Sleeping in my OWN bed

nothing like sleeping in your own bed, absolutely nothing--- and I got to do that for the first time in almost two weeks last night.

I'm still exhausted, really you just have no idea. There is a very dirty house to clean and a lawn that badly needs mowing----- my desk is stacked fairly high (although the staff here has been pretty great about dealing with a lot of it). SO, on I push.

The worst thing is that this morning when I was unpacking I realized that I did not get a knitting bride photo last weekend and it would have been the easiest thing EVER. I can't even believe it. This above all else should tell you how tired I am! I will bring a photo or two when they get unloaded cuz I know you like to peek at the brides!

Wisteria has only a couple of rows to finish the body and then finally I start the sleeves. Good thing too as I have loads I'm anxious to begin.

Some things never change!

Hospital in the rear view mirror

Short and sweet:

Mom is home from the hospital after a little chemical intervention in the poop department. I told her to lie about it, that everybody did. She didn't believe me so 8 hours later, when I was ready to jump off the roof, things moved and she was released at 8 p.m. Her nurse said that she is like the only patient to follow the rules that closely. Ack.

So one day to help out at home until flying out early tomorrow morning for a destination wedding. (remember----NON exotic destination!)

Girl dog still very sick and boy dog seems to be tummy sick.

Wisteria about half way through the cable section at the bottom, I'd like to have a sleeve on the dpn's before I head out for the day in the airport(s) tomorrow.

Mostly.................. I just wanna go home.

No gas below

On the gas front, it seems to be rising and making the headlines everywhere but in a certain hospital room in Phoenix. Ack! Her doctor (not surgeon) is a very charismatic Indian gent who with his lovely lilting accent says "you are not to worry! You will f.a.*r.t. soon enough, your body has no choice". And I hope she does, I would love to get her home here before I have to head out on Thursday.

During the time yesterday when I tucked her in bed after a long stretch of walking the floor and sitting in her chair, I closed her door for a well deserved nap and headed to Jessica Knits. AHHHHHH. Lovely. The shop was full to the brim of knitters in various stages of knitting or picking out yarn. As usual, gorgeous smorgeous stuff! I was in limited capacity to really enjoy a good shopping experience but did get the new IW Felt and two skeins of Manos silk blend.... let us not forget a package of point protectors!

I found out yesterday that my little girl dog had some sort of seizures Saturday night/early morning and was taken to the puppy ER hving shaken her little head so hard that she was bleeding from her ears!! Seems things are very serious and I am well and truly heartbroken.

When it rains it pours, please tell me the rainbow is on the way!

Notes from the Hospital

No photos and certainly no lengthy post............ I'm writing this from Phoenix before I leave for the hospital, day 3. My Mom came through her surgery beautifully, everything looks very good. We never thought that it would be so important to know that life hinges at this point on passing gas for pete's sake! :) She's still NPO and would really like nothing more than the pleasure of a glass of water, much less a cup of rubber hospital jello! Perhaps today will be the day and once that happens the ball will start rolling with the oxygen coming off, the pulse ox gadget coming off of her finger, the catheter being removed and just a bit more general happiness. She was getting downright cranky last night so I take that as a good sign that she has had enough of the hospital and wants to come home, bless her heart! For those of you who are mothers, remember not being able to leave the hospital before telling a nurse that your bowels were moving appropriately? I confess to lying about that at the time and I think for a cup of tea and something to munch on, I'd lie about the gas thing too!

I have not knitted so much for such long lovely stretches of time in ages and ages. Wisteria will, on the next row, begin the bottom section of cabling--- which may be harder in the hospital setting than sailing through the body section. Somehow in my 5 a.m. departure from home I mistakenly tucked Wisteria into my checked suitcase so I had nothing for the plane trip through Atlanta and into Arizona except a book and my iPod. It was TORTURE. Of course I was befuddled when leaving home as well and didn't tuck in the double points for the sleeves when it soon becomes time to pick them up from their resting stubby state (I have decided not to loop them) so I had to dash through Michael's at five minutes to closing last night and pick up a set. I have every hope that I'll be ready for sleeves soon. I bought wooden ones in case they are still in progress when I have to get back on a plane, I can't think of anything worse than having to remove them to live stitches and jet off!

