News You Can Use

Few things please me more than unfortunate or stupid headlines in news stories.  One of my favorites that I no longer have in a form I could show you was a story from our local paper when I was growing up.  There was a photo of a heavyset woman who had just been named head of a local organization, but instead of that news story right next to the photo, it was below it.  And the headline of the story directly next to the photo was, "Blimp Visits Wheeling," since it was a big deal that the Goodyear blimp was going to be flying over our city on its way to Pittsburgh. 

Anyway, I thought some of these might make you laugh, and who doesn't enjoy that on a Friday?

Who knew?

Ahem.

Oh my.

Easier said than done.

Why have there not been more stories about this????

I find this one hard to believe.

Wow I hope Mike Pence was in charge of this study, too.

Owe deer!

Overachiever.

And then there is this, where it's not the caption, but the image that is, 

to quote my friend Lisa, "fried gold."

I hope your weekend gives you plenty of reasons to laugh, and that you enjoy Leap Day enough to last you the next four years.  :-)

Nope, Meh, and Yes

OK, last night we actually attended a concert and though it was lovely and amazing, it meant that I was up a lot later than usual, and so today other than being upright, well ...

To quote The Tim when we left the house: "We seldom go out during the week in the evenings.  The animals are gonna be confused."  They were, and so was my body clock.  ;-)

Today at work I have two meetings back to back before I return to moving stuff, so hopefully I will be busy enough to not realize how tired I am!

In any case, today I have decided to participate in Three on Thursday by sharing three things:  Nope, Meh, and Yes, as discussed/illustrated below.

NOPE

I refuse to allow any images of this person to be on my blog, but look at this if you want to know what I am talking about.  From the get-go, it has made me sick to see this person pretending to need a walker to get around.  And after the verdict was announced, he was shown walking without said walker.  I guess the effort of moving on his own is what gave him the "chest pains" that sent him to the hospital instead of directly to jail.

Mostly, though, this is a NOPE because there are plenty of people who actually need to use a walker to get around, if nothing else to help with their balance and to help them feel secure.  But you know there will now be those who think anyone using a walker is somehow just faking it to "take advantage."  Gah.

MEH

I got a lot of e-mails last week, lambasting me for my post where I griped about spelling, punctuation, and grammar.  I would like to point out that a) none of them were from people for whom English was a second language, and b) some were really rude.  At first I thought I should feel bad, but I re-read the post, and it was clear - at least to me - that I was owning it all as something that really bothered me, not saying people who have issues with any of the above were evil or should be imprisoned.  One person pointed out that she does it "because she is busy thinking, and so can't take the time to check what/how she writing things."  You know what?  I find that to be a lame excuse.  You know what else?  In the end, I really don't care.

YES

I follow a woman on Twitter who is a minister, and a week or so ago, she said that it had been a tough year for her, and:

"So this year for Lent, I'm giving up criticism and self-loathing. 
I'm fasting from hopelessness and fear.
Not because anything right now warrants it, but because hope is an act of resistance.

Maybe instead of ashes, this year we need confetti.
Maybe instead of thorns, this year we need flowers.

Not because everything is sunshine and roses, but because those things persist even still."  

She offered to send out a post every day during Lent to anyone who was interested, and created a project called Lent-ish.  I signed up, and yesterday was the first day.  The initial post was great, but this especially spoke to me.

Definitely a YES for me.  :-)

Not Much to Report from Here

That's the truth.  Last weekend was fine - nothing much to report, except that I did dedicate part of my Sunday afternoon to another cooking/baking session that was successful.  I made a big pot of creamy potato soup with roasted brussels sprouts, and some applescotch crisp.  We ate the soup on Monday night for dinner and I had some leftover for lunch yesterday and now sadly it's gone - but it was pretty yummy, let me tell you.  And we finished the crisp last night, so that's it for this round of cooking ahead.

I did make a swatch for my sweater project on a set of smaller needles as I had planned, and the good news is that using smaller needles, I was able to get the proper gauge, which was pleasing.  However, that's as far as I made it at the moment.  I also have my yarn and pattern ready for this coming Sunday, when my friend Andrea and I are starting a sock KAL for March.  I spent a little bit of time on Sunday doing another square on my Cozy Squares of Memory blanket, and I did lengthen a pair of socks for The Tim over the weekend, but have otherwise not knit a stitch since then.  I haven't even really done that much reading over the past few days.

