down-sizing

    What a strange 'eating' day I had today. Had my normal(school day) breakfast of scrambled eggs (2) and skim milk, adding a banana today, but then after my nine o'clock class I needed something to drink, and eneded up eating an early--and large--lunch of Chicken Asiago Salad and Fruit Salad (of which I only ate the grapes and brought the rest home to Rodger). Bought apple juice, but never drank it. It was a "big salad" and I was a little miserable in my next class.     Rodger and I had made plans this morning that we would go to Ryan's for a good supper tonight, since he now gets off from work much earlier. I worried after my large lunch that I wouldn't be hungry. I was wrong; well, it was more than five hours between the two meals with no snack! Had a short nap after John and I got home (with my feline sweetheart, Brickly, curled up beside me), and when Rodger got home he woke me and away we went.     It was a good meal, but I basicallly ate the same thing I always eat there (now): steak, vegetables and water. I didn't have more salad, and only a few grapes and a sugar-free cookie for dessert. Afterward, however, I felt unsatisfied. Much of the joy we used to have in eating out seems gone. Eating is now a chore most of the time. And I was feeling fairly frumped when we left.     We decided to drop by Hudson's so Rodger could get some more of the juice he bought last week. They didn't have any, but I strolled through the clothes looking for cotton fabric (rather than knit) tops for Mexico. I didn't find any tops, but they did have the stretch Capri pants that I've looked at but not yet bought. I grabbed several pair and tried them on... they were T O O B I G ! ! !     I had to go down a size and boy, did that ever surprise me. I had no idea that I'd lost enough weight to make that kind of differece. I did know that I was abel to wear some pants that a friend gave me last year that I hadn't been able to wear before, but this totally caught me off-guard. Needless to say, my frump disappeared.     There's more I wanted to write, but I've got to go to bed. LC

hot momma (or "hot, momma!")

The A/C is broken. It's rather hot for mid-April in Mississippi, in my opinion. And it's dry.dry.dry.dry. Someone (stupid) is setting brush fires along the interstate. "They" say it has not been this dry in 70 years. Don't know how "They" know that, but regardless, we could sure use some rain. The A/C is broken. It's too hot to knit. Which really frustrates me because I had to rip out all that I did during the day yesterday (starting another pair of socks for sister) before I went to bed. Which was very early this morning, actually. Neither John or I was awake enough to make classes today. Such bad children we are. The A/C is broken. I'm too tired to read. My eyes, that is. Are too tired. They are really squirrely the last week. The distance portion of my glasses is totally useless. I pulled out all my old glasses to see if any of them would help (they didn't). I have to tilt my head a bit to have sharp(er) vision. I'm getting a crick in my neck. Just found my FosterGrant magnifiers though, so now I can see to read (and knit) better. The A/C is broken. I did get some knitting done today, though I just got hotter and hotter through the afternoon. I discovered the A/C is broken when I tried to turn down the thermostat -- a result of wondering why the A/C wasn't coming on since it was getting hot in the house. But it always does get hotter in the afternoon, so I didn't really think too much about it. And I was sitting under a halogen lamp knitting and finding mistakes and ripping and reknitting, just generally frustrated. The A/C is broken. I was actually going to cook tonight, but it's too hot. Rodger arrived home from work to find me napping in the recliner. I told him the A/C was broken. We hope that it is just the thermostat. Obviously, I wanted to go out to eat. I've been having just a little bit of carb 'treat' every day. Only at one meal. I want to see if they'll check my glucose at the health clinic on Friday afternoon. I am not drinking soda, sweetened tea, or even fruit juices; no cookies, candy or anything like that. I do want to know how a small amount of carb 'treat' will affect me. So, we had Mexican tonight: grilled chicken breast, beans, a very small amount of rice (I like to stir the salsa into it), only 3 chips with cheese dip and some wonderful guacamole. I know it might seem high on the fat side, but he's letting me do that for now. Still not fatty enough to upset my stomach, so that's good. No weight gain since Monday, at least by my scales. I weighed before I went to the doctors, so I have a pretty good idea how to compare the two scales. The A/C is broken. Fortunately, the air outside is cooling off and so is the living room. Maybe I can get the foot of this sock done tonight afterall. Oh, I am itching to buy some more small size DPs. I love the Susan Bates Quicksilver style. So slick and easy to use. Wish they came in the short length though; so much nicer for knitting socks. I'm thinking about some pairs of circulars too, to try knitting two socks at once. Been 'window-shopping' online for sock yarns, too. I want some Opal Petticoat, but seems like only the overseas sellers on eBay are listing it. There's another one... Dancing, I think it is called. My paypal balance is burning a hole in my pocket! Enough of this rambling for tonight. Did I mention the A/C is broken? And that it is hot? And that I have only had 3 hours sleep since yesterday morning at 6am?? If it's not one thing, it's your mother! (Love ya, Momma!!) LC

& the winning number is...

