It's snowing!

Not heavily and not sticking to the roads and sidewalk so it's beautiful.  Wouldn't be if I had to get out there and shovel it.

No one slept last night for some strange reason.  I woke up with pain after about 15 minutes of sleep but I hesitated to take another pain pill that soon so I waited a couple of hours.  Then I slept for about 10 minutes, woke up in pain again.  I didn't dare take anymore so I waited about 4 hours before taking another pain pill.  At that point it was daylight and Professor needed to go out.  Then I just lay in bed watching tv until Tom got up.  He was up most of the night, too, but not because of pain.  Just couldn't sleep.  Same with Zach.

But the good news is, he's on his way to pick up a dryer belt so he can fix my dryer.  I've gotten behind on laundry because it takes about 3+ days to dry a load on the racks so I've got about 4 loads piled up in the basement.  And one already washed, awaiting drying in some form.  He called first and gave them the number on the belt and they are holding it for him.

I've got baby lima beans soaking and pork necks frying up a bit for supper tonight.  I'll drain and rinse the beans in about an hour, then pour more water in and add the necks and some onion.  I'll fix some cornbread to go with it.  I waited until Tom would be home because he won't eat cornbread that's not fresh for some reason so he can have hot, fresh cornbread tonight.  Zach is having breaded shrimp.  He cannot eat beans at all.  They make him throw up.  It's the texture, not the taste, which is his OCD thing.  It's limiting for me when cooking so on those days when I cook beans or mashed potatoes or something he can't eat, he gets to cook his own.  I got him shrimp as a treat tonight though.

The front door is sticking badly again so I have the little heater in the foyer, drying it out again.  We've never gotten it fully dry yet so I might just let it dry out for a few days instead of just one.  Couldn't get the door open again last night to let Professor out but by morning I could with some maneuvering.

I started a new pair of socks since I was able to knit a pair out of one skein of woolease.  I was thinking of adding a diamond design in it but it's taking too much concentration right now and I have none to spare so I'm going to just knit plain vanilla socks.  I'll end up with four identical socks but that is a good thing as they will probably last longer as a pair that way.  One pair, anyway.  I'm looking for a pattern for the sock yarn (fingering weight) because I feel a need to work on something small.  I could dip into my baby clothes patterns and knit up the mountains of baby sport yarn I've got.  I might just do that.  Plus I need to dig out Zach's sweater to finish since he'll be starting volunteering at the library very soon.  My sweater is far from completion so I should at least finish one.

Well, off to get some dishes done so I don't end up with a ton of them to do tonight.

TTFN

A great Christmas was had by all

We opened up our gifts on Christmas eve because that's when it always felt like Christmas to me rather than Christmas morning.  I mean, all the nativity scenes took place at night so opening up presents in the morning always seemed a bit off to me so this year we changed that.  It worked out much better and we got to sleep in on Christmas morning.  Except no one could sleep so we ended up mostly watching the sun rise and slept all day.

It wasn't the gifts; it was mostly everyone under the weather.  I think the party on Friday wore us out and then Tom sort of let all the back pain and stress catch up with him.  As a result our sleeping habits took a huge hit and I went to bed last night at 6:30 a.m., slept off and on, mostly on, until about 10 p.m.  Stayed up until around 11:30 and then back to sleep immediately.  Unfortunately Professor has started waking me up around 3:30 a.m. for a trip outdoors.  He won't poo in the house so I have to get up with him.  By the time he has scouted the whole yard, found his spot and done his business and then try to get Tank (the next door Rottweiler) to bark at him, I'm wide awake.  It was 5:30 before I got back to sleep and then I slept in fits and starts until around 8 a.m.  Tom got up early and was banging about in the kitchen so I ended up just getting up.

Then as soon as Tom left for work (he won't be home until around 4:30 a.m.) we headed out to pay bills and run errands.  Just got home and I'm exhausted but we still have the trash to gather up, the recyclables and trash to set out, the dining room to clean up a bit and wash some stuff in the sink to hang on the racks.  I did laundry yesterday and tried to hang them up on the rack but as soon as I brought them upstairs, Tom was puttering around in the kitchen and dining room so trying to work around him was bothersome.  As I have said before...it's a tiny house and two people cannot function in any of the rooms.

I did get a bit of knitting done on the sock but was too tired to do anything else except watch my Babylon 5 dvd.  I got the whole series for Christmas in addition to the Percy Jackson books I was missing.  Zach got a hdtv, a game, controller and a portable dvd player.  Tom got a new wallet and a turntable that converts vinyl to cds.  He's been upstairs copying his albums all weekend.  We spent far too much and won't do it again but once in a while you have to just for the sake of morale.  We've avoided going into debt every year so far and end up with next to nothing for Christmas so we decided this would be the one year we celebrated.  I think we can go back next year to our mini-Christmases but we needed this one.  And we didn't go thousands in debt.

I'm going to stick the pizza and bread sticks in the oven and get the trash sorted and then go to bed.  I'll clean house tomorrow.  Too tired tonight.

TTFN

Happy Anniversary and Merry Solstice

Today is our 25th wedding anniversary but as neither of us has a romantic bone in our bodies, we settled for gifts last night when he got in from work.  I got a lovely black cardigan with black sequins on it.  He handed me two gifts but I wanted to wait to open the bulk on Christmas since I usually only have one gift to open.  Now I'm rethinking it as the other gift goes with my sweater and I have nothing to wear to the Christmas party tomorrow night.

I got Tom a Warren Zevon cd:  Excitable Boy, which happens to be my favorite of his albums.  He was quite happy about it since he only has a cassette of it now but no cassette player.

We let Zach open a present for Solstice as well.  We got him a Bowser plushie (from the Mario games) and he was thrilled with it.  I'm getting really anxious for Christmas so I can see their faces when they open their gifts.

Yesterday was another fatigue day with errands (and I forgot Tom's back pain medicine so I have to go back tonight) and hanging up a load of laundry on racks.  I didn't get the kitchen cleaned up so I plan on just loading up the dishwasher instead.  And we must work on Zach's room today because he will need a clean room on Christmas morning because of one of the gifts we got him.

It was after 6 a.m. when I finally got to sleep but I didn't stay asleep, even then.  The city were out with their snow plows because we got about 2 inches of snow last night.  It looks nice and fortunately the sidewalks are warm enough it has melted off of them, but I'm not enthused about snow this year at all.  I still haven't recovered from the year of 108 inches of snow that we had to manually remove from the sidewalk and driveway.

I frogged the ocean socks after making a mistake in the pattern early on and just went with plain vanilla socks.  I'm tired and even knitting isn't exciting me right now.  I know I'll bounce back soon but for now I just want something mindless.  I got three responses to the baby boucle yarn and the first person to respond is supposed to pick it up today.  I've got two people to fall back on if not.  I've got some worsted boucle in the cabinet that I might use to crochet up a shawl for the rest of winter but then again, maybe not.  I really don't like working with boucle.

I'm thinking that I might not dye my Welsh top singles, instead just knitting up some socks out of it.  Depends on how it feels next to my skin though.  Not this winter, but next, maybe.  I do need to work on my fleece, washing and carding it so I can spin it.  I still have my practice fleece, already scoured and needing to be carded.  It's good enough to use for something that doesn't rest on the skin and honestly it doesn't feel that much different from the Shetland wool.

Well, the woman called about the yarn and will be here soon so I had to clean up the kitchen really quickly and will vacuum as soon as I sign off here.  Still much to do today including the bird feeder and Zach's room.

TTFN

Getting excited about Christmas, at last

I didn't get a ton of things done today but I did get some important things done.  I went through the plastic drawers of yarn I had and eliminated some of it (it's getting no response on freecycle so far), put most of it in bin bags and moved it all down to the basement.  I won't be using any of this yarn any time soon so there was no point in it taking up space in my bedroom.  In place of the plastic drawers is the Christmas tree.  A much better spot for it since none of the clothes I put on racks in my bedroom dry within 3 days.  After Christmas I'll put my rocking chair in place of the tree and have a place for someone to sit to watch tv, at least.

Supper is done although not my best effort.  I'm not really good with fish.  I don't care for it and can't seem to cook it in a way that I like.  Zach said it was good though.  I just poached it in butter and rosemary.  I guess if everyone else likes it, I did okay.  I also used a new pasta with butter and a better version of parmesan and asiago cheeses.  That was pretty good.  A little parsley, too.

But now it's time to wrap the rest of the presents and hop into bed to knit until I finally fall asleep.  It took a while last night but eventually I made it.  I just can't seem to stay asleep.  Good thing I don't need to get up the next day.  I did better when I was getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night but now I'm back down to about 6.  Part of it is the dog, part is Tom getting ready for work.  It's hard to keep quiet when the kitchen is just steps away from the bed.  He tries but sometimes it just doesn't work.

I'm mostly working on socks exclusively but tonight I might do some darning.  This is the last year I use Woolease for socks.  The socks I knit last year are already thinning enough to need repair and the socks I knit 3 years ago out of Lion Brand wool haven't got a single thin spot on them.  It costs more but in the long run, it will be less expensive. 

Plus, I plan on getting back to sweaters in the next day or so.  Tom will be home a lot the next couple of weeks although he has to work 2 twelve hour days next week.  I laughed since he already works 12 hour days.  I'm guessing this means he'll be working 2 fourteen hour days.  But then he gets a 5 day weekend for New Year's.  He really does need it.  I plan on just knitting while he's home since I can't clean while he's here.  The house is way too small.

