As Seen on the Way Home

​Carlos was not at all averse to joining me in bed earlier than usual last night. He naturally spends a great deal of time on the bed, by the window, but he likes to have my company, and has been known to try to "herd" me to bed before I'm ready. Having me there before 9 suited him just fine, therefore, though I think he would have preferred less of the "Ow, it hurts" whimpering that was going on (as would I, of course).

My head was better this morning--still a 1 on the scale, not 0, but that will do. Last night was unusual, going from nothing to moderate pain in a really short period of time. This head is not just messed up, but inconsistent. Maddening.

​Meanwhile, it was another gorgeous day, and I enjoyed lunch outside very much. "They" say we may get rain tomorrow afternoon, so I've been trying very hard to fully appreciate what the weather has been the past two days (i.e., perfect)(or, to quote Pop Larkin*, "perfick"). Isn't it hard to accept, that all things, even good ones, must end?
*What? You say you haven't read The Darling Buds of May, by H.E. Bates? Please rectify that startling omission at once. You may thank me later.

I took a few pictures on the way home tonight, so let me share them with you.

This is rather a violent mascot, don't you think?

Very cool car! And later I saw another, different but also very fun, but we were both in motion, and no chance to get a picture.

I am a little concerned about what kind of test requires a hole just here.

Finally, just because the flowers are pretty.

Clouds and Cat

​After the weird weather that blew through so tempestuously last night, the weather today was glorious: mostly sunny, mid-80s, perfect. I had the worst time making myself go back inside after lunch, and was eager to leave after work for more than the usual reasons. Those storms yesterday, man: it was raining lightly when I left work, then rained harder while I was at the chiropractor but had stopped when I left, and when I left stitch and bitch later it seemed to have cleared right out. But I was barely home when I heard thunder, and not ten minutes later, it was sheeting down. Crazy!

It didn't last long, though, and it did lead to some pretty clouds.

Quack! See the duck?

I did ride the bike last night, though only for 5 minutes as my head wasn't entirely settled. Still, the sock is past the heel and the gusset decreases, meaning I can cruise down the foot now. Whatever motivation works, right? The last three weeks, I've ridden at least a little every night when my head allowed it (except when I gardened!). I'm pretty proud of that.

I don't think I'll be riding tonight, though. My head was fine today, but it's starting to hurt now for some reason. Fucking headaches. Making pasta salad sets it off now? Writing a note to my grandmother? Listening to a podcast?

I'll sign off with random cute Carlos pictures from this morning.

Talk to the paw.

 What did I just say?

Briefly of the Head, Between Stitch and Bitch and Thunderstorm

​At work today, my head started to bother me a bit (not terrible pain, or anything, but enough to be worrying), and when I looked at my calendar, I could see a really odd trend: almost* every Monday in July, I've had a headache. What the hell? Before that, I hadn't had a headache on a Monday in months. I can't think what it is about July that would be causing me to have half my headaches on Mondays.
*The only one when I didn't was, ironically, the day all the bigwigs were in the office. So thank god for small favors. Though that week, I did have one by Wednesday...

It's a small sample size, but a decidedly weird one. I wonder if it could be related to sleep? That's one thing I haven't been tracking, but it's true that I didn't sleep great last night--well, fine up until three, not so solidly after that. Now, of course, I don't recall if that happened previous Sunday-to-Mondays, but it's certainly possible. Interesting.

Okay, it's really booming outside, and I want to turn the computer off now. Ciao!

Mostly Cats. You Know. Sunday Night.

I say we all pretend that it's only Saturday. Everyone who normally works Mondays, don't go to work tomorrow. If your boss questions it, tell her that you were sure it was still Sunday! Are you in?

Okay, fine. Whatever. It was a pretty good weekend here (I hope the same for you), but nothing much to report on it. Some sun, yay! But not enough. Some knitting, yay! But secret. Some rain, unfortunately; some hanging out with friends, fortunately; blah blah blah. Whatever. Look at cute cats.

And finally, how about a video? This cat knows where he wants your hands: down. Now

Who could argue?

