Thursday, July 30, 2009

the land of very little wi-fi

I missed posting yesterday because having an internet connection was entirely out of the question. No cell phone signal, either...although I did manage to send and receive a text message, but that was only if I was standing on the magic spot with my head turned at a specific angle and the wind was blowing right ;-)

We are (sort of) out in the sticks.

I have photos to share, but I don't trust this internet connection to fast enough to get them here for you (we're at a coffee shop). The general gist of our trip so far is that we took all day to cover maybe 2 hours of driving, making all sorts of odd stops along the way, following whatever pulled us. We found a little mom-n-pop RV park that was way out of the way (hence no signal), down in a canyon. That had wild turkeys. And quail. And jack rabbits. And some sort of crazy albino looking deer. Oh, and the cows. Let us not forget the cows. The ones that creeped me out with all their scary loud moo-ing the middle of the night!

Anyhow, we are right now in a little town called Willits, CA....and today we're going to continue north and drive through the redwoods. And look for Big Foot.
hahahaha

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

bzzzzt!

I am busy like a bee today getting the house in order and the van in order to take a little road trip.

Here's a pic of Riley and Gaara "helping" knit while I was in bed this morning, before I became bee-like.



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By the way, I have spent a little bit of time on Facebook and I am such a dork that I'm not really getting the flow over there. Working on it, though. I'm gonna ask TheMostImportantGuy to give me a little tour or something. Sorry for the delay if you are waiting for me over there, though.

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my comments to your comments are always back in that day's comments ;-)

Monday, July 27, 2009

knitted chairs

I'm kinda in love with this so much that it makes me want to cover everything that bugs me in knitting....



More info about the project, plus the pattern, found here.
And if you are on Ravelry, you definitely need to click here to see what other folks have done with it because some of them are very cool.

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My knitting is going a little slow.

I am working on a sweater that is simple enough that it would normally be a very quick knit, if I weren't taking it on and off the needles all the time to check fit (I fret about these things, and this is why I rarely knit sweaters).

I have a sock in progress that is feeling lonely and rejected.

And I have a new shawl in progress that is not ;-)

Sunday, July 26, 2009

it was good

Forwarded to me by KarenTheDancingLurker, it just made me so happy :-)



Other things that made me happy today:
* getting to sleep in a little bit
* no mommy-duty
* someone else making breakfast (dining out)
* love-y time with TheMostImportantGuy
* going to the mattress store to purchase a different (and more correct, let us hope) foundation to insert into my platform bed and support my mattress (first road test tonight)
* watching the final day of Le Tour de France. I might not have spun every day as part of Le Tour de Fleece, but I watched every. single. stage. of the tour. I had so much fun and found myself on the edge of my seat, literally, on several occasions. Not to mention total my total enjoyment of getting to fly over the French countryside in HD. Woot!
* cast on for a new shawl

Saturday, July 25, 2009

snaps on saturday

little robot guy
(he lives in the den/guest room)

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In other news....

Nine. Days. Oooo yah, baby!

Love MyFavoriteKid, but he's off with his dad for Nine. Whole. Days.

Excuse me, while I go finish my glass o' champagne ;-)

Friday, July 24, 2009

from beginning to end

Took me awhile, but I finally did it.
My second project using my own handspun.








Ravelry Links: handspun / project

Fiber: from A Verb For Keeping Warm (fiber club, April--The Candle's Nimble Flame, 100% Corriedale; spun as a single, then plied with a white BFL single)

Method: Over the fold

Spindle: Golding Midnight Sky spindle for singles; Golding lazy kate and Tsunami spindle for plying.

Resulting Yarn: 7.2 oz total wt, approx 350 yds, 13 wpi plied (sport)

Pattern: One Row Handspun Scarf, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Needles: US 9's (the green vintage straights)

Resulting Project: 5" wide, 67" long (unblocked and w/o fringe)

What I learned:
Lots.
~~~ Mostly about twist. I could have put less into the singles I think, and the resulting yarn would have been a bit more lofty. I definitely could have put less twist into the plying, and in the future I will probably try to use a spindle with a heavier whorl for that (I think. This is only my beginner's brain doing some guesswork. It will be a fun experiment, though.)

~~~ I thought the resulting yarn was going to be too inconsistent (thick/thin) for a simple pattern. That it would show up as looking sloppy. In actuality, I think that it makes the simple pattern way more interesting. In fact, I think my scarf has more character than some of the scarves I have seen in this same pattern that were done with commercial yarn (yay for handspun!).

~~~ I learned that I'm not quite there yet in pulling off a yarn that is suitable for making sock. But that I am very very close.

