What a week - or ten days

Last Saturday (6/9) was Lexi's eleventh birthday. That weekend was also Superman Festival in Metropolis. Sara went over and took the kids 'downtown' to the festival area for a while. Metropolis is not very big (under 6,000 population), but it gets very crowded in the area of the Superman statue on festival weekend. When I went over for Lexi's party, I avoided that area.

 We had a birthday supper, followed by cupcakes

and icecream, and opening of gifts. Then she had three or four friends spend the night (Devin went to his grandmother's).

What with my eye stuff, her birthday sort of crept up on me and I hadn't given much thought for a gift for her. Monday morning I thought of a top she had seen in a knitting magazine two years ago. At the time I reminded her that most of the patterns in the magazine were adult sizes. Her reply, "I know. But you know how to make adjustments." Such faith my great-granddaughters have in me! I searched my house for that magazine, but couldn't find it. I remembered basically what the top looked like, so I grabbed a ball of dishcloth cotton yarn and a size 8 circular needle. I found a cable pattern I liked, did a provisional cast on, and started knitting. I called Alyssa and asked her to give me a chest measurement for Lexi, and knit the cable to that measurement and then wove the ends together into a tube. Then with white, I picked up stitches on one edge and knit down in stockinette stitch for a few inches and ended with a few rows of garter stitch in the multicolor. Next I picked up either seven or nine stitches from the other edge to make a strap, knitting in several buttonholes. I did another strap a few inches from that one, and then sewed buttons on the inside of the back. This took me two days, and it turned out like this:

Not bad, if I do say so myself!

Monday, Sara and I decided that I might as well spend three or four nights at her house, since she would be driving me for my cataract surgery. So that evening I packed a bag and drove to Sedalia. Tuesday morning she drove me into Mayfield for the surgery, and Wednesday morning back there to the ophthalmologists office. I was expecting to be able to see perfectly as soon as the bandage came off, but that wasn't to be. It seem like I was looking through gauze. Dr Williams said that is not unusual, and assured me that things will improve. In addition to the two kinds of eyedrops he gave me with the first one, he gave me two more this time. He also told me to use one of them six times a day instead of four. So - I'm using the pink-capped ones six times a day in the right eye, and the tan-, gray-, and white-capped ones four times a day in that eye, plus, I'm still using the pink-capped ones three times a day in the left eye for three days, twice a day for two days, and then once a day for one day. Are you confused yet? I just hope I'm doing it right. The vision has improved in the right eye. I go back to see Dr Williams tomorrow.

On Thursday, I decided that it would be OK for me to drive, so when Sara left for her obstetrics appointment, I headed home, stopping at the senior center in Mayfield for lunch.

On Friday, Alyssa asked me to pick Lexi up from her grandparents' house after her Gill family birthday party and let her spend the night with me, because her dad didn't want to bring her here. Why he thinks it's better for a 71-year-old woman who has just had cataract surgery to do extra driving than for a 28-year-old, hale-and-hearty man to, I don't know. I think he was just being obstinate!

Saturday morning, Lexi and I headed back to Metropolis, stopping at Books-a-Million in Paducah to get a gift card for Devin for his ninth birthday. He had four or five friends spend Friday night (that's why Lexi was at my house). At about 1pm his grandparents came over and we had pizza and a birthday cookie and icecream, and opened gifts. Then Stephen took the boys and Lexi to Yaya's Island (games and stuff) for a couple of hours. Later Alyssa and I met them there, took Lexi with us, had supper at a Thai restaurant, and went to Rose and Kyra's dance recital.

I don't know why the dance instructor thinks the kids all need to show us everything they know - four hours is simply too long! Both of Rose's dances (with half a dozen other girls) were before the intermission, so I left at intermission and dropped Lexi off at her grandparents' house before coming home. She's spending Father's Day with her dad.

After dropping her off, I was glad to find out that the Dollar General in Fancy Farm is open until 10 pm. I was able to buy some half & half so I could have coffee this morning. I've just had a second cup. I'll probably regret that tonight, but I guess I'll just read longer than usual.