He hasn't been traveling

much at all today, other than to the office and back. I'm not feeding him weeds for dinner either. (Not that I have any clue why anyone would think that looked like weeds, or even what is wrong with weeds, if by "weeds" someone means salad.) I am feeding him something very fitting for a snow day.

 

Apparently Oribel missed him while he was at work today. She parked herself on top of my computer when he sat down at it to check some stuff, and then when he moved to the table,
she followed him right over to the top of his newspaper.

 

Because really, it is all about paying attention to her.

This was not the post I planned on

returning from the blogging hiatus with, but it is the one we all get anyway. I had planned on telling you all about our trip to Portland in May for DTY's college graduation, catching you up on my Project Spectrum doings, telling you about all the knitting I have been doing, sharing news about my trip to Milwaukee when friends that "lived in my computer" became "real", as well as a trip report of a family vacation to Washington, DC, this past week. Other than that brief "what I would have said" bit, I am not really here today to talk about any of that stuff.

 

Well, I guess in a way I will mention DC a wee bit more since in a way it leads into the real subject of this return posting. Last Wednesday Hubband, DTE, and I all got on a plane together, then changed planes together, and then landed in Washington, DC, where DTY met us via different plane routes. We all had a several days of fun and activities together, and then headed in three separate directions (all of that would be the previously planned report) on Saturday afternoon.

 

DTE and I flew back to our starting point together, where we were greeted by a cat who seemed fine with our return, and a dog who was, as always, very happy to have most of her pack back where they belong. About three hours after we got home from the airport, Sadie started fussing at the two of us, pacing, and wanting in and out. We figured fairly quickly that she was not OK and needed to to go to the Emergency Veterinary Clinic. Shortly after getting her there she was diagnosed with GDV (which I had rather suspected would be the case). Given that she was fourteen-and-a-half, an rare/strange heart murmur, and several other known age related issues, she was not a candidate for any kind of surgery, so I am pretty sure you know the rest of the story.

 

 

 

DTE headed back to her place in Minneapolis today and our house has never, ever felt this empty.

Thanks Sweetie!

Happy Anniversary to you too!
(I hope meetings are going well. You know I miss you.)

When I shared this

 

with my uncle the other day, he said, "Well, you must have some really fine knitting needles."
Happy Birthday today to my Favorite Uncle!

Four years ago today

I started this blog, and a lot has happened in the years since. A few highlights include, but certainly are not limited to, and in no particular special order:
DTY graduated from high school; various family members have traveled here, there, and yon (some have traveled more than others); a lot of different things have been planted and grown; patios have been built; pets have been lost and are greatly missed; a pet has been gained; Hubband changed jobs and went back to a "real office" instead of working from home while in town; Mr. A has come for regular visits; Hubband started graduate school; a lot of bread-making and picture-taking improvement has happened; a whole lot of knitting (despite the lack of evidence sometimes); DTE graduated from college; a lot of making decisions for someone I love even when they, and others, didn't always like or agree with said decisions; time with loved ones was gained; loved ones lost; and a whole lot of life has been lived and learned with more to come.
There are still a lot of highlights in life to come, I am pretty sure most of them are still to be found out about and learned. I do know of at least one highlight coming soon; DTY graduates from college! Then she shall move about 150 miles and start school all over again.
I plan on sticking around for the sharing, if you all will have me and want me to share.

The miracle of the Christmas season

was made more wonderful in our lives by my father being welcomed into the arms of our Lord and Savior two days before the celebration of anniversary of his birth.

