A Better Sunday

The baby was sleeping in the window today, very relaxed, paw up in the air. He works hard for his living.

I'm feeling better today, not 100% headache-free but close enough. I even went up to Woodman's for a late lunch today; summer is fleeting and in a few months, these 90-degree days will seem far away. Have to enjoy them while I can, when I can. Now I'm wrapping up the laundry and resentfully eying the clock. It can't be bedtime yet! I want to knit, but since I finished the first part of the Tardis shawl yesterday, the next step is picking up many, many stitches. I don't really want to start that at a time when I can't finish it.

I pinned it out, halfway to be exact. Unpinned, it sort of curls into itself, as you can see on the left. Pinning it, as on the right, opens it up.

It's a pretty pattern, when you can see it.

But it will have to wait for another time. Perhaps I'll Wingspan a little before bed.

Head Ow.

After how I felt on Thursday, it was a great relief to feel better on Friday: some cramps, but no headache, normal stomach, overall much better.

Which made waking up with a headache today feel like a huge betrayal. No! No, it went away! Not my weekend! My precious weekend!

Ow.

Wobby But Better; Now Watch This!

I had bad enough cramps earlier, with attendant headache and upset stomach, that I left work at lunchtime and came home, got in bed, and slept most of the afternoon. Finally starting to feel better now, thank heavens; maybe I'll live!

I don't want to push the head too far tonight, though, so let me share this lovely orchestral flash mob video, which was just on author Kristin Cashore's blog. Wonderful!

Happy 4th!

Ten hours of sleep, nothing to rush off and do, a hot day and uncounted popsicles .. it's been a good day so far.

Though not perfect. I'm sure I've mentioned the odd air conditioning system in my condo before, but in case I haven't, something went weird somewhere down the line, long before I bought here, and I get air from both systems (the building has two heat/air conditioning systems, and it's supposed to be three apartments on each). The bedroom and living room vents come from one system, and the the bathroom, kitchen, and office from the other. Today, I'm partly grateful for that, because one of the systems isn't on, and I appreciate having some a/c to retreat to.

It's odd, because the side that isn't working is usually the most enthusiastic side, and frequently drives me to close the vents and open windows because good lord, I don't want to live in a fridge. I love having a/c, but I don't want it unless the heat is really up there. But today it is, and the humidity, and since I had the oven on, OF COURSE today is when one a/c is taking a holiday. Figures.

But no matter! It's the 4th of July, I'm going to a cook-out, and I made a flag pie. I made one some years ago, in the pre-blog days if you can believe it, and even pre-digital camera; I have old-school film pictures of the pie, whoa. Isn't it funny how old-fashioned that seems now? When probably it was 2005 or 2006 (I'm too lazy to dig out the pictures and look).

I didn't invent the idea of the pie myself; I may not have had a blog in those days, but the internet was there and I looked around on it, and I saw the pie somewhere and thought it was a fun idea for the holiday. I freely admit also that I used "boughten" pie crust, and pie filling. I never claimed to be making it from scratch! And look how pretty!

I made an American flag pie! I hope I'm not alone in thinking this is fun.

The tools involved: a 9-inch glass pie dish, a pie crust shield (so, so, soooo much easier than messing about with tin foil), a star cookie cutter, and a pie gate for an off-label use.

You'll see why in a minute. Can you guess?

I went with the Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust, but I did roll it out a little, to make it a touch thinner. Crust in the dish, then the gate, and then the pie filling. The gate is designed to keep your filling from running after you cut a piece out of a finished pie, but I used it to keep the blueberry in its corner and the cherry in the rest. More or less, anyway. Worked pretty well!

Then I pulled the gate out, and layered stripes of dough over the cherry, and stars over the blueberry. Voila!

I let it cook about 15 minutes before putting the crust shield on, since I do want the edges baked, just not burned. And I recommend an oven liner, since it's sure to bubble over. Mine did, anyway. I used two 21-ounce cans of cherry pie filling, and about three-quarters of one can of blueberry. Probably should have used slightly less, but oh well. Life's not perfect, and it doesn't bother me.

Since I didn't make a full double-crust pie, I had dough left over. I rolled it out, laid on the cinnamon sugar, and made snails.

Not being of homemade dough, they are not as good as the ones my mother made when I was a child*, but really, not bad at all.
*Of course nostalgia couldn't be painting them rosier than they were, could it? Nonsense, they were amazing!

I'm not the only one having a good day, today, either. This guy is, and I hope you are too.

