2008: In Books

These are the books I read in 2008. I didn't exactly have a goal in mind, but I'm happy that I completed twenty books this year. It's one more than my total from 2007, even if these books were shorter than many that I read last year. Genre-wise, 2008 was a bit of a mixed bag: scientific essays, short stories, grown-up fairy tales, children's lit, true crime, contemporary fiction, modern fantasy, British mystery, late 19th-century American literature, etc.

• Dance for Two, by Alan Lightman
• The Grass Harp, by Truman Capote
• The Gun Seller, by Hugh Laurie
• Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
• The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
• The Dark Lantern, by Gerri Brightwell
• Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
• The Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
• Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire
• Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer
• The Doctor's Wife, by Elizabeth Brundage
• Blackbird House, by Alice Hoffman
• The Sugar Queen, by Sarah Addison Allen
• Practical Magic, by Alice Hoffman
• Hallowe'en Party, by Agatha Christie
• Sparkling Cyanide, by Agatha Christie
• The Sittaford Mystery, by Agatha Christie
• Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard, by J.K. Rowling
• The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo
  

Don't Get It Twisted

In case any of you were previously under the delusion that yours is the greatest LYS on the planet, I'd like to set the record straight, once and for all. Of course, I haven't actually been to very many yarn shops, and I have seen pictures of some really beautiful shops across the country and around the world, but I can't imagine any better than Twist. They have the friendliest people, the prettiest shop windows, and a really wonderful selection. Plus buttons! Oh, the buttons! If they carried Malabrigo sock yarn and had a Starbucks next door, "Twist Yarn Shop" might just be another name for heaven. Obviously, I'm still in the afterglow of buying woolly stuffs. And pretty excited about my free Twist tote bag.

I got the lime green Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran for a baby-sized Koolhaas and the ice blue Babyboo for my first-ever Otto (the black Babyboo is for the eyes & nose)--both for my cousin Brittany's coming attraction. And this beautiful tweedy brown O-Wool is for my second-ever Otto. The past couple of days I've been thinking about knitting a tweedy antique-y brown bear, and when I saw this O-Wool at Twist, I knew it was exactly what I needed.

And did I mention the buttons? I have no idea what I'll use these for, but buttons are my kryptonite, and these have now been tucked away into my button stash.

Now I'm off to finish my second sock so I can get started on the new projects!!

Interim

Last night (well, around 5 o'clock this morning) I finished the first of my Heath's Socks. I usually have a hard time finding the motivation to knit the second sock, but I love this pattern and yarn, and I can't wait to wear the pair. Plus I've got some baby things to knit, and I'm trying really hard to finish one project before I move onto another one. And Ysolda published her pattern for Poppy, which I downloaded after work last night.

Since my last post, I've been printing & organizing my huge stockpile of knitting pattern PDFs. And enjoying a warm, rather balmy Friday (followed by a tornado watch, a huge thunderstorm, and snow). And watching 7 episodes of Criminal Minds in 24 hours. I also made an impulsive decision which may drastically change my daily habits and routine (for the better). It's been a while since I've had a good shake-up, and this one--if it comes to pass--will make January interesting for the first time in my entire life. Have I ever mentioned that I hate January? Well, winter in general, but December has Christmas and February has Valentine's Day (and a little bit of 'spring preview' weather and fashion). January is just long and cold and bleak. This year I'll deal with it by knitting furiously and sleeping plenty. And maybe, finally, making some friends.

Christmas Sweets

from left to right:
peanut butter blossoms, swirled holiday snowball cookies, fantasy fudge, m&m shortbread, and sugar cookies

Merry Christmas!!

Strawberries!

[ raveled. ]

In about a day and a half, I made 6 pretty little strawberries. Such a quick, easy, sweet little pattern! I used some Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Organic Cotton, which I happened to have in red and green, that I knew I was never actually going to use, and I've still got tons of both colors left over. I'm not sure what to knit next...I'd like to go ahead and knit my stocking, just because I think I'll be really sick of Christmas this time next week, but I've also got a lovely skein of purple Malabrigo sock yarn coming in the mail tomorrow (for knitting Andrea's new pattern!). And then, of course, there are always more foods to knit...

Right now my kitchen is all topsy-turvy with butter, flour, and so much sugar. I don't know what possessed my mother to do it, but she's making fudge and four kinds of cookies in one afternoon!

Let It Snow Stocking (and presents too!)

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I finished Flavio's Christmas stocking this afternoon. These stockings are really fast and fun to knit! I've still got one more to make (mine), but I'm going to take a break and knit some little strawberries first.

This morning I went to the post office to pick up my Christmas package from Flavio. I tried to wait until next week to open it, but I'm just so impatient! He always gives me such perfect presents, and this time was no exception. He sent me Italy!

And my favorite: the sweetest little rabbit, made from recycled yarn. I named him Muji, after the store where Flavio got him.

