How do you say "Goodbye"?

This is what my TV looks like off.



And this is what it looks like on.

I have had this TV for longer than I've been married - it's going on 20 years old. It's gotten me through sickness, health, Grand Slams, checkered flags, late night feedings, early mornings, long days and lonely times.
It was working just fine when I left it last night and I can hear the power on "click" but it just doesn't go on. I was actually kind of pitiful - after I double triple fuckiple checked the power cord I just sat there clicking the remote, trying to make a picture come on.

And just this weekend I had mentioned to Joan & Cindy that I was flirting with the idea of buying a 40" Sony that Future Shop had on sale. I decided against it and now I'm TV-less upstairs. sigh I have got to learn to roll with my instincts without all of this 2nd guessing. Ah well, it's not like Future Shop only has one sale a year. And with all of the hours that I'm not at home right now I'm sure that Kerwyn and I can share a TV. I'll just have to get to the remote first!!

The Yarn

I'm using Louet's linen in a gorgeous deep claret along with Claudia's handpaint linen to knit a skirt for Elise. It's a little hard on the hands but oh so easy on the eyes!!

And then, with a modicum of skill, a dash & a half of patience and a heapin' helpin' of time I will turn this: into this:.

Kyle woke up on the wrong side of the bed, yet when the question, "Howzit going Kyle?", he offered the following synopsis. He's still got the ugly, bulky plaster cast that they put on after the surgery, but he should be getting a sleek, light new fiberglass cast on Thursday.

I'm enjoying working at the office, but it means early to bed to get up at 4:30 and I'm sure that I'll get used to organizing my evenings better. It could happen!!

One Week Later

I'm sure that by the time that I get used to working full time again Shelly will be back from her leave. My training seems to be going well - look! I haven't made her cry yet.

But I did get Beth's CPH finished!! I'm done the knitting on Artisan Knitworks sweater and it's just waiting to be blocked and finished - tomorrow darling, I promise! I'm almost done Elise's socks then I can jump right into a skirt for her. It's a skirt and I can't wait to start it. She just blows my mind with the ideas that keep coming off of her needles. I'm going to be using Louet Euroflax & Claudia Hand Painted Linen. There's no better incentive for finishing a project than getting a new one!!

I'm going to be starting Kaffe Fassett's China Clouds for Cindy's mom - just intimidating enough to be exciting. It will be my first full-sized Kaffe.

And really, I should have let Mother Nature take care of Kyle's thumb. We Moms really do know what's best. Putting the cast on it and immobilizing the thumb caused the swelling to go down which allowed the bone to shift thusly: Oh yeah, that's really bad. I mean, totally deformed, circus side show freak kind of shifted. So it will be under the knife for my baby boy on Sunday.
I should have just kept rolling with the blind incompetence natural mothering instinct that was working so well. Mother Nature would have kept his thumb swollen enough to keep the bone in an acceptable alignment until it was sufficiently healed to allow the swelling to go down. I swear, it's nearly enough to turn me into one of those anti-medical intervention radicals. Nearly.

But he's still got a sense of humour. Sam - this lazy, sexy morning thumbs up is for you!!

Equilibrium

The universe just has a way of balancing. Black and white. Yin and Yang. Lent (the fasting, abstinence and giving up) and Christmas (getting, getting and more getting). In return for the guilt that was heaped on me, the universe gave me plenty of waiting room knitting time and that gave me 6.5cm/2½" of ribbing on over 400 sts on the front & hood band on Beth's CPH.

And Kyle won't need surgery. The orthopedic surgeon is quite certain that while the bone isn't perfectly aligned, it's going to heal just fine. His range of motion will be "normal". If he were a gifted basketball or football player or a pianist who needed an extended/maximum range of thumb motion, then the surgery would have been considered, but since he's not, he's doomed to complete and utter normality!!
He chose black for his cast (I tried to get him to pick pink, but no sale) and here he is when I asked, "How's it going Kyle?".




A little later I asked, "Howzit now Kyle?".


Everything is thumb's up!! LMFAO!!! There is no way that I'm going to get tired of this joke before that casts comes off!!!

I'm off to cast off while Omarosa tries to squirm off of the hook. Again.

