The "C" word.

The animal hospital called yesterday to tell me that the results came back on the mass taken from Tana's eye. It's Squamous Cell Carcinoma. While I was trying to breathe again, the guy on the phone asked me if I knew what those terms meant. Yeah, I know, its CANCER. My dog has skin cancer. That's one word you never imagine you'll hear associated with your dog. I'll have to take her to an oncologist for a consult. The vet said they'd probably want to do a "further resection" on her eye and "aspirate the lymph nodes on that side of her body". Another surgery, ugh. My poor puppy. I asked about further treatment and he really didn't know, that's why they're referring me to an oncologist. I'll keep you all updated as we go along here.

How about another random picture just to lighten the mood?



The River Walk in San Antonio. We went to San Antonio last year for Lynn's nephew's graduation from basic training at Lackland Air Force Base. We stayed in a lovely hotel right on the River Walk, it was so beautiful there.

Breakfast cookies

Every year when I was little my dad would make Bisquick sausage balls for breakfast on Christmas day. I've made it a tradition to make them for my family every year now. I love these things!


Bisquick Sausage Balls

1 pound breakfast sausage

3 cups bisquick

2/3 cup milk

4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese



1. Heat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease cookie sheet.

2. Brown sausage, allow to cool.

3. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. You will probably need to use your hands so make sure the sausage is cooled enough.

4. Shape into 1 inch balls and bake 20 to 25 minutes.

I hope you enjoy this one. Have a happy holiday! I'm off to finish shopping for presents!

All is well

Tana came home late yesterday afternoon. She is doing just fine and her eye doesn't look bad at all. She has a couple of stitches that will have to be removed in two weeks. In the meantime she has to keep the cone on her head to keep her from scratching the sutures out. I don't know how I'm going to manage to keep that thing on her for two weeks. I've already discovered that it makes it very difficult for her to eat and drink. The edge of it pushes her dish away when she puts her head down to eat. I fed her by hand last night and this morning. The water dish is rather large so when she drinks the whole cone has to go in which poors water down her chin when she lifts her head, but again a smaller dish gets pushed away. Any suggestions you have that might make this easier for her would be much appreciated. I did zero knitting and crocheting last night. I felt so bad for Tana, I took the stupid cone off and just held her all evening. I put it back on her before bedtime and learned that thing is a pain to put on. I have to carry her up and down the stairs too, because she can't see them clearly. Now you all know what a complete softie I am when it comes to my dog.

In knitting news: I finished Lynn's hat. Here's a picture.

He loves it. Now I'm back to work on the Devil Baby Blanket. The baby will be here by year end, so I better knit fast!

Tana's going to have a rough day.

Resting peacefully with no idea what's in store.

Isn't she cute? I'm stressing a little today because my baby has gone to the vet for surgery. She has a mass growing on her right eye that must be cut out. They are going to have to take a little bit of her eyelids to get all of the mass. The mass was growing so it was necessary to get it removed before it got to large and she lost the eye completely. They are cleaning her teeth while she under anaesthesia too. I'm anxious for her to come home. She's going to be mad at me for days though.

Doesn't it look awful?

She going to have to wear one of those cone things on her head and that is so going to piss her off. I wouldn't like it either. I'll post again when she comes home and let ya'll know how she's doing.

More sewing and some partying.

Our crochet group drew names for a Holiday exchange. I drew Margie. She is a knitter as well as a crocheter. I planned to make her a DPN needle holder like the one I made myself last week. Then I learned Margie would prefer one for circular needles. So this is what I came up with:

This is what it looks like all folded up. I crocheted the hanger for it as well.

This is what the inside looks like. I picked the skull fabric because of this. Go see, it's really cool. So I knew she'd like the skulls. Last night was our crochet meeting and gift exchange party. Margie loved it. I'm so happy.

The meeting/party was great fun last night. My dear friend and "adopted little sister" came with me. This is Nicki:

She's working a scarf for a friend of ours. This next picture is a newbie to the group (I'm sorry I don't remember her name), Margie, Sherri and Mame. Sherri drew my name, she got me an awesome set of Harmony Sock DPN's. Thank you!!

This is Sandra and Sandy.

This is Susan, Deb and Angie.

Everyone had a good time, as usual. If you haven't joined us for a meeting, you really ought to come down sometime. Every Tuesday night at the O'Aces on Cheyenne and Rainbow.

