Updating yet again.....

Amazing how busy life can get. Let's see --

1. busy at work (good! but tiring.......)
2. computer and ISP issues at home (and lack of time to update from work -- see #1)
3. Jezebel turned 18 last week, and she got fleas for the first time in her life ;-) And in one of those great ironies, she spends her time in Seth's lap but the fleas decided to camp out around my computer........Thankfully, the flea spray worked and the pests are all gone (except for the cat -- she's still as cranky as ever!)
   
4. Hot weather stinks. I've spent way too much time recently just sweating without the energy to do anything else. I'm very eager for daily highs to get back below 80 or so.
5. I'm discovering that allergies developed as an adult are bad -- and we haven't even started the 'official' fall allergy season (although weed counts are already high, and we've had no rain this month, so everything is blowing around).
   

I'm still finding that grief is a funny thing - I'm missing Mum more than about at any time since she died. Don't know if it's the aftereffects of the miscarriage or just normal swings or something else, but the hole she left seems bigger than ever. I try to be Pollyanna-ish in my attitude and be thankful that she was wonderful enough that her death left a big hole in my life, but my usual mental games that way don't seem to be working [pout, pout, pout].

Despite the heat, I have gotten some knitting done (which I will post about separately). One of the up sides to a cranky computer. (There's that Pollyanna again.......)

I've also enjoyed using the ball winder I picked up at the knitting/crochet show at Valley Forge. Nice to be able to that on my own schedule.

With the heat, I haven't done much dyeing, but I have a box of yarn and some 'real' (Cushing) dyes ready to take to Maine. A week from right now -- I'll be there!

Seth's been gone all week for yearly meeting, so it's just been me here with Jez -- and she frequently reminds me that I don't feed her right, and don't give her enough treats, and don't hold her right, and when is the world's only worthwhile person returning?

I've not been getting to services as much as I'd like - since I'm tired at the end of the week (see #1 in list above), I'm less likely to fight the traffic and use the expensive gas. Plus, they start at 7 and I finish work at 4:30, so I end up with an hour or more to kill (as driving the 20+ minutes home then retracing my steps to go back isn't too appealing). So I've been davening at home on Shabbat. I've missed the people but not the crowds (if that makes sense to anyone who isn't a shy introvert) and plan to be better about going after I get back from Maine. But the intermission at home has been good for me -- letting me focus on the prayers more than dealing with the crowd :-)