Little Irritants, Looking More Happily Ahead

I can't wait to shake the dust of this workplace from my shoes. On top of everything else...

So the weigh-in was supposed to happen between 9 and 11 this morning. I usually have a small snack, like a granola bar, around 10 (creature of habit much?), but I figured I would wait until after the weigh-in, why add to the number, right?

10 ... 10:30 ... 11 ... hungry ... 11:30 ... at 11:45, I e-mailed the person to ask if I missed it? ... 12:00 and "starving". But I don't want to eat right before being weighed! (Like it's going to make that much of a difference, really, but still.)

She e-mailed back a few minutes later, to say she'd be over at 1*. No way was I waiting for lunch that long. I compromised and had my soup but held the apple for later.

*Or that was how I read it...

1 ... 1:30 ... 2 ... 2:30 ... another e-mail from her: if you haven't been weighed yet, come see me!

Oh, we're supposed to come there? (I may have mentioned before that the company is in two buildings.) When the contest started, she came over to the building I'm in, to weigh whoever was interested. I made the logical but apparently incorrect assumption that she would do the same at the end. It seems that was my mistake.

It's just more small stupid stuff. One person walks between buildings this way, or 17 people walk between buildings that way...

Fuck it. I can weigh myself at home. I just did, in fact, and the number was 227.6. At the weigh-in on January 5th, it was 238.8. Therefore, I lost roughly eleven pounds. Yay.

Further updates as events warrant.

**********
It did stop raining today, mostly (mist this morning, light sprinkles tonight). The sun didn't come out, but baby steps. Maybe tomorrow. Hey, my mother comes in to town tomorrow, the sun will be out for me! Friday we drive to Grandma's, returning Monday, which is to say, I may or may not post for a few days here. In case I don't, Happy Easter!

Little Letters

Dear Biggest Loser contest at work,

I am not going to win you. But I still win.

The weigh-in is tomorrow. I weighed myself at home on Sunday, and I've lost more than ten pounds.

I wanted to stop gaining weight, and I did.

I hoped to lose some weight, and I did.

I call that an unqualified win.

I never really expected to win the contest, so it was only the initial impetus, not the continuing motivation. Now that I've had some success, I'll try to keep going in this direction. I can definitely feel a difference in how some of my clothes fit, which is both excellent (since some were getting too tight and who can afford to buy a whole new wardrobe? not I) and motivational. In fact, Sunday night as I was brushing my teeth, it occurred to me that my jeans were feeling pretty loose, so after I finished the teeth I tried the old "pull down the jeans without unfastening them" trick, and off they came. I admit that I cackled.

My next goal is to be comfortable wearing the previous-size jeans currently languishing in the bottom dresser drawer. This is attainable.

*********
To my cube-neighbor at work,

Just because there is room for two people at your desk does not mean that having a working meeting at your desk is a good idea. Of course it has to happen sometimes, but when it's several hours at a time, several days in a row, well, just know that you're driving the neighbors nuts with your constant, even if work-related, concentration-busting conversation.

And if your neighbor happens to have a migraine and is thus unable to drown you out with an MP3 player, well, you extra suck even though that part isn't technically your fault.

Why yes, putting a third person on speaker just makes it that much worse. If you care. Which clearly you don't.

***********
Dear other co-worker,

I can hear every word you are saying. From three cubes away. In fact, you're a little too loud for me, and I'm about 15 feet away from you. Tone it down. You're not on stage, trying to project so that the person in the last row doesn't miss anything. You're in an office.

As for the hacking cough and the constant, enormous sighs, knock it off already.

***********
Dear office chair,

Stop it. The way you rotate when I stand up is pointless and potentially dangerous. And when I'm standing up at my desk and you rotate into my ass, it creeps me out. Quit it.

***********
Dear Mother Nature,

We've made it to the record for rainiest March ever recorded in this area. We're number two for rainiest month ever recorded in this area. Please stop. No one can even build an ark in this weather: the ground is too soft to hold its weight during construction. Flooded roads, flooded basements*, utterly dampened spirits. Water everywhere, hydroplaning, potholes, sinkholes, erosion.

*I just got my feet wet doing laundry. Splash, splash.

I'm going to get greedy here: could we have the sun? And no rain at all for a few weeks? Because really, we're set for a while now with the hydration thing. At this point, you're just wasting it. Someone somewhere must have a drought; give it to them. Pretty please.

***********
Dear Short-time Syndrome,

It's a little early for you to show up, isn't it? I haven't even given notice yet.

