Updating, Last Week and the Weekend

I wish now that I had written yesterday, for I'm rather crabby today, and that's not something to preserve, but there we are. The vet was here this morning, and then I did my taxes, and neither improved my mood. I have a slight-but-worrying throat and cough, and the weather is gloomy. Laundry, dishes, vacuuming. A grey day all around.

The vet visit was to follow up with Carlos, since his blood-in-urine issue last fall was inconclusive. She took the urine, which thankfully looked more clear than last time, and she took blood to test too, so we'll see how that turns out. (I've told him that if he doesn't live forever I'll kill him, but he mostly ignores what I say.) She also took his blood pressure, yes, with a little cuff on his "arm," which was hilarious, and the number was surprisingly low; he's such a laid-back guy, even with the poking and prodding, so that's all good. 

Hopefully the test results will be too, and then I can take him in for dental work, which she says he badly needs. Certainly his breath is foul! Or I wouldn't call him "swamp breath" sometimes. He didn't enjoy the morning, but he did manage to relax later. I sent her the picture, since she'd asked if he usually sat "like that" when he got onto the bed after being released. No, he doesn't, he "sits" like this!

The vet also wants him to have an x-ray, because his lungs sound possibly asthmatic, and when he walks his spine is a little humped instead of flat, which could mean problems. It could also be fine, but best to check. And he's my baby and worth it, that goes without saying, but you can't believe how much it all costs. Sigh. And he's lost some weight, so I have to keep an eye on that, weigh him and let her know. Thank heavens she was able to get the urine sample: at first, she was having trouble, and let me admit freely that the idea of following him to the box with a cup to get a sample did not appeal to me in the slightest. She didn't seem to be kidding, but what a joke.

As long as I was already depressed by that whole morning, I decided to get my taxes out of the way. I started them a few weeks ago, and when I got far enough to see that there was no big refund this year (thanks to unemployment), I put off finishing. But it has to be done, of course, and in fact I do get some back from the Feds--just not as much as I owe the state, so that's tiresome. Add the gray skies and flurries, and you can see why my mood isn't sunny.

Still and all, I had a sweet cat next to me on the couch as I started writing this, and I could start this on the couch thanks to the iPad, so that's something good (I don't find it easy to blog on the tablet, but it's sort of possible). And if I need to buy less yarn in the next month or months, well, fortunately, I have enough to last far longer than that!

Now, back to last week. I'm not sure if I'm blogging less because of chiropractic getting me home later* a few nights a week, or having Bruins games to watch, or both, or something else, but there we are: it's been harder to get myself here. (Perhaps it's partly the iPad, too, since I can sit on the couch, with Carlos, watching the hockey game, and check e-mail, without having to be at the computer.) So, what was going on last week?
*Not late, but later, and it doesn't take much to throw off my routine.

I saw the Yarn Harlot! As I mentioned last week, she was teaching some classes in the area, and gave a talk as well. She's such an entertaining speaker, and of course it's a focused group, knitters, so we get all the jokes ("it's not like everyone can carry emergency knitting..."). Since the purse sock I had going was too close to the toe to bring, I had to* cast on a new one; I chose the Ella Rae Lace Merino yarn I got--a year ago, sheesh, you wouldn't know I'd been dying to try it!
*I know, I know, but really I had to!

I got this far Friday night (thanks, Stephanie):

As she was holding another sock for a photo, a few people ahead of me in line, she mused aloud on how hard it was to answer the question, "What is the purpose of your trip?" when she went through customs. Do you even try to be honest?

The yarn colors really suit my project bag, by the way, especially the inside:

And the yarn is so soft, and behaving quite well so far. I went back to the other sock this weekend, too, and got it done today. It's the first of a pair, so I need to make another in that yarn. Here it is pre-toe.

But I can work on the blue one for now. Though I ought to cast on the second gold one, so it's ready to grab when I need it. Ooh, forethought. I impress myself.
What else last week? Well, that awful pain in my hamstrings last Monday, which had me hobbling all day, got better over the next few days, but kept me all but completely off the bike all week. I guess stretching the quads isn't enough; what I was doing to try to stretch other leg muscles either didn't get those, or didn't do them enough good. Awesome, I needed exercise to get more complicated! Have to work on that. You wouldn't think riding a stationary bike would require so much preparation. Well, at least I wouldn't think so.

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I heard from two different people recently that my blog now starts playing music shortly after they open it. I keep my speakers off unless I'm listening to something, so I hadn't heard it, but sure enough, it's there. I have no idea why, and my google-fu failed to find an answer. Any ideas? I found results for how to add music to your blog, but not explaining why it would show up uninvited. Here we go again with complications.

The blog is also getting deluged with spam since I took the comment verification off. (Are these two related? Could be, but maybe not.) Does anyone want to speak up in defense of keeping the word verification off? Because although the spam can be highly amusing, and although Blogger's filter catches most of it, some of it still gets through, so I have to keep checking and removing, which gets old.

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I had to call a customer service line for something recently, and I had a little trouble with the guy's accent. No, he didn't sound like he was a non-native English speaker, but I still had trouble, and it took me a minute to realize who he sounded like: Tim Conway on The Carol Burnett Show. "Miss-is a-Wiggins..."

I'm still not sure what he said in the middle there...

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I was listening to the radio, and I changed the station just in time to hear the DJ say, "That song could annoy the paint off a bus." What song? I'm so curious.

 

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There's nothing like reading about dry eye syndrome to make one self-conscious about blinking.

 

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A final thought on the iPad: apps and podcasts. I'm ready to dip my toe in the water. And recommendations? Advice? Thoughts in general?