Visit to mi cudendero

I went to my cudendero, who is trained in hueseros and sabaderos...sort of a holistic massage therapist/chiropractor. I really feel much better. Now, while I HAVE gone to a bruja blanca at a botanica when my children were little, this guy is not a bruja.

He just gave me a deep muscle massage and managed to get my hips level, my jaw fixed (TMJ) and yanked my head around. I feel so much better....and I got an unexpected shot today.

Dr. Migraine explained to me that my headaches are so severe (wow! what a surprise!!) that the pain scale doesn't work for me. He took my pain assessment and is going to do an overlay to see if he (well, probably someone who works there who knows how to program this) can see how the blood pressure (which is the only thing I am personally worried about) correlates with how bad I hurt. And a 1-10 scale falls far short of my own personal headaches.

However, I am sure that either Dr. Migraine or mi cudendero or a combination of the two can fix me. I have a LOT of things planned and a stroke isn't one of them.

On the up side, the kitchen cupboards have all be scrubbed and reorganized (Boy-o's doing). The whole house has bee vacuumed and dusted. I have bookcase almost done...it is a LOT more involved that I thought it was...I have LOT of books! Even by bagging up my 'not best" books...I want to keep them but they just fall short of my display books, I have a ton.

And I still have the office.....and the tax paperwork....and my closet.....all for another day.




I have a cross stitch for a new baby for a dear friend to finish this weekend at the beach. Sitting on the patio with the humming birds and the ocean...can it get any better?

Those trees are on the edge of the golf course and is where we can see the fog creeping up to our end of town. The Rock is just a never ending panorama...the sky is a thousand shades of blue every day.

And the hummers are no end of entertainment.

Early Morning here

Darling couldn't sleep, so we have been up for hours. Both little dogs need to be clipped, so I hauled out the scissors to attack the worst bits. They now look as if I held them in the garbage disposal in a fit of pique. Rocket will go in in a week or two once the rawness of the raggedy cut grows out. Matt...well, we'll see. He hates getting his hair cut and the whimpering and howling (ooooooo00000) would really get on my nerves. Maybe I can give him a doggie tranq so he won;t mind it so much. They both look like they have joined the Marines.

I am vacuuming with my Dyson today, upstairs and down. It is so efficient that while it doesn't put hoovering in to the fun category is certainly amusing. Nothing like dumping the dirt from the floor into the trash to make you feel as if you HAVE DONE SOMETHING.

I did the OCD-tiny-bit-anal cleaning of the downstairs yesterday....vacuum, sweep, vacuum, mop, vacuum and the mop again with a totally different mop and boiling water. The bathroom even got doused with boiling water and all rampant cooties are dead.

Boy-o is coming over tomorrow to clean and tidy up my kitchen cupboards, since I am of the close your eyes and put it away ilk. He will take everything out, wipe off the shelves and then tidily stack it all up. Every time he does this, he tells me that when he is into his own little house, he is raiding my cookware, since 8 little soup pots are too many for one person who doesn't cook. He might be right.

Lunch out with my friend Val at Panera's...so I have to get going...finish the dogs and take photos, since the fun of blogging is looking at the photos of other people's lives.

Happy Birthday, Boy-o!

We finished the first season of RESCUE ME and then Girlie drove over to pick him up...they were going to the early movie. He came over to visit, since they had, oh, NINETY MINUTES and when she said she was coming back with KFC, he said he was having lunch here.

Then he rented HEROES, which I never even started....and he's come over tomorrow to give us the rest of our fix. Not all, mind you, since the first season has 26 hours and I think we can cram in MAYBE 5.

I have an appointment with my cudandera, who is sort of a Mexican witchdoctor kind of massage therapist/chiropractor/bone crusher kind of healer. I'm trying him out for my migraines. I am pretending that the migraines are independent of ME. I am sick of defining myself via these headaches. They have just too much power over my life, so I am done with talking abut them. There is only so much whining even I can stand to listen to.

So today, I listed 14 16mm movies and tomorrow, I am going to list a bunch other other junk. There is just only so much stuff I can keep dusting here!

I have also decided that if Neanderthals could figure out HOW to knit, I certainly figure out how to knit again. And that is that with that. There is a navy blue baby sweater in my future. His name is Jack Ranier and the little rainbow strips just aren't right. Trust me. Totally wrong.

My MRI and my students (both bad bad very bad)

I've had MRI's before...and never had a problem. All I can say about the one I had yesterday is that I will never ever get another without major sedation. It was just like having a really bad headache, being locked in a metal trashcan and giving an entire preschool hammers.

I have had a busy 23 days of school In 23 days, I have had EIGHTY FIVE students come and go.

THEREFORE, I have had to talk way more than I want to about not swearing in class. Yeah, I know it's prison but NOT IN MY CLASSROOM. I have explained, asked nicely, gotten right in their faces....and today, I had to stop class three times and RAISE MY VOICE.

In 30 some years of teaching, I can count on one hand how many times I have ever had to raise my voice. I told them that the next fella who played fast and loose with bad language/cursing/cussing/swearing or profanity would get the entire class capped. (That is when they are confined to quarters).

Sure enough....I had five guys who just could not resist telling me what I could do with myself. I called my boss....he was out. I called the other three supervisors..all out. Called the captain and left a voice mail and then asked my officer what I should do. THROW THEM OUT. So I did.

That means there are ten long hot days with no phone calls, no tv, no canteen....and four of the smart mouths....they won't be getting out on parole next week. They have a little more time to serve. And while that is really too bad, their best thinking got them INTO prison. And their choices today? Well, I hope that telling me off was worth an extra 10 days tacked onto their sentences.

Lady Chloe of Migraine

I have migraines.
I have migraines so bad that my co-workers have called 911.
I have migraines so bad that sometimes I actually think I have been shot in the head and am surprised to find no bullet hole.

This week was the week of three trips to the hospital and 4 trips to the doctor.
Yep.
Every darn day.

In fact, in one of the ER rooms, I was next to a guy who had broken his back. Guess who was getting the morphine?

So on Friday, I get a bunch of new medications.....a nice change, since one of the ones I used to use cost $42 per pill and I needed to take at least three in 30 minutes to see if maybe it would work. It did., Once. But oh, sweet Jesus, that one time relief was the best feeling in the world.

So back to this week.
I think I have spent in this one week twice what I make in a year...and yes, I do have some really good insurance.

My daughter was with me at the onset of this one (and I think it was just one really big headache, not a series of them). I always, always start out by rubbing my temple, because it sort of hurts, in a way that childbirth sort of hurts.

Then my eyes get black, just like somebody socked me one. Then they get all bloodshot and teary....very attractive. This all happens in about five minutes, which is longer than it takes to get your keys and get into the car. While all of this is going on, my blood pressure (which is a tidy 112/72 because I take care of myself) spikes to numbers like 199/150.

