Knitting bag sediment: a Rorschach test.

I've long thought that you could tell everything you needed to know about a woman (or man?) by the contents of their purse. And while I still believe that, I realized yesterday that for me at least, it might be more educational to look at the bottom of my knitting bag. See what you can figure out from this:
-notebook
-USB charger that works on both kindles and my phone
-Go Fish deck of cards 
-ruler
-asthma inhaler
-at least a dozen pens and pencils
-paper napkins
-a straw
-crayons (neatly in a plastic bag)
-TWO asthma inhalers (seriously, Julie?)

 This is in addition to the stuff I throw in when leaving the house, namely Kindle, pattern, books, knitting project, wallet, and phone. Oh, and keys. I am choosing to blame all this on the Goober. Surely the crayons are all her fault.

Testing...?

Trying to figure out how to post things from my phone. For hopefully better real-time snarl and easier photo uploads.

Today's fun at my house:

And now for something not different at all!

Remember the blog post I did about sun stones and Viking navigation? Two years ago? No? You haven't memorized the blog yet??

Well, short version then. Or, y'know, hit the link.

In the North Atlantic, in the middle ages, there are references, in different texts, about "sun stones" being used, primarily by Vikings, to navigate. Up there, that far north, navigating by star in the summer is pretty tricky, since the sun doesn't always go down. According to various accounts, sun stones would allow a person to find the direction of the sun, even on cloudy days.

Scholars have speculated for many years about what exactly a sun stone was. Or claimed it was crap, because what could ancient man know that fantastically wonderful history PhDs don't? (I could fill several books.) But, the big question has always been, if it was legit, what in heck kind of stone was it?

Over the last decade or so, they have found big, clear hunks of calcite in ship wrecks, and someone figured out how to use them to, hey, tell which direction the sun is on a cloudy day. Most people said question answered, snooty idiots claimed there wasn't enough evidence.

They found another piece of calcite in another ship wreck, announced this week. Take that, sneering ethnocentrist ivory tower knuckleheads.

The Oscars Red Carpet

Pics available HERE.

Also, a word on what we're doing here tonight. Yes, yes, we're being superficial and ogling and sighing over the clothes. This is an industry event, for a group of people whose job is, in part, to look good. They've had weeks to prepare, if not months. They know there will be cameras and fashionistas everywhere. So I think it's fair to do some tourism. However, I think it's unfair, and should be illegal, to take pictures of these same people ducking out for some coffee. They're entitled to private lives. The Oscars Red carpet is public, and they know that.

Right then!

SIX PM:

What's-her-face Giuliana's dress looks like a boring version of the one Nicole Kidman wore in 2011.

I hate E!'s coverage. Totally shifting over to ABC when it starts.

Also trying to cook dinner at the same time is damn annoying.

Seth MacFarlane's sister. Okay, sure, but a BROWN dress? To the Oscars? It'd be a nice dress, in a color maybe? It's not even a rich brown or russet, it's just... brown.

Oh, and FYI, I am totally biased toward the entire cast of the Avengers. So when I squee over them, don't complain.

Jessica Chastain. Eh. STAND UP STRAIGHT! It's like the bodice isn't fitted right and she's leaning into the cups. I'm not a fan of nudes, but the gold sparkle on it is a nice touch. The lipstick is weird. Armani Prive. For that it should be fitted better. Her hair is amazing. Very Jessica Lake. Or Jessica Rabbit. Either. I'm blathering like this because E! is blathering. Aw, she brought her grandmother as her date.

Some chick in the background wearing a fantastic, perfectly fitted red dress. Looks like she's Just A Date though. Feh.

More blather. Blatherblather.

Another fantastic dress in the background, on an employee. Dark gray, perfectly fitted.

Made burgers for dinner. Eating mine on the couch, LIKE A BOSS.

MANI CAM? They're finally showing manicures?? COOL.

Ryan Seacrest, why isn't your nose brown?

Amy Adams wearing a griege birthday cake. Oh, geez.

Commercial. ...I may have to go see the new GI Joe. Heaven help me. Last time I went to the movies I wound up getting a brain MRI, but fuck it. Life's short, right? RIGHT?

Back to Amy Adams. It's De La Renta. That explains all the floof. At least it looks like it fits right. Hair is fuzzy. I sympathize. I have fuzzy hair myself. It's an ass pain. Still don't like the color. Someone just stood on her dress. The fuck? They're calling this blue. Uh.

Kelly Osbourne, what in hell are you wearing? Rags?

Samantha Barks, super low cut black dress, but it fits right and she's got the bod to carry it. And someone told her how to stand when she's wearing it. I will bet you $20 she's got that neck line glued on her boobers.

Zoe Saldana. She looks magnificent. Beautiful in layers of gray. Don't know if the bodice or the skirt is prettier, but the layers at the hem are very awesome.

Kerry Washington hauling up the front of her dress. Bwah. THE HALLMARK OF A DRESS THAT DOESN'T FIT. Okay. She's back. Being interviewed by Ryan Seacrest, heaven help her. Wearing Neomio?? Pretty coralish red.

Octavia... who? Spencer. CAN WE GET SOME NAMES ON HERE? Wearing something that's possibly too fluffy. Little... warts... all over the dress. Uh.

Reese Witherspoon... wearing a dress that's FIT. TED. Damn. She must have lived in the designer's pocket for the last week. Wonder if she's sewn into that. BUT IT FITS. Damn, girl. Louis Vuitton. Fits like a coat of paint. Hosts gushing at her and asking for what she uses on her hair. Oh, geez. She just had a baby. OKAY. WE SHALL ALL HATE HER NOW. Wait, zipper in the back. I'd have sworn she was sewn in.

