Thursday, December 20, 2007

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly 2007

Continuing on yesterday’s reflective mood, we have a small inventory. I seem to be unable to stop myself from listing things.

First, the Good for this year:

1. My grandson Stargazer, who will be turning one year old at the end of December. He is invariably cheerful (well almost), cuddly and cute and will eat virtually anything. What’s not to love?

2. My granddaughter KiKi, who finally learned how to talk clearly enough so that I can understand her with or without my hearing aids on. (Needs some work on the toilet training though.) Can’t wait to introduce the Fibre Habit to her! Soon.

3. Married off my last child to the perfect man for her. She is so happy and we love him as well. (Note that we didn’t lose a daughter and a son when they got married — we gained a son and a daughter. So now we have 4 wonderful children, plus 2 grandkids. So far.)

4. Ravelry. The most fun party you can have with fellow fibre fanatics without having to get dressed or go anywhere. Also a great incentive to start and complete projects and document them.

5. Crafty discovery of note: Addi Lace circulars. Pricey but positively worth it. They blow Turbos right out of the water for all circular knitting, not just lace. They have points! They come in smaller sizes than the Denise set goes too.

6. Got all 4 of my attic storage spaces cleaned out and sorted and inventoried. Woo-hoo!

Next, the Bad:

1. My birth mom went from super-healthy older woman with tons of energy and spit to terminally ill with a cancerous tumour over her liver that they can’t remove. She’s still sassy though and fighting as hard as she can. Just came back from Mexico visiting my baby sister and her family but now has to go for more chemo. Phooey.

2. The 10 pounds I’ve gained back this year because I fell a little ways off the Low Carb wagon. Just a little! (Plus maybe some dark chocolate and the occasional slice of seedy wholegrain bread. Perhaps a few corn chips?) And although I’ve walked a lot, apparently I need more exercise than that to compensate for falling a little ways off my diet. Besides my elliptical trainer is lonely. If only I didn’t feel so unsafe on it because of the current case of the Wobblies. Erg.

3. The Return of the Wobblies (aka my labyrinthitis). I was hoping I’d seen the last of it last winter. I’m hoping it’s not decided to become a chronic problem. It’s hard to get more exercise when you fall off the elliptical trainer or trip over the bumps and dips in the sidewalk.

4. Said dips in the sidewalk which have been exacerbated by the Big Dig on nearby Cambie Street. They might have filled a goodly chunk of it in now but they haven’t paved properly yet or re-widened the sidewalk to its pre-dig width. T-Man tore a hole in his leather jacket just the other day by catching it on a parking meter with a honking screw sticking out of it. There was barely enough room to walk around it. The best you can say is that things are improving some for the shops on the affected streets.

5. You can order anything you like off the Internet from a whole bunch of wonderful helpful friendly vendors, but then you have to wait…and wait…and wait…for the post office to get around to delivering it. Currently my lace kit for my Victoria wheel is in transit to my supplier who then still has to mail it to me. And so on.

6. There’s still the studio and the basement to sort through. And all my yarn to inventory. No, it never ends. But then I don’t want an end to my stashes, now do I? Not unless I can shop to fill them up again.

And the Ugly:

1. My photo in my new passport. Yuck-a-roonies! No smiles, no glasses, hold your head just so, no glints off the forehead. Oh well. At least I’m now a Real Canadian Citizen Person and can travel places that are Not Canada. Not sure if I want to though.

2. However I have to go get a new British Columbia Identification Card because my old one has been kaput for years. Nobody told me that it was not acceptable until I went to apply for the passport. Luckily I still had enough acceptable ID for the passport office and now I can use the passport as part of my ID to replace the old BC ID. Weird circle there, no? I am what I am!

3. The weather this time of year. It’s been windy and alternating rain, sleet, and snow with the occasional ray of sun just to prove we aren’t living at the bottom of a well. Those who get snow for winter should be happy. At least they don’t have to look at mud puddles for 6 months. In the constant dark they’re even easier to fall into than usual.

4. My hair. It’s sticking out all over and is too long. For me anyway. I’m heading out in a few minutes to go get it cut. I’d like to look my best for the coming holiday parties. Well, the best I can for a swiftly aging woman anyhoo. I’ll be partying tonight with my weavers guild and I’m looking forward to it!

Tomorrow I’ll give you the scoop on the completed OYT Socks and the new Even More Pink Socks that I started last night.

1 comment:

Cynthia said...

Hey, Louisa, have you thought about a rowing machine? It's almost impossible (for me anyway) to fall off one and you can work up a pretty good sweat.

Best wishes in the New Year.