Catching Up with June

June gets to be really busy really fast. With festivals and fairs, and with things growing in the garden and other stuff that needs to be done. The photo above is from Pride Fest 2014. The woman to The Amazing Turnip Girl's left is Daphne DoAll LaChores- a short film about her was nominated for an Emmy in the Cultural category, and you can see that here. If you've never been to your local Pride Fest- it can be a whole lot of fun. It's been a family event for us since TG was very little, and it's something she looks forward to every year. The last couple of years, instead of having a parade, there is an Equality March, and TG dressed up like the Doctor and painted that sign to carry.

More Amazing Turnip Girl! This time at our local ren faire. The first day, even though she didn't know it, was a PIRATE theme. She had decided on her costume without knowledge of that, and closet cosplayed Captain Hook from Once Upon a Time. For people as seriously non-cosplay as I am- closet cosplay is when you put together a costume using what you have on hand, and what's in your closet rather than going all out for an exact replica. The hook is made from a plastic cup, a "gigantic twist tie" (I didn't see it, that's what she told me), layers and layers of the ends of various rolls of Duck tape, and spray painted. 

The newest of my swatch dolls. Recently Spoonflower let people who ordered one of their knit fabrics try a swatch of their performance pique. I really love this stuff for swatch dolls, it prints gorgeously, and it's very soft feeling. A little trickier to sew, but worth the extra care. You can get this swatch here.

Today was dandelions- but what we did was gather seeds.

Just wrapped our fingers around the puff balls, pull, dump the little seeds and fluff into a gallon zip bag. Then after we had denuded a lot of dandelions of fluff and gotten some very odd looks from the neighbors- I brought the bag inside, closed it tight, and just started playing with it. Rolling it in my fingers, rubbing it, and shaking it. After a bit I wound up with about a 1/4 cup of seed defluffed. So now we are going to try sprouting the seeds. Also, somehow I wound up covered in dandelion fluff.

OH!!! and the BIG news!!!

Look look!!! Pre-orders are available now on Amazon, and the books are coming out in November and December.

Affiliate links help pay for this site, and seeing these ordered would also be personal exciting. Really.

So how is your month going?

Alligators, King Tut, coloring books and other things that are keeping me busy

I'm sure some of you have noticed that I haven't been updating as frequently lately. The last month got very, very busy.

There was the state fair, I wasn't a vendor, but did win tickets. The photo above is from a great educational exhibit about reptiles. As you can see, William and TATG had exactly opposite reactions to having a live alligator in their laps. TATG was tickled and amused. William was considerably more cautious and nervous.

The fair also had an exhibit of King Tut replicas. It was educational and interesting, and they both read every single placard in the exhibit that explained something. I took a whole bunch of photos, including one of a crook and flail for TG to turn into a cosplay item. My favorite is this one.

Big news? I recently signed a contract to do a mandala coloring book. The theme is paisley mandalas. It's a lot of fun drawing the mandalas.  I hope you all enjoy it when it comes out!

Other huge, wonderful news is that my husband is finally out of the hospitality industry. He's still doing the same job- running a housekeeping department, but for a company that he can really believe in. I don't know about other places, but executive level management in hotels can be a horrible, high stress, lots of hours job. His new job, he's working hard, but he's working a 40 hour week instead of 50-60 in the off season and up to 80 in tourist season. His boss seems to appreciate him, and he's liking the job quite a bit. I'm loving having him home more.

Also I have a couple product recommendations if you're looking for a good pomade or good suspenders. I'm not affiliated with these companies except for being a very happy customer-

First- pomade- My husband had a military cut for years after leaving the Army, but he grew out his hair for me. For him, long hair means still military short around the ears and neck, but the top is a couple inches long. It makes him nuts at work so he slicks it back with pomade. Except about 3 years ago the company that made the pomade he liked stopped making it. In those 3 years, we've used so many different products trying to find a good substitute.
Lockhart's Light Hold is perfect. It slicks his hair back and can be combed throughout the day to keep his straight, fine, thick hair in place. It smells great too, and it's non-drying and because it's a pomade, it doesn't flake. A little bit of Lockhart's Medium Hold works great on my hair for very sleek pony tails.

