Another week down

My Mom finally had a CT scan today. And at about 7:30 tonight the doctor came in and told her he couldn't find anything wrong so she'll be discharged in the morning. I guess the next course of action is to find yet another doctor on Monday and have some more tests done. In the main time she can't stand up, walk unassisted or eat. I'm so mad and frustrated that I don't even know what to say.

Man, it seems that all I do is complain anymore. Sorry about the Eeyore attitude.


On a happy note though when I went to read to the students at the elementary school I was surprised by Sherrill . She gave me four wonderful skeins of sock yarn! Two have been wound into balls already. They are the colors of military woodland BDU's (Battle Dress Uniforms). The other two skeins are a beautiful four-ply tweed with blue, teal and gray. I'm not quite sure what pattern to use with the latter, but the former yarn is perfect for a pair of socks for Brian. I know that black is all that is authorized for wear while he's in uniform, but maybe he can sleep in them when he's deployed. Thank you Sherrill!







Yesterday's "You Knit What?" listing makes me want to knit for animals. Obviously YKW? borrowed this picture from another blogsite called http://www.Stuffonmycat.com And yes, it's obviously crocheted, not knitted, but I'm still glad that they listed it. This cat is either very stoned, very patient or very dead. No cat that I know would suffer such indignities! Since my kitties never go outside and have cold ears maybe I'll design some chicken suits. This past winter two of my hens, Peeper and Spotty, were molting like crazy and they looked very pitiful and cold...
Crap, like I don't have enough to do. Insanity has finally taken over that infinitesimal bit of normality left in my feeble brain. Hell, rounding that bend is actually somewhat liberating. Any suggestions for chicken suit patterns will be filed away for future consideration.

And once again, my fabulous, wonderful and generous Secret Pal, Cindy made me laugh with another animated card today. What a welcome pick me up. This one had a dog with cake and it pointed out the obvious that "stressed" spelled backwards is "desserts". How True! I have no idea on Earth how to post a picture of the animated cards. With Brian away I must rely on my limited technical skills. Thank you Cindy!

I'm going to take a bath and try to stay up and watch Battlestar Galactica. It doesn't come on until 10:00, but when Brian is home we usually watch it together.

Yesterday my Mom was admitted to the hospital... finally. She's currently undergoing some tests that should have been done several weeks ago. I don't know what's wrong but she's already had a complete hysterectomy and her gall bladder removed. She doesn't remember if her appendix was removed during the gall bladder surgery. There aren' t a lot of parts left that could be causing the severe side pains though, so hopefully the tests won't take long and the "fix" will be quick and easy.

Ashley is over the trauma of Ash Wednesday. She had a complete meltdown and refused to go to school on Wednesday because she was afraid of going to chapel and having the cross marked on her forehead, didn't want to give something up for Lent, etc. She was reluctant to go to school yesterday too, but today she seems to be okay. I guess I grew up spiritually bereft and ignorant of religion in general. Nothing against J.C. and his dad, but some of the church people really bother me with their judgemental hypocracy. As a result, we tend to avoid churches with the exception of weddings, funerals and some holidays. I can't even begin to explain some of the rituals, etc. to my girls either because I don't have the necessary background. On a sacriligious note, doesn't that cross on the forehead make people look like Charles Manson followers? Ha ha. Anyway, since we can't afford any private schools beyond preschool the religious questions shouldn't be an issue in another year. Autumn used to grill the Pastor relentlessly. She's ask questions like, "If God is everywhere then is he in a rock? What about a dog? What about a chair?" etc., etc. I admit that her questions made me chuckle. WTG Autumn! It's great when a 5 year old can stump the" experts". Well, on that note, I need to pack Ashley's lunch for the aforementioned preschool.

Book List Meme & general goings on

Instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place (parentheses) around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
(His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
(The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon)
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
(The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini)
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
(Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk)
(Neuromancer - William Gibson)
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
(The Secret History - Donna Tartt)
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
(Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides)
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman)
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert

If you are reading this then consider yourself tagged!

I wonder who made up this original list and how they decided which books to include. Oh well, I obviously haven't had lots of reading time during the past few years (kidlets and all keep me busy).



I've been working a little bit on my Fair Isle cardigan. I know that I've completely messed up this whole steeking business so far and it should be interesting come cutting time to see if it holds together.



This is what the body tube looks like .





I like the way the back side of the sweater looks when using the two-handed Fair Isle method. This looks so much neater than having wide loops hanging that can get caught up on things.




And here is what the inside looks like.






The sleeves are supposed to knit up really fast for this. My motivation for finishing this is that I want to make something out of some Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. This project will be completely selfish as I intend to make something for me instead of a baby. The yarn is so soft and guess what...? It isn't green, it's red! I feel so adventurous! The elusive, perfect pattern
hasn't been found yet, but I'm a lookin'.



On the non-knitting side of life, chaos reigns supreme. I have not made one little tiny bit of progress on finishing the drywall, painting, getting the gutters put up or anything else. In fact, other than just the bare necessities of feeding, dressing and getting the girls to school, girl scouts, birthday parties, etc. not much of anything has been accomplished. The only reason that the knitting has any progress is that I keep it in the van (which broke down last weekend).

But more seriously, my Mom is sick. She's been in pain for two weeks and unable to hardly move. She's been to the doctor twice and to the emergency room too. So far they have no idea what is wrong with her. One doctor just gave her an antibiotic and sent her home. Another gave her pain killers and sent her home. She was going back today to see if she could get a referral for some tests. If somebody doesn't start actually doing something I'm going to go postal on the doctors. Misogyny is alive and well in the medical world. So often men's complaints are addressed aggressively, while women receive a condescending pat on the head and a "go away" pill.

The Medal!

Here is a copy of the Knitting Olympic Gold Medal that everyone who completed their projects earned. This is so awesome! I am amazed at the amount of work that Stephanie and her team did in organizing this event. I'm also impressed with the fact that over 4,000 knitters participated, supported each other, visited foriegn blogs and challenged themselves to be better. Maybe knitters should unite and run the world! At least everyone would be warmer.

My Dad and Grandpa Porgy came all the way up to our home again to help out. They are helping us fix some of the unique features that might not be appreciated by future buyers. This house has been a nightmare since we moved in. If we knew then the extent of work and the amount of money it required we would have burned the damned thing down and walked away when my in-laws died.

Brian is working hard down in Oregon and is still busy looking for permanent employment. It sucks having him away from home. But we are grateful for the work that he's doing and overwhelmed with our friends who are putting him up/up with him!

I'm putting together a 4th secret pal package! This has been lots of fun. Some are already discussing SP8! I don't know if I'll do that one. It depends on where we are living and how many other activities are in the works.

Time to run. We're out of milk again (we go through 5 gallons a week) and I need to pick up a birthday present for a boy in my daughter's class. I have no idea what 10 year old boys like and I don't know his mother, etc. Sounds like a candidate for a gift certificate!

We have Gold!

Whoo hoo! with 20 minutes to spare here are the two finished pairs of Olympic socks. I was apprehensive about the possible agony of defeet. I'd like to thank my loyal fans (pictured in the background) who stuck by me throughout this endeavor and never worried that procrastination would be my unravelling. Okay, enough with the victory speech. Now I can return to my Fair Isle cardigan. Happy knitting everyone. BTW, I was cheering for Finland in hockey and they played fabulously. Onnitella Suomi! Can't beat that SISU.