~~~ I learned that I was able to pull off getting my fiber to do what I wanted it to do in terms of color. I was aiming for long repeats of color and for the colors of the scarf to be "mirrored" from one end to the scarf to the other. I came pleasingly close, but not so close that I lost it's organic/handmade quality. I like :-)

~~~ I also learned (okay, I already knew this, so I guess I was reminded) that long scarves with simple patterns are ridiculously tedious knitting. But good for while you're watching television ;-)

~~~ I learned that I might just like wearing pastels after all.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

update-o-rama

For your reading pleasure, tonight I give you follow-ups to previous posts.
In chapters no less ;-)
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Mommy Demerits (aka Let's Leave The Diagnosing To The Professionals)

So, MyFavoriteKid's recent outbreak of poison oak? Wrong!! It aint poison oak at all! It's a HEAT RASH. Not a bad thing, really. Much easier to contend with than poison oak. Except for the fact that the treatment for poison oak is exactly the way you do NOT treat a heat rash.

Let's see. I've been applying topical ointments, MyFK has been taking long warm to hot showers, and I've even gone so far as recommending long sleeves just to keep him from scratching. Heat Rash treatment? Cool water, cool clothing, and no smothering of the pores with ointments.
Lovely.
Well, at least we are on track.
I think MyFK and his buddies had actually spent more time in the hot tub than any of us were aware of that night at the potluck party. Oops.
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Riley Actually DOES Need The Dog Whisperer

So after I posted the dog factoids, a couple of folks commented on Riley needing the Dog Whisperer. Dudes, if you only knew.

I don't think I wrote about this event when it actually took place, but I think it was in April or May.

TheMostImportantGuy and I took Riley to the local dog park one weekend afternoon. While we were there, we were attacked by another dog. It was a female pit bull who I'd seen there before and not had trouble with. TheMIG and I were standing in the middle of the park (having just entered but a few minutes earlier), but the pit came over to say hello and was really getting up under my crutches. Not a good sign.

I'm not sure exactly what happened next, but TheMIG was lightly bitten (no puncture) on the hand (hmmm...a theme?), and myself and Riley were jumped on, pretty hard. The owner came and pulled his dog off, and being that it is an enormous park, we all separated to opposite sides of the park. We watched the pit in the distance playing and whatnot, but then the pit finally spotted us and she came right on over and attacked again. I got some pretty deep bruises scratches on my arm. Meanwhile, the poor dog. Well, Riley just went nutzo trying to protect us. Very protective/agressive, but fearful, with the teeth bared and Cujo sort of growling. We left the park, as this guy clearly was not going to leave himself. As we were exiting, some other regulars checked in with us and told us the pit had attacked someone else earlier, too....and from the parking lot, as we were getting into our car, his dog was at it again attacking someone else!

For the record: I have not a thing against pit bulls. I have been the owner of pit mixes, and I love them. I'm not even against this pitbull. I'd met her before and she seemed like a sweetie, and she might even be a sweetie the next time I see her. Personally, I think she was just having a really bad day. That, and I think the owner is friggin' putz for not getting his dog out of there after her first episode that day.

Anyhow. Dog Whisperer. So my dog Riley? He's not been the same since. Every time I take him to the dog park, he spends all his energy making sure he gets between me and any other dog that wants to come by and just say hello. He doesn't play much with other dogs anymore, and although he will go off sniffing around, he is always looking back to see if there are any dogs near me (and if they are, he dashes back to my side). In other words, he no longer has much fun at the park. It is sad.

So between the dog getting mopey over the SPCA commercials on television, and this dogpark crap, y'all actually had me thumbing through two of the Dog Whisperer Guy's books the other day while I was at the bookstore. I have some ideas I will try to apply ;-)
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Off The Back (A Tour de Fleece/Le Tour Update)

I've been meaning to cop to this for days, but I blew off the Tour de Fleece just after the first week. What a rookie.

We went on our little trip to Monterey. I brought along spinning tools and fiber, but it never made it out of the bag. Fell "off the back," so to speak. Then I got home and tried to get back into the swing of things but "crashed" with an injury to my right arm. It's feeling fine now, but I couldn't even knit for a couple of days there, it hurst so badly.

One really neat aside to this Tour de Fleece business, though. This is the first year for me that I have actually watched every single stage of the actual tour! Even when we were on our mini-vacation, I recorded the day we missed and caught right back up when I got home. I am loving it. I usually only catch a stage or two, but this year I have been committed to it, I have watched every day, and I am having a blast.

So much so, that when the Tour of California comes around next year? I might just follow it around a little bit in my van. Park on the side of the road, have a picnic, and wait for them to whiz by. Whee!
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Alrighty, that caught me up.

As usual, my comments back to your comments are IN the comments. ;-)

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

some days just require warm & fuzzy

I'm frustrated and cranky, and decided the best thing I could do was make something cute, crafty, and FAST.


