This morning I received a voicemail at work from my husband. While he was setting out the trash one of the neighbors approached him and said that Tasha’s body was rotting on her back porch. Ironically, this was the first place that my gut led me to when she disappeared. I asked the young man who answered the door if he’d check his back yard for her. He went into his house and came back several minutes later and said that he stood on his back porch and couldn’t see her any place in their yard but that he didn’t check under the bushes because it was wet and he didn’t want to walk down into the grass. Had he taken another 30 seconds and looked then we could have avoided the hours of searching, placing and checking ads on Craigslist, Humane Society visits, etc. It’s good to have closure and to know for certain that she isn’t wandering around cold or hungry. It’s also comforting to know that she wasn’t torn up or eaten by animals. The libel against raccoons was unwarranted on my part, but I still dislike them immensely and they’re still trespassing in our yard. I buried Tasha next to a large hydrangea bush in a warm and sunny spot. She loved the sun. I miss her.

“And the rain rain rain
came down down down
in rushing rising rivlets
’til the river rushed
out of it’s bed
and rushed right into Piglet’s”

Rain pounding on the roof woke me up at 4:00 this morning. Hopefully the wind blew itself out last night so we can use umbrellas. The elementary school I work at has issues with the playground field becoming a quagmire of mud and goo. As a result it becomes off limits to the students during heavy rains. In addition, if the rain’s too heavy they can’t even go to the equipment because it’s not covered. The result is that they’re forced to mill around under the covered walkway and basketball court. There isn’t enough room for them to do much so they don’t get to run off excess energy and unwind. One of the teachers I work with will sometimes put on music and let her kids dance. That might help cheer the kidlets up. Of course doubling up on Prozac or spiking my coffee with Kahlua may not be a bad idea either. Yes, I’m kidding.

Last night was Chess Club and we needed to make a run over to the Junior High School to make sure everyone had a ride home so knitting time was limited. A few more rows were added to my current WIP. There’s enough yarn that I can make a second, identical
“thing” as well.

Theoretically there are no school concerts, sporting events, birthday parties or other “outings” planned for this weekend. I’m typing this quietly for fear that the universe will throw several unexpected happenings our way.

Bonny seems to have come to terms with Tasha’s absence. She’s very clingy now though and insists on sleeping on top of our legs. New sets of raccoon footprints on and around our back porch mean we’ve pretty much resigned ourselves that the little jerks got my kitty. If so then I hope she got a few good bites or scratches in first and didn’t suffer.

Hope everyone enjoys a quiet weekend. Cheers!

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by the mailbox on my way to meet the kids at the bus stop. Low and behold, there was a package there from Roxy. Curiousity got the better of me and rather than wait until delivering the munchkins (inaccurate term considering that the boy who stays with us is taller than I am) home I opened the package. Before continuing some things must be clarified. First, I’m tired. Very tired. Both from worrying about and from waiting on A3 while she was down. Second, hormones are wreaking havoc with me right about now. Back to the narrative. Upon opening the package two amazing activity books fell out (I’m clumsy too) along with the dearest letter imaginable. Roxy said that she knows how long and boring recovery from illness can be and the books were to help A3 pass the time. Sniff. Right there in front of the other mommies retrieving their kids I felt my lip starting to quiver and my eyes began to sting. Of course the sane women at the bus stop assumed that dreadful news of a deceased relative had arrived so they rushed to consult me. To avoid full-on tears I chose to hand them the letter rather than attempt speech. They oohd and aahd over the thoughtfulness then proceeded to latch onto the activity books.
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The bus had arrived and the kids had all crossed the street by the time I was able to pry the books back from them. They are so cool! Both A2 and A3 spent the evening happily coloring, doing puzzles, etc. Thank you Roxy!

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Elsewhere, I’ve been plugging away on another knitting project. I don’t wish to say too much about it at this time, other than it’s enjoyable to work on. Happy Wednesday all!

