Saturday, March 31, 2018

Ahh, Bruins Game

Today was my Bruins game experience, and it did not disappoint. My friend and I took the T into Boston, and I had to snag a picture of this guy on the way.
Who knew there was a Bruins cowboy hat?

This is the no-zoom view from our seats. We had no seats directly in front of ours, and only a slight visual obstruction, or more of a distortion, due to the plexi barrier at the lower right there. It wasn't that annoying to see through, just something to notice.
During warm-ups, some of the guys get themselves into odd positions.
Off to our left, the bright lights of the broadcast booth before the game started.
A car on the ice? Yes, the presentation of the 7th Player Award. Congratulations to Charlie McAvoy, who sadly had to accept in a suit, since he's still out with an injury. Should be back soon!
In the starting lineup, Patrice Bergeron!
For the anthem before the game, there's always a Kid Captain who comes out to stand with the Bruins, and this time, it was a sled hockey player, so that was pretty cool.
I mean, why not, right?
The Panthers scored first, which was a slight letdown, but as I said to my friend, at least this year, you don't start to feel that oh-no sense when they let in the first one. And soon enough, they were celebrating their own goal, by Nick Holden:
And another, from Jake DeBrusk, in his return from injury:
In the second, Ryan Donato smoked one in:
My boy Bergeron got a beauty on the power play
And finally, DeBrusk got another: 
That was it for the scoring, though play did get stopped at one point on a suspected Panthers goal. Our seats were just about on the goal line, and we had had a very clear view of the puck taking a wild bounce across the net-front, off the post, and out, but I was certain it hadn't crossed the goal line, and after review, they agreed with me. Of course.

There were a couple of fights, and unfortunately a couple of injuries as well: Riley Nash took a puck to the head that seemed to injure his ear area, and Brandon Carlo went down awkwardly and hurt his leg. He had to be stretchered off, but he did hop onto the stretcher on his own, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Perhaps the bunny in the stands will send him good luck, this Easter weekend.
After the game, we went to the Pro Shop to fight the crowds and look over the merchandise, but I actually didn't find anything I couldn't live without. I did like one jacket they had, but the largest size in stock was a medium, so oh well. My friend bought me a pair of Bruins socks, which will be a nice reminder. I saw a guy on the concourse wearing one of those Life Is Good t-shirts, in a nice Bruins gold, that had a little flying hockey player and the Bruins logo, so maybe I'll be able to track one of those down online. He was wrangling a couple of little kids, so I didn't get a chance to ask him if it was a recent purchase.

I didn't buy this, either, but I took its picture.

Friday, March 30, 2018

Heading Into the Weekend

The other day, I saw a couple of references to the upcoming "long weekend" and was kind of annoyed. Do that many people get Easter Monday off? I don't think I ever have. Maybe when I was in Catholic school, so 1982.

But then I remembered that I'm taking Monday off for the condo photography, so in a way, I do get a long weekend. Hmm. Not exactly the same, but nice.

It's not that it will take all day, by the way. The photographer is coming at 10, and the realtor said she will be here around 9:45, I assume to look around and see if there's anything to change before it starts. I don't know how long it will take, but I would guess less than an hour. I just decided to take the full day so I didn't have to worry about it. If there's a delay, if the realtor wants me to do something after, whatever. Just take the day. Hopefully the rest of the day will be peaceful, and I can do some relaxing.

And hopefully I will get a nice, solid, peaceful night's sleep tonight to carry me into TOMORROW'S BRUINS GAME ADVENTURE! The game last night was great, and I would like to see some of that on Saturday, please and thank you.

I will report back.

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Stretched, If Not Snapped

Lately, I often feel like this rubber band:
Even more than the stretch itself, I feel like other hands are frequently reaching in and pulling the rubber band in other directions, and if it doesn't outright snap, it twangs painfully.

I don't know, it wasn't a particularly bad day, but for some reason it has exhausted me. I'm puttering about, gathering things for one last trip to Savers before show week starts, as well as throwing some things out, but I doubt it will be long before I am on the couch for the evening. The Bruins make a good excuse.

