Erica’s Blog

Sorry I’ve been incommunicado.  Here’s a brief recap before I get back to life:

THING TWO:  She’s been hacking up hairballs.  I’m really frustrated w/how we just can’t stay healthy.  Took her to the doc the other evening, and she says it’s just allergies.  Now the kid’s on a bunch of different allergy medicine.  Her ears were bulging they were so full, and her nose was barely open.  Poor Thing!

THING ONE:  She went to work with Hubby on Thursday for Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, despite the principal’s being dead set against it b/c 1) state standardized testing was going on, and 2) the school would lose a whopping 71c of California Lottery money per kid who was absent.  Thing One had a blast.  Friday, we had the official IEP meeting with the speech therapist and the principal (don’t know why Mrs. C wasn’t there).  So, now we have a plan for the next year for her in speech therapy.  The really encouraging thing was that one of the things they test is her vocabulary, and she scored like a kid who’s 11 years old, though she’s only seven!  Pretty funny.  Now, if we could just get her to memorize her math facts, we’d be set.

KNITTING:  Gotta get my wrap finished by about 3:00 today b/c the wedding’s at 4:00.  I should be able to do it.  I’ll post pictures later.  It’s sort of It’s a Wrap on steroids.  Since I’m using size 11’s but didn’t alter the pattern at all, it’s really big.  That’s OK.  I just won’t do the full 23 repeats in the straight rows.  The wrap should have enough “wow factor” to make up for the fact that I bought my skirt for $5.99 at Ross yesterday.  Sunday, I can get back to the baby sweater.  I gotta get it finished b/c Sanjesh will be back at work on Tuesday. 

VARIOUS:  Poppa and Auntie’s birthdays tomorrow.  Poppa will be 71, Auntie 35.  She’s supposed to hear any minute now if she got the job teaching first grade at the Catholic elementary school she attended.  I really hope she gets it.  Things are all excited about going to Rick/Adri’s next weekend.  I know they’ll have a great time.  Had a really great time having coffee w/Lisa on Wednesday.  We should probably make this a regular thing b/c we’re both enjoying it so much.  We’re finding so many things we have in common, and I really like her.  I won something!  Lu had a little contest on her blog, and I was the lucky winner, so she’s sending me…some yarn!  Funny, I’m on a yarn diet, but people keep giving me yarn!

OVERHEARD RECENTLY:

Mom, why is one called one and two called two?

Mom, why is the sun a circle?

Mom, why do we have to have the sun in the daytime and the moon at night?  Why can’t we just have the moon all the time?

While the Things were playing Barbies:

Well, you’ve made some bad choices, and now we have a problem…

Thing Two to Andrei in the car as we were driving to get Thing One from school:

Noooo, that’s not an angel (referring to sticker in car window).  That’s Baby Paul.  He was born, and he had some things wrong with his brain, and he died in the hospital.

More from Thing Two:

Mom, is Jenna my sister?

No, honey; she’s a dog!

Yeah, but you’re her mom, so that makes her my sister.

 

Mom, can twins be different, like one tall and one short?

Sure, honey.  There are different kinds of twins.  When it’s one egg that becomes two babies, that’s called identical twins, and they’re the same.  When there’s two eggs, that’s called fraternal twins, and they can be different — like Baby Cousins. 

You mean like how one has big ears, and one has a big head?

The Crud:  My voice is better today than yesterday, but far from normal, especially if I try to have anything like a conversation.  At least now I can speak above a whisper, anyway.  I feel the cough starting, though.  Not good, especially since I’m supposed to have coffee with Lisa in the morning.

The Wrap:  Decided on It’s a Wrap!, Take 3 in “Paul’s” sari silk (the sari silk I bought with the money from my Knitty story).  Stayed up far too late last night working on it and made a mistake that it took me an hour today to fix.  Oops.  [Note to self:  DO NOT stay up till 1:00 in the morning knitting, especially if it's anything other than a boring garter stitch rectangle.  It's stupid and not worth the pain it causes the next day.]  Apologies to Wendy and Zib for pestering them yesterday about it.  I’ll get an in-progress picture of it tomorrow to post.  Gotta get this thing done before Bob & Ginger’s wedding on Saturday!

