Good morning ladies! We are getting Jean's nice warm weather yesterday and today then it dips back into the
50's. It did this last year too and everyone was walking around with colds because of it I think. Hopefully we won't get sick this season, but we haven't gotten flu shots yet either, which we should hunt them up and get.

You are NOT going to believe this. Jack's foot pad under his big toe swelled up like a balloon last night. He has only been off the prednisone, Wed and Thurs. He had to change his allery appt because he has no sick time, has to take the day off because the testing is like 4 hours long, and if he takes it without pay, they will write him up and he gets disciplined. He doesn't want that so he is waiting until the 29th and will have a sick day earned by then. We are going to have a time of it with his sick days and such with this allergy thing I am afraid. I hope we can work it out so that we can get his appts in the afternoon because his cardiologist appts have to be in the morning. He earns a sick day a month and has a cardiologist appt in Feb again so at least he will have time then. We tried to get it on MLK day, but the doctor is only seeing NEW patients that day, darn it!

I have half a sleeve to go on T's brown tweed sweater than sew up the right seam and sleeve in and it is done. I need to go out tonight and get the black and white yarn for his Beatles cardigan. I hope the buttons are here by the end of next week because I can't make the buttonholes without them. The pattern uses 1 1/4 inch buttons and the Beatle buttons are 1 inch so I have to adjust, which I have never done. Actually, have never done buttonholes so we shall see. I don't think it is hard, though just yarnovers and increases I think.

Jean: I take it this kid isn't old enough to just quit school or his parents are demanding he stay in school? He does sound like a corker though. I don't understand why the Algebra teachers don't have to coordinate to make sure the kids are being taught the same way. The stuff can be confusing anyway without having to learn a couple different ways. At this stage of the game, I am sure I wouldn't be able to get past a very very simple equation. Give me literature, vocabulary, grammer and I can still run with the big guns, but I am sunk with upper math skills! I had lousy teachers for one thing.

I have all my morning chores and weekly cleaning done so I get to piddle around and do nothing today. I am waiting for several books from my book club and they may get here today so I may take a breather from the knitting this afternoon if they come.

Have a good Friday and good weekend!

Faye

Good morning ladies! Boy, we went from the 80's to the 50's! Of course Jean went from the 80's to SNOW so who am I to complain!

I finally got the second sweater finished. It was bugging me so I looked at it, wasn't happy with the seaming and ripped the sleeve and right seam out and redid it yesterday. I was having trouble with the way I was supposed to seam it so it took me most of the day to figure it out. I think I ripped it out 4 times! Well, I wasn't stupid enough to do the whole thing. I would do a small section and look at it. I belong to a knit forum where the lady that is the forum owner has videos of pretty much anything you need to learn. I kept watching how to do it and never caught on to why I couldn't figure it out. Well, around 1 PM yesterday afternoon after watching it a bazillion times a light bulb moment This finishing stitch you do right side to right side NOT inside out. Once I started that it did fine! I think for my first attempt at a sweater that you pieced together I did a fair job.

It is going to be quiet here today. I think we are just going to hang out at the house. I can now continue on the baby sweater I had started before I started T's sweaters until my Beatles buttons get here and I can go get the yarn for the cardigan.

Thomas is going to have sweater overload this year, but the first two were started when I wasn't sure whether Jack would be back to work and I needed something to give him for Christmas in case Jack hadn't started drawing paychecks again. The Beatles sweater was just something I wanted to do for him because he loves the Beatles so much.

Jean: How did you eventually come out in the snow war? I know you were saying they were predicting 8". At least you got a snow day and no babysitting teenagers. How was the book, or did you end up doing sorting and Christmas wrapping and such? I have to get boxes before I can start wrapping. I haven't bought much except some books for Thomas. Luckily, most of his stuff is square and easy to wrap. I have to SHIP gifts to son and dil this year and I dread that. I am kind of at a loss what to even buy the adult kids this year.

Well, I need to do some chores, read or knit for awhile then I may sneak back up to bed for a couple hours. I got tired of sharing my side of the bed with the cat and dog this morning. They cling to me at night like Saran Wrap and push me right to the edge. We bought this big beautiful king sized bed in January and all I get is the edge. I push them over and pretty soon I am back on the edge again!

Have a wonderful Saturday and do something fun this weekend!

Faye

It is a brrrrrr morning in my part of the world this morning and I imagine it is pretty cold in all of your parts of the world too! I took the cat litter out to the garbage and walked out to the trash can in my bare feet and it was certainly chilly!

