That cold throttled me for about two days. Monday night my fever got up to 102.6 and I had to take a cold bath to bring it down. Boy that was fun! But I stayed around 101 for about 24 hours. Then it broke. Now I sound like Janis Joplin but I feel perfectly fine. My parents are visiting until Sunday but they usually get a hotel room or vacation rental up in Santa Fe and drive down to see me. They like Santa Fe. And staying in hotel rooms or vacation rentals. They really don’t like all the pets and their accompanying hair. Cody likes his privacy and houseguests tend to make him nervous. So it all works out.

Hell, I’d live up there again if we could get jobs and be able to afford getting a decent house. I wonder if Cody would. It’s got a lot of great things like art, food (my GOD the FOOD), a fairly relaxed, liberal population for the most part, and it’s about two thousand feet higher and usually about ten degrees cooler than Albuquerque. Oh and it gets more snow which I consider a bonus in this particular case. But it has some extremely annoying aspects like the real estate property values being just obscene, to the point where people who have had families living there for centuries can’t afford to pay the taxes on their house anymore, are forced to move and can usually only get tourist-dependant jobs so they resent like hell anyone who isn’t from there, and, in some cases, with good reason. One case that comes to mind is the person I like to call the “Hippiecrite” who drives their SUV like a complete asshole, running over people in the local natural foods grocery store parking lot to get to their cruelty-free veal, honestly believing that they are morally superior just because of their groceries.

I used to think folks like that were funny but my tolerance has deteriorated over the years. Don’t get me wrong, I respect one’s right to buy local cruelty / phosphate / preservative / animal-testing / msg / rainforest-destruction-causing / non-recycled, non-recyclable / non-renewable source / bleach / wheat / sodium lauryl sulfate / non-fair trade global conglomerate - free products..but it doesn’t mean you’re excused from behaving like you’re still a member of polite society and stopping at the crosswalk, waiting in line, honoring the general personal space rules just like everyone else is doing. Is it too much fo ask for people to have an equal amount of respect for other humans in the way you do for the poor fuzzy animals you have every right to refuse to eat, wear, or have as a household pet?

Ok this was supposed to be about my day in Santa Fe today. Back on track.

So yesterday my parents and I went to see Fever Pitch at the dollar theater down the mesa from my house. I haven’t been to a movie in a long time and it was something that wouldn’t involve too much moving around since I was still feeling punky yesterday. There weren’t a lot of options since I’m a fully admitted snotty bitch when it comes to movies. But Fever Pitch was a perfect choice considering that my mom and I both like Nick Hornby novels, my dad loves baseball, and I’m a big sucker for romantic comedies. It was cute. In some ways I liked the original with Colin Firth better. It was a little more grown up and introspective, not going for the laughs or quite as much cutesy-poo-romantic moments as the American remake. But we each had a few laughs and, hell, for seventy-five cents a ticket who can complain?

This morning my Dad drove down to pick me up, we stopped at Starbucks, then went back up to Santa Fe to spend the day. On the way up I knitted and we discussed politics and religion. Fun! No, really! I could drink a coffee beverage, talk politics and religion with Dad, and knit a La Boheme scarf on giant addi turbos all day long and be a happy woman. He always has something interesting and thought-provoking to say and, well, it’s a relief to know that he’s just as cynical (moreso!) than I am about organized religion. So I was already a happy woman.

Then we picked my Mom up at the hotel and went to the yarn store! Bliss! I have to say that, while my last few experiences with Albuquerque’s lys were not nearly as unpleasant as my first few..the one in Santa Fe is much, much nicer. And a LOT more organized, the lady there was extremely plesant and helpful, and the stock was CHOCK full of Koigu. I spent a good hour squeezing and petting yarn in the morning then we went back around four where I did more squeezing and petting and picking out my birthday present from my parents. I loved what Karen made with Giotto and finally got to see and feel some in person so I picked out four skeins and a colinette giotto pattern book, a gigantic size 19 / 43 inch pair of addi turbos for the next la boheme shawl, some fiber trends patterns I’ve been eyeing, and, yes, some koigu. I’ve joined the Koigu cult.

After the first trip to the yarn store we ate at a small restaurant called Mucho Gusto that was in the same building. It was small and quaint. And, yeah, I’d say it was mucho gusto. Interesting menu with a combination of Nouvelle Mexican cuisine and authentic Mexican food. I got a Turkey Mole Enchilada. The mole was from scratch and totally amazing.