What's for dinner?

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Can. Not. Deal.

Something has been bugging me lately that I had decided could wait to be resolved until after the move, not just to avoid dealing with it, but because my desk setup there will be slightly different and that may affect the solution, but today it is officially Bugging the Shit Out of Me, so I may need to try to fix it sooner.

This is the crucial issue of a laptop stand.

Yes. I know. How annoying could that be, right?

Well. Let me tell you.

I've had this computer for a couple of years now, and although most things about the change from desktop to laptop are good, I don't like the angle of typing on it flat, and the way I have to bend my head down to see the screen at the same time. If I raise the entire machine up, then the screen is at a better height, but the keyboard is all wrong. I don't really want to use a separate screen, or a separate keyboard, all the time: I like the flexibility.

So a couple of years ago, I got a small, riser kind of stand, this one. Small, portable, allows for airflow under the machine. Good.

If you didn't click the link, it looks like this:
But because it folds down to this:
It is very easy for it to get just slightly out of whack, like this:
And the laptop goes off one corner and is crooked and drives me crazy. I guess since I did all the desk switching around a few months ago, I find myself sliding the laptop back and forth more often, and to get this to move, I can't just push it over, I have to lift it from both sides, carefully, and be lucky. (I don't actually mind the two hands part, but the "two hands and then it still doesn't frequently work right" part has been getting on my last nerve.)

So, back in February, I looked for something that would be similar, but not have the same kind of movable parts. I found this one, and put the old one under my work laptop, which mostly stays in one place, but benefited from the angle.

The new one looks like this:
It stands at a higher angle, but I adjusted to that. The problem was these little non-slip pads on the bottom.
They really, really don't want to let it be slid back and forth. In fact, they started to shift around, causing different but equally annoying problems in moving the stupid laptop. They annoyed me enough that the other day I switched the two stands, but today, the way the first one has of falling off one corner just drove me nuts enough to go back to using it without a stand, even with the physical discomforts that causes.

So, I need to look into a different one. If anyone has any tips, pro or con anything specific, I would be ever so grateful.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

3,100

(Blogger tells me this is published post number 3,100. How about that, eh?)

The cleaners came today, and I lived through the experience. It was odd to have them here, and having sometimes-unidentifiable noises coming from the other room, etcetera. Also, my brain just wouldn't stop trying to understand their conversation, which was not happening, since it was in Portuguese. But the place is certainly much cleaner than it was; well worth the money, to me. Now I need to not mess it up too much before Monday, when the photographer comes.

Have I mentioned that he's coming Monday? Only a thousand times? It's hard to think of much else but this. However, I am trying hard to think instead about the Bruins game that I'm going to on Saturday, instead. Mixed results, but I will keep trying. It will be fun! If I can focus on it. That will be easier once I'm there, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, the Bruins are in Winnipeg tonight, so the game didn't start until 8 Eastern. As the second period starts, my eyes are already drooping. It's been exciting so far, dubious goal call to Winnipeg's benefit to the contrary notwithstanding, and I'd like to watch all of it, but ... sleep may win.


Monday, March 26, 2018

I'll Make It Quick

So, the house cleaners were supposed to come Wednesday, but oops, have to come Tuesday instead (sigh ... don't be changing things on me now), so I need to work on the tidying-things-away tonight before I fall into bed.

So just a few quick things:

  • I went to the movies with friends last night and saw A Wrinkle in Time. Verdict: we liked it but didn't adore it, but felt they did very well with the story, considering, and the lead did an amazing job as Meg. If you wanted to see it, you'll probably like it, but I don't think it's an everyone-has-to-see-it movie.
  • My neighbor knocked on my door midday and said, "Sorry to bother you, but ... do you have water?" And I checked my faucet and no, no water coming out, surprise! I had seen that there were a few cones at the corner blocking one street, so I walked down the block and asked the guys digging the extremely large hole in the road if there might be a connection, and they said yes, and they had put out notices last week. This building and its doors ... I will not miss that, not one bit.
  • On the other hand, I had done a couple of loads of laundry before the water went off, and although I'd been thinking of running the dishwasher, had not turned it on, so it could have been much worse. And in fact, it was worse for my neighbor, who said she had wanted to shower before work. Ugh, poor thing.
  • Why is that, when you go to turn the faucet to see if the water is back on, and you know that if it is it will be loud and sputtery, when it sputters loudly, you jump? That isn't just me, right?

