I pulled the carpet.

But I did not pull the SUV. (No, I don't have an SUV. That was the first thing that came to mind, that fit the melody.) I pulled the carpet and left it in a pile on the floor and took my second nap of the day. When I woke up, I realized that it was too much for me to wrangle on my own. The neighbor across the street was working in his yard. He dragged. I steered. The padding was much lighter, and I managed it easily. Couldn't have weighed more than two gallons of milk. Just bigger. And floppier.

I've run a broom over the floor and pulled up most of the tack strips. All that's left are the ones in the closet. They will still be there tomorrow. I'll sweep again, and vacuum, and mop the floor at least once. The room echoes like crazy. By this time next week I hope to have the flooring down, the area rug in place, and the furniture arranged.

I have a little aching in my thighs from the bending, sitting, and stooping. But my back feels great. I have to keep moving, even when I'm taking it easy. Otherwise my ankles swell. So the work I did yesterday is not as foolhardy as it might appear. I moved slowly and carefully. I broke the work up into small bites. I rested in between. And I paid attention when I tugged gently on the corner of the carpet, and it was harder to budge as a whole than when I was freeing the corners and piling them in the center of the room. So I called in the cavalry.

Feeling good today. Looking forward to church and reading and all of the knitting I thought I would get done on Friday and Saturday before finish-itis kicked in. I tend to doze off at odd moments (twice during this paragraph), so I may only be good for sacrament meeting. Heading for the shower now.

Be good, and remember who you are.

Random thoughts post biopsy.

Sleep is a wonderful thing. The good snooze fairy visited my house last night.

No pain. The scratchiness in my throat is almost gone.

Being able to eat what I want, when I want, is a small miracle that happens almost every day.

"I'm your CPAP today." One of several great things my anesthesiologist said to me yesterday. Now if I could only get the CPAP at home to talk to me in that Marcus Welby voice.

The sewing table is folded up and put away. I am reasonably sure that I won't be pulling up the carpet today, but that side of the room is cleared for takeoff. I still have my old coffee table (the one made from the door) set up for the painting of baseboards. I could easily finish that without busting a gusset.

But first there is a nap that's calling my name.

Hysteroscopy D&C. Oye.

When I had the pre-op consultation on Tuesday, I learned that today might be more than a simple biopsy. If, while she's in there looking around, the situation warrants it, there will be a C to go with the D. The D was a given. I'm not crazy about the D, but relieved to know that it will be done with increasingly larger somethings rather than by pitocin. (Maybe some of those will be Deep Blue Somethings?)

Hey, I've never had one of these before. And there's so much I don't know about gynecology. My life heretofore has been blessedly uncomplicated in that department: PMS from menarche until menopause. Cramps added to the recipe when I hit 40. No hot flashes. A gradual unwinding from Hey We're Fertile, Myrtle. Five or six years of silence from my girl bits.

I will update after the procedure.

In other news, I have been finishing projects right and left. The fourth picture from last weekend is now properly seated in its frame. I sprung for a nice frame for my favorite skinny poster and put them together after work last night. I've finished the painting on another project and am in the process of sealing it with matte acrylic. Stinky business.

I've borrowed a laser level from a friend and have spent part of the morning moving more stuff out of the dining room so I may rip up the carpet. Which will obviously not be happening today.

*************

It's later. I'm comfortable. Especially since I am now able to eat and drink. We went to Black Eyed Pea. I inhaled a roll and butter, my red beans and rice, my glazed carrots, and a few bites of my ginger sesame salmon. I also ate the half dozen bites of broccoli that garnished the salmon. Testament to the wonder which is ginger sesame sauce.

Apparently I snored during  the procedure.  Can't have been anywhere near as impressive as Beloved's snoring. One of the few things about him that I do not miss. I always felt as if I were sleeping in the flight path for military transport.

They gave me two anti-nausea meds which must have done the trick. All I felt was bubbly pressure in my stomach, which is quietly and steadily mutating into what I suspect will be industrial strength toots in a couple of hours. The pressure, not my stomach. I kinda need my stomach. I'd like it to stick around awhile.