I got sidetracked

I was planning on writing a blog post, but when I logged into the computer, I got sidetracked on EBay looking at iPod cases. Who knew there were so many different kinds of cases? Leather, silicone, crystal, aluminum, acrylic. Hard case or soft? Do I want an arm band, neck strap, or a belt clip? Too many choices. I'll have to decide later my brain is too far gone from all the holiday shopping hubby and I did today. Besides, I don't have any money left.

I'm tired just thinking about all the wrapping we have to do now. How are ya'll coming on your holiday shopping?

The knitting on the new hat is going slowly and hubby keeps asking when it'll be done. He claims his ears are cold. I shouldn't have told him the hat was for him, he's gonna make me nuts until I finish it.

How about a random pic, just for fun?

This was taken in Amsterdam at Vondelpark in May of 2005. Awesomely beautiful, huh? That park rocked, it was so pretty there.

Do you like cranberries?

I thought I'd share my favorite holiday recipe for cranberry salad. I've always loved this stuff. My family made it for holiday dinners when I was kid and now I make it.

Cranberry Salad

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 20 oz can of crushed pineapple (drained)
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups mini marshmellows
1 12 oz container of whipped topping

Directions:

1. Wash cranberries and remove any bad ones. Coarsely chop cranberries in a food processor. Place ground cranberries in a large, non-metal bowl and stir in sugar. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight.

2. Stir in crushed pineapple, chopped pecans and whipped topping. Fold in mini marshmellows.

Enjoy!

Prototype

I did a little bit of sewing today. Can you guess what this is?

It's a DPN Roll.

Those are US sizes 000 through 5 dpns. I have room to get sizes 6 through 11, including 10 1/2.

I made a fold down top to keep the needles from falling out.

The fabric is just some stuff I had here in my craft room. It came as a package with all three fabrics together. I'd bought it because I loved the color combinations. I'm glad i finally found a good use for it. I'm happy with the way it turned out, but I can definitely see where I'll make changes if I make another one.

100th post

Hey ya'll it's my 100th post! Woo hoo! Took me a while to get here, hopefully the next 200 won't take as long. You know that hat I mentioned on Monday? It's finished. I don't have any pics, I gave it to one of my hubby's friends. Mike had asked me to make him a hat because he was the only guy in the company who didn't have a one. It's finally gotten cold enough to need a hat here. I've started another hat now, this one is for my hubby:



This is Misti Alpaca Hand Dyed in worsted weight 4 ply. It's so soft and beautiful. It's a delight to knit with, I think I'm in love. This colorway is navy, tan and brown, I bought it at Nancy's Quilt Shop. They have another colorway in pinks and browns that I might have to go back for. I did go back and get some more alpaca to make a couple more hats.


This first one is more Misti Alpaca worsted in a solid blue. Color #6309. This is sort of a dusty, country blue.

This second one is Classic Elite Inca Alpaca color #3302. This one is very soft and has a bit of green running through the blue. I want to make a hat for our roommate, Dave. I knew it had to be blue, but I wasn't sure which one he'd like. He picked the Inca Alpaca. So I'm thinking I might pick up some beads and make an Odessa hat from the Misti Alpaca.

The guys really like this yarn too, it will be very soft and comfortable to wear. I told my husband he was getting an "upgrade" from $2.00 acrylic to $20.00 alpaca. He claimed he deserved it. Ha ha ha. Maybe just this once since he did give me an Ipod.

Bias Scarf

Have you tried knitting on the bias yet? It's really fun. I just finished a scarf in this technique. Whatcha think?

The yarn is TLC Essentials in Shaded Denim. Using size 10 straight needles, I cast on 24 stitches and used the entire skein. Finished size is 4 inches by 86 inches.

I've moved onto a new project. I'm making my first knitted hat. I'm using Bernat Satin in Ebony. Size 8 circulars using Magic loop. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy Anniversary to me!

This past Thursday the 6th was my 14th wedding anniversary. 14 years!!! I can't believe I've let him live this long. :) He surprised me with a really cool present:

An iPod Nano. I love it! It has 8 gigs of memory and I've filled it half full already. I had a Rio Carbon that was 5 gigs and completely full. The volume button on it had broken (on loud), I've been using headphones with an in-line volume control for quite some time now. Hubby decided I just couldn't have a broken mp3 player anymore. He's really quite sweet sometimes. Anyhow, I was able to upload all the music I had previously copied to my laptop for the old player. It took over 5 hours for the computer to convert all the songs files (from Rio's file type to iPod's file type). I had over 1000 songs. The file type iPod uses must be smaller somehow, because it took up a little less space than before.

