Gotta Get It Done - And I Did!

My fingers feel all cramped and my left arm aches. When I started knitting this afternoon I had about 2/3 of one sock finished and 1/2 of the other foot left to knit before I could start on the toes. I watched two episodes of Weeds, two episodes of Desperate Housewives and a whole soccer match before I had to stop to make dinner and make sure my husband wasn't completely neglected. There were a few times when I thought "This isn't even important. Just stop knitting. Who cares if these stupid socks get finished today?" but I kept going anyway because I wanted to see if I really could do it. Around 9:15pm I started on the toes and when I had clipped off the last bit of yarn from weaving in the loose ends it was 11:50pm. I skidded in under the wire.

I would like to now present the socks I thought I would never finish.



Yarny bits:
Pattern: Froot Loop
Yarn: Gedifra Socks Color
Colorway: 7007

All afternoon and evening while knitting my mind wandered and I thought of Hurricane Gustav that's bearing down on the gulf coast. My deadline to finish these socks was self imposed. While I really wanted to get them done on time in order to meet the goal I'd set for myself to knit at least one pair of socks every month, nothing bad would happen if I didn't. The world would still turn, the sun would still rise and I would suffer no ill consequences from not meeting my goal. I wish those who are living on the gulf coast, especially those I know and love, could say that about the pressure they're currently under. Folks like Marsha, who lives on the gulf coast of Mississippi have evacuated. Katya's in Mobile and while she's outside the cone of the storm, she still has to keep alert in case things change. Michele's staying put in Baton Rouge and she's collected her folks to come stay there but it's still going to be hard on them.

Preparing for a storm is hard work. If you have to evacuate you've got to get your stuff together and get out before it gets too late. If you're staying you've got to make sure you've got what you need to ride it out. First responders and organizations like the Red Cross have to make their preparations. They're all under an tremendous deadline and unlike me missing my sock knitting deadline, missing their deadlines can have life-or-death consequences.

I'm praying for them all. I can't imagine their worry and I can't imagine how they can keep going while under so much stress. May their efforts be blessed and may they all remain safe.

Gotta Get It Done - Day Six

I am so behind on this knitting. No time to tell you about it. No time for a picture of it. Only time to mash the panic button. Hard.

Shall we take bets on whether I make it? Just under 27 hours left!

Friday Shuffle - The Big Push Edition

It's day five of my self imposed challenge to finish a pair of socks by Sunday and right now, while I'm still feeling fairly confident, I also know it's going to take a lot of work this weekend to reach my goal.

Good grief - Did you ever imagine I could yap this much about the same pair of socks?

Here's what I've accomplished in 24 hours. Roll your cursor over the photo to see my progress as of this moment.



The sock on the left has seven pattern repeats complete (four rows, or more accurately since socks are round objects, four rounds make up one pattern repeat) and the foot is roughly halfway finished. The sock on the right has the gusset decreases complete and it's up next for having the foot worked on. I'd like to get at least four pattern repeats finished on the sock on the right before I go to sleep tonight and have the feet finished on both by bedtime tomorrow so that on Sunday all I need knit are the toe decreases and graft the toes shut. I don't normally like to set such strict knitting milestones to meet by certain times but I'm about to become desperate. If I don't become more strict with how much I get done then it's possible that it'll be late Sunday night and I'll still be knitting.

Regardless, Bixente the iPod has time to shuffle. There's always time for a shuffle.

1. Getting Ready - Miranda Lambert
2. Untitled #1 - I Am Kloot
3. Starlings - Elbow
4. Police On My Back - The Clash
5. Kentucky Woman - Neil Diamond
6. So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star - The Byrds
7. King Of New Orleans - Better Than Ezra
8. Run To - Emerson Hart
9. Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
10. Hello Goodbye - The Beatles
    

Gotta Get It Done - Day Four

Know how when people are on a weigh loss regimen and after a while they can't seem to lose any more weight even though they're still on the regimen? They plateau for a while before their weight loss resumes.

Here's how they looked yesterday. Roll your cursor over the photo to see how much I've progressed in the last day.



