Hockey and Cat Cartoons (Go Together Like a ...)

Well, now that was a hockey game last night!

It wasn't perfect by any means; they didn't start well, and they were down by two goals after both the first and second periods. But then you look at this:

	goals	assists
Marchand	2	3
Backes	2	1
Pastrnak	2	2

And they won 6-3, so I ain't complaining.

Not that it's great to get ALL your scoring from one line (Brandon Carlo got an assist, but otherwise it was these three, put together with Bergeron out), but if they're hot...and they were!

Also in hockey, you may not be interested in reading this entire piece about why older "role" players are getting cut out of the NHL picture, but if you know about Jaromir Jagr, who plays ridiculously well for his advanced-in-NHL-terms age, you have to laugh at this:

Sure, there are outliers like Jaromir Jagr, but this will all be explained one day when a brave soul yanks on his mullet, opens his skull plating and we gawk at all the robot parts of this obvious android.

~~~~~
Unrelatedly, I'm a fan of the online comic Breaking Cat News, in which the cats of the household have their own news network; I especially love when they try to interview their people, who they refer to as The Woman and The Man ("CN Cat News, Ma'am...Ma'am...Ma'am"). They're on hiatus right now, but I loved this rerun of an old one about thunderstorms. Particularly this panel:

Because when I was a kid, I was frightened of thunder and lightning (not that I love it now), and there was a time when my brother found me and my mother in the linen closet during a storm, reading...

Almost Friday, Almost

Today I finally finished-and-returned the not terribly good report I've been working on for almost a month (helpful hint: if you are a careless typist, and you use the "hide spelling errors in this document" feature in Word, you really, really should run spell-check before you send your report for editing; I know it's my job to catch mistakes, but it's your job not to make so damned many of them)...can you tell it's a relief? I'm about due for a really well-written one, I hope I hope.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking happy-Saturday-Rhinebeck thoughts, as my friend and I make our plans for the day trip. I have a list of vendors I don't want to miss, the weather looks good, the foliage should be nice, and it's basically my last trip until Christmas, which is a good thing. Ahh.

But before that, it's swimming tonight and then the first Bruins game of the season, yay! They will sadly be without Bergeron, but hopefully he will be back soon, and meanwhile I am excited for hockey again. It helps make up for the chill-and-dark season.

Finally, if yesterday's purring kittens weren't enough for you, here are photos of sleeping cats. I know not everyone is a cat person the way I am, but I think a lot of people might find this a peaceful thing to look at. And who doesn't need that, these days?

In Lieu of Grumbling

In the same way that exercise takes time, money, and energy, three things that I never have enough of, I am finding that this period of grieving, or whatever it is, is making me even more tired and short-tempered, two things one would not have thought I could get worse at.

But! Someone shared this on Facebook today, and it genuinely makes me laugh. Baby steps, folks.



Or, if you'd rather listen to kittens purring, crank up your volume for this. Caution: sleepiness warning.



Don't miss the tongues sticking out in some shots!

Look at the Funny Goat

Oh, kids. I was thinking today that if I spend the next month working this hard to get/keep my shit together, and then the election comes and is quickly followed by anarchy and the use of nuclear weapons, I'm going to be pissed.

In other words, I'm tired. This weekend was less stress than the previous one, but it's still a lot of driving and all, and the car excitement on Friday was stressful if ultimately non-catastrophic, and making myself work today wasn't easy. By two I was ready to stop, and by four I needed a nap badly, and this is me when I was in bed before 9 last night. Instead, I finished the work day, then went to the chiropractor, library, gym, and grocery store (with ATM).

I'm not even that much more tired than I was at 4. More sore, though.

Anyway! Let's look at the goat eating part of its cage decoration and smile.

He was having a grand old time!

I'm Home

I'm tired! Even more so than usual, I mean. But it was a good weekend.

Well, mostly. After all, I didn't hit the deer on Friday, that has to count for something, right? And the Check Engine light went away again.

Yeah, Friday's drive was a little too exciting. Today's was uneventful. Just the way I like it.

Actually, not completely uneventful. At one stop, I looked up, and hey, there's a bald eagle! This picture isn't great, obviously, but if you click on it to make it bigger, you might be able to see some detail.

And if not, here's this one, just for the pretty.

Printer Woes, Possibly Resolved

I think I have finally, kinda-sorta-half-assedly, fixed gotten around the can't-print problem. Maybe. I don't want to be overconfident.

I have been trying almost daily for the past week or two to print, since all this year, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it has been consistently not working. The other day, I was poking at the printer and went into the wrong menu, and it told me to connect the cord before I proceeded. I thought, "No, that's not what I ... wait ... cord? If the printer isn't working wirelessly, could I just connect a cord and be done with it?"

The short answer was no, or at least only half. To start. (And not the half I thought, either.)

What I did was order a cord, which came today. I hooked it up, sent a print job, and it informed me that the printer was offline. WTF! I looked at it from the printer side, and it looks like I would be able to scan and send to the computer, which I do want to be able to do, but not as much as I want to print, so argh grr etc.

After some deep breathing, I went into the settings on the computer to look at the list of printers, and lo and behold:

It thinks there are two printers, for some reason I cannot fathom, and the jobs were going to the WS version (which I decided stands for "What? Shit!"). When I sent a print job to the other version, it just ... printed. It's amazing.

I did try printing with the new cord unplugged, and it didn't work, so apparently I didn't even waste my $5.99. And it's a nice bright blue, so it will stand out from the forty-eleven black cords snaking all over the desk.

Therefore, with fingers crossed, knocking on wood, throwing salt over my left shoulder, and so on, I will say that maybe my printing woe days are over. For now. Hopefully.

Though I did try scanning, and it won't. It doesn't give an error message, you just get to the point where it should scan and it thinks about it for a bit, then suggests you put in a document, and repeats. It isn't actually scanning. Sigh. Just can't win some days.

