Back in 2001 I was diagnosed with acute viral labyrinthitis otherwise known as vertigo. It came on suddenly and affected me to the point that I would fall over while crawling on my hands and knees and was restricted from driving for more than a month. My initial recovery took about 4+ months, but the downside with vertigo, is once you've gotten you are prone to have recurring episodes. I'd have recurrences here and there, but they were few and far between. Then in 2006, I started having bouts of it every few months; enough so that in February of 2007 my doctor decided to order an MRI of my brain. The test results didn't show anything out of the ordinary and just like that, I'd been vertigo-free for more than a year...

Until today.

Earlier this week I had an evening where I knew that something in my head felt "weird" - I told Jeff that my head felt funny, like I had vertigo but without the spinning. I went to bed early and in the morning felt better. I got up today feeling fine. I paid some bills, had some breakfast, and went out shopping for a few hours. After I got home I was knitting on the couch, catching up on season 5 of Project Runway when out of nowhere the spinning begins. Not enough that I can't walk, but I had to put the knitting away and I'm contemplating taking the vertigo meds. (Typing this is a bit challenging, but I don't have to look at the screen to type - just to proofread, and I can do that in stages.) When it comes to this disorder it's better if you don't rely on the meds because it allows your brain to figure out its own way of adjusting to the spinning symptoms. The meds do help with the nausea though. Of course the best medicine for vertigo is valium, but they won't give you that anymore. Instead I have a variation of a strong antihistamine which just makes you sleepy. We'll see how things go tonight since lying down always makes it worse. Here's hoping that this is going to be a short-lived episode.

I've been so busy lately that I've gotten backlogged on my blog entries. Of course, anyone who reads Jeff's blog pretty much knows what's going on with me anyway! Here is a recap of what's been going on for the last 2 weeks:

• We went to Florida for some wedding reconnaisance. While there, got to experience tropical storm Fay firsthand. Also found a venue for our wedding (Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa) and have a set wedding date (4/4/09).
• Watched alot of Olympic events on TV.
• Had a short trip to Toledo to suprise my favorite aunt for her 50th birthday and had some extended family time with my dad (both in Florida and in Toledo).
• Bought some more yarn to support my fiber habit.
• Buried a statue of St. Joseph in the front yard of my house in the hopes that he'll help me sell it.

That's the highlights. When looking at it in list form, it doesn't really look like much...

Earlier this week I finished up one of my knitting projects. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

My house has been on the market since mid-May and in that time I've had 4 people go through it. That's a bit depressing, especially since I think it's an adorable house (IMHO). Given my Catholic upbringing, I'd always heard about burying a statue of St. Joseph (upside down) in the backyard when you want to sell your house. To be honest, I completely forgot about that tradition until a few days ago, but many people swear by it. One of my co-workers insists that is ultimately what sold his house. His house was on the market for 11 months, his wife planted a medalion of St. Joseph in the backyard and within 10 days they got an offer.

I can always use a bit of help in selling my house so we'll see if Divine Intervention comes along.

After doing some cooking for our party last week, I realized that I missed the kitchen. I tend to not cook as much in the summer, partly because of the warmer weather and more interesting things to do. So this weekend I decided to make some homemade pasta again using that spiffy KitchenAid that Jeff got me for Christmas. Man, I love that gadget! I made some lemon pepper spaghetti and some light wheat fettuccini.

Growing up we always made homemade ravioli, but never any of the ribbon pastas so I've had a bit of a learning curve. The spaghetti cutter doesn't make as clean of a cut as the fettuccini cutter and I don't have a proper pasta drying rack. I'm not giving up though! I want to make the lemon pepper dough again and make it into fettuccini noodles next time. I also want to make ravioli, but knowing that Jeff isn't a huge fan of those, I'll make some potato filling for him and voila - perogies!

