Enjoying the breeze

My stomach felt better today but I was up most of the night with it so I'm not too motivated.  I did get the screens in the kitchen and bathroom window so I'm enjoying the wonderful breeze right now.  And I started a load of laundry that I'll probably stick in the dryer before I go to bed.  I might even wash another load while I'm down there.  I just wish this fatigue wasn't so debilitating.

Hannibal is definitely feeling better.  There is a significant cushion of fat on his spine now.  Not as boney as it was.  Plus he's so playful.  I was untangling him from the grapevine a few minutes ago and he kept attacking the rope so I stayed out there with him teasing him with the rope and watching him pounce on it.  And he hasn't thrown up in a week.  It's good this diet and medicine is working out, but I still think it's parasites or worms rather than inflammatory bowel disease.  He's thriving on the diet and it's not really any more expensive than prepared cat food so I'll keep him on it as long as the vet says he can stay on it.

I've been so lethargic today I haven't done much knitting.  Plus it was very warm earlier on so I tried to take a nap but Professor never lets me.  He barks as soon as I close my eyes, wanting something from me.  It's frustrating...sort of like having a toddler around 24/7.  One that will stay a toddler forever.

But I do plan on knitting after supper.  If I ever get it started.  It's cooler now but it was too hot earlier to use the stove of toaster oven.  I'm not heating up the big oven tonight.  I'll just make a smaller baked ziti dish.  I'm not hungry anyway since I didn't eat lunch until after 3.

I need to re-pot my little evergreen tree I got for Christmas.  It's still growing but I think it's nearly outgrown the pot it's in now.  I brought one in from the garage while I was out with Hannibal.  I'm wondering if I should re-pot the lavender, too.  According to what I read online lavender loves feeling crowded so I might just leave it for a while yet.  I've definitely lost 2 tobacco plants.  One just wasn't there when I went to water it this morning and the other is lying flat on the ground.  I sprinkled some seeds from last year's crop on the ground.  I doubt they will take hold but we'll see.  If nothing else, I can grow some more in the seed pods.  Or not. 

I can't believe June is gone.  Seems like a very quick month.  The Decorah Eaglets are nearly ready to leave the nest.  I believe they anticipate them gone by the end of July.  I watched them today sitting on the branches crying for their parents.  I didn't see them, but I could tell by the way the eaglets started screeching that one of the parents had brought supper.  They flew to the nest and then hopped back to the branches after they were done.  Hard to believe how tiny they were back in April.

Time to force myself into the kitchen and get supper cooked. When what I really want is to crawl into bed (that I have to make up yet) and just forget about all my responsibilities and knit away.  That would be a real vacation for me.

TTFN

Useless

Tummy troubles today plus fatigue meant I got nothing, and I mean nothing, done.  Well, I untangled Professor from the mattress and box springs frames so I do need to take care of that very soon, but aside from that I sat on the couch for a few hours and knitting, then unknitted because I forgot a crucial row in the pattern, then knitted again.  Then slept, knitted, and slept again.  This after going to bed early last night.  I did wake up at 5:30 a.m. but forced myself to stay in bed.  After dozing off for another few hours, I got up at 8:30 a.m. and tried to get as much done as possible.

I did water the garden and discovered at least 3 tobacco plants that aren't going to make it.  Sadly.  But aside from that...nothing.

I did a little reading today as well, but fell asleep during that, too, so I'm pretty useless right now.  In fact, I'm going to make up the bed as soon as I finish this entry and possibly go to sleep. 

Not sure what this tummy bug is, but it's easing off so I should be back to normal (what's that?) tomorrow.

TTFN

A day off for good behavior...and sore muscles

I don't feel the least bit bad that I got very little done today.  I did what needed to be done and might still get a few more things done, but my aching body needed rest, was screaming for rest and since the city workers started using their heavy equipment at the crack of mid-morning, my body needed a nap.  I got the garden watered, using the water drippage from the shower first.  I needed a lot more so I had to use the hose, but every little bit helps.  Then I got the solar lights up so when Tom takes Professor on his midnight run around the house, he'll see the garden and the boards I'm using to separate the prairie garden out.

I need to do laundry so I might wash a load and stick it in the dryer.  If it's not raining tomorrow, we'll take care of the morning glories and trellises and try to get some inside work done.  If it's raining, I'll do laundry, clean indoors and knit to my heart's content while catching up on dvr stuff.  My percentage is getting high again.  I'm in the 60% now and I like to keep it under 50%.

I beat the birds to the cherries this year.  For some reason we have almost no foliage this year so I could see the cherries ripen easily.  Unfortunately, it's a dwarf tree and still a toddler so we only got about a cup of cherries.  Not sure what I can make out of that.  Maybe some cherry muffins.  It does look like we'll get plenty of grapes this year though.

I stayed up way too late last night because I thought it was earlier than it really was.  I noticed the cable menu claiming it was nearly 3 a.m. but my clock said 12:45 a.m which was probably not intelligent on my part since Tom had already gotten home, ran Professor around the house, eaten his supper and gone to bed.  And he doesn't get home until after 1 a.m.  Then the city workers were working on a sidewalk a few houses down and had parked their dump truck in front of our house, which pissed Professor off.  So he was barking and pacing.  Between his noise and the heavy machinery I couldn't sleep anyway so I got up.  But I've been fighting sleep all day, finally falling asleep at the computer for about 15 minutes.  Not great on the neck, by the way.

So I'm getting ready to fix supper.  Nothing great...Hamburger Helper because I'm feeling very unimaginative today.  Not to mention the fatigue.  I'll probably make up the bed much earlier tonight and just go to bed when I fall asleep instead of waiting up for Tom.  I don't care if I wake up when he comes home and end up awake all night.  Lack of sleep makes a person miserable.

I'm hoping to get more done tomorrow but I did enjoy not working today.

TTFN

OW!

My legs shake when I stand up (which I am avoiding whenever possible) due to all the bending over, shoveling, hoeing and other tasks necessary to putting a garden in the ground.  I had lots of help from Zach and Tom and as a result, the garden is in.  Most of it anyway.  I couldn't get all the tobacco planted because I ran out of room, but Tom started a second garden so I was able to put two plants in it.  The rest of that area is still huge clumps of sod that need to be chopped up and cultivated. 

As it turned out, Zach was good with the cultivator, getting it to work and finishing up the main garden area so I could get the tomato and pepper plants in.  I got the tobacco in this morning, racing ahead of the rain clouds.  Which passed us by without any rain.  We'll work on the secondary garden little by little so I might get some lettuce out of it, but little else due to lack of time.

