Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Under the weather category.
Weekend Round up /Contest reminder
- The Force of Nature’s soccer team won a game!
- -ate some wonderful food at Mezzaluna (try the Eggplant Parmesan appetizer; fantastic!)
- saw the movie “Good Hair” with some friends (I enjoyed it)
- Got some more Kureyon for the Lizard Ridge blanket (I’m halfway there)
- made zero progress on the Tapestry Cowl
- got “The Individual formerly known as Homeschool Kid”’s hair cut. Yay!
- since my hairstyle was making me feel OLD, I even got my hair cut (I now now own a flatiron to style it with….)
- no band rehearsal because the bandleader had a heart attack (please say healing prayers for Sylvester!)
- spent what seemed like endless hours tryna fix the Force of Nature’s cobbled-together iPod (I should post a picture – it’s held together with rubber bands for REAL) and to remove some rather nasty spyware from my ‘puter
- Studmuffin left for Cali on a business trip
- I didn’t remember to call my brother for his birthday til like 2 am. I still haven’t called
( - Natasha’s limp has gone away as mysteriously as it came.
- posted one of my cutest ever posts (I think) about Domo-kun with cute pictures AND NOBODY COMMENTED :::sad trombone::: I guess everyone is too busy? Or do you just hate Domo-kun? Or is it me?
Today, I:
- forgot to put out the trash
- felt like crap all day
- spoke to 2 wonderful friends on the phone (I love you guys!!!)
- finished knitting No.1 Son’s birthday prezzie and am felting it (and felting and felting….)
- took a nap and was
- late making dinner and so
- burnt the spaghetti with meatballs……..
Life is good but I still feel yucky. It will pass….. WHERE is the goshdurn heating pad?!
Meal plan Monday:
Mon- spags & meatballs
Tues- Shepherd’s Pie a la Cracker (this didn’t get made last week; I WILL share the recipe)
Wed- leftovers
Thurs- Mac & cheese & salad
Fri- Romano Beans & rice
Sat- Soup & sandwiches/Corn Chowder
Sun- Chinese take out
CONTEST Reminder
Contest ends on October 31st, 2009 at midnight Alabama time, and the winner will be announced when I get around to it (probably during the following week). My choice will be completely arbitrary and humor is encouraged. )
Please submit prospective names in the comments – the name I choose for him will win a $14 gift card to Starbucks. If you live someplace without Starbucks, I’ll contact you directly and we’ll work it out.
See all the other names submitted in the comments here
Toodles
So I’ve been sick for the last 4 days
Not like really REALLY sick, but enough to keep me halfway to miserable and yet still ambulatory. Fortunately, I’m not too sick to knit. Almost zero homeschooling and no blogging to speak of this week; still having enough computer issues to keep me from doing that rather important demo for the wedding…and Studmuffin is rather irritated with me on top of all o’ that.
I have SO many good things to blog about from the last 3 or 4 weeks but it won’t be today…or perhaps til Monday even. Always remember and never forget that my thoughts are like butterflies these days….hope to catch a few of those thoughts real soon.
Now to catch up with a few photo captions:
This is the cashmere lace shawl I’m working on. I’ve ripped this bad boy out SEVERAL times, but now things are going well, and it is bigger than this now. A few more “arty” shots:
This cashmere is undyed Ecco Cashmere – a dream to work with….
This is a free pattern by Miriam “the Lace Genius” Felton : Adamas Shawl.
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SO eight years ago today, the twin towers of the World Trade Center came down. It doesn’t seem that long ago… Loads and loads of songs and poems have been written about those events. I cannot say that I have read or heard ALL of them, but of the many that I have, this is my favorite.
