Two steps forward, one step back

July 4th was different for us this year - George was at home for the first time in many years (more about that later), and we were invited to a BBQ at Cindy and Alex's house; they are fun, good friends, and Maverick was welcome to come with us. Here's a photo of Maverick's Corgi friend, Darby, showing her patriotism by wearing the Statue of Liberty hat after dinner and before the fireworks. We also decided, for the first time, to sedate Maverick. Our poor hound gets so frantic during fireworks that he paces, whines, and can't settle down at all - if he weren't with us, he would certainly be a candidate to become a wild-eyed runaway dog. There's no telling what he was thinking after we gave him the meds, but he was able to just sleep through most of the pops and booms this year. So we all slept better than in years past.

The following day, Maverick was in the back yard when he got a visit from a dog which looked very much like him. She was the same coloring and slightly smaller, but very thin and due to the shape of her face, she was likely a boxer-pitbull mix. She jumped the fence and ran with Maverick for awhile - she appeared to be well cared for, so we're guessing she may have escaped during the fireworks. We fed her, watered her and called for Animal Control to see if she was micro-chipped, but they weren't going to be open again until Tuesday!!! We couldn't keep her, and she didn't stick around... we truly hope she has reunited with her owners.

All the pieces for my Lynton sweater are complete. The shoulders are seamed, the front pieces are bordered, and the collar has been picked up and knitted about 3cm into the ribbing. I panicked and bought more yarn, and now it doesn't appear that I will need the extra, although with the size of this collar and the fact that it is ribbed, I'll withold judgement until completion. I'm loving this sweater and can't wait to finish it. Cotton Jeans is beautiful yarn and I love the Blue Wash color I chose as well as the lovely texture it has with this gauge (sorry the photo contrast isn't great - I'll do better with the finished piece). I'm dreading all the sewing in of ends - it's never fun, and even worse with cotton yarn, but a small price to pay (I'm telling myself). I can barely stand to wait to wear it.

So why am I on the computer instead of knitting, you might ask? My left shoulder has a hot thread of pain running through it, and it increases immensely when I pick up my needles. I'm not sure whether I did something else, or whether I'm just stressed when I knit because I'm working hard to keep a tight gauge on the Lynton. I went to sleep in pain last night and have been popping ibuprofen all day. I have a massage scheduled for Saturday, and may need to move it up. So I'm giving it a rest and not knitting tonight. And I don't really need to say how hard that is, do I?

George always works the 4th of July at Gasworks Park. It's one of those days that every officer works, either on duty at regular pay, or overtime at holiday pay, and George looks forward to it each year. On July 2nd, the day after my previous post, George was injured while attempting to stop a suspect running from another police officer through a retail store. The suspect was running all out and George was off to one side and could not get a grip on the man; the force instead tumbled George into a clothing rack where his knee landed sideways on the foot of the rack. Thanks to a citizen, the man was stopped and George and the first officer were able to take the suspect into custody. George was taken to emergency where doctors told him some deep bruising had taken place, but they are hoping there are no tears to the ligaments. George also has some bruising at his ribcage and a large bluish toe from the incident. And he is back at home, trying to heal up to get back to work and back to his motocross racing. He's been told that he will be at home for at least a week, but he is not healing as quickly as he had hoped and will now miss the motocross race this weekend so will wait a month before he can race again. The good news is that the suspect did not attempt to use a weapon, so the injury is not life-threatening. And the other good news is that his recovery from surgery is complete, as no pain is coming from those areas.

So, we're making progress, a little bit at a time! And we are enjoying this warmer weather!