Now I hate chicken.

Something happened. I don't know when. I thought maybe I just hated the chicken breasts that greathusbandbob made (which are objectively very good- I just can't.). White chicken chili was once my favorite thing. Surely it can not be a part of my psyches protest against chicken. But it is. <sad face>

I'm wondering if hormonal pre-menopausal stages also bring changes in appetite. Some food just makes me so mad.

I made a dog but Knitnightgina assembled it. It has gnome friends.

 

His name is Murphy- made while watching Z-Nation. In an ironic twist, Amanda's alligator is chewing on his leg. This scene was followed by several more and if you know anyone who is hiring independent contractors to create hilarious knitted toy tableaus, I may be able to hook you up, (that would have been so funny if it were crochet.) People may having been smiling curiously at us in Panera's.

The next gnome has been started on size 10 needles with four strands of Elsbeth Lavold's silky wool.

 

The gnomes are to be a fixture of knit night until it gets boring- with more to come until snow can make me laugh instead of gnomes. Also why does autocorrect keep trying to capitalize Gnomes? Also in the works in my head is a size 2 needles/sock yarn version of the dog. Puppies!

 

Mini-Plated

 

Blue tortilla chips to accompany tomorrow's white chicken chili will look fabulous on this most recently painted plate.

Also I do not want vacation to end.

 

Watchadoin'?

It's thanksgiving break and I am doing three and a half things.

Knitting.

Watching black and white movies on YouTube.

Reading.

Napping.

I say three and a half things because I seem to only manage a paragraph or two at a time before napping.

I'm reading an Erik Larson non-fiction account of the US ambassador to Germany just before he start of WWII. There are too many quotes from this book that fit today. Also, while he craftily documents and creates stories from artifacts, it's still pretty thick reading and I've given up trying to keep accurate track of who's who in the story.

The black and white moviethon had Orson Welles as a lawyer fighting against the death penalty and another movie called "Joe Macbeth." A film noir gangster version of Macbeth. I caved and purchased YouTube Red. Mostly because the commercials are three times as loud as most of the movies and they scare the shit out of me every time.

This is a sneak peak at knitting- I can't wait to assemble!

 

Cousin is having a holiday meal at the drop-in center today which I've decided relieves any formal gathering on our part. We will be taking pies to aunt in the afternoon for a visit. (Lemon meringue and pecan- made by Giant Eagle). I'll also take cousin to Bob Evans on Saturday. She said "they'll probably have leftover thanksgiving turkey, if not I'll just get a turkey fork and knife sandwich."

Time to read some more (wink wink nod nod)

 

The Hangover

As soon as I had a moment with one of my third grade classes on Wednesday morning, they asked me who I voted before. Even before I could answer, grinning ear to ear, they said "Donald Trump won!" The conversation snowballed into "I'm glad he won Hillary was going to take our guns and close the coal mines." I got a handle on the conversation, stated no opinion (as teachers are instructed to do when it comes to politics) and tried to explain amendments and how they are overturned to a group of 7-8 yr olds.

As soon as these words were spoken, images from Sandy Hook Elementary flashed through my head and really it was all I could do just to understand gravity and make it keep,working for me.

Today I listened to a podcast called Trumpcast produced by Slate News. Jacob Weisberg was interviewing a white high school teacher from an all black high school. They discussed the difficulties in coping with what the election told them about our country etc. In the end the teacher talked about the comfort of unity and togetherness that all experienced as they shared their fears and emotions.

Here in western PA, western MD and most of rural WV (where I teach) if we supported Hillary, we did not have that luxury. We are from another planet.

And while I keep my politics out of my classroom (especially the black and white minds of the very young), it is absolutely soul sucking not to be able to publically condemn all that is wrong with what happened on Tuesday. Where is the line between avoiding political views and teaching little ones to be good citizens. I guess for now I know where I've chosen to place it. I'm just not terribly proud of the things I am not able to teach.

Below is the innocence of the birthday banana split from Sarris'. Consumed on Tuesday night before the results came in.

 

Also, who can watch Negan on the walking dead when there are real monsters soon to run the world.

 

Birthday update.

Celebratory ice cream for lunch on Saturday. Not only celebrating the b-day but also celebrating the completion of the most difficult task in wallet replacement- the DMV.

 

Fancypants lunch on Monday. Nurseshelly made crab dip- I brought the things you don't have to cook.

