Chicken nuggets of sorrow and regret.

We were taking Fourthborn home from the performance at Bitty-Bit's school. And I said something or did something that caused Middlest to say, "I'm going to throw something at you. Chicken nuggets. That's what popped into my mind to throw at you."

Fourthborn queried, "Chicken nuggets of victory?"

And Middlest replied in a mock-somber voice, "No, chicken nuggets of sorrow and regret."

~~~

A couple of minutes later, out of nowhere Middlest said, "So when I heard the Cubs won the World Series, the first thing I did was check Snopes (insert uproarious laughter from Fourthborn and me here). And the second thing was make sure it wasn't an Onion article that got reported as real news. Because that happens sometimes."

~~~

In other news, I adulted today. Our wonderful dentist is paid in full for all three of us. I told myself sternly that I couldn't order another doll or put one on layaway until that was taken care of. I've fired off an email to Denver Doll, and now I am going to bed.

A calculating woman.

What have I done tonight, you ask? I have played with spreadsheets and numbers and receipts and the like. Tomorrow I will pay off the dentist for this year, for Middlest and Fourthborn and me. I've also figured out what to do about the flex account for next year. In two words: max it. It will effectively negate the cash-flow improvements I've made over the past two months, at least until the reimbursements start flowing back in. I'm hoping for a good raise next year, because next year I will also have to start paying Medicare premiums. I'm not worried. We will make it OK; it's just going to be tighter than either of us would like. And it will ease significantly in 2018.

After work I'll head to the Bitties' school, as Bitty-Bit has something or other going on, and I want to see it. This is not the annual grandparents' day (otherwise known as, isn't our school great, and don't you want to give us all of your retirement money?) but a play or a concert. It will be fun.

Speaking of fun: The Piano Guys' mashup of Pachelbel's Canon with U2's With or Without You.



You're welcome.

So, I looked at Squishy's doll.

He's cute, and he's not for me. I spent five minutes or more wrangling a pair of slightly too small britches over his thighs. The waistband kept getting caught in his mobility joints*, then at his bum, and the whole process was Not Fun. Dolls are supposed to be fun. I peeled him out of the britches and swaddled him up again and put him in his box. Somebody will love him.

*Some dolls are cast with mobility joints. Every doll company that uses mobility joints, designs them differently. Picture a string that circles a thigh. Now picture a horizontal plane bisects that thigh where the string is, so you have two circles that touch, or a ball in a socket, and you can rotate the lower leg in or out. Squishy's guy has one like that. My unicorn girl, Faith, has a different type which enables me to balance her in various positions when she's wearing her hooved legs. Temperance has one in her trunk which enables her to sit up straight, slouch forward, or lean back. She doesn't sit well, so I need all the help I can get.

It's been a good day. I got a new answer ready for SemperFi and another one for The Kid. I picked up two new-to-me skirts from a friend in the ward, and an ethnic-embroidered shirt and a really cool knitted vest. Also one of my Rx's. And a box of padded envelopes because six or twelve of them were one price, and 25 of them were a dollar more. And bananas and apples and tomatoes.

I found out tonight that the Ante sculpt (Chutzpah) is available in an even smaller (PukiPuki) size. I knew she was available in LittleFee size (like Hope and Charity), and Middlest informed me that from time to time she is available in MiniFee size (like Steadfast). She has one of the sweetest faces around, no matter her size. And the tiniest size has a wig with Princes Leia buns, which would be perfect for someone who grew up into Chutzpah's exuberant mop.

I need to get the mortgage paid off so that my doll budget can increase without impacting my quality of life, or my desire to help lift the downtrodden and frazzled (because I have been both).

Bed. I am going to bed now. Or soon. Ish.

Knock it off emoji.

This is the best that I could come up with. Pink shirt. Fierce expression. I tied with two others for third place, and I got a stress ball with a particularly goofy emoji face, which is probably more than I deserved for the effort I put into it

Years ago, when I bought Faith, she came with the unicorn head that I use and a spare, fully human head. Soom does not sell body parts a la carte for its dolls. So I've had an unused head tucked away in a box ever since. Middlest was given some odd doll bits and has several floating heads that need bodies.

