Today finally came. The day I went to see the rheumatologist for the first time. Had to be there at 8:30 AM and it took a good hour to drive over to that part of town. Not that I had to cross the river or anything, just traffic. I was smart enough to bypass NAS JAX, since at that time of the morning it can be a little busy around there.
First off, I like Dr. B so far. She was friendly and nice without being cloying or too perky. She also took her time with me and asked a lot of questions and told me why she was asking them. She also examined me, which mostly comprised of her pressing on joint areas and down my spine. Some were more uncomfortable then others. Not much to report though. She confirmed that my tests do indicate RA and not Lupus. That the inflammation levels weren't too high, so that may be a good sign. However, she wants to do one more set of blood tests to make sure there is no sign of Sjogrens and that my liver is functioning properly. I also have to go for some X-rays so she can see if there is any damaget o the joints. I go back March 19th when we'll discuss what type of treatment she wants to put me on. Until then I'm to cut in half the dosage of Mobic I'm taking. (It helps to treat the swelling and stiffness from arthitis.)
That's all. I also dropped off "Little Green Acorns" at the frame shop. It will be ready in a couple of weeks. Of course I haven't put the other one I picked up on the wall yet, so I should probably get that done some time soon.
Thanks everyone for the good, positive thoughts and prayers that have been sent my way. I do appreciate them and am blessed to have such great people around me. I am truely blessed.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Thursday? Really?
Thursday's are so odd sometimes. I mean, it's not the middle of the week and it's not Friday, although it's almost Friday, which is good. And this week, I only worked 4 days, so today seemed like it should be Wednesday, but it's not.
I have decided I want my office to be MY office. The family business has been closed over a year and there is still more stuff from that in here then my stuff. That is all slowly changing. Each night I'm trying to take stuff and get rid of it. Some has to be shredded, some can just be thrown away. I've bought a few more things to put on the walls. I have filing cabinet drawers to clear out and bookshelves to clear out and replace all that stuff with my stuff. My knitting books and my crafting books and well, just my books. And in those filing cabinets? Hopefully the tall 4 drawer one will be completely emptied and I can get a matching bookshelf for where it is now and have even more space for my books and magazines and the like. Some of this stuff I have no idea what I'm going to do with. But I'm sure I'll figure something out. Some of it might end up on eBay. It's not a quick project, because most nights I only have 30 minutes or so. In fact tonight I'm working on clearing some stuff while running jobs for work. Nothing like multi-tasking.
Then, when it's done, maybe I can relax more and enjoy being in here and designing or making cards or whatever. Maybe I'll even finish my scrapbooks from the trip to Israel & Egypt! But let's not get too crazy. First, let's just see if I can bring order to this chaos, total order.
In "2009 For Me" news:
I finished a couple of books lately, 4 total this year so far. Enjoyed A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron. It was an interesting concept and I thought it was well written. Even though I knew the idea behind the book, I enjoyed reading how this author treated Queen Victoria and her children.
Stitching you got yesterday.
Knitting I'm behind in. The 2009 season of knitting for Victory Junction Gang Camp has started and I haven't picked up my needles for it yet. This Sunday I'm sure I will work on something for it though. Right now I'm frantically trying to work on the two classes I'm teaching this Sat.
Have to run to my meeting, so everyone have a great Friday!
I have decided I want my office to be MY office. The family business has been closed over a year and there is still more stuff from that in here then my stuff. That is all slowly changing. Each night I'm trying to take stuff and get rid of it. Some has to be shredded, some can just be thrown away. I've bought a few more things to put on the walls. I have filing cabinet drawers to clear out and bookshelves to clear out and replace all that stuff with my stuff. My knitting books and my crafting books and well, just my books. And in those filing cabinets? Hopefully the tall 4 drawer one will be completely emptied and I can get a matching bookshelf for where it is now and have even more space for my books and magazines and the like. Some of this stuff I have no idea what I'm going to do with. But I'm sure I'll figure something out. Some of it might end up on eBay. It's not a quick project, because most nights I only have 30 minutes or so. In fact tonight I'm working on clearing some stuff while running jobs for work. Nothing like multi-tasking.
