Parting...

It has been a weekend of letting go.

In the spirit of Fifty Things I had a garage sale. I have been pulling items and tossing them in the garage with everything that didn't sell at last year's sale. Again my Stepmother and Dad came out to help. She's a whiz at organizing these things and did all the pricing for me. But there was a big difference in this year's sale. I was determined that what was left wasn't coming back in the house. A few things did. My parents left a few things that wouldn't fit in their car, to pick up when they return. There is a pile leaving the house when the Geek-boy can make use of a larger vehicle. I have a small collection that is going to get posted for sale on Craigslist. The rest??? I posted a Curb Alert on Craigslist saying anything left today was going to Goodwill. And lo and behold today it is all gone. And there is room in my garage. And my basement. And the clean-out isn't done yet.

But I had to endure an even bigger episode of letting go. My parents weren't here solely to help with the garage sale. They had an agenda. Little Dude has made a big step into becoming a Big Boy; his first trip without Mom or Dad. He's off visiting the Grandparents for the week. I am back on contract at work and he's not in school yet so this is a big help. He spent three days at work with me and I love him, but he was driving me nuts. When first we broached the subject he said he didn't want to go without us. Gradually he has gotten used to the idea. First he thought he could go for a day or two. Then for a few weeks he thought three days might be nice. Lately it has been five days. Which is good because that is how long he will be gone. He'll also be spending time with my mother and little brother while gone.

I didn't cry. I almost cried, but I didn't. The person who is having the hardest time is Little Miss. Within two hours of him leaving she began asking where he was and when he was coming back. In fact, in the morning she stated that he couldn't leave because she loved him. (Total Awwwww moment) And when he was getting into the car and we were saying goodbye guess who came out of the house wheeling her suitcase behind her expecting to climb in the car beside him. It will be an interesting week.

I've already noticed that the house is much quieter.

But we are not resting on our laurels while he is gone. Within two hours we had cleared out much of his room and I was painting the walls. The color is the same; I've just been staring at it for the last year thinking it really needed a third coat.

 And now it does. We are moving into Phase II of the Super Hero Room Makeover. The walls are the blue he picked out of the swatch book. The Scenic in me is twitchy about the straight color on the walls. I can't just roll some color on and let it be. Of course not! Why would I do that? The finish on the walls is an eggshell. I'm thinking of doing some sort of pattern in a glaze, no color change just something in a different sheen. I just don't know what to do yet. We're considering  making it look like comic panels or doing the 'kapow' bubbles. You know these:

I'm hoping inspiration will strike me in the night.I'm working on some panels for the walls with various characters on them. Ultimately I'd love to have them done and up before he gets back. His  loft bed won't be done before then. It's still in the drafting stage. The Geek-boy was pricing the lumber today.


I also tackled the playroom/mancave. The Geek-boy hung as much drywall as the intrusive Sewer-Pipe-That-Must-Be-Moved will allow. I finally convinced him that I should just mud what I can and do the rest when it is up. So after Little Miss went to bed it went from this:

 to this.

 

I know. So exciting. But it is progress. And progress is good. 

And now I'm going to fall asleep reading Game of Thrones.

Just weird

I don't know how else to describe the past week other than the above. Just weird. It has been a mix of the delightful and the just plain awful. Our weather is a fine example of the range of things. On Tuesday it nearly reached sixty. Yesterday it struggled to get out of the twenties. And tomorrow back into the mid to high 50's. With weather like that, not to mention Daylight Savings schedule disruptions, it was bound to be a bit odd.

One odd thing was that I got this in the mail.

Yep. That's baby formula. Nope. I'm not pregnant. Actually I was very much in the throws of knowing I'm not pregnant when this arrived. I know that Target has a fabulous algorithm for predicting pregnancy. Even before the people know it themselves. (Read the article. It is fascinating and scary) That's why I just chalked up all the new Target Baby coupons I've receiving lately to my shopping for baby shower gifts. But this was a surprise.  All I can assume is that now that Little Miss is 3, and we had her two and a half years after Little Dude, they've just assumed that I'm going to continue the trend. What really throws me is that I've never bought baby formula. EVER. Both kids were exclusively breastfed until they could go onto cow's milk. Though I have to admit the initial look on my husband's face was priceless. (Have I mentioned he had a vasectomy last year?)

