Lounge weekend! Absolutley no obligations and it was it was awesome. Our "Little" from Big Brothers Big Sisters is MIA ... no phone, full answering machine -- we even stopped by to see if anyone was home. Perhaps there was a family emergency. In any case, it opened up our weekend to do nothing.

Well that isn't entirely true. I finally got off my butt and delivered some stuff to Hilary (one of which includes my old sewing machine which was given to me by a friend a few years before in response to me going on about how I was sure I would be an awesome seamstress/tailor/whatever, if only I had my own sewing machine.) Ha ha ha. I used it ... oh say three times? Once for making Pluto's dog coat, curtains, and ... uhh....oh I am sure there was something else. In any case, I heard the age old plea and this time, I realized, I was the one to pass on the means.

So...I can't wait to see what fantastic items she is going to sew.

Myself, I want to make a new tote bag...but I don't have any good material at home. I thought of using a towel...and lining it or something...but that would kind of suck. All I have is craploads of calico stuff...and some heavy black material I wanted to save and use for my traditional ho chunk outfit (if I ever get around to it...cos the material came from my grandmother). So I guess I could use that...except it's light cotton and not heavy at all. I even found some unused needles for heavier material I could use without having to buy more. I suppose I could buy something and cut it up...but it isn't the same as being super thrifty and finding stuff around the house.

Yeah so... really the rest of the weekend was eating out at Pizza Hut on Saturday. And then on Sunday we weren't hungry enough for a fancy brunch like we orginally planned so instead we went to Dairyland for breakfast. That's pretty much all we ate too...I did make a cookie dinner last night though. ;P

I finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell....it picked up and also I was motivated to finish it so I could move onto Iron Council (Mieville) that Dave lent us and Tim said was really really good. As for Strange and Norrell...it was good. I guess I don't want to talk about it until someone else has read it. One great thing about having a reading weekend is how much better it made me feel. It restored a part of my old self. Reading inspires me and reminds me that I could be writer too if I just finished something and eliminated those wretched feelings of self-doubt.

Has anyone else noticed the English fantasy Renaissance? Look at what different works are coming out of the UK...the likes of Gaiman, Mieville and Clark (to name a few). I am feeling like I need to have some kind of pilgrimage to the old land to pay my respect and breathe the air, drink the water and have some bangers n mash -- in other words have some of that mojo rub off on me.

Well, I guess George RR Martin isn't english (although he kind of looks like a hairy english dude) ...but he hasn't exactly been able to get his latest book out either. I am going to have to actually go back and read the first three in order to get ready for it. Usually I never reread books (why waste that time when there are so many other books out there to read), but in this case I will have to make an exception.