In regards to some previous posts and comments:

* I dont mind that the ladies are all choosing to knit with the pom-pom yarn (although I do think it's a bit weird that they're all jumpin' on the train together at the same time).
They are excited, and as their their teacher, I am excited that they are excited. I always tell them that I support them in whatever they want to try (and I mean it)....even if it's not something I'm totally into....or something I don't even know how to do yet (because I'd be happy to go learn the new skill and then teach them, or direct us both to someone who could show us).
No, I'd probably never wear a hat or scarf out of the pom-pom yarn myself, but it would be something most kids would go bananas for and I would happily knit one if there was a person in my life that wanted one. I also have to admit that this yarn would make one rad mod-looking throw pillow, and I wouldn't mind having one on the couch that will be coming for my new office/craftrooom.
My real issue with the yarn isn't that I mind them choosing it, it's that it's a bit harder for me to teach with it. I wouldn't say it's the best choice as an early knitting project (and several of my gals are just learning to knit). There's a skill to casting on with it, you have to work with the yarn differently because you are knitting using only the thread between each pom-pom, and the stuff is a bitch to tink or frog, and forget about trying to pick up a dropped stitch.

* I am not at anti-BigBoxMedicine place. Most of the practitioners are fabulous, it's just that the system doesn't seem to allow them to give the kind of personalized care they seem to want to give. I have received some of the best and most personalized care from the physical therapy departments, and my dad might not be here if it weren't for the very same BigBox's hospital's ICU docs taking a huge interest in finding the root of his issues.

* I had to laugh at Pickyknitter's suggestion of using the aid of a paper plate in my *cough cough* collection of samples, because the kit they gave me includes several red and white paper trays....like the kind of french-fry boats you'd get a burger joint. hahahaha

well, that was refreshing

I honestly do not recall how long it has been since I have been to a private practice doctor. I've been enrolled in the "big-box" sytle of medicine that is Kaiser for a very long time. Going to see this doc today reminded me of going to the doc when I was a kid. Or maybe this isn't what it was like when I was a kid, and it is just how imagine things should, and I've imagined them so hard for so long that I've tricked my mind a bit LOL.

I wasn't taken back by a medical assistant who took all my vitals, directed me to a plain ol' exam room that is used by the doc on duty of the day, and then tossed into a paper gown. Nope. The doc himself came out into the waiting area himself and greeted me and brought me back to his office, which was personal to him and full of who he was, and then we sat and talked for what felt like a long time, and by "talked" I mean, he listened. It wasn't until after all the talking that he examined me, including taking my vitals himself.

I have had this skin problem coming and going for almost 10 years now, I've been watching it very closely for the last couple of years, and I could swear that it is somehow related to what I am eating or how my digestive system is processing things. Every BigBoxDoc has slapped a tube of ointment or an oral med in my direction, and all of them have thought I was nuts when I told them I wondered if it was some sort of allergy.

Today this doc looked at the whole big picture, including all of those kajillions of history forms I downloaded off his website, filled out for him and brought with me....and when I got the part where I was about to tell him that I thought it was food or something related to my gut, he said, "I was just about to tell you the same thing. hat's exactly what I think it wrong. I even think I can take a guess at what you're allergic to, but we're going to test to be sure. Your skin is an organ that works from the inside out. I agree with you 100% that there is a link to your digestive system."

He's took some blood and is running an allergy panel and I have been sent home with a little lab kit so I can send in some samples of this and that (*ahem*), and then I'll go back in 3 weeks to meet with him again and we'll look it all over.

Even if I weren't to go back, I swear, just being heard was worth the out of pocket price of admission.

the strangest of timesucks

I have other stuff I want to blog about. Seriously. Presents in the mail, dances I am working on, more house photos....some cool stuff!!

But I got caught up tonight filling out the longest patient profile forms ever for a doctor's appointment I have tomorrow.

I have this crazy rash. I have had it on and off for years, and Kaiser keeps throwing meds at it every once in awhile, and then re-diagnosing it as entirely something different from time to time and then throwing more meds at it.

