ER but no Goran Visnjic...times 2

I was mistaken last week when I whined about being sick. I clearly had no idea just how sick I could become. Friday night found me curled into a ball with an earache so severe, I would have welcomed a rusty nail through my eardrum if it would have cured the pain. Hubster loads me up, hauls my dizzy, mumbling rear-end to the ER where a doctor informed me that I have a middle ear infection. She writes me 2 scripts and sends me home. Saturday morning, the ear begins to drain while the pain level stays the same. One side of my face decides to swell up. Sunday is more of the same, only I am sleeping most of the time which most definitely scared the daylights out of the girls. This morning was the final straw. I was STILL hurting after 3 doses of high powered meds, still dealing with the grossness of drainage and a tender, swollen face. This time I drag myself to the ER, where a different, BETTER doctor informs me that not only is my ear infected, but my ear drum has perforated. A change in meds, a bottle of ear drops and what I am sure will amount to several hundred dollars in bills later, I can sit upright for about 30 minutes now. No telling just how long until my hearing in that ear recovers or until I feel like my usual mean self.

All this and no Goran Visnjic. Life just sucks sometimes.

Countdown to GOODBYE Katie!

It has begun. The NBC Today Show's overblown goodbye to Katie Couric. But not only is the countdown on, dear old Matt is off by a solid week as to when the 31st hits us. Why, oh why, must we suffer through this self-congratulatory crappola every time a show member has a milestone? Is NBC truly so blind as to believe we, the viewing public, want to see this wanton display of smoke-blowing? Now before I get emails saying "change the channel stupid", let me just say that I program our satellite to auto-tune to the local AM news at 5am so I can hear the weather. I then fall back asleep and wake up to the IFOKCA (International Federation of Katie Couric Admirers). No, I cannot set the receiver to change after I hear the weather. Does.not.work.that.way. But I digress. Let Katie and her bubbleness slip quietly into the darkness and welcome Meredith within two seconds, then move on about life. Do not drag it out into 2 weeks of celebrity ass-kissing. That's all I'm saying.

In more personal news, I have hit the wall and lay crumpled on the floor. A solid week of rain (although not what New England has seen) has wreaked havoc on my body. Yesterday, it hurt to blink, let alone move. At one point, I was so cold, Rockin' R piled SIX quilts on me. Still took me 4 hours to warm up enough to move my fingers. That is 4 long hours of no knitting, folks. No anything except shivering and staring at Law and Order reruns on TNT.

Speaking of knitting, it has been, um, hit or miss. I have cast on and frogged more things in 10 days than I think I have ever even though about making. Since it drives me nuts to buy a new book of patterns and not cast on immediately, I have tried 2, yes,2 different patterns from KOTR. Friday Harbor and New England. FH was a dismal failure. New England, well, I used the pattern but not for socks. I really love the diamonds down the front but hated that lace stopping after 4" so I thought I could just carry the lace down to the heel with no problem. Whizzed through that like Bush through the National Budget, knit the heel flap, turned the heel and was ONE STINKING DIAMOND away from the toes when I tried it on. Would not go over my heel. I recalculated my gauge. Was I on or off? Dead on the money. Ok, should I frog and begin again or what? R asked if I could turn it into a wrist warmer for her and a solution was born! The second wrist warmer is a diamond away from completion and pictures. In addition to the wrist warmer, I have those Lovely Lace socks from the spring'06 IK on the needles. I fear the same problem is going to surface again. I've turned the heel, finished the gusset and the thing is so tight, I am afraid to try it on too many times. Maybe my yarn choice is the problem but I doubt it. I am using the cotton 8 Christine sent me for Yarn Aboard. The gauge is dead-on again. Maybe I am just not used to socks knit tighter than 7.5 spi? I will finish the sock and then try it on again. Will I be discouraged if they do not fit? You bet. I wanted lacey socks for summer since it appears I will never be warm enough again to go without socks. Oh well.

The Many Faces of Motherhood, part one

The Teen Oh Mother Look, made famous statewide by the Rockin' R:


The Not Now, I am Busy Look as displayed by Miss E:


The Three Amigos:


One of my favorites from Summer Vacation 2005: Count the fish and do not fall in:



Another take on the My mother is a pain by R:



Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful.


MAMA! OUCH! AKA Oven Rack Meets Unprotected Hand.


Trying Out a New 'Do.

Motherhood is a fulltime job. One I am delighted to have. To my girls: thank you for making it easy most of the time. I love you!!

Madcapmum has one too!

Out doing the usual AM Blog surf seeing who has done something exciting. Madcapmum has a Double Irish Chain she is showing off. Beautiful work, I might add. Seeing hers reminded me that not so long ago I took some shots of my oldest UFO:




This is one of the first "real" quilts I made. The local quilt shop had a class for this particular design (taken from the "It's Ok if You Sit on My Quilt book") back when E was very small and I was doing daycare. The shop owner was gracious enough to give me PRIVATE lessons because I was the only one to sign up. Using the frame given to me by Duck, I decided to hand quilt the entire thing (twin size). Well, that only worked until E decided that the frame and quilt made a great place to hide from the 'rents while she did things she wasn't supposed to do. Like color on the wall with crayons, eat chocolate pudding with her fingers. You get the idea. So I took the frame down, packed the quilt away for a later time. I came across dug it out last week and discovered it is nearly done. Way closer to finished than I thought it was. Something like 2 center motifs and something for the border. Rather than set the frame up in a house with no room for a frame, I have decide to finish it by machine. But I have to clean up my table enough so I have room for a big quilt. Hopefully, it will be sooner than later.

There has been knitting going on. I have finished the Lorna's Laces socks. All but weaving in the ends that is. I am in love with LL's yarn. Plain and simple, tops the favs list, hands down. Also finished are a pair of baby booties and nearly the halfway point is the border on the baby afghan. Every day the weather has been great for photo shoots, I have either been outside on the swing trying to warm up or chasing extra children. The rest of the time, I have been resting after a painful spell of intense joint pain which lasted a week. Every joint in my body hurt...all it took was the thought of moving to make me flinch. In my mind, that was. Actual flinching would have been out of the question.