Instant Workout!

I was still feeling bad yesterday from the trek to the Comcast office on Tuesday, so I really didn't want to have to get back on the bus and go to WalMart yesterday, but I really needed some things I was out of and couldn't get anywhere else.

So, after a few delays, I walked to the bus stop, and got the show on the road. Once I got at WalMart, I was armed with a list, and made good speed through the store and got everything I really needed.

Theoretically, I had just enough time to get to the bus stop to be in time to catch the next one.

I realized my mistake as soon as I got outside and suddenly knew I had miscalculated how long it would take to walk there because of all the piles of snow that were over my head. The parking lot itself was clear and easy to walk through, and the one patch of snow between me and the bus stop looked like it was three or four inches deep, so I thought I'd take a chance and walk across it.

I stepped onto some snow that had been packed down into ice and was about three inches deep, tested it for a moment, and got ready to take a second step, when the ice spontaneously changed to slush and dumped just my heel to the ground.

I fell over backwards. Unfortunately, not into snow or anything that would cushion my fall, but onto the paving. My back landed hard, but since my foot was stuck in the snow/ice, I was really describing a 90 degree arc, which saved my back a bit. Unfortunately, my head whiplashed and hit the paving at more speed than the rest of me, and so hard that it bounced!

I laid there, stunned for a moment, and then tried to get up, which was difficult because the snow (which seemed so shallow) now seemed to be propping my feet and legs up at a crazy angle, so I had to sort of crawl out of it to a level place where I could get my feet under me.

While I laid there stunned, the snow that was anywhere near me took the opportunity to start melting, so I wound up with my pants and mitts soaked and my coat pretty wet.

This time, I walked around all the piled snow, and got to the light where I planned to cross to the bus stop just in time to see the bus chug past. If I had left one minute earlier or if it had been one minute later, I would have caught it anyway.

But it didn't, and that left me with 40 minutes to wait for the next bus at about freezing temperatures, with a stiff wind, and partially soaking wet. Fortunately, the ground was cleared between the bus stop and Dollar Tree, which is right next to the stop, so I went in there for a while. I came out later and had only a short wait for the bus, and had an otherwise uneventful trip home.

I suspected I was going to suffer an aftermath similar to that time where my motorcycle had an argument with some gravel (and lost) and I wound up with a 750 pound bike on top of me. Here's a photo of the bike.

During the bike fiasco, I actually felt OK, but the next morning, when I woke up, I was in agony from pulled muscles, except for my left leg, which the bike fell on and protected.

I had a bit of a headache last night, and I do have some muscles that are very unhappy with me, but overall the damage is far less than I would have expected. For a very short while, I was hoping that maybe the blow to the head had loosened something in my ear, because I thought I could hear out of it for a while, but no, it seems it was just wishful thinking. This morning, though, the whole area around my ear hurts, the gland under it is swollen, and it's generally acting like there's a mild infection, but then, it does that anyway a lot of the time.

But I've given up on doing anything I'm "supposed to do" this weekend, I've declared myself officially "not feeling good," and I plan to read some books, watch some TV, start knitting my Knitting Olympics vest (once I do some charts for the cabling on it), and not worry about anything. So, I don't expect to blog tomorrow, and probably not Monday either. Tuesday is a bit iffy.

There is no serious injury, but I feel really bad! Like I had a very vigorous workout yesterday, and really wasn't used to it. I'm really OK, just hurting all over.

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I've been reading the Septimus Heap books, and I love them. I have the last one, Syren from the library and it's due back but I haven't even started reading it, so I want to do that ASAP so I can get it back to the library. Even if I had read it already, I do not want to walk over to the library to return it feeling the way I do.

This is a great series of kids books that adults will love, too, and I recommend them!

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Survivors is on BBC in America tonight! It premiered (in the US) last week as a single two hour episode. In case you missed it, I think that they're rerunning that as two one-hour episodes followed by a new one tonight. With all the talk about the new flu that they were afraid might turn into a pandemic, it's very timely, even though the original was done a while ago. If you read down, you'll find that it was (possibly is) being remade. I'm guessing this is the remake.

I really think everybody should watch a show like this because it makes you think about what you would do if you were ever in that kind of a situation.

Sunday night (here) we have last week's episode of The Legend of the Seeker, followed by a brand new one on the CW. Check your local listings for this one!

So, I'm going to take it easy and get better and have a great weekend.

I wish you a great weekend, too!

Saturday Was Fun!

Yesterday was really fun!

