The Heat of the Summer

I'm slowly working up to longer runs. My during-the-week runs are 5 and 6 miles and they feel pretty good. Last weekend I finally managed 7 miles again. I hadn't run that distance since before the trip to Colorado (I think the travel and altitude there set me back a bit.) My speed has been really up and down, mostly depending on just how humid it is outside on a given day. As long as I'm still getting in the mileage and not suffering any major injuries, I can't really complain.

On the injury front, I'm still having trouble with the tennis elbow. I had an MRI done early this month, and my ortho said that it didn't show any tears or ragged edges. That's good, but he didn't really have any other good suggestions. His suggested therapy is to take an anti-inflammatory medication constantly for a week and see if it has any effect. I'm taking meloxicam, and so far, several days in, I'm still having some pain in my arms. I'm so frustrated with this injury. It would have been much easier to break a bone. That heals faster and more completely. This tennis elbow has been an issue for me now for over a year!

Through it all, I'm still knitting. Slowly. And not much. As long as I don't knit for too long at a time I'm not having too much trouble. I haven't been able to bring myself to restart my daughter's second sock. It seems as if I've been knitting those socks forever. At least I only have to reknit the easy part. Grafting the reknit leg to the already-knit foot will be the big challenge.

cute but not quite matched in size

see how the top sock is shorter than the bottom sock?

Of course, despite the little knitting I've been doing, I couldn't resist starting a new project. My best  friend from high school, Miriam, is going through a rough time with her health. She lives halfway across the country and other than call her every once in a while, there's not a lot I can do from here that is helpful to her. So I decided she needed a nice warm cowl for the winter. I'm calling it a "Yarn Hug for Miriam" and bought a pattern that looked like it fit really nicely around the neck. Of course, I've spent more time tweaking the pattern than I have knitting so far. When I downloaded and read through the pattern I realized there was some odd shaping up at the neck that I didn't like. So I'm rewriting the neck portion to make it more cowl-like at the top. I'm also reworking the stitch pattern so that I can knit it in the round without changing directions, as the pattern directs. It took a lot more time up front but I think the knitting is coming out much simpler and more straightforward, and I'm getting the same stitch pattern as written in the pattern. Hopefully my changes will continue to work the way I intend them to.

the top of the cowl

We just had our last week with Jason home, before he headed back to school for his sophomore year. He was the only kid home and working this summer, poor kid, but he managed to escape his boring parents, getting out to see friends once in a while, and also found ways to socialize with faraway friends via Skype. Life is certainly easier when the kids can drive themselves. In addition to working and catching up with a few friends, Jason has had some cooking lessons. He is living off campus this coming year and none of his prospective roommates are all that interested in cooking. As he'd like to save some money by not eating out all the time, he is working on becoming Chef Jason. This has been a good thing for me. On cooking lesson days, I pull out a recipe, help him find ingredients and cooking implements, pour myself a glass of wine and sit at the kitchen island to "direct." Life is good!

Jessica was home briefly between the end of her sophomore year and the beginning of her internship in Japan. We scrambled to help her do laundry, shop for the items she'd need over the summer, clean up all the things she brought home from school and pack for Japan. She has just now finished up her summer internship and is "hanging out" in Tokyo until her junior year abroad in Tokyo starts up at the end of August. She has been able to visit with her host-sister Aya, who lives fairly close to the University. That gives me a little bit more peace of mind, knowing that Aya and her family are close by in case Jessica needs somebody. She probably won't; she has managed to get where she needed to go and take care of getting her student visa while in Japan, all on her own. My little girl is growing up. <sniff!>

The last of the news is that I turned 51 this past week. It was great to see all the happy birthday messages on facebook, I got flowers from my wonderful husband, and my son made me dinner. Yum! And I really don't feel 51, so I'm just going to enjoy the other parts of the birthday and not think about the number.

Well, I'd better finish this up so I can post it before all the news is old again. Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Shelley in CT