Where does the weekend go

This photo doesn't even begin to capture the amazing, huge-red-sun sunset we saw last night.


It was enthralling, and we just saw the last moments by chance, as we left dinner to go to the theatre. (I was seeing Harvey with friends in Rhode Island, and I can't recommend it highly enough.) (Dinner was also fantastic, if you find yourself down that way.)

It was a wonderful night, but also a late night, and though I am pleased to have been able to sleep late today, it does mean that Sunday has evaporated. I'm babysitting my friend's twins tonight, which means I have to get a little organized, which means no long flights of fancy here tonight. But I do have some photos for you.

The other wall art I already had for the bathroom, as I mentioned last time. It really isn't much, but I've always liked it.


Something about the colors.


I neglected to share one thing I did not buy at Building 19 on Friday. Some things that show up there, well, it's not all that surprising that they're left over. It's more surprising that anyone made them in the first place.


Not content with the Building 19 experience, I fit in an Ocean State Job Lot trip yesterday. I bought more of that soap I like:


And a new small suitcase:


It ought to stand out fairly well from all the black ones. (They had one that was solidly hot pink, but that was a bit much for me.) My old one had a good run, but the regular battering got to it, and I threw it out after my last trip.

Did I ever show it to you? It was black, so on my mother's advice (culled I believe from Heloise), I used fabric paint to make it mine, in a manner clear from fifty feet.





It lasted more than 5 years, which is quite decent. I'd be glad to get as much from the new one (but I don't have high expectations, which is why I buy one for $24 instead of full price.)

Have you had a nice weekend? A nice busy one, or a nice lazy one?

P.S. Six days to vacation!

A Little (A Very Little) Decorating

click on the comic to see it bigger

When I moved in to my condo, November of 2006, there were some things I knew I wanted to do or get for it. In fact, even when I saw the place before I bought it, I knew that (for instance) I wanted to get a new medicine cabinet for the bathroom. When I measured the living room and my furniture, I knew that I would want a tall, narrow bookcase for the spot between one of the big bookcases and the wall. I knew I'd want to get a pull-out couch or sofa bed or something for the guest room (office/craft room/spare space). I still want to do all of those things, and I will at some point. But I haven't yet. And of course, there are plenty of other things I kind of wanted to do, without being bothered to get around to it. What's the rush?

Earlier this year, my mother said she would spend this Christmas at her mother's, in upstate New York. Of course, I said, I will join you there. And recently, she said, she might fly up to Boston a few days earlier, and visit some people here before driving to NY with me. Yay! I said (and I'm not just saying that because she reads this). Sounds great to me.

And then I started to think about what I might want to get done around here before then. Not, I hasten to add, that she expects me to do anything. But I am the sort of housekeeper (and I use the word loosely) who tends to Not See the piles, and things in corners, and you know, it's a little untidy. Sometimes having a prospective visitor is just what I need to motivate myself.

And so, I was in the bathroom the other day, and looking at the largely empty walls, and thinking yeah, I meant to get something to put on the walls. Someday. I have one thing up, a cheap-plastic-framed page ad from the back of a magazine, and I'll have to get a picture of it because it isn't quite as crappy as I'm making it sound, but anyway there are two good walls with nothing on them. Put that on the list, I told myself. Tonight, I stopped at Building 19 after work, and bing-bang-boom found two things I really like, for not very much money.

I took photos of them before hanging, as the light in the bathroom is not great, or at least not daylight. Here's the first one:


Hey, I like that, I said to myself. How much is it? $5.99? Sold!

Here it is in its new habitat:



I really think I'm going to like it there.

The other isn't a picture, but a, well, what would you call it?


It's a gently distressed framed thing with space to put stuff. Come on, help me out, what is it?

Wall-mounted curio holder, is the best I can do right now. Surely you can do better!

It does have one extra-distressed corner:


But I was okay with that, especially given this feature:


So I got out my pencil, level (yes I do), and hammer, and ta-da:



I'll put more things in it, but this is a start. I'm so pleased with them both.

I wonder how long it will take me to get used to them there? I know I just put them up, but when I went back into the bathroom, I kind of jumped.

Thursday Musings

This morning I looked at the weather forecast in the Globe (I know, I know, I don't know why I bother either, I can't help myself), and it said today would be cooler and drier. I looked out the window, where it was raining, and then back at the paper. Yes, it really said drier. Okay.

