The flu is no fun

Today is the first day in a week that I have:
-checked my email,
-put on clothes that are not pajamas
-done any work
-stayed awake for more than 4 hours at a stretch
-worked on my cross stitch

I've been stuck at home with a really bad case of the flu since last Friday. I went to work Friday morning feeling really tired, and by noon I was sick. My coworkers told me to go home. I was sure I could manage until 3 though, and that was a BAD idea! Monday I went to the doctor and managed to throw up and almost pass out during my vsit. Yay! I've now sort of recovered, but my plumbinng is broken and my landlord is here right now snaking the drain. I'm planning on going to work tomorrow even if I don't feel any better because I'm so sick of being home!

I do feel better. I'm sitting up, checking my work email and chipping away at the easy questions. I've only taken ibuprophen today, no Dayquil. I'm still coughing a lot, and tired, and a little dizzy, so I guess it's good that I didn't go in today. That was the plan, to go to work, but when my shower and toilet backed up with water and soapsuds last night at 7pm, I knew I wasn't going anywhere today. This same problem with the drain has happened at least two other times, the last time being in October. Enough already! Time to move out. As soon as possible.

At last, it's finished

This is a picture of my sister Kristin and her husband Doug. I stitched this wedding sampler for them originally as a wedding present for their wedding on October 20, 2007. When I realized that I wasn't going to finish in time, I got them somemthing else for the wedding, and instead I gave this to them for Christmas. As you can see in the picture, I'm not very good at framing. This is the first time I've framed anything, and I used the sticky mounting board. There must be a technique to it, because it still doesn't look straight within the mat. I hope they like it. I enjoyed stitching it, but there was so much tiny detail it took forever! I think I worked on it every night for a month, but then I would need a break and avoid it for two weeks. I started it in April I think, so it took me 9 months.

January Goals

I am so tempted to post here a super long list of resolutions, such as getting up earlier or learning to knit socks, and participating in the SBQ posting and blogging on a regular basis, but a long list of resolutions tends to intimidate me and I just think about all the things I haven't done. I hope to create a list of things that I'd like to try instead.
Okay, forget it, here's the start of my list. I'll add to it as I go...

- Take medications regularly
- finish three scarves for donation to Rosie's Place (with my knitting group)
- cross stitch some easter cards
- Go to the gym
- Go through my apartment and clear out stuff for donation
- Take donations to Goodwill
- Knit a pair of socks
- Backup all music on computer
- Visit my friend Amy
- Visit my sister Gretchen
- Complete Historic Countries Sampler
Funny, now that I'm writing the list down, I'm blanking. Well, I'll fill this in as I think of things.


Here is how far I've gotten on the Historic Countries Mystery Sampler featured in
The Gift of Stitching Magazine. It's a massive twelve part sampler that started back in September. The January issue just came out with parts four and five and now I am WAY behind. The main reason I haven't made any progress is that I was working on a gift for my sister, which I'll post more on later. I also chose to order natural linen, which is coarse and darker than I had wanted. I was so eager to begin that I cut the fabric, ran the edges through the sewing machine, and got started. I would start over with a new piece of fabric, but the fabric was really expensive. I've never spent $50 on fabric before. I'm hoping that the darker fabric will look nice in the end, but right now I'm wondering if I should just give up. Ugh.

B-b-b-boots!

My new snow boots arrived yesterday. yay! They feel a little tight, but I think they'll stretch out a tad, making them much better than my current pair. I feel a bit wasteful ordering new boots when my current boots are still in fine shape. The thing is, they hurt my feet, and have always hurt my feet. On to warm tootsies!

Hooray for Snow!

Yesterday we had our first big snow here in New England. The storm was talked about for two days beforehand, speculation was rampant about how many inches, if there would be sleet, if schools should be closed, etc. Well, yesterday morning I managed to find my boots in the bottom of my closet. I was hoping I could toss them out, becuase I've just ordered a pair of snow boots from L.L. Bean, which of course will get here after our bumper storms have come and gone and the snow has melted.

I spent the morning riding the subway to and from my dentist to have a pain checked out that turned out to be nothing. She said that my front tooth has tilted in ever so slightly, not enough to see, but enough to change my bite. Now when I bite down, my front tooth hits first, putting pressure on that tooth, and it hurts. This has lead to cold and hot sensitivity, and even a little bleeding around the gums at that tooth. My dentist acctually said that I might benefit from a retainer to push my front tooth out a little bit. She said the cost was minimal, then said $250. Yikes! She said a retainer would be a little wire putting pressure on the back of the tooth to push it a bit forward. I think I'll try her first recommendmation of wearing my night guard for a week to see if it helps with the pressure on my tooth. Or I could push on it with my thumb and use the night guard. Umm, I think I'll go with the free thumb option. I don't have the luxury of dental insurance that would pay for a silly retainer. And besides, I'm sure if I did have the insurance that I would have used it all up by now in the course of a year.

