Yes, I did get the gutters cleaned out just in time - it started raining last night after I got in from work.  A nice, soft gentle rain - I love it!  I always love the first (and maybe second) rain, then....I'm usually done.  I do remind myself that I should appreciate the wetness after the dry hot summer, but I'm always 'done' with the rain long before the rain is done around here.  I think what I miss the most is the color - we have had such a beautiful fall - the leaves have been on the trees for a very long time.  The rain will soften all those colors - leaving everything a drab brown until the spring green comes out  (which is early January for us - so not too long to complain, really!)  I do enjoy the start of each new season, the spring green, the summer heat, the first cool days of fall, the first rains.  But then, I'm ready to move on to the next.  Deep breaths and enjoy - my new mantra!

I'll be glad (for multiple reasons!) when Ralph is back to normal.  I don't like doing his chores and mine!  Yesterday, I had the joy of cleaning the gutters out - before it starts to rain.  According to weather.com, it is supposed to rain tonight, so I am just in time.  AJ mowed the lawn while I cleaned out gutters, so the leaves are mulched.  At least the ones that have fallen in the yard.  I think most of the leaves are still on the tree.  AJ and I were discussing ways to shake them all off the tree at once, so we could be done, but....they are still up there, just waiting until we finish raking/mulching, etc. to fall.  I also need to get the ones that are in the flower beds out, but that will be another weekend.

I also took stock of where I was for Christmas.  I've started my list of snowflake recipients, took a look at what snowflakes and gloves I had left from last year, and my stock of completed cowls and scarves.  Not too bad!  I have a ton of things to make, don't get me wrong, but...I have a running start this year, I think.  In doing this, I also re-organized my yarn boxes, and brought in what I will need for gloves and scarves. and stacked the boxes in the living room,  Now, I have no excuses!!

New baby hat

I made a new baby hat yesterday for Elora - isn't it just adorable!!!

Garden

Something likes my kale - probably more than I do!  I went out to pick some the other night to add to my stir-fry, and....someone's been gnawing at the leaves.  I think they've eaten half the plant so far.

And the peas aren't safe either.  The tips of each branch have been chewed on - odd!!!

The chard and the Brussels sprouts seem fine so far - there are holes in the leaves, but not excessive.  I'm not too sure about the others!  I'm hoping to get the leaves cleaned out today, and spray for bugs!

Ralph's off to the doctor this morning so we'll see how the doctor thinks he's doing.  He hasn't had me check his incision for a couple of days, so I assume it is healing well.  He was up and walking more yesterday (or so he says - he does all that while I'm at work...)

Alli went with me to scouts again last night.  We have a couple of fund raisers going on right now, so I need to go, and am busy while I'm there.  That leaves Alli on her own (sort of) for the evening.  Everyone is really good about watching her for me - though I think they do it more out of self preservation.  She was walking last night in circles around the tables.  Around, and around, and around the tables.  (We meet in the cafeteria of Rother school.)  Each time she circled by, she checked in with me visually.  If I wasn't paying her much attention, she would either walk closer to me, bumping in to me, or closer to someone else, and either hovering by them, or bumping in to them.  There are a couple of gentlemen there that she loves to 'aggravate' this way.  One was there last night, and even better than usual, he had left a cup of ice tea on the table.  It became a game for Alli - could she get the tea before someone stopped her????   Each circle, you could see her calculating the odds.  I don't think she really wanted the tea - it was just a chance to aggravate me!  (She did get a taste of it once, and I think she was disappointed it wasn't soda, so she wasn't trying that hard to drink it.)

A finished project!!!  I started this weeks ago, but - didn't finish it.  I sat down this morning and whipped out the last row - finally!

These are the bookmarks for my book club this month.  We read The Nineteenth Wife this month - a great book, but....what do you do for polygamy??  It is also a book about faith, but I had just done the crosses a couple of books ago, so......think, think, think......

The cover of the book is a woman's hair in a braid, so I dug out a bookmark that Ralph's sister had given me years ago, made of braided ribbon.

Here is one in use - the bottom bead is glued, and the upper slides up or down, depending on the book size, to hold it in place.

