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. 

Good Friday FO: Birthday Socks

Well, OK it just so happens that I am writing this post on Good Friday. But I had these socks finished weeks ago, I'm just finally getting around to sharing the FO. 

With thanks of course to Alfie, who made it all possible ... 😂

Project: Birthday Socks

Yarn: Freckled Whimsy Serendipity Sock, Colorway Pisces

Needles: US size 0/ 2mm

Pattern: my own vanilla sock pattern

Notes: I have had this yarn for a couple of years, but every year would forget about it until well after my birthday. This year, I made sure that I put the sock set where I would see it, and finally, I could knit myself a pair of birthday socks! 

I didn't plan for this to be my birthday cast-on, rather I wanted to be able to wear them on my birthday. I started them in early February, so that I'd have plenty of time to finish them. Which turned out to be a good idea, since for a few weeks I lost my mojo, and I was also working on other projects, so my knitting time was divided among three different types of knitting.

The first sock was finished pretty quickly - that was before I lost my mojo. But the second sock suffered a bit, but I was still determined to get them ready for my birthday. And I did, finishing them a little bit more than a week ahead of time. I happily wore them on my birthday, and can attest to them being very comfortable, even though it was an unusually warm day for March. 

I really love the finished pair. The sock set came with the bright turquoise blue yarn for the cuffs, heels, and toes (I just did cuffs and toes). They are a closely related pair, but not identical, which is always fine with me. 

*****

As I mentioned above, today is Good Friday for Christians who observe the Easter season, with Easter itself on Sunday. My niece Amanda and her husband Pat are coming tomorrow to spend an overnight with us. We are looking forward to it, since they were not able to be here last year, and we really missed seeing them! This also means the return of the Inappropriate Easter Egg Contest, and it seems there are an overabundance of possible themes for this year! I have a really great idea (if a highly rude and inappropriate one) for an egg, but my challenge is also the drawing of my idea, so we'll see if I have any luck with that. I've considered a couple of ways it might work out, but the plan in my head doesn't always translate to the work of my hands, LOL. So we'll see.

If you celebrate, I wish you a very Happy Easter! If you do not celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful last weekend of March, doing what you like. 

I'll see you next week!

Easter Goodies

Hello all, and I hope you had a good weekend. Ours was very nice, and it was even sunny on Easter Sunday! It was chilly, but I don't care, because I was just happy it was sunny for all the people who were traveling or being outside.

We were thrilled because clearly the Easter Bunny thought it was worth it to stop at our house.

The kitties each got a basket, and a can of fancy food. Their baskets were a big hit.

Pip loved his so much, he knocked it over about four times while rubbing against it.

Milo the Koodle was somewhat suspicious of the Peep included in his basket.

And Alfie was intrigued by the whole thing - maybe he never got a basket before?

The Tim and I got some goodies too, if you look in the first photo. There was a chocolate bunny and a chocolate chicken sitting on a basket for us. We have no complaints ... 😊

It was a relaxing day. The Tim took two naps (what else is new?) and I took a short walk to get outside, then did some knitting and some reading. (It felt good to not have to work on a Sunday!) Dinner was yummy, and though we missed our usual company, we had a really good holiday weekend.

This week is actually - at least at this point - looking pretty quiet, which is fine with me. I'm hoping I can get a couple of declutter projects started, and I'm thinking of getting a pedicure later this week, just because. I also want to get out into the garden later in the week and start cleaning up out there. Other than regularly scheduled work, there are no other specifically scheduled things happening, which is nice because next week looks like it will be a real killer.

I hope the coming week will be a good one for all of us. I have a reading report and some new knitting starts to share with you, so look for those to show up. 

Have a good springtime week ahead!

Easter Weekend

Hello all! I hope if you are celebrating Passover, that you are having a happy and joyous one. I knew that it started this week, and then I lost track of the days, so I know things have already begun, but please know I'm thinking of you and hoping it's a wonderful holiday for you and your loved ones.

Today in the Christian world is Good Friday, a somber day leading to Easter Sunday, which is of course the complete opposite. Right now, in Philadelphia, it looks like the weather is somber as well - kind of bright, but not too bright. At least it's not raining!