Friday Night: the Bike, Kvetch, Sunset edition

Do you know what day it is?

On the other hand, once again, it is 60 and raining outside, and it's hard to believe that tomorrow will be at least somewhat sunny and in the 80s. This July has been one odd weather month.

I haven't ridden the bike yet tonight--the laundry is still ongoing--but I plan to. I did last night, and it was actually harder to ride the bike for five minutes on Wednesday night than it was to ride it for ten minutes last night. Isn't that weird? Not that it was easy last night, but it was ... tolerable, I would call it. I can't say I understand how these things work, but anyway. Biking. Yes. Exercise, damn it. See if we can lose some weight, or at least lower the blood pressure.

I must admit that, after being told over the years that my losing weight would do everything but bring peace to the Middle East, I almost hope I lose some weight and still have problems. Not that I want the problems! But honestly, thin people have health problems, too. Losing weight is not a cure-all.​ I'm just stubborn enough (I get it from both sides) that I wouldn't be entirely sorry if I could say to the doctor, "But I lost weight! Like you told me to! Why do I still have this problem?" and then bat my eyes at him, all innocent, and see what he says.

*****
Do you ever find that describing a situation well is so satisfying, it almost doesn't matter that it doesn't solve the problem? I was trying to find the perfect word to describe someone once, and the feeling I got when I captured Just the Right Word (it was truculent) was palpable.

Today I was feeling kind of crabby (you=shocked, I know), and the noise My Least Favorite Coworker (MLFC) made typing, of all things, seemed crazy-excessive. But then I came up with this:

She types with a ferocity that implies the hounds of hell are on her heels and will only be discouraged by the sheer volume she produces.

And suddenly, I felt better about it.

Not about her, mind you, just about that. She's still super annoying. She coughs and sniffs and clears her throat constantly, all day long. And then there's the bracelet.​ I tried to imagine what her face would look like if I told her that I had put my headphones in to help me resist the temptation to pull the bracelet off her wrist--the one that goes clunk-clunk-clunk against her desk with her Every Move--and throw it through the window.​

I don't know if she wears it every day, but some days I don't notice any noise, and other days I notice it but it doesn't bother me (when my work-neighbor sent an e-mail earlier this week with the subject line WHAT IS THAT NOISE, I had to ask what she meant, and once she told me, I heard it but it didn't really bug me). Today, though, I was grinding my teeth and holding onto my last wisp of control, because no, you can't rip her arm off and beat her to death with it. Really, no.

Some day when it isn't driving me so crazy, I will see if I can bring it up in a casual, Doesn't that bother you? sort of way, since I personally don't like to wear anything bracelet-like if I'm writing or using the computer. We'll see what she says. (Probably just, "Oh ... no.") I don't imagine she will get the hint, but I can try.

*****
Tonight I am celebrating that the small mistake I found in my checking account balance spreadsheet was in my favor. I don't like to make mistakes, but when it means I have a little more money than I thought I did? That's the good kind of mistake!

*****
On Monday night, I cleared the headache just enough to notice that there was an interesting sunset. Not classically beautiful, but interesting, wouldn't you say?

Have a nice weekend!

Kind of Health-Related Things, Mostly. Well, Not All of It. Random!

​During the latest head-capades, my sore legs took a back seat, so to speak, but I would now like to report that my left leg is still sore from Saturday's gardening. Yes, just the left leg. Yes, from five days ago. Tell me about it; I am mighty sick of this.

Both legs did hurt, basically the backs of the thighs, on Sunday, and progressively more as the day went on. Monday, more so, but by Tuesday, I could tell it was getting better, especially the right. Yesterday the right barely hurt, and today it doesn't. The left, though? Well, it is getting better, oh so slowly, and I'm trying to stretch it out when I can (sitting at my desk, standing at the sink to wash my hands or brush my teeth, that kind of thing), but it's pretty annoying. Get with the program, muscle! Stop whining!