 

We ate birthday dinner at my favorite hole in the wall Lebanese restaurant where the wife/waitress forced shawarma instead of my usual gyro platter. She kept saying "you try something new... you might like." She was mistaken.

There was ice cream cake when we got home.

 

Greathusbandbob sang and didn't get all weepy like he did when he and aunt sang on Sunday.

We waited for an hour to vote today, ate some Mexican food for lunch and picked up my newly detailed car. Tonight we head north and it's a "the election is over and yesterday was your birthday" party at Sarris' ice cream parlor with knit night friends.

Two days of school and another day off- the following week begins program prep and then off we go into the holiday season.

I'm still double knitting hearts because I like the color combos.

 

New dawn new day.

Item the one. The non-verbal kindergartener (not diagnosed with anything but will probably be on the autism spectrum) spoke in my room today. And spoke and spoke and spoke. In the past he might communicate with a whisper. Today we were playing with the chant "Mabel Mabel set the table don't forget the ___ ___ ___ " where kids fill in the blanks with food and practice clapping the syllables. The aide sitting next to him was whispering "turkey" in his ears trying to get a response and he up and shouted "NO! NOODLES!" He spent the rest of class talking and talking. I would say everyone stand up he would repeatedly say "I can't stand up." (While he was standing). Then he changed it up after a while and said "I can't sit down!" Last year in pre-k his favorite sound was the sound of the bus brakes which he would do every time a bus arrived. What a win to watch it happen.

It's pretty hard to top that. Greathusbandbob had a WVU shirt (that fit and was cotton instead of nylon) and a Penguins hat hanging in my room this evening. Start of the birthday festivities.

I finished the never ending cardigan by Hannah Fetig at knitnight on Tuesday. Right sleeve longer than the left because measuring. It's actually called the Effortless Cardigan. It's a great pattern and the second time I've made it. Dog nails and life took a toll on the first one. It's in a lightweight dark blue alpaca and as of now fits mostly like a short bathrobe. Just as the other one did. And yet I am pleased.

This inspired knitting corner overhaul as I often do after a big project. This helps me see how many unfinished projects I have and check to see if there are any I want to finish. Finding plenty unfinished but none that struck my fancy I did this- which will likely become one of those unfinished items later on.

 

Don't even bother to squint to see the colors. This bad photography could probably start a new "what color is the dress" meme. Trust me when I say that they are fabulous and time for daylight pictures will reveal all.

No! NOODLES! What the what?

 

You Scream, I scream...

NurseShelly and I eat lunch together. After my success with plating cheese and crackers we decided to collaborate. Last week she made spinach dip and I brought mini bread bowls from which to eat it. No pictures. This week I was in charge of lettuce, tortilla wraps, apples and caramel dip and she was the boss of the chicken salad.

 

It's not such a great plating job but I have visions of a new plate in my future. Now that the plate has a purpose I may be more inspired design-wise. (To be continued.)

Next week is birthday week. I will bring shrimp cocktail for lunch because birthday. Nurseshelly will find something to accompany it. It's good that I'll be eating healthy at lunchtime as I am asking to have my birthday dinner at Bruster's where so far the top pick is this-

 

Dinner on the knitnight 8th will be here-

 

Sarris Ice Cream

It will be an ice cream sort of birthday.

In school hilarity, I asked young children (age 5) why we don't have school on November 11th. Guesses included summer vacation, because it's his birthday and "because we need a day off." When eventually got to calling it Veteran's Day (as a lead up to singing You're a Grand Old Flag and pretending to be in a parade with mini flags) one girl thought maybe Veteran's day was the day we take our dogs to the vet.

Greathusbandbob is trying to recapture the "Men of Mayberry" glee from last month but it's the intent and presentation that he's got going for him. A man's shirt two sizes too small in a fabric that induces an immediate hot flash will likely be returned. Let's Gooooooo Mountaineers,

 

We're taking cousin to Prime rib night in the burg on Friday- the weekly Walmart trip will follow. Hopefully a trip to AAA on Saturday morning will complete the lost wallet card replacement process.

The end.

 

End of the streak

So when I felt like no one was listening to me a few months ago,  I subsequently lost my voice.

Just this week I began to feel the tentacles of depression intertwining in my brain.  And then I lost my identity.

Yes, today will be a day of report and replace.

It was good while it lasted.

Two weeks and counting

Another duly noted uncatastrophic week passed last week much to the delight of everyone involved.

