It all went okay

Thank you, everyone, who left comments or messaged me directly. It did make me feel better knowing that I have a wonderful group of sympathetic friends. Friday's procedure went just fine. One thing that surprised me the most was the number of people involved; so many that I'm already cringing to see what the bill will look like. I came in contact that day with no less than 10 Sparrow employees.

The anesthesiologist & his assistant were great at calming my fears about not waking up at all or waking up early.

Chuck tried a joke on the nurse that did not go over well at all. After taking my vital signs, the nurse interviewed me to determine whether I had a declared a durable power of attorney and asked me what I thought I was there for that day. I told her, "Well, I like to think of it as 'The Big Scrape'." For the record, she didn't seem to like that answer; so, I quickly replied, "I'm here for a polypectomy, hysteroscopy, and a D & C." After that answer, she said that she was impressed that I was able to tell her the correct terms and that I covered the gamut of what was planned. Chuck then asked whether we should have brought a Sharpie with us to mark me with so that I don't have to worry about waking and finding that my knee had been scoped or arm amputated. The look she gave him was classic. Icy, at best. Oh, Chuck, one would think that he truly enjoys the taste of his own foot!

The last things I remember before the operation was the anesthesiologist putting a shot of something "to calm my nerves" and being wheeled to the operating room. I woke in the recovery room and Chuck joined me there shortly after. Three hours had passed.

I was so out of it and was thankful that the ob/gyn talked with Chuck when she was done with me and gave him my prescriptions, weekend resting instructions, and a nifty picture of my polyp from the hysteroscopy. I'll post it as soon as I can because I do think it's neat.

The only side effects that I've had have been the worst hang-over headache and certain bathroom issues. As for resting up during the weekend: I tried. I really did. I got caught up on a bunch of shows that were on the DVR, went to the movies with Sylvain to see "The Chernobyl Diaries", and watched "Coriolanus" and the US version of "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo." I don't know if it was the medication or what, but I really wasn't into any of these films. "Diaries" went just as expected, and in a way, I felt like it was a ripoff of C.H.U.D.D. "Coriolanus" was one of those movies where you need to really pay attention since the dialog is still in the original Shakespeare. It isn't for everyone and I'm still digesting it. As for "Girl", I never really felt as though the Swedish version needed to be remade. If I hadn't seen the Swedish version, I likely would have enjoyed this one more, but since I have seen both, I came away from the American one thinking that it looked a little too polished. Does anyone know if the other two Millennium movies are in the works?

So Sunday, I taped many hours (5? 7?) of the BBC America coverage of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee. I ended up needing to go in to work -- my study area in Alpena ended up having three days of rain, which was just the sort of condition I've been waiting for. The part that really sucks about it is that the drive is a solid four hours away, so there really isn't a 'quick drive up'. To make the work day go smoothly, I talked my student into coming into the office for an hour on Sunday to help me pack our equipment, then to do all of our driving that evening. Thankfully, my student is easy going and had no plans. (Paying her in additional vacation time also helps.)

Yes, I've been taking it easy and let my student and another of our coworkers do most of the heavy lifting. I'll just move a little slower this week and hope that I don't cause myself more harm than good.

Now, if I could get in to urgent care when I get home to look at my thumb -- I may have dislocated it a couple of weeks ago and it's still acting up...

And then I completely spaz out...

I'm doing a terrible job keeping up with my blog posts.  I have several posts saved as drafts; I seemed to have lost my writing verve.  Anyway, I thought that tonight of all nights, I should check-in and give an update.

On the knitting front:
I'm currently working on Sharon Winsauer's Dragon of Happiness stole.  I made it to row 130-something before realizing that I've committed two disastrous mistakes -- even though I *thought* I was keeping careful track of progress row to row.  By the end of Monday, I was convinced to stop knitting and frog back.  [If you think you're smug enough to mention life-line bullshit to me, consider yourself warned that I won't stand for it.]  I'm not a fan of just plain ripping out and starting over.  Picking up lace stitches sucks. And now that I'm looking at what I've knit so far, I'm quickly becoming critical of what I've knit so far.

I'll be sure to take a picture to post before completely reducing the project back to a ball.


On the work front:
I'm busier than ever and am traveling more than ever, though the vast majority of it is within Michigan and Ohio.  Some of my draft posts have been about my little adventures and I'll hopefully have time to this weekend to publish some of those while I'm recovering from....

On the health front:
...."routine, out-patient" surgery that I'm having done tomorrow.  [Note:  men folk, this is where you might be more comfortable in not reading any further.] [This means you, Mark.]

It all started like this:  over the past year, I've been having periods that are reminiscent in misery to when I was a 13 year old. Crampy. Disgustingly heavy. Uncomfortable and irritable for a week (at least).  It got so bad that while I was attending a meeting in Minneapolis in October, I needed head to the restroom to take care of business several times in the morning alone that a coworker asked me if I was okay.  He happened to take notice when a bottle of Imodium tumbled out of my purse (I travel with a whole cache of various remedies); I led him on to think that I was having horrific diarrhea rather than an out of control period.  Not only has this monthly condition been travel-unfriendly, it's particularly uncomfortable when I'm in the office since I work predominantly around men.

My personal physician thought that maybe I had fibroids and she recommended me to have ultrasounds and some blood tests (note the plural) done.  This was all going on during the debate over making transvaginal ultrasounds mandatory prior to abortions, so I got to experience firsthand what some of the hub bub was all about.  I had this done at Sparrow, the local hospital, and found the whole evening incredibly hard to take -- for the blood tests, I couldn't eat for half a day leading up to the blood draw (and watched as one of the lab technicians cut into a delicious looking chocolate cake that was in their breakroom that was directly across from me as another technician was turning me into a walking pin cushion); for the ultrasounds, I needed to drink a liter or so of water in the hour leading up to the imaging.  As you can imagine, I warned the technician that any fast moves on her part was going to result in me peeing all over her.  Thankfully, she did the pelvic ultrasound and allowed me to relieve myself before the transV one.  I was able to see the monitor as the technician was snapping off photos, which was good because I was able to take my mind off of the probe she was jabbing through me.  During one of the takes, a bright circular object came on screen.  "Hmph...Are you using and IUD?," the tech asked me as she saved the image.

"Um, no.  Hey, what is that?," I replied as I craned my neck further to get a better look at the screen, which wasn't easy to do because I was trying to keep everything below my waist planted in place.

"Oh," <*sigh*> "I don't know."  Thanks, lady.  Thanks for a vote of confidence!


I followed up with my doctor once the results were ready a few weeks later and she informed me that I was anemic and that she thought I had fibroids.  During the intervening weeks as I had been waiting for the results, LuAnn had assured me that fibroids weren't all bad.  While she was recovering from having her tonsils removed earlier in the fall, she shared a hospital room with a gal who had a 15 pound (!!!) fibroid removed.  Do you see the silver lining that I see?  Instant weight loss!

Regardless, my doctor referred me to go to an actual ob/gyn for a second opinion, which I did and found that my evaluation at Sparrow was a skip in the park compared to that appointment.  Not only did I have the transV imaging done again, but the ob/gyn also biopsied part of my uterus and conducted a sonohysterogram...twice...and without any anesthetic.  Don't let anyone tell you I'm a wuss.

But, even I was reduced to a sobbing mess after those procedures.

I saw stars.

I stood up from the exam table too fast, felt woozy, and thankfully made it to the private bathroom before vomiting.

"The pain you're feeling is your uterus spasming," the ob/gyn reassured me as she pat my had before leaving the room.  No shit it was spasming.  I had never felt so terrible and completely violated.  Why the fuck wasn't I given any sort of pain killer before hand?!?

I was in such bad shape that a nurse helped me into a hospital gown (I still had not been able to dress myself), guided me to a recovery room, and gave me a shot of something.  At that point, I didn't care what it was.  To me, it seemed like forever; but in reality, I'm sure only 30 minutes passed for me to calm down and recover.  The recovery room had a sink and mirror that I was able to use to bring myself back into a respectable appearance.

