snaps on saturday

The kindness of neighbors.
MyFavoriteKid re-auditions for next season's Youth Symphony.
We go see him perform in this year's season finale.

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Sent from my iPad.....in the ICU.

present

Another freebie friday with no freebies.
Sorry. There are other pressing matters. Stay tuned.

Current logistical stuff about dad:
Still have no idea what is wrong with him (tests= negative, negative, negative), still in the ICU, still on a ventilator, still being kept sedated, while they try to figure it all out. When they take him out of sedation, on what they call "a sedation vacation" to see how he's doing, he's responsive, which is great. Mom and TheMostImportantGuy (how I adore him) were up there all morning together while I tended to getting my broken wheelchair repaired. I came in and relieved them for the afternoon and went with dad when the took him down to the imaging department for an MRI (the current theory is that there might be some sort of damage or infection in the neck area). His drip ran out of sedation stuffs just as the MRI was ending, and they asked me to come be with him because he seems calmer when family is talking to him. He knew it was me and was able to acknowledge me with a nod of the head or a hand squeeze when I asked him things.

Having spent much time in the hospital and under sedation myself, I somehow developed an affinity for certain hospital sounds. I particularly adore the rhythmic suction noise of certain ventilators, and I looooove the whir of CT scans and MRI machines. It was very calming for me this afternoon. While they did his scan, I knit on a simple, repetitive, cozy wool wrap I have been bringing with me every....and I listened....


...and snuck photos.
Ha.


My current logistical state:
I am so thankful and grateful for the zen center and the opportunity to practice at the recent retreat (when was that?? LAST weekend?? Sheesh! What a time warp!). I am keenly aware of how present I have been able to be the last few days, and it's been such a help. I once heard a buddhist teacher say that every time you meditate it's like putting a drop of medicine in a bucket, and then when something comes up and you need the medicine, the medicine is there. I am finding that to be quite true. At the time when I heard him say that though (a few years ago), I remember thinking that even if I was meditating and I was somehow able to "make" this so-called medicine...I had no friggin' bucket. Well, I now DO have a bucket, a container if you will, and the bucket for me has been practicing at the zen center. The the forms, the practice, the sangha (the community, the people), and the teachings from the zen master there....they are the bucket. And I am so grateful.

Today I really just watched everything around me, and in me, come and go (turns out that around me and in me are becoming one and the same). My thoughts, my feelings, the events that were taking place around me...I somehow just found myself just being present, just experiencing it all, not pushing it away, not grasping onto it, just being with it.

It's been pretty dang awesome I tell you.


I have a little story about the moment where I took that picture above, actually.

Dad's ICU nurse today was the bomb. She was so attentive and caring, and just...on it. She was so focused on dad and his needs, but she was also watching my mom, and she also kept checking in with me and how I was doing.....and while they were getting dad ready to in to the MRI machine, I was just watching her, and...well, the whole team, really.....and I was just so taken by how much they all were caring about him. I mean, dad was pretty out of it, totally sedated at that moment, he will probably not remember any of it. But they treated him like he was there (which he was). And they whole crew was talking to him, even joking around with him, and telling him what was happening, and what they were doing, and how great he was doing, and I just got so full of how amazing it all was....and my eyes started to well up....totally out of appreciation.... and the nurse saw it out of the corner of her eye, and so the next time she had a moment she came over and sat down and asked me how I was, and I told her what the tears were for and that it was because I was so thankful for how great they were all being with my dad.

(And that was your daily dose of run-on sentence. Cubed.)

Anyhow, if I had been absorbed my thoughts, I would have missed that experience, and wouldn't have gotten feel what I was feeling at that moment, I guess is what I'm trying to say...and today was full of moments like that in all shapes and varieties. I was more present than usual with feelings, and sounds, and tactile sensations of all sorts, etc etc. I'm diggin' it ;-)

the rooftop "garden" at Kaiser
photo taken Wednesday when I went in for the nerve conduction study on my arm,
right before the shit with dad hit the fan

I am doing okay.
Fine.
Just exhausted.
Completely.
But I'm here, and I'm present.

clouds coming going

Typing from iPad, so this update might be a choppy mess.

Dad went to our local Kaiser yesterday afternoon with chest pains. EKG showed issues, more tests needed, but they couldn't perform them there, so he was transferred up valley...that's where my post came from last night in the ICU.

All tests negative, heart strong, no blockages.But also not knowing what's wrong. Dad was out of it because tests required pain meds. Came back to hospital first thing this morning and dad was up, and alert, and feeling well. Doc thought he'd be transferred back to the local hospital, because they'd performed the tests Kaiser could not, and dad seemed stable.

I left for two hours to go get the mammogram (at our local Kaiser, no less) and also an x-ray for the right hand since we're still trying to sort that out. Called mom when I was done to see if dad was going to be transferred and if I should just stay put...but mom said while I was gone dad had other "event". Came back and dad was in lots of pain. They did more tests to check for clots...negative. Bunch of other stuff, negative. They got his pain managed and they said he was going to be stepped down from ICU and maybe transferred back to Kaiser tomorrow.

Left again to pick up MyFavoriteKid after school and to get him ready for his big school band concert. Last middle school band concert, and he's first clarinet, plus had a solo. Called mom after the show only to hear that dad is on a respirator. There's blood being pumped out from his stomach and his blood pressure is wackadoodle and low.

I come into ICU here just around 10pm and here's mom with PBS on watching a re-run of the special about the buddha.

And so that's where I am and where thing are. I am calm but very concerned and completely exhausted. And hungry. Going to try now to go fix at least that last one.

Thanks so much for all the notes and mojo. Will keep you posted.

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Sent from my iPad

remember what i said would happen?

Remember what I said would happen if ONE MORE THING got added to my plate this week??

It's 8:15pm and I'm in the ICU waiting roomwith mom becuase dad is in the hospital. They thought it was a heart attack, but now they have no friggin' idea.

More news soon.