Pregnant lady in a lace dress. Pretty. Jenna Dewan, girlfriend of Channing Tatum? She did a great job. Dressing while pregnant is a bitch, looking good is.. well, job well done, girl.

Blather blather.

Quvenzhane Wallis, blue taffeta dress. Nine years old, well spoken, positive. She's fantastic. "I liked it because it was sparkly." She's carrying a puppy purse. YOU GO GIRL. Her mom and sister are also wonderful. So cute.

FYI, the hot water for tea heats faster if you TURN ON THE FIRE UNDER THE DAMN KETTLE.

Jennifer Lawrence, who apparently knows how to dress, has turned up. Wearing something light pink and very perfectly fitted. At the bottom the dress poofs out into meringue amazing bogglingness. You go, girl. It's Dior. Custom, I believe. Which would explain the fit. No one does fit like Dior.

I don't know what's up with all this neutral shit.

Daniel Radcliffe. I keep expecting him to whip out a wand. And his eyebrows need work. Otherwise, he's adorable, as always.

Jacki Weaver. Kind of out of it, said it took three hours to put on her face. Uhuh. Weird red sparkle bodice sort of like a nude dress version, with a wrapped waist and... odd. AWESOME earrings. Want the earrings. Says her diamonds are "blood free" She hopes.

Chris Tucker, traditional tux. Nice.

I'm agreeing with Kelly Osbourne on fashion. That's kind of worrisome.

Amanda Seyfried in Alexander McQueen. Don't know if it doesn't fit right or if she's slouching or what. It's got the choker neck and bare everything else deal. Looking at photos later, I wonder if she had it fitted while her hands were on her hips, and so it fits perfectly then and not in any other pose.

Sally Field in a red dress of draped organza. She looks magnificent.

Lots of movie ads. This new Oz thing looks really freaky. Why does the male lead remind me of Westley from Princess Bride? Is it the beard/mustache?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is adorable. Sally Field tied his tie in the limo.

Catherine Zeta Jones wearing metallic gold, looking starlike.

7PM, switching to ABC, because I'm tired of E! blather.

OhDearGods, the facelifts.

Laura Spencer. Honey. If your underarm flab bloofs over the edge of your dress, it doesn't fit right.

Kelly Rowland wearing a really nice black and white dress.

LET'S SEE SOME STARS INSTEAD OF HOSTS, HUH?

Awesome multilayered green dress in the background.

Oooo. Catherine Zeta-Jones' dress is AMAZING. The skirt is a nude with the sequins overlaid on it in swirls.

Jessica Chastain again. They're gushing at her. WHARGARBL This may be worse than E!

I'd turn down the volume, but the hub goes crazy when I do that.

Explaining air kisses - don't wanna mess up each others' makeup. Haha, okay, I'll buy that.

Kid given the Kindle Fire, is watching Netflix and has quit whining.

HOW ABOUT SOME FASHION. DID I SAY THAT YET?

Proceeding to flip back and forth between E! and ABC. So this'll be even more fragmented than it already is. Enjoy.

Hub went downstairs, so I turned the volume down. IT IS ABOUT DRESSES, NOT BLATHER.

These commercials are seriously freaky with no sound.

DRESS ES. DRESS ES. DRESS ES.

Can you tell I took a painkiller? No. It has no influence on me whatsoever. JUST ASK ME, I'LL TELL YOU.

Okay. And we're finally back. Ad for Kardashian reality TV. Give me a prize for not throwing my tea mug at the television. And whoa, whoever that was, HORRIFYING face lift. Whoa!

Jennifer Hudson in another variation on the nude dress - sheer fabric covered over with sequins or embroidery in strategic spots. Seems to be a big trend tonight. I think Zeta-Jones' dress is that way, too. I love Hudson. Don't know her music, but she's always so damn positive and thrilled to be there.

The nude dress is originally a Marlene Dietrich thing. I should do a blog post.

Hostesses still standing around gushing at each other on ABC. Seriously? I have to watch E!?

THE MANI CAM! Hudson is... wearing a nice neutral and a cute ring. Okay then.

AIR KISS!

AHA! THE DRESS. Catherine Zeta-Jones. She looks fantastic, she's performing, and sounds wonderful. The dress is Zuahair Murad. It's AMAZING. Love it. The skirt does look sort of like nude dress technique.

Hostesses now gushing at each other on E! WHERE DO I FILE THE COMPLAINT.

Helen Hunt, wearing classic, well-fitted navy taffeta. She has botox around her upper lip. She looks like a muppet. NO, HONEY. No. I like the brooch on the back at the waist, though. Art Deco style.

Anne Hathaway wearing a sort of halter dress in light pink. I don't think it's her best color, it washes her out rather than--

HOLY SHIT, CHARLIZE THERON CUT OFF ALL HER HAIR. She looks great, but HOLY SHIT.

Anyway. Anne Hathaway has the body and attitude to wear anything, but I don't think the color is doing her skin any favors. Her short hair is adorable. She's ragging on Seacrest, so she's now my favorite of all time. TELL ME WHO MADE YOUR DRESS. Could be Calvin Klein, or Dior? Prada. I should have known. She likes them. She says she decided on it three hours ago. It spoke to her. Okay.

So far all the men are wearing traditional tuxes.

Naomi Watts wearing some wild asymmetric dress. I like it. Armani Prive. Fits. Unusual. Sparkly. Nice.

Jane Fonda, American traitor bitch. My husband was/is military. I won't forgive her. And she looks like she's on her fifth face lift. She must have fifty pounds of makeup on to not look like she's got liver disease in that shade of yellow. Yes, yes, meow. I know. MOVING ON.