I might still be the teensiest bit loopy. No comments from the peanut gallery.

Oh, and I'm officially down 30 pounds, and they did a fresh EKG before the procedure because my heart rate was 40. It's nothing dangerous, just a level 1 something where the bundle of stuff that coordinates my heartbeat is not quite right, so something else is coordinating it, and that part is all que pasa? Again, nothing to be concerned about.

I'm going to put my wedding rings back on and drink a few bottles of water and watch some Psych and maybe take a nap. Although I'm starting to feel hungry again.

Weighed myself this morning.

Almost 30 pounds down. I ate more or less constantly all weekend, but it was relatively healthy food in small amounts at frequent intervals.

Sitting here at lunch with one of my killer salads: carrots, sliced almonds, green onions, hard boiled egg slices, corn, black beans, grapes, grape tomatoes, and red butter lettuce. I'm fresh out of diced ham, and I didn't have time to nuke and crumble any turkey bacon. Sometimes I throw in some sliced mushrooms.

I've taken to making three days' worth of salads at a time. Ranch on the bottom, layers above that, and lettuce on top the day my salad goes to work with me. It doesn't take more than a couple of extra minutes to do three when I could be doing only one, so over the course of a week I significantly declutter my calendar. More time for knitting.

I've given myself quite the honey-do list for FHE tonight. A whole raft of piddly things that I've been putting off just that much too long. If I get it all done before bedtime, you will probably be able to hear the yeehaws from halfway around the world.

Wish me luck. 

It was another good day.

Lots of small tasks accomplished. Minimal running about like the proverbial chicken. New glass in the print of a smiling Savior, which I inherited from Beloved. (I think it's a Del Parson.) New frame on the print of the public library in Fredericksburg, which is housed in an old stone mansion. Gold leaf on glass picture of the Salt Lake Temple that I made in Relief Society the year that Secondborn joined us, put back in its frame and reinforced so maybe it won't pop back out again.

Antique gold paint bought to spiff up the frame of a painting of trees, on wood, that I've had since shortly after the divorce. I might get to that sometime today. I want to sew the current quilt block and schlep all the sewing stuff back into my studio.

Wes and Sarah came over after their date on Friday night. He put my new box cutter back together after I took it apart rather more than intended. And he came up with a great idea for the placement of the vinyl plank flooring. We discovered that under the carpet is some really ugly linoleum.

I am going to lay down a grid with a Sharpie on said ugly linoleum so that I may place the planks on the diagonal, which neatly solves the problem of wanting them to run one way in the dining room and another way in the living room. There will be more wastage. I can buy more planks, and if knitting has taught me nothing else, it's how to manage different dye lots should that be an issue.

The second sleeve of the doll sweater is nearly done. I will probably finish that today and cast on for the back. I'll do that in two pieces and close it with ribbon reinforcements and snaps, as I did for Faith's tunic.

There is a small but still reasonable chance that the sweater will be done and delivered in time for Middlest's birthday.

First sleeve is done.

Second sleeve is cast on. Fourth season of Psych is in the can. One hour to go before bedtime and I'm not in the mood to paint anything. We should probably alert the Guinness people.

Couldn't get an exact match on the brown paint, not that I was expecting it to be that easy, and I'm aware I could have them do a custom match. I played with the color picker on the website and came up with some other possibilities. I have the chip for one of them. I have the numbers for two more and will scope out the chips tomorrow or over the weekend.

I keep finding stuff (that I already have) that will go nicely in the dining room. I'll be doing something, happily in the flow, and an image will float up in my mind, and then I have to either write it down or go looking for it. I'm getting a thin but impressive collection of notes, and an ever growing assortment of flotsam and jetsam. (Autocorrect wanted to give me Jetson.)

Maybe I will put on my painting clothes and grab my shiny new box cutter and go all Anthony Hopkins on the dining room carpet. (I've never actually seen Psycho. My technique might be a little off.)

Yeah. I just watched the Hitchcock episode of Psych. I need to do *something* before going to bed.

And the next little step.