"But Dixie! It hardly looks any different!" I know, I know. I'm getting tired of forsaking everything else for knitting every moment I can grab out of my day. But the gusset decreases are finished on the left sock and are about half finished on the right sock. This is the point of the sock where we narrow down from the widest point of the sock - the heel - and transition to the sole and instep. Time consuming and you don't feel like you're making much progress. Plateauing. The only answer is to slog thought it.

Yesterday when I was lollygagging around taking a well deserved and much needed break I looked around at the message boards to which I belong on Ravelry and found this quote from Fandom Wank:

Sock knitters are the elite of the knitting world. Socks are the most difficult items to knit, and it takes a true knitter with skill, intelligence, and pure raw talent to appreciate the wonder of knitting socks. It's true: just ask any sock knitter.

I laughed because I know of sock knitters who truly do take this to heart. As for myself I knit socks almost exclusively because I'm too impatient to get a certain gauge and I'm too damn dumb to piece and sew together various parts of a sweater and have it actually look like a sweater.

Enough lollygagging. Back to the needles with my pure raw talent.

Gotta Get It Done - Day Three

We've reached the 50% complete mark on the pair of socks I'm knitting this week. I don't measure the halfway point in terms of length or stitches knit. Half finished to me is when progress on both socks has stopped being vertical and has begun to go horizontal.

Here's how they looked late yesterday afternoon. Roll your cursor over the photo to see how they looked this afternoon, 24 hours later.



They look close to being at the same point but the sock on the left has already had the heel flap stitches picked up and it's ready to have the gusset decreases knit. On the sock on the right you can see the heel flap as it's knit - the heel flap being the part that covers the back of your leg from the ankle to the bottom of your foot. And if you look closely you can also see the heel turn - the point at which we switch from the leg to the foot. From now on it's strictly footwork with these socks.

I would have liked to have knit more on it today but I stayed awake too long last night watching the Democratic convention and this afternoon my progress was somewhat curtailed by my falling asleep while knitting. When I'm at the point where my eyes close and I begin to drift off while in the middle of a stitch I know it means I'd best put down my knitting or else I'll foul it up to the point where I have to tear it apart and start over. While that would make the efforts to get this pair of socks finished by the end of the month more of a challenge, I don't believe the world is ready for the string of expletives that would burst forth from my mouth should I have to rip back one of these socks in order to fix it or even start it over again.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with my hairdresser. Prime knitting in public time.

Gotta Get It Done - Day Two

God love y'all. You're very generous in your estimations of my mad knitting skillz and speed. I would love to be down to turning the heels by now but I'm just not that good. But I did make progress even if my elbow is cramped and my eyes are feeling sandy and scratchy from knitting in the dark. It was rather overcast today and I couldn't be bothered to get up to turn on a light. I was taking advantage of every spare minute I could find to knit and I didn't want to waste time with doing something like turning on a lamp.

In an effort to make this even vaguely interesting to you For a little kick I'll show you yesterday's photo and then roll your cursor over it to see a photo of the progress I've made in the last 24 hours.



The difference may be hard to see but the legs on both socks are now complete. I've also done the set up to knit the heel flap and the sock on the left has two rows of the heel flap complete. "So?" you ask. "What does that mean exactly?" I means I've added another 1070 stitches to those socks.

And now I'm going back to it. Maybe by tomorrow they'll start resembling actual socks.

Gotta Get It Done - Day One

I shouldn't be here. I should be knitting. I have a pair of socks that must be finished by August 31st and I should be working on them.

But I've missed you so much and just had to drop in so you wouldn't feel abandoned. I just had to give y'all a bit of sugar.

While it's a semi self-imposed deadline, it's still one I'd like to meet so I need to put myself under the right sort of pressure to keep at it. I've got seven days to make this happen so how's this for a deal: I will post a picture of the progress of my socks each day until they're completed. Or until it's Sunday and I'm weeping bitterly that I'm just not going to make it. If I'm trying to show off for y'all with amazing "Damn! Look how much she got done!" pictures, maybe I'll actually complete my task.

Here's today's snap:



I knit both socks at the same time, working on one and then another. This pair of socks is roughly 25% complete. Each leg is halfway finished - the one on the left having just a few more rounds completed than the other. Here's what's left to do: finish the legs on both, knit the heel flaps, turn the heels, pick up heel flap stitches and knit the gusset decreases, knit the feet, do the toe decreases, graft the toe closed. Simple, right? I can do all that in the remaining seven days I have to knit, right?

