Have you ever wanted to just run away from home?  Not forever, no, not like "you'll-never-see-me-again-in-this-dumpy-town" run away, but just for a little while.  Go do something completely crazy and once-in-a-lifetime fun.  Just get the heck out of Dodge for a little while, forget your troubles and be happy.  It's been much too long since I had a good adventure (and, no, my Adventures in Non-Braking don't count), and I feel due for at least a little spree.  Just a little something...

Yesterday I was talking to Mick online, and he asked me when we were going to go see the relics of St. Mary Magdalene I had told him about a while ago.  I had forgotten all about it, but both of us researched a little, and discovered that they're currently nearing the end of their tour in the US.  We had missed the DC dates, and when they were in Brooklyn, and the one day they were nearest us in Pennsylvania.  All that was left was a few days in Georgia, and then they would be heading back to France.  And that was when Mick started talking road trip.  "Only seven and a half hours," he said.  We could head down Sunday, venerate the relics, make a stop over in Atlanta for beer and bookstores (and possibly swing dancing), and come right back, getting back to Dayton sometime Monday.  I told Mick that with the current state of my finances, I could barely afford to travel to Cincinnati, which didn't seem to bother him.  It all sounded so... possible.  We agreed that it would be good to have at least one additional traveling companion, and things looked bleak when three possibilities didn't pan out.  And then AnniPotts (who is coming home for a week for Thanksgiving) said that she would be interested, but we have to work out more details.  About then Mick had to run off to another commitment, and we said we'd talk more later.

To be honest, I don't think this is going to come off.  While it would be a lot of fun, it would also be totally crazy.  Also, even though it was his idea in the first place, I can feel Mick turning more Responsible Adult on me by the second.  I'm pretty sure that Sunday evening will find me still at home, doing laundry and catching up with Johnsy when she returns from her weekend retreat.  But still... it would be so fun.  An adventure.  It's been so long since I had an adventure.

I think some of this is the cabin fever talking.  Now that Johnsy is recovered (hurrah!), it seems that it was my turn to get sick.  I came down with a stomach flu, starting sometime Wednesday afternoon, which has kept me confined to home ever since.  I've been literally on a bread and water diet for two days.  Well, bread, water, and a little tea.  This afternoon I tried a little scrambled egg.  So far my stomach doesn't seem to mind it.  If the egg and my stomach continue to get along I'll try other normal food for dinner, and if that works out, then maybe I'll be all better.  That would definitely be good - the craft fair is this weekend (come see me at Fairmont High School from 10am on!), and nothing short of the plague would keep me from doing that.

The other part is that Saturday is Jacob's birthday.  He would have been 31.  My family is getting together for Mass and then a Family Dinner.  As much as I know how important it is to mark the day, I'm still dreading it.  If I had my way, I think I'd mark the occasion by staying in bed all day, or if I had the money, going to PittStop and dancing until I couldn't think anymore.  But neither of those things are an option.

In the end, I know things will be ok.  It's going to be a busy weekend no matter how you look at it.  Setting up for the craft fair tonight, working the craft fair all day tomorrow, and then heading off to an emotionally draining family dinner in the evening.  Probably by the time I get to Sunday, packing up and jumping in the car to drive to Atlanta will be the last thing I really want to do.  But still.  It would be nice to run away from home.

Welcome to the plague house.  Johnsy keeps insisting that she's not sick, but we look at her sceptically, and then I force chicken soup down her throat.  Actually that seems to be my fate lately, feeding roommates, I mean.  Heating up pizza for Ani, making chicken soup for Johnsy, even crumbling up half a slice of bread to drizzle with chicken broth for Baby.  However, it doesn't seem to be helping much.  It's a sad day when hot chicken broth can't cure whatever ails you.  Johnsy seems to be getting slowly stronger, but Ani is still not doing well.  When she went to the ER on Friday, it turned out that her appendix wasn't bursting, she had an ovarian cyst that had ruptured.  So they gave her heavy duty pain killers, and sent her home to heal.  Except the pain hasn't eased, in fact it's increasing.  Her doctor thinks there might be an infection, so she's going to see a specialist tomorrow.  The whole situation is kinda scary.  It's hard watching Ani literally wasting away - she's getting thinner every day, and it's not weight she really can afford to lose.