I'm sick of it. I am finally so sick of it that I am paying out of pocket to see a specialist...one who practices integrative medicine and will listen to me when I tell him that I swear this whole rash thing is a bi-product of something greater going on with my digestive track. Like an allergy. Or (eep!) a parasite or something. All I know is that it changes when I tinker with my diet, but I can't quite figure out exactly what the issue is because without a proper diagnosis, I am just throwing food-darts and the thang.

So tonight I spent hours filling out his health questionaire to bring with me tomorrow, and I also spent a chunk of time printing out the lab results from the last physical I had from Kaiser a couple of months ago.

Fun times. And I have all sorts of feelings about going to this appointment tomorrow....from being excited, to being scared, to being pleased with myself that I finally decided to seek out alternative care, to wanting to thwack myself for not going sooner.

I hope he doesn't tell me I'm allergic to chocolate.
(that's the scared part! LOL)

chipping away at it. like a sculpture.

Here's a shot of the bedroom at the new house as of today.


Just a progress shot.

No art is up yet, we also have a gorgeous mirror that still needs to be hung, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a good deal on a rug that looks cool but wont get caught up in a wheelchair, there will definitely more of that beer-bottle green color entering the room by way of throw pillows and plants maybe a vase or something, that white torchiere lamp is going to be replaced with an architectural looking task lamp on the nightstand, and.....I am still on the hunt for just the right night stands, too ('cuz the TV trays we are using now are not exactly what I had in mind LOL).

I need to take some close-up shots, because some of my favorite things about what's going on so far aren't even showing up in this photo. The base of the vintage green glass lamp has a very groovy texture to it (not to mention the base lights up like a little mood lamp), the duvet cover is actually a navy pinstripe material kinda like a man's business suit, and the white throw on the end of the bed is matelasse, so it has a bunch of quilted swirly textures on it that somehow magically relate back to the lamp.

I'm having fun. It's slow, but fun.
And sleeping there this weekend was quite nice, too :-)

snapless saturday

Long day today. We rented a U-Haul and picked up that family furniture of TheMostImportantGuy's that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

Tonight is my first night sleeping at the new house since the new bed frame and mattress have arrived.

Tomorrow phase two of three in the Ikea bookcase assembly saga :-)

-----
Sent from my iPad

sooo tired, that all i have is a cute doggy photo

Teeny spends most of her day chasing the streaks of sunlight around the house and basking in them. Unless she is sitting in a pile of warm laundry fresh out of the dryer.


The moment the machine stops spinning she starts chasing me around the house until I plop the clothes down wherever I am sitting down for the folding session.

why why...why?!!

Why is it that all of the ladies of the senior center knitting group I am leading are all knitting with this crazy ass pom pom yarn??!!


(and why, might I add, is the yarn getting rated 5 out of 5 stars, for crying out loud)

Most of these ladies are beginning knitters, and while I fully support people knitting what they want to....just consider what it takes to teach knitting and to teach people that they can only knit between each pompom!

It's crazypants, I tell you!!!!!

so tired the day was a little blurry

Suuuuper tired today.

Was up all night because one of the cats, MrDufus...oh, whoops, I mean MrDarcy...didn't come in by bedtime. It's been very warm here, so I slept with all the windows open, and I was woken up on several occasions by the sounds of cats screeching and fighting. He finally made it in around 4am, but that was only after he'd woken me up at 1, 2:30, and 3.
Ass cat.

Then I climbed Mt Laundry (I will never understand how everyone's individual hamper fills up at exactly the same time as all the towels need to be run).

And then I spent quite a bit of time at the hardware store, a place I am apparently visiting a bit too often, because the staff is now recognizing me and our renovation projects.



Not much time knitting lately, which saddens me....but hopefully a bit tomorrow at least when I lead the knitting group at the senior center.

narrow it down

I feel like there is so much going on (mostly in my brain, not in reality---fun times), that I don't even know where to start tonight, so I'm going to narrow it down to just one topic.

Today I went and visited James at the convalescent hospital. It had been a looooong time, thanks to everything that blew up over the summer around here, but we'd be chatting by phone. Nice visit.

However.

When I pulled up into the parking lot, I heard someone banging on the window of their room. I looked up and realized it was Martha (click here and scroll down to see who I'm referring to). She was talking to me through the glass and waving that there shawl at me, and I had no friggin' idea what she was saying.

