What Do Normal People Do?

What do normal people do when they're sick, cranky, and can't sleep? 

They may count sheep, or make themselves a cup of tea, or warm milk.  Maybe they read for a minute, or listen to soothing music.  That's what normal people do.

Me, on the other hand, I'm not normal.  I get on Amazon in the middle of the night and order new piano books.

I've got one more level 1 book to get, and then I'll be done.   Until I start level 2, that is. 

Speaking of, I'm progressing a bit more slowly now, since the music is getting harder and more complex.  I'd planned on doing another little recital for you a couple of weeks ago, but didn't get around to it.  It'll happen eventually, but it won't be this weekend.

Yep, I'm still down with the crud.  I didn't even go run my errands in town.  I'll have to go tomorrow, though, as I have bills to pay.  Today, I didn't do much of anything except knit, watch TV, and weave a couple more squares on my Zoom Loom.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Nope

I didn't sleep better last night, and I don't feel better today.  Whatever crud I had has morphed into a full blown cold. 

I can't breathe, my head is clogged up, I'm coughing my lungs out, and I feel awful. 

I'm pretty sure this is going to be what most of my weekend is going to look like.

I'll still have to make at least one trip into town, but once that's done, it'll be Zoom Loom, knitting, and TV for me. 

At least I'm not running fever...yet.

Fiber Fun In The 'Sip Part III

Last night was rough.  Really rough.

I seem to have picked up some sort of sinus crud or some such.  I don't know, but my sinuses and throat are on fire.  As if that weren't bad enough, my throat has been so very dry, all night long, I kept waking myself up coughing.  Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep.

During some of those few moments when I did get to sleep, I dreamed that a dream had come true.  I'd finally been able to go see the Fisherman's Friends -- also known as my white headed shanty men-- sing live and in person.  I had front row seats.  I was so close, I could count the boogers in their noses.

I have no idea why I said that.  I've long since given up trying to find an explanation for such things.

Still, I was there, they were singing, and I was having a grand old time ------and the alarm went off.  Sigh....

As if to add insult to injury, my Stalker was back.  I spent the whole day tired, irritable, coughing, hurting, and gasping for breath.  Yay me.  I said to myself, "I'm never going to volunteer to go home early, but today, if they try to send me, I'm not going to argue, either."  But they didn't.  Try to send me home early, that is.  I worked the whole, interminable 10 hour shift. 

The good news is, I remembered I have another vacation day coming up Thursday, so only one more work day for me.  I've got some errands to run, then I'm going to spend the rest of the day being lazy.  Depending on how I feel, I mean.

By now, you're probably asking yourself, "When is she going to get to the Fiber Fun In The 'Sip part?"  Well, here you go...

The best part of fiber festivals isn't the classes, or the vendors, or the gorgeous yarns, or the entertainment...it's hanging out with friends.  Especially friends I only get to see once a year.   While I was in my Zoom Loom class Thursday, I peeked out of the window and saw Leann and her cousin Denise setting up their booth.

They had lots of events planned this year.  First up was a spinning contest, where the contestants don't even know what they're going to be spinning.

They were given a box, but couldn't open it until the contest started.  It contained some mighty strange stuff, I'm telling ya.  It had some wool fiber, cotton balls, cobwebs, dryer lint, silk fibers, shredded paper, feathers, Spanish moss, and dog hair.  That's all I can remember, but that's enough.

The girl on the left in the maroon shirt and blue skirt won.  She's the one I bought my drop spindle from.

They'd also had a knit-along/crochet-along.  Participants were given about a month to knit or crochet the shawl pattern, then they had a fashion show to show off their finished products.  Here we see one of the contestants modeling her shawl.

That was about it for organized activities, but there was still plenty to do.  I met some new people.  This is Amy and Pam, friends of Christi.

Amy is such a hoot.  She had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe at one point.  She's wearing the shawl she modeled in the fashion show -- or as she put it, as she walked around like a dork.

This is Emily.

I'd met her last year, and she is a genuinely nice person, and fun to be around.   That's Denise sitting behind her.  She was missing her donkey.  Seriously.  She'd just adopted him from the animal shelter, and was missing him. 

