So it seems that my reading levels had gone rather down in the past week or two. Pausing to examine this rather unsettling state of affairs, I can only blame my whispery concentration from the brain surgery and a large temptation from the Cross-Stitch and other Gods. I started doing some cross-stitch again last fall, and since I have picked it up, it’s difficult to put down at times and time just disappears down a fiber-art vacuum or something.

Plus – I’m not sure that I was totally sold on the book that I was reading at the time, so there was lots of picking up and putting down, when it probably would have been a better reading experience to just pick up and stay reading it instead of the constant interruptions. Oh well. The vagaries of a reading life…

So now the title that I was struggling with has now been returned to the library with a sign of relief and the ever-asked question of why it didn’t happen before now. Aaah, time mis-spent.

In the meantime, we’re ploughing through House of Cards Season 4 (be still my heart!) which just goes from strength to strength in the narrative plot line, with an occasional spritz of the evergreen Doc Martin (English TV) with a palate-cleansing Baskets (FX with Zach Galifianakis) in between. Baskets is a clever and rather poignant story of a failed clown (Galifianakis) trained in a French school but now a failed rodeo clown, with a family that’s doing its best but even that’s not very good. To call it a comedy would be a stretch (although that is what its category is), but it’s a good oddball and rather strange show if you like that sort of thing.

Oh, and having a bit of an ongoing struggle with my ficus tree. I know that they are very sensitive to change, but mine looks rather spindly and the leaves are very dry and only barely attached to the branches. Does anyone have any ideas on how to help my tree? I spray it almost every day to help with moisture content (as I live in a very dry place), it’s getting fed, it is getting watered (without over-watering, I think), I don’t move it or give it any extra stress…. Am I missing something?

I’m also working my way through an on-line lettering class (not calligraphy but more like the lettering on chalkboards at coffee shops). Having fun, and I am hoping the new skills will transfer to my rather appalling handwriting to make it at least legible for people who aren’t me. 🙂

And then we spent a few days hanging out here in Mexico… (Bliss.)

And then I had some more surgery for my facial pain. (Long story.)

And then we went to Chipotle for supper the other day and saw that they had a PR push wrt very short stories on their cups…. Good going, Chipotle.

And I read a bit. 🙂