Snow Sculptures 2009

Photobucket Album

Yes We Can!!!

What can I say? Amazing day!

What a lot of work to do. Hard road ahead.

Good luck President Obama!

Iron

My iron tested too low to give blood last week and I am annoyed. Annoyed enough to call the 24 hr nurse hot line and ask if I should be concerned. When I give blood in the winter I have a hard time testing at the 12.5 and above that they require and they normally need to give me 2 sticks. The usual excuse is that my hands are cold and once I warm them up (with a short burst of calisthenics in the tiny room, which is hysterical, really) I test fine. Thursday I started with 11.7, and managed to raise it to 12.0. Not enough. Suck.

My diet is pretty good. I eat red meat, I eat veggies (steamed and fresh), I eat leafy greens, I drink red wine on occasion (I happened to have 2 glasses the night before). Unfortunately I can't take an iron supplement because I get nauseous. The level of iron that is considered normal for someone my age is between 12.0-16, so I am on the low end of normal. I'm going to have a plate of liver and onions before my next donation and if I still test low I'm making an appointment to get blood work done. I know that the testing method used at the Red Cross is very subjective so I should not be concerned, but it's damned annoying to come in to donate and then have to come back a different night.

Unfortunately my mom has issues with low iron so it's possible that my body is following suit.

Toddler socks

I used the leftover yarn from my fawkes socks and made a pair of socks for my coworker's new son. I still have just a bit of yarn leftover that I can use to repair my socks, if that is needed.

Tomorrow is my first blood donation for the year. This weekend I have the place to myself as P is headed to Calontir with a caravan of fighters (literally). I plan to spend the weekend cleaning and sewing.

Nordskogen 12th Night

Decent picture. I think the purple and brown work.

Target Women

Since the media thinks women are absolute morons, Sarah Haskins is here to put it all in perspective.

What we learned in 2008.

Cleaning

Sarah Palin

And the rest

Winter Fete Skating

First FO of 2009

I finished the Hanging Garden Stole by Sivia Harding over the weekend and blocked it tonight. I really love it. It reminds me of a Frank Lloyd Wright window.

The blocked size was 76" x 23". It's a really nice size and I made the 2 skeins of gloss lace work for the whole project. Next time I create a rectangular lace stole I am using blocking wires instead of fishing line.

Happy New Year!

May 2009 be better than 2008!

All in all 2008 wasn't too bad for me. I finally moved out of the duplex and into a house, that is owned, and I can paint walls and not share walls with neighbors. I don't have to move my car off the street during a snow storm. I also can't call maintenance if something goes wrong....

My health was pretty good. No major issues. I continue to give blood regularly.

I sewed a lot of tents and taught others how to sew tents! I backed off of the SCA a bit and chose to focus on a select number of activities instead of doing a huge amount.

I helped to elect the first black President of the US! I don't envy him the amount of work ahead of him, but I feel hopeful that he will do what is best for the country.

I am thankful for P (who continues to put up with me), my family, the kitties, our home, a van that still runs, my friends and my ability to pay the bills.