I am over the moon with excitement to the point that I can barely type!! A 44 year old woman who is NOT from Washington DC with 5 kids with an age range like that of my own children. After watching Senator Clinton get raped on national television in order to put forth a candidate for whom I could never vote and being faced with a GOP choice that I was not thrilled about, John McCain has just come through HUGE!!!!!!! She is smart and athletic and downright beautiful. She has executive experience and is NOT a Senator.

McCain/Palin in 2008!!!!!!!

Ravelry Olympics

So.... I had to add these "medals" for the Ravelry Olympics. I finished my new cable hat in two days (from cast on to finishing) and finished the felted bag for myself (a modified version of the Booga Bag pattern) which I absolutely LOVE and have already crammed all my stuff into!!

I also saw my orthopedist yesterday and do NOT need surgery on my right knee (Thank you, God). I do need to wear a brace (and a matching one on the right because the strain on my bad knee over the past four weeks has been pretty bad) and do physical therapy, but the relief at NOT needing surgery was monumental.

Have been working all week to catch up from the staycation, but managed to get to the pool last night and swim some laps (arms only, but got a good work out). TOnight is Knitting Night and I am very excited to spend some times with my friends and to swap some yarn.

Staycation plans not quite what I planned

So..... somehow and with a LOT of stress, I survived last week. I got done everything that I knew needed to be done prior to me taking a week off from the office (HAH!). Had the custody hearing from Hell on Friday afternoon and was waiting to go get the MRI on my right knee when the phone rang LATE Friday afternoon or maybe it was an email -- can't quite remember now. It was another lawyer advising me that, despite a verbal agreement, his/her client had decided to play custody blackmail games with my client. THAT consumed part of Friday afternoon AND part of Monday (when I wasn't supposed to be working). Whatever... it will be fixed next week or it won't and I'll need to file an emergency petition with the court. I really hate game playing!

Then... got called into court for Wednesday morning and when I was on my way to take the littlest ones to their sitter's house, got a call cancelling. All fine, but they wanted to go to their sitter's (who they hadn't seen in more than a month) and I figured I would get a day of scrapbooking and quiet time in. Not so much. My doctor's office called at about 11:40 a.m. with the MRI results. Without going into depth about fluid pockets and bulges and degeneration of cartilage, suffice it to say I'll be seeing my orthopod next Wednesday. It was a very emotional and traumatic phone call for me and I spent half of the day crying. Knee may or may not be surgical, but it's my good knee... or at least it used to be.

I'm still getting around, better with the brace on. More importantly I did NOT cave in to my almost irresistible impulse for a pint of Dove ice cream last night. I bought myself a book, took the kids to the pool and hung out with a new and AWESOME friend from knitting group, ate a dinner within my weight watcher's points, watched some "West Wing" and went to sleep. I kept telling myself that there is NO point in letting this drag me down and I'm tougher than my knees are.

I'm also really excited to cast on my cabled hat for the Ravelry Olympics tomorrow morning. I taught myself to cable FOR this project, made a baby hat and a hat for Jenny as swatches and am really excited to actually make something for myself for once. Yarn is a MUCH better addiction than food (even if it's a tad more costly). Picture of Jenny wearing HER hat is above. You may notice that it's green, not purple -- that's because the initial hat I made with the wrong type yarn and too-small needles didn't fit. Go figure. Of course, I have absolutely NO sense of size or depth perception, so I didn't KNOW it didn't fit her until she tried it on. Luckily, I can add the purple baby-sized hat to the gift bag I've finished for a friend and his wife. One more baby blanket/sweater/hat to go. Then, until MY kids have kids... I am done knitting for other people's babies. I think I felt obligated to do 12 sets this past year and my holiday knitting is woefully behind.

No song title comes to mind -- just too tired

SOOOOOOOO tired. SOOOOOOOOOO glad the past month is over. SOOOOOOOO excited that I am not going anywhere NEAR the office next week for any reason except to check mail maybe once -- I think I would have a nervous breakdown if I walked in the doors.

Haven't posted in more than a month. My days have been filled with a crazy amount of work and my evenings and weekends with summer swim team, chores, meetings and generally feeling overwhelmed. My little guy started the swim season very strong, but ended up with Lyme DIsease (and a case of the 7/8 year old lack-of-focusitis) so his earliest times were his best times. He is finally almost done the antibiotics, but sheesh!!!!! Then there is my knee.... no, not the bad one, the other one! I stood up to make an objection in court two weeks ago and felt something go POP -- had MRI last night at the end of the most awful and grueling week I have ever had.