Leave me a comment, if you wish, and make a guess on how far I will have progressed in the next 24 hours. A picture will show who has guessed best!

Friday Shuffle - Meeting My Commitments Anyway Edition

Sorry to be a drag but this week has not been a good one. I came down with a UTI a few days ago which has done an outstanding job at making me miserable. Trust me, if I'm up, washed and dressed at 7am - if I even am awake enough to acknowledge the existence of 7am - in order to go to the doctor by 7:30am in hopes that she'll fit me in long enough for me to wee in a plastic cup and get a script for antibiotics, I'm miserable. And now the antibiotics is making my digestive system all wonky.

Envy me. You know you want to.

And remind me not get myself tangled up in too many knitting projects all due at the same time. I should know that one on my own but evidently I missed the memo reminding me that I suck at getting things done on time without it being a big production. I did, however, finish the scarf that I had originally wanted complete two days ago if I was to stand a chance of getting a pair of socks done by the end of the month.

Here's the proof:



Yarny-type talk:
Pattern: One Row Handspun Scarf
Yarn: Fearless Fibers Alpaca and Wool DK
Colorway: Tulips
Yarn gifted by: Kara

Expect much weeping and gnashing of teeth as I try to get socks finished by next weekend but finish them I will because not finishing them would mean me breaking a streak I've got going. Plus concentrating on sock knitting will get me out of vacuuming. Again.

Bixente the iPod is committed to you to shuffle each Friday. Hit it.

1. What's The Frequency, Kenneth? - REM
2. Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks
3. Room At The Top - Adam Ant
4. Melissa - Allman Brothers Band
5. Beautiful - Carole King
6. Smoky Mountain Rain - Ronnie Millsap
7. Atlantic - Keane
8. Tennessee Flat Top Box - Rosanne Cash
9. There She Goes Again - Marshall Crenshaw
10. Close Call - Rilo Kiley
    

Over the Weekend

• I went on four walks in three separate parks.
• I went to a hot air balloon festival - specifically to one of those balloon glowing things. I imagine there's a proper name for it in English but I only know it as balloon glowing thing.
• I went to two different cafes and to an ice cream cafe.
• I watched the Olympics. Lots of the Olympics.
• I drove to a friend's house to give her some stuff I got for her from the Internet and to have a brief swim and a visit with her.
• I watched two movies and three episodes of Grey's Anatomy on DVD.

And their common thread? I knitted during all of it. I'm thisclose to being finished with this scarf that I am quickly becoming sick of.

Baby, you haven't lived until you've knit by the glow of a few dozen hot air balloons.

Friday Shuffle - Get With It Edition

August goes on. And on. And on. There's a bit of malaise starting up but I'm trying not to give in to it. Instead I'm just plowing on through, heading towards September.

• Gerd's back home from his stay in the hospital. Actually he got home - Monday, I believe it was - but I forgot to mention it. His pain isn't so bad but he's terribly weak from the surgery and getting over the infection and the fact that he can't eat anything. Absolutely no chewing for about six weeks. If he can't drink it straight down, he can't have it. I keep suggesting that he try some of that liquid nutrition stuff but he doesn't seem interested and so far is living on broth. In the meantime he sleeps a lot and by golly I'm actually feeling sorry for the guy that he's feel so lousy! Remind me of this in a few months when Gerd's back to normal and he's driving me mad again.
  
  
• It's the middle of August and the I'm-behind-on-my-knitting panic is beginning to set in. I haven't knit in two days! The scarf has to be finished by the time the Olympics is over and I can't take that long with it. I need to get finished by Wednesday so I have a clear ten days in which to finish my socks because they absolutely must be done by August 31st. I knew this would happen. I just know I will be knitting my fingers bloody on the last day so I can get the photo taken and up on Ravelry at the last minute. There are, however, two things I don't quite get. Number 1 - Why am I in such a froth over getting knitting projects done just to satisfy some self imposed deadlines I made on the Internet? If I don't get things finished on time it won't matter at all. It's not like I'm getting paid for it or I'll be punished for failing. Number two - Why was I never this whipped up over deadlines I had in college that really did mean something? Why did I never have a paper due or a test scheduled for 8am that I didn't spend the whole night before working on in a frenzy becuase of my procrastination.
  