The iPod requires you to use iTunes to manage your files. Having access to the iTunes store could be a really bad thing for me. I downloaded a handful of music videos just so I could see how the video quality is on the Nano. It's really clear and looks great. Those cost me $1.99 each. Songs are $0.99. I have to resist the urge to look at the music, I could spend a fortune! Instead I have been listening to Podcasts, they're free. I've really enjoyed them.

Here are some of my favorites so far:

CRL with Vickie Howell

Knit Picks Podcast

Lime and Violet's Podcast

Yarn Craft this one is from Lion Brand yarns and the current episode has a wonderful interview with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

I still have a few others to listen to, I'll let you know if I like them. No, they aren't all about knitting, I did download a couple of other subjects.

I finally got it right

It took a few tries to get the pattern right, but here they are. Colinette Jitterbug socks in the Jay colorway, one skein, five size 2 / 2.75mm Knit Picks double point needles.

The color distribution is pretty wild. I really do like it and I'm glad I went with a plain ribbing rather than a lace design. Here are a couple of detail pictures.

I cast on 64 stitches and worked a 1 1/2 inch p2, k2 ribbing cuff. For the leg, I worked a 5 1/2 inch rib as followes--with 16 sts on each needle, p1, k2, p2, k4, p2, k4, p1. (Note: I did shift one stitch to the needle on the right all the way around to make the different rib patterns match up, sort of.) I made a slip stitch heel over 32 sts for 32 rows. The foot is plain stockenette. I'm very happy and hubby likes them too.

Did you miss me?

Wow! I just signed on to post and realized how very long it's been since I was here last. Man, am I lame. It has been busy here though. The last weekend of September we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain in CA. It was hubby's business partner's daughter's 17th birthday. We took most of the companies employee's with us, plus a handful extra. We rented a beautiful house up in the mountains about an hour from the park. When we arrived we went to the grocery store and stocked the fridge and ate most of our meals at the house instead of the park. Don't worry, we still managed to eat lots of park food anyway. I've got lots of pictures, I get some up when I finish fighting with Flickr.

In the meantime, I have some sock pictures for you. I started these to learn short row toes and heels. I'm on a mission to learn all the different techniques I can. I used the stitch pattern from Wendy's Double Eyelet Rib Socks. I just used short row toes and heels instead of her toes and heels.

I really like the wire hanger sock forms. When I wash my socks, I just hang them from the shower curtain rod in the bathroom to dry. I got the instructions here.

Here is a closeup of the stitch detail:

And now a detail of the heel and toe:

When I finished the socks I gave them to the birthday girl I mentioned earlier. Before I gave them to her I made a simple paper band. I just used card stock and typed up a little note in Word. I included fiber content and washing instructions:

Holding pattern

You know that new pair of socks I cast on the other day? I'm not happy with them. The Colinette JitterBug is gorgous, shades of tuquoise varying from light to dark, with bits of cranberry, burgundy, green and blue sprinkled in. I'm very much in love with the color. The problem is I don't like it with the stitch pattern. The colors are pooling, a lot. So much so that the socks appear to be one color and one side and a different color on the other. I also think the yarn is too dark to see the stitch pattern well.

Exhibit A

This side of the sock is mostly dark.

Exibit B

This side of the sock is mostly light.

Exibit C

This is a view between the two above (I rotated 1 needle instead of flipping it over.) You can see that the color pools are starting to "travel" around the sock. I'm OK with with that, I just don't think it works with the stitch pattern. I'm debating on finishing the socks and giving them away, or frogging them to the ribbing and working them in a simpler pattern. Possibly just plain old stockinette or a wide ribbing?

I would still love to make this sock pattern, but I think I want a lighter colorway with less variation. Good excuse for yarn shopping!

In the meantime, I started a new crochet project. I using the new Red Heart Soft Yarn I purchased a few weeks ago. It's a beautiful shade of purple. (You might have noticed a trend here, yes purple is one of my favorite colors, my other favorite is green.)

