The Pending Office Move Saga

So my office is supposed to move on Tuesday 4/8. They gave me a choice of two office spaces both the same size but smaller than my current office. I informed them of my choice on 3/19 of the end office with a more flexible layout. Nothing was done with that information.

Those using that space were not informed to clear it out.
No furniture was arranged for me.
Needed info for the activation of my phone or desktop Pc connection was not obtained and given to the appropriate areas with the date needed to be determined.
Keys to the office and the outer area door were not made.

All of this was not started until this week and my office move is the pivotal first required move to allow the others to happen. My move could have been mostly completed by now if they had started some of the above the week after I made my decision. I would not have been as frantic and I should not be losing as many days of productive work. Did I mention that my project is the holdup on a big conversion scheduled for the end of May? So now I have to work even harder to make it. I have been recycling, packing, disposing and taking stuff home since Thursday.

I move, then the manager I work with moves from his office into mine to allow his furniture to be used for someone in another building and an Associate Director to move into his office. Of course my current office and the Manager's current office have to be painted before being moved into. These are in combination with staff moving from another building because the space they are using now must be vacated by a deadline date for renovation for classroom space or other usage.

My new office space is in a student lab area and I will have to go back up to my current office area to get printouts since there are no mainframe linked printers in the student lab and anything I print from my desktop would not be suitable for students to be able to see. Oh and everyone I need to work with is still upstairs in my old office area. If I have to cover my group's daily functions it will be worse since we get paperwork faxed to us which I would also have to go upstairs to get unless they get me a separate fax or fax modem card compatible with my current desktop.

Oh and what furniture did they order? Actually they didn't. I was supposed to move on Tuesday without a desk if I wasn't able to make use of the long table currently in that space. Well, they are ordering a two drawer lateral file cabinet and one small cabinet. Which won't arrive until after the move. I picked the office that had bracket shelving (I must have been psychic) so I can use that. One of my current cabinets is being moved down on Tuesday (which meant I have to empty it and the cabinet on the same floor has two different locked sections only one where the key is available.) So I can't move anything from the cabinet being moved into that one until I have the remaining key (hopefully on Monday). I have two narrow wooden bookcases that will be moved on Tuesday and my chair. Otherwise I would have been sitting on the floor surrounded by boxes with nothing to unpack into.

I am planning on going to the office tomorrow, Sunday, to bring more stuff home and perhaps move things from the pieces moving down into the ones that will remain.
To Be Continued...

My Cat and the Infection Saga

A few weeks ago, my cat had started to be off her normal eating habits so I managed to get a day to take her to the vet. Nothing hurt when the vet examined her but he immediately noticed that she had lost weight. We didn't get a chance to weigh her but he wanted an in-house blood series to check quickly and then the full lab results on blood and urine should tell a more complete picture. The in-house tests showed that she was dehydrated and the kidney indicators were high which could mean kidney problems. He thought it best for subcutaneous fluids and then antibiotics to give at home. The lab results would be in the next day.

Well the full lab results showed a high White Blood Cell count and there were White Blood cells in her urine. At minimum she had a bladder or urinary tract infection and those would also elevate the kidney indicators. However, he could not rule out kidney problems. The aim was to get the infection taken care of then re-test and see how the kidneys were doing without the infection placing a strain on them.

Well by halfway through the 20 days of Orbax antibiotics she was alot perkier and eating fairly well. She hadn't been withdrawn any more than was her usual and she had been interested in things before the antibiotic but she was now alot more lively.

After these were done and I brought her in for retesting I thought she was fine but the lab results still showed a high white blood cell count and high kidney indicators. Since the senior vet was on vacation the covering vet diagnosed kidney failure and continued infection. Another round of antibiotics, this time 7 days of Clavamox, a switch to the special prescription kidney diet and vitamins. She wouldn't touch the vitamin supplement although she seems to like the new food and was eating the antibiotic pretty well. When that round of antibiotics ended I called and spoke to the senior vet who was back from vacation. He wanted another round of the same Clavamox and was going to order the bacteria from the urine sample to be cultured to determine what it was and confirm that these antibiotics were the best for that type.

