Strange Practice, by Vivian Shaw (audio)

Posted on August 17, 2018 by Thistle

Alternate-world London, approximately present day. Dr. Greta Helsing treats patients who are “differently-alive” to use the PC term. Vampires, were-folk, ghouls, banshees, demons, etc. The non-human world is far more varied and nuanced than most people believe or understand. And now, a bizarre medieval religious cult has risen to the surface to attack both human and non-human, and a vampyre – a different species than a vampire – has shown up injured on the doorstep of a friend and client of Greta’s. A whole group of people (living and not) must riddle out the secret of this cult and stop the string of murders happening across the city.

Oof. That’s a terrible description and makes this sound like a supernatural crime novel or cozy mystery. It’s not. The book is far richer than that. The setup is similar in some ways to Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate books (Soulless, Changeless, etc), but this isn’t historical fantasy, there’s no Jane Austenesque speech, and the story/characters/writing are much thicker and heavier. This is a book for someone who wants urban fantasy with real people as characters, deep world-building, moral conflicts and philosophy, and heavy emphasis on love of the friendship sort. We’re talking about a vampire who has become a mentor and benefactor for a young historical researcher, and a witch who will cancel her vacation plans to run the clinic when Greta is in deep trouble, and a demon who stepped in as a father figure after Greta’s father died years ago. The ties these characters all have to each other go way back – sometimes hundreds of years back – and that is reflected in their relationships and actions throughout the novel.

Y’all know me – I love this sort of thing to pieces. The story was amazing. I suspected it would be a fun book when I started, but had no idea just how awesome it would be. It was unencumbered by traditional novel tropes, while delivering a solid plot arc. It was a perfectly closed story even though there are future books. I don’t even have a hint of what the next book will be about, plot-wise, and yet I definitely still want to read it because I loved the characters so much. I want to spend more time with them. The mystery was also revealed slowly over time and becomes far more grey-toned than one would expect from a group of serial-killer-monks. So I think it’s no surprise that this was a perfect read for me, or that I’m planning to read the second book (which just came out) for this upcoming RIP season (just a few weeks away!).

My only quibble with the story has to do with the audio production. First, I want to say that the actual audio performance was just as amazing as the book. Susanna Hampton does a first rate job with all the characters, making them all distinguishable with minor changes in accent and speech rhythm. She kept up the pacing well. However, the production tended to give no pause at section breaks. One minute Hampton would be reading about one character, and the next line would take place somewhere else with someone else, no transition at all. I’ve listened to other audiobooks that do this, and it’s always a bit jarring. But it really does feel like it’s a problem in the production – as the sections are pieced together – rather than what the narrator has done. Once I realized what was happening, I could adjust a little and just do a quick rewind if I got confused, but the first time (when a particular character was introduced in a completely different scene), I had no idea what was going on because I hadn’t realized it was past a section break. So if you listen to the audiobook – and I do highly recommend it – be forewarned about that one production quirk.

Posted in 2018, Adult, Prose | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Wellness Wednesday – Insomnia

Posted on August 15, 2018 by Thistle

Insomnia is a word that gets batted around casually, but real insomnia is nothing short of a paralyzing disease. With real insomnia, we’re not talking about a night of crap sleep that you can make up for in a night or two. We’re not even talking about a few nights of crap sleep. We’re talking years and years of no-sleep nights added up together, when even the minimal sleep you do get is worse than unrestorative. It’s day after day of your body trying to pull energy from somewhere, anywhere, just to continue with basic functions like breathing or listening or moving your limbs. It isn’t a question of willpower – when you suffer chronic insomnia, your body takes over. You no longer have any choices. Want to exercise? Nope, sorry. That energy is needed to digest food. Want to eat moderately? Too bad! The body needs massive amounts of food to get the minimum energy it requires in a day, storing the rest away for later because it’s terrified that these no-sleep nights will just continue and continue and continue. Which they will.

Years ago, I had a “friend” who tried to tell me that I didn’t suffer from insomnia because I didn’t have an official diagnosis. This was one of those “friends” who was always trying to one-up everyone. Oh, you have a twin? So do I, only we’re identical, and we had a psychic bond when we were little, only it broke when she ran away and I haven’t seen her in years and I have no photos of her because I destroyed them all as they were too painful. Oh, your husband is looking for a job and you might move out of state? Well, my husband was already looking for a job and already found one so we’ll be moving out of state before you have a chance. You’ve all met that person, right? Anyway, setting this girl’s toxic a$$ aside (like I did not long after meeting her), one of the things I remember most was the lecture she gave to me about insomnia and how my condition wasn’t “real.” She told me that I was making it up and complaining just to get attention, wanting to have an affliction, minimizing the real struggles of everyone else (like her). And all I could think (besides that it was time to dump her) was why the hell would I want an affliction like this one?

