Tommy Martini Park

Something awful happened late last night. About half an hour before we were going to bed Tommy went outside to do his business. He came back in a couple minutes later and sat on the floor licking himself. He was sitting kind of weirdly, but I didn't think much of it. Then he got into his little bed and I covered him up with his blankie. A little later I told him it was bed time (he sleeps in my bed at night), but he couldn't get out of his bed. I picked him up and set him on the floor and he was clearly having some kind of weird seizure and in severe distress. He couldn't stand up at all. His whole body was almost paralyzed and he was in a lot of pain. We rushed him to the Emergency Animal Hospital.

The doctor thinks he had some kind of stroke or blood clot. (The only way to know for sure required an MRI, but the nearest vet who had one was a 2 hour drive away.) There was nothing they could do for him. He was suffering so much. I found myself making the horrible decision to have him euthanized.

Just like that. My happy bouncy little boy is gone! I can't believe it. I keep hoping I'll wake up and the nightmare will be over.

I love you so much Tommy. I will miss you forever.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Honeycomb Bangle

I finished my Honeycomb Bangle.

My tension seems to be rather uneven. Sigh. It's a lot harder to keep it even than one would think.

But it fits me perfectly and, of course, it's my favorite color. I admit it was a challenging project to make.

If you want to make your own Honeycomb Bangle by Cynthia Rutledge get the April 2011 issue of Bead & Button Magazine  because it's in there.

I also finished the first Wheat Rib sock.

I do like, very much, how it's turned out. Now the fun part-writing it all down in an understandable format and knitting the second one to test it. I've been told these look like Frank socks. That's good, because that's who I'm making them for.

We got a real frost last night. I can't believe we made it all the way to October 6th without losing everything to frost. Still didn't lose everything, but the tomato plants are pretty much green slime. The dahlia's fared fairly well so I get to enjoy them just a few days longer.

Speaking of tomatoes, last week we picked a couple ripe ones.

Yes, that is a dime in the picture with them. You won't believe what variety they are Mega Bite! We haven't got anything larger than a cherry tomato from it yet. I ate them after taking this picture. They were tiny, but chock full of great tomato flavor.

Actually, as tomatoes go, it was a lousy year. My plants didn't get any more taller than they were when I brought them home from the store (Home Depot), which is weird cuz they got plenty of good food, sunshine, and water. We didn't get anything from the Early Girl plant at all. The third plant, Bush Champion, didn't grow very big but it had 2 very large tomatoes on it. They aren't quite ripe yet, but they have a definite orange hue. I picked them and brought them in the house yesterday to finish ripening since I knew frost was expected. They are gonna be nice sandwich slicers.

All in all, I still wonder why I bother though. I just don't have any luck with tomatoes. It's always such a struggle just to get 4 or 5 fruits.

My surgery has been scheduled for October 21. I've got several appointments for medical tests between now and then. That should be fun. Not. I'm feeling much better this week. I'm starting to get my energy back.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Wildlife Visits

Thought I'd share some pics I have taken in the last couple days.

First, I got Tilly in the front yard. I was at the front window, hiding behind the blinds with my camera lens poking through just waiting for her to stroll by. I was successful, though I did get a bit of glare from the window.

Click on the pics to embiggen.

  She was looking for bird seed that might have fallen on the ground under the Parkarosa Bird Buffet.

There isn't any. I haven't been stocking the feeders because there is so much wild seed on all the plant life around here right now. I did dump a small cup of bird seed on the ground in the back yard today, though, just for her. She seemed to enjoy it.

It was a beautiful day today. I decided to sit out on the deck and do a little beading. While I was working on a bracelet (to be shown after it's finished) I heard a racket of thumping and branches breaking in the trees. It sounded like kids playing, or maybe even a hunter thrashing around in there (we occasionally get trespassing hunters at this time of year-a scary thing to be sure) so I yelled "Hey, is anyone out there?!" It got quiet, and then this fellow stepped out.

He stood there and stared at me for the longest time. Then he turned and walked back into the trees.

My goodness but he's a big fellow. I could hear him stomping around in there for quite awhile. I have locked Tommy's gate so he can't run around the yard unsupervised just to be safe. I wouldn't want him trying to nip this guys heels. I suspect this fellow will hang around for a couple days.

