I realize that taste is subjective. Especially when it comes to food. Odd things I love would turn other people’s stomachs and vice versa. I for one will never understand the urge to slide raw oysters down one’s throat. *shudder* But certain things most people agree are gross. Like this.

It doesn’t look that bad, does it? It starts off innocent enough. Half a banana, a cup of orange juice, some whey powder… but then it’s fiber time. Lots of fiber. Cardboard refrigerator boxes of fiber. Psyllium husks, wheat germ, ground flaxseeds, chia seeds… and I’m pretty sure the chia seeds are the same thing you use to grow “hair” on those clay faces – ch-ch-ch-chia! Then you add 600mg of fish oil. Ok, it sounds pretty bad now, yes? But I trust the good doctor. Trust with a capital T. Like even when I don’t believe anything anyone says about nutrition, I believe him.

So I blended it up. I added the 3 optional ice cubes – because cold is better for these sorts of things. And I took a sip. I shuddered. I vurped in my mouth a bit. But I was naive. I trusted the doctor. I thought maybe it just needed to be colder. So I stuck it in the freezer for 5 minutes. I tasted it again. I realized that there was no way I was ever gonna be able to stomach that concoction.  So instead I took more pictures of it.

It congealed. Like into gelatinous, gritty, slimy sludge. And yes, the spoon is being held up by the “smoothie”.

Now wait, you may be saying. Maybe I let it set too long. But no…. the article with the recipe had a lovely lady who claimed she made a big batch of it at the beginning of the week and drank it all week long. She’s got to be kidding me. By the way, does my smoothie look anything like the “tasty concoction” in the magazine? I don’t think so.

Wait, you gotta see the action shot. Yeah. How’s that for an appetite suppressant? Maybe that’s how it helps you lose weight. Dr. Oz, I will never trust you again. Tasty my ass. Ooh, wait, maybe that’s what it tastes like.

So today is Day One. With capital letters even. I started my training for the 3-Day Breast Cancer walk with a solid hour of walking. Ok, so I had a cupcake for lunch instead of the sludgy shake of doom. But I walked for an hour!

And just for the record I completely disposed of the shake. Because I’m pretty sure it would take form and come and eat me in my sleep if I left it in the cup overnight.

So the other night I was at a meeting. And one of the members was pitching an idea for a group activity. A really crazy group activity. That included sleeping in tents. And a lot of exercise. And serious risk of dehydration and heat exhaustion. And probably more blisters in one weekend than I’ve had in my entire life combined. The 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk.

Turns out it was the ten year anniversary of a former’s members battle. And across from me sat the sweetest woman – who had lost her mother to the disease. Two seats down from me sat my son’s current teacher – a dear of a woman – who piped up that it was her 10 year anniversary as well. Really? I didn’t know that. Of course we’ve only been at the school for 2 years. I won’t know everything. But looking around the room, so many of us had been touched – personally or peripherally – by this disease.

I lost a beloved Aunt to it some years back. She was that aunt – the fun one – who brought her daughters along on all sorts of fun adventures when I was a child. I still tell stories about her and how much fun she was. She fought so hard but eventually it was too much. Nowadays everyone has some sort of story.

So before I could think, before I could process 60 miles, I spoke. “I’m in”. And the friend next to me, my son’s teacher’s daughter-in-law echoed it. Well at least I’m not alone in the crazy. I need to drop some weight anyway, and if training for this doesn’t help, nothing will. I need new shoes – 2 pairs probably – and a very good air mattress, and oh yeah, I need $2300. That’s how much I have to raise for the walk. I need to check with our team leader to see exactly how the sign up works, but I figure better start sooner rather than later.

So here’s my first fund-raiser. The Carnivale Cowl. I thought it was appropriate to release it on Fat Tuesday – what with the bright and beautiful colors and all. It’s only $3.50 and it’s highly versatile – could be easily adjusted to any weight yarn – and all of the proceeds will be going to our 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk fund.