Suspenders- HoldUp Suspender Company- This has been a favorite of mine for years. My son needs suspenders and Michael prefers them to belts. They have the wide widths both of them of them prefer and in years of use, they have never had a problem with the suspenders coming undone. The clasps have a tiny pin in them to lock them into the pants. If you know someone who needs suspenders, but doesn't want to put buttons in their pants for a really good hold- this is the best option I've found. My son likes the "under ups" which are almost like an ace bandage, very soft and fairly stretchy. He can wear them under his Hawaiian shirts or tee shirts. Michael prefers the 2 inch wide ones. Both take the extra long ones because they are both so tall. They've been using the same sets regularly for years and it was only yesterday that I had to order more for them and a new clip for one set. Because they are so secure, I also ordered some clips to turn into sock garters for OTK socks for myself.

It's been busy, but it's been grand. TATG has made many jars of jelly and jam. I'm working on a scarf for William. It's pretty simple, basket weave crochet. I'll post the pattern when I'm done. At this point it's about 4 feet long and it needs to be at least 6 feet long. So it's almost there.

3 Million Pageviews and other things I like this week

Sometime while I was sleeping, Don't Eat the Paste went over 3,000,000 pageviews. I'm insanely happy about it and trying to figure out some really good way to celebrate. Thank you so much, to the people who comment regularly, email me, pin images from this page, and follow on Facebook. Your encouragement and support means just the world. Thank you.

My Facebook page is also very, very close to 1000 likes now!

Now it seems a bit anti-climatic, but there were a few other things that I've been meaning to post about because they make me super happy.

1. This one may seem strange to you, G7 Power LED light bulbs! As some of you know, I'm a top reviewer on Amazon.com, which means that sometimes companies email me asking if I'd be willing to review products. Making the switch to LED bulbs is something that my husband and I have talked about often but the brands we tried didn't suit our lighting needs. They were dim, or had a directional spotlight effect. So when I got the email from G7 Power, I was skeptical but hopeful. Generally companies don't ask for reviews until they are very confident.
They are fantastic. The light is a soft white, and bright enough with a good flood instead of a spotlight effect. The standard type of bulbs are very bright, and need to be some place that has a shade of some sort. I have one of the globe bulbs in my ceiling fan fixture and it's lighting up my living room. They do cost a bit more initially, but they have a very low power draw (10 watts for a 60 watt equivalent bulb) and are made from a shatterproof plastic that really looks like glass. They last an incredibly long time and even come with a lifetime guarantee. I told my son he will inherit those light bulbs as a joke, but it's actually a possibility.

The colored rings are very stretchy which makes this claspless!

3. The Ring Lord pre-cut rings- not an affiliate link, but if anyone wanted to get me a gift certificate I'd be all sorts of happy. I ordered from them because my son and husband want to learn to knit chainmail. They haven't started yet, but I've made 3 bracelets so far. I've been considering posting a tutorial if anyone is interested.

Made of bronze rings. This is a nice sized cuff.

Drawing winners and The Empty Bowl

First, the winners of the 2 drawings!

The QuadraFire Pellet Stove sponsored drawing for the teeshirt and notebook was won by WaterWaves
The Apartments.com drawing was won by AubreyLaine.

The Amazing Turnip Girl picked both winners randomly from a bowl. Congratulations to you both, and thank you to everyone who entered.

Learn more about SocialSpark, the site that connects sponsors and bloggers for contests like that.

Yesterday was the Annual Empty Bowl event here. I didn't bring my camera because I was in a fair amount of pain and didn't want to fuss with it, but it was a blast.

