Furball Friday

Get a load of Milo the Koodle's whiskers! 

They need their own zip code ...

Have a good weekend!

Easter Weekend 2025

Hello all, I hope you are well, and that if you are having nice and sunny days, you are able to enjoy them.

Our Easter weekend here in Philadelphia was truly lovely. Saturday was a bit warm for my taste - especially for April! - but we had a great time with my niece Amanda and her husband Pat, who arrived shortly after noon. I took everyone on a little "architecture" tour of our neighborhood, to show them some of the interesting houses and buildings I've come across on my walks. Then we headed to dinner at an Irish pub, came home and set about working on our Inappropriate Easter Eggs. 

Sunday morning, we met them for brunch at a restaurant that they have always wanted to try here in Philadelphia (Parc Rittenhouse), but is always booked, especially for Easter brunch. But I was on the ball this year, and called the first day you could for reservations. Then we walked around a bit, since it was an Open Streets day, and listened to some of the live music before they headed back to Baltimore. 

It was so much fun, and the rest of Easter we just hung out with the kitties and relaxed. 

As usual, the Easter Bunny showed up with goodies for the kitties. Everyone had to investigate their baskets, and all of them passed muster (phew!).

On Friday, I'd baked a coconut cake, which turned out not only to be yummy, but came out of the Bundt pan perfectly - that's a first for me! (Needless to say, it is now gone. I also sent a couple of pieces home with Pat and Amanda to enjoy.) 

Our Inappropriate Easter Egg session was a success as usual. Here are some of the highlights.

This egg shows the Blue Origin spacecraft, along with "G. King, K. Perry," and "Why come back?"

The egg on the left says, "Elon, what did you do last week?"

The egg on the right is my contribution, and I'm very proud of it. It's an undyed WHITE egg, illustrating the end of DEI in the current administration's climate.

The next three eggs included one that was sadly prescient. They are shown with the front side and the back side.

The one on the left says, "RIP Pope Francis"**; the next says "Too expensive to be me, with a dollar sign," and, the third says, "First, they came for the lawyers."

On the reverse of these, the left side one says, "Give it a few weeks," while the middle one shows a chart with the price of eggs since 2024, and the third one says, "Thank God." (The Tim loves to tease both of them about being lawyers.)

**Now, before we go any further, I have to tell you that The Tim made the Pope egg; he thought Pope Francis had died when he was last in the hospital (yeah, I know). When we pointed out that he was still alive, he "amended" his egg to say what it did on the back. And then of course, Pope Francis died on Monday. It's a sad coincidence, but The Tim wants to make it clear that he did not kill the Pope. 

So although Monday turned out to be very sad (I was a big fan of Pope Francis), we did have a fun time making these eggs, and giving The Tim a hard time for not being up on current events. (It's like the time he asked a friend how his father was doing, since he had been hospitalized for a while, and the friend said, "Well, you were at his funeral." Sigh.)

So far this week has been one where I feel like I am spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. And last week felt so productive! But I have plans to accomplish something today - a small something, but it still counts! 

I also want to give some thought to my next knitting and/or stitching projects. I've been doing absolutely nothing since I finished my sweater, but I have some ideas so I want to decide what would make the most sense at the moment. And I'm hoping to start a stitching project, since I've been thinking about that for the past couple of weeks as well. I'll keep you posted.

So that's it for today. I hope all of you had a good holiday, Easter, Passover, whatever you may have been celebrating. And even if you weren't celebrating any holidays, I hope spring so far is being kind to you. 

Book Report, First Quarter of 2025: January, February, March

Hello and Happy Tax Day! I'm not usually too bugged by having to pay taxes, because I believe in public education, good roads, etc. But I'm not too pleased with having to pay for someone's regular golf outings or bodyguards for people who don't need bodyguards. Oh well - I'm guessing that not many of you are pleased about it either, so misery loves company.

On to happier things, though. I realized I'd forgotten to update you on what I've read in the first three months of this year. So here you go, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

A Happier Life, by Kristy Woodson Harvey. Keaton Smith finds herself quitting a job she loved in a company she helped to build, for both personal and professional reasons. And as part of that, she loses her place to live. While she is staying with her parents, her mother and uncle decide it's time they sold *their* parents' house in Beaufort,  North Carolina. But neither of them have been back there since the parents disappeared in 1976. 

Keaton grew up knowing only that this set of grandparents died in a car crash. Her mother would never ever talk about them at all. Keaton's uncle, who is in real estate,  offers her part of his commission if she will leave New York City and go to Beaufort and get the house cleaned up and ready to sell. Since she has nothing else happening,  she decides to do it, figuring it will take maybe a month or so.

When she arrives, she is shocked because the house is like a time capsule  - it looks like the occupants stepped out and then never returned. She meets her next door neighbor and his young son, and a group of women who were friends of her grandparents.  And she finds a notebook meant for her mother, where she has done both some journaling, as well as provided tips for successful entertaining. 

All of this leads you to thinking that this book is just like a Hallmark movie. And yes, that part of the book is entirely predictable. 

BUT - what makes the book worth reading is finding out what actually happened to Keaton's grandparents.  Her grandmother's friends indicate early on that they never quite believed the story about a car crash, and so the reader and Keaton want more info. 

And that was the part of the book that I found fascinating.  Like I said, I found the framing story fine but predictable. But the grandparents' stories were what kept me reading.

The Last Girl, by Jane Casey. This is an excellent mystery. Maeve Kerrigan and her partner are sent to a house in the Wimbledon area, to a horrific crime scene. A fifteen year old girl with her throat slashed, and her mother stabbed to death,both found in the living room. The father, an extremely successful lawyer, in his bedroom, knocked unconscious.  The only survivor is the twin sister of the teenage victim, who was swimming in the family pool and could not see or hear anything from there.

The father has plenty of enemies, and a string of former lovers, so it seems like maybe that plays info things.  But as Maeve and Josh dig deeper,  they become more and more frustrated because the case seems stuck. 

At the same time, gang wars are escalating in London, and Maeve's personal life has her on edge.

There were so many twists and turns in all aspects of the story, that you just have to keep reading. The characters are flawed but interesting. I'll definitely read the next in this series.

When Woman Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion, by Julie Satow. This is the story of three women who - during times when women weren't really forces the workplace - attained the highest levels in fashion retailing in the famous department stores New York City.  

Hortense Odlum (Bonwit Teller), Dorothy Shaver (Lord & Taylor), and Geraldine Stutz (Henri Bendel) were all women with uneventful upbringing and no real "official" backgrounds in fashion or management.  But each of them had an eye for style, and - except for Hortense - worked their way through the ranks to not only make their businesses successful and well-known, but arbiters of American style.

