Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the whinge category.
OH NOES!
I just wrote a blog post and then deleted it by mistake. Should I take it as a sign to not say whatever it was that I was gonna say? Perhaps less whinging this time around…..
- The left-handed crochet plan is a bust. I guess that goal will get put up on the shelf for a while.
- Am still crocheting like a fiend. Here’s a photo or two:
Not too bad for cell phone pictures, eh? I quail at the thought of sewing all these together……gotta be done tho’. - The cat is still alive, amazingly enough. He’s not eating dry food, but will happily scoff up the canned stuff. Still, there are several hard decisions to be made and soon.
- I’ve become nearly obsessed with Queen and Freddie Mercury in the last few days. I’ve always been a fan (since 1977) but I *think* I had a dream about them/him a couple of nights ago and now ….well, it’s strange. Of course my oh-so-obedient children did NOT put the one Queen cd I had back so now it’s lost and I have to listen to their music on line. I am astonished by the fact that it has been EIGHTEEN years since Freddie died. What a terrific showman and singer! I miss him.
- I guess I’m a little depressed. The buckets of rain pouring down outside are NOT helping.
- For some unknown reason Windows Media player just refuses to RUN on my computer. This is BAD.
- Life *is* good…I’m just being a whiner.
- I did have fun putting together the Blues Classics Christmas show I did last night on WJAB. There’s WAY more Christmas blues tunes than you’d think. I wonder if any of you have ever listened to the show?
- Sacred Flame has booked a gig in May and that’s something to really look forward to! We’ll be singing at the next Wings to the Spirit conference in Florida. One of our number cannot make it, but I am happy to think of singing again.
- We will be going off to visit family for about a week & a half pretty soon. I think I need to find and bring back something very special for Sarah, who has been just wonderful to me AND comments all the time. AND I MISSED HER BIRTHDAY! What do you say m’dear? Any preferences?
- I just need to go look at some of the silly websites I enjoy….like this one:
Weekend wrap-up
I’m hoping to post more frequently by posting shorter….. Brevity is supposed to be the soul of wit so here goes:
- The whole family ate a 4 course meal at the Melting Pot Friday night. Kids had much fun, the food was excellent, but it put a serious and unplanned crimp in our finances; not a good time of year for that!
- Massive food shopping onslaught to restock the bare cupboards. You know things is bare when yer eating the canned pickled beets you bought by mistake several years ago. STill, this situation allowed us to defrost the chest freezer and the fridge freezer and forced me to be much more creative in trying to prepare balanced meals for the fam. Madrassian lentils and tinned peaches anyone?
- We have a mouse in the pantry. So far, only Studmuffin has seen it and he wants to do away with it, but I think it may become an unintended pet since the Duke of Curl was absolutely HORRIFIED that we would even think of trying to trap &/or kill it. Stay tuned….
- The power steering pump seems to be going bad in the Van of Reknown, so now it kinda sounds like the monorail at Walt Disney World only louder. This’ll have to wait fer a bit (see “Melting Pot” above)- fortunately it can, but we may have to wear earplugs while driving it.
- My mother told me she’s not gonna get me a present for my birthday. I told her she’s off the hook; after all she’s been giving me presents longer than anybody, including the gift of my life. I really do feel this way, but I admit to having mixed emotions too. I love getting birthday presents; I think birthdays are important and I’ve never gotten presents for my birthday on any kind of regular basis from Studmuffin and children ( it might average out to maybe 1 present every 5 years or so). Studmuffin doesn’t enjoy receiving gifts himself and so really doesn’t get the whole gift thing in a very basic way. In other years I’ve bought my own presents, but I don’t wanna this year for some reason ( perhaps the Melting Pot budget pothole?). I have a couple of very close friends who remember my birthday (and I of course remember theirs – I *love* giving gifts). I can’t say that I’m hurting or anything…there’s just maybe a bit of angsty regret around the edges.
- My most excellent LYS is having its big holiday sale and I went and got beautiful things on Saturday AND stayed within my budget. Yay! Once I find the camera, I may take some pictures….
- I’ve mislaid the mitten I’ve completed for my mother-in-law. I must find this TODAY. She’s off to Austria SOON.
- The printer is still not working, and last night we discovered that my ‘puter doesn’t even have a dedicated printer port on the back of the CPU, so I cannot just plug it in to my computer. Grrrr.
- I’ve not gotten the Christmas music out yet. I must be depressed or something.