Holly and I stopped at Michaels first. They have finally gotten in all that Spring yarn that they started to promise last January! Some of it is nice, too. I just wonder how they've stayed in business since January. I haven't been checking all the departments in the store, but I have to say that the yarn department has had a lot of bare space in it for at least four months, most of it with signs telling people that the wonderful Spring yarns are coming. Spring projects should have been finished around March or April, so I'm a little confused about it.

We went on to the T-Mobile store, where they gave me a song and dance about the balance of the money having been applied to my bill. It would have been nice if I had known that, though. I have to go through my bills now and make sure that the money actually was applied to my bill. I don't think it was, but I could be wrong.

We also went to WalMart, and then to Ruby Tuesday, where we had fun talking, as usual.

Before she left, Holly modeled the new Hermione hat I made for the Harry Potter House Cup KAL/CAL. I found out that I ordered more than a generous amount of yarn for the hat, I ordered enough for two of them, and I finished the second one last night. I'm now thinking about making matching mitts.

And a side view.

While we were there, Holly was playing with my camera and took this photo of me. I'm really getting to look old!

Well, the Harry Potter movies are on ABC Family today, plus my DVR is almost filled, so I'm going to get back to watching fun stuff on TV!

I hope you've had as much fun this weekend as I have!

Lost Finale and Steve Canyon!

The finale of Lost was on tonight, and it scored (to my knowledge) a new first in television.

At the beginning of the episode, they show someone spinning. And for the first time ever on TV, the person is actually spinning! Then, he gets up and goes over to a warp-weighted loom, and presumably starts weaving. I didn't see any actual weaving take place, but the warp-weighted loom was dressed correctly, and ready to weave.

There's lots to see in this episode, and if you've been watching Lost, I hope you recorded it, because you're going to want to watch it several times (at least).

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Thanks to the Knitty blog, I found a lot more information about string bags for my current interest. They have links to several sets of instructions for market bags, and there's also a contest for market bags (you have to send them a photo of yourself and your favorite bring-it-home bag. Check it out.

They also remind us of WWKIP Day (World Wide Knit in Public Day), which is next month.

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The Steve Canyon Volume 2 DVDs have arrived from the factory, and are now being sent out as quickly as John can slap labels on them and get them to the post office. Read more about it here.

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Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I'm gradually feeling better and recovering from all the walking at the Sheep and Wool Festival, but the chair I have in front of the computer really hurst if I sit in it for more than a few minutes. I mean it starts hurting while I sit in it, and then continues for quite a while afterwards. So, I've avoided sitting there, so it's hard to post and avoid the chair.

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I went on a shopping trip to WalMart today, and I am wiped out, so this will be a very short post.

Ah, I forgot to mention that the new season of Eureka will start sometime in July!

Have a great Thursday!

Middleman

I ran across some news for Middleman fans today. First there is an article about it on TV Shows on DVD. Then there is a picture of the new DVD's cover on the Middleblog. The DVD will be premiering at Comic-Con in San Diego. I really hope John gets a chance to go to this, because I want some first-hand information!

I just can't wait for the DVD to be out!

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Well, Friday, I had so much stuff to say that I felt like I was going to explode. Then, yesterday, there wasn't a thing I wanted to post.

Holly and I went out for the day, and had a lot of fun.

She stopped at my place first, and started a new baby blanket she's making for a friend. The yarn is beautiful. If you click that link, I think it's the color called boys and girls. Hers seems to have more lavender/blue in it, though, so it might be a different color, but the same type of self-patterning yarn. She's making a circular blanket, so the center (where you start) is really tricky for a bit until you get going. She's doing the center using magic loop, rather than DPs, and she's almost up to the point where she can just knit around without the loops on a 24 inch circular needle. It'll be much easier after that. The center, so far, is so beautiful that it's almost making me want to run out and buy some yarn and make one, too.

I have a sock I'm working on (yet--I got to the toe and ran out of yarn in that ball, so I frogged back to the leg and made it a half inch shorter), plus the moebius hood for the House Cup KAL, the Christmas stockings I need to start, and another project that I might get paid for.

So, I really don't need another project to start.

But the baby blanket is so beautiful! I really should've taken a picture.

We went to Michaels, and discovered that they're still talking about all the wonderful yarns that they'll be getting in for Spring, but don't have in the store yet. There were areas of shelves that were totally empty which they had attempted to cover with big signs telling about the wonderful yarn that would be there someday.

