Not really a knitting blog any more. Quilting, knitting, reading, photography, family, cats, whatever else I'm interested in.
Friday, November 30, 2007
The End
This is the last day of NaBloPoMo, and even though I only just woke up, and I have to leave for work in 1 hour, I'm not going to miss the last day!
I'm not eligible for any of the prizes, because I missed two days, and I started two days late, but oh well. I did get something out of this, and to me that's better than an awarded prize. I will be posting much more often now, instead of my former one or two posts a month. And, I figured out that I don't have to write a book each time I post. When time is short, a few sentences and a picture are sometimes more interesting. And, lastly, it had prodded me to quit playing so damn much spider, and do some more knitting!
Having said that, I am going to eat dinner and leave for work! I leave you with a picture of Gremmie's chubby butt: And that is truly the end!!
That's Gremlin doing a near-perfect catloaf thing in front of the computer. He wanted some attention. If I'm not adoring him 24 hours a day it's not enough.
I worked a little more on the second sleeve. I finished the ribbing and started moving up through the patterns. I won't get too much more done on it for the next couple of days, because I have to work. Fair Isle is something I don't take to work with me, because it requires too many balls of yarn. I like a project that is more portable than that. Anyway, I think we're really busy, and I'm probably going to have postpartum tonight. When I showed up there yesterday afternoon to complete my educational competencies, the first thing they asked is if I'd like to work that night. Uh, no. My kids were home, and I was actually cooking dinner for them for a change. Didn't want to back out of that.
This is my finished sleeve for my Philosopher's Wool sweater. The little thing in the bottom right of the picture is the beginning of the second sleeve. I thought I would make more progress than that, but I was more tired than I thought last night. I went to bed early, read a little (Doomsday Book by Connie Willis) and then went to sleep. And, then woke up 1 1/2 hours later, at 3:30 am. Great. Couldn't get back to sleep. Went out to the computer, did some more reading. Nothing. Eyes wide open. Finally fell asleep at 8 am, slept right through my alarm at 10:30, and was late for the rest of the day.
Had to make a stop at the hospital for all my hospital-required educational competencies, which is easier to do in one day like this rather than make endless appointments to get them done. Then, a quick trip up to my unit for finish the competencies for postpartum and nursery, and then I was on my way. I managed to put a serious dent in Christmas shopping for two of my sons. For some reason, I keep thinking we're already in December, so I need to hurry. It's nice to have a chunk of it done, though.
Back to my reading Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. I read about this on one of my Yahoo groups, and checked it out. I haven't gotten too far in it, but I'm having a hard time putting it down. So far in a nutshell, it takes place in the near future; history student gets sent back to the Middle ages, but it goes wrong (what a surprise!),and that's as far as I've gotten so far. I'd like to read a little more, but I want to work on this sweater, so the book is in my room, where I'm not, and my knitting is in the family room, where I am.
Yay!! I finally finished sleeve number 1 of my philosopher's wool sweater. I started the second sleeve, and I'll post a picture tomorrow. It's been a busy day, and I'm running out of time.
I did some Christmas shopping today, not nearly as much as I wanted. I'll do some more tomorrow after I finish my educational competencies at the hospital.
Streetlight through the gloom. Forgot to take a picture when it was lighter out.
The Mist has always been one of my favorite stories by Stephen King. Genuinely creepy, and sort of within the realm of possibility. Every time it's foggy, it reminds me of that story, and a chill goes up my spine. I know they made it into a movie, and I'd love to see it, except I know they changed the ending, and I don't like the movie ending at all. I think they should have stuck with the original ending in the book. Not everything needs to be wrapped up neatly after two hours.
What made me think of this today was the fog we have. I was at the supermarket today around 4 pm, just at that hour when dusk is setting in. That along with the fog made for some very dim light. I was walking across the parking lot to my car, when I heard hundreds of geese calling. I looked up, and through the gloom, I could see a large flock looming up, and just barely perceptible above them, several more flocks. Very creepy.
