Back to work

Thankfully, today didn't seem too long. I started the day with a headache, but my morning coffee helped with that. (Now, I realize that coffee is not really a solution, it's just a band-aid. But until I can get out from under all that I need to do and get more sleep and exercise, it will have to do. Also, I only have on serving a day...I'm not totally overdoing it with the caffeine.)

The best news of the day is that my friend Suzanna's dad is okay! He lives down in New Orleans and he is alright. They still have to figure out the best way to get him out of there, but at least he wasn't hurt in the storm. They will worry about cleaning up the house later...

On the way home from work, I bound off the second sleeve of my t-shirt. A bit of sewing to do, and I have a new shirt! Not sure that it will be ready to take on vaction, but I'll certainly be able to wear it before it gets cold out.

Just a photo of Effie when she was helping me with the Highland Park House Tour Program:
Lately, this is Stewart's favorite evening sleeping position...although sometimes his legs end up more up in the air than this.
A close-up. Isn't he so cute when he's not getting into trouble?

And then I had to annoy Nora with the camera, too.

Did I mention that we just bought a new camera? :-D

Grandparents

I decided to leave work and go to the viewing with Rudy, and I'm glad I did. There is something about being there for a difficult time that makes you feel just as much (if not more) like part of a family than just being there during the happy times.

It is sad that Sara is no longer with us. But she left behind a wonderful legacy of children, grand-children and great-grand-children that she loved very much. She also led a very happy life with many friends, much fun and lots of square dancing!

Personally, I think that she knew that she would be exceedingly unhappy in any condition where she could not continue to live an independent life in her home...and I think she was ready to go. She was too independent to fight to live on in a life that would have been unhappy for her. I think it takes a brave women to know when she is ready to stop fighting.

I never looked closely at the casket. I enjoyed looking at the variety of photos available much more.

Rudy spent the whole way home talking about his memories of living in Mt. Pleasant, and it made me realize that I never really recorded any thoughts about Grandpa Eldon. Although, I must admit that he felt like the grandparent I knew the least. We had a lot of fun together when I was growing up, but I tended to have a preference for my grandmothers growing up - they took me out to lunch and out shopping - more exciting that working on the car when you are a young girl.

But we did have things in common. I remember watching the Reds on TV with Grandpa Eldon and Grandma Lillian, and in later years we watched golf together, when I *finally* became interested in it. The three of us went out golfing together a couple of times. My grandmother prodded me a bit more, since she knows what it is like to be a female golfer...but we all had a great time out on the links and getting lunch afterward.

I remember Grandpa doing his crossword puzzles and reading Reader's Digest in his chair by the front door (I wasn't really involved with that). He also liked to do jigsaw puzzles, which I remember helping with. When the three of us were watching TV, he would fall asleep in his chair and I also remember that when I spent the night, he would take the bed in the other room so I could sleep in his twin bed in the master bedroom and be closer to Grandma.

I remember discovering all kinds of cool stuff with him in the basement. There were pool balls, old vacuum cleaners and many things that I think he planned to fix someday. It was musty and dirty down there, but that was probably the place that the two of us spent the most time. Well, that and the backyard. He was always happy to throw a ball or practice chipping or do anything that was possible to do in their small urban yard...which is probably about the same size as the yard that Rudy and I have now. I hadn't thought about that before...

Enough typing for one night. I want to go work on the second sleeve of my t-shirt.

Note to self - Tara wants an orange felted purse for Christmas. :-)

If only my office policy was online...

So one of the advantages that my husband has is that he works for a university. Meaning that it is a big "company", so there is lots and lots of information online so that the HR and benefits people don't get a constant barrage of phone calls. This means that when there is a death in the family, he can find out about his bereavement leave online.

And I have a paper office manual in my desk drawer, so I couldn't find out about my leave until I got to my desk this morning. Turns out that I can use sick time for "death in the family" leave, which I have plenty of, instead of vacation days (of which I only have two left).