~~~~~
In other news, I had another thought about the possible cause of my awful stomach upset this week, when I put two and two together last night. About a week and a half earlier, I started taking Zyrtec for my allergies; they're always worse for me in the fall than in the spring, but this year the sinus pressure and throat congestion got annoying enough that I decided to try something else (I already take Flonase for allergies).

It isn't supposed to bother the stomach that much, but I stopped taking it anyway, in case it was causing the problems, and whether it was or whether the medicine I got helped, the situation is much improved today. Hopefully by tomorrow I won't even be burping so much. Unfortunately, the sinus pressure is noticeable again, but I'm not interested in trying the Zyrtec again until after my trips. Let's not tempt fate!

And speaking of trips, I leave tomorrow for the weekend, so I won't be back for a few days. I hope to return with pretty pictures and, perhaps, lighthearted or funny stories. Nothing awful, oh please, she said to the fates if they were listening. Please let this be a fun distraction of a weekend.

Hanging In There

Yesterday was not a good a day, and I was in bed around 8 or 8:30. I had intended to listen to the first period of the Bruins game first, which wasn't televised since that's spotty in the preseason, but I could listen to the radio, right? No; I turned it on, and they were playing the Celtics game (that's basketball), and they're in the preseason too, so I don't know why they won the coin toss but it pissed me off. Especially since, as it turns out, the Bruins "won" the first period but lost the game, so the first period would have been the perfect thing to listen to. Oh well. The sleep was much-needed and felt good; why, it was after lunch before I said, "I'm so tired," today! Quite late, really.

Today wasn't as bad as yesterday, anyway, though not good; on top of everything else, I picked up a bug or ate something that disagreed with me, and have had "an upset stomach"* for two days now. I had to run out after work for a few errands, so I picked something up to help with that**. Day after tomorrow I have a long drive, and the next day is the festival, so I really need to be able to step away from the bathroom.
*Diarrhea. Sorry for the TMI.
**And it could kick in Any Time Now, thanks.