Then, when it's done, maybe I can relax more and enjoy being in here and designing or making cards or whatever. Maybe I'll even finish my scrapbooks from the trip to Israel & Egypt! But let's not get too crazy. First, let's just see if I can bring order to this chaos, total order.
In "2009 For Me" news:
I finished a couple of books lately, 4 total this year so far. Enjoyed A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron. It was an interesting concept and I thought it was well written. Even though I knew the idea behind the book, I enjoyed reading how this author treated Queen Victoria and her children.
Stitching you got yesterday.
Knitting I'm behind in. The 2009 season of knitting for Victory Junction Gang Camp has started and I haven't picked up my needles for it yet. This Sunday I'm sure I will work on something for it though. Right now I'm frantically trying to work on the two classes I'm teaching this Sat.
Have to run to my meeting, so everyone have a great Friday!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
It's called a "Happy Dance"!!!
Finally, some eye candy around this place. I know, I know, it's been fairly boring what with no blog and when there was a blog not much on the picture front. I'm trying to do better, but there's this whole thing about actually getting things finished that's a problem. However, I managed to fix that this week by picking up a piece that I had framed and finishing another piece.
First, the one I had framed.
This was the commemorative sampler from the now defunct "Spirit of Cross Stitch". If you look I started this around 1995, ok, in 1995. You'll notice I actually finished it last year in 2008. I'm not to proud to point out the fact that it took me 13 years to finish this lovely sampler. I can deal with the fact that I'm easily distracted by new samplers, or beads, or yarn, or anything sparkly. I am well aware of my issues, and I know they are many. But you see, I'm really proud of finishing this. The quote is one of my favorites, because I believe it's true. I also believe more of us need to believe that quote and start believing in our own dreams and going about making those dreams come true, but that's a subject for another post. It's not hanging up yet, but it's going to hang on the wall above this table, so I thought I'd take the picture here. I'm going to move some things around in what is supposed to be the living room, but is really "the room where my piano that I rarely play lives".
The second piece of eye candy is the actual finish from this week. I finished during the Daytona 500. I realize that my ability to stitch during "The All-American Race", which this year was more build-up then race, could be construed as a bit odd, but hey, that's me.
Here I give you "Little Green Acorns", designed by Eileen Bennett of The Sampler House. This was also a class piece from A Stitchers' Gathering in Oct. 2007. Not bad, just about 1 year and 3 1/2 months or so. That's not quite a record, but still not bad for me. This was a great piece to work on and I adore the colors. It was hard to get a good picture because it's not stretched and I had it on roller bars so it wants to roll back on itself. There are plenty of great specialty stitches, including a fair amount of colonial knots. I'm pretty sure I ended up doing them more as Moss knots, but that's just between you and me. Either way, it does look great. (For those who want to scrutinize my stitches and see if my threads lay side by side, you do know you can click on the picture and see it much larger. I mean MUCH LARGER.) I can't wait to take it to my framers and see what they suggest for framing.
That's it for the eye candy today, although in my way of thinking that's plenty. I don't want you folks to get used to having lots to look at around here. That might cause all kinds of craziness.
For those who were wondering, I still haven't seen the Rheumatologist. That doesn't happen until a week from today. Believe me, I'm in major countdown mode for that one. I've had some bad days the last couple of weeks and I am anxious to hear what she will say about treatment options.
Finally, I my heart is heavy tonight for my DF Jean and her husband Richard. Today their very special daschund, Oscar, crossed over the rainbow bridge and went to play where all dogs go in time. I know neither of them were ready for this day. None of us ever are ready to loose someone we love no matter how much we think we might be prepared. I also know that Oscar was a very lucky hound to have spent his life with these two wonderful people. He will be not be forgotten, either by them, or by those of us lucky enough to have been greeted at his home by "His Royal Lowness". Oscar, your loyal subjects hearts are heavy tonight, but we know you're enjoying all the chicken nuggets you can eat where you are now.
