The 565th Post...2 more days

I don't go back to the doc until Friday morning. I can't wait.

My hand gets stronger every day, but there are still limitations - of course. I now find myself "forgetting" I'm not supposed to use it cos it's feeling so much better.

I am reminded with a few twinges of pain.

Gah.

Meantime, it still itches every so often.

I've been gathering photos since the beginning, and once I get back to normal I might post a few. Don't worry, I won't post any graphic ones, but you just know I have to take them. Altho I have to be honest, I really don't think anything is going to be very gross. Sometimes I don't believe anything was done.

Why?

It doesn't really hurt.

There was no pain immediately after the surgery.

None.

I haven't taken any of the pain killers the doc made me get.

I haven't even taken any advil.

Seriously.

Did he even do anything?!?

I can't wait until Friday morning when the bandage comes off and I get to actually see the stitches and the incision and hear all the gory details. :)

Commenting on Comments...

...in the comments.

Was trying to comment in blog posts and stuff, but by the time I read the comments, then drag myself into blogger to write up a new post, well, the thought is gone, so I'm going to make comments immediately right then and there...right where you made your original comments.

Seems the easiest thing for me to do and now it won't seem like I'm ignoring anyone. :)

Now we can enjoy Honey's visit...

Hi All!

Honey made it here in one piece and has been very patient as I work out this week. As of 5pm today, tho, I'm on Xmas Vacation! YAY!

Today we took a long lunch and walked over to our favorite bike shop and purchased a used bike for Honey. We got a great deal. Once Honey heads back home, Spencer will be able to use it to ride around with me on the weekends. It's a very nice bike and the same type of one that was stolen from the BART station, only a newer model.

Honey has been spending his time working on a loaner bike we got from Spencer's Dad. It's a piece of crap bike that needed some chain oil and some brake ajustments. Honey has wonderfully done that and will test it out tomorrow.

Tomorrow is filled with bike testing, taking some stuff for donation, Spencer's soccer game and if there's any energy left - we will put up the Xmas tree and decorate up the apartment.

Sunday morning will hopefully be weather friendly enough for us all to hop on the bikes and hit the trail for a morning pit stop at Peet's and then a stop at Sports Basement to get some more locks and see what other sort of essential bike accessories we just have to have. hee hee

I am just so excited to get us all out and on bikes together. Going to have lots of fun.

Now all we need is Mother Nature to cooperate with some lovely weather.

J: We don't mind the rain. And yes, I was riding thru Heather Farms last Thursday, hope I didn't cut you off or anything. Was my first time riding in the darkness. Yes, my hair is long and I had it in braids. Did you notice my bright coral pink jacket?

A lesson in Balls...

OK, so J asked in last post's comments...Doesn't yarn already come in a ball?

Welllll.....sometimes...and it depends on how you define a ball. And there are Hanks and also Skeins of yarn as well.

These two little beauties are called Skeins (rhymes with reins), some people call them Hanks...I tend to call them...um Skanks. But that's just me. I read it somewhere and I liked the sound of it and well, there you go.



Most sock yarn tends to come in Skanks, which when un-twisted, open up to a big hoop of yarn which is then put on a swift and wound into a center pull ball by hand (as Cherry did) or with a yarn winder like my Hugo.




I have the ball winder, but no swift. Hence the huge balls of snot, I mean knots, when I try to ball up a Skank. Sigh.

There are also these types of balls, which can also be called as Skeins, but I don't call them Skanks. I only call the long thingies Skanks. They usually come center pull already - which is very handy I must admit. Although I will go ahead and wind them on Hugo, cos well, I like playing with Hugo and making balls. I will definitely wind them up when using acrylic from the local craft store because it comes in very large skeins and it's easier to handle several small balls than one huge center pull skein.




See the little round thing at the top of the paper sack? Well, that's another type of ball. I'm not sure if they come center pull straight from the store or not, well, cos I never give 'em a chance... Straight to Hugo with every bit of yarn that enters the Chaos!!!! I grab the first free end and start cranking.



Then there's the good 'ol standby the pure and simple ball. All rolled up, nice and purty and waiting for a Kitty to come play. Nothing wrong with a good 'ol fashioned ball, but they do tend to roll around a lot and get pounced on by Kitties, cos well, if it's rolling around and it's on the floor, it's fair game!




I prefer to wind up all my Skanks, balls and whatnots on Hugo into center pull "yarn cakes" (you can see an orange one in the photo of Hugo above). They sit nice and flat on the bottom of your project bag and just stay calm and non-rollie and then poof! they're all used up.

I hoped this answered your question J.

And now finally, off to bed. This was a wonderful distraction (thanks J!) and my decaf Yorkshire tea is all gone. Time for beddy-bye and sweet dreams.

balling vs bawling...

