A Little Christmas Assortment

Here are some things I've taken pictures of in the last day or two.

Mary Ellen made me this perfect-for-2020 ornament. 

Which actually matches well with the Christmas card I sent her, great minds thinking alike.

She also found this charming little sheep.

My cousin sent me these buttons, perfect for 2020 as well.

I wore some nicely seasonal socks.

And worked on my nicely seasonal knitting.

Maggie inspected her present from my brother; she was later seen tossing it up into the air and leaping after and upon it. Winner!

And then there's this:

Doesn't look much like the Boston Bruins calendar I ordered, does it? Fortunately, that's still in stock, or so they say; I guess I shouldn't count on it until it arrives and I see what's in the envelope this time. Cross your fingers for me?

Christmas Eve

It's been a quiet, pleasant day here, and I hope you can say the same. My day included sunshine, a dip in the pool, making cookies, and Christmas music. It also included lots of lap time with this girl.

It's not the day I ordered, not with my brother (safely) in California, but it's still a good day. And after all:

Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now  

Christmas Adam, and Vacation At Last

Off work until January 4!

I was originally taking this much time off over the holidays for my brother's visit, and of course he isn't coming now, but inasmuch as that is true, and sad, I am still mightily relieved for vacation to be here. What a year it's been! And what a month for work December has been. It's going to be grand to really disengage from that. I'm not sure, honestly, if I've ever had this much time off without travel involved (or being laid off, of course, but that's different).

Not only was today my last work day before vacation, but my boss told me to take off early. I did finish up what I was working on, as I was close enough to done with it that I didn't want to have to pick it up again in January for the sake of an hour's work, but I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sunshine, starting to relax.

It was grand. Happy holidays.

Survived Another Week

This was my last full work week before vacation--I work next M-T-W and then I am off, off, off until January--and it was another doozy, but here I am at Friday night at last. 

The period has not made my entire week awful, which is some slight comfort. Monday was simply dreadful; Tuesday was better only by comparison; Wednesday didn't get bad until mid-afternoon; and Thursday and today were nothing, though I did and do feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. We shall see what happens next.

I had a very adorable cat on my lap last night, leading me to stay up much later than I intended to. But seriously. So cute.

I eventually could not stand my full bladder, deadened butt, and sore back any more, and ousted her. She was not pleased, but decided that my bed wasn't such a bad place to spend the night, if I insisted. As I did.

Ahh, weekend!

Bleah

I mentioned back in October how crabby I was to have gotten my period (at age fifty-fucking-two, just saying); I didn't blog when I got it again in November, though I was just as unhappy about it. And then, just over three weeks after that? Here it is again. This is such bullshit.

Assuming it happens again in January, and there's no reason to think it won't, I'll make an appointment and see if there's anything that can be done. I get that at my age, they don't want to keep giving me birth control, but this just keeps happening, the terrible cramps and backache and trying to concentrate on work while slumping forward and groaning, and I can't, I just can't with this. Especially not if it's going to be one week on and two weeks off.

A Quick Watch

Well worth two minutes of your time. I did not see the end coming!

During this holiday season — find your reason to exercise.

Happy Holidays 2020...pic.twitter.com/8m99sQAWzo

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) December 13, 2020

Did you? 

Christmassy Knitting

No, not knitting Christmas gifts! I mentioned that I had gotten some Christmas-colored yarns, and this week, I cast on for a Drop Stitch Scarf (ravelry link). And I am loving the results!

Maggie, as you can see, is less impressed. But as long as she can still have the lap, she won't object too strongly.

It will block out a bit, and show even better, I hope, but I like it just fine as it is, too.

My original idea was to alternate blocks of this yarn and the red-and-white yarn, but now I'm thinking perhaps I will do half as long a scarf as I want it to be in this, and make the other half in the other. Might be fun! What do you think? Other ideas?

Still Here

I thought I'd pop in and say nothing's wrong here; I spent four lovely blissful days last weekend, doing a whole lot of not much, not feeling like blogging, and then this week work has been kind of hellacious and sitting at the computer in the evening is the last thing I want to do. But I'm fine, we're fine, and I hope you are fine, too.

Have a Maggie picture.

Two Years Today!

Guess who has lived here for two years as of today? Miss Maggie! She is pleased to continue to honor us with the gift of her presence.

Here are a few of the photos I've taken of her in the past week, to commemorate the occasion.

Just Don't. Stay Home, Stay Safe

Look, I get it. I really do. We are all so over this pandemic and desperate for things to be back to normal. But they aren't, we aren't there, and pretending we are will not make it so.

The number are already going up so fast, so fast. A quarter of a million Americans have died from this. So many deaths could have been prevented if everyone wore masks, kept their distance, reined things in.

And now Thanksgiving is next week, and I'm truly afraid of what is going to happen next. Look what happened in Canada after their Thanksgiving:

Our local cases are already flying up. The tourists keep coming, the snowbirds keep coming, and on the one hand, there are lots of people I want to see down here, plus the economy frankly needs the tourism money. But on the other, pretending there is no pandemic is mysteriously not stopping the disease from spreading. This is my little town:

Please. Think twice. Then again. Be careful. For yourself, for others. Please. How many more people have to die? A year where we instead don't travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but eat turkey by ourselves at home (or grilled cheese sandwiches, or sushi, or whatever you want [seriously, whatever you want!]), is worth it for once.

Pictures! A Yarn Issue

I'm glad that photos are working on Blogger again! I don't have time/energy to do the car show tonight, but let me throw this little yarn situation up to show you.

I placed a Knitpicks order last week during their big sale, and one of the yarns I got was a ball of Chroma Fingering, in the colorway Vermont. I was a little surprised by what I got. It didn't grab me, you know? 

I suppose that your monitor may differ from mine, but that's quite different from what they showed on their website.

I looked on Ravelry, and there are a whole bunch of people whose Vermonts look like this:

Which is more what I was imagining! Now, I'm not complaining; I recognize the risks of ordering online, and especially at half off, this isn't going to break the bank or anything. But it's odd, don't you think, that they would have changed the colorway so much?

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties

I haven't forgotten I want to show you the car show pictures, but I am having trouble with Blogger, in that when I go to add photos to a post, instead of the box popping up with the photos to choose from, a blank box pops up and just sits there being useless. So that's frustrating. I tried different browsers and the same thing happens, so...no idea. 

I had in fact started to draft the car show post yesterday, and the pictures weren't loading right, so I figured I would try again today, but today it works even less. Charming. Perhaps it's time to look into what's involved in buying my own domain. How does knitreadcatshockey.com sound?

 

A Message From the Books

Read the titles. Librarians rule.

 

An Outlier

This is not what I want to blog about from yesterday:

A snake skin that drapes over both ends of two tables together. All the other photos I will show you (next time) have a theme, and this one does not match. But it is queasily impressive, isn't it? 

Beginning to Look

Christmas is going to look very different this year in so many ways, mostly very serious, but in one light-hearted way in particular for me, thanks to the latest shop update from String Theory Colorworks: 

I'm not usually drawn to holiday colors like this, but here we are.

I ordered on Monday, and thanks to her being in Florida too, the order took next to no time getting here.

I'm picturing a simple rectangular shawl, with alternating blocks of each color. Nothing too challenging! (That's my 2020 motto.) If any pattern comes to mind, please do suggest it! Happy weekend, y'all.

What Kind of Day

How was my day? Well, do you remember this book?

Yeah. Nothing catastrophic, but I started the day by stretching and totally messing my back up somehow, ow-ow-ow, and the day didn't improve from there.

Well, if the book taught me anything, it's that there's a chance for a better day tomorrow. Here's hoping.