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Sent from my iPad

half-arsed and distracted...

...because I am typing this while watching the season finale of Dancing With The Stars. This is not at all a regular thing for me, but I somehow got sucked in when this go 'round when they got down to about the last 5 or 6 dancers or so.

So I'm typing during the boring parts and commercials LOL.

How about I do a little generic response to comments and oooooo....wait! I know! First I will show you my own little dance floor?


In progress, of course...but GET OUT !!! Dudes! Will you look at that?!!!!!
squeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still to be sanded, still to be sealed, and in the end it should look a little bit closer to the existing floor. Not exactly, not perfectly, but the goal is to have it feel like it "belongs". It should flow. The existing floors were installed in 1932, so hey. One of my favorite things about this floor guy is that he really wanted to match the wood exactly (same type of wood--white oak, same width boards, same method of installation). Everyone else bidding was pitching engineered flooring that wouldn't match. Another favorite thing about this floor guy is that he is doing some special tweaks for me to make a really smooth and gradual transition between the rooms for my wheelchair (the sunroom/dance area is a different height and could not be tweaked because it is slab concrete).

My other favorite thing about this guy is that he's an independent local. And this is exactly what bums me out so much about the broken window. Yeah, it's his fault the window broke, but I'm really bummed knowing that it will affect his bottom line, and that he's going to lose money on this job. I mean, he's a one man guy (with a couple of guys in tow on busy days). He does have insurance, and all...but he's going out of pocket on this one. He's really been stand up and professional about the whole thing.

As for why it is me that is making the arrangements for the repair and not him, well....I think it actually makes sense. This way he's not bringing another contractor onto the property (and one that he doesn't know, because he's never had this happen before), and this way we don't have to doubt the quality of the work. I'm cool with it. Someone is coming Thursday morning to look at the job, and I asked the floor guy if he wanted me to get a second bid since he's paying, and he's really fine with whatever we need to do. We'll just take it out of the final payment.

Ok. As for cutting down the to-do list this week.
I don't see it happening. It's achievable, just packed. Packed, packed. I couldn't cancel the dentist because it was not a routine visit. I had gone in a couple of weeks ago to replace an aging partial crown, and I had to go back this week to get the temporary out and the permanent new thing in.

And as for the mammogram, while I was due for one this year anyhow....this is not something I'm wanting to postpone. I noticed some changes a few weeks ago. I saw the ob-gyn last week for a manual exam, and she noticed it, too. She's pretty sure it's just a fibroid that was noticed a few years ago that we've been keeping an eye on, but she agrees that I should keep my appointment. You never know if something wicked is lurking behind there.

M'kay. I'm off to finish the show. Pardon the typos and babble if there is any, because I'm not re-reading this! G'night all :-) xo!

fickle.

As you know, I missed doing the regular Freebie Friday thing, and I know I said I'd do it today, but I've changed my mind, and I'm really sorry, but it's just the way it is. I'm fickle ;-)
I'm just gonna wait to catch up until this Friday.

Sorry.
But I have other things I need to take care of here.

Hey. Do you remember my telling you that there is one room of the new house that we call the sunroom? And that it overlooks the patio and pool? And that it's called the sunroom because....well, because it's sunny, duh...but because one entire wall of the room is floor to ceiling windows?? I'm sure I've mentioned it. It was washing that 27-foot expanse of windows that caused me to blow out my shoulder and create my new arm pain. Remember?

Well. Today the flooring contractor started (which means the FINISH LINE is in sight, by the way). The floor guy is refinishing and resealing the entire upstairs floor, plus the downstairs bedrooms. He is also ripping out that nasty-ass carpet that is in the sunroom, and he is putting in wood floors in there.

He calls today, about 4pm.

"The floors are all sanded and have received their first coat! But you have a little problem in the sunroom. Well, actually I have a little problem in the sunroom. I broke one of your windows. A nail shot out incorrectly, and it took out the inner pane of the dual paned glass."




Kids, that panel of glass is about 6' x 7'.
Sure am glad it is his little problem.
Hahahaha.

Well, money-wise, at least. It still is my problem, because he's asking me to make the arrangements to replace it. TheMostImportantGuy helped me sniff out a glass place (the ones I called were only scheduling a couple of weeks out). And I called our handyman to see if he could put something up to keep it from being a hazard in the meantime. But it will be me that needs to be there to meet with the glass dude, make sure the floor-guy is in agreement with the bid, and then oversee the installation. Whenever that is.

It's just funny to me, at this point.

See, I was looking at my schedule for the week last night, and I said to myself, "WOW, this is going to be one crazy week! I have all of the regular stuff I need to do, plus MyFavoriteKid has several end of school year events, plus there are end of season Youth Symphony things, plus my wheelchair broke and I have to get that repaired, plus I'm scheduled for my mammogram this week, plus I have a dentist appointment, plus they want me to go in for a nerve conduction study on my arm....holy crap, it's one of those weeks where the schedule is so packed that if one extra thing comes up, I'm sort of screwed!!"

And now something has come up.

Hahahahahahaha.

I think I'm only laughing about it because....well....once you do the obvious and schedule the repair, what the f%#$ else are you gonna do?!!

as the world turns...

Or should I say, as the mind wanders...

Somewhere in the middle of all that floor staring, come about Saturday evening, my brain was like, "Holy crap! Yesterday was Friday! And I didn't do the weekly Friday business on the blog!" (I let that thought go. Not much I could do about with my arse glued to a mediation cushion).

Tonight I am busy reintegrating myself back into the household routine, especially the parts where it involves the parenting of the teenager (lots of end of year happenings causing shifts from the routine). But tomorrow. I will do it tomorrow! In the afternoon! I will draw, and I will put up another lil' somethin' somethin'.
Stay tuned.

And for now, g'night...and I hope you all had a great weekend :-)

snaps on saturday

live, from the center.....

simple.