This was never going to be an easy time, with my uncle dying and all the feelings that has stirred up, on top of the weather getting colder and darker, and at the same time as the other trips already planned. At least Apple Festival and my birthday and Rhinebeck are happy things, so all I have to manage is the logistics, and my own expectations, not the I-don't-wannas.

Still, I wish I could be less tired. If ten hours solid hours isn't enough to let me cruise through the next day, nothing is. Which is unfortunate. But in the immortal words of Sandra Boynton:

It doesn't really follow what I was saying, but hey, it makes me smile.

Hey

I'm home from the funeral weekend for my uncle.

I'm exhausted. It was a lot of driving, and most of it in unfamiliar areas, on top of lots of emotions. It went as well as it could, but I still feel like I've been hit by a truck.

At least there was no literal hitting of anything, including when I was following the hearse and thinking how absolutely awful rear-ending it would be. I didn't, nor did I hit anything else, nor did anything else hit me.

My mother's on her way back home.

My brother's in NY, cleaning out the apartment.

The one that my grandfather, aunt, and uncle moved into in 1960.

You can imagine. Or maybe you can't, and that's okay.

A Quick Hockey Note

The World Cup of Hockey wrapped up last night, and if you never heard of it, you're far from the only one, but trust me, it was A Thing That Happened, and I can go into some of the whys and wherefores another time.

For now, though, I just want to talk about last night's game, and the Bruins component therein. I watched the first two periods and went to bed, not caring enough about the game to miss an hour's sleep over it, and this morning I learned that the three goals in the game were all scored by Bruins: Chara got Team Europe's lone goal, and Bergeron and Marchand (short-handed!) got Canada's.

It vastly amused me to think that if those Bruins hadn't been there, the game would have still been going on this morning, endless and scoreless (though I know that isn't true).

Anyway, almost as much as I am relieved that they came through the tournament without injury am I pleased with how they did. My boys! They may have missed the playoffs for two years running, but look!

Finally, I believe this photo of the Canadians celebrating while wearing beer goggles is what the word adorkable was coined to describe.

Beer goggles! Is getting beer in your eyes really that dangerous? (I don't even drink the stuff, so I honestly don't know.)

Now, I need to go get ready for my drive tomorrow; the physical packing won't be hard, but the emotional readiness for my uncle's funeral may be challenging to attain. Sigh. Adulting.

When You See the Batmobile

At Home Depot ... you take pictures.

This was in NY. You'll really want to click on the photos to see them bigger.

Don't miss the BATMAN across the top of the windshield; the other decals on the windshield; the dice and the little sign hanging from the rear-view mirror; the seat covers; the seat-belt strap covers; the license plate frame; the decals to either side of it; the translucent decals over the headlights...

More decals on the back window...

And not just the matching license plate frame, but the fact that this is apparently a Honda Batman model, the Bad Ass Edition.

This is a person who goes all in, right?

Meanwhile, I noticed a pretty unhappy note at the key-making station inside. Smiley faces don't make it a happy note.

And just to round off the shopping trip, how would you like to see that guy in the center in someone's yard at Halloween? Glowing red eyes and all?

I vote no thank you!

Reporting on a Massage

As I mentioned last week, I was thinking of trying a massage, and I did end up going for one yesterday. And my feelings about it? Kind of meh. Didn't love it, didn't hate it, didn't feel noticeably better or worse after it, or later*, or this morning ... so I'm not sorry I tried it, but I doubt I will do it again.
*Fortunately, it didn't seem to make exercising last night any harder, which I had wondered about. Nor any easier!

I guess you could say it was an interesting experience. I had to fill out a form ahead of time, and she looked it over and asked me some questions about health things, and about why I was there. I told her about my recently increased stress, and about how the tennis-ball of tension I had in my upper back last week had prompted the visit. She went over how it would work, was clear about what to expect, and told me I could speak up any time if I didn't like something.

