A Short Long Weekend, a Good Weekend

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:

• Weather
• Travel
• Tarantula
• Fest: overall experience
• Fest: shopping
• Missing the cat, singular

And that's a lot!

A Kind of Cat Thing

So, it seems I have to pack? And eat dinner? And watch the Bruins game?

And pack?

So before I go, let me give you a first peek at Mary Ellen's amazing gift. Mini Carlos. Can you believe?

This and That, and a Follow Up

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:

1. Bring them to Florida with me at Christmas and scatter them there.
2. Compost them.
3. Scatter them outside, under trees or in someone's garden.
4. 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."

Tarantula: Details

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?

The pattern: My Pet Tarantula

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.

Any questions?

Again, Done

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!

Friday Night Random

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.

Today's Thoughts

This morning didn't start so well.

• It was raining before I got up, strongly enough that I had to mostly close Carlos's window, which displeased him: in his opinion, a window open a few inches might as well be bricked up, and he refuses to admit that "it's raining in" means anything significant. All-day rain* = all-day sulks.
• Belmont also didn't have the best morning, having thrown up three times since 10 last night.
• Cleaning cat puke at bedtime and again in the morning meant that I didn't have the best time either. 
• I also didn't sleep well, which is probably unrelated to the prior point, but left me even less equipped for the day.
• Then, due to the rain, it was approximately 1000% humidity, to the point that showering seemed redundant. Not much wetter in the shower than out, and as soon as I got out, I was sweating more than before. Sorry if that's oversharing, but ugh. And there isn't a day in the 10-day forecast currently showing 0% chance of rain.
• I have to admit to smirking a little, though, when I looked at a weather alert and it was about the rain impacting the morning commute. Not for me!
• And at least with the rain, the roadwork down the street is off for today. The equipment has not been quiet, the last few days. A break from that is nice.

*It did actually break for a while in the afternoon; he and I were both pleased to open windows. But later, boom, and closed again.

The photo that I wrote about yesterday got me thinking of other things I could put on my walls. This is mostly for the office, which is more blank than not, and where I am spending more time than I used to. So far, I have the Rogues of Wool print from Little Dee (love!), the print I got at Rhinebeck last year* and had at work (love!), and a framed copy of the first book review I had in the paper, years ago when I wrote book reviews for a while. I also have a knitting print that a friend gave me, which was a super-thoughtful gift but in fact is not one I love for itself (why no, I don't believe she does read this blog). I'll probably get rid of that, but it's okay for now.

*[Didn't I ever put that on the blog? Apparently not, since I can't even find a photo of it! Here's a quick shot:

 

I don't see this one on the website, but there are many great ones. I surprised myself with my choice, as she has so many funny ones with sheep, some of them knitting themed (Hovercraft) and some of them not (Silence of the Lambs), but I just loved the colors and the peacefulness of this one.]

So, getting back to what isn't there, I could frame some of my own photographs, though that would require time in selecting and preparing. But there's no rush, as long as I don't put it off indefinitely, and it might be time enjoyably spent! And Etsy, of course, is full of possibilities (I may need a Knitters Eye Chart, for a start). And remembering the piece I saw in the Everson Museum in Syracuse, the knitterly porcupine, I'd love a print of that, if such a thing existed.

I also remembered another print I had seen and really liked a while back, and since I was pretty sure I had bookmarked it, last night I went poking back into the morass of saved-for-various-reasons blog posts I have marked in Feedly. Eventually I found the Boing Boing entry from over a year ago, which looked fine and then showed up funny, but with working links, which is what matters. I'm thinking of getting both Tomato Season (Whole) and Tomato Season (Sliced), and hanging them next to each other (I like Citrus Fest too, but not quite as much, and I like the idea of the pair). But what size? I think 5 by 5 is too small, but 10 by 10 or 12 by 12? Decisions, decisions.