First, the one I had framed.
This was the commemorative sampler from the now defunct "Spirit of Cross Stitch". If you look I started this around 1995, ok, in 1995. You'll notice I actually finished it last year in 2008. I'm not to proud to point out the fact that it took me 13 years to finish this lovely sampler. I can deal with the fact that I'm easily distracted by new samplers, or beads, or yarn, or anything sparkly. I am well aware of my issues, and I know they are many. But you see, I'm really proud of finishing this. The quote is one of my favorites, because I believe it's true. I also believe more of us need to believe that quote and start believing in our own dreams and going about making those dreams come true, but that's a subject for another post. It's not hanging up yet, but it's going to hang on the wall above this table, so I thought I'd take the picture here. I'm going to move some things around in what is supposed to be the living room, but is really "the room where my piano that I rarely play lives".The second piece of eye candy is the actual finish from this week. I finished during the Daytona 500. I realize that my ability to stitch during "The All-American Race", which this year was more build-up then race, could be construed as a bit odd, but hey, that's me.
Here I give you "Little Green Acorns", designed by Eileen Bennett of The Sampler House. This was also a class piece from A Stitchers' Gathering in Oct. 2007. Not bad, just about 1 year and 3 1/2 months or so. That's not quite a record, but still not bad for me. This was a great piece to work on and I adore the colors. It was hard to get a good picture because it's not stretched and I had it on roller bars so it wants to roll back on itself. There are plenty of great specialty stitches, including a fair amount of colonial knots. I'm pretty sure I ended up doing them more as Moss knots, but that's just between you and me. Either way, it does look great. (For those who want to scrutinize my stitches and see if my threads lay side by side, you do know you can click on the picture and see it much larger. I mean MUCH LARGER.) I can't wait to take it to my framers and see what they suggest for framing.That's it for the eye candy today, although in my way of thinking that's plenty. I don't want you folks to get used to having lots to look at around here. That might cause all kinds of craziness.
For those who were wondering, I still haven't seen the Rheumatologist. That doesn't happen until a week from today. Believe me, I'm in major countdown mode for that one. I've had some bad days the last couple of weeks and I am anxious to hear what she will say about treatment options.
Finally, I my heart is heavy tonight for my DF Jean and her husband Richard. Today their very special daschund, Oscar, crossed over the rainbow bridge and went to play where all dogs go in time. I know neither of them were ready for this day. None of us ever are ready to loose someone we love no matter how much we think we might be prepared. I also know that Oscar was a very lucky hound to have spent his life with these two wonderful people. He will be not be forgotten, either by them, or by those of us lucky enough to have been greeted at his home by "His Royal Lowness". Oscar, your loyal subjects hearts are heavy tonight, but we know you're enjoying all the chicken nuggets you can eat where you are now.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A Little Late
Finally an entry about my trip to Atlanta.
My flight up was fairly uneventful, unless you count the 35 minutes we sat on the tarmack in Jacksonville waiting for Atlanta to let us leave, or the time we spent holding over Atlanta while they decided to let us land, or even the time we sat on the tarmack in Atlanta while they decided where we could disembark. Otherwise, it was actually not that bad. DF Jean was not so patiently waiting for me when I made it from terminal E to where you pick up your baggage in the Atlanta airport. For those of you not familiar, I was as far away from there are possible. But we managed to collect my bag, get it to the baby Hummer and make our way to Chez Jean where dinner was provided by Mr. Jean (aka Richard). The evenings entertainment was courtesy of "The Big Bang Theory", a sitcom I had managed not to get hooked on...until then. Seriously, I know some of those people, Jean says we may be some of those people.
But Thursday came after a wonderfully restful night. Jean and I had to make an emergency stop at Belk to exchange the new purse I'd purchased that week that had fallen apart on me in the Jacksonville airport. Ok, only one of the handles had come loose but still it needed to be replaced and fast. We did that, and some additional shopping and then headed to lunch at the tea room. I had to be on a conference call to hand-off a project I'd finished before we could lunch so we got that out of the way as well. Lunch was excellent as usual. Of course I had my camera, but forgot to take pictures.
