Sorry, it's taken me so long...

Happy May, everybody. I'm finally back to the daily grind of earning my paycheck which is fun and exciting. The cats are happy as clams at high tide to see me. They will not leave me alone. I sat down on the couch Tuesday and thought I might write out a pattern for Beth only to have Boris in my lap in a millisecond. Now, I have to confess that if it had been Igor, I probably would have moved him to one side since he is ALWAYS in my lap. Boris, however, doesn't even attempt to sit on my lap that often, so I let him be. Of course, once Igor, who up to that moment was perfectly content sitting on the couch back behind my head, sees Boris on my lap, he decides he needs to be on my lap as well. Oy vey. I have to protect Boris then because Igor will push Boris completely off and just take over. I tell them all the time to share, but they are little brats when it comes to that. ;-) And Boris is usually the pushover, which is why I protect him.

I wrote out the pattern for Beth last night and sent it to her, so that's done! ;-)

As requested: A GRANDMA UPDATE

Grandma is doing really well. I can't remember what I last told you, but she decided to pay the $300 a day to stay at the rehab place, but then she wasn't having physical or occupational therapy, which I'm pretty sure was the reason she decided to stay there (as opposed to paying $170 for assisted living), but when I talked to her Tuesday she said that the doctor had given her another prescription for the therapy so she should have been back at it yesterday. The good news is that Tuesday she went all the way to the dining room (she's in the last room in the hallway, so it's a heckuva an accomplishment) using the walker. And I think she said she can get out of bed and use the walker all by herself, too! She has been sounding absolutely great for the last week or so. And she thinks she's going to be out of rehab in a couple of weeks. I'm assuming they're going to teach her in therapy how to negotiate stairs since her condo doesn't have a bedroom or full bathroom on the ground floor. I do know that my California/West Coast aunts (there are four of them) are planning on coming out in shifts to stay with her as they all have Family Leave once she gets out of rehab and is back home.

She's been making friends all over the place and is rarely in her room anymore as she's always off gallivanting somewhere (okay, usually the dining room, although last Monday the rehab place loaded up 10 wheelchair-bound oldsters and took them to the race track for some horse racing). From all accounts, everybody had fun. Grandma's a little bummed because her buddies Norma and Pat have gone home, and Norma was just a fun person. I quite liked her myself. She's the one who told us about Grandma refusing to bake in OT because she had seven kids and did her baking back in the day.

The vacations were mostly good. The first weekend away was hard. Even though I knew in my heart that it was my last race, it was harder saying good-bye to people than I had thought. All of us (C&C, Roadrunner, HRH and me) arrived Wednesday (C&C in the morning, the rest of around 8:30 p.m.). Thursday we headed up to LA to go to the Petersen Automotive Museum. I had been wanting to go there since it opened, but have only been to LA once since then and my brother wanted to go to Disneyland that time. Turns out that the Petersen is not nearly as extensive or fascinating as the National Automobile Museum in Reno, so we went through the whole thing in a matter of a couple of hours. I spent an entire at the car museum in Reno.

I did see some very cool cars, and if I would have downloaded my pics by now, you could see them, too. They have a Steve McQueen Jaguar in BRG – nice. They also have two Ford GTs – one of the original ones (technically a GT40) which had been owned by the classical conductor Herbert von Karajan and never driven in the rain – GORGEOUS. And one of the new ones, which is beautiful, but I'm a purist. The old one is just too sweet for words. And they also have a Bugatti Veyron. Holy cow! As HRH pointed out, it's really not a beautiful car, but hell, if you're a Top Gear fan, you know how cool and fast that sucker is. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, go to youtube and type in Top Gear and Bugatti. Bloody amazing!

C of C&C really wanted to get to the Hollywood sign so that was next on the agenda. I have been to LA a fair number of times and have never made the foray to the sign – although I did go to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, so I did see it from there. This time, though, the goal was to get as close to the sign as we could. We got some cool pictures and then bailed, in an extremely unsuccessful effort to avoid LA rush hour traffic. I think it took us close to a year to get to the freaking freeway. And I have to say that the middle position of the back seat of a Magnum station wagon is not comfortable for HOURS at a time. My back was killing me!