***********
Dear Stitch and Bitch,

I'm sorry I couldn't make it last night. I did plan to come, but instead my migraine and I left work early and napped for two and a half hours with the cats (who were thrilled).

***********
Dear Bruins,

It would be so nice if you could figure out why you're super one night and rotten the next. Seriously, can it be so hard? These are wild extremes.

My advice? Pick one. Either play consistently well, or blow the rest of the games, miss the playoffs, and leave me to lick my wounds until training camp. Because this is starting to worry me:


***********
Dear weekend,

You're starting early for me this week, and yet I'd swear time is running backward. Anything you can do about that? Today took at least three days to get through. I know the headache isn't helping, but could you make a call, and get Thursday night to hurry it up?

***********
Dear universal-headache-controller,

Could you take the vise off the back of my skull now? It would make life a little easier. I have things to do. Thanks in advance.

Sunday Night? Already?

It was a good weekend, but as always the end comes too soon. I was, happily, headache-free for most of the weekend, but right now I'm fighting one off, so I'll keep this short and mostly photographic.

The little princess would like to snuggle up to her boyfriend, but like a typical junior-high relationship, she lurves him and he rebuffs her. So she sleeps alone.


And a sign of a sense of humor, in of all places an office park:


I finished the second egg for Grandma's gift:


So the basket is just about ready (I still need an egg for the egg cozy). Happy 96th, Grandma!


Thanks again for teaching me to knit (over and over, until I finally got it).

The final news of the weekend is undocumented by the camera (how unlike me). I finally got around to getting a new printer, and thanks to a sale at Staples, and their promotion where recycling old printers gives you a $50 credit off a new one, I paid $100 for a $200 printer. It seems quite nice so far!

And that's about all. The weather was chilly but sunny; the forecast calls for more rain, but then nice again by the end of the week, and how I hope it is so! Almost as much as I hope that this headache retreats. Off to bed. Have a good week, everyone.

Reading this and that

I enjoyed reading Changeless quite a bit, though the cliffhanger ending is rather annoying given the wait for book 3. Worth it, though! Unfortunately, I can't say anything about either plot or ending without giving away rather a lot, and I want you to read book one first! So quick, go read Soulless and then e-mail me. We'll talk.

I've been reading a lot recently. Escapism much? Not that I ever need an excuse. Given a choice between other options either pleasant or necessary and reading, the choice is rarely a difficult one.

Another book I read recently was Making Rounds with Oscar, one of my rare forays into nonfiction. Have you heard about Oscar, the cat who lives in a nursing home and always appears shortly before a patient dies, to be there for the end? I thought it sounded fascinating, and indeed it was a good book, though I didn't realize beforehand how much it would stir up from my dad's decline and death. Which in retrospect, duh, but there you are. I was thinking more of Dewey, the library cat, and less of issues of people bringing their relatives to a nursing home, dementia (my father didn't have Alzheimer's, but there were similarities of condition), and of course death. It was a good book, it wasn't so upsetting that I couldn't finish it, it was interesting ... but, maybe not a book to be approached lightly given the situation. Live and learn (hopefully).

Far more light and pleasant was Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, which I finally picked up several years after really enjoying the movie. I'm actually glad for the gap, and for once pleased to have seen the movie before reading the book, as there were several plot points changed in the translation, and that sort of thing drives me nuts. (Lady Bracknell Did Not Have A Tattoo, Period!) I was able to enjoy the book while only noting the differences, instead of stewing over them.

What else? Well, I mentioned the other day that I was reading How To Knit a Love Song, and I finished that. Very good! I don't read many romances, as often the writing quality is not that good (in my limited experience, don't be mad or anything), but since I read Rachael's blog I figured that wouldn't be a problem, and enjoyed it. The climactic scene at the end, well, I read it so fast I'm not exactly sure what happened, so you could call it compelling! And I wouldn't think non-knitters would feel excluded by the knitting content. I recommend, anyway.

I revisited the 80s in another non-fiction title (what's gotten into me?), You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried, which as die-hard John Hughes fans may have already guessed deals with the classic 80s movies directed largely by Hughes. Not only did I enjoy reading about the movies that were my favorites (I can recite half of The Breakfast Club along with the actors), but even found interesting the parts about movies that didn't catch my fancy, with the behind-the-scenes viewpoint and sense of fitting into the arc of the era. It was well done, and I enjoyed it.