My favorite tennis venue may be getting a facelift so that they can hold a combined tournament for men & women in the US Open series. Woo-hoo!!

http://www.sportsline.com/tennis/story/10918830/rss

This past Saturday, Jeff and I had a party. In the past, this has been Jeff's annual "Luau Party" but this year we decided to combine it and make it an Engagement party with a hint of Hawaii with the 12 liter mai-tai. As with most summer parties, the number at attendees can be somewhat unpredictable. We had a lot of "maybe" rsvp's which we guessed would be more of a no-show. Well, we guessed wrong and ended up running out of food. Jeff and I never had any dinner. Oh well, I suppose that's how you know you had some good food. I'll just have to adjust for next year.

Highlights for me are:

• Seeing the great mix of people and all the well wishes from everything. (And thanks to all for the unexpected gifts - we really didn't expect any!).
• The pantry display of Bear Attacks
• The yummy Mai-Tai
• Seeing cousin Dave & Niki, after only 10 days of being new parents. That was truly a surprise that we really appreciated
• Meeting Jeff's dad
• Jen's story about her German car dealer experience
• George spontaneously fixing our garbage disposal (thanks!)
• Hearing about my celebrity friends who bought Tommy Haas (a pro tennis player from our recent tournament trip) a drink at the Outback Steakhouse.

Can't wait until next year!

Whadyaknow - I learn something new everyday. When it comes to air in my tires, I always went off of what was on the tires, not what was listed in my owner's manual or on the driver's door. Just curious if anyone else follows this rule of thumb.

http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/package/0,21861,1814385-1083882-2,00.html

Now here's in interesting thought for a tennis tournament. The underhand serve seems a bit odd, but understandable.

http://www.sportsline.com/tennis/story/10905807/rss

The Cincinnati ATP Masters Tournament is less than a week away and I'm starting to get excited. The summer tennis season is in full swing (pun intended!) and this tournament is one of the best. The venue is much smaller than the US Open in Flushing Meadows NY, and seems much more accessible. I can say that I've been a few feet away from some of the greatest players of the game - Federer, Blake, Agassi, Djokovic, Roddick to name just a few. It doesn't attract as much media as some of the larger tournaments, but I'm fine with that. My friends would agree that we'd rather keep this great little secret to ourselves!

We only spend 2 days at the tournament, but it's always action-packed. It's also a time for me to catch up with one of my dearest friends who lives in the Cincinnati area. Here's hoping we have some great weather to match the impressive tennis performances.

Got a bit of a shock today. The son of one of my old co-workers was killed on Sunday afternoon. He was 16 years old. It's stories like these that upset me about how fragile life is and that you never know when you might be seeing someone for the last time.

My heart goes out to Annette Dadante and her entire family.

http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/121671541850620.xml&coll=2

When I was growing up I was addicted to reading. I can remember early memories of walking to the library after school and spending what felt like hours in there, finding all sorts of treasures to take home. In the last few years I haven't read as much, partly because of other interests and not being able to take public transportation to work. Man, did I get alot of reading done on the bus/rapid/subway.

When I was a stage manager, I used to have my actors fill out an emergency contact sheet that I kept on file in my production book. In addition to the contact, it also asked for any allergies or known medical conditions, etc. but I added one more listing on the sheets that I gave to my actors. I asked for their favorite author or book. I often got a lot of people questioning why that was on the sheet and I told them that was purely for fun. It was how I got my summer reading lists, when I was laid off from June to August. I would also post the list on the call-board for anyone else who might be interested.

Right now I'm reading "Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair" and I heard about 2 different books that I want to check out: Butterfly Garden and Suite Francaise.

So, I'm curious what people would state is their favorite book or author or what they're reading right now. My summer reading list needs some new materials!

After several months, 5 to be exact, I have finally gotten through level 9 of Zuma. To say that this has been a pain-point for me is putting it mildly (just ask Jeff about my swearing tantrums while playing!). I am not really a gamer, but this game has become an obsession for me and it had been my solitary goal to get to level 10. I can finally release all my pent-up gaming anger as I've gotten over this hurdle.