In case you were wondering: no, I didn't drive myself to this appointment.  I at least had the wherewithal to have Sarah accompany me.  The great thing about knitters is that there's always a project in their bag, so it really doesn't matter how long an appointment takes; sometimes, the longer the better anyhow.  So, I found Sarah patiently knitting away on a log cabin stole she's been working on.  It didn't take her much arm twisting to get her to go to lunch at Soup Spoon where I followed up my shitty experience with good food and great beer.

My cousin Rose attended the follow-up appointment with me.  Rose is a nurse, so I wanted someone with me that could ask the heavy medical questions should the biopsy come back as malignant.  I knew that if I had received that diagnosis, the rest of the discussion would cease to exist for me.  Thankfully, the biopsy was benign and the shiny circular objects (yes, plural now that the more thorough imaging was performed) were calcified polyps.

Which brings my story to tomorrow:  in the morning, I am undergoing a hysteroscopy (which I've taken to calling a vagiscopy because I keep forgetting the actual term), polypectomy, and a D & C. 

I am petrified. 

One of my first questions to the ob/gyn after she gave me her laundry list of fun was whether I was going to be knocked out during the whole thing.  She assured me that I would be.  I am holding her to it.  I better not be the one hooking my heels into the stirrups.  I hope to be pretty far off in dreamy land.

And while I was driving home after my softball game tonight, I started to feel a complete sense of dread.  What if something goes horribly wrong?  What if I don't wake up?  What if I wake up and find that something went wrong and I've been in medically induced a coma for 10 years? What if, what if, what if...Yes, I started making myself crazy with possibilities. 

So, part of the reason that I'm really feeling under pressure to update tonight in particular is that I want a few of you that know me personally to give Chuck a call/text/tweet (@starchpoodle) if you don't hear from me on the Twitterverse after 4 pm tomorrow (Friday).  I'm taking the advice of the pre-admissions receptionist that phoned me the other day and am only bringing my picture ID and insurance card.  Afterall, Sparrow is the same hospital where my former boss had his goverment-issued Blackberry stolen while he was being treated for a heart attack. What kind of low-life steals from someone who's having a heart attack?  In short, no smartphone for me after 10 am.

I'm hoping to spend the weekend recovering on the couch:  watching a few movies, watching the 11 episodes of Vampire Diaries that I've yet to see, and restarting my Dragon of Happiness stole.  I do need to rest and recover quickly -- I have a busy week of travel for work next week.

Happy New Year 2012!

Hi everyone,

WOW. I just read my last post, which was (sadly) from October. One of my 2012 resolutions is to get back on the bandwagon and post more. Besides, I'm sitting in Chuck's parents' kitchen, guzzling my second mamosa of the morning, working on my Estes Vest (second attempt at this after having knit all the pieces and realizing that I really need to get serious about what size I should be knitting), and trying to keep my breakfast down after watching Chuck's sister's dog vomit profusely in front of me (what do these people think this dog is going to do after feeding it garbage people food?!?) -- I need the distraction!

Anyways, 2011 sucked on so many levels, but let's not dwell on that. Let's reflect on the new and the exciting that's been going on with me this year....

This past spring, I played softball for real for the first time in my life. I joined two teams: one a team sponsored by a coworker's husband's employer (they needed more female players) and a team led by friends from college (who also needed more female players). It got me out and more active than I had been in years and I certainly look forward towards playing again this year. (Though I will be joining only one team.)

In May, I bought a spinning wheel and learned how to spin. My yarn isn't spectacular, but it's given me a new appreciation for friends who are spinners and for hand-spun yarns I see in shops. I'm slowly learning about different fibers and if, at the end of this little experiment, I don't end up being a regular spinner, I will emerge more educated on fiber.

This past summer, I started volunteering as a non-skating official (NSO) with the Mitten Mavens, one of Lansing's roller derby teams. I wanted to learn more about the sport and had heard that the team was looking for volunteers to help out, so it was a win-win. For every bout, at least 14 NSOs are needed so there's plenty of opportunity to anyone who is interested (hint, hint, hint). Recently, the team's Head NSO had moved out of state, so with the team's next bout in a couple of weeks, I volunteered to help fill that role in the interim....

Sylvain has started his junior year of high school and I'm learning to let go & he's learning to be let go. Of everything, this terrifies me the most. I think that when he graduates and heads off to college it will be a healthy change for us both. His teenage years have been very tough for me to take in stride and I will be so relieved when his success and failure are based on his own choices. Up to now, I feel that I've done my best to raise him. I really hate that so much of what he's hearing (at school and from friends and relatives) is leading him towards the belief that he should expect to continue to live at home. Expect that it's okay to not be able to find a job. And expect that I will support him throughout.

During a recent argument, he reminded me that he's allowed to be on my health insurance until he's 26. In that statement alone, he had missed the point. Just because he's allowed doesn't mean that I want him to be. Over the past year, I've done some real soul searching about what I was like at his age and how far I've come. There was a point where once I started making adult decisions, I needed to make all of them, not just those that suited me and left the rest to my aunt & uncle. If the hand-holding continues for another decade, what sort of man will he be? I keep reminding him that this is the year of exams and grades that colleges will really look hard at. I don't think he's taking them seriously enough. But, I'm ready for him to sink or swim.

I'm ready for 2012.

Changing things up

Hi everyone. I'm still here. Still watching movies and knitting and knitting while watching movies. Still traveling and taking tons of food photos. Unfortunately, I've spent less and less time on a computer for personal stuff. Don't get me wrong -- on a normal day at the office, I'm doing nothing BUT be on the computer. However at work, not only do I expect everything I do to be tracked, but I don't have much time. I sometimes wish I had a job like some of my friends who once their work was done, they could browse, read, or write to their hearts content. Ah, that life wasn't in the cards for me!

Anyway, I've had my Droid phone for just over a year and it's been able to do just about everything I've wanted to do online *except* blog. So, as you can see, blogging has completely fallen off of the radar.

Now, I'm hoping to change that. I've griped before about the Blogger app being horribly limited in its ability to place photos in each entry's narrative. Sadly, nothing has changed for me on that front. The Blogger app still sucks. My solution for this is to attempt at writing more in a short story format and not rely so much on pictures, fun as they might be. If I have something truly peachy-keen to share, I'll find a way to post it. Can't guarantee that it'll be pretty, but at least it'll be here.

Also, we can both plan that Auto-correct will screw me over time and again. So, please trust me when I say up-front that 1) English is my first language and 2) no, I probably didn't mean [insert random word here].

Stay tuned, the knitting adventure continues....

A Changing Perspective

I started out this year with the idea that I wanted to learn new knitting techniques, which were reflected in my first projects of the year -- Entrelac and Brioche, but over the past few weeks, I've had a real revolution in thought.

First, it started out with me returning my attention to the drop spindle that I splurged on last August and forcing myself to learn how to properly draft. At the beginning of February, a gaggle of knitters ventured to Bloomfield Hills for Knit Michigan. We drove down the night before the event and hung out that evening -- attended a jazz performance at the DSO's Orchestra Hall and dinner downtown, and wrapped the evening up with a late-night knit-in. It just so happened that several in our group were also spinners. Not wanting to waste the opportunity of being able to have their (albeit captive) advice, I brought out my spindle and my small stash of fiber and started to ask questions. Michelle (who is often confused as being my sister) was more than happy to get me restarted. And away I went! The fiber shown in the photo is from roving that was dyed by my friend Rachel; it is 70% Alpaca, 15% Cormo, and 15% silk and I'm completely happy with the way its turning out. My problem right now is that I really don't know enough about the variety of fiber and blends that are out there to really get a handle on what I'd like. The pictured roving was a gift to me from my brother and his family for Christmas, which was very well chosen.











Knowing that I'm a virtual blank slate, I started out by vying for the February Phat Fiber box -- it had a "Gems & Minerals" theme, so it was totally meant to be! I can't wait to finish with the roving that's on the spindle to work the samples I received because there were some very interesting selections in my box (more on those as I spin it up).












Lastly, I signed up for Rachel's fiber club, where I'll receive 4 oz. of fiber in February, April, and June (plus some of her other farm-made goodies). Here's the February package and I'm sad to report that the chocolates didn't even make it home from the office. It was that kind of day. Anyhow, I was now stuck in a quandary -- I didn't want to wait to dig into my new fiber, but I also didn't want to completely lose what I was doing with the Christmas Day roving I had on my spindle. (Decisions!)












