I’m absolutely in love with this one – a scarf I’m making for Stephanie in two different varigated yarns, alternating rows, in a rib pattern that I got from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s site. I finally got settled down with all the indecision about what new project I was going to try, and all the thought I put into it has paid off. This is going to be one of my favorite new projects, and I can see how polished it will be already.
Have I mentioned to you lately that I think you are really cool?
I dithered back and forth about what new yarn to use and what new stitch pattern to try, until I drove myself nuts. Stephanie’s not feeling well, and I don’t feel great either, so I opted for comfort, and grabbed scrap yarn and the Roku remote. I’ve been watching Season 2 of MI:5 and knitting away on a easy project rather than stressing about creating some fantastic new thing.
We had a pretty calm but eventful year in 2009. I spend a chunk of January getting our staircase room painted, and we also stripped the wallpaper and painted a bedroom at Stephanie’s rental house. I also went back on a walk through of my former home at 2165 N. Penn. I discovered that although I love the house, I don’t miss it at all.
New paint at our house
At the end of February, we visited our friends Daniel and Melissa in Michigan while Stephanie competed in the Deborah Burgoyne North American Invitational 2009. We had a wonderful time with our hosts, and I discovered I had no idea how to take good photos of skating with my camera, as you can tell.
Stephanie on the ice.
In March, we planted lots of flowers in containers on the porch and in flowerbeds, and we built new bookshelves from Ikea for Stephanie’s books in the dining room — a much more pleasant space now that we’ve rescued all her books from boxes and organized them.
In April, I started taking more photo walks around Indianapolis, and began a much-needed photography class.
In May, I worked on my photography at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and by snapping lots of images of flowers and of friends.
In June, I turned 41 and we had a pizza picnic in our backyard to celebrate.
And at the end of the month, we joined the Eastern Caravan with other New Beetle owners to Roswell, New Mexico for the Return to Roswell car show. It was a nice long, fun trip and a a great time to see lots of Stephanie’s friends (both human and VW).
During the trip I took one of my all-time favorite photos of a ragged man with a three-legged dog:
In July, I got way behind in my photo editing because we were so active, and I still haven’t edited all the photos from Stephanie’s visit from her niece Raven, or from our trip to Moline, Illinois for my cousin Katie’s wedding. I participated in the Scott Kelby photo walk along the Canal in Indy, though, and took a few other nice photos:
in August, we bought a scooter, so we spent a lot of time studying for learners motorcycle permits and learning to ride it.
We also spent time with friends and visited the State Fair.
Stephanie and I both started a knitting class in mid-May of this 2009, but it wasn’t until August that I really had any pictures of projects to show off.
In September, I continued to lag behind on the photos. We had a Labor Day cookout, and spent more time with friends.
October was another busy, busy month. My sister had a new baby – Penelope – over in England, for one thing, so I have four nieces (Erika, Riley, Annabelle and now Penny).
We attended the IndieHandicraft Exchange:
Went to a friend’s solo photography show:
Went to a progressive mystery play at a mansion in our neighborhood:
Hosted a praying mantis on our porch:
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Went to see They Might be Giants at the Vogue:
Decorated for Halloween:
Took lots of walks around the neighborhood before it got too cold:
And then drove to Durham, North Carolina to see our friends Lisa and Jason get married:
Took lots of photos of Fall Color:
And attended our friend Garrett and David’s Halloween party:
November was equally busy. We attended Johnathan’s birthday:
And spend weekend after weekend raking leaves. And raking, and raking, and raking…
We went to a Naptown Roller Girls double-header bout:
And went out to eat a few times:
And at the end of November, we drove to Iowa to visit our family at my grandparent’s farm for Thanksgiving.
In December, we kicked off the holidays by baking cookies for a White Elephant gift exchange hosted at our house, after decorating.
We also did a lot more knitting:
Went to a birthday party:
And we went to several Christmas gatherings both here in town and up north with Stephanie’s family and friends.
2009 was a productive year for us. I learned some new skills and honed some old ones, and spent quality time with family and friends. I’ve done a lot less writing this year than in past ones, and taken a lot more photos instead. I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad one – I’m fairly happy with what I’ve accomplished.
I also have about 10 years of photos on Flickr now. I took my first digital photos in 1999, bought my first digital camera in 2000, and have gone through three cameras since. I’d do a retrospective of the whole decade, but I’ve already made this post much longer than I ever intended to.
