Early

On work days, my alarm goes off at 6:30, but today I had to get up at 6 to go to an appointment. On the plus side, when you're the first appointment of the day, the doctor is right on time, no waiting; on the minus side, I am so appallingly more tired than usual, you would think I had gotten up at 4 instead. SO. TIRED. I felt like, if someone gave me the slightest push, I would tip right over, and then fall asleep where I landed. Zzzz.

Mom is doing very well recovering from the hip replacement. On Friday night, she was in a lot of pain, "why did I even do this" levels, but by Sunday night she wasn't even needing the walker for every step, and had gone down to mild pain, or even just soreness and discomfort, which is a vast improvement! At this point, my job is going to be less taking care of her, and more keeping her from doing too much too soon. Wish me luck!

No News Is Good News

Mom is home and happy to begin recovering in her own bed. If I go quiet here for a few days, don't worry, we're good! 

It Went Well!

Bionic hip is in, Mom is recovering.

That's all I've got; work was a BEAR today (actually, since Tuesday), and I am wiped out. But happy!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

Thursday is hip replacement day! The next step in Operation Bionic Mom.

Wish us well!

Come On, What a Cute Cat

I mean, really. Come on.

It's So Simple

Even a child can understand it. 

Ta Da! Finished Shawl

I finished knitting the Wavedeck (Ravelry; Knitty) shawl, and today I blocked it. I've said it before and I'll say it now, blocking is magic. 

Here it is, laid out before blocking:

And after soaking, laid out but not yet pinned:

Much better! But best of all, after being pinned into shape:

So pretty! 

Same progression, closer up. Dry:

Wet:

Pinned:

I was really sure that blocking would open it up wonderfully, and I'm so glad I was right. I mean, not to pat myself on the back, but, you know. Lookit how pretty!

A Familiar Look

Last night, Miss Maggie was having herself a bath, and even from across the room, was so cute doing it that I had to take pictures. (I know, I have no sense of decorum, no respect for her personal space.)

But come on.

The look she gave me seemed familiar, so today I dug into my photo backup and found this one, of Carlos in 2010.

A similar vibe, don't you think? "What?" and also "Why?" and "Really?"

I have no regrets.

Some Truly Good News

Great, even!

My mother, it was decided earlier this year, was going to need a hip replacement. They were initially going to repair her torn rotator cuff first, since that was already scheduled--but then that had to be cancelled, so she decided she wanted to do the hip first, once that was an option, because it's hurting a lot more than the shoulder is. 

She saw the doctor today to talk about scheduling, and oh hey, they have a cancellation for the week after next, so instead of having to wait until they could get her on the schedule for some time next summer, she's getting it done now! Yay!

Also whew. I knew it was weighing me down--seeing a loved one in pain is never fun--but wow, what a relief. I'm bouncing here.

I love Friday the 13th now.

Bird Story

I was talking with a women who has a parrot, I don't remember what kind, but the bird is 30 years old, and apparently they have the human-equivalent age of a 4-year-old. The bird doesn't make tweet or other bird noises, but speaks clear English, and can also make beeps and other similar sounds.

So she told the story of a time a few years ago when she was on a plane with the parrot, and the bird starts making some beeps, and the woman can see people looking around, so she explains, "it's okay, it's not an alarm or anything, it's a bird." And one person near her is very concerned and repeats, "What is it, what is it?" and the woman says again that it's a bird making the noises. But when the other person says, "what is it?" again, the bird says firmly, "IT'S A BIRD."

I'm probably not telling it as well as she did, but oh, this makes me laugh. Anyone have other bird stories?

Yarn Shopping, In-Person and Otherwise

On Saturday, I was running some errands that had me passing my nearest yarn store, and decided to stop in (masked, of course) and see how things were going. Mysteriously, this store has done virtually no promotion during the pandemic; I think they might have sent one email? or two? over the last year and a half. I couldn't tell you how they are still in business.

But they are, although the store is a bit smaller than it was (literally: they used to have two storefronts and now they have one), and it turns out they had a lot of yarn on sale, even. (Again, why not email about this? encourage people to come in?) Including Sugar Bush Yarns, which is apparently going out of business; this is sad, as their yarns are very nice, but it meant the store had a good sale, and, well, you can see where I'm going with this.

Bliss (Ravelry link) is merino with silk and cashmere, and feels just as good as you would imagine.

There was one ball left of this lovely cobalt blue, 30% off.

And the store had a few colors left in bag quantity at an even better discount, $66 for the 10 balls, from $111 originally.

I think the blue will make a nice accent to the grey--sorry, platinum color. No, I don't know exactly what I'll be making with it. You know how I roll.

I do have an idea of a pattern to use on the yarn I showed here a few weeks ago (and then never followed up on, nor put them into my stash on Ravelry, hmmm, goofing off with a book instead, no doubt). These are the two colorways that Indigodragonfly came up with to fund-raise for the Yarn Harlot's team in the PWA Bike Rally (more details here and here). I ordered them on MerGoat Sock, which is merino with cashmere and nylon, and is wonderful.

The colorways are named The Shrieking Wheels:

And Tire Swamp.

I wanted a pattern that would show them off well together, and a knitting friend is making a shawl called Right Around the Corner (Ravelry link) that I think will do nicely. We'll see, once I decide that the Wavedeck shawl is big enough to call done. I don't think I showed you it from when I put it on a longer needle to spread it out:

That was a couple of weeks ago, and I'm continuing on. I still have plenty of yarn left; at some point I'll spread it out again and decide if it's time to make the call. No rush.

Random Bits

I don't seem up to much coherency lately, but here are a few bits and pieces:

• I may be an English major and not a medical professional, but I give myself credit today for noticing that myelodysplastic was spelled wrong (it doesn't start 'myleo'), and that although allogenic is a word, the word they wanted in this context is allogeneic. So close, so wrong!
• I love that British Olympic diver Tom Daley is a knitter! (I am now following him on Instagram.) He and his husband are so adorable.
• I'm trying to understand why people who could get vaccinated choose not to, but I just keep thinking, This disease is a tsunami. It's a tidal wave. It's going to envelope us all, and without help, we'll drown. And someone is throwing you a rope, and you're not taking it? 
• Plus, you can get fun things like this (from here):