Ack!

It went from 80 to 27 in less than 24 hours. I am Not Pleased.

The Cold From Hell continues albeit somewhat abated. Robitussin gelcaps are my very good friend. Sleeping sitting up to help alleviate the coughing suck big dead green donkey wongers. Granted, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, but I'm not sure how much stronger I can get. (You remember that one, Lex? College was fun. Sometimes.)

Bean has improved quite a bit. And that's the more important part. We set up a ton of Christmas stuff today and will continue tomorrow. I'm aiming to rival Carole's "Christmas Threw Up On My House". This time last year, I was just getting to know Carole and Cara. I'm glad I "met" them. I have a small but ever-growing collection of creches. Bean loves them. She has two "crushes" as she refers to them. One is a really cute one by Playmobil that I bought at Target a couple of months ago. Much fun. I love to see how she arranges them.

OK, the cough is killing me. Time for a toddy.

You need:

1 mug of hot tea - your choice but I prefer a Celestial Seasonings Zinger flavor
1 half of a lemon, squozed
1 tbsp honey or more to taste
1 shot of Jamieson's Irish Whiskey

If it doesn't stop your cough, you won't care.

78 to 38

I'm sure everyone has heard the jokes about Texas weather (Don't like it? Wait a day.). You might not realize just how true that joke is. The high today was 78. Tonight, it's supposed to start raining and drop to 38 and then to 26 by mid-morning tomorrow. Complete with sleet and ice and plague and locusts and famine. At least, you'd think it given the lines at SuperTarget today.

I always love seeing what people buy when there is a threat of ice. Now, admittedly any accumulation of ice pretty much shuts us down, but it rarely sticks around for longer than 2 days. So, the chances of starvation are pretty slim (although, I did forget to buy bread and we are almost out so I may make a run to the Thumb).

The woman were all making their weekly grocery run, albeit maybe a day or so early.

The men all had beer. Some of them even had food in their baskets. I'm not trying to be sexist, but it was really hysterical that all of the unaccompanied men of a variety of ages had baskets that contained vast quantites of beer and maybe a couple of steaks.

Meanwhile, The Crud lingers on. Bean did make it to school today (she only goes for three hours), but we are both still coughing quite a bit. It's getting to the frustrating point where you feel pretty good, but you can't do anything much physically because that heats you up and starts you coughing again.

Cough Cough hACK

I have caught whatever variety of cold crud is circulating. Bleh. Bean has it too. And, of course, this is the weekend we had planned to paint the kitchen, den, and office (it's one big L with lots of windows). Poor Dr. Pig is soldiering on and will paint the den today. I told him if I get well enough to move all my stuff out of the office, that's great. If not, we'll do it another weekend.

I had some really freaky dreams last night. The one I remember was that there was some sort of knitterly gathering and somehow I volunteered to make lunch but more people than I was counting on showed up, including The Yarn Harlot. So, there I was in the kitchen making fried chicken only I had bought whole birds instead of just breasts, but no one wanted dark meat. I was thanking my lucky stars that any good Southern Luncheon includes a ton of veggies and salads and that I don't cook with bacon, so Stephanie could get a good lunch. Your guess is as good as mine as to why the hell I'm remembering she's a vegetarian and trying to cook her lunch. Much less why I'd choose to make fried chicken for people I don't know. That's a labor of love, honey, and a whole lot of work. At this point, I was relieved to be woken by Bean, who was hollering becaue Pinky Pink (her favorite stuffed animal - a pig) had fallen out of the bed. I had to get her some medicine, etc. Hopefully she'll sleep a bit.

And now I'm going to go back to sleep.

Somedaaaaaaaaaaaay I'll knit agaaaaaaaaaaain. (Sung to the tune of Someday My Prince Will Come.)

And then, the oven

Tried to bake said pumpkin pie last night.

Forgot that I had roasted a couple of chickens last week and forgotten to clean the oven. Set the oven cleaner thingy. Door latch mechanism suddenly busted. No oven cleaner. Had to tell husband to come home with oven cleaner and chocolate cake (if I'm going to clean the oven myself I want a piece of chocolate cake for fortification). Pecked to death by ducks once again.

Husband came home and is currently cleaning the oven! I love him!

Then, hopefully, the pie will have enough time to cool before I take it to school.

Keep your needles crossed.

OGIM

You know TGIF?

Yeah, I'm having Oh God It's Monday.

I've been busier than the proverbial one-armed paper hanger with no knitting yet and a pumpkin pie still to bake for Bean's pre-school "feast" tomorrow morning. They may be getting store-bought.

Man, what a day. And the rest of the week is starting to send me into a tizzy just thinking about it.

End result: no thinking allowed!

Have Yourself a Merry Little somethingorother

My mother-in-law just sent me a list of what she and my FIL
want for Christmas.

On his list she put "a NASA Car hat".

I'm sure this is a typo, but my husband and I are envisioning space shuttles hurtling around a track.

Then there is the whole concept of having to actually purchase a NASCAR item, but we won't go there.

Want vs need

It happens every time a new Interweave Knits arrives.

I spend quite a bit of time contemplating the knits I like and then trolling the stash to find matches. That Nantucket sweater on the cover of the new IK is causing me to have whatever the knitting equivalent is of your mouth watering over a delicious recipe.

