Author Archives: zardra

Why is it so hard to find a pair of shoes?

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Nothing like making a stupid mistake in a lace shawl. I was working on Birch while watching an interesting show on The Da Vinci Code Sunday night. I was getting to the end of pattern row 7 of my ninth repeat when I realized that something didn’t look right. I somehow got off pattern on the previous pattern row, so there were yarnovers where there was supposed to be knit stitches, and k2togs where there were supposed to be yarnovers. I’m trying to decide if I want to tink back the 2 rows to fix it, or if I want to try dropping the stitches. I’m leaning towards tinking because there are 4 or 5 leaves that are off… it would probably just be quicker to tink back.

I think my knee is starting to feel a little better, and here I stress the word “little.” The biggest improvement is that when it’s bent I can’t find the sore spot. When it’s straight is still a whole ‘nother story.

In order to distract myself from my slow recovery, I bought shoes. I have a pair of slip on dress casual Clarks that I bought about 5 years ago, if not longer. Due to their age, they are falling apart… literally. There are holes in the soles and the leather upper is separating from the sole. Not shoes to wear on a rainy day as I would be walking around with wet feet. A nice man at the Clarks store in the mall had given me a number to call to get a preaddressed envelope to get my shoes resoled. So, I finally got around to calling only to be told by the person on the other end that they don’t resole ladies shoes. Squeeze me? Upon reflection I decided that while I could take them to a local place, I wasn’t sure that resoling would fix the entire problem (losing 40 lbs has apparently made some of my shoes a bit loose).

Thus, new shoes were the order of the day. I really like Clarks (NAYY), so I hit the store at the mall to see what they had. What they had was crap. Nothing but sandals. Was I asking too much by wanting a simple pair of shoes? Apparently, shoes without any holes, planned or not, are not really available during the summer months (so, why can’t I find swimsuits for sale in August? But, that’s a whole other issue…). So, I checked out Clarks website to see if it was just that one store or the company… sadly, it is the company. But, in my search for Clarks online, I came across places that sell shoes on the Internet. One place had regular Clarks shoes… and a fantastic return policy. I ended up getting Clarks Glenwood. They are so cute. 🙂 They got here yesterday, and I couldn’t be happier to have shoes… real shoes. Now, I have to break them in. Hopefully, this pair will last as long as the last pair… they were great shoes.

The shoes are dead, long live the shoes!

Ow… The Burning

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According to the knee doctor, I have bursitis of the knee. Even the little walking I’ve done (and every time I bang it into something, which is a lot) has kept it aggravated enough that it hasn’t healed. So, he gave me instructions similar to the instructions my doctor gave me almost 2 months ago: don’t bang it into things, baby it, ice it, and let it heal. Unfortunately, I’m a horrible klutz… guaranteed to bang my knee into things more often now that I’ve been told that I should avoid doing so.

He also told me to try a muscle rub that he gave me the name of, claiming that it’s better than BenGay (which is fine since I’ve actually been putting arnica on it of late). The reason it’s supposedly better than other stuff is it has capsaicin in it. I hit the drug store after my appointment and spent 10 minutes trying to figure out if I should get the regular strength (0.025% capsaicin) or the “high potency” (0.075% capsaicin). I ended up getting the high potency in the fear that the regular wouldn’t be strong enough. When I apply this ointment to my knee it feels fine for a few moments, then the burning starts… and the burning, we are told by the packaging, is normal. Oy! Hopefully, this works.

Meanwhile, The Husband and I just finished watching Anthony Bordain’s new show, No Reservations. This episode had him returning to New Jersey, the land of his youth. They were in a bakery getting cannolis, and boy, do I miss good cannolis… I only lived in NJ for 4 years, but that was plenty long enough to appreciate a good cannoli. (I am ever on the search of a good cannoli and good NY style pizza here in CA… still looking… although, I did find good pizza made by New Yorkers in Arcata, CA of all places.) During this scene, I made some comment about pizza… The Husband took offense at me saying I haven’t found good pizza here. Zachary’s is good, but it’s too big to be considered pizza in my mind — pizza should be flat and have cheese on it. (I’m not asking much, now am I?) The conversation ended when The Husband was unable to stop laughing while making comments about how I’m such a NY girl (which is to be expected I guess, I was born there, and my family has lived there since 1642).

