Mystery 8 is Finished!

I even have a picture to prove it. I finished it Saturday evening. I am so glad to have it done. I don't know what I'll focus on now. I picked up Alpine Garden again last night and I may do parts 4 and 5 of that before anything else. I also have a Christmas ornament in progress that I may try to finish up before Christmas (and there are 11 other wips aside from those 2). I am probably going to start something new in January, if not sooner.

The other night I bought a crochet afghan pattern and some yarn to make a lap blanket for my church's Operation Touch program. They take blankets and other things to people in nursing homes. I bought some blue and white yarn to make a fairly simple afghan; I've only done a small amount of crocheting and it seemed like a good opportunity to improve my skills while helping someone else. I did pull my leprosy bandage out yesterday and worked on it while I watched Luke and his friend at the playground. It is extremely tedious but it's easy and doesn't require a lot of concentration. It is also far more portable than most of my other projects. I used to work on it when he was in swimming lessons over the summer. I am an extremely slow crocheter; I hope that changes in the near future.

On Saturday I went to a friend's officer commissioning (Navy reserves) on board the USS Midway aircraft carrier (it is now a museum). It was really neat. Luke loved it; we toured most of the ship that is open to the public. I also went to a Pilates class that morning and, consequently, was extremely sore yesterday morning. I am up to 80 miles on my Rivendell "trip". I have "only" 378 more to go. It will be a lot easier in the summer to make substantial progress since I can start walking in the evenings again when it is light out later.

My company Christmas (or holiday, whatever) party is this Saturday. I bought a new dress last week and it is quite nice. It is long and black with some tasteful beading. Best of all, it was on sale and an 8-petite although I am convinced that vanity sizing was utilized because there is no way an 8-petite could fit so loosely. I've been doing a fair bit of exercise, but not enough to fit into an 8-petite dress. Well, it's gorgeous and it fits and I can't wait for the party.

There isn't a lot to write that is particularly interesting today, I'm afraid. I am looking forward to seeing the Narnia movie. I read the books as a child and plan to re-read at least The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe this week so I can take Luke to see it next weekend. Jay probably won't go, or if he does he will likely complain about it and refuse to admit it's good even if he likes it. He can be so stubborn sometimes; he makes endless fun of me because I like Tolkein so much but I know he liked the movies even if he will never admit it and just goes on about how long and boring they were and how "only the nerds read it at his high school." Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be married to someone with whom I actually shared interests like reading, hiking, camping, etc. Or someone who actually helped around the house on a regular basis. Oh well. I made my decisions, and must live with them now; there is truly no one to blame but myself and anyway I wouldn't trade Luke for anything. Jay did do something extraordinary last week: he bought a Dremel tool (sweet!) and hand-carved a "wand" for Luke, a la Harry Potter. It is so gorgeous; I was really impressed. I have taken some pictures of it but haven't uploaded them to webshots yet. I'll post a link when I do as it is definitely worth sharing.