Needles: Size 6 needles (4.5 mm)

Yarn: Shibui Silk Cloud & Malabrigo Silky Wool (1/2 skein of each)

Size: 9 inches tall and 18 inches wide

Gauge: 20 stitches  = 4 inches in garter

Notes: Worked side to side. Requires four 3/4″ buttons. Can be worked with other yarns, but stitch count and needles will need to be adjusted to achieve desired height and width. A full skein of each yarn will easily net you two cowls.

Ravelry Link

$3.50 USD

I looked. And now everything in my pattern store is in the Help for Haiti category. Actually I didn’t even mean to look. I just saw some ads. With the pictures. Oh my Lord the pictures.

So to recap, if you buy anything in my Ravelry Store between now and the end of January, I will donate 50% of the purchase price to Doctors Without Borders.

I’m not looking, but I know it’s happening. I can’t watch the coverage on Haiti. I can’t listen to the stories. I was reduced to a sobbing heap the other day reading a news story about a cop who was killed here locally in a head-on collision. I am that person that is nearly incapacitated by hearing about tragedy. I don’t know why. I guess it’s a bad thing. It doesn’t mean I’m not compassionate – I think I’m too compassionate. I don’t know. But enough about me. This is about them.

Even though I’m not watching or listening, I know. I get little bits and bobs. And they are horrifying. Ravelry is doing something good though. That I can read about. They are doing a “Help for Haiti” designation where you can designate percentages of your pattern sales to go to relief. Tons of designers have already signed up. Right now all of my hat patterns are in the mix. If you buy any for sale hat pattern, I will send 50% of the sale price to Doctors Without Borders. They were in Haiti when the quake struck. Their hospital was destroyed – so they set up tents in the rubble and kept working. They’ve lost many of their own.

And hey, if you’re knitting hats, they are fast, yes? Think about knitting some up for some of the folks at home that are homeless and cold right now. Other bad things haven’t stopped happening because Haiti happened.

Oh and one more thing. If you were going to buy patterns, try to buy ones that have the “Help for Haiti” designation. But if you weren’t… well just send that $5 or so straight to Haiti. That way 100% of that money goes straight to the people that need it most. And $5 does a heckuva lot more there than it does here.

I get a lot done in a day. In a week. A month. Any given span of time. But it seems like certain things on my to-do list always get pushed to the backburner.  A good manicure. A long hot bath. Blogging. Exercising with any regularity. Making dreaded phone calls. Putting together design submissions.

I don’t why I don’t do these things. They have good benefits. It would be nice to not be biting my cuticles all the live long day. It would be nice to get back to running eventually. And the phone calls do accomplish things. And design submissions lead to contracts for work which leads to money.

And the blogging? Well the blogging is just kind of my mark on the world. I honestly wonder if folks just scroll through to look at the pictures. Hmmmm… maybe I should add a pretty picture.

Isn’t she beautiful? She’s the handiwork of one of the crafters that showed this weekend at the Winter Wonder Sale & Festival. Reflections Now is the name of the company, but sadly they don’t have an online presence. I encouraged them to look into etsy though. His stuff is just gorgeous!

And now I think I will take that bath!

I said I was gonna keep posting, even though the flu made me fail at NaBloPoMo. I lied. Or I got busy. Or something. I don’t know. It was like I broke the streak and the motivation was just gone. Gone daddy gone.

I had a fabulous Thanksgiving. It was full of good friends – who are just like family – and we stuffed ourselves, and laughed ourselves silly and knitted and just had a good all around time. It was good.

I’m getting ready right this minute to settle in and figure out the calendar for the rest of the year. I still can’t believe it’s December 1st tomorrow. Christmas lists are made, budgets have been sussed out, and all there is now is to do everything that needs to be done. Like the Winter Wonder Sale & Festival this weekend. I’ll be working that from Thursday afternoon probably straight into Sunday night. Next weekend we have Christmas shopping with the man on Friday and a beginner’s knitting class on Saturday. The following weekend is luminary. And the weekend after that is Christmas. It will all go too fast. It always does.

Plus I have a good chunk of design work to finish up before the end of the year. To that note, I present my latest knitting design. It is for woolgirl’s Just Babs Knitting Club. Miss Babs yarn is fabulous of course and working with woolgirl was a delight. But hey, if you’re in the club, this is major spoilage. Even though nearly everyone should have gotten their package by now.

