Countdown to Rhinebeck

It's one week until the big event - actually, only 6 days before I head down. I just finished the first of four 15-hour shifts prior to leaving. Ordinarily I would have this weekend off, but I did a shift trade to be free for Rhinebeck. And since the belt I ordered with my Utilikilt arrived yesterday - two months after the kilt - I will be wearing that to the festival. Ted & Stephanie should be happy about that. It remains to be seen whether I can finish off the homemade kilt before I leave, but I'm thinking it won't be possible.

Of course, this is the weekend of the New England Coastal Classic alpaca show, which takes place about a 20 minute drive from work. So I am napping here until this afternoon, when David will pick me up so we can go to a bit of the show together.

Last night was busy, but not so busy that I couldn't finish this:



Ends are all woven in and everything. Not my best Kitchener, I don't think, but overall a nice sock. Now I have to see if I can crank out the second one before my socks arrive. I know they've been finished for at least 9 days, but they have yet to arrive in the mail, so my assassin's ankle injury has apparently slowed her down quite a bit.

Fun with Needles

Speaking of injuries, I had my appointment with the hand surgeon yesterday before work. It turns out that the knob on the end of my right ulna that I was worried about is because of an old chip fracture in the joint. Since I've only noticed the change in the last year and a half, I assume that the injury occurred not too long before that, but I can't think of any particular incident. What I was not really aware of was that I have a ganglion cyst on my right hand, which the surgeon felt was the source of much of my pain in that wrist.

It's not terribly big - not even really noticeable unless I put the backs of my hands together and flex my wrists - but he shot it up with Novocaine and tried to aspirate the fluid out of it with limited success, after which he shot it up with a bit of prednisone to see if it will shrink down. Surgical removal is an option down the road, but I really want to avoid surgery if at all possible, as I wouldn't be able to work while recuperating. That and I've never seen anyone have just one hand surgery. At this point, though, I'm not noticing as much pain if I put weight on the wrist, so I'm hopeful that this will at least help for the time being.