Winter Weather, Knitting & Deodorants

I wrote this Friday, planned on working on it over the weekend and posting but that never happened as I never even opened my computer over the weekend.

This good news is how I get through winter, especially this winter with which the coming 3-5" (yesterday the prediction had been 5-10") of new snow predicted for tomorrow will bump us into the Top 10 (they say) of Detroit's snowiest winters. As I tromp through snow on a daily basis, I simply recite my mantra, "It's good for the Great Lakes. It's good for the Great Lakes. It's good for the Great Lakes." It's also how I manage to put up with rain in the summer when I want to sit outside. While the Great Lakes were at or near record lows last summer, even with the snow melt, they're a good foot below where they should be.

I'm just really thankful I bought these boots (in black) back in early November. I have definitely needed them.

And as much as I hate snow, I'm not overly fond of bitter cold. Is there a reason Roberta Jasina can't tell me EVERY DAY what the RealFeel temp is? Don't say it's 26F out there, which sadly, I would welcome, when the RealFeel (i.e., wind chill) is 12F!!! That's a big friggin' difference! I mistakenly took WWJ at its word one day last week when they told me it was 30F. Yeah, not so much, in actuality. I think it was actually 10F or something equally ridiculous.

In case you can't tell, I’m officially over winter. It can go the bloody hell away!!!! As much as I love my new boots, I'm tired of having to wear them every freaking day. I'm tired of having to bundle up like the Michelin man to walk to work. It literally takes me 5-10 minutes to get dressed to go outside. I'm tired of having to wear a hat (as much as I love my hat which keeps my ears toasty warm) and then deal with hat head once I get to work, as my hair goes every which way when I pull it off. At the height of the insanity this winter, I was wearing two scarves, two coats and two pairs of gloves. I don't do negative windchills very well.

It's now Tuesday and I ventured out without a hat and without my super warm gloves. My ears weren't happy, but I'm being defiant in the face of a continued winter. Actually, the weather types are saying that it's supposed to be 50F Thursday and Friday! I can't even stand how excited I am about that. I'd sit outside except that I have a feeling the ground will be wet and cold.

Saturday was an exercise in frustration for me. I've been working on this green scarf for the LB's girlfriend (it's her favorite color) in this quite lovely zig zag lace pattern that Beth sent me (we've been sharing free patterns). As of Saturday morning I had already ripped it out completely and started over at least 4 (probably 5) times. My problem was that the 2nd row (it's a 4-row pattern) starts with a yarn over while the 3rd row ends with a yarn over. I would be knitting along and find that I had an extra stitch. Turns out that I was ending the 2nd row with a yarnover as well. ARGH!!! Rip! Well, Saturday I was being ultra-careful about that particular issue and got through one whole skein. I was very excited. Then I tried to do something I see all the really good knitters in Knitty Gritty on the DIY Network do – add in the next skein without using a little knot. They just hold the yarn and start knitting. It looks so damn easy. I somehow messed it up so badly that I had to rip the entire bloody thing out (can you tell I gave up the "F-word" for Lent – otherwise, this entry would be chock-a-block full of it, trust me).

At that point, I put away the green yarn and got out this beautiful black alpaca yarn I bought in Maine. It was ostensibly for me, but a friend from work wants a hat to match her scarf and it matches the scarf a bit better than anything else I have or have seen. So, I start casting on my 98 stitches on the double-point needles and I join without twisting and knit a few rows where it became obvious that the joining hadn't gone so well – I had a good 2-3 inches of yarn at the join. *sigh* I take it all out and start again. The joining went a lot better this time and I did the 1 ¾" of ribbing and then started the pattern which is a lace-like pattern. I'm cruising along and after a good 3 inches or so I notice that it doesn't look like the pattern. Hmmm, I count my stitches and I have two less than I need and started out with. ARGH!!! I rip it out, wish I hadn't given up drinking for Lent, as a beer would have been really nice right about then, and start again. I get through the casting on, the joining and the ribbed band and am working on the body of it and being ultra careful. I'm counting every stitch as I knit muttering under my breath "knit 1, knit 2, knit 3, knit 4, knit 5, knit 6, slip, slip, knit through the back, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 1, yarn over." Repeat...until I notice that it looks exactly like it did before. Once again I count my stitches and once again I have two less than with which I started. At that point, I said the two words I gave up for Lent as I was so frustrated and pissed off. I rip it back, roll the-not-as-pretty-as-it-used-to-be-yarn into a ball and go to bed.

