Oceandirt's Blog

I'm a closet Nascar fan. Did you know that? "My guy" I cheer for is Kyle Busch, who drives the #18 M&M Toyota.



I don't know if you can see but my favorite part of the paint job is the orange M&M over the rear tire who's got his hands over his eyes. lol

Kyle is really fun to cheer for--always exciting--but for some reason a lot of Nascar fans really don't like him. Probably because he wins a lot and beats their guys! When I started watching Nascar I decided to pick an "up and coming" guy to cheer for and he's who I picked. Worked out well for me! I'm waiting for the day when I can choose an up-and-coming *woman* to cheer for. It won't be long. Anyway in tonight's race his car looks like this



I think it is very cool that the sponsors can get behind a cause such as the Susan Komen one. Also very cool that a guy can be manly driving a very pink car. His won't be the only one. I believe #43 and #19 will also be pink tonight. I may have to cheer for them too.

So I have no major plans for this lazy Saturday. Suppose I should get to the gym at some point. UNC is playing football on national tv later so I'll watch that. Got some quilting to catch up on too, some halloween projects which should be fun. Nice to have no particular plans though. Last Saturday was full of a church thing which was fun but tiring, and to top it off, Lil' Oceandirt was sick the whole weekend which made for little sleep. Then she got better and puppy Oceandirt kept me up the next night throwing up! I can't win!! But everyone is better now (knock on wood) and it is supposed to be a gorgeous weekend. It's nice that they planned the race for tonight, so I can enjoy the weather today before i am glued to the TV after dark!

Go Kyle!

That was me, on vacation with my friend Laura last weekend. The weather sucked! Until the afternoon we were leaving, when the sun came out and I took this picture with the timer thingie. Wait--here's one of what it looked like most of the rest of the time.



Rain. Fog. High Winds. There was a point we were afraid the winterized, closed, wrapped up, screwed down umbrella on the deck was going to fly through the window! LOL We were there for 5 days and had a grand total of 3 hours of sunshine. The good news is, this was a sewing retreat and we had a lot of time for sewing. Here's some of our projects.



My stuff is on the left side, and hers on the right. On the table are the placemats and wine bag we made as gifts to my friends who let us stay in their beach condo for free. You can't really tell in the pic but we shaped the placemats to the curve of the glass table. They looked really cool. We got a ton done, had a relaxing time, went to see Indigo Girls (wonderful as always) and had a blast trying to figure out the slot machines in the casino. The concert was inside a casino so we got there enough early to mess around. Let me just say, high tech-ness has taken all the fun out of slot machines. Firstly I wanted to blow only a dollar in a penny slot. None of the machines took less than a 5 dollar bill. Secondly, it is so unsatisfying pushing a button instead of pulling the lever. And not having to put a coin in each time. And coins not coming out and making a satisfying clinking noise when you "win." I guess it is good for the casinos because it makes you spend money faster but it is way less satisfying. So we are both so cheap (and so non-gambly) that between us we blew $5 then just walked around watching people. I'd have liked to play blackjack but it looks like you can really lose money fast there! We decided we'd rather spend that money on more fabric. I ended up spending mine on a new Indigo Girls t-shirt. LOL The House of Blues was really interesting--very artsy decorations and even quilty--the curtains were crazy quilts (think something you'd have seen on your great-grandmother's bed). Very interesting but the lighting was too bad to get a pic with my phone and cameras weren't allowed so I don't have a pic to show you.

That's the highlights. It was a wonderful vacation. I want to go back soon. Perhaps in better weather though!

There isn't all that much else going on lately. I've been exercising and trying to eat right (same ole same ole) and I took an interesting Indian Cooking class a couple weeks ago. I have another one tomorrow. I thought it would be fun and it was. I'm looking forward to learning a "main" dish tomorrow--I think chicken tikka masala is on our menu. Last time we learned how to make this great fried bread (not Naan, but something called Bhatura) and a chick-pea dish which was wonderful. But Mr. Oceandirt is a meat kind of guy so a purely vegetarian dish doesn't do him.

