Monthly Posting?

I've been pretty lax about posting lately. Maybe it's that usually when I get home from work the last thing I want to do is go to the computer. Maybe it's sites like Facebook and Ravelry sucking up my time. Maybe it's just that it's summer, and I'd rather be outside than blogging. Something has been taking up my time lately.

So, what's been happening? Lots, and not much, at the same time.

I started going back to Weight Watchers last month. I gained *cough* twenty *cough* pounds since my last weigh-in in 2006. I had maintained my goal weight since 2004. It's a little embarrassing to go back; the computer had sort of kicked me out of the system, and every time I've got to a meeting (five so far), it's been a big dickdance to get me into the computer. I think they've gotten me in now. My first week back, I gained .6 lbs, lost it the next week, then I went on vacation where I managed to gain 2.8 lbs!!!!, and this past week I lost 3.6 lbs. I'm about a pound below where I first started. Jeez.

We went to visit my mother-in-law in Bridgeton, NC (POP: about 317) a couple of weekends ago to celebrate her 75th birthday with ZMrK's sibs. Believe it or not, there is an airport right across the Neuse River from Bridgeton, in New Bern, NC (POP: about 27,000) called "Craven County Airport", and planes that seat more than 4 people do fly there. You will be on a flight with people wearing shirts such as this, however:



No shit: it says "Big Rack Attack"! Do you like my Penny Karma-style stealth picture taking? Do you think this guy has ever been featured on one of her "Wookin' Pa Nub Wednesday"s (RIP)? I wish I had done some stealth picture taking at the Golden Corral we went to. There was one woman with tremendously long, booger-green fake nails, and plastic blonde hair that looked like Oodles of Noodles pasta. I might have to be her for Halloween; I'm pretty sure her clothing was equally classy. Of course, people may just think I live next door to where I do (if you don't know my next-door neighbors you won't get the same kick out of this as I do, but ZMrK ought to appreciate it).

Have you ever worked yourself up into a worried frenzy about something, for like WEEKS, and then, when it happens, it's not so bad? That's what I was like about flying this time around. We had a pleasant flying experience when we went to the Everglades in March, but last year one one of our flights to Richmond, we were sitting in the back row of a smallish jet(13 or 18 rows), and I felt every little tilt the plane made. I knew that both of the jets we were going to be flying on (to Charlotte and then on to New Bern) were going to be smallish, and my only request was that ZMrK book seats that are located as close to the wing as possible. I figured I'd be fine with that. I still found myself becoming more and more agitated as the weeks leading up to the trip passed. I even got a prescription from my doctor for Ativan, and decided I'd bring along a nice engaging lace project to occupy my mind. I wasn't sleeping really well, though; you know how all of your worries come back to haunt you the minute you try to shut your eyes? Yeah. Then the worst possible fucking thing that could happen to a person like me happened: I was walking down the street and passed a guy on his cell phone only to hear him say, "What was that? It sounded like a jet crashing." to the person on the other line. This was Thursday. We were scheduled to fly out at 8 a.m. on Friday. It felt like the dude had kicked me in the guts. I emailed ZMrK as soon as I could, and posted it on to the knittyboard shortly after, to ask, "Is this an omen, or a coincidence?" Thankfully, I had a supportive, level-headed husband, and supportive, level-headed friends on the knittyboard, who all told me "Nope. If there's such a thing as omens, they're way more obvious. It's a coincidence. He probably didn't even say jet crashing. Your mind is playing tricks on you", etc. etc.

Dude, they were all right. Everything worked out fine! We made all of our planes; our plane leaving Charlotte was delayed, then canceled, but we were able to get on a flight that left 3 hours later (that then sat on the runway for an hour, after being in the sun for hours with no air on and all the shades up, but I digress), and we made it home safe and sound! I even got 100 rows of Branching Out knitted:





You can see my two lifelines in these photos. I put in an extra one after we got to my MIL's house, to show myself how much I had knit, and because the old one was getting shreddy and I needed to throw it out anyway.

I also got to eat breakfasts like this one:



Homemade sausage. . . hmmmm. The pig was probably slaughtered just down the road. I think the blueberries were from the blueberry farm down the road.

They had mis-matched coffee mugs (all looking like stuff bought in a thrift store). This is the one I got:



The place had really awesome food, but their walls have framed cover stories of the 9-11 WTC terrorist attacks, with pictures. Um, not something I'd want to see while eating breakfast. ZMrK sat on the side of the table that faced the one above my head. Fortunately, it didn't hit me until much, much later that we were eating at this place mere HOURS before we were supposed to get on a plane to go home! Aren't you proud of me?

I took a bunch of photos, and the set of them is here. Most of the photos are of family and nature shots, but the nature shots are really GOOD. There's shit like this:



"Salamander. . . on my shoulder . . . makes me happy"

We think that's a slimy salamander. Oddly enough, it wasn't slimy at all, but rather sticky. They secrete something in their skin that gives them their name.

There's this too:



We think that's a smooth earth snake. We had never even heard of them before. Yup, we (or, ZMrK) grabbed a snake he hadn't identified. He knew it wasn't venomous though, and it didn't even try to bite. It was so tiny, too. I could've taken that baby home.

(Wait until you guys see the black racer ZMrK caught last weekend locally. . . the thing is pushing 6 feet!)

The Neuse has a beautiful, peaceful beach:




We also got to sleep in a tent:



and in a KOA cabin:



One of the downsides was the friggin' mosquitoes:



This shit happened in my MIL's back yard, within 5 minutes of us arriving at her house! Nobody else got bit like this!

I also dropped a full can of shaving cream on my foot, and really thought I broke my toe:



This is what it looked like on Saturday. It didn't hurt after the initial can assault, though the initial can assault was really painful. ZMrK said he had never seen me cry because of pain before. Yup, I cried. I don't know how my toe wasn't broken, but it gave me no more trouble after that.

Here is what it looked like on Sunday. Much, much worse.



I leave you with a happy, romantic photo today, of us sitting on a wooden swing overlooking the Neuse River:



Have a good month!