September 2021

 

September brought us the slow spin out of a few hurricanes. This is a picture my friend Michelle took of her back yard as the creek rolled in.

It brought tomatoes.

It brought wonderful anniversary presents from David. Behold the fruits of my great new death star waffle maker.

We took a few days off for our anniversary and it was a weird time. We explored Fredericks flooding.

We both had some rather unpleasant Doctors visits.

I had a lump in my breast. It was one of those things where I kept hoping it was my imagination. It was not. I went to the Doctor. This is something I do very rarely as doctors visits spike my anxiety to deeply uncomfortable levels. It took awhile because apparently everyone who avoided the doctors office during Covid is going now. So I spent a few days dreading the doctor and the diagnosis. I hoped the Doctor would say "Oh that's nothing." or that it was some perimenopause thing. I am swiftly approaching 50 and that seems likely.  Unfortunately she said. "Oh yes that is a lump all right. You need to go to the radiologist.". 

So we made another wait and pace the floors appointment.

This wound up being for our anniversary.

Mostly we didn't do much for this 19th year anniversary because I was pacing the floors.

The appointment went as well as it could. It is a bit offensive how little my insurance covered. There was a monogram with a really neat machine and odd contortions. There was a sonogram with thankfully warm goo. There was much texting with David (in the waiting area).

Then there was the blessed everything is fine diagnosis.

I was so relieved.

We were both.

We went from seriously talking about what might be in the worst case to picking delicious picnic foods for our romantic lunch on a mountain top.

Lots of cheese is the answer. Also tiny lemon pies.

We used our nervous energy to clean out the linen closet.

It looks great now.

Kiernan and I got up early to join the Haven fishing club for an outing near Harpers Ferry.

The sunrise was beautiful.

All the rain had the river up and nearly unfishable but there was a waterfall and cool debris exploration to be had.

Plus the traditional breakfast out with the fisherfolk. It was fun.

I decided to make up for all the angst and pacing of our anniversary weekend by taking David out on a proper anniversary date.

I got us reservations at the fancy place in Frederick and we went for a walk. 

Frederick is a very pretty town and walking with David is always great.

We are at Thacher & Rye

Have a look at their menu in the link above. Super cool!

We ate for hours then sat by the fire and tried not to feel like we should rush back to the kids.

We rushed back to the kids.

My sister recommended that we get a bread maker and for Kiernan bake us some bread with it.

He is a good cook and likes baking shows. We like bread so it seemed like a good plan to try.

Here is his first loaf. This is an oatmeal molasses bread. It finished right before bedtime so we had a nighttime snack of warm bread and butter.

Thank you Jessica for this recommendation.

The garden did its duty.

I tried Jessica's yeast roll recipe. I forgot that she said to split it in half and made giant mutant rolls.

Very tasty.

Hilarious to look at.

We did a day trip to Annapolis with the kids.

I wanted to take them to a biergarten and show them where David and I used to hang out before they were born.

We used to go to Annapolis all the time for weekend wanders.

I worked on the distressing and welding and turning the E-11 into a good cosplay piece.

Megan helped me pick a good primer/paint to make it look like a real Star Wars prop.

I made a very fair corn chowder.

My excellent friend Krishna got engaged. Look how beautiful she is!

I am very happy for her. I hope her marriage is as rewarding and enjoyable as mine.

She has been part of some of my highest moments and has helped me through some really low times and I wish them both all the wonderful things.

All our very hungry monarch babies decided it was time to grow some wings.

This one was my favorite as it built its cocoon right under Kiernan's bike seat. This meant that Kiernan couldn't ride his bike for a bit but also that we had a great view of the metamorphosis.

I took Lucero to Sugarloaf Mountain.

I lead the Haven book club for the first time. My book was chosen in a hat draw and so I presented it and then gave my thoughts and was stupid nervous.

The book was Will in the World 

Its a highly speculative but really enjoyable book about the life of Shakespeare. The theme for the month was memoir. Its not a memoir but for me the details and speculation make it read like one.

I brought Megan out on a Haven adventure to try out Geocaching.

I have been wanting to try this for years and Megan told me that when I go on Haven hikes she wants to come too.

We saw a lovely view form the top of Washington Monument.

We saw a crazy caterpillar. 

The Haven folk found several arrowheads.

Megan dug in and found a geocache.

On the hike back we saw wild life and told each other stories.

Then we went to have lunch with Aunt Lore and Opa and got to go through some family photo albums. I found a few pictures of Oma and talked to the kids about how wonderful she was.

I wish they could have known her. I wish I could have seen her enjoy them.

David made good progress on his double necked monster. He strung the 12 string side and everything held and sounded very good.

I printed a lot of small things.

On top a Princess Leia cameo and below a QR code that links to a rick roll for Kiernan's backpack.

I found a bag of googly eyes and surprised David with my guitar building help.

I printed out a nice alligator Loki.

I finished a whole series of the Princess Leia cameos. I tried painting them different ways to see what they would look like. They all started gray.

