kmkat and her kneedles

Sunday stuff.

1. Arrow :: shirts.
2. Hum :: ho.
3. Cornerstone :: of democracy.
4. Flight :: of the bumblebee.
5. Music :: box.
6. Determine :: -ist.
7. Analysis :: financial
8. Better day :: tomorrow.
9. Audio :: video.
10. Meditation :: sleep.

* * * * *

I am nearly done with my bulletproof socks. They were not as much fun to knit as I expected. Worsted weight yarn on US#2 needles = hard work. The socks will last forever but I'm not sure they are worth the effort. I think the second pair will be knit on US#4s.

* * * * *

We think winter may be over. It hasn't snowed for over two weeks. (Hope I didn't jinx us with that statement.) Ice went out of the lake two weeks ago. We haven't had the heat on since Tuesday or Wednesday. Temp has been well over 70˚ for several days. I have opted for capris instead of long jeans. Our winter down comforters are just too warm for comfortable sleeping.

Let the summer begin!

* * * * *

I ran out of coffee a couple days ago. Oh, the horror!

Happily, I had put in an order for my favorite -- a 3-pound bag of Alakef French Roast -- at the coffee kiosk in my tiny town. Younger Son picked it up for me on his way here today so I am currently enjoying a perfectly marvelous homemade quad latte.

::sigh:: Life is perfect again...

* * * * *

Cleaning out my blog folder.

 

Muttering through Mother's Day.

1. 537 :: is more than 400
2. Horizon :: line.
3. Episode :: seizure.
4. Character :: -driven.
5. Crossed :: town bus.
6. Shipping :: charges.
7. Jump :: Whoopee Goldberg.
8. Bowling :: Lebowski.
9. Grumpy :: Old Men.
10. Them :: Us.

 

I celebrated my own Mother's Day yesterday -- spent pretty much the entire day in my recliner reading, watching Netflix, drinking coffee/soda/wine (as the day progressed), and knitting. This is Smokey's weekend to work (always with the night shifts) so when he is home he is tucked up in his bed with two dogs and a cat and a box fan for white noise. Today I might be productive. Hard to say, really. 

 

Reading: 
A few weeks ago I read a piece in The Nation by Deborah Kopaken Kagan about her experiences as a woman author and how she was demeaned by the publishing industry. I was so inspired/enraged by her experience I clicked over to bn.com and bought all four of her books to read on my iPad. (I also clicked over to her website and sent her an email telling her what I did; she emailed back that it made her cry.) Anyhow, I want to recommend her books. She came from an ordinary middle-class background, graduated from Harvard, moved to Paris, worked as a photojournalist covering a lot of gritty stuff (ex., she went into Afghanistan alone during the Soviet-Afghan war), eventually married, had three kids, started to write. The woman has lived more in her 40-odd years than a dozen other other people put together. I highly recommend her books, especially Shutterbabe (memoir) and The Red Book (fiction). Her collection of essays, Hell Is Other Parents, is pretty damned good, too.

Yesterday's book was Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich. I had read the first 60+ pages in fits and starts and was not particularly engaged by it, but yesterday I decided to give it a chance to pull me in. Which it did, in spades. Protagonist is a quant who specializes in the odds of disasters; the 3-person consulting firm he works for makes him rich. Then a real mega-disaster hits New York City -- essentially Hurricane Sandy plus Katrina -- and his life changes. Some of the scenes were lifted straight out of the news stories of Katrina. Good book, four out of five stars.

Last night I startd NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Creepy as hell, that one. I follow the author on Twitter. He is currently on tour for the book and every day posts photos of readers attempting to kill him in various ways.

 

Knitting:
I am enjoying having several projects to hand at all times. A hat, a pair of socks, the top-down set-in sleeve sweater, a scarf of the same yarn as the hat. They are strewn about my chair in various stages of doneness. When I sit down there is the delicious feeling of What shall I pick up this time? Project monogamy, begone!

Stuff:
Remember the humungous external hard drive? I have moved most of my data files over to it and gone into my most-often used programs to direct them to that drive for files. Two programs have me stumped, though: Excel and iPhoto. I can deal with the former, but iPhoto is being a bugger. I have searched through all its menus and preferences and cannot find a place to tell it where to store its files. My internal 160GB hard drive has 76GB of photos. It would be nice to get them all moved and backed up. All suggestions welcome. (I started to email Younger Son yesterday to ask him but got distracted, had to reboot, lost the email, yada yada. So I'm asking y'all.) 