Off to start the dishwasher and then off to bed.

TTFN

Oh, crap.

The fatigue is back, damn it!  I didn't get a lot done over the weekend although there are presents under the tree.  Too many of them are mine, in my opinion.  This is supposed to be Zach's big year.  We're going to wrap Tom's presents tonight to add to the pile.

I let the kitchen get away from me this weekend, but to my credit I have to state that Tom used more dishes than we own and I couldn't keep up.  Or I could be exaggerating a bit.  Still, I couldn't keep up with all the dishes and finally just went to bed.  The counters were full and both sinks full when I got up.  I was tempted to go back to bed.  Which I did a couple of hours later.  Damn fatigue.

I got the shopping done but didn't do any other errands.  I'm just too tired.  I'll get them on Wednesday.  We have a family party on Friday, I think but I really don't have any dressy clothes to wear.  Maybe just jeans an my Christmas fleece sweater with sparkles on it.  I've got nothing else.

I finished up a pair of bed slippers for Zach and am working on a pair of Ocean socks for me.  I've decided to knit the yarn up for just us this year.  I'm barely making it through the days again and need to work on our stuff for a while.  As it is, we'll be having corn dogs for supper tonight because I'm so tired.

And my left arm is really hurting when I type because it's wrapped up in my lymphedema wrappings, which are always painful, which is why I don't wear them like I should.  But my clothes aren't fitting because my arm is more than twice the size it should be.  They don't make clothes for women with big arms.

Off to go lie down and let Zach fix supper.  I hate the fatigue worse than the pain.

TTFN

A blustery day

Very strong winds today, making it difficult to drive the minivan.  It would have been bad enough in the Concorde but the minivan captures more of the wind, making driving on back country highways a bit of a workout.

I had intended to go out as soon as Tom left for work but just as he was leaving someone from my old fundie church pulled up and came to the door wanting to visit.  I'm awful about unexpected company which is a reason I don't like to drop in on anyone unannounced.  So we sat at the dining table because the couch is now a bed, and talked for 3 and a half hours.  I like her well enough although we have little in common anymore, but her timing was just not good.  As a result I didn't get out until it was dark (which happens around 4:30 here) with strong winds and very cool wind chill.

So I'm just now getting home and had to pick up supper because I'm super tired, having gotten only about 2 hours of sleep last night.  I will never eat chili again at night.  It sat on my stomach like a rock all night long, in addition to the pain, the heat (in spite of lowering the thermostat, the temp inside never got below 56F, which isn't good sleeping weather for me) and the pets who insisted on body contact all night, I didn't get any sleep.

I also found out my pain pills may be causing my insomnia.  Or at least exacerbating it.  So what do I do?  The pain keeps me awake anyway so I might as well be awake with as much relief from pain as possible.

So I didn't drift off until about 10:30 a.m., waking up at 12:30 a.m. to a face-washing by Professor, who uses that to tell me he has to go outside RIGHT NOW!  Tom was in the shower so I had to get up to let him out.  And no nap because I had company and then had to go to the store to get Tom some more pills for his back pain (Doan's, which seems to be working rather well) and milk.  I was good and didn't buy much more than I needed. 

Except I bought a lumberjack hat.  It was freaking cold out there and my new knitted Greek fret hat kept trying to blow off my head because it's not snug enough.  My lumberjack hat has a chin strap and a bill on it to keep out the rain and snow.  And I wanted one anyway so...

I frogged my mom's sock because I had messed up way back on it and being a perfectionist, couldn't just let it go.  Plus, I wasn't that crazy about the pattern once I saw it on the sock.  I'll find something else that takes better advantage of a plain color.  In the meantime I worked on the fingerless mitts for Zach.

I still don't have the tree up.  I will try to get it tomorrow although I need to pick up one more gift for our anniversary for Tom and that must be tomorrow as well, since I need to go to the bank to deposit a check I got as a result of a settlement from an online company that promised jobs or your money back and then locked people out of the website so they couldn't request their money back.  I had just shrugged the money off but I got $10 out of it.  I paid $40, but this is better than nothing.

Off to crawl into bed and maybe just go to sleep.  No knitting or anything.  Just sleep.

TTFN

Broke the roll I was on

Crap.

So much for the roll I was on.  I've spent most of the day in bed, dozing occasionally, getting nothing done.  Not even some knitting.  I have no idea why except I enjoyed being productive for as long as I was.  Maybe tomorrow will be better.  I can only hope.

I fixed chili for supper tonight which is the equivalent of fast food for me since it doesn't require a lot of attention.  But it wasn't what I wanted to eat.  I did save a lot of money by not going to McSnacky's instead but it's not like I get to pocket the money saved.

I did get some reading done today.  Finished up Howl's Moving Castle.  I loved it.  Much different from the movie, which is okay.  No way they could have put it all on there anyway with the twists and turns the plot takes.  But I did love the book.  Now I must get more of her books.  Zach swears by her Chrestomanci books so I might try them next.

I do still have another library book that I'm reading.  The sequel to First Man in Rome, called The Grass Crown.  They're good books since they are historical fiction, I'm leaning heavily on the fiction part as I read them.

There are several more after these two, continuing with Julius Caesar, one about the women he was involved with and maybe one more...not sure.  I don't know if I'll continue with them or move to Pern as I'd like to read more Dragonriders of Pern books now that Anne McCaffrey has moved to brighter shores. She and her son had collaborated on several books that he will now continue on with alone.  I loved those books but haven't read them for years.

And still...knitting calls to me.  I can't find my gold mitts so I'm making another pair so Zach has two pair of mitts.  His purple ones are dirty and need to be washed so he's wearing a pair of mine in the meantime.  I'm also thinking of knitting him some slipper to wear over his socks.  His feet get so cold in his room.  The rest of him is fine except for his feet.  I usually crochet slippers but I've got an idea for a pair of slipper socks that he can wear over his other socks.  In acrylic, since it won't be next to the skin.  I can't wear full acrylic socks.  They really bother my feet.  Woolease is fine, but 100% acrylic...no.

I made progress on my mother's sock last night although with size 1 needles, it's slow going.  Still, it's a two row pattern and doesn't require tons of attention.  A bit, but not tons.  I've got enough Woolease to make my dad a pair of heavy socks but I won't be done before the new year, which is fine.  I usually send out a care package after the holidays since those are the days that are more depressing.  The afterglow is gone and reality sets in.

So, I must go crawl back into bed and maybe just go to sleep.  I'm fighting it right now and can't figure out why I don't just give in to it.

So...

TTFN

I'm on a roll

Today was another productive day although I still don't have the tree up.  Yet.  I will probably go get it as soon as I finish writing this.  I have supper cooking on the stove...spaghetti, this time, and bread rising in the loaf pans.  I have wet laundry hanging on racks in the kitchen, dining room and living/bedroom.  I moved the curtain over the front door to the foyer side of the doorway so I have two curtains there as a double insulation.  I can't use the curtain over the door because it has warped it but the foyer curtain never seems to be shut due to family members not bothering to shut it when they go through it.  The extra curtain stays closed, thereby ensuring some kind of insulation.

I frogged a good deal of my yellow and black Greek fret hat, making it into a square hat rather than a beanie.  I have no idea what it looks like on me, but it feels warm and doesn't squeeze my head.  Therefore it tends to stay on.  So I'm nearly done with the blue and white blanket that I started many months ago.  I think in the future I'll stay away from boucle yarn.  I really don't enjoy knitting with it at all.  I had intended to donate the blanket to the animal shelter but Hannibal has claimed it and Professor slept under it last night so I think they will be getting it for Christmas.  Or maybe a little earlier.  I still have a log cabin pink and white one I'm working on and since I only used half of the two skeins of blue and white boucle, I might incorporate the blue into the pink and white.  Which will leave me with tons of pink and white left over.  Maybe just more garter stitch blankets.  I could do with mindless knitting.

I'll probably finish up Zach's sock tonight and go back to knitting on my mother's socks.  Then I need to pick up Zach's sweater and finish it.  I'm more than halfway done with it so I might be able to finish it up while it's still cold enough to wear it.  We're doing okay with the heat down to about 58F during the day and 50 at night.  I'm a bit worried as Tom has re-joined the pension program which means a significant decrease in his take-home pay.  And I do mean significant.  This, after just buying a car and having car payments.  Plus if they don't extend the payroll thing, we'll have even less money to work with.  The utilities and grocery bill are the only things that are flexible so that's where the biggest cuts will have to come from.  But we do need to have something to live on when he can't work anymore.  So it's a huge rock, a hard wall and little space in between.

I would drop part of our cable but we're locked in for another 11 months.  At which time I'll drop down to a cheaper package but keep the dvr box.  With that I don't need the movie channels.  Especially as our library is better than Netflix.  And free to use.

I think I'll wait until tomorrow to put the tree up.  I'm waiting for the bread to bake and supper is almost ready and I'm more than ready to knit and watch tv so the decorating can wait.  Fortunately we got a lot done today and Zach finished up his chores early so I don't have to worry he'll forget to set out the trash.  Not that he ever does, but I'm just a worrier by nature.

The spaghetti is done so I'm signing off and shutting down the computer.  I got Howl's Moving Castle (the book) from the library yesterday and love it!  Plus I've got two other books I'm reading, too.  So many books, so little time.

It's not beginning to look like Christmas yet

I spent a lot of time offline all weekend and was pretty productive so I think I'm going to strive toward that on a regular basis.  Getting things done felt good, it did.  But I still don't have the Christmas tree up yet.  Maybe tomorrow.

