So, when should I go to a doctor?

I'm heading out on my real vacation tomorrow morning.  A week at the cottage.  I would be all packed and ready to rool, but at some point this afternoon, my ankle started to swell.   

There are enough hits on my blog for "cankles" that I don't need to post the close up picture of my ankle. This photo was taken around 6:30pm. It's a little more ugly now. (no streaking, no pain, just tight skin)

It's elevated, it's iced and it's resting and it's freaking me out. If it's bigger in the morning, I'm going to the doctor's office.

If it's better, I'm going to finish up my packing with all the yarn I need for a week at the cottage. 

I Was Going To Blog About Knitting

And I was going to blog about painting our bedroom.

I even thought about blogging my new haircut...

But this is much more interesting, don't 'cha think?

On my way home tonight, less than a kilometre from my office, I caught my handlebars on the gate by a school.

I fell hard. Bouncing my helmet off the ground.

I assessed the damage and got up slowly. A little girl went by on her bike and asked:

"Are you ok?"

I said, "Yes, but I hurt myself a little."

She said, "Oh." and biked away.

I picked up my bike and saw my handlebar mirror on the ground. The metal was twisted. That's when I saw my leg.

Ick. My cellphone was dead so I had no choice but to bike home. Andrew was outside with the lawnmower, talking to a friend. They were both pretty horrified.

I went inside to get cleaned up and Andrew came in to help, getting me an ice pack and mixing up some saline to rinse my leg.

I'm starting to stiffen up already, and the road rash on my arm is pretty nasty, but I think I'll be ok.

But I'm really glad that I wear a bike helmet. And gloves.

I think I'll go have a lie down now.

BAT / KAT

Normally, I don't join things... I don't do "alongs" because I can never count on my schedule or my stick-to-it-iveness to get a project finished on time... and who needs to add more guilt to their life??

When Claudia announced a new project on her blog, I realized that, for once, it's an "along" I can see myself "alonging" with.

Claudia's project?

The Bicycling As Transportation - Knitters Alternatively Transporting ("BAT/KAT") project.

To quote Claudia:

"The goal of this project is to replace a car trip with a bicycle trip/walking/non-car trip at least once per week, briefly 'fessing up to our progress every Monday morning. The only rule is that the bicycle/walk/non-car trip must truly be a replacement for an errand trip that would otherwise have been done in the car. Recreational trips are excluded, except if an errand done while on a recreational trip replaces a car trip."

Now that the weather is getting nicer, I'm back biking to work. I think I started around April 7th? And since the only requirement to join is that I chose to take my bike instead of the car, then I'm soooo in!

Since I'm a total geek, I'm going to track my kilometres for my biking season. Each trip to work is 3.59km for me ("map my run" works for bikers too!), so already this spring, I've biked over 75 km. That's 21 trips to and from work, and doesn't include my two trips to the library.

Wheeeeee!

The only problem with starting this week is that I'll be out of the office at meetings for most of next week. Also, not good for BAT/KAT, my SIL and BIL are away for the next week so we've borrowed my BIL's truck as we need to run some "truck errands" as we're spring cleaning the basement. Doh!

Oh well, I'll just have to make up for it with more bike errands.

Does anyone want to BAT/KAT with me?

For a Good Time...

Vicki at Knitorious said that in the bathroom at her LYS someone had written

For a good time call 1-877-SOS-KNIT.

I called yesterday afternoon... and spent a great deal of time snickering at my desk. Heh heh... That woman is a genius. A genius, I say!

Who needs the Butterball helpline during the holidays? It's not the turkey I'm worried about at Christmas, it's whether or not I've managed to knit all the gifts. (Besides, I think I might already know the secret of the turkey - It's all in the rub and the basting. Do both liberally.)

I will be asking friends and family alike to call this helpline so that they understand what is going on with me from the beginning of October to December 25 (and perhaps, after that as well).

