Prepare for a rant...

Some of you know that we selectively vaccinate our children on a delayed schedule. At this point in time, Cassidy is fully vaccinated with the exception of the Varicella vaccine (chicken pox). This was not an issue in Wisconsin where it is possible to file a personal/philosophical objection. In fact it was painless to file this objection when Cassidy was enrolled in Madison public schools, a simple form, signed by both myself and our physician. In fact one of the pediatricians in our doctor's office there, is an infectious disease specialist! Dr D and I have had many great conversations on this topic, and although he encourages vaccinations, he agreed with, at least in part, our decisions!

So, as you New Yorkers will know...here we only have medical and religious exemption. The only way to get the waiver here is to file a letter with the superintendant of schools, who then passes that letter on to the district's lawyer. The lawyer in the end decides if we qualify based on NY statute. Not a doctor of medicine....nor the CHILD'S PARENTS!

So for the past few days I've investigated writing this letter, and even contacted a lawyer who specializes in this area of law within New York, only to find that it is rare to actually get the waiver, and expensive at that (retaining fees for the lawyer filing the letter, and possible future court battles) I read some pretty scary scenarios of county health departments threatening families who do not vaccinate, with the possible removal of children from their homes. So am I prepared to fight this?

No.

I caved and asked the superintendant to issue a "stay" so that Cassidy can stay in school until the end of the month, by which time our new insurance will start, and I will have interviewed our new pediatrician. I feel obligated at this point to follow through with this. Richard on the other hand disagrees and thinks I should continue to fight, saying "whites break treaties all the time". And pointing out that it is stressful, as an Indian, to comprehend purpously injecting your child with ANY sort of pox.

A lot of people have asked me why we are opposed to vaccination and I want to point out that we are not fully opposed to them. I believe they have their place (at least some of them). And how we came to these conclusions date back to an incident in Cassidy's infancy.

Probably the one I oppose the most is the Hep B vaccination, specifically, its use on infants. When Cassidy was born, we were offered the vaccination on the day we were being discharged from the hospital, and signed the forms. She did indeed have the first injection of Hepatitis B at 2 days old. I can use the parental ignorance trump card, or the fact that even 2 days post delivery, I was completely strung out on magnesium sulfate. I will do neither....These were things I just didn't think too much about.

A month later at a well child visit with Dr L, she was to get the second round of Hepatitis B. At that point I was still believing that the medical field knew more than I did and just accepted it without thinking too much about it. So the nurse came in, gave Cassidy the injection, THEN handed me the form I needed to sign giving consent with the leaflets about adverse reactions.  Upon arriving home, feeding Cassidy, and giving her a dose of tylenol for the lowgrade fever she now had, I sat down to read the leaflets. Among the list of "side effects" was coma and/or death. These are side effects? That set me off on an information quest, and after reading tons of materials both pro and con, we made the informed decision to selectively vaccinate our children on a delayed schedule.

My biggest problem with the varicella vaccine is that the rate of adverse effects from the immunization is higher than complications of the actual disease, and by a huge number at that (varicella reactions are something like one in two thousand where chicken pox complications are like 1 in millions)

And lets not forget the drug companies who I think care very little about the patient and only their bottom line (can you say Vioxx?) And does everyone forget about the rotavirus vaccine that popped on the market then disappeared quickly because it caused harm to infants? And what disturbs me is that the lobbying done by drug companies controls the state's vaccination laws, taking away the parents rights, the CHILDREN's rights and putting them in the hands of lawmakers.

I'll end this rant now since I think I've laid it out pretty well. And I do feel better having typed it all out. So on to knitting content....

I purpously avoided the wool/angora yarn on Sunday to see if I had any more sinus issues. I stayed far away from it and not a single symptom, so it makes me wonder about the allergy again.

The sockapalooza socks made it to my sock pal (I tracked the package) but I havent heard from her on the fit, so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed!

All four components of the sweater, with its seams ripped and ready to start unraveling.

It took me a bit longer to get these apart, as the angora is a bit "fuzzy" and made it difficult to see the seaming thread.