However, in the midst of all that.... I taught myself to cable this past week and ended up (without intending to) making the toddler a purple hat to match her purple sweater. I finished a BUNCH of projects from baby hats to baby socks to afghans and found a top-down, seamless sweater pattern that WOrks!!!!! I also went to a yarn dyeing and made myself hand dyed sock yarn.... WAY fun!!! Today, I'm going on a yarn crawl (that means a trip to multiple yarn stores!) with a friend from knitting group which turned out well since the weather today is not pool conducive.

Those of you on Ravelry need to cheer me on in the Knitting Olympics which start Friday, August 8th at 8 p.m. It's really cool -- cast on during the Opening Ceremonies and finish by the Closing Ceremonies. I am making a cabled hat (which is how Jenny ended up with a hat -- was teaching myself HOW to cable and ended up with a toddler hat!) for myself. If I finish it sooner, I'll join the work-in-progress team and finish some projects.

I also, despite the knee preventing much exercise, have lost close to seven pounds. I went back on Weight Watchers at-home program as soon as tomatos were cleared for human consumption. And then I found "SparkPeople". OMIGOD!!! It's a free web site that lets you track food, read articles, use message boards, get motivation and support. I had heard about it from a client about 10 months ago and for some reason, the name stuck in my mind so when I wanted to go back on WW but didn't want to pay for their monthly website, I joined Spark and have been religiously logging in every day, tracking my food, etc. As soon as I started tracking my portions, the weight started peeling off... five of those pounds are in the last ten days. So I'm getting healthier and feeling damn proud of myself!

But finally and most importantly.... I am officially on vacation for the next week. I'm not going anywhere, but am NOT going near the office. Hubby taking a grad class and even though my sitter is available, I need to spend a week with my babies and away from my clients and other lawyers. Next week is that week -- Thank God.

A new skill !!!

I felted. All of you who know me have lived through this for the past several weeks either in person, in email or on Ravelry. I was afraid to felt because the thought of taking lovely, non-washable yarn, making it into something and then deliberately destroying the fiber was incomprehensible to me. So I made the bag and then it sat on my nightstand for several days. A friend finally sent me a message that basically said "Oh for goodness sake, Bonnie.... PUT THE DARN BAG INTO THE MACHINE." Of course, she's a sweetheart so she said it much more nicely.

Bag went into the washing machine in a pillowcase. Went through 2 cycles and came out BEAUTIFULLY. The only difficult part was actually threading the shrunken I cord through the holes in the bag. Picture of finished project is above.

Other picture is of Melissa (oldest kid) with the bag. I had put it in the car in case I needed to go right from work to Thursday night's knitting group. She saw, she took. I brought a picture to knitting group! Since she reads this blog regularly, I am stating for the record that (1) the new blue/green bag I am working on is for ME; (2) Aunt Kim's bag gets done next; and (3) Melissa's matching cell phone case that I am designing now will need to wait until all these baby gifts are done and distributed! Love you, Brat.

Felting is FUN!!!!

Working for the Weekend

ok... I'm officially old when I am using Loverboy songs as blog entry titles -- it may even be more geeky than all my musical songs.

The previous week has been exhausting. It started off SO hot (and really did NOT cool down as much as I would have liked it to) and SO busy and SO stressful. But, to quote Gloria Gaynor, I will (and did) survive. Luckily, Montgomery County is one of the few counties left in America that still has a vacation day for Flag Day (we LOVE Flag Day!) so it was a short week since the holiday was given on the 13th to make up for the actual Saturday date.

Thursday night was the bar association's annual Clam Bake -- a GREAT event (if such a thing can be said about a function with all lawyers and judges) with good food, nice conversation and a 5 hour open bar. Even surprising myself, I only had 2 drinks because it was pretty hot and (even though hubby would have come over to get me), I didn't feel like being hungover Friday. Had a great knitting conversation with an attorney with whom I haven't always had the greatest relationship with -- probably more my fault than her fault because I don't enjoy Family Law and I tend to get a little nasty when I'm doing it -- not only does she knit, but she knits BEAUTIFULLY. I also got to tell other crafters about Worldwide Knit In Public Day (today) so I spread the word and encouraged more people to be public yarn addicts.

I spent Friday with two of the kids. Jenny and I went to GOP HQ to help out for a couple of hours and then Chip and I went to lunch and to finish Father's Day and birthday shopping for my wonderful man (whose birthday is Tuesday when I'll be at a bar association dinner). Last night, I vegged! I was supposed to be at a Beef-n-Beer for a PA House representative candidate, but the older boys were out, we had no sitter and I just could not spend another night away from my husband -- one of us was out every night this week. Since Mark couldn't go, I skipped the event.