The book provides extensive background not only on these three women but also the history of these names we know so well. I feel it's ironic that I started reading this book the same day that Macy's announced that they were closing their store in Center City Philadelphia, where I live. The Macy's had been in the original building of the John Wanamaker department store, in a building that is an historic site. It was never as exclusive as the stores in the book, but it was a grand style department store.

Anyway, the stories of these stores and these three particular women were not just interesting but also fascinating.  I hadn't idea about any of them, but reading this book reinforces the fact that though fashion and style are generally thought of as female endeavors and interests, the names we all know are usually those of the men involved. Even Donald Trump shows up in the book briefly, reminding the reader that he has always been a terrible, classless human being.

This book made me sad for the loss of department stores. I always enjoyed shopping and/or just looking around or window shopping there. And having lunch in their tearoom was always such a treat. Online shopping will never come close to the experience. And as an architectural critic said in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the buildings themselves "elevated and dignified us."

A Punishing Breed, by DC Frost. At a small liberal arts college in Los Angeles, the best fundraising officer has been found dead in his office. Detective  DJ Arias is assigned the case. Arias is a veteran, not only somewhat hardened throughly experience,  but frankly, kind of an asshole. The person who called in the murder is an ex-con who works in maintenance at the college, who Arias sent to prison ten years ago.  Arias immediately suspects him.

But there's more than meets the eye happening on campus. The deceased was a well-known womanizer, so a lot of people have secrets to hide. Along with all of the other campus politics that are contained in the small school, Arias has a number of suspects to consider.

The author does a good job of keeping you both interested and in suspense, and includes some side stories that all tie in at the end. She does a good job of making Arias unpleasant, but maybe promising towards the end. 

Having attended a small liberal arts college where my mother was a secretary in the Development Office, I can say that a number of the characters and setting were familiar in many ways.

The Lost Story, by Meg Shaffer. I have to admit that I closely skimmed through the last third of this book. 

Jeremy and Rafe are two close friends who disappeared as young teenagers in a West Virginia forest. When they were found they were I nmuch better condition than when they had left, and neither of them had any explanation for where they had been or what happened.

Fifteen years later, Jeremy agrees to help a young vet tech named Emilie find her missing sister. He has become world-renowned for being able to find missing girls. He tells Emilie that they need to get Rafe to help them too. Rafe has become a reclusive artist,  and has not seen Jeremy for years. Eventually he agrees to accompany them, so they return to the spot where they disappeared all those years ago.

They enter the magical land of Shanandoah (spelled this way for a reason), where they had been while lost.  Rafe was a prince, and a knight. 

And here's where they lost me.  I'm not a big fan of magical, fantasy worlds in general, and this one just didn't keep my interest. I read to the end of the book, because I wanted to see if I'd be drawn in at any point, and how the story resolved. 

So,not my favorite book. But it gets points for recognizing and celebrating West Virginia, which truly has magical places like nowhere else.

Middlemarch, by George Eliot. My husband and I have been taking turns reading this book to one another over the course of several years. We would often have very long stretches of time when we left it to read other things.

But though he has read this book several times on his own, this was my first time, and I can see why it is a classic. The story of the people and times in a small town called Middlemarch is an amazing study of the lives they led and the societal mores of the time. George Eliot has crafted a very long but magnificent work about a group of people who are not necessarily significant to anyone but themselves, making a book about fairly ordinary townspeople of the time one that tells a lot more than a history book can.

Site Unseen, by Dana Cameron. Emma Fielding is a new, junior professor at Caldwell College in Maine, and is leading a dig with some of her archeology students at what she thinks/hopes will turn out to be the first settlement in the New World, previous to both Jamestown and Plymouth. The site is on the property of a family friend that she met as a child through her grandfather, a world-renowned archeologist.

At the same time, she and her husband who is a chemist living in Massachusetts are trying to figure out how to find a place to live that is equally distant from each of their workplaces.

A local Mainer who shows up at Emma's dig site with a metal detector starts a series of events that cause danger and loss in Emma's life. It's up to her to figure out what's going on before it's her turn to be the victim. 

This was a decent read, and kept me interested in the story. I can see myself reading another entry in this series.

The Bookshop of Second Chances, by Jackie Fraser. Not a great book, but a fun enough read when I needed some serious distraction.

Thea Mottram is forced to start her life again when she receives text from her husband meant for his mistress. She is going a long feeling pretty lost when she learns that a great-uncle who she only met a few times as a child, but who was impressed with her love of reading, has left his estate to her. It includes not just a lodge home but also his complete library of rare books.

She heads north to a small town in Scotland, thinking she'll get things ready to sell, return home to England and have some money to work with while deciding her next steps.

She meets the man who owns the manor house where her uncle's lodge house is located. He's slowly but surely repurchasing all of the land and property that his family has to sell off, and is more than happy to have Thea sell the lodge to him. 

His older brother, who denounced his title and inheritance, and who doesn't get along with his brother at all, owns a bookstore in the town. He is grumpy and unfriendly, but agrees to hire Thea to work there, hoping he can be the buyer of her great-uncle 's book collection.

So you quickly imagine where the story will go, and how things may turn out, and yes it's kind of Hallmark movie-ish. But it's way less sappy than you expect it to be, and Thea is more interesting than you expect, so it's a decent thing to read.

A Quiet Life, by Ethan Joella. This is a wonderful story about the connections we have to one another, and how they can change each person's life.

Chuck is a widower, trying to move on after the death of his wife Cat the spring before the book begins. Ella's currently delivering newspapers and working at a bridal shop while dealing with her ex-husband's abduction of their young daughter, Riley. Kristen is working at a animal rescue, trying to figure out what to do since she didn't get into veterinary school, and dealing with her father's shooting death at a gasoline convenience store shortly before the book begins.

How these three lives are changed, and how they each change each other, is at the heart of the book. Their inner lives, and the small actions of their daily lives, are at the heart of the story. It's a reminder of the quote about living lives of quiet desperation.

It all ends on a hopeful note. And it's a wonderful book. My only caveat is to make sure you read this book when you are feeling steady in your emotions.  I reading this when I was feeling very emotional and vulnerable, and it nearly crushed me with it's language and characters.

The Madness of Crowds, by Louise Penny. It's Christmastime, the first one since the Covid vaccines have become available.  Armand Gamache is looking forward to the holidays with his family. So when an acquaintance who is the Chancellor of a local university asks him to provide security for something that seems benign, he accepts.