No photos popped into my head to illustrate today's post. Here, in honor of Mother's Day, is a gratuitous one from 1984 of me being a mom to Elder Son.

Mutterings, knitting, cars, computers. And stuff.

1. Interests :: varied.
2. Bloom :: Harold.
3. Ceiling :: sky.
4. Tears :: roses.
5. Jerk :: chicken.
6. Weight :: free.
7. Friends :: many.
8. Camera :: lens.
9. Chicken :: jerk.
10. Hose :: garden.

* * * * *

Other items OTN.

A couple summers ago I bought some worsted weight sock yarn when we were on the North Shore. 

The person at the yarn store told me that one skein was not quite enough for a pair of socks, but that I could get two pairs out of three skeins. Hence, my choices.

During tax season I had decided that, when I had free time again, I was going to focus on knitting down my stash. Lots of good yarn there; time to use it. My priority would be to knit up the yarn that didn't fit into my Rubbermaid bins. Although I had planned exactly what I was going to knit first -- and it was not this sock yarn -- when the day actually came to pick up my pointy sticks, this is what I chose.

Sock The First:

It may not be apparent, but this sock is like armor. I knitted the foot and ankle on a US#2 and the leg on a US#3. Result: very dense fabric. The sock is also a little big on me; I am hoping a hot bath will correct that.

Heather, before you ask, here is the inside:

* * * * *

In other news, Younger Son was here yesterday to work on his car with Smokey. Did I ever show you the car they found for him to replace the 14-yo Chevy Metro he had been driving?

Someone had donated it to a tech school in St Paul, which sold it for very, very cheap, like <$2k cheap. YS is thrilled with it -- sunroof, turbo, heated seats, power everything, plus it all works (except for the speedometer, they are still working on that; he uses the GPS in his phone to gauge his speed).

Anyway, while he was here he installed a new external hard drive for me. My Mac Mini has a 160GB hard drive that is nearly full -- it has been nagging me for several months to delete stuff. I had done that, but it was a stopgap measure at best.

This external drive was one that had been sitting around where he works for a couple years; since his firm went to network storage they had no need for individual backup drives. It may not look impressive, but there are two 1TB hard drives in there. He set it up so that one mirrors the other -- automatic backup!

The copying/migration process, which kinda scared me, but to him was just click click, all in a day's work:

* * * * *

The official ice-out day on our lake was yesterday, May 5, the latest anyone can remember. Transiting geese and ducks and loons and maybe even some swans have been sighted and heard. The trees are still completely bare except that I saw that the swamp maple opposite our kitchen window was blooming. Maybe spring/summer really will come.

* * * * *

Well, there you have it:  the minutiae of my recent life. Knitting has been on my mind constantly -- well, except for when I was fretting about the surgery -- and I hope to have more projects to show soon.

Winner!

But first, mutterings.

1. Industry :: complex.
2. Jerry :: rigged.
3. Detour :: around.
4. Mug :: Jenny the Potter.
5. Steer :: -ing wheel.
6. Link :: fun!
7. Harmony :: guides.
8. Epic :: saga.
9. Suspect :: Tse-- however that is spelled.
10. Translate :: Russian.

* * * * *

Awhile back I won a contest at knitnzu.com. It was so long ago, in fact, that I don't remember what the contest was! Lisa offered the winner her choice from a number of different yarns. I gave her my list of favorites and told her to surprise me, so when the box came it was like Christmas and my birthday.

I warned Lisa at the time that the winnings wouldn't appear on the blog until after tax season. The time has come!

Yes, the yarn sat in its box until today.

There are three skeins of Lane Cervinia Cabrezza, a lovely soft woolen worsted which apparently was discontinued so long ago that even Google couldn't find it, let alone Ravelry.

Ha, ha, suckahs! I have the last three skeins in existance!

All lint and animal hair courtesy of our menagerie; opened box sat on couch for a l-o-n-g time.

Then there were two skeins of Knit Picks Palette, a yarn I have been contemplating. I bought one skein of Jamieson's fingering weight, thinking to experiment somehow, but it was so scratchy that I lost interest. The Palette, however, is a lovely soft wool. Methinks there may be some detailed colorwork mittens in my future (someday).

What colors would go with this rich bright brown?

Last but not least was this little treasure. Light fingering weight merino/nylon. Scarf? Socks? Time will tell.

Thanks, Lisa!

Life is random, why not me?