We had to stop in Long Beach on our way back to Huntington Beach (as close as we could get to Long Beach, which wasn't bad considering we didn't even plan the trip until late February/early March) to pick copies of the Long Beach Press Telegram as they had coupons for free admission to the track on Friday. The ALMS guys were on track when we got there, so I got to flip the bird to the Penske Porsches, and the Andretti & Fernandez Acuras whenever they'd go past. It was mature and satisfying.

We ate at this restaurant called Island Burgers which was supposed to be fabulous. The burgers made from beef might have been, but their version of a veggie burger sucked. Why can't restaurants just have Boca burgers in the freezer and not waste their time (and my taste buds) creating their own veggie pattie? They almost always are horrible. HRH wanted a bite and I told her no, I didn't want that nastiness coloring her opinion of veggie burgers. Even sautéed mushrooms and swiss cheese couldn't hide how awful it was.

We wandered a bit around the race track, figuring out where we were and where our seats were. After that we just headed back to HB as we knew we had an early morning scheduled and a long day at the race track. When we got back to our hotel, though, C&C brought out a present for all of us. They had had t-shirts made expressing our feelings toward the "merger" and gave one to each of us and had a few left for some other racing friends we would see at the track. Pictures will be downloaded soon.

And I'll finish telling you all about my two trips to CA soon...I promise!!

Medicare Sucks, I suck at knitting, Sushi doesn't suck, although the waitress did

Forget that good news about Grandma. It turns out that Grandma is getting kicked out of the rehab facility next Monday, because Medicare rules state that you can't stay if you're not making progress. And Blue Cross is mindless and just goes along with whatever Medicare decides. Mind you, it's hard to make progress when you're medically not allowed to put any weight on your leg. Our only hope, apparently, right now, is that she has pneumonia (she's back on oxygen and just not feeling very well at all – when I talked to her on Friday she wasn't eating at all as she just wasn't hungry or able to eat) to the point where she has to go back to the hospital. Once at the hospital, she needs to stay a minimum of three days (or so I've been told) and then she can return to rehab for another 20 days. How bloody stupid is that???

She thinks it's all taken care of and she's allowed to stay until she can take care of herself. The pathetic thing is that is the way it should be. I realise there are people who might need a little incentive to motivate them to do their exercises, but Grandma isn't one of them. She even did her PT last Friday when she wasn't feeling well and had no energy. She needs to build up her upper body strength in order to use the walker properly (i.e., not put any weight on her right leg), and that takes longer than 3 weeks when you're 89 years old!

I'm very displeased.

Friday night at the Token Lounge was very good. I enjoyed listening to all three bands, although I couldn't watch the first band as the lead singer was annoying and pretentious. He seriously needed to be slapped. And holy shit, were they LOUD!!! I could feel my clothes moving from the percussion of the music. Thankfully Urs was prepared and brought a bunch of earplugs. I was saving mine for the YS who was coming down, but a few minutes into the first band, I broke down and shoved them into my ears. Dear God, I think that was the loudest show ever. I text the YS a few minutes before she got there and told her that if she had earplugs in the truck, she might want them. Thank God, she had some. Urs' OOMA's band played last and they were quite good and enjoyable.

The second band invited people onto the dance floor to mosh. As it was so hideously loud, the YS and I were communicating with each other using the text messaging feature of our cell phones. We weren't sending messages, per se, just typing them up and showing the other person and awaiting acknowledgement with a nod. Anyway, I told her that I would never slam dance (I'm old, that's what we called it) with kids these days since none of them knows the proper way to do it, or as I put it, they don't know how to pull their punches. They just slam wholeheartedly into each other thinking that's the proper way to do it.

As soon as OOMA's band finished playing, the YS and I were out of there as the cigarette smoke was killing us! I took a shower as soon as I got home to get rid of all that secondhand smoke, took an alka-seltzer nighttime cold & cough and a Bronkaid to counteract the effects of the smoke, and then slept until noon. I don't need to get sick as I'm leaving Wednesday after work for Southern California.