I'm skipping the "viewing" today, because I didn't want to use my last two vacation days and be out of vacation by mid-september. But now that I know I can use sick time I'm contemplating getting back on a bus and going home. I have things to do, but nothing urgent.

I hate decisions like this. It would be easier if I hadn't already sent an email around about being out tomorrow...

I will look at my to-do list, and then decide.

How to use a blog?

I realize that up to this point I have mostly been using my blog as a daily journal. I don't know yet if this a good thing or a bad thing. And I'm wondering if it will become less of that and more of an idea place once I am less super busy.

We'll see.

Sad news - Rudy's grandmother passed away early this morning.

Friday night

The best thing about having a 9am meeting in Greensberg is that my day started at 7:30, so I could take most of a lunch hour and still leave before 4:30. Instead of going right for the express bus, I stopped in Payless and browsed. I have a few pairs I shoes I was ready to get rid of, but not without replacing them first. :-)

I found three pairs of pumps! Two black and one brown. And they were having a "buy one item, get the second half price" sale. So I picked up a purse, too! The good news is that I came home and put four pairs of shoes in the goodwill pile. That's right - a net loss of a pair of shoes. Those Clean Sweep organizers would be so proud.

After getting home, I made pretty good progress in cleaning up the dressing room and bedroom. All of the clean clothes are put away. All of the non-bedroom stuff has been moved to the appropriate room and my suitcase from last weekend is unpacked. Still need to unpack the camping bag and now my office is messy with stuff that was in the dressing room and bedroom. Oh well. I'll get to that room in September...

I need to do more work on the house tour program before I can let myself go to sleep. sigh.

Too much

I can't cover it all, it feels like too much has happened in the past week and I'm having trouble processing it all. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining...there are many people in this world that are much worse off than I am. I'm just in a state where I really need some ME time and some US time with my husband, and I need that AFTER I get a chance to clean the frickin' house. Don't know if it will happen.

The sad news is the Rudy's grandmother, Sara, is not doing well. She had a stroke last week, but she seemed to be doing well afterward and we had planned to visit her this week once she had stepped down to a less intense unit. Unfortunately, she had another stroke early Tuesday morning which had a much more damaging effect. She is in a coma and the prognosis isn't good. So we are playing the waiting game at the moment.

In happier news, we had a nice time at the wedding over the weekend. The bride was lovely and we got to meet a number of friends and family of the Tuckers that we had been hearing about for years. I started knitting a purse when we got in the car on Friday that I wanted to carry to the wedding on Saturday. I had to stay up until 1am to finish, but I got it done.

(the pictures are not yet downloaded to our server, but someday I'll get some pictures of my knitting up here...)

The t-shirt is going well. I'm up to the shoulders and it seems to fit! Also, Mom and I went yarn shopping on Monday and had lots of fun. There is some hand-spun, hand-painted yarn on order for me - can't wait!

I need to go work on the house tour. I can't really relax until my work for that is done...

Poor Stewart

He had to go to the vet today. And so did Nora. I don't want to embarass him, but being put in the cat carrier is so upsetting for him that he poops. It happened the first time we brought him home, and we thought it was just because he was being ripped from his home by strangers. But no, he just HATES the carrier.

Rudy had to do the vet visits alone and clean Stewart up afterward, so it will be my turn next year. I'm thinking we should take Stewart's food away the night before so there won't be anything to come out.

Poor Stewart.

He seems to have recovered, and since he had a bath this afternoon he smells good.

Relief!

Finally found my passport. I was afraid I was going to have to declare it missing and try to get a new one in 2 weeks and 4 days. Not fun. I was seriously thinking about calling in sick tomorrow if I couldn't find my passport tonight.

So first thing tomorrow I'll take my packet to the post office and overnight all of it and a prepaid envelope to have it overnighted back. Hopefully in a week I'll have a passport with my new name, and relaxation can occur.

Took an awesome stained glass restoration class last weekend. Trying to get house tour stuff done. Going to Toledo and Michigan this weekend for a wedding and parent visit. House is still an enormous mess - even more so since I spent 90 minutes looking in nooks and crannies for my passport.