Well eating the prescription food did not last. She started to go off the food and then started to have what seemed to be hairball related vomiting. But then she had foam in her vomit. She had bad diarrhea one day and when she vomited it had alot of mucus. She acted like she was trying to clear her throat of mucus which was blocking her breathing. I took her into the vet again. Now he was extremely concerned that we hadn't eliminated the infection and concerned that I wasn't able to get the entire dose of antibiotics down her consistently. The strain that was cultured from her urine was a resistent one and nasty. He suggested medical boarding where they would administer medication throughout the stay and we could be sure she got full doses and any other medications necessary. That was Wednesday afternoon. I was to call the next day for full lab results. Those seemed better to some extent. Her White blood cell count was still high but he felt she did not have a systemic infection but one localized probably to the bladder or Urinary tract. Her kidney indicators were still high but did not get worse and a few were a little lower. So that was a good sign but we still could not be sure if her kidneys were okay or not.

Anyway, the poor stressed out baby is at the vets til at least Tuesday. I was able to bring her recent favorite bed, a Petco $9.99 one, and her refillable catnip mouse so at least something was there that was familiar and from home. Here she is on that bed in February:



I was able to visit her today and spent about an hour with her. She was stressed out and they had to wear the heavy gloves to avoid any injury from her even though they had a towel over her. It took awhile for her to stop growling and calm down. She finally started to purr and enjoyed being petted and getting her ears scratched. As the visit progressed she relaxed more and even gave me a few kisses on the face and groomed a little. She also stretched out and wanted a belly rub. It looks like she may have gained a little weight even though it has only been about 3 days. So that is a good sign. Here she is from today:


Of course when this happened on Wednesday I also found out that my office is being moved on Tuesday. Yet another Saga, *sigh*

One Day At A Time

Here is a photo of the finished Clue 3 for SOTS II:

Well, I did get a chance to work on Clue 4 for a few rows last night. That helped calm my nerves since I have been worried about my cat. I had forgotten that when I adopted her in 1993 she was a year old so she will be 16 years old next month!

She has been off her food recently,looking uncomfortable and extremely whiny in the last week. When it snowed here in NYC on Friday she had climbed over to the windowsill and was watching the snow. She hasn't been hiding, but she has not been eating her normal amounts. Which might have contributed to her not having a bowel movement from Wednesday through Saturday when I took her to the vet without an appointment. I avoid Saturdays there since it is their only weekend day and EVERYONE tries to bring their pets in. Plus the senior vet is not usually working. But this time he was and the wait wasn't much longer than I have waited weekdays when I had an appointment!

In the end I was about $500 lighter in the pocketbook and had antibiotic pills to give her. The assistant took her in the back to draw blood and get a urine sample. This time a urine sample was "volunteered" and the assistant was spared any bowel movement samples. The in-house blood test showed that she was dehydrated and indicated a higher level than normal of something (which I forget) that could have indicated kidney problems. The exam did not show anything enlarged or anything much in the bowels and she only hissed at the vet once. Which is better than our last visit. Until the more complete blood test results and urinalysis results came back from the lab Monday the vet felt giving her some fluid subcutaneously and antibiotics should help.

It did seem to help since her appetite was good immediately after our return from the vet, but later that day she only nibbled on her food. I managed to get only a partial dose of the antibiotic in her on Sunday but Monday she got a full dose.

When we spoke on Monday he was more upbeat going over the lab results. She had a high white blood cell count so she definitely has an infection. Since there were white blood cells in her urine she has at least a urinary tract or bladder infection. Which he explained could be causing the high levels indicating kidney problems. He instructed me to continue the course of antibiotics and call them if anything changes that concerns me otherwise I am to bring her back after the antibiotics have finished. The antibiotic he had prescribed should help with any kidney infection as well as the urinary or bladder infection.

