Sunday, September 16, 2007

A Good Weekend (in which I wore myself out)

Yes, I walked myself silly, or at least foot-sore and yawning, in Boston and out, yesterday and today. It's been a good weekend, but boy, am I tired!

Actually, I was somewhat social Friday night, too. (Wasn't I going to take it easy in September? Well, it wasn't really like that.) I met friends at the house of my friend with the new twins, and we hung around and admired the babies and gave them bottles and had a wonderful time (they are So Cute). Then one of my friends came over to my place, and we had something to eat, and made cookies, and watched part of a movie (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). Just an overall fun evening.

My Saturday didn't start well. As I mentioned before, I was thinking of going in to Boston to watch the Bruins at training camp, but when you wake up at two-something AM with a migraine, and then do a sleep-wake-sleep thing until ten trying to get rid of it, you just don't get up and moving the way you wanted to. It was somewhat better, or at least not so bad, when I got up, but not in a way that left me with a lot of energy to get moving. I took it easy and waited to see which way the wind was blowing, head-pain-wise, instead, and watched the rainy morning with dismay. As long as I was paying to go in to Boston, I wanted to do more while I was there, but it didn't look like it was going to be the kind of day for walking around, and so many of the other things one can do in the city lead to spending money, which I am trying to not do these days. Small dilemma.

Eventually, I decided that the head was going to be well enough, and I drove to the T and went in to the Garden. Getting there, I was in a medium-flat mood, enough that I didn't feel like taking a picture of the sign outside that said training camp was going on, but inside, they had a little more of a fuss, and I felt my spirits lift slightly. Enough to get out the camera, anyway!


Yes, there were balloons all over. Not, I think, for such as me, but more for the season-ticket holders, for whom they were having further festivities. Still, it was nice. The season returneth. And, as I told a nice young lady who invited me to consider joining the ranks, when I win the lottery.

So, I was there for the afternoon session, which was the rookies, most of whom I know nothing about, and the team didn't help by not putting numbers on their jerseys (I suppose they don't even want to invest that much on them, which is kind of sad, but most of them won't make it on the team, it's true). The only one I could ID was one of the goalies, Tuukka Rask. I was intrigued to see how he tucked his stick in the top of his pads when he needed his hands free, instead of putting it on top of the net.


I don't recall noticing another goalie do just that with a stick, though perhaps they do; I'll have to keep an eye out.

At one point, a number of players were alternating taking shots on Rask, and he made a save that sent the puck up into the netting and over the glass not too far from where I was sitting. No one else was near where it fell, so I went to pick it up (hockey pucks make good paperweights). It was wet and cold, like holding the promise of winter. I kept it in the palm of my hand for a few minutes, but it didn't warm up.

I'll spare you the rest of the hockey pictures, as even I can see they aren't that exciting to hockey-muggles. It was just so fun to be there, seeing hockey, hearing it. Eventually, of course, it was over, and they kicked us out, and I went out to find that the cloudy, maybe I'll rain again weather was passing, and the day was turning nice. What a surprise! I promptly decided to walk around for a while before leaving, and headed toward the Esplanade and the river. On the way, I got sidetracked into Beacon Hill, which is probably my favorite part of Boston. We used to live there when I was little, before we moved to suburbia, and though I don't remember it much at all, maybe that's why I have such fondness for the narrow streets and hidden corners.




I stopped to look at the Hatch Shell,


and at first I mis-read the inscription.


Did you get it right, first time? For some reason, at first I was thinking of it as being done by her will, by the force of her personality, rather than her Last Will and Testament, which is more than likely what is meant. I guess I was still a little in la-la land.

If you look at the side of the first Hatch Shell photo, you can see it has this odd decorative element off to the right. There was one on the left as well. I can't think what they are, other than decorative.


I did rather expect Superman to leap out of it, fully costumed, but other than that...

I learned something else about the Hatch Shell just by walking by it, which is that the Pops don't just bring these in:


for the fourth of July. I love the 1812 Overture!

Near the Shell is a memorial to Arthur Fiedler, commonly called the Fiedler head. Is it cool, or is it creepy? You decide:






Wow, you hear that? I actually did enough this weekend to break into two posts! Who would have thought?

