Yarn Crawling, 2013 Edition

It's not been a perfect head day. The head was bothering me last night, and though I was able to sleep, I woke often, so it wasn't as restful as I would have liked. This morning it wasn't great, but but before noon it went down to the merest murmur, so I've been able to watch the Bruins (lose), get laundry done, make lasagna, knit a little. Not the most accomplishy day, but better than I thought it was going to be, this morning, so take what we can get.

I had a good time yesterday, yarn crawling with friends. I did have a slight headache when I woke up, but it came and went and never got too bad, so I was able to enjoy the day, fortunately. This year's bumper sticker from Coveted sums it up:

We started at Seed Stitch in Salem, the store that organizes the crawl, and a very nice place. Such a pleasant space, and such inventive displays!

 Buttons in an old chest:

 Yarn flowing out of a watering pot.

 Sheepy spring welcome by the door.

I was able to resist buying anything there, though it was a close thing. The dyer behind Toil and Trouble, the yarn I used for the Christmas shawls, was there with such a lot of her lovely yarns, very tempting. Then there was this colorful stuff, Funnies, which I was told is German, and sold in the US only at Seed Stitch.

Beautiful colors!

I was not at all tempted by this, though. I can't imagine knitting with it!

It's paper! How would it not rip and break with your every move? I don't get it.
From there, it was on to the great Coveted Yarn. The plain outside is such a contrast to Seed Stitch, which is lovely to look upon, but inside Coveted makes up for it, and I had a great time wandering around squeezing yarns. I also had a nice conversation about Doctor Who and yarn with the dyer behind Mad Colors Fiber Arts, who was there with her wondrous wares, and had to show me her Police Box blue colorway when she saw I was wearing my Bigger on the Inside shawl. Vibrant! It makes mine look rather sun-faded, though I still love it.

Much to my amazement, I was able to get out of Coveted without buying. Plenty of nice stuff, that goes without saying, but nothing I couldn't put down, which was my guiding principle.

I did come back to this more than once, though.

Mmm, soft.

And speaking of mmm, it was time for lunch, so off to Essex we went, for the usual deliciousness at Woodman's. So good! And happily for us, the sole new store on this year's crawl was around the corner from Woodman's. It just opened in January, and is called Hooked Knitting. Small, but I liked it! They are going to have a lot of classes, it seems, including a rug hooking class that one of my friends wants to go back for. And I found a skein that had to come home with me.

The pictures I got didn't get the color quite right. It's a coral pink, somewhere between these two photos.

 

And it's bamboo! I just couldn't stay away from it, which is the sign.

No, I don't know what it will be. Don't bother me with details.

The next stop was Village Stitchery in Topsfield, which had the cutest little scarf displayed:

Again, I enjoyed looking around but was able to leave with the same amount of money I had entered with. Our final stop was Butterfly Yarns in Wakefield, a nice store that is sadly closing. Don't you love this sign?

I had to take advantage of 25% off, and got two skeins of Cascade Eco Duo. I had two skeins in the stash already, from a gift certificate my cousin gave me for Christmas one year, and it's lovely and soft and now I can make something twice as big. Two:

 Plus two is four.

Sometime, I'll find a pattern that would suit 800 yards of aran-weight alpaca/merino, in a three-to-one brown-natural ratio.

I will, too. Knitting's like that, if you can be patient.

Friday Night and I Feel Like Roadkill

Or perhaps you prefer:

I hit the snooze button this morning for 40 minutes, instead of my usual 10 or 20. Between the time change and this lingering cold, I am super-glad to see the end of this week. The cold is slowly going away, but sooooo slooooooowwwwly, and the congestion levels have been frankly disgusting. Then I got my period too, and even with the codeine (thank GOD for codeine), the cramps yesterday had me doing Lamaze breathing. Overall it just hasn't been a week that I've been happy in my body, you know?

Tomorrow will be better. I'm going to the North Shore Yarn Crawl with friends, though NOT to as many stores as last year; that was too much, and since I'm driving this time, I feel I have ultimate veto power if anyone tries to suggest "just one more" (I don't think I'll need it, but I have it). There's only one new store this year, and it's right by lunch, so we should be all right that way.


