midgeling: life in a shoe.

I meant to post this back on May 22. Obviously, I didin't get to it. Life has been insane with trying to finish up the move, get kids registered at the proper schools for next year and people getting sick.

I am going to be going to a cousin's wedding on June 28th, and I need something decent to wear. So I am knitting the Sapphire Wrap by Melissa Wehrle.

So I happened to do my shopping while the 2008 LYS Tour was going on. While at Renaissance Yarns I spent more than $25, so I got the lovely free tote bag you see in the photo. I am doing the pattern in the same color, but not the same yarn. The pattern yarn used is cashmere, which just isn't in my budget. I am using Louet MerLin (merino/linen), which isn't cheap either, but it isn't as much as cashmere.

I have one sleeve plus most of the second sleeve completed so far. I sure hope I will get it done in time. I am also hoping that the computer gets brought over to the new house soon. Until then, I still have to come over here to the old house to work and use the computer. Blech.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I hope to catch up with you all soon.

Posted by midgeling at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Uncle Barney died in a motorcycle crash last Saturday, May 3rd. It was my aunt's birthday.
His memorial website will be here until May 20. The memorial service is being held this afternoon. I won't be able to make it to San Diego today.

Posted by midgeling at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Okay, well not really. Mr Midgeling has some freaky allergic reaction going on in one of his eyes. I forgot to give him a Benadryl last night before bed, because I passed out sometime before 8. I was pooped. He was a sweetheart and put all the kids to bed and let me stay crashed out.

Anyway, back to my evil monkey ways. So he has this freaky eye thing going on, right? Well, I left my Zyrtec on the counter and told him that maybe he better take one of those today to try to get the allergy thing uunder control. And then I happily hopped on the bus to work. So he calls me a bit ago to let me know that the Zyrtec stuff messed him all up. It makes me feel like i am on crack, but apparently it makes him sleepy.

So one of the things on his list of things to do today was finish fixing up his motorcycle. Well, he is all drugged up, and wrecks at the top of the hill of the old house. I think his pager is in the bushes somewhere. So I drugged him up and then tried to get him to commit motorcycle suicide. Evil Monkey. He's okay. It was only a minor spin out type thing.

Life at the new house is great. The kids were thrilled because my mom drove up from Vancouver WA for a weekend visit. She helped me unpack and watched the kids while Mr Midgeling and I went to the old house load up and haul more stuff. I don't have any internet access at the new house yet, and I still don't have a card reader, so no photos just yet. I have a couple of things, but Harley took my SD card from my phone, so I can't even use thqt right now. Darn kid.

I hope you all have a good week. I will try to get caught up with everyone soon.

Posted by midgeling at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The house is legally, officially ours today. Well, us and the bank, anyway. It's so nice to finally have this over with. And no buyers remorse so far! I've even been looking at new listing and so far I haven't liked anything else better (in our price range, lol).

Still no card reader, you here you have a not so good phone photo of my Reversai socks that were Round 2 of Sock Madness. Um, okay. No photo. my darling daughter was using my phone and she still has it in her posession. So why is that a big deal? Well, she is at the new house with her father and I am here at the old house with the rest of the kids. We'll probably be doing the 2 house thing for this week until we can get more of our stuff moved.

Dang, I am so tired! I'm going to bed. I hope you all have a good week.

Posted by midgeling at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Things were all looking up for a few days. It was nice. Monday was pretty easy for me. Then Tuesday came and bit me in my large posterior. Thanks to Kassie, I slipped on her jacket and wrenched my knee pretty bad. It hurts! I have finished socks that I took photos of. Lexa broke my flash card reader. So no photos. Would you believe that she managed to stuff two flash cards into one reader?

Mr Midgeling is being... difficult. He and I see differently about me having access to my paychecks. It's not like I spend them all. He's not exactly thrilled with my tithing to church. Last month was particularly rough for me, and he did a lot of stupid man-things that made me indulge in a bit of retail therapy. So today when he saw my bank statement for the account where all my paychecks go (that I am not supposed to use at all) and I had spent actual money, he jumped in my poop.

I did not take kindly to the aforementioned poop-jumping. I jumped back at him. I am still cranky about the whole business. Because there are a couple of issues that I let slide that I have every right to be pissed about. And now that it has come up again, I am angry all over again. Maybe it's because I have been perusing the Old Testament over again, but I swear, I am feeling like one of those poor purchased women-folk who had no right to the income they earned.

That man stole my zen.

In an effort to reclaim my zen, I will begin to sing one of my favorite songs by Bowling for Soup called "A Friendly Goodbye"

... Ain't that a "b" with an itch
Ain't that a mother trucker
You can go to H-E-double hockey sticks
And Eff yourself
Cause I'm flippin' gosh darn sick
Of all the "s" word you put me through
So Eff You!
Eff You! ...

Posted by midgeling at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I haven't done much blogging or knitting lately. There's been a lot going on for me. A couple of weeks ago we put an offer on this house that is perfect for our family. Chace makes me drive by it whenever we are nearby so that he can see it - he's REAL excited to be moving soon. Well, yesterday we noticed something when we did our semi-weekly drive by:

What did we notice? Well let's take a closer look at that red blurb there:

(camera phones are handy)

Yup! It's been sold. To us. We get the keys on the 28th. I am so thrilled!