Except the person coming to speak, Professor Abigail Robinson, has become extremely controversial and polarizing. Having been asked by the government to study statistics from the pandemic, and offer solutions for the future, they refuse to publish her results. Why? Because she has recommended that the disabled, long-term infirm, and children born with certain conditions be dealt with through mandatory euthanasia. 

Now, her support is growing, pulling in thousands at her talks. What was supposed to be a non- event turnsinto a huge crowd attending her talk in Three Pines. Shots are fired during the talk, causing fear and chaos. 

When her close assistant is murdered on New Year's Eve, the hunt for answers intensifies.  Family secrets, national policies gone wrong, and a host of suspects keeps Gamache and his team on their toes.

Loiuse Penny has written not only a good story, but a book that challenges the reader in several ways. It made me feel almost like she was predicting the future of things here in the U.S.

All We Were Promised, by Ashton Lattimore. In 1837 Philadelphia,  a couple of young women become friends. Nell is the daughter of a prominent free black family, and is becoming active as an abolitionist. Charlotte escaped with her father from a plantation in the South. The thing is, Charlotte's father is passing for white, and has a successful business building furniture for the wealthy people in the city. So Charlotte's role is as his housekeeper. 

Things are volatile in the city - the Pennsylvania legislature has declared the state to be a free state,  but with some ridiculous loopholes in the law. Pennsylvania Hall is being built, and when complete will host a national anti-slavery convention.

Charlotte's has managed to make a somewhat comfortable existence for herself. But when she runs into a young girl she knew and loved on the plantation, her entire new life is threatened. But she also wants desperately to help Evie escape from life as a slave. 

And so Charlotte and Nell start devising a plan, and put themselves, Evie, and both of their families in danger. 

This book is an excellent read, and shows what life was like in Philadelphia during this time, as well as discussing the lives of prominent black families. It's a fascinating story of free people, enslaved people, and institutional racism that provided the best of both worlds for privileged whites. 

The story of Charlotte and her father was especially interesting to me. Highly recommended.

Highly recommended.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie. This book is a classic, and was controversial at the time it was published because Agatha Christie did not "follow the rules" of writing a mystery story. 

In this book, Hercule Poirot has decided to move to a small English town to retire. But after a prominent member of the community is murdered, he is talked into working on the case. He asks his next-door neighbor, Dr Sheppard - who is also the narrator - to assist him, as his "dear Hastings" who usually works with him, has moved to the Argentine for love.

I enjoyed this book a lot. The characters, the setting, the occasional humor of one character or another, all make you want to keep going. This is a classic for a good reason!

Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose, by Martha Beck. I saw someone talking about this book on one of the morning news shows, saying it was incredibly helpful to them to deal with their anxiety. So I thought give it a try.

But I just couldn't keep going. I'm sure that another of things she talks about could be useful, but I just couldn't engage with her writing style. When I got halfway through the book and it still didn't really make me want to keep reading, I decided to just move on.

Stone Yard Devotional, by Charlotte Wood. This is a novel that reads like a woman's journal.

The woman who is the narrator has left her job, her husband, and her life in the city to visit a monastic community in the area in Australia where she grew up. She is an atheist, but finds the quiet helpful. 

Years later, she has moved there permanently,  though she us not technically part of the order. There are three main events shaping her time: a plague of mice, the return of the remains of one of the sisters who had been in Thailand, and a visitor who is someone she knew when she was in school, though they were never friends. 

Her thoughts are taken up often with remembrances of her parents, particularly her mother. She comes to understand how much of her mother she seldom considered or understood as a child or even as an adult, and what she carries with her.

This is a beautiful book.

Unleashed, by Emily Kimelman. I had read a review of this book, and it sounded intriguing.  But although it was a good story with a lot of interesting parts about New York City history,  it was too violent and disturbing for me. And I know I've read "worse" things and didn't blink an eye, but this was a bit much for me to take.

The Last Anniversary, by Liane Moriarty. Having read a few of the later books by this author, I can tell that this one doesn't have quite the same feel as those. It's readable,  and interesting enough, but doesn't have the same "grab you right off the bat" of later books.

Sophie Honeywell is the kast of her friends to be single. She was involved with Thomas, but broke up with him on the evening he was going to propose. He's now married with a little girl,  so when he calls Sophie to discuss something out of the blue, she's intrigued. 

It turns out that Thomas' aunt Connie has died, and left her house to Sophie, who only met her once or twice.  It's on an island off the coast of Australia,  where most of his family lives, and which is renowned due to the Munro Baby Mystery.

Sophie moves there, and becomes involved in everyone's lives, and is promised the truth about the Munro Baby Mystery. At the annual festival commemorating the event, lives collide and secrets are revealed.

I didn't dislike this book, but didn't love it either.  Two books by this author came available from my library holds at the same time,  so I'll read another, published later, next. I'm curious to see if my theory of later books having more of an immediate grab holds.

Here One Moment, by Liane Moriarty. At the start of this book, people on a plane are terrorized by an older woman walking down the aisle, predicting each person's death, its cause, and their ages when it will happen.

The rest of the book is the story of the woman's life, and certain individuals that were on that plane. 

I found the woman's story interesting, but didn't really like her - maybe because I wouldn't appreciate her predicting my demise?

But the book did get me thinking about how people might behave if they knew how and when their own deaths would occur. I for one prefer to live in ignorance, and hope that when it does happen, it will be completely without drama. The story does make you think about mortality,  yours and others'. 

The book ends on a hopeful note, which is a blessing, if you ask me.

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife, by Anna Johnston. Elderly Frederick Fife finds himself in a predicament - his beloved wife Dawn is dead, as are the few other people he was close to. He can't afford food, and hasn't paid his rent, so his landlord gives him the news he's going to be evicted.

As he takes a walk along the river he comes across another elderly man in a wheelchair who is dead. Assuming that he is with a group of others who look as if they are on a field trip of sorts, he goes to wheel him back to them. Except he trips, and the man in the wheelchair tumbles into the river and is washed away by the current! 

When he finds someone to explain what happened, they think he is the man in the wheelchair (they do look alike!), and he ends up back at the nursing home with everyone believing he is Bernard Greer.

Fred keeps trying to prove he is not Bernard, but since Bernard had dementia, no one pays attention to his claims and finally he just accepts things. But when it turns out that Bernard has a daughter who comes to visit, Fred is really in a pickle. 

This is a very funny, very sweet book about a man doing his best. It also illustrates ways in which elderly men and women are invisible and/or ignored by most of society. (As an elderly woman,  I already knew this.)

But it's also full of characters who are real people with faults, feelings, and disappointments. Fred exemplifies the idea that we all try our best most of the time, but we need others to listen and pay attention. 