No, I'm not sick or anything, or even suffering from a lack of mojo - I'm just really really tired.  I know that I have mentioned in passing that they are "renovating" our space at work (I put that in quotation marks because, well, it's more of a spruce up and not really a nice one, but I digress).  Anyhow, it's close to being finished, and we are moving stuff back in to the space now.  Which is a very slow and tedious process, being that with all of the $$$ they spent, they were too cheap to pay for movers for the bulk of the stuff.  So it's up to us to get it done.  The custodial staff has helped with the truly heavy or extra large things, but the rest is all us.  And it is exhausting, as I'm sure you can imagine.  Yesterday by the time I left work, I realized that I had been on my feet, lifting, shifting, and pushing carts except for the 30 minutes I took for lunch. 

So I do not have the physical or mental energy to do anything other than just sit and stare at the TV.  Fortunately, we have a lot of stuff in our to-be-watched queue! 

The rest of the week will likely be the same, so I probably won't have anything "exciting" to tell you about or projects to show you.  I am hoping that I will be able regroup enough to get started on things this coming weekend.   The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak - so to speak!  :-)

Today is Ash Wednesday, and I have been able to organize my thoughts for Lent and am ready to go as far as that is concerned.  But whatever you are busy with, or not doing, I hope all is well and that here at the middle of the week, you are in a happy and/or content state of mind. 

Friday Funny - A Star Is Born?

As I've mentioned here before, Hamlet and I go for our morning walk very early in the morning - anywhere from 4:45 to 5:00 a.m.  In the wintertime, when it's still dark, we are generally the only ones out.  Sometimes we'll run into a random drunk, and if we walk near any of the markets in the neighborhood, we'll see people making deliveries. But otherwise, it's the two of us and several buses that pass by.

This morning, as we were walking, we came across some security guards who were in place to guard a lot of the equipment for the filming of the M. Night Shyamalan series "Servant," and I think they were just glad to see anyone else.  But one of them - to his credit - made a huge fuss over Hamlet, which of course made him incredibly pleased with himself.  I told The Tim that as we were walking home, Hamlet was prancing along, clearly thinking that he had done such a good job, that he was destined to be "ready for the pictures, Mr. DeMille."

(We decided the movie would be called "Koodles on a Plane," with Hamlet's tag line being, "Somebody get these m'f'in Koodles off this m'f''in plane.")

Anyway, I posted this on Facebook, where one of the people I'm friends with is the woman who owned Hamlet's father, and raised Hamlet as a puppy for the Seeing Eye.  She commented, "He's always been full of himself," and that just made me laugh out loud!

Then I was reminded of the video below, which someone sent me yesterday, and it's ridiculously hilarious, so I thought you might enjoy it too.

In conclusion, dogs are just plain silly, right?

Here's hoping your Friday is filled with opportunities for fame, and no yucky foods ... :-)

Holding Pattern

Hello on a Wednesday - Unraveled Wednesday, to be exact!  In what seems like an amazing development, the sun is actually out today in Philadelphia - no rain in sight, which is just so nice for a change.  It's windy and cool, but it's all good when you have had days and days and days of rain.

I have no actual knitting to show to you today for two reasons - 1) I showed my finished socks in yesterday's post, and 2) I knit a swatch for a sweater, but I failed to take a photo of it.  I realize that knitting a swatch leads to a better result in a sweater, but I'm currently dismayed because I have to knit another swatch on smaller needles to see if I can get gauge.  The already-knit swatch is 1.5 stitches more per inch than it should be, and I am tempted to just go with that, but I want to see if another one on smaller needles works better.  I just hope that regardless what I decide to do, that I'll have enough yarn.  Not that I think having the yarn from the swatches will be absolutely necessary, but I like to feel like I have plenty of yarn as opposed to just enough or worse yet - not enough!  We'll see what happens, I guess.  :-)

I can show you a photo of the yarn I am using from the Quince & Co. website:

This is their Finch (fingering weight) yarn in the colorway Smoke - a dark gray/green that looks different according to the lighting, and most likely what you are wearing with it.  I have had this in my stash for a little more than a year, and am glad to be using it now.

I just started reading this book yesterday at lunchtime:

I'm only about 10 pages in (someone kept interrupting me), but so far it seems like it will be really interesting.  I hadn't really heard of the book, but someone I follow on Instagram posted that they were reading it, and I was intrigued (sorry I don't remember who it was!).

Don't forget to stop by (link at the beginning of the post) to see what others are reading and knitting, and feel free to share either there or in the comments here.