I heard back on the uterine tissue sample tests. Everything seems to be normal, and no cancer. Hearing that one does not have cancer is always good news.

Tomorrow is Rathdrum Knitalong. I'm looking forward to it.

Live long and prosper. \\//

What a Week

My week has been filled with medical tests and full on just-short-of-panic-attack anxiety. By last night I was so exhausted  I went to bed at 8:30.

On Wednesday I saw the Gynecologist. A very nice young man (when did doctors become the same age as my kids?). He took some samples of tissue from the uterine lining.( Geez, that hurt more than I thought it would.) We will find out the results some time next week. He told me my uterus was small, which he seemed to be happy about, and that I would be getting an Endometrial Ablation. Due to my blood disorder, it is best to avoid hysterectomy, and I looked like the perfect candidate for EA. There will have to be some kind of medication bridge because I have to be taken off Coumadine before the procedure, but still be on blood thinners. Sigh. That means returning to injecting myself with needles several times a day for a few days before, and a few days after the procedure. Oh well, I was then scheduled for a pelvic sonogram to see what's really there.

Thursday I rested, unbeading and unknitting. Yes, the plan was to bead and knit. The weather was so beautiful I spent a few hours just enjoying it, some of that time on the deck crafting. I started a mens size mitten, as planned,

 but ended up frogging half of it back because I decided to put a silly striped pattern in it. Was worth the effort cuz I am loving the results.

The beading was a continuation of the Honeycomb bangle. I was at the part where I was putting on the Rondelles. I got about half way around and realized the whole Rondelle round was way too tight. The bangle couldn't even curve into a circle. I took some measurements and discovered the real gold beads I was using were not 3mm. They were in fact 2mm. Oh yes, they were 3mm wide, but only 2mm long along the bead hole. That was a problem. This bracelet really needs that hole length to be 3mm. So I had to frog it back to the round where I put those in. I dug around in the stash and found two strands of 3mm gold metallic Czech firepolish crystals. Not real gold, like the 3mm beads I was using (rats!), but just as shiny. I am now back to the Rondelle round, but probably won't get to it until tomorrow.

So, though I didn't actually make any forward progress in my projects, I think it was a productive time on the deck. And I so enjoyed the sunshine, blue sky, puffy white clouds, the buzzing bees on the brightly colored dahlias, the warm sweet spicy breeze caressing my back, and Tilly and Tommy playing with each other on the lawn as I worked.

I  can't believe my dog has made friends with a wild turkey. Will wonders never cease?

Enter the pelvic sonogram. It was done on Friday. I've had one before and I hated it. So I wasn't looking forward to this. Fortunately, I got a wonderful technician (unlike the last time when I got an old battle ax with a chip on her shoulder-sigh. Whole 'nuther story) who was very helpful and informative. I relaxed quite a bit after meeting her.

That small uterus? So wrong. Yes, the inside is small, but the outside is a whole 'nuther nightmare. It is so covered in fibroid tumors and fibroid tissue that it is the size of a 20 week pregnancy. The technician couldn't even find my right ovary. It's been imprisoned in fibroids. Now I'm wondering what the Gynecologist felt that he thought was a small uterus? Oh yes, and I have a teeny tiny bladder. Poor thing. It's being squished.

 No wonder my uterus won't stop bleeding. Suddenly a whole lotta stuff I've been dealing with the past few years came into focus and made sense. I've come to a conclusion. I don't want it anymore. When I see Dr. Gynecologist next week, I will say "I WANT THIS THING OUT OF ME." I'm willing to go through whatever drug therapy I must to get rid of the ute. I don't need it any more. It's just causing a lot of trouble. I don't want it. Period. Yank that baby out and lets be done with it. While your at it-take that poor abused ovary with it. And lets get this done asap. I've got a trip to Mauai in December. I wanna be in good shape for it.

Oh yes, and please be generous with the pain killers. ;-)

Today is Parktoberfest. I am going to really enjoy it this year. I need the fun and fellowship of friends and family right now. I'm going to be making White Chili and Plum Crisp for the occasion, as soon as I get done here. Sweet Hubby wants the White Chili. It has been awhile since I've made it.