Partly to try to stretch it out, last night I got back on the bike*! Only for a few minutes, but after missing headache days, every bit counts. Especially if it's true, as a (preliminary) study suggests, that obesity contributes to migraines, which is a disturbing thought. And especially especially this:

"the risk of episodic migraine in those with obesity was greatest in those under 50 years of age, white individuals, and women."

In other words: me! Yikes. Perhaps I should print that out and put it over the bike, to serve as an additional reminder when I need it.
*So now the fronts of my calves are a bit sore. Excellent. Soon I will be spending more time stretching than actually riding the damned bike.

*****
I don't actually eat that much first thing in the morning: I have a cup of coffee while I read the paper, then I make my smoothie and will drink a little bit (the part that doesn't fit in the container) before drinking the rest at work. Yet even that small amount is something my body expects, and this morning as I drove to the lab to have a (stupid, annoying) fasting blood test (remember that story? second time lucky today)(no, they really don't get much walk-in traffic), my stomach was rumbling at me:
Hey! You up there! What gives? Feed me!
I carried the smoothie in with me, and started drinking it as I left their office. Man! Creature of habit much? Sometimes it's routine, sometimes it's rut, but whatever you call it, there I am.

*****
Being told, by a doctor, that "Losing weight is easy, it's keeping it off that's hard" makes me want to eat a gallon of ice cream in one sitting. Even though it is 60 degrees and raining out. It makes me angry and hurt and upset and all of that. Yes, keeping it off is hard, absolutely. But never in my entire life have I found losing weight to be "easy". He's a nice man and, I think, a good doctor, but dude? Shut up.


*****
I got an e-mail from a recruiter today, about a position I'm not qualified for, in a city over 100 miles away (Connecticut!). Fail-fail!

*****
"Following" on Etsy: is this a thing you're familiar with? Assuming you're familiar with Etsy?

Etsy is a website for mostly handmade stuff (but also vintage things and so on). There is a lot of very neat stuff there, it's a good place to kill time, and if I had unlimited money (and storage space), I would be buying a lot there. Living in the real world as I do, however, I have made five purchases in about four years (and one of those was a gift certificate; also, this; and here). I'm not a frequent shopper and am far from a trendsetter.

And yet, ​back in April I got an e-mail that so-and-so, a stranger to me, "started following you on Etsy" ... and then another a few weeks later, in May ... and now one today in July. Why? Why me? Do you understand? Anyone? Bueller?

I don't get it.

Head Musings and Happiness

​The head did get worse over Monday night, but wasn't so bad Tuesday morning; I took it easy, and when it seemed to be settled, I went in to work​,​ a bit late (9:30 instead of 8). My work-neighbor took one look at me and commented, not unkindly, that I didn't look well, and we had an interesting conversation about working through pain when you don't have other options. I mean, of course I can stay home, and if I need to, I do; but I get enough headaches that I can't really afford to stay home every time I'm not 100%, if I can still function. And that was Tuesday: not 100%, but functional. I got work done. And if I had to stop and just rub my head sometimes, and if I couldn't stay late to make up for coming in late, well, I got more done than I would have if I'd stayed home. (Stupid work ethic, though: thanks, Mom.)

In the past, I've tried to come up with a scale of 1-10, or actually 0-10, to rate my headaches, but the fine delineations have defeated me. Rating the headaches as mild, moderate, or severe works better for me. Specifically:

• Mild: Anything from "aware of my head" up, while remaining close to normal levels of functionality. At this stage, the worst pain is the worry that it will get worse.
• Moderate: Increased head pain and frequently an upset stomach (aka the burps). The "trying things" stage, where I'll try anything that might have a chance of helping. Go to bed early? Eat something? Maybe if I lie down? Take some Excedrin? How about Alka-Seltzer? How about just a glass of water? Would a cold pack on my head help? What about a hot pack?​ Still somewhat functional, but impaired: can work, but maybe not a full day; will put off non-essential errands; and may cancel plans with friends for fear of being caught out with an increase in pain.
• Severe: The worst, obviously. Everything gets canceled. Often accompanied by an awful upset stomach, which rarely but occasionally leads to vomiting. The body wants to lie down, desperately, but sometimes the head and/or stomach won't let me. Often found sitting on the edge of the couch, rocking a little, trying not to cry from the pain. All true, but writing it out makes me realize: This is the pathetic stage! And this explains why I am so happy that I've had fewer of these, as well as fewer total, since I started seeing the chiropractor.