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Boston Bruins Are In Training Camp

The Burning Question: How Badly Will They Suck This Year?

I know, pessimism. I usually try to maintain optimism, but my beloved Bruins have been sucking the optimism out of me for, oh, twenty years or so now. It's not even that they haven't won the Cup, because it's much longer than that since they won the Cup (1972, if you wondered). They haven't played consistently well, "get into the playoffs and compete" well, in what? Fifteen years? Roughly? So I think a little pessimism is understandable, don't you?

On the other hand, I'm still glad that hockey season is starting again. As Bob Wilson used to say when one team or the other tied the game, "It's all brand new and shiny." That hope is still there.

They could do well this year.

They might do well this year.

Perhaps.

Maybe.

I want to think they will. And today, it's all possible. Because in training camp, at the start of camp, it's all about possibilities. Every player is the next Gretzky, the next Orr, the next Lemieux, the next Bourque. Until he gets out there, until he proves otherwise, he could be anything.

And in Europe today, he could be a she! Canadian Olympic gold-medalist Hayley Wickenheiser is reported to be close to signing with Swedish men's team IFK Arboga, which would be pretty cool. I approve of that (like she gives a tinker's damn what I think, but anyway).

Back to the Bruins. I won't copy the training camp roster here (why reinvent the wheel?), but it's on their website, along with training camp schedules and a number to call for updates. I don't know if I'll be going into Boston to see them on Saturday, but I probably will. I mean, how can I resist? It's silly of me, but Wilmington feels closer, though technically it isn't, since I have to deal with transit to get to Boston. I'm not being logical. I can understand that they're trying to appeal to a wider audience by having more of camp in Boston this year, but I was happy with it in the familiarity of Wilmington. On the other hand, the inside of Ristuccia is colder than a witch's ... maybe it's not so bad to have it at the Garden after all.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Today, I remember Paul

My cousin Paul died eight years ago today.

Eight years. That hardly seems possible.

Life goes on, you recover somewhat from the staggering blow, but you never forget, you never entirely become the person you were before that phone call, the person who was half-watching the Emmys and thinking that you wouldn't be caught dead (caught dead) in most of those outfits, wouldn't take them for free, and hello? hey, are you watching too, what?

What?

And everything stopped.

Eight years later, it isn't as harsh most of the time. Most of the time. As with any death, little things make me think of him, and because he and my friend Pat both died that year, when I think of one I think of both, so I get doubly sad, or sad twice as easily, or some such mathematical equation. Thus, it doesn't take much to give me a twinge:
  • motorcycles
  • cancer
  • this movie has been formatted to fit your screen notices
  • wolves
  • NASCAR (especially Dale Earnhardt)
  • Saturns (the cars)
  • the Emmys
  • packing peanuts
Usually I just think of Paul or Pat, Paul and Pat, and move on; less often I wallow and remember and then move on. You have to remember. Not that I could forget, of course.

And I don't want to. I'm glad that remembering hurts less, has fewer sharp edges than it did. That's enough.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Stephenie Meyer Rocks Burlington B&N

AKA, if I'd waited to have my book signed, I'd still be there.

So, Stephenie Meyer writes this excellent series of so-called Young Adult books* that have some vampires (and werewolves) in them, and not just vampires but ones that all her readers really, really wish and in fact want to believe are real. Edward is the "hero" vampire, Jacob the biggest-name werewolf, and before the Q&A started there were rival factions shouting "We love Edward!" and "We love Jacob!" back and forth. (I would vote for Edward myself, since my feelings for Jacob range from friendly to big-sisterly, though I wasn't shouting.)

*I was far from the only non-teen there tonight, though when she arrived, it did sound like the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.


There were the official t-shirts, like this one from the fan club (sorry it's fuzzy, I was trying to be slightly subtle; it says Official I Love Edward Cullen Fan Club Member, and then it's just her website, linked above), but I also love the girl wearing the Red Cross Got Blood? t-shirt:


These two had matching shirts, and I don't know if they did them themselves or bought them somewhere, but I managed to Kinnear a shot of them front-and-back. Can you read the front? It's a quote from Bella: I'm Your Brand of Heroin. (You have to read the book!)


