Good Day

This week has been one long migraine, which hasn't been so wonderful. But, Twitter friends helped me figure out that it might have been forgetting my magnesium supplements that was at least contributing to the problem. Social networking and asynchronous communication at its finest.

Part of why the migraine lasted so long was also that I was being very, very stingy with my clonazapam because I was running low. We still don't have our insurance cards or account numbers so I'd have to fill things out of pocket. That wouldn't have been an issue except that the clonazapam script was written on the same sheet as two other meds, one of which would have cost $536 out of pocket for a 30-day supply. Apparently in MS, it's standard practice to fill all the meds on a sheet, especially if it's from a hospital (never mind that it was an outpatient clinic, the sheet from UofC says "hospital." So I asked if they could please, please let me just fill one and come back for the others when I have my insurance info. The pharmacy assistant at Walgreen's was fabulous and called around to see if she could fill it. Fortunately they could, because I was not looking forward to either going without my clonazapam or paying for everything and then trying file an insurance claim. We are covered and have been since Tom's first day of work, we just don't have proof of coverage. Bleh.

Anyway, getting the script helped a whole lot.

I'm never getting that arm pillow back.

Yesterday our new washer and dryer arrived. Oreo sounded much more ferocious than he actually is, because the delivery guy was standing well back from the door when I opened it. I had Oreo tucked under one arm and the guy peeked around me and asked if he was really the only dog.


I managed to drive over to fill out my HR paperwork to teach in the spring. And I ordered some evaluation copies of a few potential textbooks.

Today the migraine is almost gone. I've been doing laundry. And I went for a swim, which wore me out, but helped loosen up all the super tight muscles in my lower back (from scoliosis) and neck (from migraines). I only have a few more weeks to enjoy the pool before it closes, so I'm hoping the weather will stay warm enough. It seems to have temporarily helped with the swelling in my feet and ankles too.

For now, Oreo and I are sacked out on on the couch contemplating a nap.

Pinchy on the Road

My friend Scott apparently got to see Machu Picchu recently and took these freakin' awesome, nay, downright bitchin' photos of Pinchy the scorpion visiting one of the world's great archaeological sites.

Pinchy is becoming quite the traveller. I'm hoping he at least defends Scott's luggage from intrusion in exchange for transport.

NAMIWalks Chicago 2010

On the lakefront

Today was the big walk. We had beautiful weather and a great turn-out. We got some fun photos too.

Oreo can't quite make a full 3 mile walk (the block is sometimes a challenge) so he had to sit this one out. Instead, our friends brought their dog, Yuki. She's sweet and fluffy and beautiful and had lots of admirers.  So I had good people and doggie friends to keep me company and help me out on the walk.

Our team raised $500 (thanks to all our donors!!!!)

I am stiff and sore and very tired, but I think it was well worth it!

Yuki!!!!

No idea why Tom took this

Start of the walk

I don't think we managed to get a full team photo without at least one of us looking weird

Tom in front of the Ram in Chinatown

Really delayed gifts involving scorpions

Late one night in Sudan I was getting ready to go to bed. I headed off to the latrine with my trusty headlamp turned on, pulled the plastic tarp nailed to some boards that we euphemistically referred to as a "door" open and had my heart stop for a few seconds. Camped out right next to the toilet paper (on the ground) was a scorpion. A big one. Probably of the deathstalker variety.  It was late and I had been and continued to be sick and weak, so I went in search of someone with sufficient upper body strength and testicular fortitude to kill the nasty thing with a shovel.

Eventually most of the team wound up hanging around the latrine to peek at the scorpion.  Finally Tom wanders by along with another male member of the team - Scott.  A debate ensues regarding whether we should kill the scorpion, chase it off, or catch it and release it somewhere else.  Mostly, I really need to pee and I was almost asleep on my feet so I finally snarled something to the effect of "get it the hell out of there so I can pee, dammit."

Scott went off to fetch a tin can and somehow got the scorpion into it.  I got Tom to stand guard outside the latrine while I used it as though that would somehow protect me from scorpions.  Then I went to bed. 
Meanwhile, Scott was showing off his new friend, "Pinchy."

Image by shovelingtom via Flickr

After a while, Scott took Pinchy off into the desert and let him go.  The villagers were less than pleased by Pinchy's reprieve - scorpions are serious business.  While a scorpion sting usually kills only the very young, old, or sick, the pain is supposed to be horrific and nearly maddening and often there isn't much that can be done but wait it out.  Thus, they kill the little bastards on sight. 



Anyway, several months later after we'd all come home and Tom and I wound up moving to a different apartment, Scott sent us a lovely housewarming gift and I decided he needed to have a memento to remind him of Pinchy and his 2 months in the Sudanese desert with a bunch of crazy people.
So, I crocheted a scorpion.  I think I borrowed the claw pattern from a free lobster pattern and made up the rest as I went along.  And found a can to put it in.  And then let it sit on my desk for a year because procrastination is cool or something.