I stopped by her room on the way to bring James his lunch and visit, and she said, "Not only am I moving away, I am getting married!"

Maybe I should mention that I've known Martha for about 5 years now, and every once in awhile she says she is well enough to move out to a senior apartment and be on her own. But she never goes anywhere.

The first time she told me she was moving, I thought it made total sense. She really isn't all that ill, from what I can see. She seems more like the type of lady that needs a little bit of help bathing and running errands but maybe doesn't have family around to do that. She's always on top of current events and politics, and she has very interesting stories to tell about life in the area her in the good ol' days.

But like I said, she never moved. And then came some complaints that someone had taken all of her money out of her accounts and she couldn't move out (which, considering that James has had money stolen out of his room that resulted in police activity, it was hard to not wonder if she was telling the truth). But then came the day where she started saying the devil was in her room (which, well....have you ever been in an icky convalescent hospital at night?? who knows what she could be seeing, honestly).

But today she said she was getting married. She wanted to give me back the shawl so it wouldn't get lost in the move, but I showed her that I had knit another pink shawl recently so I was okay on that front. She had folded up all of her personal blankets into a neat stack and had a fully packed travel bag next to them on the bed. The staff came in to bring her lunch and she refused it because her fiance was going to take her out once he got her.

I asked Martha if I could go deliver James the lunch I had brought him while it was still hot and come back, and she said she might be gone by then.

I half believed her.
As usual.

When I came back, she was eating her lunch off a tray, and was angry because her fiance hadn't come to get her and she thought she knew him so well, but apparently she had not been a good judge of character. I was almost speechless. But I made sure she had my contact info in her address book so she could call me if she moved, so I'd know where to find her.

I once asked the staff if they could fill me in a bit about Martha's condition, but of course they cant tell me a thing with confidentiality laws and all that, so who knows. Maybe the only reason Martha is really there is due to dementia. When times are good, I only see her for a short visit once a week....maybe this stuff is happening all the time and I'm just not there for it.

*sigh*

On the way out to my car, I stopped and had a long, very one-sided chat about it with my good friend who IS completely coherent but can only say, "No," or "I know." I've written about her before, and I have no idea where the post is to link to it, but she sits outside smoking cigarettes most of the day just watching the world go by....and she says (by way of twenty questions) that Martha only gets the one visitor...and elderly female friend that takes her to the post office every two weeks or so. That's it. No family. And definitely no fiance. I actually thought MyLadyOfTheNo-I-Knows was going to pass out from laughing when I told her that Martha said she was leaving today and said she was getting married. You could tell she was dying to pass that gossip along and would never be able to LOL.

Anyhow.
It has me a bit curious about how best to support Martha.

I don't know much about dementia (if that's even what's going on).

Time to research.

i think what i do is send back the bill

I went and saw my physical therapist today, the one that specializes in scars and fascia and all that I have on my bod that is so torn up. Nothing was wrong, but I just felt like I needed a "tune up" as things were pulling here and there and getting kinda tight.

At one point he did something to my neck that he'd never done before, where I was lying on my back and he kinda did some sort of traction maneuver, where he pulled my neck real long, and in a very unpleasant jerky way. When he let it go, I had screeching pain. I couldn't turn my head to the left or put my left ear to my left shoulder without feeling like I was being stabbed (or wanted to stab someone).

And I pay for this. Bah humbug!!

He felt horrible, and he put me on ice, and put some sort of rub on me, and did a little more work to try to fix it.....and it's not quite so screechy....but it still hurts and I'm still icing at home, and all I feel like doing is not moving. And I have a list of things to do that only seems to get longer lately. And I am a Crabby McCrabberson!!!

*sigh*

and a few more building days still to come!

Another trip to IKEA, and more bookcases to assemble for the office/craftroom.

This is gonna take awhile.

snaps on saturday

Spotted at the mall today:


And I think this shirt is totally hilarious (and awesome).
If you are a Giants fan, I don't need to tell you that this is Tim Lincecum.
If you are not a Giant's fan, here...let me see if this helps explain why I find this shirt so hilarious:


Hmmmm. I bet if I would have went inside there would have been a Brain Wilson version.