~ 95 ~     My doctor was flabbergasted! Frankly, so was I. I was simply hoping to be under 200. He said that it was not due to the glucophage, but to my diet. He was honestly shocked that I had actually cut out all my 'whites' -- he seemed to start to say that most people don't follow his instructions. Which to me seems really stupid. You don't fool around with diabetes! Anyway, he said I am obviously "diet sensitive." I had lost 3 pounds, and my blood pressure was a little higher than last Monday (not suprising with doing taxes, and paying bills, and school papers and reading and Spanish to re-learn -- and of course, the GRE is the elephant in the corner that I just don't want to think about). Now, I get three weeks on my own to see what happens. Maybe I can check my blood glucose at the university clinic in the meantime.     Yes, I indulged just a teeney bit at supper: I ate the skin and bit of meat off of (less than) half a small baked potatoe. And a small sugar-free cookie.     Today was the first day of classes after "spring break" -- what a joke. We have three weeks of classes until finals. I have two major papers and two smaller ones, and one final -- which, thankfully, is a take-home, 'short answer' type.     AND... I finally finished (except for the bind-off) the pair of socks I started on the way home from Natchez last weekend! All in all, not a bad Monday, Garfield.... LC

heels and toes, no pasta bows

    The excitement of attending the Lily Chin workshop in Natchez last weekend was unfortunately overshadowed by my health situation, but I did have a great time and learned a lot about short-row technique. So much so that on the ride home, I began toe-up socks using short-rows for the toe. I'd done the short-row heel ("hour-glass" it is sometimes called) on my Old Shale anklets, but wasn't really happy with the result. I felt it could be neater. I knew it could be neater because I'd used short rows on my hemp top last summer following instructions at knitty.com. But when I tried wrapping the stitches like that, I could not see them; I miscounted, and mis-stitcned like crazy, and finally gave up and did it like in the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook.     Because I only made ankle-length sock with the ball of Sockotta, I had lots left, but I wasn't sure just how much. Thus, toe-up socks. I alternated between each sock, judging my yarn (using the Jaywalker pattern from MagKnits), and got up to the heels by Wednesday night. My goal Thursday was to finish the heels so I could do my taxes on Friday. I didn't really get started until late afternoon (first I slept in, then I had to eat, then run errands... and eat... and think about what to eat... and eat... and think about what to eat). Looking back though, I still can't believe how much trouble I had and how long it took me to knit the heels. "Best laid plans of mice and men"     The saga: First I followed these instructions from Wendy Johnson. Turned out fine, but the wrapping was a little different than what Lily had taught us. I did it her way on the second heel. I liked it better, so I went to bed (6am) determined to re-knit the other heel on Friday.     Yes, I was a good girl and did my taxes first. It was actually after 5pm when I got back to knitting. I do not know what my problem was, but although the first half of the heel went find, I bet I re-knit the second half three or four times. First I ended up with unequal number of wrapped stitches as I knitted the short-rows together. Then I did the wrong part of the pattern at the wrong place on the second half of the heel. Next (and at least twice) I managed to drop stitches or was unable to correctly un-knit the wrapped stitches. Finally, I was just too confused about what was what and pulled the whole heel back to the start! It was about 12am when I finally got finished.     I guess I now know at least one reason why few people continue pattern down the heel! It can be difficult to keep track of the pattern and the compensation for pattern. But for wearing with open-backed shoes, I like to see the pattern continue down the heel.     Now I plan to just knit in pattern until I run out of yarn. For the moment, though, I need a shower. But first, I have to eat something!! LC

cures?

    Driving home from the doctor's office this afternoon, where I was given the delightful news that I am diabetic, I began to wonder, just what is the last big disease modern medicine actually 'cured.'     There's no profit in cures for disease only in treatments, whether it's cancer or diabetes. LC

"flat-out A"

Professor said he only gave one on the mid-term papers and I got it!     I told a classmate the day we turned them in that I thought it was the best paper I'd ever written for this professor -- and there have been, hmmmm.... at least seven others. I think I am as pleased with him being pleased as I am with the grade! LOL     In my psych class I'm less than 150 points from an A for the course, so I'll need to get most of the available points for the research paper and presentation (which I really don't think will be a problem).     That leaves Islam class. I'm guessing he'll have our second (of three) papers graded by class tomorrow night. I told him when I turned it in that I had no idea whether I did what he wanted or not. I hope so. The paper seemed to write itself, but took longer to complete than I expected.     Now, to get the paperwork done to run my sleep study for my thesis and get all that material created and uploaded to the experiment site... and... and.... and.....     Somewhere between four to five weeks to get the remaining papers/presentations prepared, then two weeks more to get the study in order before M E X I C O ! ! !     I finished one sock (last week sometime?) and began the second one (on Friday?). I finished the heel last night and got the foot started so I could have some pickup knitting for waiting around at school, or taking a short break from the books. Which reminds me, I have 'homework' for the workshop this weekend! Yeah. I know. Pictures. Soon. I. Promise. LC