Sleep

Today's the day. My appointment at the sleep clinic is only a few hours away. Actually I've got two appointments. One will have them check out the machine I use, the other one will be with the doctor.

I don't expect much to happen today as these are first appointments. I've been to sleep clinics repeatedly for years and they've not been able to actually help me sleep, but we'll see. There are lots of things they could do including trying sleeping pills to break the cycle of non-sleep. It will be interesting to see if something actually gets done. Still, a bit of hope is better than none, so I'm looking forward to going there.

With any luck, given the timing of the visit, I should be done and home without hitting too much of the commute. The traffic around here is awful and the area where I will be driving is one of the worst in the nation. On the other hand, I've driven it for years so I'm used to it.

I'm going prepared to have to wait a while between visits, but that's ok too. The actual appointments are an hour apart. That's not all that bad.

Miscellaneous Things

I haven't been posting here much. Mainly I'm busy and dealing with a lot of stress at the moment. Also, I'm posting a lot more in an area called gather.com. It has literally hundreds of discussion groups. My current favorite is the politics one which should come as no surprise to anyone. What I am proud of, given that the group has over 30,000 members is that I've had things I've posted as their front-page feature three times in the past ten days. I have some aspirations toward being a political blogger that people actually listen to, so this definitely doesn't hurt.

I'm making good progress with my current afghan (a Christmas present for my sister) and also on the quilt for my son. I had a small setback there yesterday because I wasn't paying attention and had to rip out a bunch of quilting so the area would lay flat. There is an order in which you must do these things and I didn't do that. Voila! Bunched up mess.

Some of you know that I also play an online game called WoW. It used to be fun, but the real world is intruding to such an extent that it's more of a chore to log on than it is fun to play. I have one low-level character I'm still having fun with, but I have to go play my main as well since in a few levels (well ok six huge levels) she gets to fly on her own like a bird. Actually as a bird. That will be such a kick. I haven't logged her on in like three days to do more than check mail.

I've been doing one thing this week that is helping with all the stress. I've begun making a list of all the things I have to be thankful for. The common ones and the not so common ones. It really does help to keep things in perspective.

My Latest Effort

This is my latest effort. I always have one project or another going. It's simply a part of who I am and what I do. I can't sit still without having a project in my hands.

This year I will be making something for virtually everyone on my Christmas list, plus two or three other things I've promised one person or another. I like this pattern because I like knitting to begin with, but also because it looks a lot more complicated than it actually is. The best part is that it's knitted in narrow strips so there are only 24 stitches on the needles at any one time.

I have already located the materials for the next one. After that is an afghan for my sister, another for my daughter's ex-husband's sister, another for my daughter's ex-husband's girlfriend, and possibly one for a couple of other people. Well, one very very involved one for one special person, and a much easier, but fairly flashy one for another person.

This does not include finishing a queen sized quilt and making a quilted computer carrying case. That should keep my hands busy for a bit.

I done good

It's sort of coincidental that my friend Sewmouse published a piece on finding books for her family that meant a lot to them when they were younger.

My son's birthday was the 31st. When we were talking he mentioned how much he wanted to find his two favorite children's books so he could read the books he loved to his daughter. I promised him I would look, but to be honest they were kid's books from 30 or more years ago. The odds were not good. Or so I thought.

Bright and early the next day I started my search. Almost immediately I found the first of the two books. I ordered it on Amazon.com and it began winging its way to him. I sent him an email telling him I had found it.

Unfortunately I had no luck with the second book. Then quite by accident, while typing something into an email, I discovered I was spelling piranha wrong. I was leaving out the "h". I typed it into a Google search and almost immediately got a number of hits, one of which gave me the author's name, the publisher, and the date it was published. Armed with that and crossed fingers, I hit Amazon again. Immediate success. That one is on its way to him as well. Both should arrive within a day or two of one another.

I felt so good being able to do that. I remember these books from when David was just a child. I remember his laugh as he read them over and over. Now I have been able to help out and see that his daughter enjoys the very same books he so loved as a kid. That makes me happy.