Posted by midgeling at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I finished my January Girl socks from the Zen String Sock Club. It was knit with Zen String Harmony DK (merino/tencel). The pattern was very nicely written and it turned out lovely. Angelina dyes up some truly wonderful yarn. I can't speak highly enough about her.

Detail of lace pattern.

It took my a lot longer to finish than I would have liked, but with my back so messed up, my left hand is still partially numb, and I still have problems with pain in my left arm. So I could only knit about 15 minutes at a time for most of the sock, and the last few days I was able to knit for over a half hour at a time with no real probems. I have been seeing a chiropractor and my regular doctor for a month now. This week I went from 3 visits to two visits per week to the chiro. I'd say the pain is about 70% better, but unfortunately the numbness hasn't gone yet. I am still spending a lot of quality time with my ice packs these days, lol.

I haven't been online as much as I like lately. I am behing on reading my favorite blogs since I don't really like to be sitting in my desk chair any more than I really have to. But since things are getting better, I think I will probably be getting back to normal. Oh, yeah. My doc is making me get an EMG to see exactly how much nerve blockage I have got going on. One of the things that drives me nuts is that my typing sucks even worse now. With my left hand numb, it types slower than the right. So I am constantly misspelling things, with all the letters typed by my right hand in the beginning of the word and the left handed letters showing up toward the end. My brain sends the signals like normal, but my left hand executes things much more slowly, and with the numbness, it isn't always apparent that my left hand is lagging behind. It drives me nuts. But things are getting better!

Posted by midgeling at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I can't believe my baby is 5 already. She has been getting everything she wanted so far. Aunt Anne got her a kiddie electric guitar. It is perfect! And of course she has been getting Littlest Pet Shop toys as well. Her gift from her family is a sleepover pizza party next weekend at a motel with an indoor pool. Just the 6 of us. We wanted to do it this past weekend, but Lexa was running a high fever and Mr Midgeling had some downtime upgrade stuff he had to do for work.

I suspect that once her birthday money from Grandma Anderson comes in, she will be requesting a trip to Build A Bear Workshop, lol. Just like every year.

Posted by midgeling at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Okay, I know this girl. Back in the day, she was a cute little curly headed girl with a best friend named M. Okay, so M would walk her home from school nearly every day. He spent hours at her house hanging out and even helping her mom to make dinner. I even remember him putting away groceries. So they were best buds from the age of like 9 or 10.

So fast forward to when they were 14. M breaks the news to the girl that he has to move to Phoenix. She is devastated and cries a lot for the next few weeks. After M moves, they rack up phone bills in the hundreds of dollars and really stress out the parents. Time goes on and eventually after the girly gets a jealous loser boyfriend, and she and M lose touch a couple of years into college.

Now, fast forward another 10 years. Thanks to the girl logging in to Classmates.com to look for a photo of someone for a friend, M finally gets in contact with her. Early this week, he emails her. She emails him back. He's been looking for her for the last 3 years. He's a biomedical engineer in AZ and insanely handsome. No longer the cute little skinny kid that I remember from years ago. He is just... Wow. He grew up real well.

So now they have been talking every day, catching up on the last 10 years, wondering why they have been apart for so long. If things continue to progress at the current rate, they will be madly in love and planning a future together. I want these two to get married and have lots of crazy pretty babies and live happily ever after. It just has to be that way. This MUST happen. Really. I'll be so sad if it doesn't.

I'll keep you posted.

Posted by midgeling at 09:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We had lunch today at the Bluewater Taco Grill. It was sort of funny how we talked about how people and animals are sort of mentally linked. We talked about how we seem to be mentally linked, and we like it that way. The funny thing is that we had both ordered the same thing for lunch without knowing it, lol!

I like how Marti always just sort of listens and totally understands where I am coming from. No judgement. I can vent, she can vent, we can offer opinions or advice and it's all good. I had a bit of a rough weekend and was actually looking forward to going in to work today, since that meant lunch out and a needed chat!

She drives me nuts sometimes - I occasionally want to tell her "SLOW DOWN! Take better care of yourself!" But I have a funny feeling that I have that same effect on her too....

Posted by midgeling at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"Let's Play the Glad Game!" Pollyanna used to be my favorite movie when I was younger. Well, and when I was older, too. I just like it. A lot. I lost count of how many times I have seen it. [Okay, I just had a giggle fit over the lamest thing ever. I originally misspelled Pollyanna. Polyanna. I had visions of multiple girls named Anna all lined up like clones in a funhouse mirror. I tell you, I have been stressed.]

Okay, so for the last couple of months, things have really kind of sucked and I have been chanting to myself little blurbs about how things will get better. And for the last couple of weeks, my pissy alter ego has been yelling "LIAR!! You LIE woman!" But really. I do know I have a lot to be thankful for. Like my sisters and brothers and parents and extended family.