Real insomnia is a nightmare. You go through day after day with your thoughts watery and vague, because your brain is literally trying to get in some low-grade REM sleep in order to repair itself. You eat twice as much as you’d normally need, often made up of crap carbs, because your body can’t function properly without ready food energy. You can’t drive or exercise or hold onto full conversations. You think back on the worst days and can’t remember what parts of them were real and which parts were actually dreams. You resort to complex self-medicating habits in order to get even the tiniest bit of sleep, combinations you should never, ever mix (like Ambien, benedryl, and wine), because the doctors look at your condition, can’t find anything wrong with you, and simply shrug you off and push you out the door.

Before September 2011, my insomnia was inconsistent, a handful of weeks on end several times a year. It began my first year in college, and kept to that pattern for 14 years. In Sept 2011, something changed in my body, and the handful of weeks grew into a constant. In the seven years since, there have been so few times without constant insomnia that they stand out like beacons. A week in spring 2012 while I ate nothing but unprocessed foods, not even foods like canned tomatoes or beans. Two months in the summer of 2014 when I actually slept just by taking magnesium citrate supplements daily. Last month, when for most of July, I didn’t need more than just melatonin to sleep through the night. Aaaaand that’s it. Just over three months of real sleep in the last seven years.

Right from the beginning of August, like clockwork, the insomnia reared back up again. Whatever good things in July that had been happening in my body disappeared. You know that metaphor about certain diseases and having a limited number of spoons to use each day? With severe insomnia, on the worst days, you wake up with zero spoons. You have literally nothing to work with. And knowing that this is forever, and nobody knows why, and there’s nothing anyone can do to help or fix the situation, is the very definition of hell.

Posted in Wellness | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Kimono and Cross-body Crochet Bags

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Thistle

I mentioned in my July wrap-up that I’d gone backwards in my goal to get rid of all my yarn by starting a new project with new yarn. Well, I just finished said project! Welcome the Genesis Kimono into my closet:

I got the pattern free from Hooked on Tilly, though she has since removed the pattern from her blog and the only version you can get is for money. The pattern had modifications for small, medium, and large, and I used the large size for myself (though the medium would’ve been fine, as it turns out). For the most part, the pattern was easy to follow and it got into a good rhythm. The only problem I had was with the adaptation for the large. At the end, when you sew the side panels to the back, there’s supposed to be a gap between the two sides (otherwise they’d connect behind your neck). The large adaptation has the side panels wide enough that they actually overlap. Instead of overlapping them (which would’ve made the kimono unwearable), I left several inches unsewn and later flipped them back with a button to make lapels. It’s a good thing I know how to improvise! It’s possible this has been corrected in the paid version of the pattern, but I don’t know. Yarn used: Lion Brand Mandala in Centaur (body); Deborah Norville Everyday in Heather (edging/fringe).

Another fun benefit: Matching the Mandala yarn for the edging/fringe was very difficult, and I ended up with several extra skeins that didn’t quite match. I got to make a few small cross-body purses for my upcoming cruise. No pattern on either of them, I was just making it up as I went along from pictures on the internet. They aren’t terribly professional, but they’ll do!

Yarn: Lion Brand Jeans yarn in “Brand New.” This project took about two hours total, including all the squinting at the small internet photo to figure out what to do next. It also only used about half the skein, but I gave the rest away to a friend who likes to make collage pieces out of leftover skeins.

[PS – After finishing this project, I suddenly found the pattern. Only it’s in Danish. Heh.]

Yarn: Lion Brand Heartland in Badlands. Again, took about two hours total, and used about half the skein. This pattern was pretty much made up from scratch, and it came out okay.

Now I only have a single skein of yarn left to use to finish my goal of zeroing out my stock this year. Woohoo!

