Found It--and a question

Readers, not to spoil things if you are on my holiday card list, but I think I have found the photo I have to use.

Now, here's where you come in. My first thought was to have it say HAPPY HOLIDAYS. OR ELSE. But do you have a better idea?

Winning Yarn Chicken

Given how old the movie War Games is, I expect I don't have to post a spoiler warning before giving away the key point that the computer learns at the end: The only winning move is not to play.*

*How about a nice game of chess?

I was thinking of that last night, as I won at yarn chicken only because I wasn't really playing it. I was near the end of a project and near the end of the ball of yarn, but in fact I have a whole skein more, so I was fully expecting to have to use a little of that to finish things up. Thus, I was able to approach the end in a very devil-may-care fashion that is totally not how I would have felt without that reserve.

And look!

There was so little yarn left, it didn't register on the scale! 

Less than a gram. Wow.

I could never have done it if I'd been trying. But it's very satisfying anyway.

Don't Count Your Chickens

I was online this afternoon around 4, went to comment on the blog post I was reading (Gretch Runs, I totally agree with you about Same Time Last Summer), when poof, no internet. 

This time, there was no power surge, absolutely nothing. Just poof.

Summit is sending a tech in the morning. Pray for us. 

Perhaps especially the tech.

Better, if not all the way

This morning, I checked the internet, and would you believe it, it was WORKING.

I got to read the newspapers on the iPad! Work without leaving the house!

Now, I mentioned in yesterday’s rant that the land line stopped working when the tech was here. It did not miraculously fix itself overnight. I was afraid that if I called this morning, they would try to fix it and eff up the internet again, so I waited and called after work. He put in a ticket that may mean someone will fix it remotely (yeah, sure they will), otherwise someone will be here Monday. It’s not ideal to have the phone out, but we have my cell, and honestly if i had to pick, I would choose working internet for now.

Further updates as events warrant.

A Step Backwards

After six long days without internet (and therefore without TV, if you want to consider how I felt having watched one Bruins game in the new season and then getting cut off)(seriously, Saturday night I was listening to the game on the radio, through my phone, for effs sake), after six long days, I say, the tech from Summit Broadband showed up today.

He did this and that. He replaced the wall box. He was on the phone with someone most of the time.

He got the internet working!!! And the heavens parted and I heard angels singing!

But then he said he had to take it down for a few minutes. 

And then he came out and said, quote, "our system just took a dump." 

And he gave me a ticket number, said someone would be calling me on the land line, stood around looking very uncomfortable while I tried not to cry, and left.

NOT ONLY THAT. But a while later I checked the land line, and it isn't working. 

IT ISN'T WORKING. 

The ONLY thing that was working, now isn't working. 

So I called again, to explain with voice only slightly raised that if anyone actually did try to call, not that I'm holding my breath, they wouldn't get through on the land line because now THAT doesn't work.

The rep tried to look up the status of the ticket, but said it was in a system he can't access, so he sent a message to dispatch to ask for an update. He also tried sending a reset signal to the box, which they all try and it never works, and what a surprise, it didn't work.

He said he is working until 9 tonight and will call me if he gets an update.

Then he said, as I know he is required to, "Thank you for calling Summit Broadband, is there anything else I can help you with," and I actually laughed, and said:

"Since every piece of equipment we have from Summit is not working, no, there's nothing else."

FFS.

If he calls, I will be shocked. 

Fucking Summit Broadband. 

#summitbroadbandsucks 

Look at her

Still no internet. But look at the baby.

Good and Bad

The good news is that Mom is doing really well, and is coming home this weekend. Yay! She is so much more mobile than last time, it's amazing. 

The bad news is that our internet went out yesterday, and the next appointment available is Wednesday. Six damned days later! They think this is acceptable! Oh, they'll let me know if they have anything before then, how nice of them....not so much.

Even more annoying, no internet means no TV, so unless by some miracle they come tomorrow (this is me, not holding my breath), I won't be able to watch the Bruins game. Just the second game of the season, before they head to California and start the next few games at 10:30 at night...damn it.

This company sucks so much. Avoid Summit Broadband if ever you can.

Maggie is very upset for me, of course.

Yarn Given and Gifted (and Ordered)

On my birthday, but not as a birthday gift, I was handed this:

A while back, one of my knitting friends mentioned that she had this big ball of yarn, passed to her by someone else, that she had decided she wasn't going to use, and did anyone want it? I said, ooh, pretty blue, and then forgot all about it until she handed it to me at lunch.

It's the size of a basketball.

It is, in fact, 1280 yards, or 760 grams, of aran-weight Rambouillet wool, Empire from Jill Draper.