Zach broke down the old mattress from my bed, tearing it down to the metal frame and Tom did the same with the box spring so I'm using those for trellises for my morning glories on the back of the garage, which can be seen from the highway above us (the property lets way below the main road in back of us.)  Those will get planted tomorrow, hopefully.  Then Wednesday I hope to plant my flowers on the hill behind the garage which is already sporting wild daisies and looks really nice in spite of the tall grass.  After that, I need to plant my caladium and work on my roses.  They need to be dead-headed in the worst way.  By that time the yard will need mowing again.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Hannibal is doing so much better.  He's not frantic at all for food which means we can actually walk into the kitchen without being attacked by the cat.  And he feels a bit heavier.  Before, when you picked him up, it felt like you could continue up until you threw him into the air.  There is some resistance now.  I haven't weighed him yet, but in light of his lack of symptoms aside from weight loss and vomiting (which has pretty much stopped altogether now), I'm thinking he had worms rather than inflammatory bowel disease.  Still, I'll follow the protocol because she's the vet and I'm not.

I got some knitting done in between sessions in the garden.  I'm doing better physically but my stamina is still wussy so I take frequent breaks.  Still, it's nice to be functional even though tramadol and I are bffs.  With ibuprofen making our little group merrier.  I'm ready to start the outside edge of the pinwheel blanket, have knitted about 4 inches on the shell that will go under the shrug, got another few inches done on the bathroom curtain and started knitting a plain garter-stitch bordered/stockinette body baby blanket in the blue and white boucle.  I'm just striping.  I decided not to use the pattern on the band because it involved too much putting together and I'm just not up for that this summer.  The feather and fan baby blanket is slow going because Saturday I spent more time unknitting than I did knitting.  Yesterday went much faster though.

I have plenty of yarn for hats, mittens and scarves, which I'll most likely start when it's too hot to have these blankets resting on my lap.  It was hard to walk past the clearance bin at StuffMart today.  I could have made a pink and white baby blanket with boucle but I passed it up.  I have no room for the yarn I already own.

We did things differently today by getting our work done first and doing errands later.  That only works if where the errands take me is open late enough and today it was.  On bill day we have to leave earlier.  But I did like the way it turned out although I'm too stinking tired to fix supper right now.  Even though I have to force myself over that hurdle and get 'er done.

Okay, chicken legs are in the oven and the smell of rain is in the air.  I just hope we don't get the hail predicted as my poor crops won't do well with it. 

I also need to get some work done inside.  I cleaned and vacuumed the living room last night and if my legs will stop wobbling, I'll get the dining room done tonight before I go to bed.  It's really such a good feeling to be accomplishing so much.  Maybe not by most people's standards, but by mine this is triple my usual work load.  And knitting, too.  I feel nearly normal.

Well, time to read the news and then finish up supper and plop down on the couch to catch up on the dvr stuff.  I managed to watch Outcasts last night and I really like it so far.  Great British actors in the cast as well.  I'll probably catch up on Supernatural and maybe even watch the season finale of Doctor Who.  I keep putting it off because it's the last show for a while.  For some reason I hate season finales.

TTFN

Update on Hannibal and lots of knitting

Another cool, overcast day but without any rain.  Unfortunately the errands took all afternoon so I didn't get any yard work done.  Tomorrow we must get out there and work though.  I'm going to mow and Zach will work the garden.  It may take me all day to do it, but I'll get 'er done.

I'm using the homemade cat food for Hannibal because I'm tired of throwing away $2.20 a can prescription cat food away.  He has probably lost weight over the past few days because he hasn't eaten much at all.  I used the list of food combinations on the paper they sent home with me and he inhaled it.  Today was tuna and oats.  Tomorrow I'll use something else.  What confuses me is the paperwork she sent with me is about elimination diets and he doesn't have any food allergy symptoms at all.  I suspect the diets for Inflammatory Bowel Disease and food allergy are similar though.  But I am allowing him outside contrary to the instructions because it's not an allergy so if he eats a mouse it's not going to harm him.  Plus he loves lying on the back hill surveying his kingdom.  He's definitely perkier today.

I got Zach's yarn for his sweater.  He picked two different shades of green so I have to find a pattern that incorporates two different colors or a pattern that I can use with two different colors.  No hurry on it, but I didn't want to decide to start the sweater and find out they're no longer carrying the yarn.  StuffMart does switch things out frequently.  I also picked up more baby sport yarn on sale.  This is boucle and I'll use the pattern on the band.  Minus the duckies though.  Darn those sale bins!

I met a woman in line at the checkout who was commenting on all the yarn I was buying so I told her about Ravelry and all the patterns available there.  I never even considered she might not have the internet as she was probably in her 70s.  But I guess most people do these days, don't they?  My parents are closing in on 80 and have had the internet for years.  She was really intrigued by the curtain I was knitting.

I really don't need to add another project, but I will.  Because I can.  But I need new needles as I can't find my second set of sizes 5, 6, & 7 circulars.  Those are the ones I use most of all with 8's being another size.  I would like to knit some socks this summer but I don't have any sock yarn.  I could use my handspun for that and have dozens of pairs of red socks in many different styles.  But I still have to dye and ply it first.  Until my kitchen is under control and my garden is put in, that's just going to have to wait.  But soon, because I want to scour and card my Shetland fleece while I can still dry it outside between the two old screens I have.  Otherwise the squirrels might take off with it.

I haven't fixed supper yet but I'm probably not going to eat since I ate a late lunch so it's just hamburgers for Zach and Tom...baked potato for Tom and chips for Zach.  I've got some pork chops for supper tomorrow night when Tom can enjoy it.  Tonight is a quick turnaround as he has to get up early tomorrow morning and go back into work for about 6 hours.  I should go ahead and get it done so I can sit on the couch and watch all the Oddities episodes I dvr'd today.  I love that show!  Plus I have hours of Supernatural, Charmed and Doctor Who to watch this weekend.  Think of all the knitting I'm going to get done...while recovering from all the yard work. 

Today I'm working on the curtain and the pinwheel blanket, no longer a baby blanket but a young boys' blanket.  I'll probably give these to the food pantry this fall.  If I manage to knit up some hats, scarves and mittens/gloves, those will go to the library's program for kids this fall/winter.  I did make good progress on the shell for me.  It's going to be too small so I'll need to lose some weight before I can wear it.  I think I'm doing better although I did snack too much today.  I'm getting used to not snacking while I knit though and since I knit quite a large portion of the day, that means me expending calories knitting without actually putting more in by snacking.  I just hope I can keep up with it.

Off to fix some burgers and finish up my internet reading (which I've really cut back on).

TTFN

Getting back in the swing of things

I think this is going to be the last rainy day for a while.  I wouldn't mind so much as the air smells so good and it's nice and cool.  Cool enough that I'm wearing sweats, in fact.  But I have to get my garden in this week and this is seriously delaying it.  As it is, I'm only going to plant the tomatoes, green peppers, tobacco and sunflowers.  And maybe some lettuce.  I don't have time for anything else.  Plus I need to get my flowers in the ground as well.  Darned rain and darned fatigue!