So I spent most of the week hooked up to IV's. The scale used for migraines goes from 1-10; 10 being the worst pain you can remember. I think they need to rework that scale because I go from zero to sixty in about 5 minutes.

Like a Californian can feel and hear an earthquake coming and can gauge how bad it's going to be, I can gauge a migraine. I don't need my vitals taken. I can tell any doctor what it is that I need and how much. I know what the particular drug cocktail will possibly work for me. I even know how long this one is going to take to get under control.

I've learned which three of my veins will always work-the crook in my left elbow is a garden hose, unless it gets blown. Then there is a good one in my little finger and one in my ankle and even though the nurse winces when she runs a line in it, I don't even feel it.

I have learned a whole new vocabulary; words like Demerol and Phenergan and Dilaudid and morphine (which is highly over rated). I know that Valium works better for me if I take it by mouth. I know how to stand on one leg so it doesn't hurt so much and that I've gotten so many injections that my hip feels like Styrofoam.

I've had migraines since October, 1976. Sometimes, I go years without one. This year (and it is only August), I've gone as long as 11 whole days without one. I carry a little pillbox with me, with all my medications, just like a little old lady, because I only have a five minute window.

The doctor's always ask me to compare the pain to something else. Childbirth? No. I had a47 hour labor and it pales in comparison. I've fallen down the stairs and broken my ankle AND driven 45 miles to the hospital...and would gladly do so again in a red hot minute. Step on g;ass and sliced my foot open. No comparison. In short, there IS no comparison.

The thing I miss the most is knitting. And spelling. Well, there is always spell-check, but knitting , which used to be my refuge, has now become like an impossible language to discern. The patterns might as well be written in Croatian. I can't read a measuring tape, so knitting a gauge swatch is just plain silly.

The pleasure I have of making something, stitch by stitch, has become such a chore. I am sure I'll get it back. I'm sure that I'll re-master DPN's. I take a look at my stash and I'm just not ready to ebay it. Maybe next year. I hope not, because I LOVE knitting. I love my bamboo needles. I love the ebony ones and I love the rosewood ones. I like the feel of fiber, slipping through my fingers. I love the clickety clickety sound as the needles work what can only be called magic.

I've given up quilting. I've almost given up sewing. But I think I'll hang onto my needles and yarn for a bit longer.

Maybe these new red pills will work.

I've MISPLACED my friend, Day!

I don't visit blogs every day but I do visit. Imagine my surprise when my friend Day's blog vanished! I know no one has to get my personal permission, but it felt exactly like being in the market and discovering your checkbook is missing.

Anyway, I'm missing her updates!

I'm still valiantly working, trying to get all my students tested and placed, while trying to cajole them into TAKING the tests. These are not scholars, by any means. And I'm still working on the no-swearing zone.

Oh, how easily I am amused

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Lady Chloe Scarlett the Disappointing of Walk upon Water Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title And my family: Countess Lisi the Talkative of Lower Bumhampton His Exalted Highness Duke Ben the Surreptitious of Wimblish upon Frognaze Reverend Earl Michael the Charming of New Invention

What Do Teachers Make?

Taylor Mali

Homemaker/Artist

Finally finished not one but TWO iron bedsteads. (Sanding is the #1 most boring project in the world). They go off tomorrow to be powder coated in ivory. I'll do all the highlights in gold by hand. These are probably the most ornate beds I've ever seen and even if they don;t match, I think they will look really great.

The walls in this room are the color of a wheat field...just a pretty, soft natural gold. There are four huge windows 3x6, so there is a lot of natural light. I've redone the faux finishing on all the woodwork, so you have the light and the dark going on, along with the ivory beds.

My plan is to hang lace sheers, for privacy and then use vintage damask table cloths for the drapes. I have a ton of vintage linens, so I'm making pillows, shams, neckrolls all out of this really wonderful fabrics. They will all be different but not in a foofy way...more like a tailored and elegant foof.

The beds have very light lavendar toile quilts that I may flip over and just use the plain ivory dise. Each bed has a camel backed truck at the foot of the bed and my grndmother's old treadle machine as the nightstand. I even have twin mattresses under each bed so i can sleep at least four and maybe more than that, depemding on how friendly everyone is!

I am still looking for a neat lampshade---probably the brass art decolamp with a burned velvet shade. A friend suggested some orange to pop in all that lavendar...I'm thinking of some country photos of lavendar fields with orange poppies...just enough and not super huge; just a little.

I have some pots of lavendar and salvia on the veranda and I think I'll dry some to put on the night stand, too.

This is going to mainly be my sewing room--the table is right in front of two of the windows so I have lots of natural light. Darling is going to rework some armoires so I have a place for my yarn/fabric/trim. I have a fireplace in the works with bookshelves on either side...plenty of room for my sewing books!

I can tell you how helpful the teachers on teachersnet have been. Nothing but great ideas.

Good thinkg, since I am running a teensy bit dry on great ideas, lately. I think it is all the sanding.

Opening up a new class

I'll have to go all over the yard to recruit students, but my reputation has preceded me, so it should be easy to get 28 and a waiting list.

I actually ENJOY this, more than any of the many other things I do. I'm not a cupcake or a pushover, but I am firm, fair and predictable. I run the class on a strict schedule, much like a kindergarten class.

My two clerks (both Life Without) are very OCD, so the room is perfection itself. All the books are filed, so it is easy to start a student as soon as I test him for his English abilities. Every file is updated immediately and the paper work is immaculate. Every drawer, every cabinet is labeled so that I know what is in there.

My porter has been my porter off and on for the last eight years. Tomorrow, he is stripping and buffing my floors, so the shine like glass. I appreciate him as much as I do my clerks...he comes in at lunch and after class has been dismissed to wipe everything down with an antibacterial wash. I'll have a preponderance of inmates who are fatally ill, so I really appreciate this little kindness. When I lose a student, the class will write letters to the family, so that they have that comfort...their boy was not just an unknown number.

Those few students who have signed up for class came in this afternoon and wrote essays, telling me WHY they wanted to come to school. The essays were in Spanish and told me how much schooling they had already and what their personal goals were. Since they are in Spanish (and so pretty private), I'll be posting them on the wall with some kind of snappy saying in Spanish meaning "Your future does not simply occur. You must first have a plan."

Tomorrow, I put up bulletin boards. I'm using fadeless paper in turquoise, grass green, yellow and hot pink. As you must know, there is very little color in a prison and even less in the classrooms. I like to make my room a safe haven that LOOKS like a place where learning takes place.

I have a large set of Nat'l Geographic videos that we will watch in English, in Spanish, in English with subtitles, in Spanish and then again in English with subtitles. I have Nat'l Geographic photos that have been mounted and laminated; I have about 30 for each movie, so that every day, no matter what level the student is on, they can write about the picture.