Pre-Independence Day

There's a lovely Friday-night feeling to this Tuesday night. Knowing that I get to sleep late in the morning is one of the fastest ways to get me in a good mood. Having the 4th of July fall on a Wednesday is not ideal, but it's better than no day off. (The best, of course, happens in 2 years, when it will be on a Friday. Perfect!)

 

Here's what I would have written last night, if Carlos had not been draped over me in a clear message to "get off the computer already": My legs hurt. They ache, all down the back, because I did 15 minutes of yard work on Sunday.

Philosophical question: Is it still called yard work if you don't have a yard?

I live in a condo building, on a small lot that is entirely paved. It's parking spaces, a driveway, sidewalks, but no grass, no dirt to grow anything in. Theoretically, anyway. Lately the weeds have been springing up in the cracks, and along the foundation, and no one does anything about it. Does it bother no one else? Seriously, a few of them along the fence are taller than I am! I look at it and see my property value diminishing, and it's done enough of that since I bought, thank you.

 

Two years ago, when something similar was happening, I brought it up to the other owners, and we discussed having someone come in to take care of it (I was willing to be one of the people doing something about it, I just wasn't volunteering to take care of it all by myself). In the end, though, someone's boyfriend came along and cleared it out for us.

 

Last year, as I recall, I bought a bottle of weed killer and sprayed it around once or twice, which kept things somewhat under control.

 

This year, after getting progressively more annoyed (why am I the only one doing anything about this?), I decided that I can't make them care, but I can do something. I pulled on gardening gloves and on Sunday afternoon, in the 95-degree heat*, I took gardening scissors and went around chopping the worst offenders. I didn't get it all, but I got a lot, it's much better, and the result felt very satisfying.

*My timing was my choice, of course.

 

Well, the result in the yard. The sore leg result I could have done without. Who would have thought that 15 minutes of bending would still be felt two days later? Ow.

I'm sure sleeping in will help. Then I'm making a pie to take to a cookout. I can't wait to show it to you!

Can't type much...

...with cat draped over arm, between me and keyboard. Have a good one!

Sunday in Pictures, Mostly

By the way, can you believe it's July? Me neither.

So, can you guess where I went today, before the grocery store? (And if you knew I went to the grocery store, how did you know my milk was going bad?)

Here's a hint:

I know, hockey in July? Well, the Bruins have development camp for the up-and-coming kids, and I dropped in and spent half an hour surrounded by many other fans, smiling at the ice, before the goose bumps drove me back out into the wonderful 90+ world (I'm guessing it was about 60 inside Ristuccia; why is it always freezing in there?).

Do you see the new item on the wall since my last visit?

It was fun to be there.

Here are some other pictures I've taken lately. Like last weekend, when I was walking home and wondering why I didn't feel obliged to take pictures of the pretty flowers I saw, when I looked up and saw this guy:

Isn't he cute? He was just sitting on someone's driveway, frozen, apparently thinking he was camouflaged.

I was behind this car recently. Did you know this kind of plate was a thing?

I never saw one before. On the other hand, this next car reminds me of my first car, a '69 Caddy convertible. This one isn't an exact match, but it's the right era, and it was in amazing condition.

Meanwhile, in my actual current car, we hit a milestone yesterday (the only thing you want to hit in a car).

Six years and two months, in case you've lost track.

Tangentially related to cars, I went online recently to update the maps in my GPS. I was disconcerted to get this message first:

I can't help feeling that if the device does not have enough space, and has "unnecessary files" taking up space, that isn't my problem. The next message made me smile, though.

I would have been surprised if there was room for the entirety of the US and Canada on that little machine. Anyway, it turned out to need a software update, then was happy to download new maps. It took a while, though.

How many hours?

Finally, how could I end without sharing pictures of his lordship?

You need a quieter camera. I was sleepin'.

Lesson for the Day: Don't be Afraid to Ask

aka, Sometimes You Get Lucky

 

Even if you're pretty sure the answer will be no, it doesn't hurt to ask, a lesson I've learned before, but had reinforced today.

 

When I started this job, June 4th, I was under the impression that the health insurance would kick in July 1st. That's what I wrote in my notes from the HR meeting the first day, and that's what the analyst who started the same day I did also thought was happening. But as we learned this afternoon, we were wrong. 

 

Did you ever think of the word "month" as being a nonspecific term? It does have more than one meaning. There's the calendar month, like June, and then there's a calendar month, like thirty days. Seems like a small distinction, until it changes your health insurance from July to August.