Aunt remains in a holding pattern although they insisted on a care plan conference call this morning. The last time we had one of those was at a critical juncture. Today's was an annoying formality. The doctor says she can't rehab so we wait until she can. Their primary concern was that insurance wouldn't be a problem.

Cousin has a Halloween party on Wednesday. She called last week looking to get some cowboy boots. I said if we could find them at Walmart- o.k. I wasn't expecting a positive outcome. Then I saw the ankle boots with zippers on the side that are like fake short cowboy boots. Halloween costume for the win.

Greathusbandbob has been motoring along breathing freely until this weekend. Some sort of bug caught him and when that happens in combination with copd it's pretty terrifying for him. What is Prednisone and nebulizer for $200, Alex?

The best part of today was lunch. I brought baby carrots and mini Italian bread rolls. Nurseshelly brought spinach dip. A clever shared lunch may be the new self soothing Sunday nightmare dread solution.

The latest binge is PBS' Mr. Selfridge. I can't even begin to express what a relief it is to watch a show completely devoid of zombies, blood and guts. Just silly British antics that all work out in a feel good way in the end. This in contrast to last night's Walking Dead which was one of the most disturbing things ever. I tend not to watch- greathusbandbob likes it- and will only listen and even that filter offered no relief.

I have the sleeves to an effortless cardigan by Hannah Fettig on the last stretch to completion. It will be delayed for a few days as I make a monkey hat for our guidance counselor's new baby. He has a son named Jack. Baby girl didn't have a name as of noon today so we sent out a quick note suggesting Jill or maybe Jillian so that he would have Jack and Jill. There's been no response, I can't imagine why it hasn't been a priority.

In the past I might have skipped writing this post given its lack of storytelling excitement. Except I really want a record of calmer days so that the next time the shit hits the fan I'll be able to look back with some relief.

 

Lunch of the Goddess

Or something like that.

Whenever I have had snacks at kmitnightgina's house they are delightful. She's got some smarts when it comes to mixing flavors and appears to just "throw together" magic.

Last week I decided to see if I could transfer the idea of that to my school lunch and realized that part of the problem with lunch at school is the manner in which it is delivered. I experimented with tiny plastic containers and then decided to try to "plate" my lunch for greater appeal.

 

This looks so much better than snarfing food out of plastic baggies and cardboard boxes. It just so happened that prek teacher at school was looking for lunching advice. She saw this and was delighted.

When I told her I painted the fancy plate at the WOW factory she said "I want to do that!" And then there were a bunch of "me too's" from school friends I like a lot and I think we might have a field trip in the works.

Speaking of field trips I'm hoping for an awesome knit night field trip on Election Day (also the day after my birthday). It involves having regularly scheduled knit night at Sarris' ice cream parlor. Knitnightgina and knitnightdrjustine are in so I can pretty much count on some awesome. KnitnightLucy has found us and she makes me damn laugh. There is nothing better than a fast thinker and quick-to Laugh-er. And we can add another one to the club.

Note to future self- when life is complicated, it's harder to laugh. When it relaxes, the laughing comes back. That is such a relief.

 

Details at 11:00

So I wanted this post to be something like "confused elderly rehab patient photobombs local hero" or something like that. There is a perfect news teaser to go with this picture. I just don't have it.

 

But I've just declared greathusbandbob the master of selfies in my head. Also I think he is very handsome.

He's wearing his Gabe's Steelers garb- new t-shirt and hoodie. We were trying to be gangstahs family visitors at the nursing home.

I had a matching hooded outfit but couldn't fit in the pic. It was another open the yarn room door surprise last week. Only this time I was slightly suspicious because he kept lurking in the hallway when I got home from school and doesn't usually show off his new clothes or wear a hoodie with the hood up in the house.

Also for all of my dog readers out there. Warning. This ramp leads to the gates of Hell and should NOT ever be used to get on a bed that's too high. No matter what, wait for your owners to lift you up onto the bed.

 

 

Unev-what-ful?

If tomorrow passes without a crisis it will be the first week since late July that has been uneventful.

Hooray.

Last Friday a child (who was 11 years old) started crying at me and screamed "you're a JERK!" because I took the ice pack intended for his knee after he started eating the ice in it. A little bit later after talking about how Solomon Linda's Mbube was lifted by Pete Seeger after a trip to South Africa, he shouted "YOU STOLE FROM ME!"