I've started knitting a t-shirt, I've bought yarn to knit my first bear and I'm starting to think about what I might knit as christmas presents. Ribbon X-back is waiting to be frogged again.

Did I mention that the house is a mess? :-)

Oh, and I have no idea what I'm wearing to the wedding this weekend. I might just end up wearing the same thing I wore to the last wedding we went to...since Rudy is the only person who will be there who has seen me in that dress before.

I'm going to work on the t-shirt for a bit and then try to get a good night's sleep now that I have located my passport...

Back from camping, still overwhelmed (and a Stewart Story)

Camping was good, although overall uneventful. In Rudy's words: "We were slugs, with mastery of fire." :-)

Friday, I only left the campsite to go to the bathroom building. I tended to the fire, worked on the blanket and ate. Rudy read LOTR, ate and made a few trips to the camp store. Saturday and Sunday we did a little hiking and we took a quick dip in the lake on Saturday afternoon. Otherwise, we tended to the fire and ate. We nearly polished off two bags of marshmallows!

I also finally wrote a letter to my friend, Eva, in Spain - she sent her last letter in November. I'm feeling better now that the letter is in the mail. She is supposed to be getting married at the end of the year, so I'm anxious to hear how her wedding planning is going.

Although I got a lot of sleep while camping (somewhat interrupted, but lengthy), I came back home and I feel overwhelmed again. There is a lot to do for the house tour, the house is a disaster (Rudy keeps trying to tell me that it isn't, but I'm not convinced) and most of my upcoming weekend will be filled with a stained glass restoration class. Plus, there is plenty going on at work, so I can't always leave after 8 hours. I think at some point I'm going to have to sacrifice some sleep to get it all done. I'm not thrilled about that.
Oh, and to top it all off, I can't locate my passport. It's not where I thought it was or in about ten other places where I've looked. Either I put it in the safe deposit box or I put it someplace really dumb. I'm hoping for the former.

In addition, Stewart prevented me from sleeping for about an hour last night. At 4:37 am he came up on the bed to get attention. He generally starts by climbing over my body. Being a male cat, he is very muscular and surprisingly dense for being a relatively small cat - so we're not talking about delicate steps. He comes up purring and ready to be petted. Lately I have been ignoring him, and after a few minutes he leaves.
I guess I was feeling generous this morning, and I gave him some attention, hoping to convince him to relax and sleep next to me. I'd pet him, and then try to go back to sleep...and then he would nudge my hands and face with his to indicate that I shouldn't have stopped petting yet. :-) I eventually hid my hands under the pillow, and after 40 minutes, he got the hint and went to sleep. 10 minutes later I adjusted my position, and he got up again. Not wanting to start all over again, I went to the bathroom, and thankfully while I was in there Nora showed her face and she and Stewart went off to play together.

At 6am, Stewart walked on me again. This time I did not pet him, and he got the hint that I was not ready to stop sleeping yet. Maybe next week we'll try again...

Feeling better after an overwhelming start to the week...

The good news is that Rudy and I are legally married. :-)

Last week I attempted to request a sealed copy of our marriage record in order to change my name on my passport. I know that I shouldn't have waited until a month before a pending trip, but at the time I changed my name on everything else I didn't know if I would need my passport again before it expired so I just didn't bother.

On Friday I received a letter from the county stating that they didn't have a record that our ceremony was ever performed, although they did have the application that we made for our license. *Sigh* I went to the marriage license office, and after a bit of haggling with one woman (and a few tears shed), I finally got help from a supervisor who got me going on the right track.

Two overnight envelopes back and forth to our wonderful officiant in Ohio, and today I have a triple-sealed copy of our marriage license in my hands. I will have to pay for expedited service, but at this piont getting my passport changed won't be a problem. *Whew* We're legal. No need to plan another big wedding. ;-)

I am still overwhelmed with all of the stuff left to do for the house tour, but I have made good progress this week, and it will get done. It doesn't help that one of our co-chairs seems to be AWOL at the moment...but we will push on without him.

