John and I had a wonderful time in Prague.  I hated that it poured one day, but the Sunday we were there, was beautiful, and I really enjoyed the city.

There will be pictures soon…  Maybe.  I’ve not been good with the pictures lately, which Zsusanna pointed out to me via Snail-mail.  How bad is it when your blog friend has to send you Snail-mail and ask you to post pictures.  That’s bad.

On the way too and from Prague, I tried to start on a poncho for my friend Anne’s daughter Emily.  I started it 3 times now, and I’m still not happy with the makes.  I’m going to frog it and start yet again.  I’m knitting it in Lorna’s Laces Worsted, in the colorway Child’s Play…  Think back to this poncho...  I’m making it for her again, only bigger.  I just want it to be perfect.  I think I need to get over it.  Yep.  That’s what I need to do.

I just wanted to mention that my San Jose Sabercats lost the Arena Bowl on Sunday…  They put up a very good fight, and I am very proud of them.  The last minute of the game was some of the best football I’ve seen in a long time, and honestly, they tried their best.  I know that they will try hard to go to Arena Bowl again next year, and next time, I will be there, with my cow bell, cheering them on.

Go Cat’s!

What is(are) your favorite place(s) to knit?

I love to knit in front of the television, especially when reality television is on…  Big Brother, Project Runway, Top Chef, all my favorite shows to knit by.  I also love to knit on the plane.  It’s quiet, and I tend to get a lot of work done.

What supplies (besides yarn & needles) make the setting perfect for knitting?

Buttons!  I love to have lots of buttons around for inspiration!  One good button can make or break a purse or a baby sweater!

My server went down, and I’ve lost a few days.  I talked about Daisy mostly, who is fine.  I’m getting over spending so much.  There really isn’t any recourse anyway, is there?

We must have caught the shingles really early.  There has been no spreading, and I can leave the house!  I have 10 blisters, which are shrinking with the medication that my doctor prescribed!  On Thursday, when I went to the Doctor, he got a culture of the fluid, and the results came back normal.  Isn’t that great?  So, because it looks like shingles, and is acting like shingles (it really hurts), we are treating it like shingles.  I’m just so glad that it isn’t spreading.

I’ve not had a knitting post in a while, and while I have little time to knit, I have finished a few little things.  I made Calorimetry with some Artful Yarns Worsted Weight Superwash.  It came out so cute.  I’ll have someone else try it on so that I can take a picture.  I also made a matching pair of Maine Mitts.  These are a gift for some one special.  I’m also working on a felted purse, a kit I bought at Stitches West.  I think it’s coming along fine.

Well the boy is crying, so that’s all for now.

At some point in time, oh maybe 2 years ago, I decided that I wasn’t sure I wanted to blog anymore.  I was really tired of having a place for people to check up on me, without having to contact me and ask me how things were going.  Mostly, I think it was ex’s that I didn’t want to know about my life, not old friends.  As time as passed, I’ve continued to censor myself and what I talk about.  I tried to only talk about my knitting.  I tried to only talk about good things that were going on.  For a while, I felt like I only had things to complain about so I didn’t blog at all.

For the last month, my father has been staying with my mother, my husband, Sean and I.  I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be.  When I volunteered to take him, I had absolutely no idea how bad things were with him.  And they were bad.  He has required 24 hour care since the day he walked through the door.  He has a problem with what I call “tippyness.”  One minute you think everything is fine, and the next minute, he has fallen against the wall, rolled out of bed, is catching himself from falling backwards, or better yet, I’m catching him from falling backwards.  My dad has been like this since he started his chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer.  I was told, by him, that it was a side effect of the chemo.  But, a month ago, he fell down while he was getting the mail, ended up banging his head against the curb, and lay unconscious in the street for over an hour.  I thought they had been working on the “tippyness” while he was in the hospital, recovering from his concussion.  I was wrong.  I thought I was getting someone that just needed to get healthy after the chemo.  I was wrong.

While my father has been improving every day, his “tippyness” is not improving.  In the mean time, my mother has been getting worse.  She has been going overboard trying to help with my father.  To the detriment of her own health.  She finally revealed to me on Wednesday that not only had the work of taking care of my father made her exhausted, but every time she saw him she thought of how her life should have been.  And told me that neither one of them would have been sick if Andrea had not come into their lives.  My mother called Andrea on Sunday and told her to find different accommodations.  That having my dad here was too much for her. 

More than that, I think it’s been too much for me as well. 

I’ve been seeing a lot of doctors as of late.  I have the eye thing, and last month I was diagnosed with vasculitis.  I’ve worried about the drugs I have to take effecting Sean…  But yesterday’s new diagnosis took the cake.  I have shingles. 

I had decided to take my dad car shopping yesterday, simply because, well, he likes to go car shopping.  I figured that I’d get John’s mom to babysit, and take my dad to do something fun during the last week that he is here.  I had a doctors appointment (with the rheumatologist) at 10:15 am, and after that, off we would go.  The problem came when I showed her the bumps that had appeared on my neck over the weekend.  I thought maybe they were related to all the stuff that was going on with my joints, John thought spider bites.  We were wrong.  She said, “this looks like shingles to me.  Go down and see Dr. Prescop right now.  If he can’t see you, go see the first doctor that can.  If no one will see you, call me and I will prescribe something for you.”  I ended up having a lovely blood draw, then having one of the newly called blisters popped for a culture, and an extra 2 hours waiting around at the doctors office.  We didn’t leave until 1 or so.  I was upset, needless to say.  Now I’m taking a pill 5 times a day for 7 days, trying to treat the shingles.  Which have decided to hurt.  I have to wear a large band-aid on my neck, because they are contagious, and I don’t want Sean to get sick. 

And while I’m glad for the time that I was able to give my dad, I’m wondering if his being in the house has brought the shingles on.  I’m wondering why, when I’ve finally found a wonderful husband and I have the best baby in the world, I’m getting sick.  And, if I’m just going to continue to get sicker…  And if every new bump I feel on my body is just a bump, or more shingles.

1) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday?

Oh, my…  Ireland, Ireland, Ireland.  I love Ireland.  I would live there if I could.  It’s so peaceful and slow there.  I even tried to find a husband there (before John).

2) Where is one place you’d like to go?

I’d like to go to Scotland…  I hear that it is beautiful, and there is great wool there.