And if you're thinking that I say that about a lot of the books I mention, well, if a book doesn't grab me, I don't finish it (life's too short), and in that case I rarely write about it. So if it makes the blog, that's generally a good thing. Sometimes I don't quite know why I want to finish a particular book (anyone else read The Travels of Maudie Tipstaff?), but I'm usually pretty sure when I don't want to read on. And I don't.

Now, what's next?

Random Bits

Weather Woes
As I drove to work in the snow, yes, snow this morning (the end of a storm that was mostly rain), I thought wistfully of last Saturday, when I was wearing shorts. Tomorrow's forecast high is in the upper 30s. Dropping 40 degrees in less than a week is not what I like in a climate.

Somebody Else's Problem
My spirits have been a bit lighter at work the last couple of days, now that I can look ahead to a time when all this lunacy* will be Somebody Else's Problem**. In the balance of pros and cons, I feel good about this decision far more than any qualms trouble me. (And it's a good thing, too: late today, one of the medium-higher-ups stopped by my desk and said that everything's changing [again] next week, and "hang on to your hat", which might have bothered me more if I couldn't think of it as a short-term irritant.)

*To go back to the centipede I used in a previous image, picture a centipede running. Now try to change all his shoes at once, while he keeps running. Hard to picture that working well, isn't it? For you or for the centipede.
**the Douglas Adams part of the article, naturally

Borders Win, Whole Foods Triple-Fail
Now that I'm facing voluntary unemployment (it sounds so negative when I put it that way), I'm going to work on being even more aware of cost-savings opportunities. I've been building my savings up recently (from the practically nothing they used to be, that is), but I need to not fall into the habit of grabbing a pizza on the way home, or picking up any random book or skein of yarn that calls my name.

However. I mentioned last month that I read a really good book, Soulless by Gail Carriger, and that the second book was coming out in March. It's actually not officially out until next week, but there were reports of early sightings (her blog is a lot of fun, really), and then Borders sent out a 2-day "40% off one book" coupon, so I thought I would see if the stars would align for me, and they did! So though I kind of shouldn't have spent the money, we all knew I was going to (right? surprising no one?), and it was $5 instead of $8+. So: win.

Next, I stopped in at Whole Foods to see if perchance they carry frozen pomegranate seeds. Random, you think? Well, I picked some up at Trader Joe's recently, and guess what: I really like them, and it's a healthy snack! That requires no prep! So of course TJs was out of them the next time I looked, and don't know when they'll get more. (I love Trader Joe's, truly, but that happens Far Too Often.) Hmm, I thought to myself, I wonder if Whole Paycheck might carry them?

No; fail. Okay, well as I'm here I'll pick up another french onion dip, since I liked the one I got a month or two ago.

Not to be found anywhere. Really? Okay; fail. Well, look at the lovely display of chocolate for Easter! Aren't those pretty, and they look similar to Lake Champlain Chocolates. Are the different color wrappings different varieties of chocolates, or the same?

Not marked. Or priced. Mystery chocolate; fail.

Forget it. Three strikes, I'm out.

Now, I have some reading to get to, perfect for my regular Friday-night-couch-crash. Some people party on Friday nights; I prefer to vegetate. Which way do you go?

An "Old" Story (from 6 years ago!)

For some reason, I was thinking today of a trip from a few years back, when I met my parents in NYC for a few days. It was a year after my aunt, Dad's sister, died, and we were going to the unveiling of the headstone. In 2004, Dad's condition was starting to make itself known, but he still got around almost normally. In retrospect, there were a couple of small warning signs that weekend, but what I remember most had nothing to do with Dad's health.

We were there at the same time that the Queen Mary II was making its first trip to New York, so we thought we would go down to the water to see it. We asked about it at the hotel, and the man we talked to told us that he hadn't gone himself, but that another guest had told him it was very disappointing, that "you could hardly see it." We were a little disheartened by this, but decided to go anyway. We walked down the street toward the water, stopping on the way for breakfast at a diner, and eventually got to the end of the street. We turned around the corner ... and all three of us burst into loud laughter.

The thing was huge. Immense. It dominated the view in ways too large to describe. Can "hardly see it"? You could hardly miss it! Mammoth, colossal, tremendous ... we just kept laughing.

(Hard to believe that such recent history was still in the film-photography era! I had to dig out the old photos, and take pictures of them...must get a new scanner soon.)



And ever after, all one of us had to say was, "Oh, you could hardly see it", about anything, to set the others off again.

