A Closer-to-Normal Easter

I hope that all of you had a good weekend, whether you celebrated a holiday or not. Our weekend was great, as for the first time in 2+ years, we had the chance to have our usual guests and do some of the things that make Easter extra fun.

My niece Amanda and her husband Pat came up for the weekend from Baltimore, and it marked the return of a fan favorite - Inappropriate Easter Eggs!  So without further ado, I present our work.

First up, Celebrity Eggs - at the top, RIP Bob Saget; in the middle, Britney Spears now that she has been freed from her conservatorship; and, Madeleine Albright, wearing one of her brooches.

Next up, Current Events and Statement Eggs - top row, from left to right, Vladomoyr Zelenskyy egg; Slava Ukraini egg; America egg, with the bald eagle crossed out and a gun in its place; January 6 insurrection.  Bottom row, pandemic masked egg; Russian warship egg (on the back it says, "You sunk my battleship!"); and, an Elon Musk tries to buy Twitter egg, which was created by Pat who also had to take it home with him because we didn't want it in our house any longer than necessary!

As Amanda pointed out, we didn't/couldn't cover as much as we would have liked to, because we only had 18 eggs to work with, we had to make some name/family eggs, and there was more than 2 years' of people and activity! ("The celebrity death eggs alone would need a couple of dozen.")

As you can imagine, there was a lot of hilarity, stories, and overall ridiculousness.  Pip and Milo thought it was the best, since Amanda always brings them tons of treats, and she and Pat pay them so much attention, the level of purring is just out of control.

They headed home after brunch yesterday, and we just had a relaxing rest of the day.

Best of all, the Easter Bunny showed up to leave goodies for everyone!

The weather was cool but sunny all weekend, and it rained a bit on Saturday night, but mostly overnight, so that worked out nicely.  It was so nice to feel like things were normal-ish again, and to have some company.

So Easter 2022 was a happy success. Hopefully, things will continue in that direction. Though today in Philadelphia, we are back to mask mandates indoors, since Covid cases are on the upswing. Since we have not stopped wearing masks indoors, it's not that big of a deal for us, but as you can imagine, a lot of people are extremely unhappy about all of it.  

But at least our holiday weekend was a happy one.

Pleasing

Hello, I hope all of you are well. It's Thursday, and I'm going to participate along with Carole and some others for Three on Thursday - so here are three things that are pleasing me today.

1.  This boy.  I took this photo this morning after I finished eating breakfast.  Pip had just finished giving himself a thorough bath.  He is truly one of the sweetest kitties I've ever known.  By the way, do you know why he is named Pip?  His shelter name was Legolas (this was when the LOTR movies had come out and people were obsessed), which was a play on the fact that he has only three legs.  We didn't think it was fair to call him that, so we decided we would change his name.  Eventually, we chose Pip for two reasons: 1) it was clear that he *is* a pip!, and 2) we wanted him to have Great Expectations.  😊

2.  Today is my last day at work until next Tuesday.  I usually try to take Good Friday and Easter Monday off, and this year is extra pleasing because after two years of not getting together with my niece and her husband, they are joining us again this weekend!  I have an appt tomorrow morning for a haircut, but otherwise nothing major, so it should be a nice quiet day.  We always have a good time with Amanda and Pat, so I'm sure that this weekend will be a lot of fun.

3.  Today is Wawa Day.  Which means a free coffee of any size all day long at their stores.  I don't drink coffee very much at all, but I always have a free cup on Wawa Day, because if you add enough milk it all tastes just fine.  And I like the fact that they have a day where they give away something to anyone and everyone.  Today on the news, they said the first Wawa opened 58 years ago, and I was a bit dismayed that I was older than the Wawa.  But then I decided that since this is the first place I've lived where they existed, I couldn't have known, and therefore it really didn't matter.  And that my friends, is what you call Perfect Logic.

I hope that you are able to find at least three things that please you today.  Take care!

To Whom It May Concern

 

You know what I haven't done for a long time? Friday letters.  So what the heck, let's give it a try.

