Shock the Monkey

So maybe I'm a wee little bit out of the whole "knit this cuz everyone else is knitting it" loop...About three years behind, it would seem:

Monkey Socks for Mom:

Yep, another xmas, another pair of socks. But shhh, don't tell her these are for her, 'kay?

I followed the pattern as written, and when I saw they would actually fit my "thick and wides" I decided to frog the one I'd started a million years ago (back when I was on the Italy trip with my xMIL) which was also size 2s, but I'd "adjusted for size" and they could have easily fit my dad's feet...(where I get my "dainties from") except they are in a shade of pink that I don't think he'd appreciate. See, I'm learning again, certain stitches have WAY MORE STRETCH than others.

And I know you're gonna want to know what yarn I used...and I honestly can't remember...it's one of those 50% cotton/50% wool ones...maybe....maybe nylon/bamboo...fer sure it was on sale. I guess this is what that whole Ravelry Queue thing is useful for...

Anyhow, some knitting.

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Update on the health stuff:

I've switched my fish oil pill with a flax seed oil pill.

After a week? I can honestly tell you that if you want the omega 3s but not the fishy burp? Take flax seed oil. It may as well be iocaine powder, colorless, tasteless and it must dissolve instantly in my tummy.

Also? I have ankles again. But that might be due to the fact that I've practiced abstinence on the whole fish thing, I'm talkin' even veggie sushi (I don't know how purine rich seaweed might be)...you know, just to be safe...after all, when experimenting on yourself, you need to do it one bit at a time. This getting old thing? Sucks. Avoid it at all costs, I say.

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Cuz I'd never leave you with a song in your head: Shock the Monkey, for reals. And can I just say...I think Peter Gabriel is actually younger in that video that I am currently, and that both makes me feel really old...and that I'm kinda not at all living to my potential...le sigh. (And a bigger shocker? Especially if I can't figure out how to not make it auto-play for you? The next song is him in 2009...oh my, time is a cruel, cruel thing.)

Go Flax Seed Oil!

So I know I said something about knitting and pictures and it's a draft...but I wanted to share this with you all first.

On Facebook a couple days ago I posted something along the lines of:

Dude, my life is so over...purine rich foods (salmon being one of them apparently) are making my inherited gout-like-symptoms, um, bloom. Stupid genes.

See, we made Salmon cakes....and almost immediately after I had dinner I noticed my left ankle was what Andy's cousin affectionately calls a "cankle." You know, when your ankle is so inflamed that you can't tell where the calf ends and the foot begins?

Fun times in TaclessLand, lemee tell ya.

Of course I didn't go to the doctor, hello? What is the internet for? That's how I came up with"purine rich foods." And the fact that I have a world of pain to look forward to in my "golden years..." (sigh)

Only, I didn't think I'd scarfed down all that much Salmon.

Then last night it happened again...and there was NOTHING that I ate that was on the list...except for maybe the pasta...(certain carbs are purine rich you see...). But as my right ankle was getting in on the action? I was getting a wee bit more concerned.

Two things have changed in my life the last few months:

• My BC pills went generic
• I switched to the Costco brand fish oil.

Yes, I know taking any kind of hormone is prone to making your life a mess, and as much as I LOVE not writhing in pain for 7 days every month...I'm still thinking of ditching the pills if things don't change for the better...i.e. I get my chubby ankles back. Cuz I never realized how much more attractive my stumpy chubby ankles until they were gone...and Dr. Internet says BC/hormone pills will adversely affect a woman's water retention ability to the big clumpy nothing-fits end of the scale. Oh it is SO fun to be a girl.

Before getting all drastic though, I decided to ask the intarwebs about fish oil causing swollen extremities. I mean, remember, I did decide to experiment on myself using fish oil as an anti-inflammatory for my hip woes, right? Maybe it's a side effect?

Um, no. Or rather, I can't find any correlation.

What I did find out I want to pass on as a kind of PSA though. If you mix vitamin D (which I also take) with certain fish oils you can get bad things happening in your system. Nothing mentioned cankles...but the word "toxic" was thrown around a WHOLE lot. So I read the ingredients of my Nature's Made vs Costco omega 3 oils and...did you know that Nature Made has some fish but also flax seed oil in their Omega 3 oil pills? And the Costco brand is like 100% fish oil?

So maybe, just maybe, mind, I was kinda o-d-ing on the purine richness of the oil + salmon cakes + (cuz I fergotted until just now) sushi the other night + maybe a sushi lunch the day before the night of the sushi dinner... Add that to the fact that (since they don't list what kind of fish they use in their pills) I might have been poisoning myself with the oil + vitamin D...and that might explain a few things...