I have news for them! It's Spring already, and the Spring projects that people want to knit should be nearing completion at this point, not waiting in limbo for yarn to start them. At the rate they're going, the Spring yarn will arrive this Summer, just in time to knit projects for the Fall! This is so stupid I cannot believe it!

Then we went to the new JoAnn Fabrics store, which is just bursting with all the yarn that Michaels doesn't have! I'm going to be doing two more Christmas stockings for the family that ordered the first five, so I bought the yarn for them while I was there, plus a really nice pair of scissors, perfect for clipping seams once I get back to sewing. I need a nice table to put my sewing machine on so that I can leave it out all the time. Otherwise, I'll never get any sewing done. I also want a chair that I can use with the table for sewing, and at my computer, too.

While we were there, Holly got a pair of stretchy gloves that are intended to help with hands that do too much and are overstressed. They also have wrist support built in. She plans to wear them not only for knitting, but also for work, so this was a good buy for her. 

Then, we went to the nice WalMart in the area. This is the one I have to take two buses to get to. The one that has a good selection of yarn and other things, not the nearby one that doesn't have 25 percent of what I went to shop at WalMart for on a regular basis.

We finished up with a loooong meal at Ruby Tuesday, and a nice long time to talk and have fun.

I got to a point in the moebius hood last night where I could finish the moebius part. I was able to get it around my shoulders, and it's good enough, so far, that I can see that this is almost certainly going to work if I persevere and finish it. I think it will be nicer if it's a little wider, though, so I'm continuing for another five inches to see if that makes an improvement. I suspect it will. It was workable, but the back of it wanted to slide up the back of my head, so I think just a little longer may solve that fit problem.

I wished I'd had it finished so I could wear it yesterday, along with the matching poncho I plan to knit. I wore the right clothes for being out in the weather yesterday. It's still a bit chilly around here. I think it was supposed to go up to about 50 or 55 yesterday.

But for riding around in a car that had been parked in the sun for a while, it was way too warm.

I hope you've been having a great weekend!

Spring Is Here!

Well, it was today, anyway. Today would make a believer in global warming out of anybody. Considering it's February, anyway.

Holly and I went out and it didn't take long before we took off our sweatshirts (that we were wearing like jackets).

I know the weather will go back to winter in a few days, but it probably made it up to 60 degrees, judging by how it felt.

I got an IM from Holly last night saying that the headlights in her car were out again! I IM'd back "Will I ever see you again?" We did actually go out today, but we had to be sure that Holly started home in time to be there before dark.

We headed for Borders in Springfield first, with a stop at Michaels, since we were going right past it.

Michaels had some beautiful yarn that Holly bought to make a baby blanket for one of the ladies at work. It has ombre stripes and dots of different baby-type colors, so it's self-patterning, like some sock yarn. She'll be making a circular blanket, and I can't wait to see it.

At Borders, I finally got my copies of Coraline and Backup! They are both very short, but I suspect, very good. I started reading Coraline when I got home.

Then we headed to Walmart (the one in Dumfries that has yarn), and I bought lots of yarn. Now I can knit actual projects again. Most of the WalMarts in the area have essentially eliminated yarn from their inventory, so I have to take two buses to get to one that actually has yarn, unless Holly gives me a ride. I also bought lots of regular household supplies.

We stopped and got something to eat, and had a great time talking. Holly got her birthday presents (finally!), and really liked the protective "skin" I designed for her phone.

Then there was a quick stop at Giant, where I used the gift card I got for Christmas.

Holly went to Baltimore last night, which is where she was when she discovered that her headlights are out again! She and Malaia went to the Baltimore Aquarium yesterday, and watched their movie. Holly says it was in 3D, and scary. Kids were screaming, and being removed from the theater by parents, and it was all quite exciting. They also wanted to watch Coraline, but it was sold out far in advance, so they missed out on it.

I need to get some work done for all of you people who are fans of Steve Canyon. John has a new post up on the Steve Canyon blog, by the way, so go over there and check it out! The Steve Canyon hats will be back soon, so you'll want to read all about it. They sold out fairly quickly before, and this may be the only new batch of them, so get them now while you can!

Now I'm going to get something done on the covers so you can watch the second volume.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Busy Week!

This has been such a busy week!

Monday, I went and did my monthly shopping at WalMart. 

Tuesday and Wednesday there was supposed to be freezing rain all day, so I tried to stay in. Thankfully, the temperatures didn't get down to freezing, so it was just a lot of rain.

Wednesday I had a dentist's appointment, so couldn't manage to stay in. I rushed over there, and the dentist's assistant was out sick, and doing fillings is a two-person job, so they made an appointment for me yesterday.