Dear Milo the Koodle,

I know you have only lived with us now for TEN YEARS, but do you think you might be able to learn to keep your claws in?  I realize that your mother was a feral cat, and so she probably kept her claws out, and nice and sharp, because she actually needed to do that. But seriously, there is no reason you have to always have your claws ready for attack. I cannot remember a single incident during your life with us that required such defenses.  Signed, Most of My Sweaters, All of My Arms, and Some of My Face

***

Dear Phillies,

Today is Opening Day for baseball. I hope you have a winning season for a change. But if at all possible, could you not have another season where you are seemingly on fire, winning most games, and then all of a sudden, seem to forget how to play baseball altogether and tank for the rest of the season. That's just rude.

Signed, Most Baseball Fans in Philadelphia

***

Dear Basketball-Playing Kid in Front of Our House,

Good for you for having something you'd rather do than beating others up and/or shooting them. And I'm glad the next-door neighbors have no problems with you using their hoop to shoot baskets now that their kids have all moved out. But I would like to request that you stop at 11:00 p.m. or sooner on nights that the weather is nice, because particularly on nights when I have to get up early for work the next day, it's hard to fall asleep with the sound of bouncing basketballs right outside.  

Having said that, if you feel your only other option is crime, bounce away!

Signed, Your Neighbor Who Is Really Trying To Be Nice About It

***

Dear the 53 Senators Who Voted to Confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson,

Thank you.

Signed, A Citizen

***

Dear the 47 Senators Who Voted Against Her Confirmation,

Words cannot express what I hope happens to you someday. Telling you to go to h**l would be too kind.

Signed, A Citizen

***

Dear Whiny People Who Actually Have Nothing Whine About,

STFU.

Signed, Myself and Mostly Everyone I Know

***

And that's it.  I hope you have a lovely weekend, full of what you want it to be.

Last Week's Tiny Needle Tuesday

Last Tuesday, I was so darn proud of myself, because I had progress on a cross-stitch project to share. So of course, I couldn't get the image to load. After six tries, I just gave up because I'd reached the stage of just hoping my computer would die. That's never good.

So, here I am, posting my progress for last week's Tiny Needle Tuesday, this week:

I finally finished all of the words on the project I'm stitching. I was determined to get them done before the first day of Spring, but I missed that. However, I did finish them the next weekend, so not bad. Now the project is tucked away until next fall, because I'm itching to work on something more spring-y.  I'm not sure yet exactly what I'll choose - there may end up being more than one, but since Winter is officially over, and the above project is not on any deadline, it will have a rest. 😊

I'm also hoping that since the remainder of the project is a bit more border, but mostly a sheep, that it will all go much more quickly.

Or ... not.  We'll see.

Remember When You Didn't Get Sick?

Ugh. I have a cold. A really awful, coughing, tired, blow-my-nose-all-the-time cold. Not Covid (at least according to the test), but a real cold.  The Tim had one last week, and I think I caught it from him, because actually the only place I regularly do not wear a mask is at home. I suspect he caught it from a co-worker, as he told me that a couple of weeks ago, one of his co-workers had a cold and he had to sit near them at lunchtime. Sigh.

I have the red nose and the box of tissues, but this woman looks a whole lot better than I do right now!

Anyway, I felt truly miserable starting on Friday, and then just awful over the weekend.  I still feel crummy today, but not any worse than before, so in theory perhaps that means things are moving towards feeling some better.  The Tim is feeling better, but still has a cough.  Both of us mega-masked up and went to work today, him because he is feeling better and missed most of last week, and me because I don't really see anyone else at work in any way that could be considered close (I mean, we might be on the same floor of the building, but most of the time I'm on my own for the entire day). If I had still felt really awful, I would have stayed home (and likely been lectured about it by the annoying supervisor), but since I only feel tired and have to blow my nose a lot at this point, I figured I might as well show up.

Over the weekend, I kept trying to figure out why I was suddenly sick, when I haven't been sick for a bit more than two years. And then it struck me - of course! For the past two and a bit more years, people have stayed home, stayed apart when they had to be in the same area, most of them (at least around me) wore masks, and as a result, I felt fine.

So although I think Covid has and still does suck big-time, there were advantages to certain aspects of life when everyone was being so careful.

Now please excuse me while I open a new box of tissues.