Sent from my iPad

:-)

Lotsa people from other zen centers are visiting this retreat.
Get a load of what my neighbor uses as her lap blankets:

Om :-)

Sent from my iPad

more on that....

Ok. Time for some comments on comments.

Pickyknitter writes:
OK I'm dumb, why can't you drink out of a chipped mug? If I threw out all my chipped mugs and plates I would starve. PS. I like the idea of "the cup is already broken" - except in my house it is "the cat has already peed on this".

You wanna know what's dumb? Every. Single. One. of my cereal bowls from IKEA has a chip on it. Every. One. (I just checked). And I use them. I think the chip thing has something to do with a perfect memory being soiled by an imperfect mug or some shit LOL. And I'll see yer one cat and raise you one peeing chihuahua ;-)


Jen Anderson writes:
See, but I think repurposing it would be Buddhist too because it takes things so long to decompose in landfills that it's irresponsible to just throw things away in the name of embracing impermanence. Or something.

Dude. You are such an enabler.
;-)


thestashattacked writes:
Found some. Dunno if they're exactly the same, but they look very very similar.
http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-634253/'Bistro-de-Paris'-Porcelain-Mugs,-Set-of-Four

Oh yay...that is THEM!! EXACTLY!! But I kinda hate you (in the best sort of way) because holy crap it's a set of mugs, and they have not just the mugs, but an actual espresso cup with the matching saucer...and matching bowls...and matching towels...and matching....
hahaha.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, I'll have plenty of time to reflect on this cup thing some more, to be sure.
Three day mediation retreat weekend again.
Yaaaaay FLOOR!

this cup is already broken

"One day some people came to the master and asked 'How can you be happy in a world of such impermanence, where you cannot protect your loved ones from harm, illness and death?' The master held up a glass and said 'Someone gave me this glass, and I really like this glass. It holds my water admirably and it glistens in the sunlight. I touch it and it rings! One day the wind may blow it off the shelf, or my elbow may knock it from the table. I know this glass is already broken, so I enjoy it incredibly.'"

~~Achaan Chah Subato, Thai meditation master

I first read this years ago, long before I was practicing buddhism...and it really stuck with me....although I could swear that the word "incredibly" was replaced by "completely"....and I could also swear that he was talking about a "cup" and not a "glass".... and I only tell you about these silly little differences, because when I completely broke my favorite cup the other day, this is exactly what resounded in my head:

I know this cup is already broken; so I enjoy it completely.

Okay. Maybe it's not broken completely. It is just chipped. I do know the difference.

But let me tell you the story of this cup. I first saw it in a Peet's Coffee shop and I did not buy it because....well, sheeit...ask me if I really need another coffee cup, right?? I actually had to exercise huge amounts of self-restraint to resist buying that cup, because when I saw this cup, it brought me straight back to Paris in one big whooshing sweep of memories. I will never forget that trip, nor the moment in time that this cup reminds me of.

I was in France for two and half weeks as an exchange student during culinary school. It was a weekday morning, very early, and none of my traveling companions were awake yet. I slipped out of the hostel we were staying in, hopped on the Metro, took an exit on a whim, and when I came out of the station, there I was, next to a huge fountain on the banks of the Seine, with Notre Dame in view. There was a corner cafe, and I sat down for the best cappuccino and croissant I have ever had in my life, and I watched Parisians rushing to and fro getting to work as the sun came up and the fog lifted. I will never forget it, nor how I felt (the excitement of travel and history and all things foreign and adventurous!), and this damn cup had the power to bring it all back.

And out of self-restraint, I didn't buy it that day that I saw it at Peet's,

And out of lack of control and sentiment, I went back to buy it....and it was gone.

And then a few weeks later, I just happened to be in another Peet's in a different location, and it was there, and I practically took down a display shelf lurching at it crying, "mine! mine! mine!"

This cup transports me to Paris every single time I sip from it. I love this cup. So much so, that about a month ago, I was thinking that I realllllly needed to get rid of a few mugs from the cupboard as it was becoming crowded, and I shit you not, I said to myself, "You know...I really don't need more than one mug. If I were to keep just one, which one would it be??" And of course this is the one that wins (ask me if I actually tossed out the others, and I will hear a lazy slacker saying no).

I am attached to this mug.

I dropped the mug the other day, and it's not "broken broken", but it has chips all over the brim. No, I was not drinking from the the mug all chipped up like that....it's just been moving around the house from place to place as I cannot seem to bring myself to throw it out. There it is in that photo right next to the laptop and my bagel crumbs as I type this. Why is it next to the laptop?? So I could google around and try to find a replacement...how about that for attachment?!!!!! Sheesh. And now, as I sit here getting ready to toss it, I am of course thinking I should really try to find a way to re-purpose it somehow or something. Like here I am, in my mind, breaking it up into pieces and embedding the shards into cement and making little garden stepping stones for the new house ....because I cannot let go of this impermanent THING.

*sigh*

Yes, I know I am attached to memories, not the mug. Yes, I know that even if the mug is gone, I still have the memories (although spend a few weeks visiting convalescent hospitals like I do, and you'll know that the memories aren't always permanent either, but fuck....at least you could have your mug to maybe jog 'yer noggin'). I know that I should probably just quit being wistful about Paris for crying out loud, and just go back....because I have wanted to ever since.

I think what I have always got out of this little buddhist broken cup story, is the notion of enjoying things while you have them. And I do that. But I never quite got to the part where you contemplate the fact that you don't have to be attached to the thing if you recognize that it isn't always going to be there anyhow.


And the cup is now back on the kitchen counter again LOL.

second verse, same as the first!

Because I spent a huge portion of my day with a migraine (a migraine in the ItsSoBadI'mTossingMyCookies category), I am simplifying things tonight with another vintage photo.



That's me, 2nd from the left....airborne.
Circa Feb 1980, as you can see from the ink bleeding through from the back of the photo.
I was a cheerleader in 8th grade, if you can believe it (and it is hard to believe, because by 9th grade, I was a flunky and a trouble-maker LOL)

vintage me

LOOK AT ME!!!
My laptop has been restored and is back in my grubby little hands!!