Charlize Theron in a magnificently fitted Dior Couture. She buzzed her hair for a movie, and what she's got is three months of hair growth. !! She looks great. She could wear a garbage bag and look good. She's also about a foot taller than Seacrest. So she's also my favorite.

Lovely purple-maroon sheath dress in the background.

Jennifer Aniston in a red dress I wore to prom in 1986.

Bradley Cooper brought his mom to the Oscars. He's slicked down his curls, which makes me sad. Wearing a traditional tux with a black vest. I think he combed his beard. Also, yum. Because, hey. Bradley Cooper. His mom is wearing a feather boa. Love it. Work it, baybee.

Samuel L Jackson is on Twitter, talking about swimming. He's presenting an Oscar tonight. He's one of the best things on Twitter.

Stylist blather on E!... host blather on ABC. Feh.

DRESS ES. DRESS ES. DRESS ES.

Blah, blah, blah. Commercial. Blah.

ABC hostess has weirded out Bradley Cooper asking weird questions. Good job. Not.

AHA. Nicole Kidman in a fairly average tank dress. Black with iridescent and gold sequins. Pretty. L'Wren Scott. She also can wear a garbage bag and look good.

Adele wearing a black dress. Sigh. Can we get over the black is slimming bullshit? It's just black. It's got squiggles on it, dunno what's up with that. She's so pretty, I wish she'd done something pretty.

Interesting dress behind Adele, looks like a dark green, nearly black, with a cape or something?

Ben Affleck in traditional tux, Jennifer Garner in a maroon sheath dress with a big bow at the back. I'm partial to that silhouette, but it's kind of eh. The color is good on her, though, and the dress actually fits, so yay for that.

Hugh Jackman in a traditional tux. The Aussie accent always surprises me. And Hugh just picked up the hostess, and said she weighs less than an Oscar. She's gushing at him. He looks magnificent. Yum. His wife's wearing a black suit. Sigh.

CHRIS EVANS!! Looking adorkable in a black suit. He also brought his mom tonight. Did I mention? Adorkable?

DeNiro is looking his age. Damn. Also in a traditional tux.

None of the men are wearing freakazoid outfits tonight! What's up with that?

Sandra Bullock also doing the sheer dress with sequins deal. It's black/grey, and the beads are done in scallops. Long straight hair. She looks nice. Dress by Ellie Saab, with a train. Cute little clip in her hair.

Salma Hayek wearing black velvet and gold sequins. Lovely. Fits perfectly, to show off that hourglass figure of hers.

George Clooney's date is wearing a really fantastic black and gold dress by Naim Kahn. Art Deco.

Bedtime for Goober while they blather about stylists on E!. Feh.

MORE TEA!

"Statement necklace". What in fuck else is the point of a necklace when dressed up??

Daniel Day Lewis blathering about Steven Spielberg. Yes, yes, you're both wonderful, show me some dresses.

E! still blathering about the Amy Adams dress from two hours ago. I am SURE someone else has arrived between then and now.

Kirsten Stewart in a really badly fitted strapless gown.

Halle Berry... oh, honey. Black and gold stripes, long sleeves, long gown... where's that magnificent body of yours??

Just realized that Charlize Theron's hair is almost exactly the same as Jeremy Renner's. It's possible I should stop now.

8:20 PM: Oscar show starts in ten minutes. I'm burned out. I think we're done here.

Tomorrow, fashion. Or spinning. Or possibly history. I've been swearing at a book by the British Museum, lately.

Rant Revisited

Which should be titled "Settlement, Clovis Points, and Kiss My Ass", but it doesn't fit in the subject line so well.

Last night I turned on a documentary about the Nazca Lines. I should know better than to do this, at least not without Shoveling Ferret on Twitter with me to talk me down from the ledge. They started on the bullshit "Ice Corridor" settlement of the Americas (which I have ranted about in the past, HERE), and I started yelling at the TV. It went something along the lines of "Ice corridor, my ass!" and the Goob started making pitiful noises 'cause I scared the crap out of her and she thought I was yelling at her.

Then I yelled some more, scared her again, and we eventually changed the channel.

Since, apparently, I still have strong feelings on this subject, you're stuck with it. (Sometimes I think of my blog as my rant collection.)

Right. Meet the Clovis Point:

(Pic from National Geographic web site.)

The first big fuckup of the ice corridor settlement theory is, that everywhere the Clovis points were found, were settled by the same group of people. I do not fucking get this. Like no one in human society ever steals someone's ideas or technology? No one ever TRADES? These are great points, and probably needed to take down something like a wooly mammoth (which N America did have, 'til we ate them all). Anyone who hunted big game would want some of these, so yeah, hello, major trade item.

Second thing? This ice corridor?

(Pic from Wikipedia.)

There's no evidence it ever existed. In fact, considering where the Canadian Rockies are?

(Also from Wiki)
Considering there are STILL glaciers up in those mountains? Yeah. Highly unlikely. HIGHLY. As in, Ice Corridor, My Ass. The few artifacts found in Alberta have been declared PRE glacial by some geologists, as in, even more thousands of years earlier than the Clovis people showed up. Sure, people got to the Americas, and moved around within them, both before and after the glaciers were solid across N America. But DURING? No. Just no.

Third? There are a shitload of sites that pre-date the Clovis people, ALL OVER. Including the Topper Site, which dates to 37k years before Clovis, all the way across the country. And of course, the iconic Monte Verde, most of the way to the bottom of South America, pre dates Clovis by a thousand years and also shows that people were spread out way further than any spear points were. When the carbon dating first came back from Monte Verde, archaeologists practically had gun fights, because some of them were so determined to cling to their nice, neat, inaccurate settlement theories.