The management office in our building was repainted a couple of months ago. Their accent wall is a gorgeous chocolate brown. I stopped in after work and got the information, then picked up a paint chip on my way to Knit Night. When I got home, I compared it with the chips I brought home a day or so after I got the darker yellow paint. Not even close. Those all skewed red. (You are not surprised.) This is a somewhat greener brown, and it tones beautifully with what I've done so far. Next step is to take the Sherwin Williams chip to Home Depot and see how close I can get in the Behr colorways.

In knitting news, I am making steady progress on the first sleeve of the doll sweater. I'm nearly to the armscye, where I will bind off everything but a narrow strip for the saddle shoulder. This will not be my usual, preferred raglan shoulder. I am following the Starmore shaping.

I'm doing asbestos I can.

Had a moment there. Went into Home Depot last night and picked up a box cutter to tackle the carpet. Also wanted to get one of those thingies that separates old linoleum from the mother ship. Clerks asked when mine had been installed. No idea. The house was built in 1971, I think. So I texted Squishy, who replied that if it matches the linoleum in the kitchen, it was in 1994, just before they moved in. I need to find out when manufacturers stopped putting asbestos in the adhesive. But I think we're out of the woods.

In other news, I put the trim on the lampshades last night while watching Psych. I had planned to blindstitch it on, but the needle and the wire frame were not playing nicely together. So I picked out three inches of stitches and grabbed the adhesive rectangles I used on the Scrabble tiles. By cutting them in half, I was able to hide them under the trim and get a nice even application. I did not turn the raw ends under, but those puppies are going nowhere. If and when I want a change, I'll have to replace the entire lampshade.

I had hoped to have the carpet stacked neatly on the curb this morning, but I was too comfortable sitting on the bed with the DVD player in my lap.

Lest you think I am becoming a slacker, SemperFi took me to lunch yesterday to celebrate my 15 years with the company. (He felt badly because he missed the party last week.) We walked several blocks each way. I didn't break a sweat, I didn't get short of breath, and nothing hurt. I got a huge salad and ate half of it for lunch and the rest of it for dinner. This morning I put in 35 minutes on the treadmill at a 5% slope at a leisurely but steady 2.4 mph.

Fist bumps all around.

Still painting, after all these years.

The inside of the closet is done. I put a second coat on the trim this morning. Second day of waking an hour or so before the alarm. Am hoping for lots of lovely, unbroken sleep tonight. I'm about to put a third coat on the trim, with possibly a fourth coat tomorrow morning before work.

At work today we had a party for people like me: milestone anniversaries. One year, five years, ten years, fifteen years (me), and twenty years. Not only do I have that lovely, ridiculously expensive bag, but there were also festivities. Little bundt cupcakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes. And fruit trays, huzzah! And tiny sandwiches. It was a nice break from work.

I filed vacation letters all day. And fought sleep.

Did I mention that I officially lost Mellow last week? I told SemperFi not to get spoiled while we wait for me to get assigned half of somebody else's docket. It's wonderful to dash through my inbox and the day's mail, but once I'm done with the vacation letters I might be out of things to do until it's time to open a new case.

Stopped at Crate & Barrel after work. The chairs were pretty, but not as substantial as a true Windsor. And not quite the right shade of teal. Oh well. It was worth a look.

Heading out to the dining room. Starting now.

IKEA? Check. New paint? Check.

The IKEA bookcase was just the wrong shade of turquoise. Not enough to look intentional. Precisely enough to scream "what was she thinking?" But there are at least three furniture lines whose idea of white is a perfect match for the trim in the dining room. And there are candles in a cup that will look lovely on the dining room table when I'm done. I bought nothing, walked a lot, and came home happy.

Yesterday I emptied out the closet. There's enough space to hang my mom's mirror between two bookcases, with something narrow below that. Short bookcase. Cabinet. Plant stand. I took out the shelf and closet rod this morning. I need help getting the screws out of the wall so I may take down the brackets. The screw slots are painted over.

This will probably require a power screwdriver and some male upper body strength. Sounds like a job for my home teacher, or Wes. I would like to have the closet completely done by the end of the week. (People in Hades want ice water, too.) Finish-itis is kicking in, in a big way.