City of Dreams by David Wilcox & Pierce Pettis
From the top of the towers
You could see past the narrows
Past our lady of the harbor
To the broad, open sea
See the curve of the earth
On the vast, blue horizon
From the world?s greatest city
In the land of the free
All the brave men and women
that you never would notice
From the precincts and fire halls
The first on the scene
Storming into the buildings
On the side of the angels
They were gone in an instant
In the belly of the beast
CHORUS
We are children of slavery
children of immigrants
Remnants of tribes and their tired refugees
As the walls tumble down
We are stronger together
Stronger than we ever knew we could be
As strong as that statue that stands for the promise
Of liberty here in this city of dreams
Liberty here in this city of dreams
All the flags on front porches
And banners of unity
Spanning the bridges
From the top of the fence
As we heal up the wounds
And take care of each other
There’s more love in this nation
Than hate and revenge
CHORUS
We are children of slavery
children of immigrants
Remnants of tribes and their tired refugees
As the walls tumble down
We are stronger together
Stronger than we ever knew we could be
As strong as that statue that stands for the promise
Of liberty here in this city of dreams
Liberty here in this city of dreams
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Hey y’all-
I’ve been thinking LOADS about posting….but I haven’t had much that was POSITIVE to say. I guess it might be better for me to say that there really have been many positive things going on, but there’s been some serious negativity goin’ on as well, and I’ve let it dominate my thinking. Truly, I’m am working HARD on focusing on the positive stuff but I’m still not very good at it.
So the biggest burr under my saddle is Number One Son. He asked to come and stay with us for the last week before he moves to “Wild Wonderful West Virginia” and I agreed after he swore UP & DOWN that he would obey my rules. Studmuffin was in Cali on business and I was feeling under the weather (which has been glorious! the weather I mean…), but there have been a fairly LARGE number of thefts from his apartment and I took pity on him.
WHAT WAS I THINKING?????!!!!!!???
Almost immediately after he arrived, he was disobedient to the house rules and rude to me to boot. Then after he’d been here for a few days – casting his thick miasma of negativity & disobedience all around Chez Oney – Ian and I had a stupid argument, which left Ian very angry….so he decided to vandalize several things of mine after I left the house, including my iPod. This is VERY distressing behavior for him to exhibit; there had been another incident years ago but not nearly as focused or extensive. Truly a massive overreaction and thus he has earned himself several sessions with the family therapist.
Please pray for us. I’ve had several artistic disappointments as well all clustered together along with this and the heart thing….it’s really bringing me down – making me wonder if I’m the big problem here. Thanks.
On a positive note – the camera charger has been located! It was in my van attached to the voltage inverter and wedged under a seat I think. Studmuffin found it and I immediately charged it up and took some pictures outside . I was hoping to get some of the kids before Number One left but today he had me so rattled…oh well perhaps when we go pick up the Force of Nature in WV in a few weeks.
So here they are:
This is the best looking bit of the garden. Front and center is a summer squash plant that *really* didn’t look like it was gonna make it there for a while; it’s rather better now. On the right is parsley and a *volunteer* cypress vine. To the left is a cucmber plant that I hope will start being productive VERY soon, and the lush backdrop to all this are the Kentucky Wonder beans….which have yet to flower (grrrr) so no beans so far.
All that ferny foliage is the cypress vine. Then there’s the petunias and I’m sorry but you can barely see the pepper plants on the right.
Here’s a few of the ‘maters. These are all about the size of ping pong balls. As soon as they get a little bigger and start ripening for real, this is what happens:
The birds start pecking them. I think it’s because it had been so dry. I’ve never had this trouble before; so far I composted more tomatoes that had been pecked than I’ve harvested. I though a birdbath might help, so I set one up:
How’s that for a Cracker birdbath? I certainly was NOT gonna spend any $ on the flying pests….. It’s hard to tell if it has had any effect as we’ve had more rain lately.
Most of what you see here is watermelon vines. The white things are (mostly) the boundaries of the 4′x4′ little garden bed that I’ve tried to grow watermelons in for 3 years. Now it’s really working!
You can see the next-to-biggest one here…along with the pecan sapling in the right foreground (grrr….).
This one is growing upright because I put a couple empty tomato cages near the plants for the vines to ramble over. I’ll be interested to see whether or not this one makes it to full size.
This is the smallest one and that’s my foot for comparison (I *do* have big feet). I took this picture a couple of days ago, and this thing has almost doubled in size.
The midsize model….
These are the 2 largest. I can hardle WAIT until they are ripe! I adore watermelon. And there are more ityy bitty ones on the way…..