Empty Bowl is an annual fundraiser for our local soup kitchen. Unlike a lot of fundraisers, this one is very casual, and it's immensely popular. Potters and clay artists from around Alaska at all sorts of skill levels donate handmade bowls, thousands of them actually. With your 25 dollar ticket, you get to choose 1 bowl, and have as much soup and cornbread as you can eat. My kids look forward to this event, as do my husband and I.

This year, because I was hurting so badly when I woke up, we wound going a little later than usual. So we worried that the bowls would be pretty well picked over, but they just keep putting out new ones until all the bowls are gone and there was a great selection. I had my eye on 2 different bowls, both used the same color glaze and it's a color I must like because when we got home we found out they "matched" several other bowls from previous events. I finally settled on a tapered deep bowl, part of me still wanting the other bowl. Then my husband picked his bowl, and wouldn't you know it? He picked the other bowl. We must have the same tastes after all these years. TG and William took a little longer to choose their bowls. William picked a bowl that had a very plain outside and almost looked like crystal slices on the bottom of the inside. He really loved how it looked so ordinary until you saw into the depths of it. TG of course picked a bowl that was TARDIS blue, or as close as she could find. It's actually a blue and cream bowl.

My husband and I went to get soup while TG and William were choosing bowls. Our local soup kitchen is named Bean's Cafe, and the soups served are always bean soups. They hold a yearly contest to choose the recipe for the soup and do one vegetarian soup and one meat soup. The meat soup had bacon and kale in it, and the vegetarian soup was a creamy, cheesy soup with potatoes and beans. Michael and I both got the meat soup first and found a place to sit. Then the rest of our family joined us. It was pretty good soup and everyone sitting our table was friendly. Of course, TG can find a fellow Whovian anywhere and she and another lady compared matching TARDIS keyrings.

After we finished our first bowls, TG and I were full, Michael and William both went back to try the vegetarian soup. I had a bite of Michael's and OH GOSH it was so good. After they finished, we headed back to the car and Michael and I talked about what we liked about the vegetarian soup and possible ways to incorporate some of those things into a soup recipe of our own. TG and I discussed the possibility of entering the soup contest next year. One of the things Bean's Cafe does with the winner's soup is create bean mixes with the recipe for the soup as a fund raising item which they sell throughout the year.

I love our bowl collection. Last year, I picked a bowl that would nest with the one William picked so he could start a bowl collection of his own. All those pretty bowls from Empty Bowl events get used throughout the year and make me smile. They don't match, except some of them in color. They are different shapes and sizes, and all made by local artists and every one of them a memory of a nice lunch with my family to support a cause we really believe in. We help Bean's Cafe throughout the year, with inkind donations as well monetary donations and this is our favorite annual charity event.

After that, we went to the hardware store to look at lumber options for my garden beds this year. That was good too.

And if you read this far, do any of you grow horseradish? I'd really appreciate tips. Or if you're feeling really generous, maybe a root to plant this year?

Beaded hair clips

You can find instructions for these quick to stitch flower clips on Beadwork at BellaOnline. I made them last night while reminding myself that I really, really need to order reading glasses soon. I'm very near-sighted, and my current prescription is set up for distance. For close work and reading, I was given a weaker prescription. Why reading glasses and not bifocals? Because when I'm reading, beading or crafting, I'm doing it for hours at a time. Reading glasses are more convenient then bifocals for me.

More later. I need to write it all a little more coherently then I did earlier.

Oil rigs, scarves and anniversaries

My husband has been working an insane amount of hours lately because of the Kulluk, an oil rig that went aground in Kodiak. He's working at one of the hotels that very occupied with the people overseeing and fixing the problem. They were on winter hours for the employees, and he knew he'd have to work on New Year's Day, and planned to take a different day off. Since it happened New Year's Eve, it's going to be at least another week before he'll get a day off probably.

