Good morning.

On Thursday I started a “home” version of the Pro Club’s 20/20 Lifestyles diet. Or something similar. I have two friends that have done really well on it, and they’ve been coaching me. Basically, it’s similar to South Beach, it’s similar to what I’ve been trying to do anyway, but more strict. Shakes, and lean protein for two weeks. Then add vegetables. Then add moderate dairy. Then add beans and legumes. Then brown rice. Then slowly add in everything else you like to eat, watching for blood sugar and craving triggers.

You HAVE to exercise to chemically break up the insulin resistance built up on fat cells (as far as I remember from hearing about it 8 months ago).

You HAVE to drink at least 8 cups of water a day. (Which I’ve been doing on and off forever).

So, I’m two days into it. It’s going great. I’m feeling great. It isn’t that much of a change for me because like I said, I’ve been sort of doing it for months, but not strictly. So now I’m really doing it, with no indulgences. No desserts. No simple carbs. No slip ups.

I’m pretty excited, of course, tonight is the semi-annual “banana splits for dinner” party my mother-in-law throws for the women and the children in the family while the men go off to a church meeting. And I’ll be eating a strawberry shake!

Yesterday, I hit the treadmill for 35 minutes. Thursday, I went for a couple short walks up big hills and did lunges. Today is a physical therapy and weights day. I weighed in at 223.4 which is pretty low for me.

Here we go.

How was your week?

Michelle emailed me to say that she had success in connecting with Interweave Knits for the doll pattern. Hooray!

If you’d like the pattern, call 1-800-272-2193 to use your credit card ($4) or mail a check to

Interweave Press
201 E 4th St
Loveland, CO 80537

Again, it’s the Best Friend Doll pattern by Sandy Cushman from Summer 2002. Thank you, Michelle.

My poor baby boy woke up sick today. He has a fever and no energy, but he’s so sweet and cuddly, I’ve been enjoying it a little bit. I tried to take a picture of him in his high chair when I saw his little eyes at half-mast and zoned out,

but when I got close enough to get the picture, he perked up a little bit

for a brief moment before sinking back against the side of the chair. He turns 1 on Tuesday, I can hardly believe it.

The girls had their first softball game last night.

We won! Depending on who you ask, the final score was either 6-4 or 7-4. All I know is that it was 2 hours and Veronica and Clark were bored. Abby was hit by a pitch, putting her on base where she ultimately scored a run. Lots of girls were getting hit with pitches. Fortunately, they aren’t throwing very hard yet. Liv had a single or two, in addition to being hit by a pitch, putting her on base a few times.

Nate was the volunteer Umpire, and an animated Ump he was.

He had to ump with a huge bandage on his nose from basal cell surgery on Monday. (Non-malignant skin cancer). What a trooper.

I figured I’d get some interest in the pattern for the doll, as I usually do. Here’s the skinny.

It is the Best Friend Doll pattern from the Summer 2002 issue of Interweave Knits. The issue is sold out at the publisher, but it can be found on eBay at times. Because of the number of requests that I get for the pattern on a semi-regular basis, I emailed IK a couple of years ago to ask if I could give it out, since it is out of print. They said no. However they said that you could contact them directly for a copy, paying $4 for shipping and handling. I’ve forwarded that email on to many people. One person emailed me back to say that they were no longer offering that service, but I haven’t followed up, so I don’t know if that’s still true. If it were me, and I wanted the pattern, I’d watch eBay. Secondly, I’d get in touch with IK for a copy. And I’d be a bit pushy about it if they refused, considering that all of this is an effort to obey and comply with (sarcasm omitted) copyright laws. If that didn’t work, I suppose I’d contact the pattern writer herself, a Sandy Cushman who in 2002 at least, lived in Dolores, Colorado according to the pattern.

And then she’d probably get a restraining order because I’d sound like an obsessed freak but hey, it’s a great pattern.

That’s what I know. Thanks for the interest. I’m glad you like my dolls. I have found them quite a satisfying little knit. It’s fun to play so liberally with skin and hair color, and to make funky clothes.

Addendum- This post has been slightly modified– The little bit of sass I initially included in reference to copyright law has been removed because it misrepresented my true feelings on the subject.