I couldn't sleep at all last week, for some reason, so I needed to sleep until noon. Once I got up on Saturday I went to visit Grandma and took her bed jacket project with me. After harassing Grandma for a few hours, Mom, the YS and I took off for sushi. We got a new waitress who was horrific. An hour after we got there, we had no food, while every table around us who came in after us had their food. She also missed my tempura asparagus order on the back of the sushi order sheet. At no point did she apologise, she just blamed the kitchen. Sadly for her, she didn't know that we know the owner and once he showed up, the YS gave him an earful. Amazingly enough, my tempura asparagus showed up very quickly – I wouldn't have bet money she submitted it even after we pointed it out to her. We're so nice, though, she still got a 15% tip.

Yesterday, I pinned out the back of Grandma's bed jacket on my cardboard thingie and then pinned the left front next to it. Ooops, too long. Then I re-read the instructions and realised that everything was all kerfluffled and I ended up taking the whole thing out and starting again. *sigh* The right hand side is still sitting on my circular needles, but I'll end up taking that out and re-doing it as well. I don't want to think about the fact that the armhole shaping for the left and right sides on the back doesn't look symmetrical. I'll be calling Soyon later today and asking her about that. I also need to ask her to translate the instructions where I got hung up yesterday on the armhole shaping. It made NO sense to me, whatsoever. *double sigh*

How was everybody's weekend? Do anything fun? Eat anything yummy? Not mess up a knitting project?

Do not call telemarketers back! Plus Good News on the Grandma Front

I'm really slacking of late – posting entries, reading blogs, etc., and I apologise.

Latest Grandma news is good news!!! Woohoo!!! At physical therapy this week, starting on Wednesday, they began bending her knee! She was a little scared at first, expecting it to hurt, but she said it didn't. Also, one of my CA aunts was in town for a few days and she got the Medicare/Blue Cross issue straightened out. From the sounds of things, both will pay for 20 days in rehab, but they both wanted to pay for the first 20 days, so Grandma was going to get kicked out after 20 days, even though she wasn't allowed to put any weight on her leg for 6 weeks. The social worker has told Grandma that she will not be kicked out until the end of April, although Grandma thinks there's a possibility she'll be able to stay longer than that, if need be. We shall see. I don’t have a lot of faith in the "healthcare system" in this country.

I still don't know what's up with her dermatologist appt. and the atypical cells, but I'm sure I'll see Mom tomorrow and she'll tell me what's up. The YS is home from Texas, and due to Grandma's fall decided to do her next rotation here in Michigan, so we're going to harass Grandma tomorrow and then go for sushi! Yay! It's been much too long since I had sushi.

I mentioned a while back that my work phone is one number off from a telemarketers, if you remember. Well, I finally got tired of being sworn at for something I didn't do, so I asked my boss if I could be a bit more blunt in my voicemail message. He said, Yes, so a few weeks ago, I changed my VM from the standard BS to "Hello. I AM NOT A TELEMARKETER and DID NOT CALL YOU. You have reached My Name at Big Faceless Corporation and can't answer your call right now. If you know me, please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible." Or something very similar to that. One of my co-workers called me last week and was just laughing throughout his entire message to me. He asked if I had permission to do that. Yup.

It worked up until last night when I got someone saying "You lie, you did too call me." ARGH!!! Actually, I had THREE messages from people yelling at me once again about calling them. Today's message is even more blunt.

"Hello, you've reached My Name at Specific Department at Big Faceless Corporation. I am not a telemarketer and I did not call you. The last number is a zero, not an eight. If you are a supplier or a co-worker, please leave a message."