We found out that there is at least one doll company that will resin-match. One of these nights I'll take the spare head to Home Depot and try to find a paint chip that matches. For about $80 I can get a perfectly serviceable body to be Faith's fraternal twin and save myself about $400 (if the Beyla sculpt were still available). And I learned recently that Beyla is a winged centaur baby, and not a unicorn girl. Could have fooled me. Edited to add: no, the faces were reissued three years ago as unicorns with wings. And they were just precious.

Middlest has been hosting two of Squishy's dolls to see if either of them fits into one storyline or another. Middlest is thinking "yes" for the larger doll and "nope" for the other. I like the elfin ears, but I need to dress the doll and put on his wig before I can tell if he will fit into the crew. Steadfast is my only male doll, and he would probably like some company, but the male sculpts in general do not pull me the way the female dolls do.

I am too sleepy to safely handle a doll that is not my own, so I will set the box aside until tomorrow. I need to take my meds and hit the sack.

Speaking of meds, I got a letter in the mail which said that CVS will no longer be a preferred pharmacy for my HMO as of 2017, so it looks as if I will be signing up to get my meds by mail. I feel a little crabby about that. But if it means that my meds will be even less expensive than they are now, I can probably get over it.

Night, y'all. Where did October go?

Not much to see here.

Sleep, church, more sleep, a little eating, a lot of water, no loss of balance while conducting the music at church, and one really cool thing.

Middlest's shoulder went out yesterday. (That's not the cool thing.) This is something that happens fairly often to Middlest and Fourthborn, and they know how to put things back in place fairly quickly. Middlest remarked that several friends with the same autoimmune problem have airplane pillows (those U-shaped ones) which they tuck into their armpits to partially immobilize the joint, and could we pick one up tomorrow (Monday)?

I mentioned this to the RS president before church, and her face lit up. She had bought one for a trip, didn't like it, and it was just taking up space at their place. After my post-church nap, I called first then drove over to bring it home. Middlest is quietly elated, and we're hoping it does the trick tonight.

In other news, I noticed last week that Middlest's name was not showing up on the roll for Sunday school. I mentioned it to my bishop at the service project yesterday, and he said to get with the membership clerk and it would be taken care of. Said clerk was not at church today, but the financial clerk said that he could help. We found Middlest, linked my kid to my household, and then updated the name change.

I'm not sure how to handle that on Ancestry or FamilySearch, but that's a problem for another day.

It is now past midnight, I've successfully resisted the urge to whip out my credit card and order another doll (who has a tiny mandolin and a right hand in plucking position), and I'm going to bed before my willpower crumbles. I don't particularly want the doll (who is cute but doesn't tug at my heartstrings like the one I might have ordered recently), but I want the mandolin, and it only comes with the fullset.

The thought came to me this morning that if I were to buy this doll, I could name her Praise. She might be able to keep Chutzpah and Grace out of too much trouble by strumming madrigals. Or In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. I just read this to Middlest, who said that Praise would be my bard, and must have a high charisma rate.

Bed. I'm going to bed. Now.

Thursday's project

I've already posted this on Facebook, so please excuse if you've seen it. The colors aren't true; that wall is a much more bluish green. And if you look carefully, reflected in the glass of the shadowbox is the bargello printed upholstery which graces my wing chair.

The two rectangular plates were a Christmas gift from Firstborn and 1BDH. The ceramic tile inside the shadowbox was a handout in Relief Society earlier this year. I thought that my friend B had made it, but she commented on FB that it had been done by the sister in the missionary couple who had served in our ward. I knew the three pieces would work together, and would fit in the space between my large picture of a smiling Savior and the front door.

I have the glass to finish my narrow butterfly print that I bought at Main Street Arts Festival, for which I scored that bargain of a custom frame at an online shop. I had (vaguely) planned to finish putting that together today, but Middlest is finally sleeping, and it's late, so I will defer the hammering and finagling until a more reasonable hour.

In other news, when I awoke from my much-needed nap an hour ago and looked for my knitting bag, it was not hanging on the back of my bedroom door. I looked around my room. I looked around the living room. I looked at the back of the door; it had not magically appeared while I was looking elsewhere. I wondered if I had left it at the restaurant on Tuesday night, so I called them to see if it was in their lost and found. Finally I looked inside a large reusable shopping bag which typically hangs out in the kitchen but was sitting in a corner of my room. Bingo! So now if you will kindly excuse me, I'm going to work on my shawl.