The mall is a place we rarely ever go....but today we had go there to throw loads of money at the Sears Appliance Salesman. The carriage house/in-law unit construction is now complete, and it has had final inspections. We did a final walk-through last night with the contractor just to note a couple tiny punch-list items that we'd like to see tweaked or touched up....but construction is done! All that is left is for us to shop for and install window coverings, and the appliances, which we took care of today, to be delivered in 2 weeks.

Tomorrow I will try to take some decent photos in the light of day and then see what I can do to show you a before and after post.


Hope y'all are having a good weekend!

the highlight of my day...

Let me set the scene:

It's 6:55am and I've only had a haylf a cup o' joe. I am driving MyFavoriteKid to school for his 7am pre-school marching band practice. We are rolling up to the curb when MyFk announces:

"I've been talking to MyBestBud, and we've decided that instead of going to a "regular" college, we are just going to go to a community college. It will save you money! So you're okay, with that mom...right??! Okay! Bye!!"

The car door is now open and he has one foot out the door.

*ahem*

To which I of course shout after him, "Let's talk about this later, when we have more time, ok?!"


Now, I'm not against community college guys. In fact I myself went to a community college. But it was because I didn't have the grades or the financial means to go elsewhere. In my 30's I even made use of a trade school (culinary), but that was a career choice-- a career change, actually.

My concern, with a child that is only just beginning high school this year, is that he set his going target a little low. I know that some of this is due to the fact that MyBestBud's dad is presently out of work and that his friend is setting his own target low because of that, because he is recognizing financial despair....but I actually come from the camp that MyBestBud should therefore be setting his target even higher and striving for a scholarship.

I come from the camp that if MyFK wants to go a community college that it should be his choice, not his only option, and that his next four years of high school should be spent aiming to set himself towards the place of being able to make the choice. To have options. I'm not the type of parent to push my kid in a direction he doesn't want to go.....but I'm not about to let him spend the next four years aiming for the low target, either.


I'm thrilled to report that TheMostImportantGuy is willing to sit down and be part of this conversation with MyFK tonight, because MyFK doesn't really view TheMIG as a parental figure. He views him as just a really cool older guy who has his shit together and has a good job and also still does fun stuff on the side. But one of the things TheMIG does is a whoooole lot of hiring and firing, and he regularly screens piles and piles of resumes, so I feel he can give a completely different perspective, and hopefully one that MyFK can hear.

So now over chinese food tonight, I get to have the talk.
The first of a kajillion, I am sure LOL.

vintage me.

Me and dad cruising (what I believe to be) a marketplace in Mexico, which would put me at about age 13, I think.

Maybe they'll correct me if I'm wrong.

wait, when did *that* happen?!

I cannot believe I am the mother of a kid going to high school.

in between

In between everything else (including my glorious morning of "Coffee With The Principal," while MyFavoriteKid was at his freshman orientation), I have been tinkering with felting thrift-store wool sweaters I've had laying around and matching them up with vintage buttons from my stash:




Soon to become throw pillows for the new digs ;-)

explanationologies

Hoooboy, I feel like I have been quite busy! I haven't had a chance to check in with friends, or return phone calls...plus I have several tasks long overdue.

What happened is that I returned home from the Sock Summit trip on a Sunday evening, and the very next morning, MyFavoriteKid basically started school. Now, the first day of school "proper" is the day after tomorrow---Wednesday. But two weeks ago, "band camp" (marching band camp, that is) began, and so we've already had two weeks here of morning alarms, big breakfasts, and box lunches.

And I'm way out of shape. It's almost like I have forgotten how to do it all.
It might just be that I'm doing it in addition to all the special dog preparations and feedings.
Whatever. It's just taxing!

In addition to the school stuff starting up for the last two weeks, MyFK has also needed a physical, a bit of back to school shopping, plus there was the registration day, a now tomorrow an orientation day.....and then there were those out of town visitors and the house full of teenagers....and two more trips to the vet...and the trip up to TheMostImportantGuy's mom's to look at the furniture and clean out some of his dad's old stuff...oh and the day (yes, the entire day) it took us to assemble just some of the ikea furniture at the new house.