She managed to eat most of what I had mixed the antibiotic in this morning but enough for left for me to be concerned. Luckily when I got home tonight she had finished it off. I tried the tip one of my fellow SOTS II members had sent me of warming the food slightly to increase the smell which often enhances it's appeal to an animal with a cold. Well it worked and she ate some, walked away and returned several times to nibble some more before going for a nap. I will have to try it again a little while later after I eat with the remainder of the can. That should increase her fluid intake and give her more energy as well.

Just taking One Day At A Time and hoping she does better. Maybe I will be able to work more on Clue 4 as well.

SOTSII - Clue 5!

Clue 5! Yikes!
I am on row 143 of Clue 3. First I haven't had time to work on the project consistently. Then almost every time I do I will think one of the rows is fine but then even if the stitch count is correct I will find out that I missed a YO or counted the knit stitches wrong or something. So I wind up tinking out the return row and tinking almost all of the pattern row. Because of course the mistake is close to the start of the row! *sigh*

I hope to make progress and be less behind this weekend but somehow it looks less and less likely that I can ever be close to catching up with the current clue.

Of course I am still recovering from oral surgery, work has had it's emergencies and last night I discovered a disaster in the kitchen just before I was going to bed. My kitchen sink pipe leaks every time any liquid goes down the drain!

I had to remove everything from under the sink - soaked boxes of garbage bags included and then get all the water up. I hope it did not leak into the downstairs apartment or I am responsible for fixing their damage as well as mine.
Then I had to figure out how to dispose of what could not be salvaged, where to put what could be salvaged and how to catch any leaking liquid so no further damage would be caused. All at 2am!

Okay so I knew I would have to get a plumber sometime to take care of those pipes since I discovered that a joint further along was oozing a couple of years ago after I moved into the apartment. Think it has to do with the prior owners replacing pipes so that the metals in the different sections are incompatible.

The only "lucky" part is that it seems the leaking is really at the main portion where I can place a bucket. For some odd reason the pipe with the trap is so low that the trap is about 1/4-1/2 inch above the cabinet floor. Hard to get anything under it and impossible to empty anything without spilling most if not all of it out on the cabinet floor.

With the bucket in place and one of those sponge wipes clipped over the pipe running across, the water gets directed down into the bucket instead of along the pipe and all over the place. Surprisingly running the dishwasher did not result in a huge amount in the bucket. Whew!

Well perhaps I can work on clue 3 more tonight and be more alert while doing it.

Sometimes you can only deal with things one hour at a time.

Finally Finished SOTSII Clue 2!

Well, I finally finished the second clue on Saturday night 2/9/08. I did not get far in Clue 3. Of course, Clue 4 was released on Friday. *sigh*




It did not help that I had a molar removed on Wednesday afternoon which was the tooth that had a bad abscess that emerged the prior week. Totally unexpected. When they removed the tooth they discovered that most of the side where the abscess had erupted was destroyed by the infection. So that was the right decision. The two dentists had been debating whether a root canal would remove enough of the bad material so that additional bone loss would not occur or if removal was the way. Both would mean additional work to make a functional molar which would also prevent my teeth shifting on the jaw (again).

I swelled up alot overnight and looked like a chipmunk hoarding nuts. I was extremely uncomfortable but not in pain. I am still swollen but now there is just a harder area the size of a large walnut in the area. I feel alot better. I am still on antibiotics for the next few days.

To top everything off, I woke up this morning to the coldest temps here ever!
It is 11 degrees but with the wind chill it is minus 10 degrees! My subway station is of course elevated so I can imagine what it will be like!

Tomorrow a snow front is due in the afternoon but that will be turning to rain. Only time will tell.

Breaking the Silence

I know it has been a LONG time since I posted. Things have been obviously hectic and I somehow never got around to posting.