If you know me and my work #, give it a call and a listen…let me know what you think. I think my irritation shows through. I had said the next VM message was going to include information on how to get their phone # on the Do Not Call Registry, but I was too pissed this morning to do it. Maybe next time I need to get even more explicit. Yes, I could get a new phone #, but I've had this number since I started here almost 8 years ago. It's on every order I submit, it's the # everybody knows, etc. I don't want a new phone #!!! I want people to stop being stupid and not only calling telemarketers back, but too stupid to discern a zero from an eight!!!!

I'll keep you posted on well this works. Just hope the new big boss doesn't feel the need to call me when I'm not here. ;-)

One week from today I'll be at the street circuit in Long Beach for the last ever Champ Car race (even though technically it's an IRL [f*ckers] sanctioned race, it's my cars and engines and drivers, so we're considering it a Champ Car race). The LB is coming down from NorCal Friday night and hanging with us for two days. Figures we get him into Champ Car just in time for it go away. Last year in Vegas he came down to see us (he and HRH get along great because they're both so politically conservative). On Friday, he took the rental car to the Grand Canyon where they had just opened the tourist rip-off Lucite platform (you can't take a camera on it), and he was supposed to leave late afternoon on Saturday, but he joined us in the cool grandstand over the track and watched the cars coming at us and getting only a little airborne (since they fixed the massive bump overnight) and he looked at me and said, "Do you think I could get my ticket changed to tomorrow? Do you think Uncle Kevin will mind if I miss Easter Vigil?" "It can't hurt to try. Are you kidding? Uncle Kevin doesn't give a shit about stuff like that." (Note: Uncle Kevin married our aunt 20+ years ago – we're Catholic. He's been attending a Catholic church all these years, their kids all went to Catholic school, he just finally got around to converting officially last year – adult conversions are formally acknowledged/done during the Easter vigil which is a complete nightmare and can last up to three hours.) The LB was able to change his ticket leaving Sunday (as it was Easter) and he sat there watching cars and asked "Why is NASCAR more popular than this? This is so much more interesting." Ah, LB, you have asked the eternal question, which is even more pertinent now that my series is no more.

I need to post pics of the progress of Grandma's bed jacket, but first I need to download the images from my camera. Let's hope it doesn't take as long as my October trip. ;-)

Have a good weekend. I'm going to the Token Lounge tonight to see Ursa's hubby play with his old band. I'm pretty sure there will be some absolutely fabulous people-watching happening this evening, as it is a rock/metal concert. The funny thing is that I grew up not all that far from the Token and have never ever been in it. I've driven past it numerous times, but never stepped one foot inside. I shall now find out what I've been missing all these years!

Another Grandma Update & March Lists of Books & Movies

I know, I know…I haven't listed my books and movies from March, but first, a Grandma Update. She somehow managed to get bronchitis last week, so she wasn't feeling all that fabulously and she was obviously having trouble breathing. She was on the Z-Pack, getting breathing treatments three times a day and then finally, oxygen (either Friday or Saturday – she couldn't remember). She sounded better last night and they took her off the oxygen, so that was good news.

Mom told me more bad news last week, however. Grandma went to a dermatologist and got a biopsy done sometime before she fell. Mom finally remembered and called the dermatologist and was told that the biopsy had come back and the results were that the cells were atypical and squamous. Mom didn't know what squamous meant, but made an appointment for Grandma for some time in May. Then Mom went to work (she works at a pediatrician's office) and was told that squamous means fast-growing, malignant cancer. Mom moved the appointment up to this week, but only told Grandma the cells were atypical. She didn't think Grandma needed further bad news. I'm hoping that as it's only skin cancer (I think), that it will be easy to cut out and eliminate completely. Please continue praying for the cute little lady. Thank you.

Here is my lame book list and not quite as lame movie list.

Books

The Ringmaster's Secret by Carolyn Keene – 178 pages - #31 – What can I say, I was looking for an easy read. Classic Nancy Drew.

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu – This was "An Illustrated Journey" translated by Stephen Mitchell – It was very interesting, I even marked passages I really liked, for some reason or other. It's very short, but takes a little time to digest. I have three more copies to read. Yeah, not quite sure why I own four copies of it, but I do.