I'll leave you with one more picture.



During a brief break in the rain on Saturday, we came across a group of people who were releasing these flowers in honor of their friend who was a surfer and had died. It was very beautiful. I told Laura if I died she'd just have to throw some fabric in the water. Wouldn't exactly be the same thing I guess!

As part of our 300th anniversary celebration, our church had a service on the farm today. This is a historic farm which does reinactments and stuff, and we held service in this barn. It was interesting. We combined with the two other local congregations with whom we were once one, and a congregation in PA who joined us but I never found out why. We had church, then we had a pig pickin/potluck on the grounds, and some games.



Can you tell what that is? It is a gasoline-powered engine running a giant ice cream machine! That was dessert. They had vanilla, peach, and blueberry.



That's my friend Sue participating in the egg toss.

And lastly:



The farm is a very beautiful place and very appropriate for this 300th anniversary of our church, which was started by a bunch of farmers in the surrounding area.

Today I accidentally went to taekwondo class. "How can you accidentally go to class?" You ask. Well, I went to SEE people and to take pictures. And Ma'am made me participate. Sitting down. Wearing my boot. Stretching and doing kicks from laying on the floor. I think she wanted to make the point to me that she can do this in a safe way. I know for sure that at the other school I will be doing things I shouldn't do. She won't let me. She is trying to talk me into coming back, and just doing the one "easiest" class a week which typically has no sparring. I am very tempted. Someone try to talk some sense into me.

In other news I had a nice first vacation. Spent some quality time with my family. Here's a picture of my nephew playing with the quilt I made him. It is meant to play with matchbox cars. You can't see in the picture, but there is someone sewing in the window of one house (me) and music in the window of another (grandma) and a beagle in another (my sister eraflewr). It was fun to make.



And here I am about to jump off this tower.



Well shoot, might as well let you see me jump. I'm on the right. My sister-in-law is on the left. The commentary is from my brother and nephew.



But here's the best picture:



For the past several years at camp I have met my friends Ian and Elise to juggle, and this year we added their younger brother and sister and several other juggling enthusiasts. This isn't an officially sanctioned camp activity, but due to the popularity, we were approached at the end of the weekend to see if we are willing to put it on the official schedule next year! LOL

So today was back to the real world. But, three weeks and counting until my next vacation and I'm getting really excited.

I'm so psyched. First of all I have two vacations planned within a month, which is great. First I'll visit my family and go camping, which is always fun. Then later in the month I'm going to the shore for 5 days with a friend away from our worries and responsibilities. What I'm psyched about is that today my concert tix came in the mail. While we're at the shore we're going to see the Indigo Girls in Atlantic City!



I've seen them in concert, gosh...8 or so times now. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It is always a blast. Now the shore vacation seems more real. Condo. Shore. Sleeping. Sewing. Indigo Girls. More sleeping. More sewing. No responsibilities. I can't wait. And between now and then I get to see eraflewr (sister) and my nephews and parents. Yeah!

May the countdown begin!

It's been at least 15 years since I played volleyball. When Mr Oceandirt was first in Grad school, his colleagues had a game weekly in which we participated. He had an international group, and there were some european guys who were pretty serious about it. Anyway that was my last real volleyball experience and that was 1990 and 1991 or so. Until now. LOL I finagled an invitation to the taekwondo picnic today, from the school where I'm currently "not" training due to my ankle injury. It was at someone's house and there were only about 12 or 15 of us there. It was nice, though. I told my friend Laura that when I'm away from taekwondo I think...I Just don't see how I'll go back. But then something like this happens and I remember how much I like these people and I think I can do it. She said the same thing is true for her. When she goes, she really enjoys herself. It is a good workout, and it is fun. But it is the motivation to GET there that is the problem, after work, after other things like homework for her kids, etc. Oh well. Anyway I played volleyball. I'm a fairly decent setter (had a couple of good "digs") but of course due to my height I totally suck at blocking or much else. Still fun though. I think I managed to do it without damaging my ankle, although it IS sore. It has felt so good this week that I've been tempted to do things I shouldn't. I guess that's a good sign. But tonight it is sore! I am able to do regular activities like walking around, riding the stationary bike etc with very little pain. But I'm having a hard time imagining jumping up and down barefoot, spinning and jumping yet.