Big pile o' yarn. This is, I believe the sweater's back portion. Originally I had intended to use the ballwinder to unravel the sweater as I have in past attempts. However the "fuzz" kept snagging and I nearly stripped the gears of my winder. So I did all four pieces by hand, then wound into balls for easier handling.

Last night I managed to get one of the wound balls hanked on my swift. I'll do the other three at some point today when Connor isnt nearby to grab at my swift and get them washed and hung to dry.

Its a lovely yarn really, except that yesterday while working with it I started to get some pretty heavy sinus symptoms. Intense sinus pain really. Makes me wonder if I'm allergic to angora (I know I'm not allergic to wool) We'll see if the symptoms come back today after working with it some more.

I will update later today with more pics! (If I remember!)

Busy day today, as the boys and I had many errands to run. Since I didn't make it to the liquor store a few nights ago for the pina colada makings, that was added to the itinerary. The grocery store, the library, the bank, yada yada.

In an effort to at least try to keep up with the theme of tonight's mom group, tropical, we made a quick stop at the Salvation Army in the hopes of finding a Hawaiian shirt or sun hat (I was willing to walk away with a sombrero if I could find one!) But alas...no such thing there. HOWEVER...I did find this and for a measley 25 cents!

All seams have been checked and "conditions are ideal" for a ripping session!

It is a size XS, so it will not be enough yarn to make something for myself, but certainly plenty to make a cozy sweater for Cassidy.

There were TONS of sweaters there. But the boys were running amok and I couldnt concentrate on searching and seam checking.

On to the good house news. We got an offer this morning on the house in Madision. Not an ideal offer so we're countering. With some additional luck, the buyer will accept our counter and we can put the nightmare of selling this house behind us!

IF I get to ripping the Limited sweater today (doubtful) I'll post pictures on the progress. I love reading other blogs that document the ripping process!

I printed up the postage for my sockapalooza socks and noticed that stamps.com has a place for a "memo". Not sure what it was and what it would do, I entered SOCKAPALOOZA! Sure enough it prints just that in big bold letters along the bottom of the label!

Oh and Nataly...where is your blog? I went to visit and see what P and the mancup were up to today (and how y'all were feeling) and the link is dead?

All ready to go, and without a post card. Richard wasn't able to run to the Union and it will be next week before I can make the time to get out and search again, so off it goes without one.

Wrapped up with a  bit of dyed wool, one of the ball labels for care information, and the amazing matching jelly beans. And I'll tuck in a note before I seal up the package. I will be on pins an needles until my pal receives them and confirms that they actually fit! Hint...my pal's feet are not "average size" (thats all I'll say!)

I washed them yesterday in a mesh bag with some Dreft, tossed them in the dryer for 10 minutes to "re-shape" (they were totally HUGE right out of the washer!) then laid them flat to dry, which took no time at all.

In other "knitting news", I'm halfway through Hermoine's Cable And Bobble Hat for Cassidy. Not red Cascade 220, as in Prisoner Of Azkaban, but instead Cassidy's favorite color, PINK. Besides I have tons of this pink superwash wool. Maybe I'll get the matching mittens done before spring arrives too!

Now off to package up for the sock pal, print postage, and get this thing out to the mailbox! More later today after I finish my momming chores!

My quest last night, for a post card to send with the sockapalooza socks, was a total bust. Granted I didn't hit every store in the city, but I went to a good variety of stores and none had a single one. At the one store I asked about a postcard, the girl told me she had heard that before, that people had a hard time finding them here.

So the last effort today is that Richard will try to go to the school's union and see if they have one (they should) but if he can't fit it in today, or he doesnt find one, my package will be sent off without one

I did find a treat though! As I was browsing the aisle of goodies, a bag of jelly beans, remarkably, identical to the colors of the socks jumped out at me. So jelly beans it is!

