Success on the dpn stitch holders/impalement preventers! (Preventors?) My new Signature needles are v. v. sharp. More of these would make an excellent birthday present, by the way. 

Made one for Sarah with magnets, so she can attach it to herself when she is not using it, so as not to lose.  Because sometimes that’s a problem for her.



I kind of knew what I wanted to make and a search brought me this tutorial which was darn cute and essentially what I’d planned.  However, I wanted two lines of elastic for more balance.  I had some abc beads around from old stitch marker projects.

I had a few ideas.




Made one set for my new square Kollage needles. Size fours are for knucks.



It annoyed me that the little cappy things cost thirty cents each at the Ace Hardware. On the internets I can get a bag of a hundred for three or four dollars. But you know what?  Then I’d just have ninety-two of them laying around here giving me the hairy eyeball.  I can spare a few bucks for a local business, right? And y’know.  Immediate gratification.

Portland/Sock Summit blog will be forthcoming… in a day or so. 

Things I did today:
Cleaned up some of the house.
Started clearing out the library in preparation for back to school.
Washed the squiggly things and their blossoming ecosystem out of the kids’ wading pool.
Lost access to a laptop.
Got some groceries. (Including a clever plan for breakfast protein shakes for the kids!)
Fed the family.
Got equipment to make double pointed stitch holders as described here.
Uploaded sock summit photos to family computer.
Got a coffee that was not from Stumptown.
Practiced singing while washing dishes.

Things I wish I did today:
Get a coffee that was from Stumptown.
Knit anything. (Esp. with my fancy new Signature needles.)
Practice my ukulele.
Unpack my suitcase.
Reorganize my craft room.
Write an interesting blog entry about my hilarious fun time in Portland at the Sock Summit, including fabulous and amusing pictures.

Tomorrow is another day.

Off to the Sock Summit today!  Whee!  The fun is unfolding on twitter… You can follow me there… http://twitter.com/pamelamama

See you in Portland!

Scott struck up a conversation with a dude outside the paint store.  Dude has fancy car, Scott’s a fan of his fancy car.

Dude mentions a car he used to have and this rings a bell for Scott.  Scott: Hey, are you Sir Mix-a-Lot?  Dude: Yes I am!

And that’s today’s episode of Local Celebrity Encounters.

She is v. old today. Please leave your regards and suggestions for making this transition into oldness as smooth as possible.

We had a busy weekend. On Saturday we went across the bridge to Seattle to visit the kids’ shoe shop that we like. Sam’s feet are now larger than mine and quite tremendous.

While in Seattle we decided to go to Fremont to see the famous Flying Apron gluten-free vegan bakery.

I really didn’t like much of anything. The kids liked some items, like the soup and the cinnamon roll.  It was ok, but not a mega-love-fest and I don’t predict we’ll be making many pilgrimages there. Sort of disappointing, but rather what I expected.

Got some funny photos of the kids. Click through the picture to go to the photo album on flickr.

Afterwards we took the kids to climb on the troll that lives under the Fremont Bridge.

It is a pretty awesome sculpture. Click through to flickr for lots more Troll Climbing Photos.  Scott couldn’t convince the kids to pose picking the troll’s nose.

Scott’s Best Photo Ever:

Twitter followers may have heard that Scott made us go on a hike yesterday? It filled me with
murderous rage.  I don’t like hiking.  I don’t get the point.  I am not
good at it. I feel incompetent and unsafe. Therefore, I am not a fan. 
But Scott took some nice photos. We went with Grandma Lynn and her friend John and it was very nice to see them. I took some photos too, as did Sam, and those you can see on my flickr page. Don’t forget to leave comments on the photos, that’s fun for me! Sam’s photos are the artsy nature photos.  My photos are the ones with the “this sucks” overtones.

Today my muscles hurt a lot and I am waddling more than usual.  Good times.

Today Eli and Henry hung out while Sam attended his first day of Super Expensive Fabulous Computer Programming Camp in Seattle. Sam is over the moon loving camp.  He’s developing a computer game and a website.