My dear friend, Hayden’s birthday is today. We had her over last night.

She had to bring her own gluten free cupcakes since I don’t know how to cook that way, was worried about having miniscule amounts of wheat flour in my sugar jar, etc. But we had a great time, and I was able to gift her something that she’s wanted for a long time.

Behold, the latest sassy doll.

This one is special in that the hair and shoes are my own handspun yarn, Romney and alpaca respectively. Plus, it is my first attempt at embroidery on a real project.

Her dress is Angora by Elsbeth Lavold, the embroidery is Madil’s Kid Seta… so all around, a luxurious doll for a fantastic friend!

Clearing the throat…

Do do do do DO do,
You SAY it’s your BIRTHday!
Do do do do DO do,
It’s MY birthday TOO, yeah!
Do do do do DO do,
They SAY it’s your BIRTHday!
Do do do do DO do,
We’re gonna have a GOOD time!
Do do do do DO do,
I’m glad it’s your BIRTHday!
Do do do do DO do,
Happy BIRTHday TO you!

(musical refrain)

Yes we’re goin’ to a party, party
Yes we’re goin’ to a party, party
Yes we’re goin’ to a party, party

(Bababababababa)

I would like you to dance,
Birth-day!
Take a cha-cha-cha-chance,
Birth-day!
I would like you to dance!

(escalating musical noise and such)

Do do do do DO do,
You SAY it’s your BIRTHday!
Do do do do DO do,
It’s MY birthday TOO, yeah!
Do do do do DO do,
They SAY it’s your BIRTHday!
Do do do do DO do,
We’re gonna have a GOOD time!
Do do do do DO do,
I’m glad it’s your BIRTHday!
Do do do do DO do,
Happy BIRTHday TO you!

You rock, Hayden. Have a great one!

Good morning! I missed Saturday. It was a very busy day, so here I am on Monday!

Last week was either great or not so great, depending on the day. Monday was great. I ate well and did my physical therapy.

Tuesday was baaaaaaad. I was achy and crampy and my friend brought over a dozen donuts without warning, and, it was not good. And it was good :-).

Wednesday I ate well but still felt too yucky to exercise.

Thursday I ate great and did physical therapy. My sister has me doing lunges. I’ve done them a few times and only felt it in my quads, but on Thursday, I really worked my glutes. I’m still feeling it today. This is exciting because I’ve always had a flat butt and I’d love to give it some shape. Maybe these lunges will work! They’ve worked for her. She had a woman come up to her after a show and say that she (my sister) has the nicest bottom she’d ever seen, and told my sister that she (the lady) had photographed it during the show.

What’d’ya say to that? My sister told the lady about lunges. I laughed.

Friday I didn’t have time to exercise, but I ate decent until the slice of cheesecake that night with my brother. And it was only one piece, relatively small. We sent the rest of the cake home with him.

We’re not speaking of Saturday. I hosted a baby shower and the food was really good. I ate a lot of it. All day.

Darnit but I like good food.

I can tell that I’m getting stronger. My physical therapy is working and I’m able to do more, adding new exercises, and I’m starting to add leg weights. This is very exciting.

How was your week?

My brother is 25 today and feels old. I’m sorry to say, I just laugh. He moved up to the Seattle area last year, and we’ve had a wonderful time getting reacquainted. I love you, Sam.

Now I’m heading into the city to pick him up and mess around for the day. Well start out at Weaving Works to look at rigid heddle looms. I’m interested in weaving, and I think Sam would really like it, too. I can’t afford one right now, but maybe for my birthday in May… any suggestions from those of you that weave?

Then we’re going to shop for a basketball and althletic shoes for the bro’, pick up a cheesecake (danger! danger!) and some dinner, and come back home to play before he heads back into the city to party hard with friends.

Nate found them, and they were…..

in the middle of my bedroom floor. I had gone to bed before he found them, so I had even walked by them without seeing them. I was obviously ridiculously tired that day. Nate was somewhat incredulous. But, here they are

I haven’t felted them again yet so they’re still too big, but use of a top loader has been offered, so it’ll happen when I get to it.