I'm giving the shracket from Uncommon Threads another shot. I recently mentioned I had attempted this pattern before and didn't have enough yarn for it. I think I'm good this time, I've got three skeins. I'm using an N instead of a P hook. I thought P was just larger than necessary.

I let you know how it goes.

Finished socks for hubby

Grey Striped Cascade Fixation Socks

I've completed my second pair of socks in Cascade Fixation. This pair is for my husband.

Details:
Cascade Fixation color #9192, self-striping shades of gray.
Size 3 DPNs

Hubby likes them very much, as soon as I finished them he put them on and wore them for the rest of the day. I had to steal them back this morning in order to take the picture.

New Socks

I cast on a new pair of socks today. I am using Collinette Jitterbug in the Jay colorway. I purchased this yarn in San Fransisco when Angie and I were on the Yarn Harlot trip. I'm using Sockbug's River Rapids pattern. I am making these for the Ravelry Sockdown Challenge.



I tried casting these onto a Size 1 47" Addi circulars to make both socks at the same time. Wrangling the cable and two balls of yarn was just more of a challenge than I was up for, so I switched to my Knit Picks DPN's. I'm using Size 1 - 2.5mm. It's going much better.

Ravelry

I finally got my invite to Ravelry about two weeks ago. I'm loving it. I've been very busy uploadng pictures of my stash and my projects. I can't wait to see everyone when they go live. I'm under the name Grandysdaughter so feel free to add me as a friend.

I’m locked out of my own brain today.

I’m going through my day today doing stupid stuff that would make people think I have no brain. I know I’ve got one, I used it before (once or twice); but, for some reason today I can’t seem to access it. My headache isn’t too bad today so that’s not it. Maybe my brain just went on vacation without me. I’m so glad it’s Friday.

Anybody else ever lose access to their brain?

Butterfly Rib progress

Here are a couple of progress pictures of my Butterfly Rib socks. I've completed the first sock and the second is cast on.

I'm very happy with the way the gusset in the back came out. Hopefully I can repeat what I did for the second sock.

One skein?

I haven’t broken down and cast on any new socks yet, but I did have a breakdown of another kind. I’ve been eyeing Red Heart’s new Soft line since it came out. I’ve been dying to try it out but I’ve been resisting it…until today. I went to Michaels at lunch and three skeins of the Lavender color just begged to come home with me. I haven’t turned into a yarn snob yet; I still love my easy care acrylic yarn.

I’m thinking I’m going to try this shrug again, the "shracket" version. I had attempted this once before in Red Heart Super Saver in a variegated color I just loved. The problem was I only had one skein and it just wasn’t enough…and wouldn’t you know it…Red Heart had discontinued that particular color. I could only find it online and was just too lazy to order it. So I frogged my progress and wound the yarn back up. I still haven’t decided what to do with it now. I’m still very much in love with the colors in it. What can you make from a single skein of variegated Red Heart Super Saver?

For the love of sock knitting

Twice a day I go outside with my friend and co-worker to take a break. She smokes, I knit. Today one of our shop guys happened to walk by. He stopped to say “Hello”, then looked at me and said “You’re knitting!” He sounded a bit surprised.

I answered him, “Yes, I am.” Hee hee hee, I’ve just shocked another Muggle!

Then he asked “Is that a sock?”

“Yes, it is.” Woohoo, I’ve reached the point where my tube of knitting is recognizable as a sock.

Just for fun I did some knitting in a bar yesterday when my friend and I went to lunch. Might as well, that place is a little slow with the food. My friend looked a little embarrassed to be seen with me knitting there. She’s just begun to crochet; I don’t have her fully converted yet.

I received a very lovely surprise yesterday. My friend, Angie gave me Knit Picks new Double Pointed Needle Sock Set! I’m so excited; I can’t wait to try them out. It’ll be a couple of weeks though, since I currently have three pairs of socks going right now. Although, don’t be surprised if I break down and cast on another pair, just because I can.

Purple Socks

Purple Cascade Fixation Socks

They are Cascade Fixation Color #6388 in Trekcelt's Varsity Socks in a solid purple. I had a little difficulty working with this yarn in the beginning but I finally got the hang of it. I'm very happy with the way this pair turned out. The picture is a bit off in color, they look blue here. They really are purple.

Just so ya'll know....

