February sum up!

Whew, what a month this has been! As usual, February started off with my birthday and a week's worth of book hauls. First there were these: 

I got Ikigai, Lagom and The Ivory Throne as birthday gifts. Autographed copies of Why I am a Hindu, The Cliffhangers, Yoga Mythology and Faith as well as Chain of Custody were bought from MBIFL. Then Kunjunni and I came to know of Ente Book holding an exhibition of secondhand books at the YMCA. So off we went and filled up one box. This is my share of the box, the rest went to the boys...

Now where I am going to find the time to read all these, I have no idea. Even with my speed-reading capabilities, it is a bit tough. And then I am confused about which one to start first. So I keep reading my library books in the meanwhile because I have to give them back by a certain date. These will keep! 😀

Last Friday, I couldn't blog because I could not even look at the screen! Taking advantage of the Sivaratri holiday, DH and I got much-needed eye checks complete with the dilating part. I hate having my pupils dilated because it takes almost 24 hours for my eyes to get back to normal. But since it was necessary, I did it. And then I had to go back in the next day to get my vision test done again. When I had to repeat my vision test three times at 10-minute intervals, I was puzzled. 

The doctor explained to me that she wanted to make sure that I could read near things normally with my new glasses. These were her exact words, "People above 40 have to get progressive lenses. Don't come back to me saying you can't read near things." Well, I never guessed that doctors could be ageist! I had to tell her that since I am a high myope, I usually need to hold books closer than people normally do in order to read! What was I going to do with progressive glasses then??? 

Meanwhile, in our writing workshop's whatsapp group, I suggested a 30-day writing challenge. The aim is to write for one hour a day or write 1000 words a day. Guess what? I am on day 24 of this challenge! Okay, I haven't written today's quota, but will as soon as I post this, ahem! The thing that surprised me was that even on the day my poor eyes were dilated, I completed the day's quota of time and words!!! In fact, I had usually averaged around 1400-1800 words before that. But on that particular day as the timer dinged on the second half hour, I squinted at the word count and was flabbergasted!   2095 words!!!

I know what happened. Since I couldn't look at the screen, I was touch-typing with my eyes closed and didn't correct typos as they happened. When I checked what I had written the next day, I expected to find a red document, but found that Word had caught most of the typos and there were only a few red lines here and there. Hmm, may be I am on to something here?!

My tapestry crochet project has yielded the bag part, finally

I like the bottom part the best...

Isn't it pretty? But there I turned away from my pattern. The pattern called for this to be a tote, with handles. I tried making the handles, but they were too flimsy for my taste. See what I mean?

I was sure they wouldn't hold much weight. So I searched around for some sturdy strap pattern and found one here - The thermal stitch on YouTube. So now I have this...

This strap is all I can wish for. And along with the strap came another idea, why not convert the bag to a backpack? I undid the last few rows, planned for holes in a row of triple crochets to let a cord pass through and now.. ta...da...

It's a backpack that can be drawn shut. I will have to add a flap with magnetic closure to the top, shoulder straps and a loop to hang it up with as well as a lining with a pocket or two. The drawstring needs a little tweaking too. But I welcome the challenge!

And before I go, may I present to you...

'R' there is my DH. 'S' is moi. This is my personal best at bowling in all my life!!! It was the day set aside for children at DH's work. We had time to kill after we put them in a robotics workshop. Usually we play with at least another family. This day we had the lanes to ourselves. And guess what, I beat my DH who usually leaves me in the dust. I didn't throw any gutter balls. I hit strikes! And THERE WAS NO ONE AROUND TO SEE IT!!!

So now you have seen it. Please feel free to congratulate me on my only good game in my whole bowling 'career'. Thanks in advance! See y'all next week!