And of course, Christi, who is always a joy.

While we were visiting, I managed to get a whole hat cast on and knit.

They were all very impressed with the Chinese Waitress cast on-- especially with how stretchy it is.

All too soon, our time together was at an end.  We took the ubiquitous group photos:

Emily, Amy, Christi

Christi, Me, Leann

Christi is probably the only person in the world who can convince me to take a selfie.

And we hugged, and we clung to each other, and we promised to get together before next September, and many bitter tears were shed at our parting.

Christi and her friends headed back towards Starkville and Columbus, and I went back to the hotel for another night, then came home on Sunday.  And that was it for Fiber Fun In The 'Sip 2019.  I'm already counting down the days until the next one. 

Oh, and yes, I did take my bug out bag with me.

You may ask why I would need a bag of survival gear, since I was only going to Vicksburg -- a 2 1/2 hour drive.  Well, the Minnow was only supposed to be going on a three hour tour, and you saw what happened to Gilligan and them.

That's why. 

Fiber Fun In The 'Sip Part II

You have no idea how jarring it was when I walked into the house yesterday morning, and my dogs weren't there to greet me.  Everything felt off.  But they're home, now and all is right in my world again.

Heh, all day at work I was counting down the hours until I could go pick them up. 

Think she's happy to be back on her love seat?

Speaking of work, I've heard that 8 people have quit in the last week.  Some of them have been out there for 20 years or more, but they just got fed up and found themselves better jobs.  The good news is, my stalker wasn't there!  It was like having an extra day of vacation.

Now, on to today's topic of discussion, Fiber Fun In The 'Sip classes.

First of all, let me say, I don't like having classes on Thursday.  Even though I allowed plenty of time for the drive, there was still a certain amount of anxiety -- particularly when I ran into construction in Canton.  Yes, I allowed extra time, but did I allow enough?  Did I allow too much?  And if so, what am I going to do until the class starts?  I can't check into the hotel until 4:00 PM, so that's not an option...

It's the INTJ in me.

Nevertheless, I did get there in plenty of time, but not too terribly early, so it all worked out in the end.

My first class was pin loom weaving on the Zoom Loom, taught by Beverly Anglin.  My friend Christi took her class last year, and it looked like so much fun, I started to order a loom online.  I just never got around to it.  I was thinking, when I knit all those charity hats, you eventually get to a point that you don't have enough yarn for another hat, but it's too much to throw out.  If I can make a bunch of squares of the leftover yarn, I can make a blanket.  When I saw the class offered again, I immediately signed up for it.

Here we see Beverly instructing one of my classmates in the finer arts of --well, I'm not exactly sure what they were doing.  I think she was showing her how to take the completed square off the loom.

At the end of class, I asked if I could take a picture of everyone, so I did.

Then Beverly said, "You're not in it!"  And she took one of us students.

Over the next few evenings, I got quite a few squares woven.

The one I made out of cotton came in quite handy, since the hotel didn't provide coasters.

Once I got the hang of doing them, I could finish a square in about 20 minutes, and it only takes about 8 yards of yarn per square.

The second class I took Friday morning was Tibetan spindle, taught by Teresa Goatey.  I've used drop spindles before, but the Tibetan spindle was new to me.  It's much bigger, and you spin it with the point resting on the floor.

She taught us the park and draft method, since it was a class for absolute beginners.   Probably a good thing, since I haven't spun -- in any capacity -- in about 4-5 years.  I can't believe it's been that long!  But it has.  I don't think I've spun since I moved into this house in 2015. 

Anyway, back to my story.  Teresa is the one standing, helping one student wind her single around the spindle.

By the way, her husband makes all the tools, and the fiber came from their own sheep.  She even told us the names of those sheep, but I can't remember them.  Funny thing, I kept noticing a foul smell, and wondered if I was stinking -- or was it one of my classmates.  I finally figured out it was the wool.  I think it might have been the lanolin in it, as she said those particular sheep produce a lot of lanolin.  Still, it didn't stop me from surreptitiously sniffing my pits from time to time...

This is just a shot of the other two students in the class.

