Alive and kickin'

Okay, so it's been a while since I've posted. My reasons for this absence from blogworld are three-fold: I've been really busy, I haven't done much knitting, and I somewhat broke the camera so I don't have any new pictures to post. I always think I need to post a picture when I blog, but since I don't have time to fix my camera any time soon, I figured I'd do a pictureless post just to let you know I'm still here.


So, what's happening in the world of Nakedie? Lots! Here's a list:


1. I've started a triathlon club at the YMCA I work at. It's totally fun so far. It's geared towards beginners, and I'm training them to do a super-sprint race on Memorial Day. We're almost at the end of week 3 of our 10-week training program. I email them a training schedule every week, I lead them in a brick (bike-run) workout on Wednesdays and in a swim workout on Fridays, I arrange little seminars/clinics for them, I sometimes go riding with them on Saturdays, and I bombard them with more information about multisport than they ever would have imagined I could bombard them with. When we opened registration for the club, we limited it to 20 people. Those spots filled up in 2 weeks and I haven't had anyone drop out yet, so I'm feeling very good.


2. I'm starting to take personal training clients! Becoming a personal trainer has been a dream of mine for several years now, and we're finally in a financial position for me to pursue it. I took the NSCA-CPT (National Strength and Conditioning Association's Certified Personal Trainer) exam on St. Patrick's Day and am now just anxiously awaiting the results. It was REALLY tough, but hopefully I passed. I guess my director at the Y is assuming that I passed because she started assigning clients to me. I had my first client this past Tuesday, I meet with my next client on Monday, and I've got 2 more to set appointments up with.


3. I'm deep in the throes of Ironman training AGAIN. My Ironman this year will be up in Lake Placid, New York on July 22nd. That means I'm less than 4 months away from another 140.6 mile race - yikes!!! This year is different from the last 2 years of Ironman. I spent the last 2 years training and doing races with a big group of friends; now I'm pretty much on my own except for him. He's not doing the race, but he's been riding with me a lot and protecting me from the mean dogs on the country roads. There is another girl from Nashville who is doing this Ironman, and I thought we'd be training together a lot, but it hasn't turned out that way. I'm fine, though. Having a ton of fun, actually - not having to worry about other people has been a really nice change.


4. I obviously have been so busy that I haven't had much time to knit. When I do knit, I am charity knitting. I stalled out on my poor little Equestrian Jacket from IK three quarters of the way up the second sleeve. So close, yet so far. Instead, I am working really hard to get my blanket done for Project Linus. The ladies in my knitting group at the Bellevue Y have been so great - they have given me over 10 blankets to donate, and I haven't even finished mine. I'm really close, though. This week has been a recovery week for me in terms of Ironman training, so I have a little more time on my hands. Maybe by Sunday night I can finish the blanket and cast on for a chemo cap. I've got 2 balls (no, really, I do) of Calmer, so I'm going to try my hand at Shedir from Knitty. And I've got a dear friend who's wife is dying from ovarian cancer, so it'll be an extra-special project for me to do.


That's it for my update. Off to Organization Land. I bought some new pages for my planner (I figure I better start using that thing again since I have clients now), and I bought a bookcase for my computer room/home office/workout area that I can haul upstairs and assemble. Maybe by the next time I post, my camera will be fixed and my blanket will done and I can give y'all some pictures to look at.

Oh, f*ck it - here are some old pictures that always make me smile:

Yes, I've posted them before, but like I said, they always make me laugh. I originally wanted to post a picture from 2 years ago of the back of Hayden standing on our snow-covered deck wearing a turtleneck, his snow boots and nothing else, but I was afraid of being blasted with nasty emails. Little boys' butts are so cute, though! At least MY little boy's butt is.

One poop - uh, scoop - or two?

The above picture is of the list that came home with Hayden last week about the upcoming ice cream sundae party they're having at school to celebrate Valentine's Day. Look at the item listed between sprinkles and spoons. What kind of party is this?!?? Should I point out the misspelled word to his teacher just for the sake of embarrassing her? And yes, that's Hayden as a 6-month old in the picture being covered by the list. He went from that to this:

in just 6 1/2 short years. (The sweater he's wearing is the first sweater I made for DH. It's such bulky wool, though, that he can only wear it when it's 20 degrees or colder outside. Too warm most of the time for our climate, but a nice sweater nonetheless. And those are DH's jean shorts - no, I do not let him wear them EVER, so why he still owns them is a mystery to me - and my ballet flats and cowboy hat. He's really gotten into invading our closet, as you can tell.)

Speaking of bowels, some of you may be thinking that I'm too young for a colonoscopy. I am too young for a routine look-and-see, but I'm not if there's something wrong. I won't go into details because I'll just gross everyone out and lose what little reader base I have, but I will say that a) colonoscopies aren't fun and b) sigmoidoscopies are even less fun. We have discovered that I have collagenous colitis and I'm now on medicine to fix it. My doctor sent me an article about collagenous colitis, but it's so medical that I don't exactly understand what it is or how I got it. I need to get him to explain it to me in normal people terms. I've been on medicine for a couple of days and things seem to be getting much better, so I'm very excited. However, due to what's been going on, I am not going to Austin next weekend to run the half marathon. It's okay - I'd rather stay home and play with Hayden than go run a half marathon in a less-than-stellar time and spend the rest of the day in the bathroom.