In the meantime, we've been watching a lot of TV.  Saturday we ended up watching the rest of our West Wing DVD, and then the Sex and the City movie.  Today Ani introduced me to Bones.  It's a little disconcerting - I keep thinking, "Don't you guys realize that guy is a VAMPIRE!  Dudes, where's your stake?  He's going to bite you any minute."  However, I have to say I love this show, and I think I'm half in love with Hodgins.

In other news, I'm still working hard getting ready for the craft fair coming up this weekend.  I've been knitting like crazy on these excessively cute ornaments, and experimenting with different ways to set up the space we'll have.  I still have to make a banner with Bumblebee Enterprises on it, and business cards, and figure out more of the details of how I'm going to display things.  I have three miniature Christmas trees that I can hang garlands on, and a big frame to drape them across.  Also, Aunt B has a screen that I figure we can stand up in the back of the space and drape more garlands across it.  It's also been suggested that knitted coffee cozies could be extremely cute, and a hot seller.  So I'm experimenting with that too.  Yesterday I was forced (forced, I tell you!) to get a drink from Starbucks so I could use the cup to get approximate sizing.  It was agony, pure agony.  Oh, the things we do for the sake of crafting!

Also, on Sunday I found out that I'd been featured on Etsy's front page again... on Friday.  How come I never know about these things in time to see if for myself?  I'm both thrilled to have been featured, and frustrated that I found out about it so much after the fact.

Tonight is UD's swing club.  Bounce is gone on business, so Long John is teaching Balboa with Red.  Then Red and I are going to start teaching the first part of the choreography for this year's Smackdown routine.  I'm looking forward to it.  The song has so much going on in it, there's so many breaks to hit, and so much energy.  It's a joy to work with.  So are my UD kids.  This is going to be fun!

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Wish List

It's that time, friends, time to put together the Great Family Wish List.  My sister has Let It Be Known that we must submit our personal lists of requests to be compiled and distributed to anyone who wants to know.  I'm still figuring out what I want, but I thought I'd share a few of my selections here.  Enjoy!


Wingtip Athletic Mary Janes by Aris Allen from dancestore.com - size 9 please, black.
Actually, I need new dance shoes pretty badly.  My beloved Aris Allen dance sneakers are dieing - the leather soles are peeling badly off the edges, and I've worn a large hole through the sole of the right shoe.  While it reminds me of that fairy tale, it's only a matter of time before my poor shoes give up the ghost entirely, and I don't have anything to replace them with.  So new dancing shoes is definitely at the top of my list this year!


Honeybees from Heifer International
I ask for something from Heifer International every year, and most years I get it.  Every single time it's just about the best present someone could give me.


The Mentalist: The Complete First Season box set
I love this show.  Love, love, love.  It's not just the main character's curly blond hair (although I swear the curls have super powers), or the fact that Cho is my boyfriend, it's everything about the show.  Every Thursday night I have to be home by ten to watch the new episodes, and I've been watching my way through the first season with Ani.  She's in love with this show too.  We think we might have to have a Mentalist party, complete with a mystery people have to solve by being super observant, and a drinking game while we watch episodes (Jane's cooking in someone else's kitchen without their permission again!  Everybody drink!).  Anyway, long story short, this would make a great gift.


6" Nickel Plated Double Pointed Knitting Needle Set from Knitpicks


A subscription to Martha Stewart Living


Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman
I really want this book.

Actually, anything on my Amazon Wish List or Etsy Favorites List would be a smashing present. 

And lest you think I'm only obsessed with what I want to get this Christmas, be reassured - I've been planning out the lovely things I'm going to give for months!  Though I have to admit that's mostly because there's no other way to do it if you're planning on knitting everything!