Now, someone would like me to pay attention to the cat, so I must go. Here, watch this amazing video of a diver, a kayak, and a sea lion pup:

Not a manatee, but still a very cute sea creature, right?

Testing, Testing, Is This Thing On?

Let's see if I can blog from the iPad, shall we? With pictures?

Here's the NHL realignment map, just to see. Yes, no, maybe?

Apparently they're going to name the divisions based on geography, by the way. So what do you call the-Northeast-plus-Florida?

The Least Believable Listing Ever

In this job and in my last, I have to look up plenty of journal articles, so I'm on PubMed all the time. That said, I have never seen anything like this one.

 

Those are all authors! As if!

The Sunday Story, Finally

I had a mild headache today, and I was afraid that it was going to get worse, and prevent me for yet another day from presenting the Sunday recap (wouldn't that have been tragic? I know!). But although it isn't gone, it isn't bad, so I will persevere, and blame the head for any mistakes I make. Works for me!

Before I start, I have a few updates:

• Since I know you're dying of curiosity: I did not have to take a cold shower again this morning. I did get started a little earlier than usual, just in case, and it was perfectly fine. Showering earlier means tweaking my morning routine, and I NEED a morning routine because I am so not a morning person (so, so, SO not a morning person), but since the paper never gets here in time anyway, I might as well. Though it needs adjusting: I stepped out into the hall this morning and was about to lock the door when I realized I was wearing slippers.
• I went to bed after the second period last night, with the radio on, but fell asleep before the game ended. Perhaps fortunately, since it went all the way to a shoot-out! The Bruins won, and I got to see highlights online this morning, so it was okay. They play again tonight; I bet I don't make it to the end again, but we'll see.
• I did get back on the bike last night, if only for five minutes. This is important because, what with being sick last week and having the mystery hamstring aches the week before, I was in danger of falling out of the habit. I am really trying to keep it up--that sock isn't going to knit itself--but feel free to ask me about it. Accountability is good. Also, instead of clock-watching for the time, I used the timer on the iPad, so I could pretend I wasn't desperate to get off. Much better!
• Last Saturday, I read about an iPad app that some cities and towns in MA are using for things like reporting potholes that need filling. Coincidentally, a street near me has some appalling new potholes that I've been meaning to report; the whole street desperately needs repaving, but until it's warm enough for that, those holes need patching. (It's surprisingly difficult to type a sentence with "whole" and "holes" correctly the first time.) My little town is one of those using this app, obviously, or why would I mention it, so I downloaded it to the iPad, created an account, and filed a report. This morning? The potholes were patched. Wow! How 21st century is that?

All right, enough of that: on to Sunday! This was my third annual westward trip to visit my friend during Girl Scout cookie season, which provides excellent impetus for a visit. Not that she's far away, it takes me about an hour and a quarter to get there, but I'm lucky if I get out there two or three times a year, and this is one of them. Here's last year's post, which itself contains a link to the post about the year before.

My friend has a good idea of what will amuse me, meaning that she waited until I arrived to give the new chicks their daily bath.

This kind of chicks:

They're very young, and need to have their little butts cleaned to avoid nasty complications. Or so I learned. Who knew? Spa day for the chicks.

The little tub was originally meant for decor, holding soaps. In case you were wondering. It's just the right size!

Clearly wondering what she ever did to deserve this, while the other wonders, why am I alone?

Then once they've been washed, they have to be dried, of course.

Some positions are more dignified than others.

I can't do a thing with it...

All right, enough of that! It was just too funny not to photograph. The two of us bugged out shortly thereafter, leaving her husband and kids and heading west. I didn't get pictures of this, but they're tapping the trees already: sugaring! Spring really is coming.

We talked a mile a minute, catching up, and stopped for brunch in Hadley: we were driving along route nine, and I had a sudden memory of when I went to college out there, and there was a place, called the Stables ... that was many years ago, but it's still there, and the parking lot was pretty full, so we went in and it smelled good, and we waited. And it was good, oh, so good. Bacon!