This is GnomeGuyThe2nd (the first one here, went to James to cheer up his room at the convalescent hospital).

I'm feeling a Felt-Fest coming on here. Needle felting, wet felting, shrink the knitted item felting....all of it.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

this interruption in blogging brought to you by....


....boys who run and play through the roughage.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Have y'all noticed yet that I'm trying to post every day again? Who knows how long this will last, because we all know that I tend to be all or nothing about these things. I mean, I ran straight through with Blog365 last year, and this year it's been quite scant. Heck, I didn't even post at all in June.

Daily posting. *sigh* It can be tough. Especially when I'm whooped.

The past two night I've hostessed sleepovers for MyFavoriteKid and his buddies (that means I was up way too late), and then tonight I had a "business meeting" with my co-dance-teachers. I forgot to post before leaving the house, and the meeting went later, so now here I am, at almost midnight....and this is how you end up with weirdness like this.
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Last night at a potluck dinner TheMostImportantGuy noticed this thing sitting in the livingroom somewhere.


Is it a throw pillow??
Or is it a teddy bear??


TheMIG said it looked like Han Solo ;-)



See?
I'm tired LOL.
I'll try again tomorrow. Maybe a bit earlier in the day ;-)

Sunday, July 19, 2009

best i can do after a few glasses o' wine and a plate o'carnitas

Went to an impromptu dinner party tonight (and only 'cuz I got an invite via FaceBook, no less---hahahah).

Folks, if you've asked me to track you down there, please give me a day or two. I haven't quite figured out how to use the damn thing yet (I'm a dork). I get emails about walls and comments and things, and I don't even know what the heck y'all are talking about. I promise. I'll put some time in with it this week and get it all figured out.

Anyhow. Dinner party.

Okay. So this invite came from MyFavoriteKid's former elementary school principal. We've stayed friends over the years, and tonight she invited us over because MyFK's best buddies are down for a visit from up north (the kids are now all back here at my house...because I volunteered -- see how it happens?!).

I wanted to share with y'all a conversation I overheard at the party during the wine/cocktail hour before dinner. This was between ThePrincipal and TheYoungestVisitingKid (he's 9).

TheYoungestVisitingKid: So nowwwwww can we play on your Wii???

ThePrincipal: No. Go outside or something.

TYVK: We already did that.

TP: Well, find something else to do. Play a game together. The adults are listening to music right now.

TYVK: I know! We can play with the sound off!

TP: No. The system wont let you listen to the stereo and have the Wii on at the same time. (might be bullshit LOL)

TYVK: But don't you have an Ipod or something?

TP: We are listenting to music, and you are not playing the Wii. How about you guys play chess.

TYVK: YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HEY!!!! (calling to the other two kids) You guys wanna play chess?!?!?!?!!!!!

TheTwoOtherKids: YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

snaps on saturday

Thought I'd share with you the image on my current NextToThePhoneNotepad:



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My comments to your comments are back in that days comments.

...just in case you were waiting for a reply ;-)

Friday, July 17, 2009

ok, so *now* it is official

I finally broke down today and got myself onto Facebook. There's no point wasting an entire post explaining to you why I have dreaded this more than I am excited by it.

However. After I signed up and clicked on a few friendly faces, I was rewarded with an unexpected perk!

Ladieeeees and Gentlemaaaaaan!!!
It is now official (because Facebook has approved it as being so, and because everything on the internet is true)!!
Facebook told me:

"You are now in a relationship with TheMostImportantGuy."


I cannot begin to tell you how hilarious I find this whole "status" thing. See, after I clicked on TheMIG's happy little photo, TheMIG clicked on something to indicate that we are in a relationship, and then Facebook asked me if it was true, and then I clicked that it was, and then Facebook wrote me back to tell me that IT IS NOW SO. And so now I know we are for reeeeeal!!!!!

Lordy. LOLOL

Thursday, July 16, 2009

interesting factoids about the dogdogdog's viewing habits


This is Riley, and he's a rescue dog.

He's lived with us for just over a year now. He was real sick when he got here. He had fleas and ticks and mange and kennel cough. He was underweight and just a wreck. He and a bunch of other dogs at his shelter were about to be put down, but he was saved :-)

Riley watches television.

Riley goes bananas when he sees dogs on the television. Lately this has also extended to the sound of dogs barking on television (even though the dog is not on screen), and there have also been a few incidences of him going apeshit over cartoons of dogs.

Riley barks, runs to the television, does some amazing vertical high jumping, and then runs into the next room (the room behind the wall where the tv is mounted) to see if they are on the other side of the screen. If he's been working on a bone or dog treat, he will sometimes go and relocate it.

Riley also does the barking/jumping for horses. And to much of our dismay, he's also now doing this with just about anything that appears on the screen and has four legs and fur. We can't watch many Nature shows anymore, and to be honest, that bugs me.

