Gone vs. forgotten

So did I mention the lunch we had at my mom's on Labor Day? My dad's birthday was in late August, but since I was in Seattle at the time (hi Margaret!) she held off on making his ghost meal until Labor Day, which coincidentally still fell within the period of the Hungry Ghost Festival.

My sweetie and I went over to Mom's where we barely made a dent in the mounds of food (but hey, that's what doggie bags are for!) and spent the afternoon chatting, in that special 3-way, bilingual pattern our family is known for (i.e., either my sister or myself translate comments between mom and everyone else). Happily, Mom likes my engineer (as evidenced by her continuing quest to feed him and send him home with leftovers) and both of them are hilarious/entertaining conversationalists.

All of this talk of eating is kind of appropriate, since I have now outgrown most of my cooler weather clothing. Sigh. So the pile of older, larger sizes that was destined for charity have now come back out to play. Unfortunately.

Also unfortunately, my larger jeans did actually make it to the charity bins, so I now need a new pair. Thus, I went roaming through 2 Filene's Basement locations during the past week, and lo! I found this pair which fits me perfectly (do NOT ask what size I now require) and best of all, was only $20. (Did I mention I am insanely cheap about clothing?)

Eventually, I will get back on the wagon, since my knees and feet are telling me this weight gain is really making them unhappy (not to mention that it is actively painful to wear some of my clothes). However, I do not seem to have wandered yet into that internal (pyschological) room where the "disciplined eating & exercise" light switch is located. Until I mentally flip that switch, I munch away morosely.

When I mutter about this problem, my friend Marci snorts and comments, "Gee, I can't imagine WHY you're having this problem. I mean it's not like you've had anything on your mind this year, you slacker." Umm... well, when you put it that way... it does sound kind of silly (but then, I am good at finding things to beat myself up about).

Speaking of mothers, my engineer's mom's birthday is next month, and she has expressed a desire for a knitted tea cosy, so I am making her a pumpkin one, similar to this pumpkin tea cosy, a nice quick & easy break from baby sweaters.

After all, I still have a big mound of orange yarn left over from The Harf (which, incidentally, my friend is looking forward to breaking out again, now that it is football season once more -- I just worry that he may be lynched with it as he now lives in Chicago, territory of the Bears and not the Bengals) . So I went and bought this skein of green Plymouth Encore Worsted (color #1233) from the gigantic (expanded) Seaport Yarn at lunch the other day. It's for the leaf and stalk portion of the cosy.

Speaking of lunch, it's over. Time to get back to work (before I run off at 4pm for radiation... honestly, I should really take a shorter lunch these days, but...) Ciao!