Tom's back is still bothering him. I went to the store and bought him another back heating thing, only better quality.  The first one only seemed to fit a 30 inch waist and while Tom is still pretty fit, he doesn't have a 30 inch waist.  He really likes the new one and wears it a lot.  Today I had to run some errands so I got him some Doan's pills.  My mother used to take those whenever she had a backache.  I hope they do the trick for him.  He's probably marginally better but not where he would like to be.  I did point out that he has only had 1 and a half days to rest so he can't expect everything to be suddenly better.  I hope things do improve for him over the week.

I finished up my hat but it's too heavy and slides off my head.  Not sure what I can do about it but I'll figure something out because I want to wear the hat.  I might just shorten it to a beanie size so I can wear it.  I've turned the heel on the second of Zach's blue and plum socks.  I made these identical rather than a mirror image of each other.  I don't know what came over me.  I need to get busy on my mother's sock, too, so I can get back to sweaters.  Spending less time online gives me more knitting time in addition to getting more cooking and cleaning done.  I actually ironed today.  I know...what a rare occurrence for me.

I'm thinking of macaroni and cheese tonight because I'm stinking tired from the errands and not enough sleep and it's easy, peasy to fix.  I've got some lettuce I need to use up so we can have salad to go with it.  I was going to wash a load of clothes and hang them on the rack but I may not get to that tonight.  I might get them washed but I'll have to hang them on the racks tomorrow.  I'm that tired.

I've had to stop shutting the curtain over the front door.  It gets wet from condensation and has warped to the point where it's very difficult to shut completely.  It may take several days to dry out as we're expecting rain and snow the next few days.  We can get it shut but it's a struggle and the only way to keep it shut is to lock it.  Fortunately it works better doing that outside the door so I can lock it when we leave the house.  Still...I'll have to rely on the curtain over the foyer opening to keep the cold out and the heat in.

I filled up the bird feeder yesterday and had about 30 birds fighting over them today.  Actually they fought over one of the feeders.  They are identical feeders with identical bird seed in them, but they all seem to prefer one over the other.  It was fun to watch though.

Still not snow of any significance and I'm not complaining.  We're expecting some rain/snow over the next day or so, moving into just rain on Wednesday.  I don't even mind if we don't have a white Christmas.  I'm so tired of shoveling snow.

Well, I must get busy on the mac and cheese so I can wash up the dishes and crawl into bed.  I hate this fatigue but I am glad I've gotten some things done lately.  It's just sad that I get so little done and think that what I do get done is amazing.

TTFN

Sharing the back pain with those you love

I got an email from the pharmacy that I had meds ready for pick up so I went ahead and did errands today.  Only to discover it was a mistake.  The meds won't be available until the 11th, as per the insurance company.  But as I was already there I picked up the things I needed anyway.  One thing being a heating thingy for Tom's lower back.  His back has been hurting for a couple of days but this morning, after his shower he overbalanced and wrenched it.  I really expect him to come home early tonight as I have never heard him roar in pain like that before.  So I pasted him good with an analgesic cream and picked up a clay wrap around thing so he can wear it at home.  It's too bulky to wear at work but maybe he can get relief at home.

Getting old really sucks.

So because I was doing errands I didn't get much else done.  I had a bad night again from pain, another 3 tramadol night, and it was after 8 a.m. before the pain left and I could sleep.  I had a dream about the reusable Walmart shopping bags.  Someone asked me if I liked them and I said yes.  Why can't I have dreams that are interesting?

The bed was very comfortable so at least there was that.  And easily made up in the mornings.  I don't have to exhaust myself with folding all the bedclothes and moving furniture.  It's just a matter of pulling up the covers and arranging the pillows. 

I didn't get as much knitting done last night as I would have liked.  And I really do need to work on socks more but knitting in the round is so zen...all that mindless knitting is relaxing.  But tonight I must put the hat aside and work on socks.  And I really need to get back to sweaters before it's spring.  Not to mention dyeing my singles so I can ply them.  Now that the kitchen is clean I have no excuse.

The toaster oven just dinged to let me know the pizza is done so I'm going to cut it and then crawl into bed to knit the night away.  And catch up on whatever is on my dvr inventory.

TTFN

I must learn to proofread

No, I'm not making a hat for peeping Toms.  I meant a voyageur hat, not a voyeur hat in my last post.  Do you know when it occurred to me what I had written?  At about 3:30 a.m.  It woke me up from a dead sleep.  How embarrassing.

Zach and I did some work outdoors today, putting things in the garage for the winter.  I still have a few things to put in there, but we had to wrestle the futon out of the garage and into the house.  Then maneuvering the full size futon under the other full size futon, bearing in mind that it's like dealing with dead weight since it has no frame to it...and bends in the middle...in tiny room...is hard work.  I think I lost weight doing that. 

But I have more of a bed now, although a soft one.  Personally I prefer a soft mattress to a firm one so maybe this will make sleeping better and less stress on my joints and muscles while sleeping.  It definitely is higher now so I'm not crawling out of the bed anymore.  I can just sit up and then stand without needing to pull myself up on anything.

Professor insisted on being part of making up the bed.  He always did that in the evening when I would try to turn the couch into a bed, going where I pointed so I could work on one section at a time.  He did the same thing today only it was a bit more difficult.  He seems to love the softness, too.

I've got a chicken in the crockpot but it won't be ready before 6:30, which is okay since we had a late lunch.  I've got to figure out what I'm going to do with the chicken.  Probably chicken and noodles or something.  I'm trying to stretch the chicken into 3 meals, which shouldn't be that difficult at all.  I just need some interesting recipes so we don't get bored.

I'm working on the top portion of the hat now.  I'm not sure when I'll start decreasing since I'm winging this.  Maybe I'll look up a voyageur hat pattern and get an idea.  In the meantime I should start the second sock before I forget how I did the first one.

I think we'll put the tree up tomorrow and decorate the house.  I don't have anything else planned and hope not to go to the store or library for at least five more days.  I hope.  I also need to wash another load of clothes so I'd better clear up some space in the dining room for that.  Maybe I'll do that later tonight.  Or tomorrow. 

I also need to look up an ornament pattern. I add one every year and lately have started making them since I can't find what I want in the stores.  I didn't see anything at the thrift store either, but their prices are comparable to the department stores, which is a bit silly. I wonder sometimes at the people who price things there.  I've seen stained t-shirts in the women's section going for more than new ones at StuffMart.

Time to get back to knitting.  I'm getting a lot more done these past few days and I'm loving it.  Hopefully I'll find time after the house is decorated to dye my singles so I can ply them.

TTFN

Everything old is new again

I didn't get much sleep last night, in part because the dr's office called first thing this morning and I couldn't get back to sleep after that.  But it was good news.  My cholesterol levels are nearly at goal and my liver numbers are improving.  I have no idea why since I'm not doing anything in particular.  Except I'm not dieting anymore.  Not worrying about it and some days not eating much at all.  Enough, but not much.

I had a burst of energy last night and turned the living room back into a bedroom again. Hence the title. I get really wiped out making up the bed and then making up the couch, twice a day.  I really have that little energy that it uses up what little I could be using toward cooking and cleaning.  So...not ideal as it's the futon, but better than the full size bed and awful mattress I was using before.  I'm going to bring the old futon out of the garage and use it under the new one to give me extra stability.  And height.  Plus it will protect the old futon from the elements out in the garage.  It's put up so the mice can't get to it, but still...

Tom was okay with it since we don't have a lot of company and his family never sit in the living room anyway.  They socialize at the dining table.  I can't do that because it hurts my back too much to sit on hard chairs like that, but they seem to love it.  Besides, Tom hardly ever uses the living room himself.  He prefers to watch tv in his bedroom where he can smoke and go on the computer.  So, in essence, it was my room anyway.

I finished up one of Zach's socks last night but ripped the Greek fret hat because it was too small in spite of adding more stitches.  So I'm going with a bigger needle but decided to make it a long hat instead of a beanie type.  More like a voyeur hat  or a stocking hat.  I'm going to wing it as I don't have a pattern for it, but that shouldn't be too hard.  I just decrease more slowly than I would with a beanie.  I think it will be a good fit for me as beanies always slide off my head.  Upward.  I must have a pointed head or something.

I had to make another trip to the store because Tom was out of his cranberry capsules.  He has problems with occasional kidney infections and the cranberry capsules keep him from getting them.  If he remembers to take them .  He decided he didn't need them anymore and woke up this morning with a back ache.  I gave him my back support thingy to wear since it has much better support than his does and sent him off while I went to the store to get the capsules.  While there I picked up some kitchen stuff I needed.  Dirt cheap stuff, like a dollar or so but it's one of those things you never get because you don't think you need to spend the money on it.  My rubber spatulas are falling apart and I needed a new pair of tongs so I got them while I was there.  In addition to some bread and a few staples so I don't have to go back for several days.  I hope.

Zach brought the clothes in off the line while I was gone and they were dry.  It was sunny and windy today (windy yesterday but cloudy) so they are nice and soft and smell really good.  I picked up a long bungee cord to string from the hutch to the ironing rack on the wall under the heating vent so I've got some socks and my lymphedema wrappings that I hand-washed.  It saves me the space for one rack, at least although some of the people in this house will have to duck a bit when they go into the kitchen.  Not me, of course.  There are advantages to being short.  But I have the towels I used to absorb the water from them on a rack in my bedroom.  Out of the way so it's no problem.  I can clean up one area in the dining room that has some stuff from the car and a basket of my knitting (if I can find a place to put that) so I can get another rack there.  It's in front of the vent as is the one in my bedroom so they should dry well.  If I can find another place for the remaining rack, I can get maybe two loads of clothes washed at once. In an emergency.  I wouldn't need to do that otherwise.