I did do a lot of knitting this morning in between laundry and kitchen cleaning.  I need to vacuum the living room and dining room tonight as well as fold clothes but I think I have the energy for that.  Just.  I had to rip back on the shell that I was knitting myself because I was one stitch short.  Not sure how that happened because the ribbing count was correct, so I only had to rip back to the ribbing and start from there.  Fortunately it's mind-numbing stockinette in the round (because why seam if you don't have to) so I could do this in my sleep.  Which is why I probably had one stitch too few.

Hannibal is being contrary about his new diet but finally ate what was sitting out.  Because I refused to offer him any other options.  He might lose a few pounds at first but hopefully once the lining of his intestines heals up, he'll be absorbing the nutrients in the food better and won't need to eat as much.  As it is, he's not as frantic as he was last week.  I still have to force the de-wormer down his throat.  Later tonight for sure.

I had laid out some hamburger for pizza casserole tonight only to find out I had thawed out pork chops.  I didn't know I had any in the freezer.  I'm thawing the hamburger as I cook it, which doesn't really matter as it's crumbled up anyway, once it's cooked.  We'll just have the pork chops tomorrow night.

Professor must still be losing weight.  He jumped up on the couch today instead of going for the ottoman first.  Without that extra weight he can use those wee legs for jumping now.  I was thinking about how much more room I would have had in my bedroom without his steps to get up on the bed, but it's no good going there.  I'm doing fine not having a bedroom anymore.  It's such a pain to make up the couch every morning and night but it's even nicer to have a real living room again.  Tom comes in and watches tv with me on the weekends.  We've started watching Morgan Freeman's Through the Wormhole.  It's a really good show and what's not to love about Morgan Freeman? I've got it on dvr for us to watch this weekend.  Plus all the other documentaries I like to watch.  Plus I've got the podcasts to listen to if it's not one I care for. 

I also found a show I'm head over heels in love with:  Oddities.  I hadn't seen it before and Tom was watching it a couple of weekends ago and I got hooked.  I dvr every episode of it now.  It's amazing how my tastes are all over the map.  Tom said it was better than those Pawn shop shows he watches on the History Channel.  I can't seem to sit down and watch a show without knitting though.  I get so bored so easily.  Mostly I just watch all this tv so I can get my knitting done.

So far today I've only worked on the feather and fan baby blanket and the shell.  I might swap out and work on the pinwheel blanket and curtain tomorrow and keep a schedule like that so I don't get bored with what I'm knitting.  Zach has asked for a sweater for the fall in green.  There is some new yarn in at StuffMart, Bernat acrylic worsted yarn and the colors are so lovely.  The green is almost a jewel-toned and absolutely beautiful.  I just need to find a pattern.  And the time.  With him working (keeping fingers crossed for a job to come up very soon) he'll need more of a wardrobe.  He's got two pair of khaki trousers and 7 polo style shirts.  If they require shirt and tie, we'll have to do more shopping because all he's got is his suit and it's too small, but I hope this is good enough.

Well, I've got to get the clothes out of the dryer and fold them and vacuum while the hamburger is cooking.  As late as it is, I'm thinking sloppy joes instead of pizza casserole.  I don't want to eat at 8 p.m.  Now that I've got my second wind, I need to take advantage of it.

TTFN

I am loving the rain even if I'm not getting the garden in

The theme this week seems to be rain...a real barrier to me getting my garden turned and tilled.  Or cultivated.  It's rained on and off for the past few days with very nice temps, though.  Still...I'm fretting at all the work I need to do yet.  And soon, before my tomatoes and tobacco rot in their tiny little seed beds.  Tomorrow Zach will go out and start the shovel work, in between raindrops if necessary.  I'll follow with the tiller when it dries a bit.  I'll be going with the smaller garden this year as I got too late a start in turning it. 

Zach had an interview with the employment agency today.  He was there two hours, taking tests and filling out paperwork.  His typing skills were tremendous, 95 wpm with only 5 mistakes.  He did well on data processing, well enough they've said he could take any office job they have to offer.  He was definitely the best dressed person there.  I saw kids coming in in shorts and ratty t-shirts.  He was in a polo shirt and khaki slacks.  These kids were 2010 high school grads; I could tell by the t-shirt that said as much.  Apparently they didn't teach them interviewing attire.

Zach signed on for both full time and temp work.  They said they would call him when something came up.  Not too reassuring, but not negative, at least.  I hope he hears from the other agencies, too.

I started yet another knitting project.  I was going to work on a shrug so I can hide my hefty left arm, swollen with lymphedema, but I loved the shell under it so I went ahead and started that pattern first.  I'm also working on this baby blanket.  It took me a bit to get used to the pattern, but I've almost got it memorized so the going is much faster.  Only I'm not using two different colors.  I got some variegated orange, yellow and white Bernat Baby Sport on the clearance rack so I'm using that.  It's turning out pretty well.  And of course the bathroom curtain and the pinwheel baby blanket, which is turning out larger than the pattern called for because I'd like it to fit a young boy's bed instead of a baby's crib.  Plus it's an easy knit, not one that needs more focus, like the baby blanket I just started.  I can't work on it and watch tv.  But I can work on it and listen to tv or a podcast as I did today while waiting in the car for Zach...for two hours.  I don't know why I don't listen to podcasts more often.  They are so enjoyable.

So I should start some laundry but I only got a few hours sleep again last night so I'm really dragging.  I found some small steaks in the freezer that I laid out before leaving for Zach's interview.  Not enough for just eating but I might be able to cut them into strips and fix some pasta and sauce of some kind to stretch them out a bit.  Too bad I'm nearly out of egg noodles and don't feel like making them from scratch tonight.  Maybe just steaks, baked potato and a salad.  I'm really tired.  I couldn't take a pain pill earlier because I was afraid I'd fall asleep at the wheel.  It might have been the last straw on that account.  Good thing I'm responsible and can tolerate the pain so well.  Groan.

Hannibal appears to like the lamb version of the food the vet prescribed.  It's Royal Canin.  I also have a recipe to make my own food for him which may come in very handy as each little 5.9 oz can of this is over $2 each.  I also have some de-worming medicine I'm supposed to put in his food but after I added it to the duck yesterday, he tried to bury it and he wouldn't touch the duck again, even after giving him a new dish and medicine free food.  Not sure how I'm supposed to get the medicine down him other than forcing it down his throat.  He just won't go near any food that has it.  I'm going to have to get another dose in a few weeks as that one was wasted.