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Almost There ... Almost

It's been an oddly tough weekend. Partly, it hasn't been helped by being physically sore from all I've been doing recently, and tired (and not sleeping as late as I hoped to). Still, I've really done very little this weekend, in the way of physical exertion, but I am dragging, big-time.

But I guess it's mostly been emotionally tough. I'm just so on edge, so stressed by the whole situation, that I lose it over the least little thing.

  • Like the fact that it's cold with a nasty wind and there were snow flurries today.
  • Or the printer decided it was out of ink since one black cartridge was empty, even though the other black cartridge wasn't.

However!

Deep breath.

This week is the last week of pre-sale prep. Cleaners are coming in on Wednesday to spiff the place up. I will be putting away the last little "what do I do with this" things, getting ready for show week.

Saturday I'm going to the Bruins game!

Sunday is Easter, and I'm going to a family dinner with friends.

And a week from tomorrow, the photographer will come in, and show week will start, which will be the beginning of the end of this phase.

And then the actually-getting-ready-to-move phase starts, god help me. But something like two months from now, it will be over, I will be in Florida, and I can start the much more pleasant Recovery Phase. So looking forward to that.

Saturday, March 24, 2018

A Quiet, Fuzzy Day

So, the tablecloth report: I did find one, perfectly fine, for $3.99 at Savers. I put it on the table, and it's a little long.
So I put the leaf back in, which adds just ten inches, and I think that works better with the tablecloth, and still works fine in the space.
Agree, disagree? Just tell me it will do, eh?

As for the rest of the day, it's been quiet, mostly fine. Unfortunately for the sleep-in concept, I woke up at 7 this morning from a scary dream, the sort that gives one enough of a jolt to not even try to get back to sleep. So I was up, tired and achy, and not that excited about it. After a while, I formulated the start of a plan. I decided that if I was going to have a pretty quiet day, some knitting was going to have to happen. I don't seem to have blogged about it, but last month I went to the Fiber Farmer's Market in Wayland, and after almost getting out without buying any yarn, found myself unable to put down this skein of angora.
The booth actually had a variety of (natural) colors, in skeins of different sizes, and they weren't all of uniform softness. This was the second softest; the first was even more amazing, but of a deeply unfortunate shade of brown. I kept trying to think of it as chocolate, but kept going back to baby poop. And since the skein was a lot larger, it was a lot more expensive, so it wasn't hard to convince myself to "settle" for second-best. It's this, by the way:
From here:
Incidentally, the same day I bought myself this decorative potholder, because I couldn't resist it.
But back to the yarn. I have been keeping it on my desk, for when I need a little softness to pet, but today, I decided, it was time. I had previously looked for a pattern to use with it, and found a simple cowl pattern that I thought would be fine. However, my knitting needles are all packed away, and in the interest of my simple day, I decided that buying another circular needle in the size I would need was a much better choice than trying to dig out what's already packed and in the basement.

The yarn would also have to be wound, so naturally, I decided to go to a coffeehouse near the yarn store, have a little breakfast, and wind the yarn up. As you do.

Caramel latte, excellent blueberry muffin...
And a lap full of yarn.
Wind and wind, pause to sip or eat, wind and wind, and soon it was done.
With the halo of the angora making it very sticky-to-itself, winding it by hand wasn't a bad idea, even if my swift and ball winder were not packed away.