Yesterday, I went back and had two fillings removed and replaced. Then I walked over to the clinic and picked up my medicine. I had a choice of two bus stops to go to (the clinic is at one point of a triangle between two bus stops at the other two points). I chose to go to CVS for something my local CVS doesn't have and caught the bus nearby.

Then I went to the Post Office to mail a pattern to Germany. The Post Office charged me $1.75 instead of the $30 they said it would cost on their website.

By the time I got out of there, the temperature was dropping (along with the sun) and the wind was picking up. Luckily I didn't have long to wait for the bus, but it was long enough to get really chilled. Then I stopped at JoAnn Fabrics, which was having a fabulous sale. Unfortunately, this particular JoAnn will be moving next month, so they haven't been ordering new anything, so although the prices were great, there wasn't much to buy. I bought a couple of balls of Paton's Classic Wool in the blue rag color. Somewhere in my travels (I think it was at the clinic) I lost one of my mitts, and had to keep my hand in my pocket when I was out for the rest of the trip. I'll get more yarn tomorrow and make a couple more. Normally, I make three at a time, but I ran out of yarn at the end of the second one, and was going to get more tomorrow to make the third one.

Today, I need to take some books back to the Library and pick up a DVD I requested and then stop by Safeway. Oh, and taking down the Christmas decorations might be nice, too, if I get the time.

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In between all of this, I managed to almost finish the second Christmas stocking! I'm down to the white part in the toe. I'm hoping to knock out one of these a week if my wrist and hand hold out.

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Right before I left for the dentist yesterday, there was a knock at my door, and the UPS guy delivered my DVD recorder. I didn't have time to do more than open it and marvel at how wonderful it was at the time.

Today, I tried to wade through the instruction manual, and I have to say, that although I was responsible for putting together the instruction manual (and repair manual, wiring diagrams, etc.) for the BMEWS project, this thing is written in gobbledygook! It says that upsampling makes a better picture and you should always use it when playing back DVDs, but it also says that all the outputs from the recorder are disabled if you use upsampling. It also uses lots of words for which it doesn't supply a definition, and is written in the kind of pidgin English that you get from having a native speaker of another language try to translate to English without any knowledge of English grammar.

I also have to read the whole manual and determine what I need to buy to make it work. Some of the cables it says are included don't appear to be there. Plus, I definitely haven't gotten any blank DVDs to record to.

It will be an adventure.

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I've recently discovered something interesting about the current depression. It's been more than a week since the Safeway near me had any Coca Cola in two liter bottles. I asked the manager of the store about it, and she said that they can't get any more than that from the distributer. So, although the store is able to sell two or three times as much Coke as they do, they can't because the distributer won't supply it.

I believe what the manager of the store said because when they are out of Coke, so are all the other supermarkets in the area. And I'll bet that the CEO of Coke is wondering why their sales are half of what they should be.

I've noticed the same pattern with other groceries, too. Stores are out of certain items half the time, and when one is out, they're all out. Which means that those companies could be selling at least twice as much if they made the goods available.

Another point in case is the WalMart near where I live. I suspect that WalMart and Caron made a deal, because the only place that you can buy the new Caron Simply Soft Eco yarn is at WalMart.

Except that you can't buy it at WalMart. The local store put out a limited display of it about three months ago, and promptly sold out almost all of it. End of story. No more has been put out on the shelves. They have an empty section marked for that yarn with only a few balls of yarn left from the original supply.

And the WalMart in Manassas doesn't carry it at all. There aren't even empty shelves for it. If you want to buy it, you have to go to the WalMart in Dumfries. They have a beautiful (usually full) display of beautiful colors available. The display changes, and there is usually a difference in the display that shows that they're stocking the shelves and selling it.

The other WalMarts could be selling it, too, but they don't bother putting it out on the shelves.

What is wrong with American business? I understand that there's a depression on, but these are things they could sell if they bothered to make them available.

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As far as science fiction on television is concerned, brace yourself for a roller coaster ride! All the great series are coming back for their midseason premiers this month, and they're showing reruns leading up to the new shows in the meantime.

Next Wednesday evening, ABC will be showing a Lost marathon! That will be preceded, of course, by the usual Lost marathon on the SciFi Channel on Monday evening. And G4 is also showing episodes of Lost almost every day. They really seem to want to get people excited about the premier in a couple of weeks.

USA is having a Psych marathon during the daytime today, in case you're in time to catch the end of it.