Yesterday, I got a wonderful Easter surprise. Actually, it happened on Tuesday, but I only discovered it yesterday. I was cleaning out the backpack I've been taking with me to work, because it's a dark color, and once spring arrives, it just looks too dark and serious to me, so I switch to another bag. Generally speaking, other than adding my water bottle and my lunch each day, I don't check everything else in it each time.

So imagine my VERY happy feeling of surprise when I pulled out this plastic Easter egg!

This alone would have made my day. I expected it to contain maybe a couple of chocolate candies, but instead, I found this:

Can you stand it??? Such an adorable little bunny sitting in its own little nest of grass! Apparently on Tuesday, my co-worker Kathy (who I love and who is leaving after next week, sob) snuck this into my backpack. I would never have the patience to make something so small, but she makes all kinds of adorable things like this, and I was so incredibly thrilled to find one for me!

I hope that if you celebrate, you have a very Happy Easter. If you do not, best wishes for a lovely springtime weekend. And regardless of what you are or are not celebrating, I hope there is a good surprise in store for you.

Enjoy!

FO Post: Well That Took a Long Time!

I just looked on my Ravelry page, and apparently I started knitting my Easter socks on March 25, 2022.  I finished them this past Sunday, May 22, so ... it was a while

This was the yarn caked up - it came in two separate skeins, which I will admit that I like, because then I can knit a cuff, and then another cuff; a leg and then another leg; and on through the pair.  So that when I finish one toe, I only have the toe of the second sock to do!

Project:  Hoppity Socks

Pattern:  My own stitch pattern, on a plain vanilla sock

Yarn:  Timber Yarns Twin Sock, in the colorway Eggsquisite

Needles:  US size 1

Notes:  I was really excited to start this pair, figuring if I started in late March, I would easily have them ready for Easter.  And things moved along well, to a certain point.

Cuff, heel, and the start of the foot on Sock #1 - meaning that Sock #2 was finished to the end of the heel.  I used the Shadow Wrap Heel, shown in this video from Earthtones Girl.  I've made one other pair with this heel, and wanted to try it again.

Anyway, the pattern on the leg portion is one I made up, and I decided since it was scattered onto the leg of the sock, it reminded me of little bunnies jumping around, hippity hoppity, hence the name of this project.  (If anyone would like to know the stitch pattern, please say so, and I'll write it up and share it.)

Then I ran out of knitting mojo.  So the socks sat in the project bag for quite a while.  Weeks, actually.  I made a bit of progress on them over one evening, but that was it.  And then this past weekend, I decided that I was going to finish them, no matter what.  The good thing is, that I did finish them, and I have to say that I could feel a little bit of my desire to knit things return, so I'm glad I picked them up again.

They don't quite match, which doesn't bother me at all, and I love how happy and cheerful they are!  Nothing about knitting this pair of socks was hard - they only took so long to complete because of operator neglect.  😊

Right now, we're heading into warmer weather, so they may not be worn anytime soon, but I'm happy knowing that when I'm ready for them, they'll be ready for me!

A Closer-to-Normal Easter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But at least our holiday weekend was a happy one.

A Whole Lot of Not Much and I Am Easily Amused

Seems like it's been a long time since I've participated in Unraveled Wednesday with Kat and everyone.  The main reason is that although I've been reading, it's been slightly less than usual, and though I have been knitting, it's been way less than usual.  I've been having a flare up of arthritis in my right elbow, which was always annoying but now happens more frequently every since I broke my wrist a couple of years ago.  It gets to the point where it even keeps me awake if I move too much when I sleep.  It doesn't necessarily hurt more when I do knit, but it hurts more *to* knit when it's doing its thing.  So all of my projects are the same, with only very small progress on each one.

In any case, I decided to post anyway, because I am close to finishing a book that I have found to be really interesting, and I saw a freebie pattern yesterday that I thought was really amusing and worth sharing.

First up, I'm nearly finished with this book:

This has been a good read, both in the premise (the narrator is the wife of Jesus), and in the depictions of life and society at the time it is supposed to be happening.  Admittedly, I'm also imagining some people starting to read it and then getting to a certain point and thinking "WHAAAATTT???" and being shocked, dismayed, or whatever, and frankly that amuses me.  

As for the freebie pattern, someone shared this on Twitter yesterday, and not only is it free, but it's very timely:

Meet Jabby the Friendly Syringe!