So we didn't get to celebrate our anniversary the way we wanted, but it still happened. 17 years together! A few days before that he told me that he's more in love with me now than ever before. Because now we know each other so much better, there is so much more to love. I feel the same way towards him. The more I know him, the more history we share, the more I love him. Someone asked me what the trick to being very in love after 17 years is, and I'm not sure there's a trick. There is honesty, communication, shared experiences, a shared life. A dedication to the idea of our partnership and being conscious of it in how we talk and relate to each other and how we face the world.

Currently I'm working on a crocheted scarf. It's a very simple pattern, and I'll be posting it probably tomorrow. Ran short of yarn last night so need to go out and pick up some more. It's done in a very chunky yarn with a great big plastic hook so it works up fairly fast. It's January, and generally we get a cold snap in February that's just frigid. The yarn chosen is Michaels Loops and Threads Cozy Wool yarn. If you've never worked with it before it's a 50/50 wool/acrylic blend with a bit of the shine of acrylic and a nice even spin in a lofty, cushy yarn. My daughter took a scrap yesterday and tied it around her wrist as a bracelet because it's very, very soft. Since Loops and Threads yarn goes on sale frequently, this might be a new favorite for winter and chunky effects with lots of stitch definition. The wool will provide the warmth necessary for our cold winters. Because TG likes it so much, I'm also going to pick her up a couple balls tonight.

Yesterday I splurged with some of my winnings from the Duck Tape contest to buy my husband a new laptop. His is older and having all sorts of issues. After careful consideration, we decided on this one.


 The reason we picked this one was because there are a few things he needs in a laptop, a reasonable graphics card- the one in this computer is a mid-range card that's fairly fast. It won't handle huge graphic intensive games with a real high frame rate, but for the Dungeons and Dragons Online that he plays, it will be more then sufficient, a large hard drive, a good amount of ram and good build quality. He also didn't want anything too expensive, this wound up being a bit more than he wanted to spend. Not too much more, but for that extra 100 dollars, it's the better machine for how he'll use it. He's pretty excited about it, and it will be arriving Wednesday.

I hope your holidays were wonderful!

Yesterday, after a week of incredibly cold temperatures, it warmed up enough to snow. My daughter tried to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

I hope your holidays were wonderful!

Ours were very low-key. Just our little family and Dad.
TG asked for, and got more Doctor Who shirts for her mammoth collection (seriously, I think she has 20 or 30 Doctor Who shirts now!) as well as a Kindle of her own to read Sherlock Holmes and other things she loves.

Michael was hard, but I got him a hex impact driver which he's loving and gave it to him early. I also got him 2 Firefly shirts, and a shirt by a Juneau based artist/screenprinter who does great stuff in our fandoms. You can see her work on Etsy HERE. I also crocheted him a hat. This wound up being very challenging. He's been wanting me to make him a hat, but it had to be something very plain. No spike stitches, no fun textures, no ribbing, cables or any of the other techniques that are so much fun. Originally he wanted it in just one color. After I came to the conclusion that even a quick to finish hat was going to take me *forever* in just one stitch, in just one color (BORING!), we re-visited that.

So it's all in single crochet, with a stripe pattern that was fun to work out. This hat was made to fit his largish head, but I will post the pattern later. He asked if I was going to post the photo to crop it to just the hat. You get just the hat and his pretty brown eyes! It's in an alpaca/wool blend, so it should be very warm for cold Alaskan mornings.

William of course was the challenge. I did a lot of research and found out a watch of the quality that I wanted to get him was prohibitively expensive. I did find a mechanical skeleton pocket watch that was a lot more affordable and just the style he liked, very steampunk. It has a wooden bezel around it, and is encased in a glass globe instead of a hinged pocket watch case. He was thrilled. We also got him a soldering kit, Michael is going to teach him more about electronics, and he and I will do slide pendants together.

What did I get? Well, TG made me a new doll for my huge collection of original dolls from her. This one has a thread sketched face, not embroidery thread, but sewing thread instead, and is as usual, made from scraps and completely designed on the fly. She might make patterns for individual dolls, but never reuses a pattern and never uses other people's patterns.