A Very Fast FO

I must admit to surprising myself with how quickly I finished this project!

Project:  Goth Kitty Socks
Yarn:  Knitpicks Felici Sock Yarn, colorway Goth Kitty
Needles:  US size 1
Modifications:  None
Notes and comments:  These took me exactly two weeks' worth of knitting time to complete, which is really fast for me.  Sadly, I don't get large, uninterrupted swaths of time to knit, so it generally takes me a while to finish even a simple project like these. 

Anyway, this is just a generic sock pattern, with a broken rib heel flap, which was part of another pattern I knit last year sometime.  It was something a bit different, and also seems to hold up well with wear.  Since this yarn comes in 50g balls, I was able to knit them both at the same time - i.e., the cuff on one, the cuff on the second, and on throughout the sock.  Between that and the fact that the yarn is self-striping, I think I was able to zip along and get them knit ("Let me just do one more colored stripe").  I suppose it also helped that I didn't have any other major projects going at the time, but nonetheless here they are, ready for my 2020 Box o' Socks.  And in case you are wondering (and since someone at our craft group at work asked), no I don't mind that they do not match perfectly. 

One thing I did that was different with these socks is that I tried knitting the "plain" parts on a 9-inch circular needle.  I had watched a video from Very Pink Knits where she tried them, and compared different brands.  I decided it was worth a try, and ordered some ChiaGoo from evil Amazon.  Since I had not used them before, I didn't want to fool with the ribbed cuffs, or do the math and maneuvers for the heel and toe, so those were on my regular double-pointed needles.  At the end of it all, I decided that the 9-inch needles were nice, particularly from the standpoint of taking your knitting with you out of the house.  No more worrying if you drop a dpn, and/or how retrievable it may be.  They took a bit to get used to, and admittedly because they were metal and I usually use wood needles, I dropped some stitches while I was zipping along, but it was easy to notice and then fix the next time around.  They weren't terribly hard for me to adapt to using, as I think I must hold my dpns in a similar way so I didn't have to retrain my hands or anything like that.

This was my first time using Felici Yarn, and I thought it was really nice, particularly given the price point.  It felt nice while knitting with it, and was not likely to tangle into itself.  I don't have any idea how well if will/will not wear, but at this point, I think I'd be inclined to try it at least once more, as the colors were great as well as the price.

Next up, some repairs on a pair of socks I knit for The Tim, swatching for a sweater, and getting ready for my March Sock KAL with my friend Andrea.  We are planning to knit the Clark Socks by Jaclyn Salem (Brooklyn Knitfolk podcast).  I've wanted to try that pattern for a long time, so it should be fun!

In Which I Finally Lose All Patience

I try, really I do.  I try to accept that not everyone is as annoying and picky as I am.  I try because I know I am far from perfect and there is likely a litany of things that others could talk about that I do that drives them crazy.

But still, sometimes I just lose it and want people to pay attention just one more second before they proceed.

Case in point: I have a friend who, whenever she makes a mistake in an e-mail, comment, etc. will write "Opps!"  She means "Oops!" and it makes me crazy.  Once I asked her if anyone other than me commented on it, and she said everyone does, but she can't take the time to make sure she types the correct thing, and besides we all know she does it.  Ugh.

I might add that this individual is only too happy to point out mistakes that others make, and not in a kind way.  "Opps," indeed.

Then there is the co-worker whose messages look like she took grammar and composition lessons from the Tweets of Donald Trump.  You know, she spells things incorrectly, or uses poor/no punctuation, or randomly capitalizes words for no reason.  Last week she sent an all-staff e-mail that said, "Helo everyone there are some jounals we get in the library that are extras or duplicates..... so you ARE welcoume to have THem."  It's hard enough to get our colleagues to take us seriously as fellow professionals, this cannot possibly help our cause.

She is also regularly complaining that "foreigners" don't even try to understand English. 

Look - if you are someone with little/no education, or if English is your second language, or if you are making an effort at all, I'm completely on board with you doing as well as you can.  I admire those who may not really understand the language, or who realize they are dyslexic, etc., and who struggle to get it right, and make it work however they can.  I admire those who are always trying to do a better job. 

But I am just really weary of lazy and careless people, or those who claim they are just being casual, so there is no reason to check spelling, punctuation, etc.  Do I speak to the pets or The Tim at home the same way I do to my colleagues at work?  Not necessarily, but I am at home, and not trying to communicate with the wider world in a logical and professional way.  Heck, I even make an effort here to make things make sense and write in a way that if one of my old teachers happened upon the blog, they would be pleased with my writing, even if not by my topics!