This is a free pattern from Mochimochi Land, and it just cracks me up.  Not only because it's stupid cute, but because when else but in the current climate would it be considered appropriate to knit a friendly syringe??  Think about it - say, two years ago, people would have been saying it promoted opioid abuse or something, right?  

I can hear the sanctimonious outrage in my head: "Disgusting! She's reading a book about Jesus having a wife, AND sharing a pattern to promote drug use!" 

As you can see from everything here, I do a good job of finding things funny for all the wrong reasons.  Good times.

******

We had a lovely Easter, if another quiet one since our partners in crime couldn't visit to undertake the decoration of Inappropriate Easter Eggs.  Hopefully next year we can get the band back together.

The weather here in Philadelphia was beautiful, and we had a leisurely day just relaxing and hanging out with Pip, Milo, and Hamlet.  The Tim fixed a really yummy Easter dinner, and we did what we could as far as consuming chocolate in honor of the day.  If only life could be as pleasant all of the time, right?

Easter Sunday 2021

 Happy Easter if you celebrate this holiday!

And if you do not celebrate Easter, I wish you a lovely Sunday

to spend as you like.

An Overdue FO Post

I hope the day is a nice one wherever you are.  It's sunny and supposed to be about 60 degrees Fahrenheit today here, so it truly feels like a spring day!  Of course, that also means I'll have to have tissues handy, since I'm sure my allergies will be saying, "Yay, it's spring, let's really drive her crazy!"

Anyway, I wanted to share an FO that I actually finished last month, but forgot to post about.  And since this blog is as much to document my projects as it is anything else, I wanted it to have it's turn in the sun, so to speak.

TA DA!  Finito!

Project:  Stripey Kerchief

Pattern:  Polkagris Kerchief, by Kate Davies (Ravelry link)

Needles:  US size 3

Yarn:  Milarrochy Tweed, in the Hirst (natural) and Lochan (navy) colorways

Modifications:  None

Notes:  As I mentioned in a previous post, I knit this to replace my Silk Kerchief, which I loved and wore to the point where it started to just fall apart.  Since the pattern is no longer available, and I was not able to retrieve the patterns I had saved on my previous computer, I had to find something else.  I thought this pattern might fit the bill.

This was a VERY quick knit, and if you know how to do kfb (knit in the front and back of the stitch) increase, you're good to go.  I knit this in a week, and it only took that long because I also worked on other projects.  I like the way it turned out, and think that the straight lines in the middle are a cool feature.  

Of course, now that it's finished, I haven't had a chance to wear it, and I just put it away until next year.  It's either been seriously cold, requiring a long scarf, or a temperature where something around my neck would just be too warm.  So I'll be thrilled to see it next winter, I'm sure.  Then I will be able to determine if I have the same love and devotion to it as I did to my Silk Kerchief ... 😉

*****

Another week is underway, so hopefully it will be a good one, or at least not a terrible one.  I have a dr appt later this morning, and another one on Wednesday afternoon, but besides those and of course being back at work after my week of vacation (😭), I don't have any other obligations that I know of at the moment.  I am hoping to get a couple of small projects finished that I planned to work on last week, but that were left alone since I ended up not having the mental capacity I had expected to have.  

And I also just realized that the first weekend in April - which is only a couple of weeks away - is Easter!  I guess I just assumed it was later in the month, and boy was I surprised ... I hadn't really thought of it since I knew I wouldn't need to prepare for our usual company.  This will be the second year we won't be having Easter with my niece Amanda and her husband Pat.  Oh well, NEXT YEAR OR BUST, right???

Easter Weekend

Hello everyone - I hope all of you had a good holiday weekend of your choice, or if you do not celebrate any of the spring holidays, I hope you had a good weekend overall. 

Our weekend was very nice, but also very different than usual.  This is usually the weekend that my niece Amanda and her husband Patrick come for a visit.  Besides just general hilarity, good eats and drinks, and going to Easter Mass together, we create our masterpieces of Inappropriate Easter Eggs.  So Easter weekend is generally a weekend that is just a blast.

This year, it was a lot quieter.  Needless to say, *no one* was coming to visit other than a certain Bunny, and we were only going out when necessary - walking the dog, The Tim made a run to the grocery store on Thursday.  But we still had a good time however we could. 

On Saturday, I spent another couple of hours sewing two more masks for us (so that we wouldn't have to be sure the ones we had were dry before going out again!), this time using ties made from old t-shirts.

