Hot on Saturday, Thinking Cool

I'm wearing a Bruins shirt today, of course, and I wore one to fly on my recent trip. Naturally I chose my newest shirt, the Keep Calm and Bergeron, and on my first travel day, two different people at Logan stopped me to comment on its awesomeness. On the way back, I was getting off the plane, looked up toward the cockpit to thank the pilot, and before I spoke he said, "Keep calm and Bergeron, I like it!" Yes, that was "your Boston-based flight crew," but still, pretty funny.

I'm also mainlining popsicles* today. Wow, it's hot! I have had popsicles since last summer, but I totally forgot how to eat them when it's so hot they melt before you finish. It was 90 degrees at 10 this morning**, and though I do have air conditioning (thank god), it is struggling to keep up.
*Actually, I have Hood Pop Stix in the freezer right now, and I prefer them to Popsicles brand. But it's become a generic term, in my opinion.
**According to Weather.com, at 5:30 it's 88 here, and 83 where my mother is in Florida. Given that it was 40 here last weekend, you can understand if we're all a little stunned.

I've been moving the floor fan around, and should you be in a similar position, I have some advice for you: try to keep the cat on the other side of you from the fan, unless you like having fur blow all over your sweaty skin. Why is it that Carlos feels so cuddly today? I know, he's still getting over my being away, but oh man. Today I'm grateful at least that he is a sit-next-to cat, not a true lap cat. I'm hot enough! Good thing he's so cute (and sweet).

After getting through the mammogram this morning (ugh, but not awful), I had to go to the bank to get quarters for laundry. The branch that's open weekends is in the grocery store (I originally got an account with this particular bank for this very reason), so I picked up a few things while I was there. You know, grapes, cucumbers, crackers, and, well, a few frozen things. Not peas, either, but yummy hot-weather frozen treats. Mmm.

Speaking of peas! After work yesterday, I went around the mall looking for a dress to wear to a friend's upcoming wedding (and struck out, then ordered one online last night, we'll see how it does, stay tuned), I started for home and thought about stopping at Wilson's on the way. I almost didn't go, when it occurred to me that we're getting close to pea season. It's too early for them to have their own, but maybe from New Jersey ...?

Yes! Guess what I had for dinner? So, so good. I can't decide when I'm going back. If not before, I can go after work Tuesday, since my haircut isn't until 5:30. Time to go short again! I went slightly longer over the winter, feeling in need of a change, and it's been fun to have it be a bit different, but it flunked the Florida test and is flunking the heat now. I keep pushing it off the back of my neck, and I want it gone. Short, please!

Now, I said I'd have more Florida photos, so today, let's take a little boat tour, shall we?

Flower first! You know how I am. Doesn't this look fake?

 And how about the pods hanging off this tree: don't they look rather like green beans?

Mangroves are pretty cool.

There's an area for recovering birds, and though the camera chose to focus on the screening, you can see the cormorants with wings out. I love me some cormorants.

And pelicans!

 Do you mind? I'm bathing here. Could I have some privacy? Honestly! People!

 All right, boat tour! This is the size boat. The others are all named after fish, but that one (named by the donor) is after a bird ... that eats fish. Hmmm.

They're electric boats, by the way. Charge it!

From here, you can't tell where we're going to go, can you?

 But it opens up. A little.

 The mangroves "walk" out into the water.

Pretty neat. And I don't know what this one was, but he needs a haircut, too, doesn't he?

This concludes our tour for today. I hope you enjoyed it. I need to go get ready: the pre-game starts at 7, and I want to be all ready to sit on the couch for the evening, and not get up for anything but cheering (well, and bathroom breaks on the commercials, but you know what I mean). Go Bruins!

Saturday Night's Post, On Sunday

I had plans to write last night, but a major bout of thunderstorms blew through and in their wake the power went out. By the time it was back, three hours later, I just wanted to finish my book before bed, and I didn't even turn the computer on.

