LOLs and Pretty Trees

Last night, I felt much like this:

This morning, it was more like this:

And although today didn't go that badly, except for the cat vomit on the bed tonight, SO not what I needed, oh and the supreme irony of going waythehellandgone to UPS after work to pick up a package from last week, and arriving home to find a notice on the door that UPS had been by today, and couldn't deliver another package (why does everything need a signature all of a sudden?), but I am so tired and sore and out of sorts that now I feel kind of like I need this:

So rather than providing any sort of detail about the wonders of the Rhinebeck trip, I will give you the beauties of the foliage, un-commentated-upon, and hopefully tomorrow will be more ... well, maybe it will be less ... well, you know what I mean. Enjoy the pretty trees. I'll be back when my brain is.

Sunny Saturday, and some summary

Today was a good day, but somehow it exhausted me without accomplishing all that much. I was thinking of going to a craft fair in New Hampshire tomorrow, but now I think that going would just stress me out over household tasks waiting to be done, and since there's another, similar fair in a nearer town in a couple of weeks, I'll go to that one, and spend tomorrow catching up around here.

And that's okay. Maybe I didn't get to the laundry today, but here's some of what I did see:








It was a beautiful day, and the path was therefore full of people with dogs and kids and bikes, so it wasn't as peaceful as some walks, but still restorative. And I picked up books at libraries, and read one of them today*, and that's good, too.

*Half Baked, by Alexa Stevenson. I read her blog, which is good, so it didn't surprise me that the book was, too.

And then there was this tree full of birds, so loud I had to take a mini-movie:



In other news, man, I don't know what I was doing in my sleep Thursday night, but did I ever bork my back. It's been sore all down the right side since Friday morning. It's not so bad sitting down, which is a good thing I guess, but every time I got up to walk Friday at work, the motion of movement made it hurt from the shoulder to the waist. Owie owie ow. By evening, it wasn't so bad, but it's still somewhat sore today, so I didn't unsleep it last night. Man oh man.

This week at work, I was sneezing and blowing my nose, over and over. Yet I'm not coming down with something; I feel fine (other than the usual tired), and the sneezing stopped when I left the building. My reaction wasn't at the same levels last week, and my pre-Florida week, but I think it's just from the blower for the heating system there.

I mean, it's not just me (is it?) thinking that no normal system blows All the Time, but that's what this one does. Just three times, in thirteen days, I have noticed a weird, "loud" silence, and realized the blower turned off. Otherwise, it's on constantly. That doesn't seem right. It blows down into my cube, from two directions no less, enough to flutter paper, and I find it disturbing. Not end-of-the-world, but not pleasant. Ah, well, it's a short-term problem, right? I keep looking for the silver lining to not working a permanent job, and that's one.

What else?

• There's a fly in the lamp on the table, drunkenly buzzing the bulb.
• The Bruins lost again tonight; where is the team that scored 5 goals in the third period against Pittsburgh? I like watching them better than the team that can't score.
• I finished the first of the raspberry skyp socks tonight, having straightened out last weekend's pickup problems on Thursday night (while watching, or mostly not watching, the Bruins lose, humph). Pictures to come.
  
• The babies are doing well.

So how are you?

Weekend Pictures, Some Job News

I had such a nice weekend. It was great to see my aunt and grandmother, shop for yarn (naturally; pictures to come when I meet the daylight, maybe Friday), eat the Fire Department's french fries and sell pies at the church tent ... all the usual Apple Festival weekend things I enjoy so.

All right, who wants to see some pictures from my weekend? If you do, you're in luck!

Some gourds ... because what says autumn like a four-foot gourd?


Pretty, pretty trees. The foliage was ahead of itself, versus the last few years at this time. Beautiful!





Mystery weed/plant that sprang up near my aunt's roses. Anyone know what it is?


Rose, of course.


Their cat, Junior, who makes Miri look friendly and approachable. If you look closely, you can see that Junior is sticking her tongue out at me.


A few years back, Syracuse had a display of painted horses, the way Chicago did cows, and Naples has gators. Check out the dapper Blue Cross model!


Quite a building it graces, by the way.


I liked this sign at the Apple Festival.


And this Rhinebeck-worthy plate.


In fact, the live guys were very cute, but it was the motion that I really liked.


So I took a little movie. To the left, to the right, chew it all night...




Oh, and my last day at my current job is Thursday. I gave notice today.

Here's where I'm going to be annoying and not Tell All, for which I'm sorry but it isn't all confirmed yet, and I don't want to jinx anything. I will tell you that isn't related to The Place Where I Interviewed (TPWII) a few weeks ago. They haven't responded to my attempts to learn what their hiring time line might be, which is fine and all, it hasn't been that long, but I'm not going to just sit around waiting for them, you know? It's something else, and I should hopefully get confirmation tomorrow, so tune in next time! (When you'll hear Nurse Piggy say ... When you'll hear Doctor Bob say ... anyone? anyone?)

There's always time for the Muppet Show:

A Sunny Sunday, for ONCE

It has seemed like gray, cloudy, overcast weather has prevailed of late, which is a real shame when the leaves are changing. The trees are still pretty, but boy, does the sun improve things.

Here's the tree across the street on Saturday.


Gorgeous, right?

Here it is Sunday. Wow!


Still pretty Saturday...


But on Sunday, well, no contest.


Not only was Sunday sunny, it was warm, 60+ and felt like more in the sun. Fantastic! A friend and I went for a walk, and it was blissful. Hard to believe that a week earlier, it snowed.

Sunday, October 18th:


Sunday, October 25th.


Guess which I prefer?








Let's pretend it will be just this nice for, oh, the next month. Close your eyes and picture it with me. Mmmm.