Meanwhile, I am going to make this month's birthday cards and a few more swatches. The 6-0 needle works beautifully for making cables.

More good news. Mostly.

My ovaries are healthy and fading into little nubbins, just as Heaven designed.

I will be getting a biopsy in a few weeks. My doctor and the anesthesiologist are covered 100%. The copay is more than I'd set aside for all of my medical expense reimbursements this year. I am so glad that I paid off my line of credit last year.

I have cancelled banjo camp for August and requested a refund of my deposit. I am also going to put the banjo lessons on hold for awhile, until my cash flow recovers.

If we are lucky, the biopsy will be followed by three months of progesterone and a humbled endometrium. I think this is the most likely scenario. If we are less lucky, my uterus will be making like Elvis and leaving the building.

I should know in a little less than a month and a half. I'm hoping that if I do need further surgery, it will be safe to schedule it after the Nauvoo trip.

In other news, I blocked the second swatch before breakfast yesterday. It is minuscule. I have cast on (and frogged) a third swatch with three different cable patterns and will be using a 6-0 needle to help with the cables.

I like the gynecologist. She is warm, witty, and I trust her.

I think I know what I want to do about the dining room closet. I got the idea on the drive into work this morning, to paint the interior a slightly darker value of yellow than the walls. And I will be making a dash to IKEA to see if the teal or turquoise bookshelf is a good match for the ceiling and the curtains. If it works, that would really pop! Two bookcases, something narrow between them, and my mother's mirror hung above that.

Good news.

Gynecologist office called. They had a cancellation. Would I like to come in 13 days sooner? I would.

Last night's massage was just for relaxation. No major owies. No energy work.

The first Aran swatch is blocking. I just took the second one off the needles.

I blew through all my to-do's at work. And wrangled all the mail. Only the fact that the e-filing system was intermittently wonky kept me from running out of stuff to do. But I was productively busy all day. And I have a good chunk of tomorrow laid out.

I found some ebony Rub N Buff at Hobby Lobby and am planning to refinish a picture frame. Pictures to follow if the end result remotely resembles what I have in my head.

May quilt block is done.

It's after midnight. I'm outta here.

Doorway is 99% done.

I need to touch up a couple of spots. I've begun to remove things from the closet so I may finish painting the trim and then repaint the inside.

I have the first bundle of baseboards. Went with the 3.5 inch ones instead of the 5.25 inch ones, because they were 12 feet long instead of 16. They fit easily into the back of the Tardis and are still a significant upgrade from what the builder used. (And they were far less expensive.  I got 120 feet for a little more than 32 feet would have cost me.) I've stacked them in the hallway, sticking out into the living room, and placed the rocking chair over that end so I won't trip over them and break either them, or me.

The black cashmere blend scarf is now grafted into an infinity cowl. I did that during one of the breakout sessions at the family history presentation at the stake center yesterday. I have the schematics drawn for the doll sweater that will be Middlest's birthday present next month. I'm about to wind the yarn and start swatching with Starmore. I think this will be fun. I love Aran knitting. And this is for a small doll, the size of my unicorn girl, Faith. So it will probably be done and mailed in time for Middlest's birthday.

Probably.

Great news on the diabetes front. My fasting glucose was down to 92 (should be less than 100 in a healthy individual), and my a1c was 6.2 (should be less than 6.5 for a healthy individual and 7.0 for a diabetic). I've officially lost 24 pounds already. So I am seven months ahead of my goal to lose 25 by the end of the year.

Yes, I am continuing to take my meds.
Yes, I am continuing to exercise.
Yes, I am continuing to improve my food choices.

I hope that after I see the gynecologist later this month, the news about my rogue uterus will be equally good.

This is the part where I go wind 880 yards of undyed lace weight yarn and consult La Starmore.

Window's done. Curtains are up.

After work I picked up some tiebacks. They need a little embellishment, and I have some ideas. I'm thinking small silk tiger lilies if I can find them in a soft orange. I'll be at Hobby Lobby tomorrow night to pick up the print and will see what's available.

