hills and valleys

shemhazai visited last weekend, and it was the first time we'd seen each other in over a year (!) We had a fine old time museum hopping, drinking chocolate and limoncello, and talking over all the things we've not had time to talk about on the phone because we've both been busy/unavailable. She helped me rattle some of the creative cobwebs off my mind - even got me cranking on the Regency again, and together we finished taking apart the burgundy drapes.

It works out that I'd kicked off a sewing jag. Tuesday ice had me teleworking, so I was able to spend my lunch hour at my own kitchen table binding the sleeve seams. They look and feel beautiful - I've been doing all the finishing by hand in part because of the delicacy of the cotton and partly because it's just pleasant to handle :)

This weekend I stayed in and mostly read a lot - finished Palimpsest (strange and beautiful) and continued Bess of Hardwick (jailing the Queen of Scots can create a huge strain on your marriage, even if Elizabeth I is your BFF).

Fencing comes and goes. I recovered from last week's overtraining and have been performing some impressively deep lunges, but I'm still struggling to concentrate and put a plan behind the power. It's frustrating both how long it's taking me to focus and how irritated I get that I can't seem to fall into "flow" as tidily as I was before the holidays.

I'm just sad at how the weather is making me more disorganized than usual. It's a combination of cold weather lethargy/SAD slowing me down and hazardous driving conditions derailing what plans I'm able to put in place. I did finally remember to register for the March NAC, mostly because it's something I can do from my desk, and set up a few reminders so I'll get to hotel/flight booking in a timely manner.

Having said that, I'm trying to spend less at-home time online because LJ, blogs, Twitter etc. suck me in and keep me from doing Stuff That Needs Done (in the time it took me to write this I was looking up flights and who does those awesome Romulan tabi boots in the Star Trek reboot in other windows. You see my problem?)