Life is a State of Mind

Well, in preparation for Erci’s new Fireside loom, which we plan to put in the family room, we’ve “right sized” our furniture by getting rid of the big red sofa and (eventually) the love seat and rocker, replacing them with a love seat and a chair. The new furniture, freshly new from La-Z-Boy, is much firmer and a bit taller (easier to get back out of). It reclines, which is nice, and the new chair is made of leather so our friends with allergies to Bailey can sit in it more safely.

So now we have one loveseat and sofa too many, and we are looking for a home for either the red set (love seat and two wide cushion sofa), or for the blue love seat and contrasting blue&green sofa. Anyone interested?

I also have a set of four Nokian winter/snow tires (which are AWESOME in snow) that fit my old Saab 9-5 (16″ rims) available to a good home, and one summer/all-season 17″ wheel and tire combo (this was the full-sized spare for my Saab that I bought when I realized the Saab came with a donut spare). All looking for a good home, all will end up on freecycle if friends are not interested.

Update: I also have Motorola/Nextel phones and accessories for phones I no longer use, all free to anyone who can use them: Nextel i85s phone, Nextel i90c phone, two batteries that work in i85s/i90c and other phones, three travel chargers, two car chargers, one datacable (you can download iDen CompanionPro software for free).

Two links have recently been brought to my attention (thanks Rocketboom and MLF) that bring up very interesting questions about whether the Death Star was really taken out by rebels in small x-wing fighters, or if it might have been an inside job… Also a case study in why some believe that R2D2 is the real leader of the rebel alliance!

Uncomfortable Questions: Was the Death Star Attack an Inside Job?
and there is more of this, with pictures at: debunking911.com/questions.htm

A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope
Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III

Fun stuff for a fun Friday!

I just realized how long it has been since I posted anything, and I am a bit shocked. Life has been very good, but very, very busy. My awesome boss has been on vacation for almost two weeks and in her absence she asked me to try to fill her role as much as possible, and now I have great sympathy for her own workload. Simultaneously my own workload doubled again (it had already doubled since early March), and I have simply been crushed by pending actions that must be done.

In the past several weeks I got to participate in another excellent La Belle living history weekend down at Military Through the Ages (Jamestown Fort). Setting up in pouring, icy rain was a serious morale check for our group on Friday the 16th of March, but Saturday and Sunday it dried out and was even sunny (though it never did get warm). Our newest recruits, some of them minor children, all seemed to have fun and did a fantastic job; and the new hastilude scenario has lots of possibilities (though I personally was a bit lost from not having enough time to study my own back-story).

Erci and I got to compete in Arthur Murray’s DC area Spring Freestyles again, and that was a ballroom dancing blast. I did not dance as well as I have in the past (not having time to prepare), but the dancing and the costumes were still fantastic, and I had two incredible moments where all the years of classes, practice, and training snapped into place. One was with Erci during our Bolero, where we simply enjoyed such a good connection that we sort of flowed like liquid and had about as much fun as you can legally have in Virginia in a public space. The other was with my fantastic instructor, MJ, during a Viennese Waltz heat, where I was about to lead a new step and realized 1/3rd the way into it that we’d been cut-off by another couple and I was finally able to lead a change into a different step without much hesitation and avoid a collision. That’s happened for me in slower dances, but never in Viennese before so I am personally thrilled. The pro-shows Saturday night were all fantastic, and John and Lee’s Waltz actually made me cry it was so beautiful.

We’ve got another La Belle show coming up on April 14th and 15th at Marietta Manor (historic house in Bowie, MD), feel free to come out and see us either day from 11-4. We are getting ready to head to Kalamazoo, and do showcase routines at both dance studios (May 19th Centreville, June 2nd Tysons) and a group formation (Rumba-Cha) at Arthur Murray showcase (June 2nd). Work should begin to calm down once my boss returns on Monday the 9th, and I can give away one of the major subsystem/projects I am running (how did I end up with 4 major projects?).

I am incredibly thankful. Last week I was thankful that Erci has a second car. We were able to loan my Prius to a friend in need and I ended up driving sutragirl’s Porsche. The Porsche is not a comfortable car, seats too small, don’t line up with wheel, noisy, no place to plug in iPod; but what a visceral thrill it can give on a sunny morning for a short trip. The throaty roar of the engine drowns out your troubles and makes for a lot of fun. This week I am thankful that my boss’s vacation is almost over and that the cherry tree in the back yard is in full bloom. It is simply gorgeous.