As political as I'm going to get

I love Despair.

My favorite Demotivator when I worked retail was Apathy.

What's your favorite?

Progress on several fronts

Remember this yarn?


I finished the first sock with it at stitch and bitch last night. We had, by the way, what was I think our largest turn-out ever, nine! Considering that in the early days it was sometimes one or two, we've come a long way.

I took a couple of nearly-finished photos beforehand. The yarn isn't really this bright; apparently it was drunk on daylight.



And finished last night (it isn't really this dim, either; hungover?). It fits fairly well. A little roomy, perhaps, but given my sad propensity for sock shrinkage, that may not be a bad thing.


Of course, now that I've said that, it won't shrink one little bit. (After all, I no sooner wrote that I hadn't whacked my blistered feet much than I did just that on Saturday. Ow, ow, ow.)

And now I must be strong and start the second one, not being seduced by New! Yarn!


Isn't it pretty, though?


You see, a local chain called Fabric Place is going out of business, as I learned on Saturday when I innocently dropped in for a notion. Everything is on sale.

Everything.

I was actually pretty good, considering the high temptation level. Even an unemployed person can spare $21.50 on a very occasional basis. And for what I got, that was not much to spend. (If you're a local crafter, I'd get there soon; it's going fast.)

In job-search progress, I turned down a 2-month-long job yesterday. I'd be willing to consider short-term temp work, but two months felt wrong, like it would derail any momentum I've built for job-searching and then just when I got comfortable, I'd be back to the beginning.

I do have an interview for next week. Some progress, eh?

In cat news, on Sunday Pan threw up on the bed, poor thing. So, time for laundry*, and of course, the cats had to check out the interesting interim bedding.

*We won't discuss how I remade the bed at 8 and at 8:02, he threw up on it again. It was not my finest hour. Moving on.


(Can you see how this blanket was formerly folded, and which side was up?)

Later, I caught Harold in the dark, with the yawn-and-stretch.


I wish I understood how perfectly upright photos get flipped when I import them. It's so annoying.


Finally, furry interstices.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I'm not starting this with a clear idea of which is which. Let's start with the easy one:

The Ugly. Blisters.

I have twelve blisters on my feet. Twelve! I can't even remember the last time I had one, and I have twelve.

To be fair, 8 of them are fairly small. At least in comparison. I'm not so obsessive about them. They are Overshadowed.

Two of them creep me out a little. They're Really Big. They don't actually hurt, at least since I haven't whacked them against anything yet (and given my coordination skills, that's actually impressive), but they worry me for the future. They're not Pain, they're Potential Pain.

The last two are Pain. They're the ones that were popped, red, and irritated by the time I bought the flip-flops on Thursday. (Have I reached Too Much Information yet?) Last night and this morning they were kind of painful (I'm trying to be understated, is it working?), but with more goop and big bandages, they're better now. Maybe the worst is done with them? Maybe?

Unfortunately, I can't go shoe-shopping until there's improvement, and I don't even want to try on the sock I'm knitting, though I'm almost done and curious about the fit. Soon, soon. God grant me patience, and I want it now.

In other news (good? bad? up to you), I did get my first severance check this week, and also notice from unemployment that my claim is official. They don't say when the payments will show up, but all in good time, I guess.

I sent my resume to another agency yesterday.

I bought another interview outfit, way on sale.

I may have (ahem) arranged to buy some yarn on sale. Details later, with certainty.

Oh, all right, this is getting dull even to me. Let's talk about something more fun!

Last week, while visiting my parents, I was noodling around on the computer one day and decided to check my blog site statistics. I don't look at them that often, but after having been on Sitemeter for some time, I recently signed up with Statcounter, and I wanted to fiddle around with it some more.

When I signed in, I thought there was a mistake at first. To give you an idea of why, here are the visits for the last two weeks, as of tonight:


I looked at it on the 30th, and you can see why I thought that spike must be an error. Turns out, it's not. A site/blog called Tipnut had written about making scrubbies, and linked to a number of places online to learn how, and the first one on the list? Yeah, hi! That would be me.

I never thought, when I posted that, that anything much would happen. I've been linked to for it once or twice before, but the volume was nothing like this. And in the scheme of things, it doesn't change much, but still, it gives me a little thrill, somehow. It would be nice if someone who came for the scrubbies stayed for the general ramblings.