A3 is much better and is heading to school today! She’s still very weak and thin. The doctor said she’ll need to take it easy for the next month and that she’ll still have coughing episodes. Halloween was wonderful and a good time was had by all. We left a bowl of candy by our front door with a sign that said, “Happy Halloween” then we loaded up the girls and drove to a more “condensed” neighborhood. A1 met a group of her friends there and the two younger girls Trick or Treated with us. A3 got tired pretty fast so the younger girls, my DH and I drove to a nearby restaurant for a late night meal and hot drinks. A1 chose to have an extra half an hour with her friends. Taking pictures with my phone didn’t work out because it was too dark. A1 dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and the two younger girls both chose to be cats. The candy is already mostly gone (I helped with the chocolate). When we got home there were still older kids out Trick or Treating in our neighborhood. Some of them had pillow cases that were over half full. How much candy does one child need? Craziness.
While home last week I knitted a man-sized sock and part of a sweater. The Sweater was The Eyelet Cardi and I used some alpaca purchased last year. I had gauge, but the sweater looked terrible. The crappy thing is that I knew the sweater looked “wrong” from the first row and yet I continued knitting on it until it was time to divide it for the body. Tenacity and perseverance are noble, but this was sheer stupidity. When something is ugly making more of the ugly doesn’t fix the problem. It’s been frogged.

 Sunday started out cold and foggy, but by the afternoon the fog burned off leaving a crisp, clear beautiful autumn day.  I raked leaves in the front yard and packed away the Halloween decorations.

A3 kept me company, but she couldn’t stay outside very long because it was still a little cold.  The jack-o-lanterns were tossed unceremoniously on top of the compost heap with the leaves and the pumpkin guts. Maybe pumpkins will grow there next year.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week. I’m so glad it’s November.

Sorry for the lack of posting, but we’ve been quite preoccupied. A3’s flu has developed into pneumonia and the poor little kidlet isn’t feel well at all. There are still no signs of Tasha. We believe that she either fell asleep under the bushes in someone’s yard and never woke up or that the coyotes or raccoons got her. Hopefully the former is true and she’ll be located soon so we can have some closure. Not much else, other than to say that October has been crazy and we’re glad that it’s almost over.

Hey there, time for the gloom and doom report! Just kidding, although that’s all it seems to be any more. A3 was confirmed with H1N1 at the doctor’s office and the poor little kidlet is very sick. My DH has been staying home with her in the day time and I’ve been watching her during the nights. There are lots of students and teachers out with a variety of illnesses at school too. Strep is making the rounds in the forms of strep throat and at least one case of Scarlet Fever. In addition two cases of Viral Meningitis have also been confirmed. I carry a huge container of Lysol wipes everywhere for opening door handles, etc. Yuck!

I finished knitting a hat for a co-worker’s birthday, but alas, no picture. This afternoon if A3 sleeps then some Christmas gift knitting will be worked on too.

A2 and I put flyers up all around our neighborhood and searched the local shelter for Tasha, but we’ve had no luck in locating her yet. The shelter is so full of cats now that they’re forced into euthanizing the really sick animals coming in. I can’t help but feel that she’s somewhere still in the neighborhood though, perhaps in someone’s back yard bushes. Bonny seems quite sullen. I think it’s because Tasha is gone, but my DH thinks she’s just being a cat.

Hope everyone is doing well. If the afternoon allows I’d like to catch up on blog reading to see what everyone is up to. Cheers!

Just a quick post to update y’all on some changes. We’ve cancelled our land-line phone service and will be only using our cell phones from now on. If you need the new numbers please email me. We also cancelled our cable, much to the horror and dismay of my daughters. They spent this last weekend soaking up as much televised crap as their little brains could soak in. The past several days we’ve been searching for Tasha, but hope is dwindling that we’ll find her alive. Not only was her health spiraling downward, but during these last few months she’d taken to wandering about and not coming home without help. We tried keeping her inside, but she has an uncanny ability of slipping out. A2 is taking this especially hard and she cried herself to sleep last night. I hate not knowing where she is in case she’s some place hurt, cold or hungry. A1 and A3 are staying home from school today because they’re sick. My Dh will stay and take care of them. No new knitting, etc.

