I am in a KNITTING SLUMP! And, I guess hand-in-hand with my knitting slump is a blogging slump. Thus, no posts in... a very long time. I'm just all caught up in so many other things. My Tae Kwon Do addiction goes without saying. That's at least 4, if not 5 or 6 times a week. And don't argue with me! But, beyond that, getting ready for my niece's Bat Mitzvah over Memorial Day weekend demanded much time and attention for a few weeks. We all needed the right clothes, of course, and then I had to make arrangements for the puppy while we were away, and rent a minivan for the trip, since I didn't trust mine to make it from Bflo. to Alexandria, VA without any problems. My Town & Country minivan is over 10 years old and has 111,000+ miles on it, and since I had to do the drive down without my husband, and we had to get there safely and on time, it was an easy case of Enterprise to the rescue! Yes, I am now "shopping" for a new minivan... actually a "new" used minivan, preferably a Toyota Siena or a Honda Odyssey. I'd like one that is less than 3 years old, in white, black, silver, gold, pewter, bronze, or a taupey-neutral color, LOADED, like with leather seats, heated if at all possible, and all the power gizmos, except I don't want a DVD player, but I want a CD player that sounds really awesome. That won't be too hard to come by, will it? Heh. I really wish I could have one of these, though.
I just hope I don't end up with this.
So... what are my other excuses for not knitting and not blogging? Um, I've been freaking myself out getting the invitations for my daughter's Bat Mitzvah this coming August in the mail, which entailed fighting with my computer and printer over printing out the addresses on the envelopes. I finally gave up and printed the addresses on clear labels. I know. Tacky. But, God, I was heading for a nervous breakdown over it ! I had to catch myself and say, "Beth -- you have 8 more weeks before this thing and LOADS more work to do... don't fall apart over Step One!" So, the invitations are (almost all -- there were a few glitches) in the mail. On to centerpieces, and sign-in boards, and menus, and choosing a paint color for the inside of the house (goodbye hideous 18-year old floral wallpaper!) and making arrangements for the patio to be washed and the electrician to come and fix a plethora of electrical problems in the house, and getting Zack ready for his 3-1/2 weeks at sleepaway camp, and getting through the very end of the school year and you know... all that kind of stuff.
I did actually do a few rows of that pink shrug about a week ago... but that was all in the waiting room of the local ER, while we waited for Zack to get 5 stitches in his chin and 3 X-rays of his hand. Luckily, his street hockey-induced close encounter with pavement only resulted in a few bruises and a nasty cut on the chin -- no broken bones.
In lieu of a knitting report, I will share a book that I just finished, Over the Moat : Love Among the Ruins of Imperial Vietnam, by James Sullivan.
I didn't even realize until I was about ten pages from the end that it was not fiction -- it is true! And, no, this is not another A Million Little Pieces. This is simply the memoir of a young American man who travels to Vietnam to enjoy a little time after grad school, and ends up falling in love with a young Vietnamese woman. The rest of the book is his retelling of how they bridge the cultural gap, and how they overcome the bureacratic and political (and, in my opinion, somewhat criminal) hurdles in their quest to marry. It is a very sweet and poetic read. My only complaint was that Sullivan did nothing to assist my ignorance of how to pronounce Vietnamese names. I guess when I'm reading, I pronounce the names of people and places silently in my head, and I felt frustrated not knowing how to pronounce his beloved's name Thuy. I've since found out (thanks internet) that it is pronounced "Tuwee" or "Twee," but I would have liked Sullivan to share that with me somewhere in the book. Especially since one of the websites that came up when I googled for the pronunciation of "Thuy" was porn for American men with the hots for Asian, um, mammaries.
I think I picked it up at one of the lovely little Book Outlets which are around Buffalo. They're not fancy, but they have all sorts of books, including tons of paperback fiction (the GOOD kind, not the romance/mystery junk that abounds) for REAL CHEAP. I think the books are all overstocks, or stuff that didn't sell in Canada and gets shipped down here. Whatever, the discount is usually around 70%, so you can go in and grab an armful of great stuff for very little money. Wonderful!
Oh, and locals? Let me know if you want to borrow this pretty book. I'm happy to lend it out. And Go Oilers.
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