A late update

I tried to catch up on this yesterday but my internet's been iffy and I never got it finished. I think a mouse may have gnawed the wires in the outdoor box again. Let's see...

Saturday morning I headed to the boat but took a short detour to the Great Lakes Fiber Show. It was quite a bit larger than the Upper Valley Fiber Festival with lots of animals, booths, and vendors, but wasn't crowded at all so it was easy to shop. My friend Teena was there with Abigail representing their company Icarus Silk, and I caught up with Dianne from Creatively Dyed Yarns. Dianne had the most colorful booth there, but that was no surprise. I gave her a big hug and we talked for a bit, then bought some of her gorgeous sea roving.


After we checked out all the booths we stopped at the Ravelry meetup but I didn't recognize anyone, so we left. Dave was anxious to get to the boat and I couldn't complain since he's gone with me to 2 of the 3 fiber festivals I hit this month.

GLFS purchases: sea-wool roving, a lucette, and a nostepinne
Not shown: 5 lavender sachets that are currently scenting the boat
Saturday night we went to a huge cocktail party then had dinner with friends at a new restaurant. It was a long day.

Saturday evening
On Sunday we went out for a sail but the wind died once we got out there. We drifted around for a bit, tried a new spinnaker someone gave us (waaay too small!) and then headed back to the harbor. When Dave tried to drop the mainsail a piece of the rope clutch broke off and we couldn't get the sail down. We spent 30 minutes figuring out a safe way to do it. Thank goodness there wasn't any wind, or it would have been an extremely dangerous situation.

jib to the left; main to the right
Sunday night we had a cookout with sailors at the marina. It was another full day.

Monday we puttered around the boat and went to several marine stores looking for a new rope clutch but couldn't find one large enough. The weather was stormy so we packed up and headed home.

On Tuesday I had a follow-up doctor's appointment for the painful lump in my toe. I told him there wasn't any change so he took xrays to make sure it wasn't broken. He also said I was due for routine bloodwork, which I'm ok with because no one has ever had trouble taking my blood... up to this point. His new nurse dug around inside my arm well let me just say that both of my tender inner elbows are sore and bruised, and leave it at that.

So the doc scheduled me to see a podiatrist 3 hours later (my first visit to one ever). Why didn't anyone tell me that podiatrists have such comfortable chairs? It was so comfy that I didn't mind sitting there waiting oh, 40 minutes for him to come in. Luckily I had a word puzzle book in my purse. So the foot doc talked to me about the problem then started squeezing my foot and told me that the lump I was feeling was merely a tendon. I said "But you're not touching the right spot. It's in my toe." He felt a little higher and I said "a little higher... a little higher... OUCH! That's it!" Then he tells me that in all his years of podiatry he has never felt a lump in someones pinkie-toe in that spot. This would have impressed me if the guy didn't look 28 years old. He told me he thought it was fluid leaking from something-or-other... I kind of zoned out at this point because clearly, this boy has no idea what he's talking about. My doctor said it was a blood clot and now this 'specialist' is telling me it's fluid? Clearly he hasn't a clue.

I woke up a bit when he said that a nice big shot of steroids usually clears these things up or, if I didn't want the shot, I could go for an MRI. What? A shot in my pinkie-toe? That sure doesn't sound like fun! But if Doogie Howzer thinks it might help, well, let's just amuse him and prove him wrong. Then I saw the needle. I swear that thing was as thin as a cat's whisker and 4" long! I'll spare you the gory details, but I seriously had to clench my teeth because it was so painful. He said I would probably see results in anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks.

When I went to bed that night my toe was hot and puffy and turning purple and the lump was there just as big as ever but when I woke up the next morning, the lump was gone. GONE!!! My entire toe is bruised and it feels hot/tingles from time to time, but the lump is gone. I cannot believe it. If it is truly healed I will take back every ornery thing I said about that nice young podiatrist. Once the soreness and bruising goes away and I can tell for sure.