The claim that stone age peoples could not cross the Pacific? Ha. Polynesians. Kiss my ass. (Also? If they were just coming along the coast, that's a whole different level of easy, from crossing the open ocean. You could follow the coast in simple rafts, most of the way.)

What complicates this whole damn thing is sea level. During the ice age, sea levels were as much as two hundred feet lower than they are now. So if people had settled along the coasts first, at the height (depth?) of the ice age, the sites are all flooded now. Woods Hole went looking and found a few sites a while back with ALVIN, though damn if I can find the info now. Still, even with new technology, finding those super early sites takes a lot of screwing around and it's easier to go excavate a cave somewhere.

That concludes today's swearing. Tomorrow is another day, and I might live-blog the Oscars red carpet, though. You've been warned.

Spinning and pain control.

There are a few reasons why spinning is a good way to do pain control. There are some good things, other than popping pills, and spinning combines several of them.

The obvious is, distraction. The shrink who taught me pain control techniques (awesome, lovely guy; you need a shrink in Honolulu, let me know, I'll get you his info) had a fancy term for it. But what it comes down to is not sitting there thinking "ow, this hurts". My doc spent an appointment picking my brain, going over all the things I do for fun, any activity I enjoy, from reading to surfing the 'net, to talking on the phone, to knitting. When we were done, he grinned, told me next time I was in pain to pick one, and handed me the list.

I'm not sure this truly works at all on the pain, but it certainly improves your quality of life; short of murder, ANYTHING is better laying in bed feeling awful.

Movement is another goodie. In any type of long-term pain lasting more than a few minutes, your body will build up chemicals in your tissues that will either cause more pain or at the least just make you feel crappy. Any kind of movement will get the blood moving and help flush that stuff through your system and (assuming you have normal kidney and liver function) thereby feel better. When I REALLY want to get things moving, I walk up and down the stairs a couple times. Physical therapists usually advocate going for a walk. But even the smaller, less extreme motions of spinning will work the muscles, move the blood, and help at least a little.

The last trick seems just like that - a trick. You're playing a trick on your own brain. Like a computer, your brain has a list of priorities. And paying attention to chronic pain is pretty low on the list, all things considered. (This is kind of how the distraction method works, too.) A much higher priority is keeping track of where your body is in space, for safety. Your brain wants to keep you from walking into walls and bonking your head. This means the brain hack the physical therapists call "oscillation". Pick a part of your body - foot, leg, hand, and calmly move it back and forth, just an inch or so in either direction. Your brain goes "Ooo, wait, where's that hand going?" and pays attention to that.

It works amazingly, freakishly well on chronic pain.

And guess what you do when spinning? Wiggle your foot or feet up and down. And coordinate it with your hands. Then your brain says "OO! Wait! and pays attention to that.

Of course, you also wind up with yarn at the end. And yarn makes everything better.

From the dark side.

Well, not really that dark.

This is all YOUR fault. I've got people insisting I'm interesting, no matter what I write, so here you go.

I got fed up today and took a drug cocktail that turns off 90% of my pain. (All within doctor's prescribing. Promise. And the meds I do take are low doses.) The drawback is, I get really loooooopy, and I can't take it every day or my liver will fall out while I go through drug withdrawal.

So. I spent the afternoon feeling good but unable to see straight.

I did what I always do in these situations; spun yarn, to distract myself. I'm three quarters done with the silk/wool stuff in blue and purple. I wanted to cast on for my hand spun socks, but I was pretty sure any kind of math - including counting to twelve - was a Bad Idea.

HOWEVER! The Goob is working hard at the glorious art of humor. Today's exchange:

GOOB: There are bumps in my gums.
ME: Yep. Those are your teeth coming in.
GOOB: What else would be growing there? Pickles?
ME: Good point.

Der Schpinningk!

Some of you may remember, when we were living in South Carolina, spinning was my method of dealing with migraines. I'd take a pill, cross my fingers, then turn on some music and hunker over the spinning wheel. That's what I've been doing for the last three months. (That and cranking out a really impressive amount of garter stitch.) So. Pretty pictures.

In progress is this:

It is "Pastel Rainbow Gradient" by Fiber Optic. It was dyed in one long color grade, and I spun it to keep it that way. It's as thin as possible, to make a lace weight... right now it's a single, because I'm sick of looking at it. Eventually I'll chain ply it to preserve the colors, and knit myself some kinda scarf thingie with it.

For practice, I spun this first.

It's from Yarn Hollow. I think the color is called "Third Eye". You get the idea. My MIL got this for Christmas.

This is a two-ply fractal spun lace weight, color "Iris" from Frabjuous Fibers. I used it to knit a shawl, but you can't see it yet 'cause it's a gift for a friend of mine. However, once she gets it, I am going to post three thousand pictures because it is AWESOME. I love when you pair the absolute perfect yarn with the perfect pattern, and it works. That's when knitting turns the corner into art. Or one of the times.

My last spinning project was for a pair of socks.

I split some Abstract Fibers superwash (I can't remember the color name, I was calling it Obnoxious Pink) lengthwise in half. Then I spun each half separately, and chain plied to make sure the colors would turn into stripes when knit up. I took these in to show the folks at the LYS today, and they were mistaken for commercially spun yarn. I'm calling that a win.

My current project looks like this at the moment:

This is another from Abstract Fibers, also called Iris. It's 50/50 silk and merino. I'm doing another fractal spin, and knitting another shawl like the one I knit for my friend. But I'm KEEEEEEEPING IT FOR MEEEEEEE this time. It's the tactile equivalent of a hot fudge sundae.

