Solitary Sunday

E was here all week until yesterday, and R is still gone, so I spent today just me and the dogs. It was fun having E around, but I felt bad for having to work (and also that out of nowhere we had 3 days of seriously wintery weather, but it was beautiful again by the last few days of his vacation); and having time to myself today was nice, I certainly needed the rest- I'm sick. My throat started feeling sore on Friday, and I just assumed I hadn't gotten enough sleep, since E is a night owl and I worked early several days this week, but then I started developing a head cold too, and by the end of work yesterday I was completely exhausted. I think I only made it through the day because of daytime cold medicine, honestly.

So last night and today I relaxed- got to work on my sweater again (I have the sleeves attached and am working the raglan decreases & puff sleeves now) finally (after seeing Kris' birthday anemone, E has requested one for his birthday next year!), talked to my Mom & Victoria (I talked to my good friend Kathryn about a week ago as well, we haven't seen each other in forever and I miss her!), watched movies, read, and ate some of the many leftovers from this week of good food. I haven't been really hungry though, plus they do say "starve a cold & feed a fever" anyway.

Tomorrow I need to make cookies, minty brownies, and my "famous" zucchini banana bread, because the Very Merry Un-birthday Mad Tea Party is Wednesday. I didn't let the house get too messy, but I'll have to spiff up the back yard a bit and make sure everything inside is presentable. It should be really fun, and I love theme/costume parties!

I played around on the new automatic substitute scheduler website, I don't know what to think. I need to return my paper saying what my specialties are (science, duh, and apparently Spanish as well?) but they didn't say where to return it, and there was no option at all for science as a specialty. It's so strange that I only have two weeks of work at the park remaining! I did my sea otter program for the second time this Thursday, I think it is improved a bit. I am scheduled to do my animal tracks program for the first time the Thursday before Labor day, we'll see how that goes.

I'll put up pictures of my anemones and sweater tomorrow, I hope.

lightning round

Well, last night we had our first real rain of several months, accompanied by electrical storms. We were woken up last night by immense booms of thunder, which made us very happy that we aborted our plans to go camping in the redwoods with Eli. Instead we took a day trip today down to Port Orford, similar to the trip I took with Steph a month or so ago. It's unfortunate that we missed out on the southern tip of the state and the Redwoods, but I'm glad we were sleeping in our house when the rainstorm hit.

The lightning started several fires in the eastern part of the state, and R left around 11pm tonight to go work at a fire in Sisters. Poor Eli, not only are we working all week, but then R leaves just 2 days into the 8 day visit. Plus it's supposed to be rainy the next couple days, when E wanted to come out to see the tidepools with me. He did get to come see me at the Seafood Fest, though he echoed a very common complaint-- that there is very little seafood present.

I really need to work on my knitting, I've been neglecting it terribly. Some people participate in "knitlympics" where you pick a project to complete during the span of the olympics- I don't think I could ever do that. I'm so slow at finishing projects, it's sad. But I realized I can pick up the stitches for the I-cord tentacles on Kris' anemone, so they are better attached (one fell off Steph's). Maybe one of these days I'll actually be able to get something done on my sweater again.

So it's August now.

I feel like the summer is just flying by, and I don't know where the time is going. I've hardly knitted at all, and I rarely feel like cooking or doing much when I get home from work. Granted I'm really busy at work, and not getting home until 6pm makes the night come a lot faster, but still. My sweater is currently on hold while I made 2 knitted green anemones as birthday gifts for my coworkers (I'll work on it at craft night this Thursday). They apparently felt bad that they are never around for my birthday, so we are holding an un-birthday Wonderland mad-tea-party in a couple weeks. That should be really cool, and it gives me another reason to wear my Alice costume. R is hoping he'll be called out on fire to escape, the party pooper.

I just hope he doesn't get called out on fire before the 23rd. Eli is coming to visit next week, which was kind of unexpected but very welcome. I wish people would come visit more often! He's going to come distract me while I work at the seafood festival this weekend, I hope. Then we're all going to the redwoods for camping. Our "Home Improvement with Eli" Project this summer is going to be a cement brick pathway around the garage.

I've been doing some research on traveling (as usual), this time it's a girls' trip! V suggested that all our high school friends get together for a fun grilfriend vacation in 2009, since we're turning 30. Best idea ever, is what I have to say. Now we have to find a place we can afford! Everyone wants to go somewhere beachy, we're thinking Puerto Rico or Hawaii or something like that. I'm currently reading Tales of a Female Nomad, a very good book, similar to Eat, Pray, Love. Travel is so great, and I hope some day I can experience another culture for a longer term, like these women did. But for now, I'm happy with short visits to new places, and am extremely excited about the idea of finally going with friends!