Well, I've got supper cooking...some kind of pasta dish.  I'm making it up as I go along.  Then after the dishes, I'm falling into bed.  That I don't have to make up tonight.  Which makes me very happy.

TTFN

Plain old Monday

I have two loads of clothes hanging out on the line, probably frozen stiff.  But today at least they had a lot of wind although none of the promised sunshine.  I'll start bringing some clothes in to hang on racks tomorrow if they aren't dry by then.  I doubt they will be but I had to wash them, having gotten behind.  And I'm not entirely sure where I'll put the racks up but with them on the clothesline and no rain in the prediction for the week, I can afford to just utilize one rack at a time. Two if necessary.

I got Zach out of the house today.  Tomorrow I'm going to set up an appointment with the dr for a physical so he can get attention for his depression in addition to a wart that is in a difficult place (thumb) and his ingrown toenails.)  I just hope his doctor will still see him.  He hasn't been in a few years and sometimes they remove you from their patient list if you don't go regularly.  But she did ask about him when I saw her so maybe she'll still see him anyway.

Tomorrow I intend to turn the living room back into a bedroom for the winter at least.  I'm the only one who ever uses it and not having company ever we don't need to entertain at all.  Plus I can stick a chair in there if someone wants to watch tv or something.  It takes about 15 minutes to make it up into a bed and another 15 minutes to make it up into a couch.  Not to mention what it does to my back, which the dr agreed was probably sciatica, but I will talk to the rheumatologist next month about it.

I'm nearly done with the hat to go with my mittens with flaps.  I'm using a Greek fret design with ribbing.  I'm about ready to start the decreases.  It will be a bit of hit and miss as I'm making this up as I go along.  The fret pattern is in the Barbara Walker book, volume 1.  Instead of using a mosaic pattern, I did a stranded knitting pattern as I didn't like the way it looked with slipped stitches.  Plus this is going to be warmer with all that extra yarn around my ears.  As with the mittens, it will be yellow and black.  Just using up my stash.

I also need to get back to knitting socks.  I've gone too long on Zach's sock foot.  This is what happens when you knit while watching something riveting on tv.  I'll have to rip back a ways since I'm about 2 inches too long already without the toe decreases.

I had a day last week when I just couldn't pick up my needles.  I had absolutely no interest in knitting at all.  Fortunately by the next day I was eager to pick them up again.  Whew!  I would hate to have that feeling for more than one day.

Well, I need to fix supper and make up my bed and crawl into it.  I'm sleeping later so I'm getting more sleep.  And maybe better sleep, but trips to town on errands still wear me out.  I would love to have energy again but I'll settle for this miniscule amount I get for now.

TTFN

Passed my labs after all

I had my six month follow-up to my physical which apparently is a new thing and not me having done badly on my labs.  In fact, my labs were much improved.  To my total amazement as nothing has changed in the way of my eating habits.  But I'll take what I can get.  I got all anxious for nothing.  As usual.  I also got a flu shot while I was there and some cholesterol labs.  I was due at my last labs but they didn't include them which irritated the dr.  Fortunately I hadn't eaten yet so I was able to do the fasting labs.

Unfortunately the appointment was later in the day and I got home after the sun had set, which I think is kind of cool that the sun sets before the doctor's office closes.  But when I went to call Zach to tell him I was heading straight to the store, my phone wouldn't connect.  Instead it told me I needed to either use my credit card or call collect.  So I had to come home and borrow Zach's phone while he called Tracfone to straighten it out.  Turned out they hadn't connected my phone to their service so it was just a phone with no provider.  That would explain why I couldn't get on the internet.  Now I can.  As a reward I upgraded Zach's phone with extra minutes and a year's service.

This season is breaking the bank.

I got another present for Tom because I couldn't see just one little $10 gift under the tree for him.  It's not much but I hope he likes it.  Zach borrowed my credit card for some online purchase but I'm not supposed to peek at my account for a while.  Apparently he and Tom have something set up.  This is supposed to be Zach's year so I hope they haven't spent much on me.

I did get one of Zach's presents today.  I haven't looked at it but I threw it in a corner of the living room where Zach wouldn't notice it.  I'll see it tonight after I make up the bed and close the curtains.  I haven't got the tree up yet.  I'm waiting a while because I get really tired of the decorations and have been known to take the tree and decorations down on Christmas afternoon.  I don't know when I'll put the tree up but I know where.  This year it will be in the living room on the coffee table in front of the windows.  That's the pets' catbird seat but they can spare half of it for the tree.  It's just a tabletop model that I don't even take the ornaments off when I put it up.  I just put it in a black garbage bag and shove it in a closet.  I'm so sentimental.

I finished up my black and yellow mittens with flaps.  And promptly lost one.  It fell our of my pocket but luckily it happened in the living room.  I did an awful lot of backtracking looking for it though.  I made them mirror images because apparently I can't stand symmetry.  All my socks end up like that, too.

I'll be back to knitting on socks tonight now that I have mittens to keep my hands warm.  Must have feet warm, too.  I've got lots to watch on dvr although I've been breezing through my inventory at a faster rate.  I've got dvds to watch, too, but I don't like to get my inventory too high in case I need to accumulate stuff while out of town or something.  Emergencies, you know. Still, I'm spending less time online and more time knitting so that's good. I just need to get busy on my fleece and dyeing my singles so I can ply them.  No idea what I'll knit them up into though.  I suspect Welsh top won't feel good next to the skin.

Tomorrow I'm going to do another load of clothes.  I'm using racks now but I don't have a lot of room to put them.  I just moved the tv off to the side of the dining room so I can see it from the kitchen.  It's so boring cooking and cleaning so if I can keep my mind occupied, I might actually cook more.  And clean more.  But that eliminates two spots for the racks.  Which wasn't ideal because it blocked off the heating vents partially.  I think the living room while I'm in the dining room and kitchen and move them to the dining room when I'm in the living room.  They're very lightweight.  The one in the kitchen won't be in the way so that one isn't a problem.  And I can get a whole load of clothes on 3 racks.  It just takes them about 3 days to dry.  Can't hang them out because snow is predicted.  And it's around freezing.  That wouldn't be a problem if we had a good wind but we haven't had that lately.

Well, pizza is in the oven so I'm off to make up the bed and knit away.  My favorite time of the day.

TTFN

Christmas shopping is done...mostly

Well, Zach's Christmas is done.  Since we didn't get him anything for graduation and because his Christmases have been extremely frugal for the past 10 years or so, we splurged a bit for him.  Not extravagantly by most standards but a lot for use.  Bless his heart he wanted to get me something I've wanted for a long time now:  the entire Babylon 5 series, but I told him this year is his.

I didn't get much done today aside from shopping and I'm thinking of going back because I didn't want to leave his presents in Shrek (our minivan) because 'tis the season for people to break into your car in parking lots so I'll go back and get the few things I didn't get when I was there.  This way I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow. I hope.

I had to stop by the library or I would have waited until tomorrow.  I really must wash a load of clothes so I'll do that tonight and hang them on racks tomorrow morning.  No point doing it tonight as there won't be any head coming out of the vents until morning.  I'll kick the heat up a bit to 60F so the clothes will dry.  We've been doing okay with the thermostat sitting on around 56F because we wear layers.  And Zach has a heater in his bedroom to take the chill off since his room stays cold no matter what the thermostat is sitting on.  If I'm busy, 56F is fine.  If I'm sitting on the couch knitting, I have the blanket across my lap anyway so I don't need it up any higher.  Unless it's raining out.  Then I turn it up because the cold just settles in the bones and stays there.

I started a pair of Glomitts, the kind I knit for everyone last winter.  I love them because they keep me warm enough to shovel snow but I can use my fingers when I need to.  I dug into my stash and found a couple of skeins of yellow and a couple of skeins of black Vanna's Choice yarn so I'm knitting them in black and yellow.  My coat is black so they will look good together.  And I have enough to knit up a hooded cowl to go with it for those days when I don't need my lumberjack hat.  I'm using Tom's this year since I lost mine on the night we got stranded and didn't get home until after midnight.  His is fur lined.

I'm still working on socks though.  I'm nearly done with one of Zach's socks and need to get busy on my mom's fingering weight socks.  I really need to stay home so I can do that.

The ottoman already has snags on it from the cat, which is why I didn't use good yarn.  Hannibal has claimed the ottoman as his own although he hasn't, as yet, sharpened his claws on it.  The damage has been from him launching off of it onto the couch.  Luckily between the flecks in the yarn and the mini-basketweave pattern, it doesn't show much.

I'm thinking chili for supper tonight because it's a one-pot meal and I'm feeling really tired.  Maybe too tired to go back to the store, darn it. Maybe a light nap before I do anything else.  Or maybe I'll just make up the couch and go to bed now and let everyone fend for themselves.  Nah...wouldn't be fair to Tom who works long hours.  And I mean long.

So, I'm off to fix supper, start a load of clothes and then maybe go to bed.  I'll go shopping some other time.

TTFN

The hunter returns...without

I pretty much know what we're getting Zach this year for Christmas.  I took him with me to Shopko today and listened to him talk about things he was interested in and came away with several ideas, which I narrowed down to three.