I feel like I'm in a fog today. I got my wish, sort of. I got called in at 7 pm, and then they let me go home at 11:30. Got home at midnight, had something to eat, went to bed, and at 3 am, my phone rings. Gotta go back. Aargh. At any rate, I'm off til Thursday night, but I do have to go back in on Wednesday for some mandatory education competencies. Why do they wait til the end of the year to schedule this stuff. It's not like we don't have anything else to do.
Knitting away on my sleeve. Still almost done, but did get in a few more rows.
That was my thought today when I opened my eyes and saw it was 2:30. NOT am, but pm!! I knew I was tired and needed to catch up on some sleep, but 2:30 pm? Hoo, boy. There goes my day. The first thing I did was call our unit to see how busy we are. Eight postpartum, no one in labor. So, I asked them to put me first on call for 7-11 and also for 11p-7a. With a little luck, I won't have to go in tonight, and I can post a little more, do some knitting, and watch the Amazing Race.
Woot!! I got to have last night off from work! Can you tell how happy I am about that? Our patient census really dropped yesterday, and I asked to be put on call if that happened, so I got my wish.
I did some more knitting on my philosopher's sleeve, but I wound up ripping several rows back, because I'm near the top, and I wanted a different pattern band at the top. I forgot to take a picture (actually, I fell asleep), so I'll try to take one tomorrow. I have to work tomorrow night, so I'm hoping to be put on call again.
Winter is arriving - 26 degrees at 7 am this morning, when I picked up Chris from the car repair place. Brr.
Below, my red maple in my front yard. I posted that tree earlier this week, but the picture was taken on a cloudy, overcast day. This was taken this morning. I think it's a beautiful shot of a brilliantly red tree on a brilliant late-fall day.
Tomorrow's agenda - lighting a fire under my sons so we can get the Christmas lights up outside.
I didn't get to post at all yesterday. I woke up around eleven, left for my sister's at 12:30, and left her house at 5:15 to get to work at seven.
It was a nice day. We considered having Thanksgiving Pilgrim-style; that is, outside under the trees, but ultimately decided to stay indoors with the windows open. It was a smaller Thanksgiving this year - only ten of us. My sister and I were the only females at the table, and we watched the eight men put away an enormous amount of food. All in all, not a bad day. I had to go directly to work, and even that wasn't bad. I did nursery for four hours, and the last eight hours I did postpartum.
Last night at work was like hell on earth. We were so busy. I've never had as many deliveries in one night as we had last night. I got home last this morning, slept four hours, had errands to run, and now, I'm trying to get my pies together. I usually do a lot of my baking on Thanksgiving morning, because we usually eat late. Since I have to work on Thanksgiving night, we're eating earlies, which means I have to get to my sister's house earlier - and it's a nearly one hour drive.
I have to leave early today for work. We are starting to use yet another new computer system for our charting, and I have to attend a two hour class. A two hour class that I hear is closer to 30 minutes. Aargh.
I knitted more last night on my sleeve. I got to the top of the pattern chart, and have started again, not at the bottom of the chart, but about 1/3 of the way up.
Tomorrow is for sleep, and baking pies for Thanksgiving, then off to my sister's on Thanksgiving.
My backyard and the waning color. We didn't have much color until the last week or so, and of course, it's spent most of that time raining.
One of the things I' ve realized in the last two and a half weeks is that I need to change the way I blog. When I started, I blogged a couple of times a week. After my father in law and my mother both died in April and May, I stopped blogging. A post maybe once a month, just to keep my hand in. God knows, my heart certainly wasn't in it. However, signing up for NaBloPoMo, and committing to a post a day has made me realize I need to blog more than once a month. Because of my work schedule 12-hour days, usually three-in-a-row, I find it difficult to put anything coherent together during that time. That leaves me with the rest of the week. I could manage two or three posts a week, I think.
I'm usually pretty good about sticking to commitments I make (unless it's dieting), so I will continue to blog more as the months pass. Does this count as a New Year's resolution, two months early?