Riley does NOT bark when I play the dvd I have of a tropical fishtank. In fact, he sits very quietly, and stares at it. He'll perk up his ears and tilt his head back and forth as the fish swim past. While we were at the Monterey Aquarium this weekend, I bought dvd's of both the Sea Horse and the Jellyfish Exhibits. I'm going to try them out on him this weekend. If he barks at Jellyfish, I might just cry.

But here's the most interesting fact about my dog's tv viewing habits. Even though he goes totally bazerk-o when there is any sort of HINT of dog on television....he will NOT bark at the commercials run by the SPCA. You know, the ones where the show all the pets that are abused, abandoned, locked up....the "we need your contributions" commercials??

When THOSE play? Not a PEEP out of my dog.
In fact, he'll even go sit in the corner and mope until it is over.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

home again, home again....

So we're home.
And the DogDogDog is also home (having been sprung from the kennel).
And the cats (who stayed at home, with my mom visiting) are still home and totally pissed.
Oh, yeah. And TheGecko is home, too....he stayed at TheMostImportantGuy's.

We're all present and accounted for.

And I'm feelin' kind tired!

We had a reallllllly bad last night at the fancy hotel, thanks very much to our upstairs neighbors. It was SO bad that I had to lodge a complaint around 10:30pm, not that it resolved anything. There were elephants running around up there until well past midnight, and they were at it again first thing this morning, too. The elephants were making bird calls out the windows at the crack of dawn, too. I am pretty sure it was kids up there. If it was adults, they should be ashamed of themselves. Heck, it was adults with kids they should be ashamed of themselves. I mean, I know we all have different styles of parenting, but.....I've trained and road-tested MyFK in Motel 6's and kid friendly hotels for years now leading up to a pricey boutique-y hotel, and I did that out of respect of my FELLOW GUESTS.

Anyhow. Complaints lodged. The manager was unavailable when I checked out this morning, but is supposed to follow up with me tomorrow. The hotel was amaaaaazing, and the staff was wonnnnnderful, but the people upstairs trumped. it. all. And that is a crying shame. I'd stay there again, but only on the top floor ;-)

During the morning phas of the elephants migrating, I was actually able to ingore it and let it roll off my back. Over another complimentary, on the silver tray, breakfast....delivered while I'm still in my cushy hotel bathrobe, thank you very much. Kinda takes the sting away.
Either that, or I was just brain dead from not getting enough sleep.

I'm off to bed here soon.
See y'all tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

monterey, part 2

Just as many photos as yesterday, I suppose.
I'm a couple of days behind on replying to comments, too...sorry...but I will take care of that as I soon as I post this.

Where did I leave off. Oh. We were heading out to dinner last night.

Wellp, MyFavoriteKid realllllly wanted to go The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., and since I knew that MrPickyPantsEater would be into the food there, I had no problem complying. Besides, I knew that they'd have a killer pomegranite margarita on tap for Mommy.

Now you know this place is gimmicky, and I know this place is gimmicky, but lemme tell you....MyFK thought this was one of the greatest places on earth, and I just got a hoot out of watching him enjoy it.

He has just seen the movie for the first time this past year, I think, and so every single item in the place was a novelty for him. The list of every dish you can make out of shrimp is painted on the wall, the cocktail menu is on a ping-pong paddle, there are framed "family photos" of Lt.Dan on the wall, plus display cases with various costumes from the movie, etc. The waitress came by and asked him trivia questions, and he knew all the answers. It was pretty comical.


(And that's all I got to say about that.)

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Okay, so this morning it was complimentary breakfast in the room.
Sweet. (I never want to leave this place, I tell ya').

Then off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It would seem that perhaps we spent an unusual amount of time there. An employee that we had seen early in the morning caught us later in the afternoon and said, "Wow, I can't believe you guys are still here! Having fun?"
And I couldn't believe how we could NOT still be there.
There was SO much to see, and if you really do stop and look, and take the time to read stuff, and see feedings, and talk to the people that work there so you actually learn something, well.....honestly, I dont know how you couldn't be there for as long as we were. We didnt even give the final section a thorough pass because we were so wiped out!

What we were most excited to see was the new Sea Horse Exhibit.

There's the type of seahorse we were expecting. The more "typical", yah?

But get a load of THIS guy:

And you should see him when he's hiding in the seaweed!
(okay, well I guess in that case, you would NOT be seeing him)

We caught several feedings, our favorite being the Outer Bay Exhibit and the "fast feeders" (dorado, tuna, barracuda, etc). But we also really like watching the Sea Otters chow down.

Hey, and I learned something new. Did you know that River Otters mark their territory with "spraint"?! As in, like, "it's kinda like sprayin'? but it AINT?!"


