I know Halloween is over, but I was searching thru some old picture folders and found these. This is the Boy’s very first Halloween. He was all of 60 days old and we dressed him as a pirate. It’s a little hard to see, but he had a tinfoil hook that we attached to one of his socks and slipped it over his left hand. He also had a tinfoil scimitar, tinfoil dubloons, some jewels, a skull and crossbones on his shirt, and a jug of rum. Taking him around to each of the relative’s house was a scream. We all had so much fun. Anyhoo…here he is:

Funny thing the Boy said:

Mommy: Did you eat some chips?

the Boy: Yes, and I’m makin’ them into poop right now.

Halloween Festivities:

We took him to the Zoo Boo at Como. It was about 10 billion people’s worth of fun. Actually, it wasn’t that bad and the thing was set up pretty well. We had a good time and both the grammas came, too. the Boy chose his Dragon costume. He had a duck and a dragon and Thomas the Train to choose from.

Here he is trying to huff and puff and blow this house down:

Which one of these is not like the others?:

Dragon? Meet Dragon. :

Hey what’s going on out there?:

Funny thing the Boy said:

“Mommy, did you cut your hand on a dog?” (referring to my now mostly healed dog bitten hands)

Knitting update:

Yesterday, Monday, was a super fun day for me. I went to Chris’s place to spend a lovely, peaceful afternoon knitting. She knits like the wind!! I finished the heel and got an inch done on the cuff, while she knitted 12 or 13 baby bibs (slight exaggeration). Muchly inspired me to practice up on Continental as soon as I finish Dickinson Pullover. The kitties were so beautiful in person and it was quite nice to see them in their natural habitat. Chaos didn’t appreciate the Aretha Franklin and Rolling Stones ringtones on my cell. I got to see the Mayhem/Goldfish fun, too. Mayhem reminded me so much of my beautiful kitty, Babu. Really made me miss having a cat that likes hanging out with us. We have a cat, he just never wants to hang out upstairs with us. Anyhoo, I was a very bad blogger and didn’t bring my camera or anything.

Dickinson Pullover : Front, back and now one sleeve finished. Second sleeve, sewing up, and neckline to do. This project has definitely reached the “when will it all be over stage?” I’ve got about 1.5 inches done on the second sleeve.

Jungle Juggle Socks: Heel turned on first sock. Half way up the cuff. Going slow, but the yarn is a total dream to knit with.

Forest Plains: No progress to report. I still need to skein up the formerly kinky yarn.

Sorry for the crappy knitting pics. It’s evening here, but if I’d waited for the good daylight, I’d never get anything posted.

Knitting night: Held at Cafe Bene in St. Paul and I had a blast. We discussed a group yarn crawl, saying how fun it would be for 10 of us to descend on several different stores just to see their faces. It was even funnier when Theresa suggested we all dress as zombies for the event. So, you know, if you see zombies invading your local yarn store, don’t be afraid. It’s only us. Actually, be afraid. After all, it’s us.

Last night the Boy was sitting on the couch with me to read books right before bed. He was wearing a diaper only and I asked him if he wanted pajamas so he wouldn’t be cold. He said, “No, I want your shawl.” My shawl = my Clapotis. My beloved silk and wool Clapotis. I let him wear it sometimes, so I got it for him and wrapped it around him while he snuggled up to me on the couch. Cute, huh? Yeah, cute until I realized he meant to take it to bed with him. Down that road lies disaster for me and my beloved Clapotis. I know how this stuff works…let him form a sleeping attachment to it, and before you know it, it’ll be his blankie. My most expensive yarn I’d ever bought (at least at that time), took forever to knit Clapotis - morphed into a security blanket. It is to weep…so being the kind and benevolent mommy I am, I set him straight post haste. No, I didn’t rip it out of his sleepy little fingers…I wanted to, but I didn’t. I told him flat out that this night was the one and only time he’d be bringing my Clapotis to bed. Not tomorrow, not the night after, not ever again. “Just tonight?”, he says with big eyes. And I looked right back into those eyes … and told him, “Yes, just tonight”. You have to draw the line somewhere on this selfless sacrificing parent stuff, and I’m drawing it here. My Clapotis. Mine. Mine. Mine.

the Rock Star took him to Edinbourough Park this weekend and they had a ton of fun. Here’s a couple pics.

Knitting update:

…and the Boy says, “Mom?”

and I say, “What, Honey?”

and he says, “Have you ever seen a man poop on a fire?”

pause. pause. pause.

and I say, “No, Honey. Have you?”