Coincidentally, Eli and Henry both dressed in the same Osh Kosh B’gosh shorts that used to be Sam’s:

Scott selected Eli’s ensemble today.  I think that’s all I’ll say about that.

Finally, and out of chronological order I will end with a picture of my girl Cindy who is moving away to Toronto.  *sniffle*  We went for a last hurrah shopping trip to TJ MAXX. We found this awesome item…

… which I did purchase for a very reasonable price. It will be a gift to Scott for his new office in Bellevue. (His group is moving from a location a mere stone’s throw from our house to a new and fancier location several miles away. Whee.)

So there you have it.  In case any of you were wondering about the way to Funky Town… now you know. It’s that way.

Thank you and goodnight.

Tonight, while walking around Value Village with my trusty pal Sarah, I was (of course) carrying my ukulele. This led to a pleasant conversation with an older gentleman. He, a violin player, was enchanted by the lovely instrument. Chitty chat, blah blah, and off we go our separate ways hunting for bargains.  But later, as I stood in the checkout line, we bumped into each other again:

He: Did you see Fiddler on the Roof on TV last night?
Me: Um, no! I didn’t! Uh, what one was it?
Him: Oh, it was the original!  It’s such a great musical!
Me: Yeah. I have seen it many times. I really like it!
Man: So, do you know any Yiddish?
Me: Yeah, a little bit.
He: Well, a long time ago I had a Jewish girlfriend and one time I called this guy a schmuck. And she was so embarrassed, she nearly sunk down under the table because SHE knew what the word meant! I didn’t really know!
Me: Oh, yeah! Ha!
Him: Heh heh… yeah. Oh, I think I’ll go look at that guitar over there!  <He walks away.>

Sarah looks at me perplexed… Huh?  Then, OH! She points to my Jewish star necklace.  Ahhh! 

Sarah: It’s not like where you grew up, where it’s like 50% Jew.  Out here, you’re like a Unicorn.

---

And there you have it.  Thank you and goodnight.

So, whose idea was it to send the kids to camp downtown Seattle when we live in the suburbs?  Oh, yeah, it was my idea. Well it was a dumbass idea I’ll tell you that.  Taking the kids in and out of the city is a huge pain in the ass.  When I have the kids with me I can take the carpool lane and we can get there in twenty minutes.  But once I drop the kids off I can’t take the carpool lanes. Also, driving in to get them takes very long because I am alone and, again, can’t take the carpool lane. It’s been completely hit or miss.  I’ll go at the same time on different days and sometimes zip through, sometimes sit for an hour.

The thing is, since I don’t have to be at work or anything, I have the time to take them here and there. And they are totally loving camp, which is very gratifiying. But then I just can’t really get much else done. Well that’s not 100% true, I can get some things done, but I have to hurry and I have to be forcefully motivated.  Which honestly, I’m not that into right at this particular moment.

I’ve had a few effective days this week when I’ve been working on my playroom project.  I want to take all the kids’ massive piles of plastic junk and assorted miscellany in the playroom and GET RID OF IT.  I want to put in some swings and some floor mats and pillows so the kids can bounce off the walls in there and do “occupational therapy.” I want to attach some fold down tables like so…

… or Norbos as I like to call them, and mount them on the walls so they can use them as work tables for schoolwork or crafts or whatever and then tuck them out of the way. I want to pare down the games and toys that they no longer use and store them away or give them away.  A ton of progress has already been made.  I also cleaned out Eli and Sam’s closets so we can put some toys and games in there.  I think it’s going to be good. 

In ukulele news, I have vastly improved my instrument by changing the strings which I did all by myself. I am so proud.  And now for a crazy, mostly unrelated, ukulele story.  Sarah and I were driving home from ukulele shopping (her birthday: very soon) and we saw a man standing at the side of the road.  He was a vendor of sorts.  The kind of vendor who stands with his wares near the highway entrance with useful impulse items one might grab while sitting in traffic. I’ve seen guys with flowers and things like that. Also squeegee guys. Well this dude was standing there with at least half a dozen… (wait for it) … neon ….. UKULELES! Individually wrapped!! We passed by him so quickly, we thought it might have been a mirage.  Traffic was moving too fast to stop.  But WHAT??!!  Man selling ukuleles by the side of the road? Are they currently a hot item that many folks would lean out their car window to purchase? How much was he selling them for, I wonder! Perhaps I could have bought them for my whole family!

