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 Very Busy Weekend

From Saturday morning until tonight has seemed to be a total busy blurr. Saturday I had the homemade brownies in the oven by 6 am to beat the heat of the day. It did not hurt that they were cool enough to cut by the time we left for the poker party at 11am. I finished one scarf on the way to the party while John drove. This was Eric's first poker party and he hung around with the ladies. I could tell that he was very busy trying to keep track of all that was going on,  even with the guys playing poker in the next room. I did get some spinning done on on spindles.

When the wives get together you never know what we will talk about. For some reason we got around to talking about copyright when talking about Karie's paintings. She managed to sell 2 last week. I also took a small spill off a chair when I bent down to pick something up. It kind of went like this. I leaned forward and the chair tipped out from under me. My fall was partially broken by the rear wheel of Eric's wheelchair. Luckily my head hit the wheel while my elbow and hip got the tile. This left me rethinking about putting tile in the kitchen. John took care of getting dinner for us. By bed time I was all right. All I have left is a few scrapes on my elbow and a couple of small bruises.

Sunday had a very slow start. After lunch we went to the Memorial Service for Rabbi Joesph Weizenbaum. All I can say is that as a family we thought Rabbi Joe was a great man. He even found time for Eric and made us feel so welcome at services. Eric used to roll his chair up to the bima to be closer to Rabbi Joe and Cantor Karla, smiling the entire time. Rabbi Joe was also one of the first people to give Teri encouragement when in 7th grade she decided to be a lawyer. I wish I had a book of Rabbi Joe's sermons because they were so on target, sometimes I felt he wrote them just for me, yes I know this was not the case but it really felt like it. Rabbi Joe was also big on ethics and passing them down to your children in the form of an ethical will attached to the monetary will. I have to say that I have not done that yet, but ethics were a big part of our dinner conversations when Teri was growing up. Rabbi Joe had a great and wise soul. He will be missed by many people.

Sunday night Eric had night terrors so I spent most of the night just holding him and telling him that everything would be OK. I was up until the wee hours with him and then started the day around 7 am. With the aid of plenty of caffeine I spent the day cleaning and doing laundry. The first load went in very early this morning and the last load will go into the dryer before I head to bed. My excuse being that I don't want to fold another load of laundry today. I lost count some where around load 8 or 9, all I ask is that you do not tell Eric that I am caught up on laundry. He does feel it is his job to make laundry to keep me busy.

I did manage to finish one more skein of yarn on the spinning wheel this evening. It will come off some time tomorrow and because it is Tour de fleece I will try to get another one started right away. No knitting got done today.

I think it is time to call it an early night and catch up on some sleep.

A Pretty Good Day

I had a pretty good day despite the flare up. There was knitting with friends. Followed by a surprise birthday lunch. Followed by shopping. Eric had a great day at his day program with the exception of not swimming. John picked up dinner so I did not have to cook. Followed by more shopping. Even with the flare up I managed to walk 4 miles today. Now for the aspirin to kick in so I can try to get some sleep.

A Wirlwind Weekend

It has been a very busy weekend around here. Eric is feeling better and there was non-stop action that included Eric and a friend going to a mad science demo at Bookman's, a party for John and I. And that was just yesterday. Today was house work and laundry, followed by shopping at Trader Joe's with Eric. I had only planned to get a few things so I got a basket for Eric's lap, lets just say that it took a regular basket to get to the car. Eric also thought it was funny not to let me have the basket when it came time to hand it to the cashier.

It was such a nice day that I took Eric to La Encantia to walk. I pushed Eric around the mall for 1 1/2 hours. Did you know that most exercise programs give you bonus points for pushing a wheelchair. Even though it has wheels it can be cumbersome to push. It is just the sheer size of the chair plus the weight ( 90 pounds for the chair, 95 pounds for Eric, 20 pounds for the backpack for emergencies, 5 pounds for the pump and formula bag which is a whooping 210 pounds before any shopping) no wonder they give bonus points. Just in case it happens to you, if the elevator at La Encantia breaks down you don't have to do what Eric and I did. We left the upstairs section of the mall went to the parking lot, found the sidewalk and did a very controlled walk down a very steep hill ( no it was not a 2 to 3 % grade of ADA compliance but the usual steep foothill incline. The FYI is that if the elevator is broken you are allowed to use the freight elevator at the mid point in the mall. It is down the same hallway as the bathrooms on the upper level. It is accessed through the mall concierge desk on the bottom level. After 6 pm security is suppose to get you through.

I did manage to lose the same knitting needle for the 2nd time in two weeks. I think it is tired of knitting soap holder bags for Mother's Day. I am at the half way mark in the knitting project. I hope to find it soon. in the meantime I have to remember to put a new set of needles in my emergency knitting bag.

Well the day appears to be catching up with me so it is time to end this post.