More 7's Please (And a Rant)

I had this brilliant idea about making a blanket for Trevor. Davis has a fairly intricate hand knit blanket that a woman gave me at his baby shower. Very sweet, especially since I didn't know her all that well.

Anyway, my idea was to use the Pattern-A-Day perpetual calendar. I'm planning on doing 11 big blocks (19" X 20") using dates that are important to our family (birthdays, anniversaries and such). Plus one block of stockinette with his initials purled in. I figured I'd do a block a month and then I could give it to him for xmas.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! How freakin' delusional am I??? Here it's almost halfway through May and this is all I have...

That's not even half of one block. sigh.

Now there are two things I have to knit (OK, only one is "have to") and they both need the size US 7 32" addi's that are stuck in this block. I'll probably bust out the block and then use the needles for the other projects and then someday, maybe when he goes to college, he'll have a nice, new blanket. sigh.

(BTW, here's the sight that has the errata for that calendar.)

Last weekend, Dave and I watched Gunner Palace. It's a documentary about soldiers in Iraq, made in 2004. It's pretty good. It's depressing and sad and a bit hopeless. There are funny parts, too and there's no visible violence/gore so I suggest watching it as soon as you can. The saddest part, for me, was hearing the AFN (armed forces radio network) news blurb saying that our government was going to send 187 billion dollars to help our troops - getting them the equipment they needed to be safer, etc. Then they show some guy joking about how much of that money they actually get - showing the "high grade Iraqi metal" (scrap metal salvaged from suicide bombed cars and buildings) that they were having to use to reinforce their vehicles. It makes me sick.

Then I find this article. It tells how there's this system that already works being produced; this system can detect and diffuse RPG's (rocket propelled grenades) within a certain radius of a vehicle. This could save countless lives and limbs of our troops but the ARMY won't buy them because they have an $70 million contract with Raytheon. Raytheon, who is developing the same technology but estimates that they are 5-6 years from completion. WTF??!! So, not only is the government screwing our troops, the Army is jumping in for a sloppy seconds screw as well. Does this give anyone else a headache?

In a perfect world, the Army would bite the bullet (so to speak), end the contract, and go get the systems that are already working. In an even more perfect world, Raytheon would gracefully bow out and let them get what they need.

Then I see things like this movie called Delta Farce coming out. So, yeah, let's take the fact that our troops are overseas, losing vital body parts and dying and let's make a farce out of it for some quick cash. It's the American way, right? I love America and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else but sometimes it makes me so mad that it's OK to belittle such important things.
Freedom of speech, they can exercise it by making such drivel and I'm exercising it here. I only wish common sense were as prevalent.

Praying my active duty friends are safe, Ruth!

Doug's Rules of Life

At the spa, on average, I worked on 800 people a year. I've had memorable clients to be sure (some for being stupid) but one of the clients I'll always remember was Doug. He had "Doug's Rules of Life"

There's only 3.

1. Love what you do. (Because when you're not at home, you're at work.)

2. Love where you live. (Because when you're not at work, you're at home. He meant, not only your abode but your climate and terrain.)

3. Love the people you choose to surround yourself with. (Family you can't do much about but the people you choose to hang out with - why hang out with people that are assholes or treat you like shit?)

Not many people get to achieve number 1. But two out of three ain't bad.

Still chasing number 1, Ruth!

P. S. The Subject title is not a typo. I'm going to start some memoirs/memories.

West Nile Virus vs. Bubonic Plague

In Tucson, you always hear about this...

West Nile Virus

It's transmitted via mosquitoes and for the ten years I lived in Tucson, it kept getting closer and closer. Working it's way from southern states and finally landing in Tucson.