 

However, good news! I figured it would be too late to get another month of COBRA coverage from my old job, but what does it hurt to ask? I shot the woman in HR there an e-mail, saying that I figured the answer was no but thought I would check, and she said no problem. Whew!

 

Paranoid klutzes should not be without health insurance, you know? And now I don't have to be. Whew!

A Little Ritz

I was in a bad mood last night, for no particular reason, and decided it was wise to keep away from the blog. My mood's okay tonight (despite learning today that one of my coworkers was born when I was in college, ow), but I'm tired.

But here's something to see! Raise your hand if you know the song Puttin' on the Ritz (and if you do, is it from Irving Berlin, Gene Wilder, or Taco?).

Ever see a flash mob in Russia perform to it?

Now you have!

My favorite part is that they're singing along but clearly don't know all the words. "Trying hard to be like Harry Cooper", anyone?

Other versions, if you're interested:

Taco. This was one of the first cassettes I owned. How many times did I listen to it?

Countless.

Young Frankenstein, always a classic:

Another coworker threw "Put the candle back" into conversation today, so it wasn't all bad news.

The always dapper Fred Astaire, the classic:

Hope you enjoyed at least one version. Have a good evening!

A Bit of a Bleargh Evening

So, who needs to see something cheerful? I do! It's chilly here and was gray most of the day, and I'm tired and almost have a headache (believe me, that's a thing). Even peas were not enough to totally cheer my evening.

But here we are: another dancing goalie! Remember the other one that I posted, last year? Well, this one's a kid, getting his groove on to that arena classic, YMCA:

Now there's a reason to smile! I love when the second goalie joins him.

I can see that exploring "dancing goalie" and "goalie dance" on Youtube will have to happen. 

I was so tired last night, and had a mild but persistent headache, so I got in bed at a decent hour for once, and was turning the light out at 9:30. Apparently that was the cue the thunderstorm was waiting for, since for the next 90 minutes or so, there was lightning and thunder every few minutes, just infrequently enough for me to start drifting to sleep between bangs. Closer and closer, until the windows shook, and Carlos raised his head from snuggling to wonder if he should be worried. Not a happy camper, me. Finally, it stopped, and I was able to get to sleep, but what a waste of good sleeping time. At least my headache was mostly gone this morning.

Tonight, it's early to bed again, but with unisom this time.

All About Work

So, time to write about the job in a bit more detail than I've managed so far! Seriously, the adjustment to working again has been huge. Getting back into the routines is not easy, and I require my routines to function. A perfectly timed quote via the Happiness Project:

“Habit simplifies our movements, makes them accurate, and diminishes fatigue.”
-William James

Some of the specifics I've been adjusting to:

• eating on a schedule, and not just eating but cooking, and not just cooking but planning, and not just planning but shopping, and not just shopping but planning the shopping
• work clothes: choosing them, discovering something is missing a button or doesn't fit well, and then there's laundering them; also, dressing for chilly inside and boiling hot outside

• lunches and snacks, particularly snacks since there's nothing in the building to "just grab" so I have to plan ahead (whereas there's plenty around for me to go out for lunch if I need to); also, due to the open seating described below, quiet snacks are preferable! Not that everything has to be silent, but too much crunching makes me self-conscious when it's quiet, so I prefer food in quiet packaging that can be quietly eaten. No celery!
• the alarm clock in general. Also, I may have to switch away from the news station; what with the Jerry Sandusky trial, there have been a few moments of "I didn't want to hear that" recently.
• the newspaper, and the fact that the guaranteed-6-AM-delivery is not always there at 6:30. Or 6:45. I may have to start another calling campaign, like I did a few years ago. If they say it will be there by 6, that's when I expect it. And dude, if you would get it by the door, you would see some tips! (He barely slows the truck down before flinging it out, so it lands at the bottom of the steps, often among the trash cans. I can't see it from upstairs, so I have to keep going down to look for it, or give up on it for breakfast and read it at lunch. Plus, there was the day the neighbor's dog peed on it there, that was a new low.)
• highways at rush hour (after a year of back roads and then no commute)

Commute

Off-rush hour, the drive takes 20 minutes. During rush hour, it's another story, and has varied tremendously. Twenty-five minutes, over an hour, there's no predicting. It's a challenge! A complicating factor is that close to my town, there's been a traffic shift that results in literally twice the traffic going down the street I usually go home. Of course, the night last week when there was an accident there, it was far worse: 15 minutes to go under half a mile is pretty painful. There are not a lot of options that make any kind of sense, but I'm going to have to experiment, because it's been nuts there. Adding to my personal frustration is how close to home it is: I'm almost there, but not quite. Honestly, though, I could have just about walked in the time (though not carrying the groceries).

