Happy Birthday, Lisa!

Happy Birthday Lisa!

Yesterday was Lisa's birthday, and I missed it, and I'm very sorry! But I hope it was great!

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I thought of Lisa several times yesterday, but it was a busy day for me!

Yesterday was (finally!) my appointment with the ear, nose throat specialist that my regular doctor sent me to.

I was nervous, but hopeful about the visit. The last time I went to see an ENT, he looked in my ear and told me I was OK, and then asked me why I couldn't hear! That's all he did.

This trip was totally different! Before I even got to see the doctor, I was put in a sound-proof booth and given a hearing test. And this was both shorter and more comprehensive than the test I'd had before.

Anyway, the result is that the doctor said I have some nerve damage hearing loss in both ears, and that there's something wrong with the middle ear on the right. I've been telling doctors about that problem with my middle ear for more than 10 years, and they all said there's nothing wrong. Except for the regular doctor I have now who said I needed to see the ENT.

I have a note to go and get a CT scan of my ears so that they can find out what is actually wrong and figure out if there's anything they can do about it!

It doesn't sound like the scan is going to be fun, but I've thought that there's at least a possibility that there might be something that can be done about my right ear for about 10 years, and I've felt this strongly for the last two years. Now, I guess, I'll get to find out.

I also have a list of blood tests to get, and since some of them are ones that my regular doctor is going to want to do in a couple of weeks, I called the woman who does the blood work for my regular doctor. As it turns out, she'll be in my apartment building tomorrow morning to do blood tests on other residents, and she added me to the list. She's also aware to send the results to my regular doctor, too. So that's about as perfect as it can get!

In the meantime, the ENT doctor gave me prescriptions (and samples until the prescriptions get filled) for some medication. These meds are not intended (specifically) to help me, and he said it's not a good long-term option, but they'll tell him by my reaction if some of my problems are allergic, and then he'll know better how to handle it after that. I'll either suddenly feel better or I won't, and that will point him in the right direction.

At the point that he was telling me all this, I didn't know whether to cry from joy or kiss him! He's listening to what I tell him and doing something to find out what's wrong. And there's a possibility that he might be able to fix some or all of it! It'll be a process, but I'm on my way!

Actually, I went to great lengths to prepare for the office visit, but I didn't need to. Everything was structured from the moment I got out of the waiting room. They asked all the right questions, covered everything, and got a good picture of what's going on with me, and would have done even if I hadn't prepared for it. Everything moved along quickly, but they weren't hurried, and they didn't miss anything.

I am really impressed with the doctor and hopeful that I'm actually going to get some help!

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I got an email from Steve Sheets today. He likes what I did with the art for the iPad game, and the game is almost final. I still have to do the art for the variation of the game, but I'm so excited!

I've found a batch of sweepstakes for iPads on the internet, and I've been entering every one I can find! I really want to have an iPad with the game I did the art for on it! Check the sidebar or my Twitter account (I'm lostarts) for more Twitter links to iPad sweepstakes.

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Check out Neil Gaiman's blog! You have to scroll down to see the relevant part, but it looks like he'll be doing a script for Doctor Who next year! I can hardly wait!

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Tonight, there's a new Human Target, plus the premier of In Plain Sight. Sounds like fun!

If you haven't seen In Plain Sight, here's all the information you need to catch up and enjoy it. It's about a woman who is a US Marshall working in the witness protection program, and it's very good! Find out about an In Plain Sight giveaway here.

I hope you've been having a wonderful week and continue to do so!

No Photos!

Blogger has just updated their interface, and so, of course, there is a problem. This particular one seems to mean that there are no photos in my blog. That includes the sidebar. All of them have been removed! I've been to blogger help after I tried unsuccessfully to replace a photo that had gone. Everybody on blogger seems to be having this problem, and can't even replace their photos. So, you won't be seeing any photos here for a while.

Don't we just love progress?

Oh, and by the way, the reason they changed their interface so that it would deal with photos better!

They're not offering any help on the help forum, so let's hope that they're aware of the problem and are doing something about it, although it would be nice to know if that's the case.

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V will premier tomorrow night, so SyFy has gotten on the bandwagon and is showing (probably all of the original) V today, this evening, and tomorrow. I think it might just end in time to switch over and see the premier of the new season!

If you have a DVR (or TiVo) you might want to set it to see the new episode of Lost, though.