The Plum Crisp is of necessity. I've never had it before. We have a wild Plum tree in our back yard. Usually, we don't get much of the harvest because the birds and wild animals beat us to it. However, this week we had a brief but powerful wind storm that knocked most of the ripe plums out of the tree where they landed on the thick soft lawn. Sweet Hubby gathered them all up, and now I have to figure out what to do with 2 shopping bags worth of ripe Plums before they start to rot.

I'm not really a Plum lover. I'll eat them once in awhile fresh, or tossed in a fruit salad, but I've never cooked with them. I googled and came up with a Plum Crisp recipe that actually sounds good.

So, that having been said, I need to get busy  cooking.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Ramblings

I have an appointment with a Gynecologist for this afternoon and I'm extremely nervous. No, let me rephrase that. I'm scared to death. A Xanax sounds really good right now. I will refrain though. I'm afraid to take it under the circumstances.

My blood test results came in yesterday morning. There was a bit of a panic at my doctors office. It's never good when that happens. Yeah, I've definitely lost too much blood. Drug therapy is out apparently. I fail as a candidate for that. Rats.

Today was the soonest a Gyn could see me. I've been taking it easy. When I'm this anxious, though, I can't bead at all, and knitting is difficult. I have almost no ability to concentrate. My thoughts zip around like crazy. Reading a novel is helpful. It seems to stop the zipping and calms the mind down. I finished The Mote in Gods Eye  (it is every bit as good as I remembered) and now I'm reading a CSI novel, The Killing Jar. Pure entertainment. It's all I can handle.

I have added a couple inches to the sock. I'm thinking, though, that I need to do something really brainless cuz I'm tinking as much as I'm knitting on that sock. I'm going to start some plain vanilla mens sized mittens for Knit Wits. We are seriously in need of them and they make a good portable project. Maybe I'll do the hand part in seed stitch so I don't get too bored.

Firefox is my web browser of choice. For some reason, it has stopped working on my laptop. I spent most of yesterday trying to get it working again, including a complete uninstall and then install of the newest version, checking for disk errors, scanning for malware and viruses, and all manner of things. Sweet Hubby worked on it for a few more hours after he got home. He couldn't get it to work either. We don't know what is wrong. I worked fine on Monday morning and that afternoon it wasn't working anymore. There are days when I really really really really hate computers.

So now I'm using Internet Explorer, which I can't stand. My daughter says to try Google Chrome. She used to use Firefox, tried Chrome out of curiosity, and never went back. Maybe I'll do that. I hate to abandon Firefox cuz I've really loved it up until now. I'd much rather know what is wrong and fix it.

The weather has been unseasonably warm this whole month. It's giving my tomatoes half a chance of getting ripe before frosting. We did get a nice cool day of rain yesterday though. It cleaned a lot of the smoke and dust that is typical for this time of year out of the air. The air smells wonderful right now. It has that sweet spicy aroma of autumn.

Tilly the turkey seems to have taken permanent residence in our yard. There's a reason for that. About 3 weeks ago, after Sweet Hubby and daughters latest brew, they dumped the used grain into the brush in the back yard. Tilly has been eating it like crazy ever since. No, she is not drunk. There isn't much alcohol in that grain anymore. They made this brew of millet, which is sold as bird seed in the US. It tastes pretty darn good (the brew that is. I didn't try the grain). I can see why Tilly likes it.

She has been deliberately teasing Tommy. Even going so far as to stand under the open living room window and clucking to get his attention. She waits for him to come dashing out the doggy door and around to the front. Sometimes she runs, letting him chase her in circles. Eventually she leaps out of the circle, stops, and watches Tommy continue in a circle (he is not a smart dog). It will take a couple laps before he realizes she's stopped. I think she gets a kick out of making him run after her and then jumping up and flying into a tree. Silly dog, she has his number. She is extremely camera shy though. She sees it, she runs. She's providing us some very good entertainment, and getting Tommy to exersize. I see that as a good thing.

Along with the ripening of tomatoes, I'm getting Dahlia blooms that I would not normally get with the lengthening of this summer. I leave you with this pic I took over the weekend.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Sometimes Ones Body Is Not Ones Friend

I have not been feeling well the past week. So much so that I've not even wanted to knit or bead. I did get a little bit forward on the sock. I settled on the type of heel that would be used in this pattern.