(although now I must ponder how lost I felt without it, because I had no idea I was so dependent)




This is me as Dorothy in a 6th grade presentation of The Wizard of Oz.




There's no place like home.

so much for trying to be clever

I was so danged certain that I could use my mini photo scanner thingamajiggy and get a vintage snapshot of myself onto the iPad, thereby creating a post that would be somewhat ineresting, but with very little typing 'CUZ AS MUCH AS I LOVE MY IPAD I CANT STAND BLOGGING ON IT and I reallllly realllly miss my laptop....and the iPad isn't reading the scan off the SD card.

Instead of a vintage photo ypu ow get one "lovely" run-on sentence.
Sheesh.

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Sent from my iPad

snaps on saturday and a belated freebie friday

This blogging without a full sized computer is a real pain in the ass, I tell you. Waaaah!!

Thanks to TheMostImportantGuy however, the laptop is spending the weekend with one of his IT guys from the office, so with any luck, you won't hear me complaining much longer.

Here's a SnapOnSaturday:

It's the new ceiling fan in my future dance space at the new digs. Man, I am getting sooo excited now. The guts of the house are almost done. Insulation is wrapping up on Monday, and then it's floors and paint, and then...that's it!!

For awhile. LOL

In-law unit renovations still occur throughout the summer and early fall, and then early next year we're back into the main house for kitchen and bath remodeling...but hey! The main house will be functional and traffic free for a few months in between...woot!

~~~~~~~~~

Freebie Friday (on a Saturday LOL)

The winner of last week's super cool pattern keeper was Margaret, whom I can't link to, and is very new here (first timer, even?), and got here via Karen (and no, you didn't win because you and Karen think I am funny...hahahaha...but thank you guys!). You won because TheRandomGenerator chose your lucky number! Please see the link to my email address in the sidebar of my blog and send me your mailing address and I'll get this right out to you!

I'm also still waiting to hear from KathodeRayTube on the cute little WIP bag from the week before....and I may be missing something due to the laptop blowing up, so please do try me again!

On to this week's Freebie!

It is another one of my all time favorite knitting do-dads that I'd rather not live without.

The first time I saw one of these, I was at StitchesWest in the Carolina Homespun booth, and a few of them were sticking up in a bowl of rice near the register. I picked it up, looked at Morgaine, and said, "Holy crap, this is clever," to which she replied, "It's better than clever. It's genius. And I can't figure out why one hasn't existed before. We had to get Laci's to make it for us. One night a bunch of us were sitting around knitting at a retreat and we were complaining that what we really needed was a this exact tool. I crochet hook with a needle point at the end. We were talking about how it would solve all our problems, and we were trying to figure out what we'd call it if it existed, and we joked that it would be "A Tool Called Wanda". So it's now the Wanda Tool."

It's an awesome thing. I use my for EVERYTHING, but the basic use is for picking up those pesky dropped stitches or for fixing mistakes. Once you pick up your stitch you can knit right off the other pointy end. I cannot even tell you how handy that is if your mistake was in the middle of a bunch of decreases and yarn-overs in a lace project. One of my favorite other uses involves that little divet in the middle. It's really the thumb grip, but it also makes for a perfect cable needle. I go into the stitches with the hook end, slide then onto the divet, and knit off the pointy end.

And the double ended crochet hooks? Where the hooks are alternating, one up then one down? Perfect, I tell you, PERFECT for fixing a boo-boo in garter stitch. You never have to turn the hook around.

You can buy these through Laci's individually, but here you go: A full set.

To toss your name into the number generator, just leave a comment saying so, and it shall be done. I'll draw next Friday and post!

Hope y'all are having a great weekend :-)

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Sent from my iPad

pretend with me. please.

I know it's Friday, but pretend with me it isn't. I'm a bit off kilter. So tomorrow I will pretend it is today (except by then it means yesterday...?).
Whatever.
Let me just collect myself tonight.
Tomorrow will be a Freebie Friday plus a Snapshot...and I wil figure out how to do it all on the iPad, too dangit.

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Sent from my iPad

very very sad.

***I wrote this and posted this Thursday at 5pm, but blogger was down from noon Thursdy until Friday morning!!

No more Tad.

Tad, TheMostImportantGuy's kitteh, is "no moar".

Tad was a quiet and slightly gumpy ol' man of 17. His age was beginning to show the last few years, but a few weeks ago, TheMIG brought him to the vet for a booger-y nose and serious lack of appetite, and it was determined that Tad's kidneys were just huge with cancer and that he didn't have long given the signs.

For the last few weeks, every time TheMIG has stayed over, he has brought Tad with him. We have made the den his bedroom, but we'd bring him out as much as possible whenever my cats were outside and gone for the day and the dogs were snoozing. Even when my pets were around, they didn't bother Tad. I think they all knew :-( Many nights, TheMIG made up a little cot in the den so he could sleep in there with him.

The last couple of days Tad all I could keep saying was that Tad looked like a, "big bag o' bones". He wasn't in any pain at all, but he was getting wobbly, eating less and less, getting loved on more and more, but last night he just couldn't get comfortable, and was starting to lose bladder control (or at least couldn't make the effort to get to the cat box anymore). This morning TheMIG brought Tad to the vet and the vet assured that given his level of toxicity, had he waited longer, he probably would have started having seisures, so I guess the timing was right.

I am sad.

I have a couple of neato pictures of him....but they are on the blown out laptop (well, some of them are on an external drive, but I cant hook it up to the iPad)...so I can't show them to you right now. If and when I get access again, I'll do a belated memorial type thang. The photo here on this post (and I'm hoping like hell I was able to attach it correctly) was taken just this morning while TheMIG was sitting with him waiting for the vet's office to open. I think he looks like an angel.

TheMIG and I are going to be making a little pet cemetary at the new house. We had my old cat Tramp's ashes in a box, and FlashTheLeopardGecko is entombed in a box of sand we have yet to bury. TheMIG's other cat NewMew who passed a couple of years ago is buried at his current place, but the in the bottom of a huge panter box.....so we're going to move all of them to the new house and plant a lovely little memorial garden or something.

