Thursday, November 29, 2007

Purple haze


Well, my last visit to the Dr. included additional x-rays and a consultation with another orthopedic Dr. The consensus was that I do not need surgery as my projected recovery would not be improved by surgery. Or, I will heal just as well without it. I've looked at the x-rays and the fluoroscope as the doctor described what she was looking for, while I'm not a doctor, it did seem pretty clear that all was as well as it could be. So, I'm now the proud owner of a purple cast. (Yes Husky fans, that is purple and gold!)

The girls have been handed metallic markers and have spent the week decorating my cast. They've been so enthusiastic that I think the only clear space is on the back where my leg is resting on pillows. I'm not sure how much longer this space will remain clear...



I turned the imps loose with the camera again, it is too awkward to take them myself, and after I'm up for a while, my foot gets pretty achy. I'm glad I decided to postpone going back to work. I had intended to return today, but I am still having a difficult time getting around and if I'm struggling at home, I can't imagine going to work. The trip to my bathroom at work is about 7 times the distance that it is at home. Of course, the restroom at work is equipped with rails, etc., which would make things a bit easier. It is frustrating. The only part of my that is broken is my leg, the rest of me is going mad sitting here with so many limitations. Work is appealing, just so I can get out and interact with people, you know? My husband seems to think I should be back already, but I figure if I'm uncomfortable, I shouldn't do it.

I pulled a stunt worthy of Jerry Lewis yesterday. I managed to get my crutches tangled in my new Duvet and tripped. In the process I banged up the middle toe on my good foot and fell slightly on the broken leg. The slight fall on the bad side ached, but did not really hurt. The thing I did with my good leg/foot, well, let's just say I don't know exactly what I did to my toe, but it hurts & has a big black bruise at the end on one side. I feel like maybe I broke it, but maybe it is just a sprain. It is ridiculous, I mean, seriously. I'm sure Mr. Lewis could have done it justice in a film. I just fell back across the bed and gasped out some very unlady-like words. No one to hear me but the cats. I spent the rest of the day crossstitching and icing my toe.


It may have been a blessing, of a sort. I finished the quilt square now, YIPPEE! and I can go back to other things, like knitting. I've really accomplished quite a few things from my nearly prone position. The colors aren't great, but the girls' camera doesn't have the ultra nice flash & the lighting wasn't great at the time they took it. The color of the vase is a deep steely blue, the leaves are a medium antique-ish green, and the flowers are a very dark plum. They balance very nicely, I think, and it is a nice square. Best of all, I finished well in advance of the due date, nothing to do but turn it in.

I think I'm ready to get back to the knitting, but I might read a bit more first. So far this week I've finished two books; The Old Wine Shades (my first Martha Grimes) and Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair. Both very enjoyable, though the Grimes book involved quantum mechanics, and there were bits that required a second read to make sure I understood it all. I was not prepared for the ending and I wonder if it is common in her books or just fitting for this one in particular. (Don't worry, I won't give it away.) I also worked in a short story by Jim Butcher, an outstanding author (fantasy/urban fantasy).

One last photo, I just can't resisit. My youngest (the 5 y.o.) is quite something. I should probably be concerned, but I'll just file it all away for later. She was posing for her sister with the camera, she is a total ham. And a flirt.


What a cutie, right? Not long after the picture was taken, she was helping with something and I said "thank you, sweetie." She said, "I'm not sweet, I'm evil." I said "No, you're worse. You're cute." That made her laugh and she started making up a song about mommy saying she is cute.

I tell you , that kid is twisted.




You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.



Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Cast



Well, there it is. My girls wanted to take some pictures of my foot last night, so I was able to use one of theirs to post here. Please note the lovely flamingo pants I'm lounging in. :) Himself was helping the girls to create a nice shot, so they draped the purple background to set off the foot nicely.


I will go see the orthopedic doctor tomorrow to see if I will need surgery. All I want is a nicely healed ankle, so I can walk comfortably for years to come, it it takes surgery to do that, so be it. I am anxious to get one with it though. I'm trying to be a good patient. Himself has this huge project that is due on 12/7, so this has come at an especially bad time for him. I am trying to keep my requests (and directions) to a minimum so that he can concentrate on all the things he needs to get done as well. Work is going to be a bear.