I put the time to good use though. I finished (end weaving) on the felted bag. I finished AND wove in the ends on the pedicure socks for ME. I wove in ends on the blanket for Ryan's kindergarten teacher from last year (since he only has 2 more days of school). I cast on a baby hat. I knit and wove ends until about 1:30 a.m.

The week ended ok based on how it started, but I wouldn't want to end this week without paying tribute to the late Tim Russert of NBC News. When Mark called me on his way home and told me the news of Mr. Russert's passing (since I usually come home and watch Hardball on MSNBC, he didn't want me to find out), I felt physical pain. Anyone who knows me or reads this blog knows that I am a political junkie -- and despite my affiliation with the Republican Party, I consider myself to be willing to listen to ideas and to know the truth rather than the spin. I watch and listen to both liberal and conservative radio and TV, but Russert (along with George Stephanopolis of ABC) always helped me put my own beliefs into perspective. I didn't always agree with Mr. Russert, but his dedication and patriotism and old-fashioned values have always impressed me. I truly don't know who will fill his shoes as people sort through the decision to be made this election cycle -- there is no one I trust to ask the hard questions now that this giant has gone to be with the angels.

Finally (and I know this is a ramble), I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of the employees at the Spring House Clemens (it was NEVER a Giant to me) and the branch of my bank and to wish them luck in their future endeavors. At 6 p.m. tonight, the grocery store will close after 35 years of local, community-based retailing to the people of Ambler, Lower Whitpain and Lower Gwynedd. My son will be on the clock until the doors are locked. When Clemens opened in 1973, my parents and I were among the first customers in the store. Today, with the shelves mostly empty and the corporate honchos pulling the remaining items out, I shopped at Clemens for the final time. It made me miss my late father terribly. It made me realize that my once close-knit community has become incredibly suburban. But most importantly, it was the end of an era where customer service and friendly employees were the norm rather than the exception.

I miss the days where being nice was expected rather than being looked upon as strange. I miss knowing everyone in my neighborhood (where we are going to the Block Party in a few minutes, but where we have had tremendous turnover recently). I miss the sense of stability that turning on the TV to a familiar face giving me the news of the day and where people say what they mean but do so kindly. I guess I'm as anachronistic as I was once called by a former friend, but the one thing this week has taught me is to stay true to what I believe in and let the rest of the world do as it pleases.

No good deed goes unpunished...

Yep... I'm an absolute geek for a musical. This title is from Wicked (where my FABULOUS daughter is taking me in October in NYC!) and is a song about how other people perceive your actions -- it's a truly fascinating song and I love to sing it in the car. Jenny prefers "Defying Gravity" and "Dancing Through Life", but once in awhile, I insist. She's 2 and I control the CD player ('cept it's hard to hear MY songs if she's throwing a fit).

Anyway... this title describes how I have been feeling for weeks and certainly since the Heat from the Fires of Hell set in on Saturday. I'm like a hamster on a freakin' wheel or the Energizer Bunny. Days pass and speed by and I suddenly look up and say "it's Friday?!" I am incapable of saying "no" to a volunteer task -- even when I know that the person asking hates me and will be mean to me for no reason other than that I get the volunteer task done. If I have food poisoning (or a stomach bug or WHATEVER that was last Wednesday) and I can't make a meeting, I feel guilt in the extreme because I have volunteered to do a job and it MUST get done. When people complain about being asked to do ONE or two things and respond "I can't commit," despite the fact that EVERYONE else does 10 times the work, I want to smack them -- I resist the urge, but I get furious. I have SO much work to do and files to review and briefs to write and clients to yell at for failing to communicate with me. Gas costs too much money and there is NO short term solution (despite what anyone from any political party tells you -- it's crap). People drive like complete maniacs. Did I mention I hate the heat?!

I equate sanity with knitting time and stay up late even if I have early court just to "give" myself some peace. Of course, I also knit in court (between the six hearings I did today), at restaurants, at the swim club and anywhere else I happen to be. I was so tired today after the hearings -- the heat wipes me out when it is anything much over 80; 114 heat index today was not tolerable -- and Jenny was still going to be napping. I went to Crafty Me Yarns and sat on the floor in my white suit, pulled out my Booga Bag and aimlessly knit and chatted with the owner for somewhere around an hour. I was finally and simply dysfunctional. The bag is going to be cool though!

"If I cannot succeed, Fiero, saving you, I promise no good deed will I ever doooooooo..... A-GAIN"

OK.... ready to go to bed now. Have more court in morning.