Knit Night:  Was great, as always.  Five of us, plus one of our “hecklers”.  (Oh, and I even saw “The Bra Lady” there AGAIN, though I didn’t get to talk to her this time b/c I didn’t see her till she was headed to her car.)  The librarian who helped me on Saturday either didn’t make it or thought we were too scary and didn’t come over to us.  Oh, well.  Thanks to Jeannette for helping me untangle my yarn barf.  Matthew & Annie, hope I didn’t freak you out too badly by talking about Paul; I know death isn’t a typical SnB-type conversation topic.

I know there was something else I wanted to say, but I sure can’t remember what it was.  It was probably important.  Oh, well.  Guess I’d better get to bed…

Check my reading log for my opinions on a few knitting books I’ve read recently.  I don’t feel like posting the same stuff twice.

I still sound like Brenda Vaccaro with a really bad cold.  This is just how Thing One sounded the couple of days before her icky cough kicked in, so pretty soon I may sound like Brenda Vaccaro with pneumonia.

Thing One is still struggling in math.  Mrs. C made a point to take me aside today to talk to me about it.  Sigh.  AND I got the form from the school speech therapist on Friday to sign to give her permission to do an official evaluation on Thing One.  Then, we’ll sit down with her with the results to come up with an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) for her.  This is VERY weird for me.  VERY weird.  I know it’s just speech, but Thing One is NOT the kid I expected to be doing IEP’s for.  I expected to be doing this stuff for Paul, not for my super-smart first kid who reads a couple of grades above her age.  I don’t like this.  I should get to know Mrs. G, the speech therapist, pretty well b/c it’s very likely Thing Two will end up in speech therapy also next year when she starts kindergarten.

My ooooooooold friend Bob is getting married on Saturday.  My choices for what to wear to this fancy-schmancy grown-ups-only wedding are pretty limited.  Wonder if I can knit some kind of fabulous wrap by then to make everyone not realize the rest of my outfit is so cheap and boring?  Should I use the sari silk or the Alchemy silk chenille?  Hmmmmm…..

THIS JUST IN:  Roxanne has moved her Zen Yarn Garden shop off Etsy and onto its own server.  Her new address is:  http://shop.zenyarngarden.com/.  For those who may not know, Zen Yarn Garden was the source of the yummy “Purple Haze” worsted Zib gave me, which I used for the Diagonal Wave scarf.

Look, Ma — progress!  Something’s wonky with the slip-stitch border.  Thing is, I don’t know whether the back or the front one is wrong!  Anyhow, I just have to pray 1) that the other half of the front turns out the same as the first half and 2) that they don’t mind that the front and back are different.  I’ll just pretend that it’s supposed to be that way.  You know, like software:  It’s not a bug; it’s a feature!

Remember the Ritratto & Alchemy Yarns?  Well, yesterday Sandy gave me one more skein of each.  Me and my big mouth!  I’m thinking something leafy and fall-like with the Ritratto.  Not sure about the Alchemy silk chenille.  Perfect bright colors for a certain friend of mine whose birthday is coming up.  Hmmmm.  Then again, Mother’s Day is coming, too.  I could always use black for my friend….

Somehow, we were all healthy enough to go to church today.  Thing Two’s rash is gone.  (Boy, was that weird!)  Now, however, is a different story.  I sound like Brenda Vacarro.  No, I sound like a hoarse Brenda Vacarro with a cold.  Made it through lunch w/o exploding despite having one of those weird, Everyone is on my last nerve, so shut up all you people! times, plus we went to pizza, which is not weight-loss-friendly for me, as if I eat one piece, I eat four.  Afterwards, Hubby was sooo understanding.  I was lying down in the bedroom, reading KnitLit (wonderful trip to the library yesterday), and he came in to see if I was resting.  We had this little conversation:

I’m sorry for being so crabby, Babe.  I don’t know what my problem is.