And here is the yarn I made!

We got to keep the spindle and nostepinne.

And I finally learned the proper pronunciation of nostepinne.  It's not what I thought it was.  Now, never you mind how I'd been pronouncing it.  All you need to know is, I can say it correctly now. 

That's it for the classes I took this time around.  They were so much fun, and hopefully more useful than the ones I took last year.  Those were inkle loom and continental knitting, by the way, neither of which I've done anything with since. 

Oh, well, they were fun while they lasted. 

Fiber Fun In The 'Sip

Hello, gentle readers!  I'm back!  Yes, I know it's been a while.  No excuses.  I've just been lazy -- well, except for this weekend.  I've been in Vicksburg since Thursday.  And what was I doing in Vicksburg, you may ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  I was peopling.  I was doing a lot of peopling.  And knitting, and visiting, and eating, and shopping, and all kinds of things. 

Yep, it was the second annual Fiber Fun In The 'Sip!  It's probably going to take me two or three posts to get through it all, so please bear with me.

Today's post will focus on the things I bought, which wasn't that much compared to last year.  I bought my friend Leann's show colorway, Horn Section.  It is the one on the left.  It compliments her colorway from last year right nicely.

The one on the right is a door prize that I won.   It's from Farm Girl Fibers, and the colorway is Nashville Nights.  Funny, Christi and I were shopping in the booths when they called my name as a winner.  I got so excited, I shouted, "Hey!  That's me!"  all the way across the room. 

The only other yarn I bought was a whole bunch of mini skeins for my sock yarn blankets.

I've already knit one of them into the first blanket.

It's from Cedar Hill Farm Company, and the colorway is Written On The Wind. All of the smaller minis on the right are from them.  The ones on the left are from Leading Men Fiber Arts. 

For those of you who may be new -- or have memories like mine -- I have three of these blankets going.  One is for me, one is for my sister, and one is for -- I don't know.  I'll give it to someone, if I ever finish it, that is. 

Those of you with really, really long memories may remember that I sometimes spin, on a drop spindle.  I'd made my own with Sculpey clay.  They worked well, but weren't really balanced that well.  They wobbled a bit.  I've wanted a really nice one for a long time, so I -- didn't buy one.  I bought this one instead. 

It's a good spindle, but not really fancy.  The only thing about it is it's really, really light, so it stops spinning very quickly.  I'm hoping once I get some singles wound around it, it'll spin a bit longer.  As you can see, I've already tried it out. 

The fiber came with the kit.  It's been so long, I've almost forgotten how to spin.  I'm glad I'm practicing on that fiber, and not on some of my good fiber. My friend Sue sent me tons of really nice fiber a few years back when I got my wheel.  I never got good enough on the wheel to want to fool with the good stuff.  Maybe with a new spindle, I'll get back into spinning some. 

Like I don't have enough going on already. 

Finally, the last things I bought were some stitch markers. 

I've never really had much use for them, because I normally just tie scraps of yarn into loops and use them.  These, however, were just too cute, I couldn't resist them.  The top left are U.S. Navy, the top middle are Texas Longhorn, the bottom left is Mississippi, the bottom middle is a treble clef -- appropriate, I thought, since I'm trying to learn to play piano and guitar.  The one on the right is a Harry Potter themed potion bottle. 

I'm not so much into Harry Potter as some people are, but I thought that was cute.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the classes I took. 

Whelming Flood

I'd had yesterday's post all ready for you, but things happened and it became another one of those whelming flood* days.  I changed directions, and rewrote the post, but in the end, I decided I just needed to not post it after all.

So what happened that caused me to become whelmed?  First of all, I found out one of my coworkers had a slight stroke.  He'd left work early Wednesday, not feeling well, and the word came back he'd had a stroke.  He's going to be OK, by the way.  I asked one of the supervisors if he had any update, because nobody tells us anything, and he said, "[Other Supervisor] saw him at McCallister's last night."

They'd given him that shot to dissolve the clot, and he was able to go home after only a few hours.  They say he'll be able to come back Monday.  Another coworker said his doctor told him he's going to have to give up one of his jobs, though, because he's stressing himself out.  Still, it's amazing how far medicine has advanced since my Grandma had her stroke that left her partially paralyzed for the rest of her life.

