Home early again, with a new theory

This may sound a little crazy, but stay with me here: I think my working overtime is, literally, an affront to nature.

What?! you say. Well, the mandatory OT started two weeks ago, but due to the snowstorm and early release on that Friday, I ended up working the same amount of hours I had worked in previous weeks, just in four and a half days, instead of five.

Last week, of course, I was not working (ahhh). This week, I worked 10 hours Monday and ten more on Tuesday, but today was released at noon due to the snowstorm. (Are you sensing a theme? Honestly, why do I live here?) So, I worked three days' worth of hours in two and a half days.

Who knows what will happen on Friday (forecast: more snow; no, seriously), but even with the limited sample size, it's an interesting trend. Do you see what I mean?

Mother Nature sends snow when I have worked enough hours. I would almost be grateful ... kind of ... except ... well, it is a classic example of a mixed blessing, isn't it?

At any rate, it is good to be safe and warm at home. It did take an hour to get here, but really it wasn't too bad. Last year's fiasco is still on my mind at times like this, and it was nothing like that bad. Just slow, and a little slippery.

Unnecessarily wintery, though, in my opinion. As I made clear last year (and more than once), I don't appreciate snow in the way that one who lives here should.

And, as we used to say when I was a kid, "That and sixty cents will get you on the T." (These days, riding the T is more like $2. I'm turning into an old fart.)

So, shall we talk about something else?

For instance, Harold reads the Globe, too.


I feel better if I have someone to ask, Did you read that article?

And, I still love seashells:


Plus, nature can be really neat, sometimes.


Those are marks on the sidewalk from leaves.

Or, say, why I read blogs? Sometimes, it's a laugh when I need one:

Disneyland has a first aid center that will happily dole out aspirin if you walk in and ask for it. They will inquire if you have a headache and you will have to exercise restraint and refrain from saying, no, I was just wondering.

Sometimes, it's to share in someone's sorrow, or even better, their joy:

...my cell phone rang. It was our agency, calling to tell us that a baby girl had been born the day before. On Sunday. The Solstice.
“Her parents can sign off on her tomorrow,” the agent told me, “and if they do, she’s yours."

Random things for a day that feels like Friday, or like a snow day when you were a kid.

Harold has been napping under the couch blanket, so I could try to get a few things done without him begging for a lap. There's an adoption event at a pet store this weekend, which I think I'll go to. Petfinder.com is really something, but how do you pick one? Just one cat out of hundreds and thousands and millions? Okay, I can rule out the "should be an only cat" ones, but there are so many! I think I need to meet some in person. I have to get going, though, Harold really, really needs more people to love. He is so lonely! My poor little guy. I'm working on it!

My league-leading* Bruins don't play tonight, but the game last night was fun, and there's another tomorrow. Plus, tomorrow I can sleep late, which is never a bad thing. It makes me smile just to think of it.

*They're tied with San Jose. The Bruins won Sunday and moved into the tie. SJ won Monday and went ahead. The Bruins won last night and moved back into the tie. Will SJ win tonight and go ahead? Probably, but stay tuned!

Just a few words

Although I'm not as bitter and pained about the mandatory overtime this week as I was when it started, I must say it's kicking my ass. Working an extra 2 hours a day wipes me out.

Plus, it's 2 fewer hours with Harold, and frankly, he really needs me right now. So I'm a little bitter.

Plus, it's going to snow tomorrow.

And Friday.

On the plus side, the Bruins are winning in the 3rd against Pittsburgh. Fun to watch.

But I need to get ready for bed before long.

And, no, that isn't a sore throat I feel coming on. It emphatically is not. No. But thank you for asking. I hope you too are well. Bonne nuit.

More photos! Florida and Christmas and Lights, oh my.

I got a last-minute chance tonight to have dinner with a friend in town for the holidays. We ate at Punjab in Arlington, and if you like Indian food, I highly recommend it. However, I feel I must warn you, as I would have wished to be warned, their menu has an ... unusual side:


I swear I don't remember goat being an option the last time I ate there.