I also decided what I want, too, not that I will get it though.  This is Zach's year, not mine.

I finished up the ottoman cover and while it isn't perfect, it looks pretty good.  At least the cat loves it and insists on sleeping there much to Professor's dismay.  He uses the ottoman to get up on the couch, being a Chihuahua/Pomeranian mix and small.  So he barks at Hannibal, who just looks the other way.  Then I just pick him up and put him on the couch.  He gives Hannibal a smug look and settles down into his wool blanket.  Life goes on as usual.

I need to start some mittens with flaps.  It was cold today and I needed to buy gas for Shrek (the minivan) but I forgot my fingerless mitts so I was alternating hands in pockets.  But now that the temps are at freezing, I'll need mittens most of the time.  I've got plenty of yarn so it's not a worry.  I just have to decide which color I want to wear with my black coat.

I'm making progress on Zach's socks but not my mother's.  Hers involves actually paying attention to the pattern and my brain is in the off mode right now so I'm unable to do that.  Soon, I hope.  In the meantime, plain socks and the flip-top mittens will work.  Then I have to get back to sweaters.  I don't want to have them sit in the bag all winter.

Tom made it home last night without a deer.  He saw three but they were right behind him and he couldn't move fast enough to sight them before they took off.  His brother saw one but no one else in the hunting camp saw any.  This has been going on for several years.  Someone suggested that if they aren't seeing any deer, maybe they should hunt where the deer actually are.  I know there are deer there, but I suspect the herds haven't been managed well and they're not growing like they should.  Still, he has a good time with the guys.

I need to start supper.  I just got home from shopping and errands/bill-paying so I think it will be hot dogs and potatoes.  Tom brought home a huge pack of hot dogs that I need to use up.  I was going to make macaroni and cheese to go with it, but I'm feeling pretty dragged out today so I think not.

At least the kitchen is still clean so I can find the counters.

TTFN

Yes!!!!

Zach found my earring in the bathtub so I have a matched set again! 

Slept well when I could but I had to get up with Professor three times last night and Zach woke up throwing up this morning.

I'm off to the pharmacy to pick up my meds and maybe shop for his presents since he can't come with me.

TTFN

One Christmas present down

Both City Hall and Culligan were closed today so I wasn't able to pay those bills.  I'll go back with envelopes and put them in the slot.  The Culligan bill was due today but they'd better not charge me late fees if they're not open to accept my payment.

I also lost one of my good earrings on Wednesday night.  No idea where; I was so many places.  I hate it because I wear them all the time.  I also really hate the clasps on earrings because they don't stay closed.  I've lost so many good earrings because they just come undone.

We did some Christmas shopping today but only got one gift for Tom.  There were still a lot of good sales in electronics and the baby clothes section but as I'm not in the market for either, I skipped those deals.  Shopping for Tom is very difficult as he has only a few interests and they are extremely expensive.  Plus he already has most of what he needs.  It's just that his wants cost more than a new pair of glasses for me, which I do need.  Like, over $300 wants.  And yet I don't want to get him a gift just to get him a gift.  I want to get him something he will enjoy and appreciate.

This year is Zach's year though.  Every year he gets one gift and Tom gets several so this year I'm getting Tom one gift and Zach several.  I don't know why it always ends up that way but it does. But not this year.  I'm not sure what to get him, but it's going to be more than he usually gets.

Tomorrow will be set aside for cleaning.  I'm back to having the debilitating fatigue again but somehow it's got to get done.  Zach will work on cleaning the car and bathroom while I work on the kitchen and living and dining rooms.  I might have Zach mop the kitchen floor though.  My back is much better but not completely there yet.

I finished up the fourth square on the ottoman cover and started the final one.  I also made progress on Zach's sock but not my mother's.  It's pretty dark in my bedroom and it's a dark teal yarn so I need to reserve that for sunny days.  Which we haven't had for three days.  I'll figure out something.  Zach asked about his Bowser doll but I haven't gotten to it for a while.  It requires concentration and I'm not filled with that right now.  In fact, I'm so scatterbrained right now I worry.

Time to fix something for supper then to bed.  I'm so tired.  I really, really hate this but I don't know which is worse...the pain or the fatigue.

TTFN

The sun sets on Thanksgiving Day

It was a very laid-back day mostly because I was in pain and didn't feel like doing anything.  Still am and still don't.  I did manage to bring the clothes in off the line which I thought would be dry because of all the lovely wind, but the heavy stuff was still very wet.  So I got the racks up from the basement, made room by the heating vents and set them up.  I guess I'm done hanging clothes outside this winter.  From now on one load of clothes at a time and use the racks.  I did it like that most of last winter so I know it can be done.  And in case of need, I'm across town from a laundromat.  I can wash the clothes here and take them there to dry.  Even easier now that I've got a mini-van.

I didn't sleep at all well last night and neither did Zach.  We were both up at 5 a.m.  Him from his incessant inability to fall asleep and me from the pain that woke me up.  I think I'm under-utilizing my pain pills now that I'm through the crisis of the sciatica.  Or maybe all that lugging clothes up the steep basement stairs did me in.  Either way I'll take two pain pills tonight to ensure I get some sleep.

Zach is going to cook supper tonight because he got to sleep in.  I've got a dog that needs to wee occasionally so I had to get up.  And once up, I tend to stay up.  We're having sauce-less spaghetti tonight.  Neither one of us like sauce on spaghetti but Tom does so we always fix it the way he likes it until he leaves.  Then we get it our way.

I didn't get the kitchen cleaned up but I will put a little bit of effort on it tonight after supper.  The dishwasher will be full so I can at least run that.  Tomorrow we have errands to run and to sign the Walker recall petition so I probably won't get a lot of work done.  But I will get something done because I need to cook supper tomorrow night.  I've been doing a lot of thinking as to how I can arrange the stuff on the counters so I have space to cook and I think I've got a plan.  But it involves moving Tom's lunchbox and thermos someplace else.  Still, I need the counter space worse than he needs to have his lunchbox taking up space there. 

I also need to do a small amount of ironing.  When you hang stuff up on racks, they tend to look pretty wrinkled and I never dry Zach's jeans in the dryer so I need to iron them a bit.  While I'm at it I might as well iron my jeans, too.  And no...no creases.

As I said, it's been a laid-back day but I've been knitting a lot while watching the Cooking Channel.  I have no idea why I'm watching it but I'm getting a lot of ideas on how to change our eating habits, although it does involve needing counter space, which is why I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out a solution.  I did buy a big cutting board that I can use on the dining table which will extend the kitchen for me, but it's not an ideal solution.  It's big enough I can put it over one of the sinks so that might be a better solution.  I'm thinking of starting a sour dough mixture so I can bake some bread.  I have a bread machine but it only makes one loaf at a time and it's more economical to back multiple loaves.  Plus it's huge and takes up a lot of room on the counter.  Or pantry space where it rests until I use it.

And speaking of pantry, I need to straighten that up, too.  I bought a clamp on desk lamp to use for the back hallway which is pitch dark most of the time, but being a gooseneck lamp, I can turn it into the pantry through a little opening at the back so I can use it there, too.  It's dark in the pantry.  Which actually is the cubby where the old refrigerator used to reside.  The present one is too big for it so I bought some racks that I can slide in and out and use it for the pantry.  I'm planning on putting a curtain over the front so it hides the disaster that it usually is.

All these plans and no energy.  Well, I simply must push through and get 'er done.

I finished up the Ocean socks and started another pair for Zach of plum and light blue.  I frogged my dad's socks because after talking to my mom again, she wants the thin socks and he wants the thick ones so I found a pattern in my stash that seems to have no name but is a simple pattern but pretty.  It's solid color so the texture will make the sock.  I'll make my dad some plain dark blue socks.  He just wears them with his slippers around the house because they're too big to wear with his shoes.  Me, I get my shoes big enough to accommodate them because I wear them all winter long.  And it doesn't seem to bother me during the summer when I wear cotton socks.

I also am nearly done with the fourth side of the ottoman cover.  I'd like to get that done soon.  I'm still using the lava lamp for a nightlight because I tripped over the black ottoman the other night and landed on the floor, which is good because I could have landed on the corner of the table.  I seem to fall every winter so maybe that will be it for me.  It's a whole lot easier falling on carpet than on icy pavement.  I've ruined one knee landing on the sidewalk a few winters ago.  I can't kneel on it anymore.  It also happens to be the knee with the worse arthritis.

I hate falling apart like this.

Well, my fingers are itching to knit some more so I'm off to watch a travelogue to Italy this time.  I'm pretty sure there will be food in the documentary though.

TTFN

We do pizza for Thanksgiving

I've accomplished more today than I have in the past week, it seems.  Three loads of clothes are out on the line, I've done up the dishes and knitting up to the toe decreases on the second Ocean sock.  I'm hurting now, but at least that much is done.  Tomorrow we'll clean out the car (although Zach's going to work on it a bit now) and maybe the rest of the house.  And bring the clothes in off the line. It's really a nice day today although foggy earlier.  It's in the 40s with sunshine and will be in the 50s tomorrow with more sunshine.  So I didn't have to use the indoor racks.  This time.  I'm pretty sure next time I will.

I'm not much for Thanksgiving Day celebrations.  Haven't done it for years and don't see any reason to start now.  It's just me and Zach and over the years we've come to just treating it like another day.  We tried going to other people's houses for T-day but it was awkward and not enjoyable at all.  So we do what we do and like it better.