Thankfully, he said, “No.” or we’d be looking for a new daycare.

Here’s a picture of the Rock Star teaching the Boy how to use the Paint program on an old laptop we set up for him:

I’m sure I can be forgiven for thinking my boys are the cutest in the world.

Completely different from my usual bitching and moaning about one thing or another. Ha fooled you!! I’m about to bitch and moan. It’s not as bad as some of the other stuff has been, just a little icing on the shit cake, so to speak, and I promise I’ll follow up with some Boy cuteness and funny stories. So here we go:

Losing the use of half of my right hand turns out to be quite the inconvenience. and I don’t just mean loss of knitting time. I mean things like I have a hard time pulling up my pants and buttoning them, let alone wrassling my kid into his clothes. Seriously, you want funny? Come on over and watch me try to put socks on a struggling three year old. Not an easy task on the best of days, but lately it’s nearly reduced both of us to tears. Of frustration and pain for me, just plain frustration for him. And that’s the easy stuff. Close your eyes, I’m about to commit sins of TMI…It turns out you can’t just switch to your non-dominant hand for such delicate personal tasks as wiping your butt, and expect all to go well. Settle down…I’m not going into details. And just to top it all off, I’ve developed an allergic rash to the anti-biotic I’m taking. I’m red and bumpy around my collarbone and the waist band of my pants. I itch all over and I mean ALL over. Or all under, if you will. My girl parts are maddeningly itchy all the time. It’s not a yeast infection, I thought of that, it’s the rash. The rash is in my girl parts and I’m going further insane from the itching. Not the scratching…cuz I try to do very little of that, what with my lady like nature and all. No, the itching. It seems to be unrelievable by any sort of ointment. I finally called the doctor today, and they said to stop taking the anti-biotic and to try taking over the counter Claritin for the itching. It’s like Benedryl, but non-drowsy. I just took one, so hopefully by the time you read this the itching will be nothing but a bad memory. The Docs say the itching may last several more days. Please cross your fingers that the Claritin works, or my husband might make me go live in the garage. And no one would blame him.

We took the Boy to a Fire Department Open House this weekend and it was lots of fun. We got to ride in a fire truck, go up in the lift bucket, spray the fire hose, eat free hot dogs, and get a goodie bag filled with fire department swag. He received a kid sized fireman’s hat, a t-shirt, a frisbee, along with many stickers and magnets. It was a very fun day for him and us. Here are pics of him in his t-shirt and hat. He wore the t-shirt to bed, and we had to peel it off him the next evening for washing, but as of this morning it’s back on him.

On Sunday we were able to attend a baby shower and stop off at a pumpkin place. the Boy wanted a pumpkin and this place had those and much more. Here are a bunch of pics from there. We had lots and lots of fun!

Thats a pit of dried corn he’s jumping into. It was about 10 inches deep and very fun to roll around and play in.

All in all a very nice weekend. Except for the itching.

She’s all gone. I had my little dog Rupert euthanized today. She went peacefully. I’m so sad and I’m crying so much my head hurts.

No words…

Holy lack of posting, batman…yeah, well this ain’t one of those, “sorry, guys, I haven’t been posting posts.” Well, kinda it is. It’s really just my excuse. Here’s my excuse. Fucking depression. If I ever manage to feel good a few days in a row, you can bet your ass something will happen to bring me down again. And what with the way my depression (bi-polar-ish) works, I stay down a few days. I’m not that good at processing emotions, so says my therapist. It’s true.

So anyhow, the Rupert thing has had me up and down and back up a bit, then way down again, for more than a week now. She was doing really good for a few days there, but now she’s not doing good again. For the last 2-3 days she hasn’t been able to get up on her own, and even when I help her…she can’t seem to stay up. And it freaks her out. The other night, I found her whimpering in a corner, soaking wet with pee, and the entire foyer floor was covered in it. I think she may have tried to stand up, couldn’t, got freaked out, peed on herself, then drug herself around on the floor. By the time I got to her, she was just a mess. The remedy was not comforting to her either. My husband helped me get her in the tub and I got her washed off, but she hates being picked up, restrained, bathed…all of the above and we were doing it to her. By the time I got her out and dried off, she was shaking and upset, and so was I. She seemed a little better the next morning, but not much. She has good moments, but they’re getting fewer and farther between.

