Idle hands are the devil's playground

One of my intentions for this blog was to share my knitting and other projects, joining the ranks of the many, many knitting bloggers (or blogging knitters!) who have provided hours of pleasurable reading, inspiration, and learning. (Special thanks to Abby at Abby's Yarns for her YouTube video demonstration of spinning with a drop spindle. I bought one, but couldn't get the hang of it. Abby showed me how!)

So I finally worked up the energy to haul out the camera and pose a few projects. Here are "before" and "after" shots of the recently-felted Lucy bag.

In the first shot, she's about the size of a woman's old-fashioned wool bathing suit. She certainly tidied up nicely with three five-minute cycles through the washer. The photos do not represent the colors well at all; perhaps from now on I must try to shoot outdoors in daylight. Anyway, the red is not really red but cranberry and the turquoise is really more of a teal.

I'm not sure that I like how the whole thing turned out. The colors were chosen based on the multi-colored berries on my porcelain berry vine; when the berries are immature, they are all different shades of berry, teal, and purple. They eventually turn white. The Lucy bag doesn't really do justice to the subtle shades of the berries. Sigh...

For those who want to know these things, the project was worked with Lamb's Pride Bulky.

When not knitting, blogging, or reading, I can be found puttering in the garden. Today was veggie planting day, as Memorial Day is supposedly finally safe for planting tender annuals in Northeast Ohio. I put in two plants of Roma tomatoes; two Brandywine heirlooms; and one Mortgage-Lifter. I also planted broccoli, spinach, watermelon and summer squash. I know that some of this should have been planted earlier, but I just didn't get the garden tilled until this past week. I also mowed and trimmed, so I'm feeling some of those winter-atrophied muscles!

Been so long!

Well, I didn't mean to abandon my blog. Lots and lots of stuff at work, including finding ways to incorporate Library 2.0 concepts. We've made a great start, posting podcasts and vodcasts of our new cable TV show, as well was presentations by guest speakers. I'd really like to see us get started on public blogs and IM for reference. I've been out of the loop for better than a week (see below), so will need to play catch up on a few things starting next week.

Ah, my lost week. Or as it may be referred to fondly (when referred to at all) as the week in hell. Wednesday, May 9, I woke up with a slight ache in a tooth that had a root canal and crown two years ago. The tooth has remained a bit touchy, usually as a sign that I've been clenching at night. (God, is there anyone who doesn't clench their teeth at night?!)

Anyway, Wednesday's mild ache became Thursday's "let's not chew on this side," which turned into Friday's "where's the damn pliers -- I'll pull it out myself!" Dragged myself to the DDS who took a look and pronounced it a root fracture. Bad news for which there is only one remedy -- extraction. But we don't want the DDS to do it, 'cause we want to do socket preservation to prepare for an implant down the road. So he sends me home with penicillin and percocet and a referral to the oral surgeon. Who blessedly squeezes me in on Monday last (yes, that means I slept through Mother's Day in a percocet stupor.) Extraction was accomplished, but without socket preservation because of the infection which apparently reaches all the way to my left large toe. Sent home with additional antibiotic.

Today, almost human! Probably won't even take that 1/2 percocet tablet for bed tonight. But, boy did I learn some stuff this week. First, and most primarily, I've learned that there is pain that exceeds a torn rotator cuff or childbirth. Pain that can take you so far down, you can't remember a time without it. Pain you wouldn't wish on the guy who flipped you off in traffic. I was afraid to give it a "10" on the scale, for fear that somehow the pain would decide to show me what a "10" REALLY feels like.

I also learned that even watching an ad on TV for steak at Applebee's can make your jaw hurt. That meat or anything that must actually chewed isn't worth the "discomfort." (Bet you thought I was gonna say "pain" again. Figured you'd heard it enough already.) And what a great, easy way to start a diet -- no solid food! And I haven't had meat -- fish and eggs instead -- for more than a week, so I've lost weight and become a vegetarian!

Opening remarks

I just finished a two-day workshop at Kent State University's School of Library and Information Science on Web 2.0/Library 2.0. The class was primarily hands-on, which helped me greatly, but there was still an incredible amount of information to absorb.

It was a lot of fun just being on a campus and in a classroom again. My undergraduate degree is now 31 years old; I've always toyed with the idea of graduate school, but just never got around to it. But I'm a great believer in life-long learning, so that doesn't mean that I might not one day be the world's oldest graduate student!

The final assignment for the Library 2.0 class included the creation of a wiki and a blog. So if you're reading this and commenting (please do!), you are helping me complete my assignment.

A word about the title I chose for my blog: Those of you who know me, know that I keep the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross quote as my signature for e-mail. As a hospice volunteer, I am grateful to Kubler-Ross for the pioneering work she did on grief, death, and the hospice way of dying. I hope that I can keep the light burning within, so that my true colors are visible. I also know that I have days when the windows are dark. Perhaps one of life's goals is to be seeking and doing those things that keep the light aflame.