The Love of My Life turned 53 last week and he asked for his usual cake.  He wanted an angel food cake.  I made this one from scratch (but had a back up mix in case my egg white mojo decided to run out the back door). 

The homemade ones don't rise as high as the mix ones but they are more tender and have better flavor.  This was served with homemade whipped cream and chopped strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.  There was none left.

The girls and their men came over and when El got home from work, we ate sausage and meatball parm sandwiches with macaroni salad and played Zombie Dice.  It was fun.  I am not a very good zombie.  I got shot over and over and failed to collect any brains.  Kate and Patrick, however, made excellent zombies.  They collected many brains and hardly got shot at all.  It was a good time.

Last night, we had a full on thunderstorm. There was lightning and loud thunder and rain.  I had just gone to bed and the flash woke me up and then the thunder boomie made falling back to sleep a little difficult.    This is a sure sign that spring is coming in.  That and the green shoots that will soon be grape hyacinths and daffodils and tulips and hyacinths and croci.  As much as I love my handknit woolen outerwear, I look forward to washing it and putting it away. 

Pk and I had our day off today.  He made some sawdust in the garage and I finished clue number 2 in the mystery shawl kal.  I didn't pin it out since it's too big at this point on the needles and I don't like transferring it just to show it off.  I figure you can see the leaf motifs forming between the millions and millions of beads.  It takes me so long to do a beaded row.  I just resign myself to toodle along and I get done when I'm done.  I worked on this for about 7 hours today to finish it. 

And here you can get a good look at the beads.  I'm using two different but remarkably similar colors and I can't tell the difference.  They have gold lining and it picks up the light and reflects it in a pleasing manner.

I had so much trouble with clue 1 that I was aprehensive with this one but I flew through it with only minimal tinking to fix a stitch count.  It was reassuring. 

Pk has class tomorrow but I'm off again.  I am slowly regaining some energy and may spend some quality time with the spinning wheel.  I look forward to not feeling so tired all the time.  Several folks at work have said the same thing and when we went to the grocery store to get some sudafed for Pk, they were out of it.  Evidently, there's a lot of sinus congestion going around. 

I thought I'd also look through the Estonian Lace book I got for Christmas and see if anything in there struck my fancy.  I imagine it will be more of an eenie meenie miney moe.  There are a lot of beautiful patterns in there and I have some pale pink and some white merino/silk laceweight yarn that is yearning to be twisted into something beautiful.  I'm leaning toward Madli's shawl.  It's so beautiful. 

Tonight we're having some leftover meatballs and sausage over some pasta.  I just have to cook some spaghetti and make some garlic bread and dinner is done.  Easy, just the way I like it on a lazy day off.

I hope you all are having a good week!

The corner by my office continues to become more interesting.  Now there's a bridge like structure coming out of the mist.  When I left today, the artist was working on that corner. His name is Nick and he's probably somewhere between 20 and 30.  He's a pleasant young man and will chat if you stop and talk to him. (which, of course, I do)  I think it's so cool to watch his creative mind showing up on the wall.  I asked him if he had a plan or if "ideas just came tumbling out".  He said he had an outline in his head and was letting the ideas tumble out as well.  I am so envious.  I have ideas but they get lost between my brain and my hands.

So many of my coworkers don't like this.  "Why does it look old already?"  someone asked.  I said maybe it's supposed to be subtle?  We ARE adults and not children and bright primary colors might be jarring to people who are already hearing voices and seeing things that aren't there.  I find the images soothing and lovely in a misty/fairy like way.  Like this waterfall running through the mountains and forests.  (now wouldn't some aliens coming out of the forests add to the coolness?)

Our temperatures are playing games with us again.  It's fairly warm out but it rained and rained and rained today and now the wind is blowing.  All of the snow that was in our back yard is now running through our crawlspace.  We set up the pump and it'll be dry in a little while.  There was so much snow and then all the rain from today on top of that is too much for our already saturated ground to absorb, especially since it's mostly clay. 

