Aestlight shawl

Originally uploaded by addlepated

I finished my version of the Aestlight Shawl over the weekend. It was a really enjoyable knit, although the edging got a little tiresome after a while. You can see more pictures of this shawl here.

Forest Canopy Shawl

Originally uploaded by addlepated

Woohoo, I’m back on the needles again.

I did the Forest Canopy Shawl in Wollmeise Vergißmeinnicht.

Mods: I repeated the body pattern 15 or 16 times, whichever got me to 307 stitches on the needles. I did 12 rows of the border repeat, adding beads on each twisted stitch. I blocked the bejeebies out of it.

So nice to be able to see.

I had been getting a ton of fearsome headaches and tried everything to make them go away. Finally, after my daughter said she was having problems focusing up close (and getting headaches herself), I decided to make us both eye doctor appointments. Hers was easy – same prescription in both eyes, handled with off-the-rack drugstore cheaters. Me? My prescription has changed significantly in two years. Astigmatism worse, myopia better.

It had been a few years since I last had contacts, and I never tried extended wear, so I got a trial pair. Which didn’t work. So I got another trial pair, which also didn’t work. And so on. I tried every single brand of extended wear toric contacts there are, and finally when I got to the last option available, Purevision Toric, I found one that worked. I can wear them for days (technically 30) at a time. Cool. They were $70/box at the doctor, or $37/box online. Combine with a $50 rebate and I get a year supply for $100.

But one of the main reasons I’d been putting off going to the doctor is that my last pair of glasses was over $350. Welcome to presbyopia! Then tack on $100 or more for prescription sunglasses, and it’s no wonder I don’t want to go back every year. This time was different, though. Based on recommendations from Ask Metafilter and elsewhere, I took a whole bunch of measurements of my current frames and headed over to Zenni Optical to order some specs. I decided on this pair for regular and this one for sunglasses. My progressive lenses with anti-glare coating and a pair of polarized sun shade clip-ons cost $61.85. My sunglasses cost $14.90 (I paid more for non-RX sunglasses at Walgreens last week). I got both pairs less than 2 weeks after ordering.

I haven’t taken them in to get them checked for accuracy, but they feel pretty right to my eyes. The only problem I’ve had so far is a nose pad breaking, but that was my own stupid fault. One should not attempt to adjust the nose pad angle by grabbing on the nose pad and yanking. I called Zenni to see if I could order replacements and they said they would send me three pairs of pads, screws, and a tool to put them in with, all for free.

So, to sum up – between Zenni Optical and ContactLens.com, I got a year’s supply of contacts and two pairs of glasses (one progressive) for $175.

I have a dream every few months in which I’m sitting in an airplane. The plane always has an unusual seating configuration, not always identical, but it is wide across, and only a few rows, in a full sized plane. After we take off, there’s always trouble, from flight gear problems to full fledged crash. What on earth does that mean?

Last night I was in a plane that had maybe 10-15 people sitting across, but only about 10 rows. It was mostly empty. I was happy because I was in a bulkhead row, so I had a ton of leg room. I stuck my bag under the seat caddy corner to the left of me. The flight attendant then came on and said she needed to add a row, so she swung one into position right in front of me. We took off and developed engine trouble right after – had to land immediately. I wondered if I had accidentally left my cell phone on and caused the issue. Resolved to turn it off as subtly as possible so that nobody would arrest me.

The problem with finding a good book is that, when it’s over, I go through a sort of grieving process. For the characters and the story. I miss them and wonder how they’re doing. And I want to have another experience like that again, where I get so incredibly involved in someone else’s world for a while, but the prospect of kissing frogs while searching for a prince is just so daunting that I have grown ever more hesitant to pick up another book. So the more books I’ve read that I love, contrarily, the less likely I am to take a chance on another book. An overall trend, perhaps, of wanting to stay comfortable in my own little zone?

What’s got me all angsty, you might wonder? I just finished The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and even though I knew I was hastening it towards its end, I couldn’t put it down. Instead of getting out of bed this morning and brushing my teeth, I picked up my book and carried on from where I left off last night when I fell asleep reading. For a girl who grew up reading and re-reading Jane Eyre, it was absolutely wonderful.

But.

To get there, my previous two books were The Road by Cormac McCarthy (supposed to be incredibly powerful and moving; I found it pointless) and Within the Shadows by Brandon Massey (puerile).

I feel like my time is too valuable to waste on crappy books, but who am I punishing by going on strike? I need a royal book tester, is what I need. I had high hopes for Goodreads.com, but their search engines are really… sub par. Every “Best Of” list has at least one Twilight book on it. Honestly, guys? And I dunno, my tastes run maybe not 90 degrees, but some discernible difference from the pack. The Historian only has 3.5 stars on Amazon, but I think it’s the best thing I’ve read in years.

Sigh. I dunno. I’m gonna try some Agatha Christie next, I think.

This is why I buy the Applecare extended warranty.

On my MacBook Pro, Applecare is due to run out on April 27. I took it in because there were some dark spots on the display, some blemishes on the case, and a loud fan. They did a complete freaking overhaul. They replaced:

• The top case ($285)
• The display ($850)
• The optical drive ($150)
• The logic board ($650)
• Both fans ($90)

(Prices from Powerbook Medic.)

Yes, you are out there shouting that all that stuff is overpriced, which I’m sure it is. But I paid $349 for the warranty, and I’m pretty sure you can’t get all these things for any equivalent notebook for under that price. And to have all that stuff replaced on a three year old computer? Win.

Just spent a great 5 days at SXSW Interactive, and I’m WORN OUT! I got to catch up with some old friends, meet some folks I’d been looking forward to meeting, conspire with my panel to disrupt the conference, laugh at all the people desperately and repeatedly pimping themselves, watch Brian Clark and Mike Monello ask the tough questions, see Alan Tudyk get in an elevator, do guerilla filming in a parking lot, stroll through the streets of downtown Austin covered in fake blood, and have lots of long lunches with chitchat (I think I missed all the keynotes). It was lots of fun, and I am really looking forward to Portland this summer.

You can see my SXSW-tagged pics (few though they might be) on my photostream.

This is something like week four of my being sick.  Did you know that “sick” and “suck” are separated by one small letter?  True.  

Anyway, I went to the doctor last week because my cough never went away, but my regular doctor was on vacation and this other lady told me I was having bronchial spasms (something I’ve never had in my life), gave me some Advair and this awful cough medicine that doesn’t stop coughing but makes me sleep, so I cough in my sleep, which is annoying, and she sent me on my way. Coincidentally, that was the last day of my sinus infection antibiotics.

Two days later, I had a 101 fever and was coughing so much that I couldn’t even talk to anyone because it would set off this chain reaction cough that would last for what seemed like half an hour, during which I could see my husband’s eyes dart to the clock, the car keys, and mentally calculate how far away the ER was.

My regular doctor was back today and he X-rayed my chest and sinuses. Verdict: still have a sinus infection. I get to take these high-octane meds now: Levaquin (ruptured tendons!) and Prednisone (steroids!). At least he prescribed the good, worky cough medicine that allows me to have some sort of rudimentary function.

So anyway, I guess that’s good news – at least I know what’s wrong with me now. I can assure you that husbandly sympathy pretty much trickles away after about week 2. Also, he stepped on a nail this weekend, so I had to sympathy back at him, swimmy head and all, when all I wanted to do was wooze.

On another note, the radishes are going great guns, and the carrots and peas made an appearance this morning. They’re forecasting temps down to 40 this weekend, which could mean 25 and could mean 50, knowing this area. I still have to wait to plant the other stuff.