Well, I'm Stretching for It

Somehow it's nine o'clock already. How did that happen? And not to sound like Andy Rooney or anything, but how weird is the apostrophe in "o'clock," anyway? Very weird, it's striking me.

So, I'm piddling around here, getting ready for the trip and all. It's hot and sticky, and while I like being warm after a cold day in the office, I don't enjoy sticking to the desk in order to type. So, what can I throw you tonight? Let's see, what have I shared on Facebook recently, among the cat photos and knitting pictures? (Not much, actually.)

How about this thought for today?

How about this baby who was really, really going to cry, until her song came on?


I mean, Katy Perry isn't my favorite, but there are songs that I feel that way about; the first to cross my mind is Come On, Eileen, though there are plenty of others. You?

In Lieu of (even more) Crankiess

There isn't really a reason why I'm suddenly in a really bad mood; does that ever happen to you? The phone rang and it was some crap call like I'm not supposed to get because I'm on the list that doesn't seem to stop the calls, and I wanted to answer it just to yell at them. (I didn't.) And while I was typing that, the cats had one of their exchanges, in which Carlos says "Mrp" as he has said approximately 67 bajillion times in the last week, which is driving me nuts by the way, especially in the middle of the night, and Belmont hissed at him, and I lost it and yelled at them and slapped my hand on the table and now my hand hurts.

So that's how it's going here and now. A passing thing, I know, and I hope you're doing better tonight. Meanwhile, here is a silly video.



Yes, it's another Call Me Maybe video, and no, it's not not new, but I just saw it, and I love how there's the cheerleaders on one side, being all seriously sultry, and on the other side we have the hockey players copying their moves. I needed that laugh tonight.

Mostly Knitting Updates. Mostly Socks.

The weekend has been a pretty good mix for me, both getting things done and lazing around. I've had some headache moments, but nothing lasting, for which I am grateful, as headaches interfere with both getting things done and the enjoyment of lazing around. The cats have each had cuddle time, and I've gotten some knitting in.

I actually had quite a lot of knitting time on Friday. First, at work, since we had a three-hour meeting that required very little in the way of note-taking, and nothing of contribution beyond introductions, I brought the purse sock in with me. However, I had miscalculated, and it wasn't an hour into the meeting when it was at this stage:

I sat, trying not to twitch, or to think about the next sock, which I actually had in the car (since I was going to a potluck dinner with friends after work, and had realized I would need more knitting for that). With an hour or more left, they called a five-minute "comfort break" that gave me just enough time to run down to the car. Phew! Here's where that one was on Saturday:

I think I'll call these the color-block rainbow socks. The transition from purple to blue is subtle, but you can see what's coming.

Now, the chances are that I won't finish this pair on my trip, particularly with another project brought along for the plane (I'm thinking I'll bring the 2-in-1 socks, though I may change my mind), but I'm taking no chances and bringing more yarn with me. (Yes, to a city with lots of lovely yarn stores. Shut up.) I wound some today.

I may sound crazy, but believe me, I'm not as crazy with my yarn as I am without it.

P.S. You may have noticed that I turned the comment verification off last weekend, to see if I could stand the amount of junk-commenting. So far, there hasn't been a flood, and Blogger's filter has caught it all. But do you know what post most of it has gone on? I'm talking 15 to 3. Go on, guess. This one. Isn't that circular?

Cats. Because Why Not

August 24th is my dad's birthday. Is? Was? The tense is hard to pin down. When in doubt, write around it: My dad was born on August 24. He would have been 85 this year. This is where I'm supposed to say that I can't believe it's been over five years since he died, but I can believe it. I miss him. Not in a super-painful-every-day-hurts way, but a few of my friends have had parents die this year, and it brings it back again, the memory of when it was that.

Which does make it especially nice to have family things to look forward to right now. My mother is flying in on Wednesday, and on Thursday we fly to San Francisco to visit my brother. Yay! And Apple Festival is coming up fast. I look at the calendar for September and October, and it's hard to live in the moment. Lots coming!

Someone has no trouble living in the moment.

And she likes it when the moment is snuggled up, and even on me, purring.

Which is cute enough to help me forgive that she still hisses at Carlos sometimes.

As for Himself?

Cats can't exactly flip the bird, but I believe he is flipping her the extra claw here.

"This is my house, and that's my mama. You know it, I know it."

Of Sweater Thoughts and the Blog

I wore my sweater to work today, the one I made, and was thinking about how I'll always remember when I made it*, because I finished it the night the Bruins won the Cup in 2011. And then, though I'm not usually all that superstitious, not seriously, I thought that perhaps I should make another sweater this season. I haven't made one since 2011, other than a few baby ones, and maybe ...
*I'd forgotten that Luongo joke. Now I'm giggling.