As for tonight, there is a new Chuck, a rerun of The Big Bang Theory, and a new Castle, which is the second half of last week's episode. We'll get to find out if Beckett survived the explosion.

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I was reading one of my favorite blogs, The Drex Files, and found this entry that tickled me now end. It's about someone who is marketing covers to put on your garage doors to make it look like the door is open and there's something in your garage that's different than what's really there.

I've been following the Steve Canyon comics on his blog, and it's really fun.

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It's cold and rainy here. I hope it's better where you are! Have a great beginning of the week and a wonderful Spring break (if that applies to you)! Here's hoping that you will see photos here again sometime soon!

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Addition:

So, after writing all that, I publish this and go to look at my sad blog with no photos, and they're back! At least some of them are. I'm seriously confused at this point!

Happy Palm Sunday

Today, SyFy is showing a lot of the Merlin series.

If you're looking for the authentic story of Arthur, this is not the place to find it! The costumes are only vaguely Medieval, the castle is from about 900 years after Arthur's time, and there are characters in the series with the names of people in the Arthur saga, but they're not anything like the originals. Examples include Guenivere, who became queen, and was not a servant; Merlin, who was enough older than Arthur that he saved Arthur right after he was born, and was not younger than Arthur, and so on.

Some of the stories are very good and do embrace Medieval ideas and principles, but some of the stories are squarely based on 20th and 21st century ideals and viewpoints.

I won't even mention the clothing, some of which seems authentic, but some comes from eras more like 1500 years in Arthur's future.

He's called "The Once and Future King," so maybe this is someone's idea of what might have happened if he came back 900 years later than his time.

Some of the stories are entertaining, though.

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My copy of Spin-Off Magazine appeared in my mailbox today!

You can see a preview of it here.

There was information about spinning heavy singles that are soft and (reasonably) balanced.

There was also an article about a spinning wheel maker with a company name of Spinolution. I've seen at least one of their wheels at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, but haven't really sat down and tried one. They actually treadle well, even though the treadle mechanism looks so odd. They have a new wheel out called the Hopper Travel Wheel, and it is small! Even if you don't watch the video at that link, you can see the woman's arms in the photo and get an idea of how small it is. It was intended not only to be small and a travel wheel, but also to be used to create art yarns, hence, the very slow speeds available, although it can spin pretty fast, too. I haven't tried it yet (it's just out), but it seems a little pricy.

There will be another wheel that was created just for spinning art yarns that will be unveiled at the Sheep and Wool Festival, too, and it's by Majacraft. They're not telling, or showing anybody anything about it before then, though. Somebody there is a Firefly fan, and they've named it Serenity, too! They have talked about some of the yarns you can spin on it, though, and showed them on their blog. I can't wait to see it!

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend!

Changes!

For those of you who are fans of the Dresden Files books, there will be a new one coming out in early April! It's called Changes.

In case you haven't been keeping up or missed it, the first four chapters of the book have been published on the internet, and you can read them here! If you've been keeping up with them, just scroll down for chapter four.

I can't believe that he's being generous enough to actually publish the first four chapters free! Of course, once you read them, you want to buy the whole book!

If you look at that first link, Amazon is selling the book for half price! Quite a deal! I plan to buy a copy in a couple of days, when I have the money. Amazon usually has copies ahead of time and mails them so that you get them in time for the release date. It's a good deal!

Being the twelfth book in the series, this is just past the half-way mark. Jim Butcher said that he originally planned twenty one books in the series. Unless he changes that, we've already gotten half of them, and are now starting into the second half. Harry just keeps getting better and better!

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Ghost Whisperer and Medium are not on once again this week! Blame basketball for their lack. There's some good stuff on SyFy tonight, including a new Caprica and a rerun of Warehouse 13.

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It's chilly and rainy here, so I hope you're having better weather than I am. Have a wonderful weekend!

Health Care Legislation

No, not health insurance legislation, this is new legislation about health care!

This is legislation that will allow the makers of nutritional supplements to tell people about scientifically proven benefits to their supplements, something that's been illegal in the United States for a while.

I'm hoping that this will extend to over-the-counter medications, too. My doctor kept telling me to take Citracal for my ulcerative colitis, but every time a picked up a bottle from the shelf, it talked about what a great laxative it is! I didn't buy any for a long time, and missed out on something that's really good for your digestion! It turns out that the laxative effect is all they're allowed to say! But it's something you should take if there's anything wrong with your digestion, or even if there's nothing wrong and you just want to keep it that way!