For the record,

I haven't forgotten about this thing. I just don't think my life is really all that interesting right now. Of course, I suppose it could be a lot more interesting to someone who has no idea what is going on (perhaps interesting being closely related to curious). Anyway, my time most of the summer/fall has included (not any any particular or proper order) several surgeries for my dad, on-going care of surgery sites between a couple of them, various doctor/surgeon/follow-up/etc appointments for/with my dad, a whirlwind trip to empty his house and finish getting it in proper selling condition, signing my name to all sorts of stuff that isn't my stuff, in general hanging out with him and taking him fun places as well, lots of back and forth stuff to sell his house (thank goodness!), spending three plus days watching my dad hang out in a hospital bed with pneumonia (and signing more stuff), and who remembers what all else at this point. Well, watching him decline into the abyss of Alzheimer's, part of the time slowly and part of the time more quickly would be one of the what-elses, but that seemed kind obvious. Right now he is not recovering very well from the pneumonia, which isn't too surprising, considering what how long it took both (healthy and much younger) Hubband and DTY to recover when they each had it. Dad is neither terribly young, and has other complicating issues in addition to not really being able to tell us if he is in pain, hungry, tired, etc.
Of course, that is just one part of my life. There is still the rest of it, which some days might be more interesting than other day, but somehow the days just seem to run short a lot of the time. Well, except for the time that I take to knit or read to keep myself sane. I have gotten a fair amount of knitting done this year. Is anyone interested in hearing about/seeing knitting stuff? Well, this time of year there might be stuff about snow too, I suppose.
I can say that I will try to get here more often to let you know what is happening her at Casa Coffee Yarn, but I will also say I am not going to make any promises. I never know what each day is going to bring in terms of what dad is up for/to or not, though lately it really isn't very much at all, I can tell you that I/we will be pretty busy in the next couple of weeks, with several snow storms coming our direction, DTY arriving at her big sister's today (no clue yet when we get her, but I think it will be Friday at the latest), and one of my brothers coming next Sunday for a few days to see dad. Of course there is some other stuff smushed into the next week as well.

Some people are really lucky.

DTY got to meet the author of one of our favorite geek comics over the Fourth of July Weekend. Well, actually, not just meet him, but have dinner with him and take care of his pet snake for a day or two. (She is spending her summer doing a math research REU out East.)
In other Fourth of July news, Hubband and DTE went fishing/camping, and I stayed home and bought a dishwasher.

I know it has been rather quite around here.

Last week (the last week of April) I was away on a trip, which turned out to be much, much harder than I had ever imagined. (Well, not the trip itself I suppose, but stuff I had to deal with there.) Fortunately the trip was to a place where I have a dear friend who held my hand and let me vent, rant and rage, and cry. Mind you, ranting and raging isn't really something I do often, but i certainly did a lot of it last week. Unfortunately I now foresee that there might be more in the future at some point; at least this time I guess it won't come up on me as such a surprise. (Funny thing is that it didn't surprise Hubband so much, or a few other people.) As it happened I also had some, but very limited access to the Internets while on my trip, mostly just email and all of it was on a computer that didn't belong to me, thus making it very difficult, if not impossible, to do any posting here while I was away.
Any hows, now I have a very busy rest of the month ahead of me/us, between getting ready for a very important college graduation (well, important to DTE and the rest of our family at least), having both D's home (one for a bit over a week before she goes to her summer internship and the other for the summer before she starts her "year-long, post-graduate thing while I decide on graduate school/what do I do next"), getting ready for a real-live vacation with Hubband at the end of the month, and of course, all the regular stuff that I do. Oh, and due to some fall-out from my trip last week I have extra stuff I need to make arrangements for. Le sigh. Never fear, I/we will manage to get through; all in all we have made it through much worse in life.
In other exciting news around the Coffee Yarn Household, we have an other new appliance. Sunday afternoon I went to the basement to get something from the freezer and noticed a medium sized puddle under and around the water heater, so by 2 PM Monday afternoon we had a new one installed and heating water for me. (Me, since by 2:15 PM I was delivering Hubband to the airport.)
I have finished knitting from April to report (well, that is if you all aren't horrible bored with knitting content) and of course there are lots of green things growing about here as well as some bulbs have bloomed and a few other flowers are all decked out in their spring finery. Sadie had her annual spring "find something really, really gross/wonderful and disgustingly smelly/lovely to roll in" last week while I was gone (hopefully that means she has gotten it out of her system for the year) so that was a plus for me, and Oribel is doing her "I really, really need to go outside into the sun! Wait! What is this wind crap? I need in! Oh look! It is sunny I need out! Wind? I need in!" thing that results in her having to stay inside after about two or three in and outs. Of course that results in the "I am not happy in so I shall try to dig through every door in the house to find a way outside."
OK, so for right now I need to go do "stuff" but I will do my best to get back to you soon with some pictures of the yard, flowers, animals, and knitting if you all want to see it. I might even mention my vacation again.

