Slogging through

Man this pregnancy has been tough. Aside from all the normal pregnancy tiredness and rampaging hormones, the SPD is really wearing me down. I was so happy to be getting chiropractic care this time 'round, and it would be working except for the fact that the Bean is still stubbornly breech. My chiro has been doing a lot of refreshing on the treatment of pregnant women so I'm hoping my next adjustment can get the Bean to turn, if not I'm going for the moxibustion - that's what credit cards are for right?

It's just so disheartening to not be able to walk, and I'm not talking about that having to stop every once and a while and stretch your back kind of thing, but a constant burning pain in your pubic bone every time you move your legs independently. I've found it's contributing so much to my general feelings of malaise - no amount of meds or supplements are going to be a substitute to a brisk walk on a cold day, and I'm missing out on a lot of my favorite weather right now. Of course once the Bean is on the outside the SPD will go away, but then I'll have to deal with the whole recovering from major abdominal surgery thing. I'm hoping the weather at least is cooperative and the chiro care I've been getting will prevent or severely lessen the nerve pain I had postpartum with Michael.

I'm still in a "fake it 'til you make it" mode with Christmas. We are supposed to get our tree tomorrow and I'm wondering if I'll be able to do the seven block walk up there or not since stopping at Starbucks on the way back won't be an option. I did start on my mom's present this morning - a felted, cabled wine bag. It was a lot of fun designing the cables for the bag (any excuse to play with graph paper). I think John is just going to see what his present is and if Michael's socks get made before Christmas they do, if not they'll get finished sometime this coming week. Lastly the sweater for my swap package is coming along nicely, I only have one more sleeve to finish and a few inches left on the body. I'll probably pick that up to work on it later this evening so I can block it on Sunday.

Off to resume knitting...

Just some complaining

• The Bean is still in his favorite position which means that it's *really* hard to walk.


• Michael insisted on napping with me in our bed this afternoon. This normally would be a great thing since it so rarely happens. It's not that great when he keeps up a steady stream of chatter the entire ninety minutes you are laying there before you snap, "Downstairs. Now."


• Christmas and swap knitting - these things do not go well with being 8 months pregnant

At least today is the last day of prednisone. We'll probably continue the albuterol for another day or two, but I'm hoping that once the prednisone is out of his system he'll be able to calm down and not be the already active kid hopped up on speed.

Last but not least - I love my hand-knit socks. They are truly the most comfortable things I own. I'm seriously considering dropping all of my other knitting projects and telling people, "Sorry, I was going to knit something for you but I chose to make myself a pair of socks instead. Merry Christmas!"

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Finished the first ball of yarn for my swap project and thus am half-done. I am thinking of winding my skein of Colinette Jitterbug tonight and printing out Cookie A's Monkey sock pattern to take with me to the OB's in the morning because damn it I need to start another pair of socks for myself. I even have a free size 2.5mm addi available to cast-on with - fate is telling me something here. I only have the sleeves left to do on my swap project and the ear flaps again for the swap project, so nothing that can't be knocked out in the late afternoon/early evening tomorrow and then blocked and let to dry on Friday then in the mail for Saturday. Of course Friday is going to be spent knitting slippers - I have 2 and a half pairs to finish so I can felt them on Saturday and they can be dry for Christmas. Michael still needs mittens and socks and there are a few little projects I have to get done as well - like my mom, I have no idea what I'm doing for her, probably something felted too.

I'm getting babbly, it's 11pm and I told the husband I would only be going up stairs for a few minutes 40 minutes ago, so I must dash. 'Night all!

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Isn't it too yummy for words?

Funk...

...funk, funkity, funk, funk!

Can you see the pattern? I just have a ton of stuff to do, but my energy level is the pits so much of it is going un-done and gnawing at my brain. Oh, but to have a vertex babe and a car - life would be so much easier.

The whine is over, you may now return to your non-exhausted, spd-free day.

