Excuses, Excuses

During my extended absence, I accomplished a number of things:

1. I survived a pathetic writer's block crisis, in which I attended a well meaning creative writing workshop but emerged wondering if anything written 'authentically' had to be
written
with random spacing
and no punctuation
teenage poetry
straight from the soul.

Oh, God... That one little blip-of-a-workshop kept me from blogging for quite some time (months!!), as I wondered 'can sarcasm be authentic?', (fret!) 'is my dry sense of humour actually in line with my inner being?' (deep!) Blah, blah, yawn, yawn-- fortunately for me (and you), I have emerged from this catastrophe relatively unscathed. I might have reverted back to my pre-teen angst state for a time, but at least I didn't do it publicly. I like to maintain some standards of decency, after all.

2. I developed an acute case of bilateral tendonitis! This has been a huge factor in my not blogging as of late, because quite honestly, when I get home after a FULL DAY (or week, or month) of entering in pledges for our fundraising campaign at work, the LAST thing I want to do is get back on a computer and type away. My poor forearms! As much as I'm enjoying watching the money roll in, I'm a bit miffed that this same money has gotten in the way of some of my favourite things, namely blogging and knitting. (Yes, it's true, even though all I feel like doing is knitting mittens, scarves, toques, and AFGHANS, I haven't been able to muster enough wrist support to do anything of the sort. Hence, you'll have to make due with some outdated photos of FOs from the recent past):

Marty's 'autumn socks', complete with fitting 'fallen leaves' setting:



Lil Star's 'Bumblebee Toque', complete with non-matching outfit because Auntie Dana just HAD TO SEE her model it THE SECOND she arrived to visit:


I've been (slowly) trying to complete another pair of socks for Marty, but alas- those tiny needles and that sockweight yarn are not doing any favours for the forearms. Le sigh.

3. I've begun taking in the festivities that make up Christmas time in Victoria. So far, we have been to the Oak Bay Light Up (basically where all the shops in the Village plug in their Christmas lights at more or less the same time--- amazingly, this event attracted over 7000 PEOPLE!!)

Creepy Santa's elf 'making toys' to 'delight' the 'young ones':

$1 apple cider and a tantalizing preview of festivities still to come:

We also hauled our asses (and some coffee with Bailey's) to the totally awesome Lighted Truck Parade. This just happens to be my ALL TIME FAVOURITE Christmas event in the whole wide world, even though it's like GOOD LUCK trying to get a decent photo of the goings on:




(See what I mean? The last one was taken when the parade stopped unexpectedly for a few precious moments. You get the idea, though-- the truck parade RULES!!!!)

All in all, I have still been alive and well, if not a little sore from all of my data entry as of late. Thanks for still checking in... Hopefully when I say that I'll try to publish more frequently now, it'll actually be a promise and not an opportunity to make more excuses!