Garden update - blossoms

With all of the fuss of Ralph's surgery, I've been ignoring my garden.  Good thing it's pretty self-sufficient!  Ralph set up the water for me, and I planted kale, chard, Brussels sprouts and peas - and forgot them.  Once in a while I go out and grab a handful of greens for dinner, but that's it.  By the looks of it, we should be eating more!  the chard is so pretty - bright green, with colored stems!  I prefer the taste of the kale - though it looks a bit more drab compared to the chard.  

The Brussels spouts are growing - I don't know when to expect anything from them - do they produce in the spring after wintering over?  I keep checking - just in case!

My peas are growing nicely, and...they are blooming!  I have no idea how long it takes to go from a bloom to edible!

Ralph's home!

Ralph made it home yesterday!  He told me he would be ready around 2:00, so of course it was almost 4:00 by the time we got him home, but....he's home!  Talk about a happy camper.  I think the thought of sleeping all night long was the best thought he had.  No one coming in to check something, or wake him up to see if he was sleeping, etd.  I did hear him coughing during the night, but I think he got some good sleep!

One more day for Ralph in the hospital I'm afraid.....he flunked his oxygen levels yesterday.  He is running 93-94 percent oxygen lying in bed, but after he walked, they dropped down to 89-90.  So - no going home yet.  I think they will release him today - with oxygen if need be.  (Of course, I thought they would send him home yesterday, so what do I know??)  He seemed to take it to heart, and was doing more walking, etc. after that yesterday.

Alli and I did go visit him though - after work, after dinner, after stopping by at scouts, after stopping at the store to get something for dinner tonight (lasagne - so I don't have to cook!) and after walking the long, long way from the parking lot to his room.  I didn't realize how far it was - though I've walked it two or three times (or more) a day lately - until I walked it with Allison at 8:00 at night.  She is all out of hurry at that point in time.  She was a little faster going back to the car, but not much.

Alli got up this morning at 4:15 - the old 5:15 - with a soaked bed.  I tossed her in my bed while I cleaned up her room, and.....since I was up....I baked for work today.  We are having fresh cranberry scones:

Scarves made/Ralph update

Ralph got his chest tube out last night - talk about a happy camper!  He said most of his pain is gone - now he hurts just when he pulls at the incision site - trying to sit up, etc.  Hopefully, he will get discharged today, too.  I was headed in to see him after dinner last night, when he called me and said he was going to try to nap - don't bother coming in.  So....I took the night off and didn't go up.  

I did drag out all the scarves/cowls that I made at Mercy.  These don't counts ones completed prior to his hospital stay - just the ones I made there.  13!!  That's  lot of hours sitting at the hospital!  Some are prettier than others, personally.  I started using Homespun - the colors are nice and the yarn is nice and soft.  As I said - I know what everyone is getting for Christmas this year!

Halloween pictures, Ralph update

Ralph was moved from ICU late yesterday afternoon - which is good and bad.  Good because he is improving, bad because he had his own personal nurse (almost) and was hooked up to all sorts of electronics that they don't have on the regular ward.  He is still under some pretty heavy paid meds (morphine epidural) so is still dazed and confused.  He is much more alert, but still easily confused.  He called me quite early this morning because he work up and didn't know where he was (he knew he was at Mercy, but didn't know where he was in Mercy.)  He was afraid he was in charge of watching Allison, and didn't know where he was, or where she was.  I promised him that he wouldn't be in charge of watching Alli for quite a while, so no need to worry.  Poor guy!

I did finally get a name for Ralph's procedure written down so I could copy it.  He had a Thoracoscopic Pleurodesis and a Thoracotomy.

I uploaded some pictures of Halloween this morning,  Here is the pose that the judges would have seen Trust me - no one was wearing their high heels (except Jackie) unless the judges were looking!

And we had a visitor while I was there - Mal's husband dropped by for lunch:

I can't remember if I posted pictures of these cowls or not - so, since I was taking pictures, I included them (again, possibly!)

This is a scarf I finished at Mercy:

And these are some that I did at Mercy - I think these were ones that I did the first day he was there.  I've made quite a few infinity scarves since then - easy to do, and go together pretty quickly.  I do think everyone is getting scarves for Christmas!