So, I caved. I started talking the crazy talk on Facebook, trying to recall what the wonderful Aussie made spinning wheel the Flock U gals had been talking about. I received some wonderful advice from my knitting friends -- some of whom surprised me b/c I didn't previously know that they spun. (Which just goes to show just how little attention I'm paying between screwing up the latest pattern and drinking my wine at the knit-ins!) The whole discussion thread culminated with Tracy delivering over that evening her loaner wheel. (Thanks for saving the day, Tracy!)

But the fun didn't end there! Friday, I had my second, and probably more important, epiphany (sorry to disappoint, spinners). On Friday, I attended a presentation given by Sally Melville for our Guild. Yes, the Sally Melville. Go ahead and start sending the hate mail, but I'll just come right out and say it, I've never knitted any of her patterns; I've thumbed through her "Knit Stitch" and "Purl Stitch" books, but didn't really see anything that I wanted to knit up. I've seen plenty of knitters working up the "Einstein Jacket", and just didn't catch the bug. However, during her lecture on Friday, something very important clicked -- recall that I wanted 2011 to be the year that I challenge myself. Here I was chasing what I normally consider challenges (new and interesting techniques), while what I really should be seeing as a challenge has been sitting in front of me post after post, project after project.

Why shouldn't I see it as a challenge to knit a sweater that I'll actually wear?

Why shouldn't I see it as a challenge to knit a sweater that fits me well?

I'll tell you this right now -- I have the yarn in my stash to knit five sweaters (and a shitload of yarn for other projects -- socks, toys, baby blankets, etc.). Of the sweaters, one that I had planned was a truly kick-ass Dale. I'm putting all of that on hold. It's time for me to take a step back and reflect on what I should be doing differently and to start that off (whatever it may be) with a few plain, understated sweaters.

I was so inspired by what I heard on Friday night that I immediately signed up to attend Sally's "Knit to Flatter and Fit" class that was taught on Sunday morning at Woven Art. I learned a few things about correctly taking my own measurements and what should be adjusted in the pattern to result in a decent fitting sweater.













In preparation for this weekend's Guild retreat, I pulled out a few of my UFOs; a couple of which are summer sweaters. I'm going to re-evaluate these and determine whether they should be torn out completely or can be salvaged. After a couple of measurements, I know now that the green sweater is about 2.5" too long. As for the pink sweater, I need to reread the directions b/c I have no clue where I'm at. If I'm not at or damn close to a bind-off edge, then it'll be too long also.












My questions to you guys: I'm committing myself to knitting three simple sweaters this year. What should they be? Any suggestions?

To be a kid again

There are mornings that I can count on Sylvain to sleep in until the early afternoon and then there are mornings when he's up long before the crack of dawn in anticipation of what's to come. The former is to be expected during the weekend, on holidays, and on days when school is cancelled the previous evening. The latter is reserved for Christmas and those special days when school should be cancelled, but the call has yet to come through.

Sure, one can argue that he has a more vested interest than 90% of his classmates, since he has an early morning class (starts at 6:50, daily) and, really, why bother getting ready for school when you KNOW in your heart of hearts it should be cancelled? But to him, there's nothing like wrapping up in a blanket and flipping on the TV, eagerly anticipating our county then our community's name to scroll through the multitude of schools already announcing closure.

First, disappointment sets in when Holt, a handful of Lansing schools, then Mason scroll by and are followed immediately by a place that he's never heard of: White Pine Academy. Then, comes the robo-call from the superintendent herself. Every phone begins to ring almost simultaneously: land line and cell phone alike. He doesn't need to listen to the message, he knows the drill; the call came, so the day is now his!

Oh, the wonders of technology! Why even bother to participate in this now out-dated ritual of rising to watch the morning news with its roller coaster of emotions as it cycles through the schools that have made it on The List?!?

Now that the deed is done, he lumbers back to bed with the smugness of one that does not need to rise again until at least noon. Ah, the good life......

What have I been doing all this time?: The Books

So, tonight Chuck made pot roast and spaghetti squash for dinner. Unfortunately for me, this dinner completely knocked me out. I had intended to curl up with a book on my big comfy couch while Chuck finished putting around in the kitchen before I started cleaning up after him -- he's quite messy when he cooks. (Its a happy arrangement that we have: Chuck cooks and I clean up the aftermath. Trust me, no one here really wants to eat my cooking and I don't mind doing the dishes....) Anyways, the next thing I know, it's 1 am and I woke to my reading light glaring in my face. Of course, the kitchen fairy failed to stop at my house.....

Hearing me get up and start cleaning in the kitchen, Sylvain came up from our den to sulk a little more over me not allowing him to hang out with friends tonight. A few of his friends are now able to drive and that alone makes me quite nervous when he's out. Today, we received about 4 inches of snow and I really didn't want him out and about on the roads. Of course, that was me just being a controlling ogre, but controlling ogre I shall be if that keeps him safe and sound. Chuck also heard me and came up to lend a hand. "Gee, honey, what are you going to do now that you've had your normal, full-night's worth of sleep?!?" Sad to say it, but he was right.

I have a cabled brioche scarf that I'm working on that needs to be done by next weekend. I could work on that, but am getting pretty tired of it. I'm about 450 rows in and feel as thought I only have half the length that I'd like. The photo shown here is from when I first started the project, but you get the idea of how tedious this project can be.

So, as part of my "What have I been doing" updates, I've been wanting to write about the books I've been reading. 2010 was quite the year for books -- it had been quite a while since I've read so much for myself; up until then, most of my reading had been either to Sylvain, for school, or for work.

In no particular order, here's my take on what I've been reading:

The Passage by Justin Cronin: I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a different take on vampires -- these are not the forever-youthful human-loving vamps from Twilight. The vampires in this novel are the result of a military experiment gone wrong and the release of a virus that is poised to destroy the world. My only disappointment when reading this book is that, going into it, I didn't know it was going to be a trilogy, so looked for a real resolution at the end rather than a set up for future books.

Speaking of trilogies.....I typically wait until all of the books are out in a series before starting them. I dislike having to wait for the next book to come out to continue a story. Over the past few months, I started reading a few trilogies: The Millennium Series, His Dark Materials, and The Hunger Games trilogy.

The Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson: I had been on a library waiting list for the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, for quite a while. Not sure that I would like this book, I really didn't want to purchase it. Once I read the first one, I found that even the library wait list was too long for my liking, so ended up buying the second book, The Girl who played with Fire, and putting my name on the list for the third book straightaway. However, the elements that I liked in the first book were just plain missing from the second one. I liked the relationship between the two lead characters: Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. Fine, they didn't need to be in a romantic relationship anymore in the follow-up book, but at least have them interact in a way that didn't feel contrived. The first book also focused around solving a mystery; in the second book, I really started to care less about the "whodunit" plot of the book. In fact, by the time I finished the second book, I really did not feel like continuing on. I still picked up the third book from the library when a copy became available, but held onto it for a few days just in case I changed my mind. I ended up returning it unread.

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman: So, I between this series and the Hunger Games trilogy, I'm beginning to think that I'm more entertained by lit typically considered YA rather than books meant for adults. I say "typically considered YA" because once I really started thinking about the topics presented in the Materials series, they were pretty deep shit. I have to say that I did see the movie made from the first book, The Golden Compass, when it first came out in 2007. Even though future movies aren't going to happen, I still thought of Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel, Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter, and Sam Elliot for Lee Scoresby for the second and third books. Sure, there were parts that were pretty long and drawn out, but overall, I enjoyed this series. This series delved into religion, parallel universes, and the conflict between man and his Maker. Maybe it's a good thing that I'm not a very religious person; I can easily see how these books can be seen as anti-Catholic and atheistic.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Maybe it's me, but I really enjoy dystopian fiction. And it really doesn't get any more dystopian than this: in a future where the United States exists as thirteen districts that are subservient to a Capital. Each year, the districts submit two contestants (one male, one female) to a fight-to-the-death competition. I loved the first book in the series -- my interest was caught early on and the book barreled right through start to finish. The second book, Catching Fire was a good follow-up, not stellar, but good. The series fell apart for me in the third book, Mockingjay; it felt like it was written by a completely different person and the heroine, Katniss Everdeen, was only a shadow of herself from the first and second books. Sure, she's in shell-shock, but that just makes for a bad storyline -- Katniss was just absent from the third book. I have some questions about how some of the plot went down in the third book, but don't know anyone who read it to talk it through and make sense of it with.....