Let me tell you, they are somewhat more comfy than the tape ties, but they needed serious trimming, since they were soooooo long.  ;-)  But this time, they were started and finished pretty quickly, unlike my first go-round which took a really long time.  This time I knew exactly what was involved, so there was not as much time spent making mistakes.

Later on Saturday afternoon, we colored eggs.  They turned out really well, and they are pretty, but without our usual partners in crime, they were just the usual types of Easter eggs.  It was fun dyeing them and personalizing them, no matter what.

When we woke up on Sunday, everyone was pleased to see that the Easter Bunny had in fact been able to make a visit!

Always a good way to start the day.  I watched Easter Mass on TV, while The Tim made us a yummy breakfast, and then we had a Zoom get-together with Amanda and Pat so we did get to see them and have some laughs.  The rest of the day we just relaxed, and The Tim made a nice Easter dinner as well.  So though  it was a little weird and extremely low-key, it was nice and we were able to be together. 

Not a lot else is new.  Yesterday was a pouring rain, heavy wind day, and fortunately today is sunny, though not that warm.  But it's so nice to see the sunlight after yesterday's deluge.  We have an all-staff Zoom meeting at 2:00, where we will get updates on what is happening with our schedules, and if any big changes like layoffs or salary reductions will be coming.  The only good thing about those meetings is that the CEO is a stickler for having them only last an hour.  I have another section meeting tomorrow afternoon, and then a dept meeting on Thursday morning.  I realize they want to stay in touch and keep everyone on top of things, but most of the meetings are a bigger waste than usual because no one has anything new of different that we are doing or trying to do.  But I guess meetings are the bane of existence whether you are at home or working from home!

I'm going to sign off now so I have some time to myself before I have to get back to the computer.  I hope all of you are well, and hanging in there.  See you again soon!

Easter Sunday 2020

A List of Praises, by Anne Porter

Give praise with psalms that tell the trees to sing,
Give praise with gospel choirs in storefront churches,
Mad with joy of the Sabbath,
Give praise with the babble of infants, who wak with the sun,
Give praise with children chanting their skip-rope rhymes, 
A poetry not in books, a vagrant mischievous poetry
living wild on the Streets through generations of children.

Give praise with the sound of the milk-train far away
With its mutter of wheels and long-drawn-out sweet whistle
As it speeds through the fields of sleep at three in the morning,
Give praise with the immense and peaceful sigh
Of the wind in the pinewoods, 
At night give praise with starry silences.

Give praise with the skirling of seagulls
And the rattle and flap of sails
And gongs of buoys rocked by the sea-swell
Out in the shipping-lanes beyond the harbor.
Give praise with the humpback whales,
Huge in the ocean they sing to one another.

Give praise with the rasp and sizzle of crickets, katydids and cicadas,
Give praise with the hum of bees,
Give praise with the little peepers who live near water.
When they fill the marsh with a shimmer of bell-like cries
We know that the winter is over.

Give praise with mockingbirds, day's nightingales.
Hour by hour they sing in the crepe myrtle
And glossy tulip trees
On quiet side streets in southern towns.

Give praise with the rippling speech
Of the eider-duck and her ducklings
As they paddle their way downstream
In the red-gold morning
On Restiguche, their cold river,
Salmon river,
Wilderness river.

Give praise with the whitethroat sparrow.
Far, far from the cities,
Far even from the towns,
With piercing innocence
He sings in the spruce-tree tops,
Always four notes
And four notes only.

Give praise with water,
With storms of rain and thunder
And the small rains that sparkle as they dry,
And the faint floating ocean roar
That fills the seaside villages, 
And the clear brooks that travel down the mountains
And with this poem, a leaf on the vast flood,
And with the angels in that other country.

Six Months Later, an FO Post!

Oh 2019, you will be the year of so few projects!  But that's OK, I'm not in a contest to get a certain number of things finished to win a prize.  But I have two recent FOs and after so long, it's a nice feeling to have things FINISHED.

First up is my Sweet Tart Shawl. 

Not difficult - it just takes a long time when you can't knit due to a broken wrist!