I also teach them how to write legible cursive (D'Nealian) and life skills, as well as rewriting and illustrating children's books in both English and Spanish, to send home to their children. I want them to be proud of what they learn and share it with their families.

Each man has a story; a future; a family. My goal is to help them discover themselves in class. I can't change what goes on outside of class...the kind of prison I teach at is a very hard row to hoe. It is violent, lonely and difficult, especially if you don't speak English.

I do all the translating (Mainly Spanish, but also Illekano and Tagalog), so it is good practice for me, too. I do all of the concurrent translation in writing, too....I'm rusty now, but in six months, I'll be speaking more Spanish in a day than English.

Despite my "mission" to give these men a second chance in life, I know that prison is the best place for them. They have committed terrible crimes and because of their lack of good sense, as far as choices go, I treat them with the same respect I expect.

So far, it works both ways. I learn far more from my inmates that they learn from me. But that's the way it has always been for me...anyone can teach the subject content that I do. It is the personal growth (usually mine), that makes my work meaningful.

Where I work, I have former students incarcerated and former students who work there. They are each individually recognizable to me and are always happy to know that I remember them personally. No matter what they are doing with their lives, each time I run into them, it gives me great please to know that I recognize THEM.

They were and are distinctive individuals and important enough to me that even 35 years later, I can remember their names, their families and usually even the school they attended. (I can't remember to buy trash bags, but I think that is a different part of my brain!)

Home again, Home again

I have never been so happy to sleep in my own bed in my life. Yesterday, which wold be Wednesday (since I watched So You Think You Can Dance), I spent most of the day in the ER, having been whisked there by AMBULANCE from work.

Chest pains. Like a heart attack.
Well, it was more like a gremlin fist, wringing my heart out, saying "Have another piece of fudge! Wanna Twinkie?"
Very scary. It really hurt and I couldn't catch my breath either.

So I called 222 (the 911 at the prison), which is answered by the fire chief, the ACH, the watch office, central control and somebody else. I cheeped out "I'm at the snackbar and I think maybe I'm having a heart attack." WHOOSH! There was about 3 minutes before the cafeteria was full of a ton of people, oxygen tanks, gurneys....mercy. Then the real abulance showed up, bundled me up and off we went.

I asked for the siren and some lights, just for leaving the prison, since it would be SO dramatic, but the guys said no. I got more oxygen, nitro (yuck, nasty) and several attempts at getting a line in. Unsuccessful.

I spent most of yesterday in the ER, getting poked and drugged. Sad to say, when I'm in the midst of this kind of life or death drama, I can;t remember my name, the date OR the president's name....so not only am I worried, who ever is working on me is worried, too.

After about 2 hours, I managed to call Darling...he was going crazy, trying to find my car, since my boss had told him I was DRIVING to the ER...as in I was driving, as opposed to being driven. So he searched the hospital parking lot, my doctor's lot, the worker's comp lot (maybe I got confused and went in for Josie to take care of me)...the pharmacy (maybe I thought I needed migraine medicine), the grocery store (maybe I decided I was hungry and it wasn't a heart attack at all). Anyway, he was at that moment where you can;t decide if you are relieved or furious but once he got into the ER, he got over that.

He called Boy-o, who came and sat with me, so I was never alone. We decided not to call Girlie, since it would just worry her (she works, goes to school and is in the next town over...no reason to have everyone upset....and we have no intention on telling my mother AT ALL).

I was there for three days for tests, which all came out peachy keen. My BP..perfect. Cholesterol? Perfect. Everything....if I could bottle it, I would make a mint. The only thing that is wrong with me is my migraines...which is another story.

150 Things to Do

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa.
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states almost
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe.
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing--in the great outdoors
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured an ancient site
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played Dungeons & Dragons for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently well enough to have a decent conversation
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised (raising) children (child)
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life
151. Finished a marathon = Portland marathon 2005

My week so far (it's only Wednesday)

I had a migraine on Tuesday, so after I took my medicines (which didn't stop this particular train wreck), I went in for a shot. My blood pressure was 177/125...which is like a stroke, which is what the nurse (who said, Oh. My. God. when she took the reading) and the doctor thought...so they fixed me up RIGHT. THEN. and I slept all day and all night.

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ June 5 post----the baby cardigan.
I LOVE IT.

I ordered TWO. One for Girlie's baby chest and one...well, someone will have a baby. Probably Ruthie or Steven's wife, Erin. I love, love, love these two as if they were my own. They are just really neat gals who happen to be part of my friend Peggy's family...so, voila! Isn't it just handy to be having babies in my orbit?

I have been reading files for the last week and today I actually TAUGHT A CLASS. Gosh, it was fun. We were working on writing descriptive paragraphs and after walking them through the thinking, the visualizing,working with five senses....they generated some really good pieces. Rough, but good. We even used a graphic organizer (hey! I'm a real teacher!)

Then on Friday, I test all day long...12 guys in, 45 minutes, 12 guys out/12 guys in. I can do a group per hour. 60 guys out of the 300 I need to test on that yard. Then it is back to reading files.

I stopped by the scrapbook store for an actual scrapbook (the 12x12 kind, which I almost NEVER use), some paper and some glue. I like to go to this little independent local store instead of Michael's. I can park right in front, the gals know me and besides, if I don't shop there, it will close and then Michael's will be my only choice...sort of like WalMart. If there is something totally special I am looking for, I will STILL stop there first, just in case.

I hate big stores. Too many people. Too many cars. Too much sensory overload.

Yard sailing...found a highboy!

I've been looking for a narrow something with drawers that will fit into a narrow niche in my new closet. I have the velvet lined jewelry organizers and wanted something I could simply put these trays in....and maybe have a couple of lingerie drawers, as well. We were yardsailing and I found a 1903 highboy for TEN DOLLARS. The drawers need to be remade and it needs to cleaned up...but it is in great shape with a pretty inlaid wood pattern on the doors...did I mention that the jewelry drawers are hidden behind a pair of doors? Original hardware and those really cool wooden wheels.
Yes, I scored big time, I know.
Luck, not talent.

Photos later on. I never have my camera when I need it!

Scrapbooking for me!

Evidently, the part of my brain that can knit is on hiatus. I have been struggling with a pair of fingerless mitts and simply cannot get on board with the pattern....which is a no brainer. I know I have done/can do this, but for some reason, it is just not clicking. So I am putting it away and starting a new sit around project.