Mmmmm… cannoli…

One more hour

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I get to head out to my knee specialist appointment in about an hour. Hopefully, I’ll soon be enlightened as to why my knee still has stabbing pain 2 months after the accident. I was slightly afraid that I would get to the appointment and find that my knee feels better than it did when I made the appointment a week ago. But, that doesn’t appear to be the case; in fact, it hurt all on its own this morning. The Husband thinks the pain is due to the walking I did this weekend, which sucks cause I actually like walking. So, I’m killing time here at work, worrying over two stupid knee-related things: that there’s nothing wrong with my knee, I just banged it up real good, and I’m about to waste my time and the doctor’s, or there truly is something wrong with my knee, which is a whole ‘nother can of worms. *gah*

Meanwhile, I composed a blog entry about my opinion of the Knitpicks.com flap, and decided that I come off totally bitchy, so it’s staying in draft form. All I have to say now is “Chill!” Too many other more important things in this world to worry about.

At least my doctor’s appointment will have me home at a relatively decent hour… I’ll probably curl up on the couch and knit while I wait for The Husband to come home.

Dreaming of a high B flat

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I know I mentioned some time ago that I had received a package from my secret pal, and now I have finally gotten around to photographing it (just in time, too, the battery on my camera is about to die). This package included the Scarf Style book, a needle roll, a big mug with Alice in Wonderland on it with tea, stitch markers (always need stitch markers), lotion, and 3 skeins off a cotton acrylic blend in a very interesting color — it’s a sort of rusty looking red — I’m thinking of using to try my hand at one of the crochet scarves out of the book. And a basket… mustn’t forget the basket… can’t forget the basket, everything came in it. 🙂 What’s funny is I’ve been contemplating an attempt at wrangling my needle collection. The needle roll may actually give me a chance to accomplish it.

This is what showed up in my mailbox this afternoon. Two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill’s Possum Lace in Tropical Storm… 960 yards of 40% merino, 40% possum, and 20% silk lace weight yarn. I had a horrible rumor that Cherry Tree Hill is discontinuing this yarn, so I decided I had to order some before it became impossible to find. Judy at TheKnitter.com got it to me really quickly (NAYY) along with a skein of Trekking XXL. Thankfully, I have no idea what I should do with the Possum Lace, so I can stick with just Birch, Ribby Cardi, and The Third Incarnation for now.

Okay, that’s all for now… I’m being distracted by Celtic music on my television…. I wish I could speak/sing Gaelic… *sigh* I wish I could sing like I used to…

The week marches on

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I’ve been having fun finding blog entries of people who were at Stash on Tuesday. There were a couple of times that I looked around the room and wondered how many people there were knit bloggers.

Knitting-wise, the only things I’ve really been working on lately have been Birch, which went with me on Tuesday, and trying to finish off my second afghan square so I can send them off to Annie.

I saw my doctor yesterday, and it was decided to send me to a knee specialist. So, now I have an appointment next Tuesday afternoon with orthopedist/sports medicine doctor. Joy!

I get to go clothes shopping yet again tonight… woe is me. 🙂 Actually, this is a good thing. I’ve discovered that several shirts, which used to fit quite nicely, now make me look like I’m wearing a sack. Thus, tonight is a hunt for a couple new shirts to replace the ones I’m getting rid of. Shirts aren’t the only thing that suddenly got too big. I put my leather coat on last Thursday, and the Husband said I looked like a little kid playing dress-up. So, the coat got replaced on Saturday because it is safety gear and because it’s nice to have a coat that doesn’t go all the way to my fingertips. The new one has blue and white stripes down the sleeves… very cool.

Adventures in Berkeley

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Yesterday, I got off work a couple hours early, the Husband picked me up, and we headed to Berkeley to see Stephanie. Her talk was great (Note to her publisher: she did indeed read excerpts from her book), especially the parts for which we were sworn to secrecy. During the question and answer period, she outed the Husband as a Canadian with the secret Canadian password. Then came the time to wait in line to get books signed.

While standing in line I got to meet Kathy from San Jose (who I’m certain I’ve seen post comments on the Harlot’s blog even though I can’t find a single one now)… I think I somehow managed to find the only librarian in the room, so we talked shop as well as knitting. There was much feeling of yarn as we made our way past the shelves.

During the 2 hours I stood in line I never imagined I’d ever hear the Husband get into an argument with anyone, let alone Stephanie, about the toast. When I got up to her the 2 of them were bonding over all things Canadian including the Hockey Night in Canada theme song. (It was just after this that we sadly learned that Don Cherry is now on a 3 second delay after saying something bad about Edmonton. *sigh*) Knitters can always talk about yarn with each other, and Canadian can always talk hockey.

