Hospital tour

Today I got to visit two Denver-area hospitals. My grandfather is in for his approximately annual bout of "we don't know what's wrong with you, only one of us thinks it's malaria and the rest think pancreatitis, even though you don't have pain, but we'll mess around for a couple weeks and then you can home" stint, and my best friend since we were babies had her first baby.

So my mom and I went to do visits. My grandfather seems to be doing ok, so we just sat and knit a while and chatted. It's not great fun to go there, but so far he hasn't been terribly sick when I've been there and it's not too bad.

Going to see the baby, though, was wonderful. She's beautiful, and I'm not usually one to like babies. She was just three days old, and I sat in the rocker and held her the whole time we were there. She just slept, stretching occasionally, and was so sweet. Her mama, Kelly, looks fabulous, though she's still a little drugged to handle the effects of the C-section. It was also good to see her parents, who I last saw at her wedding just over a year ago, and we went to lunch with her mother. Our mothers have been friends since they worked at the same bakery in their early 20s. I got to hear about my mom moving in with Margee, not exactly telling her parents and just leaving a note; the first time Margee took my mom to see a horror movie at the drive-in; and about how "that Danner girl" was such a bad influence, until my mom wanted to marry a guy with three kids, and my grandparents wanted to know why she couldn't be "sensible" like Margee. (My parents have now been happily married for 23 years, in case you were worried.)

The baby was just 6 lb 14 oz when she was born, but she's lost some weight and is now 6 lb 1 oz. Everyone said how tiny she was, but she seemed just the right size to me. I decided she needed something knit, and soon! The old project I'd had in mind for her seemed too cutesy (the puppy-dog jacket and hat from... shoot, that book's not unpacked yet), so I went looking for something else. My mom recommended a moss stitch jacket with embroidered flowers on the neck and cuffs that Kelly's mom had thought about making, so I grabbed some yarn and a set of needles, did a mini-swatch, and cast on. Once again, I'm doing seed stitch on size 0's, but at least it's for a baby so it should go a lot faster than Mist. I still like the rhythm of the K1, P1, so I think it will be enjoyable. Hopefully I'll also like making lazy daisy flowers.

My stuff is mostly unpacked, except for the books, the yarn, and some miscellaneous items. I'm hoping to pick up new bookshelves tomorrow, and then I just have to find a place for the yarn. Doing some laundry wouldn't hurt, either! It's slowly coming together, and I'm looking forward to getting the feel for the kitchen and enjoying the whole setup. I made bread on Wednesday night and it felt good to be cooking with my own stuff.

(I have good kitchen stuff. I have nice kitchen stuff. I like my good and nice stuff, and I enjoy working with my familiar tools. For some unbeknownst reason, my roommate really wants to use her own dishes and pots and pans. I don't understand why, when my stuff is nicer and better, but I guess I'll learn to live with it. It seems to me that using aluminum cookware when Calphalon is available is a little like going for baby acrylic when you could use a nice superwash wool. Maybe she's just never had wool and doesn't know how good it is.)

Thanks for the comments on the last entry. I'm glad to be back and blogging, and I'm especially happy that I'm back in Colorado, even if it means it's convenient for me to go visit a sick grandparent in the hospital. Sundae is mostly happy with the house, but she misses having a high place to go and she wants to go outside.

I miss Boston people (come visit me here!), but not most of the rest of Boston. :) I have $105 credit at Woolcott. I wonder if I should save it for a spree the next time I go back, or try to sell it to someone before I misplace it and it's lost forever.

And Marta, we'll definitely be at Borders, uh, today, and we're almost always there until 2, so feel free to show up when it works out for you. :)

Other random stuff that didn't seem to fit anywhere else: I can bike 12 miles in a day (parents' house and back) and not be exhausted or sore. I was thinking of biking about 12 miles to Borders, uh, today, but now that it's so late, I'll save that as a lofty goal for two weeks from now. ;) An old friend from high school has an adorable 2-year-old son, and I think I might even try intarsia to make him a really cute pirate sweater. Hopefully I'll get to do knitting for me again soon!