I feel like I have a knee full of chopsticks

I feel rather like I have a lapful of spaghetti and chopsticks. I am knitting long legged soakers for a fellow Knitty Nora member's baby girl but the wool has not got a good yardage and so I do not have enough wool for the legs. The wool was hand dyed so I could not ask for another ball. I introduced some cream wool into the leg and last night knitted one leg in a broken striped pattern but when I got up this morning I didn't like it very much so I unravelled it. I decided that I would not have enough wool to complete the second leg the same way. I decide then to search out another set of needles and work both legs at the same time so that any striping would be identical and I could see how the wool was working out. So I now have 7 double pointed needles and 4 balls of wool to tangle with! I am a glutton for punishment. I just hope that she likes the finished random effect.

I went to the dentist yesterday to do the impression for my bite guard. I hate that squishy feeling when I had to bite down into the soggy sticky pink rubber tasting goo. I had a mouthful, a tongue full and even a face full by the time he had finished. Good job I wasn't wearing any make up as I had bits of rubber solution sticking all over my face and chin and not just around my mouth. I have no idea how it finished up everywhere.

I didn't make it to water aerobics today for various reasons (mostly laziness and apathy!) but I did get a bit of good news yesterday. I hopped on the scales (which is a thing I don't usually do) in preparation for trying to start a diet and discovered that I have lost 5lbs since my last weigh in 2 weeks ago. The hospital had weighed me then and I was convinced that their scales were wrong so I had hopped on mine when I got home. All I have done differently is to stop taking my HRT for the last 2 weeks. I had always insisted that I had gained weight after I started on them but everyone in the medical profession that I said this to just poo pooed the suggestion. They said it was just because I was eating more because I felt better. I knew I was eating the same amount as usual but thought that they knew best.

I found out today that one of my neighbours is having a very similar back operation to me in the next couple of weeks. Same hospital but different surgeon. I hope hers goes well otherwise it will start my nerves off if she has any problems. I am quite surprised they are doing it as she is quite a lot fatter than I am but maybe different surgeons have different rules for weight. I am not nervous at the moment as it all seems to be a long time away. My pre-op is not until beginning of April so I am not expecting to go in before May or June.

I had a shock today in the form of my gas bill. I haven't used any more gas and am pretty frugal with the central heating and the thermostat and it has really gone up such a lot. I was convinced that theymust have read the meter wrong but they haven't. The upshot of it is that they have now put my direct debit up by £10 a month to cover it. My pension is going up £4 a week but the way that every utility bill is going up people in my situation just get poorer and poorer. True we get £200 a year just before Christmas but that still doesn't make up for all the price increases. No wonder old people freeze to death. I am lucky. I am still pretty active despite my back problems but I do feel chilly in the house on really cold days. I couldn't afford to keep the heat on all day. I bought a calor gas heater with last year's heating allowance but haven't used it much. I can see I will be dragging it back out of the garage soon unless the weather gets warmer soon.