Not that it was raining hard, but it did sprinkle on and off all day. I saw a rainbow on the way home. It wasn't hot, but it certainly wasn't dry.

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Over the weekend, my sink faucet developed a small problem. It's the kind of faucet that pulls out and is a sprayer, and it didn't want to go back in. It's never gone in smoothly, but it seemed stiff and didn't want to turn, and when I pulled it out, it wouldn't go back at all. Majorly annoying, and I couldn't see where the hangup was.

So last night, I took everything out from under the sink so that I could climb halfway in and work on it. After a couple of tries, I got it to go back in, which was a big relief. (I found that I really needed to have three hands to make it work when it was stuck.) And I tidied up under the sink, so it's a little better organized under there. The funniest thing? When I develop a leak in one of a pair of rubber gloves, I throw away the damaged one and keep the other one for possible future use. So what did I have under there? Four left gloves. Apparently I'm more damaging to the right glove, consistently. I thought that was pretty funny.

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I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. I haven't had a terrible week, other than that ultra-annoying (in the sense of being an affront to my organizational sense) ongoing project, and even there my boss is pleased with what I'm finding. However, for some reason a bunch of people are having bad weeks, and you can practically see the stress molecules floating around. I had to go to the store tonight anyway, so I picked up a bunch of chocolate for my desktop candy dish. The way this week has been, we're going to need it tomorrow.

Have I mentioned that I keep chocolate on my desk? It started as my having chocolate for myself, and being willing to share, and now it's become A Thing. I kind of want to post a few rules about it, though I probably won't. Do-and-Don't, essentially.

Do:

• Say thank you. Basic politeness.
  
• If you want to, you can kick in (either in $ or in kind). Some have brought in a bag, others drop in a dollar (or in the case of my boss's boss, $20). You don't have to contribute, it's nice but not expected, but if you feel guilty for taking it, well, let's move on to...
  

Don't:

• Tell me you feel bad for taking some. That's why it's there. Honestly, I'm not counting who takes how many. There is no sting operation set up here. It's not a trap, it's just a candy dish.
  
• Ask if you can have some. This seems like it's being polite, but honestly, I'm not putting it out to taunt you. Some people seriously ask, and wait for an answer. Yes, yes, take it already.
• Criticize the selection. No one is forcing you to have any. Picking over it and telling me that you don't like this kind or that kind gets you nowhere with me. (If you kick in a little $ and suggest that you like one kind or another, that's fine. Otherwise, no.)
  
• Blame me for your lack of willpower. I don't blame anyone else for mine. Some people eye the candy but never take any. They have willpower. It's not my fault if you don't. There's another way to get from point A to point B that doesn't involve passing my desk, you know.
  

I sound a little testy, don't I? Like with so many areas of my life, I have some pet peeves here (obviously). One thing I've learned that surprised me is how many people really like Heath bars. I bought them because I like them, but it turns out that my boss's boss likes them, and his boss likes them, and another SVP likes them. I'm no dummy. We don't run out of Heath bars. I stock up when they're on sale at Target.

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I don't know how many men read this (though I saw recently in Google Reader that 20 people are signed up for this blog that way! Really? Twenty of you? Hi!), but if you're squeamish about "girl stuff" you may wish to look away for a moment. That said, can anyone tell me why tampons come in wrappers that rustle? Why can I not stick one in my pocket without it announcing its presence?

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

Looking back over the year is something that people tend to do at the end of December or early in January, but my year to contemplate is really the last twelve months, it isn't simply 2008 or 2009.

Almost exactly a year ago, I was laid off.

Around 9 months ago, I started a new job.

Eight months ago, Pan died.

Seven months ago, we got Miri.

Almost four months ago, my dad died.

Among other things, this list explains why the 20-30 pounds I've put on in this time frame is not at all surprising. This is enough stress to choke a horse, and my main reaction to stress is eating. I'm now at the difficult stage where I want to do something about it, enough to think about exercising (yuck), but I don't want to stop eating all the crap. Mmm, candy, ice cream.