I think the first decade of this millennium was a really unfortunately one in many ways, and I have hope that the next will go much better. I plan to spend the next ten years writing about and photographing it as well.
And of all the photos I’ve taken this year, this is a gallery of my very favorite ones.
Finished my striped scarf, and am working away on a Santa hat at
Stephanie’s dad’s house while Stephanie and her dad fix dinner.
The long and involved commented I posted on this Cute Overload post, just because it’s one of those things I’ve finally figured out after being on the internet for over 20 years. The Accident Network Group in Costa Mesa warned people to be cautious while riding bicycles to avoid accidents. In case of accidents you can also consult attorneys for DWI claims in Hempstead as they can help you in claiming compensation.
When I’m walking down the hall and I accidentally step on someone’s toes, I apologize for it and take a moment to make sure that I haven’t seriously hurt the person whom I stepped on.
I don’t get up in arms and protest that I didn’t intend to step on their toes and that there was nothing malicious about it — of course that’s true, but it doesn’t change the fact that I caused an injury (check out injury charges attorneys for hire from here), however slight.
I also don’t blame the person for feeling pain when I stepped on them. It’s not their fault they were there; they have just as much right to be there as I, and just because I didn’t happen to see things from their point of view when I was walking doesn’t mean that their point of view is invalid or shouldn’t be considered, just that I wasn’t aware of it until they yelped. With the availability of the DUI law firm for hire, it is nowadays becoming very easy to identify victim and accused without much effort.
And sometimes their yelps of pain, being surprised ones, take a tone of accusation at first. I don’t take offense to that; it’s easy when one is surprised and hurt to suspect that malice is intended, even when it’s not. Usually after some apologies and expression of concern, the person I stepped on understand that what happened was an accident on my part and that I am genuinely concerned about their well-being. We exchange mutual pleasantries and move on.
That’s probably what should have happened here, but it appears that it didn’t. For that reason, I probably won’t be back to visit Cute Overload — I really don’t want to interact with people who say things like “walk somewhere else, you’re not welcome here” when they’ve trod on someone accidentally. The first trodding on may have been accidentally, but this post is quite clearly stomping on someone’s toes on purpose. It seems to me to be juvenile and rude and unnecessary. Just because you aren’t face to face with the person whose toes you injured doesn’t mean you have license to go on without apologizing, or to claim that their toes weren’t actually trod upon at all, and it was all in their head.
On Friday evening, we went to Trina O’Connor’s solo photography show at the The Language and Culture International Gallery. 158 East 14th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202. More on the show here. Trina is part of the “Indy Women in Focus” Photography group that I participate in. She has moved from being a professional photojournalist to art photography and her stuff is really beautiful. It’s very cool that I get to participate in a group with people at a skill level far better than mine; I learn a lot just by hanging around them.
After visiting her show, we popped into the The INDIEana Handicraft Exchange at the Harrison Center, which was a block away. I’ll let them tell you about the craft fair:
The INDIEana Handicraft Exchange is a contemporary craft fair that consciously celebrates modern handmade goods, the relationship between creator and consumer, and local, alternative economies. The IHE began in 2007 as a way to highlight local crafters and artisans as well as to expose Indianapolis to some of the best vendors on the national indie craft fair map.
We had a blast there; tons of fun cool ideas for things we’d like to make, and everything was very reasonably priced – we dropped some bills, but we got a lot in return. It’s a bit different than the craft fairs my parents took me to as a kid; lots of contemporary art and design. And fun, quirky, interesting. I’m afraid I don’t give you a lot of detail in my photos of the goods for sale; I was afraid to walk right up and take photos of people’s goods for fear that they’d be offended. I really need to learn to be more bold in talking to people.
On Saturday, Stephanie’s dad came down from Valparaiso to bring Stephanie her mom’s 1930’s typewriter, which we’re going to be using in an upcoming event to be described later. He’d taken it to be refurbished. Photos of that will be coming soon. While he was in town, he helped us repair our refrigerator door, and we installed a shelf in our laundry room. Dunno why I don’t have photos of that; I need to get Stephanie’s dad in engineering action. He’d be one of those folks that don’t understand why I’m taking pictures though.
Saturday evening we went to the Morris Butler House Museum for a Halloween progressive mystery play called “From Dark Pages” based on gothic, horror, and mystery literature. That was a lot of fun; most of my photos didn’t come out all that great because of the lighting (no flash photography allowed) and my best ones were spoilers that outed the villain. Here are a couple I can safely show you, though.
