Update on Foot

My injured right ankle and foot are still giving me "fits".

It is getting better, but I still need to wear athletic shoes all the time. The foot still isn't very flexible and I can't be vertical for long periods of time. Last Friday, for the first time this season I ushered for the Tucson Symphony. After a day of work it was too much time on my feet, and my foot was sore Saturday and Sunday. Ice packs feel delicious! The past two days have been a little better, but it's definitely not in as good shape as before that evening.

Patience has never been my long suit anyway, and this is Frustrating. Six months now!!

I bought a wobble board, which I will probably start using a bit soon.

Sigh

Spinning!

Today I signed up for a spinning class! Not the cycling kind, but this kind.

I've been knitting for years, but just recently have become fascinated with the idea of how yarn is created. Guess I've been reading too many knitting blogs....

It's on November 20th, so I'll blog back then!

Bathroom remodel!

Awhile ago we had someone come to recaulk our tubs. Well, it turns out we have loose wall tile in both bathrooms, meaning - leaking under the tile. Yikes.

So, we started with the upstairs bathroom, which I was really glad to change anyway! It was the most inconveniently laid out tub I have EVER seen. So we decided to make a walk-in shower!

Here's the tub after they tore out the tile and moldy wall! You can see, in the lower right, the angle at which the tub was set into its platform, making for an awkward job to get into the tub (especially if you have a broken ankle!). The pipe going through that space is, according to the installer, a vent for the downstairs toilet. It had to be rerouted under the floor. (Sorry for the blur - close quarters taking the pic with my Blackberry.)

Here's the new shower! Yay! Conveniently for these pictures, the shower doors haven't come in yet, because they're a custom order. It's great to have all that elbow room!

Here's the bench on the opposite wall. Spacious!

The old floor was carpeted, with same stuff that's all over the house, if you can imagine. NOT practical in a bathroom!

So this is the new floating ceramic tile floor! It also goes around the corner to the toilet room.

It's really beautiful and nice! And with a lifetime guarantee, yet!

We're very pleased and, of course, will be even more pleased when there are shower doors....

They brought us a shower rod and plastic curtain to use in the meantime. "They say" it will be in this week!

Update: the shower doors are in! Very nice. All done now! It's so great to take a shower and not bang your elbows on the walls. Sigh.

Relaxing Week Off

What a pleasant week!

I managed to do almost nothing! Except knit, watch recorded TV shows, work out a few times, overeat a bit... a good time.

Yes, I did SOME cleaning, and got the leak in the garage roof fixed. It leaked inside after last Friday night's rainstorm, near the spout that comes off the roof (they call it a canally). They were old and inexpertly sealed and leaked inside the roof into the inside. Not the first thing in this house we've had to fix because someone in the past took the easy/cheap way to fix something. Grrr.

Anyway, the kitties have enjoyed being out on the porch a lot, and I've tried not to feel lazy, but being lazy is what vacations should be sometimes.

Today I bought a bread machine. I've been thinking about it for awhile, because of my gluten problems and the fact that commercial gluten-free bread is very "white" and fiberless, etc. Not healthy. I'm hoping to make some more fiberful and healthy bread myself. I've found some recipes and will start experimenting tomorrow! Stay tuned.

Vacation!

Friday morning I drove Jim to the airport and he left for his 2-week trip to Germany, Belgium and Paris with his sister.


This week I will be on a do-nothing (serious) vacation!


I've never done this before - taking time off from work and not planning anything. Of course, by now I have a list, but I'm going to try not to live by it! I want to just spend the time and do what I WANT. Knit, read, etc. Will do my workouts, but that's all!


No long walks - see previous post!


I'll update you as I go....

Update on the foot

Well....

Last Tuesday I had an MRI on my right foot, which I had twisted and fractured the last week of April. It had been getting better, but then a week or so ago it began hurting "differently" - various kinds of sensations, sometimes pain, sometimes tightness, sometimes twinging....

Thus, the MRI.

The results were kind of surprising, but they explained all the things I was feeling!

I'm including the picture (from my favorite anatomy book from chiro college) so you can see the small bones that make up the foot.

In several of the small bones I have what they call "bone marrow edema". Edema in general refers to swelling. I've never heard of BONE edema! My doctor (and a couple of websites!) explained that it's a finding that only shows up on an MRI. It means, among a few other things that don't apply here, that there was trauma. Yeah. I know! There's also some inflammation around a tendon sheath, so that explains the occasional soreness up the front of my shin.

The bones that are affected are in the area that was crushed together when I twisted my ankle, which was a really fast and hard twist. I'm not sure why they haven't healed.

What it means is more healing time, and more wearing my big shoes (not so great in this heat!).

I'm anxious to do some cardio, but there's little I can do with my ankle like this. I have been doing weight training, adapting for the ankle limitations. I've done 5 minutes on the elliptical trainer, which seems to stress it the least. Dr. said not to do a lot of walking - repetitive stress.

Sigh.

No one has mentioned low bone density or "considering the patient's age" or stuff like that, so I think I'm okay there.

I guess I just can't do things the normal way - have to get all drama about it!

Pray for healing!

Rant on clothes shopping....

It is soooo frustrating to be tall and try to find clothes that fit!

