I walked out the door yesterday afternoon to go grocery shopping, and nearly stepped in a nightmare.
Seems one of the neighbourhood cats loves me.
They'd left me a rat.
But not just any rat.
This was a completely dried and DESSICATED MUMMIFIED RAT!
Completely dry.
Completely shrivelled up.
Kelly and I had to look twice at it to decide what it was. It was the little yellow front teeth that finally gave it away. Oh, and the long hairless tail.
Still creeptacular.
I just got an email from my mom.
There's been a lot of road construction over the last year to make the Highway that connects the area in BC that my folks live with the area where my grandmother lives.
The construction was welcomed, even though it was inconvenient, but finally, once this summer rolled around, the little dangerous winding 2-lane highway had been upgraded into a 4-lane wonderland.
Until this Friday, apparently.
When the hillside above the highway started cracking and slumping.
There are still many folks in the area that remember the Hope Slide (some time in the 60s), which was just awful and devastating (but happened at a time of day when there was virtually NOBODY on the road, so only 2 carloads were lost forever), and there's enough nervousness that the road was immediately shut down.
Fortunately, mom and dad had been down to see my Nana on Thursday, and they say that she's fine for another week. And by that time, my folks may be ready to do the giant road trip (or maybe the 'fun' road trip down through the logging roads) to visit her again. Or maybe the powers that be will have figured things out, and decided how to fix the potential landslide-of-great-magnitude.
Here. I stole some photos of my homeland.
(at the very, VERY top of this photo is the village where my mom grew up, and the beach that I spent every summer on when I was growing up, too) It's kind of freaky to see that road, that I've travelled on many, MANY times, and know that there's a big sleeping giant of a landslide possible.
The road, on this photo, is JUST off the photo at the bottom right corner, and then hugs the hillside up the right side of the picture.
*shudder*
Have I mentioned that I got a call to be a ringer in the college-affiliated choir that Ken and I used to sing with before kids' schedules took over our lives?
Yeah, yeah, I hear you all singing the "She's just a girl that can't say 'No'" song, but this might be fun. I haven't seen these folks for nearly 3 years, and I'm ready to sing again.
Of course, when I showed up at my first rehearsal (they've already been rehearsing for 2 months), the thing I heard the most was "So, where's KEN? You didn't come alone, did you?"
Yes, give me an inferiority complex, will you?
Anyways, there's some really fun and cool songs in the repertoire, and I'm looking forward to the concert.
I just realized that I have to dress up for Babies and Books at the public library on Tuesday. And I just got a phone call that I'll be doing the gig solo. The woman who is in charge, and really runs the show has a doctor's appointment, and the doctor resheduled it for Tuesday, and with this doctor, you don't say "Sorry, I can't do it", so she's out of commission, and this session (the last session before Halloween) is often our BUSIEST one, because every over-achiever mom in the city brings their little bambino in some extravagant costume.
So I've gotta get all dolled up (mommies with cameras want a photo documentation of their little darling's costume, and they want it with The Guitar Lady), and I have NO IDEA what I'm gonna do.
Last year (and the year before), I dressed up as a leopard. I've got a leopard print shell and a leopard print pencil skirt, and I did my face all up with leopard spots, but I don't wanna do that this year, because I go straight to serving ice cream at the middle school, and these kids will eat a leopard-print soccer mom and spit her out.
I looked at Kelly's Betsy Ross costume, but it's too short. (and only about 23 sizes too small).
Nate's Indian costume likewise... too short, and MILES too tight.
Two years ago, Skip was Einstein. That might be fun, but the lab coat's a little snug, and I need to be able to move my arms freely to play guitar.
And then it hit me. If I finish Skip's Gandalf costume, I can give it a dry run on Tuesday, before the Thursday "trick-or-treating at Dad's work" gig, and the THursday night youth-host-a-party-at-a-homeless-shelter event, and the Friday costume-at-school shindig.
Oh! And on the topic of the Gandalf Costume. I had 6.5 yards of great grey suiting material. I needed 10.5 yards.
I made some modifications to the pattern pieces, and threw all of my "I must put pattern pieces on the straight grain of fabric" OCD-ness to the 4 winds, and I managed to get EVERYTHING to fit on those 6.5 yards. I had about enough fabric left over to make Paris Hilton a string bikini. Maybe just the bottoms, actually.
I have revived my Ravelry vice.
Argh. I now have 95 items in my queue.
Yeah, like those are all gonna get made in my lifetime.
But I *am* chipping away at my brother-in-law's black wool felted socks. I fully expect to ahve those done in time to mail them to Ireland for Christmas.
And I'm toying with the idea of going in on a "RACE!" with another of my fave diarists here, to see if we can't bang out a few Christmas presents out of some luscious Fleece Artist yarn that we both have lingering in our respective stashes.
But for now, sewing is my all-encompassing obsession.
I have a costume, and a set of book bags that MUST be done this week.
And I'm gonna go sit down at the sewing maching Right NOW and start chipping away at that big old albatross around my neck.
No comments:
Post a Comment