And of course, the 'I have a t-shirt and a magic marker' classic, "every guy should be a bit more like Edward!"


When I got there, they were out of wristbands for the signing line. That is, they had passed out red, teal, pink, and green wristbands, and white ones in groups A, B, C, D, E, and I believe F. Maybe it was only through E. What that meant was that they couldn't guarantee I would get my book signed, if I stayed until all the wristband groups were done. I'm not blaming them, you understand. Just, wow. Lot of people there (photos below).

And after all, she was in Ohio yesterday and is in Pennsylvania tomorrow, which makes me wonder who put her into Massachusetts today*, and how firm their grasp on geography is. (She was running late, and said she had been on planes and in airports all day. Ahh, the glamor of the million-copy book author!)

*Again, not complaining!

After a wide-eyed look around the store, I went back to the car for my camera. I knew you had to see this. Although I missed out on the wristbands, I just made it into the store before they stopped letting people in:


I don't think these people got to hear the Q&A at all, poor things. (They were going to let them in, but only after others left.) It was short, but fun. Best question: does Edward wear boxers or briefs? (Answer: boxer-briefs.)

The first arrivals (and at heaven alone knows what time), the red wristbands, got upstairs, where I couldn't even see (I never saw Stephenie herself, by the way, just heard her). The next group, the teal, were seated here:


and here:


This should be pink (hence the pink square, I get it now):


My, people everywhere!


The white wristbands were downstairs, with group A lined up:


And up there somewhere, greenies:


A jungle. She mentioned how amazing it was that something she wrote for her own entertainment was appreciated by so many others.


The screams when she appeared!


And the line when I left:


...went around the corner of the building:


With, remember, no guarantee she'll still be signing by the time it's their turn. Unbelievable.

They are good books, though. I like them a lot.

Finally, this isn't related except that I took the picture in the Cafe tonight. Any other Depeche Mode fans out there? Ever seen this drink?


Too funny! I guess they have fans at Jones Soda, eh?

Monday, September 10, 2007

Too Spooky (I'm Not Ready for Halloween Yet)

I was very troubled tonight to see a house with its yard fully decorated for Halloween. It's more than seven weeks to Halloween! I was driving, so I couldn't study it completely, though I did make out graves and at least one full-size scarecrow figure, but there was a lot more. I thought about going back with my camera to take a picture, but does anyone want to see that on September tenth?

Yet more troubling is that suddenly, the days are shorter. There is no longer sun at my breakfast table, and it's darker earlier. So suddenly, I swear! I truly enjoy autumn, with the crispness to the air, the color in the leaves and the crunch of them underfoot, the taste of apples, and of course the return of hockey season (training camp starts Friday!), but as for what it portends, the season of cold and dark, not so much that part.

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

But let me not depress myself. Time for some Q&A! Recent comments have raised a few questions, and let's see if I have any answers:

About the Mazda issue, I haven't talked to the guy yet. I tried calling on Saturday, and he had left for the day. I asked the Young Person who answered the phone what his regular hours were, if he had them, thinking that I would like to know when I would have a hope of reaching him, and after telling me that he is the Customer Service Manager (which I knew, and hi, I'm a customer), she said that he usually comes in around 7A.M. (ugh). Since I am not a morning person, I'd rather not call him before my brain is functioning, so I asked what time he leaves, thinking I could call him after I leave work.

She said she wasn't sure she should give out his schedule. What are they worried about, do you think? I found that rather odd, and even if she thought so it was hardly good customer service to say so outright, but then it hardly surprises me to receive further poor service from them. Certainly, I don't even really want to talk to him that much: he called me. However, I am faintly curious to find out what he'll say, so I guess I'll try to call him on my lunch break. Maybe tomorrow; we'll see.

About the square, I have washed it and tried to get it to want to be bigger, and it really wants to be a nine-inch square, not a ten-inch square. (I would knit a square with a backbone, so to speak, wouldn't I?) On the plus side, Ms. K says send it along, she'll put more of a border around it to make it play nicely with the others. In the words of the South, bless her heart.

Korinthe, the picture you asked about is of Chinese lanterns (thank you, Leslie and Kali!). Pretty, aren't they?

