Aspirin ROCKS!

I've discovered that aspirin seems to work better for my arm pain that Robaxacet. Huh. My arm is doing great now, and I might be able to start knitting again pretty soon.

So Mom and I had a... well, not exactly a fight, but a... disagreement? She wants me to either wear a dress to Katie's university graduation or to dinner afterwards, even though the only dresses I own aren't comfortable to sit in a car in for an hour and forty-five minutes. So unless my mom's willing to buy me a cotton summery dress, I'm either wearing jeans and a nice top, or a skirt and a nice top, or a pair of my button-tab shorts (with the cuffs rolled down) and a nice top. Either way, I'm not wearing a dress.

I'm almost done reading Full Moon O Sagashite #1 :)

Knitter's elbow and connection loss

First of all, yesterday morning, my computer worked fine. Then in the afternoon, it wouldn't connect to the internet.

I haven't posted in a while because I'm trying to give my wrists a break. I pulled muscles or tendons or whatever in my left arm. I noticed it on Monday, and now it's Thursday and I don't think I'm gonna be able to knit quite yet. And, dammit, I'm used to an ergonomic keyboard! And Firefox! Ugh...

Mom and I watched Shock Treatment and The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Monday, which was fun. Tuesday was boring. Yesterday was youth group, which was okay. Elyssa was there, which annoyed me (I had hoped she wouldn't show up), but Riley also came, which was nice, because I hadn't seen him for a few weeks.

Stripes!

So I did the first set of stripes for my house tie, which makes me happy. My wrists are aching, so I won't be able to knit until later today. Unfortunately, I have no picture of said tie yet. I think I may run out of yarn, so I might have to rush out to Michaels to get some Patons Canadiana in the Bright Royal Blue colourway, which is pretty close to the Eaton yarn I'm using. Maybe not as soft as the Eaton yarn, but very close in colour.

I think I've figured out how the proper measurements for my DADA project. More happy. I might start it today, because it'll be a small project.

I started reading Return to Labyrinth #1 last night, and I quite like it so far. I'll have to send the library purchase requests for the other ones in the series.

I wrote a bit today. I was going to do memoir writing, but then I had a strange itch to write some passive-aggressive letters that will never be sent. Kinda like PostSecret. I think I was inspired by both PostSecret and Don Rickles' book, Rickles' Letters, which is all letters he wished he'd written, or something like that. The first letter I wrote was to my former karate sensei, the second to my Aunt Patti.

I should probably stop writing now, before my hands fall off.

Recap and Mom's Birthday

I haven't posted in a few days, so I'll recap first.

Youth group on Wednesday was, again, good and bad. The good part was that I saw my friends. The bad parts were that we played ultimate frisbee, which I walked out on twice; Elyssa was back from the big youth conference, and Elyssa told me that I 'shouldn't judge people' when I said how pissed off I was about Kristen Stewart (or, as I like to call her, 'Twilight Girl') portraying Joan Jett in an upcoming Runaways biopic. As my dad says, POT CALLING KETTLE BLACK! She is such a friggin' hypocrite! She calls me 'useless' (even though she was supposedly 'being sarcastic', it still stung), and then has the nerve to tell ME not to judge people? Wow, that's pretty cold.

Riley hasn't been to youth group for a couple of weeks. I hope he's okay.

Oh, and another thing that pisses me off - when Riley and his sister Rene's dog was run over by a car a few months back, Elyssa had said something like, "How could a dog be like a brother to you?" I told her that my dog Frisco, a Rat Terrier we had adopted (he died a few years ago) was like a brother to me. Riley's dog wound up having to be put down. We were all pretty sad that day. I couldn't help but cry.

On Thursday, Dad and I went shopping for Mom's birthday. Indigo didn't have any of the knitting books she had put on her list, so we ordered one. I'm not sure when it'll arrive - probably in a week. They'll call us when it's in. So I put the order slip in the card I gave her. I think she's quite happy :)

When we walked through the mall, there must have been at least two - I think I counted three - people that almost walked into us. It's unbelieveable how rude people can be in a shopping mall! Here we were, abiding the usual walking etiquette, and we nearly get bulldozed by some busybody!

Yesterday, Dad took Mom out to get her headphones as his present to her. She got a nice-looking pair. I don't think she told me how they sounded, but I'm sure they sound good. I myself have to get a new pair soon - the left speaker on mine cuts out a lot. I'll probably just get a cheap, $10 pair from The Source or something.

We went to a Thai restaurant - or was it Thai and Vietnamese? I don't know. We had to wait awhile, because we didn't think of making a reservation. The food was good, but the service was crap. Dad had to ask for a drink. We had water at the table, but still! I had chicken pho - chicken soup with rice noodles. It was alright except for the chicken. It was almost flavourless. Mom tasted a piece and said it was waterlogged. So, if I have a craving for chicken soup with rice noodles or vermicelli, I think I'll go to the Viet-Thai restaurant downtown.

Mom's cake is fabulous. It's labelled as 'Jamocha Almond'. And to top it all off, Meatloaf and his daughter Pearl were on Don't Forget the Lyrics!!! This was perfect, because Mom's a huge Meatloaf fan. We both sang along to 'Two Out of Three Ain't Bad' :)

ETA: Forgot to mention that we went to the British imports shop. I got my Munchies, as usual, and we got some Walkers crisps, among other things.

My nose itches

I haven't done any writing yet today, so I'll write a blog post.

As the title says, my nose itches. Not the outside, but the nostrils. I reckon it's because of tree pollen, or maybe grass pollen, because I can be around flowers without my nose itching. Unless it's certain flowers in the neighbourhood. Curse ye, springtime allergies!

So yeah. I might take some Benadryl later if this keeps up, because we have no Claritin.

In other news, yesterday was Victoria Day here in Canada, so there were fireworks last night. The folks that live in the house behind us were setting some off in the alley. The one kind they set off spiraled and hissed in the air, which got Smiles excited - she barked and ran around in the backyard. It was so funny!

I worked on my mandrake blanket some more, and it's about nine inches now, I think.

Other stuff

And now, it's time for a proper post.

Church was interesting today. My mind kept wandering during the sermon, I'm ashamed to admit. It was a good sermon, actually. Our guest speaker is from another Canadian Unitarian church, and he was talking about how, even now, racism has not gone away, and how immigrants still don't feel at home in Canada.

Afterwards, I had a cup of strawberry tea while I waited for Mom to do her casserole ministry thing. I spoke to Stephen briefly, too.

I somehow managed to obtain some sort of nick on my bottom lip. It's weird. And, of course, I keep cleaning it with the back of my hand, which makes it bleed and feel weird. Ach.

I'm not sure what we're having for dinner. I don't know if Dad took anything out of the freezer. If not, there's always squash soup, some of which I had for lunch. Dee-lish!

I watched Iron Man while I ate my soup, then I got my Herbology assignment and worked on that while watching the rest of the movie. After two rows I had to stop knitting. Damn circular needle! I'm going to work on the mandrake blanket some more tonight, when I listen to The Legends of Classic Rock.

Here it be!

Below is a photo of my Ancient Runes assignment for HPKCHC :)






The botched part of the border is on the right-hand side, close to the top. You can't really see it well in the photo, though. I'm happy with it :)

I have about 6 1/2 inches of my mandrake blanket done, so I have to get cracking. I have to pick up Frost/Nixon from the library on Tuesday, anyway, so I'll have a movie to watch whilst working on the blanket. The pattern suggests that you work in the pattern rows until it's 33 1/2 inches long. I'll work on it tonight while I listen to The Legends of Classic Rock.