state of the ark

I'm home alone this week, enjoying the pleasures of deconstructing my kitchen, interspersed with knitting and dogness. It's all Eleanor, all the time around here. Since I decided to finish all my UFO's this summer, I am only concentrating on knitting one thing at a time. Believe me, it's killing me, with my slightly ADD tendancy and great love of multitasking. Still, I continue to love Lady E. She grows slowly, but the drama is there. It's funny, you never know what color is going to be adjacent to another, and even though it's a tiny little universe you're working in; ie, 8 stitches, knitting and purling and picking up and knitting 2 together, the effect is huge. Eleanor is an epic knit. I do love it when a shawl can cover my legs while I'm working on it. I had hoped to be done with her by tomorrow, but I don't see how it's going to happen.

One of my summer projects is to get my body straightened out. This year, I've had such a bad run of infections and migraines and general malaise. I think much of it sprang from my unhappiness at work, which made me weak on some level, susceptible to infection. I'm proud to report that I've been sore throat and cough and sinus pain-free for about a month now, following the antibiotics and absolutely religious use of the neti pot.

I continued to have the headaches into the summer, so I'm working with my doctor on that issue this week. I've had x-rays and tomorrow I'll have a CT scan. The doc's hypothesis (and I'm willing to see it through) is that some of these are tension headaches, not migraines, and so we're treating the tensed muscles. The x-rays and CT scan were to rule out arthritic condition and stroke or other brain anomalies. So now, I'm sleeping with muscle relaxants, and a hot towel compress, and I've stolen P's orthopedically correct pillow, with pretty good results. A day of pain-free, today, which is saying something, as I've been entertaining the low grade headache for a long time now.

The good doctor did not renew my scrip for Fioricet, however, and lectured me about treating the cause, not the symptom, and reminded me that it was a controlled substance. A little too controlled, if you ask me. Arrrrgh. It was like I'd asked for Oxycontin or another shot of Dilaudid or something. Fioricet is the sure headache stopper in my life, but my last few personal physicians have been reluctant to prescribe it. I went online to research it a bit, and came across a message board on which folk talked about addiction, and taking up to 18 Fioricet a day and what a bitch it was to kick it. Harrruuumph! This is ruining it for my innocent usage of one or two at a time to tame a headache.

At any rate, I'm down with treating the cause, and if it be a muscular thing, well, hopefully I can clear it up.

Now I know it's just wrong to write about alcohol and drugs in the same post, but we have a drink around here at Chez Nuuanu Estate known as "Island Sangria". This from the same folk who brought you the Pomegranate Mudpot and is a good way to use up red wine that has seen its time. I do not believe this Hawaiian Sun nectar is available on the mainland, but I'm pretty sure you could use Kerns nectar as a good substitute, or just oj. Mix, half and half, or in whatever proportions are available. The lazy person's sangria.


Next week, our good friend Det arrives for a week. He is perhaps, the best friend P and I have, one that we share equally. Oh yeah, P has his friends and I have mine, and we have the 'couples friends' and the mutual friends. The Det bridges the gap between P's friends, my friends and "our friends". I'm looking forward to the diversion. He has family here, and knows Hawaii well, so we'll be continuing our ongoing (from last visit) research about truly good plate lunches, snorkeling spots and no doubt obsessing over the Tour de France a little too much.

berries and a spicy sweater

Summer is here, and the time off work that I never thought would get here has finally kicked in. I have been on a bit of a blog hiatus, as I've been working hard to finish projects, catch up on sleep and just enjoy the newfound freedom. In my quest to eat at home more, (I've decided to postpone the denial of a cleansing diet at the moment, in favor of the indulgences coming out of my own kitchen) I've been cooking hard. These lovely berries became a cobbler that was breakfast and dessert one day last week.

In addition to the cooking (risotto! cupcakes from scratch! red beans and rice!) I have also buckled down HARD on knitting up the UFO's, and have completed the Rosedale cardigan at long last! Behold the splendor, lounging on the 31 steps...


...and the not-so-splendid pic, taken in my messy bedroom mirror. Clearly the unblocked Rosedale is not the most flattering accent to my scruffy flowered sundress, but you get the idea.


I have never been so tired of a sweater in my life as I was of knitting this thing. The last part; the collar in corrugated ribbing, was the crowning touch, requiring all kinds of concentration and 2 balls of yarn and some ripping and re-knitting. Nevertheless, I think it's a cute enough knit, and actually cozied up in it the other night at Mocha Java. It is spectacularly unsuited to our climate here, and I can only imagine it'll get its major use on trips to the mainland, or on the Big Island, up at Volcano, where the night temps regularly hit 40's.

On to bigger and better things!

some randomness

I was tagged by Acornbud for this seven random things meme. I wrote it up, and Blogger ate it a few days ago. I'm giving it a new and improved shot...no one's tagged, but if you feel inspired and you happen to have some time, please feel free to jump right in and do it yourself.

1. I grew up in a hunting family, and probably ate more wild game than domesticated meat, as a child. Venison, rabbit and squirrel were regulars on our dinner table throughout my childhood and teenaged years. My dad no longer hunts, and while I support his reasons, (he was tired of taking lives) I do admit to missing the wild meat a little bit. Squirrel is hard to come by and quite tasty with gravy and biscuits.

2. I am a self-taught knitter. I knit left-handed, moving the work from the right needle to the left. Please do not ask me about picking, throwing or whether I knit continental or english style. I do not understand such things.

3. I am madly, passionately addicted to Jamba Juice smoothies. I drink the Coldbuster with protein boost (though a lot of good it does me)Saturday after I attend my dog training class. At home, I put peanut butter in my homemade smoothies, which nearly always draws protest and "what the hell is this?" from anyone who happens to be sharing it with me.

4. I have known my husband for 23 years, though we've only been married for 7.

5. I had a terrible math anxiety in school, and did badly in math classes throughout my education. Strangely, I really enjoy teaching math, and my graduate research is on how children solve math problems without using the traditional algorithm.

6. I have never owned a new car in my life. Currently I'm driving an 8 year old Honda CRV. It is a total workhorse, and has never had any problems, so it'll be around awhile, I imagine.

7. My media creature boyfriend is Daniel Day-Lewis.