If you aren't fond of old cars, you may as well leave now--not meaning to be rude, but that's all I have today, and I have a lot of them! So if you're not interested, or at least curious, well, please come back another day.
Still here? Excellent. This morning I went to the Extinct Car Day, as I mentioned, and I had a blast. I was only there for half an hour, but I got my fill of the beauties. In fact, I ended up taking 80 pictures, all of which I won't include here, so if you want to see the full set (hi, Mum!), you should find it here, on Flickr. Please let me know if that doesn't work.
It was cold today, in the 40s, and since I kept my right glove off to work the camera, that hand got cold! But I put it in my pocket here and there, and since I only walked around for half an hour, no permanent harm done. It was not a sunny day, either, which was a pity, as can you imagine these trees in the sunshine?
But they were still gorgeous, I think.
I kept changing angles.
The cold is almost worth it. Foliage, and hockey...
I saw this on the way down, and while the Corvette isn't extinct, I had to get its picture, as I loved these when I was a kid.
And then I saw this one, also just parked with the visitors. Mmmm!
Isn't that gorgeous? 1949. I love those lines.
After that, it was kind of a comedown to go into the display area and see a line of Saturns.
Yes, I get it, they're extinct, but ... I drove a Saturn! For years! This is not what I came to see, And neither are the muscle cars, although they do have their own charm.
No, this is what I came to see:
I seem to hit right in the 40s, don't I? Some 30s and some 50s, but the ones from the 40s seemed to be more me. Isn't it lovely? Coming and going.
How about this one? Running boards...
And a rumble seat!
Just neat.
There were several dozen vehicles there, conditions ranging from "rusting out" to "nicely restored" to "could eat off the engine". I noticed a few fun license plates, too, like the COOGAH on what I assume is a Cougar (that's the Mass accent for you).
To this one, which seems awfully fast.
As well as HDSN on a Hudson, and the OLDS 41 I showed above, plus a PONT 41 on a Pontiac and a NASH 56 on, well, a Nash. And, finally:
Or, finally finally, I don't know the significance of this one:
FE FO? But it's quite a car.
Right?
Again, the full set is on Flickr, here. Enjoy--I did!
After work today, I took my car to get it inspected. When I asked if they could fit me in, the guy laughed and said he had to, since I was wearing a Bruins shirt (emblematic of how sports are taken around Boston, where hockey is generally just the third-most popular sport). There was a neat old car outside the garage (in car years, 1966 is plenty old, right?), which of course I had to photograph.
Then I sat down and took out my knitting, and the guy behind the desk
inquired if I was making socks or gloves. Well done, sir! Socks, of
course. I said that it keeps my hands busy, and he replied, "And your
feet warm in the winter!" True, true.
In a way, this leads into my plans for Saturday--not the knitting, but the old car. I read about a car show at a museum in Brookline this weekend, and remembering how I always love seeing old cars around, and particularly the glimpses of them in Rhinebeck every year, I looked into it. Turns out that Saturday is Extinct Car Day, how cool is that? I've never been to a car show, but I really think I will enjoy that. So get ready for lots of photos, hopefully.
Finally, after many headache-related delays, I would like to show the yarn I got at Apple Festival, and other birthday-related items.
Yarn first. As I said, three vendors selling yarn, three vendors I bought yarn from, and I have in fact bought from all three before. This is neither a problem nor a complaint.
First, from Scandinavian Weave and Knit (they're the ones who go on from Apple Fest to Rhinebeck), a cobweb yarn in the colorway Stone. If you look closely at the tag, the fiber types aren't listed on it, which is why I made a note for myself. She said that her husband really prefers the yarn labels to remain small, which makes getting all the information on it challenging, and she hadn't noticed that in some cases, she missed this. Whoops! Lovely, all the same.
Next up is Golden Oak Farms hand-painted sock yarn, an alpaca/wool/nylon blend. I know, can you believe I picked blue?
Finally, from the Springside Farm Yarns people, this lovely all-alpaca blend--blend because it comes from multiple alpacas, not because it has other fibers in it. So soft and light and warm, mmm. The second picture is a better representation of the color.
As I also mentioned, my aunt bought me two photographs for my office wall. I have one of them framed, since I repurposed a frame I already had (though my photo of it is before it got framed). This is from the amphitheater at Arlington Cemetery.
I just love the lines and angles.
The other is a very different animal. But the colors! She said this was taken at the Seneca River, in Baldwinsville.
Then, in non-Fest items, I got a box from my mother which, she had told me, contained something fragile. I was worried when the box arrived, as you can see it did not get the best of handling en route, despite the FRAGILE tape across the top.
However, the contents came through just fine. Fortunately, since this is something I remember Mum having when I was a kid, so it's not like she could run out to the store to replace it.
Isn't it lovely? The angel salad will look so pretty this Thanksgiving.