The Holidays were okay but sadly we lost a coworker who had been battling ovarian cancer for the last couple of years. We were frantically trying to contact those at the company who would have wanted to attend a viewing during the winter break. Most were out of town so only a few made it. I was not able to but managed to get a Mass Card which was taken to the family by someone who was able to go. She had worked over 40 years at our company and will be sorely missed.

Of course, during the holidays I was still unable to catch up on personal projects. Since we got back I have been unable to fully catch up on work projects either. I did finally manage to upgrade two of the software products and they are currently being used. Whew!

I am currently working on the next product which I can more readily test once it is ready for testing. Then it will be onto the last most intensive product. The deadline has been moved again and I have a little more time.

In the meantime I have once again foolishly joined several lace knit a longs when I never finished any of the previous ones!

I joined Secret Of the Stole II (SOTSII) which started last Friday with Clue 1. I didn't ever do the swatch but I did manage to finish Clue 1 the other day!

Just in time for the next clue!

I also joined Dem Fischer sin Fru which started today. Yikes

Yesterday was not a fun day. I had an afternoon meeting in a building blocks away from my office that I had to leave from to get to my doctor's appointment uptown.
I managed to get there and should have known something was wrong when the waiting room was almost empty. Turns out my doctor was called away to an emergency and the office staff had called my home to let me know. I had no message on my work voice mail or either of my cell phones. When I got home I did see a message written by Mom's health aide to call my doctor to reschedule. GRRRRRR!!!
I have a new appointment for next Thursday.

Today I get to find out the Dental treatment plan to resolve some issues with my gums. That will not be fun. I am sure it will be expensive and it is freezing here. I get to walk across and downtown after sundown to get there. *sigh*

Monday will also be fun. I have to leave as soon as Mom's aide gets here to try and attend a meeting and leave that before the end to get to an appointment blocks away.
Let's home I make it!

Here's to being on track for at least one Knit-A-Long!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, Happy Thanksgiving! A little late since this is being posted the next day. I made a ham and some mashed sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving and I will be eating ham for days. There is only two of us and Mom won't eat leftovers more than one time.

The radio and television are full of stories of traffic conditions and shopping area crowds since it is "black Friday" the day of early store openings and special sales for the earliest hours. I will NEVER go anywhere near the shopping areas on this peak shopping day.

Secret of the Stole Progress: Since I finished clue 4 I am 50% done with the stole. As of last night I am about 1/4 done with Clue 5. Of course the final clue(clue 8) was posted this morning. *sigh*
I am definitely one of the tortoises with this project but at least I am making some progress on it.

A scary incident happened on Wednesday in my neighborhood in Queens, New York City. A gas explosion where 8 people were hospitalized and the elderly woman who was the primary victim passed away in the hospital later that night.
Story on news radio site
The story on the ABC local news site.

I live a few blocks away and when I called my Mom she did not remember hearing any explosion but her memory varies and it was about 3 hours afterwards. When I got into the area after work I didn't go close to the site but I could see emergency vehicle flashing lights in the distance. I did take a walk over there yesterday and the main house involved had all of the front windows boarded up with caution tape across the door and the door of the house on it's right. However, there did not seem to be any obvious damage to the house to the right or the other houses nearby.

I also found out that an elderly neighbor from the floor above is in rehab due to another fall the other day. His wife said he was also rushed to the hospital while at rehab when he exhibited signs of a heart attack (which was confirmed at the hospital).

Sending good thoughts to those in need during this time and of course to my neighbor who is always in good spirits and active despite all of his health issues.

What Has Been Going On?

Hmmm.. I forgot to mention that my birthday occurred at the end of October, along with some other of my friends within a week of mine. Didn't do anything special and it passed without incident. Got some neat gifts though!

There was also a battle of stomach upsets in my household. Mom was having some intestinal upset and so was my cat. I think the cat had a touch of the flu. I couldn't take her to the vet right away and by the time I was trying to schedule it she seemed to be better. She is fine now. I do have to schedule her main checkup of the year (vet wants 2 visits a year since she is geriatric). I am fighting to get her to eat her food with the supplements needed to help with her arthritis and therefore with painful litter box use. She has been suffering with hairballs which also makes it worse.