I did have some help (of course!) taking the pictures.  Her tail is in the picture just above, as well.

Woohoo!  The internet is back up - and up to stay (I think!)  Not only have I been chasing myself trying to be at the hospital, help out at work, and take care of Alli, the internet was down at home.  Paying bills on the i-phone's tiny screen is a pain!  (But it works, thank goodness.)  That explains the lack of posts as well.  Blogger doesn't like my posts from my phone and is pretty temperamental about them.  And, typing much on that little screen (without typos!) is tough, too.  I called in to Charter, and they were actually really helpful (what a shock!  The poor guy really wanted to help me, but.....I don't know which box is which in there, it was Halloween and the kids were already ringing the doorbell, and Alli wanted her dinner, so....I told him thanks for trying, and I would have to try it later.  He sounded so sad that I wasn't gong to crawl under everything to see where the cord was going.....)  He said it was acting really odd - fully on one moment, and then shut down, like someone unplugged it.  And then it would come back on, like someone plugged it back in.  They thought "someone" was moving the system so they could play their games better.  Turns out, we have a switch box that is going out.  Don't ask me what box - I'll have to have AJ show me which one, and take it in to Best Buy with me to get on new one, I think!

Ralph is doing good - still in ICU, but there is no reason to expect that he won't be moved out of there today.  They have slowly unplugged him from most things he was plugged in to, multiple IV's, insulin drip, catheter, etc.  He still has a morphine epidural for the pain, and his suction tube in his chest.  He may still be on an IV antibiotic drip too, but I expect them to keep that up for a while, since he had possible infection in his lung.  I just spoke with his nurse, and she kept up on his pain pills during the night as well, so he seemed to have gotten some sleep (as much as you can in the ICU, at least!)  He sat up in a chair last night for several hours - a good sign.  He is supposed to get up and walk a bit today - probably the last milestone to get released from ICU.

My department won the bank's costume competition!  We had gotten matching pink t-shirts, and Mal had ironed on a "Diva Construction" logo that she drew up, and we got hard hats that we painted pink, and then - then the sparkles begin!  During any slow time, Mal and Jackie were bedazzeling the heck out of them!  I have glitter on my desk that may never go away.  (Good thing they are pulling up all the carpet for the remodel, too)  We brought in all sorts of construction 'stuff' - ladders, paint cans, sanders, various equipment, etc. and scattered it all over the department, and strung caution tape around pretty liberally, too.  It was fun - Alli and I stopped by Wednesday to help.  Alli's contribution was to not get into anything, and to spin over in the corner so she didn't trip over the equipment we we putting out, and she did good!!  I stopped by after Ralph's surgery on Thursday to see how everything went together.  They looked so cute!  We were also planning on wearing short denim shorts, and high heels to go along with the Diva theme, and they did it up good!

The judges for the competition are usually people from upper management, so I encouraged the girls to bribe them with candy when they came by to judge, and left a pink pumpkin with candy on my desk.  They did me one better (or maybe upped me three or four times!)  Sometime around 8:30 (a.m.!), they decided what their construction site needed was a beer (or two).  I mean, what construction site doesn't have some?  I would have loved to have seen Jackie walking through the store in her pink shirt, short shorts, high heels, and carrying a 12 pack of beer at 8:45 a.m.!  They also had advance notice that the judges were coming, so they all "went on break", grabbed a beer, and kicked back at their desk with their feet up, high heels and lots of skin showing.  It must have worked!  (I think it was the beer!!!)  They really did do a good job decorating. There was glitter, sparkle, and pink everywhere!  This is the second year in a row that we won (last year we were "The people of Wal-Mart", complete with the YouTube video running in the background.) so they have already started planning next years' Halloween.  I think "gold lame' fabric" was mentioned.  Lord help us all!

Ralph was (finally) able to get his chest tube in yesterday. The original plan was for him to have it done early in the morning, and he got it in arond 2:00. That made him a bit cranky, to say the least. His surgery is schedule for 10:15 today so we'll see