I informed Tom that Hannibal can't go outside at all and can't be fed anything not on his diet.  Tom is the indulgent one, letting him outside in spite of Zach's' wishes on the matter and feeding him whatever he can so I sort of laid down the law telling him that if he doesn't comply with the doctor's orders we could be looking at expensive surgery.  And all it takes is one time to re-set the program, which is expensive what with this prescription food.  He looked bleak for a moment and then agreed.  He just can't stand Hannibal's whining and gives in to him to shut him up.

One of the reasons he can't go outside is because he eats mice out there and we have to control his food 100%.  Just the other day he tried to bring a baby rabbit into the house.  Fortunately he didn't kill it and didn't even seem to injure it.  He just played with it for a while and then lost interest.  He's not the mighty hunter Professor is.  Professor surprised me, though, as he treated the rabbit as if it were a pet and didn't attack it at all.  This is the dog who raided a rabbit nest and viciously killed all the babies in it just last summer.  Not to mention the various chipmunks he's dispatched.  I don't know if that's the Chihuahua or the Pomeranian in him.  Or a combination thereof.

At any rate, it's time to fix supper and clean up Hannibal's mess.  He just threw up in the hallway.  It will take a while for this diet to soothe his stomach and heal his inflammation.  In the meantime, I clean up.  If Zach tries it, I have two messes to clean up.  He has a very low threshold for gagging.

TTFN

Rainy days and Mondays...seem to be a trend

Crap!  I was typing away and accidentally hit the wrong key when looking for the shift key and deleted the whole post.  And for some frakking reason, blogger didn't save it so I'm starting over again.  I wish I could remember what I had written out before.

Ah, yes...the endless tirade about no sleep.  I had trouble sleeping last night because of pain and Tom woke me up early this morning shouting to Zach through his bedroom door.  He wasn't his usual quiet self today for some reason.  Anyway with his puttering about in the kitchen, the dining room television and Professor wanting me to get up, I didn't get anymore sleep...just 3 hours.  So I'm falling asleep at the keyboard while printing out patterns to knit later.

I finally got the Tardis pattern printed out.  It's practically a book now with all the charts.  I'm pretty sure the new ink cartridge is close to empty now.  But I got it and some baby blankets, blankets, hats, etc printed out for summer knitting.  I also cleared out some room on my favorite places by deleting a lot of patterns I just won't knit anytime soon.  Or ever.

I finished up the two color baby blanket.  I messed up a bit on the side edging.  Didn't pick up enough stitches to match the opposite side but I'm tired of it and since it's not that noticeable, I'm not going to redo it.  Normally my perfectionist nature wouldn't let me do that but my tired nature has won out over Miss Perfection.  Not that what I do is perfect, but I can't normally stand obvious mistakes.

Watched some documentaries with Tom this weekend, lots of sci fi by myself (Battlestar Galactica...never seen it before...Charmed and Supernatural, stuff like that, but didn't get to Outsiders yet) and knitted a lot but didn't get the garden turned yet.  Zach was eager to start in on it this morning but it was raining.  Now it's not raining but he's having stomach pains so I sent him to bed with some Fiber-All or something like it and a hot water bottle.  The pain was a bit intense.

It's midsummer's eve but I'm not going to try a bonfire tonight because a storm is predicted.  I'll see how it goes tomorrow night though.  I just need some sleep.  Baked ziti sounds good tonight if I have any ziti or anything resembling ziti.  Otherwise I'm off to lie down and snooze a while before cooking.

Oh, and one of the eagles has fledged...haven't seen him around the nest in a few days.  The other two are branching and still seem pretty nervous about it.  Mom and Dad are still feeding them.  While not feeding the remaining juvies, they are teaching the fledgling to soar and hunt before he goes off on his own entirely.  I wonder how long it takes for him to become persona non grata at the nest.  I do admit I haven't seen the nest at night so the fledgling might still be sleeping there.

TTFN

Word from the vet

Been dealing with a sluggish computer of late.  If it doesn't improve, Zach is going to take it back to factory settings.  It's getting frustrating with a lag every few minutes so yesterday I just shut down and picked up my knitting.  More fun than trying to get the computer to process.

Heard back from the vet first thing this morning.  Well, first thing for me, anyway.  It actually was about 10:30 a.m.  Most of his labs are in the perfect range except for one that has something to do with some kind of cytes.  Very high.  Possibilities are heartworm, parasites or inflammatory bowel disease.  Because of the vomiting, she thinks it's most likely that it's the IBD and has put him on a special, high protein diet.  Which of course is expensive.  And which of course he's sniffed and stuck his nose up in the air over.  The pet store has another brand that is good for IBD if this doesn't work.  However, if it's not the heartworm (she's running another test using the serum that was stored after his labs) and he doesn't gain weight within a month, we need to take Hannibal back in for surgery...a biopsy, because it could be bowel cancer.  She thinks it's unlikely but it's also one of the possibilities.  I want to think only of Hannibal because he's a member of this family but my brain keeps going to the bill we're accruing on the credit card.

The other brand has such choices as rabbit and venison, both of which he likes, having killed himself a few rabbits in the back yard in his day.  Venison he gets occasionally whenever we happen upon it ourselves and has eaten that as well.  What it's like in a can, however, is another matter.  Not as tasty are raw, for sure.

So we have to keep Professor's dry food up and not let Hannibal have any of it.  No more treats, no more dry food, which I've got two unopened packages of.  I'll put all the unopened treats and dry food on freecycle for anyone to take after we see how he's doing.  No point hanging onto it if he can't eat it.  But I'll see what the heartworm exam says first.

It's rare for cats to get heartworm but not unheard of and since his labs are perplexing to her, she's not discounting it.  I'm pretty sure that's another $50 for the lab work on it.  Not to mention any de-worming meds. 

Zach got a call back from one of the employment agencies but we didn't get the message until today because they called Wednesday while we were outside working in the yard, at around 7:30 p.m. so I didn't think to check the voice mail until this afternoon after we got home.  He'll call first thing Monday morning to see about setting up an appointment. He was ready to send in his application to McDonald's today so this is good news.

I didn't do the garden or put in the screens today.  I was wiped out after shopping.  I really hope I can make the changes I need to make to get my health and energy levels back.  Zach and I plan to spend one day a week going for Nature walks where we're just enjoying ourselves instead of turning walking into something tedious like exercise.  Lots of places around here to do that, fortunately.

The eagles have branched!  They're flying from the nest to the surrounding branches and hanging out there with mom and dad.  It's exciting to watch.  They're particularly boisterous today and as two of them are still in the same spot they've been in for the past couple of hours, I'm wondering if they're afraid to fly back to the nest.  Or if they've made multiple trips and I just haven't seen it.  I think Dad has been hovering around them because he looks a lot smaller than they are.  I did notice they're starting to get some white feathers on their head but they won't go white until they're sexually mature.