And Marti, is probably the best friend ever. Monday started off my particularly crappy week. During lunch she did one of those "Here, I think you should have this" things. She gave me a secret little gifty thing of yarn love that made my day. It was totally unexpected and is so what I needed to perk me up. Thank you. Non-fiber people just don't get it. It's almost like being given a kitten that doesn't need shots, flea spot, food or a litter pan. Trust me. It's a wonderful feeling.

And Marianne. Thank you. You leave me the nicest notes of support and encouragement. It really means so much to me. It is amazing how people in your life both face to face and a few hundred miles away can help you get through ugly stuff without resorting to poking out your own brain matter.

Okay, and here's something else I have been thankful for:

"No Mom, I didn't eat the gummi bears..."

She has been so sweet and helpful lately. She switches out my ice packs for me in the freezer. She showers me with kisses and tells me she hopes my back feels better. Last night this child was hilarious.

Lexa: Let's read stories tonight, Mom. We can real mine first, then we will read yours next.
[So we read Would You Rather Be A Bullfrog and Ten Apples Up On Top. ]
Lexa: What's your book called?
Me: Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes On the Cosmos by Seth Lloyd.
Lexa: Oooh! Cool. Like NOVA! But that's too hard for me. What's this one?
Me: This one is called Ocean breezes : Knitted Scarves Inspired by the Sea by Sheryl Thies.
Lexa:[opens book and pretends to read] Cool. Yarn, yarn, yarn... Yarn, yarn, yarn, yarn...."

And the last thing I have been glad about and thankful for: The sharp pains in my back are getting better. I have a ways to go, but I was beginning to wonder if I would ever show any improvement at all. I am able to knit for longer stretches of time (maybe 15 minutes) before my hand and arm start freaking out on me. Better is good.

Posted by midgeling at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I am at work. I have been here since 8:30 this morning. It's 4:15 right now. I only need to work 6 hours today. I don't want to go home. Mr. Midgeling is there with all the kids. Things haven't been going so smoothly these days. We haven't had a kitchen sink for a couple of months now. Since my back has been hurt, I haven't been able to do any cleaning. Cooking is about all I can do, and I even need help with that sometimes. I can't sweep or even fold laundry or I get horrible muscle spasms/stabbing pain with tingling in my back, neck and left arm. I can't even knit much before my hand starts to go all wonky and hurty on me.

So the house is a disgusting mess. Because, you know - I am the only person who will clean. I have been pushed past my breaking point. Last night sucked and today was filled with mind-blowingly ridiculous emails. I am beyond pissed and way into numb brained eye-rolling. I don't want to go home. I just want to go be alone somewhere. I need some mellow time.

Yesterday I was a bit into the self-pity. Not today. I am just disgusted and disappointed. Seriously disappointed. I suppose I am a bit angry, too. I am sick of excuses and people blowing me off. It is frustrating to know that nobody you live with honestly gives a crap about how you feel until you are having a full-blown meltdown where you wish death and destruction to everything around you. Why do people completely blow you off for days and weeks and months - they refuse to take you seriously until you are pushed past your breaking point? Then they look at you and have the audacity to say "Why are you so worked up?"

I really think that marriage/kids was not the right path for me. I am really not very good at any of this. But here I am, married with 4 kids. Not much I can do about it now except try to muddle through as best I can. The kids will all be grown and gone one day. Maybe by that time I will have figured out some of this chaos. For months I have just been going through the motions, getting through the weeks and not really seeing or feeling like it serves any purpose. I suppose this is just one of those desert periods that people go through. Oh, how I wish it was a "dessert period" instead, lol.

Posted by midgeling at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Holy hell, this hurts. My back is still messed up. "Vertebral degeneration" sucks. I get to seew the chiro 3 times a week and hopefully squeeze in a massage. The muscle spasms have been most unpleasant. At least I can still knit, as long as I make sure that I keep my left arm supported.

I gave my mom and sister their Christmas gifts that I knit. I also made Kasey (my sorta-sister cause she's my brother's ex) a pair of red wool fingerless mitts. They turned out okay. Not perfect cause I designed and knit them while in a percocet haze. I had to laugh as I was knitting the second mitt because I had to knit in the same pattern mishaps (like the second pattern repeat had to have an extra plain round inserted before the twisted stitches) so that the two would match.

Mom and Laura seemed to like their socks and Kasey really seemed to like her mitts. In my haze of trying to ignore the back spasms, I forgot to take photos of the stupid finished mitts. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures of Kasey wearing them on Friday when they head back up to Seattle from Porkland.

I called the doc to ask for something to kill the spasms at night while I (try to) sleep. I hope she will call in a prescription. Now I need to lose 30 lbs and get a boob reduction, lol. Things can never be simple, can they?

Posted by midgeling at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My favorite socks. KPPPM. I wear them several days each week, lovingly hand washing and hanging them to dry. Well, sometimes when they are still damp, I use the hair dryer to speed things up. The stupid hard, disintegrating wood floors in this house are really hard on socks. I need to learn to darn socks now. I have extra scrap yarn.