I didn't fall off the planet. I'm doing OK. I finished a pair a socks a couple of weeks ago. They are Cascade Fixation Color #6388 in Trekcelt's Varsity Socks in solid purple. I'll try to get some pics. I started a new pair in Cascade, no real pattern this time. It's a self striping colorway in shades of gray. I'm making them for my husband, although there are days I don't think the grouchy a** deserves them. I'm also working on my Butterfly Rib Socks in the purple Koigu I bought in Petaluma. I restarted them to add a gusset to the back of the leg to better fit my chubby legs. I'm very happy with the way the gusset came out. Last night I took a needle and ran some cotton thread through the stitches and took them off the DPN's so I could try the sock on. Perfect! Hopefully I can remember exactly how I did the gusset so I can repeat it on the second sock. Anyhow the first sock is back on its needles and I'm going to be starting the heel very soon.
I'm still crocheting as well. I've been working on my fall colors blanket. It's a five color repeat with a main contrast color row between each color. So that makes the pattern a ten-row repeat. The length of the blanket with take 14 repeats, I'm on the seventh repeat. Woohoo, almost halfway there! I really want to finish this one soon.
It seems I need to bust out the camera and take a bunch of pictures for ya'll. Maybe tomorrow, tonite is our Crochet Meeting. See you there!

Finished Seraphina

I finished my Seraphina

Our local crochet group here in HELL (I mean Las Vegas..it's been up to 120 degrees the last week or so), decided a while back we would do a Crochet-a-long. We were all making the Seraphina shawl in various yarns. Mine is in Patons Grace in the "Lavander" colorway. I finished weaving in ends on Friday, but I still need to block it. Many of our group have already finished thiers. Angie even made two! You can see some pictures here.

How I am supposed to sleep through this?

This weekend I had one more medical test to take. A sleep study. My primary doctor ordered it. He thinks I might have sleep apnea. This is where your throat closes up and you stop breathing at night and when you gasp for air you wake up. Apparently this can happen up to one hundred times a night and you may never realize it! I have very severe allergies (read: allergic to everything under the sun.) According to my mother I have always snored very badly, even as a small child because of my allergies. My husband says I snore and claims to have heard me stop breathing on occasion. Since I’ve never heard myself snore I can’t confirm this.

Anyhow, I went to the Sleep Center on Saturday night and checked in. They connected a ton of electrodes to me. There were two on each of my legs, one under my chin (along with a microphone), one next to each eye, one under each ear, and several on the back of my head. In addition to that, they put straps around my abdomen and chest with sensors on them. It’s a good thing I took a sleeping pill; otherwise, I’d never have slept with that much crap glued/tied to my body.

I haven’t heard anything on results yet, but I’m a little concerned as to the quality of data they may have gotten. You see, sometime in the middle of the night a really loud alarm went off. It scared the hell out of me. When I buzzed to technicians, they came into the room and seemed a bit surprised by the sound. Apparently they hadn’t heard it up front. They returned a couple of minutes later to tell me it was from someone breaking into one of the nearby stores (the sleep center is located in a strip mall.) Yeah, so much for getting a good night’s sleep.

They “put me to bed” around 10 pm and came in around 5:30 in the morning to release me. Hopefully they got the data they needed, ‘cause I gotta tell you, I do not want to do that again! I still have glue in my hair, even after washing it.

See the baby?

My friend, Angie and I went to San Francisco/Petaluma to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee a couple of weeks ago. She's on tour promoting her new book. (It's a great book.)

I finally downloaded all the pictures from my camera today. This picture is from our first day there. We went to Pier 39, ate clam chowder, checked out the sea lions and shopped. Lots of shopping.

Isn't he cute!

We maybe shopped too much. We found this really wild tea that blooms into flowers when you brew it. It tastes really good too.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow. Right now my head is trying to explode.

These guys really like to bark!

Under pressure

After having to wait an extra week because the lab didn't draw enough blood for all the tests.....I finally have a diagnosis. The lab called while I was on vacation in San Fransisco to tell me I needed to come back in and have the additional blood draw. I took care of that on Monday after we got home. The doctor's office called me to schedule my follow-up and they told me the one test the lab didn't get done takes 10 days to run. You'd think they could have run that one and skipped something that didn't take as long to process!!!

