Catching up
1. Found online, this wonderful DeviantArt illustration of the "tent dance" in Deathly Hallows 1. Regardless of how you ship(ped), or don't, I think this is a very touching scene - and I haven't even seen the movie yet.
2. My Thanksgiving holiday weekend was nice and mostly uneventful. On Wednesday I left work at 12:30 to bring DD to an appointment at 2:00. After a very early (5:00) dinner I took part in a Thanksgiving service at one of our local Unitarian Universalist churches (got to sing with one of the house choirs, which was fun). Had my annual batch of Momma's Sweet Potatoes baked, cooled and in the fridge before bedtime. We left for Mr. Annearchy's cousins' house, south of Joliet, IL, around 9:45 p.m. and after one stop (at the Petro Station / Villa Pizza near Rochelle) we got to Jim & Donna's house around 1:30 p.m. The crowd included the 3 of us, Mr. A's Aunt Eileen (who is almost 90 and has dementia), Jim & Donna, their daughter Karen (visiting from Florida), their son Craig and his family (Jackie and small boys B & L), and a very elderly cousin named Ruth. Dinner was served at 3:00 and we were all stuffed by 3:30, and yet they pushed dessert at us before 5:30. Everything was very nommy and I got to watch most of the Saints-Dallas game (GEAUX SAINTS!). Eileen did okay that afternoon; so far we haven't borne the brunt of any of her demented rages (these from a woman who used to be sweet as pie all the time, but now spends a lot of time yelling at her own adult children). We slept over and the next morning Donna fed us her usual treat of a sausage and egg casserole and cinnamon buns. We got home around 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Saturday was busy and somewhat fun; I went grocery shopping before noon, then picked up DD and we went to WalMart and got her a pair of winter boots and some sweat pants. She wears a men's size 10 1/2 extra wide shoe, so it's next to impossible to find her women's shoes. Good thing she likes guys'. After that I watched the UW Badgers defeat Northwestern 70-23 (that's a football score, folks, not basketball). I'm hoping that means they'll be in the Rose Bowl on January 1st. Yesterday I went to church later than usual (no choir practice) and DD came with me for only the second time in more than 2 1/2 years. It was really, really hard to come back to work this morning. I was amazed that I had only 62 new emails over the long weekend.
3. On the drive down to Illinois, I finished reading EYE OF THE NEEDLE by Ken Follett. It was a very good World War 2 spy novel though you know from the beginning who the spy is and you spend the rest of the novel wondering if, how and when the British anti-spy police called MI5 will manage to catch him. Anyway, the book made such an impression on me that I think I might try to do NaNoWriMo next year. I want to write about two characters who are featured in the epilogue; it will be a romance with some spy stuff as a subplot, because one of the characters is a Scotland Yard detective who works for MI5 during World War 2. So I guess I should start doing a lot of research, some plotting and thinking up other characters too. Maybe I'll do something I've never done before - write an outline:)
2. My Thanksgiving holiday weekend was nice and mostly uneventful. On Wednesday I left work at 12:30 to bring DD to an appointment at 2:00. After a very early (5:00) dinner I took part in a Thanksgiving service at one of our local Unitarian Universalist churches (got to sing with one of the house choirs, which was fun). Had my annual batch of Momma's Sweet Potatoes baked, cooled and in the fridge before bedtime. We left for Mr. Annearchy's cousins' house, south of Joliet, IL, around 9:45 p.m. and after one stop (at the Petro Station / Villa Pizza near Rochelle) we got to Jim & Donna's house around 1:30 p.m. The crowd included the 3 of us, Mr. A's Aunt Eileen (who is almost 90 and has dementia), Jim & Donna, their daughter Karen (visiting from Florida), their son Craig and his family (Jackie and small boys B & L), and a very elderly cousin named Ruth. Dinner was served at 3:00 and we were all stuffed by 3:30, and yet they pushed dessert at us before 5:30. Everything was very nommy and I got to watch most of the Saints-Dallas game (GEAUX SAINTS!). Eileen did okay that afternoon; so far we haven't borne the brunt of any of her demented rages (these from a woman who used to be sweet as pie all the time, but now spends a lot of time yelling at her own adult children). We slept over and the next morning Donna fed us her usual treat of a sausage and egg casserole and cinnamon buns. We got home around 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Saturday was busy and somewhat fun; I went grocery shopping before noon, then picked up DD and we went to WalMart and got her a pair of winter boots and some sweat pants. She wears a men's size 10 1/2 extra wide shoe, so it's next to impossible to find her women's shoes. Good thing she likes guys'. After that I watched the UW Badgers defeat Northwestern 70-23 (that's a football score, folks, not basketball). I'm hoping that means they'll be in the Rose Bowl on January 1st. Yesterday I went to church later than usual (no choir practice) and DD came with me for only the second time in more than 2 1/2 years. It was really, really hard to come back to work this morning. I was amazed that I had only 62 new emails over the long weekend.
3. On the drive down to Illinois, I finished reading EYE OF THE NEEDLE by Ken Follett. It was a very good World War 2 spy novel though you know from the beginning who the spy is and you spend the rest of the novel wondering if, how and when the British anti-spy police called MI5 will manage to catch him. Anyway, the book made such an impression on me that I think I might try to do NaNoWriMo next year. I want to write about two characters who are featured in the epilogue; it will be a romance with some spy stuff as a subplot, because one of the characters is a Scotland Yard detective who works for MI5 during World War 2. So I guess I should start doing a lot of research, some plotting and thinking up other characters too. Maybe I'll do something I've never done before - write an outline:)