When Dave and I first moved in together, we lived in a townhouse. Outside our development, across the street was this huge open field next to an equally large wash (ditch in CA). People always take their dogs and/or kids out there and let them run off leash. One spring, I was out there with our (my) dogs, Maggie (the embarrassingly harmless rottweiler), Toto (the wire-haired terrier mutt that looks like, you guessed it), and Squirrel (the pretty, if stunted mutt with the short, strawberry-blond fur and the same colored eyes). The dogs had gone down in the wash amidst this waist-high (for me) grass. They couldn't see each other and so were completely, gleefully racing around the grass playing tag. I went down there with them and was running around too. My legs felt a little itchy but I just figured it was the grass. When I had the sense to look down, my legs were covered in mosquitoes. I ran out of the ditch, got the dogs out, ran home. At home, I showered, slathered in that goop that makes you less itchy and had a stiff drink.

The next day, they reported the first case of West Nile virus in a human confirmed in Tucson. I had another drink.

OK, fast forward. Now we live in Colorado. For the past two days, we've been hearing in the news that they have found one dead bird and several dead squirrels with confirmed cases of this...

Bubonic Plague.

It's transmitted via fleas. Does this make anyone else think the end of humankind will be perpetrated by insects hard to see with the human eye and even smaller bugs that are impossible to see?

Our problem here, in this house we're renting, is that for the past two months we've had squirrels chewing on our roof. Seriously, it's a horrible sound. Imagine sticking your fingers in your ears and chewing popcorn kernels. That's the sound. And just that loud, too.

We called the landlord and he checked the roof and checked the attic and said they haven't gotten into the house yet and there's nothing much we can do. I suggested getting one of those fake owls I see on other houses but he said it wouldn't work because the squirrels are so smart.

They are at it all day. They have woken us up at 3am the past two days in a row. The last thing we need is for Dave to be woken two hours before he starts his 13 hour day.

And since when are squirrels smarter then humans? Anything I see as roadkill on a regular basis, I don't know, I gotta assume we're smarter then they are (bad grammar, notwithstanding).

Any suggestions?

Contemplating cute squirrel homicide, Ruth!

Sugar Rush

My inlaws came into town yesterday. I didn't tell the boys because I wanted it to be a surprise. They were pretty mellow about it. The inlaws were pretty mellow about the mohawk. (Apparently, I was the only one surprised! By the reactions, that is.)

I'm super-lucky. In many ways, but today I'm talking about inlaw ways. When we lived in Tucson, Dave's parents (DP) were the primary care-givers for the boys. (When we needed care-givers. With my job as a massage therapist, I only worked 1-5 hours a day, 3-4 days a week!) Also, Dave's mom cooked for us at least 4 nights a week, we had dinner at their house every Sunday, and when they sat with the kids at our house, she'd clean the kitchen and even do some laundry! We never bought laundry soap and didn't buy diapers for about 6 months before we moved to CO. We miss them.

And they miss us. Or at least the boys! They are planning on moving out here this summer. They decided to visit for the boys' birthdays. Dave's mom expresses her love through food. She's really good at it. I lost almost ten pounds when we moved out here in Nov. They visited us for Christmas and I gained it all back. When they showed up yesterday, she had 3 sacks of groceries in the trunk of the car. I say groceries but it was all junk food. Here's some hi-lites:
A 3 pound sack of peanut m&ms's; 2 bags of cheetos and one of fritos; two plastic tins of chocolate covered pretzels and another 3 pound bag of Hershey chocolate covered pretzels; 2 bags of marshmallows; 2 bags of suckers; a bag of Oreos (my biggest weakness); 3 dozen of her awesome homemade chocolate chip cookies.... I'd go on but I'm getting fatter just thinking about it!

And her cooking! It's the best! I already had dinner planned for last night (meatloaf) but tonite she's making her fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. Again, she makes the best fried chicken gravy I've ever had! (I thought my mom and grandma were good cooks! She's better!) They are going to be here for about a month. sigh. At least our house will be really, really clean!

I love them and can't wait for them to move here. I'm just going to have to exercise more. sigh.

Here's a tip for Tippa Tuesday:

The first time I had to knit handles for a felted bag, the instructions said to cast on 11 stitches, and knit for 26". I know me. I don't see me knitting something for 26". And then doing it again. (That's probably why I've put off learning to knit socks for so long!)

