Stink Stank Stunk

At five o'clock this morning, I was awakened by a godawful smell. I struggled awake to the horrible realization that the smell was not human in origin.

A skunk sprayed somewhere near the side of our house. It's just gross. It seems to have dissipated outside the house, but inside it's still nasty. We're also checking to make sure nothing has gotten in under the house or in the attic. Meanwhile, it's a really cool day and, since we have all the windows open and the fans on to try and circulate the stench out of the house, it's a bit chilly in here!

Spring Broke

Bean is on Spring Break from school this week. We've been having a wonderful time at home. Until today. I think we may have been having a bit too much fun because, despite a good night's sleep, so far today she'd had a tizzy, a hissy fit, and a full-blown conniption.

I haven't seen fractious at this level at this time in the morning since she was very small. Every now and then, she'd wake up on the wrong side of the bed and I'd feed her breakfast and then put her back to bed. An hour or so nap and she'd be back to her happy self. So, Bean is taking a nap at 9.30am. There is no reason for today to be a no-good, very bad day. It's gorgeously sunny, the temps will be in the high 70s, and I want to go to the Arboretum and look at all the gorgeous flowers and maybe have a picnic. But I'm not going to do it with Queen Hissyfit.

Here's hoping she really does fall asleep for a bit. Otherwise, it's gonna be a looooooong day.

I hate the insurance company

Bills keep coming in for Bean's surgery and it totally sucks. I don't understand why the copay is determined on the uncovered amount of the surgery, rather than the negotiated amount that insurance pays. The difference is a couple of thousand (yes, you read that right) dollars, so I'm trying to get my husband to call them and figure out what the hell the deal is. Because I'm not getting the numbers to add up in any way that makes any kind of logical sense.

Oh well, it's only money. We didn't want to retire anyway ;> It just annoys me that we have to pay all this money up front and then even more money on the back end.

There is good news, though. The surgery was totally worth it because not only did Bean ace her doctor's visit yesterday, they even lightened her glasses prescription and she doesn't need bifocals!!! The doctor even told us we don't have to be so serious about patching. This is just fabulous news.

Not food poisoning after all

Bean has it now.

The good news: she's not all that upset by the whole thing.

The bad news: it struck when we had juuuuuust gotten to a friend's house. Half an hour away by highway. An eventful ride home to be sure.

At least it should be short-lived if my experience was anything to go on.

Shrimp

Food poisoning.

Back to couch.

Good thing I have a stock of Pinky Dinky Doo and Jack's Big Music Show to keep the Bean entertained.

Oh, yeah, blogging....

Things have been hellabusy around here. What with checkups, fundraisers, jobs, and all sorts of things, I've had little time to think about blogging. It'll get better.

Meanwhile, Bean is fine. We have another checkup in a few weeks when I'll find out what the outcome of the surgery is, but she's fine. Happy and healthy and driving us completely crazy.

I was taking her to school the other day and I asked her, "What happened to my sweet little baby?" Bean replies, quite seriously, "She turned into a wonderful child who is almost five years old."

At least I won't have to worry about low self-esteem...

Home run

We got home about two hours ago and Bean is sleeping off the anesthesia. She supposedly has a fairly light recovery, but the bloody tears that are coming out of her eyes are pretty much right out of a horror movie. She's been in and out of sleep, but was a total champ about the operation and seems to be fine now that she's in her own comfy bed.

Dr. Pig and I are just relieved that it's over and, since we've been up a good 9 hours already, we've decided it's time for a nice cocktail hour and have opened a bottle of champagne and made a nice little breakfast to go with it.

Pound of bacon: 6 dollars

Bottle of champagne: 28 dollars

Knowing your child is home safe and sound after surgery: Priceless.

Can't beat it.

Thanks for all the good thoughts. It means more than you know.

Thursday!

Surgery scheduled for this Thursday!

Nothing like getting it over with. I'm so happy that she'll just get it and get out and be done with it and that the recovery is pretty mild. I'm going to have to get out the Mountain Colors Enormous Cardi for hospital knitting. Because I'm going to need plain stockinette with no increases or decreases. Otherwise I fear I'd end up with increases on one side, decreases on the other and Lord knows what in the middle!

