not in Kansas anymore

Well, I did say the migraine-inducing monitor would not limit my blogging, and it really hasn’t: the illness and houseguest are what have limited my blogging, sorry about that. But Nigel is playing chess with the Sniglet, and this is just too good a story to let slide. Not that I have the whole story, or even most of it, but I have a bit. Eerg.

The Nazis are coming

apparently not sick

Well, the blood test and chest x-rays say there’s nothing wrong with me. A lot they know. I keep forgetting I’m sick until I have to stop and rest after climbing seven steps. Damn these tall skinny German houses. The doc did give me something to get the slime out of my lungs, and something to suppress the cough at night so I can sleep. She also told me to sleep a lot (she clearly does not have children) and prescribed this stuff called Umckaloabo, which, it turns out, is German for echinacea, which in turn is Greek for “I’ll teach you to waste a doctor’s precious time, you malingering sack of self-pity. Drink this, ha ha ha ha ha!”

aaauuuuggghh.

The sweater I’ve been trying to make for Ignatz since November? The one where I messed up the sleeves twice? We are on take 3, halfway down both sleeves (the point at which you change from a regular short circ to dpns or two circs or magic loop), and I finally think to hold the sleeves up side by side?

The zigzags don’t match.

I could weep. But it would take too much energy, and I am a total lump today. I can barely work up the energy to cough up my lungs, but I’m really trying.

Doctor’s appointment tomorrow at nine. Houseguest currently here. Husband leaving for Dresden tomorrow morning. Bleah

Song du jour of the day:The Frozen Man, by James Taylor

In which I type with my eyes closed

Probably not gonna correct the typos this time, sorry. A Thing I haven’t mentioned, is that my monitor screen has a… an echo, or a shadow – everything is repeated, palely, ten pixels to the right. A blur? I don’t know what to call it, but I’ve had this computer for about three months, and for about two months, I’ve had tense-as-hell trapezius muscles, and an unshakeable headache, most days. Today it occurred to me to wonder of the two facts are connected. Tomorrow I’ll call the computer store (thank Jehovah we bought local this time) and see if something can be done about it. No threat to the blogging, since I have several other computers to fall back on, though of course all my Stuff is on this one, so photos will be limited.

check

• 2 sweaters hand-washed and drying on the rack
• 3 loads of laundry done, and one more still in the washer. It’s only one item, but it’s a rug, so bleah. All 3 done loads still have to be folded.
• 1 downstairs bathroom, sparkly-clean
• 1 pair of Sniglet socks all knitted. Still have to snip and tuck the second sock, and wash/block them, as I promised he could wear them tomorrow. I’ve already started another pair with yarn he chose (the red and the “fizzy” yarn (he means busy)).

Snape analysis

I’ve been flipping through Order of the Phoenix, but I can’t find it, the bit where Harry momentarily breaks into Snape’s mind and sees Little Snape cowering while a man (probably his dad) yells at a crying woman (probably his mom). You know, I don’t think that’s a throwaway scene. I think JKR’s trying to show us that Snape grew up in an abusive home. Now pair that with the scene Harry saw in the pensieve, of James humiliating Snape at school.

coming soon

OH my goodness, I have SO. MUCH. TO DO! I need to get my Snape Analysis up, and tell/show you what I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about lately (which is why I haven’t been writing), and I have to make banana bread before the bananas turn to little tar pits, and post my Paris photos, and Laura just tagged me for a really fun meme (consider yourself tagged. Go do it right now. I mean it) and speaking of Laura, I have to do all this one-handed because that book she wrote? I can’t put it down. I’m serious, I love this book, though I can’t decide whether it’s because it’s so relevant to my life (amen, marrying a handsome foreigner is hella more difficult than you thought – go kiss your husband for being a nice, uncomplicated Yankee – although we only had the one wedding. Of course, Laura didn’t have to go to Denmark to get married, so I think I can claim a few complexity points there) or because it’s really funny and clever and well-written.

random stuff

We knew when we bought the house that the heating system would have to be replaced: it’s 25 years old, the previous owner warned us, etc. We decided we’d do it in spring, when it was warm and we didn’t need heat or hot water for the two days it would take, but due to a few sets of crossed signals (once we forgot to call them, once they forgot us, I don’t know what happened the other time) during the month when it was so fabulously sunny and warm and wonderful, they came (by appointment) today. To leave our doors open and us without heat for six hours. Now that it’s winter again. Sigh.

jiggety-jog

When I woke up this morning, it was snowing.

Snow. Ing.

Be proud of me: I did not scream, even though I really, really wanted to.

bonjour Paris!

So! I was in Paris! And now I’m back! Exhausted! The various websites that mentioned the hotel said it had internet, and I had some vague thought of posting a few notes while I was there, because of course I forgot that when we travel, we spend zero time in the hotel. DrBob is your Travel Death March specialist, and if you want to end every day with aching feet, I definitely recommend booking a trip with him. I was so tired every evening (this happened in Rome too, year before last) that when we got to the hotel each night I stopped at the bathroom to brush my teeth before proceeding into the room with the bed in it, because I knew that once I sat down it’d be a good eight hours before I got up again.