Good lord, I’ve been busy. When last I wrote, I had just received my job offer. (It’s really hard to believe that that was nearly a week ago!) Since then, I’ve been running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get done everything that, well… needs to get done before Monday, when I start my new job. This includes:

• Filling out lots of forms and FedExing them to the office HR department.
• Shopping for new work-appropriate clothes and shoes (look ma! I’m a real grown-up now!)
• Driving out to Durham to have a drug screening (fun fun).
• Working like mad to finish the Yarn Expressions online store (which involves lots and lots of coding, playing with graphics and photos in Photoshop, and scouring web forums for tips and tricks on software mods so I can get the program do what I want it to do).

You’ll note that the above list does not include any knitting or spinning or dyeing. It’s so sad, but I’ve barely had time to knit on my secret project, which really ought to have only taken me a day or two, much less anything big. Hopefully once I start the new job and get settled in, things will slow down a bit so that I can get back to the fiber arts.

Friday was our card night again, though this time we didn’t play cards – we played dominoes and Taboo instead. Would you believe we got through one side of all of the cards? That’s 504 words! I wonder if they make an expansion pack…

New Mudd shoes from DSW

Then on Saturday, Eva and I went out shopping. None of my last jobs (grad school included) have required business wear, so my collection of “business casual” clothing is quite limited. I’m a jeans and Birkenstocks kind of girl. I’ve got some stuff that I’ve obtained over the years that will work, but a lot of it is more winter-wear, and seeing as I start my job July 2nd and it’s frequently 90°+ outside right now, I needed stuff to wear now. So I took some of the birthday money dad gave me and headed off to the mall with Eva, who’s in the same boat clothes-wise as me. Nine hours and a little more than half a grand later, I came home hefting several bags that carried 4 new tops, 4 new pairs of pants, 2 new skirts, and 5 new pairs of shoes. It was a lot of money – almost a month’s rent – but the stuff I got was good. I hit Talbots and DSW, both of which were running huge sales, so considering the quality and quantity of stuff I bought, I actually got some really great deals.

This Friday, we’re switching up card night a little bit to celebrate my new employment. I had initially wanted to go out to a nice restaurant, but the place I had chosen has apparently gone downhill recently, and as I was looking for alternatives, I started to feel like it was all just so excessive. All I really wanted was a social evening around the dinner table with my close friends and a good bottle of wine. So instead of going out, we’re doing a potluck dinner at Hans and Laura’s before card night begins. For far less money, we’ll get a great meal and even more great wine. (Yay for having a wine connoisseur in our group who will select only the best for us!) And then, of course, we’ll play games. (I’m still a little hooked on Taboo… wonder if I could convince the others to play again this week?)

In sadder news, my mom’s dog Rusty, our 14-year-old little Papillion-Pomeranian mix, is sick. She’s had a serious heart murmur, arthritis, and cataracts for years, and she’s been going a bit deaf in recent years, but she’s managed to be happy and relatively healthy despite all that. However, she started having seizures last night, and she’s been at the vet’s under observation since, getting IV fluids and antibiotics. We’re hoping she’ll pull through this, but we just have no way of telling at the moment. Her time may be drawing near, and my parents certainly don’t want to prolong her pain and misery if there’s nothing that can be done to help her. They say all dogs go to heaven, but all the same, if it’s not too much trouble, please keep her in your thoughts.