And, by the way? It turns out the owner of the coffeehouse is a knitter. She stopped on her way out, having noticed my cowl, and we had a nice chat. So perhaps it wasn't as strange there as it might have been.

I went home (after stopping for the needle), turned on an audiobook, and started knitting.
It is the softest, fuzziest thing ever. You just can't imagine.
The halo is just amazing.
I have gotten a few other things done, but this is the best part of the day, I think.

Friday, March 23, 2018

But You Get the Idea

The stage of preparing the kitchen for its closeup continues. I don't have the best before shot, but the after shots of the kitchen do, I think, get the point across.

Since I moved in, I have had this table in the bow window end of the room, with the chairs clustered around it. It filled the space and then some.
Now that they're gone, the room feels suddenly enormous.
Doesn't that make it seem easy? In fact, it hasn't been. I have tried for a few months to find someone who wanted the table, enough to deal with the coming to get it part. At last, a woman decided to take it, and she came last night*, in a Zipcar, to pick it up.
*Initial plans for Sunday night having fallen through, not to my surprise

I took the legs off*, so that we could get it out more easily, but even without the legs, the top still weighed a TON. I knew it was a sturdy thing, but I never had to move it; from the underneath, it seems like it had once had a leaf, and the hardware for that must have been solid steel. The two of us barely got it down the stairs without losing control of it. But happily, no injuries to either of us, or the building, occurred, we got it into the car (and it fit!), and off she went with it, to my great relief. Officially Somebody Else's Problem!
*Bless you, power screwdriver, that part was easy.

Since the table-taking woman didn't want the chairs, I had thought to take them in to Savers this weekend, but on the spur of the moment this morning, I decided to offer them on the local Facebook giveaway site first, and another woman was pleased to take them (three now, and the others when I move)(she has four kids, apparently they're hard on such things), and she even came for the first three this morning. And, wide open space follows!

It made me think of the time I shared a house with a friend in Charlotte. Her previous roommates had had furniture for the living room, and of course they took it with them, so when I moved in, the only thing in the whole room was a large fish tank that they had to come back for. It wasn't an enormous room, but it was so echoingly empty that we called it the grand ballroom.

And that's a little how the kitchen feels. Getting rid of that "island" opened up the middle of the room, and the big table leaving opens up the end. Opens it, in fact, for the smaller table that one of my neighbors is loaning me. Doesn't that fit better?
It's not much of a table, honestly, not that I'm knocking it. Free! Beats buying a small one I won't need for long. But I'll probably get a tablecloth to put over it.

I don't think that, in this case, I'll find one I fall in love with, unlike the wall art and bedspread stories. But I suppose only time will tell. I'll report back.

Now I'm off to rest my back, right knee, and other assorted sore muscles. The Bruins game doesn't start until 8:30, and I'd like to see some of it before I fall asleep. Cross fingers that I sleep long and well!

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Go, My Bruins

It's no Cup Raise, or No Words, but the Bruins put this little video out to celebrate that they are officially in the playoffs (with ten games left, yet), and it's pretty good.

Damn it, I can't get it to embed. Well, it's here.


Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Better! Better Is Amazing!

Last night, after I had felt wonky with the headache hangover all day, the head pain actually increased a bit, not to top levels, but enough to really upset me. Obviously, my headaches don't follow any actual rules, but I am well aware of how they usually proceed, and when one goes off the usual path, it's very hard. I can kind of face the fact that I have no control over them, but then it feels like all I have is the understanding of how they usually go. Don't take that away from me!

I think it was especially hard because of how out-of-control things feel otherwise right now. Not out-of-control like a runaway car racing down a hill, but out-of-control like someone else is driving most of the time, and I can only affect so much (slow down! hurry up! look out!). It's just how this process goes, and I can mostly take a deep breath, or a lot of them, and let it go. "This is temporary," I tell myself over and over. "You will get through it."

However, it has left me with some underlying issues, and the headache flaring up really hit a nerve. "No! That's not how it works! Once it's been horrible, it gets better, never worse! It's not fair!" You can imagine how well the universe listened to that little temper tantrum.