So, after knitting for about 12 hours, I had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to show for it.

I started it again on Sunday, but had to go to the BAB's house for my niece and nephew's birthdays, so I only got through a row or so of the ribbed band. As I was having so much trouble with it at home alone, I left it there and took something mindless to work on. Good thing as my SIL's brother was all intrigued by the knitting and was asking all sorts of questions. He's a mathematician, and he saw the mathematical nature of the lace pattern. He didn't understand how the project got from one needled to the next, so I showed him.

I didn't get home until 8:00, so I fixed my breakfast and lunch for work for Monday and then crawled into bed and read the Tao Te Ching. And for the first time in I don't know how long I actually slept Sunday night. Of course, I slept like crap last night. *sigh*

Tonight I'm supposed to go dancing at the old bar. It's Bauhaus, Peter Murphy and Love & Rockets video appreciation night, but my feet have really been bothering me the past four or five days. My stupid feet hurt just walking (in two different spots on the two different feet). Stupid feet. I hate my feet. The funny thing (funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha) is that they look fine. I've noticed that when most people complain about their feet, they have major bunions or their feet are malformed. Not mine, they look perfect, it's all internal messed-upedness.

I have a personal question to ask the females in the audience. I am completely unable to find an anti-perspirant that works for me. I have been using Tom's of Maine which is just a deodorant (as I figured all the anti-perspirants I've tried don't work for crap and why use something with aluminum and give myself Alzheimer's later in life for no reason), but it's reached the point where it's not really working very well and it's only winter time here. I figured I'm going to be doing my best impression of a hippie in the Haight come summer. What do you use that you find works well or at least works marginally well? Last week I was actually experimenting using one brand under one arm and a different one under the other. The problem was that I couldn't remember which was which at the end of the day. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

I Will Dare - Grandma Update

Friday was crazy weatherwise here in Southeastern Michigan. I, being me, hadn't really paid all that much attention to the weather report. I knew it was supposed to rain, but that was the extent of it. I picked up a friend of Marianne's who lives by me and I had met a number of times before (with the price of gas it seemed stupid to have two of driving from the same place to the same place) and we got there a little before 6:30. As we walked up the walk, it started to rain a little bit. We made it into the house before all hell broke loose. Marianne's kids were in the basement as her city had sounded the weather warning siren and they were insistent that they get in the basement along with the two guinea pigs, the two mice and the killer cat (locked in the basement bathroom). We stood in the living room window and watched this huge mother branch from the tree next door fall into the street. At that point, I got a little worried about my car (it survived unscathed, thankfully) and thought that maybe the kids had the right idea. We three grabbed the food and took it to the basement where we hung out until the worst was over. Marianne's 9-year-old daughter was completely freaked out and was on her knees under a blanket praying with tears streaming down her face. Poor sweetie.

Obviously we all survived the storm which I heard brought five tornados to Fenton, MI where my aunt lives. I was quite worried because their house is up on a hill, but it turns out that it all happened north of them and they actually got hardly any rain and my aunt needed to water her garden the next morning. Marianne's street, on the other hand, was flooded, although thankfully, not too badly that the ol' Focus made it through no problem.

The rest of the partygoers showed up finally and we had a lovely adult type party just sitting around and chatting. I got home around midnight to hear that the score of the Tigers-Yankees game was 5-2 (or something like that) in the bottom of the 3rd inning. WTF??? The game ended at 3:30 a.m. with a Carlos Guillen walk off home run. No, I didn't stay up. I was tired. I managed to sleep in until 11:00 a.m., so that was one goal accomplished for the weekend – and pretty much the only one as I got no laundry done, I didn't get to PetSmart for cat food, nor Borders with my 20% off coupon.

My massage was not as deep tissue as I prefer, so it was a little disappointing, even though it was VERY relaxing. I spent hours on the phone over the weekend with Panasonic & Comcast trying to get my new DVD-R (I bought it Friday after work) to record (still completely unsuccessful) which means I'll be staying up to 10:00 tonight to watch Eureka, since I can't count on my DVD-R yet. Dammit.