Well, that's a good start on what I've been wanting to get down, anyway. Me and my residual headache (with heartburn) and my freshly bruised knee (bashed it on the desk earlier, ow) are off to the couch to watch at least the start of the Bruins game. Stupid NBCSN and their Wednesday Night Rivalry and their 8 o'clock start time! Still, better than the last two games, starting at 10...
It was a mostly lost weekend, not much of headache but mostly headache hangover, and little of accomplishment. Still, feeling okay now, and planning early to bed. With the approval of the house tiger.
More of substance tomorrow or Tuesday night. Hope your weekends were good ones!
I am so, so, so glad it's the weekend. Even though nothing much awful happened this week, the week after being away is always so much harder than normal.
This morning in my regular, automated,
don't-have-to-think-about-it-getting-ready process, I managed to skip
not one but two steps--one of which was bringing clean clothes to the
bathroom for after I showered. Not a huge problem, but kind of
emblematic of where my mind was, or wasn't. Oh weekend, how I love you,
with your low-key, low-pressure, non-heavily-scheduled-ness.
Speaking of which, Rhinebeck is this weekend, and I am relieved to be able to say that I have no regrets about choosing not to go this year. My decision was based on how rushed it would make me feel, under the circumstances of my year, and clearly it was the right choice for me. Not to say I won't be wistful, reading about others who are there, but that's only natural. This year it was Just Too Much; next year is another story. Looking forward to next year already! (And in 2017, I think, there will be a weekend between Apple Festival and Rhinebeck, o frabjous day!) I do think it would be fun to rent a house with a group, one of these years, instead of going the hotel route, but that isn't something I want to organize, so it will depend if I luck into someone else's organization, I guess.
I enjoyed the dinner I put together on Tuesday night enough to want to note it here, for future reference. No pictures, but let's be honest, it's doubtful they would have come out well. I'm not much of a food photographer, and my attempts to capture deliciousness often appears to be meant for a Dire Warning.
It started when I bought some fresh cherry tomatoes; the place I stopped for ice cream on Sunday is a small cafe and often has things like jams for sale, but they also had a good-sized container of wee cherry tomatoes for a dollar, and I felt like the chances were, they were pretty close to the garden and so would taste good (I'm not the biggest consumer of raw tomatoes; they have to be really good). They mostly did taste good, too: a few were fabulous, most were good, and only a few were less than good.
What I did was wash them and put them in a bowl, then while some pasta was cooking, I cut some mozzarella into bite-size chunks and layered that on top. I had been thinking of adding basil, but then remembered that I bought pesto recently, so I globbed some of that in instead. When the rotini was cooked, I drained it and added it, then stirred it all together. It was delicious Tuesday night, warm, and equally good cold on Wednesday.
A few other notes:
If the tomatoes had been any larger, I would have cut them in half, to facilitate the ratio of ingredients per mouthful.
It could have used even more pesto.
I want to make it again, but I have to get more (and trustworthy) tomatoes.
So! To that last point, after work, off to the farmer's market I went; the one nearest me just happens to be on Thursdays (through the end of the month, anyway), and I was there and back in half an hour. There weren't a lot of produce vendors, understandably, and they didn't have any cherry tomatoes, so I'm going to try chopping up these heirlooms and see how it compares.
I also got a few other things, all "our own": Gala apples, white peaches, and a handful of green beans. For the princely total of $8.85, virtuous feelings not included.
So now my evening's plans include making more of the pasta salad thing. Plus, although the Bruins game last night started after my bedtime, NESN (bless them) is replaying it tonight, so I can see the first win of the season. Yay!
And yes, I will be the dork watching the TV and joking to the cats that I have a good feeling about the game (knowing that they won, 6-2).
As I mentioned, I brought Pan's and Harold's ashes with me to bury in the back yard. In they went, together as always.
And done. My aunt said the wild strawberries will grow over the spot again.
And it's a lovely spot, really.
That divot in the center, by the way? That's an old dishwasher, buried upside down by my grandmother years ago, when it died, to be a somewhat contained planter spot. As you do.
I don't usually have a problem with insomnia, but after my regular waking in the night (go to the bathroom, feed the cats, back to bed), I tossed and turned and got up and went back to bed for upwards of 90 minutes. I bring this up in order to ask your patience if I say something that seems nonsensical. I got through the day, but only just. ::blink::
I know what you really want to know: How did Grandma like the tarantula?
She liked it! A lot!
She also wore it like a pirate's parrot:
I gave it to her Friday night, and when we visited her on Saturday, it was on display.
According to my aunt, she has named it Herman. So there's that. Whew! She liked it.