Phone is dead again tonight.

I'll try to remember to post pictures in the morning. It's been a good day. Costco run is over, likewise Trader Joe, and the Tardis is tanked, and I've picked up an Rx, and we had mini pizzas for dinner.

Tomorrow there's a ward service project at 8:30. We are going to help clean up the fire training center. I don't know how useful I'm going to be; I had a charley horse shortly before the alarm went off this morning, and now that I'm tired it keeps threatening to come back.

I got about a round and a quarter worked on the current baby sock, which makes (I think) the first actual knitting since Monday. Or maybe even Sunday.

In the afternoon we are going to visit one of the doll folk who lives nearby. She's asked to see two or three of my dolls, and I don't know how many of Middlest's, and it will be fun to see what she collects.

I almost bought another doll tonight. Cute sculpt (another Pukifee) with a costume which includes a wee mandolin. I wish it were possible to just buy the costume, but no dice.

My goal for this weekend, as expressed to my coworkers just before quitting time, was to stay in pajamas until time to get ready for church. I had forgotten about the service project or the dolly adventure. Both of which I truly want to do (because firemen ... and friends). So I'm hoping for a nap between service project and excursion, and maybe another after we get home from our friend's house.

I'm done. Night, y'all.

Finished project goes *here*.

Or it would, if snapping the picture hadn't taken the last bit of enthusiasm from my phone. If you could see what I see, you would see two white rectangular plates to the left of my "smiling Savior" picture, and hanging between them is a shadowbox holding a tile that one of the RS teachers made to illustrate a lesson before she was called into the presidency. And they all look great, and I'll try to remember to show you when my phone isn't sulking.

The other major accomplishment tonight is that I browned a pound of hamburger and added taco seasoning. Middlest added a portion to the leftover chicken and rice. I added a portion to a cup of easy mac, and there was just enough left for me to take to work tomorrow with another container of easy mac.

I closed another case for SemperFi. I didn't knit a stitch all day. I managed to keep my energy level more or less constant. I caught an oversight on a case that we're closing for The Kid (I can't think of anything more clever to call him) before it blew up in our faces. (The Spirit gets credit for that one.) I didn't say anything snarky to the two 30-somethings who were dissing their husbands at lunch. Maybe that was yesterday. "At least yours are mortal and here for you to fight with," would be a real conversation stopper.

The weirdness of my dreams is decreasing slightly. I don't know if they're related to one of my medicines or if I'm picking up ambient anxiety from coworkers or family. Heaven knows I have enough of my own stuff to wrangle. (Hello, Lexapro?)

It's interesting to read the reports that SemperFi sends to claims on a periodic basis and to recognize the names of the medicines that some of the plaintiffs are on.  Ooh, I take that. Middlest takes that, and that, and that one no longer because side effects. I'm thankful to only take three, and at very low doses, and that they work for me.

Speaking of which, I should have taken mine nine minutes ago. Later, gators.

Knit Night, Trunk or Treat, and precious little sleep.

We went to a new-to-us Mexican restaurant last night. I loved the food. I loved the conversation. I loved that both Middlest and Fourthborn had enough spoons to be there. And it made for a very late night, with no knitting because I was so busy talking and listening. We left the restaurant at 9:00, took Fourthborn home, came home by way of the grocery store so that we would have candy for Trunk or Treat tonight. It was nearly midnight when I crashed.

Middlest had a rough night of it. Awoke with an anaphylactic reaction, possibly to the cilantro in the salsa. I'll spare you the details, but I was awakened around 4:00am by my kid violently coughing in the bathroom and struggling to breathe. Multiple carefully spaced doses of Benadryl, the inhaler, and ibuprofen gradually restored some semblance of order. I was able to get back to sleep before the alarm went off at 6:00. Middlest finally felt well enough to fall asleep after I left for work an hour later, and slept through most of the day.

We took two large bags of candy to Trunk or Treat after work tonight, and we passed it all out in roughly half an hour then came home. I've been reading Facebook, eating (too much) ice cream, and tidying my inbox.

Middlest is feeling well enough to try eating the entree from last night, and I am taking my meds and going to bed. Night, y'all.

I learned something really wild (and true) today.