While it wasn't quite the experience Gramp in the Sheldon cartoon had getting a massage, I did wish she didn't have a candle going, as the scent, while not unpleasant, was a little much in a small room. And when she dimmed the light and turned on what Tom Bodett called twinkle ding-dong music, I wanted to giggle. Also, if I did decide to do it again, I would want to remember either to do it on a day when I don't have to look good after, or to tell her not to use lotion, as some of it did get into my hair. Fortunately I had no problem with that happening, yesterday.

I don't know, maybe I'm just not the target audience for it. Or maybe I would have to go for a long period to see gradual effects. But that isn't something I feel like making time for, so, there I am. Or not.

Which Would You Say? Genius or No?

Part of me thinks this guy is a genius, and part of me thinks he's bonkers.



One thing is for sure, there is no finishing the header "This guy collected 5 million travels miles" with "...and you can, too!"

Finally Showing the Attic Clear-Out

I have to get the photos of the attic clean-up on here, don't I? I mean, I want to! Things have just been so crazy. But here goes.

The way in. The attic was built after the main part of the house, when they added to it, so it's accessed through this door in the west bedroom, on the second floor.

Looks all tidy and everything, right? Well. Deceptive.

In we go!

Lots of random.

Lots of who-knows-what, or why.

And while I could stand up, just, in the center section, going down into the eaves required great care. Because:

The roofing nails come through. Ow! Spoiler alert, somehow neither of us gashed our scalps, either day.

In addition to those nails, there are plenty of mystery bits.

I couldn't tell you why those bits of wood are nailed up there, but there they are.

Along the side is what was the original outside of the house.

Dates to 1886-87, by the way. We found the original door knocker, and a note from my grandmother with some names and dates.

Reach carefully back. Some trash, some treasure!

Like the sewing machine.

We found the table for it, too. It's like a card table, but with a space for the machine to slot in.

Look, floor! My aunt recognized the linoleum, or whatever that is.

We're really clearing space now! (Not shown: the west bedroom, getting more and more full of stuff to sort, or go elsewhere.)

And now we tackle the other side.

When I say don't-know-whys, it's not just empty boxes I mean.

Because I can't think why Grandma would have kept a copy of Clinton's impeachment.

On the other hand, I remember this hamper from the bathroom, when I was a kid.

More ... stuff.

Why yes, that is a barrel on the right.

Full of golf clubs and window hardware, of course.

This fan was one they bought when my mother was born, and they were living in North Carolina. Which I can't imagine doing without air conditioning, whew.

And more treasure:

Just a travel case, but filled with my great-great-grandfather's diaries.

They deserve their own entry!

And in the not-so-treasure department:

My aunt found it, and she didn't make me touch it, but she wanted it commemorated. We also found a couple of peach pits, signs of perhaps a squirrel in the attic at one time.

My grandfather was a mechanic, and we found just a few car-related things. Like a couple of old lighters.

More clear floor!

My great-grandfather's trunk from when he was in the Army during the Spanish-American war. Charging up San Juan Hill!

And, perhaps less romantically, Grandma's old typewriter. I'm just showing what we found.

Making space!

Not everything came out, but such a lot did that there's room to organize what's staying.

Including the hamper, for now, anyway.

And the barrel.

It was hot, filthy, and tiring, but so satisfying. Talk about a sense of accomplishment!

The Sunday Report

All right, so what I have gotten done today?

• I dropped off a bag of sheets at Savers, and shopped around a bit; found a shirt I like, though no jeans. I've been wearing the same pair of jeans a lot lately, since they fit the best of the ones I have, but, 1) they don't actually fit well (being too big, which is only better than being too small for comfort, not style), and 2) they are wearing thin. I don't want to be caught with only too-tight jeans to wear.
• Went into Marshall's to try again for jeans, and found some! This was very startling. I found a pair that would totally do, and another pair that fits very differently, but in a way I think I like. I got both, just to be on the safe side, and may end up returning one. 
• Then I looked at sneakers there, since my old ones are so far past worn out that even the chiropractor noticed. To be fair, actual holes are noticeable.