Well, I've made progress on both baby blankets.  I had to buy another skein of blue for the pinwheel blanket because it's taking more yarn per round now.  And I dug through my stash and found some more Bernat Baby Sport yarn in yellow but not white.  I didn't have enough to finish it, but the extra yellow will allow that.  Unfortunately I had to buy another skein of the white, which is okay since I can use white in many other projects as well.  I went ahead and got a pound skein.  Why not?

I also started the bathroom curtain last night.  I didn't put the ruffle on it, but did use a 6 stitch repeat border on the bottom.  I knit 3, yo, k2together, knit one each row which gives me a lovely border.  I just knit as long as I thought I wanted the curtain, then turned and picked up stitches from the side, pick up two, skip one row, along the length of it until I got to the end.  It's looking pretty good.  I really will try to learn the camera this weekend so I can get pictures, but I really do have to till the garden this weekend and get my tomatoes into the ground before they bloom in the window.

Alas, I forgot I have laundry in the dryer so I'm off to take care of that and put another load in the dryer.  I'll wash more clothes tomorrow.  I haven't been hanging them out because what energy I have is being put to use on other tasks right now.  Hopefully I'll be hanging clothes out soon.

TTFN

Back on the insomnia cycle

Well, dang it!  I got every bit of 30 minutes of sleep last night before giving up and making up the couch at 6:30 a.m.  I dozed off on the couch a few hours later and Zach abducted Professor so I could sleep for a few hours so we could make it to the vet's appointment.  We made it but I'm in sticker shock as the visit cost $221.10.  Labs are incredibly expensive.  Apparently lower middle class can't afford pets anymore.  We won't find out anything for a few days but Hannibal has lost half his weight and is down to 8.9 pounds.  He was very good at the visit, staying in the scale during the entire exam and being quite docile during his labs.  But he made a beeline for the front door when we finally got home.

I had to stop and pick up a prescription so I got pizza for supper tonight.  I actually plan on going to bed around 8 tonight.  I'm so stinking tired.

I did finish the curtain and it's hanging up on the front door.  Looks very good there.  I worked a few more rows on the pinwheel baby blanket and several rows on the two color baby blanket (sport yarn).  I don't think I'll start the bathroom curtain today as I'll do well to make up the bed before I fall into it.  I'm thinking of switching my head around so I can sleep less wonky on the couch/bed.  I have to prop myself up in the corner because I can't sleep flat and that leaves me cattycorner on the bed.  I sometimes end up hanging over the side with my feet sticking out of the covers by a mile.  I think if I sleep on the other side, I can sleep wedged in the corner so I can fall asleep watching tv by sleeping on my side instead of trying to sleep on my back.  I never rest well on my back for some reason.

I'm still pondering what to do weight loss wise.  I really appreciate my niece's suggestion because she's probably the coolest and most unconditionally accepting relative I've got and if I was going to go on a diet, it would be counting calories.  It's just that diets create an obsession in me that overwhelm my senses and I end up losing back what I've lost and then some.  I suspect that most of my weight gain has had to do with the aftermath of the many diets I've been on since I was only 10 pounds overweight when I initially went on a diet.  Now I'm 100 pounds overweight.  It's that panic from feeling hungry.  Not just deprived, but sincere gut-gnawing hunger.  I would lie awake at night with my stomach growling so much I couldn't sleep.  On 1600 calories a day, so it's not like I was on a starvation diet.  And eventually I get to the point where I'm gaining weight on that 1600 calories.  With absolutely no cheating at all.  I gained back 10 pounds the last time I did this, after losing 60.  So I'm gaining weight on 1600 calories, with an hour of exercise 6 days a week and I'm feeling like I'm starving. 

So I eventually can't take it anymore and I binge.  And the binge is neverending.  This happens with every single diet I've ever been on so I just can't do it anymore.  I can't put myself through that torture.  And torture it is.  I'll figure something out but it won't be a diet.

Well, I'm going to go lie down for a bit and watch some tv.  I don't think I'll knit much tonight because I don't have the energy to.  And yet I'll probably sleep for a couple of hours and be up the rest of the night.  I hate these insomnia cycles.

TTFN

On the down side

I guess there are some levels of pain and fatigue you just can't work through and I'm learning the difference.  Yesterday, after a whopping 2 hours of sleep due to tummy troubles, I could not force myself to do anything beyond the most necessary jobs...like meals, making up the bed, etc.  I did manage to knit a bit while resting on the couch all day, but that was all I managed.

Today wasn't a lot better in spite of 12 hours of sleep...not uninterrupted though.  And strange dreams that involved moving from one house to another so the dream consisted mostly of the tedium of packing stuff up.  I was a bit tired waking up from that one.  Another dream involved riding a bicycle on a bike path that led through a tavern and up the stairs into someone's home, while the owner barricaded the door and wouldn't let me continue on the path.  And an abrupt wake up with Tom chasing Professor into the living room and the dog landing with a plop on my boob.  He may be a small dog but a leap onto my breast is still pretty painful.

I didn't wake up refreshed by any means.  And the rototiller was in at the store so we went to pick it up.  Fitting it into the trunk was an exercise in patience and creativity, too.  But it's there and I'm not taking it out.  Tom can get it out tomorrow morning.

So supper tonight is hot dogs, baked beans and sauerkraut because I'm still stinking tired and hurting and not doing anymore work tonight.

The curtain will be done very soon as I only have a couple of rows left to knit and then sew the casing down.  Then I think I'll work on the blankets for a while before starting the bathroom curtain.  I need something different to knit for a while.  I'd also like to figure out the camera soon so I can start taking pictures of my garden and various projects.  Zach and I can't seem to find that same moment when we're both ready for it.

Hannibal has an appointment at the vet's tomorrow to find out why he weighs so little when he eats 3-4 packages of cat food a day.  I suspect his thyroid because Pearl had that problem at around this age.  He's eleven.  She hung around for another 6 years on medication so maybe we'll get more life out of Hannibal, too.

Hopefully I'll get my tomatoes in the ground tomorrow.  They're falling over in the seed tray because they're so tall.  I suspect they'll develop blooms very soon after planting.  I've decided against planting corn as it takes up a lot of space and I'd rather have green beans instead.  And sunflowers.

I think I'll take a short nap before fixing supper.  I took three naps yesterday and still got to be fairly early (and slept 12 hours.)  I really need to work on raising my energy levels somehow.  I know I need to lose weight but as diets only make me gain in the long run, not sure what I'm going to do.  Except for now, I'm going to take a nap.

TTFN

Wet dogs smell

I've been sitting next to a wet dog all afternoon and I don't think I'll ever get that smell out of my nose.  Professor decided, while on his leash in the back yard, to dig into the compost heap for the critters that frequent there.  When I got to him, his feet were caked with mud and compost so holding him at arm's length, I marched him into the bathroom, put him in the tub and turned the hand held shower head on him.  He didn't fight me, but he would have given anything to get out of that tub.