Yesterday was an odd day for weather overall. When I woke up, it was overcast and rainy, but that finished mid-morning, and the sky began to clear. Why do I seem to subconsciously expect the morning's weather to last all day? The afternoon was nice, sunny and warm, but then the storms came along and there was thunder, lightning, and hard enough rain that it shook the windows as it torrented down. Only after the worst went by did the power go poof. Thankfully, the daylight lasted most of the outage, enough to knit by at least; for the last hour or so, I was knitting and then reading by the light of a little hands-free craft light I picked up at Michael's once for a couple of bucks, which is only slightly more powerful than a single candle. (But, crucially, scent-free. I like scented candles now and again, but not for reading by.)

It wasn't a bad day otherwise. My head gave a twinge or two in the late afternoon, but never went fully into a headache, so that alone would make it a good day*. But I also got in some puttering time in the morning, so crucial on the weekend, as well as errands in the afternoon. I had a short list of things to do: library to return and pick up books, post office to mail a few things, Wilson's for more peas (this has been both a good and a long pea season, wow)(though if you get them seven times in two and a half weeks, it's possible your sense of time will warp), and drop off the bag of last week's pods for a friend's compost.
*A little sad that my standards are so low, but there you are.

When I saw the skies clearing in the morning, I felt that I should add to that list and build in a little time outdoors (other than in the car); being me, I immediately hit on knitting. Wouldn't you? I thought that going to a Panera for a frozen drink, then sitting with it outside and knitting, would be a great way to spend a little nice-weather time. I opened up Google Maps to my area, and entered Panera. Up popped all the local ones, but then I noticed there were spots in another color also showing up. I hovered the mouse over one, and they were Dunkin Donuts locations! They must have paid to link when someone searches on Panera, which made me laugh out loud. I like Dunk, but I don't think of them and Panera the same way. (I did a Starbucks search, and the same thing doesn't happen. Does this mean that DD thinks of Panera as a competitor, but not Starbucks? Interesting.)

I made my stops at the library and post office, and may I ask, have you used the automated machines at a post office? I love the convenience of them, but sometimes they're crazy-making. Here's how it goes: you tell the machine if you're sending a letter or package, then where it's going. It weighs it, sometimes asks about the size, then offers options of how to send, with speed and cost options. So I select Priority Mail, say, and the next screen offers additional options*, such as insurance, or delivery confirmation.
*The would-you-like-fries-with-that tactic

I click on the "just send it Priority Mail" button, and it pops up a window touting the wonders of insurance*, would I like insurance? No thank you.
*No fries? Are you sure?

Next screen: How about delivery confirmation*? It's so amazing! No thank you, and finally it goes on to finish the transaction.
*Waffle fries, maybe?

I walked out laughing over how absurd it was, and finally pinned down what it reminded me of: Douglas Adams.

There's a scene in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe where Zaphod is trying to take an elevator up in a building. I say trying, because the elevator doesn't want to go up.

 

Now every time I use a machine at the post office, I'm going to hear, "May I ask you if you've considered all the possibilities that down might offer you?" in the back of my head.

Amused, I swung around to a nearby Panera. I'd been thinking of getting a frozen caramel, since it's so good, but I decided to try the frozen lemonade, which sounded like it would be refreshing on a hot day. It was, but it's definitely on the tart side, and you know what a sweet tooth I have. I'm glad I tried it, but I probably wouldn't get it again. Still, it was pleasant to sit outside with, in the shade, knitting. I cast on a Wingspan; when I went to Coveted Yarn last month, one of my purchases cried out to be a Wingspan. Can you hear it?

Wingspan ... make me a Wingspan ...

The colorway is called Starry Starry Night, and it's from a new-to-me local dyer, toil & trouble, in Salem (what a great name for a yarn person in Salem!). It's soft and beautiful, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. Since I cast on 120 stitches, to make it deeper than the last Wingspan I did, I'm not very far yet, even after all the no-power knitting I did last night.

Wide, but not high. Not yet. I have the two skeins for the shawl itself, then I think I'll use a coordinating yarn for the edging:

That way, I don't have to worry about being sure to leave enough of the t&t. Perfect!

That's yesterday, then, in not-so-chronological order. Today, I have finished four loads of laundry (all I had quarters for, but honestly that was enough for one day), and balanced the checkbook (virtually speaking), and read the paper, and patted the kitty.

The paws-crossed pose just slays me.