Anyhow, I finally saw the doctor and all the labs were normal, as was the chest x-ray. The diagnosis? Excess pressure in my spinal fluid is creating my headaches. WTF??? It's just some strange thing that happens to some women, usually those who are overweight. He gave me a prescription to take to help lessen the pressure and advised me to lose weight. He felt he didn't need to take a lumbar pucture to verify the diagnosis unless I really wanted him to. Yeah, I'll pass. His opinion is based on looking into my eyes (with a really bright light) and seeing that my optic nerve is flat. Apparently having this pressure in your head places pressure on your eyes as well and can cause a loss of vision. Great...lose weight or go blind. Well, I guess I have some serious dieting to do and some major incentive. I'm also thinking an appointment with my eye doctor is in order.

The results are in...we need more tests.

My appointment with the neurologist to go over the MRI's and the EMG was yesterday. Everything came back normal. The only thing they found was some swollen lymph nodes in my neck. Those are probably the result of a recent upper respiratory infection. Since I haven't had an upper respiratory infection quite some time we were "back to the drawing board". We went back over all my symptoms, headache, neck pain, ear aches, pain radiating down my left arm, stuffy nose. I told him I had expected the head MRI to show a sinus infection. I asked him if my symtoms could be the result of some other kind of infection. He said if it was my primary care doctor would have found it in the bloodwork. I informed him that my primary care doctor hadn't done any bloodwork. So he order lots of blood tests and a chest x-ray (to check for that upper respiratory infection). It's about damn time, I've told my primary care doc a couple of different times I thought it might be an infection!!

The neurologist did tell me about another possibility. He said my headaches could be caused by excess pressure in my spinal fluid. He wants to do a lumber puncture. Yeah, not real thrilled with that idea. He said I didn't have to make a decision right then, I could go home and discuss it with my husband first. I told him I wanted to wait until we had the results from the lab work and chest x-ray. Lynn agreed when I told him.

The doctor also gave me a couple of other options. He told me about a headache specialist in town I could go to. The only problem is he's not on my insurance. I'd have to pay him out-of-pocket. We'll hold off on that for now, I don't have that kind of money. He also mentioned a type of drug for depression that sometimes helps people with headaches like mine. If the tests don't come up anything I might try it. I'll have to research it first.

So, still no anwsers, but at least we're getting closer.

7 Random Things

There’s this thing going around on several of the blogs I read where you are supposed to list seven random things about yourself. So here goes:

1: As a kid I lived on wheels. I was on roller skates or a bike, every single day. My best friend and I used to skate back and forth across her front porch listening to the soundtrack to “Footloose”.

2: I was born in Colorado, but raised in Texas. The town I grew up in only has a population of about 2800 people. I’ve also never been east of Texas (in the U.S.)

3: I was born with two earlobes on my left ear. I think technically the one was somehow split so it appeared to be two. You couldn’t really see the second lobe; it was a smaller one behind a larger one in front. Doctors told my Mom it would eventually “drop down” and be normal. It never did. I had my ears pierced at 11 years old (it was only through the front lobe) and a couple a years later the piercing tore all the way out. At 14, I had surgery to repair the rip and they cut off the back earlobe. If you look you can see where it used to be.

4: I have 2 sisters and 3 brothers. My sisters are from my mom’s first marriage and my two older brothers are from my biological father’s first marriage. After I was born they got divorced and my mom later remarried. Her third husband adopted all three of her girls and a few years later they adopted my little brother. They are still married today and he is the man I call my “Dad”.

5: My husband and I were introduced on a blind date. My cousin Laurie and I were sharing an apartment at the time and she only introduced me to Lynn because she hated the guy I was dating at the time. (She was right, the guy was a jerk.)

6: I have no musical talent, but I really wish I did. My sisters used to tell me I couldn’t “carry a tune in a bucket”. I don’t sing in the shower but I will crank the stereo and sing in my car. I sometimes sing in my office when I’m working.

7: I am the world’s biggest klutz, always have been. I trip over thin air and bang my arms and legs on everything in my path. I knock things over and spill drinks. It’s a really good thing I never became a waitress or went to work in an antique shop.

Ok, that’s enough random for one day.