I read it to three of my (female) co-workers at lunch, and we all got a little teary-eyed. This, from the Yarn Harlot. Here I am with five kids, and I didn't know this thing.

So I guess one of the things I might be doing after I retire, is helping women in difficult situations get enough good quality food that their grandchildren will flourish.

Heavenly Father really does think of everything.

Taking upon us the name(s) of Christ.

One of our missionary elders spoke on devotion in sacrament meeting today. One of the topics that he touched on was taking upon us the name of Christ. The most obvious way that we LDS do this is in the name of the church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. LDS for short, and to avoid the too-frequent repetition of the Lord's name. Just as we call it the Melchizedek (higher) priesthood, to avoid saying The Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God.

The elder went on to list some of the names of the Savior that we find in the scriptures: the Prince of Peace, the Holy One, the Redeemer. And my mind started to drift onto a rabbit trail, so I wrote down a prompt and redirected my focus to his talk.

If you look in the Bible Dictionary under "Christ, names of" there are four subheadings:

1. Names, titles, and concepts of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament (25 links, not counting the cross-references to other scriptures)
2. Names, titles, and concepts of Jesus in the Gospels and Acts (I lost count at 65, and I was maybe a third of the way down that section.)
3. Names, titles, and concepts of Christ in the Epistles (stopped counting at 30, and there were lots more)
4. Names, titles, and concepts of Christ in the book of Revelation (42? I got a little distracted.)

And this does not count the references to Christ in the Book of Mormon or the Doctrine & Covenants. You could take just one of those names and keep busy for hours, bouncing back and forth among the scriptures, making notes in the margins, journaling. My favorites are the ones from Isaiah which Brother Handel set to music: Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

How could I take those names upon myself? It will be eons before I have progressed spiritually to a point where my children can call me capital-W wonderful. But I can live a life here filled with wonder and a greater sense of awe. I can take counsel from the Spirit and counsel my descendants in righteousness. I can, with the help of the Spirit and by the power of the Atonement, gradually accrete more of the virtues and practices of godliness, becoming a pearl of great price. I have the promise that, as I honor my temple covenants, learn to subdue the grosser inclinations of mortality, and strive to follow my Savior, I can prepare to live the kind of life my Heavenly Parents have. As a daughter of the King, I have the potential to become peaceful and wise. I am a princess in embryo. As I find my ancestors and provide saving ordinances for them, I bring them even more closely to their Savior than they were during mortality. As I share the gospel in its fullness with my friends when they express interest, I am a messenger of the covenant.

This Sabbath has not been wasted.

This was supposed to be a last-night post.

However, I took a nap at 6:00 or so, slept for four hours, then remembered that I needed to hit the grocery store to replenish our bottled water and Middlest's caffeine source (for migraine relief). I took the scenic route home, by way of In N Out. Once we'd eaten, we unloaded the Tardis, and now it's 1:00am 2:00am, and I'm [still] not quite tired enough to go back to sleep, but I'm getting there.

I delayed taking my muscle relaxer and other meds until after the dash to the store, because I rather like this being-alive thing, and I don't want to harm anyone else, either.

I pre-ordered a doll from Denver Doll Emporium to be the embodiment of Joy. She should arrive in 12-18 weeks, or sometime around Valentine's Day. Another PukiFee to join Chutzpah and Grace. Grace is fully human. Chutzpah has elfie-ears. This new one is a sheeple. I couldn't resist those floppy ears.

The city delivered our new recycling bins late yesterday afternoon. I heard a THUMP-rumble-rumble repeated half a dozen times before I got curious and opened the front door. They put it square in the middle of my driveway, so I had to move it before I ran to the store. This will be a big improvement over the smallish open red bins I've been using. Less chance of wind scattering my recyclables hither and yon. And it's easier to roll a large covered bin to the curb than to schlepp two brimming boxes, especially if one of them is loaded to the gills in paper and cardboard.

I picked up more gold tissue paper in the morning and finished wrapping my sister's birthday gifts and sealed up the box to mail after work on Monday. Also bought the glass for my 4" x 28" butterfly print ~ the one where I ordered the frame online, and it came fully and perfectly assembled. I opted not to use museum glass for this print, nor the non-glare option. Just a UV-resistant clear glass because I want to be done with this and get it up on the wall in the dining room.

