Date Night

I just love date night when John and I can get out for more than 90 minutes at a time together. Tonight John and I were able to go out to dinner, take a walk around University Avenue and see Trevor Noah's comedy show at Centennial Hall down at the U of A. We really enjoyed the show and John got seats in the 3rd row from the stage. They were really great seats.

They almost did not let my hat knitting in Centennial Hall. The rent a cop thought that the knitting was dangerous. I explained that I would only knit while waiting for the show and put it away once the show started. Also that I was allowed to bring it in last weekend. What the heck is so dangerous about 16 inch circular knitting needles? Or hand knit hats for kids?

When we got home around 9 pm, Eric was still awake. He had a good night, but needed to see mom and dad before bedtime.  Of course he needed suctioning, and a gunk clean out, a diaper change and positioning. Then of course it was time to clean the suction machine, I lost the race so it was my turn, not the most fun I have ever had, but it has to be done.

It is 11:30 pm and I just changed and positioned Eric again. I am still waiting for him to go to sleep. I really hope that he is asleep before tomorrow. I really need to get my sweater done. Both sleeves are almost to the elbow. I also need to add the front placket. It has to be finished by Thursday morning. It is my first me size sweater that I have knit. All the other hand knit sweaters have been for Elmo.  I can not follow and alter a pattern when I am too tired to keep my eyes open, that's what hats are for. 

Here is hoping beyond hope that Eric is asleep and sleeps until at least 6 am.

A Bump in the Road

Today started out well. I got a lot done. This built my confidence in my hand. That disappeared when I was almost finished making the corn bread for dinner. I had to get John to help me get the batter into the pan. Then get the pan in and out of the oven.  

I was going to warp the loom after dinner but decided that it was better to let my hand rest. Boredom is the worst part of recovery.  I am just so use to knitting after dinner.  I can only play so many games.  Well tomorrow is another day.  

An Unwelcome Guest

Today makes the arrival of a very unwelcome guest in our home.  Eric's cold of 10 days has turned into a secondary infection and all that goes along with it. Right now I am waiting to run the first load of eyrpy laundry to finish so that I can start the second load before bed tonight.  I am hoping that Eric sleeps tonight. 

I have not had much energy for spinning in the Tour de Fleece today, I only spun 2/3's of a 4 ounce braid. I did manage to get 2 of the 3 skeins I spun yesterday soaked and thwacked.  They are drying in the garage tonight. The birds living on the patio don't like the sound of thwacking and fly away as soon as they hear me coming outside.  I am trying to keep up with the soaking and thwacking of the newly spun yarn so that at the end of the month I am not left with an overflowing sink of yarn that needs finishing.  

To tell you how tired I am. John asked what I wanted for dinner tonight and I asked for a half of a roast beef sandwich. He came in the door and announced that instead of mayo on my sandwich, he had them put on soy sauce. My reaction was, oh well I will just try something new, heck I might even like it. I was too tired to noticed that he pick up my 2 favorite dishes from my favorite Chinese restaurant, China Phoenix. I have got a very wonderful husband.  

I plan on spending the day resting with Eric tomorrow. This run of days with an average of 4 hours of sleep a night is beginning to get to me.  I really don't know if that has to do with giving up cola or not being 30 any more.  All I know is that my body has decided that it needs more sleep.  

On A Roll

Today I finished 1 crochet project, a child's purse that has been on the hook for over 4 years and 1 hat before noon today.  John will be very happy that the purse was no sooner off the hook then it found its way to a new home that was not ours. Since I did not want the circular knitting needles to be lonely, I cast on the next hat. In reality I find it harder to lose stitch markers and knitting needles when they are in the middle of a project. Even though it is too heavy to carry around, I was reminded that it was past time to finish Teri's 1st year of law school blanket. Miss Teri, how many years is it overdue?

I certainly don't have the energy for it but now that it is under 100f, it is time to wash Eric's swim stuff from today. while I am at it a little picking up would not hurt either. After all no matter how much I want to play all day with fiber, the house work should come first. Maybe I will have dinner with John first.