Beaten, burned, electrocuted and stabbed

The last few days have been rather exciting. We went camping this weekend in Parker, AZ. We stayed in La Paz County Park, right on the Colorado River. There were sixteen of us that went, we had our own little “tent city”. We bar-b-que’d and rented Sea-doo’s and floated on a big raft. It was a really good weekend. The “beaten” part would be the little sore spot on the side of my head my where I bonked it on the lamp hanging in the center of our tent and the “burned” is the sunburn on my chest. I wore sunscreen and tried to stay out of the sun as much as possible but somehow managed to sunburn just the tops of my knees and my cleavage. My knees are no big deal but the boob burn really itches right now.

The prior auth for the EMG finally came through and I had that done yesterday at lunch. That accounts for the “electrocution and stabbing.” The tech put all these little stickers on my hands, some were little squares on my palms others were long thin strips that wrapped around my fingers. Then he clamped wires to some of them. He took a marker and made little blue hash marks on my wrists. Finally he took a gizmo that looked an awful lot like a tazer gun and dipped the prongs in some gel and touched the hash marks with it and sent little zaps of electricity through my arms. He did this several times from several different places on my wrists and elbows, occasionally moving the wires around to different stickers. When he was done testing both my arms he called the doctor in to conduct the second part of the test. The doctor stuck a needle in my hand and arm in several different places and then had me flex that muscle. With the needle in it! (Remind me not to do this test again.) All of this is supposed to tell them if I have a pinched nerve somewhere that’s causing my headaches. I have a couple of small bruises from needle and my arm is a little sore today, but it’s not too bad. I’ll let ya’ll know when I get the results.

MRI's are really loud

Well, I went in on Saturday morning and had the MRI on my head and then again on Monday morning for one on my neck. It wasn't too bad. After you change into the "high fashion" nightgown, they lay you on the table and push it into the machine. They give you headphones and put it on whatever radio station you like. The headphones also allow them to talk to you from their controls outside the booth. They take several different scans and each scan lasts a different length of time, anywhere from 20 seconds to five minutes. The machine makes a "knocking" sound while it does the scans. The knocking is quite loud loud and changes in tone and rhythm from scan to scan. The table was a little uncomfortable as it is narrow and there was no were to lay my arms, I had to hold them up, which caused my left arm to ache. After the several scans the tech gave me an injection of contrast and took one more scan. Laying very still for the head scan was fairly easy, for the neck scan it was a little harder. I wasn't supposed to swallow, but my throat has been feeling very dry and I'm having some sinus drainage so that part was very difficult. I wound up involuntarily swallowing a few times. You don't realize how often you automatically swallow until your not supposed too.

I called the Neurologist to see if he had the results yet. He does, but he still wants to do one more test. A nerve conduction study, an EMG. The test still has to be prior authorized and scheduled. Once that's done, then he'll bring me in for an appointment to go over all the tests. Grrr. Arggg. Frustrating heh?

That's alright, I'm "smarter that the average bear" (as my Daddy says). I went by Steinburg Diagnostic on my way home and picked up copies of the reports. The report for my brain MRI says that my brain is fine-no tumors. Whew! The one for my neck says all my vertebrae are OK. The only thing that one mentions is some swollen lymph nodes-possibly related to an upper respiratory infection. I keep telling my regular doctor I think I've got an infection!! Unfortunately, I still have to play the waiting game with these guys.

Tana in the duffle

I came downstairs on Saturday morning to find this on my living room floor:

After I laughed my butt off, I just had to take a picture. She doesn't seem to get the joke, though. After I took a couple of picures of her, Lynn picked her up in the duffle so I could take a couple more. She really didn't appriciate this much. But she looks so cute.

That's my hubby and our other dogs are in the background there.

Fetching FO's

While I was taking sock pictures the I thought I'd take some pictures of the finished Fetching gloves. Yes, they were finished ages ago and I never got aroung to taking the pictures. The pink ones are for me and the blue ones are for my Mom. These were made with sport weight yarn on size 3 DPN's.

Finished Twinkle socks and First sock

The Twinkle socks are done!

I finished them at the Crochet Meeting on Tuesday. This is my first knitted pair and I had lots of fun making them. I will definately be knitting lots more! These where knit from the cuff down loosely following the Yarn Harlot's instructions from Knitting Rules. The yarn is Lion Brand Baby Soft in Twinkle Print knit on four Size 3 DPN's.

I did finish that first wool sock. I thought ya'll might like to see it too. I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it. The foot is too big around and too short to actually fit anyone.