I'm also in a great mood because my first felted bag turned out WONDERFULLY. I'm really happy with it, and having a new purse to carry always brightens my day. When I was out running errands at lunch it was a little hard to convince myself that no, I don't need any more yarn at the moment - but I managed to show restraint.

This weekend we are going camping, to our usual spot. I plan to finish the wedding blanket, and once that is done I will work on Ribbon X-back. I'm about 1 1/2" into attempt #2. I also plan to bring the purple cotton I have and the directions for a wrap sweater from SnB Nation. I need to swatch for gauge and I want to rewrite the pattern so I can knit it mostly in one piece. Same thing with a T-shirt pattern from Magknits.com. I don't think it needs the seams for structure, so I might as well knit it in the round.

Trip is booked!

I'm just relaxed thinking about the trip we're taking in September. Lovely beaches. Blue water. A private cottage with an outdoor shower. Snorkeling right from our resort. Look out St. Lucia, here we come! I can't wait to knit on the beach, and to get our in-room couples massage!

Even before that we have a camping trip and a road trip to Toledo & Detroit planned. There is a wedding of a family friend in Toledo, and once we are there, my parents place is only an hour and a half away...so we'll spend the rest of the weekend with them. We haven't been there since last August, so we are due for a visit. And Mom has found a great yarn store up there that I am anxious to experience.

The weird part about camping is that it looks like it will just be the two of us. Tom will be away on vacation, Janice has to work and Erin has talked about coming, but we don't really believe that she will be there until she shows up. :-) We might try to go back for a shorter weekend in September, if we can find a weekend that other can join us. We are going back to the same place as always. I've heard comments about other state parks from my friend Annie...but it has been such a busy summer it was easier to go to a known location than to try out a new place. Maybe next summer we'll experience a new park for camping.

Still a secret

So this blog isn't a secret, really. But I also haven't told anyone about it. Take that any way you want...

Not a lot of progress on the knitting front. I expected to get a couple of hours done yesterday during a work trip to Ohio, but my traveling companion was extremely tired so I did all but one hour of the five hours of driving. I think I got three or four rows of the blanket done. And it has definitely reached the point where it is too big for the bus.

I'm nearly done with my first bib. I'm using leftover green cotton, and I created a big diamond in the middle of it by doing a garter edge and stockinette where I wanted the diamond. The stockinette is a little loose, but I think it will tighten up a bit with washing. I'm working on the strap, which should go pretty quickly...although I might run out of green before it is long enough. My mind is full of lots of possible variations - so I see these bibs as a good alternative to knitting lots of dishcloths.

I haven't finished frogging Ribbon X-back yet. I've tried to measure gauge about 10 times and I'm not sure I'm getting a real number...so more math is in my future for that one. I either need to work on the math for that or clean the house after work tonight. We will see what wins. :-)

Shopping & Surprising Socializing

Friday - After work I went to Kaufmanns and shopped for clothes. I haven't really gone clothes shopping in a while. I've gone to a store with a gift certificate and/or bought a few items here and there...but not a grab everything that looks like you might like it and try it on shopping.

I was in desparate need of summer clothes. Now I'm not, thank goodness. I didn't have any shorts that fit properly and only 3-4 shirts that I really liked. Now I have shorts, skorts and several more shirts. Camping and our anniversary trip will be much happier as a result.

Saturday, Rudy had to work in the morning and early afternoon. After getting up slowly, I did some cleaning and laundry around the house. We had an expected visit at 4 from two friends. Tom has been a friend of Rudy's for a long time and his girlfriend Rachel is who owned our kitty Stewart before we did. (as described in previous blog) Well, the four of us went over to the coffee shop in the neighborhood, and while we were chatting we were offered four free tickets to see "Tommy" downtown. It wasn't really on top of our list of things to do, but it seemed wrong to turn down second row seats to a show! Tom and Rachel were not interested, so we ended up going with two other friends that we managed to wrangle at the last moment.

