Blue Monday...

Apparently, today has been classified as the most depressing day of the year! According to wiki :

This date was calculated by Dr. Cliff Arnall, a researcher/tutor at the University of Cardiff's Center for Lifelong learning [...] The date was calculated by using many factors, plugged into a formula. The factors include: weather conditions, debt level (the difference between debt accumulated and our ability to pay), time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and feeling of a need to take action.

I hadn't heard about this until my husband mentioned it at dinner tonight. But I have to say I had been having a bummer of a day until then so it all made sense to me. It all started innocently enough with one of those regular pregnancy follow-up appointments.

But, it turns out my belly is huge and my doctor is getting concerned about the size of my little lemon so I have to go for a growth check ultra-sound. No biggie (no pun intended). Yes it's an extra appointment, but at least we get another peak at the little guy which is always a reassuring and happy moment.

Then she took my blood pressure and after being borderline for the past few months it crossed the line today so I have to go to the hospital tomorrow morning for monitoring and if it is still high I'll need to move to the 'at risk' pregnancy queue ... again! I had gestation hypertension when I was pregnant with Julian and know the drill - lot's of tests, monitoring and drugs! Ugh! I'll try to zen out tomorrow morning before she takes my readings and hopefully it'll be low enough that she'll let me off the hook. Wishful thinking never hurt anyone? Did it? Say it with me: "Ommmmmmmmm"!

So all in all, the check-up was a total downer. And then when we got back to the car...we had a $52 parking ticket waiting! What? My doctor's office is in a lovely cottage house on a quiet street in an area so suburban it is practically the country and we managed to get a parking ticket at 9:21 am on a Monday morning! Seriously! I didn't even think they had parking ticket people in these parts. We didn't notice a sign (though there probably was one) and weren't blocking any intersections, driveways or fire hydrants so really why would there be no parking allowed there? Plus, we usually park on the other side of the street where there is a big empty parking lot, but this time my goony goo goo decided to park on the same side as the clinic so I wouldn't have to walk as far or cross the street, or chance slipping on ice (shouldn't he get some kind of lifetime thoughtfulness award? really, he's such a caring husband ;0) And $52 for a parking ticket in suburbia? Come on. It's only $37 for a parking infraction in the heart of downtown Montreal!

But I digress.

And now, since the last thing I want to do is tag any of you with the blue monday bummer, I thought I'd leave you with the most absurd knitting project ever! This is not a joke. It is an actual pattern from the latest Lopi pattern book.

Anybody got a horse they'd like to knit a sweater for? I think it's even funnier that Camilla Valley Farms (oh how I love this place for really reasonably priced sweater kits and such) is actually offering a kit for this pattern!

Cheers!