- My house smells like Chez Catpee, because….
- My elderly cat, the Amazing Bluto, is dying. He’s not eaten much of anything since Friday, he’s not getting outside in time to relieve himself so he’s been doing it all over the house (usually when I’m out), and the other cat is following suit. Bluto’s been with us so loong he has several nicknames and he answers to all of them: Blue-dee-doo, Blutofsky, Boo-ba-licious, Boobles, The Frumious Boo and Boobie. He’s obviously near the end, and yet he’s still clawing his way up to sleep on our bed (since he can no longer jump) and purring away. Of this I’m glad – he’s not in any pain and he’s had a wonderful life with us but it’s still a sad time.
How’s that for brief? Perhaps photos tomorrow……..And I love reading yer comments!
New yarns/project, procrastination and technology follies
Yesterday, I went on a yarn acquiring expedition to the fabulous Yarn Expressions to get yarn for yet another baby blanket. I’m using the free pattern for the Moderne Baby blanket from the first Mason-Dixon Knitting book.
I’d seen a really beautiful color combination in a finished blanket on Ravelry that was inspiring me Continue reading this entry »
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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SQUEEE!!!!!!!!!
Classic Elite Yarns, one of my favorite yarn & pattern companies, has put a ton of their out of print patterns up for sale via download on Patternfish! YAY! YAY!YAY!
If you like ganseys, cables, colorwork, you REALLY owe it to yerself to check them out. Plus they (Classic Elite Yarns) *just* published Jared Flood’s book (it is SO fabulous – I saw it today at Yarn Expressions) and they get much kudos fer that too. Dammit, can the man make anything that doesn’t turn out absolutely amazing? Us mere mortals (OK maybe just this one) tremble with awe and a wee bit ‘o envy…..
Finding these patterns available almost makes up for the fact I nearly broke my nose (in a very stupid way) today. Picture the scene: I am at the dining table/homeschool table, busily cutting apart Russian flash cards, as the Force of Nature is whining away about her handwriting assignment. I drop one of the flash cards on the floor; I lean over to get it…
I lean a bit too far and in slow-motion ……:::imagine long door creaking sound here:::: or better yet-play this:
-I tip over and bonk the bridge of my nose on the edge of the seat of the other ‘puter chair (and fall on top of dog, Natasha). Much blood ensued. I did hear a “crunch” and thought the honker was broken for a minute…but it was just cartilage noise at the time of impact. I’m glad it isn’t broken; my schnoz already makes enough of a statement without the help of new ridges, flatspots or deviations.
Friends and neighbors, always remember and never forget to keep a bags of frozen peas in the freezer. I’ma take a coupla Tylenol, then I’m off to bed.
Oh yeah – I need to post a silly picture:
My ‘puter is still alive….
…but barely. It got attacked by a MIGHTY virus which nearly did it in and McAffee let the daggone thing thru without a peep. Wouldn’t you know it would happen just as I was backing the darn thing up too? Things are kinda fixed for the moment but I’ve lost all email I received from August 2007 through last Wednesday…… A lesson in letting stuff go, I guess.
There’s much to blog about:
- can you say “crowbar”?
- can you say “new kitty”?
- new babies in da extended family
I’ve been knitting like a fiend and I even took pictures and stuff. But it’ll all have to wait. Studmuffin will be out of town this week, so prospects for a real fine blog post are looking pretty good.
Just wanted to check in with you-how is everybody? And I don’t suppose I’ve ever mentioned this because I didn’t want to seem extra-needy and begging for them but when you write comments, I am SO HAPPY!
See ya later. )
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.
A Word to the Wise:
NEVER schedule a meeting with husband and the marriage therapist on the day of one’s anniversary unless one is COMPLETELY certain that the husband will say nothing about one’s shortcomings.
Oh and MOST definitely try to reschedule said meeting if one’s own musical hero’s funeral is being broadcast live and one is wearing out the hanky, sobbing away.
How dumb can I be? Well……perhaps I shouldn’t invite comment upon that subject until I’m feeling a little more positive. Let’s just say it was a new low in the anniversary department – and that’s even before I burned dinner that night.
Fortunately, we will weather this storm too and not immediately seek out lawyers and such. Twenty-one frrrrreekin’ years. Oy.
Not sleeping well and still blue….
