Christian the lion

Check this out on you tube.

I saw this on the Good Morning America show and it was so touching. Enjoy!

massage…

I go for massages about once a month. This is my time to relax and unwind and damn it, I deserve some relaxation time. I like my massage pressure “firm” which is an understatement. I like extremely firm pressure that would bring tears to anyone else’s eyes and shouts of pain.

I called Massage Envy this morning to ask for an afternoon appointment. The receptionist said that my appointment would be with “S”. I have never had a massage with S and I typically just go with the ones I’ve had before. I was feeling adventurous however and said, “Sure, S sounds just fine.”

I get to Massage Envy and my session starts out like usual. “What kind of pressure do you like?, What areas do you want me to concentrate on?, etc” S, happened to be Chinese so her English was a bit hard to understand. I told her my preferences: firm pressure with a concentration on my shoulders and neck.

The massage started with me face down on the table. S starts applying pressure on my back and shoulders. It hurts. But it’s a good hurt. She then gets on top of the table. Her knees are on my legs applying pressure. I still don’t know if I like this. Then she takes my hands and pulls on my arms releasing tension in my shoulders. Hmmm… this is interesting. There is pain but it’s not all that bad.

I finally get the courage to ask her what she is doing. It turns out, this is Thai massage. I’d never had that done before. Lots of pressure on specific points of your body. Less stroking. A funny thing she did was spend a few minutes applying pressure to my feet. At the end of it, she proclaimed, “you need to go see a doctor. You have pain under your stomach.” I was confused because I’d never had pain in that part of my body and told her so. “No… not your stomach. under. those parts. I don’t know how to say in english.” She said she could tell something was wrong by how much tension she could feel in my feet. Anyone else experienced something like this?

Weekend update and Matt’s home from the hospital

Matt had an anterior cervical fusion on Monday to fix some discs that he herniated during the accident we were in in January. He had some weakness in his right arm and an annoying pain in his neck and shoulder. He decided to go thru with the surgery after a lot of research and questioning.

He’s doing alright. On Monday afternoon after the surgery, he had a hard time getting over the anesthesia. Since the surgeon went thru the front of his neck, there was a lot of windpipe manipulation going on and his voice was hoarse. That has since went away. He does have a soft collar that he needs to wear and a 2 inch scar on his neck. It’s not really that bad since it looks like the doctor cut into a neck crease. He also went home with some steroids, pain meds, and a muscle relaxer to take. He also has orders to rest up until next week. Let’s see how successful I am in keeping him quiet. He already feels like he can go to work on Monday. Luckily he needs a doctor’s note to go back and he doesn’t have an appointment until next Wednesday.

While he was in surgery and recovery, I had hours of waiting time. I of course brought my knitting and was knitting on the Lotus Blossom Tank from Interweave knits. I’m still on the bottom of the tank where it consists of lace. Many of the knitters on Ravelry who have done this tank said that the they did 5 lace repeats. I kind of want to do that because I’m afraid of it being too short. I however, only have 2 skeins that were called for in this pattern for this size. Damn it, I wish I had bought another skein! Unfortunately I bought this yarn in 2006 at Threadbear. I doubt they would have another skein in the same dye lot.

Matt and I spent the weekend at the Catholic Engaged Encounter. It’s a requirement to get married within the Catholic Church. At first I was really dreading it but we ended up having a great weekend.

I forgot my camera at home so I didn’t get to take pictures of the beautiful grounds. We were at the Mission San Luis Rey which is the 18th mission church started by Father Junipero Serra. It is known as the “King of the Missions” because it’s size and scope. It served as a religious center of course but it also was a working cattle ranch and the living quarters for Native Americans. I highly recommend a tour of the museum church for any history buffs.

Besides the beautiful quarters, Matt and I got to talk about many things. Love, family, money, etc. Things we’ve talked about but needed more detail. This weekend was cool because there were no distractions; no TV, no work, no dogs. When are we ever going to have time like that to devote to each other? I think a weekend engaged encounter is something that all couples should undertake. The presenters for the weekend stressed that in the Catholic Church, marriage is forever and this is one way they are helping engaged couples to stay forever married. I don’t think a simple weekend will do that but it certainly gets one thinking about issues that will either keep you together or thinking that you need to postpone or cancel.

Hopefully I’ll have some pics for my next post.