Today I was trying to find workout pants, not full length but not shorts. I went to a Lane Bryant store. Years ago they had a whole section of clothes for tall people. Nowadays all they have is "women's sizes" - meaning, LARGE. I understand that they need clothes to fit them, but I get CRAZY that no one seems to care about tall people. So often I hear people say, Oh, how nice to be so tall! Well, I don't mind being tall now that I'm an adult, but I sure would like that admiration to extend to being considered worth making clothes for!

The saleswoman at Lane Bryant kept saying they had tall sizes, but I couldn't find any - just 22's and 28's, ++++ etc. They only had dress pants, and few at that. She just gave me a withering look, like it's my fault I'm not LARGE. (I guess it is, tho. Hmm. Maybe I should just get fat again.)

And MEN have Big and Tall stores. Is this prejudice against women? I don't get it.

I've looked on the internet, but all I could find were long pants. Oh, there was ONE shorter pair, but the "waist" clearly didn't cover the navel. Yeah, right.

Arghhh!

Lazy Day

We are all getting a little rest, this "extra" day after the Fourth of July.


Here's Robert, napping on my NEW Split Rock bag. Nothing is complete around here till it's been baptized with cat hair.








Here's Sister, napping in one her fave spots, not looking especially petite....








Hope everyone had a great Fourth! We were invited to a friend's house last night, whose yard looks out over the great fireworks at the Tucson Country Club. Fun, nostalgic, etc.

Thank God we have the privilege to live in this free nation! Let us not forget we need to take responsibility to maintain it.

Back to Fitness!

Today I had my first training workout at LA Fitness. I joined because my Curves closed (sob!). I knew the now-nearest Curves was too far away for me to be as loyal in my workouts as before. I know myself when it comes to exercise - I don't like it! The LA Fitness is about the same distance, ~1.something miles. My husband Jim has been a member there for awhile.

Last week I signed up for some training so I can really get started well and have professional guidance on what to do - there have to be a thousand machines there! Today was the first session. My arms are rubber right now....

I really am more suited to couch-sitting and knitting, alternated with some cat-feeding and brushing. Oh, and crossword puzzling. But I surely do feel better when I work out, better mentally and physically. And the memory of my mom's osteoporotic spine is very motivating.

I am so fortunate that this is available!

Personality Quiz

A friend on Ravelry posted this, so I filled in the quiz and these are my results: (can't resist a quiz!)

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive. Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes and 3 Stupid Ones

Turns out, I got the exact same result she did! Is this because we all want to be "very rare"? Interesting...

Ankle Fracture 2010

I twisted my right ankle while playing golf on April 27th. I had to wear this boot until last Tuesday. It's healed well, but now my foot is rather unbendable!

The task for the next weeks is to regain my mobility - right now it's swelling again because of the renewed activity. Huh. Not fun. But I have exercises to do and remind myself to be grateful it was a simple fracture and the body does heal!

Pix from Split Rock

This is a display of our group's Samplers ...
We decided that we would rather learn MORE STUFF, more techniques, than to produce a
lovely finished product. We did plan at least one Yarnbombing project (look it up!), but liked
the idea of learning more. They do look strange, but we had a blast - and a few do-overs!

Here we are at our studio worktable

Pix from Split Rock

Below are some of the things we played with, and expanded our brains about, at the Split Rock workshop.

Here's an example of knitting a non-traditional "linear element" - strips of sheeting!

Here's another -- medical tubing (I did this one!)

More on Structural Knitting Workshop

Finally getting some time to show pix of the Workshop from last week! I'm still learning how to use the blog and it takes some time to figure it all out. Not a huge techie...!

Today at Split Rock

It's our third full day at the U of Minnesota at our workshop/seminar. (The U calls their summer art workshops Split Rock.)



We are learning not only some of the "mechanics" of structural knitting, but also how to think in knit, how to plan shapes, projects....



Our teacher is Adrienne Sloane, who is great at this! She keeps asking questions so we have to figure things out - no rote learning/knitting here!



It's so wonderful to be thinking of knitting in three dimensions - it opens up its myriad possibilities! The past two days we've been knitting samplers of various techniques that we can use to knit shapes and attachments, etc. We've had political discussions about knitting too!



We visited the studio of a structural knitter here in Minneapolis/St.Paul, Karen Searle. It was enlightening for me to see the studio of a "real" artist. At first it just looked chaotic. Then as she talked about her art and creating it and I just hung out in the space, I could get a glimpse of the artistic process. Very good.



She's written and published a book called "Knitting Art", which presents many structural knitters, with prose about their lives and approaches, and great photos of some of their pieces. I found several that are very inspiring - by which I mean that I could see trying to do something like that. But I noticed that each person has their own approach, techniques that they've developed as a result of their experiences and talents and likes. The idea would be for me to find that. But perhaps I can emulate them first, then find something personal.



Knitting a sock or a shawl is one thing. Being artistic, creating something new, and that makes a statement - that's different! This is great fun.

My Vacation!

On Sunday I leave for Minneapolis to take part in a knitting workshop - not just ANY knitting workshop. This one is "Quiet Revolution: Knitting and the Political Landscape". It's about sculptural knitting, knitting used as an art form.

I was looking for something interesting to do for a week's vacation - this came up - after much consideration, I decided to go for it! I leave early Sunday morning and return Saturday night.

I look forward to getting out of the pattern rut! Yikes!

Day One! June 11, 2010

Well, obviously,what I'm up to today is starting a blog! I really don't know what I'm doing.... but game for it.