The Sunday Salon: What I've been Doing

I didn't mean to disappear from the Interwebs, especially since I've been back from my mountain cabin vacation for about a couple of weeks. The vacation has been a glorious time away from the daily stresses and routines, and a big reminder to do such vacations more often. Not necessarily by shelling a lot of money to secure a fabulous cabin at the top of the Blue Ridge, but at least by doing less work and more fun stuff once in a while.

Since I got back, it's been a busy couple of days at work, and I got swept into knitting a sweater over the weekend, so I have been largely absent from the internet and unplugged most of the time. When I'm bit by any hobby bug, I like to let it pass because it's very difficult to put it down and look around at other things. Besides, with the occasional cold days showing up here, I've been itching to make something that I can wear this season, something more challenging, like a sweater. It's amazing how hard it is to come back to the blog, the longer I stay away.

Luckily, I've been reading some. I finished listening to Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton and enjoyed it. Listening to it was like watching a soap opera that I could not peel myself away from. Twitter has such a shameful background that it's surprising to see a service coming from such sordid depths become one of the most used ever. Of course, Facebook is right up there with it, with all its scandalous history.

I also finished listening to I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. I wasn't initially inclined to read I am Malala. I keep my memoir reading to a very minimum, but I am glad I picked this book. It was charming, informational, and very engrossing, so this book turned out to be a fast listen. I am Malala is also the first book I have read/listened to that was set in Pakistan. And I thought this was just the perfect book to read if someone wanted to learn more about this country. Malala may be just seventeen years old, but she knows more about her country than most people know about theirs.

I'm finishing up The Hundred Foot Journey today. I've been reading this book for a long time despite it being a very entertaining book. (Blame the knitting for this.) My glorious plan was to read the book then go watch the movie. I don't think the movie is even running at the theaters anymore. Oh well. I also have been reading three knitting books (see, I told you I have been reading, just not books I would be reviewing) - why three at the same time, I have no idea, but it's helping me combine two of my hobbies without making me miss one or the other. Rrrright.

This Friday, there was a street festival downtown that was a lot of fun to be at. We don't go often to downtown so this was a nice excuse to get down there. I have a low-key Sunday planned, or rather nothing planned for today. Some pending work for my office, some knitting, some reading, and some Feedly catch-up are all that I am intending to do today.