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2024 - Week 13

Arts & Crafts

Craft night had me learning crochet. I think having a live human help me really made some things click. I spent a good chunk of Friday working on my rainbow dinosaur kit. My friend called the supplied kit yarn, t-shirt yarn. I was finding it hurts my hands more than yarn usually does when I knit, but I also felt like if I stopped, I might forget everything I had learned like every other time. Luckily, I didn't have to do a magic loop for the beginning because the kit had it done for me. This helped with knowing how much tension I should have on the rest of "Fred the Dino." I learned that I shouldn't use pliers to try and pull the yarn through when I was doing the arms. Well, arm number two. The first arm worked just fine. The second needed three attempts. On one of those, the yarn just would not pull through and using pliers brought the arm inside the dino and I had to cut it off and try again.

No pliers in crochet!

I had to straighten the darning needle after that with a hammer...

The tail and the spikes had me having to learn to do magic loops myself. This was something that had me so confused on Thursday that my friend had to start it for me on my other Woobles kit. The carrot is particularly wonky, but I'm choosing to let myself be bad at it because I'm a beginner and that is the white belt mindset.


The dino is coming along. Just a couple more spikes and the tummy stipes to do. The eyes are messed up, but I think the head shape is too.

And then... Well, I wasn't done with crochet and now I want to crochet all the things like a donut coaster.

Decluttering & Minimalism

I wasn't sure I would get anywhere on these goals this week. I focused on catching up on laundry since being injured had made me quite behind there. I brought some items to donation on the weekend before having my hair stylist fix my haircut.

Events

This week featured the Tegan & Sara concert at Meridian Centrepoint Theatres for their NOT TONIGHT tour. It was an excellent show filled with musical talent and humour. The twins like to chirp at each other now and then and I'm here for it. Sara told us how the old songs transport her back to the time when she was living in a particular apartment and owned very little. Tegan mentioned that they don't transport her back in time, but the old words have new insights about her life now. We learned about how Sara is a landlord these days and has spent way more time than she ever thought possible during the tour just trying to get a fridge for a tenant.

The twins also mentioned that people are usually a fan of one or the other. Now I'm wondering which I am because I thought that I was a Tegan fan in terms of personality, but Sara wrote Closer. Clearly, I need to delve into this and see if the songs I like the most are all Sara's. Perhaps Closer is an outlier.

The tour shirt I got and my ticket.

I first discovered them the year I moved to Ottawa, so they were part of a major life change. All I know is that I love them even more after seeing them in a proper concert setting versus an outdoor one. The sound quality is vastly better and we got a lot more time with them. Concerts always feel more intimate and special.

What an excellent kick off to 5 work-free days!

Gaming & Streaming

I'm close to having the map uncovered in Diablo IV. I haven't decided if I will finish that first or try the battle with Duriel again. I should be able to kill him soon, right? I'm level 50 now, so that should mean something.

I haven't been gaming digitally much on account of the pain. I've mostly been trying to be good at following the directions to heal. More on that below.

Lifestyle & Sports

The week began with the finals in the BKT Tires World Women's Curling Championships. The bronze medal match featured South Korea (Gim) vs Italy (Constantini). I was cheering on Italy.  Curling commentary is different than a lot of sports. They don't just talk about the athletes, but also the ice technician who provides them with the surface they play on. Gim slipped out in the third end and still made an excellent shot. Later, they had hoped to blank the end, but got a point and lost hammer instead. Hammer is the last rock advantage in an end. 

The gold medal game was Canada (Homan) vs Switzerland (Tirinzoni). Team Homan has been on fire lately. They lost to South Korea the first time they faced them in this competition, then beat them the next day. That loss broke a 27-game winning streak and was partly due to some overly ambitious shot choices. Team Homan has a habit of making shots other teams might never dare attempt. I was eager to see them battle for gold. With several amazing shots from Team Homan, they earned the gold medal. I especially like that it was Team Homan that won as they've gotten flack over the years for not smiling enough or for being fierce competitors. Basically, misogynistic bullshit. Here is a compilation of shots by Rachel Homan. And she's only gotten better.

I watched my own team play here and there while the gold medal game was on. They won too! Sadly, I've left the team due to the injury I have. It was the responsible choice to make. The season ends for them on the 14th of April. Hopefully, I'll be better in time for the Gordie Perry. My new physiotherapist said she can get me there and also get me ready for the softball season the month after. She taped my shoulder up because my supraspinatus has been getting pinched by the ball in the shoulder. Add that to a tricep injury on the same arm and it's been quite painful. My infraspinatus is good now though, so I'm thankful for that. The tape along with not lifting things is supposed to calm things down. It's all frustrating to me since I have things I need to move around at home!

By the weekend, my arm was feeling quite a lot better though it certainly wasn't a hundred percentage. It was nice to welcome sleep back into my life. I was still tweaking it doing small things from time to time, but even that didn't hurt as much. Hopefully, it will all be behind me soon. Despite it all, I've not let it sour my mood though not playing sports makes me feel sad. They're so good for physical and mental wellness.

Writing

Does this blog post count? Seriously. Typing hasn't been the most wonderful thing and a lot of the time I've had to focus on work. I have lots of ideas in my head as my characters are never too far from my mind.

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