Mom had another incident yesterday but that could have been due to too much fiber for her system. Making more plain stuff for dinner and lunch. Will keep an eye on the situation.

I saw the Concert Venue Cat the other week, it was a warmer day and when I was passing she was sitting outside. When I talked to her she came over and wanted some attention (which she got). But she didn't go voyaging again so I thought she wanted to go back inside. The usual process, press the intercom button, opened the door when they buzzed and told them I was letting the cat in when I opened the door. Of course, now that the door was open she wasn't too eager to enter, so I helped her by nudging her and quickly closed the door.

The Daylight Savings Time Change happened and got everyone confused as usual. Mom actually remembered but didn't mention anything until the middle of the day after the clocks had been changed.

The weather is finally showing that winter is coming and we have had some cold temps, some rain as well on occaision and a rumored sighting of snow in one of the more northern areas. But we may be having some warmer temps again this week and more rain showers.

I have been listening to a really funny podcast called "MunchCast" that Leo Laporte and Cammy Blackstone do. I get it by subscribing to Radio Leo on iTunes. It can be extremely hysterical and always interesting. It is about snacks/candy and all things related to yummy goodness.

Well better get more of my errands done so I can work on the Secret of the Stole Clue 4 tonight.

Secret of the Stole - Clue 3 Finished!

Finally finished Clue 3 last night. Of course Clue 6 was just posted on Friday. *sigh*

This is after completing clue 3 on blocking wire for the sides and bottom but not stretched completely.



Here is a closeup of part of the design showing the beads:



I was getting better at it with less mistakes and able to correct mistakes more often without unknitting more than a small amount if at all.

Will attempt to start on Clue 4 after getting all my household errands done. Perhaps tonight.

Secret Of The Stole - Clue 1 Finished!

I was able to finish the last group of rows of Clue 1 last night.
Still had to redo a couple of rows but I finally finished it.

Here it is:



Color is not quite right. The yarn is lilac Zephyr.

I also started Clue 2 but only was able to do a couple of rows.

Slow Going

I got stuck at a specific row on clue 1 for The Secret Stole. I would think I had it correct with the correct number of stitches and put it aside to work on when I was more awake. When I came back to it I would discover that I was still off! I redid at least 6 rows and 4 of those twice but I have it corrected now. So hopefully I will be able to start on clue 2 soon. Will it be in time for a pic to be posted by Friday to be in the drawing for the prize? Time will tell.

I have been so busy at work that when I get home I am too tired to work on any of these projects without messing them up as you can see from the above. As soon as I get home I start dinner and feed the cat. If I am lucky the cat has not christened any of the carpets or my bed while getting rid of any hairballs. I never get a chance to eat my dinner as soon as I give Mom hers. Usually as I finally sort of relax to eat, Mom appears to let me know that she couldn't finish everything and she is done. Often she is carrying her plate instead of leaving it on the table for me to take when I am ready. Just another little stress creating thing.

On a more upbeat note, the weather was a little like Fall but had warmed up the other day when I went out to get lunch. Then I had another encounter with the concert venue Cat! She/He was sitting outside in a patch of shade. When I saw her and talked to her she got up to get a scratch. She seemed to hint that she wanted to get back inside so I buzzed, opened the door and let the desk staff know that I was just letting the cat back in. Of course as I said that, the cat was being reluctant to move her butt inside and needed me to give her a little push. Once in she stayed at the door and turned facing me. She was either changing her mind and wanted out again or wanted more attention. Neither which worked for me so I shut the door as I was saying "goodbye and be good". What a character.

Lace Knit-A-Longs

So, I never finished clue 1 for Chrysopolis when clue 2 for Chysopolis and clue 1 for the Secret Stole was posted last Friday. At this point I am on row 63 for Clue 1 for Secret Stole and have not worked on Chrysopolis since last week.