Highly recommended.

Bean There, Done That, by Sandra Balzo. I enjoy this series, especially for a palate cleanser after more intense or serious books.

When Maggy Thorsen gets a visit from her ex-husband's wife Rachel (who broke up her marriage), she's a bit surprised.  But when she asks Maggy to help her prove that Ted, Maggy's ex, was cheating on her *while* he was also cheating on Maggy, it's just a weird situation. 

But when Rachel disappears after her meeting with Maggy and Ted is the main suspect, Maggy feels she owes it to their son to find out what happened. 

A good entry in this group of books.

Remain Silent, by Susie Steiner. This is an interesting book, but kind of grim, especially in the current political environment.  

Manon Bradshaw is out with her toddler when she comes across a body hanging from a tree. The victim is from Eastern Europe, and is in England illegally, doing work on farm, etc. when work is available. 

Though Manon has only been working 3 days a week since returning from maternity leave, she is made lead on the investigation.  

She and her partner Davy are suddenly looking into human trafficking, shady finances, anti-immigration zealots. To add even more stress, Manon's partner at home is finished with pancreatic cancer.

A lot of different things are addressed in this story. Like I said, it's not a cheerful book, but it is a compelling read.

The Wedding People, by Alison Espach. Phoebe's husband Matt decided shortly after their last unsuccessful attempt at IVF, that he was leaving her for Mia, afriend and colleague of both of them at the Missouri college where Matt is a professor and Phoebe is an adjunct. As if that's not bad enough, their cat Harry dies unexpectedly.  

So Phoebe decides she is leaving, and books an overnight stay in a very expensive seaside resort hotel in Rhode Island, where she and Matt once thought they'd vacation.  She only needs an overnight reservation because she is headed there to kill herself. 

When she arrives, everyone else at the place is there for the wedding of Lila and Gary - a week of activities leading to the big day! Everyone - including Lila - assumes she is some friend or relative, but when Lila learns about Phoebe's plan, she is worried it will ruin her wedding.

And so the story begins. A story about life's disappointments, but also the joys. About what you really want, and who you want to be. About how everyone is capable of changing.

This was a lovely book, and not as predictable as I expected once the story was underway.

The Deep End, by Julie Mulhern. In 1974 Kansas City, Ellison Russell is living her everyday life, getting up early and swimming at the country club, making sure her daughter Grace is doing OK, and working on her painting, where she can be herself and ignore the fact that her husband is cheating on her quite publicly. 

But during her morning swim one day, she runs into a dead body - and not just a random one, but the body of her husband's mistress! Things get really crazy after that, and Ellison has to hold things together, especially for her daughter.

With some amusing and also annoying characters as well as some surprising developments, this is not just an enjoyable read, but a reminder that women's lives used to be much different.  And at a time when cell phones did not exist, other ways of finding and collecting evidence were all there was. It's a good read, with a twist I did not expect.

*****

And that's that. I often forget, until I do these book posts, which books I've read during the three months, and how I felt about them. So I enjoy revisiting all of them, because some feel like running into old friends again. 😊

I hope you've been finding some goodies that you enjoyed as well!

FO Post: Mountain Mama Socks

After posting about re-doing the sock toe on one of the socks I'd been knitting, I decided to see if I could get a decent photo of the finished pair. So here's the FO post for those socks!

Project: Mountain Mama Socks

Pattern: Plain vanilla sock pattern from my brain

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici, colorway Country Roads; cuffs and toes are Fiberstory Fave Sock, Barely colorway

Needles: US size 1/2.25 mm

Modifications: I knit the foot longer than I usually do, because when I tried on the first sock after finishing, it felt too short.

Notes: Well, first of all, I had not really meant to buy yarn, but I saw that Felici was available at Knit Picks, and took a gander. When I saw the colorway Country Roads, I had to buy it, because a) I did like the colors, and b) how could I call myself a West Virginian if I skipped this colorway??? 

I decided to knit the cuffs and toes in the lighter shade, because it thought it would "bookend" the stripes nicely, and I'm pleased with how that worked. The colors remind me of a fall day, and made me decide to put the completed socks away until next fall. That way I'll have a nice surprise waiting for me in my sock drawer (and there's a 99 percent chance I'll have forgotten I ever knit them).

So now I think I need to remeasure my feet before I start another pair. I know your foot/shoe size can change as you get older, so that might be the case. But I'll do a measurement, rather than have to re-knit any future toes on a pair of socks. It's one thing to re-knit if the toe wore out and the rest of the sock is fine, but if it's just because you made the wrong size, that's ridiculous!

*****

I am now in the position of having only one project on the needles, and it's a long-ish term project for the fall/winter. I have a few things swirling around in my head so I need to organize my thoughts to see what I might want to start. Because I refuse to start everything I'm thinking of  and then be stressed out because I have too many things going!

I'm also starting to do a review of my stash. I usually do that twice a year, but for reasons like "I forgot," or "I don't feel like it," I haven't  done it for a little more than a year. Some stuff is easy to decide to donate - I've either changed my mind about liking it, or realized I'm never ever going to start the project I thought I'd make with it. But other things are difficult to decide, because I still like them, and *maybe* I will knit with it? This time around, I've given myself a new rule: If I won't tackle it in the next year, it's getting donated.

Of course, this makes it sound like I have an extensive stash, and I really do not. I've whittled it down over the years with my twice-a-year looky-look. But there are still things that I need to admit are just taking up space for projects that I will just never have the time/brain space/ability/patience to make. So it's time to swallow hard and donate them. In the past, I've learned that I regret it for maybe a few days, and then never think of it again, so I know I'll survive. 

And especially if someone else can enjoy and love the yarn, why shouldn't it go to them?

The Week of Redoing Everything

Hello and Happy Monday - or not, depending on your weather and your mood. I'm in a neither/nor situation. I'm not excited about it being Monday, and it's raining here currently, which is good for growing things. But I'm also not sad that it's Monday, so you can see what I mean.

Last week was another one of those weeks with something every single day. And granted, some of them were pretty quickly taken care of, but they were all a degree of annoying. So I didn't have a ton of time for anything in long stretches, except for Friday. 

But it was a week when I was determined to finish some knitting projects. And I did, but I also did a lot of re-knitting. Gah. 

First up, the sweater I have been making. I wanted to finish it before the end of March - which was three "deadlines" beyond my original plan. And I did finish knitting it on March 30, which was pretty exciting. But when I tried it on, both myself and The Tim agreed that the cuffs of the sleeves needed to be a little bit longer. Which in the grand scheme of things, is not that big of a deal. 