I had a second party to attend on Saturday and although I was a little nervous about it as I only knew the hosts (and one other person who wasn't going to show up until 11:00 or so because he was going to the Tigers game). I’m not shy, generally, anymore, but I still have tentative moments about meeting new people, but everybody was very friendly and like-minded, so I got to talk to music, movies, hockey, Tigers, etc. I had such a lovely time that I didn't get home until 3:00 a.m. I had gotten a phone call from Mom telling me that she was leaving for CA Sunday morning so she wouldn't be at church. Whew! That meant I didn't have to go. I would have gone, except that the Champ Car race was on at 8:00 a.m. and church starts at 10:00 a.m. And with my DVD-R still not set up properly (although from all accounts it is), I didn't trust it to record the race. Good thing since it didn't. I called Panasonic again and the girl had me adjust something. I test recorded the Champ Car race re-broadcast at 2:00 a.m. Monday and yup, still not working. Mom called me around 11:30 from the Dallas airport and asked surprised, "You're out of church already?" "No, I didn't go." "Oh." "If you didn't ask, you wouldn't know I missed." She made it sound like she didn't care but I'm not sure the Champ Car race is a good reason to miss church in Mom's eyes.

After the race (won by Sebastien Bourdais – his sixth win of the season), I showered and got dressed and then called Grandma. She wasn't sure she was going to be hungry for sushi, because she wasn't sure what time I'd be calling, so she had had an Ensure first thing when she woke up and a slice of toast just before I called. I teased her saying, "Ooooh, an Ensure and a piece of toast. That's the Breakfast of Champions, Grandma." I told her I'd be there in 45 minutes and headed out. She looked fabulous as always in her tan pants, black sweater and tan/black jacket-y thing (which she didn't need). She agreed with me that I can't wear beige/tan/khaki pants.

First stop was CVS for batteries for her husband's hearing aid, then it was on to sushi where she had the Shrimp Tempura sushi and I had the asparagus tempura (YUMMY!). She couldn't finish the last piece of sushi as she was just stuffed. She was weak enough that she let me drop her off at the door while I parked the car, although she insisted she could walk to the car after lunch. I had parked it as closely as I could, but it was still a bit of a walk for Shortstuff's little legs. She actually let me help her, although I thought she was doing pretty darn well for 88.

She had run out of her Estee Lauder lifting serum three weeks previously, so she had me take her to the store for that. After giving me a hard time for spending $130 on the DVD-R, she proceeded to spend $175 on her lifting serum. I didn't say a word, but I noted it. ;-)

From there I took her to the hospice to visit her husband who got in either Friday or Saturday. My mom said to me, "Your Grandma took care of him for the past 3-4 months, but his daughter takes care of him for a week and he's in hospice. I guess she figured out how much work he really is." Grandma has been spending almost all day every day visiting with him, even though she's supposed to be resting to build up her strength. I don't blame her, really, he is her husband. It's just that while I was there, I noticed that he's a tad cranky. He would say something mumbling and she would ask him to repeat it. And he would, LOUDLY.AND.ONE.WORD.AT.A.TIME as if she were an idiot. That annoyed me, but Grandma just accepted it and responded to whatever he asked.

My mom is certain that he's going to die soon and that she's going to have to cut her vacation short, but I don't think so. He didn't look that bad to me, but what do I know about Alzheimer's? Mom said something about his cancer being back, too, but that’s the first I had heard of it.

I went for PT yesterday and now have a whole series of exercises designed to build up my knee strength which includes stretches. I'm terrible at stretching because it's so darn boring. Still, if I'm serious about this, I'm going to have to do it. Soyon gave me the name of an acupuncturist yesterday. Now to get up the nerve to call. Grandma told me on Sunday that she had gone to an acupuncturist years before for her osteoporosis. After five visits, the acupuncturist told her that it wasn't going to help her and that she should save her money. I thought that was very honorable of him. I don't think she remembers his name, though.

I guess that's it for now. In case, I don't update again before the end of the week, I hope you all have a lovely Labor Day weekend.