Today was better. Maybe not at first, but slowly, and it got to the point this afternoon when I realized, "Hey! I feel better! I mean, I'm still tired, and wow, my back is sore, but my head is kind of okay! Neat." There really is nothing like that feeling when a migraine blows out to sea.

Oh, and speaking of weather, that snow? Keeps getting pushed later and later. First it was going to Utterly Ruin Wednesday, then it was only going to mess up the evening commute, then it won't get bad until later...a few hours ago, weather.com said it would start light snow showers here by 4, and it's now 5 without a flurry and they're saying by 7. I honestly don't know if I'm going to wake up to a deep fresh blanket all over everything, or a little freezing crud, or anything in between. Either this is one weird and hard-to-predict storm, or the forecasters have just kind of given up. I could understand that, the fourth big storm in four weeks. I'm certainly over it, myself.


Tuesday, March 20, 2018

"Plans"

Last night's plans, simple ones of going to stitch and bitch, were derailed by a migraine, which had been on-and-off and mostly mild all day, but started getting worse at the chiropractor (not from anything he did, I don't think, but coincidentally). I started to drive over to SnB, just really wanting to go, but halfway there came to my senses, pulled over, texted apologetically to the friend I knew would be there, and turned around.

Once I got home, it was bad for a while, maybe an hour, maybe less, then started to get better. I got in bed for a while, not exactly sleeping but just zoning out. I couldn't get warm, and kept getting up for more layers, but maybe two hours later I got up feeling closer to human. Some saltines and ginger ale, watched part of the Bruins game, then went back to bed. My sleep was choppy, but not too bad.

And today has been postdrome, headache hangover, all the way. Woozy and low energy, but not pain. Just feeling off.

Part of that could be dread of tomorrow's snow, too. Might be another foot of it. Siiiiigh.

On the other hand, I follow this Twitter account called Emergency Kittens (@EmrgencyKittens), and today they put up this guy.
I fell in love. The ear tufts, the whiskers, the paws, the expression... He's looking at me, and I feel like he gets me, he understands, and it's all going to be all right.

Maybe I'm seeing what I need right now, but anyway. Looking at him made me feel a little better. That's worth something, on a day like this.

Monday, March 19, 2018

They Seem to Think

They're still claiming that the track of this week's storm(s) can't be predicted with certainty, but right now, they do seem to think we're getting more snow midweek.

After 17 inches last week. And I'm not sure how many inches the week before. And no snow but terrifying, howling wind the week before that. March can bite me.

I am somewhat bitterly amused at how many of my friends are now admitting that even they are tired of it. Yeah, welcome to this frame of mind. I've been here for a while.

Here's a look back at what I had to dig out from last week. I am hoping that this week will be less.

This is how it looked when I woke up last Wednesday.
And after I dug out the back of the car.
Up the driver's side.
And the rest of the driver's side.
The sun did a little work for me.
And finally I cleared off the top, then limped inside, clutching my back.
I am really hoping it won't be as many trips with this week's. It's kind of depressing me to look at these, so let's look at some color next.

Last weekend was the North Shore Yarn Crawl, and though I did not make a day trip of it, as I have so often before, I did stop in one store on Friday night. And I picked up this:
Isn't it lovely? It makes me think of stained glass. So many colors in there, so appealing to someone in a snowy March mood.
It's a brand I hadn't heard of before, Uneek.
And it is self-striping, but not at preset widths. It varies tremendously. (They had a knit sample in the shop, I should have taken a photo of it.) Anyway, I decided to wind it up, since I was getting ready to pack the swift away, and because the ball-winder is already packed, I wound it off the swift by hand.

This takes a surprisingly long time (I had a new appreciation for the ball-winder well before I was done), but was very illustrative about the long color sections in this yarn. Would you think that all of these were the same skein of yarn?


It's going to be interesting to knit with, and see how it plays out.

It was so pretty on the swift.
Hopefully, it will make pretty socks, too.