So let's change the subject to something less crappy: knitting! I am about to start something that's going to be totally different than what I usually do - a charity knitting project. I've been teaching a knitting class to a group of senior citizen ladies at the nearby YMCA. They've learned how to cast on, knit, purl, increase with yarnovers, decrease with K2togs, and bind off. They want to keep going, so I suggested we practice those skills and make blankets for Project Linus. They're very excited, and so am I. Charity knitting is something I've never done before. I bought some Encore Worsted in a fun, not-baby but not-too-bright colorway (with some purple in it, of course) and am going to do the Hoover blanket from Knitty. I saw that pattern 3 years ago and have wanted to do it ever since then. One of the ladies in the class is also going to attempt that pattern. She's never double-knitted but she's a very quick learner, so I think she can do it. I'll keep you posted on our progress. My selfish knitting project continues to be the Equestrian Jacket from the Winter IK. (Have you seen the new IK? Meh to the new layout, meh to the patterns. I really don't have time to knit an apron that makes my hips look like they belong on Eddie Murphy's female character in "Norbert.") I'm about halfway done with one sleeve. Hopefully I can get to a picture-taking point soon. But since I'm not, here's another shot of my son, who has just discovered the joys of playing Nutball (a la "Jackass" - if you're curious, I'll explain more, but just use your imagination) with Daddy:

I'm so hungry I could eat the crotch out of a rag doll...

...but I won't.

I'm having a colonoscopy today and have been denied food (except for Jello and chicken broth, which, in my book, don't count) since yesterday morning. There's a McDonald's down the street from the hospital that will be our first stop on the way out. I'd like a Quarter Pounder Extra Value Meal - supersized, of course! - and a hot fudge sundae. Then maybe we'll hit the sushi restaurant on the way home.

Because I have no energy for training (or really doing anything more than sitting on the couch, watching MTV or the Top Chef finale), I have been knitting quite a bit. I've got both fronts and about half of the back done on my Equestrian Jacket from IK. Maybe wearing it in Austin 2 weeks from this Saturday isn't so much of an impossibility after all. (Sorry for not showing WIP photos. Pieces of knitting that are curled up because they haven't been blocked isn't terribly exciting to look at.)

While in the bathroom this morning (like you really wanted to know that), I overheard Matt Lauer talk about the release date of the last Harry Potter book, and he said something about Harry being naked on the cover. I dismissed his comment, but then I came across this:

http://www.equustheplay.com/pr/index.php

Oh my! Look out, Hermoine!

New look

I finally got to swich my Blogger account from the old version to the newer one, so I decided to take the time to make some changes. Hopefully this new version will be more reliable than the old.

Hayden has been sick this week and my husband left for Boston on a business trip on Wednesday, so I've been in hell. Strep throat has been going around school like crazy, and he finally got it. Of course he can't tell me what exactly hurt or how he was feeling, so I had to play the guessing game and treat the whole thing like I did when he was a baby. Wednesday we went to the doctor and got checked out, and Thursday we had to go back to get a shot of antibiotic because he absolutely will not take medicine like everyone else. Believe me, I tried. I'm not going to go into what I did because I don't want to get blasted with comments made by people who don't understand what it's like to have an autistic child who refuses to take medicine, but he won and we ended up getting a shot. Wednesday night we got very little sleep - he dry heaved (but never threw up) from 10pm to 2am - but last night we slept for about 10 hours, so we feel much better. And he finally doesn't have a fever. I think he'll be able to go back to school on Monday and I can resume my normal life. I've had to cancel therapy appointments, massage appointments, horse-riding appointments, Spin classes (indoor cycling, not yarn), and shifts at work. I think getting back out will help me out of the funk I'm in. Right now I just might kick your ass if you say hello to me.

Not a whole lot of knittin' goin' on

Gone are the days during which I'd knit for hours on end. Sad, but true. Fortunately I didn't turn into the crazy woman I am today before Christmas or Hayden's McTavish would've never gotten done. Lately I've been practically living at the YMCA - either teaching knitting classes, working on the wellness floor, doing fitness assessments, teaching cycling classes, or getting my own workouts in. It's starting to become nearly impossible for me to work out like a normal person at that Y, though - EVERYBODY wants to talk to me. Members want to talk to me about triathlon. Senior citizen ladies want to talk to me about knitting. Front desk people want to talk to me about who's doing what on the wellness floor because they know I'm organized and will know the answer. I go there to do my own workout and get finagled into working for 2 hours. I go there to do a workout that should take me 45 minutes but instead takes me an hour and a half because I'm constantly interrupted, even though I have iPod headphones on. My husband says I should just say that I can't talk, that I'm working out, but that's not me. The Bellevue YMCA Steph is very nice, very talkative, and willing to help out whenever. The REAL Steph is saying, "What's wrong with these motherf*ckers? Can't they see I'm working out? Why won't they leave me alone?!??" I guess I shouldn't complain too much. It's nice to be loved and needed. Maybe I should just invest in a Groucho Marx disguise.

