Radio Silence

It has been over a week since my last post. Radio Silence. What a week it has been! I'm sure there was a week in my life that had more stress or more tasks or more emotion. There has to have been. Perhaps it was that week in 1996 when I had a benign lump removed from my breast 2 days before a hurricane blew through and we lost power while I was recovering. It could have been the week in 1999 when we moved to North Carolina from Texas. That was a long week with us loading up a moving truck and driving two different vehicles across half the country only to arrive at midnight to an empty house and a full week of rain. I don't know. The week I broke my leg and had surgery to repair it then had a party with 40 guests into my home was a bit crazy. Granted that was a pretty easy party all I did was direct traffic from my couch throne.

Last Saturday Kam was stung by a hornet. Her hand and arm swelled to twice the normal size and she ended up at the ER. She is fine now after a week on steroids to bring the swelling down. On The Fourth of July we started having car trouble. That same Saturday the mechanic said I needed to add Sea Foam (I'm sure it is spelled differently but in my mind all sea foam is greenish blue and blows down the beach when the wind is high) to the gas tank and drive it until the check engine light came on. I can tell you I was not interested in driving around aimlessly. I had knitting to do. Fortunately the engine was so unhappy the light came on with a few short errands. On Tuesday the car was fixed enough that we were told to drive it until the check engine light comes back on and then we can determine what might be happening now. Wednesday I went to Charlotte for a product training that was amazing and full of information on bone and joint health. Crazy sleep there though because the hotel room was noisy with the AC coming on and off. Not just my room but the AC from the room next door kept me up. Then the food was weird in the morning. I have learned over and over that I must bring breakfast for myself. I cannot count on finding "real" food. sigh  Thursday was a great day. Laughter and home and all was due to be perfect for the rest of the week. I planned a fun afternoon run for Friday and a relaxing weekend mixed with outdoor exercise and knitting. Friday morning it started raining. Then the battery light came on in the car. Weird thing was the charge dropped when the car was put in gear. Yeah. The car is down again. Waiting. Waiting for something. Not a new battery. That was replaced last winter when we experienced the insane cold. Apparently car batteries don't like being exposed to -10 windchill any more than humans. I resigned myself to the car not working and thought I'd catch up on some bookkeeping. I sat to the computer and the keyboard went out. Just the battery but very eerie when you think about what was going on with the car. When I replaced the batteries in the keyboard the whole computer shut itself down. Fortunately it came back on and posed no further trouble. Oh...I almost forgot...Tuesday Kam replaced the washer. She and our son Geoff went to pick up the new washer at 8 pm. They brought it home and hooked it up. It had a factory defect. Instead of putting water into the wash tub it put water onto the floor. They returned it and hooked up a new one on Wednesday. To get the magical new one though Kam had to spend over 30 minutes on the phone with customer service and speak to 5 different people.

Needless to say I was busy this past week. I was a bit stressed for creative thought. I was also in need of a break from interacting with the world. I knew I needed to get back to writing. I chose instead to continue my silence and extend it a bit. I unplugged myself completely from the internet. What a welcome relief. I'm not sure about my reentry. It is happening. It will have to be a slow one. I'm dipping my toe in, just bit by bit. I am ready to start sharing my meals again. I needed inspiration. I needed new display dishes. I want shopping! Who doesn't like a few new dishes to perk up the kitchen boredom?

My Sunday morning started a bit late. I slept in. With all the rain this weekend I found sleep just a bit too inviting and indulged in a Sunday morning rest. Breakfast wasn't easy in the house. No car for a few days meant no groceries. Fortunately (or not depending on how you view the situation) Kam had rented a car to attend her father's 86th birthday party on Saturday (Oh...did I forget to mention that detail?) and we still had use of it. We opted for breakfast out at Whole Foods before purchasing food for the week. I ate most of it before remembering to take a picture. What did I eat? A yummy frittata made with eggs, cheese, turkey bacon, bell peppers, and new potatoes on top of a bed of spinach. I had some fresh fruit on the side, just a few bites of pineapple and honeydew melon. Kam wanted me to share this picture.

Lunch was a bit of roast turkey. My master plan for protein this week was to roast a turkey so there was meat ready for every meal. By Sunday we were feeling the same way about turkey as you do in late November. We sauteed green beans in some garlic olive oil, steamed baby carrots, and made an oil and vinegar coleslaw from a baby cabbage to go along with the turkey. 

For my afternoon snack all I wanted was some fresh berries with nuts. Kam wasn't impressed. She made me eat more turkey first. I'll spare you the picture. It is about as uneventful as eating it was. 

Dinner was fabulous!! I roast a boneless lamb roast, sweet potato, and asparagus. We had more of the fresh coleslaw with it. The flavors were amazing!

Crafting in the week? Oh, YES! I have been quite productive! I finished 3 socks, have one just over an inch from complete, another ready for the heel gusset, and have spun up 3 ounces of wool and am working on plying it now. Productivity has been wonderful. I might really need to consider this as I move back into my internet world. 

The handspun merino is on the left. The cob web laceweight indie dye is on the right. The center is the two plied together or to be honest in process of being plied together. I should mention the spindle on the left broke today. I still have over an ounce of merino to spin. I dropped the silly thing. I've dropped them before. This one hasn't been used much. It bounced and the hook broke from the top. 

This pair was in process. I had one complete and was working on the next. I'm happy to say the pair is finished!

I started this sock on the Saturday when Kam was bit. It is a differently constructed sock. It starts at the toe and works sideways around the foot and up the leg. The pattern is Skew from Knitty.com. It fits perfectly. I understand there are plenty of knitters who have trouble with it though. I have smallish ankles. I think that is why it fist so well. When I have the two knit I'll share a photo of the pair actually on feet. The heel construction is amazing!

I have the second of these socks almost ready for the ribbing on the cuff. They have been so much fun to knit!

And finally I started this pair on Thursday. Another faster than anticipated knit. The yarn really makes the stitches pop!