Note the chocolate!
The distant shot of mountains and lake was earlier in the evening. The sunset sky was just now. The iPad photo doesn’t really do it justice.
May 16, 2013
I know and you know that Angelina Jolie has been all over the news this week because she tested positive for a gene that increases her risk of getting breast and ovarian cancer. She decided to have a double mastectomy and reconstruction….just in case. And I believe she is also planning to get her ovaries removed.
I seem to be in the minority among people close to me. My kids are saying, Hell, if you can afford it, why not? I have so many bad feelings about it, it hurts.
I just read an excellent article by Dr John McDougall which expresses so well the thoughts that have been going through my head that I thought I’d link to it, so if I express myself badly he can be my backup!
Here’s what I think, as briefly as possible…
- Angelina may still get cancer – there are no guarantees.
- If she doesn’t, there will be no way to prove whether the surgery was successful, or in fact she wouldn’t have had it anyway
- How confident can doctors be of the risk that they are willing to go out on a limb and say she has an 87% risk of contracting breast cancer?
- There are many factors in keeping oneself cancer-free that involve less drastic and invasive methods – a wholefood vegan diet, for one.
- How many body parts are sufficiently dispensable or able to be replaced with prostheses that a profit-driven medical system will start to offer replacement for those who have the means to pay?
- Wouldn’t it be better to leave the body alone, uncut, and simply monitor the situation? Seems to me that surgery carries its own risks, including breaching cancer cells and causing them to spread around the body. This again is a sticky area for me, because apparently our bodies are constantly creating and dissolving cancer cells/tumours without our even being aware of it, so constant checking often means that something is “caught” that would have naturally been dealt with by our bodies’ immune systems, easily and painlessly.
- There are many factors in why people get cancer and whilst genetics may be one factor, so can crappy diet, smoking, drinking, and, yes, bad karma (and I do believe that it is a real thing). Doctors don’t know it all.
Well, that’s probably enough said on that subject. Back to the knitting!
May 14, 2013
Just posting this here so I can link to it on the Ravelry group. Thought a little crochet might be a nice change from knitting.
May 12, 2013
A busy day today. Nipped out to the health food store then got down to baking a cake, making hummus and straightening the house for this afternoon’s guests. A contingent of our youth group met here today and thankfully Tai Chi Man helped with getting the bathroom spiffed up and putting away dishes.
By the way, the cake was awesome. Triple layer vanilla sponge cake with strawberry jam and lemon “cream cheese” frosting between the bottom layers and fresh strawberries and more frosting between the top layers.
Once we’d had our discussion, movie and potluck supper and everyone had left, it was around 6 – loaded the dishwasher for a change and sat down to update the WIPs. First the temperature scarf received two wine coloured stripes for 30 degrees on Friday and Saturday. Second, I pulled up the tab on my iPad for Silver’s sock class and finished the second short row heel on my “two toe up socks on one circular needle.” Now all I have to do is work around and around for the cuffs for as long as the yarn lasts. Third, the cardigan. I have been studiously avoiding this again but made myself pull it out of the bag and do a couple more rounds. Then put some of the stitches onto another cable so that I could try it on to check that the yoke wasn’t turning out huge. Seems ok, thankfully.
Now it’s 9.20pm and I just remembered that I have to water the outside plants in their tubs. It wasn’t as hot today – maybe 21 – and we had a lot of blustery wind, clouds, and even a few spots of rain this morning. But wind dries out the plants as much as sun.
Another week ends, another one starts. Hope yours is wonderful.
May 10, 2013
I’ve just knitted the first nine days of May on the temperature scarf. Two orange ridges for 17 and 19 degrees. Two paprika ridges for 20 and 23. And introducing a new colour to the scarf, RED for the 25-29.9 bracket. Five glorious days of 26 to 28 degrees.
It isn’t going to last, and that’s ok, I wouldn’t want it to be blazing hot for a solid four or five months. And I don’t want my scarf to be the same colour every day either!
May 4, 2013
As I am currently immersed in Game of Thrones (the books and TV series) I feel like calling this cardigan Godswood. It is foresty shades of green and brown so why not?!
I have finally picked it up and worked on it some more, being careful to make sure that my stitch count is divisible by eight for the colour work pattern I’m doing. With a circular yoke sweater, you have some radical increasing (or decreasing if you’re knitting bottom up) and those rounds have to be on plain colour rounds.
Three increase rounds have now been completed and I think it’s time to move up to a longer cable.