We're going out in a few minutes to get Kate an iphone and to add her data packet to our phone plan.  She was going to wait until we got Pk his new iphone (when the 4G ones come out in a few months) but she decided she couldn't wait that long.  We're going to have dinner and then come home and crash.  Pk and I have been trading a cold/sinus infection back and forth.  I went to the doctor last night for my regular visit and he said my ear was all red and my throat is red and my sinuses sounded packed (for the record, none of this was a surprise to me).  I have a new antibiotic prescription and Pk will see the doctor tomorrow so that we can get rid of this thing once and for all (or at least until the next one comes along).

I got the second of three shipments of sock yarn in the mail today. This is The Rohirrim (the horse people).  It's a superwash merino/nylon sock yarn and since it was a gift, it will become socks for me.  I try to use gift yarns for myself since someone gave the yarn to me.  I have 4 pairs of socks on the needles and the mystery shawl and that's all.  One pair of socks has been 'in progress' for over a year.  The bayerische socks with all of their entwinning cables and twisted stitches require a dedication that I haven't been able to muster for a while.  One is finished and one is not-quite-halfway finished.  I hope to finish them one day.....

(later)
Kate got a new phone and I will admit to a little phone envy.  She got a smart phone, an Android.  It's very cool and not even too expensive.  Pk keeps telling me I need to upgrade my phone to a smart phone but I figure he has one and I don't need one.  My (pink) phone just makes calls and texts and it's all good.  But, standing there in the store with all the new shiny toys is tempting.

It's already almost 9 o'clock and we just got home and I just got settled.  I want to work on my mystery shawl for a bit.  I finished the first clue and am working on clue 2.  I have a week until the next one and if all goes well, I'll have time to finish.  I tried to take a photo but the lighting is so bad due to the rain that it'll have to wait.  It really is pretty and I love the beaded bits.

 I was never a person drawn to sparkly things, I think because my mother dismissed any sparkly, feminine thing I admired as a child.  As a grown up, I am drawn to sparkly things sometimes and I have to fight the urge to automatically put it down.  I LIKE sparkly things sometimes and it's OK.  It's OK to be feminine and to like girly things.  I never realized how much I liked pink frilly bits.  My mom didn't like them so there weren't any in our lives.  Now, I have lots of pink things and I even have a sweater that has sparkly buttons that I wear to work all the time (the buttons look like rhinestones and I love it).  My inner beauty pageant queen is sneaking out.  This could be dangerous.  If I start poofing my hair out and wearing sashes, someone stage an intervention, 'kay?

We have a busy weekend since we're celebrating Pk's birthday so we took both took Monday off and I took Tuesday off as well.  I had a busy week this past week and I'm still fighting off this infection so I wanted some time to just vegetate. 

I am so looking forward to this long weekend.  Anybody have any interesting plans?

Despite the fact that it was 65 degrees (20 C) on Thursday and Friday, today we woke up to this.   And this.  Sigh.  It's 40 degrees colder today.

6 inches of snow fell overnight making this morning's commute a little bit slower but overall, not too bad.  Philadelphia closed the schools today and as I sit here at my desk, I expect the phone to start ringing with people telling me they can't make it in today.   I'm surprisingly ok with that. 

Yesterday was an incredibly busy day.  I have clinic with two different doctors on Monday.  By "clinic" I mean I sit in on medication reviews and help individuals with any issues they may have with getting medications and I write treatment plans.  Our regulating body says that anyone receiving mental health services must have a treatment plan (which is updated three times a year times for the113 people who are currently on my caseload, which means I write a lot of treatment plans each year).  On Monday mornings, we have the clinic for people who have developmental disabilities and mental illness.  It's the toughest population I work with.  It's hard to find out how someone who is nonverbal feels.  I spend a lot of time on the phone with families and support staff for that one.

Monday and Tuesday afternoons, I work in a clinic for individuals with chronic and persistent mental illness.  These are not people who have a mild depression which is (or can be) situational.  These are people who have experienced profound changes in their lives due to mental illness like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and severe clinical depression.  Some people require a tremendous amount of support and some people are just bound and determined to make it on their own.  I do what I can to help them make that happen.  Sometimes I'm more successful than others.