Then we walked down towards the plaza, stopping in a few stores on the way. And the new Wyeth Hurd Gallery where the gallery worker took one look at us and immediately assumed he would need to explain the Wyeth family to us. Hehe. I informed him that we’re quite familiar with the Wyeth family, that Henriette is my favorite but my Dad’s is Andrew. And pointed out a print from Andrew’s Helga series for Dad. Then I found a lovely signed print (14/350!!!) of a black iris painting by Henriette and joked with my mom about how that’s what I wanted for my birthday.

I showed my dad the public library since he’d never seen it. Then walked across the plaza to a clothing store I really like. When my family comes out here for Christmas we usually buy an outfit or two for my sister. But we didn’t get anything this time. First off, they confused me for a tourist and sent me to the way ugly and overpriced racks in the back (and after they used to call me when they were having a private sale! bastards!). Then the clothes just weren’t as appealing this time. I saw several knit items I thought I could make for myself (including a dropped stitch cardigan that could be made in Giotto). Thirdly, their prices for the summer opera / tourist season are a friggin joke. Or I’ve gotten cheaper. Both are probably the case.

As someone who lived in Santa Fe for six years and graduated from college there it’s quite strange to go back as a tourist. But believe me, I share the fact that I used to live there and now live down in Albuquerque as soon as possible in any store clerk conversation. I may have even sold them sandwiches, made them a latte, poured or glazed their tiles, or booked a relative’s hotel room. I don’t go that far, I just try to slip in the fact that I am a bonafide tax-paying resident of the state as casually as I can. My casualness usually fails. Probably no one really cares they just want me to buy shit for their commission or go away. Although most would start by asking where I got the cool red purse!

After the second trip to the yarn store we drove north on part of the “High Road” to Taos to one of my favorite places in the world where I hadn’t been in a few years: Shidoni. It’s a metal foundry with a huge sculpture garden. There are always interesting sculptures in a variety of styles and materials. I’ve spent a lot of time walking around there and watching castings in the foundry. For a while I thought about interning there after getting my degree in sculpture but changed my mind. This was the first time I’d gone into the glassworks gallery next door as well.

We drove back down to Santa Fe and followed my old sandwich delivery route up Canyon Road.

Then went to dinner at a restaurant my roommate and I used to visit a lot called the Zia Diner and had meatloaf with green chiles and pinons. Yum.

Since I’m utterly out of any originality for posts I thought I’d just do theme day memes for a while.

So here goes Mikey’s Marquee Monday combined with some Monday Petblogging (I totally cheated and just turned around to take this photo).

isn’t she sweet?

ok I’m going to bed

Nyquil rocks my little white goathead-covered socks
oh how I love you, you giant fucking Q

I finished the baby sweater late late Saturday night. When I woke up to go to the shower my sinuses felt like they were packed with cotton so I didn’t go.

The house is as clean as it’s going to be for now. My parents arrive in about four hours. I still have a head cold / sinus thing and I just washed my hair anyway.

Melon’s favorite food this week is a canned kipper snack we found in the exotic tinned foods aisle. It’s among the more disgusting seafood items I’ve ever seen but she’s eating it so I’ll put up with it.

The construction seems to be going on further down the road now. Although sometimes we get a boom or vibration from the trucks. That makes the dog bark. She’s also taken to barking when the phone rings. Good thing it doesn’t ring that often. I think she can sense our annoyance with the phone so she barks at it to make it go away.

I’ve eaten so many cough drops I’ve given myself a stomachache.

And I’m on the third day of my period but I can’t eat chocolate because it coats my throat and makes me cough.

Please excuse my posts all being about whining or knitting lately. I haven’t really been thinking about the website very much and when I do it’s usually to whine or show off knitting.

Your IQ Is 125

Your Logical Intelligence is Genius Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Above Average Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

snagged from Kelly

This week’s FO is not very impressive. Well, actually it’s impressivly strange but was not much of a challenge to knit. At all. Like I practically knit this during a two hour nap. But it’s just so damn funny. I love it.