So I sat down on Monday of last week, and tore out the first cuff, and re-knit it. I was really pleased with how it looked - actually better than the original effort. But I'd used up the brain power I had for my knitting for the day, so put it away to do the other cuff the next day.

But the next day, my Dr appt took way longer than expected, and when I finally got home, I didn't have the wherewithal to concentrate on it. So it waited until the next day, and I sat down, did a first check of things, did more tearing out of the cuff, and re-knitted it. I was feeling pretty darn pleased with myself. And then I realized I had re-knit the SAME cuff as I had re-knit two days before! GRRRRRR. 

I'm happy to say, the next day I checked three times before starting to make certain that I was tearing out and re-knitting the OTHER cuff! And finally, voila, it was completed, and all that was left to do was weave in ends and block the sweater. I'm planning on giving it a good soak and then blocking today, so hopefully it won't take days to dry and I can not just count on the knitting being finished, but the actual sweater being finished as well.

I did a "pre-weaving" in the ends yesterday. Meaning that I left a lot of ends sticking out after weaving most of the yarn into the project. A friend told me that it's better to soak and block something and *then* snip off the final ends, because then nothing unravels. Fortunately, on the few clothing items I've knit, that has never ever happened. But since this was a major project for me, I didn't want to take any chances!

Here are the bits left after my first go:

The other project that was waiting to be finished was a pair of socks. I had finished the first sock about a week or so ago, but when I tried it on, it was too short in the foot, and I knew that my toes would work through quickly, so decided to rip it out and re-knit the end of the foot and the toe. (And yes, I was doing the same pattern, with the same measurements, etc., as always, so I have no idea ...)

The good news is, not only did I manage to get that accomplished, but when I sat down to finish up sock #2, I didn't accidentally tear out and re-knit sock #1. 😀 Granted, that was because one toe was complete and the other had not even been started, but the way things were going for me, it could have still happened. 

So there you go. After having a lot of fits and starts with my knitting in general, I managed to finish some things that had no business taking as long as they did. But I will be able to share them with you soon, once they are ready for prime time and once I have some decent photos. 

I can tell you though, that if for some reason anything else needs to be re-knitted anytime soon, it's going into a time out! 

Is It Wrong That I Want One?

I saw an article last week, saying that these hats were being worn by a lot of people in Greenland in advance of the visit from the Vice-President and the Second Lady. 

Is it wrong that I want one? I don't want America to go away, really. Just the current iteration of leadership, from the top right down to the local level. They really all need to just go away.

*****

Here we are, on the last day of March. I know that Kym's birthday is here, so best wishes! It's always nice to find another March birthday person. 

Of course that means that tomorrow is April 1, aka April Fool's Day. I have my volunteer gig tomorrow morning, so I hope the kitties are not planning a prank for me. 😊 (Though I should probably be more worried about my own kitties at home, to be honest ...)

Have a good rest of the day, and here's hoping that April has good things in store for all of us.

Words for the Weekend

Scrolling through Instagram this morning, I came across this, and thought it was well worth sharing.

Have a good weekend!

Well, I Didn't Mean To Do That ...

Hello there, and happy springtime! I certainly didn't mean to disappear for as long as I did. But when you have two weeks in a row where every day has at least one thing going on that zaps your will to live, you tend to let a lot of things go by the wayside.

Today is the first day in two weeks that I have absolutely nothing going on - no appointments, no obligations, no must-show-up-at-a-certain-time events, and boy is it nice! And I do have something tomorrow, but it is my monthly lunch get-together with my friend Louise, so that doesn't count as part of all that has come before - that's something I'm looking forward to doing!

Anyway, spring has sprung in the garden: 

These little narcissus are a happy surprise for me. A couple of years ago, I bought a small pot of them for Easter, and then once they were finished blooming, planted them in a spot in the garden where I thought they might be happy. And of course within days, the squirrels had dug up the bulbs! But apparently not all of them, because these bloomed unexpectedly, and there are a few others that look like they are trying - so what a nice surprise when I noticed they were there. And it looks like a tulip that was in the same situation is trying to come up as well. Maybe my gardening works better when I assume it's not gonna happen ... 

And my forsythia in the big pot is blooming, which makes me extremely happy! Though I need to figure out how to take care of it better, because it's pretty spindly. I wanted to cut it back last year, but a neighbor said not to, because it would not bloom again. Since she has all kinds of flowers and plants in her garden and is successful, I left it alone. But it's just gangly and spindly, with flowers at the end of the branches only. So time to do some research. (Please feel free to share any info you might have about forsythia - I would appreciate it greatly!)

Of course last night it was in the low 30s, temperature-wise, so I'm not sure how well anything will be doing now ... 

My next project is to get new glasses. I had an eye exam on Monday, and I had taken the glasses with my most recent prescription in them that I had been wearing when I fell in January. One lens got knocked out, and the other terribly scratched. Well, I got a new prescription anyway, so when I handed them over, we realized that not only had a lens popped out, but the frame was broken, and of course not in a way they can repair it. I don't want to give them the frames I'm currently wearing, because then I have no glasses at all - and though the ones I'm wearing have my previous prescription in them, they are better than nothing. So I went to the Warby Parker near us, and found three frames I liked, and brought them home to have The Tim help me decide (they have a "free" try-on program). Then I'll return the ones I won't be using, and drop off the other one at the eye exam place. So theoretically, in two weeks I'll have new glasses with the most recent prescription. Which will not just be nice, but will close out the last part of getting things taken care of after my fall in January. 

And that's all of the news and blathering I can think to share right now. I'm working on laundry today, so I should check on it as I think I heard the buzzer on the washing machine a minute or so ago. 

I hope all of you will have a good day. I'm looking forward to this afternoon, since it is Opening Day for baseball, and the Phillies game will be on TV. It's not the home opener - that's on Monday - but I've been looking forward to seeing how they will do this year. 

Let's hope it's a good season!

Revisiting Some Oldies But Goodies

Hello! Before I write any more, I wanted to thank everyone who sent birthday wishes to Milo the Koodle. It was truly lovely, and I think he had as good of a birthday as he could without his bestie, Pip. But we did our best, and he liked the treats and the playing and the extra attention, and really what else can you ask for, whether or not you are a cat??

The other day, I was remembering when I started this blog. One of the things that was really popular - because blogs were "social media" then - was people thinking of Q&As, answering for themselves and then tagging other bloggers to do the same. It was kinda fun, and you could learn something about people that they might not otherwise have a reason to ever tell you.