There was some sort of accident in the subway this morning, so when I was trying to get to the dentist I ended up taking a shuttle bus all around town to reconnect with the working subway line and then walk to where I could pick up the right street for my dentist! I got to work at about noon.

Wait, wasn't I writing about snow? Well, I got to work at noon, where I found that two people had already left early becuase of impending snow doom. Everyone else was advising me to do the same and get the heck out. The snow started around 1:30 pm and was coming down pretty fast. I left work at 2:30 and spend an hour and a half sitting on the bus, waiting for the traffic to move. If I had been thinking, I would have been smart and taken the SUBWAY! Oh well. The snow feel hard and fast, and the city was quickly buried under a heavy wet blanket. How beautiful!

Now here I am today, having fought my way through unshoveled sidewalks and unplowed streets, and I have to say that I LOVE the snow. People here get into such a panic about it, but it's not a big deal. I guess we're supposed to have another big storm tomorrow night, so that might makes things icky, but I don't mind too much. Just you wait though, I'm sure I'll be cursing the snow tomorrow when I have to walk to a holiday show on small streets with my old boots.

A Quiet Morning

It's nice to have a quiet Saturday morning after a thoroughly stressful week. I've been enjoying my coffee, watching bad tv, and am looking forward to a weekend of making Christmas cards and doing laundry.

Technical difficulties - again?

I am the stand-in techie at my company. We are too small to have an IT department, or even one person on staff who is dedicated to computer related issues. So, it falls to me as I have the most knowledge about computers. I keep the web site going, fix software problems, monitor our mail server, etc. But when something goes wrong I feel like I am not equipped to deal with it. I don't know why the email suddenly stopped working at 8:36 pm last night! I have tried everything I can try, stop calling me! The phone is ringing off the hook with our employees in different locations calling in to find out why the mail doesn't work. Give me a chance to fix it people! Ugh. No wonder my eye is pulsing right now.

My First Finish

Well, here it is, my first knitting project. My friend Kelly is modeling a celery green basketweave scarf knitted from a pattern on the Lion Brand website. It's 66 inches long - 14 inches longer than the pattern size but I really don't think it should be any shorter.

That scarf took me a long time to make, almost two months, I think. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving I went to my craft group and everyone said that the bamboo needles I was using were really rough, kind of ridgy. Maybe that's what's been bothering my fingers. Well, that and the fact that as I type this, it's 26 degrees F with a windchill of 6. Yikes! My skin is suffering.

I'll have to post a photo of the new purple scarf I'm making for our charity donation to Rosie's Place.

Futon moving

I guess there are a few things to have to accept when you have a cat for a pet.
-You will never had an uninterrupted night's sleep again
-You are not the boss of me
-cat hair will be the reason you need a plumber, a new vacuum, and an IT guy (don't ask)
-at some point, all your furniture will be ruined by your cat.

I have an anxious cat. Every time I go away for a few days, he greets me with love and affection, and then poops on the floor. Or at least, on the floor until recently. After the last few trips, he has been pooping on the futon. YUCK! I've tried the enzymatic cleaner, but at this point in order to sit on the futon I have to put down a trash bag, then a towel, to make sure I don't end up smelling like cat poop. Gross. I have a friend coming to town in a couple weeks and one of us will have to sleep on the futon. But not with it like this! Today I'm picking up a new futon mattress and a waterproof pad to put between the futon and cover. This one is a Protect-A-Bed, and is supposed to be cloth and still waterproof. And not crinkle the entire time. I have a cheap $20 mattress cover on my bed right now, but it's definitely crinkly and hot. I hope that the pricier cover will be worth it. I've read a bunch of consumer opinions, and it sounds like this might work. I don't want to spend $90 on a new twin futon if I have to replace it in 6 months.

Typewriters Obsolete?

We had a temp working in the office today to handle the stuffing and sending of our newsletter to our target list. At one point I had Ilya, cute 24-year-old guy who just graduated with an impressive degree in bio and engineering and secured a hotsy-totsy job in downtown Boston, type up two mailing labels for names that were added to the list after the mass production of letters and labels. I pointed him in the direction of the back office, where the antiquated electric typewriter sits, and gave him some labels. After a few minutes he came to my desk. He had NEVER used a typewriter! EVER! Or a word processor either I guess, since that is almost the same as an electric typewriter.
I was stunned. I love typewriters. The immediacy of it. No programs, no additional hardware required. Just slightly upgraded handwriting. No record, no editing, just raw text. Up until recently I had a word processor in my closet for when inspiration struck. The screen no longer worked, and the disks no longer saved. [read electric typewriter] When I moved from my last apartment I put it in the large free pile on my porch and watched it walk away to a good home. I miss having a typewriter, but I just don't have the space right now. Once I graduate to a 1-bedroom maybe I can bring one the typewriters from my parents attic here and pound away a masterpiece.