Monday, September 08, 2008

FO, Funny Medical Stories, Shop Updated, and Whatever Else Comes To Mind

I finally got my NPR Series yarns done, and I'm working on a new batch for The Loopy Ewe. There will be additional skeins added to the shop over the next couple of weeks as I play with different ideas and techniques. Take a look at the NPR skeins if you so desire.

I'm making fast progress on all this stuff now, since I've been off work since Friday for a minor dental procedure - I'm having an implant placed to replace a baby tooth (yes, I really still had a baby tooth at 29 years old) and without knowing how having a hole drilled into my jawbone would affect me, I made sure to schedule it over the weekend and take today off as well. It's not too painful, so I can get a lot of work done.

The extraction was a treat, though. That was a few weeks ago, just before Vegas (cut to me trying to scream, around the hand in my mouth, "But I'm going to Vegas! Vegas! I can't be toothless in Vegas!") Fortunately it's a tooth near the back so I don't too strongly resemble a hillbilly who opens green bean cans with her teeth. I've seen the doctor a couple of times about this tooth, and I guess he was tired of me putting it off. (When you do theatre and seem to go out of town for fun picture-taking-type things regularly, it's easy to come up with reasons to not be toothless.) So he put his foot down, declared the tooth a danger to the bone above, skipped the numbing goo, and crammed a bigass needle into the roof of my mouth before I could complain or, more likely, bolt from the chair. It hurt like a bitch, and then he said the magic words: "If you're good, I won't charge you for the consult and extraction." Since that amounted to about a $200 savings, I shut right up. He waited a minute, asked to take a look, and popped the tooth right out. WE LOOK WITH OUR EYES!!! (This story makes him sound like a jerk - but I'd trust him with my life. He's been my oral surgeon for many years and did my jaw surgery three years ago. He reminds me of my granddaddy, and he's stern but fair and really kinda fun. Besides, a 27 year-old baby tooth comes out with remarkable ease - the novocaine probably wasn't ever necessary.)

I was going to let him throw that tooth away, then I had a revelation - do you have any idea what the payout is on a 27 year-old baby tooth? The tooth fairy owes me for principal plus almost three decades of interest! (I've consulted the tooth fairy and she declared that she handed over all fairy duties at the altar last year, so I'm waiting for that other fairy to come through. I got some ice cream and a couple of subs....I think that might be about it.) ;-)

I'm taking a break while the pots heat up - think I'll sit in my Ikea chair and work on my Habitat beanie hat thing. Now that I'm not working on any patterns, I'm casting on for stuff like a fool and just hoping to finish something. Kind of like throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, but with yarn and a little more effort (and maybe a lot more mess - there are project bags all over the living room.)

Oh! An FO! I finished a non-pattern-writing knit, yahooooo!:

Baby Bolero

A Baby Bolero from Leigh Radford's One Skein, knit in Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton. I have another skein of Organic Cotton coming in sage green for a second bolero - I did a stash-swap with a Raveler for it, since two gender-surprise babies are on their way to a coworker. (Twins!) It only took about four days from start to finish, and I think the seaming on this thing took longer than the actual knitting - I SUCK at seaming. I know a lot of people say it, but I truly am awful at it. I seamed and unseamed the shoulder no fewer than ten times before I was kind of sort of happy with it. Let's hope the second one goes a little more smoothly!