So I'm altering my experiment on my use of fish oil. I'm switching back to the burpy goodness of Nature Made (the Costco brand did reduce that little aspect of taking fish oil, by the way) and seeing if I can have ankles again.

Time for an Update

Except I didn't upload the picture I wanted to show you.

Let's call this one the wanna be update and tonight I'll be more on the ball and upload my picture and all will be well.

In lieu of entertaining knitting (cuz you know, of course, that's what's in the picture,) I'll recount what I wrote in my wee journal as I rode the bus this morning:

As it's too foggy for me to drive, I thought I'd take the bus. Safety in numbers as well as size, if you look at it that way...of course the bus almost jumping the curb and nearly taking us all out at the same time did not make me feel very confident about my decision.

The driver apologized and as the wheels were still functional we continued on our way...he slipped, we concurred, because of the super wet tram tracks that he was driving on...I did mention the fog? This fact was punctuated several times as we felt the tires skidding all manner of ways as we continued down that same street...oh what fun.

But not nearly as frightening as feeling the same nausea inducing squiggle when we got onto the metal bridge to get me to work. It's one thing to crash and burn into a building, but to crash and fall into the canal? Not really what I had in mind.

It took hours for my stomach to settle.

And it's still grey and wet out, but no rain. Just the constant mist/fog that would make an awesome background to a slasher flick.

Pictures of soft yarny stuff later.

Too Many Things, All at Once, Again...

I feel like a broken record sometimes.

It must be the sine-wave-esque existence of my current employment.

Trying to keep above water...but like I just stated a few minutes ago in an email that has prompted this post...it really is too many things...all at once...again...but this time? With "feeling." If you get my drift.

So I need to learn to thread water a little longer, else I drown. (Such a drama queen some days...)

More laters...

Almost an FO

This is a hat for L&L's baby girl...almost.

As T can't stand stuff on her head...and it gets kinda nipping in Seattle, she needs a hat. One that can be tied on. Mom agreed, so I'm adding some ear-flaps and a i-cord style cording to fit the bill.

So almost an F.O. It gave me something to do as I watched that new Stargate show. Is it me or does the main doctor-guy strike you as a cross between Baltar and Dr. Smith? Or are all super-smart science-y guys that end up on space-ships in the middle of nowhere like that?

Motorheads don't get Giants...

So the thing about sinus headaches and all the nastinesses I've been living with all week...they vanish as quickly as they go as long as they don't take root anywhere and become an infection.

This is what gave me the gumption to go down to the Showbox SODO after work today to snag some "They Might Be Giants" tickets for their November "Flood" show.

However, I must be some kind of hardcore "Giants" fan at heart seeing as I was patient enough to endure the traffic for the ballpark (hello, Mariner's game...) AS WELL AS all the surly burly guys that were hanging out at the SODO as MOTORHEAD is to play tonight. (And dude, their fans look a lot like them....)

I may as well have been asking for a Strawberry Daquiri at the motorcycle dive bar across the way...Not only did I have to convince the door guy I was not trying to buy any sold tickets to tonight's all-star line-up ("Come on, look at me, do I look like a Motorhead fan?") but I had to convince him to call his surly boss on the radio as the box office girl had gone home early...I mean, hi, the show was sold out, who goes to the box office now-a-days to buy tickets for a different show that's on the same night when you can pay the online ticket people up to an extra $10 to get your ticket! (And then wade through the masses the night of the show to pick up your ticket because they opted not to have the TMBG tickets mailed out to folks, which I thought odd.)

With 5 minutes until the box office closed, I took a big gamble...he looked a whole lot like a number of my students from the Big Island...only adult sized, and I could have sworn I heard "bra'" and not "man" when he patted a fellow down before letting him in...so...I asked him to call his "manager-guy" and his eyebrows shot up and the next thing you know we were speaking in the lilting sing-songy Island talk I loved about Hawai'i.

We were all smiles until his actually manager-guy showed up.

I know I'm at least, AT LEAST 10 years older than the guy that finally came up to sell me my tickets, and I know, I KNOW he was wondering why oh why was this lady wasting his time cuz dude, Motor-head, practicing, right behind THOSE DOORS! Can't you hear them (I could hear nothing else...) And he had to reopen the box office for me? For some obscure band that is older than he is? It's not like it's Moby, or even the Pouges (who are also showing up at the SODO and don't think I wasn't tempted to buy some of those tickets...but they were probably sold out eons ago and more likely more than what I could afford (I just checked, and yes to both). Oh how he suffered.

Is there a merit badge for this kind of thing? For either of us?