TheMIG told me a little story about Tad. He brought him home when he was a wee little kitten, and he already had NewMew. He put wee little wobbly kitten-head Tad down in front of NewMew to introduce them to each other, and NewMew looked at him, bopped him on the head, and walked away LOL. I do recall them being better friends as they got older, though ;-)

*sigh*

I am sad.

Or did I already say that...?

Yes. I did.

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Sent from my iPad

lost.

I am feeling quite lost today without the laptop. TheMostImportantGuy is arranging to have his IT department fix her up. Apparently the virus I contracted was a doozy, and the whole harddrive has to be pulled out and connected to another unit or something (since I am not computer literate and therefore know not how else to describe it). All I know is that replying to emails and creating blogposts is more difficult.
*sigh*

Meanwhile.

Things at the new house are cruising along. The insulation guy is doing his thing on Monday, and then what we need to do with the "guts of the house" are done. Then we're on to paint and floor refinishing and installation....and thennnnnnn.......it's a break, and TheMIG moves in.

And thennnnn..... we fix the in-law unit (go team!).

Speaking of teams, I'm watching the baseball game, so I'm gonna get back to that...and my knitting!

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Sent from my iPad

a poem for you from TheMIG

blah blah blahg, i say
virus attacked laptop yesterday
browser, start menu, everything POW!
boyfriend + ipad = poem for you now

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Sent from my iPad

best / worse

WORSE : 10pm and laptop contracted a virus, and I am definitely NOT the resident geek, so I am blogging via iPad (prior to 10pm my worst was that I had some dental work done this morning and by 5pm the temporary filling fell out)

BEST : the electrician has finished everything at the new house, it passed inspections, and (woot!) he brought in a cople extra pair of hands to clean up his mess

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Sent from my iPad

happy mother's day

happy mother's day
;-)

snaps on saturday

Was my kale. Is now snails.

freebie friday

Wow...so many of you loved last week's little project bag, it makes me wish I had a plethora of them to give away instead of the assortment of things I have in the pile! (but I do have other things of greatness still left in the goodie bag...trust me).

The lucky winner (compliments of the TheNumberGenerator) is: Kathy (aka Kathode Ray Tube) Shoot me an email with your mailing address, please! (link to email in the sidebar)

If you didn't win and you really really want one of your, you can still have one! Not for free. But hey. You'll be supporting an indie crafter, right? You can order yours here ;-) Check back often as she makes new ones in different fabrics all the time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week (as every week, actually) I am giving you one of my favorite things (because I am only giving away my favorite things LOL). This is a knitting tool I would rather not live without. Ever. It's a pattern keeper from Slipped Stitch Studios.


Admittedly, I own more than one of these pattern wallets, but this one is my absolute favorite.
Sheep. Dog. (get it??)

So here's how it works. You open it up, and there is a non-glossy, just thick enough, plastic page for you to slip your pattern behind (or recipes or travel itinerary, yadda yadda). It can hold several pages easily.

If you want, you can use optional "magnet thingies" to mark your place.
Oh, and there's a place to stick a pen or pencil.

You can also bend the whole thing backwards on itself, re-snap the closure, and it will stand up like an easel.


How cool is that.
(I'll tell ya' how cool. So cool that I'm not even putting in a question mark.)

On the back side of the wallet is a small zippered pocket. Mine usually has a tapestry needle in it, a little dropped-stitch fix-it tool (stay tuned, because I'll be giving away some of those, too), and often the ball-band that came off the yarn.


And this week, I'm not giving you something that is sort of like mine. I am giving one that is exactly like mine.


Well, except that your sheepdog is on the right and my sheepdog is on the left. Yay for handmade!


Just leave a comment on this post to add your name into the hat. Say whatever you want, but I still choose the winner with a number generator (although you guys really do write some amazing "why I need this" stories LOL). You can even leave a comment if you have something to say but don't want to be entered...just say so, so I don't toss your name in.

I will draw and list the winner next Friday! Have fun, and yay weekend!

vintage me

some sort of musical extravaganza (LOL)
Jewish summer camp
Me, on the left in the yellow...age 14
1981

my only haha

The biggest giggle of my day (found on the blog for Yarnista/ThreeIrishGirls):

Women and cats will do whatever they like. Men and dogs should just get used to the idea.



The NON-haha's??

* Spoke to mom oh the phone just after dad's KidneyDoc appointment and wants to meet in person to discuss the results.
* My(NotSoFavoriteAtTheMoment)FavoriteKid back-talked at me today in front of his friend, and I had to ground him, so he flung things around, and accidentally hit me across the face with his guitar amplifier cord.
* ThePainter cannot start on time, and needs to start a week late. Another delay. Yay.
* TheWindowCoveringsGuy called to say that even though we spent two hours and forty-five minutes together ordering coverings for three windows, there was an error, and the fabric I chose doesn't come in the width of my windows.
* I asked the electrician to put a switch on the huge and bright motion activated light outside between the two units....and he installed the switch at the TOP of a flight of stairs (I'm on crutches...hellllloooooooo).
* The electrician either rewired the existing doorbell or put in an entirely new one, but either way...when you press it....it's the full on "ding dong, ding dong.....ding dong...ding dong" elaborate sort of thing. It's almost like Lurch should pop out and say:



Hrmph!


Conversation happening right this very moment with TheMostImportantGuy as I sit here typing this:
me: Bah! I am typing! And I am full of complaints!
Him: Yah, so what else is new!!! *laughing*
me: But it is my way!!!!!! *laughing*


**sigh**

Well, I guess there is one more bit of good news today:

The pool. She is fiiiiinally up and running...ready for swimming!!!!

My parents will probably kill me for posting this, but whatever. It wouldn't be the first time I was a bad kid, and besides, it's my blog, and I need something to write about ;-)