  
• I'm planning on giving my flat a thorough, not-waiting-for-autumn cleaning. Really planning it. Thinking about what I need to get to help me with this task, how I want to tackle the cleaning of each room, what things I believe I'll be disposing of, what needs to be moved from one room to another. Really giving it all deep thought. Now all I need to do is light a fire under my ass so that I not only think and plan this great undertaking but actually do it. I can't mess around with it though. I've let things get clutters and unorganized and it's starting to irritate me. I love that absolutely wonderful feeling having a cleaned, organized flat gives me and I'm craving it.
  
  
• Have you noted that I used the word "flat" instead of "apartment"? It's not some sort of new I'm-so-European affectation. I simply hate the word "apartment". Hate spelling it. Hate saying it. Always have. It has never just rolled off my tongue. Years ago I started saying "flat" to B when I'd be speaking English because that's the English word he was more familiar with but I've decided I'm going full out and banishing the word "apartment" for good. It's "flat" from now on. I have been liberated!
  
  
• Yes. I can't get my ass in gear to finish my knitting projects without going into a frenzy and getting my home cleaned and organized stays on the drawing board for too long but, by golly, I can make the commitment to start saying "flat"!

Enough nonsense. Let's get on to shuffling.

1. Melt My Heart To Stone - Adele
2. Love Of My Life - Queen
3. Dandelion Wine - Blackmore's Night
4. Love It When You Call - The Feeling
5. The King - Hard-Fi
6. Oh Stacey (Look What You've Done) - The Zutons
7. Cradle Of Love - Billy Idol
8. Twist And Shout - The Beatles
9. I Hope You Want Me Too - The Mavericks
10. I Stand Corrected - Vampire Weekend
    

Blame the Chinese

Or blame the International Olympic Committee. Or blame my weakness for watching sports. You can even blame Michael Phelps for having an incredible physique. They're all really to blame for my scarcity these days.

I blame knitting as well. I don't know if watching the Olympics while knitting is considered multi-tasking but at least I'm half finished with the scarf I've been working on.



If I can get some more Olympic hot body competition time in I may get the other half finished by the end of the weekend.

C'mon back tomorrow and we'll shuffle.

Human Right

I wouldn't want to live in a world where tomato sandwiches didn't exist. Life just wouldn't be as good.

Friday Shuffle - With A Fireworks Finale Edition

It's been a frantic day here and it doesn't seem that I'm going to be able to pull off the single themed, complete, well thought out paragraphs thing. You know what's coming, don't you? Break out the dots.

• I was totally digging on the opening ceremonies of the Olympics this afternoon. Beyond impressed with their originality and precision. And the fireworks. I'd have probably lost my ever loving mind had I been there to see the fireworks live. I know that some folks are anti-Olympics this year because of China and their human rights thing and I can respect that. However to me it seems too late for that. The time to be up in arms over it and register outrage was before the games were awarded to Beijing. That would have been the time to actively protest human rights violations and the potential screwing over of some of the Chinese people and the disgustingly filthy environmental conditions there. The horse is long gone from the barn and I don't see how boycotting is going to get it back. Right now I'd rather enjoy the performances of the athletes and support their efforts. The Olympics in general have turned into a farce of greed, power and corruption and the only the athletes - the one thing that should take precedence over everything else - are the only things that remain that keep alive the whole point of the games...and unfortunately even they have their own problems with corruption. Still I want to see the efforts of those who have trained for years and are finally seeing their dreams come true, even if it meant some others got rich and powerful in the process.
  