Anyway, because I've been so busy, I haven't been doing much knitting. I'm working on the Equestrian Jacket from IK, and it took me 2 weeks to do one front. I love the pattern and I'm crazy for short-rows, but I just haven't had much time to pick it up. Pitiful. I had really wanted to get it done before we go to Austin mid-February (Mike's running the Austin Marathon, and I'm running the half), but the way things are going right now, that deadline is next to impossible.

Another reason I'm not knitting much is that what little spare time I have has been taken up by the National Strength and Conditioning Association's Essentials of Personal Training textbook. Yup - I'm working towards becoming a personal trainer. It's been a dream of mine for a long time, and I really think I'll be good at it. I'm registered to take the exam March 17th, so I've got a lot of studying to do in the next month and a half. Wish me luck!

McTavish on Mister McSilly

Since the trend is to take pictures of your knitted socks while wearing high heels (a big no-no, according to him), I thought I'd give it a shot:



These are Hayden's socks I did on our Orlando trip. They fit him like a dream. After I took the first picture, he decided to start posing:



Then I took a full-body shot because I felt guilty about taking only feet pictures while he kept saying, "Cheese!"



Anyway, the socks are just simple stockinette stitch socks with a little 2x2 ribbing up top. I used the Regia sock yarn in a colorway PERFECT for Hayden - he wears tons of blue and red. They look oh-so-cute with his Crocs.

Going along with the Hayden theme, here's McTavish:



And the back:



I'm reblocking it as we speak because I didn't pick up enough stitches when I did the button band and it draws up a bit in the front. I think it's going to be cold this week, so he'll actually get to wear it. It's not my most favorite sweater of his that I've made, but like I said before, I'm damn glad that it's done.

I've got a couple more pictures that I had planned on sharing with you, but stupid Blogger is not cooperating, so maybe some other time. Right now I'm off to the shower so I can start what's going to be Day 1 of a very busy week - doctor's appointment, triathlon seminars, Spin classes, a knitting class, school meetings, study time, therapy, and my own workouts. Egads!

Quickie

I haven't posted in a while because I've been uber-busy. I'm still uber-busy, but I feel guilty for not posting, so I thought I'd do a quickie. What's been going on in the Honeycutt Household:

1. In case you were wondering, I did get Hayden's McTavish jacket done in time for Christmas. I will post pictures in the next couple of days. I meant to make it a little big so that it'll definitely last for at least another year, but somehow it fits him pretty well right now. Sh!t. Oh well - I hated working with that yarn so much that I was just glad to have the damn thing done. Real wool from Ireland is no joke, my friends. Working with it is not for the faint of heart. If this yarn were a human, I think he'd have a punk-rock attitude and yell, "WOOL!" with his fist pumped in the air. Every once in a while I'd have to put it down and touch the chemo hat I made out of Rowan Cashsoft for a friend's dad. Rowan Cashsoft became my Woobie for a couple of weeks.

2. Hayden's big Christmas present this year was YET ANOTHER trip to Disneyworld. Instead of flying this time, we drove, so I had 10 hours of guilt-free car knitting each way. I got my niece's hat, a pair of socks for Hayden, and part of a sleeve for a jacket for me done. I also developed a weird pain in the bend of my right elbow. Hmmm...couldn't possibly be the knititng. Anyway, we had fun in Orlando, but it was crowded. We were there Dec 29th through Jan 2nd, the busiest time to be at the Happiest Place on Earth. The Magic Kingdom got so full on New Year's Eve that when we tried to get in around noon, we were denied. We ended up spending the day with all of the other Magic Kingdom rejects at Disney Studios. Hayden loved meeting the characters and seeing the "Beauty and the Beast" production 3 times , and Mike and I got to ride Aerosmith's Rock n Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror. (We had to ride them separately so that one of us could stay with Hayden. Believe me, riding a ride by yourself at Disneyworld gives you a bit of a Loser Complex.) Those rides KICK ASS.

And now I present to you the pictures I promised in a post almost a month ago:


This is my new niece Lucy (aka Squirt - she's a farter) in her Pea Pod Baby Cardi. We don't always prop our babies up on tables, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. The pattern is on IK's website. I used Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere, and I think it turned out great. We all decided that she looks good in the darker colors. I meant to give her the matching hat for Christmas and I could have had I not forgotten to pack my size 5 double pointed needles in my bag on our way to Memphis on Christmas day. My mother has an abundance of dpns, but being the sock-knitting snob that she is, the biggest she has are 3s. I got it done on the way to Orlando, though, and will put it in the mail tomorrow.


This is Hayden and his 2 huge front teeth with the guy who played Chad in the community theater production of "High School Musical" that we went to with my parents in the beginning of December. I wish the background weren't so dark so the bigness of Chad's 'fro was clearer. The picked-out 'fro was the closest this kid could get to the great mop of curls that Chad in the movie has. Anyway, it's a terrific picture - at least I think so. But I'm partial to both my son and black men. (And I'm married to the Whitest Man in America. Go figure.)

Why I haven't blogged in a while

I started the Nantucket Jacket from IK the day before Thanksgiving and was bound and determined to wear it to my triathlon club's holiday party last night. Needless to say, I've been busy knitting.

