Friday Eve

Well, I have 31 hours left working here. I don't know what kind of environment my next job will have in terms of letting me go online. Approximately 99% of my posts have been made while I was at work. I will have Monday's off, so I will have time to go online while at home, but I don't know the frequency I will be able to post. Just a warning.

OKC:

I am almost finished with the first white stripe of the baby blanket (don't have it with me, so no pic). I finished the first sleeve of Kepler last night (don't have it with me, so no pic). I couldn't find the cable for the second sleeve (I didn't look in my bedroom), so I started the back (or the front, if I so choose, I guess). I haven't finished picking up stitches across, so no progress on it.

I'll try to post a pic of some Kepler progress later today.

Long lost relatives

Just thought I'd post about our dinner last night. We went to Old Spaghetti Factory and shared pics (none of which I have) and chatted. Bill said he comes into town about 2-3 times a year, so I am sure we will be able to do this again.


Malik, DeAndre' and my sister's boyfriend Terrance


My brother, Danny. My aunt, Peggy. Her son, Tony


Marcus feeding Ayanna some ice cream


All who came - Marcus, me, Ayanna, Peggy, DeAndre', Malik, Bill, Tony, Theresa (my sister) and Danny.

The relationship is as follows: Bill and Peggy are cousins. Thier fathers were brothers. We have never met because my grandfather moved from Ohio in the late 50's and we have never been back. Bill has been there all of his life (as far as I know).

Forgot a title

I almost finished sleeve number 1 of Kepler. I found some size 7 circulars, so I transferred the baby blanket to those so I could actually work on it. I am on the beginning of the heart chart for row 2 of 4.

Birthday party yesterday for DeAndre's friend from school. It was at the park so we packed up the family and went.

Ayanna had fun (not really) in the swing.




Maisy REALLY had fun!!


Tonight we have a get-together with a long-lost relative. (Not really, but most of us have never met him.)

This is my last week at this job. As I am typing this, a girl is being interviewed. I had nothing to do with this. I overheard something about it, then something "appeared" on the calendar, then she came. One reason why I don't want to work here, anymore. I am always competely left out.

My DH (not really) made an interesting comment this weekend. We were watching the Perfect Man with Chris Noth and Heather Locklear (I don't have any idea why he bought this movie for me, but it was cute, and we watched it on Saturday morning). The girl in the story is a blogger. So, often, you could see her blogging. He said "that is neat." I said, "what, blogging?" "yeah." "you mean, like me?" "yeah, but you don't do it very often." "I do it a couple of times a week." "Oh." (I know I fudged the amount a bit, but I was annoyed that he doesn't even know this about his wife!)

Where to start

Well, I accepted a new job! I will get a little more $$ hourly, but will have Mondays off, so I get to stay home with the kids on Mondays! I start on July 25th.

I finished the front, back and one sleeve cable for Kepler. I cast on for the second sleeve today. I know this cable by heart, and only check the chart because I am paranoid. However, I am sooo anxious to knit on the body! I was going to start the sleeve this morning on the bus, but I didn't have a crochet hook on me to pick up stitches from. So, I cast on for sleeve #2.


This is sleeve cable #1 and what I have so far for sleeve #2.

I started the white stripe on the baby blanket, but don't work on that all that much mostly because I have the project on straight needles because I didn't have any handy #7 needles when I cast on.

The whole thing (sort of scrunched togehter)


A better shot of the detail.

The other day, while I was on the bus knitting on cable for sleeve #1, a lady sat down next to me, and we got to talking about knitting and such. She belongs to a group that I am going to check out. It is (sort of) close to home, and only meets one Sunday a month. Sunday afternoon happens to be the best time of the week for me. I have little or no activities with the kids. So - Sunday afternoon - perfect. Once per month - perfect. I will check it out the end of this month. Now, I just hope I like the people.

Here are some pre-op pics of Malik:

He had already had some "happy juice." It tasted like cough syrup, but after it started to kick in, he couldn't remember much.



He is about 98%. We went for a follow-up on Tuesday, and he got a release as of next Monday to be at full activity. His stitches or whatever fit very nicely under a standard size bandage.

Lots of stuff

First - Malik is doing okay. The surgery was short, as promised. After he got out of recovery, he slept most of the afternoon. Then it took him awhile to actually hold down a conversation. He had to lay flat all day Monday. Before he could be released on Tuesday, he had to walk. That took a little while, but mostly because after lying flat all day Monday, his body didn't really want to cooperate. He now has a couple of prescriptions, but that should be done in a couple of days. We got home about 3 on Tuesday. He will be home all day today, Thurs, Fri and Sat. We might go to church on Sunday - DeAndre' has to go, but one of us could stay home with Malik if he isn't up to it. Next week, Marcus and I have to both work, so he will go to Dad's a couple of days, and Mom's a couple of other days. After that, he should be able to be 100%. The doctor took a picture during surgery using her microscope camera. I am not one for surgery pictures, and this one is okay, however, if you think your stomach won't be able to handle it, I will post it at the very end of this post, so don't look if you don't want to.

Knitting at the hospital wasn't quite as productive as I had hoped. I brought 4 projects. I really wanted to work on Marcus' vest, since I don't get that much time to work on that. I brought the vest and extra yarn in case I got to a point that I needed more. However, I forgot the chart!!! No knitting on that - damn! I brought the baby blanket from Knitty Gritty, but forgot the chart!!! I thought the fact that the hospital has internet would help, but one boy was on the computer for HOURS - they have two, but the other one wouldn't connect for some reason. They don't have printers hooked up to them, so I had to draw the chart by hand. Not fun! I brought the Christmas stocking and the cable band to Kepler, but since I really wanted to work on the vest, I only brought the project and no more yarn. These projects ended up being the only ones I could work on, but in both cases I could only go so far. I finished as much of the Christmas stocking as I could and then wove in all the ends - there were quite a few. I finished the 17" cable band for the back of Kepler, and cast on for the front one, but then had to stop cause I didn't have any more yarn. I worked on the baby blanket a little bit. A lot of knitting, but not quite what I had envisioned.

The camera is at home still unpacked, so I can't take pictures right now. Hopefully, I can do that tomorrow!

The two interviews I had last week - one I didn't get the job, the other, I have a second interview this morning. Good wishes!

I thought there was something else I wanted to post, but... (maybe later)

Here comes the picture, click away if you want. No other content to follow. (I don't know how to make a link so you could click and this wouldn't be on my page at all. For those that know how to do this, let me know, please.)







This picture is HUGELY magnified. The part I put the 'dotted line' on is what they cut. It is fatty tissue that is anchoring the spinal cord down.