So I decided to give one of them a try today. The difference is, I'm not tagging anyone else to do the same. You are more than welcome to if you like, but when I know when I am tagged for anything, I feel obliged to at least consider whether or not I want to "play along" and frankly 99% of the time, I just can't be bothered. So whenever I do one of these posts, if you feel inclined or inspired to also do one, go for it. But trust me, I'm not going to pressure you!

Today we are revisiting:

Ten Things About Me That You May Not Know

1. I did not graduate from high school.

2. I have both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree.

3. I went with my mother and my sisters went to the 1964 World's Fair in New York. My father was there for this work, and so it was our "vacation." The *only* line my mother was willing to wait in was for the Vatican Pavilion. Otherwise, we saw exhibits with either short lines or small ones. You know, like the Bulgarian Pavilion ... We were allowed to get one souvenir each. I opted for a hat with my name embroidered on it. But the guy misheard me, so I ended up with a souvenir that said "Richard" on it.

4. I was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, but have lived in many many places, both as a kid and as an adult. I have lived in Philadelphia for longer than anywhere else, and the house where we live is also the longest I've lived on one house during my life.

5. I was named for my great-grandmother. If I had been a boy, my name would have been Jeremiah Patrick, after my great-grandfather.

6. The first place I clearly remember living was at 162 Park Avenue. Teaneck, New Jersey. 

7.While we lived there, my father brought home my first pet, an white angora kitten he found at his work. I named her Frosty Fitzgerald Arthur (we didn't know at first if she was a boy or a girl, hence "Frosty"; JFK had been elected President, leading to the "Fitzgerald"). She lived to be 18 years old, and her favorite person was always my father; she died about a year after he did.

8. I have only been to a kids-type camp once in my life. It was Girl Scout camp, and a) I hated it, and b) I left early because my hand caught on fire at the camp fire when the girl sitting next to me failed to watch where she was aiming the stick with her s'more on it when she took it out of the fire.

9. I have a fake belly button.

10. I have survived three types of cancer: breast, ovarian, and kidney.

So there you go. The sad thing is, while writing this, I thought of at least five or six additional things, and I'm sure if I went ahead and decided to include those, I'd think of even more! Which is why you're still getting TEN things, no more than that! 😊

A Birthday Post

Things have been rough so far this year, so it's especially nice that we have a little more than a week of various happy things starting today.

Happy Birthday to Milo the Koodle!

This stinker turns 13 years old today! Life is never boring with the Koodle, I have to say. He definitely keeps us on our toes, and keeps the other cats on alert a lot of the time. He's still missing his best Pip buddy (as are all of us), so we are hoping to make this birthday an extra good one for him with lots of attention and treats. 

He is actually a very good boy overall, and cuddly - as long as it's when HE wants to cuddle! He doesn't miss much that happens around here, and every morning he sits right next to me when I have my breakfast. If I'm having cereal or oatmeal, he insists on having the very last bit of milk in the bowl - and if I am not forthcoming with said bowl, he will tap me on the arm with his claws in the event that maybe I have forgotten he's there.🙄

Nothing is as much fun to him as a game of Kitty Tease (the fishing rod with a bit of fabric at the end) - he LOVES playing that! The biggest problem is that he is not happy to share it with anyone else. He'll "catch" it, and then hold it in his iron jaw until something distracts him and I can pull it out so the others can play. 

So we'll have some Kitty Tease time today, and there will be treats. I bought a can of his favorite wet food to split among that cats for his birthday dinner, and I bought him a catnip toy which I'm sure will be the cause of much hilarity for all. I'll stop at a local place and buy a cupcake so we can have a candle and sing "Happy Birthday" tonight. 

We could all use some reason to celebrate. 💖

In My Next Life ...

1. Who are these people?

2. Where are they, and why do they look so content?

3. They are all white - so ... where is this, geographically?

4. Am I the only one who thinks the female patient almost looks like Carmen Miranda, with that plant above her head, looking almost like a hat??

5. Spoiler alert - the person who made this illustration has likely never visited a doctor's office or medical waiting room.

I had an appointment yesterday for my annual mammogram and a breast ultrasound. My appointment for the mammogram was for 9:30 a.m., and the ultrasound was at 10 a.m. I arrived as instructed by 9:15. I got home at 2:30 p.m.

My appointment was in a brand, spanking new, high-end, all-the-bells-and-whistles new building. Previously, I had gone to another building about a block away, and though it was likely about 40 years old, it wasn't an awful place to wait and/or have the appointments. So I was curious to see how the new place was so much better and more wonderful.

By the time I left, I decided that I should become a "patient consultant" to places building new and "better" facilities. Because this one had lots of issues.

Aesthetically, it is fine - new and "modern" looking, but not in an overly offensive way. No one would mistake it for anything other than a 2000s medical building, at least here in the U.S.

You enter into a glass-enclosed atrium. There are upholstered chairs placed in different areas of the lobby, along with the requisite large potted plants. And as you look around, there are kiosks situated along part of one wall, and tucked wayyyyy into a corner is a very small desk console with "Information Desk" on it in barely visible signage. There are three different elevator banks, again with barely visible signage, telling you what elevators go to what floors.

The kiosks are apparently where you initially "check-in." My instructions said to bypass those and head directly to the 4th floor. I was grateful for that, because I could tell that many people trying to use the kiosks (some quite elderly, and some for whom clearly English was not their first language) were having troubles, and there were lines behind them of 4-5 people each, which I'm sure didn't help.

I got to the 4th floor, and for the first time saw a decent sign telling me where to go. However, once there, it was unclear if someone worked there to check you in. I did find that person, behind a screen, and got checked in. 

After waiting a while, my name was called and I was directed to the Changing Room to change into the hospital gown for said procedures. The "lockers" provided to store your clothes, etc., were the size of a cubby at a pre-school. So you were supposed to put your winter coat AND your clothes in there. The person directing me said to bring my purse and any valuables with me, because the locking systems on said lockers didn't work. She vaguely pointed down the hall to the waiting room. And the hospital gown was in fact not a gown, but a cape - I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for something resembling a sleeve until I figured THAT out!

The waiting room as a) tiny, and b) had couches. Only. No individual chairs. Now I don't know about you, but I don't really enjoy sitting on couches with people I dont' know. Plus, couches encourage people to spread themselves and their belongings out, and there was a lot of woman-spreading happening. There was absolutely nothing else in the waiting room - not even a fake plant. And at one point, a couple of people had to stand, because the room was small and there was not any seating left. I was in there for an hour and a half, and let me tell you, I got really tired of just looking at my phone. There weren't even any "paintings" on the wall to stare at senselessly.