  
• Last Friday I told y'all how I'm knitting a scarf during seventeen days of the Summer Olympics and today when the opening ceremonies began I cast on and knitted like I was on fire. Of course I may be like those who run long distances who don't pace themselves well. I may knit on it like my life depended on it for a few days but I also see me getting 2/3 of the way through and thinking that I can't. knit. one. more. stitch. I love scarves when they're finished - it's the process that can drive me a bit batty. I get bored with scarf knitting rather quickly because even if it's a pattern that has a fifteen row pattern repeat it's the same thing over and over for sixty or seventy inches. I don't have this problem with sock knitting because of how they're constructed. By the time I get sick of the leg, it's time to knit the heel. By the time I want to scream from doing the gusset decreases it's time for some zen knitting on the foot. By the time I'm bored of the seemingly unending foot it's time to make the toes. Scarves are just long rectangles and the scenery on that ride doesn't change. But I shall meet this test of endurance because it would be humiliating not to get a prize in a virtual contest.
  
  
• Gerd had his jaw surgery today. And it also seems that B and I understood incorrectly the story of what caused Gerd's jaw funk. We had understood my MIL to say that it was an impacted wisdom tooth that caused this problem. In reality the wisdom tooth had been pulled nearly forty years ago but somehow a bit of the root was left behind. Over the years this bit of root had dug into his jaw and ended up fracturing it. The break never healed, became infected and ended up destroying some of the bone. Today the funky bit of root was removed, the infection cleaned out and some sort of brace was put in to build up his jaw. At least we think that's what happened - it's what the surgeon told Gerd yesterday would happen. He was also told they'd make his jaw immobile but that doesn't seem to have happened. My MIL went to the hospital late this afternoon to see Gerd and his jaw wasn't immobilized - Gerd was able to talk some although it was very difficult to understand him. He's unable to eat but he's is able to drink. Gerd was so groggy that he wasn't able to say much and he hadn't spoken to the surgeon since waking up from surgery - the doctor would be around later to speak to him. All I can say right now is that the surgery seems to have been successful and we're hoping that Gerd will have a quick and complete recovery. For that alone we're all very thankful.

Wow. I wrote complete paragraphs after all. They're not related to one another but they're complete. And on that note, let's shuffle.

1. Flamethrower - J. Giles Band
2. A Fool In Love - Ike & Tina Turner
3. So It Goes - Nick Lowe
4. Two Halves - My Morning Jacket
5. All I Ever Wanted - Michael Stanley Band
6. Whatsername - Green Day
7. Fire In The Canyon - Fountains of Wayne
8. Soul Deep - The Box Tops
9. Rockin' At Midnight - The Honeydrippers
10. Beautiful Dream - Adam Ant
    

Best Two Out of Three

B needs a new push wheelchair. He's got one but it's ancient. I've lived here for nearly eleven years and it had a couple years age on it when I moved here. And B hates it. He's very tall - nearly 6'4" and there's an extended part on the back to make it taller. Unfortunately it also digs into his shoulder blades and he can't sit in the chair for more than a half hour.

Most of the time he doesn't use a push chair - he's got a big electric monstrosity but since it's a big electric monstrosity it doesn't go into tight places with any ease so having a smaller push chair for those times would be nice.

A guy from the medical supply place came by to talk with us and measure B and find out what he needs in a push chair. And there was a very nice one - it's all padded nicely and it would fit his long frame and there's a headrest for him (B's neck muscles are very weak and he has a hard time holding his head upright without support) and it looked very good until the guy told us it's not collapsible. Well crap. It's a nice chair but it would take up a lot of room in our small apartment if I can't collapse it. It may fit in our basement storage area but that's not likely. My basement storage isn't full but putting the wheelchair in it would make it very full and leave me no other storage.

There was another chair that B could fit in but it's not much different than what he's got now which rather defeats the purpose. The guy left and said he'd do more research in his office to see if anything else that would suit would be available and he'd give us a call. In the meantime we have to discuss whether he would even use this chair enough to offset its inconvenient storage or if we could even come up with a suitable storage area. And if he probably wouldn't use it all that much, why go to all the trouble of making place for it? Then again, if it were very comfortable and easy to use then perhaps he'd use it more and it would make the storage problem worthwhile.

Unfortunately if you have a handicapped loved one who needs special equipment you're not always left with a lot of choices. Equipment for use by the handicapped is a specialized thing. It's geared towards a group with not all that many people in it so it doesn't make good business sense to make a huge variety of things that only a small population will use. And if you've got a double concern like B does - quadriplegic and very tall - you've got even less choices.