And, of course, SciFi is having a Stargate Atlantis marathon every day during their daytime rotation this week in preparation for the season finale tonight, witch will be followed by a new Sanctuary.

Well, I need to get moving. There's lots to do today.

Have a great weekend!

Christmas Shopping Adventure

Friday morning I woke up and it looked like this out my window.

Friday evening, I had gotten this far on the first Christmas stocking. More about that later.

Saturday, Holly and I went out shopping for Christmas presents.

We stopped in at AC Moore in Manassas. I was looking for some pretty bags to put presents in rather than wrapping them. I found a couple of bags, and that's it. I did find an afghan with a starry border around the bottom, and bought it for an amazingly low price. Here you see it under my very small Christmas tree over the table that is holding the tree at the right height for the window. I think it looks very Christmassy, and fits in with the blue and white theme in my living room. It goes with all the other stuff in my living room that also has stars, too.

We went to Best Buy, which is next door, and Holly got a couple of Christmas presents. Next stop was WalMart, where Holly got some more Christmas presents, but kept seeing things that she wanted for herself.

We were both disappointed with not finding things at the Manassas WalMart. They had no 2 liter bottles of Coke, sold out by a lot of shoppers in the store. I had some lights that I wanted to hang in the window this year, but needed an extension cord to run from the top of the window down to the outlet, and they didn't have any. Holly found some boots that she fell in love with, but they didn't have her size.

But there were some things we wanted that they just plain don't carry anymore. Their yarn section has shrunk to a small fraction of what it used to be. Almost all they had was Red Heart Super Saver, a cheap, scratchy, awful yarn. I've noticed that the Super Saver section in every WalMart store is always nice and neat and full, and I suspect that it's because nobody ever buys it.

We went across the street and had dinner at Ruby Tuesday, and had a lot of fun talking about so many different subjects. We discussed Christmas presents, and both decided that we wanted to go to a WalMart that is usually stocked in hopes of finding the things we didn't find at the one in Manassas.

So we went out to the car in the brightly lit parking lot, and drove out into the brightly lit street.

It wasn't until we got out onto Prince William Parkway, and away from the lights that we were aware of the problem we had.

There were no headlights on in the car.

Holly pulled off the road into a little, dark side road, and we tried to figure out what the problems was. We discovered that by holding the steering column control for the high brights, we could get them to come on. But the control had to be held continuously to keep the lights on. Nothing else worked.

We drove to an auto parts store, and everybody there insisted we needed new bulbs for the headlights. This seemed improbable to me, since I've never had TWO headlights burn out simultaneously. Holly bought new headlights and the guy from the store helped install them. 

Surprise! It made no difference at all.

So we looked at the fuses, and the guy from the store got a fuse tester and we tested all of them. All of them were working fine.

So we went to Pep Boys, and they said that it was almost closing time, and they couldn't help us.

So, the rest of the Christmas shopping was cancelled, and Holly took me home and drove home holding the control for the high brights the whole way. She sent me a text message to let me know she got home safely.

Here's a soothing photo of my Christmas tree to help mend your jangled nerves.

After I got home last night, I started feeling really bad. I ached all over and felt too hot and too cold at the same time. I've been sick and felt too hot and then too cold, but never at the same time before. I would have thought it was impossible. Apparently not.  I was also really tired, so finally gave up and went to sleep early, which was probably a good idea because I woke up today feeling much better except for my hand.

It didn't seem like I felt all that cold last night during all the time we spent standing outside the car trying to fix it. Actually Holly and the guy from the store did the fixing and I held the light. It was cold out there, but I didn't feel cold except for my fingertips after a while. 

But my hand hurt a lot last night. I've been doing everything I can think of to help, but I haven't knitted at all so far today. I don't know what suddenly happened to it unless it was the cold. 

I'm going to have another round of nutrients that are good for joints (MSM, etc.), take an Aleve, and put a warm pack on my hand before trying to do any more knitting.

I have to get my Christmas cards printed and sent out, too.

For all of you out there who are suffering from pre-Christmas stress, here's something to help. It's a Christmas tree made of acrobatic Teddy bears. Run your mouse over them to see what happens.

I hope you had a great weekend, and happy Monday!

No Dental Pain!

I had a long talk with John last night. It was about the power of positive thinking, basically, although a much more complicated and believable theory.

He said I should be confident that there would be no dental pain, and it would be a pleasant visit to the dentist (if that's not an oxymoron).

So, I did.

