Hilary Booth... of course!

The US Open is nearly over. I've made most of my goodbyes to Henman, and said hello to some new faces. New American face John Isner towered (he's 6'9"!) over everyone, even swiped a set from Federer. He's also disproving the idea that no good pros come from college tennis. The majority of the PGA golfers all played for some university, but the tennis programs are hurting. Bet they'll get a boost from this story. The other story was the Serbian triad. All of them brought style and flair and fun to their games. Novak Djokovic is moving through the men's draw. He does some hysterically funny (and devastatingly accurate) impressions of tennis player's service antics. Last night after he won his semifinal he imitated Nadal and Sharapova.

Cross stitch wise, I think my first annual US Openalong was quite successful. I posted a scan of my progress on "Garden Verses". Despite a bad frogging incident that threatened my stitcher's morale, I gamely carried on. The gallery with my updates are here to give some context of how it's going, but this section was mostly what I've worked on for the last two weeks with the arm and papers. Needless to say I'm quite pleased. I still have the men's semis and the finals to watch and maybe I'll add yet another scan if there's sufficient progress.

I updated the needlework blog with my last two finishes. I picked up Mirabilia's "Garden Verses" yesterday again. I'll need a smaller project to vary with it eventually. I'm not one of those people who can work nonstop on one massive project all the time. I think it's why I wind up with these long stretches between needlework. One of many reasons.

Library book sale started officially today. I picked up only four books, including the smallest edition of "Mists of Avalon" I had ever seen. Usually it's printed the larger trade format. The book sale has expanded considerably in other media. The VHS section was huge this year. How much of that is their donations and how much is the library itself clearing out its deadwood I'm not sure. As usual, I felt extremely cramped and claustrophobic. It wasn't helping that I felt distinctly under the weather last night. I'm hoping it will pass over. I do not want to get sick before the con this year again.

Actually picked up and worked on Mirabilia's "Garden Verses" for the first time in a year. It took me a little while to get my bearings back. It was good to do needlework again. I do tend to spend too much time staring at a computer screen sometimes. This is a good way to get out of that rut. I'm still distracted by the shiny new projects more than the older ones. Isn't that always the case though?