The Sunday Story, Finally

I had a mild headache today, and I was afraid that it was going to get worse, and prevent me for yet another day from presenting the Sunday recap (wouldn't that have been tragic? I know!). But although it isn't gone, it isn't bad, so I will persevere, and blame the head for any mistakes I make. Works for me!

Before I start, I have a few updates:

• Since I know you're dying of curiosity: I did not have to take a cold shower again this morning. I did get started a little earlier than usual, just in case, and it was perfectly fine. Showering earlier means tweaking my morning routine, and I NEED a morning routine because I am so not a morning person (so, so, SO not a morning person), but since the paper never gets here in time anyway, I might as well. Though it needs adjusting: I stepped out into the hall this morning and was about to lock the door when I realized I was wearing slippers.
• I went to bed after the second period last night, with the radio on, but fell asleep before the game ended. Perhaps fortunately, since it went all the way to a shoot-out! The Bruins won, and I got to see highlights online this morning, so it was okay. They play again tonight; I bet I don't make it to the end again, but we'll see.
• I did get back on the bike last night, if only for five minutes. This is important because, what with being sick last week and having the mystery hamstring aches the week before, I was in danger of falling out of the habit. I am really trying to keep it up--that sock isn't going to knit itself--but feel free to ask me about it. Accountability is good. Also, instead of clock-watching for the time, I used the timer on the iPad, so I could pretend I wasn't desperate to get off. Much better!
• Last Saturday, I read about an iPad app that some cities and towns in MA are using for things like reporting potholes that need filling. Coincidentally, a street near me has some appalling new potholes that I've been meaning to report; the whole street desperately needs repaving, but until it's warm enough for that, those holes need patching. (It's surprisingly difficult to type a sentence with "whole" and "holes" correctly the first time.) My little town is one of those using this app, obviously, or why would I mention it, so I downloaded it to the iPad, created an account, and filed a report. This morning? The potholes were patched. Wow! How 21st century is that?

All right, enough of that: on to Sunday! This was my third annual westward trip to visit my friend during Girl Scout cookie season, which provides excellent impetus for a visit. Not that she's far away, it takes me about an hour and a quarter to get there, but I'm lucky if I get out there two or three times a year, and this is one of them. Here's last year's post, which itself contains a link to the post about the year before.

My friend has a good idea of what will amuse me, meaning that she waited until I arrived to give the new chicks their daily bath.

This kind of chicks:

They're very young, and need to have their little butts cleaned to avoid nasty complications. Or so I learned. Who knew? Spa day for the chicks.

The little tub was originally meant for decor, holding soaps. In case you were wondering. It's just the right size!

Clearly wondering what she ever did to deserve this, while the other wonders, why am I alone?

Then once they've been washed, they have to be dried, of course.

Some positions are more dignified than others.

I can't do a thing with it...

All right, enough of that! It was just too funny not to photograph. The two of us bugged out shortly thereafter, leaving her husband and kids and heading west. I didn't get pictures of this, but they're tapping the trees already: sugaring! Spring really is coming.

We talked a mile a minute, catching up, and stopped for brunch in Hadley: we were driving along route nine, and I had a sudden memory of when I went to college out there, and there was a place, called the Stables ... that was many years ago, but it's still there, and the parking lot was pretty full, so we went in and it smelled good, and we waited. And it was good, oh, so good. Bacon!

We kept driving west, and soon after that, we hit the low part of the day. Because it turns out, tragically, that Webs is not open on Sunday. (Why? Whhhyyyyyy??) The cars misleadingly in the parking lot were there for a class. It turns out that last year, I visited on President's Day, so that was Monday, and the year before I went out on a Saturday. How could they do this to us? Mind you, budget-wise, it was probably for the best, but is was still a major disappointment.

There is another yarn store in Northampton, a fact I've never understood by the way, but it too was closed on Sundays (missing a golden opportunity there). However, we had a nice browse around some other stores, including a good used bookstore called the Raven, where I uncharacteristically bought the second book of a series that I haven't read the first of--but it looked really good, it was four bucks, and I'm getting the first from the library, so I'll report back on that. What I'm trying to say is that we had a nice time, and it was a pleasant day in spite of it all.

When we headed east again, we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts to get my friend an iced coffee, and I thought I'd get a coolata (their version of a coffee-milkshake-drink), but it turned out that they were cleaning the machine...

Then we stopped at a bison farm that just opened a market, since my friend had only good things to say about ground bison, but they didn't have any, just that day...

Are you sensing a theme to our day?

To make up for my missed coolata, we swung into a Panera and I got a frozen caramel (delicious!), and then to (not really but kind of) make up for missing yarn shopping, we walked down to Michaels. We passed a really baffling store on the way: Dave's Soda and Pet City. Soda and pet supplies? I looked at the website later, and I still don't understand.

At Michaels, I got one skein of (blue)(clearance) yarn, and a nifty tool that I hope will help with my gauge thing:

I'll report back on that, as well.

By the time we got back to central MA, it was time for me to take my Girl Scout cookies, and fresh eggs from the hens (yum!), and one final surprise:

A good friend sees a PEI plate at a thrift store and thinks of me. You should see my smile.

I have to get to the Bruins game, so I'll leave you with some things I took pictures of in Noho. Random!