Good Things

John and I were on the same wave length yesterday. After work he called to see if he could bring home Salmon Sandwiches from Beyond Bread home for dinner. They were great as usual, Thanks to everyone at Beyond Bread in Tucson.

I finished my scarf last night. I wove in the ends and wove the hand dyed silk through as a design element. I can't wait to wear it next winter. Oh by the way it has 411 rows of knitting for the Ravely 1 million row challenge.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving today. We had a laid back day. I got to use the oven for the first time since we bought it. The good news is that it was easy to turn on and the tempature  was  spot on. No more guess work and an separate oven thermometer.  The only problem was when dinner was finished, I could not find the off button.. Maybe I should have read the directions that came with the oven.  John was great and came to the rescue, he found the off button.   I might have to read he book before I use the other features. 

I forgot to cook the green beans, so we used the stuffing as our vegetable.  Before you say stuffing is not a vegetable, mine is made with a ratio of 80% vegetables and 20% bread. We had freshly baked sweet potatoes instead of whipped sweet potatoes. Since we used luncheon plates we did not over stuff ourselves. We saved some room for a slice of apple pie with ice cream. 

John added another shelf to the craft room. We will work on filling it this weekend. We are busy doing the little projects around the house. The kitchen is still in flux as we decide what goes where and then change things up yet again.  

Saturday in the Pecan Groves

I started out Saturday morning in the pecan groves of Green Valley at La Posada. It was the annual walk against hunger in Tucson. I managed to do 2.8 miles in 47 minutes. I am happy to say that the food bank exceeded its goal.

Then it was home for a quick shower and chores. I got most of my paperwork done. The mail and Etsy order were dropped off at the Post Office. Which happened to be on the way to Noah's 1st birthday party on Harrison road just south of Speedway. Yes I did a lot of driving yesterday.

To avoid eating too much at the party, I brought my knitting and made 4 mini washcloths for the older girls at the party. I made them promise to read to their younger siblings or parents in exchange for the washcloths. That added 120 rows to the 1 million row challenge.

I stopped at AJ's to pick up a light dinner. John made a wonderful salad with all the fixings. By 9:30 I was so tired and sore that I could hardly move. Eric had decided that I had too much fun and did too much gallivanting around so I can't do that any more. In his opinion Eric is job number one.

A Very Busy Day part 2

Today I managed a full workout.  Then I had planned on a cleaning spree in the storage room for 2 hours.  I lasted a whole 70 minutes.  The good news is that I have made a dent in the clutter.  I have also decided not to work in there again until Friday or Saturday.  This will give my body time to rest and recoup.  I will need to get it a bit cleaner and dust free before I let John help in the cleaning. It is very dusty in the storage room. Hopefully it will only take a few more cleaning secessions before we can get John a work bench. 

Eric was so cute this afternoon. I told him that I was tired and needed a nap. He spent the next 90 minutes holding my hand in a very tight grip so that I would rest.  I even tried a caffeine boost while I was sitting with Eric. Unfortunately it did not work.  I landed up taking a nap anyway.  

John was wonderful and brought home dinner. I am finally winding down for the day. I have a busy day tomorrow too. 

Attack of the Pantry

After one too many cans fell on my feet, it was time to clean the pantry from top to bottom. Well I actually started in the middle which was the messiest shelf.  Did I also mention that it is the easiest shelf for me to get to? I then hopped around from spot to spot. I made an executive decision that John would be the executive cleaning the top shelf so that I do not have to go up and down the step ladder. It must be nice to be tall enough to reach the top shelf without climbing or using a grabber.

Since this was mostly a solo act today, the pantry will not be finished until tomorrow. I have about 3 square feet left to clean and John has the entire top shelf. It will be interesting to see what has landed on the top shelf. I wonder if any of it needs to find a new home?

As my reward I plan on spending tomorrow after the pantry is finished spinning, weaving and knitting. I wonder if I will need to find a hiding place to get some fun time?

Right now even though I am too tired to  move, I think that it is time to get dinner on the table. It is one of those throw everything but the kitchen sink in the red pot and hope it comes out well. Then serve it with store bought dinner rolls. Maybe even cookies for dessert if they thaw in time.