High Rhulain by Brian Jacques – 320 pages – From the Redwall Abby series by Brian Jacques for Young Adults. My nephew got me into them a number of years ago and this was one he didn't have. I bought it a good 1.5-2 years ago with the intention of giving it to the nephew (as he owns most of them, and I generally just borrow them from him) as soon as I finished reading it. I finally got around to it and enjoyed it quite a bit. I really enjoy the books which including the fighting hares of Salamandastron, they make me laugh. When I gave it to the nephew I said, "Want to know the ending?" "No!" he said in a panic. "The good guys win." "Duh." I would recommend all of the Redwall books to anybody and everybody who enjoys a good story. Although the first book is technically "Redwall" my nephew started me out with Martin the Warrior and I would say it was not a bad move.

I started Nineteen-Eighty-Four by George Orwell last month as well, but didn't finish it. So, while I'm a slacker, I'm not a complete slacker. ;-)

Book of the Month has to be High Rhulain.


Movies

I started out the month pretty well and ended it well…the middle – there was a definite lack of movie watching happening, except for the Saturday I spent with Grandma after she fell.

3/1 - Babette's Feast - 1987 (N) – Sadly this movie has been on my list to see since it came out. Only took me 20 years to get around to it. Pathetic. I started watching a version I DVRd back in February, but it was dubbed and I hate dubbed foreign films, so I hit the delete button and moved the title to the top of my Netflix queue. If you like action, you won't like this movie. It's more about people and how they relate to each other. I liked it.

3/1 - Woyzeck - 1979 (N) – A Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski collaboration. Do I really need to say more? It was dark, depressing and I would say you could see Klaus Kinski's insanity most readily. The man personified batshit crazy.

3/1 - Ocean's 13 - 2007 (K) – What can I say? I love the Ocean's series (yes, including 12, which apparently I'm not supposed to like because it didn't follow the "heist movie formula" – whatever). The link above takes you to the Rolling Stone review which does a much better job than I could describing the movie. Unless you have serious George Clooney issues (which I won't even begin to pretend to understand), check it out. It's fun, and it's always a good time to see the really icky bad guys lose.

3/2 - Tsotsi - 2005 (Enc) – Tsotsi was nominated for best foreign film back in 2005 and won. It's about a teenaged boy in South Africa who carjacks a woman, seriously injuring her and without realising her baby was in the backseat. For some reason, he keeps the baby and in a roundabout, messed up way, it humanizes him to a certain degree. A sad movie, but not nearly depressing as Woyzeck.

3/2 - Best Little Whorehouse in Texas - 1982 (Retro) – I had never had any desire to see this movie, but an acquaintance (and fellow punk/goth) told me it was her absolutely favorite movie and that I should watch it. It was playing on Retroplex shortly thereafter, so I DVRd it. I have to confess that I liked it. I love Dolly Parton. Dom Deluise was hilarious as Melvin P. Thorpe and Burt Reynolds did a fine job as the sheriff. I actually like musicals, but I could have lived w/o some of the songs in the movie. All in all, I'm glad I took the advice.

3/2 - O Brother, Where Art Thou? - 2000 (Enc) – Alleluia! I finally found a Coen Brothers' film that I liked. I think I would even watch it a second time. And before anybody asks, in disbelief, Yes, I *HATED* Fargo. It.Wasn't.Funny. The other Coen Brothers' film I saw and hated was Barton Fink. No, I haven't seen Raising Arizona, and if you think I should because it's funny, just think for a second "Did I find Fargo funny?" If you answered yes to that question, I won't take your advice on Raising AZ. Sorry…I can not even begin to find the words to express how not funny Fargo was and how disgusted I was at the film….and my friends who laughed hysterically throughout it.

3/2 - The Flight of the Navigator - 1986 (Hallmark) – Yeah, it's a cheesy, 80s Disney movie, but I love it. I saw it was on Hallmark, DVRd it and then watched it when I had a spare 90 minutes. Sadly, it was cut all to hell, so I bit the bullet and found a copy on line which I bought. It arrived the other day. Not sure if I'll watch it anytime soon, since I did just watch it, but don't be surprised when it pops up again on my movie list.