Now I'm going up the leg. I weighed the skein after getting the heel done to see if I might have enough to finish and I think I do. I had slightly more than half left. If I get to the cuff and it's pretty clear I don't have enough I've decided to do it in the red. I'll be glad when I finally get this sock done. I will be knitting the second one to test knit the pattern after I finish writing it. It may become one of those Yazi projects.

Sweet Hubby was away most all of last week on his bike ride. He came home safe and sound and very happy. He had a wonderful time and wants to do it again next year. His legs are also so sore he's having problems walking. I'm pretty proud of him though. 350 miles in 5 days is no small accomplishment.

On Sunday morning my glasses broke. I picked them up to put them on and one of the arms fell off and hit the floor. I had a really really bad night Saturday. Got hardly any sleep at all and was in a very foul mood. The glasses were no help at all. I was quite upset.

Today, though, I went to Visionworks (formerly Eyemasters), where I bought the glasses, to get them fixed. They were out of warranty, naturally (just barely too). But I got lucky. They still carry the frames so I was able to purchase new ones exactly like the old ones. The sales clerk let me have them for half off too, which was nice of her. I didn't have to get new lenses, which is a huge relief. She just used the ones from the broken pair. I kept the broken frames so I have some spare parts, just in case.

As I've mentioned, I'm not feeling well. Today I went to the doctor. The news isn't good. I've been going through Perimenopause for a few years now. You know when they tell you you'll get hot flashes, mood swings, and 'menstrual irregularities'? Yeah, that last one is a variety of things, including Flooding. It's when your period flow is so heavy that you think your going to bleed to death. You're changing the pad every hour and usually getting huge clots along with it. (When I say huge-I mean lemon sized!) It's normal to have Flooding for a day or two, but I just went through an entire week of very severe flooding. I've lost so much blood it's affecting me pretty strongly-headaches, dizzy, weak, tired, heart pounds at the slightest physical effort, and I'm so darn cold. When I told the doc what's been going on the past week, he said "You're scaring me Linda." I'm scaring him? Not nearly as much as I've scared myself.

The doctor is sending me to a Gynecologist. I expect to be having surgery in the near future. Something has to be done to eliminate the problem. Usually drug or hormone therapy (Estrogen) is what one would start with, but I can't have that due to meds I'm on and a history of DVT. So surgery comes next. Not sure what exactly. I guess I'll find out. In the meantime, I have to take it easy, increase my iron supplement intake (which I'd already done a couple days ago), and eat more steak and other iron rich foods. Thankfully, the flow has eased up quite a bit today. If it goes back to being heavy again, I'm to take myself to hospital emergency immediately.

Aging. It sucks.

I don't want to end todays post on a negative note, so here's something cool. I ordered a new t-shirt last week and it arrived today.

It's a take on the phrase "Haters gonna hate". If you are interested, visit Spreadshirt.com. I'm looking forward to wearing mine to my next knitting group meeting.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Catch a Falling Star

It's been a productive weekend so far. I finished painting the headboard. Just waiting it to be completely dry before I attach it on my bed.

I also got the necklace for the star donut done. I've named it Catch a Falling Star.

Click on the pics to embiggen.

The strap is done in tubular Herringbone stitch with size 11 and 15 seed beads. I used the pale yellow and dusty pink ones to pick up the colors in the stone donut. There are 6 beads in a round. I wanted something a little thicker than the typical 4 bead round.

This is a view of the necklace with the back side of the donut showing. I wish I knew what kind of stone it is. I am pretty sure it's Jasper, just not what specific type of Jasper.

 I made a toggle clasp with peyote stitch.

All in all, I'm pleased with it.

The pattern for this is on the French blog Bienvenue Chez Fly. If you click on the link, scroll down for the November 8, 2009 post. You will need to click on the picture of each pattern page, then save the picture on your hard drive, or print it.

The work on the sock is not going so well. I discovered the gusset heel doesn't work with the design so I've frogged back to where the gusset started and will try a short row heel instead. I am learning quite a bit about toe up socks with this project. They are definitely different from top down with their own set of construction problems.

