Knitting Musclemom

Racing to the finish

First of all, thank you to all of you who left comments -- so nice of you to let me know that I am not writing in a complete vacuum. You did encourage me to start blogging again, so before I become lazy and lose my resolve again, I am writing a post.

 
So, last week-end, I did something I had never done before. I took up running over a year ago and on Sunday, for the first time, I ran my first 5k race (that's about 3 miles for the non-metric population). It was held in Toronto's Sunnybrook Park, which is very pretty, and it was only women. There were two races, the half-marathon and the 5k race. I was in awe of the 1,500 women who ran the half-marathon, some of which were not Spring chickens, as my husband so nicely puts it (he can talk, he's 66). A friend of mine, who is in her 70s, ran it and she did very well, but then she would probably outrun me! Here are a couple of photos from the race:

  
Sylvie was running the half-marathon and her T-shirt said: "The things I do for a T-shirt". Yes, indeed...

The supporters were there:

I don't know who Robin is, but she has some really nice friends!

Here is the start of the 5K race, that had (only) 500 participants:

And my husband snapped a picture of me, when I was still smiling (bib 2090), rather than red and sweaty, as I was, half an hour later... (I do thank him for that)

This is the first arrival in the 5K race, an impressive 18 minutes later... aaaahhh, youth...

 

And this is the picture of me arriving at the finish line (I'm the one at the back, just over the shoulder of the woman wearing the blue top). I was exhausted, but I did my best time ever: 29 minutes 3 seconds. I placed 76th overall, but 2nd in the 50-54 age category, which I did not expect.

I even got a little plaque -- aaaawwww:

So that was an eventful day; the heat was definitely there (close to 28 Celsius by the time we finished), but it was sunny; it seems that last year, it was freezing cold and raining. I'd take the former rather than the latter any day.

I will be running a 10K race at the end of August, and my ambition is to be able to run the half-marathon one day. Next year, maybe...

On the knitting front, I finished the first sock of the pair I am working on, the Dancing Diamonds Socks (Ravelry link). I have been horrifically slow, it normally takes me about 10 days to knit a pair, and it actually took me two weeks to knit one sock. Way to go, Manon.

Now on to the second one, which I sincerely hope will take less than two weeks.

That's it for this time -- I shall leave on a photo of Tigger, who loves sleeping on my legs every evening while I watch TV:

  

 

Return to Blogland

 
Thank you to Christina, who shamed me into posting again. My sense of guilt finally took over. I had been thinking about the blog, and time passed, and then I forgot, and remembered again, and then more time passed, and I didn't know when to start.

Anyway, in a few words... The kitchen reno is forever in the past, the winter went by, a mild one, which was bearable. My daughter finally got her acceptance to the unversity of her choice and the programme of her choice (McGill, combined Arts & Science) and, as of August 24th, we will officially be empty-nesters.

My husband and I went on a short trip, here are a couple of photos:

 

And just in case you don't know where it was, here is a licence plate that will help:

We were in Scottsdale for five days. It was VERY hot, but I loved the sun, and the dry heat didn't really bother me. It was strange to see streets devoid of any pedestrians, everyone travels by car. It reminded me of Toronto in the middle of winter, when it's too cold to go out, and even walking the dog becomes an ordeal. I guess the people from Scottsdale find it too hot and stay indoors. It was relaxing and the scenery of the desert was quite spectacular. My only complaint was the lack of smaller neighbourhood restaurants. Every restaurant seems to be part of a big chain and the food was, well... okay. We had one very nice meal at Tommy Bahama (who knew they sold more than clothes?), but the rest was very heavy with sauces, too much salad dressing on the salads (I quickly learnt to ask for the dressing on the side), too sweet, too salty, too processed. But then, I am rather difficult when it comes to food, so it was probably me, not them.

We came back to absolutely beautiful weather in Toronto, and we have been sitting in the garden a lot. My knitting has been scattered -- I did get to the Knitter's Frolic and as usual, loved Tanis Fiber Arts' display:

As for the knitting itself, apart from the various WIPs, I started a pair of socks for the plane ride -- it's the pattern and yarn from the Loopy Ewe Sore Losers Sock Yarn Club (you know, the one you could register for if you weren't picked for their regular Sock Yarn Club). Here is the sock in progress (iPhone photo, sorry):

That's Dancing Diamonds Socks by Wendy D. Johnson, in String Theory "Bye Bye Blues". It's an enjoyable knit; the sock is knit from the toe up, the chart is clear, and I'm just at the heel right now.