Yesterday was a particuarly busy day with clinics full of people and I was so tired at the end of the day.  But, I am proud to report, we went to the gym and I spent 45 minutes making my body move.  I felt very virtuous when we got home, but damn, my body is sore this morning!

I have some notes to write from yesterday morning.  I have to put notes in the charts since my time for that clinic is billable time.  Most case management services are not billable but when an individual with developmental disabilities (or Intellectual disabilities as the new DSM calls it) then my time spent is worth money to the agency so I have to document it. 

After that, I have to go through the charts and get ready for this afternoon. There's another full clinic today if the weather doesn't keep people home.  I kinda hope it does (but don't tell anyone I said that)

How's your week progressing? 

I started a post on Friday about how it was 65 degrees (20C) in February and what a lovely break from all the bone chilling cold we've had.  I even noticed a young woman (and it's always a young woman) wearing shorts and flip flops (while I was wearing pants, wool socks, long sleeved shirt and light wool coat).  I was writing this at work because I was just waiting for clue number 2 in the mystery kal to be released and I was also waiting for the end of the day.

A coworker came in to chat.  "I'm bored and antsy and don't want to be in my office".  It made me laugh because it seemed like we were all feeling like that.  It was something about a spring-like day in the middle of winter that was driving us all crazy. 

I have restarted my kal shawl more than once (and more than three or four times at this point).  I am seemingly incapable of counting and following directions even with the placement of stitch markers.  I restarted again today and am working my way painstakingly slowly through the directions.  I have faith that eventually I'll get it but that faith is being sorely tested.  It may be that my brain hasn't been functioning at an optimal level with the illnesses I've had.  I think that's as good an excuse as any.

short row heels!

I couldn't touch it on Friday, too tired, so I finished my Mini Mochi socks.  There they are on the mussed bed right before I stripped it.  I love this yarn.  It's soft and the colors are great.  I tried to make matching socks but this was as close as I could get.  These are plain, toe up, 1x1 ribbed socks.  Perfect for movie watching and mindless knitting. 

I cast on for another mindless pair and Pk has suggested that maybe they could be for him.  And he's started talking about Sweater 2011.  He figures that since the other sweater is finished, I must want to start another one for him fairly soon.  He's such a kidder.

His birthday is Wednesday so the girls are coming for dinner on Sunday.  Pk wants sausage so we'll have sausage and meatball sandwiches and some mac salad and an angel food cake with whipped cream and fruit.  I thought it would be fun to play a game while we are all together so we bought a set of Zombie Dice. 

Aren't they cool looking?  You get brains dice (self explanatory), running feet dice (for quarry that got away) and shotgun blast dice (also self explanatory).  It's silly and looks like tons of fun.  We used to play games all the time when the girls were young and I thought that since we are all getting together it would be a chance to have some fun.  We have some more sedate board games to play (like Scrabble) but I have a feeling that Zombie Dice will be a big hit with this crowd.

I can't believe how quickly the weekend has gone by.  It's time to fix dinner and then it's just a short few hours before we're getting up for work.  Tomorrow is a federal holiday so the trains will be fairly empty.  Lots of places are closed for the day.  Pk and I both have to work so we'll be getting up early and heading out in what's supposed to be rainy, snowy, yucky weather.  We've had some of our biggest snowstorms in February so those couple of balmy days were such a tease.

But I know Spring is coming.  I haven't seem my daffodils yet, but I can look out my window and see that the side of my neighbor's house that gets a lot of sun has green bits that are a few inches tall. 

Have a good end of the weekend and a quiet start to the new week. 

Peaceful thoughts everyone!

Just a quick update.  I met with my supervisor this morning and I told him how sick I was last week and all he said was "I'm glad you're feeling better".  No drama, no recriminations.  It's so different from my previous supervisor that I am having trouble believing it. 