Tomorrow (today), I'll stop at Walgreen's and get all the photos of the hotel printed up. Although standing at the little kiosk and monkeying with the photos is entertaining, it sure was a lot simpler when you just dropped off the roll and got a mish-mash of photos back. I figure it will take AT LEAST an hour to chose, crop and monkey with them. THEN, while they are being developed, I'm going to the scrapbook store to stock up on fresh supplies...not too many, since there lies madness. Just enough to keep me busy this weekend.

Lisi gets her first paycheck on Friday and is quite excited. She is really enjoying her job---it is a perfect fit for her. Part event planning and part chatting to the public, it seems to be custom made for her right now. She even likes the classes in her major---but then, criminal justice is just all around entertaining, if you don't take it overly seriously.

I am back at work after a year long absence. They are being very accommodating--tomorrow(today) I will be going thru stacks of files. I tested on Wednesday and did paperwork on Tuesday. I am TIRED. Just the chatting and the people and the walking in real shoes has worn me out. (I wore real clothes and real shoes for 2 days in a row...ALL DAY. And I drove back and forth to work.)
I came home too tired to do much more than fix dinner and clean up the kitchen. Mike came home and wanted to go swimming (it's really hot) and the idea of finding and putting on my suit and walking out to the backyard was JUST. TOO. MUCH. Maybe on Thursday. For sure on Thursday so I can get some sun.

Transom windows

Mike is building the stained glass for the transoms. Each one of the interior rooms has a transom over the door (this was an old hotel). He works on them between appointments...or if I'm there like this weekend, I'll work on one of my projects and he'll work on them. He has 9 done...2 to go. This particular pattern has 87 pieces, with something like 350-400 cuts, with 360 solder joints...so this is a very pickety project. (It's not a hobby...too complicated.)

This photo is the original English window pattern I found, called "Aquitane Rose".

We bought all of our glass at Scarab Glass in Fresno. We've been there so many time that I can find it right off the freeway and then get back ON the freeway, instead of trying to meander across town, which is what we did in the beginning.

I took my tapestry fabric with me and then just sort of let Mike and the gal from the shop choose the colors. It was sort of funny...they would hold up two pieces to the light and say "So, how do you like this?" Heck, I didn't know! No idea what I was looking at. Or for.

They are so helpful there...when I am picking out glass, they act as if I know what I'm doing.

But the finished product looks great, propped in the shop window!

A -sandin' and a-strippin'

I have several antique pieces I've had in storage at the shop that we got out of a tear down. The house was built in 1880 and I believe that there was pigeon shit on these pieces dating FROM that year. A lot. A whole lot.

Here is what I worked on today.
Headboard with dirt and all (there is a foot board, too)

This is a twin size; Mike is going to build a frame with drawers underneath it for the mattress. The room this goes in is going to be my guest/sewing room and will have this in there, too...along with a double armoire that I haven't found yet. When I re-do this fainting couch, I'll do it upstairs, where the sewing stuff will be.
That band at the bottom looks a little like smocking...so I'll pick up that detail in the curtain headers. Trust me on this one. I can do it.


I

Headboard Detail..the curlieques and rosettes will all be gold leafed

So today, I got this REALLY smart idea. I would start sanding the iron bedstead...that would tire me out. I really need to put laundry away/vacuum/clean the fridge/clean the office/weed...but NONE of those chores really appealed to me as a tire-me-out activity. (And I need to get tired because I haven't slept in a couple of days.)

Now, if you have never cleaned up 127 years of pigeon shit and lead paint (oh, I am sure it is lead paint), well, suffice to say you simply do not know the meaning of boring. I have photos so you can see how hard I worked.

This took all morning (from 7am until noon).

Sanding entertains ME for about 5 minutes. It is only interesting for about that long. And the foot board weighs about 50 pounds, which didn't stop me from dragging it outside, hosing it off and dragging it back inside the shop every time my hands started to hurt.

And I am TIRED.

My daughter is going to give me a heart attack

And if she doesn't manage, I am sure my work will do me in
She got rear ended this morning on her way to school. Did she call the police? Don't be silly. She is calling the insurance company right now....SIX HOURS after the accident. She did exchange info with the driver....but the ONE and ONLY time I did that and didn't call the police, I ended up paying for the entire repair my own self.

When she told me, I went berserk....and she got snippy....which, if the tables were turned, I would have done the same. EXCEPT I'm the one paying for all the insurance.

Then I got a call from work. They need a memo to the warden so he can approve my health insurance while I am off work. Never fear, taxpayers, I will repay it all either when I go back to work or when I retire. It comes right off the top.

Then I got a call from SDI....they need a note from my doctor to send me any more payments. Also, I need to send in a memo to them, explaining why the dates on all of the doctor's notes are wrong. (Because my doctor is an idiot, that's why.) He's a great guy, he just is no good with paperwork. My FMLA was expired before he managed to get the paperwork in correctly. It took him FIVE times. I was almost ready to just fill it in myself, since every time I dragged it back in to him he would get so frustrated. Although what he had to be frustrated about is beyond me...I'm the one on leave without pay.

Dr. Migraine is in

I woke up to what I thought was a lightening storm...just inside my head. I've taken the usual barrage of pills and hope that it will just stall itself out. There for a while, I thought I was going to just call an ambulance, tell them I was having a stroke and let them deal with it.

This morning the sunlight is low and soft...very pretty outside the windows. Lots of birds. My new chicken is...well, happy isn;t the word, nor is lonely. She is in the big coop all by herself and slept in her box last night. She will get used to it and spend more time on the perches. She is too young yet to lay and I am thinking of getting a few more to keep her company, although I'm not sure that chickens are smart enough to understand company.

I have been using a curry comb on Tank...he has enough hair to make extra dogs every day! No wonder the kitchen floor was a flurry every day. The daily combing has helped a lot...and he enjoys the extra attention. I have never had such an attention hog before in my life. The other two dogs don;t mind a little petting on the occasion (note: seldom and little)

Still having a devil of a time with the knitted mittens. I KNOW for a fact I have used DPNs and successfully in the past but this project has been yanked out more than once. Somehow, it manages to twist itself...and I'm being CAREFUL! Nothing to do but to continue to battle with it. I have some mending to do on some knitting...no that I can manage. A moron could manage mending, so it is no great accomplishment. I have a basket of loose buttons to work on, as well.

We might go to the coast this weekend....a change is as good as a rest, I guess. Girlie got her hair cut yesterday....it went from wait-length to chin length and she is considering a pixi cut. It looks very cute and will be cooler for this very hot summer. She will be working at a satallite station for the police department, so it will be a change from pulling it up in a pony tail. She has bought all kinds of cute new outfits....her college student semi grunge look is over.

I have a neuro appointment at the end of the month...will need to rearrange some other appointments to fit him in. I'll leave that to next week. I think maybe I will go lie down in a dark room for a little bit. I wouldn;t wish migraines on my worst enemy...which makes me wonder about the kind of person who wished THIS on me!!