I obviously have control issues, although I prefer to look at it as a need to plan. I'm really freaking out right now because I have no idea what I'll be doing next week. Can I go to work? Will I be home for two weeks due to surgery? Can I do all of my Christmas shopping on the internet? (Actually, this will probably be the easiest one to manage!) Bah! No humbug, but just lots to sort out. I hope that when I do return to work, I will be able to drive myself. I can't carpool with my DH, his hours are too erratic, especially as he approaches his deadline. Such a mess! So much uncertainty! AAARRRRRGH!


Sorry, I'm trying to look at it as an opportunity to learn patience and to let go and, just have faith it will all work out. December is an especially difficult month to be rendered reasonably helpless.


It really is ironic. I complain that I don't have anytime to just sit and work on projects, but now I have it (in spades!) and I just can't enjoy it. I am rotating through the crossstitch square for the wedding quilt and the gauge-nightmare-hat (I had to rip it again!) and the Harry Potter scarf and the laptop. I haven't worked in any reading yet, since the family is around and I will have plenty of alone time to zone out on books next week. The thing is, those crutches have made my arms VERY SORE. In fact, my arms and shoulders hurt more than my foot does, for the most part. I can't spend much time on any of my projects because they hurt so darned bad.


It will pass, I know. I'll build up muscles/tolerance in my spaghetti arms and then maybe I can make better use of my forced down time. I took my pain meds today mostly because of my arms/shoulders, not my foot. My ankle feels much better today, overall, which I'm guessing has to do with the swelling going down or something. One of the cats keeps running over it on his way to food (of course), but otherwise no one is bothering it much.


I am running out of interest in children's cartoons. Possibly TV altogether, at least with other folks in the house watching it. I had trouble watching (American) football today, which is really something for me. I have to admit that even though I can't do much for myself right now, I'm looking forward to some alone time tomorrow.


I am also amazed by my children. They come in from playing outside and ask me "what's for dinner?" Do I look like someone who is going to cook a meal? Really? Still, we have been playing a few games together, and they've been a bit motivated to try some different toys that have been sitting neglected for a while. That is fun, although my youngest DD is a bit of a cheater...


Thanks so much for your kind thoughts and well wishes! They are much appreciated, and very cheering. I'll be sure to post after the doctor visit tomorrow. Now I'm off to help the cheater darling youngest girl with her newest art project.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Thankful anyway

Well, I hope all my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving. Our plans changed dramatically, and suddenly, but we had a lovely Thanksgiving day.

I took this past week off of work. The daycare was going to be closed, and the girls' school was on a half day schedule all week, so I thought I'd take a few days off and get some things done around the house, get started on another quilt square and take a little time to get some photos done for Ravelry.

Insert about an hour's worth of hard laughing here.

Yeah, so what I really did was cart the girls around to school and back, go see the doctor about my hand (he wants to do surgery again) and hit a number of after school school activities. I didn't even look at yarn, never saw the quilt square and the only cleaning I got done was just enough to put things in piles to be sorted out "later". There was piles of cooking to be done. We were joining friends from church for Thanksgiving, so I had a few side dishes to prepare. I got those all ready, although I was stressing a bit about the vegetable dish. I was feeling uninspired and all my favorites were already spoken for by other guests.

Wednesday was an insanely busy day, I think the only time I sat down was to drive to the school and back. Himself called late in the day and said "Guess what? It is Christian's birthday and there is a surprise party tonight." So, dinner went by the wayside and we headed down to the valley for the party. There was food and music (this is the guy he's been playing in a band with for the past 13-14 years). We had a new friend there. He is also a musician and plays the Native American flute. (Sorry if there is a better name for it, my head is rather fuzzy - you'll see why soon). There were a few people I haven't seen in some time, so it was a nice, and small, gathering.