Yesterday my mom left a message on my phone saying that she was going to have a huge amount of dental work done today. I called my folks house around 2pm today to check in and see how she was doing and if they needed anything.
This is the actual conversation:


(*ring ring*)

Dad: Hello?

Me: Hi, Dad...it's me!

Dad: We just walked in.

Me: Ah, okay....well....I won't keep you long....it's just that I'm on my up to Napa to take MyFavoriteKid to Symphony Rehearsals, and I was wondering if mom might like me to pick her up some soup or something at Whole Foods. I could swing it by on the way home.

Dad: No, that's okay. We stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home and I bought a box of wine.

Me: (??!?!) That's it?? A box of wine for dinner?

Dad: Something like that.

Me: So you are telling me that mom doesn't want food, and that all she needs is a box of wine?

Dad: Yeah, that's about all she can handle right now.

Me: (??!!?!) Ok. (?!) Talk to you soon.

Dad: Ok. Bye.


hahahahahaha
Sometimes my parent just totally crack me up :-)

decisions, decisions.

Hooo boy. Did I ever spend a big chunk of time today picking out a few window coverings for the new house!

Some of the windows in the new house have wood shutters in place (thank goodness). But every. Other. Single. Window. In the house. That does not have a shutter. Has NOTHING covering it.

Being that the house was bank owned, it would seem that the previous owner took anything that was not nailed down and threw it out on the lawn during his month long "flea markets" that the neighbors told me about (the flea market thing explains a lot of missing things, actually).

Anyhow, once we closed escrow, we stapled up some fabric over the nekkid downstairs windows in an attempt to make the place look at least a little less vacant. We were careful to choose fabric colors that actually pass as window treatments (in other words, they don't look like granny's flower-print sheets or anything). They're even slightly coordinated. And it must be working, because we haven't had a "security breech", and from speaking with the neighbors this weekend, they all thought we were moved in. (successssss...*mwahaha~!*)

But now the real fun with the window treatment begins. The electrician is almost done, and the insulation guy comes in on the 16th, and the wood floors get refinished and the sunroom gets hardwood the week of the 23rd, and then the painter comes in the first week of June. And the painter will take down the stapled up fabric covering the windows. And I'll be damned if I'm going to staple fabric back up when he's done.

So I should go out and buy some window treatments and have them ready to go up right after the paint is dry, right??
Yah, well. None of them are standard sizes.

*big fat crazy maniacal grin*

So today I ordered some custom window coverings for three of the windows that need something special (the rest of the windows that are nekkid can get simple rods and curtains that I can alter, and I can do that easy-peasy)....but my visit with the window covering guy today?? That I thought would take about an hour??
TWO HOURS AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES.
Selecting THREE window treatments!

AND!

I spent a lot of money.

AND!

I have nooooo idea if the TheMostImportatGuy will like what I pick out!

He says he doesn't care, and that I should just go for it, but he says that about lots of things. He's already said that about both light fixtures and paint colors. He says, "I don't care," or "Whatever you choose will be fine," and I say, "Oh, great....then how about this one?" Then he says, "No, that's too modern. " Or, "I don't like the finish." Or the ever popular, "Nooooo."


Wellp, I just blew a wad on custom, non-returnable window shades that I could only describe to TheMIG over the phone before I handed over a deposit on them. It will take a few weeks for them to come in.

I'll let you know how it goes.

please excuse me tonight.

At the moment, I'm kinda busy knitting things.
Wooly knitwear that I probably won't be able to wear for six months.
It was 80 degrees here today.



I think I need to dig through my stash and pour over my queued up "I wish to knit that" list for a more summery project.
A cotton/linen tank top perhaps?

(no) snap on saturday

...because I didn't manage to get the camera out while anything interesting was happening.

What would really make for a great picture right now if the lighting weren't so dim, would be a close-up of my blood shot eyes.

The start of my day was waking up at 5:15am so I could make it to the zen center on time, and the end of my day was a couple of hours spent at various home supply staring at walls full of light fixtures (all turned on, of course).

Because we are re-wiring all the outdated electrical in at the new house, we now have to bring all of the fixtures up to code (and that would be California's new tight arsed energy efficiency standards, I might add). Now, I have noooo issue with choosing fixtures that will reduce the amount of energy we use. What I DO with is that since it is only California with all these crazypants rules around what kind of fixtures can go where, no national manufacturer is bothering to produce fixtures that meet Title 24 and still look good. VERY few choices.


Lots of other interesting things happened between the zen center and the wall of lights, though. TheMostImportantGuy's sister, brother-in-law, and niece came down to look at the house. The neighbor on our right came over and visited on our back porch for a bit, and we got to meet the people who belong to the house on right, which we just learned has actually been sneakily vacant (the mom died, so the dad moved to a senior village apartment, and the adult kids were by today to check up on the place). Then, someone hit and ran another vehicle right in front of our house, and ALL the neighbors came out to help....and I hated to benefit from something so dreadful (the diver was okay)....but since the neighbors all came out, I got to meet the rest o' the 'hood. Convenient.


I'm going to go tuck my tired eyes into bed now. G'night!

freebie friday

Oooo, I'm getting to this A LOT later in the day than I intended....but that's because I spent a good portion of my day over at the new house trying to make it feel cozy. Kind of ridiculous given the fact that the electrician is still opening up the walls, but whatever. It felt good. I moved some stuff around, swept, straightened a few things up, watered the plants, picked up some garbage that had blown into the front yard (very windy here!), and worked on the curtains in the sun room.



So! The winner of last week's freebie (the meditation book and cd) is: ~Donna~ !!
Shoot me an email, with your snail mail addy! I'll send it toot-sweet!


Next thing! As with all of these items, they are all things I have, use, love.