I also got a really lovely pair of pearl earrings from Flavio's mother. I can't wait to wear them, especially since I recently lost one of my little pink pearl earrings.

Pretty Petit Fours

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As promised, today I bring you petit fours! This clever little pattern was written by Jennifer, from NuttyIrishmanKnits. Yay for local girls! It's a very quick knit...I made all four of these little cakes yesterday.

I don't have any children yet, but I hope that someday I do, and I love the idea of giving them knitted toys to play with. Especially things I've made myself. Besides being absolutely adorable, I know that these toys haven't been tainted with lead or other harmful substances. I've found some really cute patterns for knitted food on Ravelry, for everything from strawberries to ice cream cones to pizza!

O Tannenbaum Stocking

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Last night I finished a Christmas stocking for my mom. Well, sort of. I still want to make a fabric liner for it and strengthen the hanging loop by sewing a ribbon to it, but I don't have a sewing machine and am not so keen on hand-sewing. I figure after I knit the stockings for myself and Flavio, maybe I can ask my grandmother to sew the linings for all three.

This stocking, one of the latest designs from Ysolda Teague, was knit with Manos Del Uruguay (in Jungle) and Berroco Peruvia (in Nougat). I used the tree motif for this stocking, and I'm going to try to find a green/red/ivory paisley print for the fabric lining. There were a couple of techniques in this pattern that were new to me--the figure-eight cast on, Japanese short row heel, and I-cord bind off--but Ysolda writes her patterns so clearly, and tutorials for all of these techniques can be easily found online, and in the end this was a very quick & easy project.

I'm taking a little break before knitting the other two stockings because the large needles (US 10) are very awkward to me, after using tiny dpns for so long. I spent today knitting a pretty little set of petit fours, using Jennifer's great (free!) pattern. But more about those tomorrow...

Marshmallow Mitts

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After she fell in love with my Madeline Mitts, I decided to make a pair of Endpaper Mitts for my mom as a last-minute Christmas present. There are a couple of things you should know about me: 1) I'm terrible at knitting with a deadline, and 2) I'm terrible at knitting in pairs. I get distracted, burned out, bored, etc. And yet this is the third project in row that I've knitted a pair of something in a timely manner! I think part of it is that I'm just so happy to not be knitting little stuffed animals, and part of it is that two of those three projects were knitted for the two people I love the most in this world.

The colors of these mitts remind me of marshmallows floating in a steamy mug of hot cocoa, one of my favorite winter treats.

Next up, I'll be knitting Ysolda Teague's Last Minute Stockings, using all of that yummy woolly stuff I bought the other day!

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

I'm snowed in! Well, iced in, actually. My car got stuck in the road, so my mom was going to drive me to work in her truck, but the roads were so slick we decided not to attempt it. I could lose my job over this, because we're supposed to have perfect attendance in December, but right now I don't care. All I care about is being safe inside my warm house, drinking cocoa full of marshmallows, and working on my mom's Endpaper Mitts.

Have You Any Wool?

Berroco Peruvia (red, ivory, and blue) and Manos del Uruguay (green), wound into nests.

Last night while watching the first two Harry Potter movies, I wound up these four balls of wool with my nostepinne. Seriously folks, if you buy a lot of yarn in hanks but can't stand knitting from balls that roll around all over the place, consider buying a nostepinne. Personally, I love the handmade ones from Kari Welsh, but she's taking a break from making them right now and only has three left in her shop. Winding with a nostepinne takes longer than using a ballwinder & swift, but they're much cheaper and a heck of a lot easier to store. Plus, it's so tactile to wind yarn by hand...and what knitter doesn't love to touch their yarn?

Anyway, back to the yarn I bought yesterday. The red, ivory, and blue are all Berroco Peruvia, and the green is Manos del Uruguay. These are for Ysolda Teague's Last Minute Stockings. The red is for my stocking and the blue is for Flavio's. I wasn't really planning to knit a stocking for my mom, but I fell in love with that green Manos (one of the few hanks at Twist, which has stopped carrying Manos) and couldn't resist. The ivory is for the contrasting bits on all three stockings. I can't wait to knit these, but as I'm trying to concentrate on one project at a time these days, they'll have to wait until I finish the pair of Endpaper Mitts I'm knitting for my mom.

I've been a busy, busy knitter lately. It's nice to be knitting something other than toys and clothes for babies!

Snugglefeet

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I finished Flavio's socks around 6 o'clock this morning. I'm glad, too, because I start my Christmas work schedule today, and knitting is probably going to be kicked to the back burner for a while. (Well, I say this, but I'm getting ready to start another pair of Endpaper Mitts tomorrow and hope to finish them by Christmas.) With Lang Jawoll Superwash sock yarn in black, I cast on 60 sts on size 2 (US) dpns, and worked in 2x2 rib for 8 inches. I held light blue yarn and black reinforcement thread together for the heels and toes. The 2x2 rib continues over the top of the foot. Very simple socks, but I hope they keep his feet cozy all winter long.

