11,482

As of 9:00p.m. tonight I have taken 11,482 steps.  That is 4.79 miles for me.  I did not go hiking or shopping. All I was doing was trying to zen the house.  My closet looks a lot better.  I found that I had room to move 36 quarts of yarn into more accessible drawers.  Yes, I knit and wove through 36 quarts of yarn since the last reorganization of the yarn. That made over70 hats and a a little more than a dozen scarves for kids in need.

Now if I could only have the G.E. 1960’s self cleaning house of the future. I could use more yarn up faster.  Just imagine if the laundry washed, dried and folded itself. If the dishes washed themselves and magically made their way to the cabinets. Self mopping floors and self vacuuming carpets.  On second thought just give me Rosie from the Jettison’s. Then I could spend my days playing with yarn.

I just have a few more chores to do before bed so I will cut this short.

Walking More

Today I was able to walk 9,419 steps which is a bit under 4 miles for me. It is still easier to take long walks in 2 inch high heels. The bulk of the walking was done in 1, 35 minute walk this afternoon.  That covered 1.5 miles. Long gone are the days when that only took me 20 minuets  to cover the same distance. I hope that these numbers will get better.

5 Day and Counting

My ankle has recovered enough to start walking again.  If I can maintain my 8,000 steps per day for 25 more days I will increase my step count goal by a slight increase in steps.  I have even starting walking around my neighborhood. This means that I can walk up and down small hills. It is still easier to walk down hill than up hill. I have also found that it is easier to warp the small loom too. I will try warping the larger loom later this weekend.

Eric was up to his old tricks today. He faked sick at his program.  When he found out that daddy was going to pick him up he instantly got better.  His aide tonight and I figured out his con job.  In some ways I am very happy that he got his point across.  That he was bored and wanted to go home  In some ways I had thought we had left this bad behavior behind us.  Some days I just want to throw up my hands and say enough of this Eric and hide out in my local yarn shop.

Life Goes On.

Eric and I went to the doctors on Monday for a post hospital check up. The last round of AP took a lot out of him. So here is all the information that I have at this point. Eric will be home for 2 solid weeks. We will then do a 2 day a week trail run to see if he still has the stamina to hang out with his friends at his day program. I am really hoping that this trail goes well. Our Fingers are crossed.

If he flunks the 2 day a week trail we will either go to a 2 hours a day 2 days a week or have a DTA set up at home with an activity specialist coming to the house to do activities with Eric. This will hopefully give me some me time to create or even go to the store to shop for groceries during the day. To quote a song which I can not remember the title or singer, "The times, they are changing".

In the meantime, I am using this time wisely by doing some cleaning and tossing. Yesterday I managed to fill the trash barrel before Waste Management had time to pick it up. I got a few things out of the garage. Also even though I am house bound, I will still try to get my 10K steps in a day even if it means walking around in circles for a couple of hours a day. I will let you know if I walk ruts in the tile.

Dilemmas

I woke up early with a headache. So I made a cuppa chai and tried to relax as I sipped it. Just as the headache was beginning to fade Eric woke up needing a complete change out and breathing treatment. After settling Eric back to sleep, I then realized that it was 3 am.

This being Black Friday in the United States, where the stores have historically turned the books from red to black. There are always sales. Most start really early. I was awake so why not go shopping and get some great deals.

Then I thought about what I needed. The answer was nothing. What was left on my holiday shopping list. The answer was nothing. What did I want that was on sale? The answer was nothing. So after an hour of deliberation I was finally sleepy.

Later in the day I was going to go shopping for yarn for a project, but decided to go stash diving instead. I found enough cotton yarn to make 2 to 3 chemo caps for a friends brother. Now I just need my hands to be less stiff so that I can knit them.

I then found time for a walk and some weaving. I took my loom outside and enjoyed the unusually warm late November day.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Yes it has been very busy around here since my last post 4 days ago. I have gotten to watch Eric and his friends go bowling. That was such a treat. There were cheers even if only 1 or 2 pins were knocked down. Everyone had such a good time.