They actually had a sample whiff for you to take, if you can believe it---hahaha.
(not pleasant)

My favorite exhibit, just as it was the last time I came here, what...8 years or so ago?
The jellyfish exhibit.


One thing that is really great about the Monterey Bay Aquariium is that half the place is rigged up on webcams, so you can check it out yourself, too---right there from wherever you are ;-)

Okay, so after the Aquarium it was a rest at the hotel, some more wine and cheese, some more walking around the 'hood, and another dinner out. We head home tomorrow, but for tonight, we're enjoying the place.



Way fun :-)

Monday, July 13, 2009

spoiled rotten

This post will piss you off if you:
a) have dial-up and/or do not like photo-laden entries
b) are irked by the non-frugal

MyFavoriteKid and I are in Monterey Bay for a couple of nights, primarily to visit the Aquarium. I had one free adult ticket, compliments of TheBon, and I was able to get the kid's ticket cheaply by way of AAA. Every year I save up some money for summer happenings, and this year I did not send MyFK to daycamp, nor did I make any substantial travel plans....so, I decided to splurge on the hotel for this trip.

We're at the Spindrift Inn, right on Cannery Row, just a block or two from the Aquarium.

The bonus for me is that we're so in the thick of it, that I wont even need my car. Yay for that. It is pretty quiet even though we are on a busy street because I put us on the ocean side.


We're on the second floor, center.

The room is pretty lavish. Fireplace, featherbeds, big screen tv, marble baths with robes, etc...
There's a bay window with a bench seat overlooking the beach.


And complimentary binoculars, even.


We went exploring around the building (it's neat, because it's an old one), and found out there is a rooftop garden.



And then there's the complimentary wine and cheese in the lobby thang...


Ummmmm.....yah.....so....we're kinda living it up here.

We're doing the Aquarium tomorrow, so for the afternoon we tripped around the Cannery Row shops. We mostly cruised the art galleries here (there are many). Every single time I ducked into one, MyFK whined, but once he got inside, he dug every single one of them. He really spent time with the art he liked, commenting on it and all. Same with the art he didn't like, actually LOL.

We hung out on a pier and checked out some of the wildlife (not very good pics, but there are sea lions out there on those rocks)....



I found one of those stores that only sells socks, and well....I just LOVE socks....the crazier the better. I was mostly enjoying the fact that many of them had "Engrish" labels (here's just one, as an example):

And then last, but not least, we ended our shopping tour at this gem and crystal shop. MyFK kinda has a collection going. He's been doing it since he was a kid. He was so into it, that the lady behind the counter gave him a big fat discount and omitted sales tax, and even tossed in a free gemstone. She loved him. But not as much as we loved her dog.


That is Ozzie, and ohhhh my gawd he was just the sweetest thing on four legs.

We went to the general store to stock up on bottled waters and snacks (hey, even though we're splurgin', I aint payin' to restock that mini-bar, dang it!), and now we're just kickin' it in the room. We're about to head out for some dinner somewhere, and then we might check out the 3D-IMax shark movie, or maybe the scary creatures of the deep movie.



Have a nice night. I know we will. Tucked all in our little high thread count sheets and feather beds....
listening to the waves.....
awaiting the complimentary in room breakfast....
;-)
Sheesh. LOL

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Ahhh, yes...I have an unfinished thought from an earlier blogpost, and I think I said I'd catch y'all up on it.

Earlier in the week, TheMostImportantGuy was bitten while trying to rescue a feral cat. This resulted in a trip to the ER for vaccines and antibiotics. As I mentioned in my post about it, the ER staff had left the waiting room television dialed into Animal Planet, nd just in time for it's NightTimeScaryAnimalsHaveAttackedMe shows.

I think that in that post, I alluded to the fact that we had a similar incident of inappropriate waitingroom visuals the following day.

It happened when I took MyFavoriteKid to the podiatrist. He has an ingrown toenail issue that had blown up to a degree far beyond my skillset to assist with. He also has a plantars wart that was not responding to over the counter treatments. We were well overdue for a trip to the doc's for some real help, and MyFK was completely freaked out about the toenail part. Like, he was imagining he had gangreen and was going to lose toes. That sort of freaked.

So I had done all of the typical reassuring. This doctor has experience. She is a specialist. All she does is feet. She's has good reviews from other patients. Here's a photo of her, and hey---she even looks like she is a nice person. Blah blah blah....all that.

We get to the appointment, I've completed the neccessary forms, and we are waiting in the lobby. We see one of the treatment room doors open, and hear the doctor saying she'll be right back, and we see her step into a different room down the hall to gather some supplies. As she does this, she leaves the treatment room door open, and MyFK and I now have a perfect shot of the chair that the patient is sitting in. It's sort of like a big armchair recliner basically, but all we can see from where we are stationed is this person's FEET.