I done broked my camera. Okay, so technically I broke my husband’s camera, which I’ve been using for quite some time. Last year mine (which was identical to my husband’s) suffered the same fate. Symptoms started with the lens not opening and closing all of the way. Next to go was the picture-taking button (technical term). You’d have to push, and push and hold down and push some more and hope that the camera would take a picture sometime this century. Then yesterday all of the controls stopped responding. The batteries were changed and different settings tried, but to no avail. Personally, I believe the camera is/was a piece of cheap crap, but my DH is going to accuse me of great abuses and camera neglect. A new one isn’t plausible with our current budget so pictures appearing in future posts will be courtesy of my cell phone. In other words, even more out of focus than normal.

WTF Politics: Are they really serious about allowing tax deductions for pets? Positively ludicrous. The idea that time is being spent even debating this issue baffles the mind.

WTF Nut job: The woman in this story might have benefitted from a pet tax deduction. The pictured ex-boyfriend scares me right through the picture. Although her claims of wanting a freakin’ fish tattoo to remember the dead pet and sueing him for the cost makes me wonder if she isn’t just as creepy looking. Where do these people come from?

WTF Where are the cookies?: The fitness craze need to stop and Mrs. C. needs to break out the cookies. Santa needs some fattening up before the upcoming holiday.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

I didn’t finish A2’s Halloween cat ears on Sunday due to multiple distractions. First, the girls came bounding into the house very excited and shouting out the news that DC had been shaved.  DC is our neighbor kitty who had some matting problems. He looks quite handsome with his new lion cut.  Now I want to knit him a little sweater to keep the chill away.

While outside I ventured over to the area that was a garden several years back.  Now that the thistles have started dying back I was able to hack a trail into the jungle.  I’d forgotten about planting garlic last fall. Even with a year of neglect some of it managed to survive.  This is amazing considering we had record breaking heat waves this summer and nothing was watered.

The cloves were quite small, but there should be enough to plant for next year.   I just need some napalm and heavy equipment to restore the garden area to a civilized state first.

The spiders seemed to enjoy the people-free area. There were tons of the critters.  This one in particular was fat and huge.  I don’t mind them when they’re outside and not on me.

The afternoon baking session yielded enough to get us through this week. . . hopefully.  There were five loaves of banana bread, two pumpkin pies and two pans of chocolate chip cookies.  It’s Tuesday morning and the current stats are 1/2 of a pumpkin pie, 3 loaves of banana bread and about 1/2 a pan of the cookies (hard to tell because they’re in a sealed container).    Of course A3 has only eaten a slice of the banana bread, so that means the rest of us are complete gluttons.

I stopped by A3’s school again yesterday and spoke with some people there. They are going to meet this morning and discuss plans to help her. Hooray. The staff there are very nice people, and I’ve no complaints against them individually.  I’m just frustrated at the general hesitancy to accomodate my daughter’s needs.  In the meantime we’re discussing medication options and she is only getting a half dosage on school days and none on weekends.

Monday afternoon I finally knitted the cat ears for A2 and now the pieces need to be sewn together and attached to the hat.  Some single socks have been pulled from their sack of shame and my next task is to make mates for them all.  Tonight is A1’s last volleyball game and there is a celebratory dinner for all of the families following the teams’ returns to the school (away game). Unfortunately this means a late night.  I’ve enjoyed going to bed between 8 and 9. Sleep interruptions of any sort are unwelcome, but this is a special occasion. Hope everyone is keeping warm and wearing lots of woolies. Cheers!