Things I Do While I Knit

my new sock blockers from The Loopy Ewe

Today I got a set of sock blockers that I ordered from The Loopy Ewe. Yay!! Now I can block Flavio's socks (well, when I finish them). I love knitting things for him. I'm always thinking about him, of course, but even moreso when I'm knitting for him. I think about these socks keeping his feet warm while he's walking to the metro in the rain. I think about our future life together, knitting blankets for our home and toys for our babies. Yesterday I bought some Christmas-y fabrics to line the stockings I'm going to knit for our first Christmas together (next year).

Last night I watched a really wonderful movie while I was knitting: Ballet Shoes, based on the Noel Streatfeild novel of the same name. It's about three orphans growing up as sisters in the 1930s, each aspiring to do something great. It was a really lovely movie, and now I want to read the book. I've been really into children's literature lately...yesterday I bought The Tale of Despereaux, which I'm very excited to read after I finish Little Women. I think the movie looks so cute!

I've been on a real knitting kick lately. I'm sure it's the cold weather. Nothing warms me more than curling up in my big red chair with a little knitting project in my hands and a sweet little movie on the tube. Got any movie recommendations? Right now, I'm especially interested in film adaptations of children's literature and period dramas set in the late 18th- to early 20th-century (American or British).

Counting Blessings

A lot of unfortunate things have happened in the past couple months. Not just to me, of course, and really I suppose I haven't had the worst of it. Although I've lost two pets, I haven't lost any of the people I love, and I'm in good health and fortunate not to have felt the effects of the financial crisis. I'm always cursing my bad luck, but I rarely stop to think about what good luck I've had. I have a really wonderful family that loves and supports me. I'm in love with the most amazing man I've ever met, who is so perfect for me, it's like I dreamed him up myself. And recently, I was able to travel to one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and I had an incredible time while I was there.

The end of the year always makes me feel reflective, and right now I'm reading Little Women, which has made me reflect on my blessings. Last night I read the chapter "Meg Goes to Vanity Fair," in which Meg travels with a couple of rich friends, dressing up and attending parties. Although initially vain and envious of her friends' fine things, in the end she realizes that the more she has, the more she wants, and she'd rather be poor, content, and loved.

Sometimes I feel like I get lost in everything that's going on around me. The world moves so fast, everything has to be done right now, everybody's always wanting more. Lori Ann recently wrote a post about anti-multitasking, and it got me thinking about slowing down. Concentrating on one thing at a time. Putting all of my love and energy into the little details of a project before moving on to another one.

So love and contentment will be my pursuits for the next year, being thankful for my blessings instead of dwelling on my misfortunes. My hope is that this inner peace will be reflected in my outer behavior. I've wasted entirely too much time being moody and sullen this year.

Comments

I think I've fixed the comments on this blog, so they should work now. They're working for me, except when I choose 'OpenID' and type in my LiveJournal username. If this is the problem you've been having too, I've changed the comment settings to allow unregistered users to comment (as anonymous or with just their name). Try using this option to comment. If you see this post, please comment so I can test these settings to make sure they're working. Thank you!

And also, thank you for all of the sweet comments about my cat.

Madeline Mitts

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I finished my Endpaper Mitts yesterday, just in time to wear them home from work tonight, during our first snow of the season. I wasn't entirely happy with the way the colors came out, but they're so warm and fit so well that I really don't care anymore. Next up (after I finish Flavio's socks, of course) I want to knit Heath's Socks, a beautiful new pattern written by my friend Andrea. I think I want to try Malabrigo, but I don't know much about it. Does anybody recommend/not recommend it?

P.S. I've named my mitts after my cat, Madeline, who was killed by my neighbor's dogs today. I'd had her for 12 years, half my life, and she loved to lay in my lap while I knitted. Whenever the world felt like it was falling apart around me, she was there for cuddles and comfort.

There's Always Room for Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I've had a really wonderful holiday weekend. Although I never got around to baking cookies, I have almost finished my second Endpaper Mitt, and I also finished one of Flavio's socks. I even did some Christmas shopping too!

My grandparents came over for dinner this afternoon. We had turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, cornbread stuffing, hot rolls, cranberry sauce, a couple of relish trays, and two pies (dutch apple and pumpkin dream). I think my mom makes the very best pie crust on earth...so light and flaky, it just melts in your mouth.

I set up the Christmas tree around 3AM. I couldn't find my ornament hooks anywhere, so several ornaments have yet to be hung. It's pretty so far, though.

Now I'm watching a House marathon and finishing up my Endpaper Mitts!

New Oven Day!

my mom peeking into the new oven!
merry christmas to us!

