Well I'll be...

I believe my gast has been flabbered.  I've been thinking that I wasn't losing any weight with my South Beach-esque diet.  Got on the scales this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks--surprise! I'm a good six lbs lighter than I was last time I checked!  Huzzah! 
That is really all I have to say.  You may return to your regulary scheduled activities.

Big Plans

Disco & I have made our plan for Mother's Day -- it will just be the two of us, as the Plaidman is flying to Chicago to visit his mom, aka Mother of Plaid.  Her health has been failing for some months now, and this is likely to be the last Mother's Day she'll be around.  Hmm, I need to dig up those silk corsages I made a few years ago; he can still wear the red one this year.  Disco has a red one too, while mine has been white for many years.  Do you understand the custom?  Red flowers (either roses or carnations around here) mean the wearer's mum is still among the living, while the white flowers honor a mum who's already passed away.  Nana (my mom) has been gone for over ten years now, and I still miss her horribly.  For heaven's sake, go call your Mom! 
Ahem!  Sorry about that, where were we?  The plan for Sunday: we two Celtic ladies will dress divinely and head over to The Rawlings for the buffet luncheon (where I will try to keep it all "South Beach"--help me), then back to the house for quick change to casual couture and on to the movie theater.  As it's Mother's Day, and I'm the Mom, I'm picking the flick: the new Nick Parks & Ardman feature, Pirates-A Band Of Misfits!!!  I adore these crazy claymation films by Parks!  The Curse of the Wererabbit about did me in, I tell ya.  Chicken Run still makes me laugh out loud.  And the Wallace & Gromit shorts are absolutely deadly, especially The Wrong Pants.  I've lately become a fan of Sean the Sheep, as well.  Do check these out, laughter is such a precious commodity, and this body of work is just chock full of it.  I don't want to slip in any spoilers, but I will say I actually fell off the couch laughing at Wrong Pants. 
Ok, so what's up with this South Beach stuff, anyway?  Well, I'm reading up on it, and sorta/kinda implementing more of the gist of it in my diet as I learn more.  I have found a couple of sites online that are helpful:
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/  (I was looking here before I started this diet)
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/ (try the search feature)
Anyway, I'm sure there are a slough of sites with SB compliant recipes, and I'll likely look through a bunch more. 

Monday, Monday

I meant to get to the library to give y'all the Mid-weekend Update, but it just didn't happen over the weekend.  The Plaidman has mentioned that he'd like to retire; I suppose I should have jumped on that mere mention of the possibility with both feet.  Because he's given his notice and notified Social Security that he wants to start drawing -- but not until after his birthday in June!!  So, I'm to be the sole support of Chez Plaid, until SS starts paying him and Dog only knows how long that will take.  In the meantime, the group I work for has changed their payroll processor.  April 13th was their first shot at our biweekly pay, and mine was all messed up:  my name was misspelled on the paystub, and they only deducted about 26% of my insurance premium.  Well, I didn't know a thing about that until the following Monday (I work four 10-hour days, so I can have Fridays off).  I did let my supervisor know about both errors, and thought this would be resolved by the April 27 paydate.  I'd have 164% of the insurance premium deducted, but that wouldn't be too bad...only it didn't work that way.  Neither error was corrected.  IF the correction goes into effect before the 5/11 paydate, I'll only have a huge insurance premium deduction. (For those of you who love figures, it'll be 247.24% of the regular premium.) If it doesn't, I'll be hot hot hot because so much of my pay will be gone all at once! 

Oh, let's talk about something more pleasant.  I'm still working on the Gumball Hat ('coz it looks like an explosion in the gumball factory) for Princess T.  I'd had it done, pulled the last 8 stitches together at the top ...and decided to try it on.  It was so shallow, barely a skullcap.  Back to the drawing board!  I tried to pick up stitches in one row below the crown decreases, and somehow "lost" a stitch (I cheated and made one!).  Then I knit 4 rows, and hey look down there about 16 rows below....one half of the row that's supposed to have YOs and K2Ts doesn't have either.    Sigh!  Picked up (evenly this time) all around just below a purl row, frogged yet again, and now...I'm one pattern repeat past where I'd started the crown decreases the first time.

Plaidman's mum has been very ill, and is now in long-term care.   She's been very depressed, and last week Plaid's brother called to discuss her wanting to stop all care.  She's also been talking about the Plaidman a lot, to her other kids.  So...despite the weirdness with my pay, and Plaidman's retirement (and from what I've heard I don't expect to see SS $ until September), I bought him a round trip air ticket to Chicago.  He'll be spending Mother's Day with his mom this year.  When I told Disco that her dad was going North for Mother's Day, she said, "Good!"  And I certainly don't mind if he's out of pocket that weekend; he ain't my kid!  Disco & I will likely go to a movie (my treat, of course -- she hasn't any money), and maybe a luncheon or brunch.  So it will be just mother & child here, and that's just fine. 

Another week

Hi! It’s Saturday, time for the mid-weekend update. I’ve recently been diagnosed as “pre-diabetic”, and Friday I went back to the doctor’s office for some diet & exercise counseling, and for my very own glucose meter. Oh boy. I had to check my blood there in the office so the nurse would know I understood the process. Ouch. I am not happy about this at all. The grocery shopping list I keep in the computer will be undergoing some changes. I cracked up the PA: she asked if my husband would be behind me for these changes, I said hell no but as he doesn’t buy the groceries I didn’t see any problems.  My blood sugar has been below the goal limit both times I've checked it (I'm only checking once a day, different times each day).  And I've lost six pounds!  Woot!! 