Well....technically, I was "balling" as I was winding up the sock yarn from my new project bag...but I didn't say that, did I...

As the program went on...it was hard to tell whether I was bawling cos of Pavarotti, or if I was bawling cos the balling of the sock yarn was becoming such an epic chore.

Ended up with a ginormous ball of a knot.

We all know the Chaos likes to have balls laying about, but not these kind dammit.

I was up until about 1am un-balling the knot and making a nice yarn ball out of it.

Tamed at last...

Really do need to wait until someone else is here to hold the skein for me...

Oh, and it is gorgeous yarn - a lovely, deep red with colored flecks...it goes awesomely with my olive denim jacket and my denim denim jacket...and my brown winter coat. I wonder if I could find a hat or lacey scarf pattern than uses sock yarn....off to Ravelry for some research!!!

Show and Tell Saturday

OK, so now that I've come out of hibernating for a bit, I think it's time to show off a few things that I've been promising to show off all week.

First we have "My Precious"....a Pay It Forward gift from AmpuT. The link will take you directly to her blog post about all the 'making it' details and what she put into it... go there first before you continue here...I'll wait...

And now for my photos....and what I think of the bag...

OK, so I'm calling it "My Precious" - does that give you a clue of how I feel?

I absolutely adore this bag.

It's a bag (and we all know how I love bags, purses, totes...anything that holds other things).

It's all made by hand.

It's Olive green.

It's filled with many wonderful goodies.

It's a handmade BAG!




Look at all the cool and awesome things inside. I was feeling a bit down at the beginning of the week, but then the Postman arrived with this...and well, I almost started crying - my hands were shaking at the thought of such a lovely, thoughtful gift coming to me. Seriously, just ask Spencer. My mood lifted and well, I was just so excited, I put it on my wrist and carried it around awhile calling it My Precious.




Today, I will attempt to ball up the sock yarn (Gone with The Wind "Tara" colorway - how awesome is that). The little tin of notions (LOVE the "crap" and "oops" markers!) have a permanent home in the Precious as does the crochet hook and the purple hair band. I think I will use the crochet hook and some sock yarn I inherited from AmpuT a while back and crochet myself a scrunchie.

And now for a little added something...it kept calling to me...as well as a few of my favorite single beads I had no idea what to do with....




I hope you don't mind AmpuT...I added some of my favorite beads that I've had for ages to the ends of the ties. I never knew what to do with them as they are singles and they were just begging to be put on the bag.



So I listened. And it's even more Precious to me. A wonderful handmade gift filled with goodies and now the new home to some cherished beads.

Right now, it's holding my PIF projects. I'm definitely behind on mine, but I'll be finished very shortly.

And once those are done, it will be carrying this special project for Spencer - until it gets too long that is...

As promised, the double knit Argle Scarf - shown on the cover of Son of Stitch and Bitch

Yes, Folks, I am knitting that scarf! And I am TOTALLY FREAKIN' LOVING IT!




I'm knitting it in KnitPicks Swish DK in brown and blue to match a hoodless hoodie that Spencer just loves to wear...like ALL the time.



It took me 5 or 6 frakking times (I totally stopped counting after 4) to get this darn thing started and to understand the damn chart and all, but it was definitely worth it!!!



Yes!! That's double knitted Argyle. On MY needles!!!


Comments Comment: yes AmpuT, the pockets on that dress are a bit much. They would be way too much for my shortness and wideness, so I'd totally either just make a blouse or would switch out the skirt to be something less pockety. Oooh, a sheath with a belt perhaps....I'm with you tho, it's the collar and all that that hooked me.

Cooool....

First off, thanks Cherry and J for your comments. J, if you want the name of the bike shop Spence and I use, shoot me an email and I'll tell you... Maybe you just need a new seat or something less expensive than getting a whole new bike. Never know.

Good point too J. I learned not to overdo my activities a long time and many injuries ago. A little bit of effort can go a long way in building up to something bigger. We don't always have to be faster, stronger, go further "right now".

OK, now for the cool part...I have some rocks and I have some wire. Spence and I used to collect rocks, both polished from tourist traps and right off the beach or street. This has given me some awesome ideas with what I can do with them - at least the polished ones anyway. My rocks are all small and stuff, so I'm thinking bracelets, earrings and using multiples for some napkin rings - only mine will have the rocks going all the way around. Would be really cool if I could sell them for the $140 (set of 4) that this dude is asking. Booyah.

OOOOH...we have sea shells too!

If I ever get around to making anything, it'll all go in my currently neglected Etsy Shop.

I'm getting so many ideas now and finding all sorts of cools things as I work thru the Job Basket. If I actually sat down and made stuff with all this Stuff, I could really fill up my little shop.