Project:  Sweet Tart Shawl

Pattern:  Drea's Shawl by Craig Rosenfeld

Yarn:  MadelineTosh Sock, colorway Tart; and Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino (no colorway listed)

Needles:  US 5

Modifications:  None

Notes:  This was an enjoyable knit.  Once I got the hang of things and remembered where to start the alternating yarn for the stripes, it was something that was easily able to done while watching TV, or talking to someone at a knitting group.  The stripes make it fun to watch grow, and by the time you get to the solid part, there's not that much more to go.  Now I just have to decide if it's for me, or if it will be a gift for someone.  The photo above shows the truest version of the colors, but the photo below of it being modeled by the Molly hanger, shows how nice it looks when you wear it.

This was my first time using Koigu yarn, and it was lovely to work with.  And I know that currently MadelineTosh yarn is controversial, but I have had this in my stash for a while, and it is my favorite colorway of that line.  When I worked at Rosie's Yarn Cellar, I was able to add a bit of MadelineTosh yarn to my stash because I got an employee discount.  Come to think of it, that's how I was able to accumulate most of my stash ... it was lovely yarn to use, and I am looking forward to using what is in my stash for other projects.  

I think I'll put this shawl away with the gifts, since I'd be putting my other shawls away until fall anyway, and if I am not inspired to think of it as the perfect gift for anyone, I'll keep it.  

If you enjoy making something that has some interest during the knitting, but is also an easy project, this pattern is for you - and it's free!  It's a win-win situation.  :-)

*****

We had a wonderful Easter weekend, and enjoyed our usual visit from my niece Amanda and her husband Patrick.  As is our tradition, we made our Inappropriate Easter Eggs, which I will share in another post.  But it made for a lot of laughs, and along with good food and drink, as well as perfect weather, we couldn't have wanted anything more.  I hope your holiday weekend was a good one as well.  I have to say that Hamlet and the cats were completely worn out today, as they had quite a good time, eating the treats that were brought for them, and getting all kinds of extra attention.  Apparently, being popular and good hosts can wear one out ...

Good Friday

"For greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends"

Every year on Good Friday when I hear/see/think of this passage, it really touches me.  It says so very much in just one sentence, and to me, sums up the meaning of the entire Easter season.

For anyone celebrating Easter or Passover, I wish you a very happy and peaceful holiday.

And a Good Time Was Had by All

Hi there!  I thought I'd post before today, but apparently I didn't get to it - I lead such an exciting life.  As in, cleaning for company, having company, cleaning up AFTER company, and having dr appts.  You know you are jealous ...

I hope you had a lovely Easter/Passover weekend.  We had a good one (the reason for the cleaning).  My niece Amanda and her husband Pat came for the weekend as they usually do on Easter weekend.  We always have so much fun, and fear not, the Inappropriate Easter Eggs were included.  I present 2018's offering:

This year, we have:  Carrie Fisher dying on a plane, Debbie Reynolds memoriam, #NeverAgain, Stormy Daniels duo, Trump, Stephen Hawking's wheelchair, Stephen Hawking being swallowed into a black hole, Eagles Super Bowl, and Hugh Hefner memoriam.  I was criticized for not boiling enough eggs for all of the ideas that were ready this year, but hindsight is always 20/20, right???  Needless to say, there was a great deal of hilarity related to this and just hanging out in general.  

I took yesterday off and had a nice day at home with The Tim and the kitties.  In the afternoon, I got the stitches removed from Part 1 of my dental implant procedure, but otherwise, it was a quiet and calm day of knitting and watching things we'd recorded.  I have a sinking feeling that a cold is looming, so it was nice to stay put.

I've fallen behind (so to speak) with my Box o' Socks efforts, since I was focusing on finishing the baby sweater in the previous post.  But now that it is on the way to its destination, I can get back to my other projects.  The socks I'm knitting are 70% finished, so I just need to get back to those, and my Big Blue Sweater is, I think, about 50% finished, so I'm not doing too bad.  And now that I have no real deadlines, I should be moving along at my usual pace.  I'm not in any big hurry for anything, but I don't want to let things sit for any length of time if I can help it.

