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