1. Baked :: Alaska.
2. Excited :: to go.
3. Print :: out of,
4. Obstruct :: -ionist.
5. Bladder :: full.
6. Matrimony :: wedding.
7. Car :: many.
8. Reconstruct :: Civil War.
9. Lenses :: contact.
10. Best for last :: save it.

* * * * *

I got to thinking about John Sandford and his Virgil Flowers novels because I noticed a new one had come out, Mad River. Love John Sandford, love Virgil Flowers. Maybe not quite as much as I love Lucas Davenport of the Prey series, but close. Couldn't remember which of the books I had already read so I requested all of them (five plus the newest one) from the library. Have been reading them one after the other, kinda like 350-page potato chips. Just started #4 AND got the email that the newest one is waiting for me at my local library.

Heaven.

Edited to add: the reason I like Sandford's novels and characters so much is that they are the most intelligent but down-to-earth ones I have read, amen.

* * * * *

Speaking of books.

I sit on the board of trustees of the regional library system, which is currently embarking on its [latest] long-range planning process. Members of the board were tasked with visiting all the libraries in their respective counties and chatting with the directors about the services they get from the regional system. On Friday the other board member from our county and I visited four municipal libraries and had four wildly varying discussions. Wildly varying in a good way, mind you -- their experience in the library system ranged from 1 to 29 years and their education/library size/community demographic varied almost as much.

It was an interesting and informative and fun way to spend a day. Which is good because next Wednesday we are going to do it again with four different libraries.

* * * * *

I liked the yarn I knitted the fingerless gloves out of so much (it's been sitting in my stash since 2007, why haven't I used it before?) that I decided to make myself a hat from it, the Twisted Toque from 60 Quick Knits. 

Fail.

Sorry, I should have taken a photo to show how terrible it looked. If you scan the projects in Ravelry you may notice that on some, the non-stockinette portion of the hat sort of... sticks out. Mine looked like the one in the link but much, much worse.

Ribbit.

In hindsight, I think the problem was that the pattern was written for Cascade 220, which is a light worsted, and I knitted it from a plump worsted. Perhaps if I had gone up a needle size all would have been well. 

But we shall never know because I am NOT knitting that pattern again.

So there.

Not that I am bitter or anything...

 * * * * *

(something I commented on another blog that seemed so revolutionary and astoundingly awesome that I had to include it here)

The possible long-term effects of global warming have been endlessly reported upon, but the day-to-day effects have been downplayed. I have concluded what the latter means for us in the northern latitudes is that our weather will change more quickly than we are used to. The past few weeks, with fronts blowing through seemingly every other day, are what have convinced me of this. Makes sense meteorologically, too -- globala warming is basically just more energy in the atmosphere = more volatile weather.

Kinda fun, actually. Every morning is a new surprise. Can I go into town minus hat/scarf/boots or will I need long underwear and three pairs of socks? 

* * * * *

Have any of you been watching House of Cards on Netflix? I started last night, got annoyed in the first 30 seconds*, so annoyed in the next three minutes* that I stopped watching. I eventually went back and am now ready to start episode 2.

But it is not nearly as good as the British original with Ian Richardson, imnsho. I blogged about that once twice before. When Kevin Spacey delivered that line -- You might very well think that. I could not possibly comment -- I actually groaned. He is a great actor, don't get me wrong, but this whole thing seems kinda flat compared to the original.

I will continue to suffer through it, though ;-)

* They broke a primary law of good writing/movie-making: show me, don't tell me. When FU kills the dog, that is showing; when he expounds to the camera to give every bit of background information we may need, that's telling.

 

Mutterings. And stuff.

1. Sophisticated :: Audrey Hepburn
2. Pelicans :: fish.
3. Flat :: stomach.
4. Cheekbones :: high.
5. Possible :: possibilities.
6. England :: island.
7. Jacket :: potato.
8. Sunflower :: seeds.
9. Hungry :: pelican.
10. Accent :: French.

* * * * *

I am working on a two-part post about my dyeing experiments adventures. Soon...

* * * * *

The horrific cold seems to have passed on to some other locale. Our temp is at or above freezing :) So naturally, I finally finished my extra-long fingerless gloves, the ones to keep my forearms warm whilst reading in bed in our cold bedroom.

I tried to wear them last night but had to take them off after a couple minutes because they were... too warm.

I don't know, do you think it will get ever cold again?

Yarn: Colorado Yarns Durango (10-ply worsted, 50/47/3 wool/acrylic/rayon),  colorway 5, a tweedy ecru; 1.3 skeins, 138 yds.
Needles: Addi Turbos US#7.
Pattern: Cobbled together, but I used the thumb gusset from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Knitting Patterns. I cast on a couple extra stitches to allow for more room in the forearm (could have used a couple more) and decreased them away before the wrist.

