Newsletter: 2011
Jan. 10th, 2013 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
filkferengiSuccess; yay! Here's some more:
2011 got off to a slippery start. Determined to stay late at GaFilk for once, I stayed a half-hour too late, in the snow. After a very scary drive, two miles from home, my Corolla skidded gently off the road & was stopped from going completely in the ditch by a timely sign. Two man came by & pushed me back up onto the road, & I made it home. Yay for small cars & helpful strangers! Driving the cat across town on icy roads for specialist surgery to remove the stone from her bladder lining wasn’t much fun, either, but we all came through it just fine. Socializing & shopping [did I mention, ze spouse’s adorable when he whimpers? ;)] with the Professora between semesters helped.
Conflikt in Seattle was lots of fun, but they keep changing hotels, further & further away from food. What’s that about?
For Valentine’s, Himself surprised me with a deep & sturdy bookshelf I’d fallen in love with at the thrift store. Best of all, the snow kept anyone else from getting it, until the price came way down. I’m not the only bargain-finder in the family; ze spouse’s also adorable when he’s romantic.
Himself’s mom turned 80, & there was an elaborate party. All of her sisters came in from out of town, along with some cousins. Revelry ensued. My dress had a neckline that moved around, so I put ze spouse in charge of watching it [not that he was complaining ;)].
During the spring training pilgrimage, we went to the Tucson Book Festival & hung out with local filker friends [one of whom is a law professor, so ze spouse had someone to talk to]. C-SPAN recorded a talk he went to, including his question. We recorded that on dvd, when it was broadcast. My husband the tv star! Other highlights included the Desert Museum & Sedona.
One busy day in April, Himself & I took the Professora to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens by day, & she & I took her husband to a bagpipe concert with Dick Hensold that night. I wished I’d snuck in my recorder. He told so many great stories & played a wide variety of pipes, but only had one cd of one pipe for sale.
Ze spouse & I took a free coupon & went *all over* Callaway Gardens. Oh, my feet! Speaking of hurting feet, in June, to celebrate our 20th anniversary, we took a groupon & toured the Trio of Plantation Houses in Roswell. June was also uplifting, because we had the corner of the house jacked up, where the foundation had settled. Ouch!
Summer included lots of fun outings to book sales, movies, & a climb of Stone Mountain [after which my hand swelled & was funky for weeks]. Confluence rocked! So did our groupon adventure to Wren’s Nest, Joel Chandler Harris’ house. Far less fun was several weeks of pain when bone spurs in both shoulders discovered me. I was grateful the pain went away mostly on its own; physical therapy was both expensive & useless.
Walking & hiking have become increasingly important to us in recent years. In addition to hikes at Reynolds several days each week, my Mighty Spouse makes monthly madman marches in which he drives 2-4 hours away & hikes 12-14 miles on a rugged mountain trail. Usually he brings back great pictures. We’ve also become very fond of gardens, preferring them to museums any more. We have memberships at Atlanta Botanical Garden & make sure to go at least often enough to break even, if not more. We like to take advantage of garden reciprocity when on trips. During Fencon in 2011 we went to the Dallas Garden; in 2012, we went to Fort Worth Botanic.
October brought a groupon for the Roswell Ghost Tour. Even at half price, it wasn’t worth it. Vague stories of nameless [but presumably female] ghosts throwing dishes wasn’t very satisfying after the superb ghost tour we enjoyed in Savannah back in 2004, with lots of details of names, characters, and history. I drove myself to Gainesville for a solo roadtrip to their big library booksale. Signe & I did lots of other booksales. Himself & I took Dawn to the MERC Halloween party, where there were lots of great conversations & far too many desserts. We had 75 trick-or-treaters in 2011, 85 in 2012.
The holidays were an interesting mix. My dad Max was in the hospital for over 3 weeks, mostly in an induced coma, so he wouldn’t fight the breathing machinery. After more than 5 decades of heavy smoking and drinking, he’s living with COPD, & still wondering why his body is doing this to him. He’s as much better as he’s going to get & an ongoing worry. Against that background, we had Christmas lights at the Garden, the new Muppet movie, a multi-hour hike at Kennesaw Mtn, & the December housefilk. Christmas Eve day we took a fungus walk around Reynolds.