Our new oven was installed this morning. It's really beautiful and shiny, but it doesn't make the creak-and-bang sounds like the old one, and I know it's going to take me a while to adjust to buttons instead of knobs. Still...it's really lovely. We're breaking it in right now with a mushroom pizza, something we've been desperately missing for the past six weeks. I'm also eager to try out the puzzle-shaped cookie cutters I bought at Muji on my last day in Milan, along with a lot of other baked yumminess.

Other news:

• I had a really bad day yesterday. And the exclamation point at the end of it was being pulled over by an officer from the sheriff's department, not fifty feet from my house at 1 AM. I'd never been pulled over before, and I knew I hadn't been speeding and had used my turn signal every time, so I really didn't know what was going on. Anyway, I guess the light above my license plate was burned out, and the guy was really nice about the whole thing, and I didn't get a ticket. Still, it was extremely frustrating (and a little humiliating) to be pulled over right in front of my neighbor's house, when all I wanted was to just get home.
• I've been told by a couple of people that they're having trouble commenting on my blog. I don't know if this is a general Blogger glitch, or if it's an issue with my blog in particular. Is anyone else having trouble sending and/or receiving comments?
• Be my Twitter friend!
  

Sneak Peek

one down, one to go!
p.s. sorry about the bluriness...it's really hard to take a picture of your own arm!

I just finished the first in my pair of Endpaper Mitts. I thought the colors in the Noro would change more frequently, and at first I was disappointed because I was halfway through the thumb increases by the time I got something other than pinky-purple, but actually I really like the way this turned out. I'm not even going to try to match the other mitt's striping pattern to this one, so the two will be different colors. I think it'll be fun that way, right? Anyway, I'm really hoping to get the other one done by the end of my 3-day Thanksgiving "weekend" (Tue/Wed/Thu), but I'm also hoping to finish one of Flavio's socks, our oven will be installed Tuesday morning (and I've been going through baked goods withdrawl), and I've got a really thick book about fiancé & marriage visas to read. So we'll see what happens.

What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger

Sorry for my lack of blogging this past week. At first, I was having some trouble adjusting to being back in the US. I know, it sounds crazy since I was only gone for a week, but it seems to have been a pretty critical week in the States! Halloween, the election, and the start of the Christmas season (is it just me, or does this seem to start earlier every year?). This past week has also been plagued by several catastrophes, large and small. They're pretty personal, so I won't go into detail here, but the phrase, "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger," is pretty fitting, particularly when applied to my relationship with Flavio. I'm so eager for us to start our life together...I'm hoping that once we're living together, all of the chaos will end.

But I don't want to give you the impression that everything has been bad since I've been back! Actually, day-to-day life has been pretty good:

• We bought a new oven!! It should (hopefully) be installed sometime later this week, but most definitely before Thanksgiving.
• I finally got a new phone. I'm not in love with it, and unfortunately I had to get a new SIM card, so I don't have any of my pictures of Max or Flavio, but at least I can make phone calls now! :D
• Flavio & I have decided where we want to live when he moves here in April. I've been having fun thinking about furniture arrangements and daydreaming about going for sunset walks on the hiking trails.
• Driving home from work every night, my hands are always freezing. I've been shopping around for some fingerless gloves/mitts (I don't like gloves because I can't get a good grip on the steering wheel), but I didn't like any that I found. So I'm making my own! Last night I ordered some Louet Gems Fingering in charcoal and Noro Silk Garden Sock in S258 to make Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts. This will be my first time using Noro...I've heard a lot of negative things about Noro sock yarn (and I've felt it myself at Twist...it's awfully scratchy), but I'm hoping that the silk blend will be a little better.

With Christmas approaching, I won't be blogging much over the next six weeks. But in January, I'll be back with lots of things to share!

Italia è per gli innamorati!

Lucky for you, I do kiss and tell! Italy was incredible. I've been home for about 36 hours, and I miss Italy already. Milan was a madhouse, but by the end of my trip I was getting used to the rain and the crazy traffic and the bumpy metro and the vendors shoving umbrellas in my face at every corner. These are easy things to deal with when you get to have a cream-filled brioche & espresso for breakfast and everywhere you look you see beautiful plants & flowers spilling over balconies and you walk past a gelaterie every 10 or 20 meters. As if that weren't enough, I also met a lot of really wonderful people.

Flavio's village, Vercelli, was really lovely. His family was so sweet and welcoming. We visited a street fair and Sant'Andrea (a 13th-century church in the city's center) and I had my first Italian gelato.

Then it was on to Venice! The train ride was cozy, and I got to see the sun rise over the hills. Venice was amazing. I ate four ice cream cones and we stayed at a beautiful bed & breakfast and we went to Murano and, oh, I can't even begin to tell you everything. Here are some pictures, but just believe me when I say that they don't do the city justice. If you ever have the opportunity to go to Venice, do it! I can't wait to go back someday.