3/16 - The Philadelphia Story - 1940 (K) – I took a bunch of movies with me to Grandma's the Saturday I was to stay with her after she fell. This was one of the movies we watched (I left halfway through An Affair to Remember). Once again, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. It's brilliant and if you still haven't seen it, do yourself a favor!!! Rent it! Netflix it! Do what you need to do to watch it.

3/29 - The Importance of Being Earnest - 1952 (N) – Between Cyrano de Bergerac and Importance, I don't know which is my favorite play. I've seen both played live (Importance, twice at Stratford, ONT & Cyrano, once in Stratford and once down at Wayne State during my senior year of high school), to say nothing of how many times I've seen the movies. I believe this version (with Michael Redgrave – I think you all remember how much I love him) was my uncle's favorite movie version, as well. I haven't given the 2002 version with Rupert Everett a chance yet and I'm just not sure I'm going to. I'm scared they'll have modernised it or something worse. Okay, I might have to see it…Dame Judi Dench plays Lady Bracknell, but then again, it has a whole lot more characters listed than there are in the play. I'll have to think about that. Anyway, just for the record, I prefer Jose Ferrer's Cyrano to Gerard Depardieu's. Did I mention that Oscar Wilde wrote Importance? I don't think I did, and that should be enough reason to see it. It's bloody hilarious!!!

3/29 - Fitzcarraldo - 1981 (N) – Another Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski film. While in the middle of watching it, a friend called and asked if I were sleeping. I said, "No, watching my last Werner Herzog film." She laughed as she's seen a few, and asked which one. I told her and she asked where the boat was. "45-degree angle on a mountainside." KK played a crazy man (a stretch for him – ha ha) who is obsessed with opera and wants to bring Caruso to Peru to perform. He needed to make a lot of money with rubber production and somehow moving the steamboat over a mountain was going to help him. Anyway, after it was over, I can say that it is The.Most.Uplifting of all of Werner Herzog's films (of the too many I have seen). So, if you want to see ONE Werner Herzog film, go with this one. Honestly.

3/30 - Sicko - 2007 (N) – I know Michael Moore is a hot button topic for a lot of people and that they will discount anything he says just because he is the one saying it. However, he seems to be the only one saying what needs to be said about the American health care system in easy to understand ideas, if you're willing to listen. I found the movie fascinating, but I will confess to thinking the health care system in this country sucks canal water, so he was preaching to the choir. I laughed out loud when he went to Cuba, as that is so Michael Moore and who the hell else would have had the balls to do it. I don't think that I would actually like Michael Moore if I met him, but I like that he doesn't care if people hate him and does what he thinks is right.

And there you go, my March movies. Movie of the Month has to be Sicko.

Life is Good?

The good Doctor posted this recently and I decided to take the test. I'm not that thrilled with the results - actually, it was the comments associated with the results which didn't thrill me.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.7
Mind:	6.5
Body:	8
Spirit:	7.5
Friends/Family:	5.8
Love:	1.5
Finance:	7.2
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Latest Grandma Update, Knitting, Long Beach

Sorry for my absence, but for the first time I can remember I think I'm suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder. I need warmth and sun…the warmth from the sun. I've never discounted SAD's existence before, but I never thought I suffered from it. This winter, though, has put me over the edge. I'm always tired, I don't feel like doing anything. I don't want to leave my apt. once I'm home. I don't feel like working when I'm at work. I don't feel like blogging or reading blogs. It's really pathetic. I need SUMMER!!!