The show was okay. Well executed but not a lot of heart. But it was pretty cool to sit that close, I think the closest I had sat previously was Row M. Afterward we went out for food. With shows at two theaters and a baseball game, downtown was full of people, and quite a variety of them!

In knitting news, I'm more than halfway through the blanket and Ribbon X-back needs to be frogged. It's too big, as expected. I made a gauge mistake, and I just really need to redesign it vertically to fit my odd, short-waisted body. It's only been 2 1/2 weeks on the bus that I've been working on it, so it's not a huge deal. Hopefully I can rewrite the pattern for me before we go camping so I can work on it around the campfire.

Tomorrow I'm going to do a swatch for a felted purse and/or start my first cotton bib. :-)

Gaaah! Too big...

I'm working on ribbon X-back, seen here:

http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring05/PATTxback.html

I'm about 9" up from the bottom and I decided to try it on. Well, it was supposed to be 35" around and it turned out at 39" around - I must have messed up the gauge when I measured it.

So I just decreased 14 stitches evenly around, and that *should* take me back to 35". I've only been working on the tank a little over a week and I think that will solve my problem because I can certainly use the extra ease around my hips. We will see how it goes.

Since I'm using a different gauge than the pattern calls for I have to do lots of math when I get to the straps. I either have to get the math done before my knitting get together this weekend or work on something else. I can't do math and gossip at the same time. :-)

On the cat front, we got an email today from the woman who we adopted out cat Stewart from. Her name is Rachel, and she had to give Stewart up because of allergies. The timing worked perfectly for us, as we were looking for a new young cat that hadn't been in a shelter or been an outdoor cat. (We have a 16 year old cat who we didn't want to expose to an viral infections or other illnesses.)

Anyway, Rachel is finally ready to visit Stewart in his new home. I think the first few weeks were pretty tough for her (I can't blame her!) and she is now ready to come see how he has settled in here. Currently Stewart is napping in the window, so I think he has settled in well. :-)

Really, really dumb

On Sunday night, I took the first half of the photos for the highland park house tour. I stayed mostly in the flat part of the neighborhood, the sun was behind the overcast sky and I only took about an hour. On Monday night, I went out to take the second half of the photos, which involved walking through the hilly part of the neighborhood. I was out for about 90 minutes and there were a few taxing hills, but I seemed to deal with it okay, even in 85 degree muggy weather.

The problem came when I didn't take care of myself when I got home. I should have taken a cooling shower and had plenty of water to drink. I didn't. I became dehydrated and was up all night sipping water and waiting for my body to get back to normal. Fun fun.

So no work today. In fact, other than sleeping, knitting, resting and watching TV/DVDs I didn't do much. But now I've seen most of the extras on the Beauty and the Beast DVD, so I guess that is an accomplishment. :-)

So far the name was the hardest part...

Deciding to create a blog was pretty easy, and so was the initial setup...except for choosing a name. I fell asleep thinking about it last night, I asked a bunch of online friends for suggestions and then I looked through the names of all of the soundtracks I own (in my iPod).

I considered fairly "obvious" names like Amy the Architect or Wicked Knitter...but I decided that I didn't want the name of the blog to represent what I do, but rather what I think. All of the things that I do are important to me, but I don't want this to be a knitting blog, or an architect blog or a theater blog or a pittsburgh blog...it should have elements of all of those things.

So seeing the title of the musical "Passion" sent me on a tangent of thought that led to this title. The commencement speech that I wrote (but didn't get to give) was spawned from a quote by Le Corbusier (not my favorite architect, but I love the quote).

"Passion can create drama out of inert stone"

Love that.

So, the blog name is a bit different...but it comes from the idea that I, as a designer/knitter/painter/architect/etc., can become passionate about yarn, bricks, paint, etc and transform them into something more than they were to begin with...into art.

The fact that it has the name of one my favorite shows in it isn't half bad either. I was really trying to get a name with "Wicked" in it, but the only one that had a nice ring to it was "Wicked Knitter", and that was a little too specific.