This is when I discovered knitting two things at once. You cast on for the first with one ball and then for the second with a second ball. That way you are doing the 26" (or whatever) twice, but only once. Get it?

I find this most helpful with sleeves. This will also ensure your sleeves are the same length/gauge. I also do this with the front/backs of sweaters when the pattern says, "Knit front same as back". When it says, "Knit front same as back until..." then I knit them at the same time until it calls for the change. I slip one on some waste yarn, finish the other, then finish the one on the waste yarn.

To keep from getting the balls tangled, I either sit with a ball on each side or I sometimes put them in ziploc bags (if I'm going to travel with them) and put a bag on each side. It can get a little fiddly, (whenever I have to stop and then when I go back to it, it takes a minute or two to sort out which ball for which piece) but for me, it's totally worth it to not have to do big (or long) pieces twice.

I also mark each piece with a separate colored marker and either write it down or just remember (blue for back, red for front - that sort of thing). And I slip the markers onto the "right" side of the piece. That way, I know just by looking at it, what I'm doing (in theory).

Going for a walk, Ruth!

More Tennis Balls and a Mohawk

First off, let me say, I love to write but it is truly amazing what some people can do with a pencil. Or two. Check out her home page for amazing sculptures.

We gave the boys haircuts yesterday, in anticipation of Dave's parents coming into town today. Trev wanted something a little different. Something he saw on the cashier boy at Target.

This haircut has given him a little attitude already...

Just kidding.

On to Massage Monday.

Today we have more tennis ball shenanigans. Take the ball we talked about last week and use it on your back, in your chair. Lean back in your chair, put the ball just behind your shoulder next to your spine. Lean into the ball. Lean forward and let it drop a bit, lean back into it. Rinse, repeat. When you've worked the ball all the way down, pull it out and do the same thing to the other side. You can be subtle about this, you don't have to do the Janet Jackson roll or anything. This is a fantastic thing to try in the car. It's relatively hands free and feels great. I used to do this every night in the car on my way home from working on other people at the spa. I especially like it in the lower back area. So. Good.

That's it!

I gotta tell y'all about this joke Dave played on me last night. A few days ago, he was shirtless, looking in the fridge, and smartin' off. I was washing dishes so I flicked water at his bare back. OK, last night, the kids were in bed and we were deciding what movie to watch and since I was in the kitchen he asked if I could rinse his glass and bring it to him. I sighed and took it to the sink, emptied the glass and turned on the faucet to rinse it. I stood there for a few seconds thinking, "WTF, why am I getting wet?" That rat-fink husband of mine had put a rubber band over the handle of the high pressure sink sprayer. I stood there like an idiot and got soaked! When it finally dawned on me what was happening, I didn't even turn it off, I just walked away. The rubber band popped off and the main faucet was just running after that.

We laughed our asses off! We laughed so hard that I actually snort laughed. Twice. I kept saying, "You are SO dead!" He said it was payback for flicking cold water on his bare skin a few days ago. Whatever! That is so not the same! I was completely soaked. (BTW, this prank was brought to you courtesy of AFV. Some woman got her husband with this joke. Three times. The husband in the video was pissed and I always thought it was hilarious!) Dave said he'd set it up a couple of hours earlier and once, when getting Trev water, he forgot it was there and squirted himself a little! (That's when I did the second snort laugh.)

We are so lame!

Any ideas for getting back at him?

Plotting my revenge, Ruth!

Baby Story #2

This is going to be a my-family oriented post with too much info here and there. If you're just here for the knitting, I've posted an update of things here.

Still here? Get a snack and have a seat...

Today is my baby's birthday. He turns 4! I can't believe he's been here for four years already and at the same time, I can't remember life without him.

His name is Davis Emmett M. His middle name is the same as my FIL and Dave didn't like it but since he got to name the first boy and the name he chose for that, well, I decided this one gets a family name!