I haven't really fallen off

the face of the earth blog-o-sphere, despite what the last month would lead one to believe. Needless to say, life has been full of all sorts of changes, trying to find our new normal, for all of us. My dad is slowly adjusting to living in the memory care place here, instead of being in his own home, in his own town. Some days he remembers what is going on better than other days, but that is the nature of the beast. However, he continues to be very happy to be in the same city with us, so that does help a lot. I am sure one can imagine that there is a lot of life adjustment going on for me as well.
Sadie came through her surgery on January 6th just fine, and was scared enough of the "cone of shame" that we only had to set it down next to her stop the messing with her stitches. Most of the time she was way more interested in the area on her front foot that had been shaved for the IV than the two areas full of pieces of thread. The evening after her surgery, I drove DTY and a friend of hers up to St. Paul so the two of them could catch the train back to school. DTE went along for the ride so that I wouldn't be driving home alone late at night in a snowstorm by myself. The next next day we made sure Sadie had her medications on a regular schedule so that she wouldn't be in any pain (in addition to the cysts that were removed, they had to pull several teeth)as well as doing the general "post-major surgery" eye on her, but she spent the majority of her day sleeping. Late that afternoon I took DTE to the shuttle stop so she could go meet a friend and head to Fargo for the weekend. I was gone for all of twenty minutes max, but could hear the poor suffering Sadie as I pulled into the garage! After I got inside and her all calmed down (which took at least ten minutes!), I realized that those twenty minutes were the first time in her thirteen-and-a-half years of life that she had ever been left completely alone! Because of course a cat that had managed to get herself locked in a closet does not count as company! (Not that Sadie would consider Oribel to be much company no matter where she happened to be.) She still doesn't like being left alone, but is slowly adjusting to it. We have found that it helps a lot to leave the radio on for her, but someone still come home several times a week to a very upset and lonely dog.
I have been doing some knitting, and have finished my first pair of socks (from stash yarn even!) for the year.
Pattern: Groovy Socks changed to be toe-up.
Yarn: Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Colori Socka Color
Started: December 27, 2009
Finished: January 14, 2010
Sock count: 1 of (hopefully) 12(+) from stash (aka, yarn purchased before 2010 or gifted anytime)
Made for: My mom's birthday in January. She said she loves them, but I am kind of hoping she doesn't take them to the hospital tomorrow when she goes for surgery and several days of post-surgery pampering from the nurses. (But if she does, and they happen to disappear, I do know how to make her new ones.)
I have started another pair of socks that have involved restarting several times due to the two-color knitting causing sizing issues. They are supposed to be for Hubband as they remind him of a camping trip with DTY and the loons they had to listen to several nights running. Unfortunately, the first try wouldn't even go over my heel, so I started over on bigger needles. These fit me, but there is no way they will fit him, so if the other member of the camping party is interested, they will be for her; otherwise I will be happy to keep them for me! I will be making them again for Hubband but will add another pattern repeat or two for proper fit. I am enjoying the pattern, challenge, and new stuff that I am learning while making them.
I also made myself a cowl out of some yarn that a friend dyed for me last fall to remind me of one my favorite first signs of spring, crocus flowers. (I took that picture before it was blocked, thus the curly edges.)

 

I shall leave you with a couple of pictures of my latest learning venture. Saturday I drove north to The Big City and DTE took the bus south to the same Big City and we took a cooking class together. These are my first ones, start to finish, at home. Not as pretty as Chef Carrie's, but in time, I am sure I can make them look much nicer.