For Christmas, I gave my MIL a couple hanks of stuff I'd spun, and she was thrilled with it. Last night we all met for dinner, and she whipped this out in the restaurant to show me what she was doing with some of it:

That's two ply laceweight spun from superwash pencil roving dyed in the color "Catamaran" from Fiber Optic. (They do some of the most vivid colors I have ever seen.) She's knitting one of the scarves from Victorian Lace Today. She called me a couple days ago, to thank me for the yarn. And the book. And the needle she's using - I gave them all to her. We had a good laugh. ANOTHER ONE LURED TO THE DARK SIDE.

PNEUMONIA!!

I have this little problem. See, the husbeast and I have a long history. It's led to a lot of inside jokes and other shared... experiences, so that seemingly mundane things will set me off giggling. (Especially when I'm on these damn antidepressants.)

Lo, these many years ago, about ten, I think, we were living in Hawaii. Every year, when the rainy season starts, everything flowers. It's sort of like spring on the mainland. So everything would flower and pollinate  and I'd react to something (I think it was the tree in the front yard), and I'd wind up with pneumonia.

Every. Damn. Year.

The first year, it was just one of those things, whatever, I dealt with it. The second year, I was sensing a trend and not amused. By the third year? Oh, I was fed the hell up and not tolerating any more of that shit. So I ignored the congestion, the cough, the laryngitis, and ignored it, and ignored it.

The husbeast watched all this, having been around for all three rounds of pneumonia. He didn't say much. (He never really does.) One day, around noon, he called me from work. He'd made an appointment for me, with my doctor. He was coming home to get me and take me. My choice in the matter was whether to get dressed or be wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in the bed of the truck. At the time, he was healthier and I was skinnier and it was a valid threat. I knew he'd do it.

I got dressed.

When I left the exam room, the husbeast met me in the waiting room. We were surrounded by patients, nurses, receptionists, and doctors. I said "It's pneumonia." The husbeast said "YOU DUMBASS."

Everyone gasped.

I rolled my eyes and went off to the pharmacy for my meds.

At the pharmacy, in the waiting room full of people, the husbeast asked what meds I had. I said "It's a Z Pack, like I had last year." He said "YOU DUMBASS."

Everyone gasped.

I rolled my eyes and went off to the truck to go home.

So, fast forward ten, fifteen years, and I'm sitting in the doctor's office here, and the doctor says "It's pneumonia."

I started laughing. I can't help it. I'm sane, I swear.

(No the husbeast was not there to call me dumbass, and he might not have anyway -- I've gotten a little smarter about this stuff.)

The Eeyore Diaries!

I have awesome blog readers. (Well, no, I guess the word would be FRIENDS, since I haven't written anything lately, right?) In the past few weeks, I've gotten quite a few e-mails from people, asking me if I was all right. Some folks had been imagining some pretty dire stuff, so I guess I'll catch everyone up. WARNING: This is why I hadn't been blogging - because everything I wrote made me sound like Eeyore and it's been one stupid, annoying, or horrible thing after another around here. But here we go.

My brother died in October. I think I mentioned that. While I was in the middle of drug-resistant pneumonia.

Sekhmet passed away at the end of November. I think the suffering was minimal; cats usually hide when they're in pain and my evil fucker was plopped on my lap, purring, 'til the end. I'm reasonably sure she booby-trapped the house with cat toys as a reminder, because I'm still finding - and sniffling - over them. When we buried her in the back yard, the Goob waited about an hour and then asked when we dig her up again.

Yeah, it's still my house, after all.

We all had influenza for Christmas. I don't remember Christmas dinner - I made it - but I'm told it was good. I have a vague recollection of drinking too much wine, which, oh yeah, THAT was my best idea ever.

After the influenza, the Goober got pneumonia. Her turn? Anyway, that was mid-January and while the pneumonia's technically gone, she was just at the doctor again because she's still coughing up her toenails. Doc and I think it's inflamed lung tissue and cold, dry air.

I've been dealing with wicked nasty migraines since autumn, really, but the weather in January and February, with thirty degree temperature differences shifting around wildly, really laid me out.

But there's sort of good news. At the end of November, I saw the writing on the wall, the holiday looming, and went to the doctor. We doubled my anti-depressants. I was taking them for pain control. Now I'm also taking them for actual mood like they're meant to be. So that's helped keep me out of the Pit of Despair as I sarcastically call it in my head. (Because you gotta be rude to your brain when it's fucking up.) It's also increased my ability to concentrate, back to something sort of like normal. Which means I've put my head down and made stuff.

Pictures to come, but I've cranked out quite a lot, both knitting and spinning, in the past six months or so. Some of it got ripped right back out again because knitting and drugs and 103 degree fevers? Don't go so well together. And the other night I spun while on lots of migraine meds and it looked like one of those experiments where they feed spiders drugs and see what happens.

So that's about it. Four months in a couple hundred words. (Oh, I've slept a lot, too. Shocked?) But there have been no hospital stays, no ER visits, and nothing really too terribly serious in terms of health. We're muddling on through and even managing to be happy, most days (don't remind the Goober about the groundhog puppet and the doctor's visit, though).

Thanks, everyone, for being awesome.

The Goober!

Let's talk something positive, huh? This blog is starting to read like next I'm going to fake my own death or start asking donations so we can shoot Sekhmet's ashes into space. (Which would actually be cool. But let's be serious.)

Right.

The Goob started "real school" this fall.

Yes, that's an Angry Birds back pack. There's a matching lunch box.

She's thriving, but not learning shit. Apparently, that home-schooling thing everyone was worried about? She got a perfect score on her reading placement test and is pretty well sleeping through, phoning in assignments, and pulling down As.