It's Dean from Supernatural. Under the teeshirt is the anti-possession tattoo! This one is cookie cutter style and entirely too cute. I love the big green eyes!
Michael got me enameled cast iron cookware, William and Dad gave me embossing folders. TG knit for everyone else, Michael got a Deadpool Neko, Dad got a coffee cup cozy, and William got a necktie. William and Dad gave TG and Michael each video games.

We went out to eat at a local Chinese buffet restaurant. They served traditional dinner as well as there usual great layout of Chinese, Korean and Japanese food. It was pleasant, laid back and if it wasn't my mom's full out Christmas blitz, it does suit the 5 of us quite well.

Regular postings will start again soon!

Coconuts, Christmas and Eggnog

Apparently I'm hard to shop for. There are tons of things that I want, but when it gets down to the holidays or birthdays none of the men in my family can remember any of them. They peer over my shoulder to see what I'm looking at online, they look at my Amazon wishlist, and they check out my bookmarks. Then they ask "What do you *want* for Christmas?"

I want my family to be happy and healthy.
I want NOT to have to do dishes or hours of cooking (Yay! Chinese buffet is becoming a family tradition!)
I want to turn on the news and see nothing but goodness and happiness, but also realize how unlikely that is
This year, I want grace and healing for all the victims of the tragedies that have happened in 2012.

Some of those things are doable, others are just wishes that lots of people are working towards. It's also not at all what they mean.

They wound up going to the craft store. Apparently, when in doubt, go to Michaels!

While they were there, TG and I went out for soup and tea at the mall. A small, locally owned restaurant. We talked of all sorts of things, then met back up with my husband and son and went to the grocery store.
William decided he wanted a coconut. So we got one.

Now, I love coconut, but don't get it often. William started opening it but couldn't find the ice pick, and asked Michael to use one of his screwdrivers, instead, Michael came over with his impact driver. Because you know, any excuse to use power tools. William drained out the water and asked if any of us wanted some. Then it was time to start on the coconut. He asked for a hammer. So Michael played "Can't Touch This" before giving him a hammer. STOP! HAMMERTIME!
As we were all enjoying the coconut, I looked at them both and said "If coconuts are going to be a power tool using, song and dance production, we don't need to have them often." They both looked at each other and laughed.

Today TG and I are making eggnog following a recipe that I got as a kid. It was simply the best eggnog I'd ever had as a kid, so we will see how it compares now. Michael and I will probably put a spot of rum in ours. If it turns out as good as I recall, I'll share the recipe tomorrow.

A long, exciting week

The photo above is of one of the Superballs I set free in the wild. That's what my family calls it. Occasionally I buy handfuls of them from vending machines, then leave them in odd, unexpected places for other people to find, to play with. I took that photo a couple years ago.

This week has been full of "Superballs". Random good things, surprises and interesting moments. Maybe it hasn't been exciting by a lot of people's standards, my excitement is generally pretty quiet stuff. But it's been good.

The big thing of course, the Duck Tape contest. Still waiting to find out who won, and all week I was pretty obsessed with it, I want to win it so much, but now voting is done, there is nothing more I can do, and feel pretty good about at least making it into the finals. Winning would be a great thing for this little blog, because Duck Tape said they might post a URL to the winner's webpage.

I'm getting a Fiskars Fuse Creativity System! YAY! It will be here tomorrow and it's really too nifty! If you haven't heard of them yet, it's a upper end home crafting die cut system that will emboss, letter press and cut. You can buy an adapter kit to use dies and folders from other systems with it, and it has a very large area so it will work with larger dies like the Big Shot dies. I've been wanting one since they came out, so it's pretty nifty. I've been looking at information about making my own letter press plates using photo polymer plates, and talking to my husband about building a small breakdown portable exposure unit to burn the plates.

Since I've been considering self-publishing a zine full of dandelion recipes, I can do a letter pressed cover for it! It will be a small run at this point, but I'll also do it in e-book format. That's something I plan to start working on seriously as soon as dandelions come up in spring. My son said he would help with it.