(For the record, croissants turn out to be pretty easy to make!)

In the last week,

DTE and I have taken Miss Sadie Rose Dog to the vet for her to be diagnosed with an infected and burst sebaceous cyst that will be removed this week; I have filled out tons of paperwork and signed my name to it all for someone else; we/I have moved my father into a memory-care facility; I was given the official diagnosis I was suspecting of an outbreak of shingles on my personage; Mr. Simon Peter Dog was very, very sick yesterday so Hubband and DTE took him to the emergency vet clinic, and it was determined that he had too many things going on to be able to make it, so the decision was made to help him not be in the pain that had been getting worse for him all day.

In the last couple of weeks

since I have been here, life has gone on and stuff has been happening, even though the blog has seen no evidence of it. Or perhaps the lack of blogging proves that life has been happening?
Anyway, Hubband and I had a wonderful time planning and fixing dinner together on the fourth, and then watching our movie together. The next evening, our Christmas socks made their public debut. (Of course Hubband made sure several people noticed our matching socks at his work party.)

 

Another pair of socks have been started, finished, and delivered.
Pattern: Broadripple
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Fixation
Started: Dec. 1 Finished: Dec. 13

 

Sock count: 17/12+2 (I didn't have the right color of yarn for these, so I bought some, thus the +2)

 

Made for: My younger sister, who absolutely loves them and says they fit like a glove.

 

A co-worker of Hubband's had a new baby, so we all know what that means.

 

A couple of coasters were also made and delivered when I got home, another hat was started, and I do believe a pair of socks will be started this weekend.
In addition to knitting, there has been traveling to Idaho (before the blizzard hit here, thank goodness!), visiting with a few friends and my sister (delivery of socks, obviously), some general stuff taken care of there, and traveling back home with my dad in tow. He is here to visit and spend Christmas with us.
Next up comes catching up on getting ready for Christmas, the DTs coming home next week, and general life stuff. Blogging may or may not resume on a regular basis.

I know,

where are the hat pictures? Well, you need wait no longer, here they is! (Nicely modeled by the owner of said hat.)

 

Pretty little intertwined knit cables on a purled background, all on account of reading the pattern correctly (after a bit of a mis-read in Round Three).

 

With the use of a life-line and realization that if you move the beginning row marker over, you have to move all the markers in the row over before you decide you have one too many stitches, beautiful decreases and a star/flower shape happen. Then with continued decreasing, poof! it is all finished and on someone's head.

 

(Unblocked, but that was OK with her. I am not sure she actually took it off for over 24 hours after it was finished. Maybe she took it off to sleep, but if so, she put it right back on as soon as she woke up. It is so nice to have someone who appreciates hand knit items, not every one who knits is so lucky. I am extra lucky to have several people wiling to indulge me.)

Tuesday I got to engage in some cat wrangling and take Oribel in to the vet for a check-up. She weighs in at seven pounds, six ounces and Dr. E was was very impressed with the fact that "She is solid muscle!" and diagnosed her as being "excessively healthy".

Tomorrow's big plans include a couple of errands and house cleaning during the day, but Hubband has agreed to indulge me with letting me pick pick what movie we will watch after dinner. I made sure we had this one show up in the mailbox in time for the big event.
(BTW, blog posts will probably continue to be erratic for the next several weeks. I am heading out next week to bring my dad here for a Christmas visit. I'll be gone for a bit and I think a lot of you know he doesn't have a computer so I only get Internet connection when we go to the cyber-cafe. Of course after we get back I will be finishing up with getting ready for college kids to come home, keeping dad busy helping around here, and the like. I'll try to entertain you at least once a week, and we can always hope for more.)

The company was awesome!

Yesterday I got a phone call that had me flapping my arms in excitement (not that there was anyone to see me besides the dogs and cat) and this morning I got a follow-up call that resulted in a drive of about 140 miles round trip for a lunch date. It was totally worth the drive and day away from home.
(My oldest brother is a professional truck driver based out of SLC and and his current trip put him in my "neighborhood".)