Tomorrow both will post new clues! Clue 3 for Chrysopolis and Clue 2 for Secret Stole. Of course, Secret Stole does have some prizes for being on track so I guess I will need to try to keep more on track with that Knit-A-Long.

No time to work on them and I am way too tired when I get home after work. I already am off by one stitch on Secret Stole. I need to figure that out. When I tried I didn't "solve" the problem. I was afraid I was going to make it worse so I stopped.
Hopefully tonight I can get it fixed.

Oh and did I mention I am in the middle (waiting approval) of joining a Halloween themed lace project Knit-a-Long?

I didn't? Wonder why....

Chrysopolis Clue 1

Well Clue 1 for this lace knitalong was posted on Friday. I was home because they scheduled Mom's health aide for a yearly physical at 9am when she would normally be here. No idea of when she would arrive afterwards so I took the day off. She actually got here about 11am.

I didn't get a chance to really work on it until late Friday. I had a hard time casting on loosely enough only to screw up the pattern a few rows along and had to start over.

During the time I was able to work on it over the weekend I finally got a method down that works most of the time. I discarded the written instructions for the pattern in favor of the chart. I would just get too lost in the instructions on where I was in the sequence in a row.

My method now is to have highlighted the column that represents every 10th stitch for the entire chart. Then I have removable highlight tape that I use for the row I am on. Then to keep track of where I am in the row I have the chart on a magnetic board with a magnet strip placed so the left edge is at the beginning of the set of 10 stitches I am working on. I try to check my 10 stitches and only if okay move everything to the next group. I am also placing stitch markers every 10 stitches when I can to make it easier to check where I am and how many stitches there are in case I dropped any. Which I have done. The other thing I am trying to do is to run a lifeline every once in awhile and mark where I placed it in the pattern. That way if I drop stitches or otherwise messed up I can rip back to the lifeline where it is easy to place the entire row of stitches onto the needles again.

As you may know, a lifeline is when you put spare yarn or crochet thread onto a tapestry needle and pass it through the stitches on your needle before continuing onto the next row. The yarn or thread hangs for a few inches on either side of the knitting. Easy to remove when no longer needed but there to safeguard a correct row of your pattern in case you have to rip out above it.

Anyway, I am not far in the pattern *sniff* but I am plugging away when I can.

Of course the next lace knitalong starts tomorrow! Secret of the Stole.
I belong to MeetUp and our knitting group has a Meet Up event at the IBM building atrium on Saturday at 1pm to knit together the first clue of Secret of the Stole.
I am trying to get there. One pm should be okay. I get Mom set up for the day and hop on the subway, which hopefully is going into the city on the normal route. I can get close to the location by subway or take one of the buses instead that goes fairly close to it.

Wish me luck!

Swatch, Swatch, Swatch

I forgot to post that I had finished the swatches for both lace knit-a-longs that will be starting soon.

For the Secret of the Stole in Jagger Zephyr:


Which starts on October 5th.

And for Secret of Chrysopolis in Knit Picks Shadow:


Which starts on Friday September 28th.

I also finally decided that the Fetching fingerless gloves were okay.
Meaning I decided I didn't have to redo either one. These are in Carron's Simply Soft Acrylic yarn:


The person modelling the gloves is a friend from my office. :-)

Now if I can just get those charity items done, be ready for the lace KALs AND get my backlogged projects at work done!

Ravelry Rules!

I got my invite on Friday. It was actually sent about 30 minutes after I last checked in the morning. I found out before I left my office. I queried my waiting list standing and got the message that the invite had been sent and another would be sent just in case the first got lost.

Sure enough it was in the Inbox for that email account when I checked that night. Now the hard part, getting the info together to add to Ravelry for my stuff.