I will stop here while I am able to finish without interruption. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a beautiful thing...

Last photo with Gaia enjoying the sun:

 

The kitchen renovation -- I can talk about now that it's (almost) over

I want to eradicate the month of November from my mind. The kitchen renovation took place, my house was upside down for four weeks, I had no running water on the main floor and my family ate take-out food, restaurant deliveries and prepared meals from the supermarket. The microwave and the fridge were in the living room, the dining room became the storage room for all the kitchen crap. When the TV was on, the fridge motor came on and we switched the microwave to reheat anything, we blew the fuse. We must have done so maybe 20 times before we got the message. Same with the coffee machine, the fridge and the microwave. Every time I needed water, I had to get it from the laundry room in the basement.

This was the kitchen after the demo crew finished gutting it out -- this is the outside wall (there was zero insulation, construction standards of 1935 -- who cared about insulation in those days?), where the sink and cabinets used to be (on the right, the passage into the living room):

On the right, this is where the fridge used to be:

And this side opens on the left to the dining room and to the entrance hallway.

And admire the new fashion of placing fridge and non-working dishwasher in your living room:

 
This is after the outside wall was properly insulated and drywalled:

And the new wires for the electricity are being installed:

  

I was at the mercy of the kitchen designer, the demo crew, the contractor, the electrician, the plumber, the cabinet installer (he was the installer from hell, by the way), the appliance delivery people. All these people SAY they will arrive AROUND a certain time, but in fact they were there when they promised maybe twice. The rest of the time, the traffic (hello? did you not know there is traffic on the 401 to get into Toronto? Is that a novel concept?) delayed them, another client demanded their attention, they were called on an emergency or they were simply washing their hair and decided they would not show up that day. People, I was cooped up at home most of the time for 4 1/2 weeks while my patient and ever resourceful husband went to hunt for food that did not require anything other than re-heating.

In the middle of this crap, my sister passed away. In a way, the kitchen renovation was beneficial because my mind was so focused on trying to get stuff done and people moving that I did not have time to think too much about how incredibly depressing and sad it was. She was 43, for goodness sake, she worked like a dog all her life, and she never got the chance to have time to herself. She was not exactly fulfilled in her marriage (far from it) and admitted it more than once, but always maintained she would rather have a mediocre marriage than to be divorced. Anyway -- if there is a lesson to be learnt: don't delay forever what you want to do in life, sometimes the end happens way faster than planned. She was full of regrets at all the things she did not get to do in life, and now it's too late. Anyway, enough said.

Last night, for the first time, we cooked a meal in our brand-new kitchen. It was an epiphany -- it made it (almost) worth the aggravation, delays, screw-ups and general shittiness of the whole experience. I guess it's like giving birth. You swear to yourself you will never go through that again as long as you live, and a couple of years later, you do it again because you have forgotten most of the bad stuff and you only see the end result. 

So this is what made this four-week hell worth it -- this is what the side where the outside wall is looks like now:

Yes, there is a glass cabinet door missing; it was cracked, courtesy of the kitchen designer who screwed in the knob too tightly. And the Viking induction oven on the bottom left? A knob fell off the first time the electrician was checking it out. A. knob. fell. out. On a $6800 oven. Can you believe it? I only have to wait a month or so (if I'm lucky) for the replacement part. This is the other side of the kitchen:

The floor is the same hardwood floor we have in the rest of the house. We had the floor done everywhere on the main floor (except the kitchen, which was tile) two years ago, so we just got more of it from Home Depot to have the kitchen done the same way. I didn't want tile anymore, I find it too hard on my back, especially in summer when I walk barefoot in the house. We put down some Ikea rugs in front of the stove and the sink to protect it. Sub-zero fridge bought at half-price because it was last year's model and my favourite: getting rid of the microwave on the counter and installing a microwave hood over the stove. Love it. 

The observant among you will notice something missing -- yes, there should be a second shelf on the right, underneath the first one. That's because they stacked the two shelves together when the halogen lights were on and abandoned them under a drop sheet while they were painting. The painter started smelling burning and couldn't understand where it was coming from. Eventually, they located the two shelves with one halogen light cracked from the heat and the other one happily burning a hole through the one it was resting on. Another 10 minutes and we had a fire in the house. So now I'm waiting for that replacement too. And for the glass backsplash which was measured 3 times, but because the installer was so bad, nothing was level and another installer finally came to straighten the lower cabinets in time for the counter to be installed. He has to come back today to level the top cabinets and measure (again) for the backsplash. Yeah, that will be another two weeks or so, but who's counting? The main thing is that I have a working kitchen again and it's beautiful.