Jean: Knitting seams that don't show is exactly opposite of hand sewing. To make seams that don't show you sew right side to right side. The stitches make a "V" and inbetween each "V" is a sort of straight line of yarn. What you do is pick up that straight piece of yarn with the yarn needle and pull the yarn underneath it then do it on the exact other side. If you do it correctly when you get to the bottom or top depending on where you started, you can pull the piece of yarn you used to sew it up with and it pulls all the stitches together making an invisible seam. I am hardly proficient at this yet, so I just do each side and pull them as I go. I got a laugh out of your "old" exlanation because anyone under about 30 would think WE old! Today I kind of feel old. The cold has gotten into my bones this morning in my shoulder and it is aching a bit. I don't suppose it could be from rolling out a double portion of egg noodles, cutting them etc and then having knit like a fiend for the last 3-4 days. I also had to take out part of the baby sweater I am now knitting about 3 times and start back. If I am doing knitting where I need to pay attention, I shouldn't have the tv on, even on something I could care less about like college football, which is what dominates on Saturdays here. I kept hearing stuff then asking ??? of Jack and then finding I goofed up something!

My poor husband! His body has gone on the offensive! Like I said before, his last steroid pill was on Tuesday and he had a swelling episode on Thursday, but all broke loose yesterday. His tongue swelled up in the morning, then in the afternoon his right foot, then his right hand, then in the middle of the night his heel and it looks like there is a tennis ball sitting on his heel and it is bright red and HOT. He has a little over 2 weeks until he goes to the allergist so we just have to buck up until then. Unfortunately, nothing but the steroids helped, not heat or ice, no anti-inflammatory, not any histamine blockers, nothing!

Well, I need to get us some breakfast.
Have a good Sunday ladies!

Faye

Good morning ladies! Hope your Monday has started out well. I am up early trying to get a good start on the cleaning today. I really need to get out onto the deck and blow out the first batch of leaves because the landscaper people come tomorrow and I would like to have them at the corner for them to pick up. I also want to get the patio furniture put up in the garage for the winter. I doubt I get it done, though as I have a lot I want to get done in the house today.

Jean: Sorry if I confused you on the seaming issue. It is just that if you use a whip stitch or a back stitch on knitting, the seam shows and if you do it this other way, it doesn't. Are you looking for the big "hobby" horses that have the springs that connect them to the base or one of those plastic riding ones, or what? What does Bob take for his hives? The steroids were given to him in the hospital and they gave him just enough for the tongue issue to abate and wanted him to then see an allergist. Besides, Jack does NOT want to be on steroids long term. His mom took steroids for years for a brain tumor that was removed when he was in high school and it finally damaged her heart and killed her. He is too leery of doing it long term. I am almost positive he has a form of hives that was caused by the trauma/extreme stress of having his heart operation. Everything I have read about hives/angioedemia urticaria and it pretty much fits the bill. I imagine Bob can't do a whole lot for it when he has an attack because everything I have read kind of indicates no one knows exactly what to do for them. Jack has 4 different areas swell up between Friday night and Saturday night. It just is the oddest thing.

I guess I better get out of here for now. Jack is about ready to leave for work and I have the kitchen to clean up after his breakfast.

Have a great Monday everyone.

Faye

Happy Monday! I love Mondays now. I also like Sunday evenings because I don't have to go to work on Monday!

I haven't been around because my eyes give me problems sometimes. Over the weekend I tried a new brand of eyeliner. I should have known better--my eyes got irritated, red, and just plain felt awful so I've stayed away from the computer and reading. I've knitted a little bit but not much. I've started a new project--pink fingerless gloves. I love the name of the pattern: What Happened to My Fingers Fingerless Gloves.

Jean, I had to take early retirement and I couldn't have done that if I hadn't been over 55 with 15 years service. (I'll be 56 in March and I have almost 20 years of service.) Which means I took a pension reduction which isn't too bad. I'm just thankful I have a pension!

Faye, I was thinking about your husband and wondering how he's doing and then I read in your last post he's not doing well at all! He must feel miserable.

I'm scared...no, I feel intimidated to knit a sweater. Even a tiny sweater. Seamming doesn't sound like fun at all. But Faye, you make it sound easy to do!

Thank goodness we didn't get snow Jean but we certainly have had a lot of rain. It's still raining as a matter of fact. Very dreary.

I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving! Where has the time gone to? And I thought I was doing so well with Christmas present buying this year--I think I've fallen behind. I'll probably be one of those crazy people out on Black Friday shopping. We crazy people must be amongst out own kind, I guess!

