(To any new readers coming over from NaBloPoMo – you can get a quick overview of who I am here)

Today was my Friday off, so I tried to sleep in for just a little bit after Richard got up to go to work, but the cats were having none of that. Ah well. So instead I got up and ate breakfast with Richard, and after he left for work I poked around on my computer for a bit, and then finally decided I ought to be at least slightly productive with my day. So I set up the crockpot to cook up a whole pile of chicken in preparation for this weekend’s cooking spree, and throughout the morning I alternated between tackling the mountain of dishes in the sink (oh, how we both miss having a functional dishwasher!) and putting together a double batch of quesadillas and tamale pie to stash in the freezer for the weeks ahead.

I had Richard help me put on the arm brace this morning, since I can’t pull it tight enough by myself (although I suspect if I really do have to wear this for months, I’ll eventually get the hang of it). I’ve noticed that it has to be fairly tight to be effective so that when I do silly things like pull a large pan of stuff out of the oven with my right hand (because I am right handed, darn it, and using my left hand to do this sort of thing is just not natural), I was still okay. But *because* it is so tight, I’m noticing that it’s impacting other things I do – namely knitting. Richard reminded me that if I was going to finish a certain secret project in time, I probably ought to start it ASAP. So I rummaged through the yarn closet (in dire need of organization, one of these years) and found appropriate yarn and cast on and realized shortly thereafter that I can only knit for short stints at at time when wearing this brace. Ugh. And while it is tempting to take the brace off to knit, I also know that knitting for *long* periods of time was aggravating my elbow.

I went to First Friday craft night, as this was the First Friday of November, and picked up my mom on the way, and it was a very small group this time, which was nice. The hostess’s cat decided she was in dire need of some lap time Right Now, so it worked out well for me – I could knit for short periods of time and then take a break mainly because I suddenly had a very determined cat on my lap who made it quite clear that I was to sit there and do nothing but give her attention.

Posted for NaBloPoMo.