Knitting Coziness While Knitting Bone

Four more weeks!! This time in blue. With a black heel.

It is a pretty color, and I still match some of my knee-high, argyle socks. But four more weeks in a cast!?!? Yikes.

I only complain because I can. I know how much better I have it than... whoever. I'm just feeling sorry for myself so you don't have to. The doctor says it's doing great! He's glad we went this route, and he says I'm lucky and I'm healing up well! Okay, super.

My mom, with love in her heart, gave me a card that says 'you've had a really hard year,' or something to that effect, referring to my poor foot. I laughed. I hope this was a hard year, because imagine the good years to come. I've had a disappointing couple of months, but all around, 2010 has been awesome.

Here is my ode to 2010 on New Year's Eve:


January: Wedding number 1 by bicycle, my own,
February: Laid-off (yes!),
March, April: Staying home, gathering gear, and
lemonade goodbyes,
May: Garage/party sales, goodbye weight of possessions, best going away party ever,
June: Left the big city, left behind a fun life, good friends, breathed the fresh air of home,
wedding number 2 by bicycle, 8 hours at a winebar, full bank account, one-way flight to Switzerland,
July, August, September: carefree, car-free,
plan-as-we-go,
practically weightless,
rain-or-shine,
friends all over the world, new and old,
bicycles, camping, detox, de-stress, slow down,
wedding number 3 by bicycle (and boat),
October: home again, grandma time, wedding number 4 by stretch hummer, broken foot,
November, December: gimpy, blessed with patient, caring, careful, active, tireless Joshua, a lot of fun family time (holidays), knitting knitting knitting, movies, books, wood stove, walker (roller), crutches, manly muscular arms, doctor visits, exchanging casts, knitting, quiet.



My complaints are... facetious. Therapeutic. Lemonade.

X-mas was fun.

we did some cycling! surrey-style. my mom was the fourth.

Corina bought us beeswax for make-your-own candles (Joshua did the 3 wick magic)

serious business (am I standing?)

mom, lighting the rum, plum pudding on fire

Knitting knitting knitting? You ask, excited.

I don't have a lot of creative talents. I like being creative, but not publicly (ha ha to those who might point out the blog). Cooking is one way I enjoy being creative. And by creative I mean creating things that are beautiful or useful or delicious. And wow, I can't cook on crutches. Luckily my cousins and aunt were all knitting at Thanksgiving, and I was given an extra set of needles and some spare yarn. I forgot that I knew how to knit. And so I've been creating things since then, oh-so-satisfying.

now lives in LA

now lives in Oakland

(love the crutch-feet in this one)

now lives in NY

now lives in Monterey

this one I have not yet sold; it could be yours!

There are a few more out there already (guess what everyone got for x-mas). And I started an etsy.com site: http://knitandride.etsy.com. There's not much on there right now. Of course, it's been my friends who've actually bought them. Etsy is a case of too bad, just way-so-much stuff to wade through. The chance of someone finding my stuff is almost zero percent. So don't be shy about passing along the site to people you know - hint-hint. I can knit to order, too. Working on a custom job now, will post photos when the sun comes out.

These babies are called cowls, or neck gaiters. Talk about a need for re-branding. Neck gaiter, anyone? We talked about this over x-mas, and brainstormed some new ideas. I keep saying neck cozies, because... well... I'm practical. But someone (probably my brilliant sister) came up with the name 'no dip scarf'. You won't dip it in the trash can when you take out the trash. You won't dip it in a puddle when you bend down to tie your shoes. You'll never dip it in your tea or coffee. And most importantly, you'll never dip it in the toilet.

Alas, to re-brand at this point would mean nobody would search and find my no dip scarves. So cowls they remain.

Wow, I wish I was blogging about bicycle touring. Where is my bicycle? Norway. As soon as I can walk and drag a rolling suitcase, we will be re-united. In massive snowstorms.

Happy New Year everyone!

Free Business Cards Arrive

Wow - boring post for those of you who already know how to get in touch with us. But we're excited! We ordered some free Vistaprint business cards so that in the future when we meet people along our way we can hand over the card so they can actually remember the blog info. And our names.

Foot Update - Bones are Magic

Finally some good news! It was getting pretty grim, just before Thanksgiving - my foot wasn't really healing visibly, the doc decided to put it in a cast, perhaps he would even recommend surgery afterall... gaaak! But just two weeks later and all is turned around. The latest x-ray experience was very exciting. The problem is a space, just under a centimeter wide, between the two shards of my broken metatarsal. When we went back for the 3 week check-up, the doc was surprised to see not a lot of healing going on. I had no idea what that meant at the time, because I was having a hard time envisioning the particulars of healing bones. I figured they might grow towards eachother? Slowly adding cells until they bridged the gap?