We wanted at least one of each, preferably first a boy, then a girl. Maybe 3 kids. We had all the names picked out before we even got married! We had a deal, Dave gets to name the first boy, I'd name the first girl, then we'd switch. The other person had right of veto. We got married April 22, 2000 and we had these intense little negotiations about when to start making the kids. We were both 30 (D. was almost 31) when we got married. D.'s parents were 40 when they had him and he wanted to get started right away. I wanted to wait awhile, at least a year! We went back and forth and finally decided on starting that August. We figured I'd be due at the beginning of summer and that'd be perfect for several reasons...

a) who the hell wants to be pregnant in summer?? Especially in the Tucson desert?

b) summer was the slow season at the spa and I could take the time off no problem

c) I'd get to be a practice client at the massage school for the prenatal massage class! (Score!)

OK, so we were super lucky that both times we wanted to get pregnant - BAM - good to go first try. We wanted our second child to be two years after our first and August worked so well the first time, we gave it a go the second time around.

This pregnancy wasn't as easy as the first and I ballooned up like crazy. I'm only 5'2" and I topped out at 198 pounds at the end! During the sonogram, I couldn't take it and said, "Just tell me." Another boy. Initially, we were both a little disappointed but quickly got over it. (When I really sat down and thought about it, the only reason I wanted a girl was because, who else was I going to pass all my crap down too?) Then my FIL told us that his sister (Dave's aunt) was the first girl in their family in one hundred years!! And there's only been one since her. If we did go for the third kid, we'd just have another boy anyway! So we decided we were done after this one.

Didn't have any cravings with this pregnancy until I was 7 months along. I was at a party to watch the last episode of one of The Bachelor. We were at a woman's house that has a Martha Stewart flair and she had quite a spread out! There was a huge pile of roast beef next to a bowl of soft rolls and a bowl of horseradish. I made a little sandwich with the meat and sauce. Then I had two (or three, four maybe?) more with just the bread and horseradish! I had horseradish every day til I gave birth. I still love it and recently found this at Safeway.

Horseradish and cheese? Heaven!

With this birth, we decided to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section). I started labor on a Friday morning and finally had him on Sunday night. (little rat!) It was very - start, here we go, psych. Sunday evening, I'd finally had enough and went to the hospital and told them to check me in. When we first got to our birthing room, I had the nurse check me and she told me I was only 3 cm dilated. "WHAT?" Then she strapped me to some monitors, put a wedge behind my back and left. The pain was too much. I told Dave I didn't think I could do it. (We had talked about going natural. Either way, I wasn't going to do an epidural until I was at least 6 cm. Statistically, if you do it before that, you triple your chances of emergency c-section.)

5 minutes later, I got the nurse that was going to help the midwife for the birth, Beth. She had me get on my knees on the bed and face the headboard. Wow, 80% less pain, instantly. (Why didn't that other wench tell me that? Maybe because I yelled at her?) Karen, the midwife, showed up shortly thereafter.

We spent the next 2 hours changing positions and trying to keep comfortable (yeah, right). When we got to 6cm dilation I gave up, "OK, epidural." Karen said, "It's going too fast, there's no time." A couple of minutes later, she left the room to get some paperwork and I asked Beth (the not-midwife nurse),"OK, seriously, Beth. Is she just saying that because she's a midwife and doesn't want me to do it?" Beth assured me it was going too fast. Damn! (Funny though, because when Karen got there and had checked me out, she told Dave that we were going to be here all night! Smart woman told him while I was in the bathroom.) Karen did give me a shot of something that made me feel very drunk for about 30 minutes. It really helped, broke the pain cycle and took the edge off.

So two hours of serious labor, 20 minutes of pushing and we had ourselves a baby!

See the horns? Just kidding.

Of course the one with the big head comes out the normal way.

After we moved to our regular hospital room, I sent Dave home. They had a pullout couch in the room but Dave's 6'1" and I knew the nurses would be in every two hours or so. (BTW, Trev was staying with the grandparents at our house and we'd spent the past two days at their house which was a 3 min. drive from the hospital.)

