The Winners of the Buffalo Gold Earth-Lite Are…

Jodie & Cheryl!

Totally picked at random, the winners of the two skeins of yarn (1 skein each) are Jodie and Cheryl – CONGRATULATIONS!

Thank you EVERYONE for playing my game, and thank you also for the Happy Birthday Wishes!  My birthday was yesterday, which is why I didn’t get online until late in the day.

Actually, I didn’t do anything very personal, but I did have my knitting group over for our monthly meeting and utilized the group members to model some of the final pieces for History on Two Needles.  A delightful evening was had by all (I hope!)

Stay tuned for another GREAT giveaway later this week!

PAIN

I was in a show almost 20 years ago in NY (an amateur theater production, nothing professional) where I had a small chorus part.  It was the musical “BABY!” (the exclamation point is key) and I had a funny bit where I sang about having many, many kids.

Another brief little bit was another choruster singing, “PAIN! The thing I cannot stand is PAIN! I told the doctor, ‘PUT ME OUT!'”

And that’s how I’ve felt this week.

It has been the most pain filled week I’ve had since I was diagnosed with Fibro.  Why this relatively sudden slide back into painville, I have no idea.

Many theories have been proposed;

• Was it the single piece of bread I ate last Wednesday? (It came with a salad at the Minnesota Historical Society cafe and I held back until I put the tray on the return conveyor belt, then grabbed the bread as it was zooming away toward the dishwasher.)
• Could it be pollen, or some other seasonal allergen that’s come to fruition in late August / Early September?  I don’t remember this happening last year…
• Perhaps it was the 5 hours of standing/walking when I went to the political rally last week, compounded with the 4 hours of standing/walking at the MN State Fair this past week?
• Or maybe my fibromyalgia is moving to a different level?

For those of you who may be new to the blog, I was diagnosed with Fibro almost 4 years ago and figured out soon after that one of my strong triggers for a flare up was wheat / gluten products.  I’ve been gluten free for 3+ years, but I have my moments of falling off the wagon.  Wheat Flour, I can’t stay mad at you…

Also, for those of you who may not be familiar with Fibro, it’s a REAL condition whereby the body acts as though it’s experiencing the worst flu ever. 

When I have a flare-up, I run a fever, my throat gets sore (usually that’s the first sign), I get body aches (in my joints and muscles especially), and I just feel wretched.

In all honesty, I feel that I’ve been slowly moving to this for a few months.  Movement’s been harder, pain’s been more frequent and intense, and even a long bike ride hasn’t been able to assuage it.  I’m off for a long ride today to my allergist for my monthly asthma Xolaire shot, and I’m going to ask him if there have been any indicators to link fibro pain with that drug (this will be my fourth month on the drug)

Well, aren’t you glad you stopped by for Fibro Chat?

HISTORY

The book is coming along very well, layouts are looking great, the tech editor is moving through the patterns (now I have to do the hard job of actually ANSWERING her questions!) and the photography is pretty much finished.  YAY!

As soon as I have dummy layouts I’ll be contacting folks who Kickstarter Pledged at the ‘name a pattern’ level and the ‘dedicate the book’ level with so they can give me their creative input in the form of pattern names and dedication!

I’m SO excited about this book, I can’t stand it!  It’s looking so great, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the ‘fun part’ of the book.  It makes me think I should look for a job in graphics (I’m becoming quite Adobe CS savvy!)