Please follow the link to find out more about the bill, and if you think this would be helpful (how could you not?) please click one of the links which will take you to a prewritten form letter which you can edit if you wish and sent to the decision-makers involved. You'll have to fill in your name and address, but the address will let the form be automatically sent to the correct legislators.

Then go have a glass of V-8 and feel good about what you've done!

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Is my face red! The episode of V that was on last night was a recap of the story so far. The actual premier will be on next Tuesday.

There's a new Human Target on right now, and I'm going to go watch it!

Have fun!

Know-It-All Bag Contest and More

There is a contest on Knitty that has a prize of the electronic components to make the Know-It-All bag! Most of their contests have an automatic entry for everyone who subscribes to their blog, but this is one you have to enter. Check it out! Good luck!

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When President Obama first started talking about Health Care Reform, I was all for it.

Then I found out he's working on Health Insurance Reform. The Health Care Reform is apparently yet to come. And I really hope that enough people have figured out that it really isn't care that's been reformed so that we have some hope of real health care reform!

But I noticed one interesting thing. If you follow Twitter, our president is on there. I followed him. I'm sure he doesn't write the tweets personally, but there was one up where he was rejoicing about the health care reform bill and it's passing. I wrote him a reply pointing out that it's health insurance that's being reformed, and ever since then, the tweets "from" the president have referred to it as health insurance reform!

It's a first step in changing how people think about the bill and the reform. It's more accurate. And it leaves the door open for real health care reform! I'm also amazed and impressed that I was able to communicate that to someone who is in a position to change people's perception!

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We've been having sun and weather with highs around 70 degrees for about a week, now. As you know if you follow my blog, in the apartment building where I reside, the heat is either on or off. Currently, it's on, so the daily low temperatures in my apartment have hovered around 80 degrees. Today (and yesterday) we've had either rain or just overcast and lower temperatures, so it's a livable temperature here, for a change. I'm so glad I'm not melting today.

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Lost tonight!

First there's the weekly recap of last week's episode (with odd info underneath that makes it worth watching again). Then, the new episode!

And as if all that weren't enough, it will be followed by the premier of the new season of V!

Not another interesting thing on tonight!

I hope this is shaping up to be a good week for you!

Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down

It's Monday, and not only raining, but thunder woke me up early this morning. I'm not really down, but less happy than I might otherwise be. I really should go over to the grocery store and don't want to in the rain, but even if I don't I'll survive, so it's OK.

Besides, I've learned that I can get my sunshine cheer in some vitamin D perles. Not the same, visually, but it keeps me healthy.

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The new Knitty is out!

I looked at it quickly last night, and wasn't impressed. I looked a little more closely today, and found the most amazing knitted item that I'd ever seen!

It doesn't look so amazing a first glance, but this bag is not just a bag, but an electronic knitting chart! It not only counts your rows, it tells you the stitch pattern for the row you're working on! This has to be seen to be believed!

It's called the Know-It-All, and it really does. The strip down the right hand side of the bag (in the photo) has a row of LEDs that light up to tell you what stitch to do in that position!

For more information about how to make the bag, find it at Knitty here, or from Kalani Craig herself here.

I haven't read through all the instructions yet, but this is just SO amazing!

Be the envy of all your knitting friends and knit something electronic that's useful!

I have to say that my imagination has just gone into overdrive from looking at this! You could also add a pocket to put your iPod in, and a row of small straps going up the strap of the bag to snap your headphones cord into leaving one end near your iPod to plug it in, and the other end with the earbuds near your ears while you're carrying it, too!

And I'll bet there are other ways to make this electronic! All I have to do is think of them.

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There's a new Chuck, The Big Bang Theory, and Castle on tonight! No Ghost Whisperer on SyFy, though.

I have to go. I've got that little project to work on, and I need to do it right away. More info later.

Have a terrific week!

It's the First Sunday of Spring this Year

Couldn't think of a better title than that because there's not much happening today.

The most exciting thing I can talk about that's happened today is this photo from Franklin.

He's a very funny guy, and you can see this photo on his blog here, and follow him here. Please do, you'll enjoy him!

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It's still Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family, although it's winding down. They will be showing Order of the Phoenix soon, though. Check it out!

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I'm currently having a bit of my time taken up with a short gig that I don't want to jinx by talking about it. It's very cool, though, and I will write about it later, when it's all done, which has to be soon.

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Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

Happy Heathen Rites of Spring!