This was knit from that strange novelty yarn I bought from a local spinner lady at the fiber fiesta. It has three strands: A finely spun almost threadlike strand of variegated pinkish orangish alpaca, a weird polyester ladder novelty with random tufts of very-off-white almost orange fluffs or tufts, and a very fine strand of pink sparkly polymid so it’s sparkly! I made it very thin (seven stitches) and super super long, like almost twice my five feet two and a half inches.

What really gives it the personality is the fringe. I had such fun with this fringe because I didn’t worry about making the strands even and balanced. In fact, I wanted it to be as shaggy and wild as possible. We’ve dubbed it the “Craaaaaaaazy” Scarf. And one must flail and shake the fringe about as one says “Craaaaaaazy” in a nutty voice that goes up and down an entire musical scale. Trust me it really adds to the charm.

I totally dig this scarf. Even if it could be considered the simplest silliest piece of knitting in the entire world, ever.

I was very creative with the photos today. Mostly because it was really hot and impossible to get a full shot of such a long scarf with such incredibly short arms. So I got a little slap happy in the heat. But I got some great photos! Including some amusing self-portraits.

A really cool and strange closeup of my tattoo with my reflection below.

And a shot of both our tails.

Winter wanted me to hurry up so we could go back inside. So it must’ve been 115 degrees.

And Melon’s doing a whole lot better! Her Monday blood tests (here was a photo taken for petblogging Monday that never got posted. I’ve been a bit busy this week.)

had some great results. A few are still slightly elevated but that crazy Bilirubin is back to normal. So she’s not on the antibiotics anymore and thankfully I don’t have to do the subcutaneous fluids because as she recovered she fought harder making getting that needle in properly very nervewracking. We’re also weaning her off of the steroids. I’m still watching her food intake very, very carefully. If I don’t see her eat enough during the day I make her swallow a few syringes of food to make sure she gets the minimum calories. She hates this but I’m not having another scare like I did that friday afternoon week before last. I thought I was going to lose her right there. Thankfully it’s very clear she’s feeling a lot better. Let’s hope it holds.

———-

The nephew loved his presents. Especially the knit hedgehog. I’ve heard he sleeps with it every night now. He had a wonderful birthday on Saturday. My mil asked me to bring the real hedgehog down so all the kids could see her. So I brought her little playpen and food and stuff. There were lots of questions about her (like why she kept sticking her head in an empty toilet paper tube and what she eats) and curious little hands. Zola behaved BEAUTIFULLY, as did most of the kids. I’m very proud of my little hedgehog she was extremely well-behaved and not nearly as grumpy as I was worried she would be. I mean, hedgehogs are just plain old grumps anyway but with so many curious little nervous hands I was prepared for the hedgehog tantrum of the century.

Speaking of grumps I watched American Splendor last night and thought it was hilarious. It seems I have a special affinity for grumps and find them highly amusing and adorable. The grumpier they get the more amusing I find them. So of course I thought this movie was charming as all getout. What does this say about me?

I didn’t bring the camera on Saturday so I didn’t get any pictures of the kids playing with her or of the ‘phew and his new hedgehog friend, (who has been named Sam but apparently so has every other stuffed toy) but I’ve been promised they’ll get a photo for me.

———

So if you looked at my FO you’d think I had a lazy week. Bah. Check out the WIP I cast on Sunday and need to finish for the baby shower this Sunday afternoon.

Yeah I decided to go ahead and make something for them. Mostly because this is the first grandchild of the aunt who taught me to knit in February and I wanted to make something nice to thank her and make her proud. She hasn’t knit in years and years and had to read the stitch n bitch book to remember how to do it before showing me. She still crochets a lot though.

That’s the baby kimono from Interweave Knits’ Spring 2005 issue. Although I think with the length it actually is more of a Hapi Coat or a Haori. It’a appropriate I’m using the amyville sushi stitch markers isn’t it?

Naturally I had to mess with the pattern so I’m doing it in a stockinette stitch with garter edges rather than doing the whole thing in a garter stitch. I’m using some amusing Sirdar Baby Yarn and thought stockinette would show the little wormies better. Yeah the little rayon baubles look remarkably like little mealworms but because I have a pet insectivore I’m probably more familiar with them than the average person. I still think it’s a fun and unusual yarn to use for a baby. Yarnsnobbies may wrinkle their noses at the acrylicness but moms always thank me for the easy washability. Yeah, it’s acrylic but feels pretty cottony.