Friday was a state school holiday so we all enjoyed a three day weekend! The girls and I slept in Friday (6:00am for me, 12:00pm for A1 and times in between for A2 and A3). We spent the entire day wearing sweats, watching television and generally being lazy.  

We also ate. This was especially important for A3.  I’ve touched before on her health issues, which include ADHD and Aspberger’s.  The latter of which means lots of social groups and everyone trying to help her determine what’s acceptable behavior then make the correct choices.  The former (the ADHD) is so severe that after years of debating, questioning and going without we made the decision to start using medication last year.  The first prescription was a problem because she can’t swallow pills and she’d hide them. The second prescription came in capsule form and could be sprinkled on a spoonful of food. Unfortunately, we kept having to increase the dosage of this medication over time. In August we met again with the doctors and tried a new time release form of medication.  All seemed to be going well at first. However, as the past 8 weeks have worn on the side effects of this medicine have reached critical levels.  It’s common for children to suffer some appetite loss and a certain degree of lethargy, but A3 stopped eating.  Even her most favorite foods could only tempt her to take small nibbles.  She was already thin, but she began to look gaunt. She was extremely moody and would cry for the slightest reasons.  On Thursday I received several phone calls from her school saying that she was just sitting with her head on her desk doing nothing. She’d even fallen on the floor a couple of times.  She wasn’t being “bad” she was just out of it. My guess is that hunger combined with the medicine had totally wiped her out.  During this 8 week time I’ve been in contact via email with her doctor and we’d made some minor dosage adjustments.  I picked her up from school early on Thursday (the school I work for gets out an hour before hers) and sent another email to the doctor.  Friday I didn’t give A3 any medication. At all.  She was bouncing off the walls, making lots of loud, strange noises and EATING.  I think she’s making up for lost meals because for the past three non-medicine days she’s been eating the equivalent of 6 meals per day.  We even shared some special treats.

Now we face the problem of what to do about tomorrow. I really don’t want her medicated anymore, at least not with the same drugs she had before, but she probably will not be able to sit still or be quiet enough to remain in her classroom.   The doctor sent us back an email with a new list of medications we can try.  But until we can have her physically checked again and meet face-to-face I don’t want to agree to any of them.  In the meantime I’m sending emails to the school and making some phone calls to find out that, should it become necessary, if there is some place that A3 can bring her work so that she’s not disturbing her classmates or getting into trouble.

Besides feeding my children I’ve worked on finishing up some knitting UFOs.  The buttons are now on the BSJ and it has matching socks.

This plain Jane sock has a mate and the pair shall be given to a co-worker tomorrow. She needs some cheering up and these should be bright enough to do the job.

I used the “Sock Toe Chimney” technique for the first time.  This method really simplifies the workings of Kitchener stitches and would make teaching much easier because new knitters (and some of us older ones) can see exactly what we’re supposed to be doing and with which stitches.

I also pulled out and finished the fingers on the gloves from Cabin Cove’s Kaleidoscope Silk.  Unfortunately, I tried weaving in the ends, snipping tails, which there are a lot of on gloves, etc. at night while not wearing my glasses or using my OTT light.  The result was severed stitches in multiple locations. This morning I patched them up and finished them.  Because of the stupid mistake though they are not suitable for gifting.   They’d been destined for hands other than mine. I love the colors and the feel of the silk though.

There’s just enough of the yarn left over to make a case for my I-Pod.  The poor little thing suffered a trip though our washing machine late last month and I thought for sure he was a goner. Luckily he dried out just fine, complete with files in tact. The only reminder of the near-death experience is some water marking on the inside of the screen.

This afternoon I’m baking lots of banana bread, some cookies and hopefully I’ll find time to knit the second ear for A2’s Halloween kitty hat.  A1 is with a classmate and the two of them are making a PSA movie for their leadership class. They’re both smart girls but they act completely silly together. I doubt they’ll be able to make it through a single scene without laughing.  Hope everyone has enjoyed a wonderful weekend.