This is EXACTLY what I did not want to happen. (It's what I did, and my study habits, by the time I got to a level where I needed them, were non-existent.) There's a parent-teacher conference November something, and we'll talk. The gifted student program doesn't 'start' until second grade, and the only thing I can see to truly challenge her is to move her into second grade now, and that seems pretty drastic to me.

Essentially, all the shit I worried about, with the school stuff? It's happening. GLORIOUS.

Yes, yes, I know, I get lots of talk about "enrich at home" and we do. But school should be more than being warehoused for seven hours. I still think she should be learning THERE.

---

Tonight we carved the pumpkin.

The Goober emptied out the goo, I drew on the pattern (that the Goob had picked out - Angry Birds were vetoed) and the husbeast did the hard work and did the cutting. He used a serrated combat knife. He is now wearing a Hello Kitty band-aid.

---

Fiber-wise, I've been parked on the couch, coughing, and knitting. I'm finishing up my third Wingspan, two going for Christmas gifts and one for me. I also did these for my niece, who had a kid at the beginning of October:

That's a Baby Surprise Jacket (of course), and a Swallowtail without the nupps. (I am not fucking with nupps at my stress level.) I knocked them both out in a week and a half. That's when I clued in that I may just be knitting so I don't kill people.

Anyway, the Swallowtail was knit with Madeline Tosh DK, and size six needles. That yarn is so gooshy, it was like knitting a marshmallow. But it is REALLY soft and warm, to the point I'm wondering if I want one.

Next thing after the Wingspan, I'm doing mittens based on the grille of that Duesenberg I saw back in September for my FIL. Then I have to figure out what on earth I'm making for my brother-in-law; he lives in the south, so most knitwear is unneeded. Maybe a scarf.

---

That's about all that's going on. Besides all the drama, we've been huddled down, sick. At one point all three of us were on antibiotics. The further plan, I think, is to just keep on keeping on.

I'm really damn ready for 2012 to be over.

And then.

We found out yesterday that Sekhmet has gastrointestinal lymphoma. The vet gave her from two weeks to three months, but seemed to think we were closer to counting in weeks. I'm pretty much wrecked and crying a lot.

Operation Spoil Sekhmet is in effect, though. Tonight I'm roasting a chicken so she can have the gravy and juice.

I'm really ready for this year to be fucking over.

Right then.

So I've been dealing with drug-resistant pneumonia for the last month. With asthma for an extra dose of excitement. First I was out of it from the fever, and then the drugs. Good times. I'd just about shaken off the Prednisone side effects, and, well. My brother died today. It's probably gonna be a week or two before I start blogging again.

But, that's where I am. Just imagine me sitting on the couch, huffing on an inhaler. With the cat on me. Cranking out yards of garter stitch.

Oops. My bad.

This? It's not the "World of Tomorrow". I think that really is Stark Industries. Or maybe Disney World. (Reality. It's so boring. Why confine myself like that?) It was actually the "Parade of Progress". Which I'd have seen on the truck if I'd been more than half awake. There's a Wiki article about it, HERE. And, a picture of one of the "Futurliners", as they were called, opened up for display, to give you the gist:

You can see the light fixture raised up and everything. Poking around the Wiki page reveals that these suckers were designed by Harley Earl, so I'm sure they were intended to hark back to the roaring twenties, just like they look.

Auburn!

(Website for the museum HERE, if you want factual detail on where I was this weekend.)

Two years ago, the husbeast and his father took a weekend and bopped off to Auburn, Indiana, to visit a classic car festival. It centers around the cars that were manufactured there between 1900 and 1937, Auburns, Cords, and Deusenbergs. This left me mildly to greatly enraged, because I'd grown up on Duesenbergs with my dad, and I really wanted to see where they'd been made. Apparently I made enough of a scene that the hub and his dad planned another trip, almost entirely centered around showing me the festival.

That's what we did. We dropped the Goob with my MIL, and the husbeast and my FIL and I all took off for Indiana in the husbeast's new Cadillac.

It may seem strange for me to be interested in cars (though I'm fascinated by mechanics and technology, so maybe not). But, really, I explain it like this: It's Art Deco on wheels.

Even the building is Deco - it's the original show room they had attached to the factory.

I got earrings based on the detailing on the light fixtures.

Inspiration abounded. Because really, as knitters, when you see this, what do you think?

Doesn't this say "twisted stitch pattern" to you? I've got something in mind for Christmas, I think.

All the owners do a parade sort of thing, the local marching band marches, they drive, it's fun. The ones who put on period costume I really appreciated. Toward the end of the parade, there was a couple in costume, driving a car covered in wonderfully hand made signs saying "GET OUT AND VOTE", managing to be timely and stay in spirit at the same time. On the back of there car was another sign, "TEDDY ROOSEVELT FOR PRESIDENT". Another had a pro-Herbert Hoover sign on his. (Was anyone really ever pro Hoover, back in the day? I thought he was one of the most hated presidents in history. Maybe it was meant as a joke to the five people there who knew enough about history to get it?) Sadly, by the time the 'get out and vote' car showed up, my phone battery was dead from taking pictures. But I did yell "BULL MOOSE PARTY!" and the driver laughed, so that's something.

Another fun thing, especially from the art/design and history perspective, was a truck they had at the museum for the weekend:

Back in the fifties, General Motors built twelve of these. They are very specialized trucks. They were taken on a tour of the country, doing a presentation called "The World of Tomorrow". (For the geeks of the world, I'm 110% sure this is what the Stark Expo of comic and movie fame was based on.) The trucks are enormous, and had stalks of lights that rose out of the roof for night time visitors. The sides opened up and they discussed technology and progress and how awesome General Motors was. Being me, though? What really blew my mind? The styling. See the really obvious Art Deco detail, with the silver band around the bottom, the solid cream color, the rounded edges? SORTA LIKE THIS?