Yesterday I got to see some other friends in town, including their 4-year-old perpetual motion machine daughter:


She's very cute, and with more energy than any six adults (or at least the six adults who were there at the time; the seventh was already driven to nap).

I don't want to forget to show you one Florida restaurant's version of Christmas:


Christmas night we got in Dad's convertible with the top down and drove around looking at Christmas lights. The phrase of the night was a quote from the winner of the decorating contest, who told the local paper that his display was "simple and tasteful." The picture isn't the greatest, but can you see why we were laughing?


I couldn't even get it all in one shot!

Really, if you're in the right frame of mind, it's all simple and tasteful. This one:


Don't you think? I mean, this one had a moving ferris wheel!


Well, maybe not this next one. The blur in the center was an inflated "Santa in the chimney with reindeer nearby" which had a slow leak or some similar problem. It was nearly horizontal, and moved in such a way as to make it really unclear exactly what they were doing on the ground.... I was laughing much too hard to get a shot in focus.


And it was worth it.

Good-Bye, Florida (for now)

It was a wonderful trip.


The travel home was fine.


Harold is attached to me like Velcro.


I wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow, but overall things are fine.

Later this week, I'll look back on this year's knitting, reading, etcetera. (I'm not sure if I mention this to tantalize or warn the reader.)

I'm so glad to think of the new year. December hasn't, on the whole, been fun (last week being an obvious exception). The whole fall, in fact, has had more low points than high. Calendars are arbitrary things, but it feels like progress to be in a new month, a new year. A clean start, a fresh beginning.

Deep breaths...

Very Merry

It's a quiet Christmas afternoon here, and I was not at all surprised to look at my family earlier and see all of them reading. It happens every time.

I'm having a wonderful time. It's so relaxing! I felt very fortunate to have no real delays getting here, and it's been great at every point since. Here are some travel photos, and there's knitting at the end.

The toe of the second sock bids farewell to snow.


We passed over interesting landscapes:


Until we reached "that's more like it":


Of course, you could still tell who had just arrived, and who was already there:


(Yes, I wore my boots on the plane, and I was glad I did: it was freezing! They look pretty silly in the closet here, though, as I run around barefoot in shorts and sleeveless shirts. Not that I'm complaining.)

When we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts, I had to pull out my camera for this:


Would you try a "Black Rasbery" donut?

The beach yesterday:


And the beach today. Some clouds blew through, but have since passed. It's about 80. Ahh. Merry Christmas.


We all agreed that being together was the present this year ... so we only had a reasonable amount of presents, instead of the usual, almost obscene amount.


You have to have decorations--and the wreath smells wonderful.


When we stopped at the farmers market yesterday, I enjoyed the tomato towers.


And I could drink fresh-squeezed OJ every day of my life.


My family continues to amuse me.


The turkey is in the oven, smelling wonderful. It's not actually the full bird, but an enormous breast. Wow, have we been eating well. Great food, plenty of sleep, surrounded by people who understand me (and vice versa) ... this is good. I needed this.

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

Now, knitting! Looky here, and read what I wrote months ago:


I'm writing this in September, but I won't post it until after Christmas, in order to preserve the surprise. After all, my brother has been known to read here, and if he does, his cat may do so as well. I'd hate to spoil Onramp's Christmas!

This was a fun little knitting project: it didn't take long, and it's pretty cute. The pattern is from Ravelry, and was quite easy to follow. While I was working on it, I didn't see the point of the body pattern, and thought that on the next one I would stick to plain and simple stockinette, but when it was done, I actually like the patterning, so well done designer!

My bobble ears don't match. I bet that happens to real mice too.


The tail is two stitches of i-cord.


Rear elevation.


Since I inadvertently grew lemon catnip this year in the garden and my cats turned out not to like the variant, I dried it and am using it here. Hope Onramp is more open-minded!