My excitement over that coworker's good news was dampened just a few moments later, when I found out another coworker has been diagnosed with cancer.  His wife also works out there, and we're as concerned about her as about him.  She's one of those people who just can't do anything for herself.  He has to do everything for her.  I don't think she even drives.  If something happens to him, who will care for her? 

What really caused the flood to get whelming, though, was the flooding -- the literal flooding in Texas.  Yes, thanks to Imelda, once again my hometown is under water.  I've managed to hear from all my family, and they're all safe.  None of their homes flooded this time around, however, I do have one high school friend who had a foot of water in her house.  She was heartbroken, because they'd just finished re-doing the floors.  I mean, like two weeks ago.

They are saying some areas flooded worse than when Harvey went through.  And I'm stuck here.  I'll admit, yesterday when the rain started, my first inclination was to get into the car and drive down there.  I don't know what the heck I thought I'd be able to do once I got there, but I wanted to go.  Cody messaged me this morning and said he's ready to drop everything and run, if anyone needed his help, and unlike mine, his boss would actually approve his time off to do just that. 

After all that, yesterday's post went in a completely different direction, but in the end, I didn't even post it.  Some days, you just need to rest on The Solid Rock.

I woke up today feeling a lot better -- even though once again, they've taken the rain out of our forecast.  It's so dry, even my drought resistant Moss Rose are dying.

This is the best looking one of the lot.  The rest are pretty sad.  They are so sad, I got out and watered everything this afternoon.

I wish I still had my old soaker hose, but I don't.   What I did instead was to just turn the water barely on, and let it drip for about half an hour.   My Vincas perked right up.

This is just a gratuitous shot of the deep purple Vincas.

This is a surprise, however.  This is a different kind of Moss Rose. 

It seeded from the one I had in my hanging basket last year. 

I got another surprise when I went out to fill my squirrel feeder.  Something has absconded with my suet cake holder.  I mean, the whole thing is gone.  I looked all over, even up in the trees.  It had to have been a raccoon.  I can't think of anything else that could have gotten it off the hook. 

That was balanced out by seeing one of my yearling bucks -- the 7 point, and he's out of velvet!  I couldn't get a good picture of him, because it was already pretty dark by the time I saw him, but still...he's out of velvet!

I haven't seen the 4 point, but I'm going to assume he's also out of velvet. 



*This phrase comes from the third verse of one of my favorite hymns The Solid Rock.  I first started using it shortly after the Boston Marathon Bombings, and the West fertilizer plant explosion.  

His oath, his covenant, his blood
Support me in the whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay. 

Thrilled

I'm absolutely thrilled, y'all.  I went in early this morning for my health screening for insurance. We've done this for years, and every year my cholesterol and triglycerides are high.  The last couple of years, they've been in the upper 200 range.  Each.  The only thing that has saved me is that my HDL is usually high. 

Well, this morning, when she read me my numbers, I could have done a happy dance.  My total cholesterol is still high, but my triglycerides are down to 170!  Yeah, it's above optimal, but much better than last year's 295.  My LDL was also down to 182, from over 200 last year.  I'm thinking it's because about a month ago, I started drinking almond milk.  I still drink regular milk, but I'm drinking at least a cup of almond milk per day.  I'm also thinking about investing in a home cholesterol monitor, just so I can keep a check on it.  If I can get it down through diet and exercise, maybe I can avoid having to go on medication for it.  Of course, I have to get off my lazy butt and exercise...

Speaking of medication, my blood pressure is also holding steady at 110/80.  High blood pressure runs in my family, so I'm also thrilled with those numbers, as well. 

As if that weren't excitement enough for the day, my new Christmas music book arrived.

I didn't even wait to change out of my work clothes before I started playing songs from it.  There are a couple more level 1 books I want to get, then I'll be done for a while.  For real, this time. 

Heh, I have one friend who says if the books bring me joy, then buy them all, and another who wants to stage an intervention.  The books bring me joy.  My checking account, not so much.  I'm thinking about starting a GoFundMe for my piano books.

