A Hospital Visit

Today I visited a friend who is in hospital. I know there's not a lot of room for stuff in a hospital room and didn't know if she was in a ward or shared room. I wasn't sure if flowers were allowed so I took her a 'Little Buddy' to keep her company and hopefully make her smile.

I liked the expression on this guy's face and deemed him perfect for the job. the patient is well enough to be discharged but needs a lot of rehab due to being immobilized for so long. Otherwise her situation is fairly stable.  

This week has been busy! Monday and Tuesday were my usual stitching and crafting get-togethers. However Wednesday some of us had been invited to join the Northumberland Hills Stitchery Guild for their annual stitch day at the Elmhirst Inn near Keene on the north shore of Rice Lake. The 5 of us  decided to carpool so Barb picked me up, then Judy, Just as we got onto the 407, the car started thumping. I was pretty sure it was a tire issue and got out to inspect. I didn't see a flat tire (hard to tell with low profile tires) but the rear tire on the driver's side was hot and the odor of burned rubber was evident. We decided to limp the car back to Judy's, call Barb's husband to come and take care of the car (call CAA, etc.) and proceed to MaryK's in Judy's car. Once at MaryK's in Orono, Marilyn met us there and the 5 of us piled into MaryK's SUV for an uneventful rest of the trip. In spite of our aborted initial attempt to get there, we arrived right on the start time of 9:30.

When we got there we didn't see many other cars. Barb wasn't sure we were even in the right building. However, when we entered, the event coordinator met us and was relieved someone had finally shown up because she had 9am on her schedule. We were surprised no one from Northumberland Guild was there yet. 

We were shown to a lovely, sunlit room facing the lake and as soon as we go set up at a table, the others began arriving. 

Good thing we went as there had been some last minute cancellations from a couple of their members. Our group of 5 comprised 1/3 of the total participants.

Of course, I took one of my Little Buddies so he could be admired by the others.

I worked mostly on the snow globes project and also did a bit on the Smitten project. The natural light was great for stitching it.

Apparently we were well behaved enough that we were invited back for their next event.

Once back home after 5pm, I started preparing dinner. Through a scheduling error on my part I had invited my friend for dinner that evening, forgetting I was going to be out of town all day. I had a surplus of Chef's Plate dinners that I needed to start using. No worries, everything went well but I finally had to call an end to the visit at 9:30 as I had been up at 6am that morning and I was pooped. I had an early wake-up time scheduled for the next morning so I could attend my 9am yoga class. 

Yoga the next day (yesterday) went OK and I did a bit of shopping on the way home. I then got a message from my friend about being in Ajax hospital so I made the plan to visit her today.

Back at home, I got caught up to Day 4 on my Arne and Carlos Mystery KnitALong.

Day 1 was the entire toe. I had to look up a toe-up cast-on as no suggestions were given in the instructions. Arne's pattern calls for 4 needles and each round has 4 identical sections so it's easily converted to Magic Loop on one circular. The stitch markers indicate the centre of the two sections on each needle. I'm also knitting it inside out so the floats will be at their widest. The KAL is free on their blog. Each day, 6 more rounds are revealed.

As I write this, Day 5's rounds got posted so I'll get caught up when I'm finished here.

Tomorrow is our guild's monthly stitch day held on the first Saturday of every month. Then next Wednesday, I'm heading to London (ON) to visit a friend and go for dinner. After doing some shopping on Thursday, I'll head to Lambton County for an overnight visit at my niece's. The next morning I'll meet former colleagues from almost 40 years ago for breakfast in Sarnia (their 'Breakfast Club' meets the first Friday of every month for breakfast), then I'll head back to London to get set up for the Pastime Pieces stitching retreat until Sunday.

Barb is traveling to London by train and will meet me at the retreat centre. We'll carpool back to Durham Region on Sunday after the retreat.

I have several projects I need to finish before I leave for SW Ontario. Other than the stitch day tomorrow, I have lots of time this weekend to get all those tasks done. Then I'll start preparing for the retreat.

I also crocheted 9 granny squares for my second Persian Tiles blanket. I'll have to do more because I'm going to make it 5 x 6 again but they'll come later.

Tonight is Halloween. I have some decorations out.

I didn't eat all the Halloween candy I purchased earlier this month so I will be handing it and little bags of cheesies out until 8pm. That's when the lights will go out and I'll actually tune into Game 6 of the world series.

This is so exciting for Toronto.

LET'S GO BLUE JAYS!