Not likely, perhaps. But nice.

Florida, Florida, Florida...

Did I mention that I went to Florida? I did, and I took so many pictures! Wanna see some? Of course you do!

I even learned things on my trip. For example, did you know that Boston has AT-ATs? It does!


At least in my mind. That's what I always call cargo cranes. I saw a million flying into the Bay Area a couple of years ago. (I swear that before I started writing this, I didn't know that George Lucas modeled AT-ATs on Oakland's cargo cranes, but apparently it is so.)

A hazy view of Boston.


You know you're in Florida when you can watch a rain shower go by.


And then get a lovely sunset.


How to drive a proofreader crazy, in one easy lesson. Produce an object with an error, and have no one notice, so that an entire endcap of magnets that should say "no wake zone" instead say:


That doesn't even make sense!

This flower does, though. It makes perfect sense to me.


And these:


And I don't even use limes that much, but I would if they grew on a tree outside.


(By the way, how do I tell when a mango is ripe? I bought one at the store today, and it's my first time. I'd hate to waste it!)

More or less center in this photo is a pelican flying by. We were eating at one of our favorite restaurants, and this is the view overlooking the boat dock. (Yes, you can tie up your boat and come in to eat.)


Another lovely sunset.


I wasn't the only one who went down to the beach to watch it.


And one last pink sky, flying home.


Home. Home is good, too.

I'm going to do shells another day. Yes, there could be even more photos here!

Learn from me, please

Can I give you some not-so-random advice?

If you are like me, you have a pair of shoes that are mostly for things like funerals and (ahem) job interviews. If times are good, you may not wear them for a while. Like years, in my case, and maybe yours.

Put them on today. Wear them around the house for a good long while.

Five minutes is not enough. Try three hours.

(If you leave the house, bring bandages and ointment with you.)

Ahem. On the left, the shoes that are going to charity because they might fit someone who is not me, and they're in perfectly good shape.

On the right, the $5 flip-flops that I bought three minutes after leaving my interview, so that I could make it home without resorting to crawling on my hands and knees.


I will spare you pictures of my blisters: all eleven. Let me just say that my feet hurt so much, I was willing to sit on a bench in the middle of Boston, in front of god and everyone, to remove my stockings* and shoes, and that I could have cried from the relief when the switch was done.

*Thigh-highs. I don't know what I'd have done if I was wearing full pantyhose, but then I rarely do.

Oh, how was the interview? As interviews go, it was good. It's with an agency, and they get some temporary stuff and some permanent, so I'm hoping to find perm or temp-to-perm, but may well settle for temp as time goes by. I've had two different people tell me it's a good agency, one who didn't even know that's where I was interviewing, so I feel good about that. Otherwise, we'll just have to see. Though I'm hopeful, I'm certainly going to keep looking on my own.

Once I can walk again, that is.

Florida is very pretty

Unfortunately for any attempt at coherence, here's where I'm at:

• I got in late last night
• I slept badly (Pan kept waking me to tell me that I was home)
• I had to get up early this morning
• I got a migraine with aura (rare for me) (responds to medication, eventually)
  
• I went to an all-day outplacement "thing" that crammed my head full of far more than I can process
• I have an interview tomorrow (with an agency, not directly with a company, but still)
  

So ... here we are. Fuzz-head. But with nice memories of my trip.


And remind me to tell you my Statcounter story, okay?

I wouldn't want you to worry

In case anyone looks at the weather report and wonders if I'm in a dangerous part of Florida, I'm not. We're getting a lot of rain from the edge of Gustav, and wind, but that's supposed to be it. We're feeling very lucky right now, and awfully sympathetic for New Orleans.

The other thing I wanted to address was a comment from Mary in Molino (who included no blog or e-mail info that I could find) on my entry on crocheting dish scrubbies. She wrote:

I crochet and knit but can't visualize. Help! on the scrubbies do you crochet with or around the net.

Thanks for asking, Mary! If you know crochet already, they should be pretty easy for you, though I know just what you mean about visualizing. Sometimes when I first read something, it makes no sense at all, then something clicks and it's like it jumps into focus: oh, that's what it means!