Other things I may get to, later today, include vacuuming (oh, the excitement), and running the dishwasher (I'm out of spoons), and flattening the cardboard for this week's recycling pick-up (woo). Later, though, I'm going out to knit with a friend. Not a bad weekend, overall.

A housekeeping note: Any Keurig users who want to try a cinnamon-flavored coffee? I got a free box, and while I don't hate it, I don't love it. I'd be glad to send a few cups to anyone who's interested. If you have, or have access to, a K-cup machine, and want to try, let me know. (I specify K-cup because they have a new system now, Vue. And do you know why they do? Because the K-cups are going to lose patent protection in September. Isn't business interesting?)

Other sights from recent weeks:

 Three Bruins stickers on a car with NY plates. Interesting!

The funny thing is that I saw this when I was totally following the GPS, with no idea how "where I am" would lead to "where I'm going".

This just because I liked it.

Friday night. A little hot.

I know, weird to figure out. This is a photo in my rear view mirror, so it shows the front of the truck behind me. His grill was so shiny, I could clearly see the back of my own car, not a view I normally see. It comforted me because last week, over and over, I was behind cars with one or two brake lights out. It was nice to see from this that I wasn't being a hypocrite as I was aggravated by them.

Very true.

One of my co-workers had this on his desk.

He just moved here from Wisconsin or somewhere, so he isn't a Bruins fan, but I can pretend, right?

Did I tell you about these? Someone else told me about them: they taste like the Samoas Girl Scout cookies. No, really. Try them. This has been a public service announcement.

Weekend!

When I was unemployed, I kind of missed that Friday-night-feeling of relief, but it came back fast. Whew! Survived another week! This one has been hot, which of course I love, and humid, which I don't love but am okay with, but it came on so suddenly I wasn't really prepared. Let's just admit that the flannel sheets should have come off the bed earlier.

Honestly, it just hasn't been staying warm at night until this week. Last week I still had the heated mattress pad turned on; I didn't need it, but it felt good. Now I wake up sweating without it. Quick change.

Having changed the sheets tonight, I took the opportunity to take some pictures there. Not the best light, but at least you can see proof that I did finish two socks.

And started another.

I also wanted to show just why I have trouble deciding which sock yarn is up next.

A. That's a lot of yarn.
B. Yes, that's just the sock yarn.
C. Pulling it all out reminded me why I bought what I did. So soft! So pretty!
D. As I was taking pictures, the thought crossed my mind to hope that no one who might be thinking of getting me sock yarn (not that anyone is, as far as I know) would take these photos as evidence that they shouldn't. You can't have too much! I'm nowhere near SABLE*!
*Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy, meaning more yarn than you could knit in the rest of your life. I've made almost this many socks already, and that's in less than six years.

So yeah. Make of that what you will.

I'm working on a great long write-up All About Work. Look for that soon. And knitting Olympics ideas! And Patrice Bergeron winning a major award! And the Bruins schedule is out, though there might be another lockout! And Doctor Who! And ... and ... and ... I think I need to go chill out now. I've got peas that aren't going to shell themselves here (though wouldn't it be something if they did?). What a pea season; this is my sixth batch this year, not of California's or New Jersey's, but local. Mmmmmmm.

As if Monday wasn't already going to bite

Since I have to take Pan to the vet on Monday and leave him there* and worry about him all day, I already expected Monday to be rotten.

*I hate leaving him there. Hate it. Even leaving both boys to be fixed ten years ago was hard for me. Now? Horrible.

Then at work today, we were told that there are going to be some layoffs. We'll find out who are the "lucky" ones next week. Some time.

So in between worrying about my cat, I can worry if some unknown outplacement person will be showing up at my desk to tell me I'm one of them.

After I spend the entire weekend trying not to think about either situation.

Yes, this month is not going to go down in the books as one of my favorites.

Now, I must turn off the computer, as round 42 of the latest thunderstorm is coming in. I checked the weather map, and the end of this storm is currently leaving Trenton, NJ (about 300 miles away). I hope I see Harold again before morning, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

This is not my beautiful August!

To look at how I was dressed today, you would never know that it is August. I have had it up to here with this 10-20 degrees below average temperature. I demand the return of summer weather!

