In which our heroine rambles incessantly about everything

I'm still here just enduring one of the busiest weeks so far. Zach's schedule, between his increased class load and study groups and meetings has been hectic to say the least. Plus, my work load at home has increased since I have become a zealot about tightwadding. Cooking from scratch takes a bit longer; not buying but rather baking snacks is definitely more work. And then there is knitting. I've been working on a pair of heavy socks for Zach out of the Jesse's Flames colors: yellow, red, and black. I like the way it's turning out but it got put to the side yesterday when I received a call commissioning a teddy bear for someone at church.

I got a call from one of the women at church requesting one of the charity bears I knitted for Haiti. She has a customer who was looking for a doll or teddy bear for her grandchild that didn't have removable eyes or noses. She's asked me to make one and will pay me for it. However...I can't charge her for it because it's not my pattern but I will still make it for her. I'm using scrap yarn so I'm not out any money. Just time.

Sigh.

It would be nice to be able to make some money right now and maybe I will be able to come up with my own patterns in the future but for now, good will seems to be all that I am recouping. And that will have to be enough.

I may ask her to just put something extra in the offering plate at church and leave it to her conscience.

Today I will put together the hooded sweater from Lion Brand. I hope to wear it to church tomorrow.

Also today I will be cleaning up the basement. I had planned to freecycle my treadmill but when it finally came down to giving it away, I couldn't. I got that treadmill with money my email loop of many years had donated after my cancer treatment. I need to actually use it now instead of letting it collect dust in the basement. And so...I plan on a cleaning frenzy in the basement. It desperately needs it regardless of the treadmill.

I...ahem...picked up a few pounds...four to be exact after the stress-eating frenzy I've been on the past couple of weeks so I am back to watching my calories with a bit of a difference. Since I'm cooking from scratch it's a bit harder to figure out the calories and not as easy to find those cheap-caloric snacks so I'm working at the nibbling and trying to go for filling up a few times a day instead. Also, I've introduced sugar back into my diet in small doses. Splenda is quite expensive and sugar-free snacks are outrageous cost-wise. My sugar this morning was.....74.

Excellent. I am watching it more closely now that I am eating sugar and I'm not binging on sweets by any means. I do take my diabetes seriously and don't plan on having my sugar out of control. But this frees me up for more choices in eating.

Everything in moderation.

Speaking of moderation....*cough, cough*...the cable guy called last night and made me an offer I didn't refuse. I had just read in the Journal Sentinel online that the cable companies in Wisconsin have lost an inordinate amount of subscribers. The paper was trying to place the blame on the Big Ten channel but the cable companies were saying it was the costs that were driving people away.

So they called last night and offered basic extended digital cable with a higher internet speed for $30 a month less than what we were paying before. Since this is only $20 a month more than what we would be paying for just the internet, I took him up on it. The deal is for 6 months and the guy said we could just cancel again at that time and someone would call and offer us a deal again.

Yeah...$50 a month savings would be a big deal but so is $30. If for $20 I can keep Tom happy with his poker watching and the documentaries, it's a small price. He works hard. Plus it was getting hard to find documentaries for him at the library.

And maybe I will spend less time online and more time actually doing some knitting...instead of just reading about other people knitting.

And I will get to see Buffy and Angel again. And all the Star Trek shows. And SciFi channel. And a clear picture on PBS.

But I still want Buffy for Christmas.

Off to work on the basement and settle in for knitting tonight. I got Miracle at Oxford from the library and have watched it three times already. I may get another watching before I have to turn it back in. I loved that movie. And Ghost Rider. It was excellent. I'm planning on watching The Fountain tonight although Tom says I won't be able to knit much while watching it since I will have to watch every minute of it or I will miss important plot points.

Okay, I'm off already.

TTFN