Pattern: Nantucket Jacket from Winter 2006 IK, smallest size
Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft Aran, 11 balls
Needles: Denise size 7 circular

This has become my New Favorite Sweater. I'm absolutely in love with it. Love, love, love. If this sweater were a man, I'd want to marry it. Everything about this sweater is great. Yarn is supersoft, pattern was really fun but not too complicated that I couldn't watch MTV or talk on the phone (wait a minute - am I 15 years old or 35?), fit is as close to perfect as you can get, color is nice, and it's not long-sleeved so I'll be able to wear it more during this mild winter they're calling for here in Nashvegas. Here's another shot - my best attempt at recreating the picture from the magazine:

And here's a closeup of the buttons that screamed "I BELONG ON YOUR NANTUCKET JACKET!!!!" when I went shopping on Friday:


Since I met that somewhat-crazy deadline, I've given myself another, even crazier deadline:

A friend went to Ireland at the end of November and brought me back some yarn. As he delivered it to me last Sunday night, he said, "I wanted to make sure to get it to you so that you'd have enough time to make Hayden a sweater for Christmas." I went through another friend's collection of kids' aran sweater patterns and came up with this idea from Rowan's Tadpoles & Tiddlers. I'm leaving the pockets off. Can I do it? I've just started swatching today, and Christmas is 2 weeks from tomorrow. Hmmm....

I have other pictures to show you - namely, a picture of my new niece Lucy in her Pea Pod Baby Sweater and a picture of Hayden with one of the cast members from a community theater's production of "High School Musical" (which we both LOVED, by the way, but not as much as I LOVE my Nantucket Jacket) - but I'll save them for a post later this week. Off to swatch!

Toasty toes

This weekend I developed a foot fetish. First I whipped out a pair of socks for Hayden. I'm not usually a sock knitter, but he's decided to wear white socks with his Crocs now that it's cold outside, and I can't stand him looking like such a nerd. So on Thursday and Friday, with some worsted weight out of my stash, I did these:

so that this:

is now this:

Much better, I must say.

Next, I whipped out a pair of baby booties for a neighbor friend due with child #3, boy #1.

She's due any day now, so I figured I better get these done. The pattern is out of Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and the yarn is 1 skein of Lorna's Laces Angel, an angora/lambswool blend. They were so easy to do and turned out so freakin' cute that I may just have to buy another skein of that and do a pair for my new niece, Lucy. (Lucy's cardi is done, by the way, with the exception of buttons. Hayden and I would've gone to the fabric store today to find some, but a marathon of "Beauty and the Geek" put me in a trance. Never watch a show like that when you're PMSing or you'll feel like the biggest loser when you start crying.)

Detour

Sunday I took a little detour on the way to Sleeve Island to whip this little necklace up for my friend's birthday party:



The pattern is Strozzi, a free pattern on the Berroco website. It calls for Suede Deluxe, but I only had Suede in my stash, so I used it. I have no idea what the difference is, but I assumed not much. It turned out okay - not as cute as I thought it would, but okay. And she liked it, so it's all good. (And don't you like the way my bra makes me look like I have a decent rack? It's the $40 Boob Job purchased from Victoria's Secret.)

When I finally got to Sleeve Island, I ran into a tiny snafu: yarn shortage. I ran out of the grey Chunky Print I'm using in Hayden's cardi. It's a discontinued color, so it's next to impossible to find. I was about to give up hope and rip out parts of the cardi so that I could reconfigure the color scheme when Mike Googled "Rowan Chunky Print" and found some at Yarnzilla. I called them, and their dye lot is even the same as mine! Yippee! So a ball is on its way from Minnesota - thank you, Yarnzilla!

The sleeves on Lucy's cardi are just about done. I expect to be finished with the second one this afternoon, then I'll need to do the seaming and the neckline and sew on buttons. Almost there!

And last but not least, I finally present to you my Hourglass Pullover:



(Wow - the way the sunlight is hitting my face, my right ear looks very Spock-ish.) I love this sweater. This is the one sweater I think I'll actually do again. It's simple enough to work on anywhere and can be put down at any time yet it has enough design details to make it interesting - waist shaping, finished hems, bell sleeves, an interesting neckline. When (not if) I do make it again, however, I will make the sleeves a tiny bit shorter and I'll add 3 or 4 decrease rows around the neck rather than just one. The way the neckline is right now, I have to wear a cami underneath it (I'd rather have cami straps show than bra straps) and my rack is totally diminished. Here's another shot:



And here's a closeup shot of the neckline so that you can see the raglan and the finished hem detail (not that they're that interesting, but still):

Bon voyage!

I'm headed off to Sleeve Island for a while:




The top picture is Kate Gilbert's Pea Pod baby sweater out of an old IK. (And yes, I realize that the coffee table is in horrendous shape. Fortunately it's usually covered up with a bunch of crap.) I'm using the recommended yarn - Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere. I know that the color is not a traditional baby color, but I like it. (In real life, the purple is a lot dustier.) I, of course, like purple, and I like using non-traditional baby colors. I figure I can find some cute leggings to pair with the cardi. The pattern is pretty easy to follow; I started it last Wednesday night in the car in the rain on the way to Florida.