Happy Heathen Rites of Spring!

Find out more about today, the first day of Spring, 2010!

Happy Saint Paddy's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Find out more about St. Paddy's Day here.

Hi! I'm Still Here!

I haven't blogged in a while, and I know I'm going to start getting emails from people wanting to know if I'm OK.

Well, I'm fine. Kind of hyped that I actually got some benefit from the last visit to the doctor, and that I'll be going to two other doctors who the first one said could help me. I'll survive with the problems I have (I've had them for about 35 years and survived), but I think I could feel better, so if these doctors can actually help me, I'll be overjoyed!

Other than that, there's not much that's really happening.

I'm knitting something that's a present for somebody who reads my blog, so I'm not going to talk about it here. I'll post photos later.

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Lost is on tonight!

And it's being followed by a catch-up episode of Flash Forward! A brand new episode will be on tomorrow night (for two hours!) and they put together an "here's the story so far" show for those of us who haven't seen it, or those of us who feel it's been so long since a new episode that we've totally forgotten what what happening.

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It's warm (for the time of year) and sunny out, and I have some errands to run, so I have to get moving.

Have a fabulous week! And don't be surprised if there isn't a post for a few days.

Beautiful Day Yesterday!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! The sun was out, it went up to about 60 degrees (I think, the warmest day we've had so far this year), with a light breeze. It was really just beautiful!

I feel I have to mention that because it's been almost a year of solid overcast skys, rain and snow. We have had occasional days where the sun came out, but they have been few and far between, while "flood warnings" is a phrase we've been hearing almost every day on the weather report.

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Yesterday, I finally had my appointment with the doctor. Thanks to the vitamin D supplements, I feel better than I have in the last ten years.

The doctor addressed some of the problems I've had on a chronic basis for the last 35 years by giving me the phone numbers for two specialists. I have an appointment with an ear, nose and throat specialist on the 30th.

I missed the other doctor's office hours, but I'll be getting an appointment with a hematologist/oncologist, which is the kind of doctor she said I need to see about the Paget's Disease. The people at the VA hospital said I could only be treated by an endocrinologist, and the one that ran the department for them insisted on overseeing every case personally and refused to prescribe anything that was really helpful for me.

I've had Paget's for about 35 years, and if this doctor can help me, it'll be the first treatment I've gotten for it in that entire time (unless you count the antidepressants that were prescribed because I was in pain).

I'm actually feeling optimistic about going to see a doctor about both the Paget's and the ear problem! That's a first!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Belated Oscar Notes

I watched the Oscars on Sunday, and noticed something very interesting. There was a woman nominated for best actress, and she looked so familiar, but I couldn't place her. Neil Gaiman tweeted about her, and things finally clicked. His daughter, Maddy was the one who put it all together. Carey Mulligan is the actress who played Sally Sparrow in the Doctor Who episode, Blink, one of my all-time favorite Doctor Whos!

Below, you can see how she looked in Blink, before she got her head mowed.

I love Sandra Bullock, and I'm glad she got an Oscar, but by the time they announced the winner, I was rooting for Carey.

Being a ground-breaking woman's rights person who campaigned by living a life full of things women supposedly weren't able to do, I was also happy to see that a woman got an Oscar for directing.

Some of the other awards seemed to go to the picture rather than the person, though. Maybe that's just me, and I can't really say that I could judge fairly because I didn't see most of the movies that had people nominated for working on them.

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The Legend of the Seeker will be back for a third season, although where it will be shown is still up in the air. Locally, I can watch it on the CW on Sunday nights, but if you're local, or watch it on the CW, you should know that they frequently list a different episode than they actually show (at least on the Comcast digital TV guide).

In the new show that was on last week (and, due to a mix-up, again this week), Zed has frozen some people and is describing them so that his crew can impersonate them. He describes the man as being "formidable." Richard says "He doesn't look like a fighter." and Zed says he's not, he's got a way with the ladies and describes him as "his reputation is not the only thing that preceeds him into a room!"

Lost is on again tonight! As usual, a recap of last week, and then the new episode. The recaps are excellent, because they add notes about things you might have missed.

The season finale for White Collar is also on tonight! It promises to be the best yet, which is saying something!

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Back near the end of last month, I ordered some great yarn from Herrshners. Everything seemed to go through just fine, and I've been running downstairs to check to see if it's arrived every day lately. Well, it's been a while, and I was starting to wonder what happened to the yarn.