So, after staring at it and thinking "hrm, I should put together the package of stuff for Scott and mail it" for the thousandth time today, I decided to actually, you know, do it.  Yay!
I made sure to document Pinchy too.

Re-enactment of discovering Pinchy in the latrine

Recreation of Pinchy's temporary home.

Pinchy, hanging out where he blends in like the sneaky little bastard he is.

Close-up.  He can smell your fear.

NAMI Walks

Wow!  Less than 24 hours and I've already hit my fund raising goal of $100.  Big thank you and kisses to my sponsors!

I had kept the goal low because I know money is tight for a lot of people right now - I was expecting $5 here and there, but some lovely friends have been wonderfully generous!

You can still sponsor or join the team!  We still have 47 days to go.

Dead, frozen fish and other joys of visiting

No, really.  I took Chip to see a dead frozen fish.  I have pictures.  I contemplated spearing the fish out of the pond with the ice pick on my cane, but decided that was a bit too ghoulish even for me.

We went and checked out the OI too.  And we've developed a new theory to describe some of the lamer looking animal models - ancient summer camp.  I'm pretty sure those lopsided, messed-up looking sheep and goats and people and crap used to have macaroni and glitter glued to them too.

We also saw an undergrad on the bus with awesome metal-band big hair.  No foreskin restoration man or Greenpeace dorks today, though.  So much for local color.

Thanks, peoples!

My page visits seem to have jumped quite a lot in the past day or so, which is very nice to see.  Hi!
I'm reasonably certain a lot of that is thanks to Samurai Knitter who also blogs about knitting and science (her favorite flavor is botany) and history and other fun stuff in a lovely, snarky manner.  Also, she has a cat named Sekhmet and a daughter likely to become a mad scientist in the near future, so really, staying on her good side before they (the cat and daughter) take over the world is probably a good idea.

One of my Egyptological buddies (in fact we started grad school together lo these many years ago) gave me the transliteration for "Suck it, old man" -  snqy s i iAw.  Glad to see all those years of hard work paid off.  I genuinely appreciate him saving me the effort of trying to figure it out myself.  I firmly maintain that the weird MRI spots on my brain are located directly over the Egyptian language storage centers.  :P

I'm contemplating trying to do some treatments of Egyptian history in the same way as the Tut stuff on a semi-regular basis.  I had a lot of fun writing these past posts without having to worry about appropriate tone and footnotes and crap.  So, we'll see where that goes.  Requests are welcome.  As it is, I may well just start up with the Predynastic and work forward.

How I Spent My Saturday Night

Shopping with a buddy at WalMart. We saw these awesome vinyl combat boots in eye-searing colors and had to try them on. I had high hopes they would work as rain-boots, but they weren't very comfy and I have trouble with forcing my feet into boots and laces now.

That would be me on the left in the skull t-shirt and stripy socks.

One couple’s experience coping with the insidious thief, Alzheimer’s disease, may help others - The Dispatch - Columbus, Starkville & The Golden Trian

Joe Seger was one of my mentors as a student and has remained a wonderful friend.  I knew that his wife had early-onset Alzheimer's, but a mutual friend passed on this article about them in their local paper.

One couple’s experience coping with the insidious thief, Alzheimer’s disease, may help others - The Dispatch - Columbus, Starkville & The Golden Triangle

Tea, Collaboration, and Contemplation

A very wonderful friend came to visit me today bearing yummy cheeses and crackers and cookies and chocolate.  Bat cookies!  We made a pot of tea and had fun laughing at Oreo being a punk trying to convince us to share cheese and crackers and cookies.
We looked at the fabric paint/print block conundrum, which inspired me to do a bit more research into a solution.  I thought I'd share what I'd found
 - making a stamp won't work with the metallic acrylics I'm using for this particular project, but might be possible with non-metallics.  Apparently the light reflective particles (like mica) don't really pass through the felt or paper towel or whatever you choose to use for the pad.  This makes sense, but I would never have realized it and thus might well have wasted time and paint.
- A lot of people seem to feel that using inks is a better idea.  Typically water-based or acrylic screen-printing or block printing inks.  I haven't used them myself yet, but I hesitate to use them because I've found the range of colors to be limited and because they're difficult to find in many stores and I like to be able to buy stuff in person the first time around.  I also worry that some of them tend to leave too much of a thick layer and a stiff hand.  But then, so do the metallics.
- I have also seen a lot of suggestions for using a brayer to apply paint/ink to the block.  I think this is the direction I'm most inclined toward at the moment.
- There is also a suggestion to use cotton swabs or similar items to clean paint out of the grooves just before printing.  I sort of tried this already with a paintbrush and didn't find it all that satisfactory, but I may give it another shot.