I got my new phone. I love it. But it had a slight software malfunction and nuked my entire address book. From the flash card. I had no backup since The Beast is still dead, and there is no ETA on it's resurrection. I miss my poor computer. He was good to me.

My week has sort of sucked again. . My back is messed up, so I sleep like crap. It's a freakish pinched nerve thingy. It hurts from my neck, down between my shoulder blades and into my left arm. I had to drop Nathan off at work this morning after I dropped HK off because we both slept through both his alarms. I was a half hour late picking HK up from school on Monday cause I kept getting stopped by people about stuff at work, then got stuck behind some clueless people that took forever in the parking garage.

Oh, Kass and Chace were turned away from the bus on Monday because Chace isn't allowed to take his cello on the bus anymore. The Transportation dept said they have "airline-like restrictions" for their buses. Um, so why aren't they turning away all the kids bringing juice boxes in their lunches? They are carrying on more than 2 oz of liquid. Anyway, since I had the car, both kids stayed home from school and played on the trampoline and played Wii. Lucky them. So Chace won't be bringing his cello on Mondays, so they better either let him use a school instrument or else not get on his case when he shows up empty-handed. I hate this school district. I can't wait till we move.

I am a bit cranky, but I am convinced that things will get better. I stopped the inhalers a couple of weeks ago and I think my immune system is improving. I am still congested, but not outright sick anymore. Yippee!

Posted by midgeling at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I finished that red Mohican hat yesterday. But that can wait. Baby is going to be my last photo posting of 2007. He's going to turn 12 in May next year. This laundry basket he's lounging in has been full of folded clothes for over a month now. I don't have the heart to empty it since it is his favorite napping spot these days. It mostly has summer clothes, so it's not like I am going to be needing them any time soon.

It's hard to believe another year has passed. I hope you all have a very Happy New Year. Best wishes for 2008!

Posted by midgeling at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just got back from dropping my 14 year old daughter off at her boyfriend's house. This is so not what I expected to be doing on a Sunday evening at 36 years old. Does this mean I am supposed to be a grownup now? I feel really old. On the bright side, he's a really nice kid from a nice family.

The Beast is still dead. No word from Mr Midgeling on how he plans to resurrect my beloved PC.

Posted by midgeling at 06:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I blew up the processor on my PC. Mr Midgeling brought me home a spare to use until he can figure out how he wants to go about fixing the Beast. New processor only or new motherboard, video card, etc. [HK has informed me that I have just begun speaking "major geek" - so I guess I better tone it down.]

Okay, so I done brokeded my compooter. [You gets dat, HK?]

I also had to rip out about 6 rounds of the red Mohican Hat. 15% mohair in the yarn makes for nice and soft, but a major bitch to frog. [HK - the term "frog" means to "rip it, rip it" - get it? Now quit reading over my shoulder.]

And I have PMS and massive headaches. [I just smacked HK for yet another smartass comment. Now twice. And three times. The kid is on a roll.]

But on the bright side, Mr Midgeling took me out to dinner tonight when he got home. We had sushi! Yum. Now I have to go make me some green tea and suck down a few Advil. 2008 will be better. Really.

Posted by midgeling at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I had a fit this morning. My family. They are slobs. Dirty pigs. I had orange juice spilled under my desk. Next to the banana peels. On my desk was a half eaten bagel and an empty pop tart wrapper. 14 year old didn't do the dishes last night like she was supposed to. Some genius clogged the bathroom sink with what looked like leftover spaghetti. I still have no kitchen sink.I had 6 rolls of packing tape. I had 2 rolls hidden from the kids. They found both rolls after apparently losing the other 4 rolls. Someone lost part of my desk tape dispenser. I did not make today's mail run. Every single out of town Christmas gift will be late this year. Again. I can't find the compact flash card with the Christmas card photos.

So after I yelled a bit and threatened to completely call off Christmas this year, I left the house. I went to Starbucks for a Venti drip coffee with room. I went next door to Qdoba for a Steak Fajita Ranchero burrito - naked. (ETA: "Naked" here means with the tortilla on the side. I was fully clothed. ) I ate quietly, then finished up my Christmas/birthday shopping. I bought packing tape, scotch tape and 2 bottles of wine to get me through the next couple of days. I am home now. Kids did dishes. HK even unplugged the bathroom sink. There's still a pop tart wrapper on my desk.

And thanks to Marianne:

You Are Eggnog

Rich, sweet, and probably a little drunk. Everyone who knows you tends to get a little fatter.

Heh. It fits.

Posted by midgeling at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I just spent almost $300 on Christmas gifts for the kids today. And almost all of what I got was on sale.
And I am not done shopping for people yet.

Posted by midgeling at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These are my beloved kitties. Baby is the big boy at the top. Stella aka Fatty aka Fat Cat is the pretty little thing below Baby. She has the most adorable fat rear end that gives her the cutest waddle when she walks. We have a lot in common, except that her waddle is much cuter than mine. I really missed the most adorable shot of Baby licking the top of Stella's head, and her laying there with her eyes closed enjoying every minute of it. They refused to cooperate and repeat the scene for me.