At this point, I still don't know what happened, but it apparently didn't go through, and I'm very disappointed! It seemed to go through, and I got a confirmation email from Herrshners (which has since disappeared), and now that I go back and check for the charge from my checking account, it's not there.

I am very, very disappointed!

The worst part of all this is that I had a ball of it left from another project, and started knitting a project which will be a present for someone who reads this blog, so I can't talk about it here. But I've knit all the yarn I have, and have been waiting for the additional yarn.

This particular yarn has been discontinued, and I love the yarn, so I'm sad about that, but it is possible to find it here and there on line. I ordered some today, but it's not as inexpensive as what I originally ordered.

Back to waiting for it!

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I found a fabulous infrared photo of Cassiopeia on line today! You have to check this out!

Please click the link and go to NASAs website to find lots of other neat photos!

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I think today is the warmest day we've had here so far this year. I really need to get off the internet and get outside!

I hope things are going as well for you as they are for me!

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Addition:

Read about the knitting soldiers! His blog is here.

And the most important news of all: the second chapter of Jim Butcher's book Changes is out today! Changes is the latest book in the Dresden Files series and is due out in April.

New Majacraft Wheel!

There's a new Majacraft wheel that's been under development for a while. They've been sending me emails and dropping hints about it, but they won't let me see a photo or tell me what's actually different about it.

Here's what I know:

• It's called Serenity. The person who named it is a Firefly fan! That may be a temporary name.
• It can spin very, very fine lace yarn
• It can spin thick, bumpy "art" yarns
• The currently available bobbins won't work on it
• It can do things that no other spinning wheel can do!

The best news of all is that it's going to be available to see and buy at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! If you go to the listing of vendors, you'll see that they aren't listed. They said that they will announce their location later.

Here's what they said about the new wheel in their latest email to me:

New Wheel Release - Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival - May 2010
Glynis and Owen will be attending this years Sheep & Wool Festival at Maryland, USA; and will be publicly releasing the much awaited "New Wheel."
The wheel is a collaboration of Majacraft and Lexi Boeger (Pluckyfluff) design, and is specifically focused at art yarns, however it can also be a general purpose wheel, as it is compatible with most of the Majacraft accessories.
The Poad's intend to be at our vendors stalls at different times, with plenty of saleable "new wheels" available (program of time and place to come), and as a special bonus Lexi will also be demonstrating the "new wheel's" special concept and design features.

There is other news from Majacraft, too. They have out new flyers that reduce air resistance when they turn. I don't see them on their website yet, but they announced them

This is what one of the new flyers looks like from the side view.

This isn't exactly really new news, but they also have a new skeiner out. If you click the link, you'll see that you can put a bobbin on the skeiner and thread it through a guide, fasten it to one of the pegs on the skeiner, and then just wind it up! Very easy to use. And it can be placed directly on the wheel to wind your skeins if you want to take it traveling!

You can probably tell that I really love my Majacraft Rose wheel, and Majacraft in general! If you're on Ravelry, you can find a discussion of the new wheel here.

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We have a new telescope, and it has detected a new, previously unsuspected ring around Saturn!

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Tonight, we have new episodes of Chuck, The Big Bang Theory and Castle! There will also be reruns of Ghost Whisperer on SyFy.

Have a great day!

National Procrastination Week!

Finally, there's a holiday, or in this case, a special week set aside for people like me.

Actually, National Procrastination Week started on Monday, the first of March, but then, what part of procrastination didn't you understand?

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There's a new Ghost Whisperer and a new Medium on network TV tonight, and a new Caprica on SyFy.

Have a happy weekend!

Salt!

Salt is a healthy, and, if it's natural sea salt, nutritious part of any diet. It's essential to good health, and, in fact, to the continuation of life, itself!

Somewhere along the line, there was a clinical trial of various factors that might affect blood pressure, and two of the factors tested were salt and sugar.

Sugar raised blood pressure. More sugar raised it even more. And the more sugar you eat, the more it raises your blood pressure. The media was ready to report that until TV and radio stations and newspapers got phone calls from the sugar groups threatening lawsuits to any company that reported that news. Of course, the threatened companies said that it was true and they could report it, and the sugar people said, that's right, but it'll cost you lots of time and money to win that victory. The media didn't report that part of the study.

They reported the results on salt a little backward. Phrased more understandably, salt deprivation lowers your blood pressure slightly right before you DIE from it!