We left early, as we had a church service Thursday morning and Himself was directing the choir. Our friends house has about four wooden steps leading up to the front door. It has been rather wet and rainy here, although the past couple of days have been stunningly clear and beautiful. And frosty, lots of frost. As we left our friends home, I was going down the stairs, holding my youngest child, and I slipped (the wet wooden stairs were very slippery!). I have no idea how I actually landed, well, except that I sat on a very old moldy pumpkin. I did not drop the child, though I scraped her leg a little bit on the stairs. She started crying and everyone came to check on her. I was a bit stunned and eventually, people asked if I was okay. (It is nice to be remembered.) I was dazed, but I knew my foot was hurt, so I got Himself to finish loading the (still crying, but fine) child in the car with her sister. Folks gathered to help me up and I discovered that I couldn't put any weight at all on my foot. (Too bad, really, I've got lots of weight that needs putting somewhere!-LOL)

Himself and a couple of other guests helped me get to the van and off we went. I was shivering uncontrollably, I thought from the cold outside (it was in the 30s). After a few minutes, I thought I could actually feel my foot swelling. I couldn't see anything, but it hurt. A LOT. I decided that a trip to the ER was in my best interest. I knew it hurt too much to sleep, and since Himself was directing the choir in the morning, I wouldn't be able to go then.

Good decision. Turns out that I have two, yes 2, fractures in my left ankle. Yay me! They are in the Fibula, the non-weight bearing bone. I had to wait to see the orthopedic doctor until today, and they won't cast it until next Monday. If the swelling is down enough. I'll also find out if I need surgery then. Yippee, just the way I wanted to spend my holidays this year. I seem to be stuck in a rut of some kind.

I'd like to say that I'm very grateful that it was only my ankle that was hurt, not my daughter, and no other bones were broken (or worse). I am hopeful that I can dodge surgery, but if I need it it will be next week. I'm a bit strung out on pain meds, so I'm sorry if the post is a bit rambling or plain old weird. Not only are there meds to work around, but I'm using my DH's laptop, which is weird for me

I was in no shape to go out to eat with our friends from church, so we were planning to try to get a pizza to go with the cranberry salad I had made for lunch. (Sounds like a winning combination, right?) Our friends who hosted my calamity, had their Thanksgiving day plans canceled as well. They stopped by and brought a store bought feast for Thanksgiving. (The people who had ordered the food canceled.) So, we had a lovely meal with good friends afterall. You know, friends are the family you choose. I'm grateful that we did such a good job choosing, even if they have slippery stairs. LOL

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Quiet time

Well, it seems like the proverbial 'quiet before the storm' is setting in. Although, we had a bit of a storm yesterday with gusts in Bellingham up to 97 mph or so. I'm happy to have had nothing over about 50 or so at my house (or here one the waterfront). No pics, I don't usually bring my camera to work and don't use my phone much, but the view was really nice. Glad I wasn't on a ferry, though. Not sure how I'd do on the "rough seas". LOL

What I really mean by "quiet time" is that people seem to be fairly quiet in the blog world. Odd, I know there's the NaBloPoMo going on, but most of the blogs I read don't seem to be signed on for that one. I'm glad I didn't know about it before now, or I might have done something foolish and signed up. Goodness knows I can talk about nothing for, well, ever.

My guess is that folks are taking a deep breath before the gift giving season (looming around the corner) gets into full swing. Yes, only a little over 5 weeks until Christmas. The Advent season is upon us! Last night as we drove past a house with Christmast lights up already, my 5 y.o. asked: "Are they insane?!" No offense to any of you "early birders" out there, but I'm with the 5 y.o. on this one. And I have to admit, it is a pretty darned funny thing to hear coming out of a 5 year old's mouth. I'm just sayin'.

I try to avoid planning knitting gifts for Christmas. I did several scarves a few years ago, and that was enough to smack some sense into my head. (Until I forget, that is.) I also subjected myself to the trauma of knitting dozens of gifts for graduating student employees. On a schedule. Yep. Lesson learned (for now). I just knit things for gifts. If it is done in time for a significant date, fine, if not... Happy Tuesday! (or whatever) I don' t need that much pressure for projects that I do for pleasure.

I'm planning my shopping as well, but I'm also spending my time trying to decide how to spend my time next year when I'm no longer working outside the home. I'm pretty stinking overwhelmed by the whole prospect. I think I'm just going to make lists. In time, perhaps I'll even make lists of lists. LOL Anything to avoid thoughts of the emotional trauma of seperating my kids from the daycare family. Lists are good, they are even actionable. If I do them right.

As a librarian, I'm very good at organizing stuff. Its what I do, really. The problem is, there's lots of ways to organize the same stuff. I think I could easily spend way too much time on the re-organizing side of life. I don't have a problem. I can stop anytime I want, erm, when someone hits me over the head with something, ah - eventually. Let's just hope that is sooner than later. But I do think I deserve a couple of weeks off. First, I have to get there. (And yes, I know that the time will somehow fly by and drag on, simultaneously.)