I had Good Friday and Easter Monday off work which was nice. Grandma is doing quite well. She had surgery on the Tuesday before Easter, as you know, and the hospital released her on Good Friday. I slept in Friday but made it to church by a little after twelve noon (had to stop by the University to pick up hockey tickets from a friend) – they were on the second station of the cross when I got there. After the service was over (only day of the year when there is no Mass in a Catholic church – little trivia there for you – I won a bet on that once), I went to Target (not my usual one and it was stupid busy) and then Mom called to say Grandma was being moved right then, so I headed up to the rehab place. I beat her there as her ambulance driver didn't have a clue how to get to the place, so he decided to go up Greenfield from the hospital to 13 Mile Road and then west to Meadowbrook Road. Yes, theoretically it's direct, but it's not the fastest way to get there. When they finally arrived, Grandma said, "I think we came by way of Toledo." I was amused but I'm not sure the ambulance guys were.

We got Grandma settled in and stood and chatted for a while, until I decided the snow was coming down a little too hard for my peace of mind and I said my good-byes. It wasn't as white-knuckle driving as when I had to take the YS to the airport back in December, but it wasn't the best time ever, either. Thankfully, Saturday was warm-ish (low 40s?), so driving to Knitting Club that night wasn't a problem. The city where EGC lives has a snow rule, so one whole side of EGC's street is forbidden. I proved my parallel parking skills by getting into the tightest damn spot. I might have had a couple of inches on both ends of the car. I rock.

I started knitting a sweater/bed jacket for Grandma that night. Soyon brought me some patterns and I picked one that looked easy. You can see it here (third picture down in blue). It's not going to be that long, obviously, since it is a bed jacket and Grandma's only 4'7". I've already ripped the damn thing completely out as it was going to be way too long. I've started shaping the armholes for the back piece, and figured out it's still going to be too long, but hopefully only by an inch or so. I'm not ripping it out again.

I took a break from the bed jacket this weekend to knit a scarf as a housewarming gift. I had a housewarming party to attend on Saturday and wanted to knit something for the "lady of the house." I didn't finish it in time, and was hoping to finish it by today so I could give it to Katie this afternoon, but it didn't happen. I went to the Red Wings game on Sunday (they won in OT – woohoo) and that took up quite a few hours, and then yesterday I was visiting Grandma and this particular pattern needs my attention. I kept messing up and having to take rows out one stitch at time so that I wouldn't have to rip the entire thing out. I ended up working on the bed jacket so that I wasn't wasting time while visiting with Grandma. ARGH! I didn't get home until 9:30 which is bedtime, so it's not done. Darn it!!!

Grandma has only been in physical therapy for a week, but she's making great progress. They're teaching her how to use the walker to support herself as she hops to get from point A to point B. I met a lady with whom Grandma has PT and she told the OS and me that Grandma has progressed very quickly and that she was very impressed with Grandma's accomplishments. She gets out of bed with a minimum of help and is just doing really, really well. Even though she's making friends at the facility, she can't wait to get home and be on her own again. It's good to have a goal.

Grandma's not allowed to put any weight on her right leg for six weeks (I guess we're down to 4 weeks, now). She figured out yesterday that she's more than likely not going on our trip to CA in 3 weeks. She's bummed because she really wanted to surprise the LB for his b-day. I was really looking forward to it, too. I now need to call the airline or Travelocity and see if we can get a voucher for the ticket, so Grandma isn't out the money and can get to CA eventually.

I leave two weeks from tomorrow for Long Beach. While I'm looking forward to the trip, I'm also dreading it as that's when IT will really be over. Supposedly, the first Icky Racing League race of the season was this past weekend. I had a party to attend that night, not that I would have watched anyway, but HRH tried to watch it and she said it just brought it all home to her that our series is really over. It upset her so much she couldn't even sleep that night. A bigwig at work (who back when the takeover was announced argued with me that there would still be a race in Cleveland and all this other stuff, he simply refused to believe that someone who didn't wear a suit to work might actually know more about something) yesterday asked me "Did you watch the race?" I replied, "There wasn't a race." He just laughed. I didn't.

I know that at some point I will need to "get over it," but I'm not ready yet. HRH's trying to get me to go to Charlotte for the 600…I wouldn't bet money on it happening, but never say never, right?

I hope all is well with everybody. It'll probably take me a little while to catch up as I've been lax for the past couple of weeks, but I trust comments will be popping up around the blogging world.

Waiting for summer….