The good news is that #1 Son is well on the way to recovery from tonsillitis.

The bad news is that, after knitting a bunch this weekend, finishing the feet of the Fixation socks, and actually turning the heel on one, I find that…

They don’t fit.

AARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Not believing the socks could be too narrow (I have skinny feet), I ripped out my oh-so-perfectly constructed short row heel and the entire band of stranded flowers below it and put in a standard gusset-and-flap heel while re-knitting the lovely flowers.

And now they are both too narrow and too long.

AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! #2

I vastly underestimated how much narrower the stranding would make the sock. It seems that I have no choice but to frog them out all the way down to the toes. Past the flowers. Past the lovely stranded zig-zags, past the three-color herringbone. Back to the toes. Which I had already frogged out earlier because they were too wide (oh, the irony of it all).

As penance, I’m going to finish E’s socks before I go back to Fixation.

But I will get a pair of Fixation socks if it kills me…

Er… maybe I’d better not say that.

Picture Mom, at her desk this morning, hard at work… The phone rings…

brinnnggg Good morning. How may I help you?

Mom? I’m really sick. I have tonsillitis. I need to see a doctor. Can you take me?

Like he had to ask? My “mom instinct,” quiescent for the last couple of weeks, went instantly into overdrive. I was at #1 Son’s front door in less than 20 minutes, and at the Urgent Care Clinic as quickly as I could drive there (our doctor had no available appointments).

At the clinic, we waited. We waited longer. We waited some more…

Mom I want to see the doctor! Now! They’ll get to us as soon as they can, kiddo.

The doctor said that it was definitely tonsillitis and she’d be right back with a prescription.

We waited. We waited longer. We waited some more…

Why is it taking so long? I want to go home. I feel lousy. I want to lie down and sleep. Where’s the doctor? I’m sure she’s hurrying as fast as she can.

When the doctor returned, #1 Son asked when he could go back to work. Not for a few days, but she’d write an excuse for him.

We waited. We waited longer. We waited some more…

I want to go home. I want to lie down. Why is it taking so long? It can’t take this long to write an excuse!

After 15 minutes of whining from #1 Son, I stuck my head out of the door and asked the nurse if the doctor was going to come back with the excuse. The nurse called down the hall, “Doctor, are you coming back to room 3?”

“Yes, yes… They wanted an excuse from work. I’m getting it.”

She returned with the explanation, “There’s no way to do this nicely on the computer so I have to write it out.”

This takes longer?

I left #1 Son at home (my home) with the instructions to go eat some ice cream or something else cold, and headed to the local Albertsons. Dropping the prescription off with the pharmacist, I shopped a bit: Ice cream, Popsicles, milk, yogurt, 7-Up. And I remembered kitty litter. That always pleases the furry kids. A lot.

At the check stand, the clerk tipped the litter in my cart on its side to scan the bottom, and then turned to ring up the rest of my purchases. When she turned back, she said, “uh oh! I’m going to need a clean up!”

The kitty litter box was slit. Box knifed, it looked like to me. 21 lbs of kitty litter were now on the floor under the cart in a pile. 21 lbs of kitty litter make a big pile.

“Maybe you could bring your cats in here?” The clerk suggested while we waited for cleanup and a new box of litter. I thought about the logistics of that suggestion…

Captain Kidd would whack out and hide under the counter. We wouldn’t be able to find him for days. He would neither eat nor use the litter.

Phoebe would start shedding like mad, meow loudly at everyone and then join Kidd under the counter. She would come out that night to use the litter, and might stay out if she found a cushy spot to nap — like maybe curled up on a loaf of bread or two. The chicken in the deli would be breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Moo Cow would curl up on top of the pile of litter and demand attention, petting and treats from every shopper and every employee. No one would be able to enter or exit the store without first kowtowing to Her Majesty. The chicken, beef and ham from the deli would be hand-fed to her by her adoring public.

I told the clerk that it would probably be better if I just took the litter home to the cats.

On the way home I gave up all thoughts of making it to Tangle for Thursday opening knitting night. It appears that the fates conspire against me. But I will make it one of these days!

I have to admit that I had a sneaking little mote of a feeling of satisfaction that my son, who has been oh so grown up the past few months, could still still need his mom every now and then.

I’ve been inspired by all of the colorful Cascade Fixation I picked up from Tangle recently. After all, why have all those great colors if I don’t use them… all of them… in one pair of socks…

These were started on our trip to the coast last Sunday. #1 Son egged me on a bit. That’s cool, Mom. I like those colors. Use more of that. But I have no one to blame but myself.

OK. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it. Click on the pic to see the progress on both socks of the pair.

I can hear my sweater even as I type: Only a few more rows! Only a few more rows! But I won’t be wearing a sweater for a couple of months. I’ll get back there, after a pair of Fixation socks, or two.