After lunch we headed to The Whole Nine Yarns. This is one of my favorite yarn shops for a whole lot of reasons and they didn't disappoint me this trip either. I had fun looking at all the wonderful yarns and finding things not carried in my LYS. I did find a couple of patterns and some lovely Silky Wool from Elsabeth Lavold. I've been wanting to make something from this yarn and found a pattern that I think will work. I thought I'd start it while I was there but that was not to be.
That evening several of the Atlanta Stitch group made it over to Jean's for some yummy ham and maybe some stitching and knitting. Mostly we ate, talked and watched some more episodes of "The Big Bang Theory".
Friday dawned not too early, but there was plenty to do. Jean and I headed to the airport to pick up DF Melody who took the shuttle in from Auburn where she'd been working. Then we met DF's Jill & Heather for lunch at Wolfgang Puck's Express. Lunch was good and we had a great time catching up. Then it was off to the High Museum, by way of the bookstore that was just down the way, to see the exhibit from the Louvre and of course the Tera Cotta Army. I really do love museums and the High is a wonderful place. Very well lit and it seems very airy inside.
They had stand-up outside for you to get a picture with. It was pretty breezy, but Jean & I managed to brave it and get a photo. Both exhibits were fantastic. It took me longer to get through then everyone else, but I managed to see it all, even at my snails pace. I realized that day just how much slower I've gotten with the RA. Thankfully they had benches along I could sit down on and enjoy things as I went.
Afterwards we took a couple of pictures in the gift shop. Apparently you aren't supposed to do that. Who knew.
That evening Jean, Richard, Melody & I met DF Vicky for dinner. There is a story there, but it's too long and too much to talk about here. The short part is that we had a bad experience that required Jean to "speak" to them and then me to "explain" a few things to the manager.
Saturday we all met at the Tut exhibit.
That's most of us. We did have to have a couple of people using the cameras. Again I decided on the extra audio tour and it was well worth it. If you get to go, just get it and enjoy. It may even make you "feel like you're holding the mysteries of the universe in your hands!" (Isn't that right Heather?) Seriously, it was very well done. I have been blessed to travel to Cairo and visit the Museum there. This gave a fantastic overview of the treasures found in the tombs. All that leads up to the Tut find and some of the best pieces of the treasures. You'll still have to go to Egypt to see the death masks and the sarcophogus, but I recommend it.
After the exhibit it was off to Knitch for more stash enhancement opportunities. We weren't disaapointed. What a wonderful shop. I wish I'd felt like climbing the steps up to the 2nd floor, but just didn't. I still found plenty to keep my happy on the 1st floor. From there Melody and I said our goodbye's to Richard & Jean and went with Jill to Heather & Michael's for a bit. We finally got to Jill's, Heather came along too, and settled in to try and knit or stitch. Some people did better then others. Of course there was one last visit from Vicky Tag and her girls. It was great to see them all and we had a nice visit.
Sunday went way to quickly. First we dropped Melody off at the airport. Then Jill & I met Heather & Michael at church, then lunch. Then another quick trip to Knitch where we did manage to get this silly picture.
Then it was time for me to leave. I had a great time, as always, and can't wait for my next visit. I'm already planning on a trip in July, but hopefully I'll manage a weekend before then.
Well that takes care of the Atlanta trip. Stay tuned. Tomorrow...Little Green Acorns...the Final.
My flight up was fairly uneventful, unless you count the 35 minutes we sat on the tarmack in Jacksonville waiting for Atlanta to let us leave, or the time we spent holding over Atlanta while they decided to let us land, or even the time we sat on the tarmack in Atlanta while they decided where we could disembark. Otherwise, it was actually not that bad. DF Jean was not so patiently waiting for me when I made it from terminal E to where you pick up your baggage in the Atlanta airport. For those of you not familiar, I was as far away from there are possible. But we managed to collect my bag, get it to the baby Hummer and make our way to Chez Jean where dinner was provided by Mr. Jean (aka Richard). The evenings entertainment was courtesy of "The Big Bang Theory", a sitcom I had managed not to get hooked on...until then. Seriously, I know some of those people, Jean says we may be some of those people.
