Thanksgiving 2011

My husband is on the road (in India, to be exact).  We made a small but good Thanksgiving dinner for just mother and daughter.


A huge piece of chicken thigh (boneless but skin-on, over 12oz., just enough for us two), marinated in basil dressing for 30 minutes, and spent just 15 minutes in the 190C (I aimed 375F) oven side by side with broccoli.
Green salad with canned corn tossed with soy sauce dressing (mighty good stuff, store-bought).  My daughter's favorite salad right now.
I had two pieces of still slightly warm blue sweet potato bread as a side (well, one as a side and one with espresso coffee after the meal).  She, not so adventurous for food, doesn't even touch that thing.  She had one slice of raisin bread from neighborhood bakery.
I had a glass of Diet Pepsi and she had a glass of Hojicha (roasted tea).
No TV, no music, we just talked about her excursion to the Imperial Palace Park (to "find autumn". Cute, teachers.) today.

After dinner, I knit the last part of baby surprise jacket for my friend's newborn daughter.  Will be another post.

An evening, quiet and satisfying.  That's what I'm thankful to have.

Wish all my friends' Thanksgiving weekend be good and satisfying.

duplicate

Thank you, my friends, to send me warm comments about my migraine.  I have not been attacked by any severe headaches.  Just a bit of throbbing in the back of eyes and "heavy head".  I feel I'm blessed.  SO FAR.

This morning, I checked my past posts and noticed I had posted about that pink socks on the one before last.  Apparently, my brain is not working properly.

Rather than I edit out the duplicate, I'll post this;

Pattern; no pattern, just K3P1 rib all the way, and a frilly bind-off using knit-on cast-on every other stitch.
Yarn; leftover from Those pink socks, split in half by weight and used up as much as I can.
Needles; same as Those pink socks, JP #1 bamboo DPNs.

I made this for my daughter, and she loves it so much that I can't hunt them out when I want to shoot a pic. You know a 7-yr old girl.  Wears her favorite all the time but doesn't keep them so neatly.  If I can find any, it's just "a warmer".  I can see them as a pair only on her and when she dashes out to the nearby playpark.

She has been in her "PINK, ALL PINK!" mood for a quite long time, so these days, whatever she grabs off her closet/chest it has a high possibility of having some pink color on it.  That fact makes it easier for her to be so "coordinated" every day, matching anything she wears to her schoolbag, but sometimes makes my eyes blurry.  I secretly doubt THIS might be my sudden onset of migrainous vision disturbance.

And you know what?
I'm making a new pair of mittens, NHM#2 with a little twist in pattern (link to my Ravelry project page, sorry, no photos yet as of date 11/9/2011), in the color of ... yeah, mint green on PINK.

New, or Just-found friend

At this age of 42, I am just diagnosed with migraine.

Three weeks ago, I had a strange vision.  A part of my sight was mosaicked... and it didn't go whatever I do; see only with one eye (both left and right), close my eyes, cover my eyes with hands.  Scary.  Am I having a stroke?  Or is this the first symptom of something horrible, and am I gonna lose my sight?..
After 20 minutes or so, the mosaic slowly moved toward left side of my sight and went out.  I was left with mild fuzziness in my head.  No headache.  No blackout.  OK.

The next day, I visited a local general hospital and after a brief session at info/admission counter, I was squeezed in the pretty long waiting line at (the only one at the hospital, works only once in a week) neurologist's office. She asked how it started, how it gone, how I felt during and after it, and worried about the possibility that a blood clot in my brain giving pressure on my optic nerve.  She almost sent me to a larger hospital for a quick MRI in case I am in the danger of stroke or cerebral hemorrhage, and asked me once again how "the strange mosaic" looked, to fix a letter explaining my symptoms.
Me:"It didn't go even when I close my eyes, and look only with one eye, both left and right..."
Dr.:"Oh, even when you close your eyes?  (RELIEF)  It's just a migraine."
Me:"Migraine? But I didn't have any headache, bad or light."
Dr.:"Must've been only the premonitory symptom."

So, I got a CT-scan on that day and an MRI on the next week, cleared for any life-threatening disease.
Dr.:It's not so common you start having a migraine in your 40's. It means your blood vessels are young and flexible.  Congrat's!
Me:... Is there any possibilities that I have had it all the time and didn't notice?
Dr.:Oh, yes.  You might have been taking it as a part of your PMS.
Me:Hmmm. So, what can I do about it?  I mean, am I going to have severe headaches from now on?
Dr.:We can't predict that. But if you do, there are good medicines, just to treat your pain or to work on your nerves.  See, MIGRAINE IS LIKE YOUR BODY TYPE, RATHER THAN A DISEASE.  Let's just deal with the pain, and wait for the day it ceases when your arteriosclerosis goes far enough.  Ha-ha!
Me:Er, ... yes, thank you.


So, I got prescribed two three-day (expected) headache sessions worth of pain-killer (loxoprofen) to see how it works and how often I need it.
So far, I only need one dose, three times, which means my headache is not so severe. SO FAR.

Good side? I finished this when I was waiting for the appointment.

Pattern; LionBrand free pattern, on the back of the label.
Yarn;LionBrand Sock-Ease in Cotton Candy
Needles;JP #1 bamboo DPNs

And made a great chunk of this;

Pattern;Joanna's Poncho by Laura L. Green.  I tweaked a bit to fit to my daughter and her school bag.
Yarn;Hamanaka Wanpaku Dennis in my stash.  Color choice and arrangement was done by my daughter, our house artist. On the collar, a ball of fancy and soft yarn is knit on to stop the itchiness.
Needles; JP #6 (3.9 mm)bamboo circular needles

Note; My daughter loves it. And I made it in time for chilly mornings-but-not-so-cold-daytime autumn days.  Phew.  But, you know, I can't tell if one or two of my headache was caused by the intense knitting session for this poncho.  Boy, I need a Shiatsu.