Sweet Hubby is getting ready for his big ride. He leaves on Tuesday. He's been packing for 2 days now. I think he's a little excited. We went shopping yesterday to get a few things he needed and to refill my pantry. Costco was packed. It took twice as long to get around the place because there were so many shoppers. I don't think they're feeling the 'recession' as much as other retail businesses.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday 9/14/2011

This day is not going as planned what-so-ever. It started last night with Sweet Hubby informing me I had to stay home today because he'd ordered a new phone and someone had to be here to sign for it (it was FedExed overnight). I had plans! I was going to Yarnies. I also had an appointment for my monthly blood test and a few other errands to run. As much as I love Sweet Hubby, it really aggravates me to have him dismiss my 'life' so much that he can't even ask me first if or when I'll be home on a given day before scheduling me for something. I find it rather rude. Sigh.

Anyway, I have some WIPs to show you.

First of all is this headboard. I bought it from my friend Judy last year in the fall. I started stripping it then, but then the weather turned wet and cold so I put it away for the year.

2 weeks ago I got it out to finish it. It was horribly hot so I set up some shade to do it in.  I don't have a garage to do this kind of thing in when the weather is bad and there was no way I could do it in the house either.

I got it all stripped, sanded, and looking nice so last week I went and bought paint. But it was way too hot to paint. I tried priming it first but it was drying so fast! By the time I would stroke my brush from one side to the other, the beginning of the stroke would be dry. That will not work. Paint that dries too fast will peel rather soon. I want this stuff to stick for the rest of my life, so I put it on hold until things cooled off enough.

Today it is much cooler. Since I ended up being home anyway, I went ahead and primed the whole thing. I hope to start the actual paint tomorrow and if I have any luck at all, it will be done by the end of the weekend so I can start using it. I haven't had a headboard on my bed since I was single. I've wanted one all this time, but just never got around to it I suppose.

I am painting it with a matte dark purple. The color is the same as the purple on my droid phone cover. Not because I was dead set on having that exact shade of purple in my bedroom, but because when I said "I want a dark purple" to the fellow helping me out at the hardware store, he said "how dark?" and I, thrashing around for an example, pulled out my phone and said "Here, this will do." He matched the paint to the phone. It is very pretty. Should look nice on a headboard.

I have been beading. First of all I'm working on a necklace to hang the Star Donut pendant on that I made last year. I seem to still be in a Herringbone mood.

I have started a bracelet project that has been on my mind for some months. I bought the beads for it last June. It's about time I got it going. The first step toward my Honeycomb Bangle.

Just iris gold delicas in a tubular band so far. I was kind of surprised to find the pattern is free online. I found it in the April 2011 issue of Bead & Button magazine. It is the cover project.

Here is the current situation with the Chevron sweater.

I'm ready to decrease for the armholes. Or increase. I've got an idea I want to try out. Just haven't had a chance to sit down and work out the math yet.

Those are the WIPs for today. If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper. \\//

 

The Red Toe

Early last week I was thinking about knitting on the sock I'm doing at the moment even though I really didn't feel like knitting that day. Just to remind you what sock I'm talking about, though I was actually up to just starting the gusset when it entered my thoughts:

 I thought about how nice it was going to look with that red toe and heel. I was thinking about how I hoped the person I'm giving the socks to will like them. A picture of the partially knit sock flashed in my mind.

OOPS!

What red toe? Arrgh! I forgot to start with the red.

 I did not want to frog and start all over. I've already frogged this sock so many times I could scream. I tossed it in a corner for a much needed time out.

The next day I dug it out of it's bag and tackled the problem. I decided, rather than frog the thing, I would remove the toe at the row just before the first stitch pattern row, place the open sts on a couple needles, and knit the toe top down. Here's the removed toe:

Here's the sock in it's current construction.

 Success! Didn't take long to fix at all. Took a lot less time than starting all over again, that's for sure.

Top down toes look different from toe up toes, so I'm going to have to do something about that in the second one. I'm going to start with a provisional cast on where the stitch pattern begins, then knit the toe top down like I did the first one. However, the instructions I've written are as it should have been done. Cast on with red, knit toe, change to brown when stitch pattern begins. It will be a 'do as I say, not as I do' kind of pattern. Lets learn from my experience, shall we?

Please keep this to yourself. It's a secret.

Live long and prosper. \\//

A Fawn and a Turkey

About an hour ago we had some visitors. Tilly the turkey met a fawn. Click on the pics to embiggen.

Hello! What are you?

Lets play!

Mmm, this grass is yummy!

Are you coming with us?

'K, thx, bai!

Live long and prosper. \\//