The hardest part in managing this situation is to encourage other kids in the class to have compassion about the hard day he must have been having rather than looking at me and meekly saying "you're a jerk" when he's not around because it cracks them up. Especially since when I walked into the teachers lounge the school nurse that I eat lunch with yelled "you're a JERK!" when I walked in and I laughed my ass off.

School story the second. There are 17 kids in my elementary band class. Today we got through "go tell aunt Rhody" while still hanging on to all of them. Also they changed the words to the song and it now involves macaroni. When we finished I gave a short speech letting them know that if they didn't practice between now and the next band class, they would lose it and we'd have to do the whole thing again.

There is one girl that is about six inches shorter and as skinny as the trombone she plays. She raised her hand and asked, "Mrs. Terry, can I make an announcement?" I said, "of course." She shouted "LET'S MAKE MRS. TERRY PROUD!!!"

Moral of these stories-

There is nothing worse than a fifth grader who hates you and there is nothing better than a fifth grader who adores you.

Brain in Action

Minding my own business, cutting out manipulatives I saw a piece of scrap paper good for a note or message.

I remembered a band student who would have received a "token" (good behavior reward) had he only taken one of those sheets and written down the number of minutes he practiced for band.

Then I thought about those tokens.  Maybe he didn't want one.  What are they good for anyway?  Tchotchkes from a school store.

Remember that time we had a food drive and let students use their tokens to buy food to donate to the food drive.  That was awesome.  Kids who couldn't spare extra food got to contribute.

Why didn't we do that last year?  Oh yea, that requires planning ahead of time and a principal who can follow through with the plan.

Oh wait, we have one of those now-I must immediately go tell her that we should do this.

#howdidigetsolucky

 

So I got home and heard the details of my life as they have been taken care of by greathusbandbob (including pie and donut delivery to the hip doctor and his office) and I was just about full up of gratitude.

Then I walked into my yarn room/office and saw this. I have been laughing and smiling ever since!

 

Unwanted company

le sigh.

Cousin slipped in the shower this am. The person we pay to help take care of her responded quickly (she's o.k.) and put her to bed only to find a bed full of unwanted guests. Bed. Bugs.

FML

Greathusbandbob to the rescue- he and our helping friend removed mattress and bed springs and got on top of calling an exterminator. All of this while I made a last minute oh shit I forgot about it run to the big city for a meeting the superintendent called.

The girl has been really clean in the new place. That means she either brought them with her from over a year ago. Unlikely. They were there when she moved in, also unlikely. Or she picked them up at the drop-in center where she goes daily. After sharing these possibilities with her she casually mentioned. Oh yeah, the drop in center had bed bugs. From here on out there will be drop-in center clothes and house clothes and drop in center clothes go straight into hot water.

Aunt is still in hospital. When I called this evening she was trying to get to the bathroom without the giant person moving contraption.

I got home and went for a walk. While I detest the box store that begins with the letter W, ours happens to be on a high hill surrounded by bucolic scenery. It's the next best (and only) alternative to Zumba which would have meant another hour in the car.

I am so over this adulting business.

Yawr boox ahr ovahdoo

The laugh of the week.

Aunt Vickie is actually my sister-in-law. Greathusbandbob's sister-in-law to be precise. In spite of being from Brooklyn, her New York accent is Jersey Kardashian times infinity. For whatever reason, this came naturally to my ears and out of my voice (unlike my Jamaican accent which sounds like a Spaniard living in the Baltics.)

On occasion I use this accent to get the attention of the kids I'm teaching. It's also handy to pull out when you feel like yelling at them but yelling isn't really called for. They are always begging for it.

Yesterday two girls reported to music directly after library, put their glasses down to the tips of their noses, looked over the top of them and proudly stated "Yawr boox ahr ovahdoo" in a pretty decent Aunt Vickie accent.

Hilarious. And the tradition lives on.

Also cracking me up is the collection of sheet music that came with the keyboard last week. I finally sorted through the stack and found-

Songs from Neil Diamonds, The Jazz Singer, hits from 1976 which included Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, the theme from Mash, the Alley Cat, the theme from Love Story and Morris Albert's Feelings.

There were others but if you are my family and you are reading this, you are already laughing your damn ass off.

Apparently we had the musical tastes of a 50ish year old gay man.

Aunt update. Being the hero he always is, while I was taking the cousin shopping, greathusbandbob went to Morgantown on a home game day to check on aunt. The amazing doctor called yesterday to say that she was having anesthesia/pain med related cognitive issues that will likely subside. And in fact according to husband she is- loopy, sleeping, talking in her sleep and out of it similar to the way she was last time. But this time the health care people are aware of it without us telling them so it's not so scary.