I also read a few non-fiction books. Three were memoirs and one was about the Vidocq Society. Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls are two memoirs by women whose wealth and poverty were at polar opposite extremes, but shared similarities in having dysfunctional families and abusive parents. On the one hand, the life described in Pool was one where being rich would buy just the things a bad parent needs to get by: the staff to make sure your kids are attended to, access to the best schools, and the eccentricities needed to float through your and your children's lives. In stark contrast, Castle presented the worst possible poverty -- one in which the parents themselves become delusional as to the true condition of their lives and their childrens' lives. In both books, its only the perseverance of the author that led them down paths different from their parents. I know that Walls has a follow-up book called Half Broke Horses that is on my list.

The third non-fiction book was The Murder Room: the heirs of Sherlock Holmes gather to solve the world's most perplexing cold cases by Michael Capuzzo. I found the topic interesting -- a members only club of investigators from across the world who meet once a month in Philadelphia to solve crimes -- but the way the story itself was told was a bit boring. The book focused on the three founding members of the club, The Vidocq Society; unfortunately, the book became repetitive in its descriptions of these three men that I found myself skimming through paragraphs in search of new material. If you're a fan of true-crime TV shows, such as CBS' 48 Hours Mystery, then you might enjoy this book.

Okay, so for any of you readers who are in a book club with me, you might be wondering where mention of the book club books are at. Truth be told, I didn't read them all -- skipping July's Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, September's selection that I have no recollection of what it was, and October's The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte. I led the November discussion of Yarn: Remembering the Way Home by Kyoko Mori. This was the third memoir that I've read in the past several months and unlike the first two, the abuse against the author wasn't really anything that I considered too personal -- it was more culturally influenced. Sure, her step-mother wasn't really a loving parental figure and she did everything to eradicate all memory of the author's mother, but her behavior was more like complete indifference rather than maliciousness. The book documented the author's life in the States and relating to learning to navigate the Midwestern culture, learning to knit, and coming to terms with her father.

The December book was Two Old Women by Velma Wallis and is an Athabaskan tale of survival in the wilderness against all odds. Sharon led discussion of this book and presented great questions about how different societies deal with the elderly. I'm glad I ended up buying a copy of this book. It's too bad that I can't convince Sylvain to read it.

The January book was probably the worst book I've read in a very long time (and still finished): Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. I really do not understand how this piece of garbage book became a best seller. I found the story completely contrived and unbelievable; the characters were stereotypical; and (sorry if you heard me bitch about this at book club already) the timeline was all screwed up. I'm actually a little tired about that last point, but it led me to throw this book across the room, not once, but twice. Making statements about the main character's son dating on-line in 1986. Want to know what else happened in 1986? CDs were replacing vinyl, the main character's wife was buried in the same cemetery as Bruce and Brandon Lee (who died 1993), and **spoiler** the main character's son is able to track down the main character's love using the Internet. Yes, apparently in 1986, one was able to find not only find lists of interment camp refugees but also links to enough resources to track down their current address. Ugh! I was sick to my stomach by the end of this book. If you'd like a more entertaining read, check out the book's reviews on Amazon. Many other readers rip into the author on the same things that made me mad; and I'm not even a real WWII historian, you should read those reviews......

The February book was The Heretics Daughter by Kathleen Kent. Depressing, depressing, depressing. Not that I really expected this book to be uplifting, but it was a fairly well-told downer start to finish. Unlike the January book (which was supposed to paint an illustration of WWII era Seattle and interment camps), I felt as though this book portrayed a realistic picture of 17th century Salem. I'd only recommend this book for someone who is truly interested in reading about the Salem witch trials.

Anyhow, March is right around the corner and I'm still on the library waiting list for the next book: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Yes, I know its available online for about $9 and is in Schuler's right around the corner for $13, but the book is just shy of 700 pages long -- there's no way that I can finish it in time for our discussion. I have a scarf to finish by next weekend, remember? Instead, the book that's on my nightstand and the one that I curled up with last night was pure escapist fiction: Storm Front by Jim Butcher; this is the first in the Dresden Files series. There's thirteen books in the series, so that's sure to keep me busy.

What have I been doing all this time?: The Movies

Last time, I gave a rather lengthy update about the knitting. Since then, I'm very sad to say that I haven't made much progress. The past week has been full of work -- so much so that I was completely burned out by the time Friday rolled around. It's Saturday and Chuck & I are in Cleveland; he ran off to hang out with his friend, Leo, to take nature pictures at one of the nearby Metroparks with their fancy pants cameras. I was going slightly stir crazy hanging out at Chuck's parent's house, so (thankfully Chuck left the car, but with the gas light on....) escaped to explore a shop that I've been meaning to visit for a while now: Stitch Cleveland. The shop is on Detroit Road in Rocky River and parking is at a premium, but I felt welcome the moment I walked in. I know I've seen an ad for the shop in a craft magazine somewhere -- how else would I have heard of it? -- but found that they cater primarily to sewing. The shop shelves were filled with fun bolts of cloth, great books of inspiring sewing project ideas and patterns (ones that would be right up my alley, if I knew how to sew well), and room for instruction. One look at their class list made me jealous that there wasn't a shop like this in Lansing because I could see myself taking classes from them (JANE, maybe this is the niche that needs your creativity!).

Anyhow, since Stitch Cleveland was not a knit shop, my little shopping adventure took less time than I had hoped. So, now, I'm hanging out in a nearby Caribou Coffee, knitting, and thankful for the time to write an update (that, and the fact that I had the wherewithal to grab Chuck's laptop as I headed out the door). I'm two seconds away from grabbing my iPod to listen to as I type because, it's not the table of Greek men having a very loud and animated discussion (are all of their discussions loud and animated?) but its the guy sitting in the armchair next to me lecturing a poor, elderly, total stranger about how Cleveland "isn't the town it used to be." Did I mention that this guy was maybe in his late-30s? Maybe? I'm beginning to wonder if he's mining her for details on her life experiences....something that an author with next to no resources might do to gain perspective....its kind of sad and I'm having a hard time tuning him out into the background noise....

Ahh, that's better -- the iPod is indeed out and I'm using deadmau5's 4x4=12 to drown out the unwanted sound around me. So, where was I? Oh yeah, so now that you're pretty much caught up on the knitting, let me update you on the movies....

On DVD:

Legion: I can't help myself -- I enjoy mindless action movies, what can I say? I found myself last spring standing in Blockbuster and looking for one movie that Sylvain, Chuck, and I would actually watch together. This is what I picked, so watched together we did. I was picked on relentlessly afterwards. Yep, I can't write a synopsis or anything now, because I truly cannot recall the plot or even how it ends. It was that kind of movie.

Coco Before Chanel: The next time I went into Blockbuster, I picked up a movie for just myself and this was it. I didn't know a whole lot about Coco Chanel before, so found this movie interesting and enjoyed it.

The Wolfman: This movie was another intended for viewing by the whole family, but I can't say that it kept my interest at all -- it totally put me to sleep! Chuck thought it was a totally predictable story with mediocre acting. Maybe a hard-core werewolf fan would beg to differ....

Occasionally, I've been picking up movies that I want Sylvain to watch because I can't imagine him having a childhood without these films. Ladyhawke is one of these films; what's not to like? It had Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Matthew Broderick! A love story with magic and sword fighting. I loved watching this movie again; Sylvain did not want to watch it at all, so after just a few minutes, he left the room to find something else to do.

The Road: I read the novel several years ago, so pretty much knew what to expect. I remember feeling rather let down by my guys for one thing or another, so I decided to rent this movie as payback for family movie night knowing that it was going to be a downer. Yes, I'm that kind of a mother. Let's just say that both Chuck and Sylvain were as depressed as I knew they would be by this film -- nothing like using images of the Apocalypse to get your point across that you were not happy someone.