It’s a fairly easy knit. Probably would’ve been easier if I’d done the whole thing in garter but whatever. I finished the right front including the right front sleeve on Wednesday and I’m almost finished with the back and the backs of the sleeves. Then I’ll only have the left front and sleeves, do a three needle bind-off for the shoulders, seam the bottom of the sleeves and make a little button flap for the front. I have a huge wooden button for closure rather than a ribbon. I think it’ll make it more Japanese and a bit more gender-neutral.

They think it’s a boy but I wanted to make it neutral just in case. I also picked up some organic cotton baby clothes and socks. The only gender-specific item I bought for the shower were those peepee teepees suggested by Daysleeper Chickie from the Gaiman boards. Those were BRILLIANT! I can’t wait for the aunts to see those little things! Many many thanks daysleeper!

————

My parents are flying into town Monday afternoon so there’s been much panic-induced cleaning going on. It still looks like I haven’t done a damn thing and the yard..well, the yard’s a lost cause at the moment. But Cody’s off this weekend so we should get some serious work done in the house anyway. I’m finding that a fully-loaded (all supplements) Keva Juice Smoothie with a mocha frappucino affigato chaser gets me good and hyped up for cleaning.

Knit. Clean. Fold Laundry. I am the woman in the dunes of unmatched socks.

—–

Just to make this the most convoluted post ever I thought I’d throw in a random ten.

Guster - Amsterdam
Weird Al - Gump
Velvet Underground - That’s the Story of My Life
Nick Drake - Poor Boy
The Cure - The 13th
P.O.D. - Bullet the Blue Sky
ABC - How to be a Millionaire
Petula Clark - Happy Heart
Guns N Roses - It’s So Easy
Wire - I 2 X U

I have no idea where I picked up this quiz. I did it a few days ago and it’s been sitting in an extra tab in firefox just waiting for Meme Saturday. Needless to say I’m very bad about shutting the computer down when I go to bed. I just reboot it every few days.

Meet a knitted hedgehog toy.

Finished just in the nick of time too. I cast the fun fur body on yesterday at a family event and finished it last night. Unfortunately I didn’t have the size four needles the pattern calls for with me so I just used the smallest ones I had: eights. Hehe so he’s a bit bigger than he was supposed to be. And naturally I’d decided to veer drastically from the pattern and not make legs. Then today I decided to make some legs anyway just use a different method than the pattern called for - making tiny little tubes on some double pointed needles. I also had to use a different yarn because the all the camel color yarn had been used up on the face because of the bigger needles but I found some interesting cotton acrylic stuff bought in the early Hobby Lobby yarn days. His face is awfully long. But hedgehog noses are pretty long! Also the stitches are pretty big so you can see the cotton stuffing in places. So he’s not perfect but he’s pretty dern cute. And the nephew I made it for got to watch me make most of it, which is really quite cool.

Now this and the hedgehog book weren’t for his birthday. They were his knit gift because Auntie Noelle wanted to knit something fun for him. And the niece’s knit gift was already done. And it fits perfectly too

So what we ended up doing was going to a local bookstore that’s going out of business because when we were there a few weeks ago I’d seen a Corduroy bear stuffed animal. I loved that book when I was little and I loved (and still do) stuffed animals. So the idea of giving him both Corduroy the bear and the book got me really excited. Fortunately they still had a Corduroy stuffed bear! Unfortunately they didn’t have the book so we had to go to a different store but we found it at another local bookstore. The going out of business bookstore also had, oh my god you should’ve heard me squeal when I saw this, a Harry the Dirty Dog stuffed toy! So naturally we had to get that too. And naturally they didn’t have the book in stock anymore. And neither did the other local bookstore where we got Corduroy’s book. But I called Barnes and Noble and they did have Harry the Dirty Dog so Cody picked it up on the way to work tonight. I wanted to get the Velveteen Rabbit too but he was too expensive even with 30% off the marked price.

So tomorrow the ‘phew will be getting three books and three stuffed toys that go with them. Pretty nice eh?

Ok, what do I buy a four-year-old boy whose parents probably don’t buy him enough books* or learning toys who’s having an impromptu birthday party thrown for him on Saturday to which I’m unable to excuse myself because transportation has been arranged on my behalf.