The bottom picture is a cardi for Hayden. The pattern is Callum out of Rowan Junior. The recommended yarn is Polar, but the yarn I'm using is Chunky Print. I bought it for 50% off at my LYS and the gauge is just about the same. I'm a little nervous about having enough grey yarn for the collar (it's somewhat of a shawl collar done in garter stitch), but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I decided to do this for him after a couple of chilly days fighting with him over wearing a jacket. He wouldn't wear a jacket but he'd wear a hoodie that I knitted for him 2 years ago. I also started this in Florida and worked on it the whole way home. It's a VERY quick project. It should be done by the time the heatwave we're experiencing here in Nashvegas ends. (It's almost 80 degrees today and I'm in a short sleeved shirt and running shorts.)

I realize that I have yet to post a picture of my finished Hourglass Pullover. That's the heatwave's fault. I'll melt if I put that on and go outside right now. Hopefully next week it can make its debut. As a substitute, I offer up another beach picture:


Yep - even from the back, he's the cutest damn kid in America.

Ironman Florid-ahhhhh

Yippee! An Ironman once again! This one was so totally different. Except for the swim, the course was so much easier. The bike course was about as close to pancake flat as you could get, and there were probably less than 10 turns to make. The run was also extremely flat. During the first half of my run, I thought I had a chance to set a marathon PR. Of course, that all changed at mile 19 when my walk breaks got longer, but I still was less than 20 minutes away from a PR. Pretty damn good for a marathon preceded by a 2.4-mile swim and a 112-mile bike ride! Things of particular interest during this race:

1. The ocean was much choppier race morning than it had been the 2 days beforehand. During my second loop, I was being tossed around so much that I actually laughed underwater.

2. Even though I started the swim way out to the side, somehow I ended up right in the thick of things before making the first turn. I was getting grabbed, hit, and kicked constantly. At first I was a little timid and tried to back off, but after a while I got angry and developed a "F*ck you! You kick me, I'll grab your feet!" attitude. That didn't happen at all in Wisconsin last year.

3. Because the bike was so flat, there weren't any areas to give my legs a break. I pedaled the entire time. And I was on my aerobars over 90% of the time. My quads, shoulders and neck were really happy for me to get off the bike.

4. I surprised myself on the run. I had no idea that I was going to be able to run as much as I did and especially as well as I did the first 15 miles.

5. Last year when I got about 1/2 mile away from the finish line, I got so excited that all the pain and fatigue left my legs. At mile 24 this year, I told myself, "Just suffer through the next mile and a half then it'll all get better. That great feeling will hit." It didn't. I hurt the entire time. I guess that euphoric feeling is just reserved for first-timers.

6. I cut 2 hours and 2 minutes off of last year's Ironman time. Yay me! My time was 12:40:41. My swim was 1:25, my bike was 6:20, and my run was 4:37. My first transition was something around 12 minutes and my second was 5:36.

Here are some pictures:


This is me (far right in the QR suit) and some of my friends 2 days before the race. I love how my wetsuit makes me look so skinny - except it totally flattens what little boobs I have.


I had to yell at Mike 5 times to get his attention so that he could snap this picture. I had planned on wearing my bike clothes under my wetsuit, but since it was so cold at the start of the race (in the 40s) I decided to change before getting on the bike so I could be in dry clothes. Of course, it was really tough to get out my wet bikini while shivering.


Mike and Hayden drove out on the bike course and found me. Since I'm such a slow swimmer, I played catch-up quite a bit on the bike. I should've kept count of how many people I passed because it was a lot.


This was in the first mile of the run. A friend of mine was in transition at the same time I was, so we waited on eachother to hit the port-a-potties and took off together. (I have no idea who the tall guy on my other side is.) I left him at mile 4, though, because he had to take another bathroom break. Mike took another picture of me later, but I was walking, so I won't show you that. I was actually kinda pissed he took that.


Hayden had fun waving at all of the athletes. I think he did better than we had expected him to. He and Mike weren't at the finish line because that's just too much for him to handle, but he was able to be out on the road and cheer.

I also got quite a bit of knitting done on this trip. I started a cardigan for my new niece Lucy and also a cardigan for Hayden. Hayden's is really straightforward so it was my project for the car ride home. I figured my brain might not be able to wrap itself around the more complicated pattern I'm using for Lucy's cardi. I'll post pictures tomorrow or Thursday of my progress on those as well as a finished Hourglass Pullover.

One last thing: the day after the race Hayden and I went with a friend to KFC for lunch. I had 2 pieces of fried chicken - dark meat at that - mashed potatoes, green beans, and a biscuit. Yummy!

I know it's getting close to Ironman when...

...I crave fried chicken. Actually, I've been craving it for about 3 weeks now, which is exactly what happened last year before Wisconsin. Last year I said that I was going to go to KFC when I got home. I lost my appetite for about 3 days after the race, however, and had to force myself to eat anything. By the time I got my appetite back and wanted that greasy, crunchy drumstick, my f-ed up mind said, "You haven't worked out in 3 days. You can't eat fried chicken." So I didn't. I'm doing it this year, dammit! Saturday night after I've crossed the finish line! Even if I have no appetite and it makes me puke!