I've also started watching Mad Men, so have watched all of Seasons 1 and 2, and will begin with Season 3 when I have some real down-time to watch several episodes at once. (That won't happen until later this spring.) Let's just say that I'm happy to live in this day and age -- I'm not sure that I would make it in the business world if this show is an accurate portrayal. I'm no Peggy and certainly don't have the vixen ways of Joan.

The Runaways: I like Joan Jett much in the way that I like any other 80s band that comes onto the radio -- I'll listen to the song, sing along to the parts I know, but not make any effort to tune in another channel. So, I didn't know anything about Joan's previous band, The Runaways, before watching this film. It was news to me that she was in a band with Lita Ford -- someone I know only from her duet with Ozzy Osborne on "Close My Eyes Forever". This movie was mildly entertaining; whether much of the story was spot on as a biopic or not, I didn't care.

Date Night: Knowing that I would have a chance to see Mark Wahlberg shirtless was all that I needed to know to want to rent this movie; so, it was another selection of mine for family movie night. We enjoyed watching this movie of mistaken identity and mishap, so I would recommend this to anyone who's looking for movie-night fluff.

Grey Gardens: After watching this, I wish that I could get my hands on the original Grey Gardens documentary. Around the same time as I watched this film, I was also reading "Dead End Gene Pool" by Wendy Burden. In both, the main characters had been wealthy, but their eccentricities led to a detachment from the rest of the world. I couldn't help but be entranced with wonder at how anyone could live life in the way that these characters seemed to float through theirs: The Beales in their slow decay and The Burdens in their complete indifference for one another.

Rustlers' Rhapsody: Another one of my childhood favorites that I rented with the idea that Sylvain would enjoy it as much as I did. I thought the lure of seeing GW Bailey in a role other than Lt. Provenza from The Closer would've piqued Sylvain's interest enough to watch this movie with me, but I was 100% wrong. I watched it by myself anyways and fell back in love with this movie. Chuck later watched it by himself and remarked later that he was surprised to find it enjoyable (he rarely appreciates the same movies as me). How many movies are there where Andy Griffith plays the bad guy? Tom Berenger played the lead -- Rex O'Herlihan, the Singing Cowboy who rides town to town and settles any wrong-doing he encounters along the way; Marilu Henner and a very young Sela Ward play potential love interests.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: I can't say that anyone in my house are big fans of Michael Cera....I enjoyed watching Arrested Development when it was on Fox, but didn't really watch the show because he in particular was on it. This was another family movie night selection and one that the three of us collectively thought was okay. The premise was that a teen named Scott Pilgrim needed to battle the seven evil exes of the girl he'd like to date with garage rock band drama in the background. We all thought some of the battles with the evil exes were a little lame, but, really, what did we expect?

Anne of the Thousand Days: This one has been in my queue forever and it seemed like its status was always "Very Long Wait", so I was really surprised when it finally arrived in my mailbox. I've had a long festering fascination with Henry VIII, so enjoyed seeing Richard Burton play the King set on destroying England to satisfy himself. Needless to say, this is one that I picked for myself and liked it. I didn't see Sylvain or Chuck having the patience to watch a movie about Anne Boleyn, so didn't even try to get them to watch it with me.

Salt: Chuck and I watched this one while Sylvain was out of town; usually, I'm a fan of Angelina Jolie's films, but found myself somewhat bored by this one. **Spoiler**: once it became revealed that she really was a Russian plant, I knew how the rest of the story would play out; just needed to watch the fine details of it all. And that revelation was very early on in the film. Let's just say that I got a lot of knitting done during this movie....

The Expendables: As I watched this movie, I couldn't help but wonder at what stars Sylvain would consider as the action-heroes of his generation. This movie seemed to have them all for me: Stallone (Rambo), Lundgren (He-Man), and Rourke (Harley Davidson). This was a straight out of the '80s movie: team of special ops freelancers are hired by a nameless figure to take down some dictator on a made-up island; things are blown-up; ladies in distress are saved; good guys show off their hearts of gold buried deep beneath a rough exterior. I was entertained, but I'm easy that way.....

That's it for DVDs; sitting at home and waiting for us to watch are: ¡Three Amigos!, Mary, Queen of Scots, and The White Diamond. Hopefully, I'll have some time this weekend when we get home tomorrow to watch these....

In the Theater:

Inception: I cannot imagine seeing this movie at home -- for me, this movie was meant to be seen on the big screen; the dream sequences depicted by Christopher Nolan were incredible and I felt thoroughly engrossed while watching this movie. Unfortunately, I can't really even tell you what this movie was about because I'm still debating with myself over what it all means several months after seeing it.

Red: I can best describe this movie as "The Expendables" for the geriatric crowd. Chuck and I were by far the youngest people in the theater; but that's not to say that the movie wasn't entertaining. How often does one see a Dame brandish a rocket launcher? Ugh, almost never. I'm still holding out that Judy Dench will get her chance if another 007 movie were made.

Skyline: I am 100% ashamed to admit that I saw this piece of shit movie in the theater. If you happened to have seen this at Celebration Cinema and was annoyed by someone loudly laughing during "important" scenes -- sorry, that was me. I don't walk out of theaters no matter what, and this movie tested my endurance. If a sequel is made for this film, then creativity has truly died in Hollywood. Then again, even Leprechaun had a sequel....

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1): This book was boring to read, so likewise, the movie was also boring to watch. I would have much preferred a condensed amount of camping and not have split the book into two movies, but what do I know? I also could've gone without the near nudity of Hermione -- there's children in the audience for God's sake and the point of making Ron jealous could have been played out without that. Not that I'm a prude or anything, but if I had a younger child with me, I would've been disappointed by that unnecessary scene.....

Black Swan: This was an amazing movie about a ballerina pushed over the edge by the lead roles in a production of Swan Lake. I say "pushed over the edge" because she was crazy to begin with -- driven so by a mother who was living vicariously through her. I will never watch another episode of "That 70s Show" and think the same of Mila Kunis after watching the graphic girl-on-girl scenes that she was in with Natalie Portman.....I'm sure neither will Chuck and Mark who were sitting on each side of me and finding much more enjoyment in that part of the movie.

Tron: Legacy: Chuck, Sylvain, and I saw this in IMAX 3D and I still fell asleep! So, despite being in wonder at how Jeff Daniels can be reimaged to look like his '80s self to portray Clu, as well as Bruce Boxleitner to play Tron, and my enjoyment of Daft Punk's soundtrack, the "story" just didn't pull me in enough to stay awake.

I also saw a couple of Met Live in HD shows at the theater: Don Pasquale and La Fanciulla del West. Thru the HD broadcasts, I'm slowly broadening my horizons into opera and can say that I've enjoyed these shows. I am by no means a critic, so can't really comment on the production too much.

So, if you made it to the end of this, congratulations -- you're now caught up with what I've been watching while knitting. Next time, I'll give a quick run-down of the books I've been reading -- there's been quite a few over the past months.

What have I been doing all this time?: The Knitting

Wow. It's been almost 4 months since I've had a chance to sit down, collect my thoughts, and write an update. I feel like I've been constantly in motion! In September, I took the leap and ditched the BlackBerry in favor of a Droid X; one of the first apps I installed was Androblogger, which I *thought* would make it easier for me to update and that I'd be updating all of the time. Well, as you can tell, that's not the case. Androblogger is horribly limited and can only seem to provide text. Well, since this is mostly a knitting blog, it's almost impossible for me to write without wanting to include pictures and links. Ugh. Hopefully, something better will be developed before too long...

Now, I'm finally able to dedicate time to sit down and update because I feel like I'm coming down with something. So rather than spending the Sunday afternoon just sitting on the couch all day and watching Doctor Who episodes recorded from the BBC America's New Years marathon, I'm allowing myself to be smug knowing that I'm making progress with doing something rather than nothing productive at all....though, it doesn't help get my house cleaned nor the laundry done.....