Or just publishing my wish list.  Think people will go for it? 

Constitution Day

And the fun just never ends.  Here is your TMI warning.  If you're squeamish, you might want to skip the next few paragraphs.

There I was at work, just a working away, when I heard nature's call.  I went to the bathroom to answer said call, and after making a rather sizable deposit into the porcelain bank, got up and turned around to flush.  Only the toilet wouldn't flush. 

I stood there holding the handle down, wiggling it, pushing it sideways -- all the tricks, but only a trickle of water was coming out.  I heard someone come out of the next stall and say, "That one won't hardly flush."  Someone else down the way said, "This one won't either."  I said, "Ain't none of them flushing." 

And yes, I know some of you who'd like to flush that grammar.  But, I feel it's important when I'm with other people to speak in the vernacular.  Yeah...I'm pleading the 5th on that one. 

Back to my story...I stood there wiggling and pushing on the handle until the bank finally accepted my deposit  -- albeit slowly.  I came out of the stall and walked over to the sink to wash my hands.  Aaaand, you guessed it.  No water.  Well, just a trickle.  I managed to get my hands somewhat clean, and as I left the bathroom to go back to my work area, some men came out of their bathroom talking about no water in theirs either.

I decided I probably ought to let someone know, so I went and found my supervisor and reported the problem.  She said, "Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell y'all."  Turns out there was a leak somewhere, and the city had to cut the water off to fix it.  Then I said something you should probably never ever say to your employer under any circumstances, but I said it anyway. 

"Gee, I wish I'd known that before I did what I did into that toilet." 

And that was my excitement for the day.  The water was only off for about an hour or so, but the next time I went to...you know, go...I flushed before hand just to be sure. 



OK, you squeamish people can pick up reading now.  Only there isn't really that much else to tell. 

Unless you want to hear about how I honored Constitution Day, by teaching my imaginary boyfriend -- who is English, by the way-- the School House Rock song.



To this day, I cannot recite The Preamble without singing. 

I've got to go in early tomorrow for my health screening.  I'd scheduled my time for  5:15, back when we were still coming in at 5:00.  Yeah, that worked out well. 

It's Monday, All Right

I knew right away what kind of day it was going to be when I put too much milk in my morning oatmeal, and had to eat oat soup for breakfast.  Sigh...

Then I got to work, and came down with a case of the epizoodies.  I was feeling bad last night, but thought I felt a bit better when I got up.  Nope.  I felt awful.  Bad enough I wanted to come home, but not so bad I felt like I needed to come home.  I toughed it out, and the day did get better because I got mail!

I can blame a Facebook friend for these, though.  She was reorganizing some of her bookshelves, and posted a photo.  In said photo was a copy of the C. W. Anderson book, Afraid To Ride.  It was one of my favorite childhood books, so I promptly jumped onto Amazon and ordered a copy.  I wish I'd paid a little more attention to the description, though, because if I'd known it was paperback, I wouldn't have gotten it.  I'd have sprung for one of the hardback copies -- which were all about the same price.  I was just looking at the condition, and picked the one with the best overall condition.  The other one is another of my favorite childhood books. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, used bookstores are going to be the death of me.  Or of my checking account at least.

And then, there is Amazon..hitting me up with these ads.

Sigh, I just can't win for losing.  I didn't buy that book, but I did order another level 1 Christmas book.  Like the two I already have aren't enough.  *Insert eye-roll emoji here.*

In knitting news, I finally got the errant hat finished.

I was going to box them all up and get them ready to mail, but the epizoodies kept me from doing much of anything other than going to bed early.  Well, much of anything other than casting on another hat, that is.

And finally, can it be Fall, please? 

Pretty please? 

With a cherry on top?

Shine On

Shine on, Harvest Moon.

It's been a family tradition since I was a child to go out and watch the Harvest Moon rise.  Well, my dad and I would, at least.  When Cody was little, we continued the tradition as best we could.  After watching the moon rise, we'd come back in and drink hot chocolate and eat Harvest Moon cookies -- which were just large, round sugar cookies.