Much of the week has been a downward spiral into the murky depths of depression. I'm sure the weather has much to do with it. My cycle is probably contributing as well. Instead of dwelling on it, I've decided that tomorrow is the day to yank myself out of it. I usually reach this point when feeling like this. I realize that I have to do something and force myself up and out of the hole. Temps should be back up tomorrow and I hope they are wrong about the cloud cover. I know I could definitely use some sun.


Despite everything else this week, my Monday started off kick-ass. How does one make a gloomy Monday simply fantastic?
Here is my simple recipe:
1- cityscape set (about to be struck)
1-5 year old in a Godzilla costume

Mix and sit back and enjoy.

 

 

(I did get some video as well but that will take some time editing.)

Is that not awesome, or what?

I should to bed. Actually I'm in bed and my husband's snoring is distracting me from my writing.

Tomorrow we journey back up the spiral. Come hell or high water.

*sigh* Monday

First of all....screw you Monday. There. That being said, I can move on.

The morning mainly consisted of the hunt for my son's green rock and roll shirt. Yesterday was Dr. Seuss' birthday and there is a week long celebration at school. And Monday is Green Eggs and Ham day....and the wearing of green. I've discovered that as a household there is a large lack of green clothing. Shirt is missing....5 year old is distraught. 2 year old won't wear her Cat in the Hat shirt. I go into attic and dig through the clothes that don't yet fit the minions and find a Hulk shirt and a very kelly green Spiderman shirt (yeah, I know). The shirt is a hit but we're upset that we're not in all green. (Can we say 'artistic temperment') We get to school (he's on time but I'm rather late) and what is sitting on the top of the Lost and Found pile. The friggin' green shirt. 

And that was how my Monday started.

And it has continued as such. Our show floor lumber has finially arrived but it does me little good when we have no clue where the paint is. We ordered it a month ago. Didn't come with the other paint. They say it is back-ordered but they also show they have seven gallons. Supposedly it was sent out last week. Apparently it is in transit....maybe.  I could have had 1/3 of this set painted last Wednesday if I had this gallon of paint that has crossed into the ether somewhere.

The worst part of this Monday is waiting for test results. And for once they aren't mine. I mentioned in the last Ten on Tuesday that our older kitty was having issues. We discovered last weekend a lump in her chest. A lump the size of a golf ball, at least. We don't know how long it has been there. Isis isn't a touchy feely kind of kitty. And woe to you if you touch any of her underside. So we somehow missed this. Last week was spent lining up visits with a new vet as the girls haven't been in a while and we no longer care to use the old ones. Long story short...it's not a cyst. They took some cells and we're waiting for the results. She doesn't appear to be in any sort of pain.

The upside of this with the cat is that I have convinced the geek-boy to relent on their nightly incarceration.Shortly after the birth of Little Dude we realized that the night time activities of the baby had somehow convinced the cats that we were up to feed them. At all hours. The only way to get any peace was to keep them in the basement during the night. I never saw this as a permanent arrangement as I love to have them snuggled in bed with me. The geek-boy is less thrilled because they still think that 4am is an ok time to start begging for food. When he complained that they had kept him up, I pointed out that he had been keeping me up more than the cats had. I think I made my point. The quantity of hairballs in the basement has also greatly diminished and all but confirmed my suspicions that they were retaliatory.

And now the kitties are back upstairs.

Other fun happenings.....the 1-2-3 punch of storms we had a few weeks ago created a lovely water feature in our home...aka the roof was leaking again. A lot.


The only really good thing I can mention right now is that I finished another pair of socks. But I don't think I want to pair that up with this post. Here's my salute to a crappy Monday and I'm going to start a separate post for the knitting.

WIP Wednesday

Not much knitting here at chez Gothknits. I've manged to put several rounds on Little Dude's sweater and it's up to about 6 inches now.