IT WAS RETRO WHEN IT WAS BUILT. Meant to hark back to the roaring twenties, after the war, remind people of the fun of peace time. Retro. Seventy years ago. Seventy. Years. Old. Retro. (Oh, and incidentally? One of those trucks sold at auction a couple years ago for four million smackeroos.)

After that, we headed out to a car auction, where they were selling cool cars of all ages and nationalities. We wandered around, ate chocolate ice cream, and saw all sorts of things we said we should mortgage my FIL's house to buy.

Look! It's Mister The King!

(200 Geek Bonus Points if you get the joke.)

Then we went to a bar for a drink.

Even the regular buildings are cool in Auburn.

Now I'm home, and my feet hurt, and the cat's mad at me.

Best thing of the whole weekend? I toured two - TWO - museums and didn't have to say "QUIT TOUCHING THAT!" once.

So that happened.

The first week of August, I went over to the school to transfer the Goob in from the program she'd been doing on line last year. They said the school secretary was on vacation and to go back the next week. (Like no one else is qualified to handle a kid's paper work? I wonder about many things having to do with the school administration here.) Second week, there I was, filling out paper work and providing all sorts of ridiculous documentation and it was all mostly good, and then the secretary mentioned that school started for the kids on August 23.

Huh.

I'd stupidly assumed it started near Labor Day (first weekend in September), because, well, they always do. And, in my defense, a lot of schools around here aren't going back until today, or even next week. IT IS NOT MY FAULT.

This revelation led to me running around like a lunatic for two weeks, because the Goob, as always, had timed a growth spurt to something important, and none of her clothes fit. Literally. None. We've outfitted her from the skin out. Shirts, pants, sweaters, raincoats, shoes, socks, outlet malls, malls, Target, Target again, mall again, Target AGAIN.

We did get her sent off successfully on the 23rd, wearing clothes that fit. I only sort of lost her once. (I met the wrong bus; oops.) I still owe the district a couple pieces of paper, including something that needs notarized (seriously?) and I keep getting more documents to fill out; I think they've got my contact info in ten thousand different places now. I'm tempted to just have it tattooed to the Goob's forehead.

The Goob has taken to it like a duck to water, even though she inevitably caught a germ the first day and is a big old puddle of snot. I've been sitting on the back porch, all surrealed out, wondering what in fuck and when having a kid is going to feel normal. (Yes, surreal is a verb in my world. Don't argue with me.)

The only person not loving it is Sekhmet. She's been drooping around the house, all sad and pathetic, during the day. Because she misses her bald kitten.

Now I get to go write a letter regarding the summer reading program. You know, the one the Goob wasn't enrolled in because she wasn't IN THE SCHOOL until three weeks ago. I got a very strongly worded, all-capital-letters note about it last night. I'm sure I can compose something suitably... polite.

Oh, and they asked me to join the PTO. ...the fuck?

Sekhmet, you fucker.

(Good news! I'm starting to think in blog posts!)

This is the couch we owned when we adopted Sekhmet:

See how it's all sagging and drooping, like there's been a cat laying on the back of that couch for seven years?

Yeah. So when we got the new living room furniture last year, we both agreed that the one place the cat was NOT allowed to be was, yes, on the back of the couches.

So where does she want to be?

Sekhmet, you fucker.

AND THEN!

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of managing these damn migraines, I walked down the laundry aisle at Target, and all the chemicals nailed me in the face.

I'm on the back porch now, in humidity (it helps my sinuses), having taken an Imitrex. I'm about to take another. (Doc says I can. No OD today, thanks.) But before I start slurring my speech, I wanted to blog.

Not sure what about, but I want to start blogging again, daily. I know, going from a month off to daily blogging is unlikely to happen, but I want to work toward it. Probably at the speed of dark, but we all need goals. This one isn't even in the top ten of the craziest ideas I've set myself around here. (I still can't believe I knit a Bohus sweater on sock needles in three months. Can anyone? That was some crazy shit, right there.)

While laying on the couch in my have-a-migraine, Victorian maiden swoon, I started brooding a bit on everything. Like why I'm suddenly stalled after years of dealing with crap. I've concluded I'm not taking to civilian life very well.

Which is just hilarious on the face of it, because I've been a hippy peacenik since day one, regularly told off officers, and spent the hub's last five years hating an entire base so well that my blood pressure was 180/200. And no, I don't really miss the military. (I miss some of the guys. There are some nice folks in the military, usually at enlisted levels.) But I got used to treating everything as temporary. We'd be gone again soon, so there was no point to... well, fill in the blanks. Get a decent car, spend money on the house, have a kid, get a pet, buy anything larger than a bread box.

So... I need to get over that. No idea how, really, but reminding myself that we're here to stay, as needed, is helping. I think.

---

Several friends have been encouraging me to start doing a thing they're calling "Shit You Missed on Twitter". I hadn't done it because it felt an awful lot like cut and paste to me, but today there was an exchange that had me hooting and laughing out loud, so you're stuck with it.

It all started with a shout-out because a friend of the family has kittens who need a home. (Which has turned into a whole other bundle of annoyance, but I attempt not to digress.) That was when the commentary started. (Names shortened to protect the guilty.)

@Deb: @SamuraiKnitter WHERE did you get kittens??

@Zen: @Deb @SamuraiKnitter Sekhmet must have been getting a little hey-hey?

@Terby: @Deb @SamuraiKnitter I just figured Goob was creating them from test tubes in your basement.

@SamuraiKnitter: @Terby @Deb @Zen I'm sure if the Goob manufactured cats, they would glow in the dark. Purple.