So, today was barely in Mild; by early afternoon, I was a little euphoric about it. I had been a bit worried last night, when I got in bed at 8:30, then was awake for a while, then got a cold pack, then that didn't help ... but the heat pack did, and I slept pretty well.​ I felt good enough to run a few errands at lunch today, and I got some groceries after work despite feeling slight twinges of uh-oh (it's not bad right now, but it isn't gone, either). Honestly, it's a little sad how happy I am not to have a headache ... but there we are. Almost as happy as this dog:

And that's pretty happy. Another thing that made me happy today, oddly enough, was a spam message. But how could this not?

My diplomat has arrived! Or, rather, "arrive". Do you know how long I've been waiting for my diplomat to arrive? Forever! Has yours arrived yet?

It Goes Up and Down

The head is not all better. It was okay enough that I was able to work most of the day, but it's not great. I was just sitting on the couch, summoning the energy to get ready for bed, when this walked into my field of vision.

Ah, hello? Any chance you want to feed the kitty now?

What do you mean, "Again?"

Fortunately, Unfortunately

The good news is that I finished the secret knitting project I've been working on, and am very happy with how it turned out. One day I can show it to you!

The bad news is that the slight headache that started this morning is worse now. Off to bed, to hopefully sleep it off. We'll see!

The Weekend, in bullets and photos

It was a good weekend and an overall busy one, and now I'm at the end and I'm tired and all that depressing jazz. Let me bullet-point it, so I feel dynamic and all that shit.

• Friday night I did some laundry.
• Saturday morning I basically lazed. Talked to my mother, cuddled the cat, that kind of thing. Very pleasant.
• Before noon, I was on the road and headed to central MA to visit my friend. We hung around her house while she got dinner in the crock pot, then went out (with the two youngest) to run some errands. Including the Tractor Supply Store, where I had to photograph a few things. Not that they're that weird intrinsically, but just so far out of my normal sphere.

I mean, the sort of places I go, "they" would see me in one of these!

I like that it's "select", right?

Doesn't calling it "pork femur" seem disturbingly specific? Just me?

And you know, retriever is spelled correctly on the package, which is Right There. Just saying.

• I did a little weeding in her garden while she was getting things ready for a yarn sale. I couldn't make much of a dent--it's a really big garden, and life has not been at all kind to her gardening schedule (among other things) this year--but maybe it will free a few things to grow. I took a few before-and-after pictures, and they're not that impressive, but hey, if my hands and legs are going to ache, I am by god putting the pictures up. Not all of them. You're welcome.

• Yeah, I know. Unimpressive looking. Humor me. We ate dinner, which was delicious; would you believe, steak and baked potatoes and corn on the cob from the crock pot? But I swear, it worked! Amazing. And before I left, she let me try a blueberry right off the bush. Just as delicious as you imagine it would be!

•  This morning I read the paper, did a few things around the house, then stopped for cat food on the way to pick up a friend and go to the movies. Despicable Me 2 was, we thought, just as good as the first one! I had tears in my eyes at the end from laughing so hard.
• Then we went back to her parents house and had dinner, which was good (burgers and beans and potato chips: classic American summer food), and they introduced me to the troublingly delicious Cadbury/Blue Bunny ice cream bars, which is one of those things that is so good, you kind of wish you didn't know! (The toffee was delicious, and I want to try the Caramello ones too.)

And now it's time to get ready for the week, and get to bed. Sigh. How was your weekend?

Random Photos, Heated Musings

How about some random pictures on a Friday? I thought so!

Take this car:

And this car:

Do you automatically think, "Binary"? What does that say about you if you do? Or if you don't?

Walking dinosaur balloon!

Look at this, and then answer the question.

The question is, What other kind is there?

Books!

How advanced a student do you need to be to learn about heat?

Also: Castle in the Swamp? In the swamp? Um, yuck.