An Unreal Story, and some unrelated pondering

After work today, I took the car in for an oil change (and new wiper blades, don't say I don't know how to live). I spent the waiting time reading (really enjoying Rachael Herron's How to Knit a Love Song so far, by the way!), then cranked up the radio when it was time to head home.

A mile or so down the road, though, I turned the radio off. What did I hear? Something beeped?

Hunh. A little atonal sequence of beeps kept repeating. This is a sound I never heard from my car. It sounds more like a cell phone, in fact, though personally my cell phone rings to Vivaldi. Perhaps it was some previously unheard alert noise from my phone? By this time I was getting on the highway, but I took a quick glance at the cell phone. Nothing.

No warning lights on the dashboard, car temp not suddenly rising, car moving normally. Remember, I once had an oil change (elsewhere) where they overfilled the oil and when I drove away, it was all kerfluey (hesitating, clouds of smoke, all sorts of fun). This wasn't like that, but what is that damned noise? What IS it?

Seriously unnerved, I drove on hearing the mystery noise repeat at irregular intervals. What is that? Is that my car? What's wrong with it now? It has to be my car, it's not like there's a car behind me broadcasting random beeps. What's wrong with it?!

I decide I have to turn and go back. I can think of only one rational explanation: the tech dropped his cell phone in the car, and is calling it to alert me to that (and if so, the dude has one seriously weird "ring tone" if you can call it that). Otherwise, I'm automotively screwed. In either case, the solution is to return to the garage.

I got off the highway and back on the other way. I'm still hearing the beeping, and at one point my own cell phone does ring. I don't answer it, not driving, on the highway, while already distracted, but I glance at it to find that I don't recognize the number. Perhaps they're trying to reach me directly, supporting my dropped cell phone theory? I hope, and drive on.

And it was a cell phone, but not dropped under the seat as I had thought. Know what the genius did? Left it under the hood. And it was still there! Didn't fall through and onto the road, didn't fall into the engine and get mashed up or do horrendous damage. Just stayed where it was, and rang. Unreal!

Can I repeat that? He left it under the hood.

And if I may go all old fogey for a moment: these kids today! with their cell phones always within reach! If they had grown up with the nearest phone a flight of stairs and two hallways away from their room, they might be more willing to put the phone down for a little while, say when performing an oil change, for pete's sake. Sheesh.

Life is full of blog fodder, I tell you.

***********

I've begun to think, soberly and non-hysterically* for a change, about giving notice at work.

*As opposed to The Day I Melted Down. Speaking of which, my boss had that kind of day yesterday. She won't be surprised when I give notice.

Not because of a particular event, but because every day I think they've gone as low as they can go, and every day they go lower.

Because I may not know much about running a company, but I know how a well-run company should make its employees feel (hint: as though those in charge DO know something about running a company), and I don't feel that way.

Strangely enough, what this makes me feel is sad. Like I'm giving up, even if it is giving up on a sinking ship heading for an iceberg.

Also concerned at just how to explain to a prospective employer why I left a job voluntarily, in this economy.

Sorry about leaving others in a bit of a bind, which my departure will do. Some of them I like, some not so much, but we've all been in the same boat, and it's an awful boat.

And relieved at the thought of not having to go there any more.

But sorry that no matter what I do, it isn't enough to salvage this. I hate to give up, but my mental health is pretty important to me, and this job is sapping it right out of me.

I'm still thinking about what to do, and when. But I think you can see which way the tide is going.

Boy, now would be a great time to hear from one of the jobs I've applied for!

Knitting little Eastery guys--now with pattern links!

When I showed off the little things I've been making for Grandma, auntie michal requested that I link to the patterns, and my response to that can be boiled down to: duh. Yes, of course, how did I forget that part?

First, a new one. I made one egg and have started another, they're quick and cute. See? Here I am, grabbing the last of the rainy-day-light after I got home tonight.


You start from the middle, go down to the bottom, and before you pick the stitches up to do the top, it looks more like a tam:


Then when you've done the top to the point where you need stuffing, it looks like a little gift bag, or drunken pot'o'gold:


I like the finished look best of all, I think. The pattern is very simple, very thorough (stripes! duplicate stitch!), has lots of photos, and is found here. I used left-over sock yarn.

Now, the other guys:


The birdie, left, is called Sweet Little Bird, and was also pretty simple, though as it's bigger and there are wings and things, it did take longer than the egg. That's to be expected, but it's worth it if you ask me.

The bunny, right, has a body from the Bunny Nuggets pattern. I chose to do i-cord ears (4 stitches each) after my first attempt at 6 stitches in the round had me twisting in the wind. I also don't have a pom-pom maker, so I found a tutorial online for making one without, which worked just fine.