I'm going to have to take the spinning dvd back as I haven't really got the time to finish it and since someone else is waiting on it, might as well get it to them as soon as possible so they can enjoy it.  I might try to get it again once things have gotten a bit more organized.

I read an article on craft fairs and flea markets and all the extra costs involved and to be honest, I don't think I've got it in me to do that.  So back to being extremely frugal and cost-cutting.  Maybe I'll figure out a way to bring in a dollar or two.  I hope so.

Zach and I are heading out in an hour for the library, Pizza Hut and shopping.  Nothing will be open tomorrow so we have to get it done today.  Although part of me wants to go out on Thursday to drive around and see everything closed.  I'm weird that way.  We'll get a large pizza and two salad bars and bring the rest of the pizza home for lunch tomorrow.  Maybe I can find a sugar-free pumpkin pie. I already have sugar free whipped topping.  The only thing about Thanksgiving meals I really miss as neither Zach nor I like turkey.

Well, I'm going to take a hot shower and a pain pill and get ready to go.

TTFN

Back to socks for a bit

I'm back to mostly taking pain pills at night.  The pain in my back, hip and leg has eased off so much that it only occasionally speaks up and ibuprofen seems to do the trick on its own.  Still...making up the bed puts a strain on my back so I have to take it easy.  And I'm not carrying heavy things around for a while.

But sleep was good although accompanied by some strange dreams, one being something about Zach finding a bird that he set beside the bird cage we already had a bird in (we don't own a bird!) and when I walked into the room, noticed the new bird didn't have any food, so I was going to feed it but when I returned to the room it was a baby.  So I decided to breastfeed it.  I'm so glad I woke up from that dream!

My interpretation of that dream is that I need to refill the bird feeders outside.  I'm not going to dissect it any further!

I should have washed and hung out some laundry today but the ordeal of dealing with all that pain has sapped my energy and I've been dragging today.  In fact, I might just go to bed as soon as I'm done with this.  I'm really tired.  Maybe tomorrow I'll do laundry although it will have to hang on racks since it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

Still working away on the ottoman covers.  I'm about a third of the way through the fourth one.  I probably won't get much done today as I want to go back to working on socks.  I need another pair so I won't have to wash socks out every other night.  I can do them every third night if I knit up another pair.  Besides, I hate knitting monogamy.

I need to knit up some new mittens with flaps since I can only find one pair from last year.  One of these times I will put things where I can find them and actually label them.  In the meantime, I do enjoy knitting them so it won't be a chore.  Zach is going to start knitting blankets for the animal shelter.  He feels like he should be doing something beneficial.  He knows how to knit but could use the experience and blankets are a good way to get that.  I've got plenty of Red Heart supersaver yarn.  Dogs and cats need a yarn that is durable and machine washable.  And the yarn has to be affordable, too.  RHSS fills that description nicely.

Now I just need him to pick a pattern so I can get him started.  Tomorrow maybe.  I'm going to bed very soon tonight.

I found my sleeping hat but I haven't needed it yet.  After last night, though, I might keep it under the pillow just in case.  I'm going to put another blanket on the bed tonight.  I got a bit chilly last night although when I got up the temp hadn't gotten as low as the thermostat was set.  Which is good for the utility bill. My new sweat pants felt great last night.  Much warmer than my threadbare sets which I've had for about 10 years.  I got them the winter of chemo so it's been that long.  I was due for some new ones.  I also picked up a new sweatshirt.  I do bundle up during the day so I can keep the furnace from working too hard.

Well, off to shut everything down, make up the bed, let Professor out for his wee while I do that.  Otherwise I compete with him on the bed.  Although he's really good at going where I point so I can put the sheets and covers on.  Then cozied up in bed with some hot cocoa I'll knit away on socks tonight while watching my dvr.  Tomorrow I've decided is a day for the spinning dvd.  It's due back on Friday.

TTFN

Attack on two fronts

I'm making slow progress on the dining room but since I didn't get much sleep last night and there is no deadline on it, I'm taking my time.  At least you can see the dining table now.  And I've got a space cleared in front of the heating vent to put the clothes racks so I can wash a load of clothes tomorrow.  I just need to clean the kitchen so I have room for a rack in there.

I don't know what happened last night but my fibromyalgia pain went through the roof.  I was extremely uncomfortable, alternating pacing the floor with curling up in a ball on the bed, and ended up taking three tramadol in the course of 6 hours.  Finally it ebbed off at around 5 a.m.  I had a little bit of sciatica pain but the fibromyalgia kind of overwhelmed that.  And today the sciatica is making its presence known although still under a 5 on the pain scale.

I'm nearly done with the third square on the ottoman cover.  I was too tired and in too much pain to do much on it and turned the lights off early and tried to get to sleep.  I dug Zach's lava lamp out of the basement and am using it as a nightlight so I don't have to wake up and turn the light on so Professor can see the ottoman anymore.  He did just fine last night without needing me to turn on the lamp.  Plus it's a bit hypnotizing.

I think I'm going to lie down as my fibromyalgia is rearing its head again right now.  Normally I can ignore the daytime pain, but not today for some reason.  I just took my pain cocktail (3 ibuprofen and one tramadol) so maybe lying down will help.

TTFN

Relief!

The pain woke me up this morning.  Or the dog did.  Not really sure which, but once out of bed there didn't seem to be any pain.  A huge relief that I've been cautiously enjoying.  I was able to make up the couch and get a little work done today with minimal pain.  I'd say it's down to about a 2, which is my normal pain standard anyway.  I do know the fibromyalgia pain was what bothered me last night.  Not the sciatica.   I did take my pain cocktail (3 ibuprofen and one tramadol) after I got done, but mostly as a precaution.  Once the pain is raging, no pain meds will calm it down.  I just hope this is on the downhill slope and I can catch a break.

It's nice to have one clean room in the house since I worked in the living room, de-cluttering and vacuuming/dusting.  By tomorrow I should have two.  And so on.  I'm not going to overdo it.  Although I did work in the kitchen to catch up on the dishes, which I managed to do.  But I am done for the day.  Only knitting for the rest of the night.

I've got two squares done on the cover for the ottoman and one-third done on the third one.  That must be like the seventh son of a seventh son thing.  At any rate, I'm going to work on socks tonight, too, since I need to get those done. Tomorrow I plan on carding my practice wool and trying to keep up with that.  I must get the singles dyed this week while Tom's gone.  With him gone I'll have more room to set up the racks so they can dry.  It's too cold and wet to hang them outside.

I got a dvd from the library on spinning with Maggie Clark and Eunny Jang.  It's a two-disk set and has all kinds of information.  It's one thing to read it and see the pictures.  It's quite another to see them actually spinning and carding and such.

Well, got to go get dressed as I'm out of milk and need to go to the store.

TTFN

The Deer Widow's vacation begins.

Tom is away!  I got home from the library and the store last night to find the truck in the driveway.  He walked across town to pick it up and they stayed open long enough for him to get there.  We have amazing mechanics.  Although we do pay dearly for them.

So he got away before noon.  I've been doing much of nothing today aside from rescuing the laundry from the garden.  We've had about 30 mph winds today and the sheets ended up in the garden.  I just shook the dirt off of them and folded them.  Most everything else stayed on the clothesline but I brought it in anyway.  Nice and dry and wrinkle free.

I'm  nearly done with the second square of the cover for the ottoman.  I worked a bit on my dad's sock last night as well, while trying to get sleepy enough to go to bed.  I'll probably work some more on it tonight, too.  I need to do more than work on one project at a time.  But I also need to stop starting new projects until I finish a couple more.  At this rate, I'll never finish anything.

I'm debating what to do about the living room.  I really like having a living room again, but my back is still hurting and leaving the couch made up as a bed is much easier on my back for now.  Tom suggested I just turn it back into a bedroom again, which would be nice because I could push the couch against a wall and be able to prop myself up instead of using a million pillows that keep falling off the bed and knocking stuff off the table.  But that would also involve moving a lot of furniture and my back isn't onboard for that either.

I got a call back from the dr's office telling me I need to schedule a 6 month follow up.  Which means my labs were awful and the dr needs to talk to me about it.  I can't get in until December so they're giving me a month's worth of meds in the meantime.  If she can come up with a way for me to stop craving foods that are bad for me and a way to cook healthy foods on a hamburger diet, I'll listen.   Well, I'll listen anyway, but this is someone who has never had a weight problem in her life so she doesn't get the whole just eat less and move more and you'll lose weight myth doesn't really work when you have an eating disorder.   I've actually had therapy for it but the therapist had never had an eating disorder before either and really didn't offer anything I hadn't already tried a million times before.  And who wants to pay an arm and a leg for something that you're already tried and failed at?

So...I was doing pretty well on my own, not focusing on food at all until the dr and my family started bugging me about losing weight again.  I had even lost 10 pounds.  Now?   I've gained about 30.  Only my rheumatologist gets this for some reason.

Well, I have to go pick up my meds and we're grabbing a bite out as the kitchen is a disaster and I'm not in the mood to clean it up today.

TTFN

History repeats itself and not in a good way

Yesterday was 27 different kinds of hectic, ending at around 3 a.m. when I finally fell into bed and awaited the pain pills to get the pain down to a dull roar so I could go to sleep in order to wake up and go to the dr for my labs.  I missed the phone call from the garage because they called about 5 minutes after I left the house to go run errands.  And by the time I got home, they were closed.