And this person is missing at LEAST three toes. The ones that remain are deformed.

So much for my reassurance.

MyFK is trying hard to compose himself, and I am explaining (with no real knowledge or facts to back my ass up) what he is seeing (so of course, he is not buying any of this).

We finally get our turn with the doc, and she's looked him over, and has explained the options, and he is being logical and mature about it, and she is about ready to proceed with what basically amounts to a nail trim. Unfortunately, she is going to do this procedure with a tool that is looking far more industrial than our standard ol' clippers, and MyFK stops breathing, and tears start to well up.

Now, for the doctor, this seems totally out of the blue.

So I tell her that I am pretty sure he is responding to the fact that he had caught a glimpse of the feet of the patient before him, and I see the look on her face as she is processing this, and watching her face change as she is realizing WHAT he saw, and how it is that he came to SEE what he saw, and let me tell you....the doctor...well, she felt so bad....but I could also tell that behind her composure, that she was about to crack up laughing. I could see this in her, because I knew from the moment I met her that she is just one of these people that I would probably love to get to know better and have a glass of wine with. She's kinda "East Coast Open and Out There", she's probably about my age, and she has a kid of her own who is 10, and who was actually IN the office that day, because she didnt have day camp lined up for him that particular week (and by the way, on our way out the door, MyFK talked to her son and said, "I bet you NEVER get ingrown toenails." hahahaha).

Anyhow, the doctore. She THEN goes on explain to MyFK that this person's feet were like that before she'd even met them, and it was not her doing, and then....and I have no friggin' idea how we got there, because this all went so fast, but she somehow ended up using me and my missing leg as an example, and as a similar situation. I'm still not quite sure how that all went, it went whizzing by so fast, but she noddd to me as if to ask me if it was okay to use me as an example, and I nodded back yes, but like I said, I didnt even quite get how it was all working out! I just know that she understood, and MyFK understood, and that I had no idea what I'd just missed, but whaddya know, MyFK said he was going to be okay, and to proceed. I wasn't about to ask for a replay and break the flow. She snipped his nail, stuck a bandaid on it, treated the wart while they talked about basketball and what he was going to do this summer, and then tadaaaaa....he was cured. Every day he's talked about how better his toe feels and how great she was and how glad he is that, "he was lucky enough to see a REAL professional."
(yes, in quotes...LOL)

How am I doing here. I get awfully rambly when I am this tired.

Anyhow, the point of the story was that we had two days in a row of seeing bad things in waiting rooms while waiting to see doctors...the end.

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What I did today?
Slouching. A whoooole lotta slouching.

I was going to wake up early and drive to San Francisco to meet up with my sock knitting group, but I just couldn't do it. It's about an hour drive each direction, and for 1-1/2 of hanging out, and then going to a yarn shop so I can be tempted into buying more yarn, which I absolutely I am certain I am not needing any more of.

I stayed home with TheMIG and we watched the Tour de France, then all of the extras from the dvd we'd watched last night, and I pretty much did laundry and cleaned up and got to packing things up, because MyFK and I are going to take off for a couple of days.

But the hotel has wi-fi....so I'll see you there ;-)

Saturday, July 11, 2009

snaps on saturday

All taken this afternoon, a few seconds apart, while standing in the front yard of TheMostImportantGuy's parents house....





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In terms of the headaches today? A wee twinge behind the right eyeball today, but hooray! No migraine.

MyFavoriteKid left with his dad today for the weekend, so today I spent the whole of it with TheMIG visiting TheMIG's dad (TheMIG's mom has taken a little ClubMed vacation with the niece that visited us recently).

The evening was spent with take-out Thai food from a new restaurant in town, watching Pineapple Express on dvd, and...well...."date night". ;-)

Friday, July 10, 2009

the migraine in my brain stays mainly the about same

Ha! (I can't believe I just wrote that title--what a DORK!)

Well, I made it dance class last night, and I led the warm-ups/matwork. I actually felt quite a bit better by the end of class, but when I woke up this morning, I was right back in the throes of it.

Somehow today, I managed to still get some things done: AAA office to pick up a tourbook and some tickets for a little trip next week; to the pet store for worms for the gecko; grabbed some lunch for MyFavoriteKid--admittedly fast food, though; off to get a massage (I know...my horrible life...but I'd booked it weeks ago, and actually the timing could not have been better), and really it was more like the P/T type of massage, the whole of the time spent trying to fix my shoulder, which has been out of whack for almost a month now; then home to ice my shoulder.

I still had a splitting headache for the balance of the afternoon, but I managed to watch The Tour de France (I've watched every day and am totally digging it), I finished the final chapters of the book I'd been reading, I spun on the spindle for a little bit, I knit few rows on the scarf, and then I baked a chicken and roasted some veggies to make up for the McDonalds I had treated MyFK to earlier.