I'm sure part of this is a result of my upbringing.  My parents always expected us to speak well and write well, believing that "just because we are poor, we don't need to sound poor."  And I love words and language, so admittedly I can be obsessive.  But I am also a firm believer in presenting yourself to the world in the best way possible.  I don't want everyone to like me, but I do hope they can appreciate that I make an effort with my writing.

And so, on this President's/Presidents' Day (a holiday that no expert can agree should be written one way or another), when we have someone who is the leader of our country who can barely put a sentence together as well as a first grader, I have to admit that my patience is gone. 

*****

If you have a day off today, I hope you enjoy it.  I am hoping to knit, read, and even take some time to plan dinner, rather than making it to 4 pm or so and then saying to myself, "Oh yeah, I should think about dinner."  Whatever your day holds, I hope it's a good one to start this week.

Well That's Two Hours I'll Never Get Back

We just had a meeting at work.  A TWO-HOUR meeting.  Now, keep in mind, our department has a meeting with our supervisor every two weeks that generally lasts 45 minutes to an hour.  That's more than long enough.  But today the others got on a tangent that just kept going ... and going ... and going.  Unfortunately, our supervisor is not good at running meetings and/or saying things like, "Well, that's off-topic so why don't we meet separately?" or any other solution that would have prevented it.

I had thought about one thing to post for Three on Thursday, but now my brain is somewhat fried, and now you get three GIFs that indicate my feelings over that past two hours. 

After 1 hour 

After 1 hour and 5 minutes

Why I should be able to go home now.

(OK, I actually relate to this one every single work day ...)

Surely it can only improve, right?  RIGHT???

Maybe This, Maybe That ... Oh, Something Shiny!

That's me these days.  I think I've decided on something to do/wear/make/watch, and then I hear about something else, and go to that, and then - SHINY!! - and I'm off again.  Which for the purposes of today's post is the same thing as saying I am neither unraveled nor raveled ...

Knitting-wise, I'm still working on the socks I showed in this post, and have the toe to do on one sock, and the leg and toe on the other, so those are going along very well, thank you.  But I finally decided that I wanted to start knitting a sweater, which OK, good decision, Bridget.  And I had enough yarn purchased long ago for about three different patterns, so it was deciding which to choose.  Two of the patterns were for heavier weights, and I just wasn't feeling that, so I decided on a fingering weight sweater that I've wanted to knit for a while, because I've liked all that I've seen that have been knit by other people.

So I *thought* I had decided to go ahead and give the Pavement sweater a try, and figured I would wind the yarn and swatch this weekend.

But then yesterday, I was watching the Flame and Fiber podcast, and she showed her recently started Carina sweater, and then I was like, WAIT MAYBE THAT'S THE ONE.

I can't even say, well, if I go ahead and make X, I already have the pattern, so I don't have to pay for a new one, but I already had both patterns.  And I realize that whichever one I make now does not mean that I can't ever make the other one.  But that's NOT THE POINT, people!!

This indecision has been good for me, in that it has meant the aforementioned socks have been getting a lot of attention, which is why I've made such progress.  :-)

Reading-wise, I finished a book called The Wonder, by Emma Donoghue, over the weekend, and have been spending a ridiculous amount of time deciding what will be next.  I've dipped into a couple of things, but nothing has grabbed me yet.  I have to say that this aggravates me more than deciding on a sweater.  I think because I have the socks to work on in the meantime, but I'm not currently reading anything other than articles, news, etc. and that is just not fair!

Hopefully, if you head over to Kat's blog, you can see that others are being more decisive than I am (not that it would be hard).

***

Back to knitting for a moment - I have a funny story.  You may or may not recall that we have a craft group at work that meets twice a month.  It's open to any interested parties, even those who may not really be crafty but would like an actual break in the day (we meet at lunchtime, and there are a lot of "I don't have time for lunch" types who drive the rest of us crazy).  

So yesterday was one of our meetings, and a woman who comes every time and brings treats ("baking is MY craft") was there, and she started saying that she just might want to learn to knit.  Then she said, "I'm guessing I could save a lot of money knitting my own stuff," and then of course the discussion began.  At one point, one of the guys said, "If I thought someone was getting a living wage, maybe it wouldn't bother me to spend money on clothing and such.  But since a lot of clothes are made in sweatshop conditions, I'd rather spend the money on fabric and make as much of my own stuff as possible," and pretty much everyone both understood what he was saying and agreed.  