Posted in Crochet | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Another House Update

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Thistle

When your house is ripped apart and coming back together slowly, your world eventually sharpens until that work, the last stages of it, becomes all you can do and think about. You just want it to be over and done with. I’ve talked about this before, somewhere in this blog, the last stages of any major project from writing a manuscript to undergoing a weight loss journey – something I’ve called the “Nine of Wands” mentality. Anyway, I’ve gotten to that point on this construction project. I haven’t had a whole house since Mother’s Day, and I can’t think of anything else besides please please let me have a whole real house again. So here’s how construction went this week:

First, our contractor decided to cancel the event he was leaving for on the 9th since this project wasn’t going to be done, especially as he wasn’t able to come over to work last weekend like planned. Then, work didn’t really resume until Wednesday afternoon due to a major problem of a mutual friend. At that point, he said he was going to work straight through the end of today, since his new deadline is tomorrow, but he ended up sick again yesterday. I imagine we have at least a week’s worth of stuff left to do, and it’s definitely not all going to get done today. On my list of tasks (broken into each component part), there are still 40 more items left. Fingers crossed it’ll be done by next Sunday, but as each day passes and things keep going wrong, I’m betting more on my original guess of the 25th.

Things done this week on our very shortened 2.5-day work schedule: downstairs trim up and caulked; subfloor and the beginnings of tile laid in the boys’ bathroom; repair tile laid (but not grouted yet) in the kitchen; about 75% of the wall mudding and texturing done in the kitchen, dining, and living rooms. Wish us luck that five times this much will get done before next Sunday’s update!!

*****
Note: Our contractor is a friend of ours. We’ve had him do work for us several times over the last few years, and we know that the trade-off of having top-quality work done (and done right) is that he juggles a lot of time-management problems and personal issues. He’s great at his work but not as good at paperwork, timing, efficient work flow, etc. So this path is one we chose. We could have had a company come in and do this all in a few days, but the quality of work likely would have been a bunch of cut corners and crap workmanship. Back in February, with our roof in critical condition, we chose not to go with our contractor but instead with a “guaranteed quality company” through USAA’s contractor connection, because time was of the essence. And look how well that turned out. This whole $20k summer nightmare is due to their negligence, and that whole “guarantee” bit wasn’t so guaranteed. So while I complain about it here, a bit of extra time and chaos is totally worth hiring someone who we know will do the work right.

As San Antonio homeowners since 2006 (with two years spent away in that time), we’ve had to do many house repairs. In our first house (2006-2014): replacing all windows, replacing the roof, siding repair, deep plumbing (above), flooring, duct work, a/c issues, fence repair/rebuild, rebuilding walls after window leaks, replacing exterior doors. Second house (one year between Boston and Wisconsin): replacing the entire kitchen, dealing with black mold, plumbing, flooring, roof, repairing chimney mortar, replacing two walls of the house including new stud work throughout (left), electrical issues, a/c and duct issues, deck repair. Current house (one year now): landscaping for major erosion, roof x 2, dealing with the fallout from the roof being repaired incorrectly (not going to list all that out again), pipe flooding, and replacing the entire kitchen, living room, dining room, upstairs bathroom, and master bathroom.

Of those jobs, we’ve done half the work ourselves or by hiring this same contractor. No trouble with them. Of the other jobs, half involved companies/individuals that we knew through family or personal connection. None of those gave us trouble, because they were all people who were good at their very specialized jobs (in other words, none of them could have dealt with the massive current project alone). However, with a quarter of all the total above jobs – or all the jobs we hired strangers to do – all but one of them caused major problems/issues on our houses, and the companies had to redo their jobs after we got very noisy in our complaints. One company literally installed a window so crooked that there was an inch-thick gap between it and the wall on one corner, and told us that was just because Texas houses shift so much that this happened in the hours after installation. No, dude. No. He said the same thing about the sliding glass door that wouldn’t slide open immediately after he installed it.

TL;DR: So yes, with all the trouble we’ve had in the past by having strangers’ companies do these jobs for us – and all the trouble that everyone we know in town has also had with strangers’ companies doing jobs for them – we feel far more comfortable hiring someone we know will do the work well, even if for many reasons he might be slower than someone else.

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Thistle

When Frances follows her client’s wishes instead of her boss’, she is both fired from her job as a seamstress and hired by a mysterious new client in the palace. She meets Sebastian, the Belgian prince, in need of her unique services. Frances accepts Sebastian for who he is, and helps him to create the clothing needed for his Lady Crystallia half.

A love story involving a genderqueer character and the person who accepts him and cares for him regardless? What’s not to love?? This is one of the sweetest things I’ve read in quite some time. I wanted to hug the book. I probably did hug the book. Um, more than once. Definitely need my own copy!

I’m very picky about graphic novels, but the artwork and story were both fabulous in this one. I loved every second and highly recommend it!