2011 got off to a slippery start. Determined to stay late at GaFilk for once, I stayed a half-hour too late, in the snow. After a very scary drive, two miles from home, my Corolla skidded gently off the road & was stopped from going completely in the ditch by a timely sign. Two man came by & pushed me back up onto the road, & I made it home. Yay for small cars & helpful strangers! Driving the cat across town on icy roads for specialist surgery to remove the stone from her bladder lining wasn’t much fun, either, but we all came through it just fine. Socializing & shopping [did I mention, ze spouse’s adorable when he whimpers? ;)] with the Professora between semesters helped.
Conflikt in Seattle was lots of fun, but they keep changing hotels, further & further away from food. What’s that about?
For Valentine’s, Himself surprised me with a deep & sturdy bookshelf I’d fallen in love with at the thrift store. Best of all, the snow kept anyone else from getting it, until the price came way down. I’m not the only bargain-finder in the family; ze spouse’s also adorable when he’s romantic.
Himself’s mom turned 80, & there was an elaborate party. All of her sisters came in from out of town, along with some cousins. Revelry ensued. My dress had a neckline that moved around, so I put ze spouse in charge of watching it [not that he was complaining ;)].
During the spring training pilgrimage, we went to the Tucson Book Festival & hung out with local filker friends [one of whom is a law professor, so ze spouse had someone to talk to]. C-SPAN recorded a talk he went to, including his question. We recorded that on dvd, when it was broadcast. My husband the tv star! Other highlights included the Desert Museum & Sedona.
One busy day in April, Himself & I took the Professora to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens by day, & she & I took her husband to a bagpipe concert with Dick Hensold that night. I wished I’d snuck in my recorder. He told so many great stories & played a wide variety of pipes, but only had one cd of one pipe for sale.
Ze spouse & I took a free coupon & went *all over* Callaway Gardens. Oh, my feet! Speaking of hurting feet, in June, to celebrate our 20th anniversary, we took a groupon & toured the Trio of Plantation Houses in Roswell. June was also uplifting, because we had the corner of the house jacked up, where the foundation had settled. Ouch!
Summer included lots of fun outings to book sales, movies, & a climb of Stone Mountain [after which my hand swelled & was funky for weeks]. Confluence rocked! So did our groupon adventure to Wren’s Nest, Joel Chandler Harris’ house. Far less fun was several weeks of pain when bone spurs in both shoulders discovered me. I was grateful the pain went away mostly on its own; physical therapy was both expensive & useless.
Walking & hiking have become increasingly important to us in recent years. In addition to hikes at Reynolds several days each week, my Mighty Spouse makes monthly madman marches in which he drives 2-4 hours away & hikes 12-14 miles on a rugged mountain trail. Usually he brings back great pictures. We’ve also become very fond of gardens, preferring them to museums any more. We have memberships at Atlanta Botanical Garden & make sure to go at least often enough to break even, if not more. We like to take advantage of garden reciprocity when on trips. During Fencon in 2011 we went to the Dallas Garden; in 2012, we went to Fort Worth Botanic.
October brought a groupon for the Roswell Ghost Tour. Even at half price, it wasn’t worth it. Vague stories of nameless [but presumably female] ghosts throwing dishes wasn’t very satisfying after the superb ghost tour we enjoyed in Savannah back in 2004, with lots of details of names, characters, and history. I drove myself to Gainesville for a solo roadtrip to their big library booksale. Signe & I did lots of other booksales. Himself & I took Dawn to the MERC Halloween party, where there were lots of great conversations & far too many desserts. We had 75 trick-or-treaters in 2011, 85 in 2012.
The holidays were an interesting mix. My dad Max was in the hospital for over 3 weeks, mostly in an induced coma, so he wouldn’t fight the breathing machinery. After more than 5 decades of heavy smoking and drinking, he’s living with COPD, & still wondering why his body is doing this to him. He’s as much better as he’s going to get & an ongoing worry. Against that background, we had Christmas lights at the Garden, the new Muppet movie, a multi-hour hike at Kennesaw Mtn, & the December housefilk. Christmas Eve day we took a fungus walk around Reynolds.