Speaking of things up on the walls, I finally hung one of the ceramic plates that Firstborn gave me for Christmas last year. About five minutes ago. I'm waiting to hang the second until I find a shadowbox that I like for the tile I got in RS earlier this year, because I want to hang it above the first plate and below the second.

One last random thought: the problem with ordering clothing online is that I'm now getting all the catalogues. Good thing I now have a large recycling bin.

Wrap session.

Tonight was mini pizzas for dinner, a few hands of solitaire while they baked and while visiting with Middlest afterwards, then into my room to wrap four of the five packages. I found one of my small silk scarves in my studio while looking for the last of the gold tissue paper (which I never found). So there is one box left to wrap after I make a quick trip to the party store in the morning, and then I can run the box to the post office and get it to my sister in time for her birthday. I have one last Priority Mail label and one last Priority Mail box. I've productively used up saved lengths of ribbon and one small bolt. Feeling frugal and creative and at peace with the world.

I've taken my meds and am waiting for the muscle relaxer to kick in. I fought sleep off and on all day, but now that I have an opportunity to give those impulses free rein, they are standing on the corner singing doo-wop and refusing to look me in the eye.

This was my third day of adding songs to my Eva Cassidy station. I'm skipping male vocalists at this point, but I did add one male pianist because I liked his style. So I've added a bit of Adele, a couple of Alison Krauss (skipped a couple of hers as well), decided after hearing two songs that I'm not fond of Colbie Caillat, really like kd lang's version of "Hallelujah," and Fleetwood Mac is a yes, because all I can hear is Stevie Nicks, but I don't really need three versions of "Landslide" thank you very much.

I need to go to Costco tomorrow, because I have one last dose of Zyrtec, and I will not shop on Sunday. I think I will make another pot of potato leek soup and maybe bake some cornbread. But mostly I want to read, visit with Middlest, think, and craft. This week has been more slowly paced than last week, and I'm thankful, and I would like more of the same next week. I think a gentle weekend might help to make that a reality.

And that's a wrap.

Shopping.

When Middlest and I were at the Container Store a few weeks ago, we spotted something that would be a lovely joke to include with my sister's birthday or Christmas present. I bought it after work tonight and will photograph it for a future reveal, along with the story of why it is so funny.

And I needed a pink shirt for Friday, because we're all supposed to Think Pink, and I'm fresh out. So I went online to my favorite place for layering tops, and they had one in ballet pink. After work I called the local shop to see if they had one in stock in my size. They had one left and set it aside for me. The last batch I bought were two for $30, and there was an extra sale that ends today, where I could get two for $25. So I did. I bought another dark brown shirt to replace the one which got stained a few months ago. The one where I sewed on buttons carefully in a triangular pattern from the neck and shoulders to mid-chest, alternating various values of brown buttons from one of those color-themed packs at Jo-Ann. When I tried the shirt on, I discovered that I'd not been quite as careful with button placement as I had thought. Two big light brown buttons exactly where they should not be. So I hung it up in the back of my closet where it could think about how it had tricked me. I will eventually remove the buttons, cut up the shirt into four sections, and share it with Middlest, Fourthborn, and Mel. (I just realized that if I were to have Middlest or Fourthborn doodle on it, I could say that it was hung, drawn, and quartered. A little gallows humor. Sorry not sorry.)

Tomorrow we have the monthly doctor's appointment for Middlest, after which I will drop my kid off at the house, and Squishy will come by at some point to fetch, feed, and get into mischief together.

I've begun an Eva Cassidy station on my Pandora. I was just in the mood for female voices and mellow tones. So far I've given the thumbs-up to Bonnie Raitt (oh yes, please) and an unusually mellow song by Aretha, and the thumbs-down to one and possibly two songs by Norah Jones. I adored her voice when she first began recording, but not so much in recent years. Much as I love Sweet Baby James, I passed him over, so the only guy currently on this playlist is Izzy and his version of "Over the Rainbow." I love the orchestration. I love his voice. And it makes me a little nuts (hush!) that he scrambles up the phrases. I think this station will be slow to build, because I think I want it to be almost exclusively female voices. I've come a long way from my man-bashing days. The first couple of years after divorcing the children's father, I listened to very few male singers, primarily as an antidote to all the years of unavoidable talk radio when we were married. (Which was probably his desperate attempt to counteract the estrogen-fueled atmosphere in our home.)  [Middlest nodded vigorously when I read that.]