Yep. I’ve been up til about 3 or 4 am most every night for a week not sleeping. I mean I’m tired but not sleepy – very frustrating. Hopefully tonight will be different. )
And I’m feeling very blue still about Michael Jackson’s death. I tried to explain it to my mother on the phone yesterday – she is sickened by the sort of media vultures picking over his bones, and I agree quite a bit: a lot of the coverage is tasteless and there is too much of it…now I’m adding to it. :::sigh:::: I haven’t watched much of the TV coverage; mostly I’m trolling around YouTube watching performances and interviews and reading old articles.
Studmuffin has zero sympathy for me – he was never a fan and feels pretty strongly that the allegations of impropriety with children were true, so that makes him almost incapable of seeing anything positive about MJ’s contributions artistically. I have my own opinions about the allegations; I encourage people who are interested to read the court transcripts for themselves.
For me, MJ has been SO much a part of my musical landscape and inspiration for my whole life, and as I’m listening to his music again while grieving for him, I’m struck anew at his phenomenal abilities. It isn’t because he represents the loss of my youth or anything – I just adored his music. I never got to see him in person and now I never will. And he could really really move….
I meant to go to Knit Night tonight, but I’d probably have such a good time that it would keep me up tonight again so I’ve stayed home. I think I’ll go knit something.
Life is good and all; I’m just a bit down. I hope to be a little more cheerful by Wednesday.
How I love the Weekly World News….
I just realized that they have a website: http://weeklyworldnews.com/
Some of the headlines this evening:
ED ANGER SAYS: LET’S INVADE ARGENTINA!
EGYPTIAN PHAROAH FLEW IN UFO
MICHAEL JACKSON FAKED HIS OWN DEATH?
MEGAN FOX IS A MAN
If your life is feeling too serious or heavy, cruise on over – yer bound to feel better after reading some of that….stuff. I think my favorite part of the website is their subheading: The World’s Only Reliable News
Cracks me up. )
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So, ok, yeah, I promised a post by last Thursday…but that was BEFORE. “Before what?” you ask. Well, take your pick:
A: Michael Jackson died
B: I fell on the treadmill at cardiac rehab
or
C: It got *so* hot that, in the words of one of the kids’ friends: “My face is melting off.”
It’s probably a rather complex interaction of the above three factors contributing to my lack of motivation to sit in front of the ‘puter and write. Since I brought them up, I suppose I oughta comment on all three. I will, but first a picture:
Homeschool Kid (clutching green pillow) went off to Boy Scout camp this morning for a week of mosquitoes, whipporwills calling all night long, tent w/o air conditioning and parent-free time. It’s his 3rd year and he likes it. We’re happy he likes to go. REALLY happy. Unfortunately, the Force of Nature *quit* Girl Scouts a few months ago (“too girly and boring”, i.e. not enough camping, whittling and Greco-Roman wrestling) and is *not* off to camp this week…though she’ll be off to the West Virginia Grandmother’s place for two weeks later in the summer. As you can see, the camera battery charger has NOT magically re-appeared, so I’m “stuck” with the camera phone still.
So back to the comments: I’ll go in chronological order and begin with “C”.
It should come as NO surprise to anyone that it is HOT and MUGGY in Alabama in the summertime, because it is like that EVERY summer and I love it. However, we have had, starting in May or was it April? – over 40 days of daily rain which then turned to high temperatures and NO rain.
As previously reported, our AC died and we went 3 weeks without AC, using only fans, but it started getting up to 99 degrees, plus add in the fact that we no longer have the three maple trees that used to shade the house, so it’s been WICKED HOT which means I’m only good for sitting in front of the fan eating popsicles spraying myself with icewater.
About a week and a half ago, we bought 4 AC window units that have made the interior of Chez Oney much more bearable, but I still am not generally wanting to sit in front of the ‘puter to write….because all I would write about is how HOT it is and how my garden is faring in the heat (fairly well right now, thanks for asking).
Fortunately, this afternoon a slightly cooler front has blown in. YAY! Maybe all the cucumber plants won’t die now.
As for “B”; this week marked the past halfway point for cardiac rehab, and I’ve been feeling pretty good about it. I think of this fella every time I go, though (especially what he says at 1:42).
I was feeling good that I hadn’t yet fallen on the treadmill. Pride goeth before a fall, and on Monday, I fell when I tripped over my own ginormous feet. There were lots of folks around to see it too- an added bonus. And the nurses were really concerned – it took a lot of explaining, with additional confirmation from Studmuffin, that I really AM a klutz and I wasn’t dizzy, and I didn’t blackout or have a stroke, etc. I scraped a good bit of skin off my left knee/leg, but it was my right hip that has had the most sustained pain since then. So I’ve been pretty sore, especially depending on my activity level. Really, I’m fine overall and it did not stop me from going back to rehab on Wednesday or Friday, but I am still feeling it.
