Becoming Katie

Cardigan progress!

Aside from yard work, I spent the long weekend knitting. I finished the ribbing, bound off, then finally sewed the little flaps along the neckline to form the neck band. I knew I had gauge issues at the beginning of the neckline so it’s a little weird and bunchy at the center of the neckline on the back, but I’m hoping it blocks out (and it’s not bad enough that I’d be really upset if it didn’t).

Ken was like “you’re basically done!” and I said “yeah! Just sleeves left to do!” and he had completely forgotten it needed sleeves and thought I was literally on the finishing steps now. But I’ve heard people categorize it as the yoke, body, and sleeves each being approximately a third when estimating progress, so that puts me at two-thirds of the way done.

And on the hottest weekend of the year, what if we turned our front yard into a pollinator garden?

This has been on our list for a couple years since the grass in the front doesn’t stand a chance against the constant full sun that piece of yard gets. Ken mapped out a plan and ordered baby plants and then they arrived just in time to make us do this yard work in 101 degree heat.

Step one was removing a small tree Ken put in a little over ten years ago. We dug around it with a shovel and pickaxe until we could knock it over. Hauled it around to the side of the house to deal with it another day.

Today was step two, planting! When he planned out the garden, Ken drew up a little diagram with scale circles based on the projected size of each plant, so we measured and laid things out according to his plan and then got to work planting. That was easy peasy (because he put in the big ones that required shoveling holes and I just did the little guys where a trowel was sufficient). Then newspaper and mulch to kill off the grass and weeds. This would have been fine if we properly estimated the required amount of newspaper and mulch the first time, or even the second. By the third trip we got it right, though.

Birthday weekend!

I turned 32 yesterday and fulfilled a teenage dream of going to the melting pot. When one opened up in my hometown I wanted to go sooo badly (cheese! chocolate!) but it was pricey so we never did. Now I’m a grownup and really love when I can do things for myself that I couldn’t do when I was younger. The cheese fondue was fine. Mojito was amazing. Chocolate fondue delicious. Salad was good, and we skipped entrees because we had enough food.

That was saturday, and yesterday on my actual birthday I felt pretty sick all day. Did the melting pot betray me??? I went to a knitting group at a coffee shop and Ken brought his kindle to hang out. Afterwards I read and napped on the couch, then got my butt in gear and did a peloton ride. It’s my fourth birthday since getting the peloton but my first time actually doing a ride on my birthday, and I got to use the birthday hashtag on the leaderboard!

Ken always makes me a cake for my birthday and this year we went all chocolate. Pants helped.

❤️ brothers ❤️

Sometimes when I talk about the boys people are like “oh they’re brothers? They’re from the same litter?” Girl they’re cats. If they live in the house together they’re brothers.

I got my stitches out!

Here’s me running out the door with a half-eaten bowl of oatmeal to finish at stop lights, and then a bonus pic of Pants trying to get my lunch yesterday so the singular pic wouldn’t be huge.

The PA looked at the stitches and said “oh perfect! These look great!” And then the doctor agreed, and the PA took them out. It didn’t feel great but it didn’t hurt like I was afraid it would. I asked the doc “how long until I can do vigorous exercises?” He said, “You’re good, you can do whatever you want now.” And I said, “swimming?” to which he waved his arm and repeated, “you’re good! You can act like this never even happened.” Then he rushed out of the room while preaching sunscreen and hats.

That is… not in line with anything else I’ve read? But also, he’s the doctor who actually looked at my specific incision site. I’m going to make myself start with a 30-minute peloton ride and not a longer one, and pick one that’s not super intense. When I feel confident I’m not going to split this back open I’ll advance. As for the pool, I don’t look at this incision and think, “yeah that looks ready for me to dunk it in a body of water” so I’ll probably skip this weekend, or go but not put my head underwater since I don’t have to be super paranoid about splashing.

That is the best this could have gone!!

(not as itchy as when I got my tattoo, but it being on my face makes it really annoying)

It's a much longer row of stitches than I pictured - close to an inch and a half. And oriented almost vertically instead of at the 45 degree angle I had imagined. Funny how little the sensations translate to reality. I was numbed and couldn't feel sharp, but could feel poking and prodding and pulling. Turns out I could not discern where on my face that poking and prodding and pulling was occurring.

I did have to touch it to put vaseline on it and then the new bandage. It was okay! Gross but didn't hurt much. It hurts more with the bandage on, which makes me think that the pain when I move isn't really the wound being tugged open but the bandage touching the stitches. I did pretty well but next time will be even more careful to put the pad on kind of loose to avoid much contact with the stitches.

I had the Mohs surgery (I think that’s what it’s called?) to remove the basal cell spot this morning. Downsides: despite it being painless because of the local anesthesia, the pulling sensations were super weird and uncomfortable. Also, they remove the spot and put bandages on, then you wait a few hours for the lab to process it and confirm they got it all, and then they bring you back again to do the stitches. So it took all morning and then some. Pros: they provided pizza for lunch since we were all there through lunchtime.

I was the only person who appeared under the age of 65 there (on tuesdays all they do is surgeries so it was me and everyone else who was having skin cancer spots removed). Most appeared 75 or older, and nearly half had canes or walkers. I’m ahead of the curve on getting skin cancer it seems. The doctor asked if I used tanning beds growing up. Nope, and always wore sunscreen as a kid too. I could (and will) be better about just everyday use though.

Atlanta (burbs) 2026

Last fall my brother and his wife lost one of their cats to cancer. I realized then that I had never met that cat, and since they got that cat in January of 2020 it meant I had not visited them in six years. In that time they also bought a house which I had not seen. Insert alllllll the guilt.

So Ken and I finally made it down to visit them for a long weekend! We got to meet their current cats (Boone, black cat, is one of their original two, and Bode, fluff ball, they got after Boone was acting lonely when their other cat died last year) and I got to show Ken a little of Atlanta. We drove down Thursday and then hung out, went to watch them play in their pickleball league, then all got dinner together. Friday they worked so I took Ken into Atlanta and showed him a few really cute neighborhoods. We went to the vortex for burgers. When I started school it was 18+ so I went and had a great burger. Then shortly thereafter they upped the age to 21+ so I couldn't go back for three years. I also took him to Ponce City Market, which didn't open until the end of my time in Atlanta so I hadn't been yet.

My brother and SIL are in Marietta so Saturday we went to the Roswell farmers market (so good!) and then a little crafts show, and then in the evening we went to Alpharetta for a beer fest and dinner.