Mostly my days have been filled with changing diapers, emptying buckets, spraying everything with Lysol, doing laundry, second guessing whether or not to give water, or Pedialyte or food, changing sheets and towels and pajamas and movies and generally trying to calm them without getting the plague myself. I think I was successful in that last goal. I'm still wary and not eating anything I wouldn't want coming back up. This was Little Miss's first true stomach bug and it hit her hard. She was having issues with letting things just come up and go into the bucket and I think her stubborness helped prolong it. Not my Little Dude...he's old pro at this game. At one point he quietly got off my lap, walk over to an available bucket, stuck his head in and let go. My poor babies....and Little Miss had a round of teething on top of it. Last night was a scream fest from her. But I think minus the teething, my minions are back to themselves. I saw the true Little Dude for the first time in days last night before bed. My husband is still recovering but I think he's over the worst of it now.

I'm just waiting to see if it gets me. In the meantime my body has said: 'Since I'm fighting off this big bad dragon, I'm just gonna let this little guy through'. The little guy being another UTI. Man I hate these things...but I hate puking more.

Through this whole thing I've decided that Lysol needs to make house bombs, just like the flea bombs. Get everyone out and set those puppies off. When you come back it's sanitized and you can go back to normal.

In the midst of all this my parents came to visit and we made sausage and had a garage sale. Needless to say I'm on the verge of insanity. But we made 10 lbs of sweet Italian sausage, 10 lbs of breakfast sausage, and $80. My garage looks fairly neat at the moment. We've two piles out there: one for donation and one for Craigslist/fall garage sale.

So much of the work in progress has been in the house. Furniture has been rearranged and the kitchen functions much better now. Though we're still going the wrong direction to throw out trash and get silverware. I'm continuing to empty out cupboards and drawers and everything. I think I may have found new dishes. Playing nurse for the sick ward has set me back a few days in my painting schedule. I'd had hope to have our room done by now. Not so much. That is what I am trying to prep for at the moment, between bathroom breaks and spraying things people have touched.

Hopefully more progress (and pictures) tomorrow. Back to it.

This means war...

March is named after Mars (Ares) the Greek god of War and it seems very fitting to me. I'm feeling beat down, worn out and dammit I'm ready to fight back. 2013 was suppose to be better. I gave the year January to shake off 2012. February just ended up being a horrible month...we had a blizzard, I was sick (in bed all day sick), my husband worked crazy long hours, deadlines came up harder and faster after the shut down from the snow, both my kids got sick while my husband was 3000 miles away for work, and I didn't make it to knit-nite once the whole month. And to top all of this off, I am between treatments for the MS and feel like complete shit rather ailing.

All that being what it was, my plans for Finishuary were a failure. I was either too tired, too sick or in too much pain to get much crafting done. I did finish one of my father's potholders and almost finished another...until I discovered that the second one was too small. Frogged that and I have now nearly completed the second 'corrected' potholder. There is a rush on these since Dad so graciously pointed out that he burned himself the other day because he only had one of the good potholders (and it was all my fault). I told him that it was his fault for being a dumbass who touches hot things. Can you feel the love? I have enough yarn to make him one more, which will give him four in total. Though I ran into a minor snag yesterday with one of them. I've been trying to work on these everywhere and brought the project to the library on our family excursion. It gives me something to do while I keep eyes on two kids on opposite sides of the room. When I returned, it seems that some of the yarn was hanging out of the diaper bag when it was unceremoniously dumped on a chair in the living room. When I went to gather said project back up during nap time I thought it was odd that there seemed to be an end hanging out of the bag. I was working directly from the too small potholder to the correct one....there should have been no yarn end.
Then I looked closer....
and noticed the frayed nature of the end....
and the dampness of it...
and the compete absence of my fat black cat. The one that is the Brain in my Pinky and the Brain duo of pets. Yeah. That one.
It was fixable but rest ye sure that I am plotting my revenge.

I did manage to get some quilting done over the last month as well. The T-shirt quilt from hell has all it's machine quilting done. I just need to do the hand quilting in the squares and then the binding. Why, oh why am I hand quilting the squares? do you ask. Because I don't have a long arm sewing machine and it will be much, much easier to do the quilting pattern in there by hand then on my machine.

With spring on it's way, things are starting to look up. My husband's schedule is looking better for a while. Next month I (hopefully) will be starting a new treatment, and my design will be going up and not consuming all of my life. I have lots to write about and lots of ideas for changes. I hope you will all forgive the lack of writing and the many unfulfilled promises of regular blogging. I want to keep blogging, I just need to figure out how to fit it into the new 'normal', especially when that 'normal' keeps changing. 