Posted in 2018, Visual, Young Adult | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Wellness Wednesday – Filling Time

Posted on August 8, 2018 by Thistle

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been binging on fluff audiobooks, not really listening half the time, just to have something playing while I do other things. Out of the blue, a line popped up in one of them: “You’re filling your time so you don’t have to face how much you’re hurting.” The line struck home. I feel like most of the last four years have been an exercise in this exact activity. It’s easier to read too much, exercise too much, watch too much TV, listen to too much music, crochet too much, do too many puzzles, etc etc etc than to actually sit down in the silence and face all the things that I feel and all the things that I’ve struggled through since April 2014.

Honestly, I’m not sure what to do about this. Back in early 2011, the time when I really got serious during my first weight loss journey, I made a plan to yes, lose weight, but also do so with balance. I cut my reading from 200 books a year to 50 or so, a much better pace for me. I signed up for classes in activities I’d wanted to try (like making stained glass). I taught myself other things, like calligraphy and henna-painting. My health goals were divided – not just eating the right kind of food, but drinking enough water, getting enough sleep, starting new good habits, exercising moderately, etc. It was the perfect storm to help me to fill my time but in a meaningful way, in a way that really brought me forward to become what I wanted to become. It’s not the same as binge-watching SVU and playing phone games and listening to a dozen fluff audiobooks.

The difference is, when I started 2011, I was in a mentally stable and healthy place. I’d been working for a month to dig myself out of a pit of shame (regarding my body), and I wanted to create a journey that would be longterm sustainable. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to find that balance again. Some of it is external (between lack of schedule, chaos at home, and emotional blows), and some of it is my own lack of strength at the moment. But I don’t want to just fill my time anymore. I want all my steps to be leading me forward.

In writing, there’s a common piece of advice that says you should cut anything that doesn’t move the story or characters forward. Setting aside the finer points of this advice, this seems to be a valid way to live as well. Walking toward something, not just wading in place or trying to go backwards. Unfortunately, about 75% of my time is the deadweight of a manuscript that would get cut in editing. And I don’t know how to fix or address the internal mess that keeps me from fully living. But it’s about time for me to figure this out.

Posted in Wellness | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Do Not Become Alarmed, by Maile Meloy

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Thistle

Cousins Liv and Nora decide to take their families on a joint cruise vacation. Everything is lovely until a misadventure occurs while they’re on shore in Central America. Suddenly the kids are missing.

I’m not going to say more than that. To say more would give away major spoilers. The book is told from many different viewpoints, adults and kids alike. Readers watch how the disaster unfolds, with people blaming each other or themselves or both, relationships of all kinds strained. Lots of Bad Stuff happens.**

This novel was a book club selection from the library, and when I read the synopsis, I was immediately intrigued. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love books set on cruises. Though the cruise portion of this was only the beginning chapters, I was delighted. It was a perfect depiction. I also loved how close these families were, cousins that are practically sisters, second-cousins who are as close as regular cousins. It reminded me a lot of my family. While so many modern books with thriller or dangerous-edge stories in them start with a lot of unlikable characters, this one started with a cast that I loved wholeheartedly, good people who had flaws but who were generally likable. It was a good beginning.

The rest continued to be wonderful. Suspenseful, the kind of can’t-put-down book where you’re horrified and overwhelmed but also completely drawn in. There was enough hope to counter all the tragedy and fear. Meloy struck a good balance. She also did a great job with the psychology, everyone from adults to children and how they dealt with the situation, during and after.

I’ve never heard of the author before now, but I’m definitely inclined to read more of her books, especially if they end up being just as good as this one!

**Trigger warning (highlight to read, spoiler alert): rape

Posted in 2018, Adult, Prose | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Hello

Posted on August 5, 2018 by Thistle

Time for some general updates from the Gignacery!

We made it through Week 1 of Band Camp. Seriously, as I mentioned in my July wrap-up, band camp is insane here. It’s band camp with a capital BC. This week was just a bit over 40 hours of practice, including one day that involved three sessions between 8am and 8:30 pm, for a total of ten hours in a single day. Sheesh. And on top of all the hours, we had to go pay $350 in fees yesterday just for Morrigan to be in band. What happened to the concept of free public school? Not here. Here it’s all about Winning.

The other two boys finished up with summer school. So they at least get a few weeks off.