No Jessica Knits yet!!!! Perhaps tomorrow. My brother and his wife are here from LA and before they head back we'll be going to Scottsdale NOT (sadly) for Jessica Knits but for my favorite Mexican restaurant ON THE PLANET, Lupe's in Old Scottsdale. I am quite a fan of their margaritas (sooooooooooooooooooooooo good) and feel that going to my favorite knit shop in the world properly lubricated with tequila would be dangerous to the point of folly! (Is there such a thing?)

Back to the hospital I go, Wisteria in my lovely new knitting bag in tow!

Wisteria and the Lady in White

I'm so glad to have knitting bride back.............. I miss it when my brides don't get a chance to vamp a bit with the sticks!

Sarah is one of my favorites this year, she is adorable, and her wedding day was nothing short of spectacular. Isn't her gown lovely? It was very light and 'floaty', the bodice front waist was wrapped and jeweled, very pretty. I have to say that her new husband is one of the good guys! I love his sweet and respectful spirit, and oooohhhhhhh was he gaga about his bride. It always makes for the very best photos (and some just smokin' hot!)

Wisteria is looking pretty good too if I do say so myself! As of this writing I'm 9 rows short of beginning the waist shaping with the sleeve stubs waiting on pieces of waste yarn.
Look at that mega-watt smile! It's almost like she's getting married or something! :) The location is in front of the Art Museum in St. Louis, called Art Hill.......... actually down at the Grand Basin, you can see the fountains in back of her.

One day to try and finish up loose ends around here before heading off to Phoenix for my Mom's surgery. Thanks a lot to all of you who have sent emails and hugs, I do appreciate it. I'll be without laptop and probably pretty much incommunicado for the next 9 days, then I launch immediately into a wedding. Of course there will be another knitting bride, she's already told me that she's looking forward to it.

I'll be face down in my knitting---- and looking forward to seeing the girls at Jessica Knits as well.

Friday Frumpets

Well Friday it is, at long last. My days of madness have sort of exploded exponentially over the past couple of days and it has caused me to come smack up against projects and deadlines and has caused some radical reorganization.

I got a call that my (birth)Mom is having surgery this next week in Phoenix. She only tells enough of the story to get you by (as most mom's do) and upon closer inspection of the tale, surgery can't wait because there are 'suspicious' polyps in her colon. Her beau had insisted that she have a routine colonoscopy, and she complied. They are newly in love and we all know that when you find the love of your life you want to maximize the time you have with them, especially if you are not exactly in the bloom of youth. Her colonoscopy revealed polyps that could not be easily removed so surgery was needed, and their pathology suggests cancer. We have a big family wedding the week after next and her surgeon strongly recommended that she do the surgery and send her regrets to the bride. Quite telling I say. During surgery they will remove 10 inches of colon, the lymph nodes and other things necessary to make sure that any and all cancerous and pre-cancerous things are removed and which will give her the best chance for clear seas ahead. I made flight reservations immediately. Two one way tickets ($$$$$$$$$$$$$) one into Phoenix and returning at the last possible moment flying into Kansas City so I can scoot into the family wedding (we are shooting it) the next day. Back again if that should be necessary.

The wrinkles (and aren't there always wrinkles??):

• I can't take my laptop as while I'm away someone will need it to cover the things I do to run the business on a daily basis

• Those other two huge projects in the works? Gonna' have to wait. I need my computer for them.

So I guess you file that into the Oh Well category. Life has taken things out of my hands and I shift roles.

On the upside, there should be a LOT of knitting happening! I might even take a quilty project along.

Wisteria is still much loved by me, I've moved the stitches that will become the sleeves onto waste yarn and am heading down the body of the sweater.

