Warmth

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. It really makes a difference to know that people care and are wishing your family well - like a warm hug.

Little Brother is doing as well as we can expect. He survived his surgery and has been holding steady throughout the day. The doctors do not think he lost vision in his left eye. He also appears to have use of both sides of his body, though he is stronger on the left side. He recognizes Mom and Dad's voices and is squeezing a hand when someone is holding his. Just a couple hours ago he was upgraded from critical condition to serious condition.

We are hoping the good news continues - that he can still talk, that he can read and write and think the same. We may get some more insight tomorrow because he is supposed to be more alert as the sedation wears off.

I'm going to see him on Thursday, when I fly down to KY for the weekend. My older brother and sister should be there too. I'm already thinking about knitting Little Bro a hat. They shaved his head today. He'll need something to keep his head warm and scars covered. So far, I've decided on bt's Koolhaas. Can you think of another pattern that would work well? I want to use soft yarns that will not itch and not be too hot for wearing indoors.

And thanks again. I know that having support across the country, and even the globe, is helping Little Bro heal and improve.

A Call for Prayer

My little brother fell off a two-story balcony last night and landed on his head. He was rushed to the hospital. Several teams of surgeons worked to fix him - neurosurgeons, ear nose & throat, and eye docs. He split his scull from his eye to the back of his head. When he arrived, they thought he was going to die. He is in Kentucky - very far away.

My Dad lives an hour away and was with him last night. Mom took the first flight available and flew in this morning. She is presumably there now. We know he survived surgery, but I haven't heard anything since 3:30am.

Will you pray for my little brother? I love him so much.

Can you think of something I could be doing?

Reassessment

My Dogs on Thursday pic this week is a guest dog, Scout. Scout came to visit us on New Year's Eve with my friend, Maureen. He is such a patient soul to spend 24 hours with Toby and Abbey on their turf.

You may not be surprised to learn that my photo-a-day project has so far been a fantastic failure. I started to get frustrated with myself over my inability to just take my camera out of my bag a few times a day. But then I realized that beating myself up wasn't a good way to go. If my goal is to enjoy taking pictures and acquire skills along the way, a photo each day might not have been the best plan to begin with.

I've decided to revise my goals. Instead of a picture everyday, my new goal is to shoot and edit one photo each week that I would be willing to print and frame. If I'm ever going to master Lightroom and (maybe) Photoshop, I would never have the time to edit a new print each day. But once a week I can set aside time to look at everything I've shot in a week, pick my favorite, and edit it to my satisfaction. Problem solved. I'm really looking forward to having 52 quality shots by the end of the year.

I've also got some knitting swimming in my head. As a Christmas gift to my sister, I told her I would knit her a sweater. I gave her a few choices and she decided on the Central Park Hoodie. I was glad to hear it because I've been thinking of making one for myself for several months. Now I'll have the chance to make hers, which will help me know if I need to make mods for my own. She wants it in red and I'm considering ordering from Peace Fleece. I may even place a wholesale order with them. They only require that you spend $100, at wholesale prices, to qualify for wholesale prices (if that made any sense). If I'm making a sweater for sis and one for me, all I'd need is probably one more sweater's worth of yarn to hit the $100 mark. I'll do the math and let you know what I decide.

Happy New Year!!

The holidays are over. Frankly, I'm a bit relieved. I survived. Being with my family has been filled with mixed feelings for the past few years. I love them, but the chaos and unpredictability is unsettling for me. I get the feeling I'm in the middle of some kind of transitional period. I'm hoping that at the end of it I'll feel more settled with my family's new vibe. Things are just so different than they were when I was a kid.

Mr. Tee and I made it back to Denver in time to celebrate new year's with a couple of my best friends. They came out to our house and we drank ourselves silly. It was so much fun to be crazy with the people I love. This is Maureen towards the end of our evening.