Amy asked how I "earned" my MacGyver (Level One) badge from Cast On. I thought it was funny, actually, that I had done just what they used as an example:
The recipient must demonstrate clever use of a non-knitting tool in a knitting-related scenario. For instance, recipient has used paper clips as stitch markers, or successfully whittled and then utilized bamboo skewers as dpns.
The first one, the first one! I've used paper clips as stitch markers. I've also used my finger as a ruler, which I think would count, don't you? Although, in a very real sense, fingers are the ultimate knitting tool. But they aren't rulers, now are they?

Reading that over, I come to the inarguable conclusion that it's time to finish up here. Anyone who clinches an argument with herself by stating triumphantly that fingers aren't rulers should probably have been in bed a while ago. Night!

Sunday, September 09, 2007

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?

Friday, September 07, 2007

Flowery Friday

It's hard to post much, or seriously, with a cat pressed over one arm. Let's see if I can add some photos without disturbing His Highness too badly. Pretty flowers for the nice readers...





Okay, I realize that one's not a flower, but how often do you find a dragonfly ready for its close-up?

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Well, How About That?

I turned on my phone when I left work tonight, and guess who I had a message from?

Liberty Mazda.

He'd like me to return his call. I didn't do so tonight, since my day had had Enough Already (primarily the annual trip to the gynecologist, which is right near the top of my list of all-time least-favorite things to do), but maybe tomorrow.

I was honestly rather surprised that they called. You?

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Random Tuesday

Note to the driver two cars ahead of me tonight getting onto 93: if your phone call was that important, you should be getting off the highway, not on. Merging onto 93 at 35 miles per hour is practically suicidal. The speed limit is 65, and you should be doing close to that by the time you get on the road if you want to survive. Boston drivers have their reputation for a reason, sir. Thank you.

Now, on to the good news. Tomorrow night, I do not expect to be posting, because I have an extremely important prior engagement playing with babies I mean helping my friend care for her twins. Yay, she believed me when I said please call me I want to help! So unless there's a change of plans, you know where I'll be, or rather where I won't be tomorrow.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekends. Other than being caught off guard by a bocce tournament (now there's something you don't hear every day), I had a really good weekend. I got a bunch of stuff done (not everything, but I had a pretty ambitious list), and did a bunch of relaxing and had fun too. It's always hard to go back to work after a long weekend, isn't it? It has nothing to do with how you like your job; you just get out of the groove.

The weather was lovely here over the weekend, too, although you can tell we're heading into Fall. The nights are cooler, and the leaves are just starting to change.


For that matter, a couple of weeks ago, I saw Halloween candy in the stores, so can Autumn be far behind?

Sunday, September 02, 2007

letter to Mazda

You remember the story of how I hate the Mazda dealership where I got my car, right? And how you shouldn't go there (remember, this is Liberty Mazda in Wakefield), and tell your friends not to go there, etcetera, etcetera?

Well, I did finally write them a letter, just to let them know why I won't be coming back. At first I wrote a long, detailed, every-single-thing letter, but then I decided no, let's just hit the highlights. To be honest, based on their track record, I wouldn't be surprised to get no response at all, so who knows if they'll even read this. Why waste time or paper? So I summarized. This is what I sent them.

***************************************************

Service Manager
Liberty Mazda
81 Bay State Rd.
Wakefield, MA 01880

Every time I have come in for service, I have received a letter afterward, claiming you want to know if I am less than perfectly satisfied with the service I received. I am not sure I believe you, considering the continued mediocrity of your service, but I am going to try once final time to get through to you. Do you want to know why I hate your dealership and your service department, why I deeply regret buying a car from you, why I plan never to return, and why I am telling everyone I know and people I don't know to avoid you at all costs?

It was bad enough on my first visit, for the inspection after buying the car, when I arrived to pick it up and they couldn't find the car for half an hour.

It was bad enough when my first oil change took three hours.

It was bad enough when I had an actual automotive problem, and instead of giving me a loaner so that I could go to work while they diagnosed the problem, they made me wait for two hours while they tried to diagnose the problem first. It was bad enough when it turned out that they hadn't fixed the problem, so it happened again, and I had to bring the car back in. And it was bad enough when it turned out that the problem was caused by the installation of the security system in the first place.