We kept driving west, and soon after that, we hit the low part of the day. Because it turns out, tragically, that Webs is not open on Sunday. (Why? Whhhyyyyyy??) The cars misleadingly in the parking lot were there for a class. It turns out that last year, I visited on President's Day, so that was Monday, and the year before I went out on a Saturday. How could they do this to us? Mind you, budget-wise, it was probably for the best, but is was still a major disappointment.

There is another yarn store in Northampton, a fact I've never understood by the way, but it too was closed on Sundays (missing a golden opportunity there). However, we had a nice browse around some other stores, including a good used bookstore called the Raven, where I uncharacteristically bought the second book of a series that I haven't read the first of--but it looked really good, it was four bucks, and I'm getting the first from the library, so I'll report back on that. What I'm trying to say is that we had a nice time, and it was a pleasant day in spite of it all.

When we headed east again, we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts to get my friend an iced coffee, and I thought I'd get a coolata (their version of a coffee-milkshake-drink), but it turned out that they were cleaning the machine...

Then we stopped at a bison farm that just opened a market, since my friend had only good things to say about ground bison, but they didn't have any, just that day...

Are you sensing a theme to our day?

To make up for my missed coolata, we swung into a Panera and I got a frozen caramel (delicious!), and then to (not really but kind of) make up for missing yarn shopping, we walked down to Michaels. We passed a really baffling store on the way: Dave's Soda and Pet City. Soda and pet supplies? I looked at the website later, and I still don't understand.

At Michaels, I got one skein of (blue)(clearance) yarn, and a nifty tool that I hope will help with my gauge thing:

I'll report back on that, as well.

By the time we got back to central MA, it was time for me to take my Girl Scout cookies, and fresh eggs from the hens (yum!), and one final surprise:

A good friend sees a PEI plate at a thrift store and thinks of me. You should see my smile.

I have to get to the Bruins game, so I'll leave you with some things I took pictures of in Noho. Random!

 

 

 

 

 

The Closest Stop is New York?!

I've been a Depeche Mode fan since about 1985, and for every tour since 1986, they've come to Massachusetts. They're touring again this year, which made me so happy, but the closest they're coming is Long Island? What the hell is this? Something is seriously wrong here. Only 19 dates in North America, and two are in New York, and five in California (two in LA alone), but none, not one in MA? Humph!

This has been such a Monday.

• It started last night, when I could not get to sleep for the most maddening length of time, something like close to two hours; I even got up at one point to try to make my body think, "We are getting up ... and now we are going to sleep," but it didn't work. So frustrating! 
• When the alarm went off, I decided to get up, use the bathroom, feed the cats, then lie down again for a little more sleep. On the way back to bed, I stepped in cat puke. By the time I cleaned up, I couldn't get back to sleep.
• The shower was cold. Well, not completely cold, but not at all hot. Barely warm. Shudderingly cold. Didn't want to wet hair. Goosebumps. Washed face after getting out and wrapping up in a towel. (Checked with neighbor; she hadn't had the problem. She said she's had days when it wasn't as hot as usual, and I agree, so have I, but this was different. Will see how tomorrow goes before reporting it to property management.) 
• Got to work and the server was full. Seriously, I have to tell the IT guy this every two to three weeks, and he unlocks more space. I don't know what they think we'd do with more space if we just had it. Hell of a way to run a railroad.

So I'm thinking you'll understand when I get into details about yesterday's fun tomorrow night, not tonight. I have stories, and pictures, and tonight it's not happening. I'm not going to last to the end of the Bruins game tonight, I can tell.

A Post That's a Promise

I was out all day today, which means two things: I have lots to show and tell, and I'm trying to type like this.

So the story will have to wait (you: so disappointed, right?). But one thing: I'm kissing Carlos, as one does, and noticed that his fur smells like pear. Delicious, but mystifying. Pear? Why? Anyone?

Knitting for Therapy

I was a little surprised by how low-energy I've been today; I'd hoped for more recovery progress. I went to bed early last night, and got a good solid night of sleep (with some very strange dreams, but that's par for the course), and yet I didn't feel back to normal, so I took it easy. This morning I was mostly sitting around reading, not that there's anything wrong with that, and by 1:00 was ready to watch the Bruins game, which was entertaining and they won for me (sorry, Kate)(they beat the Flyers, ahem). I also started some new knitting.