As a side note, one of my new co-workers actually lives a few blocks from me. I'm not suggesting car-pooling, as he usually works earlier than I do, and I rarely drive home without stopping for at least one errand, but I'm thinking we could help each other out when one of us has car trouble. Could be handy!

Location

The company is not that far from the job I left 2 years ago (remember the psycho SVP and his mind games?), in an area full of stores and restaurants, and one that I am very familiar with. It's handy not to have to learn my way around, but simply to know where things are. This also helps with the commute, because if the highways are too bad to even try, I know a million ways to go. They may be just as busy, but at least you get to move, and have the illusion of progress, which is sometimes just what I want.

Office Layout

Outside: We are in an office park, but it's one with a lot of grass, flowers, and trees, which I really like. It's a good set-up for walking at lunch, when the weather is neither rainforest nor inferno. Our building is on the edge and our office faces trees, which are pleasant to look at, and provide some shade. It could be a lot worse! There's a cafeteria in a nearby building, and apparently a health club too; I have yet to check that out.

Inside: The office itself is one large room, with a few offices and conference rooms, and a small kitchen, on the periphery. I'm not a big fan of open seating, and this is very open: cubes in blocks of four, with walls low enough to see over while sitting, and they don't even go all the way to the center, so there's a lot of view-through. That probably doesn't help you understand, does it? Well, picture a plus sign (you know,+) and imagine a person sitting in each of the four corners. Then imagine that at the center of the plus, the lines don't meet. Like this:

   |

--  --

   |

So if you're sitting in the lower right, you can see diagonally through to the person in the upper left. Also, one of the side walls in each square is split, with a foot-wide opening in the middle, so you can see one of your neighbors completely. It would be great if you were collaborating on something, but since I'm not ... I just like a little privacy to blow my nose unobserved, you know? They're such odd little cubes. (I hope they were cheap, since that's the only excuse I can think of for getting them.) Another weird feature is that the walls aren't made of the usual fabric that you can use pushpins or cube-wall-hangers in; neither are they magnetic. Post-It notes stick to them, or you can tape things to them, and you can tuck things into the bottom edge and they kind of stay, but that's it.

Sometimes the open-ness is fine; there are times when the only sounds in the office are the clicks-and-whirls of computer use, and the hum of the air conditioning. Other times, there can be three serious-science conversations happening around me at once, whoa. It is odd to be the English major is a crowd of mostly scientists. There are times when their talk to each other sounds to me like the adults in the Charlie Brown cartoons: waah waah waah, waah waah waah, waah waah. Apparently the idea of a candidate having two PhDs but both in physical chemistry is sort of ridiculous? Who knew.

People

That said, the people are all nice. There are currently 11 of us in this office (and more in the division elsewhere), but it's about to be 10 because one guy got an offer too good to refuse from his old company. (Which is too bad, he's a fun guy and I liked working with him so far, but oh well. Pity his wife: they just moved from California to be here in March, and now are moving to New York. Ouch.) Back to the office: they're still hiring, so the numbers should go up, while hopefully the general niceness level will remain high; everyone seems motivated to hire the right people, so I'm not too worried. We have desk space enough for 20, and room for more; it will be interesting to see where we are in a few months. They're looking for another editor, and I really hope I like him or her. So far, though, I haven't even heard if they've found any candidates for it.

Work

Oh, right, the actual work! Yes, there is some of that. It seems to be going well. I may not love working again, but this is the right work for me to be doing (until I win the lottery). Another quote:

“The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.”
-Logan Pearsall Smith

 And when we talk about proofing and editing, I don't consider it drudgery. It can be tiresome, correcting someone's repeated mistake, but the thrill of eliminating errors and making something better, more readable, consistent, well, this makes me give a happy sigh.
My first week, I was given the Editorial Guide that the writers are supposed to use, and that the editors use to check their work, and then a test to take--open book, so to speak. I pretty much aced it, which was comforting, and I also found an error in the guide, where it says in a certain instance, do A, then shows an example which doesn't do A. So I impressed the editorial manager, who isn't actually my manager (the editors so far are in London, and they're not just for our division), but it doesn't hurt. The guide actually needs a lot of work*, and I'm meeting with my manager on Monday to discuss how much latitude I have with it.
*Call me crazy, but since the guide explicitly states to write in American English, I think the guide itself should also be in American English. No "spelt", no "exclamation marks" or "full stops", and exactly what does "at a push" mean anyway?