And then our baker said, "So here all of you are, knitting, sewing, etc., and none of you are being paid a living wage, either."  The room burst into laughter - not because we are happy to be paid poorly, but because she was actually making a good point!  Then of course we all had to "thank" her for bringing down the room, etc.  

Trust me, it really was funny.  :-)

OK, that's it for today.  I hope your Wednesday is a good one.

Mixed Bag Weekend

Hello again on a Monday.  And a rainy Monday to boot.  Ugh.  It's rainy and it's too warm and it's Monday, and I feel cheated out of my winter weather.  I mean, I only do my best to put up with summer because I figure it's a tradeoff for winter.

But I am certainly not in charge of the weather, so time to move along, right?

How was your weekend?  Mine was definitely a mixed bag.  Friday morning we woke up to some awful news.  If you have read my blog for any amount of time, you may remember that there was a year when The Tim was a permanent substitute teacher in the Philadelphia public school system.  He had a class of fifth-graders all year, and he loved it!  Well, Friday morning on the news they reported that a young man who was a popular chef at a neighborhood restaurant had been shot and killed while sitting in his care outside the restaurant.  Once they said the name, The Tim realized it was one of his former students.  This kind of thing is always sad and frustrating to hear, but when you know the person it adds a whole other level.  So if you are a praying type, please say a prayer for Quadir and his family and friends left behind wondering what happened.

Saturday, I convinced The Tim that we should head out and go to what I thought was a Michael's craft store not that far from us, that is also near to a Home Despot (as it is known in our house) and a Lowe's.  The Tim always finds a reason to go to one of those places.  But when we got there, the store that I thought was a Michael's was in fact a former A.C. Moore, and now closed.  Whoops.  

The rest of the day was just spent doing and not doing stuff at home.

Sunday turned out to be beautiful - cool and very very sunny!  Hamlet and I had a couple of really good walks, and even met a couple of very young and adorable puppies on one of them.  I finished a book that I was reading, and then I finally started on something that I had wanted to do for a few weeks, but just never got around to doing - I cooked ahead!  By the time I was finished, I had two casseroles of stuffed shells with spinach (one went into the freezer right away), and a huge pot of veggie beef and peppers that can be served over rice, noodles, or mashed potatoes.  

We had one of the casseroles of stuffed shells last night, and not only were they yummy, but we have enough leftovers for yet another dinner later this week!  I realized after the fact I could have put some of the beef and peppers in the freezer as well, but I'm not gonna beat myself up since I got so much accomplished.

And - when I walked over to the market for a couple of ingredients for my cooking, there was a table where some young girls were selling Girl Scout cookies - Thin Mints for the win!

So although the weekend started sadly, and there was an undercurrent of sad the whole time, it really ended up being OK, which when you think of it is how life turns out.  

This week we see the arrival of Valentine's Day on Friday, which is also the birthday of our Pip!  So we will be celebrating at our house, and it's also a long weekend here in the U.S.  I'm glad to have something good to anticipate all week long.  :-)

I hope you had a mostly good if not all good weekend, and that this coming week will be nice to all of us.  Even if the rain continues to annoy me ...

Weird Week

What a weird week I've had.  Nothing incredible or world-changing, just weird.  Does that ever happen to you?  A week that is not really awful, not really great, but just ... odd? 

Nonetheless, it's Friday, so at least the weirdness didn't somehow cancel that! 

I had a major knit fail this week.  I mentioned that I was doing a test knit.  I don't want to give more details, since the pattern is not out, and the designer told me that two other test knitters were having the same issue, so she wanted to take a new look at things.  To be honest, I know that in my case, it's a matter of just not being able to wrap my brain around a certain set of instructions, no matter how many times I try to figure it out.  I have watched about 5 different videos on YouTube by different people trying to explain it.  It's one of those things that my brain understands all of the words, but I can't translate them into being able to work the process with my hands.  So that process may be for another time.  A few years ago, I could not "get" the action/concept of Wrap and Turn, but when I made my Neverender sweater last year, my brain was able to make my hands get it to work.  Anyway, I feel bad in that I will not be able to knit the item anytime soon, but it's not because I didn't try, so it's all good.