Eric was sick Friday, so he had 4 days off from his program. On Monday I took Eric to Build a Bear Workshop so that Champagne Bear could get some more "honey". He had lost so much weight his pants were falling down. I would like to say that the staff at the Tucson Mall Build a Bear Workshop were very gracious and told Eric exactly what they were doing for his bear. He was all smiles and they did not charge us for the "honey". I tried to get Eric to pick a shirt out for Champagne, but he did not want the U of A shirt, he wanted the Santa Clara Law School shirt, which if they make it at all is not available in Tucson. We then walked around the mall for a few hours. Eric was suppose to let me stop and have lunch, but he wanted to walk more. I got over 10,000 steps ton Monday.

I have been passing on a lot of knitting skills to other knitters. Amber learned how to purl, cast off and follow a pattern on Sunday. It is very hard to believe that she has only been knitting for a few weeks with how even her stitches are. Tuesday I got to teach the stretchy bind off to a member of the Tuesday morning group.

I got a few errands done before I had to pick up Eric. I did not realize how tired he was when we stopped at a new store for a few minutes. Eric threw up on the floor, I hope they let us back. It turns out that Eric did not have enough rest time out of his chair at program, only 30 minutes. We are going to work on that. Eric threw a lot more, even in the shower, which is a very easy clean up. He settled down by 11:30 but was up at 4 am this morning. I borrowed Teri's bed for a nap so that I did not wake up John, I hope she does not mind. Eric will be home tomorrow too. I can not get him to the hydration level that I need to before I restart the formula. His tummy still hurts and he is tired of throwing up.

On the bright side, I got 3 mini washcloths knit and finished another hat. I did not quite knit all the yarn in the house like I told John that I would do today, but I did make progress. Now off to set some hand spun yarn before dinner, John is bringing it home.

95 Year Rain

Today we had the proverbial 100 year rain here in Tucson. It is my humble opioion a 95 year rain since we just broke the record of 1919.  We got 2.75 inches here at the house.  I am hoping that this might put a little dent in our long term drought.  

I am finishing the scarf on the loom with green and red stripes. I am making progress on the baby blanket too.  I have also taken the blanket off the circular needles and am now back to straight needles.  

I also hit the 10,000 step mark for the first time since I hurt my foot.  So hopefully I can hit that mark at least once a week for a while. Then build up to more days. 

Tomorrow is going to be super busy so I think I will call it a night. 

Tucson Festival of Books

I left the guys at home and went to the Tucson Festival of Books.  It was a very nice day with lots of walking and a bag full of freebies. Apples seemed to be the giveaway of the day and I enjoyed 2 while I was walking around.  

I was good and did not buy books. Some looked really good but I have a back log to get through first. I also saw some Native American weaving and figured out how I could I could speed up my weaving.  It was just one of those aha moments. 

As I write this, I am sitting outside Old Main where my dad took classes when he was a student at the UofA. They are in the middle of restoring the building so when they are done it will look a lot like it did when dad was here. 

Well I still have to walk over to the Tyndel garage where the car is parked.  I better get moving before I don't want to move. I still have more laundry waiting for me at home. 

A Very Slow Day

Today was not the most productive day. In fact it was a 2 nap day. The only things I accomplished were doing the finishing work on 2 bags full of knitting while Eric did his afternoon breathing treatment. Knit 6 rows on my new shawl. In my defense it is a top down shawl wider at the top.  I only managed to walk 3.5 miles today, I think the cold weather did me in. The 50's is a little cold for me to be outside excersizeing even if I am bundled up. 

I even managed to sleep through my afternoon spinning group.  So no spinning got done today. 

The picture is of the knitting that got cleaned up today. I will update the row counter tommrow.  I am much to tired to write more. 

Finished Work

Below is a picture of the mittens that I knit for myself.  They are the Paradise Valley Fingerless Mittens by Mountain Colors inc. They add 102  rows to the 1 million row challenge. Sorry about the sideways photos. I am in the middle of a shawl, hat and a few scarfs, pictures will be forth coming when they are finished.

I am also trying to walk between 10,000 and 20,000 steps per day. So if you would like to help me in this endeavor just let me know when you can join me on a walk. As of 6:00 pm MST I have 10,512 steps so far today, this is a good first day.

10,000

Today was the first day since I had the cold from he double toothpicks that I made my goal of 10,000 steps. Yes I managed to walk 5 miles today.  It did leave me tired, but it is a good tired. 

I also found time to do some training with  with Eric at his day program. Which meant that I got down on the floor to do some physical therapy training. I also answered all question about Eric.  

