I managed to work out the stress of work with crafts this weekend. It usually works for me. I spend some time with my family and then I spend some time with my wool.

Friday night, Pk and I went to the movies and saw The Mummy (part 3, tomb of the dragon emperor). It was entertaining. Silly but entertaining. It had yeti in it! And they have blue eyes and like to kick field goals. (who knew?) Like I said, silly. And they we went to our favorite pizza place and ate the best pizza and wings. It was a good date.

Saturday was the house cleaning and laundry day. There was some knitting on the Wildflowers Shawl. I am pretty sure the yarn will run out before the pattern does so I contacted Teresa and she will try to match it if I send a sample so I am sending it out today. I did some rows on the very red and very boring felted bag. At this rate, it will be November before it's finished.

And then Sunday, while Pk was at a galootfest (men with hand tools making things with wood), I pulled out Saraspunda and she and I got reacquainted. It's been a while because I hate the feeling of the roving in the humidity. I'd watched some more videos and did some more reading and since the weather was cooperating, I decided to try and spin. I started with this. It's one of the rovings that I got for Mother's Day. ( It's a club for 6 months and I have two more to go. August's arrived today and it's glorious fall colors of orange and red.) I pulled it apart until it looked like this and then I pulled it apart some more. I spun it and got through an entire bobbin without wanting to throw it out! And entire bobbin full. I was so excited. It's the first time I managed to spin more than I wasted. My foot was tired at the end and my hand was a little crampy but it was so worth it. It's fairly consistent in its weight and the colors look good. It took all my concentration and I had no time to brood about stresses at work. They have melted away.

Today I went to see the stomach doctor about the results of my endoscopy. I have severe irritation of the stomach and esophagas lining. She removed a lump which turned out to be inflamed tissue. The medication she gave me seems to be working and I'll keep taking it for now to promote further healing of the linings. There is too much acid in my stomach, possibly as a result of stress. Hmmm, anyone see a connection here? I need to make my life less stressful or I am faced with taking lots of medicine for the rest of my life. I don't want to do that so I will have to make some changes at work. Less on my plate will mean less deadlines and less stress. I just have to keep from wanting to volunteer to help.....

Back to work tomorrow. Time to put the new "no more volunteering for everything" ethos to the test. It's a short week and then a long weekend. Labor Day, which we celebrate ironically by taking the day off, is next Monday. Already.