Unfortunately it was a bit nippy today so he got the shivers.  I took out my Greek afghan and wrapped him in it and he's been hiding under there ever since.  Right under my nose where I can smell him drying.

Zach got the yard mowed but my fatigue/pain levels wouldn't let me go out to work in the yard today.  Instead, I worked in bits and got quite a lot done for me.  On these days when I'm overwhelmed by the fatigue I usually just ride it out because in the past trying to push past it has left me in worse pain and more fatigue than before.  What I'm doing differently is not overdoing those bits I'm working through.  I'm just up for about 15 minutes, then go sit down and knit...so I'm actually being productive the whole time.  I've managed to get the kitchen under control again and have started on the back hallway, which is absolutely horrendous with clutter.  I've cleared a large amount of it but there is still so much to do.  Right now I'm focusing on barbequed chicken legs in the oven with au gratin potatoes and peas, while I make some sauceless spaghetti for Zach to go with his chicken.  He cannot eat mashed potatoes at all.

I also managed to get a couple of loads of clothes done.  I still have to fetch the clothes from the dryer, put the washed clothes in the dryer (load 3) and then start another load, but that can wait a while.  Supper is all I can focus on now.  So this new way of managing my fibromyalgia seems to be working well.  My problem of working through in the past was that I tried to do it all instead of doing what I was capable of.  I finally think I may even catch up on the house and...dare I think it...get ahead.

I'm making much progress on the curtain for the front door.  I'm about 3/4 done and might even have it up by Monday.  Then I'll start on the bathroom curtain and go back to working on the baby blankets.  Or the mitten I was working on before.  Haven't forgotten it.  I really need to start using up my stash so I don't have bags of yarn in the corner of the living room hiding behind my pillows.  And filling up the bottom of my closet where I could be hiding the pillows instead.

And speaking of pillows, I've been sleeping very well.  I've even been sleeping longer and getting some much needed delta sleep.  I've also noticed that neither Zach nor I have been eating as much lately.  I haven't been munching between snacks at all and Zach's cut back to just one snack a day.  I think he's lost a bit around his belly.  I don't think I've lost any weight yet but I'm okay with that.  I'm only going to focus on getting my life back, not making it perfect.

We both want to start taking nature walks, where we're not walking to lose weight but walking to enjoy life.  I like that idea. I think we're going to start at the Mounds first as it's grassy and shady, then maybe try the Marsh now and then.  The Marsh is closer but harder to manage until we build up some strength.  Zach was able to mow the yard in one fell swoop and wasn't exhausted afterward, which is a near miracle.  He's been doing some strength training every other day as well.

Well, off to get the potatoes started.  I'm being lazy and using a mix though because that energy level is only so much.

TTFN

Baby steps

Maybe I hit rock bottom and the only direction left is up because I've had a good few days.  I admit I did wimp out a bit the day after rearranging two rooms and deleting another, but I still managed to get things done instead of falling into bed and staying there as I would have done in the past.  Last night was a bit miserable because of the pain.  It was the first time I took 4 tramadol over the course of the night, in addition to the ibuprofen.  But the dr gives me enough that I can do the occasional 4 tramadol night, if I need it.

I broke down and took another tramadol early afternoon because I was still hurting and the pain went away so I was able to tackle Zach's room.  We put an area rug down on his floor, which meant moving a couple of pieces of furniture, but it wasn't too bad and I'm not hurting now.  I took some ibuprofen earlier.  I kept up with what had already been cleaned and fixed supper of chicken breasts and rice a roni while going online, because I didn't make it online today until after 8 p.m.  I might make that the norm from now on.  Only go on while cooking supper.  I got so much done, including two loads of laundry.  Well, almost.  I have to get them out of the dryer.

The neighbor mowed on the property line today, bless his heart.  Now if I can just get his friends to stop parking their honking big trucks in front of the fire hydrant.  Not going to call the police though.  I'm just amazed how often they do it and how they never get caught.  We're not talking about a few minutes. He parked there yesterday afternoon and didn't leave until after 6:30 a.m. this morning.  I know he was there this morning because Professor needed to go out urgently and the truck was still there.  But I don't call the police on neighbors.  It starts a feud that never ends. 

So now we have to mow as both neighbors have done theirs and we look like an abandoned house next to their freshly mowed lawns.  We're hoping to get some things planted on the side hill tomorrow as well.  The echinacea and some columbine my mother sent me.  I have some caladium I'd like to plant on the north-western side.  It gets very little sun and we removed a shrub from there (and the stump is still there after 10 years)  This will hide it.  It will also hide the rat bastard chipmunks that loiter outside our living room window and torment Professor.  I saw three of them at the neighbor's house yesterday.  I didn't tell Professor though

I went ahead and bought a new desk chair because I know Tom will fall asleep on the couch this weekend and I don't have a comfy chair to sit on while he sleeps.  Dining room chairs kill my back.  This one was on sale and much cheaper than I anticipated so I got it.  Zach put it together while I cooked supper and did laundry.  Much nicer than a hard chair.

Well, I'm making progress on the curtain.  About halfway, I think, which means I'll need a bit more yarn to finish it.  Not a problem as SuperSaver yarn is inexpensive.  I've also decided to knit up a blue version of it for the bathroom.  We're redoing that room this summer with blues, off-white and taupe to match the shower curtain I'm too cheap to replace.  I have plenty of blue skeins of Vanna's Choice yarn I can use up.  See?  I'm working from my stash again.  I'll probably start it pretty soon as I hope to have the bathroom finished up by the middle of July.  I hope.

I might pick up the pinwheel blanket tomorrow before I go batty from knitting monogamy.  I'm must not meant to be faithful to one project all the time.  It's unfair to expect me to be.  I also would like to work on the sport-weight baby blanket as that huge skein of yarn I got yesterday is seducing me with it's lovely orange and white goodness.

So, the dishwasher just quit, the dryer stopped and I'm ready to shut down for the night.

TTFN

StuffMart enabled me today

Crap!

I was doing so well with my yarn diet, having only bought a few skeins of Red Heart Supersaver in the past several months.  And then StuffMart had a clearance sale of Vanna's Choice yarn, some cotton yarn and some Bernat baby sport yarn.  Rock bottom prices, I tell you!  Except when you load the cart up with the stuff.  Fortunately I'll be able to use all of it in hats or baby blankets and I got enough of the cotton yarn to make a small grocery bag ($1 a ball...I got three of them) so they will be put to good use.  It's just that I really didn't need anymore yarn.  And yet...here I am.

Today was such a difference from the past three days.  Cold, and by cold I mean chilly.  It got as high as 56F here, which isn't that odd for early June, but going from nearly 100F, it was quite a drop.  But it was perfect sleeping weather last night.  I had the windows open a bit and one fan on so when I woke up this morning, I was snuggled down under the covers.  Great!