* * * * *

Laundry day, hand washables:

Actually, these are all perfectly machine washable and dryable except for the blue socks, upper row, at right. I found out the hard way that they will felt (Pagewood Farms, Denali Hand-dyed sock yarn). But I am *practicing* using my Hand Wash cycle.

Here is my *dryer* for the hand washables:

I took this while the fan was moving to spare you the sight of how filthy the thing is. Really need to clean it... someday.

First chuckle of the new year.

But first, the mutterings.

1. Princess :: Bride
2. First kiss :: Twilight
3. Humor :: humour.
4. Campaign :: reform.
5. Resolve :: New Year's
6. Intrepid :: voyage.
7. Rhythm :: blues/
8. Grand :: Ole Opry.
9. Dirty :: shirt.
10. Tooth :: decay.

 

Monday mutterings.

1. Dragon :: fly.
2. Battery :: dead.
3. Ziploc :: bag.
4. Shiny! :: Firefly!
5. 8 minutes :: orgasm. Remember that email of amazing factoids that goes around periodically that says a pig has a 30 minute orgasm?
6. Photograph :: color.
7. Future :: ties. Yeah, I don't know where that came from, either.
8. Tie :: stripe.
9. Bangs :: trim.
10. Appointment :: in Samara.

* * * * *

I plan to follow y'all's advice and bring a box of tissues to tonight's book group. We Need to Talk About Kevin is so timely that it is spooky.

* * * * *

I cleaned the area around the Christmas tree yesterday. The tree is still up and decorated from last year. Yes, I am a lousy housekeeper; my excuse reason is that being upright on my feet for more than a couple minutes is painful. It took most of the afternoon to tidy and vacuum an area ~8'x15'. Of course, it hadn't been vacuumed in ::countsonfingers:: a long time.

I really hope this hip replacement helps. The next thing is to strengthen my back muscles, which were weakened by nearly three months in a wheelchair after I broke my ankle in 2008. It is primarily my back that hurts; the hip is generally only a problem in walking. 

But I remind myself it could be so much worse, no need to tell you how. We all know how quickly life can change.

 

Sunday stuff.

1. Complications :: from surgery.
2. Bell :: toll.
3. Sunshine :: on my shoulders.
4. Laundry :: room.
5. Grumpy :: Doc (also Sneezy, Dopey, et al)
6. Throat :: strep.
7. Vitamin :: C.
8. Tell :: all.
9. Potent :: omen. (Wait. Omen is like portent, right? Score one for careless reading.)
10. Radio :: Free Europe.

* * * * *

We finally got some snow worthy of a photo.

We are about halfway through a winter storm alert. Six - twelve* predicted.

Whew. For a few weeks there I thought winter had forgotten us.

* * * * *

I finished whatever it was I was working on when last we discussed knitting. (What was it? My mind is a blank. Luckily, I have a blog so I can go back and check. Theoretically.)

Cast on for the mittens for our teenage slave helper, Scotty.

The pattern is Striped Mittens from Favorite Mittens (such catchy names, eh?), checked out from the library.

A couple weeks ago Carole's Ten on Tuesday topic was Ten Mittens/Mitts I Want To Knit. Having only minimal interest in mittens -- I prefer leather gloves in order to have a better grip on the steering wheel -- I did not participate nor pay much attention to the others' blog posts. A few days later Scotty's mother replied to my email about what I could knit for him for Christmas: mittens! Carole's topic was suddenly relevant, and I carefully perused all those posts for conservative masculine mittens. Voila, Striped Mittens, courtesy of Woolyheaded Ruth! Scotty's jacket and hat are gray, so these should be right up his street.

All that double knitting I practiced last month made this stranded knitting super easy. It's the holding of two strands of yarn that to me is the challenge of stranded knitting. But I now have that down pat. Win!

* That would be inches. Fifteen to thirty for those of you metrically inclined.

Giving.

But first, some Monday mutterings.

1. Idiot :: hat.
2. Starving :: children in Africa.
3. December :: madness.
4. Choose :: your dreams.
5. Dreams :: not responsible for.
6. Clash :: London Calling.
7. White :: Christmas.
8. Meticulous :: persnickety.
9. Bus :: pass.
10. Insubordination :: fun.

* * * * *

Hungry? How about a cheeses of the world gift basket, $90 - $999.