Last year, I bought a kit, pattern and yarn to make a blanket, the Hue Shift afghan, in all the colors of the rainbow. It's a simple pattern of mitered squares, which is a technique I haven't tried before, and in fact I had to google it to "get" the concept. Once it clicked, easy! I cast on the first square, and got into the second before I stopped to consider the situation: not the way it was turning out, which was fine, but the size. Yes, it's the dreaded g-word: gauge.

See, one fault of the pattern, in my opinion, is that it skips the simple, obvious way to give the desired gauge: by the size of each square. What could be easier than starting the first square and seeing if it's a certain size? Instead, it tells you to aim for 21.5 stitches over four inches, and as I never feel comfortable measuring gauge that accurately, I wasn't sure how far off I was, or which way to adjust. A bunch of the people who have made it, too many to ignore, mentioned on Ravelry how they ran out of yarn, or came close, and given the color-specific nature of the design, that's not something I want to have to worry about. I'd rather have a slightly smaller blanket than be sweating the grams at the end! A couple of the Ravellers mentioned trying to get their squares to be four and a half inches, as though that was the goal, and mine was coming out at five.

So, start over now before I got too far, that's fine with me. But how to tweak it, exactly? Change needle size, or change number of stitches? In the end, I decided to do both, but instead of ripping the first one out, I'm starting at a different corner, to use a different color yarn, so I can compare them and see how different they actually are.

For take 2A, instead of the 49 stitches on size US4 needles I used in take 1, was 41 stitches on US6s. To my amusement, this came out at exactly five inches again! If I'd been trying to get them the same, it wouldn't have, I'm sure. Anyway, I hadn't made the whole square, and I ripped it out and cast on 35 for take 2B; this seems to be better, more like four inches across. I'd rather err on the side that doesn't involve risk of running out of yarn, so that's fine. I think I like the drape of this better, too, but I'm going to make another square before I decide to rip the first one. Further updates as events warrant.

*****
Oh, by the way, I remembered what it was that I was going to post last night: something a friend posted on Facebook yesterday:

That was it!

Friday Night, the Quick Takes Edition

So today was a slog. Would it have been so difficult for this snow to come on Monday and Tuesday, when I was already home sick? Trying to get back to full health is hard enough without another foot of this freaking white stuff. I hate this climate.

At least it's Friday night, though, right? And I have the weekend to recuperate. I can't tell you how I want to sleep late tomorrow; it was very hard to get up this morning. I am feeling better, so much better, but not to 100% yet.

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This one is for my friend who is addicted to watching House Hunters and House Hunters International: Moxie's House Hunters Drinking Game. Perfect! (Don't miss the comments.)

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This weekend we Spring Forward. Are you ready? I don't like the change, but I do like seeing more light. It's just so hard to get up! Who else will be late to work on Monday, after hitting the snooze button eleventy times? Just me?

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From Miss Conduct: How not to take rejection gracefully. Whoa!

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Cats: Walking on important stuff for at least seven centuries.

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You know I love a sense of humor: How about this hockey player pretending to water-ski behind a Zamboni?

It's just the beginning of the video; the rest is all the goals of one high-scoring hockey game. How funny to hear English accents calling a hockey game! Not at all what I'm used to. And their website has a "Fixtures" section, where you find the information that "Schedule" has on BostonBruins.com. Interesting... Anyway, congrats to David Ling for making things fun. If you come back to the US, call me. (He's a little young for me [38] ... but not even Patrice Bergeron young [27], let alone Tyler Seguin young [21]. Everything's relative.)

That's all I have. While I was writing the last bit, I totally thought of something else to finish with, and ... now it's gone. The congestion is mucking up my brain. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Better, but ... but ... What's That Word?

Exhausted, that's it. Worked today, not too disgustingly symptomatic, but ready for bed now. Have been ready, in fact. And let's not even talk about the snow, okay? Thanks.

Better and Worse and Better

I felt a bit better last night, and was sure that I would wake up feeling reasonably human, and be able to go to work today. Not so much! Reasonable humans do not feel like their throats are full of knives when they swallow, or start deep hacking coughs when they are lying still in bed, barely breathing. Another sick day! The good news, if you can call it that, is that I felt bad enough that there was no question, and no second-guessing necessary. Nope, No Way, Back to Bed.