Lastly, here’s “A”: MJ died.
I’ve been a huge fan of his artistry over the years and I learned of his death just before I went on the air Thursday night*. I *am* sad that he’s gone….but I’m glad his suffering is over; the Michael Jackson that I loved and admired so greatly has been “gone” for a looong time.
As another local dj said Friday morning, since he was about 5 years old, Michael Jackson never had a normal day in his life. Even Elvis Presley, who got rather weird and died before he was 50, had a fairly regular upbringing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now: fame is NOT good for people. If you’ve not had any, trust me: for most of us, it does NOT enhance our character at all. So that has been rather depressing and has not made me wanna write a whole bunch. I feel very bad for his parents, siblings and his children.
Of course I have to share a few of my favorite songs of his…these are ONLY a FEW.
more about “A few MJ favorites – MP3 Music Stream…”, posted with vodpod
I’ll post something a little happier perhaps tomorrow. Nighty-nite,y’all
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* I host a weekly radio program, “Blues Classics” on WJAB, 90.9 FM, Thursday nights from 6:30 pm to 8 pm (Central Time). You can listen on the Interwebs here: http://www.aamu.edu/wjab/
A Crazy Week & a Surgery Date
Finally! A date fer surgery. Now let the worrying commence!
It’s April 13th, by the way, and I’ll also be participating in an experimental drug trial as well. Turns out my surgeon is the CHIEF of Cardiac Surgery at Vanderbilt, so I’m feeling pretty confident. ) Perhaps he’ll be worth the wait….. We asked him what he thought was the cause of my mitral valve going bad, and he said that he couldn’t say for certain but it was NOT because I am so fat like Studmuffin has been thinking (although the doc acknowledged [and so do I] that I do need to lose a whole lotta weight); it is probably just degenerative valve disease that may have some kind of genetic component. The doc said the proper name of it twice, but I didn’t catch it. It began with an M….. I have to say that I was *happy* to find out that I didn’t cause this to happen by my ginormity (and therefore cannot be blamed for it by said Studmuffin).
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Something fun: And Here’s link to a whole bunch of really cute bunny pictures!
BUNNIES HERE
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Today, Homeschool Kid had to have a frenulectomy…I won’t go into it all, but he’s feeling sore and on mushy foods for a few days. The Doc was running late so it took all daggone day and I had other stuff to do……On top of that, neither our regular insurance nor our secondary dental insurance would pay anything AT ALL for this procedure, which made me wonder again: why do we give them our money? Is it all just a giant Ponzi scheme? :::sigh::: It has been an expensive day.
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Something fun
More bunnies: this time it’s video of SHOW JUMPING BUNNIES (I kid you not)
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The
- No ‘S’ thing is going well
. Studmuffin & I both have lost weight and it is rather easy. But he’s an engineer and so loves to do charts and graphs (that boy sho’ does know his way around Excel), and he’s been giving me grief that I wasn’t coming up to snuff with my pound-a-week goal on his charts that he sends me via email (especially before we found out that it isn’t my overweight that’s cause the heart trouble). It was buggin’ me that he was buggin’ me – especially last weekend when he several things to say about it.
No , this isn't his chart...I just thought this was a funny graph....
That chart didn’t look quite right to me, so I put in the data I had: the day we started No ‘S’ing, the couple of times a week I’ve been weighing myself and made my own little chart in Word….
HA! HA! HA! His chart was WRONG!!!!
Y’all would be so proud of me: Tuesday night we were working on some other numbers (yes, we’re such nerds….) and I showed him my data and my chart and asked if perhaps he might’ve put something in wrong? He was in denial for a little bit and accused me of “cherry-picking” the data; I said that I certainly could be wrong, but would he please check it maybe tomorrow?
He sent me a new chart the next day…and it was fixed! And GUESS WHAT?! I’m doing rather BETTER than my weekly goal. Since he wasn’t here, I did my little happy dance of truth and justice. Always check the facts, y’all. Always. Even if somebody else minored in Math in college, you still gotta check the facts.
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Something fun:
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I didn’t get to go out knitting at all this week (well, except in waiting rooms at doctors’ offices) and I miss my knitting buddies. I’ma have to miss them for at least a month after the “Grand Opening” so I don’t want to miss them before the event.