It's just been kinda crazy! Not bad....just....crazy!

So if I owe you a call or an email or a conversation, I betcha ten bucks I have thought about it quite a few times in the last two weeks (lots of time in the car running around for all of these things). I haven't forgotten you, and I'm not far...and you should always feel free to contact me if it's taking too long.

xo

see? remarkable.

The vintage furniture being passed down to TheMostImportantGuy from his family:



And the vintage furniture being passed down to me from my family:




See what I mean?

I still think it's remarkable.

snaps on saturday

Details on some furniture that TheMostImportantGuy's family has saved for handing down to him.


What's odd is that the woodwork and the hardware bare a ridiculously similar resemblance to the furniture my own family is handing down to me one day.

I don't have a photo of it, but I will get one soon and post them side by side.
It's remarkable.

no wonder i have i migraine today.

(and those are just a few of the people in front of us!)
(and we arrived early!!)

Today was freshman registration day at the High School (I still cannot believe MyFavoriteKid is going into High School sometimes...sheesh!

Turning in forms, proving residency, getting the schedule, paying fees (which were shockingly large...can you say, "public school"??), picking up textbooks and PE uniforms, and having photos taken for the yearbook and for the school identification card.

They suggested the whole process would take about an hour.

It took us two hours and forty-five minutes.


No wonder I have a migraine.

vintage me.

Vintage me at 21.

Interesting tidbit: I am wearing a hot pink t-shirt that says FOOL on it in really big letters, and I made it myself. LOL
(and 23 years later, and I still wear make and wear t-shirts that say silly shit!)

coney baloney

The good news:
Riley got his cone off today!!!!


The bad news:
Teeny noticed this change immediately, and she promptly decided that this means all bets are off, and it is now party time. She is back to her favorite shennanigans. She nibbles at him, jumps on him, and sometimes shoves her entire head in his mouth like they're playing Lion And Tamer. She also chases him around until he will play with her (which looks a little bit like he is stepping on her and flattening her sometimes).

And Teeny is not supposed to be playing or doing anything crazy with her legs as she is still recovering from her own surgery.


Teeny is a Nuisance ;-)

knittin' pimpin' shoppin'

Knittin'...
A good day in the knitting department! I ripped and re-knit the off track shawl that was missing some increases. Here it is after Clue #2, sitting and waiting for the release of Clue #3:


That one above right there is v.1, the smaller version.
I also caught up on v.2, the larger version.

Sorry for the craptastic photo that doesn't even show the true colors.
Chalk it up to my feeling like I must photograph my knitting and show it to you, even if it is in the dark. Silly.

Edited to add better/in-the-light-of-day photo:



I'm really liking how this is turning out so far, although I'm a bit concerned about how the rest of the variegated yarn is going to play out in the next clue. So far we only have a wee little patch of it. I hope it doesn't disappear entirely. I probably should have chosen something with a bit more contrast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pimpin'............

Do you guys know about the Fiber Beat Podcast??
I'm a huge fan.

Of course I must be honest and admit that the only reason I am finally announcing my fan-ness on the blog today is because WonderMike (the host extraordinaire) has a contest going....but seriously....I've been listening to this podcast since it's inception. Many an interesting interview has already taken place (I mean, how often do you get to hear from Kaffe Fasset??!), but if you are Ravelry fan, do take note that a new episode was released today featuring Jess & Casey....it's so new, I haven't even listened to it yet. But I did listen to the last episode, which was all about the Bohus knitting tradition....and I loved it. I'm a big fan of learning about historical knitting and cultural knitting traditions.

If you want to check out Fiber Beat, you can click on the link above, or here's an iTunes link, oh and hey...there's also a Ravelry Group.

Pimp complete ;-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shoppin'...........

I was finally able to get to IKEA today and pick up two of the several bookcases that will go into the craftroom at the new house. Woot! It's been a long wait.

Here's how things were supposed to go. Floors were refinished and painting was complete at the end of June. TheMostImportantGuy moved out of his loft and into the house by July 1st, but he (very graciously) stayed at my place for a few days, and waited to spend the first night there until we could stay there together. The 4th of July weekend was our first weekend there, and that following week I had a date with the handyman to meet me at IKEA with his big Sprinter van to pick up the furniture for my office/craftroom.