This is another commitment - my treadmill. I have been working out on it at least three times a week, and four times, if I can stay awake long enough during my work days. Even if I don't lose any weight, I would like to improve my cardiovascular status and stamina.
I knitted like crazy on my Philosopher's wool sleeve, and I'm nearly done with the first sleeve - I have 14 inches done on it. Since this is a drop shoulder style, that's nearly long enough. I want to get this cardigan finished, because it's getting cold here, if that pile of seven cats on my couch is any indication. That, plus the fact that northern NJ got some snow last night!
Yay. A night off from work! It's so nice to sit here and knit and watch tv, and KNOW that the phone is not going to ring for me.
I did get called in last night. Got a call around 11:30 pm - "Are you coming in?" "um, am I supposed to?" Oh, No!! You didn't get called??? Get here fast!!" I was so close to being safe for the night. It wasn't that bad, though. I did postpartum again, and I had several patients I'd had for the last two nights, so I knew them, and it was a relatively easy night.
On the plus side, while I was sitting on the couch watching tv, thinkging, "hey, maybe things calmed down there", I did get some knitting done. I ripped the sleeve back to where I made the mistake, and reknitted it, and got a few more rows in. I also knitted some tonight, but I don't have any pictures yet. We really didn't have any daylight to speak of today, or at least that I saw.
Well, here it is Saturday, and it's 5 pm, and I'm still waiting to find out if they need me tonight. When I called earlier, they were so busy they couldn't talk, so I guess I can see how this is going to go.
Still stalled on the sleeve. I just need to rip a few rows so I can continue. Oh, and I need to find some time to do that, too.
I forgot to post yesterday. i guess this means i broke my agreement with NaBloPoMo. Oh, well.
Anyway, I am in the stretch of a very long work week. I was called in on call on Tuesday night; Wednesday, Thursday, and tonight were scheduled, and I'm on call tomorrow. A long stretch of 12 hour shifts like this does'nt leave much time for anything. Last night's 12 hours turned into 14; I grabbed a quick breakfast and fell asleep this morning. I just woke up, I have to shower and eat, and then get back out the door. Needless to say, there has been no knitting or frogging at Chez Knitting at Night this week.
You really don't realize how much time a "12-hour shift" takes up. Much more than 12 hours, judging by the things I didn't do today. I leave for work at 6 pm, get home between 8-830 am, or as late as 9 or after if we've been busy. Then I eat breakfast, fall asleep, wake up around 4, then eat a meal, shower, do my hair, walk the dog, throw a laundry in, pack my dinner for work, and then leave again around 6.
No time to see anyone. No time for the treadmill (and I'd really like to get on it!).
And no time for knitting (or ripping, which is still waiting for me).
I did make some progress on my Philosopher's wool sleeve last night. I have about eight inches done, as shown by the photo. I realize the photo isn't that good, our lack of daylight today combined with my total lack of interest in anything at all produced that.
I don't know what's going on with me. I feel distinctly depressed today, and this happened a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure what's causing it - I keep thinking I'm starting to deal with the "empty nest syndrome", and clearly, I'm not dealing well. My nest isn't exactly empty yet, but yesterday, one of my sons, who had planned to move back home after college told me that probably wouldn't happen. Not only that, I work nights, and anyone who's home at this point works days, which means we don't see each other much. It's been hard to get used to.
I could not get to sleep last night. Went to bed at 2 am, read for a few minutes, thought I was sleepy, so turned out the lights and went to sleep. Slept for about 20 minutes, and then I was wide awake. Gave up finally, and went out and surfed the web til 4:45 am, then woke up at 12:30 pm. Aargh. I hate that. Half the day gone already. I did knit a bit last night, and started to make progress on the Philosopher's Wool sleeve. And now that I look at it again, I'm wondering if this really is the Peacock colorway. Whatever it is, it's pretty.
Bought a treadmill today. Stuffed it in back of the Xterra with help from one of my sons, got it home, they put it together, and I think they're getting more use than I am.
Saturday sky. Kind of murky and wintery-looking, except for all the leaves still on the trees!