Getting to meet Stephanie in person was great. This of course means that my social ineptitude came shining through (or at least I think it did). Not wanting to seem overeager to meet her… not wanting to fawn all over her… what do I do? Clam up almost completely. *sigh* (I still haven’t managed to find a good balance between being appropriately out-going and not bouncing off the walls… especially when I’m excited.) I asked her if I could have my picture taken with her and mentioned it would go in my blog (please ignore how red my cheeks are, it’s a whim they have). So, she asks what my blog name is, and I tell her… and she recognized it. I nearly thought about fainting. 🙂 Here was a person who’s blog is read by hundreds of people, but she recognized my blog name. (And, apparently, I’ve saved all the fawning for my blog entry.) I am quite proud to say that I did not leave the interaction thinking anything along the lines of “I can’t believe I opened my mouth and allowed that statement to come out.” (This happens after many social occasions… I spend a good deal of time dwelling on something I said that I consider to be highly moronic, believing that those who heard it uttered probably discussed my stupidity amongst themselves as soon as I left.)

The wonderful evening was capped by a quick jaunt down the street to pick up a Zachary’s spinach and mushroom stuffed pizza to take home. Then, it was bedtime… I think I laid there for awhile trying to compose today’s blog entry, all of which I forgot during the night. I’m sorry to say that this is a sad attempt to recreate some of the clever prose that came to me as I drifted off (but that’s usually the case).

Today is the first day of the next 2 weeks

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Geez, how’d it get to be Thursday already? (Not that I’m complaining really, Thursday today means Friday tomorrow.) Today was the start of a rather busy 2 weeks for me. Thankfully, while many things are things that need to be done, several things are guaranteed to be packed full o’fun.

Schedule thus far:
Today
Morning dept all-hands meeting
Afternoon chiropractor appt

7/29
Morning company all-hands meeting
Afternoon team meeting

7/31
Hot tub for an hour
Kill 2 hours while the Husband gets a 2 hour massage

8/1
9 am Monday morning meeting about website

8/2
Yarn Harlot in Berkeley

8/3
Morning doctor’s appt about knee

8/5
The Husband’s sushi class

8/6
Friend’s garden party

8/7
Head to Monterey to see my sister’s presentation on her trip to Vietnam

8/8
Morning dentist appts for both the Husband and I

8/12
Wine guild meeting in Monterey

At least there are a few places here and there for breaks in all the action. Meanwhile, I have not been able to get me, my camera, and the basket full of prezzies my secret pal sent me all in one place at the same time… well, that’s a lie sort of… we’ve all been in the living room together, but my memory has been absent each time and I have not remembered to take a picture. I’ve been too busy knitting up a couple afghan squares for Annie’s project as well as trying to get the last of my secret pal things together so I can take the box to the post office.

And they’ve only been sitting on my camera for 3 days…

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Knitting has been taking place

After several very distressing tries to get my photos uploaded, I finally managed to get them online. Thus, I present 2 of my current WIPs. I believe I’ve just started the 4th repeat on Birch, but I’m not sure because I haven’t really been paying attention, and I really don’t feel like counting the stitches to see where I stand. I finished the body of my Ribby Cardi awhile ago, just never took a picture. I have finally finished all the increases on the first arm and am slowly plodding away to get it the right length before beginning the shoulder shaping. I haven’t been working on it all that much because I suddenly became horribly bored with K2P2 ribbing. I have a feeling I’m going to be on Sleeve Island for awhile with this one.

I’m hoping to get Birch done quickly… I’ve just received the invitation to my 10 year reunion and it stated Cocktail Dress. So, I’ve got a month and a half to finish the shawl and try to find a nice dress to go with it. The reunion is in Monterey, so the shawl should definitely come in handy — summer nights in Monterey tend to be cold and foggy like SF. And I want to show off my mad knitting skillz… got to have something to show off besides The Husband, right?

The Coolest Purse Ever

Well, at least I think it is. I usually have a hard time finding a purse that I like the looks of and don’t find too difficult to carry around. Up to this point the purse I have been using was a simple smallish messenger type bag made out of black canvas. It had 2 small pockets right under the flap, a big open main compartment with a zippered pocket, and another zippered pocket on the outside back. It has been extremely serviceable, but is now starting to fall apart, mainly the straps are starting to come away from the body. So, I was beginning to contemplate the thought of a new purse. Like I said before, this is hard for me… I’ll find a purse I like the looks of only to open it and discover it either doesn’t have enough pockets or has way too many. And, no, I can’t tell you what the appropriate number of pockets is cause it depends on the purse.

The coolest purse ever caught my eye while I was knitting with a friend in Santa Cruz. I could easily see it and 2 of its friends casually hanging out on the door display of SFB Silk, the sun glinting off its silk panels. Soon, I could not ignore its siren call any longer. I went to investigate, sure that I would open the purse and find the wrong number of pockets (or an outrageous price tag). First, there was an examination of the outside of the purse, its shape and coloring were intriguing. Opening the purse caused wonder, for this purse had the number of pockets I thought it should have: one zippered pocket, a cell phone pocket, and another open pocket slightly bigger than the cell phone pocket. Now, I began thinking because this purse has now met my pocket needs it most likely has a price tag well over $200. I find the tag and turn it over… *gah* it was under $100. Of course, I had to get it…. well, after I spent at least 10 minutes hemming and hawing over do I really need a new purse, is this truly too much to spend on a purse (previously the most I have ever paid for a purse was $40, and it was leather).