And here is Harley creatively modeling another Christmas gift hat. Um, I don't really have much else to say about it. Harley pretty much leaves me at a loss for words.

Okay, I finished the hat several days ago, but I am only just posting it now. Why? Because Kassie brought home another virus. There were aches and congestion and fevers to go around. She gave it to her baby sister, who gave it to me. We all pretty much spent the weekend sleeping and taking over-the-counter drugs.

But a few minutes ago, I was listening to Knitters Uncensored on my iPod while knitting another Critter Scarf and watching Quilters TV on TiVo (yes, all 3 at the same time) and I realized that I was actually awake and had photos, so I may as well post them.

So there you have it. Another (not so) exciting day in my life. Oh, well there was the Starbucks Date earlier tonight. But that's another story to be told tomorrow.

Posted by midgeling at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

That photo up there is yarn. I love yarn.

I am still alive - more or less. I still have that stupid cold thing that whipped the asthma up into a frenzy. I've been pretty sick for a couple of weeks. When you don't get a lot of oxygen, you do a lot of sleeping. I've been doing a lot of Christmas knitting. Hopefully most of my friends and family will get handknitted/handmade items this year. I just hope they appreciate them for the effort and love I put into them, and I won't be the unlucky person experiencing things like getting the handknit socks dumped in the trash "because we only wear store bought socks here".

I was mad enough this year to cook a scaled down Thanksgiving dinner of 25lb turkey, rice, peas, sweet potatoes, and homemade cranberry sauce. No stuffing, mashed taters or pies for us. Reason #1 is that our kitchen is in all kinds of remodeling hell. We have a broken dishwasher and no kitchen sink. Reason #2 is that I have been just too dang tired from being sick.

But it was a good day, even though due to a slight miscalculation and turkey label reading error, dinner wasn't ready until 8:30 opm, LOL!

Posted by midgeling at 03:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

photo of ivy in dead leaves on my back porch

Do you ever feel like running away and hiding because people may be getting too close to you? They may be getting to know you too well. They may see too far into your soul. They are within striking distance and that makes you uneasy.

Do you wonder if the uneasiness is your fear of allowing people to get to know you too well? Maybe it is really your inner instinct or angel of some sort warning you that it isn't all as it seems and to beware?

Do you think maybe I am a puppy that has been kicked too many times? Or is there something to this general feeling of wariness?

Posted by midgeling at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, my work is all f*cked up. My boss (the Business Manager) quit. The Admin Director is reposting her job as the Associate Director, because there is a supervisor that is "unofficially" slated to replace the Admin Director when he retires. So making ther the "Associate Director" makes it that much easier to take over for him when he's gone. I don't know of anyone who has anything good to say about working for her. All I have heard is that she is a bully. Great.

But that makes her my boss in a few short weeks. She is much like our current Admin Director. She is a BIG fan of delegating her work. I have been around too long and know too much for them to not hand me every stinking task under the sun. Oh, and did I mention that I am only half time trying to do a full time job? Yeah. Don't expect me to last there past Christmas.

We are currently not charging for Angio contrast because the supervisors are refusing to require their techs to record the amounts of contrast used. That is money lost every day. The Administration refuses to do anything about it. I went out of my way to figure out a simple way to keep track of contrast so we could charge. They are refusing to put one additional requirement on the techs, so we lose money. Every day. Every Week. Every Year. This means hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. For something that would require about an extra 30 seconds of typing per case.

I don't ever want to work for a state run facility ever again.

Posted by midgeling at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Um, yeah. That's my desk.

Posted by midgeling at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Do you ever just get sick of it all? I mean so many medications. Still fatigue, still coughing, still sick, still congested, still insomnia, still... blah.

Trying to cope with other people's drama isn't easy either. Work folks, family drama, running around all week playing the chauffer. It is grating. At least I have XM radio for the driving and sitting and waiting.

I am in a whiny frame of mind now. I think I will go do something fibery and try to snap out of it. Sleeping is good. LOTS of sleeping would be ideal, but unfortunately not in the cards for me until Saturday.

Posted by midgeling at 09:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just realized that 4 years ago today, I made my first blog post here. My, how time flies.

Posted by midgeling at 07:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Harley's Birthday Socks are finally done. They were done toe up in a a garter rib pattern (1 rnd K2P2, 2 rnds K) with 2x2 ribbed cuffs and shart row garter stitch heels and toes. I just love the fact that some patterns are so ingrained that to me, they consist of one sentence and not pages of text or charts.

Here's a close up:

For Harley's 14th birthday, she chose one of the family favorite restaurants, Shanghai Garden. We always order Hand Shaved Noodles with chicken, Strawberry Beef (kid's favorite) and Pepper Salted Squid (my favorite).

Afterward, we crossed the street to spend some time at Kinokuniya Bookstore in Uwajimaya Village. I love that bookstore. Since Uwajimaya is celebrating their anniversary, they are having a 10% off sale. So I had to get a book. HAD TO. This book refused to let me go. I suppose to describe it, you would say it is Barbara G. Walker meets Cookie A. I can't wait to start playing with some stitch patterns.