In other news I finished two quilts today for other people. Yeah! My first two since Quiltzilla was paid for. Interestingly enough, something seems to be wrong with my "regular" sewing machine now so I think I need to take it in for service this week. In past when I've had it serviced they've had to keep it two weeks. So I need to go ahead and take it in so it will be done in time for my sewing retreat in late Sept. I'm hoping it is just overdue for a cleaning and there is nothing really wrong with it. Well except I KNOW the foot pedal has a short. But that isn't too bad to replace. If this machine needs replacing I'm going a different direction, to a simpler and cheaper machine. But we'll cross that bridge when we find it!

I made this cake today. Well, yesterday and today! I have officially paid for my giant quilting machine (which I call Quiltzilla because she ate my guest room). It has basically been a car payment for nearly 5 years now. So I paid her off in full last week. I made and took this Quiltzilla cake to guild meeting tonight to celebrate. I also took a gift for my friend Laura, who was the one who encouraged me to get the machine, and a certificate for my "best" customer for her next quilt to be free.

It was fun.

Here's two in-progress pictures.





The spikes, tongue, etc are made from fruit roll-up. You can cut it with scissors to any shape. I got the inspiration from here:
http://sdbytracy.com/dinoguest.htm

Okay, I really don't have an explanation for why I haven't posted in 7 weeks. Maybe laziness is the best reason. There was some frantic stuff in there too, like being semi-in charge of vacation Bible School at church (which went well). Lots of sewing. Two commission quilts with firm deadlines. But I really don't have a great excuse.

Here's a cute picture of something I finished last week though. This is a baby quilt for our friend's new baby, and a "sock monkey" for the big sister. I don't know if you'll be able to see in the picture, but the quilt is made from fabric with sock monkeys on it. And I made the monkey a shirt with some of the quilt fabric too.



And for the cuteness factor, here are the kids. The other quilt behind them is the one I made for big sister when SHE was born! I decided to stick with the same pattern for baby sis to be sure I didn't step on any toes. Just different fabric!



I also had a nice sewing weekend this weekend while Mr. Oceandirt was out of town (delivering the quilt and monkey as a matter of fact). Got a lot accomplished and am in planning stages of planning a long 5 day getaway later in September when I can actually get AWAY instead of having a staycation in my house! Shore. Condo. Atlantic City 10 mins away. Sound nice?

I met Windsornot on her birthday yesterday to help her spend some money and treat her to some ice cream, which was nice. The thing I miss most about taekwondo while I'm on injured reserve is the social aspect. I especially miss the Wednesday daytime class.

That's enough for now. I'll try not to have a 7 week posting break again any time soon.

I discovered Sunday afternoon that my walking cast was wearing out. It was basically falling apart on the bottom, and I have NOT been wearing it enough for that to happen. Let's face it, I haven't been wearing it nearly enough. So I took it to the medical supply place and told them it had only been just about a month and I'd gone days at a time without wearing it at all and it just seemed like it was falling apart too soon. So they let me trade it in. I was pointing to my ankle saying "gee I wish it could expand here for a better fit" and they said "oh, we have ones like that." Duh. So here is my new one.



The only bad thing is that it doesn't go as high on my leg. The "tall" one like this literally went past my knee. I guess it is designed for a 6 foot 5 inch athlete. Anyway the website says this one is specifically good for people whose "limb length" or "calf circumference" rules out the taller one. So there. I figure if it is easier to put on (which it is) and a little more comfortable (which it is because of its length but also because it isn't as hot) then I'll wear it more. So far I've already worn it more than I was wearing the other one, so hopefully I can keep that up. Today my physical therapist told me I would not heal unless I wear it, and do the exercises he told me to do (ankle strengthening stuff). So I'm dedicated that I will do the exercises twice a day and wear the boot more. You heard it here first, folks.