Broadripple socks

I finished my Broadripple Socks

Here are my stats:
Started: July 3
Finished: July 15
Yarn: S.R. Kertzer On Your Toes Bamboo purchased from The Grove
Needles: Size 2 Clover Bamboo DPN’s (Oh my gosh, say it isn’t so… I never use DPN’s for socks anymore. I exclusively magic loop everything. But I didn’t have size 2 needles with a long enough cord to do magic loop.
Pattern Review: This is a great sock pattern. Not your usual ribbing pattern but very easy to memorize. Please check it out on Knitty.

And of course, I have to show pictures of the finished product. The first one is of me wearing them. In the next one, Waldo is modeling the socks. Sorry the picture is so dark but he was already mad at me for making him wear socks. Flash might just drive him over the edge.

He’s doing very well after his surgery. I found out that it was a benign nevus. And the best part is that his teeth are clean and he has fresh breath. Yah!!! No more stinky breath.

This weekend, Matt and I are going to our wedding prep retreat. I’ll let everyone know how it went when I get back.

I’ve been busy…

Matt is in Japan for the week and I’ve been working quite a bit for the last month or so. Last pay period, I had 92 hours! My usual is 72 hours for a 2 week period. I need the money for our wedding.

I’ve had many interesting patients in the past few weeks. I had one patient who had rings on and was scheduled for a tubal ligation after her baby was born. When I inherited her, I saw the rings, complemented them, and explained the hospital’s policy on jewelry in the OR which is no jewelry allowed. She exclaimed, “They’ve been stuck on for the past 3 months.” I was told that patients can have their rings on as long as they know in a circulatory emergency, they will be cut off. I explained that to my patient and she said that she understood.

A few minutes later, her baby’s heart rate faded in and out of the monitor. I ran into the room to put her back on and found her sitting on the edge of the bed with her husband trying to take her rings off. He had his foot on the bed to brace himself and he was really going at it. He used some lotion as a lubricant and was successful in getting 2 out of the 3 rings off her fingers. The last one was stubborn. So I got the bright idea to use the water based lube that we use at the hospital for cervical exams. I offered a packet to the husband and he tried it. He got the ring off and exclaimed, “I can’t believe that I used vagina cream to get the ring off. ” That one had me laughing for the rest of the afternoon.

Even though I’ve been working a lot, I’ve also been knitting a lot. My Icarus is finally blocking. I threaded the blocking wires thru the required stitches. It took forever… I thought I was going to lose my mind so I threaded the wires thru every other stitch. Hopefully, it blocks ok.

I have finished the knitting for the Ribby Cardigan. All that is left is finishing… What a surprise. That will probably be on the back burner for a while. Oh gosh.. there is a zipper. I might get it done in time for Christmas.

I decided that after the Icarus, I needed something extremely mindless. So I cast on for Maggie’s felted tote by Fiber Trends. It’s essentially a garter stitch square with picked up stitches around the square. I didn’t follow the striping sequence specified in the pattern. I used Paton’s Classic Wool that I had in my stash. This is a great stash busting project. I was knitting on this project when I met with a new knitting group that met at a wine bar called Mellow at Liberty Station. Now that’s my kinda knitting group. If you’re interested in going and need details, let me know.

Surprisingly, the part that pissed me off the most is the I-cord handles. It took me several tries. So… does that make me an idiot? So this project is basically done. The handles are about 50% done. Then I have to felt.

I got tired of the bag so I cast on for Broadripple socks. The pattern is very easy to memorize. And I’m moving along.

And here’s Waldo modeling the sock.

Speaking of Waldo, he had surgery on Wednesday to remove a mass that was on his chest. The vet doesn’t think it’s anything to worry about but we’re getting it biopsied just in case. He has the hardest time at the vet. His vet is this really sweet woman who’s been taking care of him since she got out of vet school. Waldo had a different vet when he was a baby and maybe he wasn’t as nice as Dr. H. He trembles whenever we even get near the parking lot so you can imagine what a mess he was when I dropped him off for surgery. I had to get him in the cage and I could hear him whining when I left the room. My heart sank into my chest. I imagine that this is what moms feel like when they drop off their children for their first day of kindergarten.

I have a few pictures of Waldo and his love for wool. Whenever I knit with it, he cuddles up to it and uses it as a pillow. I think if Waldo had thumbs and longer arms, he’d be a knitter. LOL.