A B C All About Me!

Paulie at postcardsfrompaulie has tagged me. So here goes!


A- Attached or Single? Very muchly married

B- Best Friend- Marji and Pat...I talk to them every day

C- Cake or Pie- neither one blows my dress up. Too much sugar

D- Drink of choice- Root beer

E- Essential Items- Moisturizer, eyelash curler, lip gloss and some sun

F- Favorite color- turquoise

G- Gummi Bears or Worms- Can I just choose licorace?

H- Hometown- Porterville, CA

I- Indulgence- Facials and pedicures

J- January or February?- February....closer to spring

K- Kids- 4: Keri, Julie, Ben and Lisi

L- Life is incomplete without- family (reading books with the dogs laying around)

M- Marriage Date- July 8,1998

N-Number of Siblings- Two sisters and a brother we adopted cause he fits so well with our family

O- Oranges or Apples?- man-eating oranges

P- Phobias/Fears- creepy crawlies

Q- Favorite Quote- "It's not good, it's not bad, it just is"

R- Reason to Smile- when my kids descend on me with the mess and the noise and the babies and the dogs

S- Seasons - Spring

T- Tags- marji over at tangledstrings

U- Unknown fact about me- My life is an open book..no secrets here! (Easier that way).

V- Vegetarian or oppressor of animals? It's all here for us to use, isn't it?

W- Worse Habit- worrying

X-X-rays or ultrasounds- either

Y- Your Favorite Food- sushi AND sashimi

Z- Zodiac- What sign was I born under? "Closed"

Pacing and wringing my hands

Always a sign of worry overload. WHAT I am worried about is not exactly clear.

I'm worried that my son's toothache will turn into SOMETHING DIRE. What, I'm not sure. I've only gotten as far as the capitals.

Then there is the bank, which may somehow manage to LOSE MY MONEY. Hasn't happened yet, but it might.

I have a slow sink upstairs, which MIGHT BE SOMETHING.

And of course, just the general bomb dropping. That worries me. But I live so close to the airbase, it would all be over before I ever woke up. If I ever sleep again. And the house would be flattened, so no foreign troops would notice that my kitchen wasn't immaculate.

Then there is my brother Clark, who has his own category of worry, named CLARK!.

Then there is the OH, NO! worries; the rising gas price worries, the will it ever sell worries, the something is worn in my brain because I cannot start a sock worries....I found myself worrying that I couldn't open up a checking account in a different back. (Okay, I know that is just a crazy worry.)

We talked about the wee bit of carpet to go up in the hotel (just my bedroom) and thought we'd just use the same stuff we have in this house...wears like iron, isn't hideous, nice neutral color and THAT sent me into hand wringing.

What I want to do is get a teardrop trailer, put my own bed in it and then drive around the country. Then all I would have to worry about would be where are we? (Who cares?) and what';s for dinner? (French onion soup.) I wouldn't have to worry about a bad bed or worse pillows. When I travel, those are the only things I fret about. The bed and the pillows. And nice sheets. Give me a teeny trailer where that is pretty much all I have and I'd be fine.

But in the meantime, I'll be up, pacing and wringing my hands.

To verify or not to verify

This blog must be spam heaven for every scam and ad on the planet. I tried unchecking the "no verification" dot...and the floodwaters opened. I must have had 500 comments, none of which I was interested in.

The reason I left MySpace was because my in-box was flooded with photos from adults who thought that pictures of their genitalia was the same as conversation. IMO, flooding my in box with spam is just about the same thing.

So for now, you posters will have to verify that you are human when you post. I know, not every blog requires this, but I am not willing to wade thru lines and lines and lines of junk to read one pithy comment.

One day, there will be a spamonly site, and the spammers can write to each other and leave me OUT of it!

Photos on their way

There are quite a few pieces that I am taking to the hotel from this house. For one thing, I have this HUGE entertainment center (yard sale) that we are going to use as a china cabinet. It will have to go on a base (which will have drawers for my table linens), and glass on all the open doors (to cut out all the dusting) and a shelf where the television is for my soup tureens and seasonal doodads. And lights! I have to have lights so that everyone can be dazzled by my sparkling crystal!

We have three pianos in this house and I have been talked into taking all three. We have the room and what the heck are we going to do with them anyway? I'm doing "God Bless the Broken Road" for the piano bench in the lobby and a magnolia blossom wreath for the piano bench in the dining room.

I have several old fashioned stoves that I use as buffets on the patio; they will go up on the veranda. One of them...a round Swedish stove...will be re-nickeled and blacked and fixed up for an electric fire in my bedroom. Another one is going to be my actual stove in the kitchen. (It is all fixed up to work like a "real" stove...it just looks really cool.)

I have one wall in my bedroom where the Eastlake organ will go...I just use it to display family photos anyway and it will look nice on that one empty wall. (God knows, I can't just have an EMPTY WALL).

The overly romantic pictures with the extremely expensive frames (so expensive that I have never told my husband exactly how much I spent on them. Suffice to say that Prince Charles would have raised a HUGE fuss. It was one of those extravagances that REALLY only cost pennies, if you count how many times I look at them and love the way they look. Really. Just pennies per glance.)

I have a HUGE round dining room table (room for 18...can you believe it?) but I need to get new chairs. I do not like the dining room chairs we have now. Never have. Ugly. Uncomfortable. Clunky looking.

I'm not sure where all of the animal heads are going to go. (Hey! I didn't kill them...I liberated them from the trash heap.) There is no room in the library; no room in the lobby, no way they are going off in a yard sale. I love them. Maybe in the back hallway, which isn;t really the back hallway...it's the hallway we use when we use the elevator.

I'm going to teach my own self how to upholster, since I have a much more extravagant taste than cash. I found a fainting couch that I'm going to recover in a leopard print velvet with burned out velvet pillows...very '20's. I found a beautiful burgundy paisley chenille that I'm going to recover my grandmother's chair with...this will go in the library, too.

I have almost all of the fabric and almost all of the furniture....and I think the first project will be the veranda....get that all furnished and fixed up so I can watch the cars drive by. Then I have plenty of projects to work on after work..since I don't have all that yardwork to do!

Mother's Day

We had a great time! Both kids, my mom, my husband and I went out to the Mother's Day breakfast at Courthouse Square. We got all dressed up with fancy hats, piled into the touring car (with the top down).
This is a 1924 Dodge Brother's Special Edition and it just goes like the wind! (Well, at 40 mph, it feels like we are just flying down the road!)
There's my Mom and kids---she has an armload of presents. I made her a lightweight afgan...it is long and skinny, like an over sized shawl...perfect for over her shoulders when it is drafty and just right for tucking in over her legs and not getting caught up in the wheels. It was supposed to be a Christmas present but I had over estimated my knitting speed.
Mom is so funny....she told me at Christmas that she hoped she lived long enough to get it for Mother's Day. Talk about pressure to finish!