Oh, what did I wear? I wore a tank top, long sleeve shirt, and sweater today. I almost wish I'd worn long johns under my khakis (except that I refuse to, in August), because my legs were cold. Outside, 60 degrees this morning (and raining, of course). Inside at work, not much better (they keep the air conditioning blowing constantly because ... It's August!). Brrr.

I get in trouble all the time when I think something is "supposed to be" a certain way, and this is one of those times. August in Boston is Supposed To Be hot. So hot you're sick of it, so hot you know it's still summer and you're almost ready for summer to end, only you're not. Humid, sure, but not raining every day. We had double the average rainfall in July, and August is keeping on that pace. Enough already! Please...

When I left work tonight, the sun was mostly out, and it was 75, which is an improvement. But the clouds presage more storms. Sigh.


It makes me tired.


Why my pants* are too tight today

*Brits, please substitute trousers, kthnx

This morning I reaffirmed my resolve to lose some weight. I don't know why today particularly, but today I just thought yes, time to work on this again. Doesn't have to be a lot, but the numbers have been creeping up, and it's reached the point of impacting my clothing. I really can't have this. So when I pulled on my khakis and they were verging on uncomfortable, I didn't switch to a different pair. Instead, I told myself that some negative reinforcement might help me keep my eyes on the goal.

It is uncomfortable.

So is being hungry.

But if I can put up with the latter, the former will improve.

Because that's why I want to lose weight. Not because I think it "looks better". Not to reach a predetermined magic number. Not because it's "healthier". Quite likely if I ate more healthy foods, and less crap, I would be healthier, but that's an amorphous goal. I want to fit into my clothing better, period.

By preference, I'm not a person who gets on the scale a lot. I think it's because I sense that I could get addicted to that number and what it does (up? down?), so I try to stay away. However, since I now have to monitor Pan's weight to make sure he stays healthy, I've been weighing myself every two weeks for almost 18 months, and I can see what that number is doing.

Of course, the fit of my clothing tells the same tale. It isn't really about the number, when I take a step back. It's about what the number means.

Going to my Happy Place

(Hint: it's warm, has sand and shells, and it makes me wish they'd get that teleporter on the market already...)

I didn't post last night because I spent my computer time finding and booking a flight to ... ta-da! Florida to spend a long weekend with my parents next month. Yay! Three days* in the sun with the 'rents pleases me greatly.

*Not counting travel time: that's three days there, airline willing.

I also didn't post last night because I was later getting home than usual, following a stint in the garden and a stop at the store. One more strip of weed-blocker remains to be done, but I'm encouraged by the progress. My little plants are growing! Sniff, they grow up so fast, don't they? And I had to buy, among other things, more weed-blocker and stakes, as I was incorrect in my previous calculations. Me and the mathiness, you know, we don't understand each other.

I was going to put in that last stint of weed-blocker-ing tonight, but of course it was raining again. While it's good for the plants, it isn't so good for me, all this rain. Fortunately, it wasn't the kind that comes with lots of boomers, the way it was on Monday and Tuesday. I really didn't enjoy those drives home. By contrast, tonight was joyful, just damp.

I picked up Doctor Who, Second Season, Disc 2 at the library. (Queen Victoria founded Torchwood? Do tell!)

I stopped at Wilson's for fresh fruit and veggies, hoping they'd have peas. See?


Not just peas: "our own peas"! See also? Two and a half pounds. Some might call that a bit much, but I called it dinner. It was fine.

Here's a gratuitous cat photo, which has nothing to do with any vague pretense at a narrative that I might be managing here.


And here is something from the grounds at work: the raspberries are reddening.


It took all I had not to pick them now, before time, because just look! Raspberries!

Finally, there are a bunch of these flowers just starting to open. I like them, and so do the bumblebees.

Crafty baby gifts done

As I mentioned before, I made a little pillow for a friend's new baby, and wanted to make a little something to send along for the baby's big sister. I first crocheted a heart, and tried to overstitch "big sister" on it a couple of different ways, but couldn't get it to look the way I was imagining (or at all decent or even readable).

