Happy New Year!

This is the third year I am posting something on New Year's Day, and I feel that it has become something of tradition.  Last year I reflected on how crazy a year 2009 had been and hoped that 2010 would be a better year.  In some ways it was.  I recovered from Pancreatitis.  I traveled to California to visit a friend twice.  I also was accepted into the Certified Public Managers program which is through the University of Kansas.

There were some bad things too.  A friend from school died in March.  She had a cardiac incident in 2006 that left her severely brain damaged.  Eventually she became ill and finally succumbed to the illness.  We were not close friends, but she was still a friend.  Even though she passed away in March, the funeral was not until April 24, 2010, but I suspect that was to give adequate time to make arrangements, allow people to attend, etc.

In April I learned that a close friend had attempted suicide.  In July she succeeded.  We had been friends for a very long time, but I know I lost her a long time ago.  I hope that she is at peace now.

Even with the bad things, 2010 was a better year than 2009.  

That being said, I make the same resolutions I did a year ago: to keep enjoying life, to trust my instincts, and to put myself first more often.  This last one is particularly important.  I cannot help others if I do not take care of myself.  This is one of the lessons I took from being ill with pancreatitis.  Trying to help people who do not want my help is counterproductive and it prevents me from helping those who do want my help.  The trick is realizing when people do not really need and/or want my help.  This one is a bit tougher for me, but I do feel like I am making progress on this.

Happy New Years everyone!  May 2011 be a good year!

Happy New Year!

When I posted a year ago, I mentioned that something told me 2009 was going to be an interesting year. Interesting was certainly one way to describe it. I recently learned that one of my cousins had an aortic aneurysm in January. He survived, but he had to have another repair surgery to replace his aortic arch later in 2009. However, he is doing well. In March, one of my friends had a heart attack. Fortunately, he survived, and his recovery is going well. I have other friends who have equally, if not more stressful things that happened in 2009 as well.

Then on September 6, 2009, I developed a moderate case of acute pancreatitis. My recovery is ongoing, but it seems more tangible than it did even a week ago. On Monday, I got a call from the nurse practitioner that works for the primary radiologist on my case. She told me they wanted to reposition the remaining drain catheter. She mentioned that they were booked this week, but that there might be a cancellation. Said cancellation happened on Wednesday.

I was not really understanding why they needed to reposition it, so I asked. It turns out that the drain catheter was rather close to the replacement stent my GI doctor put in last week, and they thought that the stuff was draining through the drain bag instead of through the pancreatic duct.

However, I did get good news. The radiologist told me the pseudocysts had resolved, and that the drain might be able to be removed next week. I have a vague memory of him injecting a local a local anesthetic, and the next thing I remember is waking up, and they were done. Better yet, they did not have to give me any painkiller other than the local.

It turns out they actually inserted a new drain catheter. The drain bag is smaller and lighter, and I can actually fold it up and tuck it in my waistband instead of having to carry it around in a bag. There was not anything in the drain bag when I got up Thursday morning, and so far there is very little in there, so that is a very promising sign.

So in some ways 2010 is already looking better. Not that all of 2009 was bad. I made some new friends, and I paid off my student loans. I also kept my resolutions. I had resolved to keep enjoying life, to trust my instincts, and look into getting my concealed carry permit. The first one was pretty easy to keep. The second one was a little harder, but I think it ended up saving my life. My GI doctor said that waiting another hour before going to the ER that night probably would not have made much of a difference, but if I had waited until the next day, I would have been much worse. I kept the third one as well. I took a class in February 2009, and I turned in my application a little over a week ago.

So for 2010, I am going to make the first two resolutions again. I was already pretty aware of my own mortality, even before the pancreatitis, and even before the nearly fatal anaphylactic reaction to an allergy shot nearly six years ago. So enjoying life is an important resolution. Trusting my instincts has proven equally valuable. I am also resolving to put myself first more often than I used to.

Happy New Years everyone! May 2010 be a better year.

Knitting Cake and the Peanut Recall

My friends Jaime and Stepheny both had birthdays this week, and since both of them are knitters, I did a knitting themed cake. I do not think it is some of my better work, but people seemed to like it.


I made the fondant decorations on Tuesday: knitting needles, a pair of mittens, a pair of socks, a hank of yarn, and a ball of yarn.

I baked the cake after knitting group on Wednesday, let it cool over night, and then iced it with chocolate icing on Thursday morning. By the time I got home from work Thursday, it had crusted up nicely and I made more icing to decorate with. I free-handed Stepheny and Jaime's names, and I really should have used a Number 1 or Number 2 tip instead of the Number 3 I used for the writing. The icing I decorated with was supposed to be purple. I am not quite sure why blue and red made brown, but oh well. Using the icing, I piped a pair of socks, a pair of mittens, a pair of knitting needles, a scarf, and a tangle of yarn.