So get your battle dress on...we're gonna kick some arse!

Ten on Tuesday and an update

10 Favorite Work Out Songs: This topic is rather timely. Part of my MS treatment includes working with a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. I'm working on hand strength and coordination at the moment and next week we will start on my walking and an exercise routine. So here we go...

1. Dragula  by Rob Zombie
2. O Fortuna by Apotheosis
3. Only by Nine Inch Nails
4. Du Hast by Rammstein
5. Breathe by The Prodigy
6. Machinehead by Bush
7. Blue Monday by Orgy
8. I'm Shipping Up to Boston by Dropkick Murphys
9. Bodies by Drowning Pool
10. Whatever by Godsmack

I think you can get a sense of what I like from that list. Someday I'll have to do a list about my painting music. I like to pair my music with the project. I try to do the same with my books. When I was painting Time After Time, I listened to the stories of H.G.Wells.  When I was doing these really beautiful blood red walls, Dexter is Delicious was the book of choice. For Pippin and all of it's medieval glory, it was the original Shannara trilogy.

I've been trying to write my update post for days. It has been that kind of week.
Last Tuesday I had to pick up Little Miss early from daycare because she wasn't feeling well, which we attributed to teething. Wednesday she stayed home with her Daddy. When I picked Little Dude up that afternoon there was a notice announcing that several of the other kids had hand, foot, and mouth disease. Sure enough that's what she had, in addition to the teething. Then in the wee hours of Friday morning Little Dude came down with a fever too. Normally that isn't such a big deal, but Friday was our 10th wedding anniversary. 10 years was celebrated by caring for two sick kids. (I'm trying not to read anything into it.)

I should have known it was going to be a weird week when I went on our annual pilgrimage to Mass Sheep and Wool and Webs and bought nothing! Well, I did buy some lunch, but nothing fiber related. Partly because I'm facing a summer without a paycheck (again!). And partly because nothing really spoke to me. I had been hoping to get another Stitched by Jessalu bag but I just couldn't decide on what one to get. By the way, if you don't have one (or more) of her bags...get one. They are wonderful and beautifully made. Plus she has tons of sci-fi/geek ones. You can't go wrong. But nothing was really grabbing me. The same with Spunky Eclectic's fiber. And this is the first time I've ever left and not bought something for Ball and Skein. Though, she's got just what I've been hunting for to make my Mina scarf. But it's something I know I can order later. Webs didn't have any of the books I was thinking of, though I was able to peruse Vampire Knits. There wasn't enough in there that I would make to warrant buying it.

Despite my lack of stash acquisition, I've made significant of progress in my knitting of late. Actually, knitting is sanctioned by my occupational therapist to help with hand coordination. So, it's not just a hobby (addiction), it's good for my health (and that of those around me if they don't want to die).

It took me a week but I finally picked up the stitches on Bigger on the Inside. I finished the lace section and blocked it to make the picking up the stitches easier.

As I feared, it is one of those patterns where the number of stitches to pick up and the place they are being picked up from differ. In this case it was 311 over 400 rows. I won't go into what I went through to figure out how to do it evenly. I'll just say, this is a gift and my OCD was running rampant...and thankfully my husband is much better at math than myself. Honestly, that is the hardest part of this pattern. I'm nearly halfway through the TARDIS chart and it looks good. I'll be making a few changes when I make this one for myself.


Gaia is making progress too. She's a great project for when I don't want to think or I'm needing to set it down a lot (read keeping the kids from killing each other).

And the other fiber related news I've started spinning again. We can thank Little Dude for this one. My wheel was around and he had been playing with the treadle for a few days. Finally I said I'd show him how it is used, grabbed some fiber, and then proceeded to spin for about the next 5 hours, with breaks for dinner and getting said minions to bed. I finished a bobbin that night. I just did the second one a few nights ago and I hope to ply them sometime in the next few days. This fiber is some BFL dyed by my lovely friend The Painted Sheep. The colorway is called Pine Meadow. I was an idiot when I split the fiber and didn't bother weighing it so one of the bobbin has more than the other so it won't ply exactly the way I was hoping but I think it will be nice nonetheless. I'm happy to say that now that I am using better fiber, my spinning is much more even. The inherited wool that I had been using was partially felted and not that great. I'm glad I abandoned it. I'm not sure what this yarn is going to become yet.
 