Also, Tuesday night was the guild meeting where we dyed the tediously wound sock yarn. It didn’t turn out remotely as anticipated, but it’s cool anyway.

I thought the green I had mixed up would have more brown in it, The center grape color would have more yellow in it, and the front color, which turned out really cool, would be striped with yellow, red, and green.

Clearly, I put too much dye on that section, because they all bled together. I realized as soon as I was done that I should have left some white space between the colors. That being said, I still like it, but I wish the back two colors were more muted.

I want to find someplace that sells high quality, undyed sock yarn so I can dye some more. The KnitPicks we worked with at the guild wasn’t too impressive. It’s thin and spun quite loose. I’d like to work with something luscious, along the lines of Koigu or Socks that Rock.

I’m feeling a little more motivated to get my dyeing kitchen cleaned up and ready to go now.

And I’m not even talking about laundry. For once.

The stupid Noro clogs won’t felt in my front loading machine. This is the first pair I’ve tried to felt in a front loader. I ran it through a hot water cycle with towels three times, before essentially giving up and just tossing them in with a regular load of reds in warm water. After they still weren’t quite small enough, I put them in the dryer with the same load. They’re still really floppy in the toes. I was going to take a picture for you, but as insane as it sounds, I can’t find them.

Don’t laugh. My house isn’t even messy. I’ve been cleaning it all day and for part of the day, I was even wearing them. But they’re gone, and I’m too tired to look for them anymore. You’ll get a picture another day.

What to do once I find them? Well, I could try to finish them off by hand. Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a good time to me, either. What I’ll probably do is find a friend with a top loader and give them another 5-10 minutes or so. I think that’d do it. Stupid clogs.

That being said, they’re pretty neat looking.

On a complete change of topic…

Nate and I were looking through several issues of Modernism magazine last night, as well as The Art of the Incredibles, which turned out to be more helpful, for ideas and color schemes to paint our house. It needs it both aesthetically and preventatively.

Our house lacks street appeal. We’re trying to figure out how to help it out a bit. It was built in the late ’70s, and we’d like it to look about a decade older. If we went a little more retro, we wouldn’t be out of place. There are some fantastic ’60s houses around the corner in both directions, but our street is a bit newer. We’re contemplating adding some rockery or brick, but most likely, we’ll just be redesigning the front porch/walkway/thing, painting, and messing with the landscaping.

So here’s a drawing of my house, minus the front porch/walkway/thing, in a color scheme we’re thinking about, however it isn’t remotely that bright. Those were the only colored pencils I had, and it didn’t work. That drawing is obnoxious and loud. The blue green we are looking at is a very, very muted seafoam kind of green. The reason the garage is a different color in the drawing is because the bedrooms above it hang out over the garage, and the garage is recessed and down a steep driveway from street level.

I was just toying with the idea of making it a different color. I can see now that before I can figure out if it’s a good or a bad idea, I’m going to need to get the colors more accurate.

But anyway, there’s my house! If we were to put any rockery or brick up, it’d be where the black is in the picture, and maybe on the garage. What do you think? Our inspector said it was a bad idea structurally (hi guys!), but I’m liking the way it looks in my imagination. And he’ll still love me.

Rocks, bricks, or otherwise, the siding on that part of the house needs to be replaced.

I took this week off. I needed to break some cycles and get emotionally psyched up again. I meant to continue my physical therapy and just break from worrying about food, but I didn’t do any exercises until yesterday.

As for getting psyched up, I don’t know. A little, I guess. I had a few good crying sessions yesterday, wallowing in my frustrations and excuses. It sucked at the time, but now I feel good having it out. I’m not excited or joyous by any stretch, but I’m somewhat peaceful.

So I’ll work out today, maybe go to Costco and get a fresh supply of veggies, cook up some chicken breasts, and get ready.

I’m not going to weigh myself for awhile. This morning I was 227, and that will suffice. Perhaps not focusing on the pounds will lift my sense of pressure and failure, which I’ve gotten very, very tired of. Besides, more than losing scale pounds, what I really want is for the bulge above my pants, which aren’t even tight, to go away. I want to wear my 18’s again. Comfortably. And dare I even hope, be able to buy 16’s?

How was your week?