...fortunately, unlike my current projects...

I swear that my long posting absences are not a pattern. Really! My previous post summed up most every weekday for the last four weeks, up to last Friday. As I told my S'n'Buddies (yipe, I'm making *myself* cringe) two weeks ago (which was when Bryan insisted I go to regain a measure of sanity...and yes, it worked), the Really Big-Ass Trade Show took a whole hell of a lot out of me, and out of a lot of other people, too.

Fortunately, the RBATS was this week - is, in fact, closing up shop right now. Monday still had some loose ends, but the last three days at work have been been filled with:

- Bloglines
- Yahoo! Groups
- Television Without Pity
- Cute Overload
- Watching the entire episode of Heroes that I missed on Monday

...and very little work or angst to interrupt it. I was actually given half of Tuesday off on comp time (which, you know, doesn't really exist and all) and inadvertently spent it with my mom, which still worked out OK - partially because I finally picked up a couple of boxes of kitchen toys from my wedding registry.

From my wedding. Which was TWO YEARS AGO on Monday. Procrastinate? Me?

On the other side of that, Bryan picked out Pappas Bros. Steakhouse as a venue for the eating of Wedding-Commemorative Meat. As I so often get verbal smackdowns for making people hungry with my food descriptions...and as I'm not into drooling on my keyboard at the moment...suffice it to say that he had ribeye, I had lamb, and a good time was had by all. Certainly worth missing Heroes, hee.

As for the rest, my brief evenings and coveted weekends have been devoted to doing Anything But Working, Much Less Thinking About Work, and involved much semi-dressed, husband-couch-cats-knitting time, with a little shopping thrown in. I picked up the Reader's Digest Ultimate Sourcebook on stitch patterns...

...and employed it to create an AFO in the last two weeks. I'd say "look, here it is," but...yeah, I generally suck, even when I have too much time on my hands. As a preview, it's my first almost-complete lace pattern project, employing a fagoting panel with a four-row repeat. OK, so I wussed and it just happens to be a hand towel...on 8s...in Sugar 'n' Cream. But it's really pretty, I promise! I'll finish it tonight and post pictures soonish.

I enjoyed working the pattern quite a bit - not too fiddly and gave me a chance to get accustomed to the rhythm of lace. I'll certainly need more practice, but it's given me a chance to get my sea legs while not overtaxing my already overtaxed brain.

Otherwise in the works? Gifts - one of which is for someone who's now a confirmed reader, whose birthday is exactly 150 days after mine, who put up with sharing space with me for a looooong time, and who's bringing her fantastic TallKid, TallHusband, and TallSelf to my neck of the woods in just over two weeks.

So no, I'm not telling. :D

This weekend, there will be knitting, sewing (!), and - oh yes - the first baking of the autumn season. After much ugly rain and a couple of days of early-summer temps, Houston is also benefiting from one of its five Gorgeous Weather Days a year: 70F, sunny and clear. It's all I can do not to make little happy noises every time I walk out the door.

Since I'm all out of "all I can do" after the last month, I've at least tried to keep my voice down as I sigh contentedly in the breeze.

It's good to be back.