Moving on to the traveling, it went fine. It's a long drive, honestly; 300 miles at a stretch puts a lot on my neck and shoulders, for some reason, no matter how often I stop and how much I shift and wiggle (the chiropractor went to town on me yesterday, oof). The drive on Friday included some rain, only briefly so heavy that I got concerned, and the drive back was sunny and lovely and had a few pockets of heavy traffic I could have done without--I'm looking at you, 84/Mass Pike interchange--but it also included an ice cream stop, and some lovely leaves. The foliage is not at overall peak, but in places the colors were glorious.
As for the Fest itself, Friday's rain made the ground very muddy, so I was glad that I had my big boots, and it was chilly, too, but it gradually cleared and the weather just got better and better. We've had far worse, for sure; there's nothing like attending a festival for 40 years to give you a sense of the possibilities. Shorts? Parka? Everything in between? Yes.
This year, unlike previous years where we have shopped the crafts before taking our turn selling pies at the church booth, we were on pie duty first. It went fine; not hugely busy, but enough people wanted to be sure of getting theirs before they sold out that it was worth being there. Once released from that, we went for early french fries, so fresh we had to wait for them to come out of the fryer, and so good, mmm.
Then it was time to walk the tents. The crowds were pretty heavy, considering the less-than-perfect weather, and honestly what is with people just stopping in the aisle and not even making an attempt to step aside if they want to look at something, but overall the browsing was good. I didn't buy that much, some years are like that, but I did get a couple of photos for my office wall, or rather my aunt got them for me for my birthday, and of course yarn. You knew that was coming! Photos of all that to come.
By the time we left, I was physically exhausted, and very glad to eat some lunch and just veg out for a few hours. We then went to show Grandma the haul and hang with her for a while, before going out to dinner. A quiet evening at home, a quiet morning and early lunch Sunday, and I headed home again. Whirlwind, really; it's funny how much shorter three days feels versus four.
Carlos would absolutely vote for the shorter trip, of course, once I vetoed his first choice (my never leaving him again). Several times a day, the last two days, he has come into the office and meowed at me, to let me know that I was needed in the bedroom to cuddle the cat. If he keeps that up tomorrow, it will go on longer than I was away, but I don't imagine that will stop him. Of course, I missed him too, but he has to live without me now and then. Whether he wants to or not.
Happy Columbus Day, that US quasi-holiday that means we don't get mail, some people but not many are off work, and there are news stories about anti-Columbus sentiment spreading far and wide. And then there's this:
It also meant that the Bruins played a matinee this afternoon, but at least I
got to watch the game (on the Pad next to the computer, that is, not
that I was blowing off work to sit in front of the TV). I appreciated being able to watch
especially since I didn't see Saturday's game, and in the next 8 days,
the 2 games they play both start at 10 PM, ow (maybe by the time I can
see a game again, they will have remembered how to play hockey, sigh).
I'm so used to taking both Friday and Monday off* for Apple Festival that when I was driving home yesterday, there was more than one moment when I was thinking it was Monday. Wrong! But for all the abbreviation, it was still a good time.
*As I have rarely worked for companies that give it as a holiday.
I will try to get to the full report tomorrow. After all, I want to cover:
The birthday-related offers and discounts continue to roll in. A free pizza from Papa Gino's (by the end of the month), a free drink from Dunkin Donuts (good through January!), $10 off at Godiva (this month) ... The Container Store offers me 15% off my next purchase, which is tempting, but I may refrain: it's awfully easy to go overboard there, with all the fun things. I have the whole month to use it, anyway, so I don't have to decide this week. (Hmm, fun with a little birthday money?)
~~~~~
I had an odd little realization recently. As they sometimes do, a song randomly popped into my head, and it was one from a movie, so I googled it and watched that scene from the movie. And then I thought about how when I was a kid, The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music were each on TV once a year, and that was your only chance of seeing them, period. Weird, right? Remember when classic Disney movies were re-released in theaters every seven years?
~~~~~
Another little light-bulb moment: it is of course not a pleasant thing to clean up anyone's vomit, but when it's someone you love, then the "poor baby" factor helps balance the "oh, gross" factor, in my experience.
When, on the other hand, it's the cat who is most often kind of annoying, and very loud, and she was sitting on the back of the couch, so you get to clean vomit off the couch, a cushion, and the wall down to the floor, well, nothing is balancing that. Yuck.
~~~~~
A while back I brought up the question of what to do with Pan's and Harold's ashes, and as requested, I thought I should let you know what I decided. Suggestions included:
Bring them to Florida with me at Christmas and scatter them there.
Compost them.
Scatter them outside, under trees or in someone's garden.
Bring them to my aunt's and bury them in her "pet cemetery" in the back yard.
I've decided to go with #4. It's the house where my grandparents lived since before I was born (in fact, my great-grandfather built it), so it's very much a part of my background, if you know what I mean. It's got a big yard that backs onto a meadow, so it's pretty and peaceful. I don't know that I feel like, "Yes! The one and only perfect solution!" But it will do. I've thought on it for a while and it will do.