And I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am about that!! Work has been insane lately. What the heck was going on nine months ago?? I just finished four 12-hour nights in a row. I didn't wake up until 3:30 this afternoon, less than three hours ago. While I'm really irked that I spent nearly the entire day sleeping, I really needed it.
Needless to say, I haven't knitted a single stitch in the last four days. I hope to work a little more on my Philospher's wool sweater (read: sleeve) tonight.
Speaking of night, last night we got a little precipitation. When one of the nurses came in at 3 am, she said it was kind of sleety out there. I guess winter is finally on it's way. It's been dark and murky today, and I'm hoping it's sunny tomorrow. We finally got a little bit of autumn color, and I'd like to take some photos. Coming home from work this morning, I noticed a canal in West Windsor that had some beautiful maples and oaks with nice color hanging over it. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. Mr. B, sitting on my messy desk, checking out the pen.
Dusty, wearing a t-shirt to keep him away from an infection on his side. Works better than an e-collar for him. He tends to get stuck between pieces of furniture when wearing an e-collar.
That would be my post from yesterday. The one where I have the picture of my impatiens, still blooming happily away in November. Well, last night, the temperature dropped to 29 degrees. Uh, oh. I knew what I would find when I came home this morning, and I did. Frozen, dead impatiens. I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't posted that? Impatiens in December?
One of the reasons I own a truck. That's 80 pounds of kitty litter, 40 pounds of dog food, 20 pounds of cat food, plus 48 cans of cat food, and severl other items as well.
One of our sweet gums and an oak tree, doing their best during this disappointing fall.
Here it is November 7, and my impatiens are still blooming. This picture was taken a week ago, but they still look great. They've usally gotten frost-bitten by this date.
Well, here it is 3:45 in the afternoon, and I'm blogging without a thing to say. I just woke up 45 minutes ago, and most of my brain cells seem to have not gotten the message yet. They're still asleep. My sleep time was cut into this morning by an unfortunate broken down car (no, not mine, thank goodness). However, the effect was the same. This particular car had given up the ghost on an extremely narrow bridge over the train tracks in Princeton Junction. This bridge is barely wide enough to squeeze two cars over it on a good day, and this morning was not a good day. The car in question broke down three cars ahead of me and blocked our entire lane. The other lane is full of cars heading toward the train station, and they are in a big hurry to get there. They're not stopping to let the few cars stuck behind the broken-down car around. God forbid. This route is a nightmare in the morning and the evening, but I'm headed against the traffic, thank goodness. So, here we are, stuck behind this car, with a steady stream of cars zooming by on our right. (edit: That should be LEFT. I told you I was tired, didn't I??) The guy behind me finally flips out, and jumps out of his car, and starts yelling at the occupants of the broken-down car, and the truck that has now pulled over in front of it to assist, that someone needs to direct traffic. I'm wondering where the police are, because I KNOW several people called them. Finally, someone (not Mr. Melt-down) walks out and holds up the line of oncoming traffic, and I'm able to scoot around the car and off the bridge. As I'm driving past the monumental traffic jam heading toward the bridge, my question about the police is answered. They, like everyone else, are stuck in traffic. And, since this road is extremely narrow, and under construction to boot, there is no question of them driving around it. Unless they manage to sprout wings.
I got home much later than usual, and got to sleep much later than usual. And, true to form, Gremlin decides this is a good morning to need to use the litter box or whatever the hell is that he does, much more often. Me: zzzzzz. Gremlin: Meow. Meow. Me: ZZZZZZZZ. Gremlin: Mrrrf. Meeeeoww. Mrrrfffff. MRRRRFFFFF! MEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!! Me: (staggering out of bed, to open door): "&**%%^@#$ cat!!!" This was repeated in reverse, five minutes later, when he wanted to get back in. The ENTIRE scenario was repeated at least three times during the 5 1/2 hours I managed to sleep. It's going to be an industrial-sized vat of coffee for me tonight at work.
Heh. Needless to say, I did not knit a stitch last night, and probably won't tonight either.
