Diabeetus Confirmed July 28, 2009
Posted by Mitchell in Diabetes.comments closed
I got the call today (that was fast!) and the test confirmed that I have the Diabeetus. Also high cholesterol. But no thyroid issues! But I do have high blood pressure on top of the other stuff. So, I’m quite the mess healthwise. But now I have medicines, blood sugar tester thingy, and orders to “eat healthy & exercise”. I guess we’ll see how that goes.
Saturday Swatch July 25, 2009
Posted by Mitchell in Art, Knitting.comments closed
Today’s post is brought to you by the Rib Stitch:
3.5 x 3.5 of Knifty Knittery!
The rib stitch is pretty cool and it’s basically the same as the stockingette stitch really only you alternate the “back” side of the fabric with the “front”. It makes for an even tension across the whole thing so it doesn’t tend to curl like the stockingette stitch. It’s a bit harder to do since you have to switch back and forth between the knit and purl stitches as you do each row. There are LOTS of more opportunities to make mistakes and it’s also harder to keep the tension in the yarn even as you go. You can see that effect here as my stitches aren’t all even. Still, it’s knot bad.
The yarn is Lily’s “Sugar ‘n Cream” 100% cotton worsted weight and the color is… mmmm – “Potpourri Ombre” I guess. Knitted with #7 needles. Which is why it’s 3.5 x 3.5 instead of 4 x 4 like the others.
Diabeetus Watch July 24, 2009
Posted by Mitchell in Health.comments closed
Well I saw the doctor yesterday and he agreed that all the stuff I’m experiencing are indeed potential signs of a diabeticatarianalishy condition so he set me up for some blood tests. I also have high blood pressure issues so he’s checking for some stuff with that, and cholesterol, and thyroid. I couldn’t get the blood drawn yesterday as some of the tests require an eight hour fast before they can take it so I went this morning. It will take a few days for these tests to come back but I expect we’ll have a lenghthy discussion about my health issues and what we can do about them. I also expect that a large part of my treatment will be getting my lazy butt off of the couch and moving it.
Stay tuned…
Doctor’s Appointment Today July 23, 2009
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
This afternoon I shall attempt to negotiate the horrors of our terrible medical system which of course must be massively overhauled and turned into a socialized system RIGHT NOW according to the zer()bama.
I have to go talk to the doc about
I’m pretty sure I am developing symptoms of this thing. Now excuse me while I go drink a gallon of water and then pee every 10 minutes.
Stockinette Stitch Swatch July 18, 2009
Posted by Mitchell in Home, Knitting.comments closed
No it didn’t take a week to do this. I actually had it done last weekend but just didn’t get around to posting it. It’s four inches by four inches again. Check it out:
I knit therefore I am.
I thought I was kinda doing it wrong because it likes to curl up, but that’s actually a defining characteristic for the stockinette stitch. It likes to be tubular. Unsurprisingly it’s frequently used for tubular pieces like sleeves and socks.
This was made from a skein of Lamb’s Pride worsted weight wool and mohair blend. The color is “Tormented Teal”. I think it turned out pretty good! My next knitting swatch is already started but I have not had much time to work on it this week. It’s the slightly more complicated “Rib Stitch”.
Treasure of Alaska July 17, 2009
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It’s here! Mine! My own! My…PRECIOUSSSSSSSSSSS!
Freshly forged in the fires of Mount Doom's little brother - Calamity Hill!
I bought this wonderful ring at our first port of call, Ketchikan. There’s a beautiful jewelry store there (among many, many jewelry stores) called Julie’s and they specialize in carrying stuff with gold quartz settings. This was one of the stores my Mom was keen on visiting and they had lots of pretty stuff for her to look at. I had no intention of buying anything when we went in but I happened to glance at a case with some men’s rings & whatnot and a little display stand of three rings caught my eye. On a lark I asked to look at them more closely and get the prices. Well, they were out of my price range and told the guy to put them back. Mom picked out a gorgeous ring and necklace pendant with the quartz gold stones and arranged to have the ring re-sized. It would be ready for pickup in a couple hours. The instant we left the store those rings started preying on my mind.
We wandered around the downtown shopping district for a while and we saw many cool and beautiful things (in amongst the tons of touristy crap) but I kept thinking about the rings. Eventually I made up my mind to go ahead and buy one and asked to go back. It wasn’t really time to go back yet but we went anyway. When we got there I asked to look at the stand again to compare the three. They ranged from smaller to larger with corresponding prices. I dithered for a while and then figured “If I’m going to spend this much I might as well go ahead and get the nicest one” so I did. Alas my porky fingers are too big and it has to be resized. Doubly alas the resize job was too big to do in-house properly so it had to be sent to the manufacturer for recasting and resetting and I would get it “in a few weeks”. GRRR! All that money and I couldn’t even enjoy it on the trip! Oh well.
Last night I noticed a corner of a note just peeking through the door jamb of my front door. UPS had been trying to deliver something for three days! It required a signature, of course and that note was the last attempted delivery. No kidding folks I’ve had dreams about this ring for several nights the last couple weeks. Anyway I went down to the UPS depot and finally picked it up this morning. Now that I have it I can’t stop mooning over it.
My Precioussssssss…
Hey, Not Bad! July 16, 2009
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Well, well! Guess who’s lost 21 pounds in the last three weeks or so? Still a long way to go but that’s a good start.
Behold! July 10, 2009
Posted by Mitchell in Knitting.comments closed
Four inches by four inches of knittery goodness.
I have knitted a swatch! And it’s bounded off and everything. Yah, it’s not perfect, but it’s not bad either. So a 4″ x 4″ with my #6 needles with this yarn is 20 stiches by 39 rows. This is important to know when you’re actually making something. I don’t know what to do with the dangly bits just yet – the books don’t say but I’m sure they will. This here is an example of the “Garter Stich”. It’s where you use only the knitting stich and no purls which is just a reverse knit stich. Next up is the “Stocking Stich” wherein I shall attempt to alternate knit and purl rows. Type at you later!
Sorry, I’m Knitting… July 8, 2009
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I’ve wanted to learn how to knit since I was a kid. And on this trip I finally decided to do something about it and bought a “How to Teach Yourself Knitting” kit in Skagway Alaska. I spent much of my time on the way back trying to learn how to knit with limited results. The yarn I got isn’t really the best for beginners and certainly isn’t really very good for the size of the needles in the kit. Anyway, now I’m back home with yarn galore and the last little bit of vacation time left. So…knitting.
Still, I can’t keep my public hanging so here’s a picture of the last we would see of the sun for quite a while at the end of the first day of the cruise:
Bye-bye Mr. Sun!
Vacation – Seattle July 7, 2009
Posted by Mitchell in Vacation.comments closed
I won’t do a lot here as we weren’t in Seattle very long. After checking in to our hotel rooms we started to go looking for interesting places to shop and eventually somewhere to eat dinner. We looked through the little maps and brochures the hotel had in the rooms and decided on a few places to look at. We were on foot so we really couldn’t go far. Fortunately we were in the middle of the downtown area so we didn’t have to go far. It’s also pretty steep in that area and everything goes down to the water. I don’t think we intended to go all the way down there that evening but we couldn’t find much in the way of restaraunts in the immediate vicinity. Eventually we happened upon a place called the Bay Pavillion that had some shops and restaurants and we stopped to eat at The Fisherman’s. It was a little pricey but the food was good and more than plenty of it.
Coming back to the hotel we intended to stop at a couple places on the way but the steepness put that notion out of our heads pretty quickly. We caught a cab and rode the rest of the way back.
The Center of the Anomaly 