Back to today. I gave my brother 4 mice, enough that if his roommate's cat likes them, his cat will still get to play. I tested one back in October by giving it to my grandmother's cat, and the response was very positive. Yay!

I also made one of leftover sock yarn, for my mother (stuffed with stuffing, not catnip). Photo will have to come, but it's pretty cute.

Dad did not get a mouse. It didn't seem to suit him, somehow. Instead, I remembered how, as a child, I used to "help" him (poor man) put the lights on the Christmas tree, and of course there was a pattern on Ravelry.


It turned out larger than I was expecting, but still kind of cute.

I've also finished another small project recently, but as that hasn't been gifted yet, it's still in the show no photos stage. But this is probably enough for today. I need to get back in the sunshine.

Happy merry!

It's Christmas Eve!

Well, according to my advent calendar, it is.

My lovely mother sends me the Harbor Sweets Chocolate-a-Day calendar every year, so that I have both the fun of counting down and the yum of the daily delicious chocolate. This year, I decided that since I was leaving on the 22nd, I would simply go through the month three days ahead, so that I hit the 25th when I was leaving, and didn't waste or rush the last few days. This morning was the 24th! I leave tomorrow. Ahhh.


Of course, it's snowing again today. But for now, the forecasters (or as I like to call them, overconfident wild-guessers) seem to agree that it will be messy today, not as much tomorrow. If my flight isn't canceled or even delayed, I will call it a Christmas miracle.

To build up karma points, I am trying not to grump too much about the weather today. I was just thinking about it, and it's rather a pity that I can't look at the snow, falling or on tree branches, and just think, "How beautiful." Instead, my thoughts are more along the lines of, "How beautiful. Messy roads. Do I really need milk/to go to work/anything at all outside of my condo? Cold. Shoveling, clearing off the car, rocking out of the parking spot, slipping around corners and down hills. Clearing off the car again. Cold hands, cold feet, frozen face, runny nose. Cold."

In other frozen news, the Bruins won again yesterday, but Patrice Bergeron was hit hard and may be concussed again. It wasn't as bad as last year's incident, on the ice anyway, but of course the results of this one are not yet known. The poor guy. Miss almost a whole season, and then get whumped again? It was a clean hit this time, unlike the "Randy Jones hit from behind into the boards special" that almost killed him last year, but concussions are tricky things, and repeats even more so.

The team has had a bunch of re-injuries recently, 2 or 3 times where players returning from injuries were out again in their first game back, and it's troubling. I feel bad for the player, and I worry about what it means to the team. I'm a Bruins fan no matter what happens, but it's been so much fun this year with them doing so well! I hope they manage to keep it up.

I need to go get packing, I suppose. As I always say before leaving, it isn't impossible that I'll post while I'm away, but it's unlikely. I should be back in a week, with stories and pictures and all that jazz.

In the meantime, I wish you all get whatever you want this holiday season, whether it's peace in your family or a KitchenAid mixer, health in general or a Wii Fit in particular, visits from dear ones or being left the hell alone. Whatever it is you want ... I hope you get it. If not, I hope you live through it. See you on the other side!

Stormy weather

I have never claimed to understand the weather, but I truly do not get how it can have been snowing all day, but not accumulating. I cleared off my car this morning around 10*, and I can still see through the windshield (from here). It's not that it's been snowing hard ... but where is it going? It falls from the sky and then, just before it would hit the ground, it's sucked back into the space-time continuum? Well, perhaps not. And it's not like I want more; we got enough yesterday to suit me until May. Still, it strikes me as odd.

*In order to move the car so the plow guy could get as much out as he can. The idea made me rather grumpy, since I didn't have to go anywhere, but once I settled down, it made sense. Though having a car with a temperature display is a mixed blessing. It was 14 degrees! Brrr. Right now, the weather site says it's 17, and feels like 4. By my parents, it's 72 (and feels like 72).

