Seattle for the first time EVER. She arrives on Saturday, we whisk her off to Portland for a couple of days (where she has also never been), bring her back for one night, and then put her on a cruise to Alaska. I have no idea what we will be doing for large chunks of the time. We have spa appointments, plans to do a wine tasting, and a place to sleep. Oh, and Powells is a given, even if Jeremy and I REALLY do not need to buy more books. :)

Recap of the recap

I decided a couple of weeks ago that when I start work early, take a short lunch, and leave the office at 4 instead of 5, I am a much more productive person. Since Jeremy has to be at his office at 7:15, and since I generally ride the same bus as him, this works out pretty well. It does mean that we don't take the same bus home any more, but I think this actually works better for us. Anyway, we still have one bus ride together. :)

Of course, shortened lunches mean not a lot of posting from me, since lunch is my prime posting time. So here's an update on things I was talking about a couple of weeks ago.

I got my skates, and have been skating 3 times since--twice at scrimmages, and once at an open skate. I am improving. I fell 3 times at my first scrimmage, but haven't fallen since then. I'm starting to learn how to stop. I'm starting to be able to notice penalties as I'm focusing on not running into the other refs. Still need to work on speed, stopping, and seeing more penalties. But it's coming along nicely.

I decided not to apply to vend at SteamCon this year. With roller derby added into my schedule, studio time is not likely to be frequent. I'm currently debating purging my sewing stuff, putting my machines in storage, and cramming my other stuff into the front hall closet, so as to get rid of the studio. But that's not decided quite yet.

Spent another week in Kansas City for work. Not much to report from this trip, other than that I was introduced to another great restaurant there. And it's a vegetarian restaurant, at that! :)

Finished up a couple of short stories and got those submitted. One has been accepted, the other is still pending. I suspect it won't get picked up, but we shall see! :) Got another idea in the works, but I have until the end of October to make it happen. So it's plausible. :)

We've got a busy month ahead of us. This weekend, we're going to hit the zoo early Saturday, and then we're taking the ferry up to Victoria on Sunday. It's just a day trip, but it will be my first time out of the United States! Pretty exciting! :)

The month in review

I've been ridiculously busy lately, which is why I can go for more than a month without updating. But there's plenty to talk about, so here's a nice little recap.

We did Go Play Northwest in the middle of June, which was a weekend of indie games. I ran a Best Friends game (The Girls of Hogwarts), which turned out to be utterly ridiculous. But that's my favorite sort of game to run. (Of course, I finally read books 3 and 4 of the Harry Potter series over the past week, and discovered that my major plot was similar to something that happened in the books!) I also got to play some games I had not played before, and generally enjoyed them.

The following weekend we had fun at a tapas party with some of our gamer friends. I made chocolate chip banana bread, which was very popular, but all of the food I tried was incredibly good. Lots of little dishes, and lots of chit chat. We also did a quick visit to the zoo, which we found is very nice first thing on a Sunday morning. It's not too crowded, it's still cool out, and it's a good way to get some exercise not at the gym. We're hoping to do this more often when our schedule permits, since we do have a zoo membership. :)

I had a long weekend for the Fourth of July, but that was also the weekend that I had to ship Jeremy off to Kansas for his writer's workshop. He left on the 4th, and I spent most of that day and the next day in my studio, working on sewing projects. I got some designs figured out, and also had fun with making handmade labels for my stuff. I'll have pictures of the new stuff after this coming weekend, when I've wrangled a couple of my teenaged friends (well, technically they're 20 now) into modeling for me. I need the pictures ASAP, so that I can apply to vend at SteamCon. *fingers crossed*

While Jeremy was off doing writer things, I got to spend some time crafting at Black Door Studio, and learning about referreeing for the Jet City Roller Girls. Yeah, I totally needed another hobby, I know. :) But they were looking for skating and non-skating officials, and I think I'm going to try to do the skating side of things. Wish me luck. :) I haven't skated in 5 years, but I'm picking out skates tomorrow night. The good news is that the season has already ended, so I will have some time to get my skating skills up to par before the new season starts next year. And if I discover that I am absolutely a wreck on skates, I can get involved with the non-skating side of things. :)

I spent last week in Kansas City for work, and got to spend some extra time with my sister and her family. I took my nephew to Steamboat Arabia, because he had been asking to go for a while. It ended up that I took him by myself, rather than with my sister and niece, but it worked out surprisingly well. I told him that since he did so well, we would try to do other things like that when I have extra time in KC. But we'll see if this is like the way that kids behave themselves the first time they get a new babysitter, and then start pushing the boundaries... my nephew is pretty well behaved though, so we may be okay. :)

After that, I headed out to Lawrence, where Jeremy had been staying, and got to meet some of the folks he had been workshopping with. It was REALLY hot in Lawrence, and I wasn't there much more than 12 hours before we had to head back to KC to fly home. We made it back safely, and had an apartment full of cats in need of love. But they're always in need of love. :) I got to spend yesterday at home to get caught up on chores and such, which was very nice. I even made a semi-elaborate dinner. I'm so domestic when I have time. :)

We've already got a bunch of stuff planned for this week, and then I'm off to Kansas City again on Sunday. No rest for the wicked. None at all.