Anyways, The Knitting:

I've been knitting my tail off the past few months. Let's review: in September, my friend, Carrie, gave birth to her second daughter. As a gift, I returned my favorite baby blanket pattern: the Rippled Baby Blanket. I already had two hanks of Dream In Color; I've knitted a blanket using the two before with beautiful results. Unfortunately for me, I relied mostly on memory and thought that two hanks was plenty of yarn. What was I thinking?!? With finished and blocked measurements of 30"x 30", the blanket ended up being a bit smaller than I would have liked and the LYS in Ohio where I had purchased the yarn has since closed up.

So, I decided to try my hand a crocheting a toy to go along with the blanket and use the left-over yarn for the toy's sweater. As you can see, the remainder from the blanket only ended up being enough to serve as trim for the sweater. It was my first attempt at making a crocheting a toy and I had the bright idea that I could do this as Christmas presents (yeah, keep in mind that this was in September; and it didn't work out like I had hoped, but more on that later). The pattern I used was from a Leisure Arts pamphlet called "Cute Little Animals" and the yarn was a mish-mash of stash yarn: Brown Sheep and Cascade.

In late September, we were stuck with a conundrum: Sylvain was preparing for a 10-day trip to Germany in November with his school orchestra and we had no idea what to send with him as gifts for his host family. Neither of us liked the suggestions we received from his chaperones -- to send school sweatshirts for the whole host family. Not only would that be expensive, it would also be incredibly bulky for Sylvain to pack. We came up with the perfect solution: knitted hats for the whole family! Oh, did I mention that the trip was in November? I needed to get moving.

I knew going into it that I would fall back to my favorite hats to make: Norwegian-style ski hats. (Is there such a thing as German-style ski hats? It didn't occur to me to search that out until now....) So, I pulled out my favorite Dale of Norway pattern books and a newly purchased pattern book called "Knit a Hat" by Ruth Sørense. Next, Sylvain requested that I use yarn in the colorway of his school colors: a red-maroon, baby blue, white, and black. The maroon was killer; none of my LYSs had anything that captured it -- all of the colors were either too red or too purple. Before long, I found the perfect wool: DKW from Shelridge Farm in the "wine" colorway. The DKW yarn was the perfect stand-in for Heilo, so much so that I didn't bother to knit a swatch. Yeah, you know where this is heading.....

So, all of October and the first week of November was spent knitting hats for Sylvain's trip. Sylvain even attempted to try his hand a designing a pattern for me to use, but he really didn't get the concept when I tried to explain to him that his design was more of an intarsia hat (US and German flags on each side along with other patterns). Even I know my limits, so the best I could do was to modify a Dale design to replace the large snowflakes in the pattern with "O", "H", and "S" for his school.




And, now: the swatch thing. My goal had been to knit five hats; I had two finished and a third well on its way by the date of my knit-in. While showing the hats off to the other knitters, it was pointed out that they all looked quite small. I was so caught up in getting them knitted that I didn't really step back and look at each of the completed hats. We called Sylvain to join us in the living room and model each of the hats for us. Sure enough, they didn't fit. I used size 4s and 6s to knit them, so obviously I needed to use larger needles. Using the small hats has glorified swatches, it worked out that I would need to switch to size 6s and 8s for standard men's and women's sizes.

So, unfortunately, I did.

And as you can see, the resulting hats ended up being too large.

All of the photos are of the hats post-blocking. Technically, I needed only four hats for gifts, but I had planned on giving one to Sylvain and having a couple of extras that Sylvain could give to friends that were also going on the trip.
I tried to squeak out a sixth hat, using the same pattern as the hat shown in the first picture. Still using sizes 6s and 8s, I kept this hat and didn't send it with Sylvain as a gift. I was curious about how the Shelridge Farm would felt and, since the hat was too big anyways, decided to toss it into the washing machine with a few towels. Thankfully for me, I made a last minute decision to place the hat into a lingerie bag first.

I've felted with great success before, so was very surprised to find that the hat completely fell apart in the washer. Trust me, this hat was finished, ends sewn in and everything, so I have absolutely no idea why (or how) this happened. To top it all off, the hat didn't felt at all. Not a stitch. Sadly, I haven't had time to repair the top, so its sitting in the yarn room as a UFO....

Needless to say, Sylvain had a fine time in Germany. It wasn't perfect, but is anything with a teenager?



With the hats more or less completed, I next needed to focus attention on Christmas presents. This year, I had planned to go for easy projects: fingerless mittens, scarves, hats, and crocheted toys.

First, the fingerless mittens: knowing that I was short on time and long on projects that needed to be completed, I didn't really wing it with a pattern for these. I used a pattern by Chris de Longpré with slight modifications for adding ribbing to the cuffs.





Even though I really hate Noro, I still used it for
both of these projects and was surprised to find that I didn't get totally screwed over by some crazy color inserted into the center of the ball. And, yes, your eyes aren't deceiving you -- I cheapened up my own gift by adding a pair of $3 for 2 gloves to each of the mitts.




Next, in the midst summer vacation, knitting Carrie's presents, and Sylvain's hats, I had undertaken a repair job that I probably really shouldn't have since I so obviously am so short on time. Occasionally, the knitting guild is contacted by non-knitters seeking help with items that they've received that are in need of repair. I was particularly intrigued by one request that came our way this past May. Marilyn, a local author, had in her possession a lace afghan knitted in cotton that her grandmother had knitted in the late-1940s to early-1950s. The afghan had started to fall apart and had about 20 holes similar to the two shown in the picture. It took quite a while, but using fringe that lined two sides of the afghan, I was able to repair each of the holes to the point where, unless you looked extremely close and knew where to look, one couldn't tell where the holes were. I'm still kicking myself for not taking any post-repair photos. Since I am not a professional knitter, I didn't ask for any type of payment, but did receive two gifts for my efforts: a signed copy of Marilyn's latest book and a binder of knitting patterns designed by a relative (by marriage) of hers.

So, where was I going with all of that? The next pair of Christmas projects were knitted using one of the patterns I had received: the Falling Leaves scarf.


The scarf shown on the left was knitted using Berroco Vintage Chunky and the one on the right was made using Misti Alpaca Chunky. The pattern was incredibly easy; my only issue was with the gauge. The pattern called for size 11s, but to make gauge, I needed to knit using size 15s. However, when I tried 15s, the fabric was just too floppy. So, I ignored the gauge altogether and reverted back to 11s. The resulting scarves were just the size I had hoped for and the fabric was nice a firm and held up the leaf pattern nicely.

The last Christmas presents I made were a pair of hats for my sister-in-law Jaime and niece Payton. When asked what type of hats they wanted, I received a text message containing pictures of the hats that they were hoping I could recreate. How'd I do?


The first hat was for (and modeled by Jaime). I used the "Lemon Grass Slouchy Hat" pattern by Ali Tong and knitted it in Cascade 128 Chunky. Jaime picked the color; I picked the accent buttons. Sure, I didn't match the photo exactly since it looked like I needed needles larger than the 11s that I used, but Jaime didn't seem to mind.



The second hat (modeled by Payton) is knitted using Noro and is a very simple pattern. There wasn't much to say about this one except that Payton seemed to like it.

So, with the Christmas presents out of the way, I was able to focus on other knitting projects on my plate: a gift for a coworker who was expecting her first baby, three chemo caps for Knit Michigan, and more hats (similar to the ones I made for Sylvain's trip) for an auction to benefit the OHS Athletic Boosters.


My coworker, Stephanie, was due to have her baby in mid-January, so thinking I had "plenty of time", I put my gift to her out of mind until the Christmas presents were completed. As expected, she ended up giving birth to her son on Dec. 26th. So, as soon as I had the last Christmas present off of the needles, I immediately casted on for her present: the Baby's First Entrelac bunting from "Entree to Entrelac" by Gwen Bortner. I guess I shouldn't say that I had put the project completely out of mind since, prior to this (and while I was supposed to be working on Christmas presents), I knitted two of the swatches presented in the beginning of the book (sorry, no photos....yet), so felt somewhat comfortable with the technique but wasn't sure if I could complete the project in a "reasonable" amount of time. I really didn't want this project drag on for too long, but it is my first entrelac project and I didn't know going into it just what to expect. I'm knitting this project using Berroco Comfort DK. I'm on Tier 11 of 26 for the body and started only one of the sleeves (after being tripped up a little on part of the initial left-leaning base triangles). To save my sanity, I'm sewing in ends every fifth rectangle. I *hope* to have this completed by the end of next weekend.