In knitting news, I’m working on another hat for Princess T. I have to, as I’ve misplaced the first one. Unbelievable. It’s somewhere in the living room, I’m sure…in one of the elebenty thousand project bags, tote bags, or plastic bags stacked piled around here. Disco keeps saying we need a bigger house, but we’d just gather more stuff to fill it. Now, if she’d ever move out, I could turn the 2nd bedroom into my craft space. Stop laughing, she could meet someone and … no, she’d have to leave the house to meet someone. Hmmm.  Selling her to some sheikh in Abu Dhabi is looking more like a valid option; wonder if I could get her a passport?  Gahd, she's sitting beside me here at the library.....at least I got her out of the house!

While I was waiting in the exam room, I came up with an idea for a hat pattern!  Totally spontaneously!!  I know, weird in't...thank goodness I had a pen & a scrap of paper.  So I will work on that.  Knits on teh brain, I haz dem. 

On teh red carpet

OMG, lookit all the neat blog awards I've just "received"!! 

For, of course, being just such a genius at crafts.

For all I do all the live-long day

For actually cooking for the family.

Oh, isn't it nice to be appreciated?!?!
Check out http://matsutakeblog.blogspot.com/ for your own! 

Mid-weekend update

Good day. It’s Saturday, the second day of my “usual” three day weekend. Kind of unusual, in that this is the weekend just before month-end closing, but I didn’t have to work! Huzzah! I was so stunned to have a Friday off, I didn’t even get dressed until the evening. Disco kind of wanted to go to the Threadfest, but I’d spent so much last weekend at the Flea Market, that I figured I’d better not get anywhere near yarn I didn’t already own. The Plaid Patrol rolled out about 5:30 p.m., headed to Opry Mills – the mall has just reopened! Some of the businesses weren’t quite ready for business, most notably several of the larger restaurants, and would ya look at that: there’s no bookstore on the directory. I’m crushed that Barnes & Noble hasn’t come back. I’ve heard there’s a bookstore at the Green Hills Mall; that’s got to be easier to navigate to & from, then the one out in Cool Springs. Perhaps I’ll visit soon; it’s been a year of Sundays since I’ve been to Green Hills.
Getting back to yarn I already own, I finished skeining & washing the last of the purple tweed. I got two big freezer bags of 3 skeins each, and I’m still thinking about what this might be in my wardrobe. Some of ththe ideas I’m considering are: from the Alpaca Vest from Fall 2004 Cast On, the Back To School vest from Universal Yarns, Bernat’s free Cable Vest, Takhi’s free pattern Brighton Vest, another from Universal Yarn Charlie Vest, a Grey Vest with Cables which I found for free on a site that I failed to note on my copy (since I can’t credit it, I won’t copy it here), and one from KnitPicks Slipped Cable Vest. Hmm, most of these have cables. What happened to my obsession with lace? As I intend this vest (whichever it winds up being!) as part of my work wardrobe, I’m inclined to think cables would stand up better to the wear & tear of working. And I’m still plugging away at the Every Way Wrap, just finished the 11th repeat of the 16 row main pattern—only 5 more to go! Woot! So I’ve got cables on the brain. Anyway, if you know of any free patterns for vests that involve cables (but not for “advanced knitters”) please feel free to send me a link.
Disco has been diligent about refilling the birdfeeder (the only “chore” she’ll do without prompting [by which I mean without having me yell & get red in the face]). Every cowbird & blackbird within 4 miles knows where to find us, which is too bad for the smaller birds – the blackbirds & their cousins being rather like a gang of toughs. We’re constantly popping out the front door to drive them off. The only other regular visitors that aren’t intimidated are the blue jays (small blue crows, meh) and the larger woodpeckers (pileated?). The woodpeckers don’t bother the little birds, chickadees & titmice & cardinals, but they’ll actively pursue the blackbirds right around the feeder. Woodies hang upside-down off the outer edge of the feeder tray, and tramp around the rim to wave their big pointy beaks at the toughs—just hysterical. This year we’re seeing another woodpecker, a bit smaller but still ladder-backed. We think it’s the cockaded woodpecker. In years past, we’ve seen flickers, but so far not this year.
I lost my cool Wednesday evening. I’d spoken with Disco on the phone, giving her some instruction about cooking a large pork roast – I wanted it for dinner that night, with a plan to use some of the leftover for a shepherd’s pie and for breakfast (I’m doing Atkins). I talked to her about 4 p.m., and expected to be home about 6:30, so this plan should have worked. When I walked in the door, she was sitting in front of the TV with a dish of ramen noodles. No roast in the oven, no dinner waiting on my arrival. I blew up, pretty much saying she might not be welcome in my home anymore if I couldn’t count on her to do a simple thing like putting a roast in the oven. I was h-o-t HOT! And the Plaidman was no help, didn’t bother to either join my rant or stop it. Disco got an apology later, after I’d had some dinner & cooled off a bit. Dammit, she’s going to be 29 in a couple months—she needs a life, or at least a job: some way to contribute to the household. The captains of the Plaid Patrol feed, clothe, shelter & entertain her (probably ¾ of what I spent at the Flea Mkt was for her!)—she needs to pitch in, stop behaving like a permanent house pest guest! I hear redheaded gals are real popular in Asia, also Abu Dhabi…..
I’m trying something different with this post, actually writing & editing it at home (where I have no Internet), then putting it on a thumb drive to carry to the library. We’ll see how that works out. So many times, I’ve headed to the library meaning to post, but had brain-freeze—don’t you hate when that happens?

Not safe

If you're reading this at work, DO NOT go over to The Panopticon! Fair warning!
And that is all for today.