Thanks for the support.  I took all of you into the meeting with me this morning and it felt like I had an army at my back.

 It's 9 a.m. and I'm sitting here at my desk smelling the wonderful aroma of freshly brewed coffee.  It's making me hungry even though I had a glass of milk and an English Muffin for breakfast (that was 2 1/2 hours ago).  I didn't bring coffee with me because I am supposed to be going up the street with one of my young clients to get some blood drawn.

We have a rule about having blood draws once a year for monitoring purposes.  If people don't get the lab work done, we can't continue to write prescriptions for their medicines.  This young woman had some serious health issues as a child and it left her with a serious dread/fear of needles.

After several requests, I finally told her if she came up to our building one morning, I would walk around the corner with her and hold her hand while they draw her blood.  She agreed and we set the date for Monday.  Well, that didn't work out for a number of reasons.  We rescheduled for today and I promised myself a trip to Starbucks on the corner ( I love the peppermint mocha latte) after it was over.  We were supposed to go at 8 and she just called to tell me she "overslept" and will be on her way shortly.

She better.  I really want my coffee.

I hung my new wall hanging up this morning.  I had to bang some screws into the plaster (I think there might be brick underneath) because I couldn't get them to screw in using the screwdrive Pk supplied me with.  Don't tell him.  He made me some nice wire hangers but they didn't work so I just used the screws.  It looks beautiful.  My wall o'interesting things is growing nicely.  I've taken some photos and will upload them when I get home later tonight. 

For now, I'm waiting to take a walk up the block in the cold windy morning to hold someone's hand while her precious life force is taken from her body.  I have the best job.

Later........

She came around 11 and we went to the lab and she did fine.  I got some coffee from the convenience store and we walked back.  She was admiring the socks I was working on as we waited so I took the opportunity to spread the good word and gave her some yarn and some needles and some instructions on how to get started knitting.  She was happy and said she'd show me what she'd done when she came back.

And here's my new wall o' interesting things.  You can see my Hands Around The World (Kate's name for it) and my award for being Good At My Job (perhaps I should remind my supervisor of this tomorrow when we meet for supervision), my needlepoint that is a Chinese character for happiness that Kate made for me and the painting from one of my clients when she got her MFA (she's the one I gave my first Wildflowers shawl to) and my spring hat that another client made.  I've moved things around a little to make them more asthetically pleasing but basically, it's all things that make me feel good.  On the bulletin board that sits in front of my desk, I have things to remind me that I have a life outside of work and that I am not my job. 

There's a photo of my girls all sitting on Santa's lap.  It's probably from 10 years ago and I love it.  They were totally humoring me and wanted to give me a gift that would make me cry and this one did.  It's a great photo.  I have bits of paper that say things I need to rememer (such as THE WORLD WILL NOT FALL APART IN MY ABSENCE).  And there are some cards from Pk that he has slipped into my bag in the morning so I would find them.  It's little bits of my life that make me feel good which I need sometimes.

We just got home from shopping and had some cheesesteaks for dinner.  Not the most nutritious but they were certainly delicious.  The food is put away and I'm settled in for the evening.  I'm going to restart my shawl for the kal tonight.  My stitch count was off for a few rows and someone said "fudge it" so I did and then I wasn't happy with it.  I know myself better.  I should have known I would need to fix it.  I'm not in a hurry and I don't mind starting over. 

We're due for some warmer-than-usual weather this week although you wouldn't know it by how cold it was today.  Just about freezing and windy.

This was what the sky looked like when we left the house this morning.  It was such an intense blue and the clouds were pink and purple.  A beautiful start to the day.

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes.  I meet with my supervisor for my regular supervision.  I'm more than a little nervous because my imagination is working overtime.  I intend to tell him how this has made me feel and we'll see how it goes.  My last supervisor(s) were drama llamas and everything was a big deal.  This guy tends to be very low key and I actually like him as a supervisor.  Cross your fingers.