Of course these aren't all of the photos I took during my trip! Although I took 300 photos, my computer is suffering from a severe memory drought, and I only managed to get about 56 photos transferred from my camera. See the rest of the photos I managed to upload here.

Arrivederci!

My dad is picking me up to drive me to the airport in 4 and a half hours--shockingly soon! I'm trying to finish up some last-minute things...knitting the last ear of the last stuffed toy, doing a small load of laundry, packing up toiletries, writing down important information, searching through the house for any little things I desperately need but will probably forget, making sure my head is still attached, etc. My stomach has been in absolute knots for the past several days. I'm excited, of course, but I'm nervous about traveling. Nothing bad ever happens to me when I travel--my luggage has never gotten lost, I've never missed a flight or had one canceled (or even delayed), I've obviously never been in any sort of crash or anything like that. But I'm still a nervous nellie about traveling abroad by myself. One thing I'm doing to combat this is by not sleeping tonight--and I'm going to try really hard not to sleep during my flight from here to Atlanta--because I want to be able to sleep through most of my 9-hour flight to Milan. Besides making the flight pass quickly for me, this will also help to reduce my sense of jet-lag, since I'll be arriving in Milan on Wednesday morning.

In spite of my nervous complaining, I truly am looking forward to this trip. It's my first real vacation in over six years! I never dreamed that I'd actually be going to Italy for a whole week, much less to meet my future in-laws. I feel so fortunate to be taking this trip, and I can't wait to share lots of pictures and stories with you when I get back. Arrivederci!!

Six Days

That's how much time I have left until my trip. It's not much, and I still have a ton of things to do before I leave...and yet I'm not really stressed out. Actually, I'm really excited. I need to get away from this place for a little while. I haven't been on a vacation in more than 6 years! And right now, especially, I feel the need to escape from my life. I keep seeing Max out of the corner of my eye, keep expecting him to be sleeping in his little bed when I wake up in the morning, keep expecting him to greet me at the door every time I come home.

I really love the little Willow Tree memory box I got for Max's collar, and I decided to get one for all of the little treasures I've been collecting with Flavio. Unfortunately, the first store I went to had Willow Tree figurines but none of the boxes, and the second store I went to didn't have the box I'd originally wanted. I didn't feel like driving to a third store to find exactly what I wanted, so I spent a little more money on one that was a little bit bigger. And, well, I'm really glad that I got this one because the few things I've collected so far have practically filled the box.

Also: a few days ago, I got a coupon from Helzberg in the mail. It was for a free pair of pink pearl earrings, no strings attached! I picked them up today, and they're really lovely.

I also bought a Hungarian phrasebook at Borders because Flavio & I are thinking about taking a little trip to Budapest, hopefully sometime next year. I've seen some pictures from other people's recent trips, and I've heard a lot of really good things about it (mostly that it's beautiful and cheaper than Vienna, which--along with Paris and St. Petersburg--is one of my dream cities to visit).

A Happier Post

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (in the Sept. '08 limited edition Gone Fishin' colorway), wound into a 'nest' with my tropical passionwood nostepinne

Yesterday I received this beautiful nostepinne (nosty, for short) in the mail. I purchased it on Etsy from Kari Welsh, a lady in Michigan who hand-turns them on a lathe. She makes them in all sorts of beautiful colors, but this tropical passionwood nosty really caught my eye. A nostepinne is an old Scandinavian tool used to wind yarn into center-pull balls. This was my first attempt, and although my ball turned out more egg-shaped, it was really very easy and fun.

P.S. Of course I'm not over Max's death, but I've got to let him go. I can't wallow in sadness the way I have the past couple of days. It's not healthy, and it's not going to bring him back.

Surrender

a memory box (called 'Hug') that I bought for Max's collar

Max passed away today. He had a transfusion last night, and the vet called this morning to ask if she could prescribe a medicine called ciclosporin. At first I agreed to a two-week trial, despite the medication's hefty price. A few hours later, I went to see him, and he didn't seem any better than he was before the transfusion. My mom and I discussed it with the vet, and we learned that he would've had to be on ciclosporin for at least six months...which would've cost roughly $1600, on top of his prednisone and office visits. And there would be no guarantee that any of this would work--in fact, one of the adverse effects of ciclosporin is that it can increase cell destruction. The vet said he would probably only live another four to six years, and during that time would probably have several relapses. That would be the best case scenario.

He looked so sad and sleepy and scared. I just couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't let him suffer through a two-week trial of a medicine that I knew I couldn't afford to keep him on for six months. Knowing that the outcome would almost certainly be death, I couldn't justify letting him hang on just so I could have more time with him. Thankfully, he went very peacefully. He just laid his head down and went to sleep.

"Max is a star now.
You can look at him forever."
-message from Flavio

Downhill...