• And I actually found sneakers! They're men's ones, but who cares. They fit, they're not gaudy, they weren't ridiculously expensive at $40, and they actually have support. How crazy. I've been wearing them since I got home, and I think that they will do. The old ones went into the trash.

• I also found another shirt I liked at Marshall's. Now that the weather is turning cooler, I am bypassing the stack of t-shirts, and a look in my closet the other day reminded me of how dire the need is to clear it out. I have a lot of things that I don't particularly love, or that don't fit right, or have an issue of some sort. Time to get rid of them and make room for things I actively like, that look good, etcetera.
• When I got home, I went to clean the inside of the windshield ahead of next week's trip, and noticed a tiny chip on the passenger side. I don't know when it got there, and it doesn't look like it's spreading or anything, but with two trips upcoming, I don't really want to mess with the chance. I looked up my insurance, and it turned out that putting in a glass claim was easy as anything, all online, and they come to you, you don't even have to take it in somewhere. I picked Wednesday afternoon, and if it all goes as smoothly as setting it up did, I will be very pleased indeed. (Though very slightly miffed to have cleaned the inside for nothing. Except that I'd rather know about and fix the chip before travelling, so, okay then.)
• I balanced my checkbook, paid some bills, and requested a credit report (much delayed, but I'm trying to "get around to" doing the three agencies at spaced intervals, instead of all three once a year). Happily, all of that looks fine.
• Tried to print something out, but today the printer and computer aren't feeling the love. The other day they did, and I was scrambling for things to print! So hopefully they will feel like doing it another day. The whole day can't be full of win, I guess.
• I also took pictures of the shawl I started last weekend, when I needed some comfort knitting. The pattern is called Winter Sea Shawl, and it is a subtle pattern of knits and purls that just suits what I wanted.

It's asymmetrical, so watching it grow makes me head-tilt.

So far, so good. And so, so soft. Tempting me to sit down with it, instead of making dinner. At least, I have to release it from its pins; we'll see what happens after that.

Slightly Better

Things are still up and down, but maybe slightly more up than they have been this week. Randomly:

• I noticed yesterday that I had, uncharacteristically, left an actual real piece of mail opened since Monday; I'm usually good about not letting important-looking mail fall into the kitchen table abyss, but, hey, bad week. I opened it to discover my mortgage escrow statement, telling me that my monthly payment is going down a little, and containing a check for the escrow overage. Hey, nice!
• I took the car in for service, and they did some preventive stuff and didn't find anything else that needed fixing.
• I ran a bunch of other errands, including refilling two prescriptions.
• On the other hand, as I realized after I got home, I had needed to refill three. Oops.
• On the other other hand, I looked again at one of the ones I did get, and it cost more than double what it did last time, so when I go back for #3, I can ask them why.
• Just running the errands left me incredibly tired.
• So I sat down and read a book. It was ... okay. Good enough to finish, not good enough to rave about.
• And now I'm knitting and watching hockey. Marchand scored one! It's funny, given the state of the Bruins in recent years, how "the best line at the tournament" is two-thirds Bruins. I have my fingers and toes crossed that nothing bad happens to Bergeron or Marchand (a few players here and there have been injured, which would suuuuuuuucccckk), but they're both looking really good. Knock on wood! Salt over left shoulder!
• Back to the shawl! I'll try to get good pictures of it tomorrow; it needs daylight.

...Actually Friday Night? Really?

I actually, finally, made it to the weekend. Whoa! What a week.

My uncle's service is next weekend ... and the weekend after that is Apple Festival ... and the weekend after that is Rhinebeck ... so I am going to try to enjoy a peaceful weekend this weekend, as much as possible.

In other news, Mary Ellen won the awesome friend award yesterday for bringing me flowers (and chocolate, not pictured).

Arty angles inspired by the crap-ton of shit on the table top. Let's not show that!

As for the flower arranging, I call this method 'plop them in the container and hope for the best.'

They make me smile.

Thanks, Mary Ellen!