I laughed right out loud at this. I ripped out the brown sweater FOUR TIMES before I halfway figured it out and thank goodness it isn't a 4-H project or I would get drummed out of the 4-H! The ladies on knitting forum just keep encouraging me to keep trying new stuff. One of the problems I had was the sweater was such a dark color it was hard to see where to stitch it. I am going to be making him a black and white Beatles one so that may go a bit better. All I can do is try my best.

I have half my housework done that I wanted to accomplish but have to take a breather. I went out for 90 minutes and cleaned the deck, put away the patio furniture, put away the bbq grill and blew out the bazillion leaves that have accumulated so far. Now my hands, arms, and shoulders hurt from that dumb blower. The thing is heavy for one thing and vibrates so much from the air blowing through. I am giving myself a break than back at the housework for me. At least I have that outside job done.

You gals all have a wonderful day. Gail, hope your eyes get to feeling better. Jack is doing fine today. All swelling have gone. His tongue swelled up again yesterday morning and that is really the only thing that ever worries us about this.

Faye

Hello, ladies. Cold and dreary Monday here...of course that is relative to where you are (51 degrees here at noon).

Good news for a change - my husband walked on his prosthesis for the first time today and insurance approval finally came through so all is paid for. Now I have to fight with the hospital because they are saying we owe $5000 on his hospital bill but they never turned in the whole bill to insurance. We've never had to pay more than $100 before so I think they have messed up again.

We rented the Cars DVD over the weekend - really cute movie. Also Lake House which I loved - definitely a chick flick!

Good morning gals! I am now in a foul mood! I got an email from the Better Business Bureau about the complaint I lodged with the company that came out and did the vent cleaning for our dryer. The president of the company LIED in her response. I told you all that my son and dil called to have them come out and do it and that they were going to bill my son. Well she says we stiffed them and refused to pay and there was no conversation with our son! Brother! I was allowed a response and I basically called her a liar and said in my response if they could provide a signed invoice that showed that we excepted the work that was done, we would pay the bill. She says the technicians told us we needed a plumber, which they did not, she said there was never any agreement with our son, she said the techs checked the vent line, which they didn't and on and on. I said in my response this was a he said she said situation and could not be resolved, but until they provided something that indicated I approved of the work with a signature I wasn't paying for substandard work. (they have nothing to prove they were even out here as we weren't even given an UNSIGNED invoice) GRRRRR!

So other than that, how is everyone this morning?

Susan: Oh, that is spectacular news about Stan! Here's hoping you can get the insurance situation cleared up! We have only received the anesthesiology bill from his surgery and we owe $1000 on that.

Maggie: Don't you just love those behaviour programs? I had to use a lot of them when I worked in the mental health industry and each program was written especially for that person so you lugged around this big three ring binder so that you would be sure and do the correct procedure with the correct person. Gets a little hairy when you have a woman who is trying to attack you and you are looking through the book to see how they want it handled! You wanted to use the binder as protection most of the time!

Jean: I know if I was Bob I would say, "Woman, why do you not just tell them to take a hike and retire?" Thanks for the info on Bob. The hospital had Jack on Benadryl, Zantac (same thing basically as the Loratadine, it is a Cox2 inhibitor, which is just fancy for more powerful histamine blocker) and the steroids. He can't take the Benadryl as it makes him sleepy and the Zantac does nothing to relieve anything, so we will just have to wait and find out. Hope you can find Kolby his horse. I am surprised they even make them nowadays since today's toys take all the imagination away from kids. I saw this toy on tv the other day where the mom was all excited about it because it made "real" sounds! Whoopdeedo, the kid can't make the airplane sound himself?

I read the cutest book last night called Blue Christmas. It was about a southern woman who owned an antiques store and things kept coming up missing in her shop or her home, etc, but something would be left behind to replace whatever was taken. It was a nice holiday book. It was a small book and I read it all in one sitting. I am getting in the holiday spirit and I guess we will put up the decorations over the Thanksgiving weekend since we aren't going to Indiana. I still want to get those stockings and mantal hooks I saw in the Penney's catalogue though. They are just fabulous looking and you can't beat it for $10 including monogram.

Well, this is not getting my housework done. I think I am pretty much over the soreness of the workout on the deck. Oh and Jean, it can get pretty cold here in the winter and we usually have at least one little thing of snow. It is in the 50's here right now. I always put away the patio stuff because once it gets into the 50's we don't sit outside.

Have a super Tuesday today gals!

Faye