Preparing for the cold
So I still haven't quite shaken off the virus from last week -- still coughing occasionally, though at least it's the "productive" kind rather than useless hacking. And then my kidneys started really hurting Sunday morning, so I quit taking the allopurinol that day.
I wound up calling my doctor yesterday -- partly because the instructions and warnings that came with the allopurinol included a statement about notifying my doctor if I stopped taking it, and partly because kidney issues came under the subsection of worrisome symptoms I should call my doctor about. I also wanted to see if they had another allergist to refer me to, not having heard back from the one they gave me a card for. The receptionist I talked to just kind of blew on past the bit where I was stopping a medication because of Symptom, focusing on trying to identify which doc they'd referred me to, and then offering me his new number. I wrote it down, ended the call, and discovered that I'd just been offered the same number that I already had. (And I tried calling it again, and it still doesn't work.) So I should probably try calling my doctor's office again at some point in the next day or two.
And I was on schedule yesterday up until that phone call -- afterwards, I was sitting there in the living room with my phone in my hand and couldn't pry myself away from it for another hour. I was on the verge of doing the vacuuming when I made the call, and afterwards decided to just go visit Grandma and do my grocery run, and worry about vacuuming when I got home.
Ran out of gas when I got home last night, though, and saved the vacuuming till this morning, which had something to do with me not heading for my bedroom till around 1pm and not getting onto the computer till 2pm. So I'm running later than I'd like to -- but I'm to the stage where I just need to post this entry, get ready for bed, and finish up my nails. (And actually maybe I should do the manicure first, and come back to this while they're drying before bed...)
Okay, done! Tended animals, got myself ready for bed, and added the fancy layer to my nails. Now to let the topcoats dry while I type...
Not much different from last week, aside from the neckband being done. I spent one day working on this and put it away once I'd grafted the sides of the neckband together because the next step was doing the pockets and I still haven't chosen the color I'll use. I need to go digging through the Cascade 220 bin -- which is below the sockyarn bin, which is below the bin of socks and other finished knits. But that's all that's left -- knitting two pockets (and seaming their sides) and attaching three buttons. I would very much like to get that done in the coming week. (Oh, and washing and blocking. Come to think of it, I might prefer to send it through the wash before adding the buttons...)
I've basically got one more lace repeat to go before I'm to the ribbing. So I'm about to free up the magnetic chart keeper for another project, which is good. I'm also on the fence about whether to decrease by a few stitches when I get to the ribbing or not. I'm repeating my steps from the dark purple pair in the same combined pattern I did a couple of years ago, and that pair of socks was a smidgen too loose around the tops at the time I finished them. But -- after two years of washing and wearing, they've shrunken just a bit, just enough that now the ribbing fits fine. This blue pair is using a yarn I've never tried before, so I have no idea whether it shrinks over time or not. I'm starting to lean towards playing it safe and doing it the same way I did for the previous pair...
And I'm getting ever-closer to the point where I'll need to follow a chart for this second sock.
So I have a full week at work, and then next week I'll have three nights of vacation time (at least a couple of which I'm going to spend visiting Dad, which means stuff will remain on the DVR but at least I'll get a lot of knitting done). The week after that is Thanksgiving, and the week after that I'm using another three days of vacation time, so the coming week is my last chance to earn any overtime till next month. Coming into Xmas shopping season, too, ah ha hah... At least I should be able to get a couple of knitting projects finished, and pull a couple more out of hibernation... No Xmas knitting this year, but there's no way I'd be able to get anything but a really smallish project finished. Not enough weeks left, and not enough knitting time during a regular workweek, so it'd have to be something I could complete during one of my chunks of vacation time.
The sugar skull on the thumb and the spiderweb on the pinky are the only nods to this being done just after the Day of the Dead. Essentially this was a black-and-white lace mani.