This is one of those handy little bags that holds a cake of sock yarn or laceweight quite nicely, and it has a strap so that you can hang it from your wrist while you work. I've been using one often when I teach knitting at the senior center so that when I bounce around the room, I always have my project tagging along for the ride. I also use it just by setting it on the table in front of me or on the floor, and it keeps the animals (and their hair) out of my yarn.

What I dig about this bag is the way the flaps at the top snapped closed. I can get the yarn in and out easily, and the opening for the working yarn is big enough that it doesn't add tension.

Anyhow. That one's mine.

This one would be for you ;-)

bag by DianaCouture, btw

If you are interested, leave a comment!
I'll draw next Thursday night and announce the winner next Friday morning.

okay. maybe not so bad.

So it turns out that my dad's doctor's appointment was not with an oncologist. It was with a hematologist.

See, my dad had some blood tests a couple of weeks ago that showed him to be showing signs of anemia, so they were going to refer him to a hematologist. What happened next though, was that they did a few more tests on Monday before the hematologist's office called, and then the next morning, after the tests, he gets an automated call to go in to see an oncologist toot sweet!! (scary!)

But as it turns out, the hematologist is part of the oncology department, so it was a bit of mix up. Even though Oncology called him to schedule an appointment, it was for something else.

Crazypants.

Damn you Kaiser!!! *shakes fists in air*.

So. The hematologist says:
No signs of cancer. *phew* But signs of kidneys not pumping out enough of some protein or another, so their gonna do a couple more tests and get him over to the kidney specialist.



Not great news, true....still more testing to be done and things to be sorted out....but not neeeearly as bad.

vintage me. and dad.

best / worst

worst: Hearing that my dad had some medical tests done yesterday and that today the doctor's office called to make an appointment for him in oncology. For Thursday. Eep.

best: TheMostImportantGuy texting me to tell me that he'd just been promoted to the position of Vice President of Operations. Raise included. (but it's his title that makes me school-girl giggly)


Nice mixed bag, eh?

holy crap. me?? an fo??

I've been knitting more and more over the last few weeks, even with my right arm being in so much pain, and I do believe it has been actually helping my hand not to hurt it (I've also booked several weeks in a row with a physical therapist, which I'm sure is key, as well). My arm is at about 90%. I've figured out how to avoid the activities that trigger it, and now that I'm on the mend, I've gotten the go ahead to start some mild strengthening exercises so I can slowly get back to doing everything again.

Anyhow, with the increase in knitting, I have finished something for the first time in awhile!

Using my friend Merrily's pattern, I turned this ginormous skein of thick and thin wool yarn.....


...into one huge squishy scarf of awesomeness.





Quite the "fashion statement", eh?
I loooove it :-)

All the details here on the Ravelry project page.



I'm still chugging away at the cream colored guernsey wrap/scarf (I'm about halfway), but this morning I took some of my handspun and cast-on for some fingerless mitts that I am whipping right through.
Happy.
Very very happy.

well, will ya' look at who was in my garden this morning....

Heh.
Happy Easter ;-)

snaps on saturday (that were taken on friday)

There's a giant sycamore at the new/old house.


She sits just to the left of the driveway, close to the carriage house ("carriage house"?!....how cute!....it's the city that refers it is the carriage house, and I'm fine with that! Way cuter than calling it the "in-law unit")

Anyhow.
JimTheTreeGuy doesn't use a cherry picker.
He's Ol'Skool.
He climbs.




Very fun to watch.
A sort of crazy combo of Spiderman meets Grizzly Adams meets Ax Men.


Also from yesterday:




Passover dinner at my mom's (and yes, our seder is casual enough that I got away with knitting at the table).

Three observations I made this year:

1) Fourty-four years, have I been on this planet, and probably fourty-four seders have I been to, and never once have I moved beyond my ignorance to ask what "murrain" was when we read the list of the 10 plagues. I only looked it up this year because I had the iPad handy.

2) I don't know how to cook this meal, and I need to learn, so I can be a grown-up and take over for my mom.

3) MyFavoriteKid brought his buddy with him to the meal, and when the kids got up from the table to hunt for the afikoman, I asked my dad where he hid it, and he didn't answer me...but instead looked at me with the face that let me know that I was still one of the kids that should be looking for it. Once a kid, always I kid, I guess. Hahahaha.

freebie friday returns!

Ahhhh. I got all the past due goodies to the post office on Tuesday, so I am almost totally caught up. I am only behind on shipping one item, as I have still yet to hear back from Barb.

BARB! A SHOUT OUT TO BARB! You won the knitting bag from a few weeks back! Please send me an email with your mailing address (a link to my email address is in the sidebar). Thank you!

And now for this week's Friday Free Thang!

I've been really making an effort to restore my sanity this past week, and it's been quite successful. I've been many of the things I can that I know help: more sleep, less tv (especially the news), more knitting, eating less crap, asking for more help, listening to more music, practicing more mediation, and listening to more dharma talks (buddhist teaching lectures).

So when I went digging through TheBoxOfThingsToBeGivenAway this week, and I came up with this, it felt perfect.



This is a small book that includes a CD by one of my favorite buddhist teachers. Seeing it in the box inspired me to pull out my copy this week and listen to it, which was part of my mood improvement plan.

If you would like to toss your name into the hat for this book, just leave a note here in the comments. No need add extra pretty-pleases to win (unless it pretty-pleases you), because it's a random number generator that will pick the winner on Thursday at noon. I will announce the winner's name here next Friday.

If you have something to say, but do not want to be entered, you can always do that, too, Just say so.


Om ;-)

i got nothin'

Long day. LONG day.
Lots of teaching (knitting class, then dance class), plus a whole buncha other stuff in between.

All I've got is a whole lotta stupid for you today...but come back tomorrow for Freebie Friday ;-)

Your Drag Queen Name Is: Lois Carmen Denominator

You go girl!

Drag Queen Name Generator

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity

contradiction?