I think my brain is starting to win though. Last night, I dreamed that someone (a person I know in real life, and who is, um, not shy about expressing opinions) saw me for the first time in a while and asked when I got so fat. I pointed out the whole stress-year thing, and the person told me yes, but I looked awful. And of course, I know, that didn't come from this person, it came from my own brain. So perhaps the tide turns. Perhaps tonight I will get back on the exercise bike that has been sitting quietly ignored for so long.

Perhaps not. We shall see.

Not Friday Yet? (just checking)

I never seriously considered going to the Sock Summit in Portland: too far, too soon, I have plans for my vacation time this year (including Rhinebeck!). I've gotten only slightly wistful reading the many takes on this nirvana of knitters: many of the knit-bloggers I read went, and it did sound fun.

Only when I saw this (via the Webs blog) did I regret not going.



To be surrounded by people who would pass waiting time by singing "100 Skeins of Yarn on the Wall" would be something!

Today was not the greatest day at work, but after a long whine to my mother, I felt better. And speaking of better, now that her hip is bionic, she's feeling sore and all, but not in pain! Isn't that great?

And! Ten days from now, JetBlue willing, I will be arriving in Florida. Ahh.

Briefly before rain

Harold is sitting by the window, looking out into the dark so intently that I'm a little uneasy. Being on this Torchwood* kick recently, the dark seems potentially fraught.

*One of my friends called me on a previous casual reference to Torchwood, as if everyone knows it. I refer of course to the BBC series, which is itself a spin-off of the classic BBC series Doctor Who. For more background, go here (very informative, but major spoilers, don't say I didn't warn you).

I'm just starting season 2 via Netflix, and I think the line "Have you seen a blow fish driving a sports car?" is almost as good as the Doctor Who classic line, "The angels have the phone box."

Look at that face:

Who could say no?

I think Harold was looking at a storm coming in. Ten minutes after I wrote that, he's vanished, and I hear the first thunder. Time to turn the computer off. Night-night!

Monday (not a Monday-Monday)

Work was fine today, nothing exciting. I did please my boss when she was having a bad day, which is always good. I got stuff done. It was really, really hot and humid today, rather startling after the last few pleasant days. I love to have windows open at home, but this weather makes it easy to close them and switch on the a/c.

Stitch and bitch was fun. I'm working away on the secret project, enjoying it immensely.

Harold is having a day. He was having a morning before I left, and while I'm sure he relaxed and even slept most of the day, he's being needy again tonight. Poor guy. I'd better wrap this up. And what better than some cat photos?

The two of them the other day:


Reminded me of this common scene from the past:


Miri hopes I am not making comparisons.


She is beautiful on her own.

All good weekends must come to an end

Have you had a good weekend? I have. The weather has been non-humid, which is a very pleasant change from the recent variety, and it wasn't deathly hot either. I went to a fun cookout yesterday (my friends' twins are two already!), and had dinner with friends today. Went for a walk, did some laundry, knit, read. If I didn't have the prospect of cleaning up the kitchen from dinner prep to face, it would be close to perfect. Ahh, life.

I saw some pretty things when I went for a walk after work Friday:








I find this guy extremely creepy. You?


And this vehicle was packed by an optimist. (Even stopped at a light, I didn't want to get too close: I used the zoom.)

A laugh for the cat lovers

Tears from laughing, that's the kind to have:



Oh, I love cats.

Night is Coming

It's getting late. I should be starting to get ready for bed. I would be a night owl if I didn't have to get up in the morning, but I do.

I don't put my book down.

Or I keep watching TV.

The program ends, and I search for another. Come on, come on, there has to be something on. Come on. Something.

Because I'm poised under a wave. I can feel it trembling in the air around me. A huge, painful wave, and
if I can't hold it off,
if I acknowledge it,
it will fall on me. It will cover me and it will be all there is, and nothing will get through it.

Pain. Sorrow. Misery.

No good memories. No perspective. No comfort.

They wait to swamp me at night. When they can get all my attention. When they can wash over everything. When all the distractions that get me through the day, that build my walls and hold me up, crumble around me. And there's nothing but bitterness.

Not every night. But many nights. Once I get in bed, I sleep. But getting there can be insurmountable.

Looking back in time

Two years ago, I took this picture.


One year ago, I took this one:


Recently, I took this one:


If that isn't random, I don't know what is.

Be vewwy, vewwy quiet, I'm hunting...

I felt a bit like Elmer Fudd last night and this morning, my fly swatter in one hand and hair spray in the other, stalking flies.