Ukulele anecdote #2: I had signed up for a lesson for this past Tuesday and I was very excited to get a formal lesson. Sarah said she’d take the lesson with me and the scheduling guy on
the phone said Sarah could use one of theirs for the
lesson. There is a lot you can learn on your own. Youtube is an awesome resource and I’ve really enjoyed Doctor Uke and Ukulele Underground not to mention Ukulele Boogaloo.  There’s a ton more. You could surely teach yourself, but I don’t know.  I like to have a teacher. I like to have an expert to ask questions. So we showed up at Pacific Music on Tuesday for our 2:00 lesson.  Keep in mind, I had to be in Seattle to pick up my kids by 4. We walked in and the gentleman at the counter seemed a little nervous. Tim, our teacher, was not there. The man pulled a dusty ukulele off the wall and handed it to us.  I seriously don’t think that thing had ever been in tune.  The manager at the store kept trying to get Tim on
the phone, but it seemed as though he wasn’t reachable and probably
wasn’t coming. We killed time by trying to tune the uke. I clipped my digital tuner on it and Sarah and I took turns fiddling with it.  I gave the tuning keys a few solid twists and couldn’t get it to sound normal.  I handed it to Sarah and looked away and then BOING!!!!  There was this big noise and Sarah looked like she was going to throw up.  THE ENTIRE BRIDGE of the instrument ($50 “vineyard” something-something) POPPED OFF.  It was hanging there by the strings.  Sarah held the instrument out in front of her and stared in horror. Her eyebrows said: LET’S GET OUTTA HERE and she started edging toward the door.  I took the broken uke and handed it to the manager. “This seems to be broken,” said I. And “I guess we’ll be going since our teacher isn’t coming.  Good bye.”  And off we went.  Y’know they haven’t even called to apologize.  I guess we need to find a new teacher. And I’m thinking we probably won’t be buying a ukulele in that shop.

Hm, and speaking of customer service did I tell you about my Crocs?  A few weeks ago on the Croc website they had a sale on my favorite Mary Jane style which are apparently going out of production. (Boo!)  I ordered two pair, for about twelve dollars total. (Bargain!)  I also ordered a pair on sale for Eli. Several weeks later (more than ten business days) two out of the three arrived, with no explanation about the third.  According to “my account” on their website, I ordered three. Hmph! Finally, about a week ago I decided I’d waited long enough and called.  Turns out they were out of the army green Mary Janes when they shipped mine, so they’d just sent me the one pair. (Again, Booo!) I wanted two pair at the fab sale price. Weren’t too many colors left I’d like. (Mango? Fuschia?) But we managed to find a pair in navy blue that would do the trick, and wouldn’t you know it the dude said he’d send them to me for free as a token of their appreciation for my patience as a customer.  Hooray!  Free crocs! They arrived yesterday.

Cute, eh?

I read the Autism/ADHD diet book today and pretty much had a panic attack about making all those changes at once. Not sure why I freaked out so much.  I think reading the whole book at one sitting was too much for my brain.  We’ve already made a lot of changes and introduced new foods that the kids really like. I know gluten free/casein free is really going to be fine, and is very likely to help my kids’ brains and bodies feel better.  I think what stresses me out most is my own horrible eating habits. I just worry too much about what I’m going to eat that I become paralyzed and just don’t eat. It’s really not so great. But my kids. They’ll be just fine. I will explore my weird food issues in an upcoming episode.

And now I am off to bed, or at least upstairs to practice my uke a little bit more. My fingertips are peeling! I will get a pic of that tomorrow. You’ll be impressed.

Good night!

