Field of Beans

Our garden is only 15' x 15', but I've already canned 40 pints of beans and given away at least 15 pints worth to friends and family. Everybody in this area seems to have had problems growing beans this year, but ours look like thisThey're growing like that on all four sides of the garden, even though we only planted them on two sides; the rest are rogues from last year! They've slowed down with the cooler days, but there are a lot of blossoms on - if it warms up again, I'm going to be swimming in beans.

Inside of that bean jungle are 14 tomato plants (which, of course, waited until school started to really start coming on), 2 rows of okra, a row of potatoes (5 lbs of starter potatoes), 6 green pepper plants and a monster hill of zuchinni (10 plants!). My canner has been running full-time for almost 2 weeks, but we'll be in good shape for veggies this winter.

Well, let's see...

I'm still here! My thumb is healing nicely, and everything is back on track. I've been incredibly busy, though; school started this past week!

I have four classes of English 9 and one class of English 9 Basic. After six years of babysitting JDs, I'm still trying to get used to teaching a full load again! :-)

I've been knitting, but it's mostly stealth projects. I finished a baby sweater for a niece's baby shower, and as soon as I find my camera cord, I'll load the pictures and show you!

Hopefully I'll have more to show you this weekend...

Sidelined...again

I've been sidelined for a couple of days now, with the end *hopefully* in sight within the next week or two. The reason? Itty-Bitty, my smallest cat, REALLY didn't want a bath. He turned his head and sank his teeth into my right thumb joint. He's normally a very passive, mellow cat; he just freaked out and reacted.

It turns out that cat bites are one of the most dangerous (and painful!!!!!) bites. I have 5 puncture wounds on my thumb joint, and at least one of them went to the bone. Within minutes, my thumb had swollen to the size of a bratwurst. I went to the immediate care center, and they flushed my thumb for several minutes before wrapping it up. I have a course of Augmentin 875 and Vicodin.

Yesterday I was running a low-grade fever, and the swelling and redness were spreading down my thumb joint towards my wrist. I walked back over to the immediate care center (it's a 1-minute walk from my house; I'm looking at the building through my front window), and the doctor hemmed and hawed for a minute before deciding to give me a shot of stronger antibiotics. I have to go back for another one today. The doctor was actually trying to decide if he should give me the shots or send me to the hospital for IV antibiotics. If the shots don't work, I'm looking at a hospital stay. Ugh. I'm really hoping that the shots work!

Anyway, the redness at the base of my thumb seems to be receding this morning (hooray!), so hopefully that means that the antibiotics are kicking in. They said that it could be several days to a week or two before the swelling completely goes down; we're hoping for days and not weeks!

Secret Pal!

I'm still trying to put my Knitting Camp and vacation posts together, but I wanted to show you what my Secret Pal sent!

Weldon's Practical Knitter! Iva Rose is reproducing many of the vintage patterns - this one is from 1899. I've been intrigued by these for a long time - I've had this site bookmarked for ages, but I've never actually bought any of them. I love vintage and antique patterns! Thank you, Secret Pal!

I'm working on it!!

I have a gazillion things to show you - Knitting Camp, my Secret Pal present...heck, I still haven't shown you my pictures of my trip to Europe!

I'm still here - just knitting my fingers off, trying to make deadlines. I'll try to get a "real" post together this weekend...

Cleveland to Chicago to Marshfield...

I've been in Chicago (thank you, Megabus!) since Tuesday afternoon, staying with Sabrina. I'm getting ready to leave this morning - Sabrina is loaning me her car to drive up to KNITTING CAMP!

Back in a few days!

Argh.

As you enter the terminal at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, you are greeted with this sign:Cleveland may have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but did anybody actually *read* this when they put it in the terminal? There's nothing like a grammatically incorrect sentence to make a really good impression!

On the knitting front, I'm working on a beast of a sweater right now. It's for a book project, and it's an absolute bear. All that I will say is this: size 44/46 men's sweater, knit side to side, and it's knit *entirely* in 1x1 ribbing. All of the knitters who just read this just shuddered... I'm in the home stretch, though; the end is in sight, and I may just finish it before I give in to the impulse to either throw it out the window or set it on fire.

Some good news, though - I was called back! They rescinded my RIF, and I have a job next year! Whew!

2 weeks until Knitting Camp!!