Last week, after the duct and furnace guys finished up their work at the new house, their "scheduler" called me to arrange for their boss to come down for a final walk-through.....partly to make sure we were happy, and also to pick up the cash, of course ;-) The scheduler told me that the BossMan would be bringing a little thank you gift with him, one she was sure I would like.

I had images of him arriving with a box filled with a chamois cloth to dust off our shiny new ducts, or maybe some stainless steel polish to buff up the rocket-ship sized furnace, probably a "Thank You For Business" card, and perhaps a discount coupon for ordering replacement filters or something.


Well.

Today TheBossMan shows up at the door with a big thank you, a big grin, a big bill to pay, and a big ol' box... OF THESE:



Seems to me that if you eat them all you become padded enough that you no longer need to turn on the heater.

But what do I know...hahahahaha.

breathing room

Wellp, today was the first day in a good long time, that I felt some sort of inner calm (all hail the mighty power of TheDateNight!), and that's saying something, 'cuz Tuesdays are always a bit nuts.



On Tuesdays there's lots of driving, more than the average day's worth of errands and to-do's, and lots and lots of convalescent hospital stuffs.

I feel like I accomplished more than is reasonable today, and I didn't even flip out on anybody in the process (not even the twit that almost ran me off the road). And the things I didn't get done I'm not even worried about, because hey....tomorrow is another day.

a special "yay" to Hyperbole and a Half for sharing artwork!

makin' myself scarce tonight!

I am being treated to a very impromptu visit from TheMostImportantGuy, so it's an extra date night that I hadn't planned on and I am outta here! Woot!

xoxo kids!

ketchup.

I just spent the evening cleaning up the embarrassingly LARGE FreebieFriday mess I ave created. Pass the Bloggy Ex-Lax, please. Sheesh. Talk about being backed up!!

I just scrolled through all of my posts since I started the Freebie at the beginning of the year. January went pretty smoothly. I listed things, people won, stuff went out. Huzzah. But things shifted very quickly in February (hmmm, fancy that---that's the same time the rest of my life got sloppy...can you say escrowwwww??).

I only did 3 out of the 4 Fridays in February (took one of the weeks off for my birthday), and NOT ONE of the three people that won in FEBRUARY has had their stuff shipped out them yet (that would be Karen, theyarnstashisattacking, and notsupergirl). I am full of shame, ladies. But I also just spent the evening wrapping and addressing your packages (after going through about 18 pages of emails to find yer all's addresses), and I have tucked extra goodies inside your boxes in an attempt to make all of us feel better. I can't go to the post office Monday, but I CAN and I WILL go Tuesday.

*(Jodie: thanks for mentioning the priority mail pick-up. I'm going to look into it. I've heard about it, but never tried it, but only because I have been assuming that they won't pick up in my neighborhood. Where I live we don't get mail to our door, it goes to a centralized cluster of boxes. I'm going to ask the mailman, though!)

Then March rolled around, and I posted Freebies on only 2 of the 4 Fridays...and then never drew for them. Neato, eh? LOL Well, with the help of the RandomNumberGenerator, I just took care of that:

The winner of that knitting bag from wayyyy back in February is Barb (please email me your mailing address...I have your package already boxed up. It just needs your address on it!)

~and~

The winner of the skel-animal kitty all tied up in yarn (the one I still cannot believe more of you didn't fall in love with LOL) goes to NoBlogRachel (and it sure does seem like I should already have your address girlie, but if I do, I can't find it. Gah. Please send!)


In April, I didn't post any Freebies at all, even though I still have quite a stockpile of things to be given away....So come back this Friday, will ya'?

snaps on saturday

One of the many fun/interesting/odd things found on the property of the new house.

This was found by our handyman. There is a huge barn-like storage shed/workshop in the rear of the property. It's huge. Left inside is a huge and heavy workshop table that has a ton of little apothecary style drawers, and the handyman found this rubber stamp inside. Green ink around the edges.

I think I mentioned this before, but someone at the historical society told us that in the mid 50's-70's the house was owned by an orthodontist who had a daughter with a disability, and he put the swimming pool in for her therapy.

I have a hunch this is related ;-)
Although I'm not quite sure why there'd be a rubber stamp in the house!

fridays

Fridays. I usually love them, and I loving them even more than usual when I was giving goodies away. I have many more goodies in the pile yet to be given, actually....but I haven't done the FreebieFriday thing in awhile because I am still behind on the last few giveaways.

I have a few packages that should have gone out weeks ago that have yet to be mailed (I'm sorry kids, and I'm not just sorry, I'm a bit ashamed, too). I honestly have not had a spare moment to get inside of a post office.

There are also two drawings that I never drew for and announced winners (how lame is that).

My grand plan was to catch myself up today, but clearly, I did not. Today I was scheduled to meet with inspector so the permit for the heating system could be signed off, and then I also dealt with the gas/electric guy coming out to look at the metering system for the rear unit. Neither of those were on my to-do list until 9am this morning. I thought the inspection would be next week, and I didn't know the power company was going to have to come by at all.

What I did have on my to-do list today was to drive by a few homes to check out their exterior paint jobs, as they were "the references" given to me by one of the painters who has bid on painting our interior (why he couldn't just give me a few names and phone numbers or show me a few photos, I will never know).

Anyhow.
Tomorrow I am going to sit the one-day retreat at the zen center, but Sunday the plan is that I have some freedom (oh please, oh please), and I will take care of catching up this freebie-business then.
You can hold me to it ;-)

For now: G'night.

toasty and warm

Well, we have half of our hall closet back (it was a miscommunication between the project manager and foreman...all is good). Woot.

And when they fired it up for me, I actually felt heat coming through our new house for the very first time since we became owners.

Just in time for summer LOL.



This is the first time in my life that I've wished for just winter to rear it's ugly head and send us just one more whopping storm-blast of cold air. Just so I can play with the heater.
Hahaha.