Otaku Outrage

They messed with One Piece. New opening, almost all new American voice actors and new music. At least John was enjoying me yell, "What the F***?!?!" at the TV screen. I finally have the time to devote to watching it again at the start of a new story arc and they change everything on me. grumble, grumble, grumble...

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ETA

Yes, I am well aware of the fact that I am probably in the very small minority who liked the first US version better. John got some more enjoyment watching me swear at people under my breath as I was reading a message board thread about the new version. I have to admit I've never read the manga (*gasp* horror of horrors) and the sheer silliness of the show is what drew me in, much the same way I've been sucked into quite a few Dragonball story arcs - you just can't not watch it.

I really liked the opening song - I practically watched it just for that.

I guess this is someone's way of telling me I should go to bed after Naruto on Saturday nights.

John is so going to use this to his advantage - I can here the otaku comments already.

Grumble, Grumble, Grumble

My message board is down again.

Not at my best

My patience has been missing these past few days and it becomes very evident in the late afternoon and evening. Michael is still working his way through the cold and par for the course it's settled in his chest with that good (but awful sounding) juicy cough. The second half of his day is filled with whining and multiple meltdowns/tantrums. His sibling-to-be feels like he's in a full lotus position in my pelvis - super low and lots of oh so lovely pubic bone pain. The Bean also spends long stretches kicking various internal organs (my bladder and cervix are his apparent favorites). I do not remember Michael being this active in utero - the Bean starts when I get up in the morning and doesn't stop - even when I wake in the night he's moving around. All of these things added up together do not a peaceful house make. I'm raising my voice way too much which just increases the whining and meltdowns which puts me more on edge, ad infinitum. I just put him down for sleep and from the sound of it he's fallen asleep right away so I have that going for me.

I'm hoping the return of more seasonable weather tomorrow will improve things and maybe some stuff from Spinning Babies will encourage the Bean into a more comfortable position - if anything the pelvic rocks should help with the pubic pain.

Oh, and good thing to know -- I can use water in place of half the milk in my favorite buttermilk pancake recipe. There's nothing quite like mixing everything together and thinking, "Gosh, this looks awfully thick," and then realizing the the recipe you were going from by memory in fact requires two cups of milk all to the background of your three year-old singing the pancake song (which is, unsurprisingly the word "pancake" repeated over and over again, with jaunts into the falsetto every once in a while for added emphasis). John is due home any moment and I am making myself a chai milkshake when he walks in the door.

'night all!

I aten't dead

This has just been a week - lots of procrastinating and many ups and downs. Most days were spent putting off the two and a half mile walk to go to Walmart (I know - I hate it too) and AC Moore. Michael is just getting over the croup for which I'm sure I have the screwy weather to thank for. He also fell down the steps on Friday, once again putting the kibosh of the aforementioned walk. No lasting damage (thank God) and the carpet burn on his face is almost gone.

On Thursday I decided to go up to the fabric district to get some fabric for a quilt swap I'm participating in (and again avoid going to Walmart). I didn't get to cutting it up to mail on Thursday or Friday because of other life events, so I laid it out on the table on Saturday morning. It's stained and I am so pissed! Since returning it involves a hour and a half of my life, I'm just sucking it up. My mom picked up another four yards of fabric at Joanns for me on Sunday and my sister dropped it off for me. When this is done, I'll be cutting both up and mailing them this afternoon - I'm hoping that the marks on the first fabric will come out in the wash and if they don't they can be worked around. I think this will be my last swap for a while outside of the magic yarn ball swaps - it's too hard for me to get places that sell this stuff and those that I can get to are ones that are not stroller friendly. The fabric shop I went to in the fabric district was the only one I could even fit the stroller into and I wasn't able to watch the guy cutting it so that's why I missed the damage though I am still angry that they sold it to me in that state.

