Definition: "some"

My mom used to be a big knitter, but has not done so in over 25 years. She came to visit me this weekend, and a couple of days before coming, she asked me, "I have some old knitting needles - do you want me to bring them?"

"Sure!", I replied. "Plus any interesting yarn you might still have kicking around."





...Apparently her definition of "some" is not the same as my definition of "some". That's a TRUCKLOAD of knitting needles. There's got to be at least 30 different pairs of straight needles in there, at least 10 sets of double-pointed, and a handful of circular needles, as well as a bunch of crochet hooks thrown in there for good luck. There's even a Mexican fiesta hat point protector! I feel like I have hit the knitting needle jackpot. Now if only someone could help me with all the knitting I want to do. So many needles, so little time...

The Curse of the Pharaoh

Butterfly hair clips make a good sling closure to keep one's icepack flush against one's injured leg. Also, beware of loose wooden bed slats that may try to randomly attack the back of your calves; the bruising that follows is quick, painful, and ugly. Warning: Under no circumstances should you do any of the above whilst on blood-thinners. That would be stupid and foolhardy. ...Aww, crap.

(Uploaded from my mobile phone last night to Facebook at 1:33 a.m. (Sorry, Facebookers, for the duplicate posting.)

My mom is visiting this weekend, and she and I were making her bed, which is a queen pushed into a corner of the spare room. This means that in order to put a fitted sheet on, you must squeeze into the corner between the bed and the wall near the head of the bed. While I was lifting the mattress to put the fitted sheet on, I had my foot resting (as I usually do), on one of the bed slats. Unfortunately, we lost, many years ago, the wooden pin that keeps the slats taut in place. And so, my foot slipped and the wooden slat it had been resting on came flipping up and smacked the backside of my left calf. I'm sure if nothing else has gotten the blood moving in that leg over the last two weeks*, that certainly did.

Over the last two weeks, when I have been supposed to be trying to avoid injuries, I have managed to pull a muscle in my left-hand thumb (or something; I just know it's been sore for over two weeks now), slice my right-hand pointer finger with the nastiest cardboard cut you ever did see, bash my knuckle under the right pinky finger, and strain my muscles so badly after a gym visit on Monday that by Wednesday morning, even laughing hurt (all better now, and yesterday's gym visit seems to have not left me with the same problem - guess that's what I get for not going to the gym for over a month**). So, really, attempting to karate-chop off my leg by whacking it with a board (aren't karate-chops supposed to work the other way around???***) is par for the course around here these days.

So I am staying away from sharp and/or heavy objects, perhaps indefinitely. Actually, paper and cardboard should probably be avoided, too. The first week I was on blood-thinners (i.e., last week), Randal was sure I was going to slip and fall outside and be knocked unconscious and then bleed to death (unable to tell people I was on blood-thinners so they wouldn't apply the extra pressure necessary to my bleeding body parts, y'know?), so he escorted me everywhere.

And now I am off to spend the day in my padded room.

* I had a blood clot in my left leg coming back from Egypt; did this blog know this? I'm on medication for it now, so it's getting better, thankfully.

** In my defence, I was in Egypt for 2.5 weeks, and unable to walk for another week, so am really only guilt-worthy of gym-nonattendance for one week's worth.

*** What's that? You karate-chop with your hands, not your legs??? ...Oh, now you tell me!

Who has time to post about Egypt?

When there are so many fabulous books to read?




And when there is yarn needing to be re-wound and then knit into something?

A two-drink kind of night

Campari and tonic in front, white wine in back.

(I took this picture last night but then forgot to post it before going to bed. I am currently on anti-coagulants, so can only have 1-2 drinks a day. This is not a problem, since I certainly do not drink every day, and when I do, I don't normally have more than 1-2 anyway. But I find certain drinks are hitting me harder than others right now, so I must think very carefully about what I do and do not drink. One beer now leaves me half-conscious. Same for two glasses of wine, though one on its own is not quite enough. But, as the older version of Goldilocks might say, one apéritif and one glass of wine is juuuust right.)

You Know What We Did Last Month? (#2)

We climbed up and into some really old pyramids. I mean, really, really old. This is the so-called "Bent Pyramid". It dates back to about 2600 B.C., during the reign of the pharaoh Sneferu, and is one of the earlier pyramids. It's "bent" because they realized partway through that the angle was wrong and had to be changed. It was too steep initially. It was built at 55 degrees but partway through was changed to 43 degrees. A second, nearby pyramid (the "Red Pyramid") built shortly afterwards also by Sneferu was at 43 degrees.

Ironically (or maybe not), this is not actually one of the pyramids we climbed inside. It's not currently open to tourists.

I will start putting some pictures up this weekend. I promise.

3 Views of Snowstorm, Orléans

Discuss.

Normal exposure levels:



Exposure changed to make photo darker than original. I love the gloomy, sombre look of this:



Exposure changed to make photo brighter than original. I like the mid-snowstorm effect this gives (and it was snowing, so not so far from actual!):



Obviously if I did this kind of tinkering on all my photos, I would never get anything posted. But here, I think the two alternate versions are both more interesting than the original (which isn't bad, though a little grey and dull). What do you think about this kind of digital alteration? I'm not taking anything out or adding anything, but it certainly does change the mood of the scene. Cheating, or no?

What I didn't do yesterday...

I forgot to call my dad to wish him a Happy Birthday! I'm such a bad daughter.




It's not like it was an important birthday or anything...he only turned 65.


My hard drive is out of commission at the moment (nothing serious; I just need to relocate the power bar it used to be plugged into), so I didn't have access to old pictures of my dad. However, I think I may have done one better by locating and pulling out this (plus, of course, now having digitally preserved it*):



This is my dad's lasting contribution to my autograph book, signed about 25 years ago in 1986. I got an autograph book in 1986 shortly before heading off to Choir Camp in Berwick, N.S.,** and got my family members to sign it. I may post more of these in the future -- some are pretty funny.

So my dad is now 65. He will be retiring at the end of the summer, and my parents have decided to move to Ottawa. They are looking at buying a condo in the same building as my aunt, right near U of O. This is a bit crazy for me to get my head around. It will be fun having my parents back in the same city as me; however, it will be strange not having my parents in Toronto, which is where I am used to them being. Toronto has been "home" for me for many years, and that is going to change. Robert and Judy will be staying in Toronto (despite mine and Jerome's numerous entreaties to move to Ottawa), and I still have many friends who live in Toronto, but without a bedroom to call my own when I get there, it's just not going to be the same.


* This is also my submission for the Shutterbug Challenge for today.

** My brother's ex-wife also attended that same Choir Camp in 1986. I can't remember how we actually discovered this, but sure enough, there she is in a corner of the group photo we took. She wasn't in my cabin, but it's entirely possible I spoke to her at some point (there was maybe only 100 kids there). Crazy!

You Know What We Did Last Month?

We were in Cairo! There were markets! There were no protests! Kate and Sally were there, too! It was humid and rainy and dusty and FANTASTIC!

Pictures will slowly follow. I have been sick and under the weather since our return. I will also blog about some of our trip, as it was quite blog-worthy (even without protests threatening our departure). However, I am also going to pick one photo from each day to continue the Shutterbug Challenge which I set myself at the beginning of the year.