Also, a knitter's gift basket. $48 - $480. Again, a bargain. (I imagine Fran Drescher saying that in her Nanny voice.)

And finally, best of all; the gift of peace on earth, only $850. A bargain at a gazillion times the price.

Heifer International is there all year long. If your Christmas budget doesn't allow for a gift now, remember them next March. Or July. Etc.

 

inspiration credit: TheBloggess
photo credit: 2-Dog-Farm via photopin cc

Downs syndrome man calls Ann Coulter on her slam.

But first, this week's mutterings.

1. Crying :: Shame.
2. Reluctant :: Debutante.
3. Decade :: Ten.
4. Mustache :: Ramble.
5. Water :: For Elephants.
6. March :: Hare.
7. Stripes :: Stars.
8. Friendship :: Ring.
9. Weirdo :: Harpo.
10. Contacts :: Eyes.

* * * * *

Ann Coulter referred to Obama as a "retard" following the last debate. This is what a young guy with Downs wrote to her afterwards. (Have a tissue handy; this may require one.)

 

http://specialolympicsblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/an-open-letter-to-ann-coulter/

 

He was then interviewed on the CBCs program "As It Happens" and you can listen to him in the next link.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/

Tuesday unconscious mutterings.

1. Textile :: mill.
2. Ginger :: tea.
3. Strength :: through love.
4. Keeping :: up with the times.
5. Beard :: cuddly. (I love beards!)
6. Pregorative :: (I could have sworn this word was misspelled, but google tells me it is right. Duh.)**
7. Closing :: house.
8. Podium :: speech.
9. Rationale :: rationalizing.
10. Secondary :: infection. (Gee, I wonder where THAT came from. Not.)

* * * * *

Work finished yesterday (yay). Smokey wants to spend a couple days on the North Shore this week, since our planned vacation there in August was sabotaged by his slowish recovery. And then on Friday...

Minnesota Knitters' Days!

Soxanne and I will be roomies at this weekend knitting retreat, and another woman from Knit Night Orphans will be attending, too. Last weekend I googled the site of the retreat...and gasped*.

Villa Maria Retreat Center is in Frontenac, MN, almost on Lake Pepin (if you are not familiar with the Midwest, that's where the Mississippi widens into a lake).

The guest teacher is Lucy Neatby, who happens to be one of my idols. I cannot wait!

* See what I did there? I broke my own rule about not stealing pictures from other sites. Bad me.

Edited to add:

** And DUH again. I read it as "prerogative", which I thought should be "perogative". "Pregorative" is definitely wrong. Thanks, Rebecca!

Catch!

But first, this week's mutterings.

Desire :: Elms
Paint :: house
Sides :: laughing
Gauze :: bandage
Telegraph :: Hill
Slip :: nylon
Recommend :: movie
Amused :: tee-hee
Sorted :: arranged
Canvas :: oil painting

* * * * *

From  YouTube:

Practice made perfect! This is an Indian dish named 'Parotta'. The man makes it flat and throws it to the cook who will cook it in a hot and flat iron top.

I am wondering why the front guy hits his surface twice. The first hit is to alert the guy at the cooker that the front guys has just tossed a parotta to him. Why the second stroke? Maybe to let the back guy know that there will be another parotta coming momentarily? Front guy would only hit once if he were, say, going to scratch his nose. Or something...

Munday mutterings. On Munday.

1. Familiar :: home
2. Style :: fashion
3. More than :: enough
4. Glistening :: slippery
5. Obstruction :: traffic construction
6. Orifice :: spinning
7. Hugely :: inappropriate
8. Tempest :: teapot
9. Sauce :: spaghetti
10. Herbs :: green

* * * * *

In other news, gravity and I had another disagreement last Thursday. I tripped over something at the recycling center when I was running errands, ironically on my way to an ortho appointment about my hip. 

Result was face>>asphalt; also, knee>>asphalt. 

I didn't bother to get a photo of my knee. Picture a swollen right knee with colorful bruising spread out over a larger area, and you've got it. Also, my left hand/wrist look perfectly fine but is annoyingly sore. 

They x-rayed my knee when I was at the ortho ("As long as we're going to x-ray your hip...") but there was nothing broken, just soft tissue damage. "Just"? I was disappointed; anything that hurt that much deserved more than a "just".

Anyway, I'm mending. Vicodin that night, ibuprofen since.

Gravity really sucks.

Munday mutterings. On Sunday.