I was especially pleased with this hand, with the three fingers showing decals from the same set in alternating colors. I'd love to repeat this style of mani with a different color scheme, but that would require turning up a bicolor decal set that comes in colors other than black and white. Possibly finding a decal set that's offered in multiple shades, and buying a pair of sets in good contrasting hues that I can match from my nail polish collection. (Or maybe doing a standard two-color striping-tape mani and just alternating which color is the basecoat and which the detail color on each nail.)
I did indeed get hold of Dad on Sunday afternoon, while Mom had the little kids off visiting Grandma. They came home just a few minutes after I'd begun the call, so I had to pause to chase bunnies back into the cage and then go out into the backyard for some privacy. (Going into my bedroom wasn't a good option because the signal strength in here is pretty crappy.) Aidyn followed me out into the backyard within minutes so I had to go back through the house and out into the front yard, though the call didn't last that long anyway. Dad had missed at least one of my prior calls due to having a new phone he hadn't yet figured out how to answer when it rang -- which is a problem I can relate to, having had it on this phone and the last one I had. So he knows I'm coming to see him the week after next, and we didn't get around to verifying whether the family Thanksgiving is going to be at my uncle's house or my aunt's, but I'll have plenty of time to find out when I visit him.
Lauren was apparently angling for my aunt to host Thanksgiving, or so Mom reported back from having attended my aunt's retirement party with Lauren. I am unsure how much information got garbled on its way back to me -- certainly we seem to be falling into the pattern of Thanksgiving at my uncle's and Xmas at my aunt's. But Lauren has an easier time getting over to my aunt's for a visit because it's so much closer. (I still don't know what happened last Thanksgiving when Lauren showed up at my uncle's house uninvited and unwelcomed -- I bolted for home when I got the news she was coming, and I never heard whether Dad or my uncle ever said anything to her about being no longer welcome in either of their houses. But if someone pulled her aside to say not to show up like that again, it would give her another good reason to be pushing for the family gathering to be at the house of the relatives on Dad's side of the family who haven't written her off.)
And now I'm starting to get a little bit of a headache. Lovely. Well, maybe I'll manage to lose it during the nap I'm about to take before work...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with
comments made.
I wound up calling my doctor yesterday -- partly because the instructions and warnings that came with the allopurinol included a statement about notifying my doctor if I stopped taking it, and partly because kidney issues came under the subsection of worrisome symptoms I should call my doctor about. I also wanted to see if they had another allergist to refer me to, not having heard back from the one they gave me a card for. The receptionist I talked to just kind of blew on past the bit where I was stopping a medication because of Symptom, focusing on trying to identify which doc they'd referred me to, and then offering me his new number. I wrote it down, ended the call, and discovered that I'd just been offered the same number that I already had. (And I tried calling it again, and it still doesn't work.) So I should probably try calling my doctor's office again at some point in the next day or two.
And I was on schedule yesterday up until that phone call -- afterwards, I was sitting there in the living room with my phone in my hand and couldn't pry myself away from it for another hour. I was on the verge of doing the vacuuming when I made the call, and afterwards decided to just go visit Grandma and do my grocery run, and worry about vacuuming when I got home.
Ran out of gas when I got home last night, though, and saved the vacuuming till this morning, which had something to do with me not heading for my bedroom till around 1pm and not getting onto the computer till 2pm. So I'm running later than I'd like to -- but I'm to the stage where I just need to post this entry, get ready for bed, and finish up my nails. (And actually maybe I should do the manicure first, and come back to this while they're drying before bed...)
Okay, done! Tended animals, got myself ready for bed, and added the fancy layer to my nails. Now to let the topcoats dry while I type...
Not much different from last week, aside from the neckband being done. I spent one day working on this and put it away once I'd grafted the sides of the neckband together because the next step was doing the pockets and I still haven't chosen the color I'll use. I need to go digging through the Cascade 220 bin -- which is below the sockyarn bin, which is below the bin of socks and other finished knits. But that's all that's left -- knitting two pockets (and seaming their sides) and attaching three buttons. I would very much like to get that done in the coming week. (Oh, and washing and blocking. Come to think of it, I might prefer to send it through the wash before adding the buttons...)