Yesterday, I attended the Met's Live in HD live-casting of Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" [The Golden Girl of the West] and needed something easy that I could work on in a dark theater. The entrelac project was not it. So, I casted on the first of the three chemo caps as my project of choice. The hat is being knitted using Berroco Comfort and the pattern is the Purple Delight Hat, currently a free Ravelry download. I'm using the suggested needle size (6s) and following the pattern exactly. The hat is a little smaller than I'd like, but figure that (sadly) even kids need decent chemo caps, so am continuing with it. If I were to knit this again, I would cast on more stitches -- I like the feel of the fabric.













So, now you're up to date on the various knitting projects I've been working on. Next up: books and movies.....

The joys of communal book reading

I *should* be dedicating this post to my brand new toy (a Droid X phone) or to my current knitting projects. But I spare you the gushing over the phone since I've done a fair bit of that on Facebook and Twitter; as for the knitting, I can't show off pictures just yet (still need to take them). So, I'd like to share a funny thing Sylvain said this morning while on the way to school.

His lit class is this year's zero hour class -- it begins at 6:50 am. Their first book assignment is "Girl with a pearl earring." He HATES this book. After last night's knit-in, I looked in on him and found him trying to get through the night's reading assignment and discussion questions. He had the most dejected look on his face.

So, during the drive to school this morning, I tried to make conversation (mistake) and asked if he was ready for this morning's discussion (bigger mistake).

"No....the book sucks. The author sucks," began his rant. "We couldn't possibly have a worse book to start the year with! The author dedicated a page and a half to describing the girl chopping vegetables, but only TWO sentences to her father being injured."

Hmmm. I hadn't read that book before, nor watched the movie, so am at a loss for giving him encouragement that it will get more exciting. Apparently, Sylvain's an action man.

So, I went the "show by example route" and started to tell him about how I'm struggling with my book club's October book: "The painter of battles." It's been a week and I'm only on page 7! Granted, until Theresa found the book wedged between my couch's arm rest and a couch pillow, where it must have been for the past several days...Regardless of that temporary misplacement, I had a hard time getting into the book from the start.

If the look I received from Sylvain was any indication that my experience was getting through to him, I have to confess that he didn't feel any more reassured than before....

Welcoming ANY distraction possible

I'm probably one of the few people in the entire world who would come home after a long day of marathon school clothes shopping (at Birch Run, no less, so LOTS of walking), and immediately don rubber gloves; grab the broom, dustpan, and cleaning supply kit; and scrub down the bathrooms. After being overcome with fumes, I've decided to take a quick break to check messages and do some net browsing while the bathroom airs out so that I can return and scrub the floors.

As yesterday's Fiber Fest purchases can attest to, I'm developing a little bit of an obsession with crocheted stuffed animals. I've also had a ton of patterns floating around my queue by DeliciousCrochet for the past several months, but am hesitant to purchase any until I have hook and yarn in hand to immediately start working.

I have a couple of friends who are expecting babies within the next month or so and one who had a baby earlier this spring. Hopefully, they won't mind being the recipients of handmade toys!

I'll have to stop cooing at the pretty pictures on the DeliciousCrochet Etsy page now and return to my chores.....

Hell has frozen over

In case you couldn't tell from my last post, I had been at what I thought was the peak of frustration....Silly, me! The last two weeks have been two of the busiest and hellish weeks I've ever endured at the office. I won't bore you all with the details, but I can honestly say that I lost all possible zen I had gained while on vacation.

Speaking of vacation, I need to post pics and stories....That's still forthcoming, but today, I'd rather talk about the Michigan Fiber Fest. I had to work today, so didn't arrive at the festival until 4:30; it didn't help that I got lost while trying to by-pass I-94 from Marshall, so cut across to Allegan on M-96, M-66, then M-89. The hour to 45 minutes by highway bloated into an hour and a half drive.

Anyways, once I arrived, I immediately ran into Rachel at her booth. I surprised her by uttering the magic words she's been wanting to hear for the past few years: "I think I'm ready to give spinning with a drop spindle a shot...." Squealing with delight, she immediately directed me to stop by the Maple Row Stock Farm booth from Sherwood, MI and pick-up one of their 1 oz spindles.

[Note: I'll pause my story now to complain -- inserting the photo above was a complete and total pain! I can't believe the new Flickr photosharing is so stunted and not friendly at all if you have pics that you'd like to insert into a narrative. It totally sucks ass!]

So, yep folks, mark this date on your calendar -- my journey into spinning has begun.

I continued my shopping, but with the vendors closing at 6, I needed to make my choices quickly. I picked up two crochet books from Homestead Acres in Ionia: "Cute Little Animals" and "More Cute Little Animals" by Leisure Arts. I also bought 10 hanks of DK-weight wool from Shelridge Farm in Ontario; the colors are for Okemos High and the project that I have in mind for this are 3 ski hats knit by modifying part of Dale of Norway motif. The hats need to be done by early-November, in time for Sylvain's trip to Germany with his school's orchestra. Each of the students going on trip are bringing a gift for the host student, and Sylvain's gift will be one of the hats. I'd like to have something like "OHS Germany Trip 2010" embroidered on the inside headband of the hats, so if anyone has any suggestions for a good, local embroiderer, please let me know!

Well, that's all that I have time for, for now. Sylvain's chomping at the bit to use the laptop before Chuck gets home. The house computer is still not working right and Chuck and Sylvain really do fight over who gets to use the laptop (even though it is Chuck's laptop). I shouldn't complain too much about the computer not being fixed yet; I'm still not on my new computer at work and there's 3 full-time IT staffers there who work on....stuff....

Returning to the office isn't as productive as one would think

We're back from vacation and I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. It didn't help that I caught a bad headcold towards the end of the trip; and now that I write that, I wonder if there's such a thing as a good headcold.

Anyways, my work laptop totally bombed on the last day of work before my vacation, so I was told that a new laptop and new PC would both be ordered for me as replacements. Silly me. All of that talk left me with the impression that these purchases would be made while I was gone and that within the 3 weeks of vacation that I was on, at least one of the machines would actually be in the building. I didn't really expect that it would be ready for my immediate use, but had hoped that by it being here, the IT staff would have something to work with to load software and stuff onto it.

Yep, silly me. Until last week, neither had been ordered.

And to add insult to injury: on that tragic last day of work, we moved my working files that had been created or edited since the last back-up onto a "dummy", temporary laptop. This laptop is one of the office's floaters that are available when one wants to attend training, has a presentation to give, or wants to run one of the projectors in our meeting rooms. These floaters aren't made for heavy-duty computing and have only basic software installed.

While I was away, the assumption was made that I would use the temp laptop until the real deals are ready. That's all well and good -- as long as the actual software I need to do my job and the rest of my files are moved over!

But, I wasn't here to point that out. Nor did I feel the need while away to call and check up on things. So, yesterday was a little bit of a "gimme" day anyways as I waded through my e-mail, messages, and actual mail. (Thankfully, I can still get to my e-mail thru a web application!)

Once everyone was on the same page with what was needed for files & software, there wasn't much of anything left to do, so I left for a long lunch with Sylvain, a quick afternoon cat-nap, then our dentist appointment. This had me thinking that I could hit the ground running this morning.

But, no.

I arrived at 6:30 to find a note that the laptop was taken from my desk since there still needed some work done on it. This should take only "20-30 minutes", but the person who has it doesn't usually arrive until 8:30 or 9-ish....

Now, I know that some of you are current or former IT specialists and that you might find my venting somewhat offensive. Yes, I know that the 3 folks who make up the IT staff here aren't here to support just me. I'm one of 45 users....But, really, I have a very hard time having faith when I feel like nothing happens until I start bitching.

So, what to do for now? Well, I've been meaning to do some organizing and picking up around my office....

And once that's done? If you see a second blog update....