Yesterday was my best friend's birthday. It's hard to believe it's been over a year since she passed. I miss her daily. Last year for her birthday, when it was still all very raw, we donated food to our local soup kitchen. This year we did the same thing, checking their website for the wishlist and buying them stuff off of that.
After we dropped that off, we went to a local craft show. I managed mostly to stick to my plan. One new cup from one of my favorite local potters, Hot and Spicy Reindeer Sausage from Indian Valley Meats and a few other little things.
Then we met Dad and William at Peggy's for pie. Peggy's is an Anchorage institution, it's been there since the 40s, and they make the best pie. We had lunch and pie, and watched planes and helicopters landing and taking off from Merrill Field, a small private plane airport.

There were a lot of little moments of happiness and joy this whole week, and the total excitement of the Duck Tape contest. I think they will probably announce the winner tomorrow.

Exciting news

Duck Tape started a MyDesign contest last month, and picked 20 finalists from all the entries to be voted on by Duck Tape fans. The winning design will be made into Duck Tape that will be available for sale!

Because of Sandy, the voting part of the contest was delayed, and I was notified yesterday that my design made the finals. I'm super honored, the other finalists all have fantastic designs, and they would all make fun tapes to use for crafts.

Of course,if my design gets picked, it means publicity for Don't Eat the Paste. It also means I'll probably do several hours of happy dances, and I told my daughter we would go out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants and I'd let her have two desserts. Because it would be a huge, wonderful, amazing thing.

Vote for the design you like best at Duck Tape on Facebook. I voted for my owls of course, because I would really love seeing that on tape. You can vote daily until the voting period is over.

I've been super excited since being told I was a finalist, and sort of nervous, afraid nobody would like my design, but a lot of the comments are so nice! (Super excited= dancing, laughing, telling my family repeatedly "I'm a finalist!")

Oh, the photo above is an old Captain Hammer messenger bag. I used it for about 3 years, and it was falling apart by the time I finally gave it up. Now it's a home for stickers on the outside and I keep my markers in the bag to keep them easy to find.

Today was the first time my son voted in a presidential election. He was very serious and very careful about his vote. I'm so proud of him for the care and consideration he took.

Spoonflower 2 for 1 Fat Quarter Sale, spoons and other things

There are only 2 days left of Spoonflower's 2 for 1 fat quarter sale, and my dishtowel calender IS available now. I ordered my sample calendar in linen-cotton canvas and a fat quarter of that is 18x27 inches. It's opaque and heavy, and because of their printing methods has enough of an edge to just turn that over and hem it. The top will have a couple repeats of the border strip and can be turned into a casing for a dowel hanger. I'm deciding if I just want to turn and hem the edges or use a black bias tape to bind the edges.  I'll get a photo later of the fabric to post. We ordered a fat quarter of a Doctor Who print for TG and fat quarters of some of my designs which I plan to use for jewelry projects.


We watched a video together last night on spoon carving. I'll be reviewing it soon, it was fun watching it with my husband and son, and talking to them about spoon designs. They are of course more enthused about working with axes, adzes and knives than about spoons. I'm pretty happy to think that they will be making me spoons for my kitchen soon.

Yesterday was also my eye exam and the medication is working. My optic nerves are getting back to normal now. Yay!

It's really cold here! We went out this weekend for some local Halloween events. TG was a fantastic Sherlock Holmes. I forgot my camera, but Michael brought his so there will be pictures later. One of the things about her costume that was just great is that she couldn't find a double breasted overcoat at a thrift store she liked, so she used the military surplus one from her Wygie costume a few years ago and converted the mock double breast into a double breast by adding hand stitched button holes in red and shifting buttons. Her scarf was knitted by her, and we ordered a deerstalker hat from England as the purchased item to go with her costume. Dad of course trick or treated at the events we went to. 64 year old man or not, the man is not giving up a chance for candy! It was lots of fun.