One of the flurries of activity

These pictures aren't really about animals, though it might look that way. They are examples of why we needed to do something with the deck again this year. When we moved to the (non)mid-west ten years ago, our house did not have a deck, it just had a sliding glass door drop-off to the yard. After we had been here for a few years we were able to add the deck and then stained it the following spring. (For some reason it had to age a little while before that could be done. Don't ask me why, I am just repeating what I was told at the time.)
A few years later it needed to be redone, and the time had come, once again, for it to need re-staining. Apparently if you use translucent stain it lasts just about three years before you see wood instead of stain. Interestingly enough, that is what it says on the can too. Anyways, this was the summer it needed to be done. Of course this required a fair amount of work, mostly on Hubband's part (on account of our regular summer help not being home and we didn't get our act together to have Vet-Girl do it before she left for grad school).

 

I did help with the moving of plants off of the deck onto the patio, making and distribution of ice tea while work was done, and entertaining of animals in the house that really wanted to go see what was happening on their deck. The what was happening involved masking stuff (like the house itself) and stripping what stain was left with nasty stuff that animals didn't need all over their feet, despite what they may have thought about the subject.

 

That part of the deck project took two weekends but fortunately the animals were allowed out there during the week. Unfortunately all the normal deck furniture was down on the patio, but the bench got a bit more use than normal.

 

The next part of the deck project involved paintbrushes and rollers. I was still in charge of animal and ice tea wrangling; I guess I must be pretty good at them. (I must admit to also being in charge of general replenishing of the fuel consumption needed for the general labor contractor as well.)
Of course, after all the paintbrushes and rollers were put away and everything was dry, I helped with the returning of plants and furniture to their proper places. And since I was done with the basset herding job, they got to give everything the required thorough inspection.

 

This time we used an opaque stain that the can says lasts ten years, which sounds way better than doing this every three! Now we just need to do the favorite chairs too. Well, whenever I can stop knitting and stay out of them long enough.

This one is a special

post for my favorite uncle, the one of wizardly adventures.

So Dearest Uncle, you should go here to see what I wish for you today. (Unless I am a little behind, in which case you know I mean it on time as well as today.)

Today is the official

MIL birthday. Happy 80th, and I hope today is as wonderful as it can be!

As I am sure most of you know,

it was Easter awhile back (like, before I went to see my dad in Idaho). DTE was home for the weekend, we cooked dinner together, and normal stuff like that. (Well she did tell me about a certain ice cream too, but that was a good thing as well. I think.)

Anyways (I am sure you're all wondering where this is going, right?), she and Hubband gave me a wonderful Easter basket. There was cheese and crackers. Well, there was more cheese than this, but being as how none of us had ever seen this before, it was the most important. It falls into the "things a lot of you might not know about me" category. My first job (well besides being a babysitter in high demand) was working in an import cheese store. Great job, lots of stuff to learn, remember, take tests on. Seriously, I had to learn all sorts of cheese facts and information (as well as taste) about over 200 different kinds of cheese. Great job. (Though ever since I have had a few people accuse me of being a cheese snob. That's OK,there are worse things I have been accused of.) Brie happens to be one of my family's favorite cheeses (should have seen my kids the day we found several pounds of Brie mispriced for three cents!), as well as goat cheese. So of course the combination of the two had to be checked out! Seriously yummy cheese!

There were also flowers because my family know how much I love flowers and growing things. (Hmm, another one of those "things a lot of you might not know about me," one summer when the children were small people I had a part time job working for a landscape architect. I like to play in the dirt.)

Of course the flowers had to be inspected,



and then they were promptly shown who was in charge around here by having a flower or two eaten.


Fortunately she has decided that plants outside are alright and can be left alone. Otherwise she would be knocking them off the bench and onto the floor, like she did with African Violets I used to own. (Well, she actually knocked them off a small table and onto Simon while he was sleeping at 2 AM, but who is keeping track?)
Happy WoW!