Curious about what I’ve already bought? I have a convenient list.
edit- I guess I should clarify that these are things I’ve bought for previous birthdays and christmases, not this birthday.

*I vividly remember a conversation about how I hadn’t bought Dr. Seuss for him last year because I assumed they already had them all. The reply was they didn’t have ANY Dr. Seuss. WHAT? Isn’t it illegal to have a child in the US without possessing the entire Dr. Seuss library? Wasn’t that one of the lesser-known insidious elements of the patriot act along with the repeal of the fourth amendment and that clause that allows for civilians to be tried in an offshore military tribunal?

I’ve also never bought one of those “Baby Einstein” sets for baby showers assuming people already have them only to find out no one else at the party has ever heard of them.

Remember the Disney wedding last year? Well, the bride (who never sent her thank you note! bad bride!) is having a baby shower a week from Sunday. Hey, call me a cynic but I’m just happy (and frankly surprised) the wedding and baby shower are in this order.

I am most likely not knitting something for her. This is not someone who would appreciate the quirk and beauty of a handmade gift. Not to mention her mother-in-law is the crafty aunt who taught me how to cast-on and knit so she likely has handmade gifts a’plenty. But she’s also kind of a bling bling girl who likes Disney so much it usually makes me slightly uncomfortable trying to have conversations with her. Sort of reminds me of the women who collect Hello Kitty appliances without the pop culture irony.

And, here’s where my embarrassing pettiness comes in, I don’t want to use any of my precious yarn on a present for her. Although..I have some supercheap balls of acrylic I bought at the estate sale for this exact kind of occasion. Maybe I’ll have enough time to make something.

So we’re fairly sure this is what Melon has. No idea what made her start it but the gist is she stopped eating so her body started consuming it’s own organs, her liver in particular. She got better a few weeks ago but the calories she was taking in weren’t enough to sustain the daily need so she didn’t fully recover, so one missed meal and she was right back. In fact, according to the liver tests, worse.

I’ve been having to force-feed her approx 5 - 10 ml of wet food about every two to three hours. Force-feeding a cat, particularly a very small and fiesty one, is about as fun as you imagine it is. I’ve found old cordoroy hedgehog cage liners particularly useful for wrapping her up and catching the inevitable drips. I’ve also been doing a subcutaneous needle fluid twice a day. And giving her steroid and antibiotic pills twice a day as well as an antibiotic shot once a day. And a B complex shot every three days. The good news is she hasn’t needed her anti-nausea pills since Saturday morning.

She’s improving, to be sure. Over the weekend she was too weak to get to the litter box and was just, well, leaking. She also had a very strange smell (not from the leaking) that was almost like the sickness was coming out of her pores. When I was wiping her off with a wet washcloth on Friday I kept scrubbing her back feet because they still looked dirty. Until I realized it wasn’t a stain but the jaundice coming through her white fur. But she’s since been getting much better about grooming and using the litter box.

To make sure that she wouldn’t wander off to a hard-to-reach corner, assure that she had a supply of both wet and dry food that the others wouldn’t get, monitor the litter box, and keep her in a less lonely place than being shut into the guest room I set up a little camp in Winter’s crate.

Yes, it’s a huge crate so she has room for a catnip pad, wet food, dry food, water, a small litter box, a kitty cup bed, and garrison the bear to keep her company. Cody took this photo of her sleeping in her cup bed the other night.

I haven’t had much computer time this week because I’m usually feeding her, cleaning up from feeding, or getting ready to feed her. Or trying to tidy up for the ‘rents who will be here in less than thirteen days oh my god. And the brother-in-law, his wife, and their kids will be in town, oh, tomorrow.

And there’s been all kinds of crazy construction behind our house, something that involves tamping down earth for huge drain pipes so the house vibrates from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm.

I. Am. In. Hell.

Silver and Amber Hedgehog necklace

Testing post capabilities from flickr.

This little present from mr man came in the mail last week. I love that it’s got amber because hedgehogs are insectivores and amber usually has little bugs in it…isn’t that cool?

It’s from a very odd store in Minnesota called Ingebretsen’s. I’m going to go cast-on the hedgehog kit right now so it’ll be done in time for the nephew’s visit on Thursday. He’ll be getting a book as well. I love book and stuffed toy sets.