In closing, I just want to say that proofing spacing in justified text sucks. Justification throws off my eye for spacing.

The Start-Up Mentality

Although this company is not brand new, the division is pretty new (less than 2 years, I believe), and the office only opened a few months ago. The boss picks up coffee when she goes to Costco. My first week, I was surprised to hear someone asking around for "the" stapler. (How many people will there have to be before we get two, I wonder?) Meanwhile, my desk didn't even have a trash can. I could have asked for one, but when I was at Target I picked up a small bucket-like thing from the dollar area, that works just fine.

The Water. Yes, the Water.

I drink a lot of water. I'm not a water snob; at home, I happily drink tap water, no extra filtration required. But the setup here has me looking for workarounds already. There is a little side faucet on the sink to dispense filtered water. I tried the tap water itself, since sometimes that's perfectly fine, but it does taste unpleasant, so okay, I decided, I'll use the little one.

Well. It is slow. And by slow, here is what I mean:

• Put 12-ounce glass on the counter and turn the switch. (At least you don't have to stand there holding it.)
• Step to freezer, get out a bowl of ice*.
• Step back to the glass, add cubes.
• Go put the bowl back in the freezer.
• Go back to the glass.
• Wait another 10-15 seconds for the water to fill.

*Because the water is slightly flat-tasting, and comes out just above room temperature, so it's better when iced.

Thirty seconds doesn't sound like a long time, but it feels like it, ten* times a day (plus refilling the ice cube trays). It's long enough that I zone out, then panic that wait, I was filling the glass, it will overflow! But no, it isn't full yet.

*That's an estimate, but I do drink a lot of water. And yes, that does require a lot of bathroom breaks. It's good to get up from the desk regularly.

So when I was at the grocery store Thursday night, I picked up a gallon of store-brand spring water (for 50 cents), and brought it in Friday (and almost finished it by the end of the day, I told you I drink a lot of water). The idea is that if I fill it at home* and bring it in, I will spend less time than I was before, and my drink will taste better (and my arms will even get some regular exercise, oof, have you carried a gallon of water lately?). We'll see how that goes. If it works out, I may have to get a larger tote bag, because the one I use now is big enough for lunch/snacks, purse, and book, but not for a gallon of water too.
*Where, by  the way, it takes less time to fill the gallon than it does to fill one glass at work.
 

Other Things I Appreciate

• Flexible scheduling. I don't have to punch a time clock or even fill in a time card, and no one seems to be monitoring my movements and time spent at desk. How refreshing to be treated like a responsible adult! And since the commute varies and thus so does my arrival time, it's nice to be able to vary when I leave accordingly, without anyone being bothered. Some people come in earlier, some later, some work at home a day or two a week (and particularly Fridays, naturally; there were five of us this Friday), and it's all very relaxed.
• Speaking of Friday, we work a 7-hour day on Fridays, which adds an extra hour to every weekend, and adds up to more than another week of vacation time spread through the year. Nice little perk!
• Speaking of relaxed scheduling, I can eat lunch when I want. And I get an hour, so I can run an errand if I need to.
• We can take vacation time without counting "hours accrued" first. It's so nice to be able to take a day off in July without fussing about if I've earned all of 8 hours yet. (My mother will be at grandma's for a week, so I'm going up for the weekend. Yay!)
• This one is small and may seem weird, but I like my mouse's quiet scroll wheel. One of my neighbors has one that goes bzzz-bzzzz-bzzzz as he scrolls, which makes me realize he scrolls rather a lot (page-down, dude!). Mine, on the other hand (ha!), is a little slow, but silent. Phew. It's the kind of thing you might never notice at home, but in a quiet office, well, wow.

Things I Don't Like As Much

• The open plan seating, obviously.
• The temperature. It's usually chilly, but not always. I'd rather have it consistent, even if uncomfortable, so I knew how to dress for it.
• My boss is in and out of meetings all day, and gets so much e-mail that she tends to skim, so catching her in person looks like the best way of doing it. That isn't my preference (not that I get to choose), and it takes work.
• No business cards. I know, it's a little tiny thing, and I don't really need them, but I liked having a business card.

And that's the new job, three weeks in. Now you know!

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.

