Ups And Downs

I've decided I'm blaming the weather.

For what, you ask?

For the weird, baseless emotional upheaval I've been experiencing.

For the unusually hectic schedule everyone's had of late.

For the upsetting events in my friends lives (I won't go into detail - nobody died, fear not, but I think everyone needs a vacation about now).

The weekend was actually really nice, and if I could just quell the emotional baggage from shifting in the cabin during turbulence, causing it to fall on my head every time I open the various compartments in my brain, I'd really be a lot better off. (Yay for air travel metaphors!)

My thoughts just starts whirling sometimes, making ridiculous assumptions and drawing conclusions that are entirely fictional but no less dramatic than if they were honest-to-goodness fact.

Bah.

ANYWAY, Friday night was really quiet, since The Kid stayed over at the Girl Scout camp for their end-of-the-week campout, and I had the evening to myself. After some dinner with Melissa, I headed home and to work on a baby blanket I'm knitting, but first spent a little time killing myself on Wii Fitness Coach, Melissa's personal trainer. She had be touting it's ass-kicking ability and she was NOT KIDDING. Half an hour on the demo mode had me sweating unattractively, which is the point of course!

There aren't any games like you find on Wii Fit. I still love that disc, but sometimes I just want a start-to-finish workout rather than having to decide what to do next. The Fitness Coach program sets up different routines for different days, so one day you're working on upper body strength, the next is lower body, and the next is all aerobics.

And as Melissa said, I can swear at this trainer and not get in trouble, so double bonus!

Saturday was lovely start to finish. The Kid and I had a nice leisurely morning (after she de-icked post-campout), and a wonderful evening eating the best pulled pork I've ever tasted! mported from Tennessee via TR's brother & sister-in-law (by freezing it and transporting it in a cooler - but you'd never know!), it was accompanied by Whitt's Barbecue sauce (many bottles of which were brought back as souveniers).

It's a vinegary sauce, not a tomato-based one, and it is officially my favorite EVER. I could eat it on anything, I think... potatoes, veggies of any description, and of course all manner of grilled goodies! Corn, zucchini, whatever.

YUM.

We ate (a lot!), we played Wii games for awhile (I sucked mightily but it was still fun!), and I got to selfishly enjoy delighting an impending parent with some home-made bibs!

The dad totally loved them, and hopefully the mom will too... she had someone else's baby shower to attend (must be in the water!) and was understandably beat considereing she's in the any-minute-now/will-someone-please-get-this-child-OUT portion of the joy of pregnancy.

Time zipped by Saturday night and before I realized it, it was time to head home - 40 minutes isn't that long a drive unless you're totally wiped! With the assistance of some equally-imported Trader Joes espresso bits I made it home in one piece and was only up for a little while before crashing entirely.

Sunday morning... well, we *meant* to go to breakfast, however upon arrival at the Palace of the German Pancakes (aka Aunt Alice's), I found I couldn't get my key out of the car. Awesome! I could turn the car *off*, but I couldn't get it to turn back that last bit to get the key out. I tried for awhile but became convinced that if I tried any more I'd break the key off (just making things worse).

Thankfully the guys at Firestone are geniuses, and in short order figured out the problem, which was not "you need a new ignition thingy" (my term, not theirs), but was rather a tiny curve of plastic under the shifter which had snapped off, allowing the metal arm connecting the key lock to the shifter to pop out (so it couldn't engage the release of the key).

How'd they fix it, you ask?

Glue!

I appreciate DIY in all things.

It won't last forever, but it was an easy, quick-fix option since replacing the mechanism would have been impossible (the Nissan parts distributor is closed Sundays) that will hold me over until the next time, at which point I'll know the problem and it won't be a mess to fix.

Crisis averted!

I'd like to note that I had to turn off Fox News again in favor of Food Network while I waited (I got an oil change too, two birds dontchaknow). At first the other customers (a couple) seemed slightly annoyed, but wouldn't you know it?

We all started discussing bulk-buying spices, local merchants who sell such things, the merits of organic produce, and the best recipes for ham we know.

Way better than listening to talking heads spout whatever their politically-mandated teleprompter feeds them, eh?

Back home I snoozed away the stress of the near-fiasco of the morning (not only did I have to go to Firestone unexpectedly, our time there kept us past the German Pancake cutoff!), then headed to The Kid's grampas house to go over this and that in regards to dog/housesitting for the next 10 days while they're on a cruise in Alaska.

I hope they bring back an iceberg, because it's HOT here!!

On my plate this week... passports, dogsitting, a candle sale on Saturday, a sleepover with 4 teenagers the same day (one of them is moving to California shortly, the least I can do is grill some burgers for them and let them watch horror movies one last time), and hopefully cool enough evenings to merit time in the hot tub.

Oh, and I plan to work very hard on stopping the spinning thought thing, because it's not helping anyone, least of all me.

It's annoying as hell, in fact.