I have a full plate of knitting in front of me that has to be knocked out this week but shouldn't be all to hard to get done. The only thing that will potentially interfere with the knitting in my (drum roll please) new Nintendo DS and Pokemon Diamond game. My gem of a husband gave me his super-secret money last week so I could buy it. Mother's Day was very nice and relaxing. Lastly, I can't go into details, but any good vibes you can send my way so I can pass them onto my friend would be greatly appreciated.

Fabric needs to be cut and Pokemon need to be caught...

Grumble, grumble, grumble

Aside from not having access to files that I need to get things going for the Knitty Keen Etsy shop, it turns out that I don't have the font I used for all of the graphics on this machine. The problem is that I have no idea if it's from a fonts CD or if it's one that I downloaded. Keeping my fingers crossed that it's on the CD - that will cut my work in half, otherwise I'm looking at some late nights recreating the graphics. I also just realized that I don't have access to a printer since our laser printer uses a paralell port and the laptop only has USB's. This could not have happened at a more inconvenient time.

Yes - I will back up my files from now on - I have learned my lesson.

Anyway, I'm hoping I can find the motherboard we need for the desktop on Friday so that machine will be up and working by the end of next week.

Grumble, grumble, grumble...

Instead of a nice relaxing evening knitting and sipping on a hard cider, I just finished wrestling with the video card on our desktop. It wasn't seated correctly to begin with and I completely forgot about it. John picked up a new mouse and when he fiddled with the cord because it wasn't working he heard a "twang" and the monitor screen went to the test screen. I went up and it looked like the video card had come unseated. The tower no longer appears to work - the hard drive isn't booting.

The only good thing is that we at least have the new lap top. Do you think Dell will accepted knitted items and hand-dyed yarn as payment for a new tower? We've contacted our IT friend and hopefully all is not lost. If it is, I'm hoping it's an issue with the mother board and not the hard drive - all of Michael's pics are there because of course I've never backed them up. I have a ton of files that I would really hate to loose.

No geraniums or lobelia today - they probably won't be available 'til the end of April. The matress pad is nice, though.

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Just found out that the graphics card is most likely fried. Keeping my fingers crossed that putting the old one back in will fix the problem.

What I stayed up all last night doing...

and considering it's now 2am, I'm risking doing the same again.

I made Michael a weighted-vest. In children who have sensory issues, weighted clothing can help them focus and decrease some of their sensory imput. As always, I thought this would be a quick project. It was, but considering I had to make the pattern from scratch and didn't start that process until almost 11pm, I was up until 3:30 finishing it. The only reason I got to bed at 3:30 is because Michael woke up at 3 and I had to be quick, calling up stairs to him every five minutes or so to say I'd be done soon.

Here's my handiwork:



It's not very high on the list of priorities, but I will be posting a PDF with the pattern for at least a toddler/young child-sized vest. Michael's OT was very impressed with it and kept telling me that I could make a lot of money selling them but you know I really don't want too - this crap is damned expensive and I am not out to make a dime off of another parent who is trying to get their child a piece of needed equipment. Heck, if I could afford it I would have bought the thing - spending four hours sewing medical equipment no matter how well it turned out is not my idea of a fantastic evening.

Ranting aside, he did fantastically well with it Tuesday morning at story time - he just looked like the kid who had trouble sitting down rather than the kid who spends most of the story time hopping and or running around the room. We are ging to have OT at storytime again next week, so we'll see if we can repeat it.

grumble, grumble, grumble...

Went to set up the Noro last night to knit the other legwarmer. On one of my skeins, the yarn broke and they attached another piece - the problem is that it's from the wrong place in the colorway. AGGHHHHHH! Despite my Herculean (?sp) efforts, my legwarmers are not going to match excatly. Since I have already spent way too much (4 balls of Noro Kureon) on a pair of legwarmers, I cannot justify buying another ball. I will just have to live the with contant galling reminder that my legwarmers do not match exactly or I will have to frog the first one back to where the snafu occured so I can get them to match.

Frogging, here I come...