A pretty good weekend

I actually got out of the house two weekends in a row! That's got to a record for me, (at least in the past few years). I went to a retirement party for a couple I've known for 30 years and saw people I haven't seen in what seems like forever! Some of them looked just the same and some had changed do much, I didn't even recognize them at all. I thought to myself, it's probably the same when they are looking at me. I've changed myself in the years since I saw most of them, I just hope it was for the better, at least physically. I surprised my self by actually having fun and since I'm going out next weekend to a family reunion, maybe I'll have fun again there. I'm going to try my best to get out at least 2-3 times a week, I think I'll be better for it. I've been working hard on the blanket I'm making for my nephew's birthday, but I have a feeling I won't get it done in time. If not, I'll finish it for Christmas and send something else for his birthday. But if I'm close to done, I'll go ahead and send it late and blame the post office. He lives in Maine, it takes forever to get mail there anyhow. I must admit that a blanket can get a little tiresome at times, it seems like so little progress because of the length of the rows. I'm using different stitch patterns as I go along, both to make it look nice and to keep it interesting so my attention doesn't wander to the other projects I've put aside to finish this blanket. I've go so many things in the works, right now I just want to be able to say that I've finished something!

Didn't realize how long it had been

Life has been going along on it's usual path and I just didn't realize how long it had been since I had last posted here. The high- (or perhaps I should say low) lights of June were finding out that I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, and my favorite cat Chuck Norris dying. His death is still something I can't talk or even write about without falling apart and crying. So we will go on to something more cheerful, my new diagnosis. I was so hoping that the pain and difficulty in using my hands was not Rheumatoid Arthritis, but my doctor sent me to a specialist and yup! that's what it is. On a positive note, the med the specialist put me on is used for malaria (in much larger doses), so my PCP says I'm now protected against getting malaria. Great isn't it? I've been trying really hard these past few days to find some kind of positive in life, and I have to say it has been hard. But as least I'm trying. We did go to the Ohio Hills Folk Festival yesterday, at the urging of my Mom and Dad, and it was fun. I'm trying to get an afghan made in time for my nephew's birthday at the end of the month and so I'm working on it at every opportunity. May sound strange, but I took it with me to the fest and got quite a bit done. I figured there would be times I would need to sit for a bit and rest, and I also worked on it while we were watching the square dancing. I had to fix a few mistakes then, it was sometimes hard to concentrate while watching, those people really get into their dancing! It was fun to watch. It was good to get out of the house, and even though today I feel like I've been hit by a truck, I'm glad we went. I took some pictures, some of which are posted here, the rest can be seen on my flickr page at this address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fadedlily/