I’ve got a message in to our vet. I plan to tell him how she’s been since last week when we saw him and she got the new pain pills, how she was better, and is now bad again…and ask him what other things there may be to try for her. I have the feeling, based on our last visit, that there’s not much else to give her. It’s kind of a matter of how much longer I can stand to see her like this. If he says there’s nothing else medically we can try, I’ll make an appointment to have her euthanized on Friday morning. We’re going camping that day, so I can just try to relax and deal with my feelings all weekend…then come home to an empty house on Sunday. *sigh*

I’m in the process of adjusting my medication and that has the potential to help, but it’s also difficult for me to transition through. Lowering the dose of one of my meds always gives me terrible dizzy spells and my mind feels out of control. And raising the other one which tends to agitate me. *shaking head* fucking depression. I hate this. I’m a week into it, and its getting better, but it’s been a bad week.

So yeah, not a great week.

It has been a really rough week, but things are looking a little better. My little dog Rupert is getting old, and her back legs just don’t work that well. The right one doesn’t work at all. With the left one weakening, she’s been having a harder and harder time getting around. I just felt like the deterioration was more pronounced last week so Friday I went to have her checked out. As expected, the vet gave me no hope for her legs to ever get better. In fact, when I said I’d begun to prepare myself for the end, he said that was probably a good idea. oooof, *stomach kick*.

Friday night she was so bad off, I was absolutely sure I’d be taking her in to be euthanized on Saturday…but by Saturday morning she was doing better. She’s on a new pain medication, and it seems to be helping her a lot. She still can’t use the right back leg, but the left is doing it’s job better. It’s Sunday now, and she is as good as she was 2 weeks ago, which isn’t great, but better than she was last week…so, it’s not time to give her up yet. I know it’s coming soon, but I have some time left with her.

Today we worked on our 2006 taxes. Yup, we’re that far behind…but I took a chunk out of what needed to be done.

Later in the day, I drove the Boy with me to drop off a doggie and to pick up some cat litter and dog treats. He fell asleep in the car so I got about an hour of knitting in. Check this out:

See the rain on the windshield? It was just pouring down. The rain sound was quite nice. I’d have preferred a big easy chair and a steaming mug of coffee…but it was still very nice.

Knitting. Hmmmm…look how much difference one needle size is making:

The one on the bottom is the one I’m knitting now. On top is the one that my gauge was off on. I’m actually feeling pretty glad I started over! I think this is going to be much nicer.

Same concept, different angle:

Notice the helping hands. That photo is the last one of my handy little tape measure before it was heinously tortured to death by those “adorable” little hands. This supposedly sweet little boy did wantonly and viciously stretch that innocent tape measure so far out of its container that it broke, and now won’t go back in. *sad* It’s a horrible thing when toddlers go bad.

We had a really great time on our camping trip. The drive there was easy and I got lots of knitting done. The campsites at Sibley State Park smallish, but we found a nice one and set up. We were putting up our tent around 6:00 pm. As we were unpacking the dry box we started making a list of all the things we forgot. We always forget lots of things. Every camping trip we drive to the campground on Friday night, set up, spend half of Saturday in the nearest town buying all the stuff we forgot, then pack up on Sunday morning and drive home leisurely. We resolved this time, that we’d just make do. No trips to town. mm-hmmm, right. That plan lasted til we figured out we’d left some crucial prescription drugs at home. *sigh*

After the roaring campfire turned to coals, we put a couple racks of ribs on. mmmmm, I just love ribs for dinner when we’re camping. We let the Boy set his own bedtime on camping trips. Whenever he’s sleepy enough, he just lets us know and we help him get snuggled into his sleeping bag. This time the Rock Star had purchased a new pad for my sleeping bag. It’s about twice as thick as the thermarest I’ve been using. It was super comfy but Ididn’t sleep all that well, cuz the meds I left behind were my sleeping pills. The next night I slept like a rock, though.

Boy Pics:

I knit every possible moment. I absolutely love knitting by firelight. I have a very nice headlamp called a Petzl. It works great!! I always bring a supply of charged up rechargeable batteries and between that and the firelight, and even a bit of help from the nearly full moon, I can see just fine for knitting.

I worked on the Dickenson Pullover the entire weekend. I got about 12 inches of the back done. It’s turning out great!! But. There’s always a but. My gauge is way off, so the sweater is knitting up small. I’m actually ok with that. It’s big and baggy on the model, and I think I’ll like it closer to form fitting. This is my first serious cable project. At first I had a hard time figuring out how to keep track of all the different pattern repeats, but once I figured it out it was easy. The work is immensely satisfying!