Construction went slow because our contractor was very sick for most of the week. He only got in one good work day. He still believes he’ll be able to finish by the 9th, but I have a feeling there’s going to be stuff left to do when he leaves. Since he’ll be gone for several weeks, we aren’t just going to wait until he can finish. We’ll just do the rest ourselves. There’s nothing else in this process that we can’t do. We have plenty of practice fixing up houses by now! Completed this week: drywall up; kitchen ceiling up; the rest of the kitchen demolition (pulling down the rest of the cabinets/countertops); upstairs bathroom demolition (toilet removal and the rest of the tile removal); bathroom floor sealed with waterproof sealant; kitchen cabinets about 75% installed; countertops ordered. [Note: a big chunk of this done by Jason and the boys.]

There was, of course, the incident yesterday when Jason was hanging cabinets and slipped off the stepladder. His knee went through the top of our glass-top stove. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt, not even a scratch! Unfortunately, the stove didn’t fare so well, and we had to scramble to figure out what to do next. Sigh.

In my personal world, I’ve been a bit up and down this week. There was the funeral on Monday of course, and then fretting about the state of our house and me not being able to leave/run errands/pretty much anything during the day since I had to be home for whenever our contractor could come over. Also, still adjusting medication, so I was prone to bouts of depression or panic. In the second half of the week, I did manage to start exercising again, which helped. We’ve had a few highly unusual cool mornings (70 degrees instead of 80) and I took advantage of that with some long walks. That didn’t help the overall chaos and emotion-explosion, but at least I wasn’t antsy on top of it all, right? Unfortunately, after a month of respite, insomnia has reared its ugly head in the worst way again. And still no word from the sleep center people about a possible APAP.

Yesterday was a big day for us, too. We had a large family party to celebrate two things. First, my grandfather is turning 90! Second, my grandparents are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary. Despite everyone flying in for the funeral less than a week ago, we were all back for this grand celebration. A big giant family reunion to celebrate something lovely this time. It was really nice. There were some family members I hadn’t seen in almost a decade, and the decorations were lovely, and one guest (a professional photographer) set up an area to take group shots. It was a big whirlwind of a day, but lovely in every respect. A good note to end this week.

Posted in Personal | Tagged , | 7 Comments

The Invisible Girls, by Sarah Thebarge (audio)

Posted on August 3, 2018 by Thistle

Sarah Thebarge grew up in a fundamentalist household, which later caused her severe anxiety issues, and a personal crisis of faith when she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer in her late 20s. After several years of cancer treatments and recurrences, she moved to Portland, and encountered a Somali refugee with five young girls. The family was barely surviving, and Thebarge stepped in to help. This memoir weaves together Thebarge’s personal history and her time with the family in Portland, telling how they saved each other.

I loved this book. Normally, I’m not big into religious memoirs. They usually come off as either preachy or angry (particularly in the case of people who have left religion behind). I’m not used to encountering religion in modern-day books (fiction or nonfiction) that approach it matter-of-factly and related only to that individual. That was the case here – Thebarge never discussed religion in a way that reflected on the reader, just on herself and her own personal relationship to it. She never expressed her views in a way that told you that you had to or should believe them as well. It was the same as if she discussed a relationship with running or home improvement, and the same as she discussed her experiences with cancer. Unique, individual, and personal.

Her time with the Somali family was equally compelling. Not every experience was good, and Thebarge struggled to find the balance between overstepping and helping. She didn’t approach it as I’ve seen other people, as “the Christian who saves people” or “the white person who saves people.” She was aware of her privileges and tried to learn about the family’s needs, culture, and history. Again, it was not preachy, and Thebarge genuinely seemed to love each of the family members, as they seemed to love her. As I said above, not every experience was ideal or good – there is no veneer of happy-golden here – but overall the partnership was a positive experience.

The book was well-written and nicely paced, with a good balance between the different narratives. My only complaint is actually not about the book, but about memoirs in general. Memoirs don’t really have endings. You never know what happens afterwards. At the end of this book, the Somali family are still out there, and still (as far as I could tell from the end of the book) in some contact with Thebarge. But after that, the reader knows nothing. Memoirs always feel incomplete for me, and a bit unsatisfying for it. But again, that has nothing to do with this book itself, which as I said was a very-written book. I just want more.

Performance: This audiobook was read by Kirsten Potter, who did a very good job. The accents she gave to different characters were subtle, which I appreciated. The way she read the book lent itself to the practical and matter-of-fact tone of the writing. It was a good pairing.