Today is the one year anniversary of cousin moving to the 'burg. We are celebrating with Laverne's famous apple dumplings and ice cream. I'm going to secretly pick up her friend to join us. She will be so surprised. I think we'll make a list of all the things she's been able to do that are new since she's been here.

What a difference a year makes.

A humble surgeon.

This is the review I put on google about aunt's doctor today-

This guy is amazing. He clearly took the care of my 85 year old aunt (who required a hip replacement) personally. He made a point of calling the rehab where she was staying (HIM not his office) twice the night before her surgery to make sure everything would be ready for surgery the next day. Then on the day of the surgery, my husband was on his way to the hospital but when he got home he found a message from Dr. Klein letting us know she was getting ready to go into surgery. He bypassed the "officialdom" of receptionist and back room conference and came out to talk to us (still in his scrubs) to let us know how things went. You could not hope for a better Doctor and a great human being!

And really what I mean by getting everything ready the night before- he had her admitted to the hospital the night before so that there would be no snafus. He also scheduled the transportation.

Greathusbandbob took afternoon duty from 1:00pm-6:00pm. She was in surgery from 1:50-5:40. He and I had dinner together at the hospital cafeteria (for the record I pretended I was an extra on House.) I stayed to wait for her to come out of recovery. After three room changes (she never made it to any of them) it got to be 8:00 and I realized that 1) she would be way sleepy and 2) she wouldn't know if I had been there or not given her reaction to anesthesia. I got home around 9:00. I wish I had realized that earlier in the evening.

And because medicated schizophrenics really have no filter when it comes to saying what they think (or at least this one doesn't), when I called to tell her everything was ok she said "oh good, the operation didn't kill mom." And "are we still going to celebrate my year anniversary living here with apple dumplings at Laverne's?"

Priorities people, priorities.

And because the fun never ends.

We spent 45 minutes at the xfinity store yesterday trying to get our multiple phone/cable accounts back into our name through no error of our own only to be told that there was no one there who could help and we'd need to come in during business hours. This was after 30 minutes on the phone only to be told to go to the store.

Then today we spent three hours in room of aunt inhaling acetone and trying to remove her acrylic nails in preparation for Wednesday's surgery.

 

At this point I still believed in the power of cotton balls and aluminum foil. It was only later that I stole a glass cruet dish to begin the soaking.

In the category of sheer force of effort- 200 lb electric piano moving. Knitnightmarc let me borrow his dolly and kept the heavy portion of the keyboard strapped to it when he put it in the car. I unloaded it, rolled it to the back door and into its current location before greathusbandbob could get home. He has COPD and I refused to wait and require his help. This was after believing that I could drive the Subaru through the back yard (the trailblazer can do it- there may have been some rubber burned.)

Perhaps the theme of this post should be my many mistaken beliefs.

Today's sheer force of effort was the glue under the last acrylic thumbnail. Dizzy from the inhalation and the Steelers huge loss, I believe it was sheer force of mental effort that took that nail off.

On the up side, I spent an hour and a half playing piano today instead of napping or playing dumb tablet games. I bribed the weekend nurse with a pair of socks to make sure aunt gets to the surgery on time during the week. She's on a sort of "on call" list for the procedure and the exact time won't be known until the morning of. She's only a size 7 and I'll be using size two needles.

 

Dog hair for a better fit.

Because this was once a knitting blog-

 

I'm calling these the visiting socks as they were made during visit to aunt at various facilities. 72 stitches on size one needles. The next pair will be on twos so I can feel what I'm doing and not have to look so much.

 

Happy birthday to me in two months

Our upright piano sits approximately ten inches from Greathusbandbob's desk/work/central local area. I can't call it his knitting corner but that gives you an idea about how often he's there and what the space is to him.

Once I tried to move the piano into the yarn room only to be foiled by tight corners and immovable walls.

My plan was to get a high end electric piano to put into the yarn room that I might play again. I shared this plan at knitnight and knitnightmarc asked me if I wanted to buy his. I saved 90% on what I would have paid and got the "best for its time" (1995ish) piano with excellent touch and tone. There are some floppy disks and other bells and whistles but those two qualities were the only ones I was looking for.

Some assembly-tightening of the screws- and tidying-putting the room in order- are required but now I can play again. An added bonus is that having cleared the room during the last minimalist scourge, there is room on the shelves for the music.

Yippee!