Crafty Cripple Commune*

So, I was talking to some friends who also happen to be fellow crafters and chronically ill peeps, online today and someone mentioned how they wished we were neighbors.  So, of course, I decided we needed to all live in a commune.
My initial suggestions were ramps everywhere, conveniently placed nap spots, cabana boys (I should add in girls, for those so inclined), lots of fiber bearing animals, and high explosives.  (Gotta have high explosives - it's a commune, isn't it?)

Other suggested additions:
- Unlimited pain meds and topicals that actually work.
- Top quality medical care with doctors who aren't douchebags, possibly provided in exchange for knitted/crocheted goods

And things I've come up with since:
- lots of gardens
- wireless heating pads
- a moat and 10,000 gerbils oops, that's for something else
- an enormous library


And we've already decided to demand really expensive, high quality yarn for the FBI standoff.

In vaguely related news, I've discovered I might be psychic.  I was re-reading a rather snarky autobiographical sketch I wrote a few years ago and it had the following line:

She hopes to propose a dissertation concerning redacted to protect, uh, someone, assuming that this dissertation topic doesn’t go the way the last one did – with a whimper, a bang, the theft of several expensive books, random threats, and a whiff of gin and over-priced men’s cologne.

Well, the gin turned out to be moonshine.  And no one stole books this time.  And none of the men involved wore cologne (though some of them really probably should.)  Otherwise, yeah, pretty much what happened.

So, in that vein:

She hopes to legally acquire several million dollars in the near future along with the deed to a beautiful ranch in Wyoming.  And for a friend to become a rich and successful healthcare worker.  Oh, and she still wants a pony.  And a shotgun.

*What?  It's alliterative!  That beats out offensiveness.

Long Weekend

So a good friend of ours from college, Joe, came to visit us this weekend - thus my failure to blog regularly.
It was very good to see him again and while I may be spending this week recovering from the visit because I still can't bring myself to slow down when I should, we had a blast.

He got in late Thursday, so we wound up having a late bite to eat at the White Palace which was not nearly as scary as I thought it had the potential to be.

The next day we walked around Hyde Park and showed him the museum and that night had a party for which I had made marinara sauce especially for Joe.  It was pretty fun!

Saturday, Joe decided he wanted to try Kuma's Corner.  Despite the 45 minute wait for a table (because the place was super popular), it was AWESOME.  They have ridiculously huge, delicious burgers and the best fried calamari I think I've ever had.  Fabulous.  We would never have discovered this place without Joe, so extra awesome.  Though I don't really drink anymore, they also have an enormous selection of beers and what appeared to be interesting possibilities for cocktails along with whisky on tap.  They also had tasty, tasty root beer.  The people watching is pretty entertaining too - hipsters, frat boys, bikers, average people, all mixed in.
After that we decided to check out the Cook County Fair at the Garfield Park Conservatory.  The "fair" was more of a way to let urban kids see farm animals and play (not that we expected much more) but the conservatory was spectacular and definitely on our list for return visits in the dead of winter.  Very fun.
After that we drove down the Mag Mile to let Joe see the touristy part of the Loop.  I haven't been down there in a few months and there are now pedi-cabs.  I didn't see anyone actually using one, but the idea is amusing.
Then we decided a trip to a used bookstore was in order and went to check out Myopic Books, which had been recommended by some other friends.  Very cool.  I scored some more sci-fi/fantasy to read.  I will be making a return trip to off-load a bunch of my no longer wanted paperbacks.

So, all in all, a very good visit.  We kicked Joe's ass out today at the airport and he's made it home.  I think Oreo misses him - they seemed to get along very well.  :)  Yay, visiting!

Busy Day

I was amazingly productive today, despite only getting 4 hours of sleep (which I will be paying for tomorrow I can already tell). Hubby took me out supply shopping. I picked up some Speedball Speedy Carve blocks (the pink eraser-looking kind) to try out. I think/hope that they're a little firmer than the sort of golden colored Soft Cut stuff from Speedball and will therefore take finer detail a little better. I also picked up another Exciter pack from Jacquard (I don't make the names people). This time I went with the Halo and Jewel Colors. I already have the Traditionals pack and loved it - a little went a very long way, it had a good consistency for printing/stamping and painting, it has a lovely watercolor effect when diluted a bit with water and, most importantly, it leaves the fabric with a really nice hand - no nobbly bits, no shiny/sticky-ness like you sometimes get with screen prints. Very nice. See close-up examples here.

I also picked up a few other little things I've been needing/wanting - more bobbins, some safety pins, ball ended straight-pins (I have a terrible time seeing and handling the plain-topped ones), and some more sponge-brushes.

