Fresh Berries and Paper Shorts

Today, Kyle let me borrow his truck while he's off at work.  Woot!  This means I can a) leave the house, b) talk to actual people instead of the five animals that keep me company during the day, and c) run some much-needed errands.  Although it turned out my first two 'errands' weren't open yet after I dropped Kyle off at work.  I knew for a fact that the berry patch was open, though.  I went to Pungo Blueberries, Etc, and if we're around in the fall I'm definitely going to find a farm and get some pecans.  For ten bucks, I got four pounds of blueberries and one pound of blackberries!  I am still deciding what to do with them all - it depends on how much Kyle's family wants me to leave fresh, then the rest will be frozen.  Muffins, definitely, and possibly a pie or tarts.  I think the blackberries will just be eaten with ice cream or as a smoothie.

I got a nice bucket to pick blueberries in, but for the blackberries they gave me a stupid box which was prone to spilling (I didn't spill it, but I came close about eight times).  Just to spite them I ate some extra blackberries.  Okay, that's not true.  I ate the extra blackberries because I accidentally picked more than I wanted to take home...

The goods!  Aren't you jealous?

Kyle's dad has a subscription to Money magazine, which I've been reading avidly because I don't know much about investing and I feel it's something I should be semi-expert on before doing.  I also got a free trial subscription to Investor's Business Daily when I signed up for an account with Morningstar.com, where I have a practice portfolio I can track for a while before I actually have money to invest.

Mac-Mac tried on Rev 2 for me.

Anyway, the IBD subscription isn't doing me much good without a job, so I've been designing a pattern so I can sew myself some shorts.  Rev 3 was actually wearable, so I think I'm almost ready to switch over to real fabric :)  Making clothes out of newspaper makes me feel pretty homeless.  Oh wait, I AM pretty homeless (Kyle and I have been leeches lately, living off the goodness and generosity of Kyle's father and stepmom).

So that's been my favorite diversion lately.  Otherwise, the job search continues.  Next weekend I'm heading up to Michigan for a while to pick up a car of my own so I don't have to be confined to the house all day.  Being unemployed is surprisingly taxing mentally.  There just isn't a whole lot of validation in my life anymore.  Most of my time is allotted to job search or learning, neither of which have any tangible rewards.  Making clothing does, but I don't really want to spend the money on something that I can't wear so I'm hesitant to buy fabric.  I think in about a year or so I'll be ready for Project Runway...

Mac-Mac, contortionist extraordinaire.