I kinda love doing polls.  It combines the fun of forced feedback with the reassurance that there are actual people out there actually reading this, even if there are only twelve of them.  I mean, I know my footprint log shows lots of hits, some from exotic locales like England (well, the UK), France, Russia, South Korea (Hi, Young Queen!  Hi, Big Brother!), and New Brunswick (um, hi to you too!).  But for all I know those could be webcrawlers and search engines, and, you know, stuff.  So it's nice to know that I have readers, real live readers, readers who take polls.

It seems that, according to my latest poll, my readers are kinda split between feeding the Football Seniors (and doesn't that sound like a group of Grandpas hobbling around the field with their walkers?) either Pasta or Oven Fried Chicken, with multiple votes going to each of the other choices, except pizza.  Considering that I knew that one of the votes for Oven Fried Chicken was mine, I decided that pasta had won, and started to plan accordingly.  Spaghetti and Meatballs sounded boring, I can't eat most kinds of cheese, so Lasagna or most other baked pastas were out.  I wanted the boys to get a healthy dose of protein with their carbs, and Boy-O had kept talking about chicken, which led me to Chicken Parmigiana.  I looked up some recipes online, and it seemed easy enough.  Pound chicken breasts, bread same, brown in skillet, bake with tomato sauce and cheese.  No problem.  And this is why, at about 3:30 yesterday afternoon, I was up to my elbows in 15 lbs of raw chicken, over a dozen beaten eggs, three canisters of bread crumbs (Italian Style), and various combinations of the three, not all of them entirely appetizing, plus two skillets sputtering away on the stove, and a kitchen table half covered with jars of spaghetti sauce.  It was, shall we say, exciting.  At one point I spattered hot oil on my arm, but didn't have time to tend to it, and promptly forgot about it except when I accidentally touched the burn and pain reminded me.  (This morning at work I pushed up she sleeve of my sweater, and was startled to see blisters.  "Oh, yeah,"  I thought, "I did burn myself, didn't I.")

Somehow, about three hours later, all of this resolved itself, with the help of my Mom, Aunt S, and Johnsy, into a serene still life of food: two big pans of Chicken Parmigiana bubbling appetizingly under its covering of cheese, another pan of spaghetti, the big pot of extra sauce on the stove, the lovely salad on the kitchen table, and the huge basket of home baked bread (that I, um, stayed up most of the night Wednesday night to bake) beside a truly monumental bowl of Spreadable Crack.

And then the boys ate it.

Well, except for the salad.  They didn't touch the salad.  Aunt S, who made it, was a little disappointed, I think.  But not me.  They might not like salad, but I do, and I'm happy to have it in my fridge.  There were lots of other leftovers too, including enough chicken to send some home with Boy-O and still have some to freeze for later, spaghetti and sauce, and such an abundance of Spreadable Crack that even Johnsy (who has been known to hide it in the fridge) will be satisfied.  We had brownies too, made by Johnsy, which the guys seemed to really like.  (Btw, a little love goes out to the people who chose "Football players don't deserve dessert." on the poll.  What can I say?  I'm a band geek at heart.)  On the whole the guys seemed to like everything.  It was a little hard to tell.  They were almost preternaturally polite.  I don't know if I've ever been called Ma'am so many times in one evening.  It was awfully cute.  But then, I find that my instinctive reaction to teenage boys in general tends to be of the "Aw, look at the cute widdle teenager!  So cute!" variety.  I try hard to repress this, since I know it would most emphatically not be appreciated, but I'm afraid it tends to leak through on occasion.

All in all it was a good evening.  The boys left almost immediately after they were done eating (it was a school night and all).  It was kinda funny.  I happened to be standing at the kitchen counter sortof near the trash can when the mass exodus began.  It became almost like a receiving line.  They came into the kitchen with their disposable plates and silverware, deposited them in the trash can, and politely said good-night and thank you to me on their way out.  After we cleaned up I took Boy-O home (do you know how awesome it is to have a baby brother who volunteers to stay and help clean up?), then returned to watch part of Galaxy Quest and the new episode of The Mentalist with Ani.  And it was good.