The above info is why I have nothing but a profile page on Ravelry. I have to get my yarn stash all out and gussied up for pictures. Then find the time to take the pictures, etc. Still, another organizational project for me. Yay, me!

Monday, November 05, 2007

Frogging myself silly

Okay, would you believe I've ripped the darned hat yet again?! Somewhere in round two of the stupid fuzzy fee hat I twisted my stitches. I discovered this in round three. I believe that the error occured while watching the girls as swimming lessons, so it is sort of forgiveable, but man! I am feeling fairly incompetent here. Jinkies!

And don't get me started about gauge. I've knit up several swatches, found one that looked good and went with that needle size, etc. Now that I've got it going, I'm concerned that this will be too big as well. And I've already ripped it, what, like four times now? I really don't want to rip it again.

Holy cow.

I thought I could manage a hat by now. I really did. Maybe I've just lost my hat mojo or something. I think I'll go forward for several inches just to see. It is hard for me to tell the actual size of something when it is on the needle. It is so distorted. I'll just knit tighter than usual for the ribbed bit and hope that makes it fit. Otherwise, I might just tell DD#1 that there won't be a hat to match the longer scarf. She probably really wouldn't care, I'm just trying to give the cute little customer what she asked for. And then, whatever she gets, sister will want.

Bah. I'm nearly up to the first stripe on my HP scarf. I can't believe how slowly this one is going. I only work on it at home, so that's pretty limiting. We've been so crazy busy, that's even more limiting. Then, K1P1 seems to take forever to work up into a row (that may just be me). I usually manage 2-6 rows at a time before someone interrupts me and I don't get to touch it again for a few days. sigh This thing is going to take a while to finish.

Please pardon the rather frustrated tone of the post today. I just had such a crazy busy weekend. Himself was out filming a 10th anniversary for the Seattle Gaelic League Friday night (until late) and all day Saturday (again until late) and then Sunday he was recording a CD for a friend. I was parenting without much assistance, teaching sunday school and attempting to keep the kids entertained while I cleaned around the house. Guess how that worked out?

Let's just say the kids were reasonably entertained & I got very little done beyond toasting pumpkin seeds & bringing in the Halloween decorations from the front porch. The rest are still all around the house. I tried to balance our checkbook, but there is some problem with the software and it won't update from my bank account. I think I spent over an hour on that one, to no avail. But hey, I got in quite a few games of Freecell around all of the Zoo Tycoon tutoring I did with the girls.

That game is so stinking addictive. I should probably have just done that instead. I might have accomplished more with the animals than with my house. LOL I'll try to remember that next time. (There's always a next time!)

Friday, November 02, 2007

I bought it for the cover model

No. Seriously. The new Vogue Knitting? It has Paulina on the cover. I LOVE this woman. You know, in a healthy non-stalking sort of way.

It is a throwback to my life in the 80s. She was all the rage, on the cover of all my favorite magazines, the Cars video for Drive, etc. In fact, her face drove most of my magazine purchases at the time. (I'm sure the 80s marketing directors would be quite satisfied to hear that.) Stunningly beautiful, somewhat ethereal (to me anyway). She was the closest to a 'perfect beauty' I could imagine. (Well, apart from Audrey Hepburn maybe.) I admit that, as a fan of the Cars, the video and her later marriage to Rick Ocasek really pushed me over the edge in my admiration of her.

Man. How superficial is that?! But then I wasn't even 20 yet, so I think some slack is due on this.

Weird. I was never someone concerned with becoming a "beautiful person" or even of being in that crowd. Nevertheless, I was smitten with Paulina. Stayed up to watch her on the Johnny Carson version of the Tonight Show and spent my money on all kinds of stuff just because her face was on it.

Well, imagine my surprise when I was browsing knitting magazines and there she was. Right on the cover. Cover model Paulina is back! Probably not quite what she's been used to, but somehow it is perfect. For someone who had a bit of a reputation for dissing the fashion industry, I think it is appropriate that she represent something she does apparently enjoy - KNITTING.

Wow. The Cars and knitting. Its like we're twins or something. We have so much in common! (Yes. I'm kidding!)

And yes of course I bought the magazine.