 Once and for all!

The Chicken-Wagon Family? ...uh...hmm.

Now here's a good one:

It's something to brighten my Friday: my mother let me cash in some reward points she had. A little shopping on the agenda! Books, cat treats, cold coffee drinks ... ahhhh.

It's another day of super-hot here on the east coast, hot enough that I don't even care how hot the actual numbers are: 95, 99, 104, whatever. Hot.

When I lived in Charlotte, years ago, I passed a bank on the way to work that had one of those digital time-and-temperature signs. Over time, as the bulbs started to blow, it became harder and harder to read the numbers, until finally the pattern was incomprehensible. At that point, the bank took the sign down and, to fill the space until the new one was put up, they had a couple of basic, canvas-type signs put in the spot. One side said:

IT'S HOT

and the other side said:

YOU'RE LATE

It's close to 20 years ago now (really? well, yeah, I moved to NC in 1994; still, how is that possible?), and I still remember how that made me laugh. And I thought of it again today, because man, that says it all.

IT'S HOT

No kidding.

(Not my picture, but it gets the point across.)

It's supposed to cool down somewhat after a storm system rolls through tomorrow afternoon. Forecasts after that are 80s instead of 90s. But for now? So hot, just so hot. Mind you, I'm still not complaining as much as I do about winter, when the degree (pardon the pun) of coldness continually takes me by surprise. In winter, the temperature shocks me, while in summer, it's just a statement: yep, it's hot.  But it was very chilly at work today, and you try dressing for 60 inside and 95 outside. It's a special challenge.

I don't know that it was actually 60 inside, by the way, just that apparently the system thought it should be. The maintenance man came by and apparently the system is kind of borked. "It shouldn't be blowing all the time," he said, and I wanted to laugh. No shit, Sherlock! (As we used to say in high school.) Stay tuned; we'll see what happens with that next week.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to play in the dirt, which isn't something grownups get to do that much, is it? Or if they do, they call it gardening. My friend's garden is apparently growing a world-record crop of weeds, so I'm going to help, and have fun getting dirty. Doesn't that sound like a good plan? On Sunday, my plans involve more air conditioning, namely a movie and dinner with family friends. Despicable Me 2! Gru! Minions! Freeze ray!

Don't miss the small print...

Here I Am! Kind of.

When I don't blog on a weeknight, do you just assume it was due to a headache? (Do you even notice that I haven't written, is I suppose the first question, but pass that by for now.) It so often is the reason, after all, and it was indeed the reason yesterday. I woke in the night with it bothering me; when I got up, it was at a manageable level, so I was able to go to work, but by mid-afternoon it was bad enough that I went home. It got worse, but eventually I was able to sleep for a few hours, and woke sometime after 7 feeling fragile but better. I ate some saltines, took it easy, and then went to bed for the night. Today I felt a little morning-after, but all right.

And that's kind of a good thing, because when I saw my boss this morning, she let me know she'd need me to order lunch for today, and also a taxi for some of the people to go to the airport this afternoon. That's a new one for me! Who do I call, will they come ... suddenly ordering pizza seemed less fraught than usual. You can't believe how nervous I got during the day that something would go wrong, that it wouldn't show up or it wouldn't be big enough (there were five of them, plus suitcases). A small chickensh!t part of me wanted to leave before it was supposed to arrive, so I wouldn't have to be there in case anything hit the fan. (Everything worked out fine, of course, at least to the point I know about. The van came early, and the people were ready, so I could heave a sigh of relief in the relative quiet left behind [one person wasn't going with the group, and of course once they were out the door, he was on the phone...]). I wish I didn't worry so, but hey, I suppose that's part of being a detail person, and that trait stands me in good stead professionally as well as other ways, so there we are. As Popeye said, I yam what I yam.

Part of what else I yam is tired. It will be an early night for me, and I may skip the biking as well. Sometimes caution is called for.

*****
I saw something while driving to work Wednesday morning that I had only ever seen in the movies: a car with a set of horns mounted on the grill. Have you ever seen one? Was it a really big car? I'm imagining a Cadillac, like in Smokey and the Bandit.