The Duncan Phyfe game table is in the window. The two small lamps that I bought about ten years ago are on it. The shades need the merest hint of embellishment. And I need to rewire the wall socket, because only one of the plugs works. I found a painting that I bought not long after the divorce, that has the colors in the embroidery on the curtains. Not sure where it wants to go.

I'm not ready to decorate-decorate, not until the flooring is down and the new baseboards are in place, but I'm having fun thinking of what might look good in there and trying a few small things out.

I'm sorely tempted to dash out to the dining room and put one last coat of paint on that doorway, but I think I will just turn off the lights and lie down until the urge passes. I really don't want to be up until midnight.

Plan Q?

After Thursday, I wanted four days of relative peace and quiet. Instead I hung out with Firstborn and Secondborn and Lark and two of their friends after work on Friday. Knitted a little but mostly ate and laughed. They sent me home with the first two seasons of Psych.

Yesterday morning I puttered. Prepared a craft project for some gluing. Added a second coat of paint on some of the trim in the dining room. Read the lesson I'm subbing in RS today (the regular teacher had a death in the family).

In the afternoon I attended SemperFi's daughter's ballet recital then drove like a bat out of Houston to have dinner with the widows and widowers group. Was briefly tempted to resume painting but opted to read, instead. My salad last night was as big as my head! I could barely fit the leftovers into the to-go container. So we know what's on the menu today. And tomorrow. And possibly Tuesday.

I put a bright pink post-it on the bathroom mirror last night to remind myself to get dressed before heading out to the kitchen.  Curtains are still down in the dining room. I'm hoping that when I go back to work on Wednesday, the trim will be finished and I will have the new (old, dating back to the penultimate apartment) curtain rod up and the peacock curtains pressed and hanging. Next step after that would be the acquisition and painting of new, taller baseboards. At which point I think I would finally be ready to rip up the carpet and go to town with the vinyl planks.

But first I need to eat breakfast and work on the RS lesson. I am so enjoying the feeling of coming unstuck.

Having a wild case of the Mondays.

I think my uterus may have a case of metaphor-itis. After last night's massage, we did a little energy work. Determined that the mysterious inflammation that we haven't been able to pin down, is related to both my uterus and my diabetes. Period. (I crack myself up!)

I'm hoping that means that fixing whatever is wrong with my uterus and losing enough weight that I no longer need to take Metformin, will eradicate the inflammation, and I can just be middle aged crabby instead.

I wouldn't say I am exactly worried. More like trying to think of all the ways this could play out and figuring out what to do in each scenario. I wish I didn't have to wait a month to find out. I have vacation and banjo camp ahead of me, and I'm hoping that when I do have a diagnosis it won't mess with either.

I'm going to the temple tonight. Maybe that will slow my brain down to Heaven Standard Time.

Some news.

The sonogram shows a thickened endometrium. I spent an hour and a half on the phone today, talking with multiple offices. But I now have an appointment in four weeks with Sarah's GYN. And I have a good feeling about this doctor and about her staff. There may be a biopsy in my future. And probably another incident of spotting between now and then.

So it was not a particularly productive day at work, and tomorrow morning is the monthly staff meeting, but I did at least get a new case opened for SemperFi. Plus official word that I will be losing half of Mellow's docket to one of the new secretaries. Serious bummer, that.

On the way home from Knit Night, I stopped to tank Lorelai. And witnessed a guy back into another car. And gave the second driver a note with my contact information. Just got off the phone with him. First driver wouldn't give his insurance information until the cop showed up and made him. Second driver told me that the other guy said he rear-ended him.

Liar liar bumper on fire. And I will be happy to give a recorded statement to that effect.

Taking my still slightly crabby self off to bed now.

Still waiting.

I should hear back on the ultrasound in the next couple of days. In the meantime I've paid bills and taken my new print to be framed. I've also ordered a bag of Scrabble tiles to finish a craft project. I had the option of spending 50 cents to a dollar per tile to get just the ones that I needed, or spending a few dollars more for a complete set. They've already shipped. I love eBay. I did have to reset my password, because it had been so long since I'd bought anything.