Next on the project list is the caplet from Teva Durham's Loop-d-loop. I'm able to do this now because my lovely friend Peggy had the gigantic needles needed for this project and so graciously lent them to me. I've had the yarn for this in stash for years.

And a little bit of trivia. The background on the above photos is the floor I'm currently painting at work.

Update Monday

Let me just start off saying that the package of yarn arrived safely, but not after it had left the state to figure out where it needed to go. I really don't know what the mix-up was since the address on the package was correct. Watching the package tracking was sort of like watching the downloading bar progress and then jump back when you are really waiting on that information. But it came and here is what was in it:


The yarn is more of a blue than the photo shows. It is Lorna's Laces Solemate and it is destined to be come Bigger on the Inside. Unfortunately, or not, this particular shawl isn't for me. I'm making it for my sister-in-law, who surprised me with an amazing Dr. Who inspired present for my birthday.

Yes. That is a stained glass Tardis candle holder. Which she made. So I think she deserves the first of these shawls that I knit. I'm about to the halfway point of the lace panel on the shawl. The pattern is a very interesting construction. You knit the lace section from one end to the other, increasing then decreasing as you go. Then you pick up stitches along one edge and knit the Tardis design down from there. I can't say that I'm really enjoying the lace section. It's an easy enough pattern but I just can't seem to get into the groove of it. Perhaps because I'm trying to do it while watching TV. I'll try listening to podcasts instead and see if that helps.

I'm liking the yarn so far. It's quite lovely to knit with and not turning my fingers blue while I knit, as often I find the deeper blues do. My only complaint is the condition of the skein. One of them wound perfectly. The other....

as you can see, not so much. I don't know why this keeps happening to me. I'm not sure if I blogged about the Rios debacle a few years back. Two of my three skeins did this. It is as if when winding the skein they went the wrong way for a few rounds and then back again. My husband has spent several hours this weekend working on this. He's like a vampire with a knot obsession, a real vampire, not the sparkly kind.

I'm making headway on Gaia.
 I really like this pattern. I'm further along than the picture here shows, but this gives you the idea of how the yarn split up when I separated the knots. Oh Noro, why? But the nice thing is that I can follow this pattern when I'm completely drugged up, so that's good.

And why was I drugged up, might you ask? I had my first infusion to treat my MS on Friday. I finally got my test back and found it was safe for me to begin treatment. I was armed with my two shawl projects, a book and my DVD player with some Babylon 5 and Pride and Prejudice (wasn't sure what my viewing mood would be). I took the day off, not knowing how it was going to effect me. And it's good I did. The first six doses of the once a month treatment include an IV dose of Benadryl, in case of allergic reaction. Now I regularly take Benadryl, and it doesn't have much effect on me. Well, Friday was a whole different story. That stuff hit me fast and hit me hard. I had been reading the pattern for Bigger on the Inside, and suddenly it was just a blur of letters to me. I spent much of the infusion napping...well I spent most of the rest of the day (and night) asleep. To be fair I had been hit with a small stomach bug that struck down my husband earlier in the week. It took him a day or so to sleep that off, so I think it was the one-two punch that knocked me out. Either way I was next to useless. I guess we will see with next month's infusion.

Mother's day was low key, but rather lovely. From Little Miss I received a version of the handprints poem and her prints on some nice watercolor paper. From Little Dude it was a box painted and decorated (handprint on top) and the poem inside with a bracelet that he strung. My husband gave me some flowers and a package of smoked salmon all to myself.

We had our trees worked on finally. The damage from Snowpocalypse left them in need of major attention. We had a lot of hangers that would drop whenever the wind picked up. I was terrified to let the kids play outside. We joined forces with our neighbor so that the tree company could come out once with the heavy equipment. In the end, we each had a tree removed. I'm sad to see the lovely old red oak go, but it needed it. Our tree guy is one who prefers to keep trees, if it is safe to. So when he says it should go, I trust him. It ended up that this particular tree was rotting down the center from the top down and and bottom up. The hadn't quite met in the middle yet. But now we have somewhere to put the big pirate ship playscape in our yard.
Here's a few pics of the felling of our tree:

Tickled Pink

I'm sorry about the lack of posting. Blogger has changed again and I'm totally lost...and apparently so is a post or two. I'm very confused.