Anyway, all you are doing (to make the shape I make, anyway) is a rectangle of single crochet. You're using the strip of netting like it was yarn, and crocheting back and forth using single crochet stitch. I hope that helps, but feel free to e-mail me if you have further questions.

Funny story: the first time I tried to crochet anything other than the scrubbies, I was doing this because it was the only stitch I knew. Someone who actually knew how to crochet looked at my work and said, in some disbelief, "You're doing a blanket all in single crochet?" And I said yes, but I was thinking, "There's another way I could be doing it?"

A story through three books

I should be packing, but there's a quick story I wanted to share with you first. I like how one thing led to another.

It started when I was re-reading The Bird in the Tree, a lovely old English novel by Elizabeth Goudge. For some reason, on this reading, when I got to a certain passage:


I suddenly wondered exactly what a "curate's egg" might be. I started to go ask Google, but as I passed through the living room, I decided to consult the OED first.


"Parts of it were excellent"? But ... I've read that before! Peter Wimsey (he who loves quotations) says that in Busman's Honeymoon, when asked how his wedding night was.


I didn't know that was a quote. How funny to have an answer to something I wasn't even questioning. Learn something new every day.

Harold enjoys an almost-invisible nap.


Off to pack now. As usual, I doubt I will post from Florida. Most likely I'll "see" you in a week!

Playing the Pro and Cons Game

If you are thinking that I'm posting this in the morning because I had another headache last night, you are correct, unfortunately. I am knocking dents into wood as I say that right now, I don't have a headache. Oh, please...

The way that I started Monday's post made me think some more about the pros and cons of being laid off.

Cons:

• Insecurity (fiscal, mostly). I'll get severance pay for a little while, and I signed up for unemployment benefits. The severance should kick in more or less right away (should), the unemployment takes a few weeks to get started. In other words, I don't know when the next money will go into my bank account. Since the bills keep coming in regardless, I get...
  
• Headaches. Stress is one of my headache triggers. Therefore, I have been having more headaches. This sucks so much.
• I liked my co-workers. We'll get together once in a while, but it isn't the same.
• There are some noisy kids in this neighborhood! I know it's related to the headache issue, but they've seemed really, really loud some days, with the bike wheels rattling and skateboards rustling, running and yelling and bouncing basketballs. Loud. Outside my bedroom.
  
• My garden. It's been hard to go from seeing it five days a week to needing to schedule a 40-mile round-trip to see it.
  

Pros:

• More sleep. I've been staying up a little later than I do on a working schedule, and usually sleeping quite a lot later. This is very nice. I could get used to this. I'd better not...
• More time to get stuff done around the house. Not that I'm getting everything done, but I have more time... to... not do it. Hmm, that sounded more like a plus in my head than it looks in print.
  
• Visiting my parents. Somewhere in his writing, Dave Barry started a sentence with, "If you are, like so many of us, getting older...", and ever since then, I've hesitated before saying things like, "Well, they are getting older" since, yes, we all are. Let's just say that it's good to have time to go see them again.
• I'm saving a lot of money on gas.
• Not having to wear grown-up clothes. Hello, sweatpants, hello t-shirts!
• Not being in a freezing cold office.
• I can shop during the day, avoiding much of crowdedness in the stores and on the roads. I am, in fact, experiencing a disinclination to go out after about 4.
  
• Kitty time. I would enjoy spending more time with the cats in any event, but given the uncertainty of Pan's condition, it's a blessing to be able to hang out with him more.

Speaking of which, it's time for another rousing game of "How many cats do you see in this picture?"


Also, this LOL is appropriate for today, when I will be packing:



P.S. Happy birthday, my friend!

Cranial Interference

One nice thing about being out of work is that when I woke up at 4 this morning with a headache, I could take something for it and then sleep in. Like until 10. And wake up without a headache. (It's trying to come back now, but that's neither here nor there.)

Also, being home meant that I saw this:


Of course, it's not all roses. I spent an hour and twenty minutes on the phone filing my claim for unemployment. But at least we live in the days of cordless phones, right?

Due to that impending headache, I don't have much more for you tonight, I'm afraid. Week one without a job survived. No new job yet. Leaving Thursday to visit parents. Can't really form a coherent thought. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, headwise. And the same to you!