Also, Ani says that our kitten Baby is most definitely a him.  So we don't need to wonder about that anymore.  Whew.

So you know that line about plans, something like "Man proposes, God disposes."  Yeah, that was what my weekend was like.  I had planned to go to Boy-O's football game on Friday, pass out candy to the neighborhood kids on Saturday, and then go off dancing with my "Nudists Local #1654 ON STRIKE" badge as a costume.  It was a good plan.  The problem was that as I finished up work Friday evening and headed home, I started to develop a really nasty headache.  The closer I got to game time, the worse it got, and I realized that a football game, with the cheering and bright lights, etc., was just about the last place I wanted to be.  So I texted people my regrets, laid down, and was out like a light almost before my head hit the pillow. 

Various texts letting me know the progress of the game (we lost 21-0) didn't wake me, but a phone call about 11:30 did.  It was Aunt B informing me that there was going to be a Family Dinner the next night at her house honoring Aunty C, and my presence was both Requested and Required (mega bonus points if you catch that allusion).  I was trying to figure out a way that I could both attend the dinner and still give one of my swing kids a ride to the dance, but then the girl in question messaged me letting me know that she wasn't sure that she was going to the dance anymore, and if she did go, her boyfriend would drive her.  So instead of dancing the night away, I ended up heading over to Aunt B's house.

While I was there, the funniest thing happened.  As I have mentioned, Boy-O is a Senior this year, and somehow my mom became the Senior Football Mom.  (Which is incredibly ironic, as my mom is about as far from the iconic football mom as you can get - I don't think she even owns a turtleneck to wear under her team sweatshirt.)  Her main duties involve making the arrangements for the Senior Football Dinners.  Traditionally all the Senior football players go to dinner at someone's house the night before the game, and she's in charge of coordinating who's turn it is to host them.  Only, since next week's game isn't part of the regular season, she hadn't arranged for anyone to do it, and didn't feel up to doing it herself.  Mom said that she would pay for the food, but she needed someone else to do the work.  And somehow I found myself, well, volunteering to do it.  Consequently, I will be having 17 HS football players over to dinner at my house Thursday night.  I know.  Surreal.

I've been getting advice from various people about what I should serve.  My initial plan involved large pots of chili plus cornbread, but then I asked Boy-O what he and his teammates really liked.  He immediately waxed downright poetic describing a recent dinner that involved large amounts of hot wings and jalapeno poppers.  (The jalapeno poppers came in for special notice - I think he mentioned those seven or eight times.)  I took this under advisement, and rather than be a copy cat, decided to fall back on one of BMIWW's classic menus, Oven Fried Chicken Drummies with Twice Baked Potatoes.  This seemed to have a lot of fans (Mick immediately tried to invite himself over to share in the feast), but then last night I asked Xtiano (who recently was a HS football player) what he thought.  To my surprise, he came down strongly on the side of pasta, especially with lots and lots of bread sticks.  Carbs, he seemed to think, were the important thing, and baked pasta dishes were one of the ideal ways to consume said carbs.

Now it is true that if I made pasta I could also bake bread, and make an extra large batch of my Spreadable Crack to go on it.  But I could do that if I made the Chicken Drummies too.  And while Xtiano seems to think pasta is Teh Awesome, Boy-O didn't mention it in his List of Highly Favored Foods.  Boy-O seemed to lean much more heavily towards chicken items, and also spiciness.  Which brings me back to chili.  I'm just not sure.  Consequently, I have created a poll to help you, my dear readers, figure out what I should make.  I'm going grocery shopping sometime tomorrow, so you have about 24 hours to either take the poll or leave a comment telling me what you think I should do. 

Also, I should mention that I am having a BIG SALE in my Etsy shop this week.  In honor of getting more than 100 Shop Hearts (I am currently at 111), I have taken 10% off everything in the store.  You're welcome.  Now go buy things!

Also, also - I got featured.