Of fancy balls and meatballs, whines and wine.

Once again, time has gotten away from me, and I am a mediocre blogger, at best. This weekend was the weekend of the Marine Ball (which I had forgotten when I thought about going away). The Marine Ball was a lot of fun, so much fun that I didn't take pictures. And maybe a little too much fun, since it appears I left my shoes (I had changed into flats on the way out) in a cab on the way home. Oops.

Friday we celebrated Veterans Day with a trip to our favorite Swedish house of fun, Ikea. We had wanted to go on an American holiday since we heard it is mobbed on weekends. It was still pretty crowded on a Friday, but not so bad that we couldn't move around, so I guess that's a win.

We came away with much-needed items large and small, from bookshelves to an armchair to read in to a wok to a soap dish. Plus lots of excellent items from the Swedish food store: ginger cookies, smoked salmon, lemon-and-elderberry vodka, salmon paste in a tube (hey, don't judge. James thinks it's gross, but that is his problem). And did I mention that in China they'll deliver and assemble the furniture for $25? Yessssssssss. Follow that all up with some Swedish meatballs in the restaurant, and you can call it a successful day.

I wore an air cast to hobble about Ikea--my sprained ankle is improving slowly. Very slowly. Same with my skin--some parts of me look normal, other parts are still covered in fading hives. My skin, which never used to be sensitive, now reacts to the slightest things--something touching my skin for too long (an air cast, for instance?). My eyes have been red and itchy and dry and covered in a perpetual rash for weeks. Basically, I am mostly better, but I feel like my body is ready to turn on me at any moment. I am pretty sick of this feeling.

So there I am, living in moderate low-level skin rash crankiness, and still not really succeeding in getting out to see Beijing, between the Ikea trip, the waiting for the Ikea furniture to be delivered/Marine Ball-ing, and then today's post-Marine-Ball recovery.

But lest you think I did nothing today, I did make pumpkin chili and halfway organize our bookshelves. Not all the way, though. That would have been too productive.