Well FUCK!

Fuckety fuck fuck fuck!

Some of you may have noticed that Bean wears glasses. She has a condition called strabismus, which causes her left eye to cross. The glasses help her align her eyes in the correct position. We also patch her right eye for about an hour a day to help strengthen the muscles in the other eye. Unfortunately, the muscles in her eyes that control the up/down motions are also affected by this condition and can not be aided by patching or glasses. The doctor was hoping that, with time (Bean has been wearing glasses for 3 years, since she was 20 months old), those muscles would equal out in strength.

It's not happening.

So, Bean is going to have to have eye surgery.

It's an outpatient procedure, but it's general anesthesia and it eye surgery and I'm a bit freaked out. I know that it's really not a huge deal and that lots of people have vastly more serious health issues. But it's my baby. And that makes it a very big deal to me.

Oh sure

Today we get school closings. Last night we were watching the late news and, upon seeing the line of snow and ice that was predicted to fall well short of the Metroplex, I told Dr. Pig that we would get that storm and to plan on being late to work today.

I woke up to a half-inch of ice on the ground. An inch of ice is supposedly equal in weight to a foot of snow. And it's still falling. Not heavily, but consistently, which will eventually equal heavily. We are predicted to get an inch or two of ice today. Bleh. The problem with ice is that it's not much fun. There usually isn't quite enough to go sliding, and you can't make a snowman with it.

Bean and I are going to hang out and make chocolate chip cookies and watch old movies.

The Iceman Cometh

or, maybe not

We went into Friday night with the weatherman making dire predictions of doom and gloom and three inches of ice and no power and WE'RE ALL GOING TO SUFFER!

It rained like hell and got pretty cold (34F).

We woke up Saturday to dire predictions of doom and gloom and three inches of ice and no power and WE'RE ALL GOING TO SUFFER! I had a 9am haircut scheduled so I went to that, but went home expecting the weather to turn on me any minute.

It rained like hell and stayed cold.

We went to the Saturday afternoon birthday party (it rained like hell and stayed cold) and came home wondering if, indeed, there would be any "weather".

The weatherman assured us that REALLY I SWEAR tonight and tomorrow there will be doom and gloom and three inches of ice and no power and WE'RE ALL GOING TO SUFFER! Except that one channel pointed out the possibility that since the temperature at 3,000 feet was in the 60s, and that was where the clouds were that were generating the rain, it might not freeze up after all.

Sunday, it rained a little bit and was cold.

Last night, the idjit weatherman was STILL trying to perpetuate the myth that we'd get a freak ice storm and that the National Weather Service really hadn't been out smoking crack while making our weekend weather predictions.

And yes, we got ice. A veryveryveryveryvery thin rime of ice on the roads, etc. And it's sunny (a full three hours before the 7am weather report predicted), so that won't last.

There is a reason I don't stock up too much for events like this. Based on experience, there are two possible outcomes: nothing happens in which case you didn't need to stock up. Or, it does happen in which case the power goes out for a few days and the food rots.

The good news is that Bean has the day off and she and I can go out an enjoy ourselves!

Battening down the hatches

A major ice storm is predicted to hit the Metroplex this weekend. I'll grant them that it's raining like crazy and that in the past two hours it's dropped a good 20 or so degrees. We'll see about the rest of it.

The dire predictions of ice usually send our area into a major food/beer/milk buying frenzy.

Me?

I've bought a gaggle of "fashion fever" Barbies because the Fashion Fever Barbie clothes don't fit the regular fucking Barbies and we have lots of fashion fever clothing and it DOESN"T FIT. DAMMIT! Oh, and we just got back from a huge sashimi dinner. Because nothing says, "I'm prepared for the ice storm." like a big plate of sashimi followed by grilled delights such as enormous grilled bacon-wrapped scallops. Screw milk, I'm happy, slappy!

And alot of sake.

Whee!