I've basically got one more lace repeat to go before I'm to the ribbing. So I'm about to free up the magnetic chart keeper for another project, which is good. I'm also on the fence about whether to decrease by a few stitches when I get to the ribbing or not. I'm repeating my steps from the dark purple pair in the same combined pattern I did a couple of years ago, and that pair of socks was a smidgen too loose around the tops at the time I finished them. But -- after two years of washing and wearing, they've shrunken just a bit, just enough that now the ribbing fits fine. This blue pair is using a yarn I've never tried before, so I have no idea whether it shrinks over time or not. I'm starting to lean towards playing it safe and doing it the same way I did for the previous pair...
And I'm getting ever-closer to the point where I'll need to follow a chart for this second sock.
So I have a full week at work, and then next week I'll have three nights of vacation time (at least a couple of which I'm going to spend visiting Dad, which means stuff will remain on the DVR but at least I'll get a lot of knitting done). The week after that is Thanksgiving, and the week after that I'm using another three days of vacation time, so the coming week is my last chance to earn any overtime till next month. Coming into Xmas shopping season, too, ah ha hah... At least I should be able to get a couple of knitting projects finished, and pull a couple more out of hibernation... No Xmas knitting this year, but there's no way I'd be able to get anything but a really smallish project finished. Not enough weeks left, and not enough knitting time during a regular workweek, so it'd have to be something I could complete during one of my chunks of vacation time.
The sugar skull on the thumb and the spiderweb on the pinky are the only nods to this being done just after the Day of the Dead. Essentially this was a black-and-white lace mani.
I was especially pleased with this hand, with the three fingers showing decals from the same set in alternating colors. I'd love to repeat this style of mani with a different color scheme, but that would require turning up a bicolor decal set that comes in colors other than black and white. Possibly finding a decal set that's offered in multiple shades, and buying a pair of sets in good contrasting hues that I can match from my nail polish collection. (Or maybe doing a standard two-color striping-tape mani and just alternating which color is the basecoat and which the detail color on each nail.)
I did indeed get hold of Dad on Sunday afternoon, while Mom had the little kids off visiting Grandma. They came home just a few minutes after I'd begun the call, so I had to pause to chase bunnies back into the cage and then go out into the backyard for some privacy. (Going into my bedroom wasn't a good option because the signal strength in here is pretty crappy.) Aidyn followed me out into the backyard within minutes so I had to go back through the house and out into the front yard, though the call didn't last that long anyway. Dad had missed at least one of my prior calls due to having a new phone he hadn't yet figured out how to answer when it rang -- which is a problem I can relate to, having had it on this phone and the last one I had. So he knows I'm coming to see him the week after next, and we didn't get around to verifying whether the family Thanksgiving is going to be at my uncle's house or my aunt's, but I'll have plenty of time to find out when I visit him.
Lauren was apparently angling for my aunt to host Thanksgiving, or so Mom reported back from having attended my aunt's retirement party with Lauren. I am unsure how much information got garbled on its way back to me -- certainly we seem to be falling into the pattern of Thanksgiving at my uncle's and Xmas at my aunt's. But Lauren has an easier time getting over to my aunt's for a visit because it's so much closer. (I still don't know what happened last Thanksgiving when Lauren showed up at my uncle's house uninvited and unwelcomed -- I bolted for home when I got the news she was coming, and I never heard whether Dad or my uncle ever said anything to her about being no longer welcome in either of their houses. But if someone pulled her aside to say not to show up like that again, it would give her another good reason to be pushing for the family gathering to be at the house of the relatives on Dad's side of the family who haven't written her off.)
And now I'm starting to get a little bit of a headache. Lovely. Well, maybe I'll manage to lose it during the nap I'm about to take before work...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with
comments made.