Now for today's gripe. I'll give the SNOW a rest (which made another lake effect appearance last night) Cassidy came home from school yesterday telling me that today is the day where they dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. Now...this is a great idea, however do you think they could have given parents a week's warning so that we could talk with her about it and more importantly come up with the costume?
Cassidy chose to be a  ballerina. Luckily we do have a ballet outfit. Problem was that it had been packed up since the move. I had to dig in boxes to find the various components of said outfit. What if she wanted to be say a firewoman? Or some other profession that required a bit more planning?

/rant over

Today my goal is to clean out the kids drawers and rid the house of outgrown clothes, packing away what Connor will eventually be able to use. While digging for Cassidy's ballet outfit, (once again) it was apparent that my children have way too many clothes.

And I would love to be able to get my sewing desk put together in the three seasons room. That will require combining some boxes that we have no intention of unpacking, and organizing some other things. If I don't get to that today, it won't be the end of the world.

For knitting content. I managed to knit about 3 rows of a soaker yesterday. The boys were hardcore baddies right up until bedtime. By the time I got them in bed, I could barely keep my eyes open. I watched the first 15 minutes of the new show on Fox, "House" when I got under the sheets, but quickly drifted off to sleep. Anyone watch it? Can you tell me what happened?

Speaking of missed shows...I forgot about "Lost" last week and totally missed the boat on setting up the DVR (not remembering it until the next day!) Why cant there be an "On Demand" channel for missed shows???? I should go set up the DVR right now.....just in case.

and I'm trying not to get pissy about it! For those new to reading my blog...the "four letter word" is SNOW. SNOW is my arch-nemesis, the pain in my ass (or pain in my back when I'm shoveling that horrible white crap)

I do need to get out later this afternoon to pick up a post card to ship with the sockapalooza socks, and probably a treat or two to tuck inside the package. I wonder if there is anything I can send along that is uniquely "Cortland NY" other than apples (I don't think its a good time of year to send apples in the mail!)

In any case, I hope my pal likes them and more importantly that they fit! I'm extremely proud of them. Its the first pair of socks, other than Fuzzy Feet that I've managed to actually finish. Oh wait..I did make a pair of itty bitty baby socks for Connor. But do they really count? They took me half a day to make BOTH socks.

So whats on the agenda for today? Actually minimal knitting. Laundry is a bit backed up from being under the weather. And at some point I'm going to have to go out and tackle the driveway full of snow, however that will wait until the snow actually slows down a bit. I also need to write up my shopping list for the market run tonight. I've been invited to a mom's group this week (hi Nan if your reading this!) and the theme is warm, tropical, south of the border etc. I'm bringing the makings for pina coladas, complete with little umbrellas.

Oh...and a stop at the library...apparently the book I requested arrived (ok it wasnt that long of a wait afterall huh?) And I need to renew Knit To Fit (a knitting relic but chock full of incredible information!)

edited on 3/15/2005 to add:

Sockapalooza socks have been mailed and recieved (via the USPS tracking number) but no word yet from my pal. Pal if you read this, can you please drop me a note or comment letting me know that they did indeed arrive and more importantly that they fit

edited on 3/16/2005 to add:

My pal got her socks! And they fit! Read her blog here

I finished the sockapalooza socks. Thanks to this continued cold/flu (which has now spread to my sinus cavity and causing a great deal of pain) So unable to sleep, I stayed up late and finished these up.

So as you can tell by reading above, we are indeed still battling germs, but at least we're making progress towards wellness.

On Saturday, after being urged by Mom (and Bob and Marty) we drove down to Binghamton for the camping get together (no camping this time of year, but all of the folks that camp at East Lake over the summer, get together during the off season months and bring a dish to share and just sit around and talk. It was a lot of fun and the kids were great. And the food! Sausage and peppers, stromboli, mom's German potato salad, and tons more. Richard whipped up two batches of dip, one hot and one mild (corn, avacado, black beans, jalapenos, lime, etc) and everyone loved it (those that like spicy anyway)

Sunday was super duper lazy day. I did venture out of the house briefly to get a tray of pizza from Pudgies for dinner (yes, so lazy that we didn't feel like cooking anything) Call it recovery day if you will but neither Richard or I had the energy to do much of anything at all.