Now, here's an unrelated question for you: have you ever felt read rage? According to Powell's Books:

I have, and probably more than once, but the one I remember best is Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. I may or may not have thrown the book across the room at the end, but I have certainly kept my vow not to read her books again. Argh! One feels so betrayed, you know?

Of This and That

Possible last blanket update*: it has been gifted. On Sunday afternoon I was invited to dinner, and although I had been thinking of bringing it to stitch and bitch on Monday for one last show-off, I decided I just wanted to hand it over and be done. They were pleased with it, and I put a picture of it on Facebook yesterday and received a gratifying number of compliments. Ahh, done!
*Because who can say for sure?

*****
There was a beautiful picture of hajj pilgrims in Saturday's Globe that I was going to cut out (I still get the actual papers delivered on weekends, though I mostly read them on the tablet just the same as I do during the week), but then the paper wasn't there. So I looked for the photo online, and found it in a week-in-photos listing (and it's worth clicking on the photo to see it larger).

The colors, the pattern... I just love it. The photographer is named Arif Ali (according to the credit line, which also says AFP/Getty Images), but my first round of Googling did not locate a way for me to purchase the photo. Wouldn't it look stunning framed on the wall? I'll have to try again.

*****
This year's winner of the First Random Birthday Greeting award is the place where I was getting my car serviced up to a year ago--I've been taking the Kia to Kia since I bought it. Since this card gives me a free oil change, I'll probably go back there next time! Which I guess means they win, but whatever, free oil change.

October?

How is it October this week?

Not that I'm not looking forward to October, but it still manages to surprise me. Already?

Yet so it seems. Some of the things I'm looking forward to in October:

• The leaves changing. Although we've had cooler weather lately, especially at night, the trees are so far largely green. Bring on the color! (The photo below is from last year, in case that needs pointing out.)
• Hockey! The Bruins have played some preseason games, but those aren't always televised or even on the radio. In the regular season, games will always be both! 
• A potluck gathering with friends next Sunday, that will be fun.
• My birthday! I know some people dislike their birthdays, but I don't feel that way myself. And, while I don't actually like driving on my birthday, a few audiobooks and some snacks and the drive will, with luck, pass quickly enough.
• Apple Festival! I'm leaving a week from Friday, and look forward to seeing my aunt and grandmother, giving Grandma the tarantula, going to the Fest, eating Fire Department french fries, shopping the crafts (for myself and for Christmas gifts), all that good stuff.

And while this year won't be a Rhinebeck year for me (I just don't like to do it when I don't have vacation time to take a recovery day, as two weekend trips in a row is too much for me otherwise, plus it's money I'd rather not spend, this Year of Layoff), I have so much yarn that it's not like I'll feel a pinch. I'll enjoy it even more next year.

Getting (Some) Things Done

A few things I've gotten done this weekend:

Tablet replaced!

I went to AT&T, on my way to getting an oil change, where I had to wait for a while and then ended up talking to someone who was new and not that confident, and thus unable to guide me out of my thicket of indecisiveness (at least not before I had to leave for that appointment). After the appointment and my next stop (about which more in a moment), I was in the mall and saw another AT&T store, and decided to try again. This time, the guy was able to help me realize that yes, if I go to a smartphone, that will be another $20-30 per month, which I'm just not quite ready for. But they had this nice little tablet, an Asus Memo Pad 7 LTE, and it seems to be much the same as the Nexus. Better sound, perhaps, and camera; hard to be certain. If I change my mind in the next two weeks, I can take it back, but it seems unlikely. I think I'm good.

That interim stop was at the Container Store, to come up with something to lower the risk that the cats will get into the open yarn bins, but still allow me to see the pretty yarn. I got two of these, $6.99 each. (There was another type I liked, but at $17.99 per piece, and I would have needed four instead of two, well, I didn't like it that much more.)

And went from this:

To this:

No guarantees, but I think it improves the odds. Makes me feel better, anyway.

