Another week has slipped almost slipped away without me blogging about it. I know you’re all desperate to know what we’ve been up to. Saturday was our first day since the wedding sans guests. It felt a little strange not to be wondering what we were going to do to entertain people with during the day. As a complete come down from the past busy week, we spent the day at home. Glen ironed shirts while listening to a webcast of a conference he didn’t have to attend in person. I’m not sure what I did all do. Something obviously.

In the afternoon we went to the gym with Julian, which is where I laid the seeds for my later crippling. It was legs day for me and all went fine, or at least I thought it did. We went home and later that night went to Ur and Israel’s for dinner. We got there a little late to see all the kids, but managed to sneak a hello to Etye. Liad was still up when we arrived so that was good. We ate a wonderful home cooked meal, had some drinks, then played what seemed like endless rounds of Cards Against Humanity. Israel trounced the lot of us, though Ur and Julian did pretty well. I called bed at about 11:20 and then went to stand. My back instantly pinged. Oh no. Not good. The drive home did an even bigger number on my lower back and by the time we got home I was already off-centre. I looked like I had severe scoliosis.

Sunday

Because of my bad back, my plans to join the boys in a visit to Costco were scuppered. Alas I was not there to curtail Glen’s spending, but, surprisingly, I didn’t need to. He came home with a sensible amount of groceries and no giant box of sugar-coated cereal. I was so proud. I spent the day on the couch, just capable enough of working on laying out a magazine I get paid to do. In the evening, I was still no better but luckily our dinner plans didn’t require me to go for. For the second week in a row, we had Sunday Neighbours’ Dinner, this time hosted by Julian.

Everyone gave lots of helpful comments about what to do to help ease the pain in my back; I was relieved (and bewildered) when conversation turned to cars. I think Glen and I were the only ones who didn’t have a clue what the five other people were talking about. Julian cooked a lovely dinner of roast salmon with a quinoa salad, that was then followed up by homemade apple pie (he even made the pie crust). We left around 9:30, an early night for a change. Next week it’s Pete and Royden’s turn.

Monday

I woke up and my back was no better. I managed to get a chiropractor appointment for the afternoon, which helped somewhat but has not eased everything. I’m still a little crooked. With all the guests and the wedding preparations going on, I hadn’t had much time to edit my latest book. I’d already missed one deadline, was set to miss a second, and wanted to make a third, self-imposed one for the end of the month. Despite the back pain, I managed to get myself comfortable enough to get some work done, and managed to edit 5,000 words of the draft.

I’m pretty pleased with myself because I’ve so far repeated that effort on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. I have approximately 21,000 words left to go, though there’s bound to be a need to write some new words as I go. Still, I feel like I will make my deadline and be able to get this damn book sent off to the publisher (who has been very accommodating so far). I really need to pull my finger out though and make sure it gets done. Still, if current trends continue, I’ll be sitting pretty.

Tuesday

In the evening Julian came over and we watched Blue Jasmine on Netflix. Glen cringed through most of what he saw; he doesn’t like Woody Allen films. I was glad it was on Netflix as I’d missed seeing it at the cinemas and everyone had raved about it. When it was done though, I wasn’t quite sure whatever everyone found so appealing about it. Cate Blanchett is great, obviously, and the writing is typical Woody, but it’s a bleak story. And in fact (and here comes a bit of a spoiler), I didn’t really like the way that it came across like everything was her fault, that she somehow deserved to go mad, to have no friends or family. Was it because she’d tried to get revenge for having been lied to? Would be happy to have a discussion with someone about this film, particularly if you loved it as I’d like to know what I’m missing.

Wednesday

Tonight has been quiet. Glen came home from work late as he’s doing some extra work to get some more money to pay for the ski boots we bought. Dinner has been a rather sorry affair as I seem to have let that side of things slip a bit. I had rice, salmon and capsicum, while Glen just had a slab of pork. Must get some vegetables back in the house, hopefully tomorrow. We’re also binge-watching our way through the second season of Damages. One more episode to go. What an exciting life we lead.

The rest of the week is going to be busy, and the weekend is shaping up to be fun. I’m looking into taking a drawing class in winter and have found a few options. It’ll be strange going to something structured and regular again.