Worst Mom Ever

And when I say "ever" I mean that no matter what you've done or forgotten to do in the last two weeks, it pales in comparison to my incompetence!
Let me preface this woeful tale by explaining that Kyle slipped on some ice about 7 weeks ago. His ankle swelled up to disgusting proportions, it was all bruised and he couldn't put any weight on it without tears coming to his eyes and potty words coming to his lips. So I took him straight away up to emerg. and spent the requisite hours waiting and it turned out to be a sprain. Ice and Advil had him back to normal after a week. So ...
When I came home from Minneapolis, he had a massive thumb. He'd slipped on some ice (I know, and yet he won't wear actual winter footwear) on the Saturday and landed on the ball of his thumb. He could move the thumb - limited movement, granted, but still ... So anyway, he's still whining about it last week and it's still a bit swollen and bruised but he's doing stuff with his hand so we didn't think too much about it. He was off last week (a different story) when I had to go get my drivers medical done so I asked him if he wanted to see the Dr. since we were at the clinic anyway. "Okay." "Do you have your Health Card?" I asked. "Uh ... no." So that was that.
Today I have him up at emerg. for a maxillary CT scan (another different story, related to the previous different story, but trust me, you needn't feel sad for him about them). After the Dr. tells us that the scan came back clear (no fracture) I remind Kyle that he wanted to ask the Dr. about his thumb. "Oh that's definitely broken."
"Are you kidding me?" I asked, laughing.
"No - see here, that's definitely the mis-formation of a broken bone. When did this happen?"
I tell my sad (but seriously - it's funny!) story, he makes a joke with Kyle about calling CAS, then sends Kyle for the necessary x-ray. Oh joy - more knitting time. And I can't help but laughing when I look at Kyle.
So it's a pretty bad break, as breaks go. It doesn't look so bad to my amateur eyes, but the in-the-flesh comparison is more telling. I know, but how many times do I look/does he show me his hands like that?!? The ER doc pulled all the strings and used his best connections to get us in to see a surgeon - yup, you heard correctly - tomorrow. Now I just have to break it to the office that I need my PM run covered. Not because it's been healing for 2 weeks but because of the location of the break it may need a pin to make sure that it sets correctly. So Kyle now has a temporary cast on it to totally immobilize it and he's not to use his right hand for anything (yeah, he'll be totally bored BWAH - HA - HA!!!).
I did play with the chair make Kyle comfortable while we waited for the x-rays to come back. Atonement in small steps.

I'm laughing now but I'm sure that I won't be allowed to forget this for the rest of my natural life. I don't actually feel guilty - Kerwyn didn't think that it was broken and he's broken bones playing sports, and Kyle keeps reminding us that he's Sixteen (yes, he says it with a capital "s") like it means something so he totally should have spoke up and said that he wanted to see a Dr..

So, unless you've forgotten your baby on top of the car and driven away or left them at home when you went on vacation then, the award for Worst Mom of the Year will be coming to roost chez Prescod. After glancing furtively out the window for a CAS car, Wannietta draws the blinds and turns out the lights.

Fast ...

Kristina and Kelly were at In the Loop today - it was fantastic to meet them in person! (Sorry about catching you in a blink K.!!)
JJ - I completely coerced Kristina into coming. I'm a mother - I know how to push the right buttons. Then, before I could stop her, Enabler Wannietta took over and befriended Evil Kristina!! Good Kristina and Just-Sitting-and-Knitting Wannietta were tied up and gagged (and not with the nice yarn either!!) and could only watch helplessly while those two did what they do best. Then they left - wicked laughter echoing in their wake - leaving us holding the silk.

Enabler Wannietta has told me that I needed this to knit a new Knotted Openwork Scarf to replace the one that I left at Julie's. It must have fallen out of my sleeve the last time that I was there. I was quite certain that I was just fine making do with my other scarves but EW obviously knows better. I know, but what kind of Enabler would she be if she just drove me out to pick up the scarf?

Elise also stopped by to discuss a new project and she brought gifts!! I absolutely love the sock tubes - they were put to immediate use on my SIP. I've never broken a needle in a knitting bag but I have pulled needles out of stitches when getting socks out so this is a perfectly practical gift. The next one is 2 little beaded scissor fobs that I can knit!! One has a little kitten charm on the bottom - awwww!

... and not so fast.

How is it that a finite and quantifiable number, like, oh, I don't know, let's say 12½", can take longer than would seem normal or necessary? The good news is that I managed to break free of this temporal loop - let the seaming commence!!

ETA a picture

Knit Out '08 Knitting Competition

Okay - here it is. The final heat of the Speed Knitting Competition at the 2008 Knit Out at the Mall of America in Minneapolis!! Congratulations again Hazel!!!

YouTube

ETA: Sorry - for some reason the video lost it's connection to YouTube; it should be better now!