I'm going to see how much knitting I can do before bedtime. I'm trying to re-establish my bedtime routine. I think it's hilarious that going to bed sensibly is referred to as "sleep hygiene." I'm a widow. And I bathe regularly. Come up with your own punchline.

Minutiae.

Good day at work. Got my desk back under control.

Put three potatoes, a leek, and a can of chicken broth in the tiny Crock-pot before leaving for work. Middlest plugged it in around 9 or 10. The aroma bowled me over when I walked in the door tonight. All that remained was to stir some cornstarch into some half and half, add it to the pot, and wait a bit. Two generous servings for dinner, and a small one to take for lunch tomorrow.

After dinner, we hopped in the Tardis and hit three game shops for Pokemon codes for Middlest, Fourthborn, Squishy, and M back in Tennessee.

I added maybe two rounds to the current baby sock.

We skipped Knit Night.

And my eyelids are getting heavy, which I take as a good sign.

That's all I've got for you tonight.

Feed His sheep? Sure!

Woke up this morning well ahead of the chickens, to head downtown an hour earlier than normal so that I could meet five coworkers and help serve breakfast at the cafe which is operated by a downtown church in conjunction with the homeless shelter. For a little over an hour, I filled glass after glass of milk. I think I emptied at least a dozen tall pitchers. We fed over 400 people. It was a lovely, tender, energizing, and intermittently hilarious event. I want to do this again.

One guy told me, "Just one more glass, and then no more. I gotta drive, and I don't want to be pulled over for driving under the influence of milk." I told him that I've been really lucky, because I've never gotten caught, and I'm definitely guilty.

At another table, the guy on my left looked up and grinned, "Hey, you gave him more milk than me." I looked down at the two of them, grinned back, and told them they were just like my kids. And then I told them about how, when the kids were little, I had to divide up the Easter M&Ms by color and make sure that nobody got one more than a sibling. (Bonus: I got to eat the extras.)

I should have taken my pedometer (not that I know where it is), because I'm pretty sure that I got my 10,000 steps in. If I had been standing in the serving line, I'd probably be pretty miserable by now, but because I kept moving nothing really hurts, and it was relatively easy to put my sneakers back on at the end of the day.

I also had a reasonably productive day at work. I didn't get everything done, but I got a lot done. And that will just have to do.

I ate breakfast around 5:30, before leaving the house, and by the time I finished my shift at the cafe, I had blown through all of those calories. I got a plate at the deli (eggs, bacon, biscuit) washed down with a pint of orange juice, and that lasted me until lunchtime at 1:00. At which point I went back to the deli and got a single puff pastry filled with (really) spicy beef, because I didn't want a large lunch after two breakfasts. Around 3:00 I inhaled the muffin half that I'd brought to work, and now that I'm home, I'm eating a ginormous salad.

It is wonderful to feel awake and clear-headed at 7:15p.m. I hope that I can wind down enough to go to sleep in two or three or however many hours.

Oh hi! And Plan B.

I really am trying to blog every day, but we went to IKEA last night, and all three of us came home exhausted. Middlest bolted for the middle bedroom, I went into my room and closed the door, and Fourthborn communed with her laptop.

I slept until approximately my usual waking time and woke up feeling human again. Both kids slept until approximately noon. So I had a quiet morning of reading and snacking and knitting. The third section of the Geology Shawl is finished, and when I post this I will commence the fourth section.

I'd been looking forward to tonight's bluegrass festival ever since it popped up on my calendar, but as it rained off and on all morning, and while I ran to Costco and the grocery store early this afternoon, I decided it would be wiser to go to the doll meet with my kids. I took Blessing. Fourthborn took Xavin, and Middlest took Orion and Twinkle. We all had a good time visiting with other doll folk until Pie Five turned up the music around 9:00, when Middlest signed "finish" and we picked up our stuff and left.

I did more or less finish the cuff of the current baby sock while we were out. I will probably finish the sock while at the singles conference tomorrow, or at the adult session of stake conference tomorrow night.