So, if your doctor tells you to cut back on salt in order to lower your blood pressure, he's really saying "I get my medical information from confused sources on TV, NOT from actual medical literature!" If he had read the actual trial, he would know better than to tell you that!

As of about five years ago, doctors in hospitals had killed at least eight people by denying them salt. That total may be higher now. They were unable to kill anyone outside of a hospital because studies found that when people approach death from lack of salt, they will crave it so much that they will eat it no matter what the doctors say.

In fact, the health benefits of salt are extraordinary, and exactly backwards from what doctors usually tell us.

So, I was appalled today to read this article in the New York Sun. It seems that the NY Department of Health and Mental Hygiene wants to kill the citizens of NY by depriving them of salt!

For an article that's actually based on facts about salt, check out this article. Here's some more basic information about salt. This second article is really interesting, especially about the different kinds of salt.

Gourmet cooks delight in the different kinds of edible salt available, and the best restaurants serve dishes with dividers filled with different varieties of salt so that you can salt your own food with the type of salt you prefer or wish to try.

I've been so interested in this because salt is one of my favorite things, and I'm starting to talk about health things here, that I'm starting my own Amazon store. It's definitely under construction at this point, but I'm starting to add salt products. This is a part of a healthy diet, and you might as well enjoy it!

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If you catch this post right away and tune in, you might catch the daytime rotation of Jake 2.0 on SyFy!

There's a new Mentalist on tonight as well as the season finale of Burn Notice!

Have a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday, John Ellis!

Yesterday was the beginning of March, and the end of all the problems that came with February (I hope). Happy March, everyone!

Today is John's birthday!

Happy Birthday, John!

I met John at one of the first (it may have been the first) August Parties, and we've been friends (and sometimes more) ever since. Other than my mom and my daughter, he's been the best friend I've ever had.

I wish you a day free from all stress, and one that's just fun from beginning to end!

John will be going to see Avatar today in 3D, and I can't wait for a report on it from him. We discussed the 3D process for films last night when I talked to him, and neither of us has actually seen a 3D film, so he's going to let me know what he thinks.

He's also got an appointment with the doctor, and is going to find out if the doctor has any new info on his thyroid function. I wish him the best luck with that!

For anybody who wants more thyroid info, I found a new (to me) website today!

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Here's the astronomy picture of the day for today. It is M78 and Reflecting Dust Clouds in Orion. You can see NASA's photo of the day here. There's also a link on the page to see previous pictures of the day.

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Primeval is on daytime SyFy today. I could swear that as of yesterday the digital TV guide didn't have it scheduled for today, but the TV guide that Comcast provides has been very messed up lately. Some, maybe all, of the problem is the piece of junk that they gave me that they called a DVR. Anyway, it's on.

And daytime SyFy will be showing Jake 2.0 on Thursday!

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While I was at the library yesterday, I picked up the first two Sookie Stackhouse books, and I've started reading them. So far, Sookie has nearly died, and been saved by a vampire. They promise to be good.

In the meantime, I haven't recovered fully from February, so I'm going to quit writing now.

Have a fabulous week!

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Addition:

The latest Dresden Files book, Turn Coat, is out in paperback today!

The next book out in the series will be Changes, available on the sixth of April. But the first chapter of Changes is up on the internet, and you can read it here.

Enjoy!

The 2010 Winter Olympics Debacle

The whole month of February has been a surreal, unhappy experience for me!

To set the stage for all this, you need to understand that Armor Thyroid was reformulated at the beginning of 2009, and although it had the same amount of thyroid hormone in it, the fillers and binders inhibited the absorption of the medicine. Which means that I've been getting too little effective thyroid medicine for over a year. And then with the lack of availability of it, I've been taking a bit less than half the dose I need for more than two months.

This would usually guaranteed depression. I don't think I've really been depressed, but I will definitely say that it's been harder to keep things from getting the better of me.

On top of that, it appears that I've also been getting too little vitamin D, which can also cause SAD, and make you feel down and depressed. Not to mention the bad effect it has on bones.

So, it was in this shape that I signed up for the Knitting Olympics. You can see Stephanie's last blog post on her experience with it this time around here. If you read the whole thing, and click the list of athletes near the end of it, you can scroll down to my name and see my pathetic entry into this whole dismal failure for me.

Keep in mind that during this time period, we had a lot of snow!