Meanwhile, we have more crapola coming tomorrow. I don't want to bitch too much, though, since the current prognosis is that it will be tomorrow and not Monday, so perhaps my flying experience will not suck as much this time. I just checked the forecast, and was amused by the warning in several ways.

... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 10 PM EST SUNDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 10 PM EST SUNDAY.

THIS ADVISORY INCLUDES BOSTON AND THE NORTH SHORE... AS WELL AS WESTERN NORFOLK AND SOUTHEAST MIDDLESEX COUNTIES.

SNOW WILL DEVELOP ACROSS THE AREA EARLY SUNDAY MORNING... WITH OCCASIONAL HEAVY SNOW POSSIBLE DURING MIDDAY AND AFTERNOON. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS WILL AVERAGE 3 TO 5 INCHES. THE SNOW MAY MIX AT TIMES WITH RAIN BEFORE TAPERING TO FLURRIES SUNDAY EVENING.

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS ISSUED WHEN SNOW AND/OR ICE IS FORECAST TO DEVELOP IN THE AFFECTED AREAS... BUT ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BE LIGHT. ANY SNOW OR ICE WOULD MAKE DRIVING AND WALKING DIFFICULT... BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE... ON UNTREATED ROADWAYS AND SIDEWALKS. WHEN TEMPERATURES ARE BELOW FREEZING... MOTORISTS NEED TO BE ESPECIALLY CAREFUL ON BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES WHERE SLIPPERY SPOTS CAN EASILY DEVELOP.

Like that? Do you see how driving on the sidewalks will be difficult but not impossible? Good to know.

Also, "occasional" is a word that always looks spelled wrong to me. Doesn't matter how it's spelled. I always want to spell it "ocassional", though I do know that's wrong as soon as I see it. But even right, it looks wrong.

I thought you would want to know that about me.

I'm feeling kind of grumpy now, for no particular reason. I have been getting Things done today, which is good, and should buoy my mood. But there we are, moods ... they're moody.

If I'm going to be grumpy, I may as well go get more done. I've sent very few of my Christmas cards so far this year. Doing more now may make me feel better, and it may make me feel worse. (The last two years, I've sent photo cards of the cats. The memory is making the process less than fun this year.) I think I'll try it.

Today is Better.

Or at least not as rotten, and I'll happily settle for that.

I went in to work today prepared to work another ten hours, dig out my car, and drive carefully home to find out if I would have to dig out my parking space (answer: probably). Instead, I heard from my boss (working at home today) that we were to leave at noon, or earlier if it started snowing earlier.

Ahhh.

I even checked with her on what she wanted me to work on (since I can't bring any files or the like back in next week while I'm away*), and she told me not to bring my laptop home, but enjoy the time off. I like that answer! I was probably home 90 minutes before I saw the first snowflake. I've had Harold cuddle-time, I've finished five loads of laundry (all but the towels put away), and although I'm still tired, I'm much less stressed than I was yesterday.

*Away! Away! I was talking to a friend today who mentioned something about "going home" and it's true: I've never lived there, but it's home. I'm going home for Christmas. Ahhh.

Now, do you want to hear the funny math?

I was hired with your basic 40-hour work week. Up to this week, I was working about 42 and a half hours, since I never took the hour lunch. It might even have been 43 hours, since I would sometimes get to work a few minutes late, or leave a few minutes early.

Then this week, as I've already moaned about, we were told to start working 50 hours until things get caught up.

On Monday, I worked ten hours.

On Tuesday, nine and a half (my boss sent me home half an hour early).

On Wednesday, nine (holiday dinner).

Yesterday, ten.

And today, four.

Thus? Forty-two and a half.

Don't tell me life doesn't have a sense of humor.

In the history of weeks...

It isn't an exaggeration to say that this has been one of the worst weeks of my life.

Much of it is just normal little annoying stuff, which sometimes comes in waves. Not big things, just lots of them. The newspaper arrives too late to read, a headlight blows on the car, the streets are icy. Every time I sit down in the car, the top button of my coat pops open, a new and irritating habit. My right contact lens has issues. Even last night, when our group at work went out for a holiday dinner, which was kind of nice, the service was horrendous beyond words.