This is my favorite picture from today...



Pretty good, don't you think? This is Windsornot getting wet for the first time.

This was my favorite gun:



I'm not sure you can tell from the picture but you shoot it by cranking the crank, and it shoots three streams.

And here's the leader of the pack, getting ganged up on. You see that tube coming from the back of the gun and going around her? It goes to a backpack filled with water. Extra ammo. Ma'am is way cool. But the key is to stay away from her, because she's a target for every child and adult there.



I was part of the papparazzi, a group of moms with cameras in the "dry" zone, due to my inability to run or get my cast wet. I did help with the balloon launcher for a while and prior to the water fight I had a secret mission of filling water balloons.

Here's one more really cute picture. This little tiny girl soaking Mr. K, one of the teen instructors. He had two GIANT guns. And she was the tiniest little kid there. Very cute.


It was fun to see my friends from class who I haven't seen in a while, especially Susan, Karen, and Dani.

It was a fun afternoon.

Lookie what I did today! I've been wanting to do this for YEARS as a way to display some of Julia's beanie babies that were kept in boxes under beds. So I finally did. I had measured that the wall was 13 feet, but I carefully measured and decided 12 feet was the longest board I could fit in my van without something hanging open and so I went with a 12 foot board. I did the whole thing almost by myself. I painted the board and attached the brackets, but I needed help to hold it against the wall to mark where to drill my holes there! Then help again holding it up to screw in the screws. Anyway Julia hasn't even seen it yet because we have company and Julia isn't sleeping in her room while they are here! Maybe I'll carry her in there tomorrow to see. I have another 4-foot length of the shelf (the piece was 16 feet but I had them cut it at the wood place) and I may do one over her bed too. As you can see in the picture, there is a small shelf on the left side that holds a quilt and some beanies and there is one of those on the opposite wall too. This big wall was the only full length wall that didn't have a shelf at all. What gave me this idea years ago was a friend who is a cancer survivor. When she was sick, all her friends got her beanie babies. She had over a hundred of them, and her husband built her a shelf all the way around the guest room to display them.

Julia has well over a hundred actual beanie babies (I lost count way back) and many other kinds of stuffed animals. This shelf is only big enough for beanies though(it is only 5 inches wide)! I squished as many as I possibly could onto the shelf (I think there are 57 up there). Later I found a few more, darn it all. I may have to make two layers! They are all over the place all over the house.

Julia's grandfather is sleeping in her room while they are visiting and he came in when I was done and jokingly said "do I have to sleep in here with all of them looking at me?" LOL

Ouch. Today I got a call from a representative from my insurance company to try to get me to participate in a nutrition thing they are doing for people who need to lose weight. Presumably they have gotten smart and realized this will cut their costs over time. Anyway I spoke with a nutritionist on the phone who took some history and asked me questions about nutrition (what I know and what I DO which of course aren't the same thing). Then she took a 24-hour history of everything I ate in the last day. Well, normally when you do this you know in advance so you eat better. Well I really ate poorly in this 24 hours. What a reality check! We talked about 3 PM. First she asked me what I ate for lunch.



Then what I ate for breakfast.



Then did I snack between (which I hadn't because I had an early lunch). Thank goodness. Then if I snacked last night. um. yes.



And then what I had for dinner last night, which of course I don't have a picture of but which was chicken (breast, no skin) sauteed in olive oil with garlic, tarragon, and white wine, and rice (white) and mixed veggies which of course is mostly the "bad" kinds of veggies. Well darn it all. Even my "healthy" meal wasn't really healthy.

So what I want to know is, how do I go from eating really great, to allowing myself to have something small that is bad, to eating badly every meal? The banana was the only saving grace and let's face it...a banana is NOT a good breakfast.

I just don't understand how I can lapse so quickly back into terrible habits. But I guess knowing it is terrible is the first step.

