Tulip Picking, Year 2

Well, I hope you're in the mood for a lot of tulip pictures, because that's what I've got! If you aren't, well, come back tomorrow and try again, I guess. (Just kidding: there will probably be more tomorrow.)

The car we parked next to had this plate:

And while I don't know that this is strictly true, I like the idea!

Really interesting details about what bulbs were worth in the 17th century (click on the photo to see it bigger). I expect this made people who read it less reluctant to pay a dollar a stem after having paid for admission. It should, anyway!

All right, all right, tulips! Some from a distance, some close up, a lot in the show garden but some from the picking fields.

And an arm full of color to bring home.

It was happy tuliping!

The Flowers in My Neighborhood

This morning was on and off rainy, but midafternoon it cleared a little, and I took a quick walk around my neighborhood, camera in hand. The weather may not have reached my ideal yet, but it is prime season for the flowering things, and I love it!

I know the names of very few of them, so basically what I'm saying here is, isn't this pretty? This flower on a tree?

Now this I know: tulips! So looking forward to tuliping tomorrow.

Another one I recognize: lilacs! I love them. Pretty and smells fantastic.

And then the two kinds of pink flowering trees, the ones I like but not as much:

They have the round blossoms.

And the other ones, that I like even more:

They bloom like this, more feathery:

I like it when I see them tucked in between houses.

This one is also pink, but a bush more than a tree.

The camera missed the tulip and focused behind it. Rats.

More tulips, big and blown.

A nice bed of tulips.

And even some violets.

But then! Coming home on a road I rarely drive down, I found to my surprise a house that has gone All In on the tulips (and a few other things). See?

Just wow.

Left

Center

Right

And more to the side.

Well done, neighbors! I feel like writing them a thank-you note.

The Friday Report. It Starts Badly, Ends Well

My work day started inauspiciously today, with an email announcing that the company was putting a policy in place regarding working from home, effective immediately. Which I don't object to, in theory (other than the 'effective immediately' part, but that's typical of how they operate), and I can understand why it might be a good idea for them to have such a policy in writing, especially if they keep buying other companies (not at all a side note: we still haven't heard if there are raises coming from the reviews we had in February; it's May).

However, from the way it was written, the tone was very much "only in these very narrow circumstances and good luck getting an exemption, suckers" and it made it sound as though I would not qualify. Yes, I was hired with that intention, but is it in my contract? Do I have a contract? I have an employment agreement...which does not specify. Was I going to have to fight this?

It was a stressful hour or two, until the editing manager heard back from the person he asked, saying that, no, no, editorial is considered remote and we weren't all suddenly going to have to go into Boston every day. Whew! The stress drop was considerable, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

However, I just visited these guys, which helped.

My neighbor's back tomorrow, and I'm sure they'll be delighted to have her back, but they were fun to spend a little time with, the goofballs.

And now it's Friday night, and I get to spend time with my own goofball.

And it's the weekend. Lunch with a friend tomorrow, and on Sunday, tulips! It's another gray rainy day here, I really, really can't wait to bring that color home again.

One Reason Why

The doctor I saw today is one I haven't gone to for long, but I like her, and here's an example of why. We were talking about my exercising (she was delighted that I had accepted her challenge and found a way to exercise) and how stubborn my body is about things like losing weight, and she proclaimed with sincerity that my body is outstanding at metabolizing food, hanging onto calories in case of need--I forget exactly how she put it, but she made it sound like a good thing even though I'm not so sure! She said that in an emergency, I would be in good position to survive, because of the way my body works.

Which is pretty funny, and may not even be true, but for me to be smiling instead of sulking in that conversation is an achievement of sorts. And I'm trying not to sulk that she'd like my blood test to be fasting, even though I sure do hate fasting. Well, that's not tonight's problem, anyway. Off to go get some dinner.

A Few Short Takes

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. I'd been meaning to get around to calling for a check-up for, oh, months, and I finally did yesterday. And then the scheduler said, "Well, she's booking now for late October and November," but as I was picking my jaw up off the floor, she went on, "Though she does have a couple of cancellations this week, if you want one of those?" So while it's not urgent, yes, I would rather come in this week than wait six months. Medicine is crazy in so many ways.

And this is where I need to remind myself that, although my company is deeply flawed in many ways, having the kind of flexibility that I can ask this of my boss so close to the day, and it's fine, is a very handy thing.

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Although, that said, I have to go in to town next week to see the new office, because they're moving again, just five months after the last move. And if you can make sense of that, it's more than I can.

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My current report is on COPD. Which, in Spanish, is apparently EPOC. Doesn't that sound nicer?

It isn't, of course, it's the same thing. But it sounds nicer.

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Fortunately, I didn't promise to make a lot of sense tonight. Did I, now?

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I put this on Facebook when I saw it last week, but I don't seem to have put it up here:

Before the Bruins all went their separate ways for the summer, at least some of them went on vacation together. (That's Pasta, Krejci, one I don't know by sight, and Bergeron.) Is that not the cutest thing ever?

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Well, maybe not quite ever. Himself was bring pretty adorable today, as usual.

I like a cat who throws himself fully into the seriousness of sleeping.

Rock On

Today's weather was disappointing. It was supposed to be the warmest day in the extended forecast, hitting perhaps 71, albeit with clouds and a chance of showers. Instead, it was in the 50s all day, as well as being cloudy and wet. Color me unimpressed. Let us talk of something else.

If you're on Facebook, you've probably seen the thing recently where people are listing ten band names, nine of which they have seen in person, and inviting friends to guess which one is the ringer. I didn't do it at first, because I could only name three bands off the top of my head that I've seen live (each multiple times), and though I knew I had seen more, I was coming up way short of ten. However, I remembered that I had once made a list of concerts I'd been to, and when I dug that out, well, look here!

1. Big Audio Dynamite
2. Bruce Springsteen
3. Counting Crows
4. Depeche Mode
5. Live
6. Mike & the Mechanics
7. REM
8. Spin Doctors
9. Sting
10. Wallflowers

What do you think?

To be honest, two of them were in a show together that I might not have gone to without a group of friends who wanted to see them, and one of the others actually opened for another one (but I was sincerely excited to see them, so I decided it counts).

The only question I am left with, since Googling has failed me, is who on earth did I see the Sugarcubes* open for? I'm really sure I didn't go to see them on their own, I can't even name one of their songs, but Google only tells me that they opened for U2, who I have not seen. Yet I have a clear memory of them coming out, and being basically ignored by the crowd, as opening acts so often are, and the lead singer (oh, that was Bjork?) introducing the band by saying, "Hi, we're the Ice Cubes from Sugarland."
*Remember them? From Iceland?

It's so frustrating when Google doesn't give me the answer, sending me back to the pre-Internet days when you just had to try to remember things like that. I once spent weeks, after seeing Mel Gibson's Ransom, trying to figure out where I knew an actress from, the bad guy's girlfriend, what else I had seen her in, before finally piecing together that she was in Say Anything with John Cusack. All I knew was that her voice sounded familiar, and I was picturing her in a room with guitars.

How did we live without it? Yet what can we do when it fails?

Ouch!

And the quote of the day goes to John Sifton. I know, who? Well, this:

via today's Boston Globe