Here’s what I have so far:

That color isn’t really accurate, but it was the nicest picture. Here’s one of the main cable section:

Here’s me eating breakfast, notice the knitting bag within reach:

I’ve cast on for the Dickenson Pullover in Interweave Knits Fall 2007. My first sweater for me. I think I have the gauge thing figured out. I cast on 5 selvedge stitches, then 62 for the cable pattern, and 5 more selvedge stitches, then knit for 15 rows. Put the swatch on the broken 60 in cable and soaked it. (didn’t want to use one of my good cables). I laid it out to dry and the next morning measured the 62 stitches in the middle, hoping for 10 inches. It came pretty close, so I’m casting on for the 40 in finished measurement and it’ll be a bit smaller than that, and that’s ok. I’d like it to fit a little closer on me than it does on the model. Here’s a picture of an evening’s work. The beginning of the back piece:

I’ve gotten to the gusset increases in the second Fetzensock. I love this sock, but I don’t seem to be able to get in any sort of groove with the pattern. Seems like bout every 5 rounds I make a mistake and have to tink back.

We’re going camping this weekend. 2.5 hour drive to Sibley State Park and I’m hoping to get lots of knitting done.

the Boy is loving his big boy bed, but hasn’t exactly settled into the idea of SLEEPING in it. It’s more like a giant toy at this point, and the bedtime routine has been very much disrupted. I know if we stick to it, he’ll get used to it and go to sleep sooner than the 2 hours he’s been averaging all week.

We taught him how to say “You feel lucky, Punk?”. The effect is a bit diffused by the huge grin on his face! Music Class starts again tomorrow morning! He’s excited about that, plus the camping trip, plus breakfast with Curious George we have scheduled next weekend.

I’m volunteering in Al Franken for Senate office these days. I went last Thursday and helped fold a stuff a mailer. I go back again today (going to try for every Thursday)

the Boy’s third birthday was this past week and much fun was had. We held a big open house last Sunday and his daycare had a little birthday party for him. He got lots of prezzies and had a great time! His big gift from us is the big boy bed. He really likes it. Can you tell?

Recipe for Squeeeee

1 tiny baby
2 tiny knitted booties

Fold baby into booties. Don’t shake or stir. Preheat your camera flash. Take pictures until the other coffee shop patrons start shooting you dirty looks. Serve warm. Makes 1 serving, 0 carbs, 0 calories.

This is a high smile, high squeee treat. Very rich, but you can never get enough.

As of 1:13 am this morning my baby is THREE YEARS OLD!!! We had a big ole birthday open house yesterday (Sunday), today Gramma is watching him here at home so he can play with all his new toys, tomorrow at daycare they’ll have a little cupcake party for him and this coming Sunday will be the party I invite all the children he knows over for a couple hours. Kind of a big birthday week! Here’s the look he’s sporting today:

Well, time to write a bit about our recent trip to California. The impetus for the trip was the Rock Star’s cousin S’s wedding to the beautiful M. The wedding was planned for the day before Labor Day, but we went out 10 days early so we could visit the Rock Star’s father and step-mother. After the parental visit, we planned a few days in San Francisco with his brother (including one night of extreme debauchery for the bachelor party). Then we drove north the Anderson Valley area of California for the wedding. This first vacation blog entry will be about the parental visit and the drive to SF. Parts of it are not a pretty tale, so I’ll try to go over them quickly…and get to the parts where I molest, fondle and buy yarn.

(more…)

…book! That’s the call I’ve been hearing all morning. the Boy is potty training. Here’s how it was this morning

the Boy: I’ve got to poop! So I get him all set up on his potty chair.

the Boy: Mommy, I need some privacy. Privacy!!! He’s not even 3 yet. So he has a book on his lap and he’s sitting there (with the door closed).

me: Call me if you need me.

A few minutes later:

the Boy: Mommy, I need another book. So I bring him a couple more books.

the Boy: Fanks.

me: Call me if you need me.

the Boy: I will.

A few minutes later:

the Boy: Mommy, I need another book. So I bring him a couple more books.

the Boy: Fanks.

me: Call me if you need me.

the Boy: I will.

Rinse and repeat several times until you get this:

and a very proud boy!! He’ll be in big boy underpants before we know it.

the Rock Star had to work much of the weekend, so the Boy and I entertained ourselves a lot. But on Saturday we went to a friends big party/picnic at Hidden Falls Park and had a fun day.

It was hot as hell, but I set up our little camp in a shady spot and sat down to knit, and soon lots of people had come to join me. I didn’t get far on the knitting, there was a mistake in my lace and with so many people visiting, it was hard for me to concentrate to find it.