Followed by  a shopping trip to finding all the supplies I needed to make the pinita's. It only took 3 stores. The funny thing is I found none of the supplies at the craft store. Go figure.  I even made it to the grocery store today.  

My craft project for today was to start a multi day paper mâché project.  I am making 2 piñata's for a birthday party. One is going to be a fancy and the other will be on the plain side.  Here is the picture of the fancy one in progress. This is after the first layer of paper mâché. 

Needless to say this has left me too tire to knit or spin tonight. 

And the Answer Is...

We went to the doctors today and it is an ear infection. This is why Eric has been so sick and miserable the last 3 days. I was 100% wrong. I thought clammy kid with a fever, who was throwing up had a tummy bug. So we have changed course and started the antibiotics. He should be feeling better in a day or 2.

In the mean time I hope to have Eric sleeping through the night again in a couple of days. I promise not to give any sensible answer until I have had at least 1 full nights sleep. I will continue to try to knit until I can't see straight any more and after that all my knitting would result in is a lot of frogging...rippit...rippit....rippit...

I am not happy with myself for only hitting the 4 mile of walking mark today. With only 20 minutes of house work. With these pathetic numbers you would think some one around here was sick or something. But with it being almost bed time with me wanting to sleep tonight I will not partake in any more exercise for the day. I am also to tired to knit so I think I will find something mellow to do for the rest of the night.

Maybe Busy, Maybe Not

Friday

I am not sure I should be this tired and achy tonight.  Yes I was active today.  I walked 6 miles, pushed Eric around the mall for 1 hour and 20 minutes, cleaned for 2 hours and went to knitting. John procured dinner tonight.  So it can't be the cooking.  I will have to think about this.  

Eric had a really good day until bed time. We hung out together today. He was full of smiles for everyone except for the one knitter who forgot to engage her brain before talking. So my request for the coming year is that we all think before we talk.  Please don't just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.  What comes to mind here is an old proverb that my dad liked.  "Speak softly, for you never know which words you will have to eat tomorrow."

I am going to try sleep now and hope that Eric sleeps through the night.  I hope that the eyrps have stopped for the night.

Saturday

Well I got an hours sleep before I was up with Eric for the rest of the night. I woke John up at 6 am so I could take a nap. I then went to Target to get a few more organizers for my latest deep cleaning project. I also took time to walk around the mall to get the kinks out.  Those new organizers got filled relativity fast. I landed up buying one Target out and having John drive to another Target to buy more boxes.

 

Sunday

 

I spent 4 hours cleaning house, doing laundry and deep cleaning before my body said enough for today. I did manage to organize another shelf and empty a laundry basket of things that needed to be put away that were hiding in a closet.

 

 

Getting dressed was another challenge today. The 1st pair of pants fit, but felt a bit snug. The next 3 were way too big and will go to Goodwill. Pair 5 was my lucky number today. They have been in my closet so long that I can not remember when I bought them. I have a lot of clothes in my new size so maybe I can shop my closet for most everything I will need in my new smaller size.

 

I have been losing the weight by eliminating aspartame and high fructose corn syrup. This in itself eliminates a lot of junk food. I have been deep cleaning the house and walking instead of going to the gym. This has been a multi year effort so there are no quick fixes that I can offer. Yes I have gotten discouraged at times, but every time I go down a size I am amazed. I have no set amount of weight I want to lose, I only want to feel better.

 

Well it is time to call it a night.







A Stark Contrast

Yesterday at this time I was as sick as Eric has been in the last couple of weeks. The cold came out of no where in the middle of the night. I spent yesterday drinking all the fluids I could stand and sleeping for most of the day.  

This morning at around 2:30am I woke feeling wonderful and refreshed. This was just 25 hours after the cold had hit. I felt as if I had not eaten in days so I had a light snack and went back to sleep.  

If my body was a motor I would have to say that I started off in over drive this morning.  I got an hours worth of cleaning done before I took Eric to program today. I also got to hear what our Congressman Ron Barber had to say about his first trip to Israel.  We are very lucky in our district that Congressman Barber puts the needs of the people of our district before his own personal agenda. 