Well, the 4th of July was when the dog was attacked, and.....well, I have nothing more to say on that if you are behind on the dog situation. Just scroll back. It's all I've written about for a month LOL.

Point is, I never got furniture, and that room is empty. And really, I haven't been at the new house for more than an hour or two the entire month. TheMIG however, has moved in. And the few times that I've gone into the new house, it has felt like.....well....it's felt like I am intruding. There is so much of him there, and none of me there, and it's no fault of his, it's just that I haven't had any time there....but it's been really hard on me to feel like I'm sneaking around his house or something.

So going to IKEA today to pick up a couple of bookcases? Yay!

Of course now I have to assemble them.
But still.
It's a start.

tinker.

Frustrated knitter, here.
The sweater had a goof, and then Clue #2 of the Mystery Shawl that I'm workng on came out last night, so I knit and knit, and I goofed that up, too.
Busy tonight tinking, frogging, and re-knitting.

-----
Sent from my iPad

vintage me.

snaps on saturday

Today was nice and well rounded.

TheMostImportantGuy dog-sat so I could go to the zen center this morning. I had a very interesting interview with the zen master. I need to ponder things more before I am able to write about it, though.

In the early afternoon went popped into a very small gallery opening for the reception of ROBOTS.


Included were large wooden sculptures (that also double as storage cabinets in some cases), that were made by TheMIG's guitar player and our handyman, Bill Brewer. Super neat.


Also showing was Eric Joyner, whose had created some cover art for an album for the band TheMIG and Bill were in a few years ago.





Robots and doughnuts. Awesome.
We mighta bought a couple of things from him for the new house :-)


In the later afternoon, I played with swatches, did the maths, and cast-on for the new sweater.



Didn't get too far. I made some goofy error on the simplest of raglan increases. Bah. Will have to fix it tomorrow. There was no more time tonight.

MyFavoriteKid's buddies from the North Coast came down for a visit, and we took them to the county fair for a couple of hours.


And here's a few token "awww shots"....

Every day this week, I've looked at Riley and announced with glee that there are only five (four! three! two! one!) more days left of being stuck wearing his DoggieConeOfShame.

Today we went to the vet, so she could take out the stitches.....

...and then she said we should keep the cone on for five more days.

*sigh*



Riley's looking great, though. Yay!

Teeny? Still not so great. She's only using three legs. She's scheduled to have her second set of post surgery follow-up x-rays next Saturday, but I dragged her along with me for Riley's suture removal today in hopes the vet would have time to take a peek and assess. She did, and she's concerned, but the instruction is to just keep limiting Teeny's mobility and do the x-ray as scheduled next week.

that pink thing

I finished that frothy little pink thing that I cast-on for a couple of weeks ago....


The pattern is called Grand Lake, as it reminded the designer of the Grand Lake Theater, which for me was a cool little treat, because I used to live just a couple of blocks from there and would walk to the movies. The yarn came with the pattern as part of a club kit from A Verb For Keeping Warm, also of Oakland. It's alpaca, cashmere, and silk, and let me tell you....it was sooo lovely to knit with. It was like knitting whipped cream. Or clouds. Or petting kitties.

I'm not normally much of a light pink gal when it comes to wearing garments, but it's a flattering icy pink. As for knitting, well. I loved knitting with this color. Prior to casting on for this, I had been knitting on this off-white/natural and densely stitched scarf, and it was not doing a thing for my mood while I was trapped in the house playing DoggieICUnurse here. This knit was so soft and airy and light, and the pink was so (granola warning!) healing to work with, like handling rose quartz, that it created a complete shift in my mood. The pattern was well written and just interesting enough to not fall asleep, but just repetitive enough to not always have to be staring at the chart.

Here's a link to the Ravelry Project Page.








I am now jumping on the Westknits Mystery Shawl train. Times two. At the same time.
And I'm also just about to cast-on for a little fall sweater.
Knitting mojo hath returned.
Woohoo!!

in yesterday's mailbag...

This issue couldn't have come out a month ago?????????????
Curse you, Angie!!!