Really going to have to schedule out my "free" time. Between general crafting, knitting, the Job Basket, etc...I can easily see myself getting overwhelmed. Again.

Jumping into the Basket...

...did my first "job" last night. Took all of 10 minutes. YAY!

Fifteen minutes every so often I can do...spending an entire weekend starting/stopping/starting/procrastinating and ending up doing practically nothing....I don't want to do any longer.

Cherry, I've used a 10 minute timer with Spencer and his room, and it's worked wonderfully. Don't know why I haven't done this for myself sooner. Oh well, I'm doing it now, and it felt great to actually accomplish something and see IMMEDIATE results.

For this project, I've broken down various tasks. For example, going thru my closet. It's rather wide and filled to the brim, so that could be a rather daunting project. It has two upper shelves that run the length of it and then the hanging area that goes all the way across. So I've broken it down into 4 "jobs" left and right hanging areas, and left and right portion of the upper shelves. When done this way, it's not so scary to do the closet.

The reason I've finally broken down and done the Basket is because when Honey and everyone left after graduation in June, I used the last day of having the rental car to empty out my storage unit - to save money. The Chaos Annex is no more, and everything that was in there is now here and there all over my apartment - again. And I've done NOTHING since then to go through it or get rid of it, NOTHING!!!

Finally just got tired of looking at it all and decided something needed to be done. Thought for about a week over what I've done in the past that's worked. Not much, but the 10 minute timer for Spencer has worked, and I've done the 10 minute timer for chores as well. Why not make it 15 minutes and attack all the "Stuff".

Excellent.

But where do I start? Started going through my apartment doing an inventory of everything I needed to address. The list was long and depressing. There are quite a few jobs on it that I don't look forward to doing at all. I didn't want to do them first, and I knew for sure I would skip over them and leave them for last - and then they wouldn't get done. So I decided, the job choice would have to be random.

And there you have it, the Job Basket was born.

Oh, and to keep myself on track...if you guys haven't heard anything about the Job Basket in a few days, feel free to call me out. Hopefully, I'll just have forgotten to post and I won't be slacking off about doing my jobs!

Voter #325

Lonely and cold in the dark night...

Spencer came home from school feeling sick, looking terrible, and quickly warming up (as in fever). He was deligated to the couch with tea and dinner.

I'm not feeling all that well myself, so bundled up and headed out in the chilly darkness to vote, hoping that I could hold off anything germ-wise until I was done.

12 minute walk there, 10 minutes voting, 14 minute walk back.

Knitting never made it out of the bag as there was NO line.

So much for the voting entourage and our Family Tradition. Sigh.

And I sure as heck hope that more than 325 people in my precinct have voted. Maybe that's the 2nd or 3rd machine they've had today. I have no idea how it works, and I really wanted to get back home so didn't stick around to find out. And definitely didn't want to talk to anyone more than I had to so that I wouldn't pass on anything germ-ish.

Sigh.

Still.... Civic Duty Performed?




Check!

PS Oh, and Cherry, they finally shut down about half past midnight on Saturday. And the reason we're feeling icky? One of them had the sneezes while he was here. Gee. Thanks.

A new day

OK, yes Rachel, I agree...but asswipe is all I could come up with too... Altho I gave the thief a compliment by saying he/she was an asswipe of the highest caliber. Should have been, you are the lowest asswipe of all, not fit to wipe the ass of the absolute lowest living thing that craps in this vast universe of ours.

There, feel much better now.

Have made my phone call to the BART Police to report the crime. They'll get back to me. Sigh. Didn't expect much could be done in the first place, but had at least hoped to get it all done with one phone call and not drag it out with waiting for someone to call back.

And "we're very busy today" is not encouraging. Guess there's a big crime wave. Not surprising.

Transit riders are an easy target...grab something last minute before the doors close and hop off. Victim is trapped on the train. By the time you call someone, the thief is loooooooooooong gone and so is your stuff.

Those that park at the stations are easy targets as well. Their stuff is left all day. Obviously no one is watching it the entire time, cos things get stolen. Sigh.

Anyway, good news is that I have wonderful friends. Giving me support, listening to me drone on and on about how pissed off I am etc, and also giving me leads on good sources of used bikes. Definitely not going to buy Spencer a brand new bike for him to schlep himself back and forth to the train station - that's just asking to be robbed again.

If we hadn't gotten this really nice bike for free, we would have bought a used bike for him anyway. He is still growing and goodness knows how big he'll end up being. Not going to be buying him an expensive new bike every few years - not as cheap as buying him bigger shoes every few months or longer jeans - not like that's cheap either, but, well, you know what I mean.

I figure for right now, just a basic bike that can get him to BART and back that won't look too attractive to any asswipes trolling for goods. Hopefully, it will be good enough to also go riding about with me on the weekends as well. If not, Spencer and I can work together and save up a bit more after the Holidays are over and buy a second bike for our long weekend rides together.