Giving up on that, I knitted another, smaller heart and sewed them together. The family can either look at it as her heart taking care of the baby's, or as her heart getting bigger with someone new to love; both are sappy, but kind of cute, in my mind.

Want to see?


I'm moderately pleased with it. Here are the gifts together:


In garden news, I did not continue work on laying down the weed-blocker last night. My legs hurt too much for the prospect to be even remotely pleasing, so it will have to wait. Yow. It's amazing that an hour of bending and straightening and these leg muscles hurt madly, with every move I make, but it seems contradictory to me: either I use them all the time and they should have some strength, or I never use them except for things like gardening, in which case they should only hurt when I'm gardening.

Anyway, ow. I've been spending a quiet day so far, cleaning the kitchen, painting my toenails (hello, Summer!), and brushing the cats:


Not that much, either, for the result. I could really start work on that emergency back-up cat with this, and yet the cats look just the same when I'm done. Perplexing.

It's a nice day, and I have lots of windows open. Fresh air! I missed it so much during our 4-day heat wave of 95-100. It's too soon in the season to be all a/c. I love having windows open.

Summertime, and the knitting's ... woolly?

Yesterday and today have been hot, and by hot, I mean this is what my car said when I left work yesterday:


Actually, it said 103 before I got the camera out. I grant you, it always gets higher when the car sits in the sun all day, and it went down about 10 degrees as I drove. But still. It's hot. At work, being inside was like being in a refrigerator (why do they keep it so cold?), and going outside was like stepping into an oven.

Neither is ideal. Neither is even all that comfortable, either to be in or to dress for. The special challenges of summer, you know? Being sweaty and shivering at the same time.

The thing is, on Friday it was about 55 and raining, and Saturday was in the 90s. It's a little drastic, the change.

And not just the heat. Well, yes, humid too, but that's not all. It's time for ... Invasion of the Pollen! All the puddles* have yellow-green edges, there are clouds of uck drifting through the air (see how quickly I can put the car windows back up). Eewww!

*The puddles are mostly evaporated, actually, and now there are yellow-green lines where they used to be. Charming.

And my car? I'm relatively sure it was once dark blue. Now?


Hmm. "Was" being the operative word.

So, I'm knitting.

No, not outside! For the love of god, I haven't even been walking at breaks, other than down to the garden to water it (10 days after planting, the plants are ... um, still there, which feels like an achievement). But thanks to the miracle of air conditioning, inside.

It's nice to work with yarn again, after all the netting for the scrubbies. I'm happy to make them for my mother's birthday, and in fact made one for myself and a couple for a friend during the same time period, but you know? Yarn is softer. Sounds simple, but it's a bit of a revelation.

I am, really, going to get back to the half-finished baby blanket project, but I'm whipping out a quickie first. Another friend just had a baby, so I wanted to send A Little Something. I have all these squares from the ill-fated alphabet afghan project that's been in Time Out forever, so I pulled out the P-for-Peter square, made a back (like I did here), and voila, little pillow:


Not the best picture, but I'll try to get a better one when I've finished the little something I'm making for his big sister. Once that's done, it's back to the blanket!

Finally, Nantucket Garden Photos

Well, garden photos of my trip to Nantucket are what I promised, and here we are at last! These are mostly of my cousin's garden, but some are around the island, and true to form, I generally don't know what the flowers are, but aren't they lovely?



She grows grapes, and puts something around them in hopes of keeping the birds off. I thought it looked neat.




Extreme close-up. In my family we call this a wallpaper shot.




There were hydrangeas everywhere, which I had heard about.


And look who I found sunning himself for the camera:


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In knitting news, I have finished the square for Ms. K, and I washed and blocked it last night, and it looks good (photo is pre-washing):


but it's 9 by 9, not 10 by 10.

On the other hand, it doesn't have the black border yet. Would a half-inch border be too much? Should I just make another, bigger one?

I'm so much better at items where it doesn't really matter what size the pieces finish up as. If there's such a thing as a free-form knitter, that's me. This should be so simple, knit a ten-inch square, yet here I am on my second try and it's still not right. Ugh.

No time to worry at it today. But: weigh in, would you, on what I should do?