Tomorrow.

Rest assured, this isn't an Annie revival.

I have been very good.  I let them stick needles in my wrist.  I've kept the flipping brace on 24/7 (except in the bathroom and when washing dishes).  It doesn't HURT as much as before, but the pain has been replaced by a loud clicking, uncomfortable grinding, and I do not think I will put up a fuss when he says we should set the date for surgery.  Your wrist should not remind you of a rake being dragged across a feckin' blackboard.

I see the surgeon tomorrow.  I am nervous.  I am a big baby, I know.  I think an exacerbating factor is that any other time I've been sick or broken, I have used knitting to keep my head in the game and speed healing.  Without knitting to hold my attention I have more time to spend worrying.

I have a beautiful skein of Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in Periwinkle.  Enough for a shawl.  I figure when this is all over I will have to knit something special with it.  It's good to have a treat.

My Aunt Nan died Saturday morning at around 1:30.  She was 95.  She was out playing cards at my cousin CarolAnn's house -- cards being one of her favorite pastimes -- and she suffered a fatal heart attach.  Anyone's passing is sad, but it is also sort of beautiful that she died doing something she enjoyed tremendously, surrounded by people she loved and who loved her back.  Not bad.

My Aunt Nan had only one arm -- she had lost the other as a small child following an accident.  A vivid childhood memory of mine is sassing her a little and saying to her, "Well, it isn't like you could spank me with only one arm!"  Faster than lightning she grabbed hold of me, swung me around, and, just inches from my face said in the least-joking voice I ever hear her use, "Oh, yeah?  Is that what you think?  Just try me, Buster.  I'll have you over my knee and give your hind end a whoopin' you'll never forget before you even know which end is up."  And I could tell that she meant what she said and I never messed with Aunt Nan.  Lesson learned.

Oh, did I mention that, in addition to cards, she also was an avid bowler?

I won't be going to the funeral -- I have too much riding on this appointment with the  surgeon tomorrow.  I feel bad about not going.  But I also know that if I don't get this done before December 31st, it is going to cost me an additional $2600.00.  And Aunt Nan, ever frugal, would probably sit up in her casket to call me seven kinds of stupid if I canceled the appointment.

I want this.

Stephanie Pearl McPhee has one.  And all week long she has been rubbing it in my face.  I can hear her now.  "Oh, look at this book full of psycho-complicated lace made with painfully thin yarn!  Just the kind Aidan would love if he had this book!  But he doesn't!  Ha!"

OK.  Maybe she hasn't been saying EXACTLY that.  But it is something really close.  Don't you think?

So.  What else is new? 

I made a batch of chocolate and goat cheese truffles, flavored with just a splash of Irish Whiskey.  That was yum.  Oh, did I mention I made the goat cheese?  I'm not back with the goat until a weekend after next, but I expect to make a double batch of cheese -- this time I think I'll make some crottin and some Sainte Maure -- both are aged, mold-ripened cheeses which become sharper in flavor and more complex with age and culture.

I've only knit two rows of my shawl.  It just really hurts my wrist, even with the splint.  I miss knitting.  Oh, and kneading bread.