I really had plans of posting while I was in Oregon.  I slept the first couple of days (36 out of 48 hours) and then got all caught up in doing things.  I wasn’t online much during the trip.  But I did take pictures!  I shall share tomorrow, when I have a chance to get everything downloaded.

It looks like my website is down, too.  I tried getting ahold of the hosting company, but they have gone AWOL.  I have to replicate a few files, but most everything should be up by Monday.

Oh, and I’m up at 3 in the morning because my spleen has decided to act up and I can’t sleep.

I hate complaining on blogs.  I don’t like reading them myself so I try not to whine in my posts.  But why couldn’t things have gone easier over the past two weeks?!

tall!boy has gone to SF for a week for work and I’m sans car until Saturday.  I have my days carefully planned out.  Maybe I’ll post my to-do list on an additional tab — would anyone be interested in knowing?

For months now, I’ve been battling a sore throat off and on, with jaw pain to go along.  I saw an ENT in late October and she gave me an anti-viral, but it didn’t work for long.  When the throat flared up again two days ago, I decided to go to the doc.  This morning, I was tested and sure enough…..

I.  Have. Mono.

Mono.  At 26-almost-27.  This explains why I’ve been so tired since the wedding.  I thought it was just adjusting to working at home and not having a set schedule.  And then I blamed it on not eating well or what ever else made sense at the time.  Now, I have to plan out my time and get plenty of rest.  But at least I know what’s going on and can deal with it.  It’s all going to take some getting used to.

On another note, since I napped all day yesterday, I got quite a bit of dyeing done last night.  I’ve been trying to figure out what’s been causing such pale results and have been slowly eliminating variables.  I used only distilled water, I rinsed some small pieces to eliminate anything with the washer (unlikely, but a concern).  No chlorine touched these tests at all and yet still the first strips were weak…

So I read blogs and books and instruction websites…  and I wondered if maybe the fabrics weren’t getting warm enough during batching.  I never think of this as being a cold place, but I guess if the a/c is on, it’s around 70, which is just slightly too cold.  So, I went out and bought a heating pad that doesn’t shut off after 2 hours and gave it a whirl…

Here they’re wet, but rinsed.  The dry colors turned out just a tiny bit lighter than wet, which is amazing to me right now.  I’ve gone for over a year without predictable results and now I finally have control over my dyeing again!  I’m in gear to get a BUNCH of testing of colors done and build my sample book.  This set was 8 six-step gradations.  I’m in love with them and have been fondling them quite frequently

… the wonderful wizard of teeth…

Root canal in t-minus 20 minutes.  Hopefully I’m not so loopy from the Halcion yet that this doesn’t make any sense. 

Update on Fritz, very briefly: found a guy to sell an engine cheaper.  He offered to put it in, too, but I may have Autohaus do the work.  They’re about $500 more, but I wouldn’t create any hard feelings.  Talked with Autohaus and they don’t anticipate anything but the tranny and regular maintainence for the next year.  I want the car detailed to get the remains of the smoke out and the dome light fixed.  Probably new tires and a new windshield, depending on what the annual inspection turns up.  Other than that, there’s only surprises with the car.  They’ve already replaced all the belts and filters and such so I should be good to go for a while.

Ok, not so brief…  but in short, tall!boy and I agreed that I will keep the car until all our credit cards are paid off and then I will get a new-new car.  We can rent a car for long trips to OK and MO.  I’m comfortable taking Fritz to Dallas and back (I have AAA and 35 is pretty safe all the way down).

Time to leave.  Hopefully I’ll get a lot done tomorrow when I’m hyper from the Vicodin.

We got in about an hour late because of fog, and tall!boy decided he didn’t want to take the cable car up the (massive) hill to the hotel. Please note that I have a BART Plus Pass which means I get unlimited rides on all Muni and most regional transport. I had an asthma attack about half-way up the hill and where is my inhaler? In Austin.

The hotel was nice enough to give us the room ahead of schedule by an hour or so and I *crashed* big time. Just woke up and tall!boy is still at work. The room is nice and the bed is super cozy.

Thought I’d share a pic from this morning. Tall!boy stayed up all night instead of going to bed at midnight and getting up again at 3:30. So by the time we were in Denver, he was exhausted. He wanted to sleep but the morning sun was in his eyes.

I also realized that I forgot to post about Miss Scarlet while I was in Dallas.  She was still entered into the show as Married in Red, Take 2 and was up against 14 competitors (including some very stiff competition).  And guess what?!

Whew…  off to eat across the street at Uncle Vito’s.  I’m in the mood for pizza.

Please note:  this is so totally not quilt related, but my day has been wrapped up in election stuff today and I feel the need to share. 

Where else in this great nation can a citizen get to vote twice in the same election?  Well, legally, that is…  God, I love Texas!

I spent the evening at my precinct caucus.  Holy cow — MASS CHAOS!  No one understood the process.  The poor folks who were the election judges were overwhelmed by all the people and they couldn’t talk over everyone.  I yelled “HEY!” and it got quiet.  So, um, I got to help people sign in.  And then I got to help count votes.  And I got to help organize the delegates.  Oh, and I’m going to be a delegate from my precinct to the County convention.  I am, for lack of a better word, STOKED!

During the counting process, we were very careful to count the entries 3 times, to be sure.  And while we were talking, someone made the comment that it’s nice that we’re all able to be civil and pleasant, because come November, we’re all going to be together.

My favorite story of the night: I helped get the residents of the retirement center signed in first so they could leave.  One woman came up to me and said “I’m 95 and I remember when women couldn’t even vote.  And now, I’m voting for one.  I’m proudly putting my name for Clinton and I don’t care who knows it!”  I teared up.  I asked her if I could give her a hug.  She was sweet enough to let me.  And then she told me how good made her feel to see a young woman helping out with the election.  I really have no sense of how it must feel for her.  I hope that we women have a sense of just how important this election is for our history.  I realized tonight that we may be taking it for granted.