We'll talk about it over the weekend and see if we can come up with a solution to the storage problem or just take the chance that the other wheelchair that's collapsible won't be such a literal pain in the neck to use. When all is said and done we may just have to employ our emergency decision making system: flipping a coin. We'll decide on which wheelchair my husband will use by relying on the same method of making up our minds that we use when we can't decide whether to order Chinese or Italian food for delivery.

Coming Full Circle

I have a headache. I'm seriously about to throw up. It's almost exactly like the feeling I get when I contemplate the universe and how vast it is and how we're just an insignificant speck compared to the enormity of it all. My tiny brain can barely grasp how far I've reached back and it fairly nauseates me.

Yesterday I was poking around online and found myself on a genealogy website. When my father was living he worked on some genealogy stuff tracing his roots through his...wait...let me think about this. His father's father's mother's father - who, incidentally, is buried in the same cemetery as my father. It was interesting. I found a census from 1850 showing Levi W. Beene and his first wife, Rachael Walden. They had a daughter named Martha Elizabeth who was my father's grandmother. It was things I'd already heard from my father's research into the Beene line of the family but seeing it again in print impressed me all over again.

I then noticed that one can look at family trees that people have already been working on and I took the chance that one of my cousins had started one. Now let me say that I barely know my first cousins on my father's side and know their children and grandchildren...well...not at all. My poor grandmother started having kids (at least according to the census forms I saw!) when she was 17 and she had her last child when she was 41 and she died in the process. Anyway, my father was way, way younger than his older siblings and so many of my first cousins are as old or are older than my own parents and so I very, very seldom ever saw them - and even then I was very young. I don't know these people from Adam's off ox but evidently some distant cousin made this family tree tracing back from one of my father's sisters.

This guy evidently did a lot of work on it because, going through that Beene limb of the tree I could trace back to ancestors living in Virginia in the early 1700s. Then I looked at my grandmother's side of the family and traced through her father. I had no idea it would go on and on and on the way it did. I could trace back through my grandmother's maiden name of Gann five generations until the information ran out but then I could go on further picking up with the woman, Amelia - born in 1729, who married Johannes Gann (who was born in France in 1696). I could go back through Amelia's father a couple generations and then when it ran out, I could pick up with her grandmother who was born in 1669. And it still kept going. Generation after generation rolled by until it finally reached the last name - Hennectin Kressetman born in 1384.

And where were all these generations living? All these distant ancestors of mine? Pfungstadt, Germany.

Holy smokes! I'm not just German in name only after all!

I have no idea if this information is correct. I have no idea how the information was gathered and I can't tell if it's accurate or not. But it's still fascinating to me. To see name after name roll by me. Seeing when they were born and in some cases, what year they died. And to think that in some tiny way, I am part of them. Or they are part of me. Nearly 600 years separates my birth from Hennectin Kressetman's and yet, if this family tree is correct, we're still bonded by the thinnest line.

And here I am - back in Germany. It's like returning to the mother ship.

How Bad Can It Get?

Summer is the time we normally get B outside at lot but this summer, so far, has been a bust. There have been a few factors preventing us from getting him outside but the biggest reason is because Gerd, my MIL's gentleman friend and the one I rely on to help me lift B in and out of his wheelchair, has been unable to help me.

Seven or eight weeks ago Gerd started to be bothered by pain in his jaw. Three weeks ago he finally broke down and went to his dentist who said he had a big infection in his lower jaw and the dentist referred Gerd to a jaw surgeon (in Germany a jaw surgeon is like a cross between an oral surgeon and a orthodonsit) who saw him right away and took a lot of x-rays and whatnot. Gerd takes blood thinner so the surgeon told him to come back the next Friday to have the infection drained.

Gerd gets the infection drained and the incision was sutured but wasn't given any anti-biotics. That right there made me think something was wrong. The pain was better for a day or two but then it came back. The surgeon wanted to see Gerd again the following Friday for a follow-up. That also sounded bad to me. By Monday Gerd couldn't stand the pain and went back to the surgeon who proceeded to say it was the sutures that were not agreeing with him so they were removed and Gerd was sent home.

