The blessed trifecta

Project 365, Day 12: So close to done
Originally uploaded by Minarae

I really need to stop picking up expensive hobbies. I mean seriously, I need to just stop. I think I've finally settled on the three things I'll be doing forever, because I really like doing them, but I have managed to pick three things that cost five arms and two legs.

First there was scrapbooking, which makes a few of my friends (*ahem* JenFu) hang their heads in shame for me. But fuck it, my scrapbooks are really just fancy photo albums and I love shocking the Mormon ladies with my scrapbooks full of pictures of Pagan weddings and drunken group gropings. But dude, scrapbooking is not cheap. I think I spent well over $1000 the first year I was doing it, just buying equipment and such. Now I only buy paper and albums but still! I think I spent a few hundred dollars doing our wedding albums (people, we have three wedding albums: a coffe table book style one, our "formal" album, and the engagement through wedding snapshot album) (oh, plus I made albums for our parents too), but hey, it would have cost me at least $1000 for one album from the photographers so really, that was a bargain. I am really, really behind on my scrapbooking too, so I need to get on that. I still need to get all my 3 Day pictures into that album, plus there's Wisconsin and now a Disneyland trip, and pictures from various things I've done with T. Oy.

But the scrapbooking goes along well with the whole photography obesession I have going on. And photography is not a cheap hobby either! At least it's not once you decide that hey, your point and shoot is not doing what you need it to do so you need a digital SLR. But then you realize the kit lens does not do what you want it to do, so you need more lenses. And then you need a bag to haul around your lenses and your camera and also, you need to develop some of those dang pictures. Really though, aside from the equipment costs (and yes, there is already another lens that I want, despite having received my lovely, lovely 55-200 VR zoom lens for Christmas), it's been a relatively low cost thing for me to play around with. And now I have art! Made by me! Which will soon fill my office, and all the offices of people I know because that is what everyone will get for gifts forever.

Well, some of them will get things from the third hobby, of course. Because I have been assimilated into the world of knitting. Seriously, it's becoming a problem. Do you know how easy it is to spend the entire afternoon perusing the patterns on Ravelry? And you know, I have finally ventured into DPNs and cables and look out now! I am actually formulating a plan to design a pair of fingerless gloves all on my own because I want something between Knitty.com's Fetching and Dashing (both of which i've made in the past month) with a few more cables. And Knitty has a sock pattern I am dying to try as soon as I can afford to go buy more Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs (because I love them, that's why) and some sock yarn. Oh, and I have two blankets, a baby cardigan, a baby hat and a raglan sweater for myself that I want to make. I have issues. But at least I'm also having a damn good time with it. And oh man, if I didn't have knitting to keep me busy the last two days while I was sick at home, I may have gone more crazy than I already am.

Laura told me this weekend that if I ever stuck to one thing long enough I could probably make money at it. Who knows. It'd certainly be nice to make some of it back, but in the meantime, at least I'm having a good time.

Sometimes I even surprise myself

Project 365, Day 38: New shoes
Originally uploaded by Minarae

I'm back in physical therapy again. No, not for the wrist this time (although now that I have lost a bunch of weight, the wrist has an extra layer of creepy since my tendons are now RIGHT THERE under the surface of my skin and they look both cool and disgusting when they start popping out) (also, oh my god, my nails are way too long and I CANNOT TYPE GAH). Anyway, I'm in physical therapy for my right big toe.

Go ahead and wipe the WTF look off your face, I am of course going to explain this nifty situation. See, back in November when I did the 3 Day (which I am not walking in anymore, by the way, because I am burned OUT on walking) (also, I am such a slacker that my thank yous haven't gone out yet) (I SUCK) my toes started hurting on the third day. And it was hurting in a weird spot; it basically hurt in the section between the pad of my toe and where it connects to the ball of my foot so it was almost like my toe bone was hurting. I figured it was just sore from the walking (as was my pulled right calf) and decided to take it easy and it would get better.

Except it didn't get better, and so when I told Sheila, my trainer/fitness class teacher about it, she said "Go get PT!" Since she herself is a physical therapist, i figured she knows what she's talking about so away I went. And of course even the physical therapist I am seeing looked at my chart like "Huh??" while I explained what was wrong. After much poking and prodding and measuring, she figured out that what happened was first I sprained my ankle incredibly badly in June, then I pulled my calf muscle in November and the lingering effects of those two injuries tightened everything up on that side, eventually weaking the muscle that controls my big toe and causing the joint capsule to get all messed up. And it was totally screwing with my bowling game.

Oh, and also I have very flat feet, walk on the outsides of them, and walk kind of like a duck so I was screwed from the beginning.

Anyway, she's been doing some massage and traction and stretching and given me little exercises to do at home (Toe exercises! Can you even believe it?), and she also instructed me to start wearing lower heeled shoes to work. Since all my work shoes have at least a 2 1/2 inch heel, this was the best part: I had to buy new shoes! Score!

Amazingly enough, the lower shoes and toe exercises and stretchy stretches seem to be working. My toe barely hurt at all last weekend when I was bowling, so I guess PT is working and I'll only need another 1 or 2 visits.

(Thank god, because that shit's not covered on my insurance until I meet my dedeuctible.)

Things That Make Life Easier: Keeping cat stink at bay

Those who know me know that my two cats are my babies. They are my sweet, soft, furry, stanky ass babies. And since the two of them share a very small one bedroom apartment with the two of us, keeping their litter box from dominating the apartment is a top priority for me. Luckily for us, the two of them have never been picky about what kind of litter they'll use, so they've been super patient as I have switched litters at random, trying to find the one that works best for us. Luckily for them, I have finally found my kitty litter nirvana.

The first line of defense is of course our Litter Locker Plus. I picked ours up a couple of years ago on the recommendation of a friend and it's still going strong, so it's totally worth the initial cash outlay (plus I think it's cheaper at Petsmart, so try getting it there). The best way to describe it is a DiaperGenie for cat litter clumps. We clean their box once a day and instead of filling the trash can with baggies of poop, we toss it into the Litter Locker and voila, no festering poop smell. Plus, we only have to empty out the Litter Locker every 10 days or so.

As for the ruling cat litter, we've settled on World's Best Cat Litter as our final answer. I switched over to Swheat Scoop a couple years ago, because the dust from the clay litters was making all of us sneeze. And I'm all about the all natural biodegradeable stuff these days. But I never liked how big the clumps were (seriously, it looked like they were peeing quarts out every time since the clumps were huge) and man alive, that stuff tracked like mad. So we switched to WBCL a couple months ago, and I love it beyond reason. Still all natural (made from corn), absorbs better and clumps up harder than the Swheat Scoop, and best of all, it tracks less because the little nuggets are smaller and Riley can't carry them around the way he used to. in other words, it fucking rocks and I cannot recommend it enough.

So if you have cats but would prefer to not have cat stank, get a Litter Locker. And if you're looking for a good cat litter, try the World's Best. Both products are totally worth the little extra that you'll spend, because really...a stink free home is a priceless thing.