Continuously sick

I've been sick for a while now - it's getting really old.  It's basically been a bad cold, but it coming knocked me out and I've had to take a few days off work (eek!).  Banjo's been enjoying stealing my body heat as we snuggle on the couch.  In my efforts to not go crazy, I've tried to be productive at something, like finishing a book I'm reading or knitting, but I've done a lot of zoning out.  That's been the worst part.  Banjo likes tearing apart Kleenex though (he's not picky if it's used or not).  That's the second worst part.

I did finally crochet some new potholders for us:

The turtles remind me of Longville - Turtle Racing Capital of the World.  haha

I also love three-day weekends

I had the best feeling ever this morning: I woke up around 6:45 with no alarm.  I love having a holiday!  This is a very enjoyable weekend.  We went to my parents for a couple of days (which translates to lots of yummy food) where I finally started Dad's socks and got close to finishing The Stand by Stephen King. 

For those of you who have read The Stand, it's so good!  And for those of you who haven't read the book, it's so good and you should read the uncut version!  The book was long, but I didn't notice because the story was so good!  It reminded me of The Storm of the Century in certain ways.  The book is about a superflu that kills most of the population, and what happens to the survivors.  Fascinating stuff and I highly recommend it.

I'm also recovering from the solution to my migraines - I had an IUD placed last Thursday which means I can have babies when/if I decide to AND have no more hormone-related migraines!  I know this information may make certain people uncomfortable, but I wanted to let people know so they can hopefully pass this information along.  It turned out my body had too much estrogen because of the birth control pills I was taking and my body's natural production.  That meant I almost always had a migraine once a month (at least).  My doctor suggested getting off the birth control pills for a couple months as a trial and I haven't had any migraines since.  That's when I too decided to get an IUD, which uses a low dose of a different hormone that hasn't been linked to migraines.  Plus I don't have to remember to take a pill every day and it lasts for five years.  Now you can hopefully pass on the word in case you know of other women suffering from migraines on a monthly basis. 

In other news, Banjo was a pretty good dog this weekend with Pokey.  The cat stayed locked up in my parents' bedroom the whole weekend...hee hee.  Banjo only growled at Pokey a few times, and he was super excited to get home.  It turns out he likes routines and his own space.  It's fun to visit, but he's ready when we get ready to leave.  He slept hard all the way home and all night.  It makes me feel good to know that he's making progress with both us and other dogs, because the beginning was a bit rough.  Totally worth it though :)

I love organizing

This morning I was trying to figure out what I wanted to accomplish this weekend.  Lately, since work has been mega brain intensive, I've wanted to do things that don't require much thought (namely knitting).  So this morning, I started by weeding out my binders of knitting patterns, recycling the ones that I have no intention of ever knitting.  It felt really good! 

In the process, I found a pattern I had forgotten about, but have been wanting to knit for some time: fingerless mittens.  I really liked the pattern, so I decided to cast on and I got one of the mittens done:

 

 

It always feels good to work on a quick project for that feeling of accomplishment.  What I also felt good about was the fact I found the yarn in my stash (from one of the bags of odds and ends I bought off Craigslist).  

Another accomplishment is I think I have finally gotten to a point in my knitting where I feel comfortable making changes to the pattern.  When I first started, there was no way I was going to do anything besides what the pattern said to for fear of ruining all the hard work (I ruined things anyway because of the mistakes every beginning knitter makes!).  Now, I modify as I see fit.  Proud day for me!

I've also found this in cooking.  Since I weeded through my recipes a while ago, I've been choosing one or two new recipes a week to try because I don't want to keep saving recipes that don't taste good.  I've had pretty good success so far, but am finding there are certain ingredients I don't like and certain ways of preparing things that completely differs from the recipes.  It has lead to some pretty savory discoveries.