I dont know how I managed all of this with my head hurting so much, because honestly, I really needed to be flat with an eye mask and earplugs. But I did it. And I was a bit cranky and irritable while I did some of it (sorry). And now I want to go to bed and hope that tomorrow brings something completely different.

Meanwhile, if you've made it this far (or if got down here by way of scrolling for photos), I'll treat you to something pretty and pink.


This is the shawl that I worked on in the spring.
Here's a ravelry link for details, and here's a link to the pattern.

I modeled it for this next photo....


...but in the end, I gifted it to my friend Martha.


The shawl turned out lovely, but the color didn't suit me much, and it didn't fit my frame very well. Martha is wee-petite, and she had admired the color since the she saw me working on the very first rows, so it went to a happy home.

I could see myself knitting this shawl again in a different colorway and perhaps making it a bit larger. I really enjoyed the knitting process, though. The center square was knit first, then the border was picked up and knit all the way around, resulting in a square shawl. That type of construction was new for me.

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Ok....Eyes are burning, head is throbbing, so now I'm outta here ;-)

Thursday, July 09, 2009

this post brought to you by the letter "m"

...for Migraine.

*grumble*

I'm gonna have to catch y'all on the flip-side. I'm going to go take a rest now, because I somehow have to manage teaching a class tonight.

Oh, and I did spin a bit today. Not much. Just enough to keep my commitment to spin daily during le Tour. Unfortunately, nothing is much fun to do with a migraine, though!

See you tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

more about that cat

I try to reply to comments by making my reply within that same day's comments. So if you ever ask anything that looks like a question in your notes to me, that's where to find it (except that I was 3 days behind, but now I am not, neener-neener).

In response to yesterday's post, however, a couple of people asked about what happened to TheFeralAttackKitteh, so I figured I'd expand some here for y'all.


TheMostImportantGuy is very level headed and sensible, especially when it comes to stray cats. He is also very compassionate when it comes to them, too. He lives in a neighborhood where there are many feral cats, and he works with another neighbor to always keep food and water out for them. He has used traps to secure the females so he can bring them in for spaying, and he has brought me home one very tiny kitty who now lives with us (Gaara). It was me that brought home the second stray kitten (MrDarcy), but TheMIG rallied for my keeping him instead of working to get him placed. All of TheMIG's pets are rescue animals.

Ok, so anyhow. More about this FeralAttackKitteh last night.
*sigh*

We saw him as we were leaving the parking lot of a supermarket, on our way to pick up MyFavoriteKid from basketball practice. Super cute kitty. Teen-aged kitten, had a few months on him. Not super small, but not fully grown, for sure. Black and white, and clearly looking around for food. I pulled over, and TheMIG got out to see if he could attract him. The kitten was SUPER friendly. Like tail in the air, running towards TheMIG, meowing like "hellllp meeee" it looked like, and to me, he was behaving like a domesticated cat that maybe had gone stray. He rubbed up against TheMIG's legs and hands, and he didn't flinch at all when TheMIG picked him up and carried him towards the car. I asked if he might be someone's pet, because there are houses nearby over a big wall, but TheMIG said the cat was all bones. The kitty just leaned right into him, and looked happy.

Until he got IN the car.

I have no idea what we were thinking to put a cat like that in the car, to be honest with you. Maybe BrainFartDust was in the Indian food we had just eaten. I dunno. But we did it. I would normally NEVER transport an animal without a crate of some sort. I crate my own pets every single time I put them in my car.

The poor thing just freaked. And after scratching and biting TheMIG, he started throwing himself really hard at the windows. Someone was gonna get hurt really badly, and yes....we do know about the rabies and the keeping the cat and all that...but we opened the door so he could get out and run away before he hurt himself.

Now, immediately after the mauling, we picked up MyFK from practice, and then headed back to the house (TheMIG saturating himself with hand sanitizer the entire ride). He then got on the phone with the advice nurse to have his immunization records looked at, and that, of course, is when he was referred to the emerency room for cleaning, antibiotics, tetanus, etc.

So here's the thing. ON THE WAY to the Emergency Room, TheMIG made me swing BACK BY the supermarket, to leave TheFeralAttackKitteh some food!!! Cuz he felt bad for TheKitteh!
:-(
We did bring a crate (and gloves) this time, so that just in case we saw him around we could nab him, but of course we didn't see him because I cant imagine he'd be stupid enough to come anywhere near us. An elephant never forgets, and neither does a feral kitty ;-)

TheMIG seems fine. He's got a little regimen to perform for the next few days (soakings and ointments and medications), but I think he's gonna be okay. He just arrived here, actually....and I asked him if he wanted to go back and try to find THE Kitten, and he even said no...so that means his head is in working order, too LOLOL.