Front and center, the egg cozy is from a pattern found on Ravelry (free!), but the basics are here. Not that the "full" pattern is much more than that! Anyway, it was very simple, very quick, and even without having felt and beads, I'm pleased with how it turned out.

And that's the gang! I need to get a little basket, and a chocolate egg for the cozy to sit on, and with the crinkled-paper "grass" I already got, it will be ready for Happy Birthday/Easter, Grandma!

By the way, if you're on Ravelry, you can always check me out there (ccrinMA). I try to keep my WIPs up to date on my projects page, so you can see what I'm more or less up to.

Passport: the Uber-Patriotic Edition

My renewed passport arrived in the mail last week, which was some comfort after two weeks of "well, yeah, the check cleared, but the application is not yet in the system", a process which reminded me greatly of a Magic 8-Ball saying "Answer unclear, try again later".

When I looked through the thing, I have to admit I was surprised. Do you have a recent US passport? Do you know where I'm going with this?

I got my last passport in 1999, and from the outside, they still look similar.


The background on the pages of the old one, now, all the pages look the same. Only when I looked closely did I even notice that each of those circles names a different state.


The effect is--what's the word--subtle.

The new design, on the other hand, can't be called that. We have a scene from the writing of the National Anthem:


Oh, look, we've been to space, and apparently we're claiming that:


The Statue of Liberty:


Various scenes of the country and its history:



And a quote on each page, Washington, Lincoln, JFK, MLK Jr, token woman near the end:




Mount Rushmore!




The Liberty Bell!




The preamble to the Constitution (which, thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, I already know the words to):


Everything but the kitchen sink. You know, it's not like I'm ashamed of my country (well, sometimes, but not constantly), but this strikes me as a bit from Hamlet: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." Or in other words, don't hit me over the head with it. Whew!

Still, I'm glad to have the thing in hand again.

Wrapping up a good weekend (with yarn, and cats)

Ahh, what a nice weekend. Got lots of good sleep, the weather was fairly nice today and simply gorgeous* yesterday, and I did some knitting and some cat-cuddling and had the windows open and got the laundry caught up and generally it was good.

*I mean, for March, 70s and sunny is simply amazing. We get snow in April and even May some years. Spring isn't here to stay, but I love-love-love the sneak preview.

More secrets to keep from Grandma! I started with a bunny pattern that I abandoned after the body, winging the ears rather than deal with 6 stitches in the round thank you no thanks. He's a little odd looking, but still kind of cute.


Love that tail! And this next little guy is an egg cozy. He'll go on a chocolate egg, of course.


So here's the cast so far:


There was also a little stealth knitting, which will be revealed in time. And I'll probably troll Ravelry to find some other small simple thing to go with the group. One's grandmother doesn't turn 96 every year, so I want to make it a good basketful.

Then there were cats. The open windows yesterday unsettled Carlos a bit, and I don't know if that's why he spent several periods on my lap, since it could also be that I was around and he's relaxing and all, but whatever, I don't care, I loved it.

You can see he's been on my lap, right? Hopefully this is his Spring Shed, and at some point he'll stop trailing a cloud with every move.


And it's worth it for this belly.





He's still not Miri's biggest fan when she gets too close, which happens because she is ready to be best friends and snuggled together. He doesn't mind her being around, though, so I think she'll win him over in time.


She didn't seem to mind the windows being open.


And I loved it myself. That fresh air, at the end of winter, is the most amazing thing.

I did apply for that job, by the way. I agree that a better job would be worth a pay cut; it's just that there is a point where making the mortgage would be difficult, so I have to balance possibilities. Hopefully they were more interested in the experienced part than the entry-level part. We'll see; I'll let you know if I hear anything, from anyone, about any job!

So now the weekend ends. Here's hoping that the coming week is kind to me. And to you, of course!

Well, Which Is It?

The job listing, for a "Junior Proofreader", calls the position "entry-level", not once but twice.

Yet it also calls for someone with "experience in offline and online proofreading" and "intermediate to advanced skills" in multiple programs AND "experience writing direct marketing copy" and that's far from all.

It ends by saying, "You must have online and print proofreading experience to be considered for this position."

I can't decide whether or not to apply. Are they looking for me now (experienced), or me twenty years ago (entry-level)? And which are they planning to pay: perhaps this is their way of implying that the salary is entry-level?

I just don't know. I am perhaps being too literal, but which is it?

