Oh chocolate cake, how do I love thee?

Last week was the final week of my post-surgery time off. It was a good week.

My friend Toni baked me this cake, and we sat in her back yard on a beautiful day, chatting and being lazy. First we went out and had Chinese food for lunch.

The icing had sprinkles on it and was very fahn-cy. I brought some cake home and had to got to share it with Thomas. My selfish inner self might have been screaming, "MY CAKE dammit. Get ya own dam' cake," but I told selfish me to shut up and very generously offered him a piece. And wouldn't you know, he TOOK IT. Hmf.

I got to meet Rain, Toni's new dog, who is elderly and frail. She is very gentle, but when a stranger dog came for a visit, she gave him the business. She stood somewhat far away and barked at him. Much like a tottery 99 year old lady might not be able to chase the kids on her grass, but could still shake her cane and scream, "Get off my lawn you dam' kids!"

Friday I went to see the surgeon about my foot. He said, "take up thy bed and walk," or something like that. He actually said go home, wear your air cast for three more weeks, and don't do anything crazy. And put cocoa butter/vitamin e on your foot twice a day.

In my mind, I was just going to roll into the office on my rollie, and walk out on my own two feet. What really happened was that I tried very hard to take a step, and the pain was immense. Very large, very hurty pain. So I rolled out. Thomas took me to lunch, and I found that with the aid of my crutches, I could walk. Slowly and with some pain, but I could do it. So Friday afternoon I watched  the rolllie ride off into the sunset and I've (slowly and with some pain) gotten around on my two feet ever since. Yay.

Today I went back to work. It was okay. Our customer (I am sort of the customer liaison) was thrilled to have me back. Apparently she spent much of my time off asking when I was getting back. My boss said, "Boy we are glad you are back, (our customer) really missed you!" Which was nice...I think. Not that HE missed me so much, but someone else did. I'll take what I can get.

My friend George brought me a pumpkin on Saturday. I will post a picture of it later. I bought two more and they are currently making the front steps of the house look orange and harvesty. I may even cut a face in one of them. My real plan for them is to cut them up, steam them, and add them to the dog's food. Pumpkin is very good for dogs, it's fiberlicious. Do you think that feeding pumpkin to Punkin is morally wrong?

Autumn zigzags

I started making this last year at our spring quilt retreat and Christine's mini-group's spring reatreat. This is the center of the quilt. My plan is to add one slim black border going all the way around surrounded by a wider border of one of the brownish/orange prints.

I was going to gift it to my parents, but that isn't going to happen now as the Mother said she wants something to go with a certain piece of furniture in her room. So, I have new fabric and a new plan. As soon as my foot is back in working order, I'm going to finish this one and get stuck into the new one for Mom.

Today I was browsing around on Goodreads and found a book review that tickled me. It was someone having a good old time ranting about a book she found just terrible, and it was hilarious. It reminds me of one of my favorite collections of negative movie reviews: Roger Ebert's I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie. I kid you not, it's comic gold! And that is my recommendation for today.

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. - Ray Bradbury

READ, Y'ALL.

Hey everyone, it's Banned Books Week. Celebrate your freedom to read. Read good books. Bad books. Books of embarrassing erotica. Books that make you laugh (which might be the same as embarrassing erotica...I'm just saying). Books that enrage you or frighten you or delight you, or make you want to leave your job and travel around the world.

Read a book to a kid. Read to your loved ones. Read out loud to yourself! Listen to a book on CD. Donate a book to a local literacy project.

Read, and think and dream, and support your local libraries and book stores. If you object to an author or a book, fine, don't read them or let your kids read them. But don't try to stop other people from reading them.

Please watch this short video from John Green, one of my favorite authors. It is genius. John Green (author of Waiting for Alaska, Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines, and The Fault In Our Stars) reminds us that people who are not children can read critically. I have a hard time writing about book censorship without turning into a giant squid of anger, and think that John covers it much better.

But if you are interested, here is a picture of John Green doing the "giant squid of anger" for me:

The Princess and the Cold, Shivery Day

This picture was actually taken last winter right after Princess Punkin had her disastrous December haircut.
I posted it today though, because she still has a short (short!) summer haircut, and the weather has gotten cooler, and she has started shivering at night. So we tuck her under the covers, and swaddle her with blankets or towels, and fuss over her until she stops shivering.
It's probably time to get down in the basement and hunt up that nerdtastic green sweater.
You know that story of the Princess and the Pea? Punkin would definitely toss and turn all night in misery because of that pea. And Thomas and I would remove eleventy mattresses, searching for whatever was keeping our tiny fairy-like sweet little Punkin from resting comfortably, until she approved of the sleeping arrangements.
Doesn't she remind you of Snoopy, hunched over on his dog-house like a vulture?

