I am busy (busy, dreadfully busy).

It's busy busy busy around here lately.

My best friend (since sixth grade, which is impossibly long ago. I mean, it was the nineties. Pretty much ancient history) is stopping in Tulsa on Saturday with her grandparents on the way home from a funeral, so we plan to meet up for dinner. It's not much of a visit, but it will be something. I haven't seen her in more than a year.

Tuesday evening my parents and baby brother will be rolling into town. The 'rents will head up to Michigan on Thursday and Misha will stay with us until we head up Friday evening. I haven't seen them since Misha's college graduation last May (2011, not last month), and rarely get to spend quality time with the bro anymore. How is it possible that that kid is twenty-four?

Friday is also our big ultrasound at the hospital. It will be fun to peek in on T-Rex again.

Then we're trekking on up to Michigan for a Dad's-side-of-the-family reunion and will be there about a week. I haven't seen my extended family since my wedding or even longer, and those who didn't make it to the wedding have never met the DDH. I don't really know my family that well, but still. It should be fun. Hiking and shooting and a day trip to Mackinac Island and all kinds of fun stuff (including a grandparents'-80th-birthday-celebration at a vineyard--NOT FAIR being pregnant).

I have a To Do list a mile long, but I enjoy checking things off lists, so that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Have a picture of a beagle curled up very small to break
the monotony of this long and rambling post.

My sister can't come to the reunion, so I'm sending her a thinking-of-you card and $10 to WalMart. Mostly because I remembered to send Misha said gift card for his birthday last week but did not remember to get Sasha anything for her birthday in February. So. I'm a terrible older sister.

I made the DDH a lovely little packing list for the trip, with things he should remember to bring that he always forgets (cell phone charger, toothpaste) and the itinerary so he can plan what he's wearing each day for different activities (my grandpa's a pastor at a fancy historic church in downtown Detroit, so he needs to dress a little more nicely than he does for our church, for instance).

Somehow the DDH just was not as excited about my neat little list as I was. Whatever. My own packing list is four times as long (I'm putting myself in charge of remembering things like a first aid kit and bugspray), with much more detailed daily outfit blanks. And there's a separate packing list for food. He ought to understand he got off easy.

I'm going to try to get some posts wrapped up this weekend so y'all will have something to read over the next couple weeks, but guess what? The intarwebz have mysteriously quit working at home.

When the DDH called the Cox guy, the guy said that he had called to complain about the internet not working exactly one year ago to the day. Mid-June, I don't know why you and the internets don't get along, but y'all need to sit down and work through your differences. You're messing with my plans.

Cox can't come out to look until Saturday evening, so it's not going to be fixed before then.

Hopefully you will understand if I just go silent for awhile. I might actually have to do work at work next week since I'll be gone for a whole week. Alas.

Here's another picture of a beagle as a reward for reading
this whole post.

Sigh. I really want to create a Guns board on Pinterest so I can keep track of the different guns I've been trying out at the range, but I worry that it will put me on some sort of government watch list or something. (Watch out! That chocolate caramel lava cake she just pinned is definitely criminal.)

But wouldn't a Fight For Your Rights second amendment-themed board be nice? Having a picture would help me remember which was which, and I could put my little review of it, and post, I don't know, shooting safety tips or something (Every Gun Is Always Loaded).

Is it weird that I think that would be cute?

In lieu of said board, I shall just note here that the XD .40 caliber I shot Saturday was nice. I've been looking at .40s and 9 mms, I think. They still have stopping power but are just a touch smaller and would be easier to conceal (though honestly I couldn't conceal carry anything the way I normally dress. Women's fashions obviously are not created with imprinting in mind).

Reasonable grip size, comfortable in my hand (I have large hands for a woman (I mean, they're proportional to my height, but I'm tall), but obviously still much smaller hands than a man, so this can be awkward). No feeding problems in fifty rounds, which isn't a lot, so I'll have to check the reviews, but the DDH's 1911 was giving him trouble so I was paying attention to that.

I also figured out what I was doing wrong with my grip, and went from maybe a dozen out of thirty rounds hitting the target at all, to 18/20 in the ten box (+1 in the nine). Turns out I was pressing the trigger with the wrong part of my finger. I mean, it was the part they said to press with, but for some reason in my hands that didn't give me enough control. Switched it forward a bit and bam! (no pun intended. Maybe). Made all the difference.

It is nice to outshoot the DDH every once in awhile. ^_~

So that's what I was up to this weekend (that and cleaning the craft room...slow and steady wins the race, I hope).

How were y'all's weekends? Do you get a three-day weekend for President's Day (I don't, ugh)?Anything interesting on the agenda for this last full week of February?