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Something fun:
If yer a Star Wars fan at all – click HERE
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There’s all kinds of other stuff that happened, but I still gotta practice some more music before bed. Hopefully I’ll post some actual KNITTING on Sunday. Won’t that be different? 
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Something fun: And here’s an
you can make.
There’s lots of really cool origami
That should keep you busy until Sunday maybe.
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Sleep Apnea and the lack thereof
Last Wednesday I went to see the Pulmonary and Sleep Apnea guy, Dr. “S”. First, you meet with their respiratory therapist and they test your breathing: lung capacity, strength and how well the gas exchange is happening between yer blood and yer lungs. The respiratory therapist and I got on like a house on fire; it was wonderful to meet her and I hope I get to see her again.
I did all those tests, and then one has to fill out a ten page questionnaire about one’s sleeping habits. FYI, I’m a fairly light sleeper and I’ve had insomnia since I was a little kid. Then, Dr. S comes in. He’s seen the readouts from the breathing tests and then he reads my questionnaire. He told me about 5 or 6 times that my lungs are “great” or “really excellent”, and then he told me that he really *doesn’t* think I have sleep apnea (neither do I. I mean I snore, but it’s a quiet little snore). Usually people with sleep apnea are always falling asleep or are about to; I have trouble falling asleep even when I’m really tired. He wouldn’t even do a sleep study on me he said, except that the surgeon asked for one. I was really happy to hear that my lungs are so good.
So I go off to the scheduling person and the first available appointment is not for 2 weeks, but I take it. Then I have to schedule a follow up appointment with Dr. S to talk about the results of the sleep study and that not until February 17th! I sign up for that one too.
Dr. W, the surgeon, said that he’d meet with me after we got back the results of the breathing test and sleep study. At that point, he’ll decide whether he’s gonna do the surgery or send me off to the guy in Nashville. Grrr….
Now that I’m feeling better – since I’ve been talking ALL the medicines they’ve prescribed for me and I’m healed from the catheterization – and I’m no longer feeling like I’m gonna drop dead at any second, I do begin to wonder if the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. Today, I will call and leave messages for the surgeon, the cardiologist and another therapist (on another issue) to find out if they really wanna wait until the end of February or early March to do this thing. I was given to understand that I needed this sugery done rather soon – like by the end of January. Believe me, I’m not in a hurry to have any surgery EVER but if it truly needs to be done, let’s do it. Tests are groovy, but let’s not waste time and my insurance company’s money. There is still the nagging question about how this all has happened, but I want off this merry go round…..
Ticker update and the whole story
I go and visit the surgeon on Friday afternoon, and I believe we’ll set the date for surgery then. I will post the date once I have it.
So many people have asked me about how this heart thing happened and/or how I found out about it.
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 New Year neato-thing
Yes, in case you have been seriously out of pocket, I’ll remind you that as of today it is 2009.
The neato thing I discovered today was that Amazon has about 500 mp3s one can download for free. I love downloading music legally – there’s a lot out there and much of it is worth hearing and you certainly will not hear it on ze radio. I have only downloaded 1 song illegally. I did it 5 years ago and I still feel guilty. Stealing is BAD and I know it. I have been waiting for it to be available for purchase so I can purchase it legally and begin to erase the blot on my conscience.
There’s a lot of blogs out there with free downloads on them; I won’t list those that I know of because my taste in music is SO eclectic and wide-ranging most anyone else would be very frustrated trying to find music that they like. I will however mention that Magnatune and eMusic have a daily free music download, and Performing Songwriter puts 12 free downloads on their site every month. Actually, eMusic has lots of free music available if yer a member. And then there are the podcasts…… I have so much new free music that I now would like to get an external drive to hold more music because I won’t hardly ever delete music and the addict wants to be sure of her supply. )
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I have 2 New year’s resolutions that I hope to keep. The first is to give more money to my favorite charity rather than less(and therefore buy less yarn because I really DO have enough). To keep this one, I’ll have to really keep the second one, which is to keep my own personal checking account on the plus side MORE than it is on the minus side. Someone once asked me if I was really bad at anything, since to that poor misguided soul I had created the illusion of competency – even excellence- in a number of areas; along with maintaining a sylph-like figure, I am really bad at caring for money.