Max (on Tuesday), snuggled up with William (who has been very concerned about Max)

Max is getting worse. I feel so completely helpless because I don't know how he got sick, and there's really nothing I can do for him now. It's hard to anticipate his needs, like when he's thirsty or when he needs to potty, because he's too tired to alert me about these things. He hasn't made a single sound since Monday, and even then it was just a low growl to get the other animals to leave him alone. I had made an appointment to have his cell count rechecked on Friday, but today we rescheduled it for Thursday. I'm scared that if we wait until Friday, it could be too late.

I just don't know how to deal with this right now. I know maybe some people think it's silly to get so worked up about a dog, but he isn't just a dog to me. I love him so much. I don't want him to suffer, but I'm not ready to let him go yet. He's only 6 years old, and I've only had two years with him. It amazes me how he could deteriorate so quickly. Just last week he was running around the backyard, giving me hugs, begging for a bite of whatever anybody was eating. I have had no time to deal with this, to process what's happening to him. And nobody can tell me why this happened, which is so frustrating. If he gets better, how do I keep this from happening again? How does someone just suddenly get an autoimmune disease? How does someone go from totally fine to practically dead in just a matter of days?

[update]: We just got back from the vet, and as I suspected, he's worse. His red count has dropped a little bit, as well as his protein levels. Also, his temperature is below normal and he's showing some jaundice in his ears and gums. We don't have very many options at this point, so he's having a blood transfusion. Best case scenario, he starts getting better and the red cell destruction stops. Worst case scenario, the transfusion could actually speed up the process of cell destruction, and he'll die. It could be a day or it could be a week before we know what's going to happen. It's hard to be optimistic at this point.

Please Please Please

Please pray (or meditate or make wishes or whatever) for my dog, Max. For the past several days, he's been very lethargic, won't eat much more than dirt, and has been losing weight as a consequence. Today we took him to the vet, thinking that this whole thing had gone on a little too long to be a simple tummy ache. It turns out he's severely anemic...his gums are practically white! Based on a simple test, they think his red blood cell percentage is only about 10%--it should be closer to 35%. If it drops much more, his brain and heart won't be receiving enough oxygen, and he could die. We won't know until the morning what his actual cell count is (and whether or not he'll need a blood transfusion). Until then, he's on a steroid and an antibiotic (the vet thinks it's probably an auto-immune disease), and I'm freaking out that the slightest stress will kill him.

So please, keep him in your thoughts tonight. <3

[update]: The vet called a few minutes ago, and it looks like it's probably auto-immune. His white cells are a little elevated, his red cells are at 10.8%, and his platelets are normal. He seems a little bit perkier since he's been on the steroids though, and he hasn't had any collapses or fainting spells--both good signs. He's got another appointment on Friday morning to check his cell count again. She said we need to be pretty aggressive with this over the next several days, to get his red count up, but for now she seemed optimistic since he doesn't appear to be getting worse.

Sky & Bud

[ raveled: sky. ] and [ raveled: bud. ]

A couples months ago, I finished knitting an elephant for the newborn son of one of my sweetheart's colleagues. Then, I made an elephant and a bunny for my friend Sara's twins (who, I'm happy to report, were born healthy one week ago today). After Flavio showed the pictures of the toys to his colleague, she also asked for a bunny for her son, and then another colleague asked for an elephant and a bunny for her son too. I finished these two rabbits, Sky and Bud, a few weeks ago. I was planning to send all of the toys back to Italy with Flavio, but I had been so busy getting ready for him to come that I was unable to finish the second elephant. I also hadn't taken pictures of any of the toys. Well, I still haven't quite finished Sunny (the elephant), but I did manage to take some pictures of Sky & Bud this afternoon.

This fort reminds me a lot of the one my brother & I used to make as kids. We had an old quilt that we would throw over the dining room table and hide under. It was fabulous. My senior year of college, I made a fort in my dorm room using a bedsheet that I thumbtacked to the wall. Who doesn't love a good fort?

Moratorium on Cake

my home's General Electric 1950s Automatic Oven (it's mustard yellow)

My poor old oven is on the fritz. It's probably just the heating element, which we've been told is pretty simple and inexpensive to replace. I'm hoping that we don't need to replace the whole oven, and not just because that's something we can't afford. As much as I complain about the oven sometimes (the calibration is way off, things go from 'golden' to 'black' in the blink of an eye, the light hasn't worked in years, etc.), I love the fact that it's original to the house! Other than the refrigerator and microwave, just about everything in the kitchen is 20+ years old. A new oven would look so strange and out-of-place. Also, I don't know how to bake in another oven!

A few months ago, my grandmother asked me to think of my favorite sounds. And one of them is the sound my oven makes when it's opened & closed. It's not a pretty sound...kind of a grating metal-on-metal, with a bit of a bang when it shuts. It reminds me of my childhood, coming home after school as my mom's pulling chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. Or any Thanksgiving. Or cinnamon rolls on a Sunday morning. I don't think I'm quite ready to let go of these memories yet.