But wait, it gets stranger, because the car I saw them on was a Prius. A Prius! I just kept looking, and shaking my head.

*****
I received an e-mail today about an awesome blog sponsorship opportunity. Check this out:

My name is Michelle from www._____.com. I was searching for 
bloggers on Google that talk about raising kids and keeping the 
household together while still having time to look stylish despite the 
hectic mom life. Your blog, knit-read-cats-hockey.blogspot.com/ is just 
the kind of voice we need to attract the right kind of people!

You don't know how badly I want to respond and ask them just what drugs they are on, and where I can get some. The filter knew that the e-mail offering me my share of $47.5 million was junk, but somehow the problem with this was less obvious to it (since I'm not a mom, don't have kids, don't keep the household together, and almost never manage to get anywhere close to stylish... other than that...). This part also cracked me up:

We are an online shoe store that carry brands that do not compensate 
fashion over comfort. 

Compensate? Perhaps I should just reply by thanking them for the laugh. There isn't enough humor in my inbox on a daily basis.

As Promised, Of Food and Sun and Bike

When I mentioned last night that I needed to get my lunch ready for work, I knew there was a possibility that I wouldn't need it, since we have bigwigs in the office and lunch might be provided. On the other hand, they were there on Monday as well, and since no word went out about lunch and nothing happened, I ate what I brought Monday. (An hour and a half later, sandwiches showed up; I wouldn't have wanted to wait that long anyway, and especially not for something as basic as a sandwich.)

So I made tuna salad last night, providing me with three meals for some times over the next few days, and the cats were very happy to get the "tuna juice" (tuna-flavored water from the can); Carlos got most of it, but with two cans worth, there was some left for Miri too.

And so naturally, it wasn't today's lunch after all (though it will be tomorrow's), since they got us pizza for lunch today. Not that I'm complaining: it was good, it came early, and I didn't have to order it. If my big contribution is giving someone else the menu, that works for me!

Since I had been planning to eat lunch outside, in the sun, I went out for a few minutes after eating my pizza, just to feel the sun. There was a car and driver waiting there with a sign (just like at the airport), and a minute later a group of four men came walking back from the cafeteria and said to him, "Still waiting for Hanson?" and he said yes. Then as they walked on, one of them snapped his fingers a few times, and a couple of them broke into the start of "MMMbop", which cracked me up. Haven't heard that song in a few years!

Since I complained on Saturday about missing the sun, it has been around at least part of the last three days, which has been much appreciated, even if it is sickeningly humid along with. Sunshine! On Sunday I took a chair outside and read for a little bit, just to be in the sun. On Friday at work, I'd eaten lunch outside even though there was no sunshine; I just wanted to feel like it might happen. Summer's half over and my sun batteries do not feel half charged to get me through the winter. I need more, please.

I hope there's some this weekend, too, though the only plans I have for the weekend so far involve going to the movies: a friend and I are going to see Despicable Me 2 (yay). But that leaves me plenty of time to be in the sun, if the weather cooperates.

And whether it does or not, thanks to air conditioning and a fan, I can keep biking. Yes, I've been biking! Every night, in fact, and I should go off and do it now. Will I? Ask me tomorrow!

Redirection

I got home an hour ago and have been spending time with Carlos, but now it occurs to me that I have to figure out something for lunch tomorrow... So! If you want to see something worth seeing, go read the funny and oh-so-true How to Live with Introverts, and I'll try to have more substance tomorrow night.

Sunshine! Biking! Deadly humidity! Catnip mice! Could be any, all, or none of these.

Books, Cats, the Usual

Another thing I've been meaning to write about for some time has to do with books. For someone with "read" in the name of her blog, I don't write about books often, do I? It's not that I don't read--heavens, that's certainly not it! So far this year, I've finished 65 books, and that doesn't count all the ones I start but don't finish, either because I try them from the library and find I don't like them, or because I pick up an old favorite and read a bit of it, but not the whole thing.