It started off with me waiting longer than I should have to decide to enter, and pushed me into making a hasty decision and ordering yarn later than I should have. Even though it was late, the yarn could have arrived on the day of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, but, sadly, no, it didn't.

Before the Olympics had even officially started, there was a death of an athlete. I'm sure you've all read about it, and during what was listed as the "Opening Ceremonies" on TV, the first hour and a half was spent on preparations for the Olympics (not opening ceremonies), and they showed video of the accident over and over. It was bad enough that he died, but I really didn't need to see how very violent the accident was over and over!

So Friday evening, I watched a selection of the opening ceremonies, and because of a malfunction in the torch mechanism, the actual lighting was delayed, and I didn't get to see the lighting of the flame. That's what I get for DVRing it without adding extra time at the end of the recording.

I consoled myself that the yarn would arrive on Monday.

That didn't last too long because I realized that Monday was Columbus Day, and everything in DC (including the mail) shuts down for that. Except, of course, the stores, which go into overdrive and have big sales. Unfortunately for them and me, I think the buses were shut down for the holiday. I didn't have the energy to walk up to the bus stop to check this theory.

Then, because of the usual incompetence of Comcast, I was forced, on Tuesday to spend more than three hours on various buses and waiting for those buses to go there in person. As usual, that didn't help much.

But it did leave me in such pain and so wiped out that I really wasn't able to do much of anything for a few days. Although the yarn arrived on Wednesday, I was so mentally foggy that I just didn't have any ideas for designing the vest that I wanted to make.

When I finally recovered enough to be up and walking, I had to go over to WalMart to get some nutritional supplements that I couldn't find anywhere and really feel bad if I don't take. So, I went there on Friday, and fell due to the snow and hurt myself pretty badly. No broken bones or major injuries, but muscles and joints that had been rudely yanked in various directions, and were thereafter determined to cause so much pain that it would teach me never to do that again! Along with bashing my head really hard on the cement! When they give you the diagnosis of Paget's Disease, they tell you to be careful and not to bump your head because it's bad for you, and can cause even more malformations of your skull than usual with the Paget's. I had some real headaches from this one!

About the time that I was beginning to realize that I would probably be able to deal with knitting soon, and should probably spend some time with my brain fog and design the charts for the cables in the vest, I found out that someone I know was missing in Vancouver. And eventually, I learned that Josh Andrew Koenig had died there. I hadn't seen him in a long time, but it still made me even sadder than I already was.

I accidentally injured some of my already injured muscles, and dragged my recovery out even more. For a while there, I wasn't really knitting at all.

Although I didn't get to see the doctor and find out the results of the vitamin D level tests she did in January, I read the list of symptoms, and it's pretty clear to me that my D levels were very low, so I tried supplements, and that has started to improve things considerably. Oh, and I did get some new thyroid medicine, so I 'm back to what is probably close to a good dose for me. Those things should improve my health, but although both things work quickly, it's not like waving a magic wand. The effects are not instant, but I'm seeing an improvement, and that's encouraging.

Around this time, Holly was finally able to find her car where it was hiding under the snow, and tried to dig it out, only to discover that a passing snow plow had not only piled lots of snow on it, but had actually hit it and smashed the left rear quarter!

And then the end of the Olympic Games. I got the see the mechanism they were using for the flame at last right at the end when they extinguished it. It really was very pretty.

Aside from the actual Olympic scores, my personal life scores were: two people dead, one someone I knew; I haven't even started my Knitting Olympics project; a patch of injury and bad health, although there's hope for the future on this one; Holly's car smashed; and a real thankfulness that it's over and that February was short.

Things have to get better from here on in, right?

During the last few days, temperatures have been going up above freezing, and the pond next to my place has changed from being solidly frozen to a shimmering pool of light when the sun comes out. It was supposed to go up to near 50 degrees yesterday, although it felt colder than that when I went out.

I did walk to the library yesterday (the sun was actually out for a while!) and to Safeway for food, and came home without that horrible ache in my bones, so maybe the vitamin D is doing some good. If it stays that way, I plan to walk more. I'm hopefully looking forward to a MD Sheep and Wool festival that I can survive without being in pain for the next two months.

We have snow flurries in the forecast for this afternoon, tonight and at least part of tomorrow. Flurries don't sound bad, but they're also using the word "storm" which, after the ton of snow we've already had makes me uneasy.

But it will be Spring soon! I can see just a few hints of it, and I've ordered some super clearance yarn for almost nothing that will make some great Spring clothing!