Yesterday Sarah and I went shopping for an ukulele for her so we can get started with our all-uke Morrissey cover band. Her birthday is coming up and we did some legwork for her hub so he’ll know what to get. I tried a variety of nicer-than-my-beginner uke and I think there’s going to be trouble. I am feeling like I probably won’t have as many instruments as I have piles of yarn, but the danger feels all too familiar.

So all of this experimenting with ukes led me to realize that mine makes an odd sound.  A buzz. So, last night we took it back to the store where I purchased it and the nice man exchanged it for another of the same model with no buzz.  That was very nice, but of course I was a bit melancholy about parting with my very first (however defective) ukulele. It’s good I hadn’t named her quite yet.  I was thinking about “Plinky” – so I might just name this one Plinky II.  She’s got black strings.

In between the uke shopping and uke returning, we went to the town fireworks. Our town has a made-up summer holiday that’s a week after July fourth that involves a kids’ bike parade and other carnival stuffs. We skipped the daytime stuff, but had a nice time at the fireworks.

Scott got a few photos with his magical take-pix-in-the-dark super deluxe camera.  These are the ones he’s processed so far, but there may be more to come.
Continue reading →

Yeah, Hello!  So, uh, yeah, wow.  Lots going on.  Where to begin…

Well, as you may know last week we said goodbye to my left ovary.  Turns out it was all giant and crazy, but happily benign.  (I find it so hard to type that word — my hands want to type -ing.) Mom says I can’t show all you guyz my photos of my wacked out internal organs so you’ll just have to use your imagination. So that’s over and good, but I was pretty much useless for a week.  Lots of naps and trying not to worry about things not getting done.  It was sweet to get lots of emails, phone calls, visits and meals. Really, nothing improves your attitude toward healing like food.  There was even a homemade pie. So, really, the love was awesome.

Just prior to the surgery I acquired a ukulele.  There were a variety of factors leading up to that decision.  You may not know I have a lovely guitar and took lessons just after graduating from college. I never got too far. I had trouble forming chords with my small hands and tuning it was a major endeavor for me.  I’d take it out to practice and ting my tuning fork on it for half and hour and by the time the thing was in tune, I’d be out of time or motivation. So, now I’ve got this adorable small-scale instrument and this handy little clip-on digital tuner.  Only four strings to tune, and my digital tuner is incredibly efficient. I was also seduced by online buddies talking about their adventures with the uke. My friend Els recently spoke of her newfound love for the instrument. The renowned Amy of knitty.com fame raves about uke fun on her blog and twitter and all that.  Then of course, there’s my good friend Pete Seeger singing and telling stories about Abiyoyo. My friend Marnie posted a link on her facebook to a movie of this awesome little dude (see end of post) playing amazing covers (Hotel California on the uke!). And finally, the last straw, I got a gift certificate to the mall as an end-of-year gift from the Kindergarten families.  And don’t you know there’s a music store in the mall that sells ukuleles. It was a close race between a new pair shoes from Nordstrom’s and an adorable new instrument.  Feeling only slightly ridiculous and with only a small amount of internet research under my belt, I went into Kennely Keys and said to the dudes…. “So, I’m thinking about buying a yuka-lay-lee.  Do you have those here?”  Oh, yes, we have oo-koo-leh-lehs here, Dan can help you.  Oh, let’s digress a minute for a side question:  Should I be saying “yuka-lay-lee” or “oo-koo-leh-leh”?  I mean, I’m obviously a little white Jewish mama and not a lovely Hawaiian wahine. If I say it “right” do I sound silly and pretentious? If I say it “wrong” do I sound like the ugly American? Ok, digression over.

So the dude walks me to the stringed instrument area, and hands me a ukulele. Offers me a stool. And a sheet of chords. Um. So, I try to figure out how to hold it and how to make some chords.  And you know what? I did it! Not well, but with 33% fewer strings to manage than a guitar, I found it wasn’t so hard. In my brain the war waged on: new shoes? ukulele? which is more practical?? There was no question it was an impulse buy.  But I managed to wrangle a price tag fairly close to the amount on my gift certificate.  (FAIRLY close.) And I said, heckyeah, I am just doing this. And I did it.  And it has been a total joy.  The tips of my fingers are peeling and I am going to be playing for those kiddies come September.  Watch and see!