While I was leaving the mall, by the way, I was going through Macy's furniture, and saw this on a table.

Rolled up book pages ... tied with string ... and placed in a bowl ... as decor. Riddle me that?

Or tell me what this plate is supposed to mean?

Also seen around, a display of Bruins clothing at Costco.

See the lone piece of red? For some reason, one lone Philadelphia Flyers jacket. Weird!

I've been working on the spider for Grandma today, now that the blanket is done at last. So far I have the body, the head, and a couple of legs done. No problems anticipated in finishing in time, knock wood.

Also today, Belmont went to snooze on the bed (after throwing up on the couch; I think she wanted a change of scene). Carlos was not amused at the proximity.

As you can see.

Mind you, he chose to be there. But he wanted to be there without her.

Meanwhile, she was unimpressed by his State of Miff.

A final note: I put on random socks this morning, as I sometimes do when I'm just being home, and was amused to think that in black and white, they would probably match.

Or maybe to someone color-blind?

All About the Wedding Blanket

The pattern: Fabulous Felines Rajah's Blanket. Verdict: I like the pattern. Few flaws and I had to make few mods (and one of those was because seed stitch and I have agreed we should keep our distance from each other).

The yarn: Loops & Threads Charisma, 18.75 skeins of the 26 I bought on New Year's Day. Verdict: A very good choice when you need bulky and want soft and machine-wash. It looks like it might blur a little over time, but I'm okay with that. The cables really pop in it.

The start: January 31, 2015; first pictures seem to have shown up here in February, amidst the snow and shoveling woes.

The finish: knitting on Sept 19, finishing on Sept 23

Finished blanket weight: four and a half pounds!

And then the pictures. Right side:

The lighting makes it looks striped, doesn't it? Weird.
Wrong side:

Not so bad, eh? For a "wrong" side.
Close ups:

And the final package, ready to hand over:

Done, done, done...

P.S. Carlos was so glad when I finished messing with his bed. He isn't one of those cats who enjoys a game of change-the-sheets, so that's a regular annoyance to him, and then this time, even more so.

Say It With Me

Done, done, done! The blanket is done, done, done!

I went to the other knitting group tonight and was weaving in ends, and chatting, and weaving, and listening, and, hey, where's the next one ... I can't find any more.  I'm... done?

Done!

Right, Left, and Center

To my right, how many hundreds of dollars of technology, capable of bringing in how many hundreds of TV channels.

To my left, a transistor radio, for which I paid less than ten dollars, probably ten years ago.

Guess which is bringing me tonight's Bruins game?

(I don't really blame NESN for going with the Sox over preseason hockey, but this is kind of funny.)

In the center, mildly headachy me will be weaving in blanket ends and trying to make it to the end of the game. Last night, I was in bed at 9, but maybe I can make it a little later tonight.

Imagine a Roller Coaster. In the Grand Canyon

Such ups and downs this weekend. It's tiring just to think about. Or maybe that's the Monday talking. Being laid off sucked, no doubt, but all the extra sleep this summer was marvelous. I've been tired for a month now, and I still haven't adjusted. (And I don't mean I'll adjust and not feel tired, but that I'll adjust to feeling tired. At least I hope I will.)

Biggest up: I finished knitting the blanket! Yay! Happy dance!

I have to weave in the ends, wash it, take a lot of pictures ... but the knitting is done, and that is, literally, huge.

Biggest down: I broke my little tablet. Sigh.

Not mine, but something like that. Non-fixable, believe me. 

As you can imagine, I'm trying to focus more on the former than the latter, and as you can also imagine, it's difficult to do.

In more detail:
Last week I watched a bunch of movies in the evenings and knit, knit, knit. I had planned to knit something else on Saturday afternoon, once my errands were run, but when the time came, I couldn't bring myself to. I didn't exactly think I was going to finish, but it was just so close that I couldn't put it off. So I watched movies (the rest of Some Like It Hot, which I started Friday night, and then Sense and Sensibility, and then Kung Fu Panda*), and knit, and knit, and hey, time for the border, and bind off, and whee!
*Eclectic tastes, I guess?

