Fall-ing Down

Yeah, it's fall now, which means I should probably offer an update on how I did with the summer goals that Debi tagged me to do back in June. Let's see ...

(1) Knock some items off "The 50." Well, other than getting a blog set up about that (a blog on which I have yet to fully detail the items I've finished), I didn't do squat on the list. I'll try to do better this fall.

(2) Figure out the tabletop loom I bought last summer. Hey! I did something on this one. I took a week-long weaving class (more like weaving bootcamp) at Stony Mountain Fibers, and learned what I need to know. (When I'm on the right computer, I'll actually post some photos.) Unfortunately, one thing I learned is that my loom is missing all the heddles. However, in the small six-degrees-of-separation world in which we live, it turned out that a friend had gotten extra heddles when she bought her loom, so she passed them on to me. As a result, a project for the winter is to get them installed on my loom and then figure out if I need to order some more.

(3) Try to learn the rest of the skill forms I need to know for a black belt in Myo Sim kendo. I managed to learn a couple of them, and have a couple still to learn. That's okay, though, since there's at least a year and probably two before I'd be ready to test.

(4) Battle the clutter and disarray that is my house. Yeah, right! I did get things a bit cleaner when younger son returned to the dorm, but it's basically the same cluttered hovel it was in June around here. In fact, having admitted that, I should probably finish this post and go vacuum. The vacuum cleaner has been sitting in the foyer since the time I vacuumed the dog and cat hair out of the bedroom (upstairs) and off the stairs; I think that was about three weeks ago. I have been trying to will one of the resident men to vacuum the main floor, but shall concede defeat and do it myself. Yeah, they win this round.

Finally in terms of updates from the summer, my new hero successfully finished her summer of basic training at the Air Force Academy, and has started classes. It's still not an easy existence, but she's hanging in there. And she's still my hero for doing so.

Some summer highlights: Various work projects; The Dark Knight, though I only saw it once; four quilts (a Quilts of Summer II post will come once they've been formally presented); a short trip here and there (sailing on the Chesapeake Bay; Gettysburg, some details of which can be found here; a pig roast thrown by Mark Warner); lots of kendo; a bit of planning for the Vietnam adventure; and probably not enough sleep. And now, to the vacuum!