Some of it is little work-related stuff. This is the highest priority, no this is, no they both are. And is it done yet? I print 200 labels for someone on Monday, oh they don't need them yet, no not yet, and on Thursday it's suddenly now! Now! And I need 500, why don't you have enough, can we print more? (I told her that yes, of course we can print more, but she has to tell me how many she needs, as I'm not psychic.)

Some of it is still being sad about Pan. It isn't every minute of every day, but it still hurts so much. I had to pick up his ashes at the vet tonight, and going there was hard, remembering the last time I was there. Not to mention the fact that it took me 45 minutes to drive about 2.5 miles, getting there.

Some of it is the holidays. I'm not in the holiday spirit this year, which makes me a little sad. But it's also supremely irritating when stores are insane and I just need to buy facial tissues and orange juice. I'm not Christmas shopping, damn it! Just let me buy the necessities of life without all this drama in the parking lot.

Then there's the weather. Snow and ice yesterday. Another 6-12 inches tomorrow. Then more Sunday night into Monday, which is of course when my plane is supposed to leave for Florida. Oh, pray for me on Monday morning. I'm scared.

The final straw, the icing on the cake, is that I'm exhausted. Working these few hours extra this week is wiping me out. I'm tired to the verge of tears before I even get home. I'm getting nothing done. And I have So Much To Do. Holy hell.

The doom clouds are thick above me.

Oh, hai! Christmas iz when?

more animals

And, exactly!


Thank you, Slate.

Still Slightly Grumpy

I am, honestly, happy to have a job. I am, in fact, grateful. However, learning yesterday that my department, to combat some overwhelming projects, is required to work 50-hour weeks until further notice, starting immediately, put me into a place where I had to sit at my desk, repeating to myself, "I need a job. I am lucky to have a job. I am grateful to have a job. I appreciate being able to pay my bills."

Could I repeat the salient point, though? Starting immediately. As in, yesterday. As in, it's the week before Christmas, and I have, oh, one or two little things to do before I leave for my trip. And guess what? I'll have seven and a half fewer hours to do these things this week, plus as a bonus I'll be even more tired!

Yes, their timing could hardly have been worse. Say it along with me: "I need a job. I am lucky to have a job. I am grateful to have a job." Yes, indeedy.

Shall we look at some pretty pictures, to cheer ourselves up? Let's.

On Saturday, I spent some time with friends, in Rhode Island, and it included this:


And this:


Every single bite and sip was delicious, by the way. If you're ever in or near Warren, RI, you must, simply must go to the Basically British Tea Room. And have a scone with clotted cream for dessert.

In addition to the fabulous food, the decor is amazing. It's in an old mill or something, I forget, and it's partly an antique store, too. Which explains this:


But not really this:


Or this:


And who could resist this juxtaposition of titles?


I was afraid to open "Why Keep Them Alive?" The title was too great, I felt it was bound to disappoint.

I don't have a picture of it, but I completed the first sock of the current pair. Here it is, shortly before:


Harold just couldn't believe that I didn't mean the dangly yarn to be his toy.

I am so put upon.

I tried to explain, things that come like this are all his. (Don't you love it, Cat Toy for Cats? As opposed to the ones for dogs, I suppose.)


(Blogger, quit rotating my photos, you're getting on my last nerve.)

Listen, just because I play with the so-called cat toys doesn't mean that everything isn't a toy if I want it to be.

Grumpy and Grinchy and Hockey

I am not a happy person right now. It's 50% normal (irritating) Mondayness, and 50% surprise at work, not the good kind, and I'm cranky. Grumpy. Tired!

So, yes, it's time for random Bruins musings from what's left of my brain. How about these Bruins, eh? Second in the league? Seriously? Wow. It's so wonderful to watch them without the feeling of impending doom. In recent years, even when they were ahead in a game, I would catch myself thinking, How will they screw up this one? This year, even if they let the other team take the lead, I have some confidence that they will come back. It's fun.