So that was good, and so were my plans for Sunday, although the day didn't start all that well when first, I had to clean up where Belmont vomited (though at least I found it with my eyes, not my toes), and then a little later when I heard that wheezing noise that often precedes throwing up, and went in to see if she was on the desk, and she was standing IN A BIN FULL OF YARN. Where I have never seen her go before, but she had to be in there when she felt like being sick? (I pulled her out, and she was not sick, in the yarn or otherwise, but still. She's lucky to be alive.)

But anyway, Sunday's plans involved joining friends for the historic house tour in Little Compton, Rhode Island. And it was fun, it was, but a long day. The drive each way is over an hour and a half, and then there was the driving from house to house, and walking around the houses, and don't get me wrong, it was beautiful and a nice day (well, kind of muggy when the breeze stopped) and lovely houses, but I got home eight and a half hours later feeling beyond tired, absolutely exhausted. Like, when I say "I was so tired," I don't mean, "Oh, gosh, I'm rather sleepy." It's more like what "angry" meant to Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk. And not coincidentally, when I'm that tired, I get super-impatient with stupid little things like meowing cats and electronics behaving badly. And the iPad was being really slow (it's been showing its age that way lately), so I put it down and picked up the Nexus 7, and when it wouldn't work at all, well.

Boom.

(It's not a behavior change that could be the sign of a brain tumor, either; I remember a time as a teenager when, annoyed about something and tired on top of it, I pulled off my turtleneck while forgetting that I'd been wearing a necklace over it. Broke the chain, naturally, and I was so mad about it ... I fantasized about a room full of breakable things I didn't care about, that I could smash without regret. So. You know. This is me. Unfortunately.)

The frosting on the annoyance is that in having done this, I have added to my to-do list...

Which means that, while I did enjoy watching the Bruins preseason game, on NESN, with all the good old homer announcers and all, and the kids played decently and even won, I was just so tired and annoyed that it wasn't a great evening. Which is unfortunate, given how good most of the weekend was.

So, I may just go into the AT&T store and see what they have in tablets, but who has recommendations? Small enough to carry around, but not phone-small?

Or, maybe it is time to take the plunge, as I was thinking I might do next year: should I go for an on-the-large-side phone instead? I have been getting a little tired (literally) of carrying phone and tablet and camera.

Thoughts? Opinions? Pros and cons?

It's Been a While Since I Could Say This

But I can't really* write tonight, I have a hockey game to watch! It's only preseason, but it's on NESN and at last I get to see my team on the big TV. Go Bruins!

 *or, as autocorrect would have it, "canard ally." Really, autocorrect?

Hockey and Socks. Not Hockey Socks

I just finished watching the first episode of this season's Behind the B, the Bruins reality show*. Obviously a lot of ups and downs, since it covered the time period that started with them not making the playoffs in April, firing the GM, trading big-name players, and so on. It was nice to get a glimpse of Bergeron, and see some behind-the-scenes stuff, training and all that. The draft, the kids at dev camp, Max Talbot trying to catch chickens! The promise of hockey. Training camp started today! It's coming!
*And I know that I should be grateful for the pizza place that is one of their sponsors, but oh lord, they play the same commercial twice every break for an hour--do you know how many times that is? I don't want to see a GOOD commercial that often!

Knitting continues to progress. I really feel like this pattern repeat on the blanket will be the last one I need to do, it's just So Big, and the closer I get, the more eager I am to finish, just finish, be done already. I want to hand it over! I bought an enormous gift bag at Target the other day. I'm ready. It's not quite, but I am.

I mentioned that I'd finished the last purse socks, the Carlos-colored ones, and I did get some pictures. Traditional, feet-in:

And the comparison shots:

 "What are you doing?"