I came home and did more cleaning. Instead of just dumping all my loose knitting patterns in a box to deal with later, I went through them all and decided to give half of them to my friends to see if anyone wants them.  The rest I will file in an organized manner. I got Eric's bathroom floor  scrubbed   and John put everything back together.  I hope it stays clean until the party. 

On my way to pick up Eric, ok I went a few miles out of my way I ordered the gluten free apple pie and corn bread muffins for this weekends party. I even paid for them so I could send someone else if I was busy.

John was wonderful and made dinner tonight. So I helped clean up.  

Today I also walked 19,000 steps which is just shy of 10 miles for me.  I have not walked that much in a single day since Italy. I hope this is a sign of things to come.  

Well it will be another busy day tomorrow so it is time to call it a night. 

Eric is Home Sick

Eric got sick just before bed time last night with he wild eyrps. So it was a long night and day today.  I did take time for myself to go on a short walk before John went about his day.  

I also made considerable progress on a poncho today, I managed to knit almost a full skein of yarn on to the 2 inches I already had.  I tried the old spinning wheel but I was just to tired to work on lace weight yarn. I also finished spinning and piling the 1st of 4 skeins I started a few days ago on the drop spindle.  Pictures to follow when I am awake. 

I would also like to thank the Library of Congress for the talking book program.  The books and magazines broke up the day nicely.       

As for now I will try some sleep as I am beyond tired. 

Exhausted

Eric had a very bad night last night. I did not get him to sleep until Midnight. Eric was back up at 2am until 4:30am.  Yes he woke up again at about 6 am.  I did manage to get 8 hours of very broken sleep which left me exhausted. 

On a more positive note, the poncho I cast on last night now has the 1st 6 inches knit on the second piece.  Wearing the same shoes I wore yesterday I managed to walk 10,000 steps or about 5 miles today.  I had no knee pain, only the very usual stiffness that comes with exhaustion.  

I am trying bribery with Eric tonight.  If he sleeps tonight he gets to hang with his friends tomorrow and get extra hugs.  So I am going to take a chane and call it an early evening.  

Customer Service Tongue and Cheek

I would like to send out a huge thank you to a national company that manages a slew of shopping malls across the country. The one that if you give you them your e-mail address they promise to send you out an e-mail you can exchange for a mall gift card for your birthday along with a weekly email of sales and coupons. This year they did something very different than in the past. They put a limited number of days after your birthday to exchange your email for the card. That happened to land when Eric was very sick. I tried to explain that I was home taking care of a very sick child and missed the days.

What happened next was to say the least very unexpected. I was treated very rudely and harshly. More like a criminal than a customer. There were no exceptions for sick kids. I really left that office hoping and praying that she was not a mother of any child. Her tone of voice, body language and words were very harsh. This left me very upset. I have done a lot of shopping in that mall. I usually get the gift card and spend more than they give me along with shopping through out the year. I left their office very upset about being treated so poorly.

So I walked around the mall and thought about this while I racked up steps and did no shopping. I also thought about how with the growth of e-commence, that this was a very stupid move by the mall. Why go out when the outside temperature is over 100f?  I can just order everything I need on line and for the most part save money and not pay for delivery. I can also save money on gas. I wondered about what their merchants would say and do if they knew that the mall that takes a nice chunk off their bottom line in rent would say. I think I now know why small local businesses are no longer populating that mall.

I would like to think that in this age of a stagnate economy with a very slow recovery that a  national corporation who owns and rents retail space across the country would go out of their way to be nice to the locals. With each location costing millions to buy, renovate and manage, that they would be the first people to make sure that their customer service was the best in the industry. I might just be one customer going out to pamper myself. I would have spent under $100.00, but think of the domino effect of ticking off customers. How this will effect the merchants bottom line which in turn will effect your bottom line. What will Wall Street think about your shrinking bottom line.This current crop of analysts needs instant gratification. They want to see the money now, not 6 months from now. They don't care what you did for them 6 months or a year ago, they want the money and profits today. Not to mention that a shrinking bottom line will negatively effect the price you pay for interest on your loans and bonds. Which might in turn effect your salary and bonuses.

I have to say that the only person who was truly happy about the events at the mall office today was John. There is only one reason for that. I only bought a drink which I had a half price coupon for. I spent less than $2.25. I still came home relaxed after the walk and racked up over 8,000 steps today so far.

