Monday the 27th my aunt and uncle were still here, so it was kind of a work day and kind of a host day. Luckily I was working from home and a handful of higher-ups were out at conferences or on vacation, so few people noticed that I was slow in answering my emails.
I realized that night that the pattern I had been fiddling with started with the wrong measurements. So I painfully unraveled it all back to the foundation row, re-balled the yarn barf, and sadly started over. At this point, if I run into another mistake, I may just have to roll with it because I do not want to un-do this project a second time!
Tuesday 28th was Tiabeanie's final class of level 3 obedience training. We've had her for about 9 months now, and she has really blossomed from the dog that the shelter knew, that the fosters knew, and that we knew when we first got her. She is sweet and smart and sassy, loving and cuddly, and also unfortunately still pretty anxious about being away from me. Having training together has really helped our bond and trust for me to be able to move into things like cutting her nails and giving her baths with less fear and fuss (she still doesn't like them though) and I just know that the next big hurdle will be addressing her separation anxiety.
For now though, I love the training place and am excited to move onto the more fun stuff!
Wednesday the 29 was a full and flexible day! Started with a 2 mile walk around the lake with a friend who is babysitting a greyhound! I wish we had a properly fenced place for her to run because I would love to see her dash about and play with Tiabeanie, but most dog parks don't have the 10 foot high fences recommended for speedsters and leapers like sighthounds. Then home for laundry and chores and after the fur babies had lunch Andrew and I set out to check out the county fair...only to learn at the entrance that no pets were allowed. So with Tiabeanie in the back seat we pivoted to Main Street and just people watched while eating pizza.
When we got home from lunch the power was out (father-in-law is working on the wiring as he preps for re-insulating our attic) so I busied myself with a project that didn't need power - a carding board. Not to be confused with cardboard, this style of fiber prep was the predecessor to todays blending board. I nailed a patch of carding cloth to the underside of my fiber picker to have a more all-in-one multi-use tool, then wrapped some carding cloth around a pair of handles I had connected at the ends for a (very ugly) type of comb to pull over the board. Then I finished carding some of the llama fluff I had washed and picked and now it's ready for spinning. I'm really glad to be done with this project as it is a tool that can help me move forward with so many other projects!
Thursday the 30th was apparently uneventful enough that I took no pictures or really noted what I did during the day. Mostly just remoted in to work and caught up on emails while folks were away.
Friday July 1st however was a big deal. For starters, I forgot it was Friday and missed my therapy call! I had stuff to talk about too so I'll have to make some notes to remember it through to the next appointment. I also was able to log off early from work and pack up some clothes, crafts, and my rig to head over to a friends house for a holiday weekend LAN party!
My rig is much older than everyone else's and programmed for much different tasks. While folks set up their PCs and gaming laptops, I took a select corner of the folding tables in the living room to set up a restored Singer featherweight. Through the whole weekend I listened to people game while sewing a yukata, spinning yarn, and making progress on two crochet projects. I spent two nights at the LAN before burning out hard on all the noise, shuffling around, and children, so I packed up Sunday afternoon, collapsed on the spare bed at home for a nap, then stress ate 2/3 of a pack of Oreos for dinner. Not the best way to end the weekend, but all in all it was pretty fun and it was nice to see so many people and also make a lot of progress on my projects.