So from us, Harley got a cute top that she wanted, a pair of socks, and a concert ticket to see Chiodos at the Showbox this weekend with a friend. I can't believe I am now the mother of a 14 year old. It scares me. I am getting old. I don't feel too much more than 14 myself.

Posted by midgeling at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, so yesterday was good. Sorta. Started out rocky - new church, narrow minded people that don't think that if you wear black that you can already have an established relationship with God. You know, you must be "lost" or something. Eh, we have a few churches to try out. And just maybe my family can teach these conservative peoples that you can be different AND Christian.

After that, we went to Weebug's house. We hung out for the day while went all supergeek on them and tuned up their PC and recovered music files from the iPod that was orphaned by their previous PC. It was fun in a sick and twisted kind of way. I got some sock knitting done. Quite a bit, actually. See?

Those are Nathan's Never Ending Socks. Those are supposed to sorta replace his blue Birthday Socks that were too small. And by "sorta" I mean, he still wears the other ones even though they are too small, but I wanted him to have a pair that fit since they were a birthday present. So here I have knit these socks with Lime N Violet sock yarn in the Basement Dweller colorway. 462 yards will not be enugh to comfortably fit his size 11.5 EEEE feet. So it's a good thing I bought Cutters Are People Too, because that's what color the toes of his monstrous socks are going to be. They coordinate quite nicely.

It feels like I have been knitting them forever. But really, it's just been since the beginning of July. But I may finish them this week! Woot!

Oh, and so in return for my hours of sitting at her computer ignoring everyone while she fed my kids, Weebug graciously gave me a big hunk of pretty fibery love. It's Lisa Souza fiber in the Lime and Violet colorway, of course! Do I have awesome friends or what?

Posted by midgeling at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have fallen in love. We finally got the XM Radio fixed in my car. When we first had it activated, I got a handful of crappy stations. Now I get them all. My favorites? The Message, Fred, Ethel, Lucy, Squizz and Fungus. And with me being the driver of the Kid Shortbus, this XM gets a LOT of use during the week.

You know what else I love? Frozen Blueberries. By tomorrow, I will have finished all 4 lbs in just this week. I put them in a small dish and let them sit out for a few minutes before I start eating them. I like them about half frozen. It's got much less fat than a bowl of ice cream. They are pretty, too.

On the drama front, i have spoken with a couple of friends and some things have gotten better. I just need to take a step back from the ugliness. A couple of enties back I was in a bad place. Everything came down on me all in one day and it was too much to handle all at once. I was told by someone that I shouldn't take on everyone's problems. While that is true, I am just the type of person who can't hear some bad news, learn that you've been deceived for a few months and just skate on by with a "Wow, that kind of sucks." Especially if it is several bits of bad news, one after the other, after the other...

But selectiveness. I need to learn that a bit better. I know that things overall happened the way they were meant to. But in the future I really need to be selective and show much more discretion and reserve when handing over trust. That has always been a hard lesson for me. I seem to have that psychic "FOOL" tattoo imprinted on my forehead. But as the mantra goes, "It will get better...:

Posted by midgeling at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

And here's the lovely Lexa showing off her best friend Buddy and my birthday present from Weebug. It is Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn Clark. (Evelyn is such a nice lady. I remember years ago she sat near me in Margaret Stove's lace knitting class that we took at the Bellevue Fire station.)

I love the book, and of course I want to abandon all that I am knitting and start a new lace shawl for myself.

Oooh, and I got a $100 bill from one of my grandmas. Weebug thinks I need to buy a new Bosworth spindle. She may be on to something!

Posted by midgeling at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

See? I have actually been somewhat productive in a fibery way these days. I actually finished spinning my Vacation Fiber! They were supposed to be 2 oz each. I bought what were said to be 1 oz balls of roving, 2 of each color. After it was spun up, I got 2.1 oz of the lighter color and 0.7 oz of the darker. Something tells me they need to get better at eyeballing fiber amounts.. And you even get to see bits of my newly installed kitchen floor as a backdrop.

Okay, so I actually finished spinning these like a month ago. But so much has been going on in my life. A trusted person turned out to be a dirtbag who likes to hit on women that aren't his wife. One friend who claims to be impartial is now trying to screw another friend via a court affadavit, or some such nonsense. But then this is the person who dismissed me a while back by saying "I'm apologizing in advance for ignoring you..." because she got a new friend "sent by God". I had to make a tough decision about switching churches. All the kids cried over it. Work is screwing me out of $660, and my boss lied about making sure I would be paid for all the hours I worked. So really, I was screwed out of much more than $660.00. My mom's birthday socks are ruined. I made the middle of the night drunken sock yarn purchase that I forgot about until it arrived on my doorstep (okay, this one is really sort of a LOL). Oh, yeah. I have been fighting an allergy-induced sinus infection for a couple of weeks now. So this morning, Kassie and I woke up with colds. Of course.