If you really could laugh your ass off, I'd be wearing smaller pants

Bean: Ethan and I played superheroes today on the playground and I was Spidergirl (I think of it as Spidergrrrl) and I'm still Spidergirl and Stephen was the Manian Devil.

Me: The Tasmanian Devil is one of my favorites (insert bad imitation of Taz)

Bean: No, Mom (insert sounds of a 13-year-old girl's frustration in a 4-year-old voice)! He was just a regular Manian Devil. Not a *taz*-manian Devil.

New Ways To Have a Big Damn Heart Attack

Be alone in the house on a gloomy Friday morning.

Be very involved in creating a newsletter that really should have been sent out yesterday.

Feel something cold and wet apply itself to the little space where your sweater has risen up above the waistband of your jeans.

Scream loud and long enough that the dog won't come out of the bedroom no matter how long you apologize.

We went to Egypt and saw the Stinx

Last week, Dr. Pig, myself, and Bean went to Fort Worth with my parents to see the Hatshepsut exhibit at the Kimball Art Musuem.

The best part of the trip was Bean saying, "I know where Egypt is!" She ran off to her excellent new globe and pointed out Egypt and said, "See, you can tell it's Egypt because there is a picture of a Stinx on it." We gently corrected the pronunciation, but "stinx" is now my favorite Beanism.

The Year of Living Stashfully

Last year, I made a resolution to try to not add to the stash. It wasn't so much a "No Yarn Buying" resolution, as it was a resolution that I would knit the yarn I bought and not let it become resident in the stash. I did fairly well. The major areas of stash enhancement were in the sock and lace categories. At least those are small skeins!

This year, sock yarn counts. I have 30 some-odd skeins of sock yarn and I'm knitting socks at a rate of 5 or 6 pair a year. I can stop with the sock yarn for a bit.

I think another Year of Living Stashfully is in order. I posted a while back about all the lovely sweaters I have sitting in stash. And I'm diving in. As with last year, I'll buy yarn to knit, but I want to have anything I buy back out of the stash by the end of the year. I'm an inveterate list-maker and I've already worked out what I'm going to knit with which yarns on the old Palm Pilot. Whether or not I'll conform is another matter. But it's a start.

Right now, I'm working on a sample for the Shabby Sheep and on Bless in Rowan Cork for myself. And on finding the damn camera cord so I can upload pictures.

A combination of sales and serendipity have led me to buy the yarn for the long-coveted Electra vest on the cover of Rowan 38. I have been lusting after this vest since the magazine came out, but I hated the fact that the cover yarns are really bright purples and not the plums, etc. the picture would lead you to believe. I've found a good combo of colors that should be gorgeous.

Best wishes for a delightful New Year's Eve. We only go out about once every 5 years, so we're having some really good friends over. Their daughter is Bean's best friend, so it will be sort of like a playdate with champagne!

Step away from the bag, Ma'am

My MIL has been deeemed a threat to national security. And it's all my fault!

I gave my MIL a bar of nice soap for Christmas. She packed it in her carry-on bag, where the TSA agent determined that it was a threatening substance and searched her bags. Now, my MIL is in her mid-seventies and has a boufant hair-do the likes of which I haven't seen since the 1960s. Hell, the hole in the ozone layer is probably solely due to the amount of hairspray my MIL uses on what is no longer hair, but more of a structural accessory. I find the whole thing hilarious because my MIL makes June Cleaver look like some sort of reactionary hippie.

At any rate, the TSA agent is trying to search the bag and my MIL is asking what he's looking for and offering to help and the agent is trying to get her to stop touching the bag and to find the offending items: the soap. Totally overlooked in the dangerous aresenal of weaponry carried by my MIL is the hair pick she uses to tease her hair. (Remember the hairpicks people used to carry in their back pockets to tease their 'fros in the 1970s? Yeah, Grandma has one.)

Moral of the story?

Ack! It's Soap on a Plane!