Pirate flip-flops and falling leaves - taken earlier in October when it was in the high80's!
My great great great granduncle's grave in West Long Branch, NJ. General during the Civil war, Secretary to President Grant, Ambassador to France. When he died in 1921, it took up the entire front page of the New York Times. Palm trees on the beach in Long Branch, taken October 20. Palm trees in New Jersey? Yup!
Because today I start my three-in-a-row work days. Twelve hour shifts, three days in a row. Not as bad as it sounds, because I know pretty much all I will be doing is eating, sleeping, and working (and blogging, too, I guess, because I made a commitment here!)
I knitted three whole rows on my Philosopher's wood sweater last night. I'm actually kind of embarrassed to say that, because I wasn't feeling well yesterday, and I had a lot of time to make some progress. Did I take advantage of that? Nope. I farted around all day on the web, and played about a million games of Spyder. Oh, and I did run out to Sears - my PITA vacuum broke another belt. Get all the way out there, and find I don't have the right model number. No one else is home, so it wound up being a wasted trip, except that I took a quick detour over to the treadmills, and found a couple that I'm interested in. Didn't buy - just looked and went home and checked out reviews on the web. And, I'm so glad I did - the one I really liked turns out to be a dud. There were so many reviews saying the console crapped out after a month. If I'm going to drop big bucks on something like this, I want it to last.
Woo-hoo!! An entire cuff to my sweater. Maybe I'll get this one done before I retire.
Some of the color on one of my Sweet Gum trees.
Gremlin approves of the new pillow I so thoughtfully wound for him.
"I have what on my tongue??" Dustry grabs half the yard everytime he gets his frisbee.
After winding up 22 balls of Philosopher's wool yesterday afternoon, I figured it would be a good idea to actually knit some of it. So, after searching 20 minutes for size 4 double pointed needles, I came up with 3 of them, so I (gasp!!) used 3 size 4's and one size 3. I know purists are probably fainting, but it worked for me, so I don't care. The ribbing fits, and I'm up to the point where I'm increasing 20 stitches and moving on to the actual sleeve.
Funny thing is, this isn't the colorway I thought I bought. It appears to be black and blue, but I thought I bought the Peacock. Oh, well. I still like it.
I'm on call tonight, and I'm praying that I don't get called in. I still feel lousy. And I'd like to knit a little.
And, in health and fitness news, I dragged myself out to look at treadmills. Since I work nights, and sleep at weird hours even on my nights off, I haven't really been getting out for exercise like I used to. I don't really feel like going for a four mile walk in my neighborhood at 1 am. Plus, winter is coming up, and I managed to fracture an ankle three years ago, and don't feel like doing that again, so a treadmill seems to be a good idea. My somewhat porky Golden could use a little exercise, too, so this might be a good idea for him too. Treadmills do everything nowadays. I looked at some really amazing ones, ones that cost as much as my first brand-new car (ok, that was thirty years ago, but you get the picture....)
We actually had a nice fall day today. In the 60's, nice blue sky, light breeze. Too bad we're supposed to get rain tonight and colder weather tomorrow.
Oh, yeah. After muttering last night about nothing being on tv, I turned on the tv, and there was my favorite show, and the ONLY reality show I watch - The Amazing Race. I love this show. I was watching it way back when it started, when everyone was saying "The Amazing What??" Unfortunately, I'm scheduled to work for the next several Sundays, and I don't have a VCR or a DVR at this time. And, it's not on On Demand, either. Rats!!
Yarn swift in action, half of the yarn wound up, the rest waiting in line, and no cats tangled in it!
Gremlin taking a well-deserved nap. We all know how tough it is to supervise yarn winding.
Megan demonstrating how to drink from the new cat foundtain without sloshing water all over the floor or one's front fur, like some of those sloppy guys do.
More storm action from the passage of Hurricane Noel yesterday in Long Branch.