In a recent game against Tampa, the Bruins saw Paul Szczechura score his first NHL goal. Anyone want to take a crack at pronouncing that? Bruins announcer Jack Edwards took to calling him "eye chart", and I really can't blame him. There are names in the NHL that sorely test the announcers, but that one takes the cake.

In good news for Bruins fans who were English majors (anyone?), Kathryn Tappen of NESN was heard recently Not making a mistake she has been making constantly this season. She would always say, "...join Barry and I after the game..."

No! If Barry goes home sick (nothing personal, Barry), would you say "...join I after the game..."? No, you would not. Get it right. "Join Barry and me after the game" is correct. There is nothing wrong with the word "me" in that usage. "Barry and I will be in the studio" is also correct. (I don't know where some people got the idea that "and me" is always wrong, while "and I" is always right. It depends!)

Anyway, as you can tell this raises my blood pressure, and it seems she finally heard me yelling at the TV as I reached for the remote to mute her. Over the weekend, I clearly heard an instance of, "Join Gord and me", and I almost cheered.

The Bruins are off until Thursday. Some weeks they play four games, some they play two. I can't imagine how complex it is to create a schedule for 30 teams playing 82 games, but still, it seems odd to me.

In the end, it was both

Before Pan died, I wondered about whether it was harder to know it was coming, or to be taken by surprise. I couldn't decide.

It is now my considered opinion that it's better and worse.

It's better because I know I took every opportunity to love Pan, to tell him how wonderful he was, to cuddle and snuggle and scritch. There isn't a single regret of something I would have done, or would not have done, "if only I'd known". I knew. I'm confident in all that I did.

But it's also worse because I knew it was coming, I knew how awful it would be, and though I tried and tried, I couldn't seem to stop mourning before time. How much it would hurt, how much I would miss him, how I would miss this or that behavior. And that was both miserable to go through, and no help at all when the time actually came.

In a favorite sci-fi fantasy book, The Gate of Ivory by Doris Egan, there is this:

...the question I must ask myself is this: Was it a good thing, or a bad thing?
And the answer is yes.

Right. What she said.

Harold and the plastic

I know I've mentioned before how Harold feels about plastic, and how he truly, madly, deeply loves the bag that the shower curtain liner comes in.

And then there was the time I showed you how Pan loved the shower.

Well, that video was from June of this year, when I took some footage of the boys with a disposable video camera, basically to have for now, when Pan is gone. (It sounds kind of morbid that way, but I'm so glad I did it.) I watched them again just now, and found this one of Harold and His Plastic. It cracked me up!



Of course, I also watched one that was of Pan with a catnip toy, 4:14 and I watched every second, smiling fondly. So I may not be the best judge of how good these things are. You're on your own here.

Creature of the Night

Am I really?

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Ghost Life has beat you into a mere shadow, and you have little to gain or lose in the world. Quiet and introspective until roused, when you become a scarier, poltergeistier thing.
Incubus/Succubus
Demon
Cthulu Spawn
Sorceror
Vampire
Werewolf
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Well ... actually, I've had worse horoscopes.

(I wonder why the image is showing up wrong. Could there be ... a ghost in the machine?)

More Alphabet, and cat thoughts

Following up on the recent letter-of-the-alphabet post, I am (finally) assigning letters.

Auntiemichal, A is all yours!

Stacey, you get B! (Enjoy it: I did!)

Suzanne, C is for you!

Leslie, Jess, and anyone else, if you want a letter, just let me know, or claim it in the comments. I doubt I have enough readers to run out of letters, so why not have fun? It doesn't matter if it goes anywhere, and I really did enjoy doing it, after a blank moment at the beginning when I thought, B? B?? What starts with B?