I didn't realize how SHORT I am compared to the kids...I'm 5'6" and look how they tower me!
I was equally "taller" than my mother, who was 5'2" and I thought she was a shrimp. If this goes on, my grandkids will be 6'5"!

Oh, my mother is OLDER than the car but she said that she felt like the Queen of England on tour. Evidently, this is one fancy car! It is in almost perfect condition....navy blue velvet seats, dove gray paint job and as you can see, it is totally air conditioned.

I am looking forward to showing this car for a few years and I am looking for a fancy hat to wear with my mink coat in the Christmas parade. (The Christmas parade is a BIG deal here in our little town.) I have a very fancy "Titanic" type of hat with pheasant feathers that I think will work. Mike will wear a derby, morning coat and long johns....it is COLD for the Christmas parade!

The Koi Pond

I tried to get the koi pond drained and refilled for Easter...I just ran out of gas. Yesterday, I had two guys over to help me weed....I have about a half acre in the front yard and once it gets ahead of me, it is like the Kentucky Derby. So the three of us did a total of24 hours of weeding, including mowing the giant front yard. It looks like someone lives here, once again.

So this morning, there was a lot of cleanup, mowing and raking that they could handle on their own, so I was in the bottom of the pond, mucking it out. This is such an icky job that I CAN'T asky anyone else to do it. I have two sump pump, draining the water, goop, sand and muck out. They are both in strainers so they don't suck up fish and leaf gunk...that is my job. Then I have a hose to keep diluting the gunk.

I spent six hours until Girlie made me get out. I have about an hour left before it is spotless. ALL of the fish and tadpoles are in buckets in the shade. ALL of the lily pads, papyrus and cat tails are dug and in water in the shade, too. I have to pressure wash the filter and drain that (ick ick ick), dump 500 pounds of salt in the filter and then fill the pond tomorrow. It will take most of the day.


The critters will go back in on Sunday, along with 1,000 new baby koi. (I have a friend who has a pond also and these are the babies that he doesn't have room for.) When he cleans his pond out, he brings his fish over to vacation in my pond.

Then I have to go hunting for more tadpoles in the river next week...Girlie has Tuesday free to drag me to the slough. These are the ones I have but I love the way hundreds and hundreds look feeding around the edges of the pond.

Right now, I am SO tired, but it's a good tired....the pond is so enjoyable and only needs to be drained and cleaned twice a year. I just have to not dilly dally and just get ON with it, so it doesn;t turn into this huge, prolonged project.

This year, I am planning on working on some bog plants on the planting ledges....and snails and turtles, just because the whole wild life thing enchants me.

I found some tiny little seed lights to go in the tree, along with some pretty bird feeders and wind chimes. We spend so much time outside during the summer....feeding the fish, sitting in the shade, eating outside and cooling off in the pool, so I like to make it as comfortable as possible.

I still have to clean up the outdoor kitchen....blow out leaves, clean up the winter debris and getting it ready for summer pizza parties. These are just the regular late spring chores; the pool house has to be hosed out and the outdoor shower needs to be swept out. There are hooks out of the way of the water, as well as a wringer for bathing suits. I save all of my ratty towels to leave out there, as well as left behind bathing suits, so we are ready at the drop of a hat for a party.

Update on hotel

Things have slowed down, as they always do, during the good weather. The crew is busy working on customer jobs, not on my projects. During the winter, there isn't much work---no one wants work done in their home during the holidays OR the wet weather. That's when we work on the hotel.

Right now, all we are doing is moving books from this house to the library and working on the stained glass. The interior transoms (11 of them) are almost ready to be installed. The next bit of the project is the stained glass for the library. The pattern I picked has 172 cuts for each of the six windows. (The ones we are doing right now have a mere 95. Times 11 windows).

THEN I think we will work on the skylight. It has to be rebuilt and reglazed before the new stained glass goes up. This particular set of four windows are going to have a LOT of beveled glass, because the whole POINT of a skylight is to let in light all day long.

Once the skylight is rebuilt, we can put up the gigantic moldings (36 inches) and paint. The skylight is 2 stories above the lobby, so there is a lot of painting in the skylight, the lobby, hallways and stairwell.

Hotel master Bedroom

Let me try it! Here are my bedroom fabrics
for the hotel.

It worked! Now I just have to remember how to do it!
Thanks Paulie and Marji!!!

Cinco de Mayo Weekend

Spending it at the beach house, where there is nice weather AND a car show. I brought my knitting and camera, so I can post photos of my weekend. Right now, I'm knitting and drinking root beer...my new favorite. I weeded about a month ago, so I have no weeds, just seedlings coming up. I need to water and then I'm sitting in the sun with my afgan...which has a give away date of NEXT Sunday and two more balls of yarn to finish. Then, like with the yellow, I am DONE with pink for a while.

I haven't driven since NOVEMBER and being Miss Daisy is a drag. I am sick of weeding, sick of cleaning and sick sick sick of being stuck at home.

I am still dizzy but since no one can figure out why, it is as if I am not dizzy. So I am going in on Tuesday to my primary and see if I can get released to dizzy my way back to work. I need to go back to work to finance the furnishing of the hotel. (Nope. I am grounded until June. There is another neurologist in my immediate future.)

Sidebar links!

I figured out how to get links in the sidebar but not in the body of my posts. Ya learn something every day...just not enough and my learning curve is a tad...ummm...flat.

I have decided

I see the brain doc on Thursday to set a day for my surgery. Then I am going back to work. The end. I am sick of being home. I am sick of being dizzy. I am sick of weeding. I am sick of being stuck more than anything.

I haven't driven since NOVEMBER....talk about regressing! I have to ask for rides everywhere; so of course, I have to really THINK about where I want to go and what I want to do and cram all I can into my outings.

I got my first disability check...I made about the same 35 years ago when I first started to teach. They were off by two entire months....it takes about 90 days for this stuff to get started and all I can say is that if my husband didn't work, we would be on the street by now. Sure, on paper, I look great---in in real life, all my money is ties up and disbursed by people who have a regular paycheck and can't see what a little delay can hurt. And their little delay of a week turns into a month turns into 90 days.

I have to see my regular doctor so he can resign the papers...my FMLA hasn;t gone thru yet because he didn;t complete the paperwork. Same thing with the disability papers. He signed the day he was SIGNING the papers as the first day I was out.

Now really, do you think that these are the first and only papers he has ever signed?

Me neither.

But on the knitting front, I have finished the BABY sweater. Maybe I mentioned it? It still needs to be seamed, ends woven in and washed...probably more than once, I am one of those grimy knitters. Mom's Christmas/Mother's Day afgan is almost finished...again, so grimy you can;t really tell what color it is.