Now for more pics:
Her name is Gucci and she is the very friendly pit bull next door. We reach over the fence to pet her – she is VERY big but lovable. I think she lives to hear our garden gate latch lift. And to bark at the cat. Speaking of which….
Bluto the Fabulous is STILL with us. These pictures make him look really good; in person he looks like he has mange.
I planted some sunflowers to keep the sun off the cucumbers. Not too many sunflowers actually came up, which may be a good thing because the cucumbers seem to adore the sun….
The other squash plant – this thing is huge! So far no squash vine borers have found this. YAY!
Lest you think everything looks great:
This is bed #2 in a sad state of neglect…which will get worse before it gets better. I have great intyentions for this bed – really I do.
Boris is so pretty….here “smelling” the daisies. He’s not reallly enjoying their scent – he’s deciding whether or not to eat them. If they were zinnias, they’d be goners.
I’ve taken lots of pictures of the dogs…hundreds probably, but never have I gotten one with their eyes shut – til now. I think it’s kinda cute. The Force of Nature is kinda cute too:
I hope to post more tomorrow. G’night.
Some news for today
I’ve just found out this morning that I must have open heart surgery very soon – probably before February. For those of you who know something about this stuff, I have severe mitral valve regurgitation. This has come as rather a shock to me, and I’d so appreciate your prayers.
A very merry echocardiogram to you
So, as I recently reported, I am wheezing and coughing worse and worse. In fact , on Friday it was SO awful while I was driving to Atlanta for the conference I was starting to get rather worried! I went to the doctor today and I had some chest x-rays (all clear) and will have a CAT scan and an echocardiogram tomorrow. Earlier this year, it was determined that I have a leaky mitral valve (aka a heart murmur), so this is to make sure that it has not gotten worse and causing all this wheezing and shortness of breath. I’ll keep y’all posted.
We had a wonderful time at the conference; my mother flew down to Atl from Virginia and we stayed together. One Human Family sang and that was really good. The Supreme administrative body of the Baha’i Faith, the Universal House of Justice, has called for 41 of these conferences around the world to occur during November 2008 – March 2009. The purpose of these conferences are to celebrate the wonderful things that have been happening in the Baha’i Faith and to encourage us to redouble our efforts as the condition of the world deteriorates. It was an amazing experience! I brought my camera and then forgot to take pictures most of the time (I have the cord again….but now have misplaced the camera. I *must* find a permanent location for this stuff.
….to be continued……..
Thoughtful stuff I think everybody oughta read
Howdy y’all. I’m sick with a head cold – happy weekend. Faugh. So instead of my writing something good and groovy, I thought I’d share two articles that I really like because they provoke thought. So read them and tell me whatcha think.
“You don’t HAVE to be pretty…..”
and
The Crazy Mixed-Up Fantasy About Thinness (Warning: there is some adult language in this article).
Many pictures under the cut (may not be safe for work; when in doubt, don’t LOOK)
My husband called…..
….to tell me he has to spend an extra day in California… Joy. I’m still awake because I cannot sleep-too much coughing and wheezing. Last night I finally gave up about 4 am and came out into the living room to sleep sitting upright in the “round chair”.
My round chair looks almost exactly like this one. However, this one isn’t repaired with a length of bright blue rope….
I have fallen asleep in that chair a number of times before; it’s just a little hard on my neck. Right now, Boris is in it, and I haven’t the heart to kick him out of it.
I am on the mend, though. Today, I was actually able to take a shower, put gas in the van and take the dogs (very briefly) across the street., though I did cancel rehearsal which I *hate* to do. I haven’t taken much in the way of cold medicines in the last 24 hours and my nose has stopped dripping incessantly. Is this the flu? I haven’t been this ill in a good long while. Perhaps tomorrow I can homeschool Ian again……
In the meantime, I’ve been catching up on paperwork, mending, and a few long-overdue swaps. I want to have everything done by the time of the Wings to the Spirit conference (beginning of May). It’s gonna be so terrific!! I’ve got to finish reading “Mirror of the Divine” by Ludwig Tuman before then. It’s a wonderful book; there’s so much for my brain to tease apart and ponder on that I’m going slowly.