In Digestion

Clockwise, from the top: extra-sharp cheddar cheese, honey crisp apple, St. Dalfour organic peppermint tea, roasted pumpkin seeds, and sweet yeast diamond roll.

These are the things that have made up a large part of my diet recently. Fall always puts me in a bit of a rustic mood. Unfortunately, the pumpkin seeds are store-bought...I haven't gotten around to roasting my own yet. The sweet yeast roll is also from the store. I'd like to make my own at home, but I'm having trouble finding a recipe for them. Today I bought a jar of St. Dalfour black cherry fruit spread, so I'm planning to make some sort of breakfast pastry during my weekend. I can't recommend St. Dalfour highly enough...it's the best peppermint tea I've ever had, and their preserves are fruity and sweet (despite containing zero added sugar).

What things do you like to eat when the weather turns cool?

Sogni D'Oro

This is a snapshot of my nightstand. I just finished reading Blackbird House last night when I got home from work. It was a wonderful story collection about the generations of inhabitants of a little farm on Cape Cod. There are beautiful themes running through all of the stories...sorrow, love as an anchor, ghosts. I'm looking forward to reading Alice Hoffman's other books (like The Ice Queen, a grown-up fairy tale about lightning strike survivors, which I'm starting tonight).

Flavio started reading Pinocchio to me when he was here. I got it on clearance when my local B&N was moving to another location, but unfortunately it's one of those abridged versions for children. When I'm in Italy (26 days!!), I plan to buy it in the original Italian. I'm hoping it will help me learn the language. Or it may just join my small collection of books in languages I can't read.

I bought Grimm's Fairy Tales when Flavio was here. It's not the complete collection (which I have in paperback, packed away somewhere in the garage), but it had such a pretty cover and one of those lovely little attached ribbon bookmarks. I'm a total sucker for those.

The lavender vanilla pillow mist from Bath & Body Works is one of my new favorite things. It makes my sheets smell so soft and sweet, like a baby. Behind that is the egyptian cotton scented candle I bought with Flavio back in March (he has one too, which he keeps in an espresso cup). The nasal decongestant has been my sweet relief each morning this week, as I've been waking up completely unable to breathe through my nose.

This afternoon I ordered some books from Amazon. As much as I love to buy them from a bookstore, they're so expensive! And they don't always have the books I'm looking for. Here are the books I've got coming:

• Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire (a retelling of Snow White...I will probably save this for the plane ride to/from Italy)
• Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (the unabridged English translation)
• The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (I really loved Garden Spells but didn't know until today that she'd come out with a new book back in May!)
• Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman (Blackbird House was so good, and I love this movie, so I think I'm really going to enjoy this book)
  

A Little Bit More Than So Much

There's so much to say, I don't know where to begin...

I thought it would be easier to say goodbye this time because I know that I'll see him again in 4 weeks. But actually, it turned out to be much harder. I've grown so much more attached to him--fallen so much deeper in love with him--than I was 7 months ago. I think one of us will have to move within the next year. I think it will probably be me. Which really just puts more pressure on this trip of mine to Italy next month...as if there could be any more pressure on it!

The past week went by way too quickly. We had so much fun together...cooking and baking and kissing and laughing and reading stories and watching movies and walking around the city. I wish I could pick out my favorite moment, but it's impossible. Was it our tickle war? Was it when the waitress brought us juice in wine goblets and told us we were king & queen for the day? Was it listening to him do funny voices while he read Pinocchio to me? Was it him spinning me in the kitchen while we danced to a mixed CD full of silly love songs, like Dean Martin's "That's Amore"? I don't know...there are too many beautiful memories to choose from. It probably wasn't being swarmed by mosquitoes at the corn maze, although the sunset that night was one of the loveliest I've ever seen. I don't think it was my sister teasing us about holding hands while walking down a flight of stairs, but it might have been walking around the oldest part of the city together while the sun was coming up that morning. When we're together, the smallest things become these beautiful, magical moments that I know I'll treasure forever.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

-"Romeo and Juliet"-

Today's the Day

I've been waiting six and a half very long months, and today I finally get to see my sweetheart again. Being in a long-distance relationship is probably the hardest thing I've ever done. Of course trust is important in all meaningful relationships, but I think it's especially vital to a long-distance one. Our current arrangement could never work if we didn't have that implicit faith in each other. Anyway, his plane touches down in about 3 hours, and I've been awake for about 28 hours now. There have been so many last-minute things to do! Although truthfully, most of them wouldn't have been "last-minute" if I hadn't put them off until the last minute. I'm just hoping, now that I'm almost done with everything I needed to do, that I don't fall asleep and forget to pick him up. That would be terrible!