Money does require care; it’s like a poorly domesticated pet. It’s always off peeing in the corner, rolling around in something foul smelling and dashing out the front door at top speed so you have to spend hours chasing it, then when you finally get the wretched thing contained, it demands to be fed. Hmmmm…perhaps my attitude has something to do with…? Could be. I don’t really care very much about money, so it’s hard for me to take it seriously, kind of like housework. It’s just a tool and I derive no pleasure from its management. But Studmuffin takes money management very VERY seriously and sees my lackadaisical attitude as a kind of disrespect for him (because it’s ALL about HIM), plus it’d be nice to spend my money upon things I’d like as opposed to spending it on banking fees. SO this year, I’m going to pay more attention to it, take better care of it. Pray for me – I’m way outta my comfort zone on this one.
I promise – actual knitting content is on the way.
Photo trouble and a place to visit
Hey y’all – such a slow posting week – I’m sorry. I’ve been occupied with family flapdoodle all week and last week too. Today I’m off to Atlanta for an OHF singing thing at a Baha’i conference. My mother is flying down from Virginia and we’ll share a room; I’m really happy to be seeing her again so soon.
I have lots of photos to share but my SmartCard reader isn’t functioning at all and I cannot find my USB cord for the camera. Many, many USB cords do I have, but none with the peculiar jack for my camera….and I just had the darn thing!!! I’ve been looking all over for it and I’m so frustrated I think I will go buy another one before I leave because I really really wanna upload some photos. Can do cell phone photos still, but they’re not as nice.
I have finished the sporran for my Outlandish Swap and it turned out really well. Here’s a couple of cell phone pix:
Pattern : Albem by Berroco
Yarns : Ultra Alpaca and Plymouth Tweed held together
Needles: 5.5 mm & 6 mm
Mods: Did not do the tassels or the single crochet, changed the strap (made it longer and also lg. I-cord; lined with cotton fabric.
I have some swap items inside so it would stay upright and I lined it with a thin woven Mackenzie cotton fabric, but you’ll have to wait for those pictures to see the lining.
I’ve also been tryna catch up on all my swaps. There’s one that has me SO frustrated: it’s to make 6 six inch square afghan squares in my swapee’s colors and I’ve probably made 10 of them by now, but I keep misplacing them – as of yesterday, I’m back down to 5. Of course it is my memory troubles that are seriously complicating the issue. My swapee is being very patient and I will eventually get them all done but I want to knit other things……(whinge whinge).
For the last four months, I’ve gone over to Scout J’s website and downloaded her desktop calendar. I find it extremely useful and they are beautiful (her yarn swag is quite fabulous as well). Recently, she’s begun to wonder if she should keep doing the calendars and asked for comments. Of course I weighed in with my $.02, but I think it would be even better if all y’all would go on over there, download a calendar to your desktop and then write her a comment.
I hope to blog again next Monday or Tuesday and hopefully have lots o’ pictures!
Ta!
Frustration, family and frogging
It’s been about 2 seconds since the last whinge so I know that my 3.5 readers are bereft. Luckily No. 1 Son has frustrated me to tears today, so the whinge wait is over. I have to drive 4 hours to go pick up him and his girlfriend to come ands visit for Thanksgiving, then I get to drive 4 hours back – all during tomorrow.
Everything we tried to send him $ for bus fare has not worked because the nincompoop refused to call me last week (and he doesn’t have a current ID…). Plus he sprained his ankle and the only way I found out about that was by looking at his Facebook profile. Alright, I wanna know what the aliens did with my son; they must have switched him for this irresponsible character. Yes, I know, I KNOW! Children don’t take after strangers…..
Technically this is a knitblog (stop laughing) and it’s time for some knitting and pictures*. Here is Number 3 of the Noro Silk Garden Striped Scarves:
Here is my beloved dog, Boris, modeling said scarf:
And this is what it looks like now:
Hives and Google Reader and stuff
So I promised y’all some pictures…and you’ll get ‘em I SWEAR! I was gonna write an apology for not writing much this week, but I figger it this way – an apology for not blogging is really boring for me as a reader so why should I do that to all 3.5 of you AND it would take almost as long as just writing a short post so why didn’t I just hurry up and do it already?
This past week I was Queen Oversleeper Extraordinaire – I didn’t go walk a single morning last week because I slept thru the alarm every single day. I did, however, go walk the crazy dogs with Studmuffin both yesterday and today in bloody early morning cold – as in “bloody early” and “bloody cold” – we went just under 2 miles each day. My walking partner is not mad at me…but I do miss her.
