Making the most of my ample free time

So I have been unemployed for nearly two months now. This has been somewhat frustrating, though not without perks. For one, I sleep in until at least 9 am every morning. Another perk is that I have time and energy to exercise, though I negate that by eating fudge rounds (snacking out of boredom is one of the drawbacks).

I would probably be content to sit around and watch t.v. all day, but we don't have cable and even I am not ready to face daytime television. In order to entertain myself, I have taken up a few new hobbies. The first is my halloween party. I have been planning it since we got here, even though I only have about two friends. I have ghost silhouettes for the mirror, fake spiderwebs for every nook and cranny, cheap candies for "creepcakes", and, most importantly, a ghost pinata.

We've also been renting movies from the library. The selection is, of course, somewhat limited, so we often take chances. One of those chances was an old Disney movie with a young Sean Connery called "Darby O'Gill and the Little People." I was so entranced by this movie that i watched it twice and then set about searching for the source material. That proved more difficult than I imagined, which only increased my resolve. The film was actually based on two books by the same author. I was able to find the second in our library system, but the first turns out to be quite rare in its original form, and quite valuable. I read the second book, The Ashes of Old Wishes, which led me to a minor obsession with Irish folklore. There's one story about a woman who sells her husband to the devil. It is so funny. Jord suggested I should turn it into an opera-- or at least a singspiel. I think I will. I have the time.

For Maria's birthday, the rest of the family is combining their many talents to record a Roxette cover. Since I am currently the least productive member of the family, I got the job of transcribing. It wasn't a bad way to pass the time, so I decided to do another. I'm now looking for eighties cover bands to hire me as a full time arranger.

Finally, yesterday I was driven by my inactivity to do something I can't recall ever doing before. I baked a pie. From scratch. Ta da!