I figure I can have enough put aside in a month to get him a good used workhorse for commuting.

Now, if I can just stop feeling guilty for having a nice, shiny new bike that I've just sunk a lot of money into... I know, no reason to be that way, but I can't help it. We did chat a bit about it last night cos I just couldn't shake the guilt. But Spencer understands, this is the first really, really, nice bike I've had and it's basically my car, so I had to make the investment to get a really, good reliable bike.

Oh, and now I also need to get over the fear of going anywhere and leaving it locked up. I'm afraid someone's going to take it and that would be just too much. Won't stop riding it tho - on my rides, I go out and come back. I feel OK locking it up out in front of the Safeway, very high traffic area, so anyone with big cable/lock cutters stealing a bike would be quite obvious.

Oh, and no, I won't be leaving it locked up at a BART station any time soon. Not just no, but HELL NO.

Disappointment Major

Spent all day with the boys at the Con. They had fun despite the fact that the Tournament Moderator never showed up and they had to pick someone out of the group that signed up and then go for it on their own. There were about 20 or so players...Spencer and his friend C definitely being the youngest. Most were mid-20's and up. They played from noon until 7pm.

What was so dissappointing then? The vendor area. Dudes...very few vendors carried models for the game the boys were playing (Warmachine). And the WORST. PART. OF. ALL. The dice people had NO. MINI. DICE.

I was uber bummed. That was going to be the highlight of my Kublacon visit! Sigh.

Once again, I took too much. But that's OK. I carried it all in my rolling cart thing.

We go back tomorrow and I'm definitely paring down what I'm taking. Only one knitting project, one book, no mags or puzzle books, my music, and that's about it. We shouldn't be there as long as we were today. At least I hope not!

Still working on my sister's gift. Even though I knit on it almost all day, I'm still lacking a few more smaller pieces. Too busy people watching!!! hee hee.

Stephiface: No mini dice this year...GAH!

AmpuT: I checked on Ravelry, the Bay Area Knitter's group (I think that's the right one) were meeting up at Bay Con...also taking place this weekend. I'm sure if there were any knitters where I was today, they would have said something. I kept getting up and moving about, so just about everyone at the Con saw me.

OK...off I go...have to weed out the supplies for tomorrow and get a smaller bag. Not taking the rolling cart. It was handy to have, but a pain to trail round with me. Oh well...lesson learned.

Gah...

Well, I sure as hell ain't doing very well with this here posting more often thing, am I...sigh...

Actually, I have been quite busy...more like running all around and being so tired, I just don't feel like doing anything but going to bed once the sun goes down...

Anyway...The Honey has reminded me that I forgot to tell about Immigration once I got off the plane in England.

Not really much to tell, but sure as hell wish I had a photo of the guys face when I answered the infamous "Are you here on business or pleasure Miss?" with "I'm here on vacation!"

In England.

In February.

And...it's snowing.

Yes, I got quite "A Look".

An "Are you completely and utterly MAD, as in INSANE?" kind of look.

He was actually speechless there for a few seconds. I think I was only one of about a dozen or so US citizens from the plane. Everyone else were Brits returning home. The other US folks were there on business, or visiting family - there was even one family going to a funeral (really hated hearing that...).

But I was on VACATION!!!

After the usual grilling about where I was staying and all that, he finally let me pass. "Welcome to the UK Miss, urmmm...Enjoy your stay?"

Oh, and Stephieface....in answer to your comment about why I couldn't knit on the way home. Yes, they do knit in England. BUT, obviously, English Knitters are subversive folk hell bent on taking over the world - in an even worse way than I am. No sharp objects whatsoever, in any shape or form, are allowed on any flights leaving the UK. Knitting needles are first on the list.

New acquisitions...

Strange creature, we have you surrounded...



Step away with your cuteness...EXTERMINATE!!



blink...blink-blink... blink...you can not resist our cuteness strange creature...



Must. Resist. Cuteness...



We Looove you Strange Creature... You cannot EXTERMINATE cuteness...



Could. Not. Resist. Cuteness...WE ARE FRIENDS...





Note: This cute little trio of Kitty photo holders was just given to me by Spencer...a little something he brought back from his trip to L.A. with his Dad over the holidays. They are just adorable... Can't really blame Marvin for failing to resist... They are pretty darn cute!

PS...oooh Stephieface...girl...you know it...and if Gerard Butler just happens to be over there at the same time and just happens to be stuffed into my suitcase...not my fault.

You comment, I comment...

Darci - I got them at Wal~Mart about 5 years ago...my first ever pair of reading glasses.

Stephie - great idea with the finger knitting...