Peace symbol art and what's been going on lately

Click on the version above to see a larger version.

Well, this week has been fun. Monday I had a slight cough. Then Tuesday came and that slight cough had grown all up. I rescheduled my eye appointment for next week. Wednesday, my nose started running. Thursday was just miserable. Yesterday it was a bit better and today is a bit better than that. But I still have a cold, and now my daughter's is starting too.

I'm a walking bio-hazard really. Washing my hands frequently and doing the best I can to not infect other people. But that's why there haven't been many updates this week. I've been reading books on my Kindle with the font set larger to be nice and easy and drinking lots of herbal teas with honey.

Squirrels, spinal taps and shots - my life this week

This has been a really, really strange week so far, and it's only Wednesday.

Monday afternoon, I heard things crashing on my porch. My porch is an arctic entrance with a screen that's always locked if I'm home. 

I peeked out cautiously, and there's this little brown furry streak of Destruction and Doom knocking over the boxes from Amazon I've saved to mulch my garden with, the flower pots that we've taken in for the season, the box of work stuff that for some reason my husband has never brought into the house. Zip zip CRASH zip zip. It was trapped, it was angry, and it was *scary*. When I first saw it, all I saw was the little rodent face, which was freaky. Then it ZIPPED up the wall and I saw it's tail. I slammed the front door shut and locked it, like this thing was somehow going to open the door locked or not and called my husband.

"You have to come home as early as you can." 

CRASH!

"Why?"

"There's a SQUIRREL on the porch."

silence. 

"I don't want it coming in the house and someone has to let it out and it's not going to me."

"A squirrel?"

"Yes. A crazy squirrel. Possibly man eating. I'm not taking the risk. It's a Squirrel of Doom."

"Really? I didn't know we had squirrels in the neighborhood."

"Oh? You were talking about hearing them the other day, and we are surrounded by woods. So..."

"Oh, I forgot about that."

"Just get home when you can." *crash* 

Then in my best Dean Winchester imitation, I said "That was scary." which was apparently the funniest thing ever. 

By the time he got home, I realized that someone had to unlock the screen for him to get in, and the porch had been quiet for a while, so I slipped the door open, and used my cane to flip open the lock, then darted back in slamming the door shut.

So that night, while we were going to the store, he starts his iPod in the car. Playing Mississippi Squirrel Revival by Ray Stevens. 

Tuesday- My spinal tap is scheduled. Now, one thing I have to say about my neurologist, he's just radiates comfortable competence. He answers all my questions, which any good health provider should do. Some of my questions tend to be questions my doctors have never heard before so occasionally they have to do some research. Which he did right there on his iPhone on some super serious Doctor app and website or something. My husband was very amused that with a computer behind him, he did the look up on his iPhone.

Anyway, I was nervous, both for me, and for my husband. I wanted him there to make me feel better, but my 350 lb, 6'2" ex-cop, ex-EMT big tough husband has real problems watching me get blood drawn. So I was nervous about him too. The doctor and his nurse were amazing, calm and professional. 

If you're curious about spinal taps, AKA lumbar punctures from a completely non-professional personal point of view, the competence of my doctor was very relaxing. He had me pull down my skirt and pull up my shirt to show the area (I wore loose easy clothes to avoid the hospital gown fashion). He had me lay down in a fetal position, knees tight against chest, shoulders straight, on my side. Then raised the table. He covered my legs in a nice warm blanket and made it as comfortable as possible. Then cleaned the area well and draped it with a surgical drape. Then he injected a local anesthetic. The needle is put in low in the back between the lumbar bones. When the area was well numb, he inserted the needle for the spinal tap. It's a hollow needle, just under 1 mm in diameter. It was numb enough to just feel like some pressure. He took pressure readings and confirmed the diagnosis of intercranial hypertension. He also decided that since he was getting the spinal fluid anyway, he would have the lab run some tests on it to check for infections and other things. He doesn't think there are any, but hey, he was doing the spinal tap for other reasons, let's just be sure.

