Domestic Geek

*sigh* I wish this weekend had been as productive as last weekend. There is just not enough time away from work.

Marcus and I finished up the Thanksgiving shopping this evening. We picked up the natural free-range turkey that we ordered earlier from Sunflower Market. Can't wait to see how that turns out. I spent the earlier part of the day at a knitting gathering at my friend's house down in Castle Rock. I got the body of the amigurumi turkey I'm making finished, as well as several rows of a holiday bag I'm knitting. I brought one of my cheesecakes to share and I was quite happy with how it turned out. I'll post pics tomorrow after I get them off of my camera.

Marcus and I actually relaxed this evening and finally watched Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. He downloaded that from iTunes a couple of weeks ago and we hadn't had a chance to watch it. I'll admit that I missed Orlando Bloom's character just a little.

The olive leaf extract that I wrote about yesterday seems to be doing the trick. I felt so much better today. Still coughing up a little crud out of my lungs, but at least I didn't feel like sleeping all danged day.

OK, I'm off to dig through my stash to find orange yarn for my turkey and then I'm off to bed.

I read somewhere that Olive Leaf Extract was antibacterial and antiviral. I picked up a bottle of the Nature's Way brand today. As I am really sick and tired of being sick and tired, I figured it couldn't hurt. I'll let you all know how it works.

I was at Target today with Dad picking up the Thanksgiving feast and the egg case was totally empty. Hanging from a shelf was a sign that Target had severed ties with its supplier, Sparboe Farms, and they apologized for any inconvenience. People were so upset - you would think that eggs weren't sold any place else. When I got home I searched the news and found a story that both Target and McDonald's had dropped Sparboe Farms after an activist turned over undercover video about the conditions there. While I wished something like this would open people's eyes and change the way food is mass-produced in this country, people will quickly forget. Since Marcus and I have vowed to avoid food produced by the big commercial companies and stick to local and organic when possible, we've found that many people actually feel threatened by our choice. They prefer to not know where their food comes from or how it's produced, as long as it is cheap and easy.

I hate that people feel the need to diagnose illnesses in others, especially over the internet. A woman in a forum I'm on told me I should have gotten a flu shot (how does she know if I did or didn't) and I shouldn't be going to work. Um, I don't have the flu. I've had it and I know what it feels like. I have one of a myriad of other viruses that float around this time of year - the kind where when you go to the doctor, they give you cough syrup and a decongestant and tell you to ride it out. I also have no vacation days left and unless you're going to pay my bills, mind your own damn business.

I pulled my blog feed from that site, but now I'm thinking I need to figure out how many online places I really need to belong. I'll keep Facebook, Twitter and Ravelry, but I really can't think of anything else above that I need to waste my time with. I've been disgusted with how much time I waste on the Internet anyway. My inboxes are flooded with notices from all of these places and it is so overwhelming, I never read them. I also miss important emails from friends because I just quickly skim through them all.

I joined a lot of places back when I was unemployed and bored. Since that's been over five years now, it's time to dump them.

That said...getting off the Internet for a while. I've got stuff that needs to get done today and there is a Bronco game on the tube.

I picked up a bug the first week of October during my New Mexico trip. Last week I thought I was finally kicking it and....WHAM! I picked up something nastier. Actually, I think I got this current bug from Marcus. He's been really sick, as well. Makes it really hard to be romantic when you're both coughing up lungs and such.

I've actually been a little achy and my throat is sore. I've been sleeping...a lot. I guess it is good that my body is resting, but I'm not getting a darned thing done. I've also been sucking on candy at work to keep from coughing, but it is making me gain weight because I'm so danged lethargic. Stupid germs.

I've been enjoying playing with Siri on my new phone. The only sucky thing is since I'm sick and prone to losing my voice or having it crack, she has a hard time deciphering my sick voice. I can't wait until it gets integrated into other apps (like hopefully my Grocery IQ one).

I'm hoping to have some crafty things to show tomorrow. On that note, I'm off to bed with some hot tea and NyQuil.

I went to New Mexico early last month. I wanted to go to the Taos Wool Festival and figured I might as well swing over and see my old college pal while I was in the state, as well. Good thing I had Angie to visit because the wool festival and Taos kind of sucked. I'm glad I didn't waste the money to actually stay overnight in Taos.

I had originally intended to go down Saturday and get a room with friends, but an online friend of Marcus' and mine from Texas came to Colorado to visit, so I pushed it a day to drive down Sunday instead.

I actually managed to get on the road by 5:30 am. It was a beautiful drive down - the fall colors were spectacular. I was having a lovely day until I got to Taos. The part of town where the festival was held is kind of a dump. I wandered through the exhibitor booths for about an hour and didn't find a danged thing I wanted to buy. I found the couple of yarn shops that I had found online and didn't find anything cool, either. I figured certainly I'd find something at the quilt store, but struck out there as well. Discouraged, I tracked down a shot glass for my collection and got the hell out of town. I didn't even bother getting any lunch. I just relied on the snacks I had packed and got back on the road.

The roads between Taos and Farmington are a nice drive, though. The canyon was especially pretty. There were some gorgeous purple colored rocks in the canyon walls. I got into Farmington about 2 hours earlier than I expected, but I had an awesome visit with Angie, her husband Doug and their daughter Haley (and their two dogs, Shamus and Mac). I love visiting there. I feel so comfortable. Ang took me to see the Aztec ruins. I was going to go back the next day and sketch them, but it rained all day. I ended up going to a lovely quilt shop instead.

The only sucky thing is I picked up a bug down there. I started feeling sick the last night I was there and steadily deteriorated on the way home. The cough and crap in my chest has been lingering ever since. As I was reading though some posts from a year ago, I was sick this same exact time last year. This is becoming a tradition I hope to not repeat next year.