Tom and Zach love the new living room and dining room arrangement.  And quite frankly I slept much better last night.  My old mattress was mostly wire.  I had two foam sheets and a thick mattress pad on it and still shifted and turned a lot in bed.  I don't remember turning at all last night.  I know I did but it didn't wake me up.  I was so afraid this would be a mistake. I also discovered that I didn't pop into bed right after supper but sat on the couch and knitted while watching tv up until around 11 p.m. at which time I made the futon into a bed.  I wonder if that's another reason I slept better.

This morning I turned it back into a couch first thing, then sat in there knitting and watching some things I had dvr'd until Tom left for work.  I can't really do much while he's home getting ready for work because he's in every room I need to be in, so I just find other things to do.  We did errands after he left, then got home and started supper, washed up some dishes, got some clothes out of the dryer and am now waiting for supper to be done.  Macaroni and cheese, the homemade edition.

I didn't have time to learn the camera today and it was a gloomy, dark day anyway so nothing would have showed up very well.  And I'm moving in slow motion from the pain and stiffness from all my exertions yesterday.  But the fatigue wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  And not as bad as it has been in the past.  I wonder if it was the sleep last night.  Time will tell, I suppose.

I still have so much to do around here and since Tom has to work tomorrow (I got his guys some donuts) I'll work on some projects tomorrow, one being mowing the yard, I hope.  If it doesn't rain.  It was too soggy today due to the rain we got last night, but maybe tomorrow.  I'm hoping to work progressively, building up stamina and strength instead of doing what I did yesterday by pushing myself beyond my endurance.  One reason I didn't get more done today.  But I feel optimistic for the first time in ages, that I can overcome this fatigue.  The pain will always be with me and I can cope with that, no problem.  What I'm having trouble coping with is the fatigue.

I discovered that Professor can jump up on the ottoman without his smaller step, which is great since I don't have a lot of room in the living room for it.  But now that the couch is in the other room from the computer he's not happy with me since he has to be in the same room I'm in and when I'm on the computer he has no place to lie down.  So I got him a cheap $4 dog bed today and he went right to it as soon as I lay it down.  And snoozed there while I was on the computer until I turned on the oven.  He has a fear of the oven ever since the smoke alarm went off when he was a baby.  We had put one of the smoke alarms near the furnace, thinking that would be a good place for it, but it was too close to the stove and went off when I used the oven.  It scared the poor guy so badly he used to head for the front door and claw frantically trying to get out.  Now he just goes and hides in Zach's room.

Well, I can smell that supper is nearly ready so I'm off to fix a veg to go with it, then it's off to finish up the dishes and then an evening on the couch, knitting and watching my dvr stuff.

TTFN

On the other side of the heat

We survived the heat spell.  In fact, although the temps were in the high 80s, Zach and I tackled the house today, rearranging the living room and my bedroom.   Which I no longer have now.  I turned it back into a living room and will just camp out on the futon every night.  The only problem will be on the weekends when Tom sleeps on the couch all day long and I have no place to sit aside from the dining room table.  I talked to him about it today so I hope he will take his naps upstairs on the weekend and not on the only furniture designed for sitting comfortably.  Hard chairs make my back hurt if I sit on them too long.

I have so much more room now and the house doesn't look like as bad as it did before.  It will be a pain making the bed up every night and putting it away every morning, but think of the exercise I'll be getting.  Burning all those calories will surely help me.  Problem is Professor can't sleep in front of the window fan anymore, but he'll get over that.  If it's miserably hot he can go into Zach's room and sleep.  We'll be putting the air conditioner in there this weekend.  His room gets no ventilation and he has problems sleeping anyway so giving him an air conditioner for those stuffy, muggy nights will help.  Especially when he gets a job.  Which I hope will be soon.  He put in more applications this week, but hasn't heard a word back on all the others he's already put in.  There is absolutely nothing in his field.

I've been working almost exclusively on the front door curtain that I had to frog back to the lace edging (and add more edging) so now it's wide enough.  But the endless knitting to get the length is what is taking forever.  Plus the past few days I couldn't go near my knitting during the day.  Way too hot.  Hopefully I'll get some pictures tomorrow of the other projects, but I do have to keep up with this cleaning binge until it's done.  Which won't be until August, I figure.  I proved to myself that I could push through the fatigue today, although the pain required frequent rests, but there's no reason I can't keep doing that.  And who knows...maybe I'll build up some tolerance for the pain and build up some muscles so it doesn't hurt so much.

Tomorrow the kitchen.  And the finishing touches on the dining room because the hutch and the computer desk are terribly cluttered.

It seems bizarre to be able to walk through the dining room without turning sideways.

The living room is still tiny and will only hold three people at the most in it, and only if they're sitting.  But all can see the tv from the couch and I have a coffee table under the window that I can use as a window seat, but it would make the room so crowded if we had more than four people in there.

It's thundering in the distance but all we're getting is a gentle rain.  My niece is getting a storm with strong winds but we seem to be missing it.  The marsh seems to draw most storms away from us, to the north.  Not all, but most.  Still, the rain sounds lovely and the air has really cooled off.  It helps that I can open up the blinds a bit at night, before I make up the bed, as it's a normal living room now and anyone in the street won't see me lying in bed.

I know I will miss having a bed and having a bedroom but I also missed having a normal house so I had to decide which meant more to me.  Plus, Tom has been very tolerant but I know he would rather have the house look like a normal house, too.

Well, supper demands my attention.  Not that I have any energy left for it, but we've got to eat.  Just sloppy joes, mashed potatoes (from a box) and corn.  Then I'm going to hop into the shower, make up my bed and go to sleep early tonight.  I hope.

ETA:  I spoke too soon.  It looks like we're getting a storm after all.

TTFN

Taking a break in this heat

On days like this I regret not having air conditioning.  Of course, when I get my electric bill, I'm glad I don't, but today has been miserable.  We don't normally get temps in the 90s until August with a rare day in July that might.  But June????  I can't remember it happening before.  We're barely out of coats at this time.  And so I'm not acclimated to spring temps yet, let alone summer temps. 

So I've gotten nothing done except picking up a prescription at the store.  I admit we lingered in a fast food place drinking sodas because it was too hot at home.  I had the fans on for the pets, but we'll all have to tough it out for a few more days.  And Wednesday is looking at record highs, near 100.  So don't expect a lot from me in the next few days.  I'll be back to blogging on Thursday when I'll have something to record aside from I was sprawled out on the bed in front of two fans, drinking ice water and sweating like a pig.  By Thursday I'll be back to working in the yard, gardening and such, plus knitting.  I can't bear to touch the yarn right now.  I might dig out my cotton and work on some dishcloths.  I could use some more.