First up, my In Full Bloom socks.

And then, and this is the really cool part. Part of my deal for this pattern included the package. And what a package it is!

Woolgirl doesn’t mess around. All the very cool stuff inside is from different indie vendors. So awesome!

I’m really pleased I got to be a part of this. And hey you! Yeah, you. If you get a chance to be in one of woolgirl’s sock or yarn clubs, do it! You won’t be sorry!

I tried to keep up with NaBloPoMo despite the fact that I had the flu. But then the flu won. And I basically slept for a week. Today is the first day I’ve made it through without a nap. Yesterday I didn’t get out of bed until eleven. And I just finished a short trip to the grocery and it kind of kicked my ass. But I’m alive.

I’m gonna remove my button from the sidebar (sob) but I am going to try to post everyday for the rest of November. I cleaned my office today til it screamed for mercy, so now my designing mojo is back. So maybe I’ll have something interesting to say.

I can’t show you pictures of the knitting I am finishing up right now. It is this absolutely gorgeous alpaca yarn that might be my new favorite yarn in the world. But it’s a job for hire, so it’s secret. But it’s gorgeous. And the yarn is soft and soothing to me at a time when I feel like utter poo.

Speaking of how I feel, if you live in the greater Jacksonville area, stay far, far away from me. I am typhoid Mary. I have it. Oh yes I do. I have the H1N1 flu. Well that’s what they assume. Apparently the hiney flu (as I like to call it) is kicking the seasonal flu to the curb so to speak, so if you test positive for flu, they assume it’s the hiney flu.

So I go to the urgent care this morning. The man drives me because at this point I am too weak to drive. So I wait a really long time. I knit. I cough into my hankie. They take me in. They leave me alone in a room for a very long time. Like I read an entire issue of People cover to cover long time. (Stamos on Broadway? Interesting.) They come back. They swab my nose. (Gross!!!!) They say results take 15 minutes. I hear a commotion in the hallway. “Doctor, it’s only been 3 minutes, but look at this!” Yeah. That was my abnormally fast flu result.

You may wonder if my boys didn’t have the hiney flu, how did I catch it? Well I’ll tell you how. I caught it at the danged urgent care. Has to be. I went on Tuesday with the boys. On Friday I was sick. And now I am hoping and praying that the boys don’t catch it. And the man has forbade me to touch anything but my computer and one couch. Like if I open the door to a room he sprays it down with Lysol. I hope it works.

I should have also taken a picture of dinner. The man who loves me and has traipsed all over town looking for just the right chicken noodle soup in a box, also cooked me dinner. Because I’m weak and not allowed to touch anything. He made macaroni & cheese (because that’s tending to agree with me), and roasted butternut squash, and salads, and the BBQ Meatballs from the Pioneer Woman site. Seriously. He made me from scratch bbq sauce. This man is a keeper.

So wish me sleep and speedy get well vibes and pray my boys (and my man) don’t catch this. When I get better I want to do fun stuff with my family. Not play sick nurse!

The sickness has moved into my sinuses. Which means now I have to go to the doctor. I was trying to let it run its course, but that ain’t happening now. So I guess I’ll be first in line at the Urgent Care in the morning. Oh well, can’t sleep anyways.

And yep, this is all you get today. I’ve never even seen cop rock. But the Gilmore Girls sang the praises of it, so maybe one day… But not tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be visiting the urgent care, and pharmacy, and buying stock in Yoplait.

My boys have sickened me. Still not quite sure what it is. Pretty dang sure I don’t want to take the horse pill size antibiotics they are taking. That will just be bad. And you know what I mean. It’s effecting me a bit differently though. I have a bit of a headache, but no sign of fever. Crazy weak though. Weak like I can’t open the window. Weak like I had trouble just now getting out of the bathtub. Weak. And the coughing? Not cool. Really. When you cough so danged hard that your ten year old c-section scar starts to hurt, well that’s like the Mac Daddy of bad coughs. I’m just saying.

I feel like I should offer a pretty picture to make up for all the whining. Um….

Look. Pretty. I’m going to bed now. Kthnxbye.