gracious time

back from the mini-travels, sitting in the back yard of the gnome home. we went to saskatchewan for the week, to visit with the awesomes, a family the queen knows from way back (i met them all briefly through fieldofdreams probably eight or ten years back). this family was at ness creek festival. having escaped the city, the awesomes now live in a lovely small town, so we parked in their driveway for a few days. a little robin was there, and cooked us meal after meal; chunks of local meat, gluten-free pie with whipped cream, pickled beet salad, roasted squash... it was like holiday dinner, twice a day. such love. and saskatchewan is beautiful; the prairies are something amazing.

we went into the city to watch caribou, and it was a good show, but i mostly felt pregnant. we crashed in the city that night, and the queen fiddled around with the bus, trying to figure out a problem: it wasn't the alternator, it was the inverter - he needed a higher ampage. or something like that. my greasy queen, quickly learning the cummins diesel engine. or possibly already having known it.

we headed back here yesterday, having accidentally gotten sucked into "last-minute" bullshit. it was good though, to have a dry run for travelling. i figured out we needed more rags and some sewing equipment, and can leave behind the LED christmas lights (a game of cribbage by LED just isn't the same).

unfortunately, our last-minute errandry is lagging behind in our fight to be healthy. the queen came down with it far worse than i, but we're both not feeling well. the wife's ex (been hanging out with batdog at the gnome home more these days, it's nice to see) called it "back to reality" sickness, implying it was the city's fault. i like that theory. truthfully we both saw it coming but stayed up late anyway. i'm not doing too bad. the poor queen though; he can chase down labouring cows in fields, but this has hit him like a ton of bricks. i got him some soup and he went back to sleep, ragingly hot and sweaty.

water, soup, bed. fresh market tomatoes. i take care of my queen.

i'm past being able to hide my belly under a massive hoodie. i am visibly pregnant. people are starting to touch my belly, but so far it's still people i know. the queen is going to have to build a wider step down from the bus (hank)'s back bed. i will post bus pictures soon (maybe) but not ultrasounds, sorry. the baby shall remain a mystery for four more months(ish).