Another upside is that one of my favorite yarn stores on the planet is near the hospital where my Mom will be. When she and her honey are making eyes at each other I plan on heading to Jessica Knits--------------- ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Retail therapy with kindred souls. I have a feeling both will be needed. Girls.............. put on a pot of tea, break out the tequila, show me your best stuff, I'm on the way!

Once again I am reminded that when we are the busiest making plans and up to our proverbial eyeballs, life steps in to gently (and sometimes not so gently) take us in another direction.

Big Big Big wedding tomorrow, there WILL be a knitting bride (sporting Wisteria in progress of course), followed by a couple of days trying to clear the decks and get ready to head off next Wednesday.

Until then I'll be knitting in the box at the ball game tonight, the Cards are in town and a beer and a hot dog or two sound like wonderful ideas!!! The website(s) go live this afternoon and with that one enormous project off my desk a brisk evening blowing off some steam will be wonderful.

Heading toward Fall. Really.

I've made peace with it, well about as much as this woman with Hawaiian sand in between her toes can possibly make. Fall is coming, and with it will come cooler weather (I steadfastly refuse to believe that even further down the road comes the downright cold, nay buttfreezing weather that makes my head spin). Labor Day weekend is, in my book anyway, the end of summer. Even though the warm (and here humid to the point of almost unbearable) weather prevails, you know for a fact that it won't be long. Making peace with the inevitability of the coming fall *(and winter) is not a bad thing. I am ready to put into place some things that will not so depress and devastate me when the really cold stuff arrives.

The first of which is the effort that Wisteria will be able to be worn from the beginning of the season and not yarn still struggled with when sweater weather is winding down. That is after all my normal operating procedure.

It helps that knitting Wisteria is fascinating!

The photo does not even begin to show it off................. this happens when one is in a rush and has just come in from trying to get the yard mowed before the promised 5 inches of rain arrives. Regardless----- you can see that progress is being made! I'm about to the point where the twisting, intricate, intriguing cables that cascade down from the lattice of cables at the neck get ready to enter that stretch of stockinette. I'm kind of excited to tell the truth! You can't see it's gorgeousness sort of wadded up on the needles as it is, trust me, its a great sweater. (Sitting there in front of my new Green Mountain Knitting Bag that I'm quite in love with).

I'm ready to knitter-up and tell you that I have conquered (thank you very much) the whole reading the chart thing. To be totally honest, I wonder why in the world I fought against them for in the first place. Must have been one of those little cogs in the brain that got stuck there and refused to give up! From stitch one, at the neck edge, the sweater has been a blast to knit, to watch unfurl row by row, and each and every row has been different. A journey of cabling that while fun, has also been less than totally travel worthy. I did NOT take knitting along on the wedding last weekend as I don't have a travel project since cannibalizing the Denise size 8 tips for this project===== hence no knitting bride, sorry about that!

Schedule wise things are insane----- totally nuts. The website(s) that should have gone live on the 1st have not. For a lot of reasons, many of them the fact that there are other things that require my attention as well, none of it housework or cooking. I'm hoping that by Friday the website piece of work will be live and done (yay) and I can move on to the next project. And then the one behind it.

I have realized one very important thing............... I have to make time for ME. And that generally means at this juncture that I need to sit and knit. I could (and have) worked 14 hour days and keep on that schedule for a good long while. Instead I have forced myself to walk away and be something other than She Who is Consumed.

It has worked out pretty well, and Wisteria is coming along.

On a humerous note that I feel somehow compelled to share, I have purchased new brassieres. FOUR of them! In four different colors, it has been a long time. I don't know why it has been such a long time since I've given in to happy bras, must be linked to the reticence to knit from a chart. Perhaps you will remember my efforts to salvage still perfectly good bras with bralerations to shorten straps that were stretched beyond their lifespans. While a good effort in saving money as well as a bit of anti-consumerism------- those bras had sighed their last. I am happy to tell you that comfy (and pretty if the truth be told) undies combined with knitting that is progressing has done a heckuva lot for my mood.

I recommend it highly.