I'm kidding but not kidding. I do have more than a few sweaters marked on Ravelry as ones I might be interested in, most recently the Hitch Pullover that's in the autumn Interweave Knits, and maybe it's time to try again.

Meanwhile, I just took a picture of what Mary Ellen gave me last night, thanks again!

How awesome is that? My boy Patrice, on a poster exhorting one to read? It's half my blog name, right there.

And of course, this covers the other half:

My work here is done.

Today in Brief Bullets

• Woke before the alarm with the head worse again, damn it. Took tums and excedrin, and it passed in time for me to go to work as usual. Hooray for when it works.
• Work day. This problem and that, nothing too unusual. 
• Brought up a question on one article's suitability, and the veep of ed agreed, which was nice.
• Finalized plans over e-mail for a potluck dinner with friends on Friday. It takes us two weeks and 87 messages to get it all lined up. How did we ever do this before e-mail?
• Faced the fact that there are those who do not remember "before e-mail" and felt briefly very old. Also defiant: I remember before VCRs! Before answering machines! Before CDs! Whole technological advances have come and gone in my memory.
• Back to reality, and to Petsmart to stock up on food for the babies.
• To Target for, well, everything else.
• Swung by Mary Ellen's to pick up something she had for me. It is a thing of wonder. I must photograph it to show you.
• Got a pizza.
• Came home, unloaded perishables, scarfed pizza, then sat with the boy, who was Sad and Meowy.
• Brought in the rest of the shopping, sorted it out.
• Sat with Belmont, who was sad and screechy.
• Folded towels from last night's laundry.
• Blogged.
• Off to bike before bed. Carlos thinks I should have been done and there half an hour ago. Poor misguided kitty, sad and meowy still.

​I'm Back!

Yeah, I had a headache most of Sunday and Monday. It went up and down on Sunday, varying between "well, I'm capable of cutting my fingernails, I guess, or I could sort through these papers" and "owww, why is this happening to meeeee?" levels. Monday it was more steady, but unfortunately annoying enough that I couldn't go in to work; my job requires a minimal level of brain capacity that I just didn't reach, much as I hate that.

Here's an example of how out of it I was: I was sitting on the couch with Belmont, and she stood up and expressed an interest in my glass of water. I sat there and watched her drink out of my water glass; by the time it occurred to me to try to stop her, it was too late. (And then I got up, put that glass in the dishwasher, and got myself a clean glass. I wasn't THAT out of it, fortunately.)

By evening, I was feeling somewhat better, enough that I could go to stitch and bitch, eat something resembling real food, and think about something other than my head for whole minutes at a time. It was good. And I went to bed on the early side, which probably helped too.

Today I felt tender but much better. Nothing like a migraine episode to make me grateful to be able to go to work! Though Carlos would have preferred that I stay home. He does not understand the relationship between going to work and bringing home cat food.

Speaking of whom, someone is calling me.

 Where iz my mama?

Random Bits and Odd Photos

My routine mammogram was this morning, uncomfortable but tolerable. Please join me in crossing fingers that I won't get called back again, though; THAT was close to intolerable, and I would be happy to never get that kind of focused screen again. Please and thank you, amen.

*****
I went to file some papers today, and decided to do a chunk of the "do I really need everything stuffed in these file drawers?" assessment, a task I have to face in pieces rather than all at once. I came across the medical records for Pan and Harold, and was comfortable letting them go; after all, it's coming up on six years since Pan died, five for Harold, and it's not like the papers were photographs or something more tangibly full of memories. Not all good ones, anyway.

But I was surprised to get suddenly very sniffly when I saw the earliest records with the names the Humane Society had assigned before I adopted them. Good-bye to Sean and Sir Thomas of Toomey. Or, not quite goodbye: the other records went into the recycling (with a chiming of metal rabies tags into the trash), but I kept out those two little folders. It isn't quite time for them yet.

*****
I made my hotel reservation for Rhinebeck! Yarn and sheep and fun, oh my. Not to mention the smaller but more immediate thrill of crossing something off the to-do list. Check!

*****
Also, this week I finished the first of the current bike socks; it took me about three months, which means that I haven't been riding the bike enough, but I have at least been riding it some. Mixed results, we'll call it. I'm happy with the sock, at any rate:

The yarn is Fleece Artist Somoko (bought in PEI!), my first time using, and it has nice definition and minimal fuzz for a yarn with mohair in it.

Of course the true test will come in the wearing, but that won't be for a while. I was on the bike five days this week, though, just to pat myself on the back.