So last Sunday, I sat down to knit for a bit in the sleep-inducing chair…and fell asleep for 3 hours. Here’s the weird thing: I woke up, went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror….
AAACK! my face and part of my neck were covered in hives.
Boy, I sho’ looked purty as you can imagine. I have no idea what caused them. I spent the next three days trying to remember what I ate or put on my face that would cause them and carefully washing my face gently with plain water and a “mild as water” facial cleanser. I was clear by Thursday but it is a mystery to me. I’ve NEVER had hives before – I’ve only seen them on others. I didn’t do anything unusual or eat anything unusual. Studmuffin thinks the crazy dogs must have rolled in something and I do put my face on or near them when we cuddle…. Still it was very strange.
While I was on vacation, I did not read any blogs at all, so my Google Reader had something like 800+ posts for me to peruse. I spent some time getting it to below 400 posts and then have tried to stay away from the computer this past week as it has become such an incredible time suck. So tonight it’s back in the 800’s again and I’m bummed. I love my Google Reader, you know that, but the pressure can be too much to bear sometimes.
Studmuffin fixed the washing machine this weekend. It has been doing some leaking whe ever you use it for the better part of a year now and apparently, this weekend was THE time to fix it. Only by the end of Saturday, it wasn’t fixed – it was worse as in flooding the house. So on our early morning walk, after Studmuffin told me we might be without a washing machine for a month or two until we could afford to buy another one, I tried in my most tactful way (which – if the truth be told, is not very tactful at all….) to suggest that even though one is an engineer, that does not, necessarily, mean that one can or even should fix things on one’s own, and perhaps someone who fixes these things for a living could be called and maybe all was not lost and it might not even be terribly expensive. Such effrontery could not be borne! How dare I have the temerity to suggest such a thing? He would of course take all the laundry to laundromat if it becomes necessary so that I would not be inconvenienced….!
Thank Heaven for small miracles because when I and the kids got back from devotions around noontime today, the washing machine was churning away per usual AND not leaking at all. I thanked him for doing such a good job on fixing the washing machine. )
I spoke with my mom tonight and I could just kick myself sometimes because I never learn. She was talking about her recent trip to New Hampshire to visit her sister (my darlin’ Aunt Cynthia) which was very cold weatherwise, and she was talking about how she hasn’t really gotten over her earlier bout with bronchitis and other various respiratory ailments and I suggested that she might try chewing nicotine gum instead of smoking for a few days. That way she wouldn’t have the withdrawal symptoms and she might be able to feel a lot better. That conversation devolved into a disagreement about smoking which was stupid on my part.
I *do* try hard not to be the rabid ex-smoker to my folks and well basically everyone who still smokes because it is their choice to do so and I hated that when I was a smoker. I do bring it up with my parents from time to time, usually when they are complaining of some kind of respiratory ailment that won’t go away, or talking about money saving strategies. I *know* I am not going to change my mother’s mind about smoking; if 8 years working as a cardiac nurse didn’t do it, what hope have I? However, when she started going on about how awful these smoking lounges are in various public places and how smokers are treated as pariahs and practically like criminals, I jumped in with both feet about how smokers do NOT have to go into nasty lounges because smoking is a purely voluntary activity, and lots of blah blah blah more, and that I had very little sympathy for smokers. Of course all of what I said is true, but why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut?
A quiet Halloween et al
Studmuffin was out of town all week in California for work and of course I had a cold. Am I actually getting wiser because I did NOT try to do everything I had on the to do list to try to rest and get better?
Weekend wrap-up – October 27
- the coughing has largely subsided, but the nose dripping has surged into first place with achiness and sleeplessness running close behind, and I know you’ll be shocked to learn that studmuffin is going out of town for the week. Of course.
- Finished ragg socks (finally)
- Cast on a few more afghan squares
- Called the older bro for his birthday on Saturday
- the inside of my mouth hurts from cough drops.
Hope I’m much better by tomorrow….
Blogging mojo….
…is at an all time personal low. Lots to blog about but no energy to do so.
It seems all I can swing is this:
C’est vrai, n’est-ce pas?
I’m sure I’ll be better tomorrow.
P.S. Winner of the blog contest is Nicole from LiveJournal. She correctly guessed that I graduated from high school in 1986. Thanks for all the entries both here and at the mirror blog.
Blog Action Day: Poverty – A day late and a dollar short
Yes, this is a knitting blog mostly. No really it is! (Stop laughing please).
