I Love My Feet (for a change)

Recheck with the podiatrist today. He did a small miracle on my feet.

For several years, I've had a lot of foot pain, even at times enough to keep me from sleeping. I wrote it off to getting older and carrying too much weight. Recently, however, I found a podiatrist by getting a name from a colleague and went, hoping for a little relief. He examined them and asked me how moving them in certain ways felt, x-rayed them and then he told me that wearing othotic supports in my shoes is the treatment of choice for my foot problems.

He actually held my foot above a scanner - looked just like an Epson scanner with no lid, and was hooked up to a laptop, and then he ordered the custom orthotics. My insurance covered most of the cost, and it took a week or two to get them.

I've been wearing them a couple weeks. The pain stopped in the first few days. I also have a neuroma on one foot that gives me numbness and strange sensations, and that has stopped unless I go barefoot for a while.

Knit Club with Mildred & Barbara

Knit Club with just Mildred and Barbara. It happens sometimes, especially in the dead of summer, that just a few diehards attend.

Mildred Beeson brought a Mattel knitting machine and we all played around with it. It has needles arranged in a circle for maybe 15 or 16 stitches and makes tubes. It knits very well with furry or hairy yarn.

What fascinated me about the Mattel is that it isn’t the typical latch-hook knitting mechanism. The Mattel stabs the yarn through the loop of the stitch in the round above.

Capitol Area Council Boy Scouts Safari Dinner Fundraiser

This is a fun evening for me, work wise, a fundraiser for the Boy Scout Council where I work. It’s not my project, but John and I get to attend, meet the people, and see the exotic animals, and then we help with checkout.

The Safari Dinner and Auction fundraiser for Capitol Area Council, Boy Scouts of America is held at the Texas Disposal Systems Exotic Wildlife Ranch, an absolutely stunning facility on grassy grounds populated with dozens of exotic species. They even have log cabins that are designer-built and luxurious. The facility is used week in and out by a great many charities in Austin. The owners let charities use it free of charge.

Casino Night at Austin CPA Chapter

We just attended the fundraiser for the Austin CPA Chapter, the Casino Night. We do this once a year to raise money for scholarships for accounting students. We have a company come in that supplies the gaming tables, dealers, and the like, and we play for poker chips. We turn the poker chips in for raffle tickets, and there are always great raffle items. There is also a silent auction, and I try to donate something but didn’t this year.

The Scholarship Fund makes money on admissions and on the silent auction. There are usually enough sponsoring companies to cover the cost of the party.
This year we had it in a different place – not a hotel, as we have had in the past, but at the Saengerrunde Hall downtown. The Saengerrunde group is a German singing club, which has been operating in Austin for many, many years, and they have a terrific facility downtown. There’s a stage, tables, a dance floor, everything nice and well-kept but casual, and in the back there’s even a small bowling alley. John had a look through the door at the bowling lanes, and I wish I’d thought of having a look. There was a fellow there from the club who was very friendly, and John had a long talk with him about the Saengerrunde society and how it all works. This was absolutely the best place we’ve had our party, in my opinion, because we had lots of room to move around and it had such a relaxing, casual atmosphere.

This year’s theme was Western, and fajitas were catered by Sholtz’ beer hall next door. It was a terrific evening. John played craps, and I played a little while. There was so much space that it was easy to gossip with friends.

There are photos over at http://www.cpascount.org.