*****
Shopping in Home Goods can be inspiring or just odd, and on a recent trip I found both.

I think they need to change the sign on this side, you know? And as for the following sign placement, well, if it's intentional, it's pretty snarky, and if it's clueless, well, it's pretty clueless.

Since I at least would call fat free caramel corn only slightly better than sugar free. Not worth wasting tastes on, and certainly no treat. Who's with me?

In another store, I saw these multilingual treats and was amused.

That's some morbid chocolate, eh?

*****
Speaking of odd shopping, I saw these interesting items in a liquor store. Since I don't go to liquor stores often, I don't know if these are as odd to others as they seemed to me. Your thoughts?

Dogs and cats, glugging wine together?

*****
And in odd non-shopping, while I was sorting through those papers, I found one I'd meant to share with you a while back. I don't know how I get on these mailing lists, honestly.

Who can explain to me why the Visa Black card, "Made of Stainless Steel_sm" (sic, god knows) is worth $495 a year? And, if it isn't, what they could give you that would make it worth that? For instance, if it were sending me good yarn every month I paid on time...

Overheard in a Chinese Restaurant

Customer: What is in the lobster sauce?
Employee: It's a brown sauce.
Customer: But what is in it?
Employee: Ahhhh....

I wonder if he didn't know? Or perhaps his English was not up to the explanation. Other possibilities?

And Off I Go for Ice Cream

Slow computer is driving me crazy. Slow computer needs to be replaced (but not tonight). And my head, which has bothered me on and off today, is not being all that cooperative either. So forgive me for just pointing you elsewhere.

I found a link to this post, on a blog called Momastery that I never read before, via Adrienne Martini's blog (which I do read, obviously), and I absoltely loved it. We all need to look around with perspectacles on. I encourage you to read for yourself!

And just to keep it light (which we all need this week, I'm thinking), here are two pictures of the cats, which I have side by side on my wall at work.

 

Color me easily amused by perspective.

Zzzzzz

I have a mild headache, or maybe it's the rain, but anyway, something is making me get ready for bed now. Nighty-night.

Let's Think About Yarn Instead

I'm pretty cranky tonight, nothing too serious but unexpected, and we all know how well I deal with that. And I will spare you the epic rant about a series of interactions (email, phone, phone again) regarding access to my prescription coverage. Let's talk about something else, shall we, something fun? With pictures!

On Saturday, Mary Ellen and I drove away up to Newbury for the annual Fiber Revival, a cute little* festival held on an historic farm. There were about ten vendors, some animals, and a lot of people sitting around not just knitting but spinning. The weather was beautiful (perfick, in fact), and it was such a nice way to spend an afternoon.
*Sorry, but next to Rhinebeck...

A rather weathered sign that would have impressed me more with proper hyphenation.

Sorry to nitpick (not really), but "a public spirited woman" and "a public-spirited woman" are not the same.

The farm house.

With a rather surprised-looking entrance, yes?

Shocked, even.

There were a couple of alpacas:

This one was humming, that one was resting.

Until he heard something over there.

What was that?

There was a donkey.

Who also heard something over there.

There was an enormous pig, happy as a pig in ... well, you know.

And really, who wouldn't be?

There were, for reasons of which I know not, men in vintage uniforms playing baseball. Kind of Field of Dreams, eh?

Did I buy anything, you ask? Ha. Well, not a lot. A pretty project bag:

And one skein of yarn. It was at the booth (tent?) with this display:

But it wasn't one of those, it was this:

It makes a matched pair of socks, as you start the first one from the outside of the ball and the second one from the inside. Pretty cool! And, I'm thinking, good colors to be knitting on in San Francisco in a few weeks. Since I got to the heel on the second sock of my current pair:

So I will need to start a new pair for the trip.

We spent a pleasant while, knitting and watching spinners. One woman had these three that she had spun, and was plying together into such pretty yarn.

Another had silk, glowing on her wheel.

All in all, a Very Nice Day. And who can't use more of those? And since I finished the day by having dinner with a friend, and hanging out after watching half an excellent old movie*, it really was perfect.
*I must say that I love IMDB's summary: "A fun-loving couple, finding that they died and are now ghosts, decide to shake up the stuffy lifestyle of a friend of theirs." Can't argue!

A Loss to the World

I was so sorry to hear that Robin Williams died. I've enjoyed many of his movies, but I'll always remember his turn on Inside the Actor's Studio.



If you ever have ~90 minutes, Google for the whole thing. That will always make me smile.

Word Games and Pictures

I bet you can fill in the blanks:

It's Sunday night, _____, and I am _____, and _____.

That would be "already" and "sorry about it" and "tired". So very tired. But the least I can do is put up pictures from Boston last Monday night, albeit without commentary. Questions? Ask 'em if you got 'em!

 

And there you are!