I don't have a definitive answer on the hair spray effectiveness yet. Unless you're killing flies in an empty white room, I find it's easy to lose them against the background. I spray, they move, I spray, they move, then I can't find them, but without a little fly corpse, I'm not sure if I've attained the desired result. With the swatter, it's generally easier to tell: either there's a smear* and a body, or I miss completely, or sometimes I seem to have made a partial hit, but can't confirm. Psychologically, though, I think I feel better with another tool in hand, for when they just won't land on a swat-able surface.

*Furthering the gross factor, I now have bug smears here and there: window, ceiling. Ugh. I want to douse the whole place in bleach.

My, this is sounding violent. Seriously, until recently I would have said that flies were an insect that didn't bother me too much. I don't want them flying in my face, but I don't mind that tickle as they land on my arm, and they don't creep me out merely by existing (hello, spiders). I haven't had a bad experience with them (hello bees), until now.

It turns out that invading my home, flying around my kitchen, landing on my toothpaste tube, makes me homicidal. Eww, eww, eww, get away! Go! Leave it! Stop! Die!

Whew. I want to think this campaign is working, but I'm not sure yet. I surely do hope so. I've only seen a couple of flies tonight, so far.

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Work is being rather quiet so far this week, which is a peaceful change. Some people are on vacation, of course, and some out sick (pneumonia in one case and bronchitis in another, pass the Purell please). My dealing with the auto shop and the flat tire yesterday was quite boring in comparison. (End result: new tire, but not as expensive as they first quoted, and the alignment was okay. Plus they drove me to work and picked me up again, which was very handy.) I'm also readjusting after finishing up a big project, one of those "putting an octopus to bed" types of projects (you know, the legs keep popping back out). I still have plenty of work to do, of course, but not that thing, and I haven't fully made the mental shift out of it. It was a huge relief to complete it, after two months of working with a lot of different people (and their schedules).

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

Is it really only Tuesday?

I know, I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

A Little Hammer Time

Oh. My.



If something makes me laugh enough to snort, alone here at the computer, well, how can I not share? (Thanks to Joshilyn for sharing it in the first place.)
(Here's the original, if you need an MC Hammer refresher.)

I bought hair spray; I'm off to hunt flies. Happy trails to you!

Sunday night already?

It's been an off-kilter weekend. Being up so unusually late on Friday really threw me off yesterday, but even today, I've been kind of out of it. I did manage to do laundry, and I may have found the source of the flies: emptying the trash around the place, I found something so nasty-looking, I don't know how I didn't smell it. Hopefully this means that once I rid myself of the current batch of flies (swat! swat!), there won't be more. Leslie, I'm buying hair spray just in case!

And with that and a few cat pictures, I leave you to your evening.

May I sit with you, brother?
Oh, all right.

Tongue sticking out, paw up my sleeve ... one relaxed cat.

Depeche Mode

July 31, 2009, Mansfield, MA

The concert was amazing.

The whole experience was, to sum up: mostly positive, long, damp, tiring, exhilarating, and fun. I'm having trouble deciding how best to write about it. Chronological? High points? Q&A? Photo essay? I expect this will end up being a bit of all of the above.

First of all, though there was overall very little publicity about it, the concert was at least mentioned in yesterday's Bostonist: Friday Happenings:

Let's Play Master and Servant

According to Beavis and Butthead, "Depeche Mode" is French for "we're wusses." Bostonist still thinks that it was all downhill after Speak and Spell, but we still know the words to almost all of Depeche Mode's songs. It's not a guilty pleasure if you don't feel guilty about it. Comcast Center, Mansfield, 7:30 p.m. Admission: Large amounts.

It was disheartening to learn that they were far from selling out the show; it seems they are still more popular in Europe than in America. (They just added two more shows in Poland!) But those who came to the show had a good time, and there were a few of us:


Want to hear? For a non-video camera, I don't think my little digital does a bad job!

I'd never heard of the opening act, a group called Peter Bjorn and John, but they were quite good, very energetic and I liked the music: it sounded like it should be familiar even though it wasn't. And I give them full credit for a good attitude, as playing before the slight and only somewhat enthusiastic crowd could easily have been disheartening. (Years ago, I went to a concert whose opener was The Sugarcubes, and they introduced themselves as the Ice Cubes from Sugarland.)

