Not *So* Okay...

Well kids, the biopsies came back and as it turns out, I in an advanced stage of Celiac Disease. Also called celiac sprue, it means that I can no longer eat any gluten whatsoever for the rest of my life. No more fried calimari at the Cheesecake Factory, no more birthday cake, no more bread, no more pasta, no more breakfast pastries... The list is truly endless.

The short of it is the Celiac Disease (CD) is a genetic autoimmune disease. I have always had it at some level, but it wasn't until my body was so extremely stressed after the death of my dad and grandad last summer that my immune system couldn't handle fighting the poison I was feeding myself (eating gluten triggers a toxic response) *and* keeping me generally healthy. So it stopped fighting the gluten and I got sick. Really sick. And it sucked.

Lucky for me, it is easier to live with celiac than ever before. It used to be that you would need to buy most of your grain-food through mail order. I went into Whole Foods on Friday and was wandering around looking at the entire grocery store like it was out to poison me and I asked a person there what in the world I could do. She pointed me to several hot-spots in the store for gluten-free food, but then said (I love this) that I should just call and make an appointment with the special diets grocery buyer and they'll take me through the whole store and show me what I can eat. How fucking cool is that?? I was amazed.

This weekend Jon and I headed out to E. And T.'s family cabin for some relaxation with another couple of our best friends, M. and B. The babies were in attendence (although the dogbaby stayed at daycare because it would be just too much to have him as well as the baby boys) and they were cute as can be. It made me want to kick up the baby knitting again. Jon was interested in caring for the little ones and learning what he could... It was very cute. He is goign to be an awesome dad.

Because we were away from civilization, I got a lot of knitting time. We also brought up the spinning wheel and lots of wool. I taught E. to Navajo ply (she's a spinning natural!) and M. loves to watch us go. At one point, I was spinning and B. remarked what a peaceful sound the wheel makes. I couldn't agree more; it's such an old, organic, soothing sound it never fails to relax me instantly. I 2-plied for the first time and made this:



Here's a closer look:



This is what the very first Corriedale that I ever dyed turned into. I am completely in love with it!

Meanwhile Rogue, she progresses:



And here's Huxley making biscuits. Off the knitting, cat!