Christmas was delightful. Presents were shared, relatives visited, in-laws stayed with us, etc. I've even cast on for a new knit at long last. I'm still trying to figure out how the heck the new camera works for uploading. Dr. Pig has Done Something with the required cable. This is Not Good. However, I'm sure it'll turn up.

Beans' big Santa gift was a pirate ship. Mama excavated said object from her closet at about 9.30 on Christmas Eve and discovered that the assembly required was fairly extensive. 109 teensy tiny little pieces. But, fueled by several glasses of champagne, we had a blast putting it together. Well, the grappling hook and the anchor were a pain in the ass, but the rest wasn't too bad. It's insanely detailed and she loves it to distraction. It's quite fun to play with.

We hosted Christmas again this year and, overall, it was amazingly low stress and for that, I am truly thankful. My family can be a bit much at times for reasons that will be left unsaid and having Dr. Pig's parents stay with us for 5 days can sometimes be a bit much. But, I made a commitment to Dr. Pig to have a low-stress holiday and keep it together, and by God I pulled it off.

Back to the knitting!

Dear Dr Pig

I love you.

That's why I married you.

But...

When your parents are staying with us and I ask if you want to come with me to shop for a few last odds and ends, please do not respond, "Nope, I'm all done."

1.) With the exception of three packages under the tree, I did all the shopping and wrapping. And you only wrapped one of those three. So, technically, I'm the one who's done.

2.) I realize that there is an awfully large box under the tree wrapped in Tiffany blue and white which indicates that you are, indeed, "done" as far as presents go.

BUT

Think that I might be using the whole "shopping" ploy as a thinly disgused ruse for going and sitting in a pub and drinking a few Belgian beers and having some moules frittes before I have to come back and help prepare Lutheran Chicken for your parents.

Speaking of which - this makes a great grilled chicken

Lutheran Chicken (Dr Pig got the recipe out of his church cookbook from Iowa. The Lutherans call this BBQ chicken but, as a Texan, I beg to differ. Hence, Lutheran chicken.)

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
1 small bottle Italian salad dressing (think wishbone or kraft - don't get fancy)
1/2 small onion, diced
1/4 c soy sauce
1 tsp dry mustard

Combine last 4 ingredients and marinate chicken for 1 hour.
Grill.

And, just because I'm in a sharing mood

Easy chocolate truffles (the ingredients sound completely ridiculous, but people scarf these down like no tomorrow)

1 8 oz pkg Philadelphia cream cheese
1lb 2oz pkg oreos
16 oz semi sweet chocolate (I use a combination of Baker's and Nestle chips)

Let cream cheese come to room temp.

Put 8 oreos in a food processor and blitz to fine crumbs.
Reserve.

Put rest of oreos in food processor and blitz to fine crumbs.
Add cream cheese and pulse until combined.

Put chocolate in a double boiler to melt.

Roll oreo stuff into small balls - you'll have between 40 and 50 depending on the size of your balls. (heh!)

Dip balls into melted chocolate (use two forks to make it easier)

put on wax paper on a cookie sheet.

Sprinkle liberally with reserved cookie crumbs and put into fridge for at least an hour. Transfer to other container for storage (always in the fridge). These are best after sitting overnight in the fridge.

Weirdly good stuff.

not dead, just busy

Shopping completed: check
Presents wrapped: check minus two
Decorations applied to all corners of the house: Santa and Baby Jesus have combined forces to take over

Rum balls: Made
Chocolate truffles: Made

Tea party for 6 four-year-old girls: 2.30pm today.
Wine for mothers attending said party: oh yeah!

Anxiety level: oddly high

Knitting: none

My knitting drought continues unabated. Frankly, I think it has something to do with the fact that my mother keeps finding really great mysteries at the library and passing them on to me and then I have to read them NOW because they are due in a few days. I'm enjoying reading, but I'm starting to miss the knitting. I do have a few things I'm working on for classes at the shop, but nothing for me or mine.

We did buy a new digital camera, but I haven't figured out how to upload photos yet. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a treat for you... Because it's ain't Christmas around here without a little decorating abomination I refer to as Santa Jesus. Some people have waaaay too much money and waaay too little sense.