More veggies! More fruit! More water! That's my mantra today.

Today I saw MY car sitting in the parking lot at the gym. This is it...



That's the car I've always wanted. And it was sitting right there. And then some guy had the audacity to walk up and drive it away! The NERVE of some people. Sheesh.

I haven't posted in a while because I was too busy visiting with my sister. That is us at Point Pleasant. When we got there it was cold and dreary but the sun magically came out enough for me to sunburn the backs of my legs from laying in this position. How dumb is that? They hurt like crazy for a couple days then itched and now they are peeling. Fun fun.

Anyway, Eraflewr and I had a very nice visit. We spent the majority of the weekend playing handbells at a festival and at church. It may not have been the most relaxing vacation for her! Here we are playing bells. We're so serious....



I may have a video to show once I get it uploaded.

Anyway a nice visit. She's back home now and back to real life...

My PT says I should plan to wear this thing for 6 months. SIX MONTHS! We did figure out a way to make it fit better. Due to how MUSCULAR my calf is, it is tight up there which makes it looser around my dainty ankle, which was causing the slippage and pain when I walked. So he suggested a way to fix that. When I came home I dug some inch-thick memory foam stuff out of Julia's closet (being a pack-rat is a good thing, right?) This was from the PT at her school many years ago when I was making a pad for her feet, and there was some left over. I made pads for inside the cast on both sides of the ankle, then I had to make covers for them because the memory foam stuff sheds little pieces constantly. Yesterday it worked really well. When I showed the PT how it seems to want to flex my knees backwards with each step he said WOW your knees go backwards too much. He actually used an official sounding word which means backwards flexation but apparently he was impressed (this isn't a good thing). I told him he should see my daughter. Anyway he said the only thing to do is walk carefully and never totally straighten my knee so that its natural inclination is to go the right way instead of the wrong way. Sounds like fun for the next 6 months.

We were talking about my history. He is the same one who treated me back in December and I said after that PT I rested my foot for nearly three months by not doing taekwondo. He said "no you didn't rest your foot." He said the only way to truly rest it is the walking boot which keeps that tendon from flexing and relaxing with each step. So he said I truly need to REST it for the next 6 months. I told him I'd do my best. We did ultrasound with some special goo my doctor prescribed which has glucosamine and something else in it. The ultrasound is supposed to get the stuff to penetrate under the skin I guess. I'll go two times a week for the next few weeks, and next time we'll start some strengthening exercises. He okayed stationary bike riding with the boot so I might try that today. He also suggested trying wearing flippers swimming and seeing if it keeps me from kicking so hard with my foot and makes swimming hurt less. He said if that doesn't work we'll try to come up with something to wear.

So that's it. I guess I should quit procrastinating and go to the gym. I haven't been in a couple weeks because I wanted to wait until PT and make sure it was okay. I don't have an excuse anymore so I need to get back to good exercising and weight loss...

I got tagged. I don't do these very often but this one seemed fun. The rule is you have to answer using only pictures or graphics, no words.

1) What is your current relationship status?


2) What is your current mood?


3) Who is your favorite band/singer?


4) What is your favorite movie?




5) What kind of pets do you have?



6) Where do you live?


7) Where do you work?


8) Who do you look like?


9) What do you drive?


10) What did you do Saturday?


11) What did you do Sunday?


12) What is your favorite TV network show?



13) Describe yourself


14) What is your favorite candy?

Look at this interesting article about how portion sizes have changed over the years. When McDonald's opened, the only burger they had is the one that is now in the kid's meal. An average bagel is more than twice as big as it used to be. It is just ridiculous. No wonder we eat too much...we've been trained not to understand how much is normal.

Here's the article.

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22178/49492-portion-size--now

Tonight I went out for ice cream with Windsornot. It was great. We both got a "kid size" but I swear it was more than a little kid should have. That is what used to be a medium I bet. Sure is interesting to think about...