In the meantime, I intend to stay offline most of the time as well, to keep the computer from heating up the living room.  I'm getting sick of reading the news anyway.

So...I'll see you all on the other side.

TTFN

Woman seeking relationship with sleep. Must be able to commit for the long term.

I meant to start today with pictures and more creative content, but I didn't fall asleep until after 6 a.m. and woke up two hours later, as usual.  I managed to stay in bed until close to 11 a.m. though.  It's hot, hot, hot today and I'm sleepy so nothing is getting done once again.  Aside from a load of clothes.  My lymphedema bandages are all in need of washing and since it's been a few days since I've wrapped my arm, the redness has appeared again.  I think it's cellulitis judging from what the drs told me it looked like.  I've got my elastic sleeve on until the bandages are dry.  But as it's hot, hot, hot, I'm not turning the dryer on just yet.  And I'm too tired to hang them out on the line.

I finished up the length of the curtain and am putting a garter stitch side edging on it so it doesn't curl.  The casing is sewn and I'm nearly done with one side.  I should be able to put it on the door by tomorrow.

I worked a bit on the pinwheel baby blanket but tonight I'll probably just work on the curtain and then try to get to sleep early.  Tom is working tomorrow (and every Saturday all summer long), poor guy.  These hours are so hard on him.

Hopefully Zach and I will get together tomorrow and he can give me a tutorial on the camera.  In the meantime, I'm going to lie down because I can't keep my eyes open.  Too bad if I can't get to sleep tonight but I'm so miserable right now.

TTFN

A very good day

Today is a very good day.

I got nothing done in the way of work, but I did get some relaxing morning knitting in, ordered a roto-tiller with Tom's blessing and got my new mastectomy bras and prosthesis.  Yay!  Unfortunately the breast form is too big, but it's wearable for now and gives me a normal shape in spite of its size.  But the bras are heavenly.  They fit.  Something I haven't had for over 8 years.  Another thing I love is that the breast form, being weighted foam rather than silicone doesn't shift in the bra so I'm not wearing my boob in the middle of my chest.  And my shoulder strap isn't falling down every few seconds...literally.

I ordered another breast form one size down, which will probably still be a bit too big, but since this form fills me out nicely, I didn't want to go down too far in size.  At $14 each, I can afford to have more than one anyway so I can wash one and wear the other one.

I'm making progress on the curtain...nearly to the spot where I need to knit up a casing.  I'm just going to pick up stitches on the sides and garter stitch a few rows to keep it from rolling.  Next time I'll put some garter stitch borders in the design itself.  I think I'm going to make some curtains for the bathroom as well for when we fix it up.  Which should be sometime soon.  As soon as I get the yard under control with the garden and flowers and such.  Then I can concentrate on the inside for a while.  I need to scrub the walls and get rid of the mildew and scrape paint and we have to start using the fan when we shower in order to keep the mildew down.  Then Tom and Zach can paint it and put down a new floor.  Later this summer I intend to paint Zach's room as well.  And next summer I'm going to do something with the living room and my bedroom.  I may decide to get a new sofa couch and turn my bedroom back into a living room so we're not so cramped.  Although it's nice having my own room and I may not be able to give that up.  But at the least I'll need a new bed.  I've got two mattress pads and a foam sheet on my bed and I can still feel the coils occasionally.

I'm also making progress on the pinwheel blanket.  It's a bit fun using three circular needles to knit in the round.  Fairly mindless except on the rows I have to add a yarnover.  Then I forget and have to tink back a few stitches.  I'll probably need one more skein of SuperSaver so it's big enough for a child to use instead of an infant.

And I accomplished only a few rows on the other baby blanket because I went to bed early last night.  Around 9 pm. early.  I kept waking up and at times I was so awake I thought about getting up and knitting but I forced myself to stay in bed with the tv off and try to sleep.  I eventually made it back to sleep only to wake up again a couple of hours later.  This went on all night until I finally got up at 9:30 a.m. and decided to stay up.  I could have slept for a few more hours to be truthful.  As a result, I'm not dragging today, which makes me feel like the fatigue is more related to my sleep patterns than to my fibromyalgia or diabetes.  I just didn't have any motivation to do anything much today.  But I could have.  I think I wanted to enjoy a deliberate day off rather than having so many days off because I couldn't function.  I think I'm going to take one of Tom's herbal sleeping meds tonight so I can get back to sleep and try to get some kind of normal routine going here.  Because after 12+ hours of sleep I'm not sure I'll be able to get back to sleep tonight on my own.

Well, it's time to fix supper.  Salmon patties and scalloped potatoes, I think.  Something simple to make anyway and then I'm off to bed again.  I actually feel like I could go back to sleep now but I'm sure by night time I won't be a bit sleepy.

TTFN

Still in the pondering stages

I priced rototillers today hoping I can convince Tom to buy one in time to plant the garden this year.  They aren't as expensive as I thought but you have to order them and they're sent to the store.  They don't keep them in stock.  I did buy some bamboo sticks for my tomatoes.  The cages were $2.26 each and huge.  They're twice as big as the one I've got left over from the several that were stolen out of the garage.  Much too big for my tiny garden to be.

I'm making more progress on the curtain, the pinwheel blanket and the two color baby blanket.  I'm up to three size 8 circular needles on the pinwheel and about 4 inches to go before making the casing for the curtain rod.  I still have several inches to go on the two-color baby blanket as it's sport weight yarn and doesn't "grow" as fast as the other projects.

But I'm still dragging from the fatigue, which doesn't seem to be going away at all.  It would help if I could get some sleep but it was after 5 a.m. when I finally dozed off only to wake up at 9 when Tom was up puttering about in the kitchen.  I fell back asleep and woke up at 11 when a salesman came to the door selling stuff I wasn't interested in.  After that it was too late to go back to sleep.  I've been fighting sleep all day.

Tom "suggested" that it was a nice enough day for me to work outside today but I ignored him.  I'm not 12.  I can plan my own days, thank you.  Seriously, I think he was just letting me know the weather forecast but as you can see, tired equals grumpy.  And I've got plenty of grumpy going on.  Enough that we're having pizza tonight because I'm too tired and too cranky to cook.  It's cheap, store-brand pizza but not too bad either.

Then I'm going to bed.  I might even go to sleep before the sun goes down.  I'm that tired.  I'm still working out the kinks in how I want to change both my blogs.  I know I want this one to be more about crafting and less about my health issues.  I'm just not sure what I want to do with my spiritual blog yet.  I doubt I have any readers left as I haven't posted there in over 2 weeks.  But it's not about readership, although I dearly love that people want to read my ramblings.  It's about being true to myself and treating myself with more respect than I have in the past.

But that will have to happen after I've had enough sleep to satisfy my poor, tired body.  And I have to remember that baby steps work better for me than the 100 yd dash.

TTFN