So I have been knitting, spinning and making Weavette squares. Like mad. Enough to make my fingers and hands hurt. But it soothes the soul. And my soul has been tested these last few weeks. I am disappointed greatly in one of my friends plus an acquaintance. Hurt by another, though I understand why she hid things - trying to protect me. Infuriated by my place of employment. Disappointed and hurt by my church. Things have been coming at me from all sides these days. But I know it will get better.

I can't believe that after all that I have been going through, I am still okay. I have a few great friends that I know love me. (Yeah, that's you Marti, Joy, Magy and Wonderful.) And also thank you to immediate and extended family that helps me deal with the freakishness that is my life. Nathan has been pretty damn supportive through it all. He could be saying "I told you so." but he hasn't.

Thanks to everything left in the universe that isn't trying to kill or maim me. I really do appreciate it.

ETA: The trusted friend that hit on women? No - he didn't hit on me. I'd have hit him back.

Oh, how I love Linkin Park. You're never too old for a little LP.

Linkin Park Lyrics

Posted by midgeling at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Drama abounds yet again. So does another sinus infection. I have stuff to show. Spinning stuff. Knitting stuff. Weaving stuff. House stuff. Really, I do. But the stuff is all over the damn house, and the camera is here with me downstairs at my chaos riddled desk.

We got new floors. I found out some ugly news about people close to me. There are certain hypocracies and betrayals and such. My boss is deciding that I have to repay 16 hours of pay since I was out sick with strep and didnt have sick leave accrued yet. I made sure to make upt he time for those missed hours in teh following week, but she decided that since we hadn't agreed on comp time beforehand, her "hands are tied" and she couldnt authorize my comp time to cover those hours missed. Regardless of the fact that I worked those hours. And that I routinely work more than the 20 hours a week that I get paid for.

It's all too much. But I am thankful I have my family and at least a couple of friends that haven't totally lost it and contributed to the wave-o-shit that is pummeling my life. Oh, and yes. I feel free to use foul language here. Because some of the hypocrites that don't use the foul language just act foul in other ways behind the scenes. Secrets and lies and bullshit, I tell you.

Let's all grow up, grab a conscience, "let your yes mean yes and your no mean no", lose the hypocricy and all play nicely.

And then I will post photos tomorrow when I have gotten some sleep.

Posted by midgeling at 02:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fifteen years ago today, I signed my life away to Mr Midgeling. And this is what he IM'ed me this morning:

Happy Anniversary - "Celebrating 15 years of Baby-making"

LOL! Happy Anniversary to you , too.

Posted by midgeling at 03:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Pretty sunset this evening, wasn't it? I snapped this photo just in time. In the time it took me to change lenses to the telephoto, ithe pink in the clouds was gone.

Oh, and earlier today, Harley and I went to the grocery store. When we returned home, we found Kassie and Lexa in the yard picking dandelions. Kassie was wearing her pink princess bathing suit. Darling Lexa was wearing nothing but a Costco-sized Tostitos corn chip bag. I asked her if Daddy knew she was wearing an empty chip bag. She told me he did. I told her to get in the house and put her clothes back on.

Mommy: Are you aware that your youngest daughter is in the front yard wearing nothing but a Tostitos bag?
Daddy: Yeah.
Mommy: And you didn't see anything wrong with that?
Daddy: No, she's dressed.
Mommy: In a TOSTITOS BAG.
Daddy: She came in and said her bathing suit was wet and she had to take it off, but she wasn't allowed to be outside naked. So she grabbed the bag and put it on. Then she ran outside.

I so wish I had been able to get a picture of her in the bag.

Posted by midgeling at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are back from vacation. We cruised the Pacific Coast of the US. Okay, so we didn't really see much of the actual coastline, but we drove from Seattle, WA to Orange County, CA and then back home again to the Seattle area. I am pooped.

I haven't finished unpacking yet, but I did manage to clean out the refrigerator (not perfectly) and do some grocery shopping. I have no idea where my camera is and most of the photos I took are on Nathan's Macbook right now.

I have a FO and made sure to buy some Vacation Fiber. I'll get y'all caught up soon, I hope. Right now, it's 8:20 pm and I haven't started making dinner. Sashimi and edamame tonight, with gyoza for chace and the little girls. Yum.

Posted by midgeling at 08:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We are on vacation. At present, we are in Talent, Oregon at Nathan's grandma's house. In a few days we will be headed farther south to Santa Rosa to see his other grandma. Then after that, we head to San Jose for the 2007 Taekwondo Junior Olympics. After that, we head farther south to Orange County to see my Daddy.

I'm knitting. A lot. From Seattle to here, I got about 6 hours of car knitting time. The kids play with cousin Lawson, and I get more knitting time. I can't post pictures just yet. But I finished another pair of socks last week for the Sock Marathon.

I love vacation. I don't want to come back to Real Life from vacation. Ever.

Posted by midgeling at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Drama Queens in my life pretty much are clueless that they are being very high school right now. I am not going to bother talking to them about it just yet since it would be ugly and there would be a lot of sniffling and denial from them. No point.

