First you pillage, then you burn

Here I am at not even 7:00AM on my birthday, awake for who knows what reason as I am not working today. I do have to call in yet to make sure my supervisor got my email, but I'm 90% sure there will be no problem. Not that 10% is not enough to keep me from going back to sleep when I wake up at my regular time.

Entering into my last year of being in my 40s, it's weird. Really. Mentally, emotionally, I don't feel like I'm even in my 40s yet. Physically, I feel like I'm getting there, but certainly not "almost 50", and that's mostly due to my leg being jacked up. I am sure I'd be much more spry if I had full mobility.

Saturday, our wonderful friends Shirley and Dave invited us over for a dinner in honor of my birthday. It was very touching-it's been a very long time since I had a friend who was willing to do something like that for me. Especially since we learned when we got there that their beloved kitty had passed away unexpectedly the day before and they were both pretty upset about it. In spite of that, a good time was had by all and the food was amazing.



Wonderfully cooked rib roast, potatoes, and greens. With chocolate cheesecake for dessert. And some pretty great wines.

I'm being taken out to dinner tonight at Casbah, a restaurant that is part of the Big Burrito group here (local nice restaurant un-chain) and I'm looking forward to it. Also, my daughter is going to stop by on her way home from class today and I haven't seen her since we were at her place for dinner so that will be nice. My mom is going to dinner with us. We will have to use all our powers to prevent her from grabbing the check. Sigh. Moms.

Just opened my present from Bob, and he got me an awesome set of knives, ones that were on my wish list, the OXO Good Grips knives. Fantastic! I have been working with one half-decent knife for ten years, it'll be nice to have the proper tools for the job.

In case you've been curious about the outcome of the BRESMA orphanage situation, here's a good recap from the PG. I am not sure how to feel about it. As I said to a friend on facebook, On one hand I'm very glad the kids are ok. On the other hand, wow, they twisted a lot of arms and bent a lot of rules. On the gripping hand, imperialism. It all bothers me but as a mom, concern for the kids' lives comes first. It's confusing. I can only hope that the kids stay in touch with their cultural heritage because it's certain that Haiti is going to be troubled with this for a long time, and there will at least be a diaspora of children, if not everyone, because of this. It's good to know, though, that mountains could be moved, a teaspoon at a time, to get those kids safe.

It was also a triumph of social networking, with local mega-popular blog That's Church taking a lead role in getting the word out both via her blog and twitter. The family of the women in charge of the orphanage worked with the blog owner to make her the point person on the social networking end, getting information and requests for specific help out, and passing along the only reliable news as it became available. A wonderful thing all in all, though Virginia from That's Church took a lot of heat from some people for being less than forthcoming with info at the family's request. All I can say is if I ever need to be rescued, I hope I get someone like her on my side-it was amazing to watch.

I'm knitting two pair of socks, neither of which have photos that are worthy of being shared at this point. Yesterday, I decided to treat myself to some spinning as well. I'm finishing the orange Border Leicester that I got in Waynesburg back last spring.


The 365 project goes on. Here's this week's photos.


"Fruit", one of the hats I made for the orphans. The hats are going to be donated to I dunno, probably Catholic Charities because they get a lot of refugees.

I did two photos for 1/20,

"Keyed Up"
and


"Keyed In", both shenanigans with cell phone pics and my wimpy photo editing program.


"Look Up, It's All Around You", 1/21, the day the bus broke down at the end of the busway and we had to walk from there into town. This is the dome of the rotunda in front of the old Pennsylvania Railroad station, now luxury apartments and offices. One of my favorite buildings in town.


"Urban Decay" for 1/22. Another cell phone picture.


"This is not as beautiful as love", 1/23. Bob brought me roses on Friday.


"Vines" for 1/24, detail of the top of a hat I made for my elder daughter's roommate.


And finally, "Fierce", from 1/25, a detail of my favorite tee shirt in the world. I love my sumo wrestler. He makes me feel invincible.

That's about it!