This morning, I got up between six and seven hours earlier than usual, took the antibiotic I'm supposed to take, plus a healthy dose of Valium, and got over to the bus stop, and arrived at my appointment 15 minutes early.

They weren't there.

I tried calling their number (which is a cell phone, so I figured it would get through wherever they were). No information. So I hopped on the next bus (45 minutes later) and went over to the old place. They were closed, too. I did get to talk to the dentist. He said they turned off the cell phone days ago, and I should call back next Tuesday or Wednesday to make an appointment. He also promised that my next dental visit would be fun!

The move they'd been planning got pushed back and nobody bothered to let me know.

So, I got back on the bus one more time and rode three stops further and did my shopping at WalMart.

I attempted to do my entire shopping for the month all in one trip. I walked out of there carrying a lot of very heavy stuff!

By the time I got home (late in the afternoon. nearly 5 pm), my back hurt, and I was so tired from having gotten up so early. I laid down on the bed to let my back unkink for a bit, and (you guessed it) fell asleep almost instantly. Woke up at about 7 pm, put some dinner in the microwave and sat down to watch TV and knit.

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I got in a good start on the first stocking. There's a name and date, and I'm happy with it so far. The white yarn I found really looks like snow. There will be a photo tomorrow, when there's some natural light to take a good picture.

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I nearly forgot to mention that the first three Harry Potter movies will be on ABC Family this weekend, starting on Friday evening.

I have a sort of a antibiotic/Valium/lack-of-sleep hangover, and am really not at my best.

Have a great day tomorrow!

Long, Hard Day

Today was a long, hard day that involved a lot of walking.

I got up early (for me), got on a bus and went to WalMart to pick up the things I went to get on Sunday with Holly, but they didn't have.

Then I just missed the bus and had to wait for the next one. I walked around the Dollar Store because it was cool in there, and they have lots of neat stuff.

Came out and caught the next bus and got off as near as I could to the Post Office, and mailed all my IRS stuff, along with all the forms for the hospital to tell them that I really can't afford to pay them $200 because I saw a doctor there a couple of weeks ago.

The stuff for IRS went certified mail so that I could prove that they got it.

I was hoping to get a chance at the free clinic, but missing that bus at WalMart made it too late.

There is a free clinic locally. You have to arrive sometime between 3:30 and 4:30 on Tuesday with proof of income and local residency. If you meet all those requirements, you get a number, and after 4:30 there is a lottery. If your number is chosen, you get a chance to see a doctor.

It sounds pretty awful, but there are too few doctors volunteering, and too many people who need help. The volunteers aren't able to see everyone.

Anyway, it was 4:30 almost exactly when I left the Post Office. Catching a bus and riding back there was not an option.

I have a long list of stuff I have to do, and I'm trying to get at least one thing done every day. And I did get some more spinning done yesterday for the Tour de Fleece.

If I had gone to the clinic and actually gotten to see a doctor, then I would have had to decide how to spend the money I borrowed from Holly. I had planned to pay my phone with it, but a clinic visit would have given me (probably) a prescription that I'd have to fill to get any use from it. And I have a tooth in the front that had a small cavity, but during my recent illness, took the opportunity to virtually explode. Now I'm desperate to get something done about it, and I don't know how I'm going to be able to do it. That money is enough to get it x-rayed, and for the dentist to tell me what can be done and how much it's going to cost. I'm hoping I don't wind up without one of my teeth in the front.

So, the hard choice is: doctor and prescription, dentist or phone?

Incidentally, there's a "donate" button on the right for anyone who feels moved to help.

Obviously, this problem wasn't caused by the IRS, but it was made much worse by them. I'd have about $250 more now to get some help with if it hadn't been for them. I did get them to release my Social Security payment in August. They said it was too late to get the collection for July released. But by the time they take a payment this month, it should make us close to even. I thought I was going to get some money back, but they told me about other charges that I wasn't previously aware of. So, I don't know how it's going to come out, but they said I could expect to hear from them sometime in September.

Incidentally, when I went in the post office, my knitting bag set off their alarms. I pulled out the #8 Options circular needles (nickel-plated) that were in the bag and stuck them through the sensor, and they set it off. That may be something to consider for those of you who are traveling by air. I was really surprised that they'd do that. Although my knitting bag set off the alarm at CVS the other day, and the knitting needles weren't in there. So, there's something else that's doing it. WalMart's sensor was perfectly happy with my knitting bag, though. So, I'm perplexed.

Running a couple of quick errands without a car is an all-day experience.

I hope all of you had a much better day than I did.