But

I took a step back and contemplated the yarns in my stash and some of the original intentions. I contemplated the sweaters I've knit and noticed a tendency to knit sweaters that are interesting knits. And I noticed the lack of what I will refer to as utility knits. Nice, plain sweaters that I can just throw on and go. No shawl pin closures or funky ties. Nothing awkward requiring constant re-arrangement while running errands.

I'm having a conflict between my wardrobe needs and my knitting needs and, right now, I'm going to go with the wardrobe needs.

I have some Atacama Alpaca in the stash purchased with the intention of making the t-shirt sweater. I have some Mountain Colors 4/8 wool purchased with the intention of making a simple tunic. I have enough Calmer to knit Cutaway.

There is a lot of stockinette in my future. But, in a way, that's probably also what I need. I've had a tremendously hectic fall. The zen of stockinette is calling. And the nice thing about this hobby is that, after all that zen, I'll have some lovely garments.

Of course, it's still me. The alpaca is shocking pink. The Mountain Colors is all sorts of berry. The Calmer is red. Maybe not so zen after all.

THINK

Yes, vote. But, most importantly, THINK.

I know many people, both liberal and conservative who vote a straight party ticket.

I urge you to instead look at each candidate and weigh their qualifications for specific jobs. In local elections, Republican or Democrat often tells you nothing about the qualifications of an individual for an elected position. The true power of voting is that we do not have to elect a party. We can elect individuals. A true independent is someone who votes for the right person for the right job. Regardless of party.

I urge you to use that power. Even if you are voting straight party, don't just use that one check box. Check off every candidate individually. Even if you take the time to read the whole ballot, it rarely takes more than 10 minutes.

Mysteries of the Universe

The lightbulb in the top of Bean's closet went out when I pulled the chain.

The bulb itself was fine. It seems that the bulb had somehow unscrewed itself part of the way. Strange stuff, Maynard.

I'm finally breaking down and joining the red sweater KAL. I admit to a bit of fear that I've lost my sweater Mojo what with all the lace of the summer, but I'm launching straight into cables. Nothing like a good cable to cure what ails you!

Pictures tomorrow.

Bean: I'm four-and-a-half, right?
Me: Yep
Bean: When will I be four in both halves?

Bean: Why is the sky blue?
Me (driving in traffic): God made it that way (or some variation of that)
Bean: No, I know God made the earth and the sky and everything, but God also made all the science and I want to know what makes the atmosphere turn the sky blue and then it's not blue yesterday!
Me: Uh, Mommy is driving right now, but we'll get out the encyclopedia when we get home.

We had parent/teacher conference yesterday and her teacher told me that Bean is having some trouble concentrating when they do coloring. Mrs. Teacher, you are a lovely woman and Bean adores you, but in her mind you did coloring last week. Bean is thinking, "I showed you my fine motor skills, let's move on!"

Of course, Bean has never been fond of coloring books. She'll go to town on a piece of blank paper, but coloring books bore her.

Instead of completing her coloring in a timely manner, my child is asking the teacher how electricity works and what happens to the electricity if one outlet works and the other doesn't.

I find all of this totally hilarious, although I did tell Bean that maybe she could help the teacher by doing her work, even if it is boring.

Mythbustered

Last night, Dr. Pig and I were sitting around watching Mythbusters.

I was bemoaning the fact that the swelling above my eyes has now migrated below my eyes.

Then it hit me. I have several "puffiness reducing" eye treatments stashed in my fridge. And my under eye area is about as puffy as anyone's could ever be.

So, do any of those over-the-counter remedies work? (Keep in mind that most of this stuff has been in the fridge for a good six months.)

The answer?

A shocking and resounding YES.

Both Earth Theraputics Hydrogel Under-Eye Recovery patch and Origins No Puffery worked really well.

The Earth Theraputics patch things left on for 20 minutes made a noticeable effect.

The Origins stuff? It's a gel. And it too made a noticeable difference.

This morning I put on the gel eye pack thing they gave me at the hospital for 20 minutes and looked my eyes. Puffy.

I put on the Earth Theraputics patch thingy for 20 minutes. Noticeably less puffy.

Unexpected.

So, use my suffering to improve your life. Get the Earth Theraputics patch thingies. They rock!

Thriller

Have you seen a commercial for that horror movie, Turistas?

Carefree college students on spring break and it ends with a tight headshot of a girl on an operating table saying, in a tremulous voice, "I want to go home."

That eye operation on Monday?

Yeah, they do it while you are awake.

They give you a lovely zonker and you wake back up five minutes later with your eyelids numb and your upper body and head strapped to the table in about seventeen places.

They keep you awake so they can see your eyes move and figure out how much of whatever to do to your eyelids. Which you can hear them discuss. It was...

...unpleasant.

I can't imagine anyone doing something like this on an optional basis. I have this attachment to seeing the world through something other than a teeny slit between my lids, so I had to have it done. But I'll tell you, if they hadn't done both eyes at one time, there is no way in hell you could ever get me back in there. I'd just prop everything open with a toothpick.

My eyes are hideously swollen and Frankensteinish, but, hopefully, they will go down quickly. At least it's all over!

I'll be wearing sunglasses to Bean's Parent/Teacher conference tomorrow afternoon. I'll be faaaaaaabulous, dahhhhrling!

Knitting? Hah!

Maybe next week.