As for the other options, I don't compost or garden myself, and somehow it felt wrong to ask if anyone wanted to have these ashes for composting or their garden. Maybe it isn't weird, but it felt weird to me. And my building actually has zero dirt or green on the lot (though somehow weeds come up around the periphery anyway); the trees I may seem to park under are actually across the street. If we had anything here, I would probably do it, but we don't.
I do have one other cat that I buried, my Honey-cat, who died in 1998, when I was living in Charlotte. I was renting a house with a friend, and we buried her in the back yard. I don't often think of her there, but when I do, it doesn't hurt to think of her being there, even with me not knowing who lives in the house now or anything. And mentioning that may sound like I'm contradicting some of my own reasoning in this case, but I think what it boils down to for me is that as long as the decision feels right at the time*, it will probably feel right later. Hopefully.
*At the actual time of burying Honey, she had just died and I was miserable; but burying her seemed like the right thing to do.
Not that this decision helps anyone else make theirs, probably, but anyway, that's my plan.
~~~~~
And let's not leave it on that note! Here is a super-cute zoo video about the friendship between a cheetah cub and a puppy.
Quote: "Cheetahs are ... incredibly fast scaredy-cats."
I have to point out that this is post number 2500 on my blog, and look what I'm writing about. Honestly. Typical.
So, as I said yesterday, the tarantula is done! If you missed the story, I knit this for my grandmother, who when asked what she would like me to knit for her birthday (in the spring, whoops), suggested something she could use to scare the people at the home where she lives. Given that she was turning 101, I decided hey, why not give her what she wants?
Yarn: I used Vanna's Choice, since that was what I could find in the right colors without spending an arm and a leg (or 8, ba dum bah). The pattern calls for mohair, and that probably gives a more authentic look, but if you think I'm going for a really authentic look, with a tarantula, yeah, no.
Timeline: I started this in July, but really only worked on it since finishing the blanket in late September. It could easily be done in a week or so of spare time, or probably in a day dedicated to it.
Impressions: Not my favorite thing ever knit, but that's just me; it was fine. A few notes:
After the first leg (which the pattern calls for knitting flat and then seaming), I copied another knitter and made them in the round, which I found easier. Fiddly, but easier.
I also skipped the eyes. My tarantula is blind (good name for a rock band?)
Instead of using stuffing or fiberfill, I used the handful of ends I had from the blanket, which being a dark grey seemed like a good option. I also used some of the beige yarn in stuffing the beige part, in hopes of not having the grey show through.
Also, yes, it looks like it has 10 legs. The pattern calls for making 8 legs and 2 small "legs" (in quotes), as well as a teeny oddly shaped bit called fangs, attached above the small legs. I have no idea how this relates to the actual anatomy of an actual tarantula, and zero intention of looking into the matter further. Feel free to do so yourself if you want, but for the love of all things holy, do not share photos with me. Yuck.
Here are a few more shots of the finished tarantula.
I am now done with deadline knitting for a while, as the tarantula is finished! I'll try to get more pictures tomorrow in daylight, but here's the proof picture.
It came out a bit bigger than I expected, but that's okay. Fini!
Last night I went grocery shopping after work, being out of a number of everyday things plus what I need to make chili tomorrow, mmm, big old pot of chili, perfect for cold rainy weather. My other plans for tomorrow involve finishing the spider, so it should be a busy day.
Tonight, not so much. I'll probably work on the spider some while I listen to the Bruins game--here's to the end of the preseason, and the anticipation of televised games next week--but maybe I'll read, too. Or something. Who knows.
Aren't you glad you're reading this scintillating material?
Wait, here's something to show you: I got a cover for the new tablet:
Snazzy, right? There weren't actually a ton of options, but you know I'm fine with blue.
I wasn't sure I would want to use the stylus, but in fact it cuts down on the smeary-screen factor considerably, so I'm liking it.
And a final (and completely unrelated) question: Do you notice any variability in the number or timing of junk phone calls you get?
When I started working from home, I noticed that I was getting up to three calls a day, on either the cell or land line (and yes, both are on the do-not-call registry, which clearly means nothing). Sometime about a week ago, I became aware that I wasn't getting as many, hardly any, but then yesterday and today I've gotten three calls each day.
Who falls for these things anyway? Overly cheerful recorded voices calling from "the customer service department" or "your credit card company" or cheerily starting with "Congratulations!" It's about as realistic as the spam emails claiming that they have millions of dollars to give me, if I would just contact them. Sheesh.
Just neat.
As well as HDSN on a Hudson, and the OLDS 41 I showed above, plus a PONT 41 on a Pontiac and a NASH 56 on, well, a Nash. And, finally:
FE FO? But it's quite a car.