(just kiddin'. we actually looove Angie's List! we've used many an Angie's List contractor for the renovations on the main house, and it's been super fabulous. )

how random can i get

Since I cannot seem to organize my thoughts, here they are, quite disorganized:


* Sock Summit was a ton of fun. I ran into lots of old friends, and made some new ones.

* It was really hard to go from being trapped in my house like a hermit for 3 weeks to being full of a convention center of crazy (in the best sort of way) knitters. Especially when knitters have no sense of the "18" of personal space" rule and usually come right up and touch you and whatever you are wearing. I don't mind that sort of thing (I am guilty of it, too). But it was a SHARP contrast.

* Credit where credit is due: It is TheBon that shot that video, not me, but I was watching from just about the same vantage point. It made me tear up a bit.

* Riley is looking great. His stitches come out Friday, and he loses the cone, too. At that point I'll learn more about the next step for his fracture jaw and if he has to have that canine tooth pulled.

* Teeny is not looking so great. I came home to see her walking on only three legs. I'm hoping it's just over-exertion while I was gone (she was supposed to be on very limited activity for another 3 weeks). I'm bringing her with me to Riley's appointment on Friday to have the doc take a peek.

* I fixed the shawl, finished the shawl, and am blocking the shawl. Woot!

* I bought some stuff at Sock Summit. Mostly tools, plus some fun gadgets and project bags. A few skeins of yarn (hat for TheMostImportantGuy, some yarn for a new WestKnits mystery pattern knit along thing going on right now). Considering I have missed Stitches the last two years, and haven't been to any other fiber festivals, I think I did fine.

* KarenTheDancingLurker and I got to use the studio at the new house today to do some dance work. First time!

* On the drive up to Sock Summit, I decided that this little trip this weekend was The End Of An Era. See, it was last year in July that I went to a knitter's weekend in Seattle. And when I came home, TheMIG's dad was sick and passing, and then, well....no sense repeating it all...it's been a hard year. And here it was 12 months later and I'm on my up to the Pacific Northwest again for another knitter's weekend. I have decided that these two weekends are bookends. Time for life to shift. Dammit.

* And apparently I have passed the friggin' baton. One friend's brother-in-law cut his foot with a chain saw. Another's mother was just diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer. And one of MyFavoriteKid's close friends was diagnosed this morning with a tumor near his kidney. WTF?!?!?!?!!!!

* I am watching a really interesting program on PBS right now, while typing. It's about plants. Apples, tulips, marijuana...and I think now potatoes. Makes me want to get a garden growing at the new house. Sans MaryJane, though.

* And I'm tired. I also had physical therapy today. First time in weeks.
So I am off to bed.

i couldn't make this sh%t up if I tried.

So I sit down to post tonight, and the laptop is on the diningroom table, as it often is, and I think to myself, "Ya' know? I should move over to the couch. The Colbert Report is on the tube in the background, and that glass of wine I poured two hours ago is still sitting there entirely un-sipped."

I grab the laptop, move towards the couch, knock the wine glass over. Spill the entire thing all over the stack of magazines sitting on it, the remotes, the iPad (in it's cover *phew*), the knitting pattern I am working on, and the lace shawl that I am on the bind-off row of.

Thank the knitting gods, it was white wine.

I move stuff. I dry stuff. And then I notice that because my coffee table has a glass top that is resting in it's wooden frame of a support system, wine has seeped under the glass, and it's dripping, but if I let it dry, I'll never be able to pull it out again to clean, because it will be sticky. Since I have dried all the object and replaced them back on the table already, I lift the one corner up that is dripping so I can pass my towel through....and the whole glass top crashes down. Not broken, but now the entire contents of the room have scattered everywhere, including under the couch. The little dog is running off with the ball of yarn, and I'm sure she is really enjoying herself because she had already licked up the largest blob of wine that I didn't even see over on the corner of the floor tiles (thank the decorating gods for modular carpet).

Now I'm irked. And pooped. And my writing time is gone, because I also need to fix the shawl because I see that when the drunk dog ran off with the shawl, she took a bunch of stitches off the needle, too.

It's almost as good as "the dog ate my homework," I know.

Except that it's for real.



Tomorrow. Is. Another. Day.