Kiss My Knits!

Feeling under the weather today, with a sore throat, headache, and fatigue. Bad day for the first sickness of the season – a dear friend is having a birthday party today, but I don’t dare go because I don’t want to get her sick. “Happy birthday! Here’s the flu!”

I’m taking a quick shower in the hopes that it’ll energize me. My wonderful husband has gone out for fast food Chinese at my request. We all have our own comfort foods.

Thinking about casting on a new knitting project just for me, since I don’t want to germ up anybody’s Jayne hat, but somehow I’m having trouble figuring out what I should do. I’m mainly lying in bed reading and periodically realizing that I haven’t actually registered the last page or so. The illness has me a bit foggy. Oh well. If this is the worst that happens all year, then I’ll count myself lucky.

I gained back about five pounds over the summer. Now, school’s back in session. It’s not oppressively hot. I’m not tied to the house. The weight is an unwelcome guest who came to stay during vacation. It’s time to say goodbye.

Today’s run wasn’t a stellar performance. It’s going to take a little time to get my mojo back, so I’ve been walking more over the last week. Today I started running again. My lungs let me know that perhaps I shouldn’t have neglected them so much over the summer. However, it still felt good to get out there again. I went along the Little Sugar Creek Greenway, which I enjoy for the scenery. I didn’t push myself too much. When I saw a little green hummingbird zipping among orange flowers on a thin vine, I stopped and watched for a bit. Fitness isn’t just about body, its about mind, too.

That night, Tvini learned a valuable lesson about making hair care decisions based on internet dares.

Hey, we had some left over from re-doing Em’s hair (which turned out much better). As the friend who dared me said, “waste not, want not.” The dye is Special Effects in Sonic Green. The picture was taken after a shampoo with lots of vigorous scrubbing.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Time has been very scarce lately, with Em out of school. She’s doing a morning camp this week, but it took all of that time to sort through a mound of Jayne e-mails. I love that she’s being so engaged this year, it’s exactly what we want. However, I did not expect it and it’s throwing me behind on other things.

Tomorrow morning I hope to go running. I passed the 100 mile mark on Nike Plus, which was a good feeling. Hopefully the sweat from the run won’t send green dye down my face.

I’m not going very fast, but I’m going.

Am I correct in thinking that physical therapy should not leave you with bruises over the area which was “massaged?” There are more bruises, but there’s only so much purpled fishbelly-white abdomen you need to see.

It’s been 20 years since I last had any physical therapy, but this just can’t be right.

I’m in physical therapy for back pain now. I had my second visit to the physical therapist today.

It’s a wet morning. Emily has a special reading celebration at her school today, including a picnic and outdoor games. She’s been looking forward to it all year. It’s caused some stress as she wasn’t sure she was going to meet the goals required to attend the celebration, so this is a particularly meaningful event for her. Unfortunately, it’s raining hard enough to put the kibosh on lunch in the field. Here’s hoping they can cram everyone into the gym without the noise levels bringing the roof down.

I was also hoping to run this morning, but it’s coming down pretty good and I’m just not that hardcore. Maybe a run on the wii fit will do.

In knitting news, I test-felted a sample of Lamb’s Pride worsted in Strawberry Smoothie. Sometimes the lighter colors don’t felt well, but this colorway does, so my projects are still on track.

And that’s the news from Lake Woebegon.

I stayed up way too late last night finishing up a project, which I hoped to have ready this morning. It’s 90% done, but it needs a finishing touch and probably won’t be ready until tonight, so I would have been better off going to bed early. Oh well.

However, Em did stay asleep all night. Before going to bed, she asked if we could change her pillowcase. One of the thing she’d said a few nights ago while awake in the middle of the night was that her pillow was uncomfortable. But that was one of a litany of things that were wrong, and I figured it was just one more on the list of things to say when upset. The fact that she said it last night before going to bed told me that yes, her pillow probably was uncomfortable. Fortunately, we have a spare. I set her up with two pillows last night and said she could switch them to see which she liked best, or could have them both on her bed. She went with that. So now she’s added another pillow to her nest of dolls and blankets. But hey – she stayed asleep all night. I’m not complaining. Besides, I also had an ungodly amount of stuff on my bed as a child, so I have no room to talk.

In spite of being up late and being very tired this morning, I geared up to run before dropping Em off, then went straight to Little Sugar Creek Greenway and ran. I’m running faithfully again now that the weather is good. I lost the couple of pounds I picked up over the winter, so I’m back to where I was when I started slacking off due to cold weather. Anything else from here on is forward progress.

It was misting slightly when I started. I like running in the mist, but it always leaves me wishing I had little windshield wipers on my glasses. A bonus of going at 7:15 in the morning in the mist is that aside from a couple of dog walkers, nobody else was out. I have to admit that I feel a little superior when that happens. “Ha! You super-fit exercise maniacs who glide effortlessly past me don’t have the huevos to come out in the morning rain, eh? Come back when you’re serious!”

The mornings are good on the Greenway. I saw a rabbit, some ducks, and a hawk which was being chased by a little songbird. On the down side, because of the deluge a few days ago, the waters are still receding and the entire stream area smelled like wet dog. Small price to pay.

My mother is coming over soon. We’re going to see Star Trek at a local IMAX theater together. And because she loves me and wants me to be healthy and happy, I know that she will be okay with my decision to go running instead of cleaning the shambles that is my house. Let’s hear it for Trekkie families with their priorities straight. Live long and prosper, y’all!

This morning I went to the doctor to get my blood pressure checked after that high reading last week. It was a good 10 points lower in the doctor’s office, back out of the OMG HYPERTENSION range. Clearly I was more “het up” about standing up than I thought, and chugging that coffee probably didn’t help. We’re just going to keep an eye on it for now and when I go in for my next physical in a few months we’ll discuss it again.

Fishwatch 2009: Two days ago I changed Kathleen’s water. After the change, while I was out of the room, Em got the net and transferred the fish back into her original bowl and scraped off a tiny piece of fin. The fish seems fine, but I’ve made it clear now that moving the fish is my job. It could certainly have been worse. I’ll be showing Kathleen a little extra TLC while he recovers.

Later that day, Kathleen was very angry, puffing and displaying at me whenever I got near the bowl. I was very surprised that he would have that kind of a memory. Kathleen must be some kind of fish genius!

Then I realized that I was wearing a burgundy shirt that was the same color as he was. I took it off and he calmed down. Then I held the shirt up to a different part of the bowl and he ignored me and flared his fins toward the shirty intruder.

Kathleen thought the shirt was another betta. Genius my eye.

I had a great day yesterday. Many thanks to all of you for your well-wishes. The weather was beautiful in the afternoon, so after leaving Em in the capable hands of one of her “experts,” I went for a run while she was working. I shaved two minutes off of my two mile time from Saturday. That wasn’t my goal, but I can’t deny being pleased. For dinner, we ordered out and Mr. Tvini brought food in for us to enjoy while parked in front of the TV. I stayed up far too late playing games on my Mac, something I haven’t done in a long time. Decadent.

I paid for staying up late last night when I woke up this morning feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. Apparently I need to remember that I’m 40 years old now and not 18. I also may have overdone it with the running lately. The weather’s gorgeous, but I can’t go overboard. My lymph nodes are a little swollen and there are little twinges all through my legs and back when I rather ungracefully get to my feet. It’s like my warranty ran out yesterday, and now that I’m no longer covered, parts will begin falling off.

It’s still a good day, though. When my family went to the grocery store to get me a cake, they also brought home these lovely yellow tulips. I am surrounded by thoughtful people. In spite of the twinges, it’s a good start to the next decade.