...my pants fall off of me. Last year my shorts and jeans got so big on me a month before Ironman that I could pull them off without undoing them. This year that didn't happen until this past weekend. I am proud to say that I went to the bike shop yesterday with my shorts barely staying up on my hips. (Actually, I'm not that proud. I was trying to make a joke. Don't start thinking I have some eating disorder. I loveloveLOVE to eat and can put away a serious amount of sushi or chocolate or spaghetti or pizza, and I'm sure I looked rather stupid running errands around town in shorts that were obviously too big for me. At least at this point in time. Give me a month and they'll fit just fine again.)

...I have enough time to finish a knitting project! I'd love to show you my Hourglass Pullover, but for some reason, Blogger is not downloading pictures right now. Grr... Anyway, it's still blocking, so the picture really isn't that exciting. It looks much better on me than on my silly blocking board. Hopefully Blogger will behave better when I get back from Florida. The yarn is Classic Elite Miracle, a blend of Tencel and alpaca. I really love the sweater - the color (green, not purple), the fit, the ease of the pattern. I added one more decrease row at the neckline since I had read everyone else's problems (think Flashdance), and I hemmed the bottom with DMC floss instead of yarn. When I did the neckline hem (which was a TOTAL bitch, I must add) the yarn broke on me, so I didn't want to run that risk on the bottom hem. I did not enjoy doing those hems AT ALL, but the end result is really nice. This sweater was such a joy to make - easy enough to not have to think too much, yet not too plain. The neckline, the slightly belled sleeves and the finished hems all give the sweater a little oompf. Who knows - maybe I'll make this again.

...I have a long car ride ahead of me and have started picking out a new project. My sister had Baby #2, Lucy (altogether now: awwwww), last Friday, so I am going to make a little sweater. The yarn is some pretty purple Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere out of my stash, and the pattern is the Pea Pod Baby Set, an IK web exclusive featured in the Summer 2006 issue. I'm gauging this afternoon and hope to get it started before we hit the road tomorrow.

For those of you out there wanting to keep track of me on Saturday, you can visit www.ironmanlive.com and check up on me from time to time. You can even watch the live coverage from the finish line - pretty cool! My number is #2215 and my last name is Honeycutt. I do have a time goal in mind, but I'm not going to share it right now so I don't jinx myself.

One last note: I wore my Deciduous top to my Hawaii Ironman party 2 weekends ago, and it caused problems for one of my training partners. His wife is very prim and proper and thought that what I was wearing was COMPLETELY inappropriate. They actually fought about me on the car ride home. Jealous b!tch.

Deciduous

I finished this yesterday so that I could wear it to a Hawaii Ironman viewing party last night. I ride with a bunch of men that sometimes forget I'm a girl (during our ride yesterday, one of them said, "Gentlemen, in 2 weeks we'll be doing Ironman Florida!"), so I have to set them straight every once in a while. Here's a shot of the back:



And here's a closeup shot of the front (and of the tan line I got from my bikini top over the summer - yes, that tan line is over 2 months old - my tan lines last forever):



I really do like this top; I just wish I had done it earlier in the summer so that I could've worn it longer this year. It'll go with me to Florida in less than 2 weeks (yikes!), but then it'll end up packed away until next year.

In Hourglass Sweater news, I'm done with the first sleeve and have started the second. It looks pretty good so far, but nothing picture-worthy yet.

And in Ironman news, I'm less than 2 weeks away from Ironman Florida. Yippee!!! I'm really excited about this one. I was excited about Wisconsin last year because it was my first one. I don't really like Florida too much, but I'm excited about the race because a ton of my friends are doing it and in spite of all the sh*t that happened to me this summer, I'm doing it. Who knows what the day will bring, but I think once I get out of the water, I'll do fairly decently. My biking is almost up to where it was pre-wreck (which is saying a lot for the strength in my legs, because I don't have much ability to use my upper body to pull myself up hills, and I can't hold onto my handlebars very comfortably yet - thank God for aerobars!), and my running is better than it was last year. My swimming sucks, but that's okay. I'm relying on the buoyancy of the saltwater and my wetsuit to get me through the 2.4 miles.

It was 40 degrees this morning - I think I'll work on a summer tank.

Before my wreck in August, I had started Deciduous by Marnie Maclean (sorry for no links - too lazy right now). I put it down while I was in a cast/brace/splint because I didn't want my gauge to be different. Then, post cast/brace/splint, I started an Hourglass Pullover because I thought that something really simple like stockinette stitch in the round would be perfect for the state of mind I was in and the way my hand was working/not working. I got all the way up to the armpits of the body by last Saturday and wanted to start a sleeve, but I didn't have a 16" size 5 circular. So I picked up Deciduous again and have been working a lot on it in an attempt to get it done MAYBE by tomorrow evening. Here's a shot of my progress as of last night (and my bathroom that Mike painted while I was in Destin the last weekend of August - I was really shocked at first and didn't know if I liked the stripes, but they grew on me):



As of tonight, I have 13 rows left of the body, the straps, and the back stuff. I'm hoping that it'll be warm enough in Florida when I'm there for Ironman (3 weeks from today - yippee!) so that I can wear it at least once before next summer. It SURE isn't going to be worn around here anytime soon; this morning I wore shorts, tights, 2 pairs of socks, a short sleeved shirt, a long sleeved bike jersey, a jacket, gloves, and a skullcap under my helmet for an 80-mile ride.