Sunday was a day of accident and injury! It started with the Boy playing his usual game of running full speed across the living room to throw himself up onto the ottoman. He does this repeatedly some days. It’s just good fun. His legs fly up behind him and he giggles and runs back to do it again. This time it was set to close to some wooden boxes we have stacked to form shelves and he ran his head into the edge of one of those boxes with all the force of his weight and running across the room. There was a sickening thud and he looked up at me with surprise for one whole long second before he started crying. I rushed out and gathered him up and after he stopped crying was able to examine his forehead where a huge goose egg had formed. His pupils seemed to dilate normally and he wasn’t dizzy so we gave him some tylenol to help with any headache and continued on with the day.

Later, in the yard I was using twine and the utility knife to bundle up some brush I’d cut down and jabbed my left index finger horribly. the Boy and I were alone and he was such a good little guy. He came into the house with me while I washed it and put a pretend bandaid on it. It bled so much I felt faint. I laid down on the grass outside with my feet up and asked him to please not wander off…I was afraid I’d faint and he’d be all alone. So he laid down next to me and put his head on my chest and talked to me. So sweet. I love my l’il guy!! I was able to get up after a while and get some cold water and a snack and I felt better pretty soon. Cleaned the cut with peroxide and bandaged it up.

After all the blood and head banging, it was a reasonably peaceful day. I put potting soil in a bunch of pots and planted lettuce seeds. There is is some hope they may actually yield before the first frost. the Rock star came home and we fixed some dinner and got to bed reasonably early.

Here’s a picture of the Boy pre-head bang:

It’s the weirdest thing…I’ve been trying to blog for the last couple weeks, but the blog software was all wonky and wouldn’t let me post or change the sidebar or do anything at all really. I kept coming back and wasting time trying things out…

Tonight, without any real hope, I tried again…and what the fuck!? It works now! I can make and delete posts. I can edit and delete items in the sidebar. I can blog from Flickr. Woot!!! To bad I’m to tired to do anything else tonight.

I’m gonna knit a bit on my hemp skirt (more on that later) and then go to bed. It’s been a rough day. Rupert (my little white dog) had her teeth cleaned and a couple of them extracted this past Tuesday. This morning when I woke up she was yelping in pain and spent the morning talking to the vets and trying to calm her down. I gave her a pain pill and she started acting normal within an hour, but it was still very, very stressful. The rest of my day looked bleak as I had to take my mom for some medical testing. It didn’t go that badly, though and I even got a little knitting done. So I’m tired. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to post a couple current pics of us and the Boy, plus my many finished knitting objects.

Today, Sunday, at noon we are starting a plan. A plan to change our lives. We don’t want to be behind our to-do lists and stressed all the time. We want to enjoy the blessings in our lives. Our plan is about getting caught up and then maintaining our tasks so that we can enjoy our free time more fully.

The plan calls for going cold turkey on everything except our to-do list or sleeping for the next week. I won’t be knitting or reading blogs or spending any time on anything at all unless it’s on my task list. The only thing I’ll be blogging about is our progress on this plan. Wednesday evening, we get a two hour free time IF we’ve stuck to the plan. In a week, next Sunday, we’ll assess our progress and plan for the next week. It’s drastic, but necessary.

I’m grateful to have such a wonderful husband. Together we’ve identified what’s wrong with our lives and together we’ll try to fix it. Please wish us luck.

We are still sick. the Boy has mostly gotten over it, but the Rock Star and I are in worse shape than ever. The cold from Hell seemed to get better then got much worse. It’s made worse by not being able to get any sleep. It seems like the universe conspires against us in that department.

List of things that has kept us awake this past week:

• the Boys illness
• each other’s snoring
• our own hacking coughs
• each other’s hacking coughs
• the Dog’s hacking cough (I am not kidding about that)
• the Cat’s sudden desire to attack a heretofore ignored baby rattle
• the Rock Star’s insomnia
• our stuffed sinus’s
• general physical discomfort

I can’t even begin to list the things I have not gotten done in the last week. It’s not like my to-do list needed a week off, either. The stress of all the things I should have done and haven’t is making it hard for me to sleep, too. It’s a vicious cycle.

We have company in town. the Rock Star’s brother is visiting from San Francisco. It’s always fun to see him, but not from across the street cuz we’re afraid to breathe on him.

Practically no knitting has taken place. Just about 10 rows on the Boy’s Weasley Sweater.

Someday I hope to blog about happy, healthy times again. Keep your fingers crossed for us.