But Thursday came after a wonderfully restful night. Jean and I had to make an emergency stop at Belk to exchange the new purse I'd purchased that week that had fallen apart on me in the Jacksonville airport. Ok, only one of the handles had come loose but still it needed to be replaced and fast. We did that, and some additional shopping and then headed to lunch at the tea room. I had to be on a conference call to hand-off a project I'd finished before we could lunch so we got that out of the way as well. Lunch was excellent as usual. Of course I had my camera, but forgot to take pictures.
After lunch we headed to The Whole Nine Yarns. This is one of my favorite yarn shops for a whole lot of reasons and they didn't disappoint me this trip either. I had fun looking at all the wonderful yarns and finding things not carried in my LYS. I did find a couple of patterns and some lovely Silky Wool from Elsabeth Lavold. I've been wanting to make something from this yarn and found a pattern that I think will work. I thought I'd start it while I was there but that was not to be.
That evening several of the Atlanta Stitch group made it over to Jean's for some yummy ham and maybe some stitching and knitting. Mostly we ate, talked and watched some more episodes of "The Big Bang Theory".
Friday dawned not too early, but there was plenty to do. Jean and I headed to the airport to pick up DF Melody who took the shuttle in from Auburn where she'd been working. Then we met DF's Jill & Heather for lunch at Wolfgang Puck's Express. Lunch was good and we had a great time catching up. Then it was off to the High Museum, by way of the bookstore that was just down the way, to see the exhibit from the Louvre and of course the Tera Cotta Army. I really do love museums and the High is a wonderful place. Very well lit and it seems very airy inside.
They had stand-up outside for you to get a picture with. It was pretty breezy, but Jean & I managed to brave it and get a photo. Both exhibits were fantastic. It took me longer to get through then everyone else, but I managed to see it all, even at my snails pace. I realized that day just how much slower I've gotten with the RA. Thankfully they had benches along I could sit down on and enjoy things as I went.
Afterwards we took a couple of pictures in the gift shop. Apparently you aren't supposed to do that. Who knew.That evening Jean, Richard, Melody & I met DF Vicky for dinner. There is a story there, but it's too long and too much to talk about here. The short part is that we had a bad experience that required Jean to "speak" to them and then me to "explain" a few things to the manager.
Saturday we all met at the Tut exhibit.
That's most of us. We did have to have a couple of people using the cameras. Again I decided on the extra audio tour and it was well worth it. If you get to go, just get it and enjoy. It may even make you "feel like you're holding the mysteries of the universe in your hands!" (Isn't that right Heather?) Seriously, it was very well done. I have been blessed to travel to Cairo and visit the Museum there. This gave a fantastic overview of the treasures found in the tombs. All that leads up to the Tut find and some of the best pieces of the treasures. You'll still have to go to Egypt to see the death masks and the sarcophogus, but I recommend it.After the exhibit it was off to Knitch for more stash enhancement opportunities. We weren't disaapointed. What a wonderful shop. I wish I'd felt like climbing the steps up to the 2nd floor, but just didn't. I still found plenty to keep my happy on the 1st floor. From there Melody and I said our goodbye's to Richard & Jean and went with Jill to Heather & Michael's for a bit. We finally got to Jill's, Heather came along too, and settled in to try and knit or stitch. Some people did better then others. Of course there was one last visit from Vicky Tag and her girls. It was great to see them all and we had a nice visit.
Sunday went way to quickly. First we dropped Melody off at the airport. Then Jill & I met Heather & Michael at church, then lunch. Then another quick trip to Knitch where we did manage to get this silly picture.
Then it was time for me to leave. I had a great time, as always, and can't wait for my next visit. I'm already planning on a trip in July, but hopefully I'll manage a weekend before then.
Well that takes care of the Atlanta trip. Stay tuned. Tomorrow...Little Green Acorns...the Final.
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