I went back to my stripey socks for comfort.  :-)

I also have another small and quick project I want to try, but I do not have the shade of yarn I need in - of all things - cotton/dishcloth/that kind of yarn.  I have many other colors, but the project needs a specific one, so hopefully I can have a chance to get my hands on it sooner rather than later.  I tried it with some wool yarn leftovers I had, but it just didn't work out the way it should have.  More on that if/when I get the right color!

Planning-wise, I'm still trying to get my brain organized to decide what the next few projects will be whether knitting, stitching, or sewing.  I had planned to do it before, but my brain was too busy flitting around to everything and anything.  I *think* I'm in the right mindset to try this weekend, so it's time to give it a try again. 

According to the weather guy on TV this morning, the rain is supposed to stop around lunchtime today, which will be a nice change.  He also said next week should be rainy again, and honestly, that's just annoying.  I like rainy days now and then, but 3-4 days of rain in a row start to make me stabby.  Plus, I am annoyed that we have not gotten a single flake of snow this winter.  No, I do not want a blizzard that closes everything down for a week, but a nice decent snowstorm would be nice.  Who wants winter without any snow at all?  You can move south for that ... (though of course they are actually getting snow!).

Regardless of weather, I hope everyone has a good weekend and has the chance to spend some time doing what you like, rather than what everyone else wants you to do!  See you next week.  :-)

Just This Guy

 ... and his perfect name, given his profession.

First February Weekend

Happy February!  I know that a lot of people do not like this month, but I happen to really enjoy it.  There's Groundhog Day and James Joyce's birthday on the 2nd, and St. Blaise Day on the 3rd.  Of course, for football (or I guess commercial fans), also the Super Bowl.  Then there's Valentine's Day, which is also Pip's birthday, and this year, Leap Day on the 29th.  Seriously, what's not to like?

We also have a some other family birthdays and an anniversary, and a long weekend for Presidents' Day.  It all works for me, I have to say.  :-)

I didn't have anything specific planned for this past weekend, which meant that anything I did or did not want to do was reliant only on my feeling about it.  I have to admit that I was lazy a lot of the time, but I did start another pair of socks.  I got a cuff knit on Friday night, and then would just sit down and work on them when I had some time over Saturday and Sunday.  So imagine my surprise when I realized yesterday, that in just two days, I'd knit the legs of both socks!

I think some of it was that I was in the mood to just knit and watch shows or podcasts, and also that self-striping yarn gets me every time - you know, the "just another stripe" syndrome.  This is Knitpicks Felici sock yarn, in the Goth Kitty colorway.  I saw someone online using it a year (2 years?) ago, and was lucky enough to snag some the next time it was available.  Then of course, it apparently had to age before I actually felt inspired to use it ... I'm having fun knitting these, and no, I don't care that they will be fraternal socks.  I'm also trying an experiment with this pair, which I'll report on once they are finished and I've had a chance to try them on. 

You may remember I said I would be starting a test knit.  Well, I actually had to order a skein of mohair for that project, and there was a mess up in the shipping, so it will be delivered today.  As a result, I do not currently have anything to show related to that.  Stay tuned if you want to see how that goes.

I've also been giving some thought to what I might want to knit (other than socks of course, which are always part of the mix), sew, or stitch.  I need to get that more organized so I can actually get going on some of those projects. 

I only saw the first half of the Super Bowl last night, but I was very happy that Kansas City won.  I was not overly invested in it, but I wanted Andy Reid who coaches Kansas City and who used to be the coach of the Eagles, to get a win.  He always seemed like a good guy.  And I have to say, it was nice for there to be a Super Bowl without the Patriots for a change.  (Sorry, Patriots fans.) 

I didn't see very many of the commercials, but I have to tell you that the campaign commercial for The Man Who Currently Lives in the White House infuriated me.  It was bragging about how he was instrumental in getting an woman who was in prison unjustly released.  Which, OK, fine, and good for her and her family.  BUT - when the tag line was something like, "Donald Trump reunites families," I nearly went through the TV.  Tell that to people in cages and children separated from their parents at the border.  REALLY.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. 

Moving on.

As far as I know, nothing out of the ordinary is going on with us this week.  The guy on the weather report this a.m. predicted rain or the never-popular "wintry mix" for most of the week, which is annoying enough, but even worse when you would like just one decent snowfall for the winter, and all you get is rain or that slop.  Today is actually cool and sunny, so I'd better enjoy it I guess.  ;-)

Have a good week, no matter what the weather decides to do!