I've also been doing a little knitting. The sad part is that I didn't take pictures of three of the gifts I made for Christmas. I finished a stocking for my baby niece and made my other two nieces Odessas - one pink and one lavender. I had a skein of lavender in my stash so I made myself an Odessa too. This one is representative of the other two. It's a great pattern and the girls love their super girly caps. For my own hat I made a couple mods. I used a size 3 needle for the ribbing and size 5's for the body of the hat. I also cast on an additional 20 stitches so the hat would fit over my hair without completely flattening it.





It knit up in a day. A finished object in just one day is definitely a winner in my book.

I've also been thinking about my plans for the new year. Mr. Tee got me a Nikon D40x for my graduation. Since then I've been telling myself that I would learn how to use it and the fancy photo editing software I have. My plan for the year is to take a picture everyday. I know some of you are taking self-portraits everyday this year. I thought about this, but I think I'll enjoy taking pictures of other things, and a few of myself. I'm posting on flickr under the 365 tag. I want to push myself to use manual mode and understand the relationship between ISO, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, and lighting. With any luck, I'll become the photographer I know I can be and I'll have an awesome retrospective on my year.

This post is all over the place. Sorry about that. I still feel a little scattered after the holidays. I'm looking forward to settling into this year's rhythms.

Red handed

Okay, by now you've obviously figured out that I am a big liar. I promised an update - but didn't deliver.

The truth is that I did not get to go snowboarding last weekend. Instead, I had the opportunity to cut apart the drywall ceiling in my basement in search of a leaky water pipe. Once I located the pipe I hemmed and hawed over calling a plumber. Then Mr. Tee insisted he could easily fix the very small leak.

Five days later I was still without water. We didn't have our water back until late last night. My house is now a disaster. I had big plans to clean this week so everything would be in order before I left town for Christmas. Yeah, you know that didn't happen.

But I'm leaving for home tomorrow morning (4 am to be exact). Mr. Tee and I are driving home because tickets to Minneapolis were running over $400 for the past two months. It will be good though. I need the 13 hour drive to finish (after I start, of course) a hat for one of my nieces.

Blah, blah, blah. I can only imagine how boring my posts are without any pictures so I'll stop rambling now.

Have a very Merry Christmas, if I don't post before then (who am I kidding, have a Happy New Year too).

I hope you enjoy time with your families without going too crazy. I advise alcohol but not in large quantities, lest you say what you're really thinking right to your brother's face or something.

Yoo Hoo

Anybody there?? Not me apparently!

My life has gone a bit haywire (in a good way) in just the past couple weeks. I finally found a job! Yea, now I can pay my student loans!!

I've been working for two weeks today and so far so good. Is it terrible that I really just don't like working? I do like that I'm working on solid legal work - research and writing. It's the stuff I really enjoy so I lucked out. I'm also working downtown Denver so I'm able to take public transportation everyday instead of driving. This is particularly nice because I'm getting caught up on all of my podcasts - This American Life, Justice Talking, It's a Purl Man, Driveway Moments - just to name a few.

I've also been doing some knitting, along with realizing that my Christmas knitting goals are entirely unrealistic. The problem is my inability to knit while commuting. One of my projects involves colorwork,which makes it entirely unsuitable for the train and bus. Two of my projects involve beads. Again, beads are incompatible with the train and bus. Then there's the two pairs of mittens for my nieces. No excuse for not starting those yet.

I realize this post is woefully void of pictures, which is why I can't share my biggest surprise with you quite yet. So I'll probably check in on Sunday, if my weekend goes as planned. Mr. Tee and I should be enjoying the snow at Vail all day tomorrow.

Happy Friday!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I managed to get the turkey in the oven by 8am. Then I realized that it's so tall that I can't fit anything else in the oven. Hmm. I hope I come up with a way to cook the stuffing.

Mr. Tee left to pick up dad at the airport. But not until after he discovered our garage door opener is dead.

These small bumps in the road confirm that this is a family holiday. It wouldn't work if things didn't go just a bit wonky. Last year I managed to severely burn the entire underside of my hand while cooking dinner.



The dogs are hoping this year's disaster involves a turkey on the floor. In the meantime though they're going to conserve their energy.

Eat a lot, drink a lot, and enjoy the day!