I've found it hard to pin down why I don't write about reading more, to explain it so it makes sense to those who don't live inside my head (a surprisingly large group). I read a book recently where an exchange between two characters really hit home. Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

"...it's the sort of book I like. It's about nice people and it ends properly." ... "Some of the books nowadays begin quite nicely and cheerfully and then, half way though, they go all wrong and make you miserable." The older I get, the less I read of mysteries and creepy, suspenseful books, and the more I enjoy reading pleasant books that I can trust. Nice books. At work recently, I've been re-reading T. Tembarom. I'm sure it looks a little odd (not that I care, of course). It's implausible and all, but it's a nice book.

That's not to say there aren't exceptions: I recently read a novel called Me Before You, by JoJo Moyes, and it was so good and yet had some troubling ethical questions*, the sort of thing that you finish and keep thinking about for a while. And in a quite different vein, Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood was an enjoyable teen novel that I think would be equally enjoyable whether or not you were a Jane Austen fan; I do recommend it. But fewer serial killers, less of the blood-and-guts-and violence, and more pleasant, possibly improbable, entertaining reads for me, and that tends to send me toward old books, often out of print ones that are challenging to recommend to others.
*But wasn't the sort of thing to piss me off, the way My Sister's Keeper did, which put me off the author permanently.

Anyway, in case you've wondered, that's a good part of why I don't write about books more often.

To completely change the topic, I have more pictures to share. It's been a while since I've had an orgy of cat pictures, hasn't it? Well, here they are, His Lordship and Miss Priss.

Pretty cute!

Hockey, Knitting, Sunset, Strawberries

One of the Bruins/hockey blogs I read said recently, "Fill in the blank time! I miss hockey more than _______." And I have to admit, nothing sprang to mind. I mean, it isn't even three weeks since the playoffs ended! There's been so much going on, hockey-wise (not that I'm complaining, mind you). Talk to me in a month and I'll probably be counting the days until training camp, but right now? There's hardly an off-day from hockey news and developments.

Speaking of which, I went up to the Bruins development camp this morning to watch the future Bruins practicing. Having been in Ristuccia many times before (such as in 2006, 2007, 2012) I brought a sweatshirt and a jacket to wear, and thus was able to stay the whole hour and leave with only cold legs--through jeans, mind you, I don't know how people in shorts did it. And sandals! Brr. But it was fun to watch the boys playing, to see them and hear them.

And the unfamiliar names, on familiar jerseys, that's always weird. I'm not a fan of the practice jersey design, by the way, particularly the white ones.

The black around the underarm sections makes it hard to read the numbers from the side, or in motion. Anyway, for whatever reason, the black jerseys were nearer to me most of the time, so it was mostly them I got pictures of.

There are a couple that are almost elbow-to-elbow names there! I couldn't get a picture of him, but one of them is named Grzelcyk, which looks to my eyes like it needs a few more vowels in there.

I always wonder how many of them will end up with the big club; some won't make it professionally, some will be traded ... you just don't know. The consensus seems to be that goalie Malcolm Subban will be in Providence this year, as a backup. I didn't get a really good picture of him, since at any distance the rink's safety netting throws the camera off, but for what it's worth:

I noticed Ryan Fitzgerald a few times, in a good way, so maybe one day he'll be there. It's always nice to see a legacy make it, isn't it?

Anyway, it's summer (not that the weather is all that summery today, mid-70s and cloudy, and where the hell has my sunshine gone), and there are other things to talk of. Like the bike, which I did in fact ride last night, thank you--keep asking! And like the latest purse sock, which is coming nicely:

Not bad for three weeks of around-and-about time. And there are so many odds and ends of things I've meant to post about, in the last month or two, and somehow haven't. For today, here are some lovely sunset photos from my friend's wedding. The reception location has a lovely view over the water. See Boston's skyline in the distance?

The bump on the hill to the right of the sunset in the photo above, is the tower in the photo below. And to the right and up of the tower, see the plane coming in to Logan?

Wasn't that pretty? The whole wedding was so nice. Did I show you the chocolate-covered strawberries?

How cute is that? They were delicious, too!