The Recoil of Respiratory Illness

Fever, runny nose, cough, runny nose, cough, fever, pharmaceuticals, semi-runny nose, pointless cough.

That's my last two weeks in summary. Yuck.

Now I'm starting to feel better, and am trying to make up for lost time - this being the week before we go down to SoCal for the holidays and I was going to do all sorts of things to get ready for that... yeah, now I'm trying to narrow that down to just the most important things. ::sigh::

On the top of the list is my latest knitting project: I'm trying to finish the beautiful "Delphyne" thigh high socks pattern in time to wear for he holidays. We leave on Tuesday next week, so I've got just a few more days to make this happen. My goal was to get down to the point where I just need to make the feet (turn the heel, close the toe, and everything in between). If I'm diligent today (and I hope to feel well enough to go to my knitting group, so that will help) I will be able to achieve that goal and be one day ahead of the game. We'll see.

Aside from that, not much has happened. Being sick means that I've literally just been sitting on my butt and watching the grass grow. Yesterday, with the nicer weather, and pharmaceuticals helping me feel better, I managed to get the front and side lawn (the easiest part) mowed before pooping out.

I'm looking forward to feeling 100% again, as well as the upcoming holidays.

Until next time!

Storms

We've been having some strong weather lately. Check out this video I took after someone upwind kicked up a bunch of sand on the shore on Sunday.



In case you were wondering, yes, that's Jack's hat, and the video ends because I promptly took off running after it. Luckily it didn't get too far.

The irony of this all is that I finally have everything I need to go surfing - and now we've had a seemingly never-ending bout of bad weather. :P Naturally, bad weather = bad surf = no surfing for me. :( But at least now I'm ready to go when the waves are ready to have me! :)

I haven't minded the storms too much, actually. For one, I love weather like this, so that's fun. For another, although I don't feel sick, the fever I had last week seems to have left me with a runny nose and, starting yesterday, a bit of a cough. Yuck. So I have no problem cuddling up on the couch while the storms rage outside and I blow my brains out into every homemade hanky I can find.

It's crab season here, and Jack and I decided we ought to partake. We waited for the "fresh crab" sign to appear at the end of the street and then we bought ourselves a couple of crabs to take home and cook.

 Just kidding - they weren't actually alive, but they looked so much like they could be that it kinda creeped me out a little. I am definitely a novice when it comes to crab.  After cooking, it probably took me a good half hour or more to get all the meat out. One crab was definitely plenty to get full on, for me at least. Of course, I think I was a bit more in-depth on trying to get every last bit of meat out than Jack was.

Aside from that, I'm just taking it easy today, trying to get a good vitamin intake and drink plenty of water. I'd already had 64 oz. of water and two cups of tea before the halfway point. Now my goal is to drink another 64 oz. before bed tonight. I've taken myself off sugar as much as possible for the time being. This is tricky, as quite a bit of what I like to eat has added sugars. Especially chocolate. But I went so far as to use dried fig puree as a sweetener for my homemade granola yesterday, and it seemed to work out alright. I'm a little more concerned about how I'll handle cookies. Maybe I'll just make them with much less sugar. It's hard to make everything completely sugar free. And, of course, I have to wonder what people did before? I mean, really, have white people always had access to sugar cane? How did we sweeten things before then? Certainly not everyone was a beekeeper, so that's not it either. I have to think that either sweet was much more of a treat than it is today, or we had much more local ways of sweetening our foods.

Anyway, that's it for now. I submitted my first short story for small-time publication - we'll see if I hear anything back from them (they estimated mid-January). I'm trying to come up with a design idea for Knitty to publish (they pay well, plus it gets your other patterns a lot more traffic on Ravelry), and I've got a list of other freelance writer stuff to work on and try for and all that jazz. Plenty to keep me busy, that's for sure!

Until next time!

Crafty

I've been busy in the craft world lately. My little big project took place over the last couple days. I got this idea that I'd like to make some little runes. I was gonna do the common viking ones, but Jack suggested I make my own runes with my own meanings. I thought about it, and decided that this was a good idea. And that the piece of wood I had selected wouldn't make the 24-odd runes in the viking alphabet, so I may as well make up my own and make them fewer!

Jack bought an old saw with a base and angle settings which I used to cut up the driftwood I had selected into twelve lovely pieces. Just a little sanding with some very coarse paper, and I was in the clear. They were pretty, like little wooden pebbles, but I decided to have a little more fun.

A lot of people paint the symbols on, or carve and then paint, but I wanted to be different. So I set up a natural dye operation. Hibiscus tea, the same mixed with cocoa powder, some black rice, dill weed, turmeric mixed with the hibiscus cocoa, and turmeric mixed with hibiscus tea. Add a little vinegar and some boiling water and what you've got are nearly half a dozen little dye baths! I went about dipping and soaking and soon had 11 naturally dyed wood pieces. One I left un-dyed just for the heck of it. Sitting damp on the paper they looked like a bunch of little chocolates. Jack was about ready to eat one when I showed them to him! :)
The next day, all dried and ready to go, Jack dug up his trusty dremel tool and I set about the carving. A short time later, I had them all completed!

Weasel, river, tree, friendship, vulture, tulip, leaf, mountain, love, moon, sun, and wolf!
They turned out super cute, and I'm very pleased with them. I'll have to make or find some sort of case to keep them in. But they turned out so lovely! I just can't get over it. There was a little bit of muckiness in the design on a couple, but overall I am quite pleased.

Yep, I've been pretty busy with the crafts. My sourdough experiment is going superbly! Here's a photo of the rolls I made for Thanksgiving. I made them ONLY with my starter - NO commercial yeast added! We're all out of bread again, so I'll probably be making some again in the next few days.

As for other activities, I now have a wetsuit and - after last week - a beautiful 7'6" surfboard! Once I take it out, I'll have to decide on a name for it. But until I do, it'll remain anonymous. I spent a good measure of time waxing my new board, and it's all ready to roll. Hopefully I'll get my hood, booties, and gloves sooner rather than later, because on a cooler day like today I don't think I'd want to be out there without! For now, I'll just have to keep practicing my style on Jack's homemade sheet board. :)