For more of a good time, please visit our new site for Stitch and Bitch in HRM. (Martha - I've got to talk to you about this! Don't let me forget.)

Moe and I thought it would be a great way to advertise for SnB groups in the area, to organize our gatherings, and perhaps to inform others of exciting things in the yarn world. 'cause we all know that yarn is exciting, right? Right.

Last topic for discussion, does anyone know a good way to cure insomnia? I haven't been able to get to sleep at night lately. I think it is the lack of cycling this last couple of weeks. I've had a few courses to go to and other things going on (like buckets of rain falling from the sky) and today is the first day since, um, last Thursday that I've biked to work. I think I just need to start reading in bed again. That usually helps. Maybe a cup of Chamomile tea.

Uncle K? My bike is still messed up. Do you think if I put the grip shift on 7 and then tightened the cable that I would be doing the right thing? It's very loose, so when I shift it up to 1, it's only moving the chain to the 4th, uh, thingy-dingy. What the heck is that called - a sprocket?

Oh Heavenly Day

I just spent today working at my favourite LYS! I love working there. I was discussing this with Sheryl, the lovely owner (hi Sheryl - how's it going? cut out coffee yet? heh heh)... when we were sorting out some scheduling over the phone. I was hoping to do some more shifts this fall, but it looks like my "real job" schedule is really getting in the way of my yarn store hours. I told Sheryl that I was quite relieved she had asked me to work there, because if I just hung around there for the amount of time that I would like really like to spend there... well, it would be unseemly. And I would probably lose my regular job.

I didn't buy any yarn today, but I did set some aside that I want to pick up on Monday. *ahem* She's got Rowan All Seasons Cotton on for 70% off. Leaving that yarn there would be like leaving kittens at the side of the road. Yeah, you heard me. I'm hard core. I'm comparing abandoned kittens to variegated yarn on sale. Hey, I have my reasons for stocking up: my cousin's wife is having TWINS! Those babies are getting matching little blankies! Or sweaters... I'm undecided.

She also has Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora on sale for 50% off. How can she do this to me when I'm on a yarn buying hiatus (baby blankets excluded)? If I didn't love her so much, I would think that she's just trying to kill me with sales (love ya, Sheryl... set some of that aside for me too... those babies will need sweaters... DAMMIT!).

Ok, enough of the advertising (heh heh).

Let's move on... Remember the whining about the digital camera? No? Suffer any short term memory loss? Please see the last post. (Can you tell I've got that demon-sugar coursing through my veins?)

Well, my usual camera is on the fritz (and if my "darling" husband ever remembers to bring it home, we'll be taking to be repaired)... so I'm sadly without my usual crappy electronic resources. I've been feeling horrible about this and the thought of a photoless blog was keeping me awake at night, so I... ?

What? oh, ok, no more explaining. Here are the photos. You can probably guess where I found a camera...

This is my office! Not my home office, my work office (my home office is awful and will never be pictured on this blog until such time as: I win a million dollars in the lottery and I outfit this hole with nicer furniture).

The photo of Minou on the computer screen is the one of her in her Monty Python outfit.

You'll see I've entitled this one "Proof". That's for those of you who know me as a couch potato and don't believe I would be biking to work. I've been told by my coworker that I could get commute-friendly tires, but I told him that I do some "off-roading" on my way to work. Hee hee.

These are my cankle-socks. Bwah ha ha ha ha ha... They are the basic cabled socks from Brainylady. I love how they are turning out. Even though the yarn is variegated, and doesn't show the cable as well as it would with a plain yarn, I like them. It makes the cables a little hidden surprise (That's what I'm telling myself anyway. Then I cry a little bit b/c I have a ball of solid orange Opal in my stash.)

Quick. Look at this:

Do you see it? Do you see how the purple is pooling? Doh. Forget it. Let the cables dazzle you. Martha? Will you show me how to do short row heels?

Alright. Let's look at something I bet that none of you knew I was working on. Well, except Jen. But we were both tipsy when I showed her and now I bet she's forgotten.

