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Here I am drop spindling some alpaca/shetland blend (from our flock) with my laptop on my lap. Yeah, that is me – geekess (it was either that or geekette). I have been spinning more lately, especially on drop spindles.
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p{clear:both;text-align:center}. Seriously.
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p{clear:both}. I’m really looking forward to our _Third Saturday Spin Along_ at “the shop.”:http://yarnalong.com It hits on June 21st this year, the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. I think that’s excuse enough to make a party out of it! We’ll have snacks and some other extra fun going on that day.
My brother was here for a 2 week visit. It was great for us all to see him and spend time with him. He’s such a teddy bear. He may not look like it but he sure is on the inside! It was particularly interesting watching him with my 3 1/2 yo nephew. My brother hadn’t visited for 2 years, so T.J. doesn’t remember my brother. When he first saw him, he ran to me, and jumped into my arms and wouldn’t let go. He resisted my brother’s attempts to interact with him. But within a very short while – maybe an hour or two, he was all over his uncle. I’ve said for a long time that young children, even babies, have incredible instincts about the true character of a person.
Between the shop move, and brother visiting, life was certainly out of order around here. I saw the allergy doctor for testing before the craziness started, and then I saw him for the follow-up last week, after the initial chaos had settled down. It turns out that I am allergic to EVERY-TREE-IN-THIS-AREA – except one. I am also allergic to half of the grasses, half of the weeds, dust mites, dogs and cats. I am so glad to have a great doctor though. He didn’t tell me to get rid of our animals – they ARE a part of the family anyhow. He did suggest some ways to deal for now, and I will be starting the long road of weekly allergy shots next week. I’ll have to go in every week for about 6 months, and then monthly for around 5 years. At that time I should be resistant to all of these allergens and have my life back. Well, that should happen even sooner, actually. I’m SO looking forward to that, as this being the worst pollen year on record, it’s really kicked me down. I’m all for short-term pain/discomfort/trouble in exchange for long term gain, so bring it on. It’s just so nice to have hope at a better quality of life I can’t even express it in words!
I’m still experiencing what I can only call Knitting-A.D.D. at this point. Yes, I’ve started a few smaller projects, but only for charity, or dishcloths, which finish fast and don’t count. I find the hardest thing when I finally sit down to knit at night during my _wind-down time_ is choosing which project to work on first.
I did manage another speaking engagement. I can hardly believe it, though. It is *SO TOTALLY* not my personally style to get up in front of strangers and talk. But thanks to another wonderful -customer- friend setting up the outreach, I spoke in front of a local “Lion’s club”:http://hendersonlions.org/ luncheon. They were an awesome audience, that sure helped. They had great questions. And I survived. Surprise, surprise, there was a reporter there from “the local paper”:http://www.thegleaner.com and she did a story about my speech. You can see the text “here”:http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/jun/11/not-just-for-grandmas/ and I may someday scan in the photo. Maybe. Regardless of me or my photo, it is great publicity for the shop and our charity projects. Our new charity project, now that the preemie hats for the NICU at our “local hospital”:http://www.methodisthospital.net was such a success, will be knitting/crocheting scarves for a local group called “Matthew 25″:http://www.matthew25clinic.org/ AIDS Services, to be given out to patients for Christmas gifts. We have a few nurses from the clinic that have been coming to knit/crochet with us at our Thursday night “Yarn Alongs”:http://www.yarnalong.com and they are wonderful people that we are enjoying getting to know.
I know that I have more to say, that I want to say, but I am getting tired, so I’ll stop for now. Oh, how I do look forward to getting my life (and my brain) back!