Well, I’ve been meaning to update. Not for any particular reason, just feel chatty.
The familial visit was really nice. It was great to see my sister–she’s still the cute one, still ornery, and we still have a great laugh when we get together. Mom & Dad are doing great, and Mom paid me such a sweet compliment, saying what a great cook I have turned out to be. I made a big ol’ pizza Friday night, and on Saturday, we devoured the rest of the pinto beans I’d made a couple of days before. Bean and cheese burritos! In between we drank gallons of coffee, ‘Dree and Dad had some Miller and Todd had some Warsteiner.
The cat and the dog had a fairly peaceable meeting. Dad said the cat fluffed up and fled when they first came in the door with the dog, but she eventually came out from under the bathtub to investigate. Tasha (the dog) would have liked to rush up to the cat, nose a-sniffin’ and tongue a-flappin, but mom made her back off, and eventually Sugar (the cat) approached the dog on her own terms. Any time the dog got too bold with the cat, she’d hiss, but no further tail-fluffing or claw baring ensued. The dog really did smell pretty rank, and Mom ended up giving Tasha her weekly bath a day early as Audrey and I groused about the stinkieness of the dog fairly pointedly. She put some of my swimmer’s conditioner on the dog’s fur, which rendered it really soft and fluffy!
Our company departed Saturday afternoon, and Sunday evening Todd and I caught “The Gangs of New York” with our friend Rob. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Yes it was gruesome and violent and grisly, but for all the blood that flew, it was not gratuitious violence. Every fight helped define situations that made the characters who they were or typified the characters’ actions and personalities. I don’t know enough about Victorian Era New York history to know how historically accurate the story was (thought I do know enough about Victorian-era fashion to praise the costumer for the Schermerhorn women’s costumes, especially)
Hmm–what else.
Everyone online and off seems to be talking New Year’s Resolutions.
Mine’s the same as last year–work on getting the business to be self-sufficient and quit my day job. Not much of a resolution, since it is on my mind every day, and it is something I have been trying to work steadily on all the time. I have a mental “leave date” set for the Ides of March. I reckon that will get me out early enough to catch at least a little of the Prom Season business and will give my bosses time enough to fill my chair before they start having to think of filling the seats of the two women retiring.
Honestly, the whole idea of cutting loose from a “proper job” kind of freaks me out, but I know I can do it. Right now I am starting to get a backlog of work, and I truly think that if I can devote more time to working on my sewing and promoting my business I can bring in a pretty steady load of work. I am seeing mending/alteration as being a good bread-and-butter enterprise, with the big-spiffy-custom jobs whenever I can get them, for the occasional larger chunk fo cash, and the glorious creative fix that such work gives me.
Well, if we do anything for NYE, I will write about it. Hell, if we do nothing I might well write about that, too. Anyway, until then, Happy New Year.
Cheers and smooches!