And here's a picture of the Cutest 6-Year Old in America, just in case you've forgotten what he looks like:



And for your amusement, here's a picture of the page of homework he was holding:



Take a look at the first question. I think there are 2 correct spellings.

Light at the end of the tunnel

At the risk of jinxing myself, I will say out loud that I think my luck is finally changing. Evidence:

1. I got my stitches out last Monday and I'm back in a brace until Thursday, then I'm free to start riding outside and swimming again. Of course my hand looks a little deformed, but at least I can start using it.


2. Last Thursday was my last day as Assistant to the Controller at this crazy-ass company I was part of since February. Mike got a promotion and a raise, so I can leave the workforce.

3. Because of #2, I have started working at the new YMCA that just opened across the street from our neighborhood. I work a couple of shifts a week as a Wellness Floor Attendant, which to me is a step towards becoming a personal trainer, which is My Dream Job. I don't make very much money right now, but I get to work in the fitness industry, and that's where I truly belong. I also am going to teach two indoor cycling classes a week, starting tomorrow morning. I've done that in the past, and I love it. I'm excited about getting back into that.

4. I'm knitting!

This is the beginning of an Hourglass Pullover using Classic Elite's Miracle. It's a slighty fuzzy alpaca/tencel blend, and I love the color. (Green is all the rage this fall.) The gauge is smaller so I'm doing the 37" size, but according to my calculations, it should work out alright.

5. The other night I ate an old fortune cookie that had been in our fruit bowl for months but I had never bothered to throw away. Here's what was inside:

"Use your abilities at this time to stay focused on your goal. You will succeed."

I am TOTALLY taping that on the top tube of my bike during Ironman.

Roller coaster

This last month has definitely been an emotional roller coaster ride for me. When it finally stops, I think I want to run out of this Amusement Park of Hell, screaming, never to be seen again. In short, it goes like this:

8/17 - Bike wreck. ER doc says hand is sprained. Ice, Ace bandages, ibuprofen.

8/21 - Sports medicine doc says my hand is broken in 3 places and I've got torn ligaments that may give me trouble later on in life. Casts it, makes follow up appt for 9/21.

9/1 - My friend, an orthopedic surgeon, persuades me to see him at his office. He determines, after looking at my xrays and my CT scan, that I've definitely torn my scapholunate ligament and I'll probably need to have surgery. Schedules an appt for me with one of his partners, a hand specialist.

9/5 - Hand specialist examines me and sends me for an MRI.

9/6 - Hand specialist calls and says I definitely need surgery and I'll be out for 12 weeks but I can run a marathon.

9/11 - Go in for surgery. Expecting it to be a repair, but understanding it may be bad enough for reconstruction instead. When I wake up, my mom tells me that the doc was really shocked - when he cut my hand open, he found that my ligament is just partially torn, so he did nothing. I'm going to be in a cast for 2 weeks, and I can do my Ironman.

WTF???

I'm very confused. I haven't had a chance to talk to the doctor myself, but I'm obviously going to do that. If he doesn't call me by 2 (I left a message for him yesterday), I'll call again. I want to know exactly what happened, exactly how long I'll be in a cast, when I can start training again, what I can do when, etc. Everyone is saying, "You should be happy! You're going to be able to do your Ironman!" I am happy about that, but I'm still in such confusion about what has gone on that I'm not doing cartwheels yet. And I'm freaked out that by the time I'm out of the cast, it'll almost be time to start tapering. I have confidence in my coach that he'll get me ready as best as he can, but it's going to be crazy.

And on the knitting front, I'm having trouble picking something to do. I really want to finish my Deciduous so that I can wear it in Florida, but I'm scared if I work on it in my cast, my gauge will be totally off and it'll look wonky. So then Saturday I decided to pull out some purple Soft Kid I have in my stash. Purple makes me happy, and so does mohair. And I thought mohair might hide little gauge issues I might have. But I can't find anything I want to use it for except this allover lace pullover. I started a sleeve, thinking it may be okay because it's a simple lace pattern, but it takes me FOREVER to knit it. So then I pulled out my Nature Spun Worsted I bought last year for a Fair Isle cardigan and have contemplated using it for Tubey from knitty, but I'm scared because I've read about too many people having issues with the fit. So now I think I need to just start something completely fresh - new pattern, new yarn. I'm contemplating a Marilyn's Not So Shrunken Cardigan from Knit & Tonic, or an Hourglass Sweater from Weekend Knitting, or a Rusted Root from Zephyr Style. Anyone have any thoughts?

I took drugs a little bit ago, so maybe I need to lie down. Bye for now.

Vibrate

Outkast put an album out a couple of years ago that was a 2-disc set. One disc is Big Boi's stuff; the other, Andre 3000's. Andre 3000 has a song called "Vibrate." In it he says: "And when I say motherf*cker I do mean motherf*cker."

That sums up how I've been feeling lately.

Long story short, I am having surgery Monday morning to repair the scapholunate ligament that I tore when I wrecked my bike 3 weeks ago. I will be in a cast for 8 weeks (in addition to the 3 weeks I've already spent in a cast) then a brace for 2-4 more, then I will have surgery again to take the pins out. No biking outside. No swimming.