When we first got to our room, a very nice nurse came in to see if we were settled and asked, "Are you comfortable? Can I get you a sangwich?" (That's not a typo) We assured her we were fine.

When you have a baby, you have no control over your bladder. I wet the bed. Embarrassing! I buzzed for a nurse and as usual, they call back over the intercom instead of just coming in, "What do you need?" I didn't want to say, figured all the other nurses were there within hearing distance, so I said, "I, uh, made a mess." "OK, we'll be right there." A different nurse from the "sangwich" nurse came in. This one had her hair and makeup all done perfect and pretty - looked like a china doll. She helped me to the bathroom, cleaned me up, cleaned the bed up and when I was getting back into the bed... I had one leg on the bed, one on the floor with the lovely open-backed hospital gown when this woman (who is standing behind me at the time) says, "You have very pretty eyes." I just had a baby and was a little loopy and tired and for a second, thought she was talking about the baby's eyes. "What did you say?", I asked. "You have very pretty eyes." All I could think was, 'You're not looking at my eyes.' "Thanks," I said, "You have very pretty.... hair." 'Weird and uncomfortable,' I thought, 'Can I just have my sangwich now?' Was that weird or was it just me?

So Davis. He's our serious one. He's friendly and laughs like crazy and loves to meet people but he has a serious side the other one just doesn't have. He's a smart little kid. He's the best at coming up with names for his "friends". We got him a stuffed dinosaur for xmas '05. (Looked all over town for one. They are impossible to find. Everything was too big or too hard. Dave found a perfect one for $5 on xmas eve. At Walgreens!) We asked him what he was going to name it. At 2 1/2, he said, "Peto Rex". We call him Peto. He also has little teddy bears, one's named Junior, the other is Freckles. And a stuffed bulldog named Otto.

Ever since he was 2 years old, people have commented on how well he speaks. However, he also has his own little language he made up. He resorts to it when he's feeling silly and when he doesn't want to talk to/answer you. He's terribly independent and our little daredevil. Once, on a trip, we had him in the pool (he was about 18 months old). I was holding his sides while he held on to the edge with his hands and pushed off the pool wall with his feet. He kept insisting I let him go, that he could do it himself. I had to keep reminding him... "You don't know how to swim." Finally, I just put my hand under his swim diaper where he couldn't feel it. Then he turns around and said, "SEE?!" Yes, I see.

If I had to guess a career from his personality, I'd have to say engineer. He will stay with something until. He. Has. Figured. It. Out. He's rather mechanically inclined and it's too cute to see his brow all knitted up while he learns something. He loves to have his picture taken but always wants to frown when we take it. He had a babysitter who was an excellent artist. Once, she wanted to draw the boys as safari guys in a jungle. She told Trev to smile and drew him up, she told Davis to smile and he said, "No. I want you to draw me mad." She did!

Here's a pic of him showing me his latest owies.

Trev's a carbon copy of me. Looks, personality, everything. Davis is Dave. He's a little instigator, a daredevil and a bit more reticent then his older brother. But a sweeter, funnier little kid doesn't exist.

Happy Birthday Davis. Looking forward to the rest, Mommy

Tasty Links

Chris over at Stumbling Over Chaos always has the line on blog contests.

Trek is having a contest to gather ideas for summer activities for kids. Her goal is 145 comments for one post - help her out!

The Mother's Day Project - check it out. It's not at all commercial like it sounds and I've joined, so should you!

Speaking of Mother's Day Projects. I'm putting everything aside (shocker) to crank out a shawl for my mom. Her husband of almost 20 years just died last Friday. He's been buying time from cancer for two years. I will post details of what I'm making later, she sometimes reads this.

Also, the new Magknits is up. Very cute sweater there! They usually have a new issue every month but skipped April for some reason. Also, the surprise at knitty is up.

My other favorite place to go for free knitting patterns is knittingpatterncentral.com and the garnstudio site.

Favorite free crochet patterns here. Favorite crochet e-zine here.

Another free e-zine that's craft-oriented and just cool is here.