Okay, the good news is that I don't think I'll have to ice my ankle tonight! The bad news is that they have turned off the heat source for the college pool this week and the pool has gotten colder and colder each day. Today I could only stand it for 30 minutes. I guess that's better than nothing. Actually it was the combination of the cold and pain that made me stop. I still haven't figured out how to make swimming not hurt my ankle, so I'm trying to be careful.

I have an appointment with the PT on Tuesday and I'll discuss it with him. I'd really like to keep swimming but I don't want to do ANY activities where my ankle hurts worse afterwards than before.

Okay, off to go get warm.

I saw my doc today--my general doc. He wants to hold off on the orthopedist for now. He said the ortho would primarily be indicated if we end up needing to surgically correct this (I sure hope that doesn't become necessary). He is sending me for more physical therapy, looks like 4 weeks for 3X/week. At least once per week they are to do ultrasound with this special goo he prescribed, which he says will help the healing (it contains glucosamine, among other things). I'm hoping this helps.

I showed him my taekwondo picture. He had been late to my appointment, and when he saw the pic he promised to be on time in the future. LOL He seems to think that while I probably CAN get back to taekwondo (although perhaps never pain-free), I probably shouldn't. He said (and this agrees with the info I've found online, unfortunately) that my injury is chronic. It may never fully go away. Even if it gets better, I could very easily tear it again, or even rupture it. He also pointed out that the same thing could happen easily to the other foot and then where would I be? He suggested I think about finding another sport I enjoy that I can spend just as much time on, such as cycling. Gee. He's a long distance cyclist himself. Wonder why he suggested that one? LOL He said that lots of runners take up cycling when their knees give out (note to self, suggest this to my brother).

Anyway he pointed out that we KNOW my feet turn in. This has been a problem for a long time, at least 7 years now. It is getting worse, which is an indication that my feet are flattening, which contributes to this particular injury and may be an indication that I will have tendonitis and pain all my life there. He said there isn't a good way to wear orthotics while doing taekwondo and even if there was, it is still hard on the feet normally, and multiply that with my feet which are already showing problems. He also suggested I think about getting newer orthotics and recommended a gel kind made especially for diabetics. I pointed out that when I got the orthotics I have now (before I saw this doc), I had to pay for them entirely out of pocket because my insurance ONLY pays for orthotics if you are diabetic (which I'm not). He looked over my bloodwork again and agreed that I'm not, although he considers me borderline. He said there is a good chance that it is my amount of exercise which kept me out of that category in the tests I had done in the late summer (before my injury). He said he doesn't want to "make" me into a diabetic, but he would like me to consider having the bloodwork done again and see if cutting out so much of my exercise might have raised my numbers enough that I would qualify as diabetic. That's kind of depressing. No, REALLY depressing. I think I will call the store that made my orthotics and ask them some orthotic questions.

I also expressed my disappointment with my cast, and how it is more painful to use than not to use. He suggested I try putting my orthotic inside it and seeing if that helps. He also said to talk to the PT about it and they may know tricks to make it fit better and stay more rigid. Good idea.

Anyway I came away from this glad to have a "plan" but now even more leaning to the fact that I may not get back to taekwondo. Yes, I could do it halfway and still participate but I've found that halfway isn't good enough for me. If I'm going to do it, I want to participate fully.

It's done!!!! This is the biggest quilt I've ever made start-to-finish. I have quilted a couple bigger than this (but not by much) that other people started, but I made this one from scratch so it wins. It looks so nice. I slept under it last night and it was GREAT to have a quilt big enough to stay on me all night. Most of my quilts I use on my bed are just exactly the size of the top of the bed. lol

I also finished a quilt for my mother this week. Here is that one.



It's the most complicated thing she's made too I think!! She made the top and I quilted it and bound it as her Mother's Day present. I printed her out an invoice as if she were a customer, paying full price. Then I marked through it all and wrote Happy Mother's Day. She looked at the "price" and said I won't owe her a present the next couple of occasions! lol We had a nice visit. Seemed short though. They head back to NC in the morning bright and early.