Posted in 2018, Adult, Prose | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

July in Review

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Thistle

July was a month of crazy-busy. Summer school, study abroad, four birthdays, extreme heat (over 105 many days), and the beginning of band camp. The insurance didn’t approve our house claim until late in the month, so construction didn’t start until the last week of July (and is still ongoing). Then the a/c broke on the hottest day of the summer (109). Yay! I began a whole bunch of medication changes and treatments, and have more still to come. Summers are always crazy here, but it’s INSANE this year. We have about four weeks until school starts again, and I’m really looking forward to it!

(one of four birthdays)

July was also a very sad month. My uncle moved from the hospital to hospice care, refusing to continue further cancer or blood treatments, and passed away a week later. The grief kicked me in the gut. The second member of my extended tribe to leave us in the last six months. The rest of the month passed somewhat in a daze.

Goals
Very little happened in goals this month. You could also say I went backwards a little, because instead of using the last of the yarn I already had (which would have completed that goal), I got new yarn and started a new project. Oops. My health also slid way off track:

Health
My health suffered quite a bit this month. My doctor is slowly taking me off my antidepressant and putting me on a mood stabilizer. He also put me on a short steroid treatment for my eczema which I quit after two days because it gave me severe heartburn and made everything taste like copper. Yikes. One medication was finally approved (been waiting since January), and ironically it caused a lot of weight gain so I had to get off it anyway. Then the health insurance rejected my doctor’s request for a second, in-lab sleep study, and instead suggested I get an APAP machine. No further word on that so far (sleep center is trying to get an RX for one). Additionally, I’m in the process of getting in to a dermatologist for a punch biopsy in one part of my skin (for what might be eczema or something autoimmune) and in to an allergist for eczema issues.

(after C25K Week 5 Day 3)

Food-wise, with everything going on, I ate out way too much, drank too much alcohol, ate too much junk food, yada yada. I tried to exercise when I could, mostly indoors, but as I’ve said before, I’m kinda on hold somewhat until the construction is done and the boys are back to a regular schedule again. I managed 15 days of exercise this month, totaling about 13 hours, and including 9 yoga sessions and 25 miles walked/run. Somehow, with all this going on, I actually started sleeping this month for the first time in about four years! No sleeping pills beyond melatonin this month. It was crazy and awesome. So that’s good news, especially given lack of sleep study approval for further testing. At the end of the month, my weight was up about half a pound and most of my measurements are up about an inch too. Sigh.

Books
My reading mojo was nowhere to be found for most of July. I signed up for the reverse readathon, but that was the week my uncle passed and so I didn’t end up doing it. Of course, I’d ordered a pile of books for the thing, and I needed something to occupy my brain a lot while I processed grief, so I ended up reading and culling a bunch of books in the last week of the month. In total, I finished five books in July. Likely I’ll barely remember most of them as time passes, simply because my brain wasn’t really in the right place. Oh well. Favorite: The Prince and the Dressmaker.

In Construction
Since our claim didn’t get approved until the end of the month, we didn’t get nearly as much done as I’d prefer this month. Things completed: replacing the dining/living room floor; rewiring for better lighting in the kitchen; the beginnings of new drywall and the kitchen ceiling. (In other words, not much. Between scheduling conflicts, funeral, and our contractor getting very sick for a week, this is dragging out…)

Highlights of July
There were some good moments in July of course, and as usual, I’d like to list them out so I can remember them when I look back.

  • Morrigan’s trip to Japan, which was a wonderful opportunity that he really loved
  • Morrigan also got his AP scores back, getting a 5 in three of his tests and a 4 in the 4th!
  • birthdays for Ambrose, my mom, my stepdad, and my half-sister
  • my siblings all came down for my half-sister’s birthday, which was a weekend of lots of hanging out and fun (if too much eating out and junk and alcohol, heh)
  • meeting my grandma’s new rescue kitten
  • not needing sleeping pills this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • I managed to do the last day of Week 5 of C25K (where you suddenly jump from 8 mins to 20 mins nonstop jogging). It was indoors on level ground and very, very slow, but I did it.

Coming up in August
Band camp. The holy terror that is marching band has arrived. The boys’ high school is INSANE about band, and it just began Monday. The other boys finish summer school tomorrow, so they’ll be free until the end of August when school begins. Which, I’ll add, is the thing I’m looking forward to most this month – school starting again, and hopefully the construction finishing. Our contractor believes he’ll be done by the 9th, but my guess is the 25th at the earliest. Sigh.

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , | 11 Comments