I have projects to start after this, so I really do need to get moving. The house is clean, I can say that. The laundry is caught up. I need new towels for the master bath and I need to clean the poolhouse (winter is always hard on it) and since it is not REALLY part of the house, I never put it on the list.

I have tomatoes to put out and the eternal weeding to do....but I AM going back to work maybe as soon as Friday...which is perfect...spend the entire day at return to work and then fool around until lunch because no one was expecting me. Maybe do some filing or answer the phone....and then there are the rounds of Friday meetings! I could always go to those.

It's 100 at home

Where am I? Central Coast where it is cold, damp and foggy...the whole reason we spend time at the coast is that it is cool when it is hot at home and sunny when it is foggy at home. But this weekend was just the teeniest indulgent. Sometime today, I do need to water my garden....I weeded, rooted out and racked like a crazy person two weeks ago (Neighborhood Clean Up Day).

Yesterday, Darling and I went shopping for a bookcase...no surprise that we couldn;t find anything that suited me. So of course, Darling will have to custom make it. I want it to wrap around the window and have space for the TV but not look modern. He'll veneer it with knotty pine paneling from the 50's (from a tear down, natch). The cabinets will have the fronts cut out and have a latticework of rope, but the drawers will have some kind of real hardware.

Julie's baby sweater was finished on the flying trip to Arizona. It just needs to be seamed, washed and then have all the ends woven in. Hope the head is big enough. I always worry about the head not fitting, no matter how much measuring I do.

Now, I'm working on a HUGE afgan for my mother. It was supposed to be finished by Christmas. Now, it's a mother's day gift. And I really need to get in gear to meet that deadline.

After this, I have some fingerless mitts to make for my FIL, who spends every day chilled to the bone. The colorway is called "sunset flame" and I think it will work up nicely. Then I have a sweater for Girlie and a cardi for Darling. THEN I will only knit for myself. I have a grand stash that I need to get rid of via ebay....too much yellow! What was I thinking? That yellow afgan of Darling's just about did me in. I think I am NOT an afgan knitter....too much of a time committment.

This coming week, I am getting all of my "excess" books out of this house and up into the library at the hotel. I need to measure my card catalogs and see where they are going to go into my wee little office. I just want to be able to sew or rubber stamp or just sit and look at my yarn. I already have a good chair and file cabinets (they need to be sprayed, since none of them match).

When I was in Arizona, I visited my sister in law, who has painted every wall of her house with great colors...turquoise, serape red, dawn pink, cobalt blue. Loved it. Loved the pinky-lavendar of her bedroom....and I don't even like lavendar. She is moving out to more bold colors, which is giving me the much needed SHOVE....I will be missing my Tampa Bay turquoise/teal/aqua but you can't be dragging the same wall color into every house for the rest of your life!

I will be surfing the 'Net, looking for a botanical that both goes with the main colrscheme of the hotel AND has a lot of potential for lots of pattern in the bedroom/bathroom/sitting room/office and closet. I'll be doing all of the soft goods (I keep saying that to prime the pump, as it were, since there will be MILES of straight sewing to do. Miles and miles and miles. All straight but a lot of it. Did I mention miles? Like to Africa and back. On horseback.)

Weeding is good for a person

I think I have weeded for about 60 hours this week---and I have only made a dent in it! I've been pumping out the koi pond (always my Easter weekend project); I use the water and bottom glop for the garden beds. I have so much green trash that i have filled up FOUR trash cans, when I decided to just stop bothering the neighbors and just have the trash trailer come by. (And this after I have filled my composter up all the way.

The garden boxes are weeded and turned (and filled with pond goop)-next week I make my little zig-zagged short rows. I plant carrots in each row, a week apart. I have three boxes of carrots--baby ones, sweet ones and then just a mixture of seeds. We eat a lot of carrots. Then I have cherry tomatoes on a wire hoop (photos when there is something to see) and another box with two wooden teepees so I can get them tied up and facing the sun. This year, I am also planting zuchinni and pumpkins in the front, by the roses, in the hopes that I will see AND pick the zukes before they weight 900 pounds. I'm planting a big variety of fancy pumpkins with the hopes that i will have enough to decorate in the fall.

I've ordered a bunch of seeds from ebay--only the ones I can't get locally. I try the local gardening shop first with my little list then I go to OSH and then Home Depot. THEN I'll go to ebay. I have had such luck with gardening seeds, not so much with the plants. I think that plants almost have to be grown in the county you are planting them in for it to work.

We had a giant freeze and I lost all of my wild hyicinths...so I guess I will have to go to the river and see if I can find any. They are REALLY expensive on ebay and I had, oh, about 100 pounds of them. I'm going to look for waterlilies on the river, too. I know that they are there. I just have to hunt them down. And next time we have a freeze, I'm covering my water plants. The fish are fine...the pond is almost 10 feet deep at the deep end, so they are safe from the weather extremes.

I'm on the lookout for polliwogs on the river, as well. I have to get several gallon jars filled with the critters, since there they have a gigantic mortality rate. I have one frog from the millions I brought home several years ago...and I'd like to get a couple so maybe I would have to go searching for the eggs anymore. Although with my luck, I would probably end up with all males or all females!

The fight is over. The world won.

I give up.
I have been dizzy since November. I have taken every test humanly available. Obviously, I didn;t study too well because I haven't passed a single one.

It looks like I am going to be sent to some fancy pantsy teaching hospital for more tests...although why, I don't know. I didn't go to medical school so there is no doubt in my mind that I will fail all of their tests as well.

Boo Hoo. I am sitting here with a monster migraine and I simply cannot get the energy up to ask to be taken to the ER for a shot. Maybe this is the headache that will kill me. There is a wee angry little man, with a pickax trying escape thru my eye socket. There is another equally wee, equally angry little man who is determined to hammer thru my cheekbones while climbing up my molars.

I have been weeding today until my hands started to bleed, so I knocked that off. I have, oh, maybe another 60 or 70 hours of weeding to do. I have to say, it really takes out the pleasure of having a nice yard.

THEN...and this is such a wee little complaint that it hardly counts. My spouse wanted to know exactly when I was going to get the office cleaned up. He is sick of looking at the mess when he opens the door. (There is nothing in that room that belongs to him; that he uses; that he owns. He has never, in ten years, set foot in the office.)

I was only weeding because it was something I can do without falling on my head. When you spent the entire day crawling on the ground on your hands and knees, it makes little matter if you fall over. BUT, by all that is holy, that office will be clean tomorrow. I will open all the windows and if all of the stooping and bending makes me dizzy....I don't even care.

The merry-go-round that is constantly spinning outside of my head is way more than I can deal with. This is no kind of life. It is just miserable.