If I were a sensible woman, I'd go to bed right now, but I just finished the last of my pizza, and it needs to settle if I don't want to wake up in two hours with a crabby stomach. So I'll play a hand or two of solitaire, noodle around on Facebook, and go knit until it's safe to be horizontal.

Feeling mischievous.

I discovered the perfect thing for one of the few people who actually gets a birthday gift from me these days. And that's all I'm going to say for now.

Had dinner with one of my visiting teach-ees tonight. Mediterranean, and I brought home hummus (which will go to work with me tomorrow) and the other half of my gyro. It was good to catch up with her. We are planning another dinner in January, after the holiday madness is over.

I am two and a half rows away from finishing this section of the Geology Shawl chart. (There are three rows of garter stitch after every chart. I'm not counting those.) If I'm lucky, I'll finish the half-row tonight. My body is screaming for sleep, and I intend to be in bed before this hour is up.

Work went well. I have four cases this week that are pending closed, and I did the initial tasks on all four over the past two days.

I washed a load of whites this morning and got them into the dryer before leaving for work. I just emptied the dryer and brought the basket inside. Pretty sure that nothing is getting folded before I go to bed tonight.

And that's all she wrote.

Blogging from my phone.

This was not a good night for knitting. I had to slip in extra markers and recount stitches at least three times before I could confirm that I was two rows ahead of where I thought I was in the pattern, mark those lines accordingly, and add one full row of new knitting. Most of my time at Knit Night was spent scowling at or mystified by the chart and the shawl. But finally I got them to agree, put my project in my bag (after triumphantly making the row done, and took my kids to two different game shops to pick up Pokemon cards. It's almost 11:30, I haven't taken my meds yet, and I am even more done than my knitting. Tomorrow's gonna be a long one.

Decidedly delighted digits.

So I've said that I don't knit while I'm up on the stand during sacrament meeting, because I don't want to be a distraction to the congregation. I sit quietly with my hands more or less in my lap, and I listen. Sometimes I pick my hands up slightly and massage one hand with the other, then switch off. But mostly I try to be invisible until it's time to stand up and conduct the hymns.

I noticed yesterday that after two months of a low-dose muscle relaxer at bedtime, there is a greater range of motion in my hands. I can't quite bend my wrists back at a right angle, but my hands go back farther than they did, and my fingers remain straight instead of curling stubbornly. And it doesn't hurt to do this.

In news of the crabby, when I walked out into the parking garage after work, I noticed a big Lexus SUV-type vehicle parked halfway in one space and halfway in the handicapped spot. I determined to take a picture of the license plate and pull into my office manager's parking space on the upper level and go show the picture to security. I got into the Tardis, opened up the camera on my cell phone, and backed out. When I was halfway to the other car, a woman came out of the elevator, around the back of her car, and got in. She did not appear to be handicapped (yes, I know that some handicaps are invisible, but she was walking briskly).

I was slightly tempted to park right behind her and take that picture anyway, but I figured she'd do something unpredictable, so I kept going. And fuming. She followed me up the ramp to wait for the light to change. I was tempted to sit there until it turned yellow, but there was a chance she'd pull around me and go up the downhill side. And maybe there'd be an accident.

So I behaved myself (at least outwardly) and started praying crabbily. First I prayed for her to be blessed for whatever it is that she was doing right (because obviously, it didn't include knowing how to park). And then I started praying for an attitude change, because nobody died and made me her judge. And then I prayed that she would never need to use a handicapped spot, but that if she ever did, she would remember the time that she hogged half of one and reinforced my prejudice against Lexii and their drivers. As soon as I got to a long light, I fired up my Pandora and switched it to my Mormon Tabernacle Choir station.

By the time I got home, I was singing along. And meaning it. I love how music can clear the cobwebs out of my mind and heart, giving my spirit a chance to get back in charge. I didn't want to bring any crabbiness home to Middlest, who is just coming out of an off again, on again week long migraine.

We had a successful shopping trip to Bed Bath and Beyond. Middlest has a manic cat timer, and I have an anxious (or possibly just cross-eyed) ladybug timer. Neither of them are magnetic, so eventually we will want to get some of that magnetized tape and make them so. I used the cat to time tonight's pizzas. Works like a champ.

I am now going to knit for half an hour or so and go to bed like a sensible adult. Stop laughing.