The mischief I've been up to lately

I think it's about time for an actual "what's happening in my life" post.

This week I was sick with something vague; the only definitive symptom was a temperature. Low but persistent nonetheless. I'm not sure that this would be related to allergies flaring up - I sneezed four times within an hour of getting up this morning. This Wednesday was the first time I missed a church library volunteer session since I started participating earlier this summer. I should have called the church office to let them know I was still alive because I'm sure they were wondering about me, but as I am finding out in many ways - I need to be allowed to ask pardon for anything I did or didn't do this week. I mean, I've really been irrational. Colin seemed a bit worried this morning, but then he sent me this cute picture and told me not to worry.

Last weekend we went to Lansing to Brennan and Sarah's wedding. It was actually a good time, despite being stung by something on Sunday. Six times! On my knee! I was just standing there! It wasn't a wasp but since the baking soda trick made it sting worse, it wasn't a bee? Vinegar did help. Just so you understand my shock a bit better, I've only been stung once in my life. That happened when I sat on a wasp at camp when I was five years old. So my fear of buzzy things is not without a good reason, but I felt like I've been doing better lately. Stupid hornet or yellow jacket or whatever it was.

Oh! I also saw Craig S. at the wedding reception! Few, if any, of you would know him, but I grew up with him since sometime in elementary school, whenever he moved to town. It was a shock for both of us - we recognized each other simultaneously. Sure, we were in Michigan, but Lansing is at least four hours away from our hometown. It turned out his wife grew up with Sarah who I went to college with. Just to give some perspective: I don't often accidentally run into people I went to high school with - there were only 80-some odd people in my graduating class! The only other time I bumped into someone from high school was in Kalamazoo at a bar between K College's and Western's campuses. Lots of people went to Western so it wasn't a big surprise to run into someone I knew in a bar one of the few times I went to one.

Last week I did some more canning - this time I made salsa for the first time! I'd gotten a fair number of free jalapenos and wasn't sure how to use up so many of them so I thought I'd try my hand at making salsa. There's a grocery store nearby with a great variety of international foods, so I picked up a bunch of tomatillos  (which I've never played with before) and followed a USDA-approved recipe for green canning salsa. I like it - not too spicy but still good. The obligatory pictures:

What have I been doing otherwise? Well, my current passion is genealogy once again. I've also started playing the piano more regularly. You might notice that things look a bit cluttered in the photos above. It's funny how things look just fine before you take a picture! Just so you know, the biggest pot was being used to heat the cans so I had to start the salsa in two smaller pots before it cooked down enough to fit safely in one. I won't bore you with the details of my latest genealogical research adventures, not in this post anyway. I'm considering just creating a separate blog for genealogy. While in Lansing, I got my interest piqued because we had some time to kill and I suggested we hang out in the Library of Michigan where I've done research before. I ran around like mad, taking notes and snapping pictures of pages for a couple hours. We were actually a little late for the wedding itself ... whoops!

I'm itching to do some more right now, but I have to do some other things first otherwise they won't get done. There's not many people who need to hold off on doing research and use it as a reward for getting other things done. Luckily, I'm feeling well enough and eager to do some attack cleaning around the house. And I've let my tea get cold ... I never have been good at multi-tasking.