So Happy for Friday

The weather has been just lovely the past few days, more like May than March, and while I know that winter is not done with us yet, still it has had an amazing effect on my mood. Coupled with work sucking less than 100% the last few days (as always, TKTHILE™: The Key To Happiness Is Lowered Expectations ), I was positively giddy leaving work tonight.

Sunshine!
Warmth!
More of same forecast for tomorrow!

I went to Wilson's Farm half-thinking that there should be fresh peas, which of course there were not. Approaching the store, though, I did see a woman leading a llama across the street, which gave me something else to think about. (And no, I did not come to any conclusions about a llama on the streets of Lexington.)

And then there were the bumper stickers. This one in the parking lot:


And this one at a red light on the way home.


I found this particularly interesting because this morning, I could see a truck in the distance with a logo I just couldn't make out clearly, and the part that I could see over the cars between us looked disturbingly like a skull wearing sunglasses. (More interestingly still, it turned out to be the Poland Springs logo. I don't know if you can see what I mean, or if it's the time-change sleep deprivation talking.)

************
My mother mentioned recently how her headaches increase in certain weather, which made this even funnier:



That can be just how it feels!

Well, crud

Stupid Bruins. They suck, they rock, they suck.

And though I could spell Johnny Bucyk's last name correctly at age six*, someone at NESN tonight put up "Johnny Bucky" on the screenwhen the Chief took the ice before the game (they were honoring the 1970 Cup-winning team).

*Granted, I spelled John as "Jhon", but I got the hard part right.

I watched that pathetic excuse for a hockey game (well, tried not to) and did some stealth knitting. And that was tonight. Tomorrow is Friday! There will be joy in the land! Sun over the weekend! And even perhaps extended coherency here.

Though I'm not promising that last one.

Sun! Only literally, but still.

Work sucks, but:



Really. Sunshine helped me get through the day.

Damn These Ides

If the Ides of March were always like this, well, no wonder you should be wary of them! Some factors in today's ide-y-ness:

• The first work day after we Spring Forward. When required to essentially get up an hour early, I don't so much Spring as Flop.
• Migraine. I got a headache last night. Took a pill at 4 am. Dragged out of bed with the pain in abeyance, but otherwise pretty blah. (Pain came back this afternoon, coincidentally around the time that sleet starting mixing with the rain.) Though that could also be because of the first point, or the next point.
• Rain. It's still raining. Downpour. Typhoon or monsoon, call it what you will, it isn't pretty. Roads were closed, basements and roads and riverbeds are flooding, and basically it feels like day 39 of the proverbial 40 days. "They" say it will stop tomorrow, but I suspect they are putting that story around because of worries that the suicide rate will rise otherwise.
• Work (of course). The so-called final list we hauled butt to complete on Friday now has questions from several sources. Questions I can't resolve, despite the VP wanting it to be done today. The people who might be able to resolve them? Were not in today, possibly bailing out their basement.

And now, it's still raining, my head still hurts, and I actually have to go to work an hour early tomorrow for a meeting. So I'm going to watch part of the Bruins game, and go to bed early. And hope that tomorrow, despite the strikes already against it, is better.

"Stormy Weather" Doesn't Say Enough

It takes a lot for an English major, a wordsmith, to admit that words fail me, but this stormy weather? That's been typhooning around here for days? Um. Yeah. Cold, wet, windy as hell (is hell windy?), torrential, loud, flooding, trees down...and that just doesn't even cover it.

And in much the same way that I'm tired of being grateful to have a job, even one I hate, I'm getting tired of being grateful that you don't have to shovel rain. I know you don't, but it can provoke insanity all the same.

But! Look at the pretty yarn!


Bought in the rain, but isn't it sunny? Guess what it is.


Camel! Seriously! I find this very amusing for some reason. I really loved Coveted Yarn. I'm not close to Gloucester at all, but it will be a regular, required part of all North Shore visits after this.

We went to five yarns shops on the yarn crawl Saturday before I had to break away for other plans, and as I'd only been to one before, it was a great experience of discovery. Melrose, Rockport, Gloucester, Beverly Farms, Salem, whew! I didn't buy a whole lot of yarn, though this little guy jumped into my hand in Rockport:


This sign was hard to argue with.


I bought a magazine I never heard of before (like National Geographic for fiber people is how it was described to me).


Because I could not resist this face.


And a couple of fun little knitting cards:



It was great fun despite the weather. That's the weekend summary, really: great fun despite the weather.

The weather really sucks, though. And it's not over yet.