Time, and Not Enough of It

It continues to amaze me how much time work sucks up. You think, oh, 40 hours a week, okay, that's not so bad. But add in lunch and commutes and suddenly it's more like 55 hours, plus it's so tiring to work and to get up early (oh, oh so very early) that I feel I barely get home and it's bedtime. Last weekend I slept ten hours Friday night and close to 12 Saturday*; I'm a person who needs serious amounts of sleep, and I just can't get it and have even a tiny bit of a life, while working.
*They say you can't "make up" sleep on the weekends, but I'm pretty good at it. Maybe it doesn't entirely repair the deficit of the week, but it helps.

I remember, after I got laid off in 2008, going back a few weeks later to have lunch with those left behind (and gather from my garden; remember, that was the job where I gardened), and one of the VPs seeing me exclaimed how good I looked. I remember vividly telling her that it was because I was getting enough sleep, and I never look like that while working. It's true.

None of this is to knock my specific job. It's a pretty good fit so far, and I don't dread going or anything. But man, am I tired. I stayed up a bit too late last night, it was ten when I looked at the clock and had to admit I wasn't going to finish my book, and now it isn't even 9 and I'm winding down.

Other than some technical issues, the job continues to go well. The technical issues are a piece of work, though. Monday morning* I opened the report I spent most of last week on, started working, and made the mistake of trying to change the font size of some text in a table. The 75-page document compressed into 19 pages by overlaying text and tables and figures so densely that most of it was unreadable. The hell? Never seen anything like it.
*And it just HAD to be Monday morning, didn't it?

Less dramatic but along the same lines, I opened the report yesterday morning to find that all my tracked changes had gone from red to blue overnight. Also, the spacing between paragraphs in the first section had changed. Riiiight.

Late yesterday I closed the report, then opened it to check something and the comments were back to red. Ohhhh-kay. Technology is not always our friend.

I want to talk knitting, I want to talk books, so many things ... but my eyes are closing.

How has your week gone?

Another Not-Much-To-It Night

Good news: the head is better! Commence furious knocking on wood.

Good news for me (not so good news for you, if you were hoping for a longer post tonight): I got a good book from the library, and I want to read for a bit before bedtime. Which is getting close. Good night!

Just a Brief Note

I'm not dead. Not even wounded. I had a headache yesterday and today, not terrible but annoying, and it's not too bad at the moment but Carlos needs me.

So let me just say, have a nice evening, and a nice day, and I hope to be up to more here tomorrow night.

Wait, the weekend's ... over? Already?

How can that be? Wasn't it just Friday after work, just a minute ago?

I know, it's only been two weeks, it will take time to get used to the schedule again, but ow. Ten hours from now, this will be the look on my face:

Honestly. While admitting the whole thing about being grateful to find a job, let alone a job doing what I like best, blah blah blah, take it as read, let's be candid: working is a major time-suck away from fun and relaxation. I'm not trying to wallow, but it's true.

I am trying to look on the bright side, though.

Don't want to give in to those blahs! So, in the coming week, I have stitch and bitch to look forward to, and a haircut, and the goofiness of the annual NHL awards show. Also, it's supposed to get HOT, which would not be a bright side for some but it is for me. Looky here:

Highs in the 90s and lows in the 70s? No more than a 30% chance of rain? Oh, please, let that be right. There's been a lot of rain, and a lot of cloudy days, in the last two weeks. I notice my mood swinging dramatically upward when the sun comes out. On Friday, I sat outside for half an hour in the sunshine, knitting, and it helped my attitude immensely. More, please.

Oh, and speaking of knitting, I finished the socks today! These are the ones I started May 20th, and I really powered through them, because the yarn is unfortunately terribly splitty, and was a royal pain to work with, so I wanted to get it over with. Too bad, because I love the colors. (Photos to come, though of course they will look much like the photo here, times two.) I am at peace with never using it again, though, and to get the taste out of my mouth, I have already cast on the next pair in My Favorite Sock Yarn, Period (you know, Socks That Rock lightweight). Usually I have to ponder and consider which yarn comes next, but this time I knew, I had to go with the best. I did really enjoy going back to the Skyp pattern, and I'm doing it again. Sometimes you just don't want to rock the boat.

Oy, time to wrap up the evening. Paying the bills is over-rated...

Thursday Night Hockey Links

Thursday night, one step closer to Friday and the weekend. Here are a couple of cool hockey links I wanted to share.

The LA Times has an incredibly cool 360-degree panorama of the Kings' Stanley Cup parade. Isn't technology cool sometimes? Go see!

Meanwhile, Kings captain Dustin Brown let his kids drink chocolate milk out of the Cup, and blow bubbles in it. How awesome is he?

Much better than champagne, or beer, if you ask me!

Busted

Carlos has my number.