For the time being I have been keeping my distance to save my own sanity. They still call me whenever they need something from me. It's pretty one-sided right now. *shrug*

We lost 3 of the best athletes on our taekwondo team. Much of the reason was political and just crappy behavior, but some of the Elite Inner Circle will never understand how things they said and did pretty much ran these families off. There was crappy behavior on both sides, of course. But The Elite Inner Circle will never see any of their own fault. Ours family was almost one chased off after last season. We are still teetering on the edge as it stands. We know that if we end up leaving, we probably won't really be missed - except that we will be an unfortunate addition to the body count.

It is sad. These aren't bad people at heart. But their pride and their superiority really do a lot of damage to these kids and their families.

Posted by midgeling at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh yeah. The Drama. Whatever. I consulted a couple of other friends to see if what was bugging me was me overreacting or the other person being weird. Both friends (independantly) came to the conclusion that what was said to me was kind of crappy and rather High School in nature. They can have their drama. I have been sort of keeping my distance for my own sanity's sake.

Speaking of High School Drama, I recently found out that my boss believes all the crappy things that my former boss Peter has been saying about me. That's why she gets all snippy and bitchy with me (though she did back down and get nicer when she heard that I thought that returning to that damn hospital to work was a big mistake.) If she believes that douchebag over me and my quality/quanitiy of work, then screw them all.

What is with people? I like to live as drama-free as I can. It leaves me more time and energy for the fun things. Life has been much easier since I have started making it a point to act as much like a Clueless Male as possible (husband taught me this). Don't take things too seriously or too personally. Let people be crappy if they insist - pretend not to notice because it pisses them off even more.

I forgot my camera at Aunt Anne's yesterday. It's a 45 minute drive to her house. *sigh* And Kassie, in her 5 year old brilliance, put my cell phone in her cup of milk tonight during dinner. I didn't know she swiped it. She didn't know it would break. [headdesk] Before I lose my last couple of marbles today, let's close with something pretty. My rosebush has 25-30 roses blooming right now. Breathe deeply....

Posted by midgeling at 08:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ED: I have been trying to write and post this stupid thing since Monday, and it is now Thursday. If it's not me being sick, it's friggin DRAMA everywhere. I'd like to personally tell everyone shooting out their negative vibes to go screw themselves. I don't need anything else negative this week.

Okay, so I have been sick. SICK. It's really a drug withdrawal (NO, not like methadone or anything like that). The mail order pharmacy screwed up my prescription, tried to fill the old one instead of filling the new one, which led to contacting the doc, who was wondering what-the-hell-is wrong-with-you-can't-you-read-the-paper-she-mailed-in-why-did-you-click-the-wrong-thingy-on-the-computer? So due to the pharmacy getting confused by a new piece of paper vs an old prescription still in their computer, I ran out of my medication. Okay, so why do I need these meds? To prevent my body from freaking out like it did these last 4 days. It all started Friday. Nausea, gastrointestinal ugliness, insomnia, fatigue, dizziness, numbness and prickly feeling hands and fingers, difficulty regulating body temperature - oh and the never ending migraine from HELL. Oh yeah - and I had allergy problems to contend with also.

And since physical crappiness wasn't enough, I must have drama elsewhere. Work is pretty much the same brand of stupid it always is. Nope. It is my friends that are wiggin me out. Weebug has her typical struggles - which aren't an issue for me (past my feeling of wishing I could do more to help her out when things get rough). But she is my nice little chunk of relative sanity these days in the friend department. Thank God for her. Really.

(Okay, that was written Monday and Tuesday. Today is THURS-friggin-DAY. Here's the part where I skip to the photos and then do a mental/emotional vomit post later on.)

Okay, so Saturday was a tournament sponsored by Untalan's Taekwondo in Graham, WA. Here's Harely doing her thing. She lost 10 to 12, but she did so good. The girl was pretty terrified of her. My favorite moment was when Harley kicked her in the gut/chest area, the girl went airborn, arced and landed flat on her butt with a gigantic THUD. It looked like a cartoon scene. The girl was okay, but it was one of those moments where you felt like you were in a real live Roger Rabbit movie.

And here is the mess that is my bag. I have a sock in some self striping Mama Llama and a Cascade Fixation baby sweater based on the Bamboo Baby Sweater in the One Skein Wonders Book. They are tangled and I was prevented by Mr Migraine from detangling the mess to get a proper photo.

I need to regroup for a bit. My grasp on my sanity and nice-nice is very tenuous at the moment. I may go into full-blown bitch mode in a bit. Have I said that I hate drama? Um, yeah. Well I hate it. And my life is full of what feels like high school crap at the moment. If you want to avoid this kind of thing, don't have any friends and don't, don't DON'T let any of your children do competitive sports on a damn elite team.

Posted by midgeling at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Broken Molar. This problem needs to be managed as soon as possible, since irritation to the side of the tongue can have unfavorable consequences. Options will include refilling of tooth and a crown or simply extraction of this tooth.

Gingivectomy. A gingivectomy is a type of minor surgery that involves the removal of a small amount of gum tissue around a tooth or teeth.

Ibuprofen. This fever re