The x-ray educated all (Joshua and me) about what happens; now there is a hazy whiteness between the two pieces of bone. There are new bone cells just growing in between the two pieces. Magic! So I'm back in the hot seat in Elk, my back to the wood stove, and patiently waiting to see what happens in another 4 weeks! That'll be just after Christmas. Another week past that, perhaps, and I'll get my foot back... how much fun is that!?

I dreamt last night that I was running, literally running, around my high school. I was supposed to be in class, but instead I ran around playing frisbee on the football field, sprinting to try to catch the 'bee and not making it. Then I was running around full speed in the gym, playing basketball and loving every moment. I woke up with the feeling that I should be playing some basketball, what with all the free time I have right now, and how wonderful it feels to run. But it's cool. I'm working on hand-made Christmas presents.

I've gained important skills in sitting still and using crutches. Next up: knitting bone and learning to walk on two legs again. Below, the phases of this particular foot break. Sorry I don't have the digital x-rays. Things are a little low-tech with my used-to-be-head-podiatrist-for-the-Oakland-A's-in-the-80s-when-they-won-the-pennant awesome doctor.

The boot. Fun while it lasted.

Dead Sea mud treatment

Elephant. Can't even tell it's broken.

Caltrans #2 of 2 (they over-ordered on Halloween colors)

If I need a third cast, it might be black. Or maybe they'll have ordered some new colors? Joshua likes the orange. For safety. 

And on another safety note (TSA), we did travel over Thanksgiving and I got to experience the feel-down for the wheelchair-bound first hand. Very handy. The lady in SF was a Korean Pat look-alike, short, curly hair-cut and everything. She was super professional, and I liked her. She warned me that she'd be touching my inner thighs, around my waist and breasts with the backs of her hands, and the rest of me with the front of her hands. She asked if I was okay with that. I said yes. She then asked if I wanted to go to a private room with her for this... I said no, thank you. 

Wheelchair service is awesome. Joshua especially loved it, blowing past the people waiting in line. Of course he just had to carry the bags and follow, but the value wasn't lost on me, either. And yes, most people tip the wheelchair driver. 

Apple Picking in Massachusetts

Whoa! Massachusetts!? That's right - we left Norway to go to a wedding in California, but stopped on the way in Boston. Cousins! I have a cousin named Josh, also, and his wife Deb, and kids Lucy and Marta, housed us for a long-weekend visit. Joshua's mom, Judy Moody, came down from Maine and visited with all of us, too. We played Apples-to-Apples, Jewish Edition, and walked around the neighborhood. And one day we went apple picking. I have never eaten so many apples - they were delicious. I was basically sick with apples by the time we left.

Lucy and I have been best friends since she was two

Cousin Josh

Kids these days

mmmmmmm, good apple

Ramona, Lucy, Marta

They also had pumpkins. And Lucy balanced hers on her head...

St. Michaelsmas

We celebrated with the Norwegians, back in September, a little holiday called St. Michaelsmas (link to Natalia's blog post about it). The story goes something like a hobbit tale - a terrible dragon was terrorizing a village. St. Michael came down and saved everyone, and now we make dragon bread! Something of a harvest festival, so the table was made up with a harvest tray that Joshua and I gathered and arranged. Each kid (Ramona & Natalia included) made a dragon, Joshua and Noa collaborated. Then we asked Anders to figure out who made which one, and he guessed correctly. Then we ate them! Noa, Lea, and Jasmin wore crowns and capes and fancy dresses. Yes, even Noa - he insisted on wearing a dress like his sisters.

Dragons!

Before We Left Norway

We had a lot of fun during our 2+ weeks in Norway...  Natalia and Anders manage to get out with their three kids every day, more than once, rain or shine. They get them dressed up in little rain suits with rain boots, or if it's sunny they wear a couple of layers of wool and tiny little hiking boots. There are fresh rolls most mornings, and beeswax candles glowing when it's dark out. There are little munchkins running around almost all the time, and it couldn't be lovelier.

Just a walk/ride up the road is a good time...

Joan of Arc! and Noa

Visiting the elf shelter, leaving them some nice rocks and pine cones

Not a bad view from up on the hill

Hanging around the house picking clover:

And riding the bike or trike up and down the driveway...

 

No brakes!

 He comes in fast, but manages to take the turn like a pro

No, you stand there!

Goofin' in the back yard.

Noa successfully knocks Joshua off the lower rope

Back in September

Three More Big Bites posted a recipe for a Greek Yogurt Tart, and being in Norway, eating lots and lots of creamy Greek yogurt, I decided to try it out. I know this is not a food blog, but I had to mention this because it was so fun. And delicious.

Sorry about the poor photo quality. As you can see, I managed to float some blueberries by not heeding the instruction to carefully spoon the custard onto the fruit. I used blueberry jam mixed with frozen blueberries. I wish I could blog about riding a bicycle, but as you probably know, I can't ride right now. Soooooon!