l-o-n-g weekend

Big mood crash, triggered by ongoing tech problems, worsening financial stuff, and Annie. I stayed up until about 1 or 1:30 Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, feeding Annie baby food out of a spoon every two hours. She had an appt. scheduled with the vet Monday morning for a thyroid check, and so I asked them to give her fluids--I've just got to catch them at a quiet time and get them to teach me to give sub-Q fluids. She came home obviously feeling so much better, though extremely cranky and hissy about being stuck with needles.

But I didn't ever get a chance to talk to the vet. This is the one who's trying to run a 3-person practice by herself, with someone else coming in about 1/3 time. There has to be a young vet somewhere who'd like to connect with an established, busy practice in an interesting college town with twice-daily Amtraks to Chicago, and I hope Karen can find him or her soon before she collapses! Yesterday when I went in at 5, she still had 5 surgeries to do, and had 2 emergencies going on, including a dying cat. So I just paid the bill and told them NOT to have her call me last night, and took Annie home. I was hoping Karen would call me at work today, but I'm not sure she's ever able to catch up with herself. *sigh*

Anyway, Annie's clearly feeling tons better, although she's still refusing to eat anything but baby food with whipping cream stirred in (trying to get some extra moisture and calories into her). Last night I was just so wiped I was in bed by 10, but I didn't sleep well--too warm. It's laughably warm for t he end of November--I don't think it got below 55 outside last night. Of course, Thursday and Friday, when I'll be off, it's supposed to be cold and nasty. Poor Ts, I was going to take them for long walks on campus.

Enough of that. I've got to share this website with you: http://tinyurl.com/2x6pzz Some extremely strange patterns, and --stainless steel yarn??? My sister found it while websurfing. Some of the garments look like they *might* be comfortable, if made in a different yarn--but some of them, as my sister opined, look like they belonged to a homeless person.

The Alpaca Sox yarn arrived. It's very nice, very very soft. The suggested needle size is 2, and since these aren't walking socks, I think that's what I might use. And on 2s, they should knit up pretty fast--much faster than on 0s! Once again I wish I had a yarn meter, so I could divide the yarn accurately and feel safe about how long I can make them. The socks, I mean.

Here's another site to check out. This one is really excellent, lots of wonderful free patterns! http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/kategori_oversikt.php It's a Scandinavian company, and some of their patterns are translated into British English and some are translated into American English. I didn't realize there was such a huge difference in terminology until I looked at the instructions for this pattern, a gorgeous lace baby blanket, which are in British English: http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=b14&d_id=22&lang=en Fortunately, there's a chart for it, and I was able to translate the written instructions enough to gather that there are 8 stitches in garter stitch on either side, but wow--it's quite a sensation to read something that you know is English and not be able to make heads or tails of it! *lol*

Oh, and a neat thing from yesterday: Between the months when Stella died and I got Taenzer, a friend got a mixed-breed puppy. We never have figured out what she is--at first glance, you'd think she might be a labradoodle, but based on the shape of her head and body, my guess is standard poodle and Irish Wolfhound. I used to puppy sit her, and she's the sweetest thing, but my friend's husband was allergic, so she rehomed her with someone in the department who has two little girls. It's been several years since I saw Pippi, and she came in to visit yesterday. I was just like "PIPPI!!!" and ran to her and sat down on the floor and she threw herself into my lap, then ran in little circles, then came back to get hugged, and generally appeared just as delighted to see me as I was to see her. Her mom watched her for a minute, then said drily, "Very uncharacteristic greeting behavior. I think she remembers you." I think she did. :) I got an extremely thorough going-over by the Ts when I got home. But boy it was so good to see my little girl (no longer very little--she's bigger than either of the Ts!), and have her be so happy to see me. Puppy therapy is a great healer.