1. Middle :: Earth
2. Runner :: beans
3. Umbrella :: Parasol (Protectorate)*
4. She :: novel (by H. Rider Haggard)**
5. Album :: photo
6. Speak :: loudly
7. Completely :: understood
8. Underestimated :: me***
9. Self-esteem :: me***
10. Compartment :: -alized

* Series of four (so far) Victorian, paranormal, romance mystery novels by Gail Carriger. I just finished the audiobook of the fourth. Fun, light, humorous.

** I seem to be fixated on books this morning. 

*** I may also have a rather swelled head.

* * * * *

Photo credit: daniela.magallon via photo pin cc

We hired a teenage boy this summer to be our slave helper. Scotty is the son of a couple local teachers, a great kid, and a great helper. He has cut down trees and uprooted saplings and planted a new perennial bed and charged car batteries and moved things that needed to be moved and used the pressure washer and a myriad of other tasks that neither Smokey nor I were capable of. Yesterday he washed windows for me. They are not perfect (what 17-yo boy really understands how to wash a window?)(but it had been several years since most of them were washed), but the house is about 100% brighter and it makes me happy every time I look out a window.

It's the little things...

Munday mutterings. On Thursday.

1. Tenure :: forever
2. Baptism :: by fire
3. Holders :: cards
4. Irritation :: always
5. Academics :: never again
6. Mug :: coffee!!!
7. Charge :: account
8. Percent :: off
9. Clears :: the hurdle
10. Selfless :: devotion NOT

Oops, I forgot to post this on Mund--, er, Monday.

* * * * *

I am back at work today, Smokey having recovered enough to be left on his own for hours at a time. He has been handling his own meds for several days, can walk limited distances with his walker and even more limited distances without, and is largely lucid. All of which is a tremendous improvement over the state of affairs that existed for six weeks following the July 16 (first) surgery. Hurrah!

Monday mutterings. And knitting,

1. Call :: back
2. Instinct :: basic
3. Toffee :: caramel
4. Cleaner :: software*
5. Gut :: level
6. Leveled :: destroyed
7. Discover :: TV
8. Together :: again
9. Attack :: plane
10. String :: theory

* I used to have a little Windoze widget called The Cleaner that would clean the << and extra carriage returns from emails I wanted to quote.

* * * * *

I have four project OTN right now. Guess what I did yesterday?

Cast on a baby hat for here. Hats are the comfort knitting of comfort knitting.

Monday mutterings.

1. Course :: Correction
2. Delusion :: Grandeur
3. Silly :: Mee
4. Intrepid :: Voyager
5. Candle :: Light the flame
6. Entrance :: Fire exit
7. Voracious :: Appetite
8. Taste :: Bad
9. Bobble :: Horror
10. Horror :: Movie

Monday mutterings and an update.

1. View :: Room With A
2. Yoga :: Pants
3. Giggle :: snort
4. Raider :: Lost Ark
5. Summer :: Green
6. Debt :: Out of
7. Cleaning :: Yuck
8. Sneakers :: Dirty
9. Thwarted :: Plans
10. Recipes :: For disaster

Smokey the Bear update: He is on the mend. Yesterday he decided we should go out for dinner at a nearby ribs joint. He soldiered through getting dressed, going down the stairs, into the van, into the restaurant, back to the van, up the stairs, and back into bed. Guess what? He slept really really well last night :-) And today feels even better. Still spends a good part of the day in bed, though, partially because Oxycodone every four hours and Valium every six tends to make him extremely sleepy.

The next challenge is whether we will be able to get organized enough to go on vacation in two days. Stay tuned...

Mindless mutterings.

 

Cookie keeps doing these mutterings, and I got interested in them again.

1. Rude :: Noises
2. Leather :: Underwear
3. Headquarters :: U.N.C.L.E.
4. Good guys :: Bad guys
5. Blowing :: Smoke
6. Doddering :: Fool
7. Instructional :: Video
8. Standards :: Are too low
9. Eatery :: Drinkery
10. Vampire :: Bats 

Not that they are that interesting to anyone else but they are fun to do.

Oh, happy day! A cool front moved in last night and the temp is in the low 70s with a delightful breeze. I might even knit on the deck for a bit today. In between washing bedding and attempting to clear clutter from the bedroom/recovery room.

That photo up there? No relation to the rest of the post -- Lucy and Misha in a rare bonding moment. Mostly Lucy is annoyed at this bouncy young dog that wants to play.  But every post deserves an image, and I have resolved not to steal others's images via Google, so this is what you get.