essays

Cathartic Ink

putting my own spin on things

Busy B*

Things have been quite busy here lately. I spend Thursday nights knitting with ViolinJodie and a handful of other folks. This week’s topic of conversation turned to Black Sheep Gathering (BSG). This year’s BSG is going to be happening at a crazy time in this city, just before the US Olympic Trials [expect a lot of grumbling out of me come late Junly (late June to mid July) as they’re predicting 100,000 folks flooding in for that. The population of Eugene is currently 153 thousand and change, with a metro area of nearly 350,000.] Workshop registration begins on March 15th (ah, the ides) so I’m getting together my application and funds to register for some fabulous spinning workshops. There’s some talk of a sheep to shawl group, but that is still very much in the planning stages. (For those who are not fiber-y in their hobbies, a sheep to shawl is a spinning/weaving competition where a team of six–5 spinners and a weaver–spins and weaves a shawl from clean, uncarded fiber in a five hour period. The warp is handspun and set up on the loom prior to the event but the weft yarn is carded, spun and woven into a shawl measuring at least 1440 square inches).

Besides planning for Black Sheep, I’m working on another project. It will be revealed as soon as I get the website set up (hopefully no more than one week from now).  This project is a big one, one that could hopefully change my life much for the better. It is also the first step in a much larger scale idea, one that likely won’t come to fruition until the end of the decade. My husband and I are also planning to spend some time together. Instead of celebrating Valentine’s Day, we’ve decided that we will celebrate Pi Day (3.14). This will encompass several dates we like–when we originally first met face-to-face (March 12th), Pi Day itself, the ides and St. Patrick’s Day.

We’re also gearing up for physical therapy! TheBoy has a problem with his lower back, he’s already had one surgery to attempt to correct a disc that ruptured a few years ago (it ruptured largely due to four years of misdiagnoses.) When he had the surgery he was warned a second surgery to remove more soft tissue might be necessary so we had been preparing for that as we waited for his insurance to cover the pre-existing condition. However, his doctor thinks that with a couple of months of physical therapy TheBoy may be able to avoid undergoing another surgery. This is good news for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is covered by the insurance.

And now for our Friday Fixation: two youtube videos: Dancing Cop and A Sheep in Sheep’s Clothing. Enjoy!

*B instead of Bee because my mom has always used “B” as a term of endearment for me.

3 Comments

  1. TheAmpuT

    Ok, so I thought I was going to make a pitstop while heading north in Junly. But now it’s sounding sorta crowded LOL.

    Congrats on the good PT news, an I can’t wait to hear/see more of your new project!

  2. Amy

    Black Sheep sounds like so much fun! I don’t envy you the crowds. We get lots of people here in Tucson for the winter, it sucks.

    Yay new project!! I can’t wait to see and hear more about it. Good luck!!

    I hope TheBoy is feeling better soon. Back troubles can be terrible to deal with. Have a happy Pi Day!

  3. Kaya

    I really like the idea of your Pi Day. I think it’s great how you two work to create your own special time.