Life At The Moment

The well is up and running again. The contractor showed up Monday late afternoon and finished fixing it. When I paid him, I also gave him a big hug and told him he's my hero. He worked on our project on his own time, not company time. You don't find someone that nice very often. It's so good to be able to flush the toilet again. I made it through the whole ordeal. The Porta Potty was picked up today. I'm so glad we were able to rent it. 

It occurred to me that I mentioned in June that my husband was scheduled for heart surgery and then I didn't say anything else. Well, that surgery was cancelled because in preparation for said surgery they did a cat scan and a chest x-ray and thought there was a blood clot in his heart. Surgery was immediately cancelled.

He since then has had some more tests and they found it wasn't a blood clot. Just an anomaly of sorts, so the surgery is rescheduled for July 11th. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will happen.

I have been stitching like crazy on the train. I got all the cross stitches done on the coal car. I've started the front engine now.

In knitting, I've mostly been waiting for yarn I ordered for the socks. 

I ran out of the green yarn just as it was time to start the heel of the second sock and could not find another. I was sure I had two skeins of it, but I was wrong. I couldn't find the ball band either, so I guessed on which green it is (Knit Picks Stroll). I guessed wrong. I searched some more and finally found the ball band and ordered the correct green. It arrived yesterday. The dyelot is different, of course, but not off enough to cause a problem, thankfully.

In the meantime, I've been working on the Snowflake afghan a little bit.

I am enjoying it very much. The stranded squares are just big enough to enjoy but not feel impatient to "get to the end, dammit!"

My African Violet is blooming! A few months ago I divided it and repotted both. I had two plants in the pot and they got way too big for it. Both are blooming. Just a pic of one though.

Weather-wise, the remainder of last week was very comfortable. I enjoyed it very much. It's super hot today. 97F degrees at the moment. I'm staying indoors so as not to set off the asthma. Things are supposed to cool down later this week.

That's the news for now.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIPs Update

 I'm currently working on the following 3 projects regularly.

The socks. Unfortunately, I have run out of the green yarn just as I'm ready to start the heel on the second sock. I thought I had a second skein, but I don't. I ordered some more, which arrived last week, but I ordered the wrong green! I've ordered the right one this time, and it's just a matter of it getting here.

I started another afghan. I'm hoping I can get it done in time for Christmas. It's knit in panels with fairisle squares and textured squares in 3 different colors. So far, so good.

I have also finished the cross stitching on the passenger car of the Train. Just the back stitching is needed for this one. I started the coal car last night.

I haven't had much time to do more than this. It is helping to keep me sane. Especially the cross stitch. I have to completely concentrate on it so I don't think about other stuff. I've been able to spend time out on my deck too, which makes it all that much better. I love my deck.

Saw my lung doctor last week. I told him about my cough going away after seeing an ear, nose, and throat doctor and why, but about 2 weeks ago it came back. He was surprised that the problem was a mild form of pneumonia and inflamed vocal chords. He ordered an x-ray. No pneumonia but something is definitely going on in there. More tests may be coming. In the meantime, I've been given a prescription for a medication to help with inflammation in the lungs and my vocal chords, which are still very swollen and angry looking. It's already helping.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday 6/4/2025

 I'm making good progress on my projects. Today I'm featuring two of them. First is the felt applique stocking I'm making for Zoey.

I'm not happy that that lollipop is crooked. I'm going to be redoing that! I did steam the stocking, though, and got the creases out. I'm still having problems with the brown ink bleeding. It's getting all over my hands too. I hope I can fix that after it's done.

The second thing I'm going to show you is the cross stitch train picture I started in February. I started it, then put it aside to get some birthday projects done. Last weekend I had the thought that I really should get back to working on it because Christmas is not that far away.

The first thing I discovered was that I'd used the wrong color on  the part I'd started. This is one of the train cars. It looks a little easier than the other cars.

Our weather has been really nice the last few days. Before that we got rain. I've spent a few days outside working on the yard and enjoying my deck. I've taken to sitting out there in the morning reading my Kindle and drinking coffee. I'm hoping wildfire season will be delayed, maybe even cancelled this year. Probably a pipe dream, huh? Anyway, I got the deck flower boxes planted with Marigolds. I got them from a local nursery rather than Home Depot or some other box store garden department. This is how they looked after I was finished planting. I think they're going to be beautiful.

Yesterday I installed the drip system. I thought it would take about an hour at the most. Three hours later I was having to quit because I ran out of parts. I need some more of the mini drippers. A few broke during the winter. I've ordered some. I did get it working enough to turn it on. Just need to hand water a couple things until I get them, which should be tomorrow.

Next week my husband is going in for heart surgery. He's got a ton of tests to do beforehand. I am getting anxious. I sure hope this works or I don't know what we'll do. He can't just go on living this way where he has no energy whatsoever to get things done. He can't even ride his bike. I'll be keeping the fingers crossed-figuratively speaking.

One more thing. I made Creme Brulee' last weekend. It's my favorite dessert.

The week before that I made a Coconut cake to take to a meeting. It required 6 egg whites. I didn't want to just throw away the yolks, so I did a search for recipes using 6 yolks and found a Crème Brulee' recipe. It was so easy, and so good. I used to make it before we had kids (using a slightly different recipe, of course). I don't know why I stopped. If you've never had it, give it a try. It's heavenly. It's a creamy silky custard with a sugar crust on top. To die for, I swear!

Live long and prosper. \\//