I have decided not to publicly name the corporation in my blog today, I really, really wanted to. My reasoning is that I would really be embarrassed to have my company called out for such horrendous customer service. If you happen to be upper management at the national office of a large company that buys and rents out mall space I will only give out the answer to the unmentioned company's upper management and no one else. After all everyone has a bad day now and then. It is also my sincere hope that the rest of your company is run much better.

On a different note. Eric is still home sick and spent much of the day sleeping. The stomach bug took a lot out of him, but the post viral asthma is worse. He is almost up to his normal feeding rate via the g-tube. It is my sincere hope that he can go back to his day program on Monday. Please send positive thoughts his way.  I think I have enough yarn and fluff to get me through. I have also figured out I can walk around the house for 20 minutes per hour 5 times a day to get close to my 10,000 steps.

Well it is time to go cook dinner.

Summer is Here

It was a very busy and productive day for me. Everyone is doing well, that helped me a great deal. A lot of knitting got done. One small project was finished. As soon as it was off the needles another one was started.  I did manage to walk 4 miles today. It is the first time since I hurt my knee that I have done more than 2.5 miles. I don't think I am up to five miles yet, but in a month or two that is my goal.

At knitting today I was able to pass on 2 bags of raw yarn for other knitters. That is 2 more bags out of the house. Well technically 1, since 1 has been in the car a few months waiting to meet up with Liz.

I did manage to get a lot of errands done today. Yes it was in the 106-107 range while I was running them. The most important thing to remember is that I was having fun and drinking iced tea and lime flavored water* while I was running around. I did manage to cash in a few birthday coupons while I was at it. If you have to ask there is a very nice set of summer ice teas at Tevanna, but I know it is a little pricey and I do have a lot of tea to drink. Then there is always yarn and fluff.

I have just started to do the laundry for the day. The car said it hit a high of 111, yes that is one hundred eleven degrees, as I was driving Eric home. It is finally into the 90's so my plan is to get a load or two done tonight. No, I will not be folding it tonight, that can wait for later.

Tomorrow I planing on writing the mystery pattern for the Knitting Guild Luncheon. Lets see if I can come up with a pattern that will challenge the new knitters along with those that have been knitting since so last century. I also plan on finishing up what I have to bring, i.e. the goodies.

After that is done some more knitting and finishing work, then tag, photograph and bag of at least a dozen objects. I suspect that the guys will want to lay low and not doing anything this weekend, because of the heat. Me on the other hand would love to get out of the house for a bit. I find the heat easier to deal with than the cold.

Now to the recipe you have all been waiting for.

Lime Flavored Water

1 very large glass filled with ice
the juice of 1/2 of a lime with the peels
water

Add ice to the glass. Squeeze the lime juice in along with the peels. Add water. Keep adding ice and water through the day. You should taste the lime flavor most of the day.

Catch US if You Can

Eric and I had a very busy weekend. We started out Saturday morning with a friend and her son. We went to the Mix Fm Women's Fair just up the street. There was just everything there. A great time was had by all. We were in such a good mood that we decided to have Frost for lunch. As an occasional treat we decided that it was a very good lunch. Frost has an incredible new sorbet flavor called Green Apple. It is the flavor of the month so please go in before the end of March to try the green apple sorbet you will not be disappointed.

That wore Eric and I out so while Eric napped I did some house work until I could not keep my eyes open. I landed up taking a 2 hour nap. Followed by dinner out with John at Beyond Bread. I had just enough sun to get an extra mile of walking in before sunset. By the way the sunset was very beautiful yesterday too.

Today Eric and I pulled a fast one on John. We got him to go to Phoenix, to shop at the Mills Mall off of I-10 at the Baseline exit. Our main mission was getting John to buy a new pair of shoes. We had that done and then some before lunch. The and some was that he actually bought 2 pair of shoes. We then added steps to our step count for the day by walking around the mall. The mall was not as robust as it was last time we went several years ago. There were at least 12 empty shops. They added an aquarium to the mall with took up what would be an empty row of shops.

After a quick lunch it was off to IKEA, because John had never gone. All I can say is that it was very crowded today. John drove home while I caught up on my knitting. I am down to the last 2 of the 30 special order on soap sacks.

Well I am starting to fall asleep at the key board so it is time to call it a night.

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.