So I called first thing this morning.  Not good news at all.  The fuel pump needs to be replaced.  Which is what happened last year during deer hunting up north.  A fuel pump is supposed to last longer than a year so I suspect the mechanics up there put in a used one and charged Tom for a new one.  It's what happens when you're away from home and they don't need your return business.  Not saying that's what happened, but fuel pumps last longer than one year.

So they are going to try to get it done before the weekend so Tom can go up north, but if not, he'll go up next week.  Bless them for trying though.

Unfortunately it's going to cost $700 to fix it.  Pretty much what it cost last year except this year's includes the tow.  On the plus side, at least it happened here, where our trusted mechanics are.

Before leaving for my appointment this morning, I loaded up the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen a bit.  When I got back, I took the clothes off the line (it was too dark when we got home yesterday) and hung out another load.  Then I took my pain cocktail of two ibuprofen and one tramadol and crawled back into bed and knitted for a couple of hours.  And unknitted.  I just can't watch knitting shows while I'm knitting.  I tend to knit whatever they're knitting and then I end up having to do it all over again.  Only this time two of the shows were crocheting shows.  Still had the same problem.

I'm not making as much progress on the ottoman cover because of all the distractions, but after I get back from the library, I'm going to go to bed and stay there.  Maybe for the rest of the night.  I'll get frozen pizzas so someone else can cook.

I just let Professor in after a wee and he's limping on one of his back legs.  He has trouble with his back legs for some reason.  I trimmed the toe nails on the foot to see if that was the problem but he crawled under the covers to hide from me so until he walks again I won't know. 

Well, off to take a shower and head to the library.  I'm not going to try to clean house until Tom leaves since he's already collecting his gear in the dining room.  No problem; just an exercise in futility to try to accomplish it now.

TTFN

Sometimes it really sucks to be us

Having dealt with the problems of an unreliable car that stranded Zach and me multiple times, I thought we were out of the woods by purchasing a newer, more reliable car.  Tom is supposed to leave Thursday for his annual deer hunting vacation so it's extremely important that we have two vehicles up and running.  So he just called me from work.  The truck is on the side of the road in the town he works in.  Dead. 

I gave him the number for the tow truck and the garage will certainly look at it, but I just wonder when we're going to catch a break.  We never have two vehicles up and running for long.  This is getting really frelling old!  Whether he'll be able to go up there on time is up in the air right now, depending on when and how much it will take to fix the truck.

And I have an appointment tomorrow for labs that I will have to get up early and cancel because I can't be in two places at once.  I need the car tomorrow as we have errands that have to be run then but Tom needs to be at work so I'll have to take him.  I'll have to reschedule my labs, which is no big thing except I'll run out of meds before they get back to me.  Yes, I leave things to the last minute.  Just a day or so, but if it goes longer I'll be without them over the weekend.  Not really urgent as I have a substitute prescription I can take for my bp.  And my allergy meds I can get over the counter.  I have enough of my metformin to take me to Sunday so they'd better get back to me by Monday at the latest.

And my back/hip/leg is still hurting...enough that I'm worn out from the pain.  And my eldest just posted about how people who are not experiencing the American Dream are at fault because they just buy too much stuff.  Or maybe it's because they don't get a paycheck that enables them to keep up with the wear and tear on their homes and cars.  Or because they have medical bills that prevent them from enjoying the American Dream.  I chose to ignore him because I don't have the energy to argue with someone who has had relatives bail him out all his adult life.  He really does think he did it all himself.  sigh

I hung out two loads of clothes today with Zach helping by handing me the clothes and the clothes pins and carrying the wet baskets of clothes for me.  I only had room for two loads so I need to get the last load out tomorrow.  We also lugged the futon mattress out to the garage.  No way could Zach carry that himself so I had to help.  Didn't do any favors to my back, I'll tell you, but I did take my pain cocktail of three ibuprofen and one tramadol right afterwards.  But I didn't make up the couch this morning.  Until I'm healed, the couch stays a bed.  I did straighten up the covers though.  I can close off the room should we get any company but that's probably not going to happen.  The only people who show up here are salesmen.

But, to get my mind off of this, at least until 12:30 a.m when I have to go pick up Tom at work, I will be knitting on my ottoman cover.  I decided the pattern wasn't working out for me because I really hate working with thick needles and thick yarn, especially trying to cable without a big enough cable needle.  But also because I was afraid the loose knit of the cover would catch on Professor's toenails (which really need to be trimmed) and he would hurt himself.  So, I went with a size 8 needle and a basketweave pattern, which is really looking good with the flecked yarn.  And I'm making good progress so I should finish it by the weekend.  I hope.  Unless I get stuck with another major problem to deal with.

And I was hoping for an early night tonight.

TTFN

I shouldn't shop when I'm not strong enough to stay away from the yarn aisle

I was weak.  Vulnerable.  Susceptible to the call of the needles.  I bought yarn today.  I know I need to do penance but I won't.  I'll just knit it up into the cover for my ottoman cube so it looks a bit more presentable.  Plus the original is black and Professor can't see it at night when he wants back in bed so I have to wake up and turn the light on for him.  See?  I bought the yarn so I could get more sleep.

I hurt my back again making up the bed, but the mattress was soooooo comfortable and in spite of the pain, I slept well.  But I think for a while I'm going to keep it as a bed until my back is fully healed.  Or maybe even all winter long until someone comes to visit.  I can surely focus the energy spent on making up that bed/couch for other useful works.  Like knitting.

I didn't wash clothes today because it was all overcast and threatening rain until late afternoon when the sun came out.  I might get some done tomorrow but if not, I'll use the racks to dry the clothes in the house this weekend.  Tom leaves on Thursday for deer hunting and will be gone about 11 days.  I plan on cleaning the house and the car out so we can sell it when Tom comes home. 

I haven't heard anything from anyone on freecycle.  They changed the format from an email group to a website and it's getting little use from the looks of things.  Much more effort to go to a website than to check your mail, I guess.  If I don't hear anything soon, I'll stick it in the garage...off the floor, of course...and keep trying to find it a good home.  It's perfect for a hunting cabin.

I'm worn out from the pain...still ever-present although mostly at a level of 4 or 5 most of the time.  At the store today I reached an 8 again while standing in line.  Standing hurts worse than anything else I do.  And I've still got a couple of weeks to go before this resolves itself, apparently.  I have to go to the dr for labs this week but I'm not going to make an appointment for this because I know she'd just send me to the rheumatologist and I already have an appointment with her in January.  I couldn't get one before that anyway so I'll just mention it to the rheumie when I see her.

I think I'm going to make up the bed and crawl into it now instead of waiting for after supper.  It's just breaded fish fillets and french fries and Zach can fix that easily.  I took some more ibuprofen and tramadol when I got home from the store but it's not taken effect yet.  Maybe a hot water bottle and my feet up.  Tom's leg is a lot better today.  Heat and rest fixed him right up.  Me, not so much.

TTFN

We even limp together

I didn't go online at all yesterday.  Didn't even sit in the computer chair or make physical contact with the desk at all.  I stayed in bed aside from a trip to the library and feel a bit better for it.    It does come and go, at times pretty painful, but I'm seeing improvement.  Enough that I'm not going to make an appointment just yet.  All the websites I looked at, including the Mayo Clinic website, said it takes about 3 weeks for it to run its course.  So I'm not panicking yet. The pain is manageable right now although standing for any length of time hurts, and I'm hoping to sleep very well tonight.

Because...we bought a new futon mattress today.  No springs in this one.  And if it only lasts 5 years, like the last one did, it's money well-spent.  I chose blue to go with my area rug.  Plus I'm tired of the brown that seems to be our whole house.  It was on sale at half-price at Shopko so an even better deal.  Now I need to give away the old futon.  It's fine for sitting and if you're not terribly sensitive, sleeping is okay, too.  But if you have aches and pains, then it will be a bother.

Tom had bruised his upper thigh pretty badly at work on Friday so it was good that he didn't work Saturday.  He stayed in bed, moving occasionally to keep the blood circulating, but got up today and went shopping with me to look for an alternative to the futon we have for a couch.  I saw some sofa sleepers but they looked like they would be more of a bother than what we already had so we opted for just a new mattress for it.  But shopping we looked like a pair as both of us were limping on the left side.  And both of us were groaning as we both got in and out of the truck.  We looked at a cane for me, but they were over $20 and I'm not spending that much money for one.  I'll look at the thrift store first.

I fixed supper when we got home and after Tom and Zach brought the mattress in and replaced the old on on the futon. Then I sent Tom upstairs to bed with a hot water bottle and some magnesium and ibuprofen.  Not my bottle, of course.  I hope he feels better tomorrow or work will be an ordeal.

Tomorrow will be a very busy day for Zach and me.  I'm not ready to jump in with guns blazing, but between the two of us, we can get the house into some kind of order.  Especially the kitchen.  I've been keeping up with it all weekend even if I can't keep up with any other room in the house.  But the kitchen floor needs mopping most definitely. And laundry must be done tomorrow in order to take advantage of good weather to hang them out on the line.  And the kitchen must be in order for the days when I must use the racks indoors.

I finished up both pairs of fingerless mitts and will work on socks tonight.  I hope to get back to the sweaters this week.  I'll take a break from socks as soon as I finish these two pairs.  Then I need to organize all my stash and patterns so I can figure out something for future products that I will sell.  I bought the second volume of the Barbara Walker knitting stitch dictionaries, which should get here this week sometime.  Then I can get down to some designing or tweaking stuff I've already designed.  Not that I'm a designer by any stretch of the imagination, but I can do socks and gloves/mittens without a specific pattern.  I just need to fine-tune them to make them more interesting.