Well, really the good news is that I do feel less wholly crappy than I did yesterday, though I honestly do appreciate when the health status is unquestionable. I mean, I would have preferred "unquestionably better and able to work," but "unquestionably rotten and don't even feel guilty about it" is better than that in-between, I should go, really I should go nonsense. Anyway, achievements today included showering (man, did that feel good), and actually leaving the house! Driving! Whoa. I had to, because there's supposed to be snow starting tomorrow, and you know, one has to lay in supplies, particularly when one has been in and sick for several days. What sort of supplies, you ask? Well, the first stop was the bookstore (new Patricia Briggs!), and the next stop was the library (overdue return, holds to pick up), before the more conventional grocery store stop. Chiropractor next, and I picked up a pizza on the way home--my appetite is coming back to normal! I didn't eat as much as I normally would, but it was delicious.

Now, mind you, these few errands have me exhausted, but even so, I'm not as exhausted as I've been the last few days of doing nothing at all. So I'll take it easy tonight, and hopefully be able to get to work tomorrow.

In time to deal with snow. Sigh. Once the calendar switched to March, I started reading all these things about how spring is so close, now! And I just want to say, Whatever. Think so, if it helps you; it doesn't help me.

Have you ever sneezed yourself into a coughing fit? Ow....

One thing I've learned about myself, by the way? Apparently I talk to myself, out loud, all the time. Who knew? (Well, Carlos, clearly.) The things you learn when you can't talk without pain.

And Again

A coworker sent the picture, so I at least got a smile today.

I don't think I'm actually sicker today, but yesterday I slept a lot, and today I haven't been able to fall back to sleep, despite feeling like death, so, you know, I kind of feel worse.

I managed to do the stairs mid-day, and bring in the newspapers.

I have to go lie down now.

Sick, I Am

I am sick, so sick.
Hem, hem, cough, cough, hack, hack, owwwwwww.
I hate being sick.

Fever haiku, I guess you could call it, though I barely have a fever. I go from shivering to sweating, though, so I guess that counts. I have an "ahem" in my throat that won't stop, and periodically leads to a hacking, echoing boom of a cough. Plus a headache and tenuous stomach: it's all fun around here. Juice and pudding and soup. Bed to couch to bed. When I called the chiro's office to cancel, she said that I could still come in if I felt able, they might be able to help; I said that given the fact that I hadn't had the energy to bring the newspaper in by 3 PM*, driving doesn't seem like a possibility. Hopefully tomorrow.
*Still haven't, in fact.

If you missed the comment on yesterday's post, by the way, clever Kate had the answer: it's the music on that time-lapse snow video I posted, way back on February 10. Crazy! But certainly I'd rather it be that auto-playing for some reason, than something viral and nasty. Once I post some more, it will be knocked off the front page, and stop bothering us. So, let me make this longer, until I run out of energy, anyway.

First, I forgot to mention yesterday that when we went to Watertown to see the Yarn Harlot, Mary Ellen and I ate at the Deluxe Town Diner, and it was delicious! Definitely recommend if you are near it. I had the Deluxe Colossal Hungry Person's Special, and while I didn't quite finish it, it was all great, especially the bacon! They also have a sense of humor, based on the water they brought us:

Other things I've seen around recently:
Fun DIY bookshelves:

Classic cat:

And, yeah, I'm fading already. Here's hoping I feel better tomorrow, eh? Put in a good word for me, if you would.

Updating, Last Week and the Weekend

I wish now that I had written yesterday, for I'm rather crabby today, and that's not something to preserve, but there we are. The vet was here this morning, and then I did my taxes, and neither improved my mood. I have a slight-but-worrying throat and cough, and the weather is gloomy. Laundry, dishes, vacuuming. A grey day all around.

The vet visit was to follow up with Carlos, since his blood-in-urine issue last fall was inconclusive. She took the urine, which thankfully looked more clear than last time, and she took blood to test too, so we'll see how that turns out. (I've told him that if he doesn't live forever I'll kill him, but he mostly ignores what I say.) She also took his blood pressure, yes, with a little cuff on his "arm," which was hilarious, and the number was surprisingly low; he's such a laid-back guy, even with the poking and prodding, so that's all good. 