Where I went on Friday

Yesterday, I was looking at the tomatoes that I picked on Monday, and thinking wistful thoughts about how I used to be able to see my garden every day, you know, before I was laid off.

Monday's tomatoes on Monday

Monday's tomatoes on Friday

And I thought, perhaps tomorrow would be a good day to visit the garden, and see how it's doing, sad and lonely without me.

Then last night I dreamed that I went to the garden and all the plants were gone, and in the way of dreams I was trying to tell if I was in the right place and I wasn't sure and it got very confusing, but this morning I decided that I should go. I wouldn't be able to see my former coworkers, who would be off at the sales meeting, but I could visit the tomatoes anyway.

They missed me. You can tell, can't you?


I don't know why these photos unrotated, by the way. Computers are perverse.

I also picked 20 green beans, which made a nice healthy snack this afternoon.

It was so odd, driving back there. It felt at the same time familiar and a bit illicit. I somehow expected to be questioned. (I wasn't.)

And finally, may I introduce you to Basil Winterbourne the Sixth.


I uprooted one of the basil plants, in hopes that he will find a pot in my kitchen to be almost as nice a place to live and thrive as the great outdoors. His leaves got a little (ahem) limp at first, but I'm hoping he'll recover from the shock.

And if not? Pesto!

Thursday Thoughts: Harold, job search, flowers

Harold got a surprise treat today. His loving grandmother sent him ... plastic.


You remember how he is about plastic, right?


Bite, lick ... love is different things to different people.

Which reminds me of something. Not to digress, but I turned on the Olympics one day and caught some showjumping, which made a nice change from the ever-present beach volleyball/diving/volleyball/swimming, plus they were talking about this one guy for Canada, who is at his ninth* Olympics and has yet to win a medal**, holy cow, talk about perseverance.

*He's qualified for ten, but Canada boycotted Moscow in 1980. He's 61.

**I just Googled it, and the Canadians won the silver in the team event, so he finally gets his medal. Yay, Ian Millar!

But anyway, what made me think of it is that after one horse refused a jump, they went back to the desk and the talking head was going on about how you kind of forget the horses aren't machines until something like that happens.

Or that's what he meant, anyway. What he said was that you forget they're only "human. Um. Equine." At which point I was like, dude? Give it up. You blew the punchline, move on.

Later, Harold reflected on the shining glory that is a new piece of plastic.


It hit me a bit more today, that I'm really going to have to go through the whole job-search rigamarole again, finding openings and customizing my resume and cover letters and (if I'm "lucky") interviewing ... ugh. I had to lie down.

Then I told myself to stop moping and get out of the house for a bit. I went on a walk, and saw pretty things.


These were obviously about to pop, but I love them like this!


And the stage before, too. Nature is amazing.


This apple tree knew that it might be hot, but fall will come again.


And I will get another job. And tomorrow will bring who knows what?

Let me be an ostrich tonight

Actually, I vaguely recall reading that ostriches don't really bury their heads in the sand, but that's not really the point, is it? If I want to bury my head in the sand, you'll let me, won't you?

I got my resume into shape today, and went grocery shopping, and did some things around the house. I also went for a nice walk that I wanted to show you, though there is one thing I have to tell you first.

I saw a house with a fake lawn. AstroTurf. Plastic grass.

I've never noticed anything like it before. Have you?

What I like about walking is getting a chance to see things close-up, not driving by in a blur. For example, I've seen these bushes before and merely thought, pretty.


But when you're close up to one, you see how the white flowers start to go pink as they pass peak. So, so pretty!


I don't know if the people in this house use this walk at all. I kind of doubt it, since the flowers show no sign of traffic.


What are these? They look like a cross between flowers and green beans.


This sign, ooh. Ouch.


That is not how you spell straightening, people. Do not anger the proofreader.

Flowers that shade like this on the bloom fascinate me.


And this, well. It looks like it didn't bloom, but exploded. Poof! Is anyone else hearing the 1812 Overture in their head?


Not a pink person? How about blue?


Yellow?


I like a town with some diversity. First, there's this house:


Now, I'm not particularly a split-level fan. I prefer the house right next door:


Really, though, do they look like they'd be on the same street? It struck me as funny.