No Ironman Florida.

Motherf*cker.

I have worked SO HARD this summer for this race, only to have it taken away from me by a flat tire and my inexperience in wrecking. ("Steph, don't you know you're supposed to tuck and roll?") My surgeon has given me clearance to run a marathon on November or December, so I guess I should be happy about that. That will give me some athletic goal to shoot for. I could run the marathon my husband and his training partner are doing in November and kick their asses. However, I prefer my marathons to be preceded by a 2.4-mile swim and a 112 mile ride. Is that too much to ask? I think not.

Anyway, during this time period in which I will not see my left hand (I am left-handed, by the way - and I repeat, motherf*cker), I have been told that I can knit. He actually was very enthusiastic about knitting - good therapy for my hand, he says. The cooler temperatures are bringing out my sweater-knitting urges. I think, for my hand's sake, I will do something simple and stockinette stitch-y on not-so-small needles - size 7 or 8, maybe. Maybe an Hourglass Sweater? If I use the right yarn, hopefully it won't be too boring. Maybe another Weasley Sweater for Hayden? Definitely not the Michael Kors sweater from Vogue Knitting that I've been eyeing. And what about the Deciduous top that's about 60% done, lying patiently beside my bed? Do I continue with that and hope my post-wreck gauge isn't different than the pre-wreck?

Motherf*cker.

Wish me luck.

What is THAT?!???

Is it:

a) my finished Fad-Classic,
b) a Band-Aid on my chin,
c) an Ace bandage in my wrist, or
d) all of the above?

Yes, you astute blog-reader, it's d. First of all, the Fad-Classic. I actually finished something this summer! Woot! I like it, although I wish it was 1 1/2 inches longer. But I love the color and the way it fits me, so I'll just keep tugging at the bottom every once in a while.

Options b and c go together (and are accompanied by road rash on my knee, shoulder and hip/butt cheek, not visible in the photo). We went up to Chicago this past weekend, so I tried to get my 5 1/2 hour workout in after work on Thursday. 9 minutes and 48 seconds into my ride, I went down (and not in a good way, according to DH). I was turning a corner and just fell over. Turns out my front tire went flat. I had never had a wreck before, so this was a ton of fun. As I skidded across the road on my chin, I thought, "THAT won't be attractive!" When I popped up and got my bike out of the road, my hand started hurting. "Oh shit - I can't knit! I'm going to be on a plane tomorrow and I can't knit!" We thought my wrist was just sprained (at least that's what the ER doc told us that night) so we just kept it wrapped and I kept taking Advil. No matter how much Advil I took, no matter how many pieces of Connie's Pizza I ate, no matter how many beers/Jello shots/Red Headed Sluts I drank, it still hurt like a mofo. The doctor I saw on Monday discovered I have 3 broken bones in my hand and some torn ligaments around a fourth. Cast for at least 4 weeks, then maybe a splint for 2. I can run - good. I can swim, but it'll be REALLY awkward and I'll have to let my waterproof cast dry out for 2 hours afterwards - not so good, but okay. I can ride my bike on the indoor trainer but not outside - totally sucks. I spend my Saturdays on my bike with my friends. I don't know what I'll do without that. This Saturday I have taken care of - my girlfriends and I are going to Florida - but after that it will be weird. Oh well - at least I'll be healed in time for Ironman in November. And it could've been A LOT worse.

And if you're wondering, I have figured out how to knit. Fortunately I don't knit continental. However, my hand starts hurting after 2 rows and I'm afraid my gauge is off. (I'm over halfway done with Deciduous, which I started after seeing Jen's. Scroll down to the July 24th entry. Awesome. Yeah, I know - she did hers in July, I'm not going to finish until September. Whatever. It stays hot here for a while. And I am going to Florida in November.) I'm thinking of starting a felted Noni bag since it won't matter if my gauge gets off or I make a mistake.

Here's another shot taken in the kidney bean in Millenium Park. I thought it was cool that I could finally take a picture of myself, seeing as how I've not mastered the bathroom mirror trick:


And here are a couple of shots of Hayden's horse camp:



Isn't it beautiful?

I actually have a FO...

...but no picture just yet. I finished the Fad-Classic vest and it's oh so cute in all its orangeness. I wore it to work yesterday and meant to get a picture taken before we left the house, but getting Hayden to school on time took precedence. The next time I saw my photographer, it was 8:15 at night and I was in bike shorts and covered in salty sweat from a tough bike ride. But we are going to Chicago this weekend and I am packing my Fad-Classic, so I promise a picture very soon.

And speaking of Chicago, can anyone suggest a good yarn shop or two that I can visit? Today is my husband's 40th birthday (he just recently shaved his chest - Lord knows why - so he doesn't look at day over 12!) so we're going up there to celebrate and hopefully watch the Cubs beat the Cardinals. (We're definitely going to Friday's and Saturday's games. Whether or not the Cubs can win is a totally different story.) 2 years ago I went to We'll Keep You In Stitches. Everything was in plastic bags and therefore not really easy to look at. Last year I went to the Knitter's Niche, but it's so very small that I saw everything in less than 5 minutes. I'll probably have time to go somewhere Saturday late morning/early afternoon, depending on when the Cubs game is.

Suggestions, anyone?