I have to clean the office

Oh, I HATE housekeeping. The office has turned into this huge junk room and really, I could probably toss everything in the rubbish bin and not miss any of it. however, pack rat that I am, I have to dig thru every bit of it, file it and tend to it.

I do have bits of quiting fabric that my schzioprenic self bought and I am not a quilter. I don't LIKE quilting. So all of those bits? Marji has a box of bits in her future.

I have a ton of things that really just needs to be tossed; then a ton of things that need to be files and sent over to the office. Business stuff. Tax stuff. Crazy making stuff.

I just want to get my office back in order so that I can sew in there. I want to ziplock my yarn and laces on the shelves so that the mice can;t get to them. We have mice problems in the winter...every winter...unless I make sure that everything is vermin tight, the poison is out, the traps are set and every hole is stuffed with steel wool. It is a never ending battle. So far, I'm winning.

Dragged the fridge out today and cleaned under it. Ick. I have the washer and dryer to drag out this week and expect the same kind of ick. It takes the better part of an entire afternoon....hoovering the loose dust and then spraying the ick down, wiping it up, spraying the ick and wiping it up. If the house didn;t get cleaned the whole place would look like that.

I have to get all of the baseboards washed down, too. Nothing to it, if you don;t mind crawling around on your hands and knees for about 4,000 lineal feet, dragging a bucket behind you.

I am almost finished with Julie's baby sweater. I have the back ond one sleeve to do. I am always much slower than I think I am, though. But you know what I say....for me, knitting is all about the Zen. I am not in a race with anyone. Good thing, since I would never win!

The best blog ever

http://oneofthosehorriblemoms.blogspot.com/index.html

Thoughtful and funny and spot on about raising children...and worrying about what if your best isn't near good enough and what about other people? Will they be kind to your offspring because all offf spring need to be treated with kindness or will they be as jerky to children as they are to the rest of mankind?

Yarn A GO GO is sttll number one on my list, followed by TANGLED STRING but this new one is almost like reading poetry about one's own life.

I can;t spell and it is March

I recently read all of my archived posts. Holy Moly, I sure have a problem with spelling! Honest, I can spell and one of these days, I'm going to make the needed correcctions.

Now it is March and the sun is shining and I think I will go out and weed in the sunshine next week. I need to take the dogs out with me in the very large, very fenced yard to figure out which one of thim is scaring the mailman. I got a registered letter telling me that one of my dogs is simply too terrifying and if I don;t do something about him/her, I'll be a daily guest at the Post Office.

Tank weighs 80 pounds. He likes to run and bark and lay in the sun. no way can he leave my 12 foot wrought iron fence.
Matt is 19. He can;t even find the fence.
Rocket can get out. She weight 2 pounds, with hair. however, Girlies went out with duck tape and duck taped all the decorative squares on the bottom of the wrought iron fence. Rocket is too fat to get out through the round decorative holes.

Plus, they are in the house when the truck pulls up. I open the door and we all spill out, like we are on an ice rink. It's pretty funny. Dangerous? Nope. The truck roars away before we get down the bottom of the steps.

Spring is on the way

My daffodils and jonquils are up already, along with all of those little spring weeds. My plan this week was to spend the days pulling weeds...something that is easy, mindless and certainly useful. Too bad the weather isn't going to co-operate. We are slated for rain, rain and more rain. Maybe I'll be able to catch some of the sunny moments between downpours and get the front gardens weeded. I have about a 400 x 3 foot bed to tend to in the front. Once weeded, I can toss out poppies, alysium and mint to fill up the beds. I have the vegetable garden to tear apart and the hill to weed before it gets too hot, as well as getting the shade garden cleaned up. Truely, there is only about 40 hours of work to do and I have about 2,000 bulbs in the ground, so once it's all cleaned up, it will really look pretty.

I have my climbing roses to thread through the trellis and I'm going to take cutting from my honeysuckle and see if I can get them started on the same trellis. I love the way honeysuckle looks, all mounded up on a trellis. I have to get the potato vine trimmed back, too. Once it warms up a little and dries out, I have to drain the koi pond. I usually use the water for the lawn and the goop at the bottom for the trees. We had a hard freeze this year, so I'm hoping that my hyacinths will come back. I collected them from the river, so they are aclimated to the weather here. I'm also going to wrap the filter in chicken wire, stuff it with moss and plant mint in it, with a teeny hose with pinholes in it to keep it moist. After I get the pond clean, I'm putting 50 pounds of salt in the filter and run the water thru it to clear up the water. (Of course, the fish go in tubs in the shade.)

I'm working on a pretty pink boucle afgan for my mom. It was supposed to be done for Christmas but the cable broke and I just could not face picking up all those stiches, so I ripped out the whole 48 inches and started all over again. The yarn is so soft and pretty that even in just a garter stitch, it looks like lace.

After this, I have a light blue baby sweater for a new grandbaby, due in May. I think I'll do a blanket to match, but I'll make the sweater in a 12 month size, since he is due so near to summer and I really would like to see him wear it.

The next project is the long awaited cashmere cardi for my husband. I bought the elk antler buttons last fall at Britex, so I need to get in gear.

I am still off work-that vertigo is almost impossible to figure out. I go in tomorrow for an MRI and if they can't figure out what the heck is wrong with me, I'm going to push for getting released and going back to work. I can be dizzy and get a paycheck just as easily as I can sit at home and be dizzy and broke. I'm sick of being cooped up at home and it is NO FUN.

Happy birthday to me

I had birthday pie for breakfast; I'm going to the fabric shop AND the yarn shop (I have a grandbaby on the way and need to make a sweater and blanky) and then I'm watching HOUSE whilst I knit.

That was the end of 2006.
Now it is the end of January, 2007. I'm back at work. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my Dad's death and somedays, I wonder what one earth I did in that last year I was off. I am busy getting taxes done, knitting is never ending and we have had a huge freeze here, so I am not realy sure what is left of my garden (weeds, I am sure have managed to survive).

I have a lap afgan almost finished for my mother (who is on her way to an assisted living facility, I am sure). I have a grandbaby boy due in March and a visit from the babies in June.

And that is pretty much it.

Been a teeny caught up in my own life lately

We had a terrific Thanksgiving....one of the best ever. Everyone was happy to have Darling home; food was great, no fighting, no biting. We planned to leave the next morning for a three day weekend at our beach house.

So much for planning.
Darling had a stroke; I called 911 and we spent the next 10 days in the hospital. He had a bed; I had a chair and all I could do was watch over him and worry. So now he is home and I am sick sick sick. I always get sick over people in the hospital...I'm great while they are IN the hospital, but once they get home and I can stop worrying, I end up getting e. coli or something and spend at least a week being SO sick.

So I am behind in everything.