I know what your problem is.

[Bracing myself for an accurate but painful piece of unwelcome truth] You mean, besides everyone being on my last nerve, and our going out to pizza and Mark ordering before we got there?

Yeah.  Your son is dead.  That’s your problem.

Oh.  Yeah.  Right……Thanks for being so understanding.

What a guy!  I thanked him again later for not coming down on me for flying around on a broom like that.  His response?  What good would that have done?  Like I said, what a guy!

Well, I’m crawling into bed with my book and some cough drops. 

EDITED LATER TO ADD YARN INFO ANOTHER PICTURE IN SECOND HALF OF POST… 

Garter Stitch Baby Cardigan for Hubby’s manager’s baby son.  Dude didn’t tell anyone in the department that his wife was pregnant, much less that she was on bed rest for six months, but the other day the whole group got an “It’s a Boy!” email.  I think he didn’t tell for two reasons:  1) He doesn’t like a lot of attention, and 2) He was really afraid b/c last time she was pregnant, they lost the baby about half-way through the pregnancy.  Horrible, horrible, horrible.  Anyhow, they now have a nice, big (over eight pounds!) baby boy.  Hubby actually said it was a good idea for me to buy yarn to make this for him.  Wow!  (Actually, I wasn’t surprised b/c we were both wanting to do something extra special b/c of the circumstances.)  Good thing the Stashalong allows for one “free” day per month!  YARN = Plymouth Jelli Beenz (w/just a touch of Caron’s Simply Soft Brites for the contrasting color in the slipstitch border).

Detail shots here.

Lace bookmark for a gift for…I’m not telling.  I thought it would be a good way to try out a new stitch and use up some of the leftover yarn (KnitPicks Shimmer) from Adri’s birthday scarf.  Detail shot here.  I’m getting excited about bookmarks as a way to practice new lace stitches and make inexpensive but special gifts.  I actually bought some crochet cotton and some size 1’s and size 0’s.  Yikes!

 Noodles’ sweater.  Just trying to find me a 7-inch separating zipper.  Pretty hard to find.  May have to order one online for $8.  Feh.  YARN = mystery yarn that I got from Jeannette, who got it from Jean, who got it from…eBay, I think.

THURSDAY:  Medium-grade headache all day.

THURSDAY NIGHT:  Full-fledged migraine.  Lost track of how many times I had to get up during the night to puke.  NO fun.  Hubby didn’t get much more sleep than I did.

FRIDAY:  “Migraine hangover”.  Felt like dirt in the morning, had to have Angie drive Thing One to school.  Barely conscious.  Somehow managed to get Thing Two to her cooking class & back (they made grilled cheese sandwiches, very cute) and pick up Thing One.  Never did manage a shower.  Low- to medium-grade headache all day.  Somehow survived the babysitting co-op, but I wouldn’t have if Hubby hadn’t been here.  Absolutely couldn’t have done it on my own.  Grandma Ruthie, you sure did something right in raising this guy!

SATURDAY:  Woke up with a headache again.  Still low-grade.  Starting to think the headaches are…um…hormonally linked, if ya know what I mean.  (Perimenopause is NOT fun, especially if you have other medical conditions that preclude your taking low-dose birth control pills to even yourself out.)  Made it to my meeting.  Took one look at Thing Two when I got home and knew I had to call the pediatrician’s office.  She’s got this weird red rash on her face that sprang up overnight.  Advice nurse said she was OK to go to her friend’s birthday party, but we didn’t feel good about it, not knowing what the cause is.

No, I haven’t fallen off the Earth.  Busy day yesterday.  Up half the night last night, puking my guts out b/c of a migraine.  Headache better, but not gone, so still not quite feeling human.

More later, provided I survive our turn hosting the babysitting co-op tonight.  (Actually, it’s only three kids in addition to ours, and one is Andrei, who’s essentially family, and Hubby will be here, too, so it should be fine.  A bit noisy, but fine.)