There's not much else to report at the moment.  The snow that other places got yesterday was just rain here, so it's dried up by now, though it's supposed to rain today and tomorrow - April showers, right?  Everyone is enjoying Villanova's championship win last night in the NCAA March Madness, so that's fun.  It sounds like another parade is in the offing here!  And in the Women's NCAA championship, Notre Dame won, so that was exciting for us, as they are one of our faves.  To be honest, I was kinda afraid that the men's final would be Loyola vs. Villanova and that it would be way too stressful for me, as then it would have been the Jesuits vs. the Local team.  For better or for worse, that didn't occur, so I could concentrate on just cheering for the Wildcats.  :-)

I hope your week has started well, and that some kind of spring is finding it's way to you.  We have daffodils blooming in the front planter of our house!!!!

Easter Weekend Recap

Our Easter weekend was different than it usually is.  For years, my niece Amanda and her husband Pat have come for the weekend and we celebrate together, the highlight being the Annual Inappropriate Easter Egg competition.  This year, Amanda had to work on Saturday, so we were on our own.  I had taken Friday and Monday off, and after thinking about it, decided what the heck, I was still not gonna go into work on those days!

Things started on a positive note, when I got a haircut after work on Thursday that I really liked.  (A story for another day, but I'm still really pleased with it.)  Friday, I didn't have any specific plans, but figured it would be a good idea to get some Easter candy before the last-minute.  Since I was only buying some for us, I didn't worry about not being able to find things we liked.  It was a sunny day, so I did some walking around too, which was pleasant.  I also had to have an x-ray and some bloodwork taken care of, so I did that before anything else, and it was nice to get it out of the way.

Saturday morning, we had an appt to take Jetsam to the vet.  Poor sweetie, he hasn't been in years, between Pip being sick with urinary issues a couple of years ago, and Dug being sick last year.  The good news is, he's healthy overall.  Like Pip though, he has tooth reabsorption, so not only does he have to go back to get his teeth cleaned, he'll have to get some removed.  Poor Jet, his mouth has probably been hurting him for a while.  We agreed that his greatest strength as well as his biggest fault is that he is not a squeaky wheel.  He's such a chill kitty, and so good, a lot of the time he doesn't get the attention he deserves.  Of course he won't be happy about the attention he'll be getting, but he'll be happier in the long run!

The rest of the day was spent on stuff like laundry, running some errands, and watching some TV and movies we'd taped.  I kinda sorta finished the socks from Tuesday evening's post (yet another story for another day).  Relaxing and enjoyable.   We also had our Easter dinner that night, since The Tim had to work on Sunday.  (I feel about scalloped potatoes on Easter the way I do about stuffing at Thanksgiving - I start thinking about it weeks before, and can't wait!)

Easter Sunday, although The Tim had to work, he didn't have to be at work until 10:30 a.m., so we walked around the corner for breakfast.  Then we came home and let the kitties see if they Easter Bunny had stopped by.  Apparently, we were all worthy in his eyes.

The Bunny left treats for me and The Tim!  

And each kitty got a basket, as well as some treats.

This was Jack's first Easter, and he found it very exciting and curious!  They all had to inspect things.

Jack, Pip, Jetsam

Milo the Koodle, concerned because Jack had knocked over a basket (while Pip the Narc commented in the background!)

And then Jack discovered that jelly beans had the potential for hilarity.

(With Pip the Narc again commenting the whole time ...)

The Tim headed to work, and Jetsam, Jack, and I headed to the garden to do some cleaning up.  They mainly lounged around while I put some swept up leaves into trash bags.  (Pip and Milo kept acting like they wanted to join us, but would chicken out when I opened the door!)  Once that was done, I had reached a level of tired where I needed to stop for while, so I came in and took a break.  Then I took a walk, which was lovely and fun, seeing everyone in their Easter finery.  I did miss having Dug, dressed in his bunny ears, to walk with and enjoy the day.  Later The Tim got home, and we toasted the holiday with some wine.

Then on Monday, it was down to actually getting some things accomplished.  I cleaned out some junk from the basement, and cleaned up in our bedroom, where I had been more or less piling stuff since I broke my ankle in January.  It felt good to get those two things out of the way.  In the afternoon, I had a physical therapy appt, and then I purposely did nothing else, since Tuesday meant back to work.

So it was a really nice long weekend, with a combination of "working" and relaxing.  It felt like a nice break and except for Sunday, which was way too hot, the weather was pretty enjoyable.

It would have still been more fun to have our company, but we ended up with a perfectly happy Easter weekend anyway.  You have to know how to make things work if you want to enjoy life, you know?