Also, this week I plan on dyeing my Welsh top singles and scouring my Shetland fleece.  Plus carding the free fleece I've got left to practice on.  It should be a very busy week!  I have the energy but not the capability to do a lot right now.  It sucks how that works out.

Well, off to make up the new futon mattress and crawl into bed and knit away.

TTFN

Delegating...not my strong point

The pain was a bit worse today with it moving further down the sciatic nerve.  Bed rest isn't recommended so I've been alternating sitting and moving around.  Sitting, at this stage, hurts a lot.  Putting my feet up helps but moving around for brief periods does seem to help temporarily.  More and more this is being confirmed as sciatica.  Every article I read said it takes about 3 weeks or so for this to resolve itself.  I've got another two weeks to go apparently.

Zach has been my dray horse today, carrying stuff for me and doing the heavy duty work.  I've washed up the dishes but he will cook supper.  He washed a load of clothes under my direction, carried them up the narrow, steep basement stairs for me and handed them to me while I hung them on the line.  Next time (Monday) he'll hang them up while I watch and advise.  We still have to transfer the curtains over the front door to curtain rings so they'll slide easier, and he'll do that under my direction as well.  I'll be honest, though.  I'd rather just do everything myself.  I'm crap at delegating.

Tomorrow Tom will be home but I need to go to the library so I'll ask him to do some more winterizing...like putting weather stripping on the bottom of the back door and the door leading upstairs.  Not so much to keep the cold from coming downstairs, but to keep his cigarette smoke from creeping downstairs.  Last winter it wasn't this bad but lately the smell has been very noticeable.  I bought some scented candles but I really hate the smell so I hope the weather stripping works.  I don't mind him smoking up there.  I just don't want to smell it myself.

I finished up the fingerless mitts last night and Zach asked for a new pair, too.  So I dug out my purple Vanna's Choice and am knitting him a pair as well.  Mine are a gold color Vanna's Choice that I got on sale last summer (half-price) when they were discontinuing that brand at StuffMart.  When I get a bit caught up on things we need, I'm going to start working on things to sell.  Another reason I want no smokey smells down here.  Many people won't buy stuff from a home that has a smoker even if they can't smell it on the product. 

I plan on keeping to small items because large items get too costly to sell.  People want the best price, not necessarily the best quality right now.  I'm using up a lot of my acrylic but once that stash is under control, I plan on investing in a good wool yarn.  Plus using my handspun for various things.  I'm not sure about selling wool that is only hand washable.  I know I probably wouldn't buy much along those lines so I can imagine that busy people want something they can throw in the washer.  But a unique item or a special item might be different.  Something they would take pains with.

This is all so new and frightening to me.  I can't stop imagining how risky it is to invest in something not knowing where or how I'll sell my products.  I won't do online stores for a variety of reasons.  Biggest being, I think I can sell better if I deal face-to-face with a customer.  Especially if they can see and touch the item themselves.  Then there are no misunderstandings about color or texture.  Or size.

In the meantime, I'm studying up on spinning because I want to make that a bigger part of my crafting process.  Both for the cost effectiveness and the skills I'm learning.  Next week I plan on dyeing my Welsh top singles and scouring my Shetland fleece.  I'm going to practice carding my crap fleece first.  This is the fleece I got free from a guy my husband used to work with.  It's really not bad, but not quality or anything.  I wish I hadn't thrown out the rest of it, but it was about 20 fleeces and I would never be able to clean and card that manually.  At least I thought so at the time.  Regrets, now.

When I went outside today to refill the bird feeders I nearly stepped in a humongous pile of some kind of shit.  It looked way too big for the Rottweilers in the neighborhood.  My first thought was bear, but that's highly unlikely.  Zach and I cleaned it up because Tom runs Professor around the yard in the dark when he gets home and the pile was big enough he would have skidded in it and fallen down.  When I say huge, I mean huge.  Not exaggerating a bit.  Zach, bless his heart, did the best he could but with his OCD he had to turn away a lot while I used the shovel to get most of it.  He had to scoop some of it into the shovel without vomiting.  He did fine but underwent a huge handscrubbing episode when he came in.  In spite of not touching it.  He used a stick to scoop it up.

If it was a dog, then I'm pissed that someone is letting their pets run loose and shit in other people's yards.  If it was a wild creature, then my pets will be closely watched when they go outside from now on.

Well, time to get Zach and start supper and get that curtain done.  Then I'm going to put my feet up and knit while watching my dvr programs.  I've gone through so much this week that I'm nearly under 50% on my inventory.  Lots of knitting while watching!  One other reason I love winter.

Finally...

Today is definitely a better day.  Last night was pretty bad, however, as the pain radiated down my left hip and my left thigh, which led Tom to comment that it sounded like sciatica, which one of his guys at work has.  After looking it up online (at reputable sites, not wikipedia) I'm convinced that's exactly what this is.  So Tom has insisted that I do little, rest often and give it a chance to heal.  I've done as much of that as I can, although I had to do shopping today, but the end result has been a definite easing up of the pain.  In fact, I've only taken on tramadol today and that was this morning.  I still hurt and when I start doing too much, the pain increases, but as the corrective solution is rest and anti-inflammatories, I don't plan on going to the doctor unless the pain is back to the levels I had earlier this week.

The big issue, of course, is that sciatica is a symptom, not a condition of its own so there is something that is causing the problem, most likely being the amount of belly fat I carry, which is causing a constant pull on my lower back and spine.  I've been scared enough to get more serious about losing weight, although not to to the degree that I plan on going on some drastic diet.  I'm modifying how and when I eat and have seen an improvement in that area, although not so much in weight loss just yet.  Zach on the other hand has had to tie the belt on his sweats because they're falling off of him.  'Tain't fair!

I'm also convinced that the back pain I had a few months ago was sciatica, too.  This attack being much more painful and lengthy.  For the next few weeks Tom and Zach will be carrying anything that weighs over 10 pounds for me, making up my bed, and generally doing anything that requires me to use my lower back.  I will be resting and doing light work until the pain is gone, then I'll start mild exercising, focusing on strengthening my lower back.

But if I have a recurrence or this flares up again, I will be seeing the dr.  Although I'd like to wait until I see my rheumatologist in January as that's where my GP will send me anyway.

I've been knitting merrily, though, enjoying time on the couch (although I didn't even make up the bed today) and making progress.  I haven't started my inventory yet, as I've got some winter things to finish up for us first.  I started knitting some generic fingerless mitts for myself since I can't find the ones I had last winter.  They're probably in a bag somewhere with the summer stuff.  Don't ask.

But I got a knitting magazine today that had some nice things in it.  I won't buy a magazine unless it has at least 3 patterns I plan on using.  Just a quirky thing since in the past I've bought them for only one pattern only to get home with it to find I couldn't knit that pattern because I didn't have the required wool or some other reason. 

Tonight Zach and I are going to watch Shrek 4 which I've got on dvr while I knit on the mitts.  I'll probably need to knit him a pair, too, since I can't find any of them.  Tomorrow he's going to attack the closet to see what he can find in the way of mittens with flaps.  And hats.  My scarves are on the coat rack where they've been all summer.  I use them for decoration.

Off to lie down while Zach creates a magnificent supper.

TTFN

Winter is here already

Woke up to SNOW!!! Lots of it, although the accumulation hasn't been what was predicted.  Or at least on the lower end of what was predicted.  But it's been snowing furiously all day.  And since it was so cold, I turned the furnace on this afternoon after the temp in the house dropped to 55F.  Even I can't stand it that low during the day.  Plus I can't find my fingerless mitts.

So I've been looking online for some fingerless mitts patterns and found several.  And thinking ahead to making an inventory of things to sell in the future, have been printing out patterns.  And bookmarking pages of patterns I want to give some thought to.

My back is still in the 5 range, down to about 3 with the back support thingy but the fibromyalgia is trying to outscream the back pain.  It's a battle I wish I wasn't participating in.  I have 20 minutes before I can take my next tramadol dose.  I ordered more from the pharmacy since I'm going through my monthly allotment pretty much in total this month.  Normally it takes me 6 weeks to use up my monthly allotment, but this month has been a kicker.  Still, I think it's easing off.  If I'm not better by Monday I'm going in to see the doctor.  I won't mess around with this in case it's more serious than it seems.

In the meantime I'm taking it easy, not doing a lot.  Some cleaning in the kitchen and fixing meals but aside from that, I'm keeping to the bed and limiting my endeavors to knitting on small things that don't require feeling the weight on my hands and shoulders.

I had a really difficult time sleeping last night.  Not so much the pain, just the insomnia rearing it's head, demanding attention as well.  I'm so popular with all my ailments.  And I had planned on going to town today to the library and the store, but didn't want to travel in the first snow of the year.  Considering some people forget how to drive in snow over the winter, I didn't want to be out there for their refresher course.  Staying home seemed the wisest thing to do.

I need to get the kitchen cleaned up a bit because I have to do laundry and need space for the racks so they'll dry near a heating vent.  I have one in the dining room and one in the kitchen that are easy to get to.  But I'm not up for mopping floors tonight so that will have to wait, too.

Right now I'm off to cook spaghetti or something like it and crawl into bed.  Zach will have to make up the bed for me because I think all the work I've been doing has prevented my back from healing more quickly.  Or at least I hope that's it.

TTFN