Well, the Waiting Game is over. I was notified this afternoon that I didn't get the job. The other candidate already had some Employee Relations experience so it tipped the scales. Typically, if you don't get the job at my company, you hear from the recruiter. If you do get the job offer, you hear from the hiring manager. It was refreshing to hear from the hiring manager telling me that I was an extremely strong candidate and that it was a very tough decision. Who knows, maybe another position will open up in that department soon and they'll think of me first.

Earlier this week, I needed to stop by my local yarn shop to pick up some additional yarn for a project I'm working on and was lucky enough to score a special $20 off anything in the store coupon. That's like being a kid in a candy store to me. After much deliberating, I selected a beautiful hank of 100% Alpaca in a rich Nutmeg color.

Browsing through the rows and rows of richly colored yarns, feeling the glorious textures, I'm finally learning a tough lesson about yarn - the finished project is only as good as the materials used. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee talks about this in one of her books. She compares it to cooking and if you substitute mediocre ingredients in a recipe that calls for more expensive & rich tasting ingredients you're going to end up with a mediocre dish instead of what the recipe intends. It's the same with knitting - I just have to retrain my brain to be okay with buying a $28 hank of yarn instead of the Jo-Ann's $3.99 discount yarn. That's the difference with knitting and cooking. It's not as drastic of price difference between margarine and butter, or milk and heavy cream as it is between acrylic yarn and silk, wool, cotton, or alpaca yarn. But you can tell the difference in the finished project.

Lucky for me I had the $20 off coupon so I only paid $8 for the luscious alpaca. Now I'm trying to find the right project for this yarn. I have 665 yards to work with and I'd like to knit myself a shawl with it, but haven't found a pattern that I like yet. All in good time.

I feel so helpless right now as Jeff is laid up with a severe allergy attack. His level of miserable-ness is off the charts and I just wish there is something I can do to make him feel better. If anyone understands what it's like to have allergies kick your ass, It's me. I've been on prescription medications for my allergies since I was 3. I've had to be taken to the hospital on at least 4 occasions because of allergies/asthmatic reactions. When it comes to allergies, my first instinct is to take drugs to fix it - even if it means over-medicating so that I'll just pass out. I've taken and tried it all, and it's not uncommon for me to become immune to a specific medication. Jeff's definitely not like that, which makes the helpless feeling all the more pronounced.

He's sleeping now so I hope he'll feel better soon.

A few weeks ago I saw a position on my company's internal job site that I was really interested in so I decided to apply. I've gone through 3 interviews (one with the recruiter, one with the hiring manager, and one with the hiring manager's manager). I'm supposed to find something out this week, but the waiting game is killing me. Everytime I have a break from my classroom, I go back to my desk with the hopes of seeing my voicemail indicator light on. But nothing so far. And now I've spent too much time composing this email, so I better go and check again....

Today is the first day that I'm sitting outside on the back deck after dinner, reading through email, and browsing through a knitting book. It's made me realize one of the things that I really miss about my house - being outside. Sometimes I would eat dinner out in the backyard with the late sun lingering, but not so hot as to be uncomfortable. The other thing that I often did in the evenings was sit on my front porch. I had the most awesome porch swing (doubles as a bench in winter) and I used to swing on the porch in the evenings with a glass of wine and a good book. I don't know about other people, but I knew the names of all the neighbors around me and all of the kids. I'll never forget the first week I was in my house and some of the neighbor kids asked if it was okay if they used my driveway as a turnaround point for bike riding and referred to me as "ma'am." Despite the inner-city Cleveland location, my block had a homey feel to it where you'd say hello and greet the neighbor by name who was walking down to the corner store for a newspaper. I kinda miss that.

Now starts the challenge of finding a Florida hotel/resort to have our wedding. Once I nail that down, I'll be able to nail down a date, find a dress, blah, blah, blah...

It's stories like this that can make me cry for the love of helpless animals.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/15/dog.swept.away.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us