Throughout the weekend, Stephanie and I puttered around the house getting stuff ready for cold weather and knocking out many October To Do Items. We harvested the last of the vegetables, put flower pots in the garage, unhooked the hoses from the house and generally bustled around getting work done. I spent some time hanging hooks on the porch for Christmas lights. It was way too cold to do that last winter in December, so I thought I’d knock that out while the weather was warm this year. While I was out pursuing that activity, this guy came to visit.
He seemed really cheerful.
Costochondritis is an inflammation of the junctions where the upper ribs join with the cartilage that holds them to the breastbone or sternum. The condition causes localized chest pain that you can reproduce by pushing on the cartilage in the front of your ribcage. Costochondritis is a relatively harmless condition and usually goes away without treatment. The cause is usually unknown.
Relatively harmless? Perhaps, but it hurts like bloody hell. This is the current working theory for the health issues I’m having lately. It feels a bit different than the pleurisy that I previously had reoccurring over and over, although when I look back at a couple of those blog entries, I realize some of them were this instead.
And it’s a bit maddening because the symptoms closely resemble a heart attack or heart difficulties, so the first couple times I went to the emergency room (believe me, if I could have avoided out of going, I would have) both I and the doctors freaked the hell right out until it became apparent that my heart is just fine. More from WebMD:
Costochondritis is also considered as a possible diagnosis for adults who have chest pain. Chest pain in adults is considered a potentially serious sign of a heart problem by most doctors until proven otherwise. Chest pain in adults usually leads to a battery of tests to rule out heart disease. If those tests are normal and your physical exam is consistent with costochondritis, your doctor will diagnose costochondritis as the cause of your chest pain. It is important, however, for adults with chest pain to be examined and tested for heart disease before being diagnosed with costochondritis. Often it is difficult to distinguish between the two without further testing. The condition affects females more than males (70% versus 30%). Costochondritis may also occur as the result of an infection or as a complication of surgery on your sternum.
(Emphasis mine.)
This is the fourth time I’ve had this occur, and each time, the emergency room doctors spring to action, and then when they realize I’m not having a heart attack (my EKG is normal, and subsequent testing shows I’m fine) they act kind of disgusted with me for causing a fuss, and then send me home referring me to follow up care with my primary care physician. You may learn more about vein conditions and treatment here.
By the time I can get in to see my physician, the pain has subsided, and they don’t do a whole lot to try to figure out what the issue was. This time around, I decided to change the game and made an appointment with the doctor first. My regular PCP wasn’t in, but the on call doctor got to see first hand how much pain I was in; enough to want to send me to the emergency room. I explained to him I had had this happen 3 times before and they decided there was nothing wrong with my heart (the most recent time, my cardiologist actually eventually ordered a cardiac catheterization that definitively proved the issue wasn’t my heart.)
This time, the on-call doctor was able to see all that in my charts and put it together. He made me go to the emergency room to rule out a blood clot in my lungs, and once they did that, I went right home, but the emergency room suggested this “Costochondritis” or “chest wall syndrome” as the cause. I need to follow up again with – my PCP.
The gap in my health care is between my Primary Care Physician and the hospital – they like to play a game of hot potato with me. The PCP wants me to go to the hospital for anything they can’t figure out, but the hospital only wants to rule out anything life threatening and send me home without further investigation, so no one ever solves the problem or follows up on anything.
And as far as I’m concerned, I’m so sick of doctors and hospitals and gowns and waiting around with Stephanie — who is as stressed out as I am about the whole business — that I want to avoid the whole thing unless I absolutely can’t function, so I’m not motivated to figure out what the hell is going on, either.
At least this time I’m closer to understanding what’s going on, but no closer to getting anything resolved. I’m loath to keep asking for pain medication because I don’t want to be dependent on it, but without it, I’m completely dysfunctional.
All of this is driving me completely crazy, too. I’m just tired of the whole mess.
We took the scooter out last night for a spin around a parking lot near our neighborhood. We were practicing turns and zipping around.
What I was doing last year at this time.
Photographing double-decker busses
Photographing Keystone Towers (I need to go back here – lots more graffiti!)
Test-driving Cars (we bought Eddie Rabbit just after this)
Having Lunch with co-workers at the Mousetrap (not a regular occurance)
Attending Matt’s Labor Day party