@Terby: @Deb @Zen @SamuraiKnitter No glitter? I'm disappointed.

@Zen: @Deb @Terby @SamuraiKnitter They would also talk and fly.

So. When the rumors start, yes, I'm selling glow-in the dark purple glitter kittens that talk and fly. One per customer. While supplies last.

That was longer than expected.

Right. Sorry about that.

At the end of June, I decided to "celebrate" the finishing of the Goober's school work by getting to the bottom of my migraines. They'd been gradually getting worse, then in May the noticeable auras (read: hallucinations) shifted, which was kind of worrisome.

The past month has been spent seeing doctors and getting brain scans and arguing with insurance companies.

And spinning, to keep my hands busy so I don't kill people. (Pics of that soonly.)

Short version, I've doubled my daily drug intake (vast annoyance), and am able to take Imitrex again because one of the new drugs is for blood pressure and now my brain won't pop. Probably. The neuro told me the odds are about ten billion to one in my favor, that the aura shift is caused by hormone level changes rather than anything major like a brain tumor. And while I haven't seen the analysis yet, I did get hold of the actual images of my brain scan, and nothing major is leaping out at me from it.

Not that I know how to read a brain scan, but nothing in there looks like any x-ray or ultrasound I've ever seen of tumors.

My brain is funky. I think we knew that.

Oh - and it looks like the left side of my brain is bigger than the right. I need to send the images off to a buddy of mine who is a neuroscientist for confirmation, but I'm sure every person in the world is shocked by that news.

---

The husbeast's new thing is, he's getting rid of the ancient and much-beloved Suburban (because it really, truly, isn't reliable any more) and replacing it with a "big pimp limo" I think is the current term he's using. While I'm NEVER going to be thrilled about debt (I quite liked not having a car loan to pay), I've gotta say, I do like the new vehicle.

Now, if no one buys it out from under us while the bank does the paper work, we should be good.

---

The Goob is "in the dog house". Her term. My term is "lucky to be alive after repeatedly pissing me off".

Both my phone charging cords have had to be repaired because she CHEWED ON THE PLUGS. Her Nintendo DS is in the shop as I type, getting a new charging socket put in because she'd leave it plugged in and knock the whole thing around and beat on it and jerk it. So what did I get today? I caught her with the plug for the Kindle Fire IN HER MOUTH. It wasn't horribly chewed, but IT WAS IN HER MOUTH.

No electronics. Indefinitely. Until I'm done being angry. No TV, no music, no Wii, no Fire, no computer, no nothin'. (And it occurs to me that this kid is seriously geeked out, but I'm good with that.) But, summer break, with no electronics. One of us may yet kill the other. I'm not sure how a fight will go.

---

AND THEN.

Last week, my MIL called me. She had on her Serious Voice, and started talking about overstepping boundaries, and other ominous things. Things I usually only hear after some major brouhaha in the family. So I sit down, brace myself, and ask "What happened?"

What answer do I get???

"I bought crochet hooks at the yarn store today."

Book review, and some other stuff.

Recently I purchased a copy of "Fleegle Spins Supported", by Susan Glinert Stevens, the woman who runs Fleegles Blog. (She's a wild woman. Latest blog post? It's about spinning grizzly bear fur. No, I'm not joking.)

Fleegle has made a lot of jokes about this being THE BEST SUPPORTED SPINNING BOOK! because it's actually the ONLY supported spinning book that anyone knows of. That said, I think even if there were others, it would hold up very favorably in comparison. She spends a lot of time on different types of fiber, the ways it can be prepared, the different ways to spin it, all relevant to any kind of spinner.

Really, the whole book was worth the money to me, when she gave the suggestion to use tweezers to pull nepps out of spinning fiber. I've been doing that since, and it definitely makes life easier.

Another thing I really REALLY liked about the book? It came to me in the mail like this:

It's a four gig USB thumb drive, with the name of the book printed on it. (That's a nice touch. Now I know for sure which thumb drive it is, no matter what.) All you do is plug it into your computer, and if it has Adobe on it - it should - you just click away on whatever file you want to look at. There is a PDF of the book text with active links, so you can click on through to all sorts of web sites and information. There is another PDF of the book without active links, which for my computer is easier to scroll through for skimming. Then, there are videos. Lots of them. For right and left hand. Those also cover types of fiber, ways it is prepared, all the good stuff.

Really, very much worth the $30 I paid for the book.

Yes, I do intend to try supported spindling. You can do it sitting down, and it's the best way to spin cobweb-weight lace yarns, which I want to make. I've got some silk and angora sitting here for a two-ply Orenburg style yarn, but I want more yardage from it than I can get on my wheel.

So. Excellent book. Excellent blog. Youse guys may want to check it out.

---

The other thing is my circular needle storage. I could have sworn I blogged this before, but I mentioned it yesterday and several people thought it was brilliant, so here you go. You know those heavy plastic multi-pocket file folders they sell? I think this one was meant for checks:

Good gourd, grainy picture. And I took it with my camera, not my phone!

Anyway, I use each of the pockets inside to hold coiled up circular needles:

Each pocket has a certain size. You can see I labeled the tabs with the needle sizes: Some have since fallen off (I've used this holder for about five years now) and I'm pondering the best way to make the labels permanent.

For double-checking purposes, I've even got a needle gauge in the front pocket, along with the really small needles like 0000.

The needles do still tangle a little bit, within each pocket. But it's nowhere near the rat's nest my circular needles used to be. It's nice and compact, easy to grab and rifle through, and the cover even keeps the dust off.

This is NOT my original idea. I saw it somewhere on line. Damn if I remember now, but don't give me credit for this one. It's not mine.