I have ben painting more and more of my prints and when Haven offered an airbrush workshop (at my request for instruction and at their own inclination) I rushed on over.

We spent about 3 hours talking about how they work and how to clean them and how to use them. Then (most usefully to our group) we practiced on some 3D printed models.

They started out whitish and ended up  as below.

It was a great class and I learned that cleaning an air brush is intimidating and that it is a tricky and powerful tool. I think I will stick with what I have been doing but there is no doubt the airbrush is a fantastic tool.

I have started printing a big batch of towers to put on my shop in preparation for Holiday customers. I really love this one. Its called the Octopunk. It reminds me of Jules Vern.

It rained and rained and we got lots of cool mushrooms in the yard.

We had a get together at Licia's place to celebrate Mr. Scearce's birthday.

For his anniversary present I had gotten David a new tattoo and his appointment came up earlier than expected. 

Its very well done.

This pattern is called the web of fate

Megan went on her first in person social event in ages. She played laser tag with her friend Alice for Alice's birthday.

I went on a Geocaching and eating date with David.

We hiked on Civil War battlefields. 

We ate Thai food.

We went to an art gallery.

We went home inspired to do some art.

The Deliplaine gallery has a cool family art project every month with a video instruction. 

It was fantastic.

With David's help I finished up a long term project.

This is the 3D printed ukulele that I started mid last year as a side project from my 3D printing class.

I am interested in making musical instruments and in the potential for having historical replicas at my fingertips. This project was a sort of proof of concept.  

David put up a set of hangers for me to keep organized.

This one sounds much quieter but holds tune well and is definitely playable.

The butterfly emerged and fell to the ground.

I moved it over to the Hosta and off the driveway.

So cool!

I found 4 leaf clovers many times in September. This is partially because I always look at my feet when I walk and because I am lucky.

My car rolled over to 200,000 miles. I am so proud of this fact. Also of the timing of actually noticing and getting a picture of it.

I went to Haven to do some leatherworking. I have ordered the front half of a cows worth of leather and am hoping to do some bag making.

I got there too early so went for a walk instead.

Look how beautiful the canal is right now.

I cut a small piece off the leather roll and did a short laser engraving trial. Lasers and leather are a smelly combination but the detail on the engraving is fantastic.

Kiernan has been asking to play D&D. So I asked the Haven guys (because Haven is a gaming club primarily) what games might be good for him as a young and inexperienced player. They said they had one coming up that he would be a good match for.

It is a horror themed game and I am deeply anti horror for myself (anxiety and horror are a bad combination) but he said it sounded fun to him. I will go with him and do leather crafting in the back. This will give me the time to work on the leather and the ability to be available if he wants or needs me.

It started to get cool in the evenings so I moved most of my plants back indoors.

Megan has decided that she wants to be good at makeup and that cat eye will be part of her routine. This girl has skills. I couldn't do a good cat eye with 1000 tries.

Kiernan woke me up early one morning before school to let me know that the living room ceiling was dripping.  He had put a bucket under it. I called David and he turned around to come back home. I turned off the water and then went to work. While I was at work and the kids were at school. David opened up the plumbing and put in some shut off valves so that parts of the house could have water while he worked then repaired the leak.

David can do all the things.

I made Jessica's yeast roll dough again but this time took out half to make cinnamon rolls

Excellent plan!

We did lots of yardwork. I'd been feeling down and David correctly gave me some achievable tasks and suddenly my world was happy and manageable again.

This means that things got done and I got un-grumpy.

We gathered some acorns while yard clearing and I am going to try to make acorn flour.

I boiled them and let them cool so that the shells would be easier to remove.

Into my strainer dropped a bunch of tiny white grubs...

Did you know that acorns got grubs?

I did not know that.

I am not entirely convinced of my acorn flour now.

Dag nab it.

I heard of something very exciting.

There is a medieval, and premedieval, pilgrimage in Spain called the Camino de Santiago.

This pilgrimage is actually a network of trails that go to Santiago de Compostela from all around Europe. Apparently a Haven member did this walk and will talk about it a week or so from now.

I love hiking and I admire pilgrimages and this Camino is so heavily trafficked that the tourism department of Spain heavily subsidizes housing and food for the walkers.

This strikes me as an Appalachian Trail alternative that David might do with me. There are beds and bathrooms and hot meals.

I want now to go to Spain and walk for 500 miles. I love old churches and feel like I could pick up enough Spanish to get by. I love walking and history and am religious enough to feel the appeal of that sort of pilgrimage as well.

Here is a plastic skull that I am hoping to use for my Halloween costume.

Here are Megan's teeth. Her current teeth are now straight but the straightening did not make enough room for her adult teeth to come down cleanly. That is a bummer.

Her canines are trying to come down through the middle of her smile.

We have some extractions upcoming. Wish us all luck.

Cider season is being well received.

Mom made a sourdough starter and I made so very nice bread.

Kiernan ate a whole loaf then got a stomach ache.

He's very hungry  these days.

And as tall as I am now

so weird...

September was a busy emotionally challenging moth. I am hoping for a sweet and soothing October.