UPDATE: I'm now told that the "20-30" minutes have morphed into "2-3" more hours. Well, the tidying up is done, so I'm working through the vacation journal to pick-up where I left off....ANYONE OUT THERE KNITTING? Send me a text & I'll likely join you....

Wearing butter-stained shorts in bear country

The Sunday before we headed out to New Mexico, I baked three loaves of banana bread for us to snack on during the long train ride. Sylvain managed to eat an entire loaf on Monday, so I took that as a good sign that he won't complain too loudly when I offer him some of the remaining loaves in the coming days. Being in full teenager mode -- eating banana bread in your seat with your parents isn't nearly as glamorous as purchasing an armload of junk food from the train cafe....

Not wanting to be a total cheapskate ogre, we had dinner together Tuesday night in the dining car. "These will go good with that banana bread," Chuck said as he slipped several butter packets into a side pocket of his cargo shorts.

"I don't think that's a good idea," I warned; to which, he just shrugged and waved me off as being nonsensical.

Can anyone guess who was right?

Of course you can....

Chuck remembered the butter packets several hours later while we were sitting in the train's observation car. "Damn it!" he gasped as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a semi-melted wad of oily butter and foil wrappers. "Shiiiiiit," came a second exclamation -- he had also forgotten that his MP3 player was in the same pocket.

Yes, there was great restraint played on my part to not go into "I told you so" mode; I just smirked and continued with my knitting while he began a futile attempt at cleaning up the mess with a handful of thick Amtrak dinner napkins.

So, that was Tuesday; flash-forward to Friday.

While dressing in our Albuquerque hotel room, Chuck eye-balled his butter-stained shorts. "You can hardly tell there's a stain!" he proclaimed as he slipped them on. He did have a point -- the thick, cargo-pant material had kept the amount of butter seeping thru the fabric to a minimum.

Friday was started off with a quick breakfast and three and a half hour ride to Philmont Ranch provided by the outfitters. The Ranch is a sprawling property located in north-central New Mexico. Sylvain was eager for us to depart as quickly as possible. So as soon as the father and son duo we were sharing the rental car with arrived, Chuck and I said our goodbyes and hit the road. The car we rented is a Town & Country, which is what I drove during my trip to Atlanta and really liked it.

We spent the rest of the day touring Taos -- visiting the touristy shops and sights. We had lunch at Eske's Brew Pub, but we both ended up skipping the beer. I had my first green chile cheeseburger of the trip; Chuck had a beef brisket sandwich. I was somewhat disappointed in my burger -- the green chiles didn't add anything special to the overall taste.

Having our fill of Taos, we stopped at the Albertson's (grocery) to stock-up on food and headed west on State Road 64. We made a few stops at places that interested us: road-side vistas that Chuck attempted to capture on his camera, the Rio Grande River Gorge Bridge, and the visitor's center to the Earthship commune.

We found a good campsite at the Hopewell Lake Campground and had our tent pitched in no time. Chuck was eager to find a good clearing nearby in which he could set-up his tripod to take good night-sky photographs, so we took a quick walk around the campground. While making our way along the dirt drive, the camp host drove up next to us. After calming the over-excited chiuaua sitting in her lap, she asked us what site we were in and how long we were staying. Once she heard our answers, she handed us a pamphlet titled "Keeping Bears Alive and You Safe!"

"We've had an extreme problem with bears ever since the 4^th of July. It's almost like they're falling right out of the sky there's been so many of them! It's so bad that the State of New Mexico doesn't even own enough traps to distribute to all of the campgrounds affected. We've had bears come into camp looking for food nightly. They've even figured out how to open the 'bear-proof' garbage bins, so we're now placing all trash in a trailer that's fitted with a metal cage," she said.
"I've been recommending that people not only store their food in their cars, but also the clothes they wore while cooking and eating too. I don't want an attack to happen here. Not on my watch!"

I'm so very glad that she stopped us and said something. Up until that point, we had forgotten that Chuck was wearing his butter-stained shorts. Typically, he'd change clothes for the night in the tent, but wouldn't necessarily be in a hurry to take the laundry bag back to the car. Usually, he'd shove it in a corner of the tent and take it out in the morning.

I'm certain that wearing butter-stained shorts in bear country is second only to smearing bacon fat on one's legs.....

"I'm here to promote New Mexico, NOT Texas"

Its amazing the things that are overheard when out wandering around in a town. The title of this post was something that Chuck had overheard the little, elderly lady who was manning the Information desk at the New Mexico Visitor's Center in Old Town Albuquerque. Once she had finished giving Chuck directions, she was approached by a family of 4 who announced that they were from The Netherlands and were on their way to Orlando, Florida. They wanted to know how far away they were from the Gulf ("Nowhere near!) and what there was to do in Texas. Chuck was fairly entertained by that particular conversation because the father kept pushing the issue, but only succeeded in walking away with a state road map of New Mexico. Is the cultural barrier between us and the Dutch really that large to where someone visiting this country would truly find it difficult to believe that a clerk at an Information Center desk was there to promote only one state?

Anyways, our day touring Albuquerque overall was a fairly good one. Chuck and I took a rather expensive cab ride (setting us back $30) from the hotel to the heart of the University of New Mexico's campus. Chuck thought it would be a good idea to check out UNM's geology and meteorite museums; after seeing that they were housed in the same building as the geology and planetary sciences department, we dropped by the professor who had been my advisor during my stint in graduate school. We were lucky that this impromptu visit was this week; typically, his summers are spent collecting field data elsewhere and he was preparing for a two-week trip to Ontario starting this Saturday.

After our visit, we headed off-campus to the Nob Hill neighborhood of town, visiting the eclectic shops and having lunch at a local brew pub called Kellys. Chuck had his first green chile enchiladas of the trip and I tried a bowl of their renown chicken and green chile soup accompanied by a roasted turkey wrap. We both enjoyed our lunches and washed them down with a pint of their beer, though with how hot it was and the touring on foot that we did, that might not have been a smart choice.

After we had our fill of Nob Hill, we hopped a bus that took us just outside of the Old Town neighborhood. We spent the rest of the day and evening touring the sights and shops in Old Town and doing a fair share of people watching. Of the sights I enjoyed: San Felipe de Neri -- Albuquerque's oldest church with the current building being built in 1793. The interior was equally beautiful and was markedly cooler inside, even though the windows were all closed, there wasn't any ceiling fans, and no noticeable air conditioning system. I could've sat inside all day.

Another sight was the Patio Escondido, which was another sacred place within Old Town, though we arrived after the nearby shops had closed, so don't know a whole lot about it other than what was on a small placard about the sanctuary and the ghosts that have been seen within. The Patio was unique from the San Felipe de Neri in that there were many candles, notes, and other tokens left underneath murals of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

For dinner, we ate at the Church Street Cafe. I had their combination plate: one cheese enchilada, one tamle, and one chile relleno -- done "old fashioned" style where the chile is chopped up and mixed in with the filling, hand-pressed into a ball, battered, then deep-fried. Chuck had a some sort of pork dish. We both struggled to save room for a dessert of sopopilas, which put the ones I had known from El Azteco to shame. Throughout dinner, we split a pitcher of margaritas and enjoyed the music of a classical guitarist who was seated next to our table.

If you're following my Twitter feed, you'll see a message from me expressing shock at having felt pushed during dinner and nearly dropping my glass. Yes, I still fully believe that I had been pushed and don't accept that it had anything to do with the alcohol. The pitcher was quite weak and I was still on my first glass. And, like I had noted in my tweets, we were at a corner table and there was nothing but wall behind my seat....

During dinner, dark rain clouds had rolled in; it was nearing 8:30 anyways, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We phone for a cab and waited outside of the San Felipe de Neri. A band was performing inside of the gazebo in the Plaza next to the church, so it was pleasant to hang out and do more people watching while we waited.

The rest our evening and this morning has been uneventful. The Scouts and parents attending Philmont have departed for their base camp cabins. Chuck and I are hanging out in a pavillion at the main staging area, waiting on the father-son duo whose rental car we're sharing. Once they arrive, our New Mexico adventure truly will begin....

Side note: I've been taking photos along the way that are making it to Twitter but not to Flickr. I'm not sure why, but when I get to a real computer, I'll be sure to update these posts with pictures and links.....