So I won't be blogging for a while. I'd love to say that the minute he goes back to Italy, I'll blog about the week and post a billion pictures, but I'll probably be an emotional wreck and take a nap. And I have to work that night. So it could be a couple weeks before I put up a real post. Until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful last week of September!

A Note About Safety

This is for everyone, but especially for the ladies...

First, some background information: I work at the post office. Because it's a federal building, even the parking lot is considered federal property and it's considered trespassing to drive through the lot if you're not an employee. The parking lot is fenced, and there are signs at the gates (which are always open, because we've got people working in the building 24/7). Also, the parking lot has slanted spaces, and we have a rule against pulling through spaces. I have a certain row that I always park in, and on days when we have a lot of mail, I might have to park close to the end of the row (pretty far away from the building).

Well, yesterday was one of those busy days, and when I turned down my row, it was pretty full. There was an old Isuzu SUV pulled through a space, and there was an empty space to the left of the vehicle (with another SUV parked on the other side of that space), and several empty spaces to the right of the vehicle. I wasn't really sure I had the mad parking skillz to park between two SUVs, so I decided to park on the right side of the Isuzu. I noticed that there was someone sitting inside the Isuzu, but I didn't really think anything of it because it's not unusual for people to sit in their cars talking on the phone before they go inside to clock in. So I went about my normal parking routine: turning off my a/c, shutting off the car, putting my keys away, etc. I happened to glance over at the guy in the Isuzu to see if it was anybody I recognized, and he was staring me straight in the eye. It made me feel very uncomfortable. I started to analyze the situation I was in: parked far away from the building, my driver's side right next to his driver's side, although there were a lot of cars in the lot there weren't any people...and this guy was staring at me with this creepy little half-smile on his face. So I turned my car back on and got the heck out of there. I found a space in my row that was very close to the building, and I hurried into the building to tell a supervisor. After she confronted him, he said he was looking for the gun show, and she said he appeared to be intoxicated. Personally I think he was making it up, but I guess I'll never know. I do know that in that situation, I felt very uncomfortable, and I think I made the right decision by following my instincts.

A few weeks ago, my stepmom gave me a copy of The Gift of Fear, by Gavin De Becker. At the time, I thought it was silly...I thought reading a book like that would just make me paranoid and more afraid and suspicious. Although I haven't read the book yet, I've flipped through it enough to get the basic message: follow your instincts. I don't know what that man's intentions were yesterday, but I know that I could have been the victim of a violent crime if I hadn't followed those instincts yesterday, if I hadn't been aware of my surroundings. So please, please, please follow your instincts. Be aware of your surroundings, especially if you're alone or in an unfamiliar place. It only takes a few seconds to look around and evaluate a situation, but it could save your life. If something seems 'wrong' or gives you a bad gut feeling, just go with it. Don't worry about seeming paranoid or prejudiced. The latter is especially hard for me...I feel guilty rolling up my windows or checking to make sure my doors are locked when I see someone of another race walking by my car. But it's never just because of their race...it's because of how they're dressed or how they're walking or because they're carrying a baseball bat or walking the streets at 2am. And as guilty as I feel about it, I'd rather be a little bit prejudiced than a whole lot dead. (By the way, the prejudice thing doesn't apply to yesterday...the man was a member of my own race, and I do have a rough idea of the statistics regarding violent crimes against women perpetrated by white men...I'm probably more suspicious of them than anybody else.)

Work In Progress

That phrase is pretty fitting for my life these days--I seem to be in the middle of so many things, but nothing is ever done. Unfortunately, most of these projects have a common end date, September 23rd. Otherwise known as ten days from now. Crap.

In ten days, my sweetheart will be here. Between now and then, I need to do three months worth of laundry, organize all of my craft stuff (well, I don't really have time to organize anything...I just need to remove all of my fiber piles from the living room), get Max groomed, finish knitting two bunnies and an elephant, and make a dinner reservation for 17 people.

But in my spare time, I can't help flipping through my two new sock knitting books, 2-At-A-Time Socks and Sensational Knitted Socks, and the October issue of Country Living, plus working on a pair of socks for myself, my Moon River Socks (using Lisa Stichweh's Pillars pattern and Dream In Color Smooshy in Pansy Golightly):

Coming Attractions

It's only the first week of September, but autumn is already starting to peak through. Typically we're plagued with an indian summer swelter through the middle of the month, but so far September has been blissfully cool. There are several little orange leaves peppering the driveway and (still green) yard. Starbucks has the pumpkin spice latte back on the menu. And, perhaps a final farewell to my childhood summers, we've had our swimming pool removed. There's a big crater in the backyard now, which the dogs are having a blast with.

Anyway, I'm thankful for autumn's early appearance, although I hope it's not the harbinger of an early winter. Last winter was brutal, and I'm hoping for a more mild one this year.