Misc post-chocolate stuff

Well, I packed up and shipped out 23 boxes of chocolates today, to friends, family, and AIDS Lifecycle sponsors. The house is still festooned in chocolate, but I’ve been scrubbing away at it in spare moments, and it seems to be getting slowly cleaner. I’m still considering hiring a cleaner to help me tackle the rest of the mess. The apartment hasn’t been properly cleaned since I moved in, and I’m usually too focused on various projects to organize it properly.

I’ve also started winding the warp for my next weaving project, a cashmere/silk shawl in five-colored silk warp and black cashmere. Complex floral pattern, very fine threads – 7500 yards per pound (about double the weight of sewing thread). It’s very slow going since the threads are fine and tangle-prone, but I hope the finished result is worthwhile. I’m using this project to see if I like working with fine threads.

I have also purchased my ticket to Ghana, using “points” from one of my credit cards. Not a bad deal – the card paid for $1200 of my airfare, so the whole flight is costing me just $93. Whee! I also ordered a travel pack, so I should be set for my trip to Ghana.

I am now considering what I want to focus on for the next few months. Having finished one Project (the chocolates), and having gotten well started on weaving, I think I will probably want something else to focus my attention on. I’m debating whether to return to working on the book – a dreary prospect, but I think I might have had enough of a break from it not to freak out at the prospect of working on it some more. (I have figured out that I have a two-month attention span, at which point I have to rotate out for another project.)

I also need to start getting serious about cycling. December marks the beginning of the training season for the Markleeville Death Ride, and I’m debating whether to hire a cycling coach now, or to wait until I get back from Ghana. I think I will probably train on my own through December and January, and hire a coach in mid-February, thus saving myself some money while getting in my basic training.