I can hear E’s lace socks whimpering: Please finish me! E wants to wear me! They may be lace, but they’re wool. We finally have warm weather. E will maybe wait a little while. Until I finish a pair of Fixation socks, or two, or three…

Happy Birthday to you

Love ya!

Long ago when I would have a kid-free weekend, I used to go looking for adventure on Saturday afternoons. Adventure usually took the form of a spontaneous trip to the coast; or driving down a road I’d never been on just to see where it went; or maybe trying a new, not-so-kid-friendly restaurant; or enjoying a movie that was aimed at an audience older than 12.

This week it finally occurred to me that I have, for all intents and purposes, a kid-free summer. And really, if I’m being honest, a pretty kid-free rest of my life given that #1 Son has become so grown up and responsible. He will be around, of course, and we will continue to do things together, of course, and we might have to juggle schedules sometimes. But I no longer have to plan around taxi driving, dropping off at school, hauling band equipment like a roadie, dropping off at work, picking up from work, etc. I’m free. Free Kind of.

The day didn’t start out that great. I woke up early and decided to tackle #1 Son’s computer first. It wouldn’t boot normally. Or to safe mode. Or to “last successful configuration.” XP would not reinstall because it claimed it couldn’t write to the hard drive. Chkdsk froze at 5%. When I started getting “imminent failure” warning messages from the hard drive, well… I know when to fold ’em.

So a new task (obtain new hard drive) was added to my list for today.

First off — Lunch with M. Always! Every weekend (more or less) for the last 26 or 27 years. (I lose track).

Next, I decided to drop in on the new yarn store in Lake Oswego — Tangle. I’d heard about Tangle via the local Stitch n Bitch newsletter and I’d been dying to check it out. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was located. Traffic was terrible in Lake Oswego because of some festival that was going on. But I drove around a bit and found Tangle without too much problem. I even found a parking place right in front of it!

And what do you know… it turns out that Tangle is owned by none other than Alice of Alice In Yarnland fame! I can remember reading on her blog that she was opening a shop, but I hadn’t connected it with Tangle. Is this cool, or what! Alice and I had a great time talking about yarn and teen aged boys. 😆 And, wonder of wonders, Tangle will soon have a washing machine for those of us who are top-load-machine challenged. (I am cursed, or blessed depending on how you look at it, with a front-loader that I love for laundry, but not for felting).

Although I’d promised myself to “just look” (yeah, right, like that’s gonna happen), I did pick up a long circ to try the “magic loop” method. Which requires, er… yarn. 😉 So I bought some really fun cotton/elastic yarn in hot pink, lime green and turquoise blue. That ought to make some striped socks that will… knock your socks off? (pun unintended. really.) It would also make a cool tee shirt, but I didn’t buy enough for that. One sweater on the needles at a time for me!

From Tangle I headed south to Fry’s in Wilsonville. And I was really, really good. I only bought a new hard drive. (And some breath mints and a latte, but those don’t count.)

Hard drive in hand, I decided that it would be fun to take a scenic ride home a la my old “adventure” days, so instead of turning right toward the freeway, I turned left. I drove for a ways through the country, and happened to see a sign pointing toward the right that said “Canby Ferry.”

Now, I’ve lived in the greater Portland metro area for more than 30 years. It was only about 15 years ago that I learned there was a ferry across the Willamette in Canby. I’ve always wanted to ride it because I think ferries are really fun, but I didn’t know where it was. So what was I to do? I followed the sign!

The Canby Ferry was down a steep, twisty little bit of road. I just missed the ferry, so I had to wait a while for it to come back. But it was a pleasant wait because the weather was perfect. I was the first car on the ferry when it returned, so I was right in front . It was a weird feeling, too. The ferry deck sits low to the water, so it’s a little scary the first time, but in a very cool way. And it was only $1.25! I loved it.

And I had a nice scenic drive back, although I did eventually end up getting back on the freeway.

And now I have a hard drive to install and new yarn to swatch. And I need to decide on a pattern to use with this very cool yarn…

In amongst other exciting developments…

I have about 16″ completed on the Sensational Shirttail sweater and I’m just about ready to start the neckline decreases.

I’ve worked about 2″ on the Mermaid Socks. I really like the spiral lace effect. And the colors are creating a subtle spiral in the opposite direction that I really like. I’ll try to get a pic up in the next day or two.

My task for this weekend, whether I want to do it or not, is to try to get #1 Son’s computer working again. I upgraded his Norton Antivirus, and now it won’t boot. It hangs with the cursor pointer on a black screen and the desktop won’t come up. Not even in safe mode. < snarl > And since it was mid-NAV-upgrade, I can’t even reinstall XP. NAV won’t let me. (thanks Symantec) (suggestions from techie types gratefully accepted)

I may have to wipe his hard drive and start over. But at least I can knit while waiting.