Not all guests stink after three days!

It has been so great having my cousin here the last nine days. It took some of the pressure off Thomas, so he didn't have to do all the heavy-duty care of making sure I am fed, watered, and entertained. Matt and I can just sit around and entertain each other with silly stories and talking about family things and adventures we had together as kids.

Matt introduced me to the comedy stylings of Tyler Perry as Madea, and we giggled our way through a couple of the Madea movies.

We went to the bookstore and library, and a couple of movies. When I was tired out (and these days it doesn't take much to make me tired) we sat on the patio, took naps, and talked our heads off.

I think cousins are just about the best relatives! Brothers and sisters are good, but in my experience, there is often a lot of baggage left over from childhood. Matt is like a brother sans drama of having the same parents!

The only thing bad about his visit is that I wish he could have stayed longer.

Monday Monday Monday

Saw the movie, Lee Daniel's The Butler today with Matt and Toni. Enjoyed it a lot. It used the story of a man in service at the White House to tell the story of the Civil Rights struggle.  Impressive cast.

We also had lunch after the movie. Then Matt and I came back here to sit in the backyard, philosophizing over a couple of beers, and then napping. We had dinner and are now puttering. I have put the finishing touches on the short presentation I am giving tomorrow at BHQG (quilt guild) meeting. It is about The Internet for Quilters.

I am maybe a little nervous, it always feels scary to get up there in front of people and hope they get your jokes and enjoy what you have to say. But I am sure it will be fine.

Yesterday Thomas and Matt and I went to Jim and Andy's for a movie and dinner. Have you ever seen Horrible Bosses? It's a black comedy, and so funny. Also filthy, but yes, hilarious.

Matt has been sharing some of his favorite videos from the youtube with me. I now know about GloZell and other funny youtube stars. I enjoyed this woman named krissychula:

Dear Miley indeed.

The foot of Frankenzilla

Things went well at the doctor's today. He removed the stitches - which smarted a little - and rewrapped everything. He sent me home for three more weeks of enforced inactivity.

Here are pictures of the damage. Thomas said the foot looks like The Bride of Frankenzilla.

Wrinkled from the bandages and still stained with Betadine, but not too bad.

Things on the bottom are a little more interesting.

Tedium

Yesterday and today I've been at home all day with my foot up. I see the doctor tomorrow and am hoping to present a foot free from swelling and looking good. Jim did come over yesterday and bring me lunch. It was great to see him and get some news from the outside world. We started talking about our next baking extravaganza (our personal holy baking holiday - Halloween!) and what we should do.

Since seeing the doctor last Saturday my foot and leg have been so uncomfortable. They wrapped it fairly tight and all the way up to the knee. It's hot, itchy, and for some reason my big toe feels like someone is pressing down on the nail. Not painful exactly, but annoying. Also, my stitches feel itchy sometimes. It's been three weeks since the surgery and I am just OVER all this.

If you read any young adult novels, I can recommend Sisters Red and Sweetly by Jackson Pearce. They are reboots of old fairy tales.

Whenever Thomas gets home today he's taking me to the library. It's ridiculous how excited I am about this outing.

Random Tuesday

Toni and I went to the movies last Thursday. We saw City of Bones. It was very....extra....meh. The lead actors were all attractive in a fresh-faced, just-out-of-the-box-and-never-used fashion. But the dialogue was bad. Cringingly bad. Embarrassingly bad. So bad that there were large parts of the movie where there was no dialogue, just scenes where the camera slid over the faces of the lovely youths as if to say, "Hello viewer, aren't they all so pretty?"

And there were plot holes you could drive a truck through, and places where you could see what was coming five miles away.  For instance, there is a betrayal (isn't there always?) and you can see that coming practically from the first moment you meet the betrayer. And someone's mother calls her and says, "Don't come home, danger, monsters, go ask so and so for help." So what does the Too Stupid To Live character do? She goes HOME of course! To meet the monsters! TSTL!

Toni assures me me the books are very readable, so I've put in a request for them. But so has everybody else in Baltimore, so I'm waiting patiently. I actually got book four right away, but can't see diving into the series 2/3 of the way in.

Tonight I am going out to quilting Board meeting. Thomas has to take me as I could not scare up a ride. We are combining the trip with a visit to Five Guys, so it will be like a mini-date.

The other day at the doctor I got my first peek at my sutures. My right foot, it is totally Bride of Frankenstein! The bottom anyway. The next time it is unwrapped I will post pictures!