I called my Dad to wish him happy Father's Day. I had to track him down actually - Mom and my half-brother and his wife had managed to pry him out of the house for a barbeque. Yay!

I had a nice long chat with some friends I haven't talked to in far too long. Talking smack counts as chatting, right?

I took Oreo out for a short walk. He's such a little gentleman for me when he knows I'm having a rough day physically, and I was today. Lots of near falls shopping (I'm very good at catching myself, even if I do wind up looking like a total dork in the process) and the lack of sleep is catching up with me in the form of aches and pains.

Then I chopped up an old long-sleeved t-shirt sleeve (well, Tom did), wrote identifying info on the pieces with a laundry marker, and used the new safety pins to attach the tags to each of my remnants I picked up last week. (Thanks again, G!) Otherwise I would never have been able to keep straight which was which and what cost how much, etc., etc.

Tom has kindly taken the lot down to the laundry room to wash it for me. I'm hoping I'll be up for getting photos of it tomorrow.

I'm planning on spending the better part of the coming week working on some more print-block designs and hopefully doing a bit of sewing. I'm probably going to start out with a crochet hook case I've been meaning to make for myself as a way to get warmed up before I start in on the "special" stuff I'm planning.

Shout out!

Some time in the past few days I hit over 1000 visits to this dinky little blog! Not bad for being live for just a few months. Yay! It seems a fair number are return visitors too. Double yay!

So, here's a shout-out to all my readers. I hope you find my ramblings and links fun and I appreciate your taking time to have a peek at my silliness and hope you return.

Some of you are lurkers, I know, and that's fine. Hi!

I know a few of you are grad school buddies! Hi, grad school buddies! Wave!!!!

Some are Ravelry friends - Hi, bitches (you know who you are)! I hoist my cane in your honor!

Some are college friends - 'Sup! Thanks for not linking to photos of me with orange or blue hair!

Some are fellow bloggers - Welcome! I salute you with my keyboard.

Some are peeps from Flickr whose work I featured - Welcome! Your creations have made me gasp, smile, laugh out loud, given me shivers, or all of the above. Keep it up!

I think that covers most the categories, right? Hi to everyone else anyway!

And tail-wags from Oreo - he knows you're really here to see him.

Edit: Judy from Virtual Quilter reminded me that I forgot the people who have me in their Google Reader feed (and other RSS feed readers too). Sorry! Hi to all of you too!!!! That was extra silly of me seeing as how I do most of my blog following via Reader. I blame the little holes in my brains. :P

Good Day

I spent most of the day out visiting today to distract myself from tomorrow's needle-tastic/electrocution fun.  It was really good to catch up with some people I haven't seen lately and even fun to see people that I see all the time (shout-out to the hubby on that one).  It did wear me out a bit though.  The dreadful gray weather isn't helping either - it seems to make my vision/vertigo stuff worse.  Bleh.  Anyway, a good day, though no crafting done.

Now we're waiting for rosemary-dijon crusted pork chops and baked potatoes to get finished up and we got a frozen cherry pie to bake (I've had a weird craving for it lately).  And I scored some Ben and Jerry's Cinnamon Buns ice-cream to try.  And some Cocoa Pebbles.  If I wind up feeling all crappy the next few days, at least I will have had an awesome dinner tonight and I have fun stuff to snack on if I feel like it.  Yay!

I also need to get cracking on Mom's present for Mother's Day.  And when that's done, I need to work on a gift for a friend who is, sadly, probably going away.  And I have wedding presents to work on too.  

A great pair

Tremolo-AU-074
Originally uploaded by makidra

I really like these two - I suspect because they sort of put me in mind of a dear friend and I if we were transported back in time. I'm the one on the left with the supercilious expression :)

Shades of Sudan

[Edit]: As per usual with Cyanide and Happiness, I cannot get it to load within the post column without cutting off the final frame(s).   Clicking on the comic will take you to a readable version.  Not sure how to solve this problem, but I'll see what I can do. If anyone has suggestions for my mostly-html-illiterate self, they'll be appreciated if I can understand them. ;)  

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

I have this hypothesis that social pecking order among the men in the area where I was digging is partially indicated by sunglasses.  The more blinged-out the glasses, the more significant the person.  I wish I'd been able to get some good illustrative pictures.  One guy had these fabulous Chanel (or meant to be) sunglasses with the gold interlocking C's.  The thing is, he managed not to look ridiculous at all.

The thrill my crew that season for part of the dig - Abdullah and Ramalli, two local teenagers - got from borrowing my sunglasses when I took their pictures fits in nicely with my hypothesis.  If only I'd had more pairs and hadn't desperately needed them, I'd have gifted them happily - those guys were awesome.

Ramalli

Abdullah