Then I got called for the mammogram. Holy crap, that room was HUGE! I am not kidding when I say it was approximately the size of our first floor in our house. And yes, there was lots of equipment, but there was also enough space to host a gathering. 

Then I was sent to another waiting room to wait for the ultrasound. Same set up as the first room. I waited in there for 2 hours. Finally got called to the ultrasound room, which seemed much more reasonable, size-wise. Then sent back to the waiting room to wait for the doctor and get the report from both tests. Another 2 hours. 

Once that was over, I was told to go back to the changing and leave by the "exit door, not the same door you came in when you first arrived." So I wandered down a poorly-marked hallway until I saw a small sign that said "Changing Room." It looked vaguely familiar and fortunately, it was the right place. Then I had to find my way to the exit, which was once again a) circuitous, and b) poorly designated, signage-wise.

When I FINALLY got home, I decided that in my next life, I should set myself up in business as a person who represents "the public" whenever someone is planning a new building. Because this new building may have been bigger, brighter, and contain more/better (?) technology, but it was a disaster as far as design usage was concerned for patients. I was honestly appalled, because the older building I was used to was only frustratingly the same as far as the small, cubby-sized lockers. It was the one thing I had expected to be an improvemenet in the new building.

Once again, I told myself that in a Bridget-centric world, that building could have been so much better. Unlike most of the time, I hope I get one of those surveys they send after an appointment - I have a lot to tell them!

On top of which - I have to go back for another test at the end of the month - GAH! I told The Tim that maybe I should pack a lunch ... 

What, Pray Tell, Have I Been Doing?

Hello all, and I hope where you are is as sunny as it is today in Philadelphia! I have already been out for my walk, and hope to get out again at some point for some more enjoyment of a sunny and cool day.

I thought I'd catch you up on things I've been doing, crafts-wise. It's been a while since I had much to say about my knitting, and even longer since I've done any stitching, so here you go.

A couple of years ago now, I finished stitching this little Rudolph counted cross-stitch ornament. Then I set it aside, and last year when I went to finish it so I could hang it on the tree, I couldn't find it. I found it when we were putting things away, and left it out so that I could have it *completely* ready for next year.

It was seriously a matter of putting the fabric around a little core that came in the kit with it, and then gluing it into this little pie tin and putting a ribbon through the top for hanging. So this December, it will be ready to be included on the tree! (After I put it away safely, I looked at this picture, and realized there was a loose thread hanging out of it. 🙄 Rest assured I'll take care of that when I pull it out with the other decorations.)

These next two things are knitting projects I've been working on. Just below is the start of my Artus shawl.

I'd hoped to start this last fall, but didn't. And trust me, there's a lot of it left to knit - some parts with charts, which means it will take me even longer. But so far, I'm enjoying the knit, and I love this waffle texture that you start knitting. I have no deadline for this - I'm hoping to have it for next fall, but as long as I can use it next fall or winter, I'll be happy.

My sweater is really getting closer to being completed. Right now, I'm working on the sleeves, and am very close to finishing the first one. Then I'll do the second and then finish the body. I am finally trying the method of getting a bit of the body done, and then doing the sleeves before finishing that. It means you have a lot less fabric flopping around when you are doing the sleeves. And it also means that when the body is finally finished, the sweater is finished!

I'm not saying much more about this now, because I don't want to jinx myself. But I am thrilled with how it looks!

I've also been working on a pair of socks, but haven't taken any photos of them yet. (I had to save something for next time, right??)

So I have been busy with some things, and the good news is that I am happy with all of them. 

*****

Other than that, I'm glad all of you took my last post about names in the spirit it was intended, and got a laugh or two out of it. Of course, once I finished the post, I thought of at least ten more names that have amused me, but I'm sure we all have some. I was just worried once I posted it that people would think I was making fun of people. And I guess in some ways I was, but I promise I wasn't intending it to sound callous or vicious. I have no room to talk, having spent my life with people either mangling my name, or calling me something else altogether! 

Tomorrow is the first day of March, and I'm happy about that. March is one of my most fave months. Usually February and I get along just fine, but since the month started in the worst way possible, it was hard to go along as usual. I'm hoping March proves to be as pleasing at it usually does. 

My weekend plans include a trip to a Joann Fabrics near here, to see if anything I usually like to find there is left at all, since they are going out of business. I have to say that the news is discouraging to me. Not that I spent all of my spare time there, but there are certain things I could always count on finding there at a decent price. And I did enjoy looking for fabric there - nowadays, there are so few places that sell fabric that you can see in person. And then if there are, a lot to of times, you can't afford the stuff! A new place opened here in Philadelphia, and it's lovely. But it's extremely high end, and not being an expert at sewing, I won't be spending any money on fabric there! 

Other than that, probably just the usual weekend activities (or lack thereof). I would like to get some projects around the house closer to being finished, but I'm not gonna beat myself up if I don't get to them. 

I hope you have a good weekend, and a good start to the month of March. Take care, and I'll check in again next week.

P.S. Apologies if you have commented recently, and didn't get a response from me if I have your e-mail address. I'm getting those weird error messages in my e-mail, and it seems that the only solution in the past has been to let it resolve itself. So I promise I'm not ignoring you altogether. 😊

Amusing

Today was my weekly shift taking care of adoptable kitties. Usually at least one person stops by to see them, and asks how to adopt them, etc. And of course, because they are people, there's a wide variety of comments, questions, etc. And today, one of them amused me, even if it was for the wrong reasons.

A woman stopped by to see the cats. At the moment, there are three tuxedo kitties, not related to each other, all different ages. One is 4 months old, and as you can imagine, she is bouncing all over her cage, having hilarious times with her toys. Another is a boy, 7 months old, who loves playing with his wand toy. And the third one is a year old female, who is very cuddly and likes to be brushed.

A woman came to look at them, and she was in love with the kitten. She told me that her previous cat got hit by a car because she was outside, and I said if she adopted from our group, she would have to sign a contract to keep the cat inside. She pretty much ignored that and kept going. She took at brief look at the boy, and said she didn't want a male cat, she wanted the kitten. She didn't want the year old cat, because she is "too old, weird looking, and has an ugly name." (Her shelter name is Risa, and she has a spot on her nose where she lost a bit of fur due to a non-serious skin condition.)

Now, as far as looks go, the woman I am talking about was, shall we say, not a head turner. She was probably about 40 years old, with no teeth, dark raccoon eyeliner, and greasy hair. And I know that I shouldn't have, but I found her comments about Risa amusing given the source.