And my husband has now got a place to store his bottles of wine, between the two upper cabinets. Alcohol is what keeps you going when you are frustrated beyond measure. That and for me, knitting. Been doing some of that, among the chaos. What, you want to see knitting? You'll have to wait until I take pictures and I block stuff. No, I couldn't block stuff -- no running water, remember? And. so. much. dust. EVERYWHERE.

Everybody has nightmare tales about their kitchen renovation. I now have mine too -- woohoo. I think I'll just have another drink and try to forget the pain of it all. In my brand new kitchen.

My sister, 1965-2009

This morning, less than two years after she was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), my younger sister passed away, a month short of her 44th birthday.

Two years ago, she was a vibrant, energetic, athletic, career-minded woman, mother of two. I have seen with great sadness the terrible and rapid progression of her disease that confined her to a wheelchair, unable to communicate except through a keyboard, totally dependent on other people, even for the simplest things. The illness was relentless and robbed of her dignity.

I wish I could say she died peacefully, but it wasn't the case. At least, she is at peace now and she has stopped suffering.

I don't wish this illness on my worst enemy -- nobody should be left to suffer the way she did, and there is something to be said for the right to die with dignity.

This is a photo I took of her back in 1983, when she was 17. We had taken a holiday together in Cancun and we had 3 wonderful weeks spent laughing, playing and enjoying life.

And this one is of the two of us, that same year. This is the way I will think of her for the rest of my life.

 

More renovations

 
The office is finished and it looks really nice. There are still a couple of items missing, such as a new chair for my desk, and a small bookcase in a corner. There are also a couple of boxes packed, sitting there and ready to be taken to storage, but it's 99% finished.

I had to abandon the idea of the window seat because I couldn't find something with the right measurements, having it custom-made was going to be too expensive, and I realized there is a heat vent near the window that would have been blocked.

Before:

 

During:

 

After:
 

So I put two nice antique chairs there that came from my mother's house and a little table with the phone, a radio and a small lamp. The old blind was replaced by a lovely Silhouette blind, delivered on Saturday. On the wall, an antique mirror, also from my mother's house.

The new bookcases now look like this:

Before:

 

During:
 

 

After:
 

 
  
At the back on the right, my new desk and in the corner, the office equipment (scanner, modem, printer, laptop, back-up power). My new desk is much smaller and has five drawers on the right side, which helps me store my mess out of sight.

On the left of the room is my husband's desk and computer. This side of the room looked like this before:

 

Now it looks like this:

 

His desk is an antique rosewood desk. We now have each our own work area, which is more practical since it prevents encroachment on the other's territory (guilty, Your Honour). Crown moulding was added and the room was painted a warm yellow, which really cheers it up. 

I love this room and we have also improved the entrance by opening the two French doors. This is now the view from the entrance of the house into the office:

 

Now that this is over with, we started today with the next major phase of our renovations: the kitchen. We spent 3 hours yesterday emptying the kitchen contents into the dining room (yet again, it's become our favourite dumping ground). This morning, the demolition crew arrived and I am now at the computer, next to sawing, hammering, and enough noise to make the two dogs totally paranoid. The cabinets are being ripped out, the fridge is now sitting in the living room, and the tiled floor is being broken down. Needless to say, the Tylenol bottle is sitting nearby and I have already helped myself to it today. The cats are locked up upstairs, away from the commotion, and I have a dog on my lap where he has finally fallen asleep.

Photos of the kitchen demolition will be published in the next post.

I have finished the first of the Oliver socks and am now near the heel on the second one. This knitting was interrupted by the Knitting Camp I went to from October 15th to 18th. I took all my classes with Cookie A and had a wonderful time. She is an excellent teacher and I learnt something in every class I took. I have lots of photos from the week-end, still to be sorted out. But here are a couple:

This is Cookie explaining to us the intricacies of creating your own sock design. Knitting hands during Fiona Ellis' presentation on the Friday evening:

The mist over the lake early Sunday morning:

Fiona Ellis was also an instructor at the week-end and here she is, receiving a 3rd place from Bev Nimon for her team's placement at the group games organized on the Friday evening. Since there were only 3 teams (of which I was a member), much cheering was given at the award ceremony!

 That's it for now. I have to stop because the hammering from the kitchen is making my brain explode. I'm taking the dogs on a long walk instead.