 "Peoples is weird."

And here's the start of the next one.

 Mish-mash of colors, but I like it. A change is as good as a rest.

I'm off to watch the rest of Despicable Me 2; I was listening to music this afternoon, and when I got to Happy and other songs from the movie, it made me want to see it again. Good night!

I Was Going to Write Tonight

But someone doesn't think that's a good plan. Not if it involves leaving the bed.

Here I Am Again

This morning, I put this on Facebook:

The bad news: Landscaping trucks pulling up across the street for Day Five of whatever they're doing.

The good news: First paycheck today! It's like I'm working for a reason.

So, yes, day five* and counting of the trucks and the workers and the power tools. I thought they were just building a fence, but maybe it's a bunker, or a tunnel to Canada, or something more involved. It's a good thing they're named Done Right Landscaping, and not Done Fast.
*Yes, they came on Saturday

But in the happier news, yay, I got paid! That will come in handy for paying bills. It's not that I didn't think I was going to get paid, but I kind of didn't believe the woman who told me that the first check would be direct-deposited, since in my (considerable) experience, the first and last are usually live checks. How glad I am to be wrong! So much simpler, the money is just there, and the savings account remains unmolested. Whew.

And don't say I don't know how to celebrate such news. Why, after I went to the library and Target, I picked up Chinese food on the way home. Party time!

In other news, yesterday and today have been excellent examples of another reason working from home suits me: when my head isn't 100%, I don't have to do the "should I go in, or will it get worse if I do?" dance of indecision in the morning. I just go to the computer and try it, do as much as I can, take breaks when I need to, and it's pretty productive, actually. My head hasn't been awful or anything, but I'm definitely not at 100%, and yet, I am still able to get work done.

In Between

Some weekends are fairly accomplishy, and some (fortunately not as often these days) are lost to headaches. This one has been somewhere in between. 

I did, in fact, go to bed super early last Thursday night (I mean, 7:30 is ridiculous even for me), as I said I was going to, and felt much better Friday. 

Unfortunately, I had at least two separate "you moron" moments with guess who during the day, extra unfortunate because we had an after-work gathering and I was going to actually have to see her. But it turned out fine, I didn't have to talk with her that much, and I got to talk to other people, both catching up with the ones I knew and introducing myself to others, and overall it was a plus.

But it was pretty loud in there, so I wasn't surprised that my head felt a little sensitive after. Unfortunately it wasn't better Saturday; in fact, the only reason I went out at all was when two competing sets of landscapers were making too much noise for me to stay home, so I fled. 

The head never got into Severe territory, and I was able to watch TV last night, and then today it was almost normal. But tonight it's degrading again, so I decided to briefly check in here--not dead!--and get ready for early bed again. Hopefully one of these days, I'll be back to the usual long-windedness, but not tonight.

...Huh? Sorry (yawn), I Missed That

I am going to bed early tonight.

I didn't get to bed particularly late last night, but this morning the last hour-plus of my planned sleep was severely disrupted by felinis-avec-death-wishis, to use the technical term for cats, and man, have I felt it today. It didn't help that said house tiger, who tried to get me to get out of bed from about 5 AM on, then spent the day periodically trying to get me to come back to bed and keep him company.

Is there a stronger word than irony? Maybe I could think of it, were I not so tired.

At least work is going well. I'm making good progress on my current report, and was successfully able to call in to the monthly meeting this morning. AND, I managed to mute my phone, which I haven't had to do before, so I wasn't sure how to, but it was easy. And tomorrow afternoon we have a work gathering, so I'll get to talk to people, which to be honest I don't miss all that much on a daily basis, but once in a while is a good thing.

In the unfortunately column, one of my neighbors is having a fence put in, and the workers were here All Day Long, mostly doing loud things. Mind you, it was pretty cute when they stopped a passing ice cream truck ... but the leaf blower must die.

No, I don't know why fence installation required a leaf blower. Do you?