Last Christmas, as usual, my kids asked what I wanted for the holidays. As usual, I didn't have a clue. Finally, about two days before Christmas, I mentioned that I would like an umbrella swift and a ball winder. Keep in mind we're talking about five boys here. With minimal explanation and confusion, they not only figured out what I was talking about, but they actually managed to find these items locally. Turned out to be two of the best and most useful gifts I've gotten.
Since I was still feeling rotten today, most likely from the same illness that featured yesterday's dreams about delivering babies in France, I just hung around the house today, except for a quick trip to Dunkin' Donuts. Gotta have that coffee. Did a blogslog for a while, checked out Flickr, and then decided to get busy winding up that Philosopher's wool I want to knit.
Before the swift and winder arrived in my house, I used to put on a clean pair of socks, drape the skein of yarn over my feet, sit on the couch, prop my feet on the coffee table, and wind. It would take me 20-30 minutes to wind each skein that way, counting time it took to occasionally detangle the yarn from itself, or the odd cat whose curiosity got the best of him. Granted, it was also pretty aerobic, because I had to keep stretching forward to fiddle with the yarn draped on my tootsies. However, at 20-30 minutes per skein, you can see this was time consuming for 11-14 skeins of yarn. Quite an investment in time. I'd rather be spending that time knitting. Now, I can wind 11 skeins in less than 30 minutes, and that counts the time it takes to detangle a curious cat from the yarn leading from the swift to the winder. Mr. B, Muffin, and Gremlin were today's helpers.
Now I just have to get motivated to start knitting this stuff. It's Sunday night, and Sunday night tv is the pits. Nothing on I want to watch, and I've already watched AMC's Madmen on demand a ton of times; I need to see the first episodes, and they aren't on On Demand at his point in time.
Michael, standing on steps that usually lead to the beach, not the ocean, with storm waves in back of him.
Heading west towards clearing skies and home, away from the storm.
Sunset tonight, taken in Mercer County Park, West Windsor, NJ
Frightening experience this morning - I woke up at 6 am, couldn't breathe, heart racing, sweating bullets (yuk!), and dreaming that I was delivering babies in France. France? WTF? Where did that come from?? Anyway, realized I was sick, decongested myself, changed into cooler clothes, got calmed down, and went back to bed. When I got up a few hours later, I felt terrible, so decided to just stay home today and wind up some Philosopher's wool for a sweater that I really should start. Well, you know about the best-laid plans of mice and men, yada, yada.... Mike calls and tells me he's driving to the Jersey shore to take some pictures of the ocean, because Hurricane Noel is passing by, and would I like to go?? Aargh. I get on the Belmarcam, see what the ocean looks like, and tell him I'll go. Stop by Dunkin' Donuts for an industrial sized coffee and head over to his place. Since I feel lousy, he drives. We don't want to wind up in Delaware, or in an accident.
I can't resist the ocean. I was born and raised on the Jersey shore, and still love it. I can feel that pull. I would have to be dead to stop going. I especially love it when it's stormy, or otherwise non-crowded (is that a word?). Today was no exception. Amazing waves, very windy, grey, cold. Great day - I'm serious. I took a ton of photos and a movie, which I hope is actually in this post. Being down there is restoring.
Anyway, back to my dream. We've been very busy lately, and I've been doing nursery duty at a lot of deliveries in the last few months. Maybe too many. Last night, I went to work for a short shift - only 4 hours. After working 4 12-hour shifts this week, I figured a 4 hour shift would be a breeze. See the above statement about best-laid plans. I had three births in a 90 minute period. I STILL don't know where France fits in, though.
Haven't had time to do too much knitting lately. Delivering all those babies in France, you know. I am nearly finished with the Chevron scarf, though, judging from the shrinking balls of yarn. I haven't measured it lately. I'm also feeling like knitting socks again. I was looking for a certain yarn the other day, and looked in my sock yarn bin. Hmm. It's like Pandora's box. I can hear all those little balls of yarn calling out to me.
Man, YouTube really pixilates the hell out of movies, doesn't it???
I love knitting, and enjoy cross-stitch and quilting, too. When I'm not at work, I like to spend time with my family, garden, read, and take care of our cats.
And that is truly the end!!
