Knitting Cybrarian

TAXes

I've spent a fair amount of time today working on our taxes.  We actually have a professional do our tax preparation, but we compile our figures for itemization and send those to him.

I'm praying we won't owe taxes and won't get hit with the alternative minimum tax.  We don't know a whole lot about it, and from some of what I read, we shouldn't be affected.  But... then again.

And tax time this year is a time of reckoning for me.  What I'm spending money on that perhaps would be better spent elsewhere.  Expenses relating to that activity that begins with the letter K seem to stand out. 

Sigh.  I did match the powerball number last night.  Just the one red number.  I think that get me $3 -- exactly what I paid out in tickets yesterday.  Not a good return!

Yeah, yeah...

Mosker and I got matching pedometers from Amazon.  Here's the really great thing about us getting them at the same time.  Mosker figures out how it works, then tells me how to set it up.  Amazing.  Actually, I LOVE this pedometer.  It works, and the strap clip makes sure it doesn't fall off.  Easy.  Now to walk more.

Tonight's Powerball drawing is estimated to be $300 million.  I've bought my tickets.  How about you?

Went to the doc today and am definitely getting better.  Got the meds tweaked, so we'll see how things progress.

And I'm not doing so well in the Knitting Olympics.  I'm not loving this rayon chenille yarn. 

pedometer update

finally got battery hatch off.  No. of calories expended doing this:  3,280.  No. of calories of chocolate ingested during said struggle...500. 

I think I've broken the pedometer

Mosker gave me.  I clipped it on my jeans yesterday morning, but noticed it wasn't adding up quickly.  The day before I was continually amazed at how quickly the steps added up.  Yesterday the pedometer kept flying off of my jeans.  And it went dead.  I'd put it in my apron pocket, I'd hear something and it'd be on again.  This sequence repeated itself several times.  I gave up.  Only 159 steps registered.  You don't work 4 hours in a yarn store to only have 159 steps!

Hmmm.  Now what?

Knitting Olympics

Okay, my plans for the Knitting Olympics have changed a little.  This is why I'm on Team Wales.  I was going to try to knit a lace shawl during the Olympics, but... here is the revised plan:

• Finish the gansey (sleeves are all that's left!)
• Knit a stole (in rayon chenille) and finish it by the end of the Olympics.

Finishing a project is good.  And getting going on a long-ago promised project is good.  I swatched for this stole yesterday during a meeting and it just didn't work.  I think I need to go down a needle size.  I tried moss stitch and then tweed stitch and wasn't happy with either one.  I'll swatch more using smaller needles and the moss stitch.  Because chenille likes to worm, I'll be knitting the knit stitches through the back loop.  That extra twist will help prevent some of the worming.

And how is YOUR olympic challenge coming along?

Day 13

I'm much better now, thank you.  However, I still have the cough, I'm still blowing lovely colored mucus chunks, but I think my hearing is getting better.

I did go to work yesterday and spent most of it in meetings.  I did have a few moments to visit Mosker and she gave me a pedometer.  I've joined up with a team of folks participating in the Show-Me Shape Up program.   I'm hoping this will help me meet my goal of trying to lose some weight, and add more activity to my routine.

I don't plan on going on long walks outdoors until I get rid of this bug, though.

Called my doc yesterday (actually the phone nurse), and they now think this is some sort of bacterial thing going around.  And if so, I've got 3-4 more weeks of coughing to look forward to.  Maybe it's a good thing I've not been able to get a roommate for my professional association's conference?

Knitting update

I finished knitting the front of the gansey, joined the shoulders and started to pick up stitches around the neckline.  I also wove in ends before starting to pick up stitches.  Joel came home about the time I was 1/3 around, so I had him try it on. 

The goofy smile on his face was well worth it.  He's so tickled.

Day 11

and I'm at home.  I went in to work yesterday (Day 10), taught 3 classes and fulfilled Mosker's prediction that I'd be exhausted today.  I'm hoping/planning to make it in tomorrow if all goes well.

I'm still coughing, but a shot of that codiene cough syrup let me have an uninterrupted morning nap.  I'm also running out of tissues -- not sneezing so much, but blowing my nose a lot.  And yes, despite being on antibiotics, it's still a lovely color. 

Still some fever, but not as much as it has been.  Thank goodness.  I don't like the thoughts of my brain cooking. 

Her Highness Portia is happy I'm home again today.  She napped with me this morning.  She ate a lot of my lunch (chicken soup).  And right now she's curled up against my side and sharing her furry love. 

My head still spins some, but not as much as before.  Thank goodness.  One of my ears is still stopped up, and it became very apparent during teaching yesterday.  I warned my class that I wasn't quite sure what my speaking volume was and that they needed to speak up for me.  Please.  Everyone cooperated and was generally a good sport when I ran out of energy and had problems making verbal sense.  Possibly quite entertaining for them!

Best laid plans

I had a podiatrist appointment scheduled for 9:15 am.  I'm still feeling rough, but needed to have the lovely wart checked.  So, dizzy or not, I left home for the podiatrist...

The city is widening a stretch of a main street close to us.  I usually travel this street to get to work or just about anywhere.  One of my tires picked up something on this busy street – I heard it, and pulled over on a side street to check it out.  It was some sort of piece of metal with what looked like a big screw or something that was in my front left tire.  Huge.  I drove straight to the Goodyear (1/2 – 3/4 mile away) and en route the metal blew out my tire.  An audible POW.  I got parked in time to get out and hear/see the tire go totally flat.

Lovely.  Regroup.

Needless to say, I canceled my podiatrist’s appointment, got the tire repaired (free, ‘cause we have the road hazard coverage), went to the grocery store (using a back street, avoiding the busy street) and went home.

I did treat myself to an eyebrow wax at the SuperCuts next to the grocery store.  Gotta get something good out of all of this craziness, yanno.

Day 8

still sick.  Still coughing.  Have called into the phone nurse, who is going to ask my doc or the nurse practitioner about a cough suppressant.

I did some more knitting last night.  I wondered why I could focus on knitting and not on some other things (stringing words together for a column or other projects).  I realized as I was knitting along, that knitting is, with a few twists, binary.  Don't worry, I won't make your head hurt too much.  I'm sick and can't stretch the analogies too far.  I learned to do some programming on punch cards a million years ago (actually in 9th grade), so I have a little experience here.

So, how is knitting binary?  If you consider knit to be equal to "yes" or "0" and purl to "no" or "1", then you've got a binary system.  The exceptions are cables -- they're still yes or no, but the order of which "yes" is knitted differs. 

I could knit along without thinking of much more than "yes, no," the whole time.  Or "knit, purl."

And then I read the rest of the Wiki article on binary.  My head hurts.  Back to knitting.