Michelle’s House of Horror

My neck hurts. It won’t bend forward, and it hurts to turn my head. I also have a colossal, throbbing headache. Since Friday evening. Although I don’t have a fever or feel ill in any other way, I am convinced that I have meningitis. My doctor’s office does not agree and recommends ice/heat and ibuprofen. Gosh, why didn’t I think of that myself? I’m SO glad I got that valuable medical assistance. At least I don’t have to have a lumbar puncture.

The downside to the neck thing (there’s an upside?) is that I had to leave work after 2 hours because I couldn’t deal with trying to hold the telephone, be amiable and type at the same time. Especially since I was dealing with stupid issues. It’s one thing to try to be friendly and helpful for people with actual problems, but my one unfrayed nerve was simply not up to helping people who didn’t RTFM before calling me. I shouldn’t have gone to work in the first place, but I really thought I could muddle through. I should have taken into consideration that people DO tend to call me to figure out their problems rather than figuring them out for themselves, and that I might not handle that gracefully feeling the way I do.

Time for more ibuprofen.

But in a good way.

I got my Ravelry invite on Friday. Just in time to leave town for the weekend. Grrrrrr! What I have had time to learn so far is that there is a lot of photography involved if one is slipshod about photographing ones work at the time it is being knit.
This is especially upsetting if ones husband is a professional photographer who helpfully points out that it would be easier to photograph all the woolens if it was not dark outside. Thanks, hon.

My user name there is Micia. Go and see me if you’re a Raveler already!

Also, the Ducks were in fine form on Saturday, and beat Fresno State by about a million points. This made my football crazy family very happy indeed.

* You signed up on July 3, 2007
* You are #12307 on the list.
* 486 people are ahead of you in line.
* 19629 people are behind you in line.
* 36% of the list has been invited so far

Yes, Ravelry. Maybe I’ll get my invite while I’m on vacation! Just my luck, I’ll get it while I’m Eugene watching the Duckies play football.

Since there is no actual content in this post, here is a random picture of something:

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It’s my old bedroom after a car crashed into it. You should really try to avoid having that happen if you can!

Yesterday. In a boat. On a lake. In the sun.

These socks have been a real problem for me, and I really am not sure why. I like the yarn, it’s not a complicated pattern, they’re not knit on needles that are too small, the color is nice…but the second sock syndrome was a killer and I also had problems with even finishing the first one!

The sock has been in progress for a pretty long time. If I think back, using a complicated mental process which involves recalling when I bought my car, I come up with 2.5 (closer to 3, let’s be honest) years since the start of the first sock: I took it (the car, not the sock) in for its first oil change at the dealer a few months after purchase, and there was a yarn shop nearby–Farmhouse Knits in Beaverton. That yarn shop is one of a very, very few who stock Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn and I found this Sock Candy (yes, and a bunch of other yarn. Leave me alone!) there. I cast on a sock and almost completed it within a month or so of purchasing the yarn.

Yeah. Almost completed it. ALMOST.

I kept finding other things I wanted to knit. You know how it is. Some sweaters (how many? I dunno–at least 4). Some shawls (at least 2 finished, maybe 3 and others in progress). Some hats (who knows. A lot). Some scarves (also, who knows. A lot). Other socks. Fingerless mitts. Then I joined the BMFA Rockin’ Sock Club which was the just the sock yarn guilt I needed to finally finish these up. The pretty yarn kept arriving in the mail. People kept posting pictures of their finished socks. I had socks which were shamefully unfinished, so I bucked up and got them done.

So, without further ado. The socks are knit in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Candy, colorway Red Licorice Swirl. They feature a stockinette foot, k3p1 rib leg with an occasional random twisted stitch which in retrospect was a silly idea because you just can’t see them, short row heel and toe a’ la Wendy. Here they are:

Now, what about finishing the languishing Icarus shawl???

We took the Paulie and Sarah fishing today on Paul’s last day in Portland before he heads to Fort Hood, Texas for his first assignment. It was a nice, relaxing way to end his visit. He seemed to need the time to decompress after several days of the usual behavior of a twenty year old male on vacation–party, party, party with his sisters and friends. He’s been feeling a bit pulled in every direction since he has a large family and everyone wants to spend one-on-one time with him before he leaves given that it probably won’t be too long before he’s in Iraq or Afghanistan. He seems kind of stressed about the tearful good-byes and such, so I’m very glad we’ve been keeping things normal and light!

He crashed (practically literally) at our house Friday afternoon and slept for hours. Woke up in the early evening and we sat up watching John Waters and Monty Python movies and chatting while Mark was at band rehearsal. We all slept in late-ish. OK, not really late-ish, as we were out of the house by 10 to have breakfast. After breakfast, Paul wished he could go fishing so off we went. Given that we don’t own fishing poles or tackle, it was perhaps not very practical…but hanging and letting Paul pick his own form of relaxation made it more than worth the money.

Sarah enjoyed the trip in her own way: soaking up sun and snoozing!

To anyone in MY family who might read this: don’t worry. I did NOT actually touch a fishing pole. I finished knitting a sock and just enjoyed the ride. I should do a separate post about the sock once I’ve sewn in the ends–I think it took me 2 years to finish them due to severe second sock syndrome. It was a momentous occasion which merits its own moment of glory.

I was also the designated photographer on the boat.

There are more pictures of the fishing trip and other moments from Paul’s visit over in the Jolin-Carleton gallery!

Here we all are greeting the soldier at PDX–

You can see the rest of the pictures are at the Jolin-Carleton family photo gallery.

Other family news continues to be posted there as usual in order to shelter the family from my incessant photographs of yarn and shoes

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Sorry, couldn’t help sneaking that in.