Odds and Ends

People will say, "I flew all the way here."  Of course you did.  There's no reason to fly part of the way to anywhere. 

Sometimes I get hung up on the phrase "behind your back."  Wouldn't being behind the back be in the front?  I make conscious efforts to only say "in back."  It's just for me.

Did any of you ever wear these?  My mother tied them into my hair every morning for I don't know how many years.  I clearly remember how they felt: massive strands of acrylic yarn.

You can sort of see a hot green one there on the right;  I thought it was so cool that there were colors like that.  Not just navy and red and yellow.

Yesterday and today I've had a very intense headache on the right side.  It's sinus mixed with the lingering pain of the abutment surgery, and it is miserable.  Like a dry sinus infection, I guess?  Unpleasant to say the least.

My Seven Color Fox is coming along spectacularly.  It may be one of my favorite projects ever.  I'll probably knit tomorrow, though, so the yarn doesn't feel neglected.

Tennessee Rose

This little beauty came together over Sunday's NASCAR race.  The whole time I was working on it, Emmylou's song "Tennessee Rose" ran through my head.  So, there's that.

Here, finally, is Starry Night Bunny:

It isn't framing-ironed, but it is ironed.  I didn't do any of the backstitching in/around the stars and swirls;  it didn't look very good.  I've been slacking off on my backstitching lately, but you don't always have to follow the rules, huh?

Come Upstairs

 Briton has given himself a weekend in Chattanooga.  One of the "mandatory" stops there is the Tennessee Aquarium.  We have been there so many times: aquaria, zoos, animal parks were (and still are, frankly) musts when this family traveled.

(Quick aside --- the first time we took a very young Briton to the Aquarium, about three-quarters of the way through the building, he sort of threw up his hands and said, "Fish, fish, fish!  All they have here is fish!")

ANYWAY, to get up to the main exhibits, you ride a long, steep escalator.  I love that part.  Truth be told, it's my favorite part of the whole thing. Briton just sent me this:

He remembers.

Celebration

Not the 4th of July.  The discovery of this:

Y'all, Dr Pepper has released other flavors before, and I have tried them and been wholly unimpressed, but this is amazing.  I found it accidentally, searching for Caffeine Free Dr Pepper on Amazon.  (For the record, I've only ever found that in Tuscaloosa.)  The coconut doesn't seem to be available anywhere here, but it is worth searching out.

The pain (gum/lip/sinus/cheekbone, oddly) continues, and caused another night of fitful sleep.  Why didn't he give me Hydrocodone this time around?

I'm working almost exclusively on the Seven Color Fox.  The stitches are laying so beautifully, which always makes me feel fully accomplished.

Yesterday, I watched the film "The Zone of Interest."  Stunning.  In every possible sense of the word.  I'm still sitting with it, so can't come up any other things to say, but watch it if you can.

Slow Train

That's what I feel like today.  Moving, but only enough to be discernable.

Not much sleep was had last night, as the implant made sleeping on my right side extremely uncomfortable.  Today, I'm still sore, and the teeth on either side of the gap are still a little numb.  That doesn't bother me, as it means that I didn't feel the roof shot yesterday.  There's still enough swelling and pain that I couldn't wear my bite plate overnight, nor my Essix today.  My therapist got full view of the gap during my session today.  And heard the whistle that comes with it.

"Whistle," "train" --- the theme is holding.

A few more cross-stitch pieces framed:

The fit here is a bit tight, but the color was too good a match to pass up.

I had a couple of pieces that would have worked in this frame, but went with the Christmas:

Another color match:

I still like my Winter rabbit very much.

Pretty, but unframed, my girls:

 So many days lately have been too hot for them to spend much time on the back porch, but they've been out there today. The pillow is curved in just right for either of them.

The Needle and The Damage Done

Thank you for all the good wishes --- they seem to have worked!  The dentist double-numbed me up, remembering how the shots in the roof of my mouth were so awful.  That's wearing off, and I'm starting to feel some pain.

From what I could see and hear, the implant was much, much more involved this time.  There was even a little socket wrench!  Funny to see the dentist working in my mouth like being under the hood of a car.  Hopefully, that little implant sucker stays put this time.  

TNT-wise:Maybe a third of the way through?  The issue I have with seeing the pattern through the floss may have been solved.  The solver?

The Seven Color Fox.  I love this.  I didn't see that it was another stamped piece when it was ordered, but I'm so glad it is.  The instructions say that once the piece is done, soak it in water for all the ink and grid marks to disappear.  My hope is that that will work with the bunny and girl.

Poor, Poor Pitiful Me

Tomorrow is the oral surgeon's second shot at putting in a bloody abutment.  (The abutment itself won't be bloody...  You know what I mean.)  I am steeling myself for the agony that is one set of the anesthetic injections.  Already having to pay for all this twice, I'm punting on having myself knocked out.  Thirty, forty-five seconds, maybe?  I did it before...