Hopefully the test results will be too, and then I can take him in for dental work, which she says he badly needs. Certainly his breath is foul! Or I wouldn't call him "swamp breath" sometimes. He didn't enjoy the morning, but he did manage to relax later. I sent her the picture, since she'd asked if he usually sat "like that" when he got onto the bed after being released. No, he doesn't, he "sits" like this!

The vet also wants him to have an x-ray, because his lungs sound possibly asthmatic, and when he walks his spine is a little humped instead of flat, which could mean problems. It could also be fine, but best to check. And he's my baby and worth it, that goes without saying, but you can't believe how much it all costs. Sigh. And he's lost some weight, so I have to keep an eye on that, weigh him and let her know. Thank heavens she was able to get the urine sample: at first, she was having trouble, and let me admit freely that the idea of following him to the box with a cup to get a sample did not appeal to me in the slightest. She didn't seem to be kidding, but what a joke.

As long as I was already depressed by that whole morning, I decided to get my taxes out of the way. I started them a few weeks ago, and when I got far enough to see that there was no big refund this year (thanks to unemployment), I put off finishing. But it has to be done, of course, and in fact I do get some back from the Feds--just not as much as I owe the state, so that's tiresome. Add the gray skies and flurries, and you can see why my mood isn't sunny.

Still and all, I had a sweet cat next to me on the couch as I started writing this, and I could start this on the couch thanks to the iPad, so that's something good (I don't find it easy to blog on the tablet, but it's sort of possible). And if I need to buy less yarn in the next month or months, well, fortunately, I have enough to last far longer than that!

Now, back to last week. I'm not sure if I'm blogging less because of chiropractic getting me home later* a few nights a week, or having Bruins games to watch, or both, or something else, but there we are: it's been harder to get myself here. (Perhaps it's partly the iPad, too, since I can sit on the couch, with Carlos, watching the hockey game, and check e-mail, without having to be at the computer.) So, what was going on last week?
*Not late, but later, and it doesn't take much to throw off my routine.

I saw the Yarn Harlot! As I mentioned last week, she was teaching some classes in the area, and gave a talk as well. She's such an entertaining speaker, and of course it's a focused group, knitters, so we get all the jokes ("it's not like everyone can carry emergency knitting..."). Since the purse sock I had going was too close to the toe to bring, I had to* cast on a new one; I chose the Ella Rae Lace Merino yarn I got--a year ago, sheesh, you wouldn't know I'd been dying to try it!
*I know, I know, but really I had to!

I got this far Friday night (thanks, Stephanie):

As she was holding another sock for a photo, a few people ahead of me in line, she mused aloud on how hard it was to answer the question, "What is the purpose of your trip?" when she went through customs. Do you even try to be honest?

The yarn colors really suit my project bag, by the way, especially the inside:

And the yarn is so soft, and behaving quite well so far. I went back to the other sock this weekend, too, and got it done today. It's the first of a pair, so I need to make another in that yarn. Here it is pre-toe.

But I can work on the blue one for now. Though I ought to cast on the second gold one, so it's ready to grab when I need it. Ooh, forethought. I impress myself.
What else last week? Well, that awful pain in my hamstrings last Monday, which had me hobbling all day, got better over the next few days, but kept me all but completely off the bike all week. I guess stretching the quads isn't enough; what I was doing to try to stretch other leg muscles either didn't get those, or didn't do them enough good. Awesome, I needed exercise to get more complicated! Have to work on that. You wouldn't think riding a stationary bike would require so much preparation. Well, at least I wouldn't think so.

*****
I heard from two different people recently that my blog now starts playing music shortly after they open it. I keep my speakers off unless I'm listening to something, so I hadn't heard it, but sure enough, it's there. I have no idea why, and my google-fu failed to find an answer. Any ideas? I found results for how to add music to your blog, but not explaining why it would show up uninvited. Here we go again with complications.