Yesterday was actually blog action day and I was tryna write about poverty yesterday, but I wanted to think more and read more before I wrote anything. I didn’t want to write stuff that just makes people feel bad; I wanted to be thoughtful, perhaps even insightful, in 500 words or less. A tall order indeed!
I remember almost 20 years ago I was at a friend’s house and we were having a study session on the amazing document, The Promise of World Peace*, published by the highest administrative body of the Baha’i Faith, the Universal House of Justice (stay with me y’all, I promise not to get “too Baha’i” here. ). One of the folks studying that night was Steve, who happened not to be a Baha’i, and we came to the part (on page 9, FYI) where there is a brief discussion about the extremes of wealth and poverty, and Steve said something about how he could understand why being really poor was bad, but he couldn’t understand what was bad about being really rich. That comment has stayed with me – I think about it often – because it really made me think about the mostly unconscious attitudes/prejudices we Americans have about wealth and poverty, and also the wealthy people and the poor people. Any examination about poverty must include something about wealth and the extremes of both because they are, I believe, inextricably linked.
Here are some observations I have:
- we (middle class, dominant culture United Statesians) tend to see poor people as earning their fate or choosing to be poor, and we tend to make assumptions about their choices in life that reflect badly upon their character.
- we know that “throwing money at the problem” is not the answer, so I think poverty must have other components (such as systemical or spiritual reasons) that keep things as they are and are not about dollar amounts.
- we tend to think in a “scarcity” paradigm, which means that if so and so has something, I do not, and there is not enough to go around.
- we tend to value property over people (i.e. there are more pet shelters than there are homeless shelters). Consider this quote from http://stealthissweater.blogspot.com/
“I started watching a documentary about Africa last night and soon realized that our cats are better taken care of than most of the people that were profiled in the documentary. I briefly considered killing the kittens and sending the money I’m shelling out for food and medical care to people in Africa. But I don’t think that’s going to work out.” I think that’s a very honest comment.
- we tend to believe that our economic place in life is the direct result of our own efforts, taking for granted/ignoring/being blind to any help we have received privately or publicly, and we tend to assign a positive moral value to those efforts
- the extremes of wealth and poverty is a topic of immense complexity and our public discourse does not seem to accept or participate in complex discussions of any kind
- bad economic newsmongering contributes hugely to financial anxiety and to the downturn and failure of economies.
- I personally have too many clothes,earrings, books, CDs and skeins of yarn…..maybe even shoes.
- I believe that the oneness of mankind is “built in” and that the suffering of one is the suffering of all; we just don’t seem to realize it
- I think people are basically good and I think that we can overcome the extremes of wealth during my lifetime if we choose to do so.
- personal and intellectual freedom seems to have an amazingly positive effect on multiplying material wealth in a society.
So what does it all mean? Durned if I know; I haven’t got any shining sound bite of a solution. However, even with all the current wackiness about the economic situation trumpeted so loudly on all sides, I’m not hugely worried. That might seem strange, and of course right now I and my family aren’t missing any meals either, but those last two observations fill me with hope.
What do you think?
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* This really is an amazing document and I encourage you to read it for real for REAL.
P.S. I wrote 700 words…I hope that’s OK. )
Why? I just gotta ask…..
Why oh why does my husband come out of the bedroom to tell me to go to bed, as he did just now? WHY DOES HE DO THAT?! And why is he surprised when I don’t come to bed? Why does he get irritated about it? This hasn’t varied one bit in our 20+ years together.
I don’t understand.
The recent blogging break was brought to you….
- ….by Google reader.
Yes, I finally sat down and figured out how to use an RSS aggregator to read blogs (it wasn’t very hard at all. Maybe they made it easier?). Now, instead of opening 20 or 30 browser windows at a time (veddy slow) and going through them all to see who has posted, I just log into Google reader and all the ones I’ve subscribed to just show up. It’s lovely! So I’ve been reading many blogs and have come to the conclusion that my blog is probably only interesting or amusing to very few people out there. That’s ok – I love those of you who read my verbiage and especially those who comment! I do not think I will ever have the widespread appeal of other bloggers, but that’s really fine. I mean I wish I did, but I know me and I won’t probably develop a masterful writer’s voice unless by Divine intervention. Oh well.
- by feverish knitting.
- because of catching up on swaps
- by the podiatry incident
- by long overdue graphic design for a CD.
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