In other news, I haven't committed to anything yet, but I am more and more of the opinion that Harold needs a friend. The reason I got two cats at the time was so that they'd be company for each other, and I think Harold is lonely. He is all over me from the moment I open the door, and can't get enough lap-lovin'-attention. Given that my schedule does not permit 24/7 kitty maintenance, I'm starting to think that after Christmas, I'll be cat shopping.

Do they come with a return policy? I have to make sure the new one gets along with Harold. Any advice?

What is live? When is it happening?

The TV is on in the living room, tuned to the Bruins game (of course).

I was doing something on the computer, which is on the other side of the kitchen from the living room, and due to the humidifier, I couldn't really hear the TV, so I'm Listening Live to the radio broadcast.

Then I started dinner, and although it's in between and you'd think I could listen to one or the other, with the sound of running water I decided to turn the radio on too.

I already knew that the TV and the radio broadcasts are not in sync: I've had some truly weird experiences trying to watch the TV and listen to the radio. But now I learn that even though the website says I am Listening Live, it's delayed by about a minute versus the actual radio.

This is strange. Dinner is almost done, so I will return to the TV and not have to deal with this. I'm so tired, physically and mentally, that I feel more confused than the situation probably warrants.

Go Bruins!

Do You Tube?

There are many funny and amazing things to be found on YouTube (and now, welcome to the 21st century, the President-elect puts his talks there, wowza), but being a Muppet fan, the sight of Beaker "singing" Ode to Joy is ... astounding.



I mean, have you ever?

For that matter, does anyone else remember the theme to "When Things Were Rotten?"



No? Just me?

What about "Newscast from the Past?"



Anyone? (Tap, tap. Is this thing on?)

What have you been surprised to find on YouTube?

I Have a Little Shadow

Although Harold doesn't seem precisely upset by Pan's absence, he is definitely turning up the volume on the love-bug-ness. Love me, love me now, love me more! That's his motto.

So you can imagine how he feels on stitch and bitch nights, even when I don't stay there late. Thus, I must excuse myself. Read yesterday's post, if you haven't yet! Anyone else want to play?

This post is brought to you by the letter "B"

This game/meme/call it what you will looked like fun on Pocklock's blog, so I asked if I could play.

The rules: You leave a comment on this post, and I’ll assign you a letter (only if you want to play! you're allowed to comment and not want to play yourself, just say so). Write about ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter, and post it on your blog. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and so on.

So, Pocklock assigned me the letter B, and here we have, in no particular order, ten things I love that start with the letter B:

Beaches. Especially the one by my parents.


Books. My books, all books. Books.


Bruins. They're my team, hockey is my sport, I love it. That they're playing so well this year is a bonus, but I've been a Bruins fan as long as I can remember (and how long is that? Well, I was alive when they last won the Cup, in 72, but I don't remember it), through ups and downs.


Browsing. I like to shop, but sometimes not looking for a something specific is fun. Just looking. (Caveat: when you can't afford to buy anything, no matter how cheap, it isn't as much fun.)

Babies. I simply love babies.


Best friends. You know who you are. You know what you mean to me.

Bare feet. I wear shoes, sure, and socks, but weather permitting, I love bare feet. (Though I have wimpy feet, in terms of walking on shells and stuff. Ouch. But on sand, I love it.)


Bunnies (aka my cats, who have always been "bunny baby bear" and "hunny bunny" and so on; it started with my first cat, Honey, who went down stairs in a way that, viewed from behind, gave her a "bunny bottom".) Some bunny noses:


Boston. It's old and new and (despite the winters) where I belong.


Bargains. I went shopping yesterday--yes! for nonessentials! I am employed again!--and bought two sweaters. The hunting was fun (see browsing, above), and I really like them both.


It's not the greatest picture, I know. (Better light would have helped, but with weather, you take what you get. At least it stopped snowing. It's going to be a long winter, I'm afraid.) We have a black sweater with white patterning, and a blue-black-heather rib with a turtleneck that didn't strangle me! They're both soft, and I like them.

That was easy! And somewhat mood-raising, too. Want to play?