When we last met our intrepid heroine, she was back at work after a weekend of feeling sick and was armed with clean underwear in case the sickness followed her into work (one can never be too prepared for this). 

Monday and Tuesday passed quickly.  Clients were seen and work got done.  And the came Wednesday.  I woke up with a scratchy throat but thought nothing of it and went to work where I fell asleep at every opportunity.  Twice I actually put my head down onto my desk and someone came by and asked if I was alright.  I blamed cold medicine but in reality I hadn't taken anything to make me that sleepy.  This did not bode well.

Thursday I got up and my throat was so swollen I could just barely swallow an advil for the pain and swelling.  My head hurt and my glands were rather swollen.  I called out of work and went to the doctors where they tested me for strep (negative) and talked about mono and cat scratch fever.  It's not out of the realm of possiblity that I have mono, I've had it before and remember the unrelenting tiredness.  I got an antibiotic and went home to sleep.

I called my supervisor to let him know I would be off on Friday and that I had a doctor's note.  He said "that's good.  we'll talk".  And now I am anxious.  I have a feeling there are going to be serious repercussions and I am not looking forward to going in tomorrow.  I think I have 4 occurrences since August and you're not allowed to have 5 a year before the Disciplinary PolicIy kicks in.  I may get written up.  All because I was considerate enough not to bring my sickness into the workplace.  I won't get fired.  Worst case, I am on probation and can't get sick for the next YEAR. 

I slept most of the past four days.  We tried to have a date night on Friday but during dinner, I was so tired that I just wanted to go home (24 hrs on the antibiotic meant no contagion).  I've been sleeping on and off since then and still have a scratchy throat but it's not swollen anymore. 

When I wasn't asleep, I was listening to a good audio book series called The Strain (G. del Toro).  I love a good vampire story and this is an imaginative look at what it would be like if there was an outbreak in Manhattan and how it would spread and propoganda and people and how they cope.  It's less about the infected than the yet-to-be-infected.

And I did some knitting.  Some very simplistic toe up, ribbed socks made from Mini Mochi that Kate and Patrick gave me for my birthday.  It's a single ply and nice to work with.  I know these won't be the longest lasting socks ever but I like making them.  They're soft and the color is lovely.  And I worked on my mystery shawl kal when I had the mental accuity to knit a beaded shawl.  I have been trying to use charts instead of written directions because many designers don't do written directions.  I'm not very successful when I have to read back and forth and the symbols change depending on which direction you're moving.  Thankfully, Susan does written directions and when I can concentrate, I can make progress.  I'm on row 30 of 57.  I'd like to finish it before the next clue comes out on Friday.

Pk spent the day with Emily yesterday and they did some shopping together and had a sushi lunch (which turns my stomach).  Pk bought me a Valentines' day gift.  He thought I would like the colorfulness of it and to him it represented what I do for a living.  It reminded him of me.  Isn't it pretty?  I am going to try to hang it up on the wall in my office.  It's from Ten Thousand Villages and is made from a 55 gallon drum.  I love it.

He also bought me a sheep finger puppet that I have named Sheila.  She just told me her name was Sheila and I was pleased to meet her.

We don't celebrate Valentines' day in a big way.  When the girls were little, I made a fuss and decorated the table and gave them each a Valentine and some candy.  It was all about the Love.  Not just romantic love but Love pure and simple.  Pk and I have given each other chocolates and cards and flowers and such but not gifts.  It was a surprise when he came home with the wall hanging and knitted sheep.

He's a good guy.  I'm keeping  him.

Today we're supposed to go grocery shopping but neither of us feels motivated so I think we'll go tomorrow after work.  Not that we'll feel any more motivated then either but we'll already be out of the house so it'll seem easier.

I'm off to fix some breakfast so I can take my medicine and Pk is going to work outside in the garage since the temps aren't quite as low as they've been.  It's not even freezing outside and the snow is slowly receding.  It's starting to feel like winter is loosening its grip and that feels so good.  We should be seeing some crocus shoots soon, or we would if the bed wasn't covered in snow!