So I want to thank those who donated to team Pirate Robots. I was deeply touched by and it means so much to me. By the post title you might guess that we reached our goal. Not quite but we came close enough that I went pink anyway. We raised $1,734 out of our $2000 goal. (You can still donate until May 25th.)

I'm loving the pink. I'm not quite loving my hair's reaction to the bleaching. The ends took a beating and now my hair is very easily tangled. I'll be getting a cut soon...and we may work some purple into the color. Little Dude loves it and has requested that it goes purple next. He also wants it blue for his birthday party.

Life has been a little bit of a whirlwind lately. I've continued to have numerous doctor's appointments and tests. I'll be receiving treatment at phenomenal MS center very near to where I work. This place is truly amazing. They have state of the art equipment for just about any issue you could have with this disease. The staff is very warm and welcoming. I keep saying how lucky I am. It sucks having the disease but when we caught it and the fact that I am located near such a wonderful treatment facility, I really am lucky.

Now I've just got to fight the exhaustion that comes with the disease. At least now I know why I'm so damn tired all the time. Of course chasing down two minions doesn't help in that area either. Little Miss is really taking off on the whole walking thing. She's now shifted to more walking than crawling, and a lot more walking without hanging on to things. And she's really perfecting her climbing. She climbs EVERYTHING. I had to pull her off the front of the stove the other day. And when you tell her 'No' she just turns her head and smiles. Luckily I'm immune to such wiles. I keep telling her that I invented that look. She's also not afraid to express her opinions (not my daughter?!?!). Yesterday I tried to put her back into her pj's after changing her diaper first thing in the morning. She immediately started to complain and point to her closet. So I stripped her down and then held her up to her clothes. Little Miss pushed aside clothing until she found the dress she wanted and then grabbed onto that. Mind you, she's barely a year old!!!! I'm in trouble with this one.

With Little Dude we are still having Adventures in Potty Training. Last night/this morning what had a major set back. He sneaked into our bed a some point in wee hours without my husband noticing. Normally that's not so much a problem but he slept so deeply that he peed in our bed. The bed I had just changed the sheets on (for the first time in longer than I'd ever admit). Not how one likes to start their day.

On the knitting front, I've been knitting, but don't have much to show for it. I started a Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. In usual form I didn't bother with a gauge swatch and that came back to bite me, only because it is bigger than I wanted for the intended giftee. So I put it off to the side a day or so ago. I may continue on it or I may frog it.
What I did do, however was a little sit down with my Noro Kueyron Sock. I have a love hate relationship with Noro yarns. I think they are beautiful, but my god are they full of knots. I've not had a skein of Noro that has had less than two knots in it, which can really suck when working with their colorways. A friend of mine was knitting the Gaia Should Hug and came across a knot. She continued on and then realized that the next run of yarn had the color changes going in the other direction. This is the shawl that this yarn is destined for and when I initially wound the skein I ended up with 3 separate runs of yarn. It was very Goldilocks....I had the big ball, the medium ball and the itty bitty ball. So being the freak that I am, I sat down, rewound each ball and wrote down the colors as they would so that I could line up the color changes. Ok, a little OCD, but when it is the look that you want, go for it. I found that what I have isn't too far off and I should be able to make it work without too much variation from the intended gradation of color. The colorway is a lovely mix of maroon, orange, green gold, green brown and a deep and light purple.

I'm hoping to cast that on tonight.

The red vest is sitting alone until I have some coherent alone time to work the shaping on the top. My double heelix socks are...somewhere. I ripped back the cuff on the first sock and are staring to continue the striping pattern and teaching myself jog-less stripes as I go. I'm planning on a ton of projects because I've been listening to knitting podcasts and they are adding things to my knitting queue as well as my reading and watching queue. But another post about podcasts later. I must be off to liberate the minions from daycare.