I did a bit of a double-take at the price tag: $150? Well, now it's $165. 

But that's actually not out of the question for a sweater quantity, I suppose. Not that I think I would spend that, and not that I'm of a mind to make another sweater right away! It's not quite as soft as I usually like, but hey, we'll see what happens.

Then my cousin sent me yarn for my birthday, and does she know a "me" color when she sees it?

Three balls of Mandala Ombre from Lion Brand, and let me tell you what, this is so nice and soft! And blue! (She also sent a really pretty little cat-and-moon stained glass piece, which I have put safely away for now because I'm having a drop-it day, so I will get pictures of that another time.)

And then, you know.

To be continued...

Happy Birthday to Me

I mentioned in my happy things post the other day that I got myself a birthday present, which was this Evita XL project box, which I read about on Knitty.

Coke can for scale.

You take the top off:

And when you loosen the cord, it opens up like the petals of a flower.

Lots of pockets inside.

My only quibble with the Knitty review is where they said it "has that fantastic leather smell." I do happen to like the smell of leather, but I can imagine there are plenty of people who don't, and not to be overly politically correct, but I think they ought to have considered that. Ah well.

I got it from Universal Yarn, and it was a bit of a splurge, so I was happy that they offered 10% off as a new customer. Send me emails if you want, to save me $19.50! And free shipping, thank you.

New toy!

Silver Linings

In the spirit of Elisabeth's Happy Things Friday, I'll try to look on the bright side of now. How will I do?

• I visited Mom last night; the place she is now is an inpatient rehab hospital, not a skilled nursing facility, and the important difference is that instead of an hour of PT a day, she'll get three! So she shouldn't have to stay nearly as long as at the last place, and should make much more progress in a shorter time. Hopefully, anyway. She likes it better than the first one, too; the food is better, she says, and the people have been very nice. (To be clear: at the SNF, some of the people were nice--but not all, she says.)
• My birthday is next week, and I got my first birthday card in the mail yesterday. I truly don't care when anything comes--celebrate me all month!--but it's nice to get a fun card, isn't it?
• Then a gift arrived in the mail today. Technically, it's a "sympathy for your stress these days" gift, and not strictly a birthday gift, but tomayto, tomahto. Or in this case, carmelcorn:

• Also in the mail today is a present I got for myself. No, not yarn (after my wild August yarn shopping, I only bought yarn once in September, good heavens), but it is knitting-adjacent! (Who's surprised?)

(I'll blog more details on it separately, but the link is here and I read about it in Knitty, here.)

• My mother and I will have our my-birthday-out-treat-dinner once she's back on her feet, but in the meantime, I'm having lunch with friends on Monday, so I'll have that on the day itself.
• And on Sunday, I'm "attending" a Zoom yarn chat by the author of a new yarn-stash book, Marie Greene, so that's fun, too.
• How out of date am I with updating my knitting on here? I finally, finally finished the Comodo sweater I've been working on for months, yay. It isn't blocked yet, but a friend down here invited me over to try steaming it. It doesn't need a ton of stretching, or anything, but I'd like to even it out a little. (Though the tonal qualities of the yarn do hide unevenness pretty well.)

While not undoing the way the edges curl, because I love that!

• I also finished another project, the Close to You shawl that I started in the spring of 2022 (mentioned here), which got put aside at some point, but I picked up to be my trip knitting to Key West. Before blocking:

And after. It grew!

• I wound the rainbow gradient yarn to start my next project, Radiata. So pretty!

• Finally, I unpacked a few things I got in Key West, and when I went to photograph this coaster, it was near some yarn that really accentuated it:

Pretty! 

Well, Elisabeth was right, it helps to look for happy things. I recommend it.

Shoulders!

Since Mom went back in the hospital last week (thank you all for the good wishes, by the way), I have not-at-all-coincidentally been have back and neck problems. Guess where I'm carrying my tension? Yup. Guess who's been feeling a lot of stress? Yup. Yesterday morning I felt like someone put a lead weight on the back of my neck--you know, like the apron they put on you at the dentist when you get X-rays?

When I realized what I was doing (it was a clue when I had a hard time getting out of bed Saturday), I told myself that I need to be aware of it and physically force myself to relax* periodically. So if you hear me mutter "Shoulders!" to myself, that's why.

*Though "force myself to relax" sounds wrong, doesn't it? Be aware of tension and actively relax, how about that?

She did have surgery on Sunday, which the orthopedic surgeon said went very well. But she didn't have a great day Monday (understandable after surgery at age 85, I think). Tuesday she sounded much better, and is waiting to hear when they can find her a rehab bed.

Maggie says hi, and what's stress?