I know, I know. I'm behind by a year. It's Carla from Rowan's "It's a Tape Thing". I love how fast knits up. See how there is an entire piece that's already finished? Yup. I did that in a day! It's so easy! Last baby came out sideways, didn't even scream! (sorry, is that offensive? Andrew is forever doing that little skit and I can't even remember where he got it.)

Crap. I just used all of my uploads for this month on Flickr. I was going to upload the shawl that Martha (fellow Tangled Skeins employee) made. It's amazing. I think it is the leaf shawl from FiberTrends. Martha says she's only been knitting since January, but I think she's pulling our legs. She's such an amazing knitter. Are you blushing, Mrs. T? She's read so much about knitting that she's like a walking encyclopedia! Honest! it's great. Ok, so it's possible that she's telling the truth about when she started knitting, but if so:
a. what do her amazing talents say about the rest of us slackers?
b. is it possible that she is channelling the spirit of some master knitter?
c. should I quit my job and start knitting full time?

Well, you'll all just have to wait until September for me to upload the photo of her shawl. Believe me, it's worth the wait.

In Which I Discover That I May Not Be A Complete Wimp After All

I caved and bought the extra ball of yarn after work today. Since I've been biking to work this week, I had to get from the office to the yarn store in under 1/2 an hour. It's only about 6 km. Not too big a deal. I zipped home, ditched the extra weight of my work stuff, and then rode down the hill. I got there on time, chatted with M, bought the yarn and then proceeded home.

I would like to announce, for posterity, that I rode home, without stopping. For those of you who know where I live, Ahem and who also know where the yarn store is, then you will know that this was no small feat. I rode up PINE STREET WITHOUT STOPPING! Pine Street is the steepest hill in the neighbourhood. Going down it on a bike is a blast - it makes my toes tingle like they do when I'm standing near the edge of a cliff. Riding UP it on your bike? Well, I'm pretty sure that I am invincible at this point. And although I'm sure that one quick trip over the bike path on the bridge will prove me wrong, I am going to enjoy this delusion for a bit.

You may now applaud. (But please, don't look at my arse while I'm riding. I'm far from being Twiggy at this point.)

*Should I mention that I was huffing and puffing so loudly when I got to the top that I was sure someone would call 911 thinking that the Big Bad Wolf or some sort of pervert was outside of their house? Nah...*

Reminder: Halifax Stitch and Bitch is at 7:30pm tomorrow night at Uncommon Grounds - 1030 South Park Street. We changed the time b/c 7pm made it too hard for me to procrastinate between work and knitting.

Anyone who would like to attend and is having a hard time getting there due to the bus routes, etc, please let me know and we will do our best to arrange something. Perhaps we could arrange a "pick up" on Spring Garden Road?

Now, please excuse me. I need to go knit that bolero into submission.

First, I Would Like to Thank...

Rachael for posting the link to my blog on hers.
and I would like to thank all the people who stopped by yesterday. For those of you who said hello, well, thanks. All your little notes brightened my day. I feel like a real blogger now. People I don't know stopped in AND FELT COMPELLED TO COMMENT. Wow.

Claudia (is it this Claudia? I've got to get that whole comment thing worked out so people can leave their URLs) mentioned that she would like a link to the band.

Here is the band's website. It's in hard shape and needs work.

Here is their record lable. You can order an album from here.

WARNING: They do not do rock and roll. They play what has been described as Orchestral Pop. Their latest album is called "The Night and I Are Still So Young". My hubby wrote "Filtered Light" and "Silver Crown" on that album. He wasn't in a good writing mood that year. Yes, I'm thanked in the liner notes... in 3 of their four albums.

Also, as I am drunk with the power of having had an audience yesterday, here is a link to another tutorial for life skills. This one is written by my friend's Chihuahua.

Must go. I'm heading to MEC to spend $$$ on gear for my bicycle! Woo hoo. Saddle bags!