Last night, I kept that tradition alive, except for the cookies.  I watched the moon rise until it cleared the trees, then came in and drank hot chocolate, even though it's still getting up into the 90s.

It doesn't look like it's going to get any better any time soon, either.

Not only that, they keep taking the rain out of our forecast.

Since it was too hot to do anything outside, I stayed in where it was cool and just piddled around the house.  The big thing was I bought a hat rack and hung my Yes.Fit medals up.

I put them into the snake/craft/computer room for now.  They just didn't seem to fit anywhere else.  At least they're up off my bedroom dresser.

Look at this:

The hat is almost back to where it was before I ripped it back.  I should be able to get it finished during the Texas vs Rice game this evening, and can send them all off to my friend Monday.

Well, that's about it.  It really was a lazy Saturday, so there isn't much to talk about.   Unless you want to hear about laundry and college football, because that's about all I've done.

Speaking of, it's almost time for Texas to kick off, so I'll catch you later.

Hook 'em.

Character

It would seem, I have made an error.

OK, let me back up a moment.  If you'll recall, last weekend, I'd gotten all the hats out for my friend's blessing bags and washed them.  When I counted them up, there were 39 hats.  I had one more I was going to finish and get the box into the mail Monday.

I'd gotten all the way to the decreases.  I'd even started doing the decreases, when I discovered I'd made an error in the pattern.  I'll admit my first thought was, "Well, a homeless person won't care if the count is one stitch off."  But I would.  Homeless people have enough troubles as it is.  How can I give them less than the best?

I tinked back a few rows, but the error was still there  I tinked back a few more rows.  Still there.

You can see where I'm going with this, right?  Yep, as it happens, I'd made the error in the very first pattern row.   I had to rip all the way back to the ribbing and start over.

This time, I made sure to count stitches very, very carefully.  And I periodically re-count, just to make sure I am still on track.  I've gotten this far.

The plan is to finish this weekend, so I can get the box into the mail Monday.  Wish me luck.

As I've been accumulating more piano books, my little music stand on my keyboard has become a bit crowded.  Truthfully, I'd gotten worried I was going to break it.  One day, as I was practicing, I said to myself, "Self, what you need is a little magazine rack you can set here by the keyboard and put your books into."

However, in my weekly shopping trip, I couldn't find any sort of magazine rack.  I did, however, find this storage bin.  Not exactly what I was looking for, but it'll do for now.

Even so, it's still better than piling everything up on my music stand.

This is a serious bummerage.

I do have the app, but I looked forward getting those emails, too.

Speaking of weather, I can't even remember the last time it rained here.  They keep putting rain into our forecast, then taking it back out.  They'd predicted rain over the weekend.   I mean, like now.  Then they pushed it back to Wednesday.  Now, they've pushed it back to next Friday.  This morning, I broke down and watered my Vincas and Moss Rose.  Even my Spider Lilies aren't doing well.  They aren't blooming.  The buds are withering before they even open.

On the bright side, it was cool enough this morning for me to leave the back door open, for a little while at least.  It didn't last long, before it got so hot the air came on and I had to close it.

Rylea loves laying there, just looking out.

Apparently, Facebook has something new going on.

Um, yeah, that would be a no from me.  Ain't no telling what kind of crazies I'd attract.

While we're on the subject, I was getting ready for work the other morning, when the guy on the radio read an article about Tom Cruise.  Word is, he's gotten a face lift, to preserve his boyish good looks in order to make himself more attractive to the ladies, they say.  He's trying to find his soulmate, they say.

Oh, Tom, Tom, Tom, you just don't get it, do you?  You've been married and divorced three times.  I'd say it's not your face that's the problem.  Men like you never get that it's character that counts with women.  Character, integrity, kindness, and a good heart.

You see these guys, Tom?  Not a one of them is making any attempt to hide his wrinkles or gray hair, and yet, I'd take any one of them over you any day.

Even the Toy Boy.

By the way, I have a couple more sea chanty posts in the works.  I just need to get them typed up.  That'd make a good rainy day project.  If it would ever rain, that is.

Now, if you will excuse me, the Harvest Moon is peeping through the trees, and I must go watch it rise.