Last weekend, I said that since I had partied and conferenced all the previous weekend, it was imperative that I have a completely domestic weekend.

Instead, I went to the Big City for a long weekend and did nothing domestic. It is therefore absolutely imperative that I be domestic this weekend. I have a couple of hours of paid work to do, but otherwise, this is my list:

• grocery shopping and similar errands
• cleaning
• cooking (putting things in the freezer)
• baking
• sewing (in order to stay on track for my travel wardrobe, I must complete one garment a week, so I need to do two this weekend)

I also have to do more stuff for the FAFSA verifications. Next year, I swear, all this stuff will be done early even if I have to hire people to do it for me.

All these things are more urgent because we are in the throes of Back to School. This is less a big deal now than it has been at times in the past. However, I'm taking an online class that begins next week, choir will be starting back up, the chorale ditto, and I have to get the classes I'm teaching online as well. A week from Monday is the first day of classes for me as a teacher and also for both my sons. I don't have to pack their lunches, but I do have to get their financial arrangements completed.

So a clean house with food in it seems like a must.

This weekend ended up quite differently from my plan. We got a call saying client meetings had been set up in the Big City, and zoomed up there. Just got back, so I have a lot to catch up on, and will just post some pictures for you.

Concrete outdoor furniture at the marketing company where #2 daughter works.

Sewing needles from a sunken steamboat. Life was hard in 1856.

They did, however, have very cool buttons.

The thread dissolved, what with being under water for a century and a half, but the other items were fine.

dinner

Some timely advice.

The heat has been excessive. I'm just staying inside, the same way I do when the cold is excessive. My electric bill is also excessive, but I'm a human being with a computer, and neither of us is designed to live in temperatures like 110 degrees. My husband works in a factory, where the thermometers have shown temperatures like 134 degrees, which might as well be an oven.  The workers fight over the portable fans and wear wet rags around their necks.

Last weekend was all party, so this will be a domestic weekend. I'm going to clean house, pay bills, do the grocery shopping, clear up my office which is still a mess from its guest room duty last weekend, and catch up on the laundry. I also plan to take advantage of the Vogue pattern sale at JoAnn's, and sew a bit.

I cut Simplicity 2127 from this rayon print last week, so I'll sew it up, but I also need to make another piece of my travel SWAP. I'm not sure which one. I have all this wool in my plan, and it's hard to embrace sewing with wool in 100+ weather.

It might be a blouse this week. Or I could cut everything out, like a proper SWAP-er, which rhymes. Cutting things out doesn't involve as much interaction with the fabric as sewing does.

I also have been knitting some. Again, there's the wool issue, but I picked up a project from the distant past, a possum fur scarf I was making in lotus stitch.

Since last I worked on it, someone has posted a nice scarf pattern combining the traditional  Lotus pattern with a simpler lace called English Mesh. You can see it at Elann if you register. It's quite pretty.

Lace is perfect for summer knitting, even if it is fur,and there are things to be said for really easy lace, so I've been finishing up the Lotus part and will soon move on to the Mesh. Since it's lace, it looks like a squashed up mess, but I will show you a picture of the Lotus pattern from its early days, when I stretched and pinned it for the purpose.

Like a baby picture of the knitting.

The yarn is made from the fur of the New Zealand possum, a horrible   pest who nonetheless has fur with a hollow structure like a polar bear's fur.This gives it a remarkable insulating quality. The yarn doesn't feel the least bit furry, but is soft and lovely.

If I continue knitting at the current rate, I should be able to knit this thing on the plane to Rome as well.

Ah, yes, back to the SWAP. I have 10 weeks left till travel day and I have completed one piece, so I am on schedule. I'm going to base it on Vogue 1100 (hence the taking advantage of the sale part of my day) and  Butterick 5470.

In other news, we're planning a dramatic video with a bunch of other local web folk. We do lots of videos, but just screen casts and straight talking to the camera, so this is a departure for us. I had the idea at the after party for last weekend's conference, and one of the people there took it up and decided we should actually do it. I'm looking forward to it.

I've written the script and we've rounded up the actors. I guess the next step is the props and locations. I may spend part of the day going through my collection of sound clips for suitable music and sound effects.

However, I am determined to be mostly domestic this weekend so next week will have a more civilized feel to it.