My friend tried to be helpful and told me to wait a week, come back and see if I still liked it. But, I was afraid that if I did that the purse would be gone in a week. I would have been sorely disappointed to find it gone, so I broke down and handed over my check card. And, thus, the purse came home with me. The only downside to the new purse I can find so far is that it does not fit in the underseat storage of my scooter, which isn’t too bad because it doesn’t go with my black and red leather riding jacket. 🙂 Okay, I’ve fawned way too much over my new purse, so on to one final topic…

Flowers!

Clean-meister

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This past weekend went quite nicely. The Husband and I went down to Santa Cruz to see some friends. I got to hang out with Kalendar Girl and knit while basking in the slightly breezy 72 F Santa Cruz weather (it was 91 F when we left Mountain View). She introduced me to a cute new knitting store called Swift Stitch. There was a French bakery where I got a strange latte (They steamed the milk, poured it in a glass, then poured in the shoot of espresso… I had to find a spoon to mix it together because the espresso just hung right beneath the foam… weird). I ended up being naughty and buying myself a new purse from the silk store that was next to the knitting store. The purse was hanging on an outside display, and I found my eye being drawn to it while I was knitting. After awhile I just had to get a closer look… it’s an unusual looking purse. It’s made by Oovoo Design. The bag I got looks similar to their Baroque Baggy… the colors and stitching is similar, but the shape is completely different. I’ll have to take a picture tonight to share.

After knitting and purse buying adventures, my friend and I headed back to her place where The Husband was to cook dinner for us and a few other friends. Very tasty, but simple food. And it was a lot of fun to just spend time with friends that we hadn’t seen for a couple months.

Sunday was more adventurous. The Husband and I have been discussing buying a new bed for at least the last 6 months. Sleeptrain was advertising a sale with no interest till 2007. So, we headed off to take another look at the Sleep Number beds. Testing a couple of models out convinced us this was the way to go (The Husband likes his bed firm while I like a softer bed). The salesman we got was great, lots of fun to talk to, and he gave us a tremendous break on the bed, quoting a price that was $300 less than a guy at a different store quoted us for a less plush model. How could we say no?

Because we ordered the bed before 2 pm, we were able to get same day delivery. Same day delivery of course meant that I had to find my bedroom floor before the delivery guys showed up expecting to set up the new bed for us. I was at it for about an hour and a half, but I found the floor in front of our closet, managed to get clutter off a few flat surfaces, and even wiped away months worth of dust. So, aside from a couple of clutter hotspots in my bedroom, it looks the best it’s ever looked since we moved in 2.5 years ago. Quite the workout.

The Husband was taking care of laundry while I tackled the dust bunnies, so we had nice new clean sheets to put on the new bed. We spent a good hour playing with the controls, trying to find where each of us thought felt the best. I think I still need to experiment a bit more; the setting I used last night might have been a bit too soft. But, this is such an improvement over a spring mattress with memory foam that’s come down with Alzheimer’s.

Friday

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The Husband is going out to play Vampire tonight, leaving me home alone with a movie, wine, and my knitting.

But, what I really want to do is spin… and I can’t. My knee is still too sore to use it that way. All the talk about spinning that’s going around is making me miss it. I haven’t spun since the last weekend of May. I had just started spinning up the fiber I had dyed.

Of course, I also want my knee to get better, so it might be time to pull out a drop spindle.

I’ve got 2 increases left on the first sleeve for my Ribby Cardi. I’m not sure if I’ll continue working on the sleeve or if I’ll try to work on Birch tonight.

Fun car news
Last week I discovered the chrome on the inside passenger side door handle was peeling off on my car. How did I discover this? Why I managed to slice 2 fingertips open on it while trying to get out of the car. While chrome may look insubstantial, it’s rather quite sharp. Thankfully, neither injured finger is terribly important for knitting.

So, yesterday I took my car in for it’s 35,000 mile oil change and asked them to take a look at it. Wouldn’t have been any problem except the warranty that covers such things expires at 36,000 miles, and I was a bit late bringing my car in at 37,000. I managed to use my blonde powers (don’t worry I only use them for good) and the nice car guy ran off to speak with his supervisor about. He was back within a minute to inform me that they’d cover it. Woot! So, they replaced the door handle assembly; no more sharp chrome.

The Husband took a co-worker out to lunch today and discovered that the new, shiny door handle doesn’t work. You can’t open the door from the inside. Unfortunately, he was unable to get it in today, so we have an appointment Monday morning to have them look at it again. *sigh*