I updated some of my sections yesterday and continued today. I have to check some details and make some corrections if necessary later. Have only touched part of my yarn stash and my needle collection. The needle/hook inventory area is due to be updated with more features/types at some point.

So my id on Ravelry is Dragonarc, in case you already have an id and are curious.

Almost There...

Imagine my surprise when I checked my place on the Ravelry waiting list to find:

You are #15526 on the list.
174 people are ahead of you in line.
18725 people are behind you in line.
44% of the list has been invited so far

So, if they process any of them during the rest of the day today I may get my invite tonight or tomorrow! Woo Hoo!!!!
I can't wait until I can click on someone's link and not get stuck at the Ravelry signin page!!!!

On a not so great note, I am still way behind at work!!!! But we just got new desk phones which is good and bad. Now I can check what numbers or other employees have called when I am away from my desk who may NOT have left voice mail. As one of my coworkers said, "Pressure is on, should I call back people (like the boss) who called while I was away without leaving a message or shouldn't I?" We can also forward calls from our desk phone to our work cell phones. Hmmmmmm.... Feature or Disadvantage? Let's see if anyone says we have to. I might if I am going to a meeting or be away for an extended period of the day. But most of the time things can wait. If not they can contact someone who would call my cell directly anyway.

Now I have to pay a few critical bills before leaving for the office. *sigh*

Anticipation

I just checked my Ravelry waiting list standing:

You are #15526 on the list.
799 people are ahead of you in line.
18452 people are behind you in line.
43% of the list has been invited so far

So perhaps by this weekend I will be able to access Ravelry!
I can't wait to be able to see what everyone has added!
Woo Hoo!

On other fronts, I managed to go through the list of smaller tasks at work only to find that some of the stuff I was reviewing had actually gone backwards and reintroduced previous problems! Well I bounced that stuff back fast. I know they are complaining because it took me so long to get to it to review. I really don't understand why they don't take the time and care to put it into fit shape for me to approve it when I do get to it!

I killed myself trying to get alot of my work contacts into the new cell phone last night but I managed to get at least the basic info for most of them in. I even found all of the accessories for the old phone so I am ready when I have to turn it all in!

The temps are supposed to be higher during the day today with the highest due for Saturday. Isn't that when Fall is supposed to begin officially?
Hopefully this will be one of the last set of hotter days.
I really want FALL!

Ravelry and Fall

Well Ravelry is really going through the waiting list! According to their news post they are trying to do 500-600 a day! Here is my latest standing:

You are #15526 on the list.
1522 people are ahead of you in line.
18171 people are behind you in line.
41% of the list has been invited so far

Am I ready? Do I have alot of photos and items to add to some of the varied parts? NOPE!

On another note, it has been Fall type weather here in NYC. Cool in the morning and in the evening/night and more summer like in the afternoons. But it is supposed to get warmer towards the weekend.

I have so much work to do at the office that I am stressed just trying to figure out how to prioritize it. It didn't help that I had to set up a new cell phone and a laptop as well. I have to find all the accessories for the old phone to turn it all in as well.

I still haven't managed to transfer everything between the old and new but at least the worse of it is over. I am getting used to navigation on the phone and I can get onto our wireless network with the laptop. I still have no idea exactly what the magic combination of actions was that made it finally see that the network was available and switch from the more unprotected SSID to the more protected one. *sigh* I swear there are Gremlins at work!

Things are a little more settled with caregiving and my Mom. Still not sure if this aide will mesh enough with us but we will see. Unfortunately the issues are the same as I have at the office. Consistency, common sense, communication, and general awareness. *sigh*

The aide just arrived for the day and I am not sure at all if she will do for long term. She asked Mom what she wanted for breakfast and went to look for the frozen waffles (which she has given to her before). She just opened a fresh box because she didn't see the zip bags of waffles that she had taken waffles from before and are on the inner door. Also asking me if we put anything on the waffles (Mom likes everything plain). Last week she opened a fresh box of oatmeal from the extra boxes on top of the fridge when there are 5 flavors opened in the cabinet. She has seen me take oatmeal packets from the cabinet and I have gone over where everything is several times.
So I guess I have to move extra supplies to places she would not look in.
I just don't know.