On my way home, I was thinking about it, and was reminded of other times I was amused by people and their names. These are all people my mother knew, and I am 99% certain they are dead now, but if they are relatives or friends of yours, I apologize if you are offended.

My mother had three friends that she would do things with on a pretty regular basis in the years before she died. They were lovely women, willing to take her with them places and deal with her wheelchair like it was no big deal. My mother *always* called them their names in this order: Faye, and Kay, and Dot Mellott (prounounced like "a lot"). I found this amusing, but The Tim was particularly taken with it - telling my mother she was the only person he ever knew whose friends were "an internal rhyme."  He even wrote a poem about them, and I can only remember the first part:

Faye, and Kay, and Dot Mellot went walking to the town. 

Said Faye and Kay to Dot Mellot, "why don't we sit down?"

I don't remember the rest, but it was quite epic, and my mother found it hilarious. I have no idea if she ever mentioned it to Faye, and Kay, and Dot Mellot ...

Then there was the time when I was shopping with my mother - I think I was about twelve years old - and she ran into an old friend of hers from high school named Minnie Mumley. Now, we had all heard of Minnie Mumley, and found her name to be a source of great amusement. Meeting her was disappointing, because she didn't look to me like her name sounded. BUT even more amusing to both myself and my mother is that she said she had changed her name (at this point my mother was in her early sixties, so I guess Minnie was too?). My mother assumed she meant her last name, and asked her what she had changed her last name to, and she replied, "Oh I'm keeping Mumley - I changed my first name to Lillian." And the rest of the afternoon, my mother kept saying, "Well I don't get it - Lillian Mumley doesn't sound much better than Minnie Mumley." And my sisters and I thought this was quite amusing, to say the least.

The last thing I thought of were two elderly women who were in our parish and they were the types that were involved in everything, as well as being really nosy (in my mother's terms they were "nebshits). There names were Cynthia and Anna Bell, and they were regularly referred to by most people as "The Ding Dong Sisters" - of course, not to their faces. Well, one Sunday the priest was reading announcements for the coming week, and said something like, "On Tuesday evening, we will host _____. If you are interested, please contact Cynthia or Anna Bell." To which a very childlike voice piped up, "Mommy! He's talking about the Ding Dong Sisters!" and no one in my family can tell you anything else that happened afterwards because we had to leave (yes, we were all sadly too amused to recover). My father had gone to an earlier Mass, so when we came home a bit early, he wanted to know why, and my mother told him, and he said,  "This is why you're all going to hell," which caused even greater laughter.

Anyway, I thought this might give you a chuckle. I love names, all kinds. I love knowing what people name their babies, I love it when you come across a name that is just PERFECT for a person, or when someone with an even more unusual name than yours comments on how "weird" your name is (this used to happen to me as a kid - there were no other Bridgets walking around then wherever I went to school).

(Then there is the co-worker I had once who had gone to elementary school with a boy named ... Sheldon Fartslinger. We agreed that we hoped he was a mulitmillionare by now, to make up for all the times he was beat up on the playground as a kid ... )

I've Been Thinking

Hello! I hope you are all doing well, or at least as well as any of us can be doing these days. I was in the mood to post today, but didn't have one specific kind of thing to talk about, so you are getting a brain dump. If you are not someone who enjoys brain dump posts, feel free to move along. I certainly understand.

1. I've decided to teach myself how to use Canva. I don't really know why, I just thought it was something I'd try. I made this during the course of the morning, after many many fits and starts. I originally thought it might be a nice header for my blog, but couldn't figure out how to re-size it. I have a Chromebook and photo editing on it is still somewhat beyond my understanding. Which makes me think I should have learned that first. Oh well.

2. In the last month or so, I've seen a lot of knitting podcasts where they are talking about "unpopular hot takes." It's entertaining, but also makes you think about your own opinions and ideas. And I've found my primary hot take for now at least:

I'm tired of people writing patterns that use two yarns together. Usually it's mohair, sometimes suri alpaca, but either way I find it annoying. Yes, sometimes I think the finished object looks lovely. And yes, I've knit something carrying mohair with the main yarn (I made a beret in 2023. I liked it but gave it away, because it just *looked* like something one of my nieces would really enjoy, so she received it as a Christmas gift).

But unless the item is small - a hat, fingerless mitts, etc. - adding another yarn to a pattern makes it even less accessible to most people. For instance, I'm not a huge person, but purchasing a sweater or even a tee's worth of yarn is a lot of money for me. If I have to buy the equivalent amount of another yarn, it's twice as much, and often more. And even if it's something I would absolutely love to have, I'm just not buying the equivalent of two sweaters' worth of yarn, firstly because I can't afford it, and secondly because I think it's stupid. 

You do you of course. I'm not buying *your* yarn! 😊

3. I am proud of myself, because I hated the current lump of orange blobbery in the Oval Office, his vice president, and the owner of Tesla long before it was a thing. As in, years ago I learned that all of them were people with no substance, no moral compass, and no empathy. Not that it's helping now, but there you are.

4. Animals rock. Always.

5. A few weeks ago, I have one of my syncope episodes, which means I fell and made a mess of my face and my teeth yet again. And as of right now, there is still no way any of my doctors have been able to figure out what causes it, though they are all still trying. Fortunately, I was stitched up well and it has been long enough now that I don't look as awful or scary. I'm grateful it happened somewhere where people were around to get me some help. And yes, I know that it's another serious fall.

But you know what I also know? I'm really sick of people telling me that I should 1) be more careful, 2) find out why it keeps happening, 3) "walk around in bubble wrap, hahaha," 4) get better nutrition and sleep, and 5) insinuate that somehow I'm doing it on purpose. I would dearly love to say, "Or you could just shut up about it," but I am making an effort to be a kinder person and keep my mouth shut - much as I wish other people would do on occasion! 

6. I need to give more thought to things I decide I will "definitely do." You may or may know that I have said in the past, that any time I've signed up for a KAL, no matter how much I think I want to do whatever it is, I immediately become disinterested in knitting anything at all. 

Well, I keep doing it all over again with other stuff - small, relatively unimportant stuff, but it is still worth thinking through before I pledge to myself that "Starting on ___, I'm going/not going to do ____ for ___ amount of time." Because it inevitably leads to what I have started to call "The KAL effect."

That's all I have for you right now. I'm washing a few throws, and I just heard the washer signal that cycle is over, so I'm going to put them in the dryer. I've started doing chores/cleaning in small increments, and so far, it's being much more successful than any plan to do major cleanup on any given day. Of course, when we are having company or it's a holiday or something, I can be motivated, but in regular life, the small method is being much more successful.

See you again soon. If you are in the cold weather/winter zones, stay warm!