Now for the other part of the post..

As some of you may know, I am severely allergic to tree nuts and peanuts. The whole salmonella outbreak associated with peanuts is a horrible thing, but something good is coming out of it. More people are reading ingredients, and some are really surprised where they are finding peanuts and other nuts.

When I was surfing on Ravelry this morning, I came across a link to a Peanut Product Widget on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's web site. It is a neat widget, so I decided to add it to the sidebar.

Yarn Shop Crawl

A few of us from the Topeka knitting group went on a yarn shop crawl of the Kansas City area last Saturday. Our first stop was The Studio. I really liked this store, and I had to restrain myself when it came to buying things. After all, we were going to hit more stores :) I ended up with two pairs worth of Forever Jacquard by Lane Cervinia (two skeins of each colorway) and one skein of Berrocco Sox. The Studio had a great selection of yarn and books, and they carry Malabrigo! They have a hard time keeping it in stock, so I might not actually ever be able to buy it there, but I might luck out once in a while.

After we left the Studio, we ventured on to MisKnits. It was a smaller store, but they still had a good selection of yarns and books. More importantly, they had 40 inch size 7 Addi Turbo circular needles. Better yet, they were reasonably priced at $14.95. I consider that a reasonable price considering some places charge more, and even if I found a better price online, shipping and handling might make them more expensive. I got the aforementioned Addi Turbo needles and a shirt that says Knitter on the front and MisKnits on the back.

Next it was on to the Crayola Cafe at Crown Center for lunch. I was a bit disappointed about the service. It was quite a while after we ordered our drinks before we actually got them. They were not extremely busy, but the did not seem to have enough waitstaff on hand for the amount of people there. They did have a birthday party going on, so maybe they were stretched a little thin. The food was pretty good though. We hit the Crayola store next where I got an activity book in case my niece ever visits me and a 120 count box of crayons.

The original plan was to go to Ryukyu next, but we made a detour to Urban Arts and Crafts. They did not have nearly as much yarn as the other two stores we had visited, but then again, they were not exclusively a yarn store. They also carried a good selection of beads, some fabrics, and a lot of scrapbooking supplies.

While some of our group stopped in at Ryukyu, the rest of us headed on to Yarn Shop and More, with a slight detour to the Krispy Kreme store. They were making glazed chocolate cake doughnuts (my favorite), so I got a couple fresh off the line before they went through the proofer.

While visually appealing to some, I did not like how Yarn Shop and More was organized. They have yarns organized by color, so it made it a little difficult to tell what brands they carried. Their selection of tools had also been pretty well picked over, but for all I know, a bunch of people bought stuff for Mother's Day. I did find one skein of Regia Galaxy in a colorway I liked, but she did not have any more in stock, and it takes ones skein per sock.

Unfortunately we did not make it to KnitWit in Olathe. Oh well, maybe next time.

Of Cakes and Connections

Of cakes..

Last Thursday evening, I baked a batch of cupcakes for my niece's birthday party. Friday morning I baked the sheet cake before going to work. I took that afternoon off to decorate the cake. I iced it with plain, white icing. After that I stamped it with a letter press. Of course, it turns out I got the T and H in birthday reversed. Oh well :)

Next, I traced a picture of the Cat in the Hat onto tracing paper and placed a piece of parchment paper over it. Then I used piping gel to place the picture on the parchment paper. Once I finished that, I flipped it over on to the cake. Most of the gel did not stick to the cake, but it did imprint in the icing enough that I could see the outlines. I went over that with black frosting and red frosting. I finished up with a red bead border.



Cherokee loved it.

I also did cupcakes in case there were people who did not care for strawberry cake.




and connections..

O'Dooley's is a center for cosmic convergences. I am there most Friday and Saturday nights, and a while back I ran into someone from high school. I thought he looked familiar and after a while when we were talking to some of the same people he recognized me and was really surprised to see me. Well, on March 21 he came in with two other guys I went to high school with: Matt Kreutzer and Cory McIlvain. I was rather surprised. They were too, because as I found out later, John did not tell them I am a regular. Another person I went to high school with was there as well.

Then last Friday we did a send off for Susan, who is shipping out to Iraq. I mention this because when she and Mike showed up on Saturday, I invited them to share the table I was at. After we talked for a while, Mike mentioned his last name was Van Doren. I asked him if he was any relation to Brian Van Doren (another guy I went to high school with), and it turns out he is Brian's younger brother. Susan this asked if I knew Sri Donepudi, and I indicated that she and Brian dated in high school. Turns out they are married now, which I think is pretty cool.

It really is a small world. Makes me wonder who I else I know from high school will show up at the pub.