The blog is also getting deluged with spam since I took the comment verification off. (Are these two related? Could be, but maybe not.) Does anyone want to speak up in defense of keeping the word verification off? Because although the spam can be highly amusing, and although Blogger's filter catches most of it, some of it still gets through, so I have to keep checking and removing, which gets old.

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I had to call a customer service line for something recently, and I had a little trouble with the guy's accent. No, he didn't sound like he was a non-native English speaker, but I still had trouble, and it took me a minute to realize who he sounded like: Tim Conway on The Carol Burnett Show. "Miss-is a-Wiggins..."

I'm still not sure what he said in the middle there...

*****

I was listening to the radio, and I changed the station just in time to hear the DJ say, "That song could annoy the paint off a bus." What song? I'm so curious.

 

*****

There's nothing like reading about dry eye syndrome to make one self-conscious about blinking.

 

*****

A final thought on the iPad: apps and podcasts. I'm ready to dip my toe in the water. And recommendations? Advice? Thoughts in general?

How Not To Do It, Hockey Edition

In honor of the Bruins winning this afternoon (six in a row!), and because I haven't managed to write more on everything else yet, here's a hockey placeholder. A friend sent this to me the other day.

Awesome!

Life. Living It.

Nothing big, but life is time-consuming sometimes, isn't it? Will blog. This weekend. Maybe.

Here. Look at this.

Isn't that better?

And That's Why It's a Cliche: Because It Happens

You all know the story: as soon as you find the best-ever item, the perfect sneakers, the most wonderful t-shirt, the most delicious yogurt, the ideal notepad ... no matter what it is, you've been searching for it and you found it and you know what happens next.

They stop making it.

Yes, how do they know? Are they spying on you? Do they bug your home or office to hear you declare that the search is over? Do they cackle and rub their hands together as they call down to stop production?

This has happened to me more times than I can count, and it's always annoying. The latest volley has to do with, of all things, coffee creamer. I've been trying different flavored ones, and my reaction has ranged from "ok, I guess" to "eh" to "next!" Then my friend at work brought in another new one, from International Delight:

Do you see what is says at the top? Salted Caramel Mocha. This is code for "unspeakably delicious"; it was love at first sip. I was happy to think I never need try another, having found perfection.

Unfortunately, do you see what it says at the bottom? Seasonal Edition. This is code for "will only be in stores until you try it and love it, then it will vanish and leave you brokenheartedly standing in front of the dairy case at the fourth grocery store you've tried, wondering if anything can live up to it, knowing the search is doomed to fail."

What, oh what, is "seasonal" about salted caramel and mocha? Nothing, right?

Ow. Not the Head, At Least, But Ow.

When I woke up this morning, Carlos was sleeping with his head firmly planted on my hand. Give the boy credit: he knows how to make me even less interested in getting out of bed. Aiding him in this was the fact that my legs hurt, making moving at all an unappealing option.

Yeah, the legs. It's very random, but last night my legs started aching, specifically the backs of my thighs, and it's so painful, and so weird because what did I do? I thought I achieved a decent balance of "laze around" and "get things done" yesterday, but perhaps I did too much? Ten minutes on the bike, which isn't that much or new for me, some stretching but not unusual amounts, laundry (meaning stairs) but again, I do that every week, so what's up? Cooking and doing dishes require some standing, but honestly not much... Maybe it was just all of it together, but I hope it's a one-day thing, because ow. Also, ibuprofen doesn't seem to be helping. Also also, OW! I'm trying to tell myself that it isn't as bad tonight, and is therefore going away, but I don't know...

Distraction! I got two good things in the mail today: my new Discover card and a save-the-date card for a wedding this summer. I was pleasantly surprised to see the latter, as I've known the bride for years but we're not super-close, and I wasn't sure how big the wedding was going to be, so I didn't know if I'd make the cut. I mean, I totally would have understood if I hadn't! But I'm happy to go and celebrate with them, too, so that's nice. (What should I knit them?)

As for the Discover card, my new account number is not completely awful: it contains both a 42, my favorite number, and a 68 (the year I was born), so I have a (small) chance of learning it. Probably I won't, but oh well, it's not hopeless. 

Unfortunately, my legs still hurt. So much for thinking of other things. Time to think of getting ready for bed.