This and That

I know it is going to be a bad body day when I find my self doing stretching in the middle of the night. I try to stretch things out so that I can go back to sleep. I also find that the more I hurt on any given day the less creative that I am. I think that maybe creativity and pain share some of the same gray matter. Normally this is not an issue, but I have 2 patterns to design, knit and write the pattern in about 2 months. I will try after dinner and hope that I can get an inch or two knit and written at the same time. Long gone are the days when I sit and knit something up and then try to go back and figure out what I had knit to write the pattern. I have a very big back log of those to write up.

I did get to go to the staff appreciation party for Eric's day program today. I got to cook the hot dogs. The lesson I learned from this is not to barbecue with a hot grill right next to where the young adults are. Next year I will pick a grill away from where everyone is eating and playing. I spent 2 hours trying to keep people away from the hot grill. After everyone had, had their share of hot dogs, I got people to squirt the hot coals with the water guns instead of me. After 45 minutes I could relax and the fire was out.

It might seem funny to most people, but the highlight of my day was when 3 cases of diapers, 7 cases of formula and 2 other boxes of Eric's supplies showed up this afternoon. Just knowing that I won't run out of the basics is so nice. I don't think it much matters when they get moved. As long as we have room to park the chair and stack the supplies all is good until the cleaning bug hits.

I am really excited about tomorrow. I get to take a weaving class with Donna at Grandma's Spinning Wheel here in Tucson. A big thank you goes out to John, Teri and Eric for such a great Mothers Day present. I am going to learn how to warp and weave on a rigid heddle loom. If any one has any thoughts on which brand is better please let me know. Also are plastic or metal gears better? What size is good for a knitter/spinner as an all around loom? It should also fold for easy storage.

Well it is time to go cook dinner.

A Roller Coaster

Today was a roller coaster of a day.  It started off at 4:30 with a headache.  Followed by a call to pick up Eric from his day program at 10:15, before I had recovered from the headache. He was running a fever and is a little bit stuffy.  

The most wonderful part of the day was shopping with Teri at Savers. I also bumped into an old friend and we had time to catch up while Teri was trying on clothes.  Followed by dinner out with John and Teri.  

I even managed to finish 2 hats today. I am thinking about adding the one on the left to my etsy shop.  I will try to post it this weekend. Well it is getting late and we have a busy day planned for tomorrow. 

I Survived Tuesday.

Not the most terrific day on record, but we did make it through it.  High lights and low lights in no particular order include getting into a dress that has not fit since Teri was at the U of A. I am losing inches like crazy, but the scale refuses to budge. 

I have tendinitis again in my heel. Just so much fun.  The doctor said it could take up to a year to heal.  She also gave me Excersizes to do. I guess I won't start marathon training any time soon.  So I guess I will work on next weeks fundraiser. 

Someone decided to throw a whole lot of soda on the car while I was shopping. The van landed up with a car wash. After the car wash I saw where they also keyed the car. Really was either thing necessary? I rarely say things like this, but I think that they need a little karma in their lives.  

John made us a lovely dinner of waffles and oranges. He really knows how to take the sting out of a bad day.  

Well I think it is time to call it a night.  And below I included a picture of me in the dress. 

A Really Good Day

I had a very busy day today. With Eric at his day program, I was able to go to knitting guild today. Barbara Moore gave a lovely talk about the history of hand knit caps. She also gave us a pattern for a quick hat for charity that is a real stash buster. It uses 2 stands of worsted weight yarn. With about 1 hour total knitting time this afternoon I am half way through with my first hat. John made a suggestion of making a whole bag full for the next guild meeting to burn through some of my stash. The question I should have asked was what size bag, before I said that sounded like a good idea and agreed to it. Since the hat is not my own design I can not post the pattern here.