But all these incidents have been impersonal, problems with an entity, not with the people within. Those incidents only made me consider not returning. The final straw was the condescending, sneering attitude of one of your employees as he "helped" me on Saturday, July 28th. He "helped" me realize that I never want to deal with that attitude again, in fact. While I will return if the part that he "fixed" breaks again, I otherwise will not be coming back, and I am writing to you on the off-chance that you care at all about the loss of a customer. Judging by your attitude, I doubt that you do, but perhaps as you lose more and more customers, you will come to realize that people do have a choice, and when you treat them like idiots, like they are bothering you, they will be more than happy to take their business elsewhere.

Sincerely,

***************************************************

You realize now I have to find a mechanic. I'm sure I'm already overdue for an oil change, if not more. That damned to-do list is never going to shrink. Depressing thought. I push it away from this otherwise pleasant weekend. The cat on my forearm chases it away. So there.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Weekend Update, Knitting Style

Had a nice day yesterday. Pan is still not over his "you must pour love into me, more, more" thing, and did a lot of lap-requesting, but cat-cuddling was on my list of things to do, so that worked out pretty well. I also slept in, went to my doctor's appointment, got to the post office, and went to the movies with friends, so that plus lots of lolling about equals quite a good day. Now here I am facing another day of attempting to balance getting things done and relaxing, and we'll see how I do. So far, so good.

I just gave the boys some of the dried catnip from last year's garden, and they're now beating each other up (aggression [and affection, interestingly] are frequent side effects). You'd never think that they usually get along:


On to knitting! I have re-started the slanting stripes scarf that I frogged (or made string, in the excellent words of Amy's son) for its distressing tendency to tube. (I don't seem to have a picture of that, sorry. Take my word for it: not nice.) Adding four stitches of garter to either side has stopped it from curling in, and I started with a few plain rows as well, which also seems to have helped somewhat. I'm still a little bitter about the photo in the book, which has to have been severely doctored, unless the yarn they used made a drastic difference, or was heavily blocked. I should try to let go of this, though, eh? Herewith, the front:


And the back, which charms me almost as much, since instead of stripes I see circles, and how did that happen?


Next, the astute reader might notice that I haven't mentioned the Second Sock in a while. It is actually 99% done.

No, not 100%.

I was kitchnering the toe on the ferry to Nantucket when an errant breeze made a snatch for the pattern, and I instinctively grabbed at it, hugging the knitting to my chest to do so. (Had I been thinking, I would have let the damned pattern go, but as I say, instinct.) The last four stitches came off the needles, and I have to find them again (the stitches, not the needles) to finish the toe. I wasn't going to try this on a heaving boat (it wasn't heaving that much to a normal person, but I'm not so good on boats; I have to be where I can see the motion or my stomach gets rather unhappy with me, which is why I was out where there are breezes, in case you're wondering), so I gently tucked it away. I have had a busy few weeks, and have not felt ready to tackle this since then. It looks sock-like, though, right?


Maybe 99.5%?

Sigh. So close.

Then, I started a square last night for Ms. K's blankets for the miners' family's in Utah, but due to a miscalculation, I have to start over (making a simple 10-inch square is only simple if you can make something close to ten inches). It will be a quick knit, though, once I get closer to size.



The yarn color didn't come close, silly camera. It's a sort of dark plum. We'll try again when we have more to photograph. Hopefully with a ruler showing it's really close to ten inches. I do dream, don't I?

And actually, I have started and finished a project in August, how about that? So fast I didn't photograph it, zoom! But it's very similar to something I made for myself last year, so you can time-travel to see that. I made a shawl for my friend's birthday, like the one I made for myself. There's the in-progress post photo, and the slightly blurry finished shot. It's a nice, light, open-looking piece, and since she liked the one I made myself, I could be pretty sure she would like hers, which she did. Yay! It's nice to be appreciated.

Thus endeth the lesson for today. Except to say, long way to go yet, oh Ravelry:
  • You signed up on August 22, 2007
  • You are #27720 on the list.
  • 16535 people are ahead of you in line.
  • 2638 people are behind you in line.
  • 36% of the list has been invited so far