Since my “brain event” happened almost 3 years ago, the way I learn is really, really different than before. I know there are folks out there who think that it’s just age, or too much stress or lack of focus, but I assure you it is not. There is a marked difference in how I thought and learned before and now. I guess the best analogy I can come up with is losing one’s virginity – there’s a very distinct before and after. Unfortunately, (or it could be fortunately ) no one else is inside my head so I do not have any kind of objective corroboration of the changes. It is much harder for me to learn new things – like 10 times as hard as it was before, and my concentration is fragile at best. So trying to truly absorb this book is much more of an effort than in previous times. This makes me sad because I am not doing nearly as much “serious reading” as I have done in the past, and at some point I want to go back to college. I have had to stop buying heavy duty Baha’i books because I am not reading the ones I have already, but my intellectual curiosity remains high so I keep trying. I’m not complaining, it’s more that I’m explaining.
I was boating about the Internet and I found the blog and flickr site of one of the people I met while on pilgrimage. On Sholeh’s blog, she has some really wonderful pictures, plus links to some truly wonderful sites.
Tired of reading what passes for news these days? Too depressing? Try this site: http://2inspire.us/
Oh well, off to bed. I hope I sleep.
Still sick….
I feel a little better today, but still pretty crummy. Got out of bed just long enough to make some soup for the children’s supper and read a little email. I guess I forgot to mention that Bill is out of town this week too…..
A test for stress part deux
Things have been cra – hey-hey -zee around here! I traveled a really really long way from here to the west coast of Canada last weekend and back, sang my brains out and of course came back to a sick husband and then 2 out of three kids sick. The first stress test I failed….or rather the radioactive dye failed to leave my arm and go into my heart so they could take pretty pictures of it. So I had anutha one Tuesday – the day after I got back. All went well, but I am tired! I wasn’t jet-lagged going East to West, but West to East just kills me.
Am now knitting furiously tryna catch up with all my swaps…..
P.S. Thanks, Jennifer, for reminding me that there are a few who actually do read my blatherings! And the coffee grinder is SO cool….I promise to write the coffee grinder story tomorrow.
A test for stress
So tomorrow morning I’m having a stress test and an echocardiogram. Woo hoo. What fun. I’m a little concerned about my heart; I’ve been having this kind of weird asthmatic thing going on…which evolved into bronchitis which I’m now *almost* over. But it could be my heart. I turn 39 next week, and I’m very overweight so I need to take care of some medical things right around now. I remember reading in the local paper 3 or 4 years ago about a woman who dropped dead at 40 of a heart attack, and remember thinking, “That’s not gonna be me!”
I get regular exercise – I walk almost everyday, and now we have Dance Dance Revolution which I do several times a week. I eat way better than I did 20 years ago; I actually feel guilty eating junk food now. I take many different supplements that have really helped my overall well being, so I know I’m not malnourished. The EKG turned up a little anomaly which could be something or it could be nothing and the chest x-ray was aok. Blood has been drawn – I don’t have the results yet. I don’t now really think there’s anything wrong with my ticker, but I am happy to have the tests, and happy that I have medical insurance so that I can afford the tests.
My enormous, elderly and senile cat, Bluto, has a habit of sleeping in one place for 4 or 5 days and then relocating. In the 10 years that he has owned us, I’ve noticed that he rarely goes back to the same place, unless it’s on a bed (mine, usually). However, we are now on Week 2 of Bluto’s hostile takeover of the dogs’ bed in a corner of our living room. Bluto is king and the dogs know it. Natasha will lie down next to the cat, and there have been some really cute cross-species grooming sessions that I would have put money on never happening, but Boris is completely cowed and at a loss of where to be since his place is occupied by the evil feline.
Knitting has taken over my life to the point that I’m almost uninterested in the seed catalogues that have started arriving in anticipation of spring. This is fairly unusual, but I do think it is partly a reaction to the “Amazing Crunchfest 2007″ that was my garden this summer. I haven’t even had any desire to go hang out at Bennett’s Nursery, and that’s unheard of for me. Maybe this year, I’ll just plant flowers and knit MORE.
Off to Florida tomorrow, then back for a couple of days and then off to the “Great White North”! I’m ready for a little fun.