And so that is that about the cat.

More about innappropriate waiting room sights tomorrow...because I had another one today! For now, g'night!

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

full moons and the e.r.

=So why bother telling you about "what I did today" when all the fun to be had was in the day's ending.


Yup. That's us, waiting in the very crowded emergency room (please note how nice I am, too....I shared my Kindle with the little patient).

TheMostImportantGuy, lover of all animals, especially the meowing ones, made a rescue attempt on a feral kitten. The poor dear was so skinny and so hungry that he was just walked on over to TheMIG and allowed himself to be picked up. Thing were great until he was brought into my car (without a crate---yah, we are just that stoopid), and the kitten went ballistic.

Lots of scratching and tear assing by the cat through the car, bouncing off windows, and then, he just took a bite. Or two maybe. I'm not even sure, it went so quickly. Plus I wasn't the one being bitten.

Off we go to the Emergency Room for 2-1/2 hours of fun, tetanus shots, and anti-biotics.



Warning: you might want to scroll past this next photo, if you aren't a fan of graphic grossness....it's take from off of a tv screen, and it is a staged shot, but it's kinda nasty gross.

Ok, so even though this is gross enough to warn you, I just HAVE to show you what I found the most irritating thing about my time in the waiting. They had two flat screens blaring the "Animal Planet" cable tv station. This, at first, was okay. Up first was a show about a guy who lived in a National Park for a chunk of time each year studying bears.
But after that?
A show about people being bitten by animals.
And then another show about people being hospitalized by animal attacks!
Both shows were complete with dramatizations and/or real footage of the attacks AND the hospital visits!


Just PERFECT for the waiting area of an Emergency Room, yah?!!

Other folks in the room seemed to be intrigued, but after an hour of this programming, I finally couldn't take it anymore. I complained to a nurse, and they changed it.
To Reno 911.

As we were leaving the hospital, TheMIG told me that there were FOUR other animal bite injuries in there tonight. Three other cats, and one dog.
Odd, aint it?! Full moon, you think?
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Other things I did today include:

  • more Tour de Fleece spinning (on the wheel today, though)
  • visits to the two convalescent hospitals for volunteer work
  • getting some backyard junk deposited in the bulk disposal container brought in for our neighborhood
  • a little bit of knitting on a handspun scarf

    there, does fuzzy/pretty make up for the blood shot?
  • taxi'd MyFavoriteKid over to my folks for some swimming in the pool (although I heard it was more like a soak in the hottub), and then later to his basketball practice
  • a bunch of other mundane household shit and errand running

But again, it ended with the trip to the hospital.
Can I go to bed now?

Monday, July 06, 2009

the incentive dress

In the last 5 years, I've packed on a whole lotta weight.

I am a user of crutches and wheelchairs.

It is my opinion that my mobility would be improved were I not schlepping around the equivalent of one big ass sack o' potatoes.

Seriously. In the last 5 years, I've gone from a being a size 10 to oozing up and over my size 16's (which for me meant a weight gain of 45 lbs).

Whenever I mention this here, people say I don't look that big, but that, you see, is because I am the MasterOfBlogPhotoIllusion (*mwahaha*):

master of illusion

Sneaky, eh? And I don't even know how to use photoshop or any of that crap! That's just me playing with clothing and lighting and angles and taking a kajillion or so photos of myself until I get one that looks acceptable.

Here's what I look like when someone else has the camera:


Much. Biggah.

So around mid-February, I decided to grab the bull by the horns, and shed a few pounds. Like 45. Ha. By mid-May, I'd lost about 15 lbs and went from the "can only fit in size 16's if the wasteband is elastic" pants, down to an actual size 14.

Then I stalled.
For weeks. And weeks.

Hence, The Incentive Dress.


I love it.
And I don't fit into it.
It's a size 12.

It was not available in my current size. But they did have the same exact style of dress in my current size, but in a different (less adorable) print. I tried it on, and it fit, and I verified that I like the cut and shape. But this green print that I love so much? It was only available in the next size down, and I was clooooose (but no cigar!) to being able to zip it up.

I was really hesitant to buy the danged thing, because I do not believe that one should spend money on the hopes of fitting into something. This is especially so because this was no cheap dress. I never spend this much on a dress (this was from Macy's...the rest of my dresses? Target. LOL).

As TheMostImportantGuy pointed out, if it was a cheap dress, it wouldn't be much incentive.
Good point.

So the dress hangs in my kitchen. I move it around from place to place. Like, I hang it so as to make it difficult to open the cabinet that houses the snacks. Or sometimes I hang it right smack in front of the refrigerator door.

If this little summer dress doesn't fit me until winter, I'm gonna be pissed.