I also think that I may have insulted a few people at lunch by asking one person at the table to use her inside voice when she started yelling at the top of her lungs during lunch. I was ready to crawl under the table because I was so embraced to be with someone that rude. Not to mention that the entire restaurant was staring at our table. Teri would have loved being a fly on the wall when another person who did not know all about Eric, commented that we should not let Eric be such a slacker (her words not mine). We needed to motivate him  to be more like his older sister. I told this lady who is new to our group that we were content to have Eric in his day program ( I could have not drop a bigger hint), and we had no problem with him staying home as long as he wanted. Not everyone has to go to college.  I think the final round of me insulting the world came about when the server came over to offer us desert and I turned it down for the entire table.

After lunch, but before afternoon car pool I also managed to get some lovely fruit for snacks this weekend and get a 20 minuet nap.

John and I also went to a retirement dinner tonight. It still seems odd at times to think that we are retired.  The speaker was a Retired Air Force Major General. It was a great talk, that was surprisingly short. I should have written down the name of his book so I could read it.  Afterward John and I went to Frost and had a nice walk to help me get to my 10,000 steps for the day.

It is time to call it a day so that I can fill my day tomorrow with knitting, cleaning, laundry and hopefully some spinning.

Falling Tuna Cans and Other Harzards

I spent the morning cleaning and filling up the recycle bin, Finishing up the laundry from yesterday and making phone calls. Followed by some errands. I picked up Eric early from his program to get his afo's fixed and trimmed for his tennis shoes for winter. The best part was they were able to fit Eric's feet and the old tennis shoes so I have 1 less errand for this weekend. No shoe shopping. Happy dance time.

Today was going surprising well until about 4 pm. Then there were a slew of phone calls. I was trying to make dinner. We were out of meatballs for the spaghetti. When I went to look for the spaghetti a stack of tuna cans fell on me, they hit me smack in the glasses. If I look at you funny tomorrow it will not be because it Pirates Day according to Jo-Ann's Fabrics, it is because I am tiring to line up the old tri-focals. Did I mention that all the spaghetti in the house had expired too. I was ready for a melt down but held it all together.

So I made a stew out of the chicken, spaghetti sauce, mushrooms and olives. I served it with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and mixed vegetables which turned out to be mostly carrots. It was pretty good, but I do think I will get some pasta for the last of the sauce tomorrow.

I should cut it short tonight, as I have a busy day tomorrow. If anyone knows where I can find a time turner like Hermonies please let me know, I will need to borrow it for tomorrow.

More Progress

Each day my hand is feeling better, although there is still a bruise covering almost the whole back of my hand. I still can not do much. I can't get my hand wet yet so no cooking, cleaning or general housework. I have been able to sort through a lot of paperwork and even though its only Tuesday I have made some large deposits to the recycling bin. I wonder if I can fill it up again this week.

I did manage to get to class today for the first time this year. The stars must have been aligned. I even shopped for dinner. Just in case you were wondering a loaf of bread, corned beef, potato salad and coleslaw. Remember I still can not cook so John made the sandwiches. We are in kiss mode right now.

I have started knitting again and have managed to knit about 5 inches in length on a 6 inch wide scarf. I stop when my hand gets tired usually after a row or two.

I have started walking again and today I doubled what I did yesterday. Don't get to excited though it still is not much but it is a start. Well it is time to say good night because I am really tired.

Living Life on the Sunnyside

I don’t know if it is just me but I try to find the upside of everything possible. Take today for instance. This was the second night in a row that allergies have kept me up at night and I feel a little on the crummy side of life.


So I slowed the pace down a bit today and only did 2 loads of laundry from start to finish. But I did get 3 blocks done on Teri’s modular blanket which finished another row of blocks, and started another row. I caught up on some old TV shows that were stored on TiVo.

Around lunch time I realized that I was still on my first glass of liquids for the day, so it was time to play catch up. I did manage to make 2 perfect glasses of iced soy chai tea. And have been pushing the liquids since. Physically I still feel blah, but I know the temperature will soon rise above 100 f and put all that pollen out of my misery.

Well John just got home and it is time to toss dinner in the oven and microwave. This is my version of not cooking. I am cooking baked fish and chips and microwave vegetables. This is defiantly a very lazy dinner.

By the way Teri has only one more final to go and it will be the end of her L-1 year.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.