The pain only got worse - so bad that Gerd could only walk a couple hundred yards from home before he'd have to sit down. The only time the pain would subside is if he stayed absolutely still. Gerd went back to the surgeon the following Friday and was still given no medications. Sometimes Gerd would have a day where the pain wouldn't nearly bring him to his knees but otherwise it only got worse.

The follow Monday - Monday of last week - both the jaw surgeon and his dentist was gone on vacation so Gerd went to his family doctor. She gave him an anti-biotic (finally! I mean who doesn't immediately treat an infection with an anti-biotic?) and some pain medication but he still had no real improvement. The pain would be so bad that Gerd could feel it down to his stomach. This past Friday Gerd went back to his family doctor who gave him another round of anti-biotics and to him to come back today if things were still bad.

It was still bad today. The family doctor gave up and said for him to try his dentist because it was something a jaw surgeon was going to have to take care of but it's the dentist who has to make the referral to the surgeon. And as luck would have it his dentist was still on vacation but at least one angel was smiling on him because another dentist who works in the same practice agreed to make the referral and they even got Gerd an appointment this afternoon at the dental clinic at the university hospital.

And here's the diagnosis and how the first jaw surgeon missed it is beyond me. Gerd has a wisdom tooth that never cut through and it became abcessed - that's what caused the giant-pus-swelling-from-hell. But over time it not only was the giant-pus-swelling-from-hell but the abscess and evidently impacted wisdom tooth broke his jaw (!!!) and the infection ate away some of his jaw bone (!!!!!!!). Massive panic and freak out? Time to take the stage!

Now Gerd's got to go to the hospital on Wednesday for some more tests and get off of his medications because on Thursay he'll have to have surgery to remove the tooth, clear out the infection and, I assume, repair his broken and somewhat eaten away jaw. Time in the hospital: at least one week.

Poor Gerd. I know I goof on him and all and he is a little annoying but he's not a bad guy and I really do like him. He's always nice to me and is never stingy with helping me whenever I need it. He scares the living shit out of me when he drives and he can say some stupid stuff but no one deserves the sort of misery he's got going on. And my MIL is absolutely beside herself. She's trying to be all calm about it but we can tell she's very upset and nervous about Gerd having surgery.

And now I feel badly about having goofed on him. Which, I suppose, is a lesson in not goofing on people.

Friday Shuffle - Putting Things Off Edition

The knitting thing - or lack of knitting thing, actually - has become out of control. In August I have to knit a scarf during the time the summer Olympics is in session plus a pair of socks and finish a pair of footies for Hilda.

This shouldn't be a problem - I'm fairly sure I can knit an entire five foot long scarf in 17 days if I stick to it. I get easily bored with scarf knitting and the thought of 50%wool/50% alpaca yarn laying on my legs in August does wig me out a bit but on the upside, it's a pattern that lends itself to knitting while watching TV. I call it "zen knitting". B calls it "I can talk with her while she's knitting without worrying that I'll cause her to screw up some tricky lace stuff which will in turn cause her to give me the laser death stare knitting".

And that still leaves me with over two weeks to knit a pair of socks. I can definitely knit a pair of socks in two weeks. So there's no problem, right?

Sure. No problem. Except it's nearly midnight on August 1st and I haven't knit a lick. I haven't picked what sock pattern I want to knit. Even picked what yarn I want to use which means it's not been wound into even center-pull balls.

So when I'm down to the wire and I'm in the midst of panic knitting, remind me of how I tarried and wasted my time and didn't get promptly started on my projects when I should have. Of course it'll only roll off my back. I've had plenty of experience in this arena. I'm fairly certain that every term paper and essay I ever wrote was started in a shit hemorrhage panic with a deadline looming over me like an August thunderstorm.

Let's waste some more time. Let's shuffle.

1. Glorious Day - Weezer
2. Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
3. 11:11 - Rufus Wainwright
4. Cartoon Music For Superheroes - Albert Hammond, Jr.
5. Brainstorm - Arctic Monkeys
6. Plasticine - Placebo
7. Anywhere On Earth You Are - Alan Jackson
8. Here And Now - Great Big Sea
9. Run For Your Life - The Beatles
10. The Happening - The Supremes