I am nearly half done with the black cashmere cowl from my birthday yarn. My rings are cleaned and inspected. I had planned to spend most of the day at home, making music and puttering, but I opted to spend a swathe of it at Firstborn's. Helped her wash windows, which is about the only housework task that I deeply and genuinely enjoy.

They have French doors leading to the deck, and new curtains that are going up. Lark has been living on campus for two years. Willow and her two cats have been living with Firstborn and 1BDH. On Friday the girls moved into their own place, taking critters and the old living room furniture.

Firstborn has been deep cleaning, as Secondborn is moderately allergic to Willow's cats, and BittyBubba is deathly allergic (and shows signs of developing Fourthborn's mordant wit; he remarked drily at last weekend's party for LittleBit that they were going to see if Mom survived, and if she did they would see if it's now OK for him to visit; he's six).

So the kids have a new sofa and love seat. This new one is so much easier to get up from! And a cleverly designed coffee table that converts into something of a desk, with a top that rises and oodles of storage space underneath. I might have to check into that. And new curtains, as the cats had had their way with the old ones. Hence the need to give the windows some loving care.

On the home front, I bought a can of replacement paint for the one that got rusty. So there is an increasing chance of my finishing the dining room within my lifetime. LittleBit cannot drive until she has been seizure free for six months. And I am unwilling to make two round trips to fetch her and take her home so that she may work off a small debt that she owes me.

Looks like it's back to me. I want to have that done so I may rip up the carpet in there and put down the vinyl plank flooring and move in the furniture and start using that room for its intended purpose. And then I can move on to the living room.

Right now I just want to curl up and take a nap. I can see in my mind's eye the finished dining room, with the new curtains up, the table set for company, and pictures on the walls. The reality of what is left to do to get there? Intermittently daunting.

Baby steps. And it's time to start moving forward again in that aspect of my life. Even though I would rather read or make music or knit. I have the right to live in a home that serves my purpose and my talents. I miss hosting small dinner parties.

Speaking of which, I met my friend Sooz, who lives in Hawaii but is visiting stateside, for dinner last night. We talked for four and a half hours. There is something deeply satisfying about listening to an author read from her own work. And comparing notes on dating misadventures until we met our respective husbands.

I have a four day weekend, next weekend. Maybe I will get some stuff done around here.

You know that toddler?

The one who drops her towel as soon as you lift her out of the bathtub and heads straight for the great outdoors? That was my left ovary this afternoon.

Ultrasound has changed since I was birthing babies. Significantly so. What I remember is a mouse(ish) object, body surfing across my belly on a tidal wave of KY jelly.

Not today. There was a wand with a camera, and it was following the Star Trek injunction to boldly go where no man has gone (in something over a year). My rebellious ovary was taking evasive action and generally managing to stay out of camera range. Presumably my right ovary was sitting primly in its chair, knees together, socks pulled up, reading Jane Austen and munching on an apple.

I don't know how long I was there, staring up at the holes in the acoustic tile and wishing for a poster of Sean Connery. Possibly as little as fifteen minutes, but it felt like the song that does not end. It didn't exactly hurt, but I've had more fun getting my teeth cleaned.

While I was getting dressed, I looked at the images on the monitor. They might as well have been written in reformed Egyptian. Little grainy truncated cones. Random dots of blue on a handful of them.

I'm dreaming of a blue cervix, just like the ones I used to know. (The cervix of a woman who is pregnant for the first time, turns blue because of all the new blood vessels.)

After I left the facility, I was tired and felt a little violated. So I called a friend to see if I could get a drive-by hugging. I could. And I did. And I feel much better. Dinner helped, too. Leftovers from Empty Nesters. And a single square of Ghirardelli, whereas if I could still eat anything I liked, dinner would have been a pint of Ben and Jerry.

I should have the results in a few days. In the meantime, I'm going to knit and make music.

Ultrasound tomorrow.

I'll let you know if they find any feral dust bunnies.

Doctor said that whatever this is, it's almost certainly not due to the Metformin.

Stellar evening at Knit Night. Too tired to practice either instrument, but I sang myself home.

Very happy. Peaceful. Good night!