Bandaged it up and prescribed Motrin and lots of coffee. I can do that. Also prescribed something to lower the pressure in my head. As we were leaving, the doctor said "Thank you for being so brave." My husband replied "Thank you! I didn't pass out!" 

That evening, Dad called, apparently William had stepped on a clean nail at work and Dad wanted to know when his last tetanus shot was. We decided it had been long enough to justify a booster shot, so he went to the ER to get a booster and some antibiotics. He's fine and working today. His big disappointment was that by the time he got there, the cafeteria was closed. The hospital we go to has a killer cafeteria. Actually edible food. 

This morning, when I woke up, my left hand tingled. Then my right, then my lips and tongue. Then not my lips and tongue but both hands. So I went to the ER. Turns out an uncommon side effect of the drug I was prescribed is that it can lower your potassium levels. Which can cause the tingling. It's uncommon enough that the doctor who saw me did a consult to come up with that possible reason, then did some blood work to check. Apparently it usually works itself out after you've been taking the drug for a while, but for the next week, I need to take a potassium supplement.

The spot where I had the spinal tap has a nice, perfectly round bruise about 2 inches in diameter which is normal, but uncomfortable.

And as crazy as it's been, I'm so very grateful for my friends and family. Otherwise, I think I'd just stay in bed for the rest of the week.

Life lately- the eyes have it

Click on the image above for the larger version if you would like to print it out.

Last month, my glasses fell apart. A loose screw, easily replaced. But I knew that I need new glasses, and since my last exam had been a couple years ago, I needed an eye exam as well. It went normally enough, until they spotted something a little odd about my optic nerves.
It's most likely something easily fixed and not too dangerous, but because it can be a symptom of much more serious problems, I've been seeing a neurologist to rule out the major possibilities.
They started by booking me with an ophthalmology neurologist to get a closer look. He booked me for a CT scan as soon as possible. As soon as possible turned out to be within a couple of days, then another day to get the results analysed. That was to rule out brain tumors. It was a scary few days. My husband was super stressed, and my daughter was jumping every time the phone rang. Fortunately, the ct scan came back clean.


Today I had something called a Visually Evoked Response Test, or VER, also known as Visually Evoked Potential or VEP. That tests for specific damage to the optic nerve or for possible multiple sclerosis by measuring the path it takes for something you see to hit the back of your brain where it's interpreted (this is not exact, I have no technical training or medical training, it's how it was explained to me).  This test meant going to the hospital while very alert and awake. You have to go with clean hair and scalp with no product or conditioner that might interfere. The technician used a tape measure and placed 3 small marks on my scalp, one at the hair line, one on top of my head, and one on the back of my head. Then he attached small electrodes to my head. He had me cover one eye, then the other for the test. I sat in a comfy chair, and stared at a rectangle in the center of a screen while a checkerboard around it switched colors back and forth. I was told the test would take about an hour, but it actually only took about 20 minutes. Apparently the hour is because there are people who have real problems just focusing on that little square. He removed the electrodes and wiped off most of the conductive gel/cream. Still waiting for the results from that.


Truth is though, I'm not too worried. It's not that I'm discounting the possibility of MS, but those couple of days of waiting to see if I had brain tumors were so scary.

Next phase is another vision test, this one pretty straight forward and one I've done before. The field of vision test. They are also talking about a spinal tap soon.

Puts our money problems in perspective. The fact we are tight and needing to catch up on bills that accumulated while my husband was out of work is a really minor thing. We can deal with that. My family is just very grateful that I have good medical coverage. So many people don't, and if things were just a little different, we wouldn't. We are also grateful I don't have brain tumors.

I did order new glasses. I'll probably be writing about them later, they should arrive today or tomorrow.

The eye art included in this update is done by me in the last few days. It's just for fun, but if you really like it, I'll be happy to put it on a printable box.