It doesn't help that the service company also schedules the aide for a physical first thing in the morning on a weekday. Which for the location she has to go to is 9am. She was told to go to the physical and then to the client. The assumption is that the client or someone can let them in no matter when they arrive. Not true here. Mom doesn't always hear the lobby buzzer and can't remember what to do to buzz someone in. When she did she would let in anyone since she couldn't hear them correctly and would assume it was UPS or someone.

I have no idea how long the physical will take and when she will arrive here. I have a meeting that day and I assume I will late to it.

So like I said it is a bit more stable at home and yet not really stable.
One day at a time, that is all I can do.

Perhaps the lace knit-a-longs will cheer me up. I have to get a tiny crochet hook for the beading for one of them. I am going to see if one place is open and carries them on the way to work today.

Photos of swatches, etc. to come!

Been a Hectic Time

It has been a hectic time for me since I last posted.

We got a new health aide for my Mom. Everyone has their little issues and we shall see how it works out. I am now less hesitant about speaking to the supervisor about someone that just doesn't work well with us. I am trying to keep track of things and giving the new aide feedback to see if we can work better together. The new school year starting hasn't helped since her family has several children that are having problems with school transportation. And yesterday no one else in the family could be reached to pick up a sick child at school so the aide had to leave about noon. I was home sick so I was able to take over but not the best way for me to attempt to get better. Hopefully all the beginning of school issues settle down quickly.

Work has been hectic and stressful. Short notice on things needed for high profile projects and alot of work on reviewing items being migrated into Production to prevent problems. As usual of course, no advance warning so often things are considered ready by the programming staff that do not meet the needs for the Production staff so that they can make sure it all runs properly and deliverables are on time.

I finished those fingerless gloves, the Fetching Pattern from Knitty.com. I will post pics soon. Whew!

I started the gauge swatches for the two lace knit alongs. Been frustrating since I will find the wrong number of stitches and screw up correcting the error. So I have had to rip them out to the beginning several times. But I am getting better at it.

On the good news front -
I have progressed quite a bit on the Ravelry waiting list:

You signed up on July 10, 2007
You are #15526 on the list.
3597 people are ahead of you in line.
16602 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far

And today's weather has greatly improved. No rain and the humidity and heat have reduced.

Let's hope it is a sign of a better day!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Well, I took a vacation day for today and Tuesday to pad out the Labor Day weekend.
I am a bit burned out and I actually can't ignore work since I have to finish something before a deadline next week and my monthly reporting needs to be checked tomorrow morning. *sigh* But hopefully that won't take long to finish during the weekend.

On a Ravelry note here is my current waiting list standing:
4632 people are ahead of you in line.
14420 people are behind you in line.
36% of the list has been invited so far
So it is progressing along.

Since I have joined two lace knit-a-longs I hope I haven't gotten myself in way too deep.
I have never really worked with lace weight yarn or done a real lace project so it should be an interesting learning experience.
I already mentioned the Secret of the Stole but I also joined secret-of-chrysopolis
That is hosted on the German Yahoo so it will be challenging translating the posts but the organizer will be sending out info in both languages. Whew!

I ordered lace weight yarn for both projects and got this beautiful JaeggerSpun Zephyr in lilac which arrived yesterday from Sarah's Yarns. They have some wonderful yarns at good prices. I ordered two 2 ounce balls late at night on 8/28 and it arrived yesterday 8/30. It is enough for the Secret of the Stole project but not for the other one. They carry cones of it for very reasonable prices which I might order in the future. My Knitpicks Shadow yarn order is almost on it's way. I ordered 2 or 3 different colors in the Shadow yarn and enough of each so I can choose which to use for the Chrysopolis project.

I will post yarn pics soon and perhaps a pic of a swatch!