It’s been huge fun just walking around with it. I get tremendous smiles and envious looks.  I can tell when someone wants to try it. They kind of look at me, look at it, look at me. I hand it over — it is SO MUCH FUN to share! (Yes, she’s still “IT” — still searching for the proper name. Suggestions?) I do believe in the three or so weeks I’ve had this uke I’ve caused at least three parties to pursue purchase of their own instruments. One’s a done deal. I think I could get a local group going with just the friends I’ve recruited. There are big groups in Seattle, I know, but being a suburban flower, I doubt I’ll make it to the big city to play in the evenings. Next week I’ve got a formal lesson.  So excited!

So that’s the uke part of my news update. In other news, my kids’ diagnosis of wheat/soy/dairy allergy is a bit of a stressor. We went soy/dairy free for about two and a half weeks then binged on dairy. The results were behavioral for Sam and not too noticeable for Eli. We can’t take out wheat until we see the GI specialist, so it’s really hard to tell if the food changes we’re making are helpful. We’ve also been seeing a naturopath, so that’s another way we’re addressing the food issues.

I’ve been seeing a variety of alternative health practitioners lately for me and for the kids. It’s making me kind of crazy. I LOVE my pediatrician, and the folks I’ve been seeing are on her recommendation. But it’s so hard to embrace these alternative paradigms when they are so far removed from anything I can understand. When alterative health care folks give me their stories, their explanations for how and why things are working a certain way in the kids’ bodies or in my body, I truly want to accept and embrace their paradigm. What is my choice?  I can choose to accept the kind of healing they offer, or I can write it all off and not see them.  But on the recommendation of someone I trust, I am going to stick to it and commit to following their course of treatment. Say, for six months, to give it a fair shot? I have to suspend my disbelief, so to speak, to see if my family can reap the benefits. Just because I don’t understand something, doesn’t mean it’s wrong… right? So that’s a little tricky, but it’s ah…. interesting for sure.

Oh, here’s another crazy-making thing.  Just going stream of consciousness here… After my surgery, I wore my glasses for a few days.  And when I went to put my contact lenses back in — I couldn’t see!!  Had to wear my glasses.  Gave it a few days, thought it might be the aftereffects of the surgery.  Put contacts back in… can’t see!  When I say can’t see I mean, I could not read, I could not bring close things into focus.  Very weird.  Made an appointment with the eye doctor.  Turns out the anesthesiologist gave me a patch to wear behind my ear to reduce my nausea after surgery — this affected my vision temporarily!! (-according to eye dr-) My vision in my left eye only has actually IMPROVED.  So he gave me disposable contact lenses to wear for about a week, at which time the Dr. predicts my vision will go back to normal. Normal bad. We’ll see. Crazy! Not being able to see properly is one of my major phobias, so until I got this figured out (or at least a working hypothesis) I was freaking out, y’know, just a little.

So, that’s probably enough for one update. I have been reluctant to post because I don’t have any fab photos to share. I did finish a fancy/crazy/kinda different knitting project, which I will share in a future blog when I have photos.  It has its own story. Additional major plans this summer include getting Sam ready for fourth grade (or, getting fourth grade ready for Sam), attending the Sock Summit in Portland in August, publishing my baby/girl dress pattern, revamping my website (maybe), learning to play kindergarten songs on my ukulele (ookoolehleh?), getting organized for another year of teaching and getting a mammogram.  There might be more, but those are the ones sticking in my mind right now.

So there you have it! Thanks for stopping by, do leave a comment or pop me an email to let me know you haven’t written me off despite infrequent posting. Love to get your opinion about pronunciation of ukulele and any name suggestions you might have. Your experience with alt. health care also welcome. Photos on my flickr, including a silly movie of me playing uke with the kids, as featured in last blog post.  (http://www.flickr.com/pamelamama)

Thanks for catching up!
Carry on!