The crowd filled in greatly as showtime grew near. Also, fortunately for those of us in the uncovered seats*, they let us move into the back few rows of the covered area. Out of the rain was a vast improvement!

*Either my memory is faulty, or they've expanded the seating since I was last at Great Woods (which was probably in 2001 when I last saw Depeche there). Used to be, if you got a seat, it was under the roof, and only the lawn was not. Surprise! That is no longer true. To be under the roof, you need to be in sections 1 through 8. Note to self for next time.

To be honest, we were already damp when we got there. Does that make it better, or worse? We were going on the Rock Bus, and just moments after we parked in Harvard Square to go get on the bus, the skies opened. Seriously, it went from zero to monsoon in nothing flat. When it started, we watched it coming, and my friend noted that it looked like someone threw a bucket of water over a fence: whoosh, sideways, wall of water. We waited out the very worst of it in the car, but eventually got out and slogged damply to the bus.

The ride itself was fine: the seats were not very comfortable, but the mood was cheerful, and not having to drive, worry about traffic, or park was very nice, and I think well worth the price. Though since the show wasn't sold out, perhaps it wouldn't have been the usual 2 hours to get out of the lot after. On the other hand (or is that the third hand?), if I'd been driving, I wouldn't have been able to nap on the way back. Which yes, I did. A couple of hours of bouncing around, yelling, singing, dancing, and it was past my bedtime. Zzzz.

Things I saw/heard/smelled that did not surprise me at a Depeche Mode concert:

• fishnet stockings
• heavy black eyeliner
  
• leather pants
• Depeche shirts
• many different languages being spoken
• pot (yuck; makes me nauseous just to smell it)
  

Things I saw that did surprise me at a Depeche Mode concert:

• Crocs
• Bruins t-shirts--2, and separately!
  
• a couple who looked to be at least 60
• a beach ball, bouncing around the crowd during the show
  
• a baby (the poor thing, howling on the way out)
  
• plaid shorts; many, many plaid shorts
  

As I said to my friend, some of the people look like they came from a punk club, and some like they came from the country club.

As always, the video behind the band was interesting:





And this one is fuzzy, but you can kind of see that one of Martin's guitars was star-shaped. Wild!


Lights, video, smoke ... not exactly the "four dudes behind synthesizers" of the early days.


Dave really dances now, a whirling dervish with a mike stand, and "sinuous" is the word to describe it. Sexy, yet it makes me laugh, every time.

This did not make me laugh (on the wall in the ladies room; cheerful).


And this? they were giving away in the parking lot. I didn't drink it; should I?


I bought a t-shirt (and wore it on the bus on the way back, brr).


I like the summary on the back, too:


Though I wonder how Mansfield, where Great Woods is, feels about being called "Boston".


I had to get a program, too. I always got the programs. I wonder if I got one every time? If so, this would make 8. Though I think, when I saw them in 93 and again in 94, that was actually the same tour, so it may have been the same program.


Remember that section 14 is all-weather! Also, get on bus #4 to go back to Harvard Square; #5 will take you to South Station, which will not be helpful if your car is in Cambridge.


In the "Could have been far worse than it was" department, after hitting numerous awful potholes driving to Harvard Square and back, we only hit the tire-killer a mile or so from my house. Things sounded a little wrong after that, but we were so close I just went on (1 AM in the dark and damp, I was not interested in stopping by the side of the road), and got home to find one obviously not-right tire. I called AAA today and they sent someone to put the spare on (I'm capable of doing it, but I pay for AAA, why not use it? I have nothing to prove). I'll have to see about that tire next, damn it.

So that was a bit of a depressing end to the experience, but knowing how much worse it could have been keeps the perspective in place. The concert itself was so good, it was worth it. Plus I made brownies today (which makes everything better), and chicken salad, despite the infestation of flies that has suddenly taken over my home.

Ten days ago, I would have said no, I hardly ever get an insect in here; now, the flies must be in double digits. It's disgusting, and since I don't know where they're coming from, it's hard to know how to get rid of them. I mean, I am swatting, but there are just too many! How do I get rid of the ones that are here, and how do I keep more from coming in? I'm so tired today, the problem seems insurmountable. I think a mood enhancer/brownie is called for here.

Wow

Just, wow.


More later.