Bright shiny new projects, weasel update

Okay, I admit it. I’ve been sulking on the Fire warp. It’s hard to keep up enthusiasm when two months’ work has been stripped away, just like that. It’s especially hard to keep up enthusiasm when you’ve also just had a huge load of extra work dumped on you by a new business direction, especially if it’s super exciting work that you’ve dreamed of doing for at least a decade.

Hmm. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say “I’ve been discouraged on the Fire warp, and distracted by a bright shiny new project.” Okay, I’ll go with that. Alas, I can’t reveal the new project yet, and probably not for a few months. Let’s just say that Janet and I are going all-in on a new business project. We’re tremendously excited about it and we think the weaving community will be too.

However. When you are teaching one class, preparing two new classes for release in the fall, and getting ready to start a new business venture for launch the following year, it means you’re just a wee bit busy, work-wise. I’ve been working six days a week, 10-12 hours a day, which leaves very little time for anything else. I’m hoping to have a little more time once Discover Gradients and Gorgeous Gradients are over….in mid-November. Meanwhile, I’m doing my best to keep up with the produce from the garden, and (yes) doing a little threading on the Fire warp, in my scraps of free time.

I’m pleased to say, though, that the tomatoes are doing well. I’m growing a couple of Fruity Mix plants this year, and they’re just starting to bear. (Long-time readers will recall that this is the tomato variety I resurrected from the dead several years ago. I’ve sent seeds to a number of plant breeders to keep it from getting lost again, so I feel like I’m off the hook for making sure the gene survives – now I’m just growing it for fun.) Pictures in a few more weeks, when more tomatoes are ripening.

I’m also pleased to say that the weightlifting is back on track! Jamie and I were lifting at home during COVID, using an Olympic weightlifting bar and weights that we had thankfully purchased BEFORE everyone and their kid brother was trying to buy them. As a result, we stayed in good condition during the plague, and after going back to our trainer, we’ve been making rapid progress. I am now lifting over 1000 weasels in both deadlift and back squats! (For those who missed it, when I started lifting three years ago, I decided that it would be far funnier and more motivating to measure my progress in weasels rather than pounds – read this hilarious blog post to find out why.)

Okay, okay, if you aren’t familiar with the weight of a Standard Weasel (which I admit I made up arbitrarily – for some reason, the National Institute of Standards and Time never wrote back when I asked them the weight of a Standard Weasel), a Standardized Least Weasel (the most common kind of weasel) is four ounces, so 1000 weasels is 250 pounds. At the moment I can squat 255 pounds (1020 weasels!) for 10 reps and deadlift 255 pounds for five reps. Doing just ONE rep would have put me third in my age class in the USA Powerlifting California championships for those lifts had I competed in 2019 (the last meet before COVID). And that’s in a normal workout (lifting multiple times, not just a single rep), with no special training, standing around in running shoes. Competition weightlifters typically use special shoes and a weightlifting belt.

Anyway, apparently I am lifting at a pretty elite level now. Looking back on when I started three years ago, my goal was to lift 700 weasels eventually. I have now blown COMPLETELY through that. Heh. Who knew?? Apparently being short and wide is good for SOMETHING, finally!

(My bench press numbers are not nearly as strong, though. Apparently I have legs and core of steel but wimpy arms and chest. I need to work on that!)

Pix next time I’m at the gym!