Palm Sunday Weekend

Hi there everyone, I hope you are all doing OK, and that you had a good weekend.  I wasn't happy to see Monday arrive, but then again, I'm never that happy to see it.  After a good weekend though, it seems even more puzzling that Monday arrives so quickly ...

I had a good weekend - some fun, some cleaning up, some knitting, some reading.

Friday evening, we had tickets for one of the author talks sponsored by the Free Library.  It was Alec Baldwin, who you may know from, among other things, the TV show "30 Rock," which is one of our fave shows ever ("Good God, Lemon!").  He has written an autobiography, and had been asked to be part of the series.  Even though I think he is entertaining, he's also been a jerk and a douche in the past, so I was wondering how this was gonna go.

Well, it was a great evening.  He was thoughtful, funny, and very honest.  He talked about his childhood, and how he got started in acting instead of going to law school.  He addressed his crap behavior, and talked about how he is working hard to be a better person.  It sounds like his current wife has really been able to keep him focused on the important things.  I do hope so, since I think he can be hilarious.  He went into his Trump impersonation occasionally, which was really fun.  He also talked about the importance of taking breaks from social media (which he credits as helping him behave much more reasonably).  He said that in his household, there's no phones allowed at the dinner table, and for the adults, no phones or "screens" after 10 p.m.

It was all interesting and fun, as well as unusual, since we seldom go out on a Friday night!  Granted, we were home by 9:45, but it was still an evening out for us.

Saturday was a sunny but chilly day, and also pretty windy.  I mostly stayed put, and did some things around here, but I did leave the house to walk up to a little shop near us.  It's one of those tiny shops that has a little bit of everything - cute, funky, pretty, goofy - you get the idea.  They have lovely costume and nicer jewelry, and the one time I was talking to the woman who owns it about how I had two necklaces that needed repairs, but were not going to be something a jeweler would want to bother with.  She mentioned that she made jewelry, so to bring them up and she'd take a look.   So I headed up there, and she's gonna fix them for me! She said they are pretty quick and simple fixes, so I was excited about that.  They don't really have a big monetary value, but they do have sentimental value.

On my way home, I cut over on Delancey Street, which if you know Philadelphia, is a pretty fancy street of extremely large, elegant townhomes, generally costing millions (!) if they hit the real estate market.  Well, it was apparently my day, because I walked past an estate sale, and there was a really nice rocking chair sitting on the sidewalk as an advertisement.  It was skinny, and actually a price I would be willing to pay.  I tried it out, and it was also comfy.  It would be the perfect knitting chair for the room where I keep a lot of my yarn and other crafty stuff!  So I decided that, if I got home and The Tim was available to bring the car and help me bring it home, then it was meant to be for me (I had already asked if I could pay with a credit card instead of cash, which was fine with them).  I want to clean it up, both the wood and the upholstery, just because I want to feel it's as "fresh" as it can be.

My photography skills do not really do it justice - the fabric is a deep green.   The wood is in surprisingly good shape, and there are no issues with the upholstery.  I was so excited to have come across it!

Yesterday was another mostly at home day.  I did go out into the garden and started trying to get it to the point where I can start cleaning it up to enjoy.  I managed to sweep up two HUGE piles of fallen leaves, sticks, and things I prefer not to know about.  I got some of the stuff into trash bags, but ran out of steam.  But it's there, and it's a start, so that's encouraging.

Then, some knitting.

The stack o' knitting in the photo above contains a front, a back, and two sleeves for my Custom Fit sweater - whaaaatttt????  Yep, the pieces have been knit.  So now it's time to weave in the ends. block the pieces, and (gulp) sew them together.  So.  Yeah.  Huh.

It will happen, at some point, and hopefully sooner rather than later.  But I need a little bit of time to plan it out, and to be astonished that I actually am so close to really and truly being finished with this project ...

A big weekend.  A good weekend.  Hopefully this week can keep those vibes going.  As well as the momentum, since I'd like to finish cleaning up the house for the Easter holiday.  Of course, if nothing else, the promise of upcoming chocolate will assist with that endeavor!

Tuesday Tidbits

Hello there - I hope everyone had a happy Passover, Easter, or that you were able to enjoy a spring weekend recently!  We had a nice Easter, though it was very different than usual.  We headed to my niece's in Baltimore, to stay with her and her husband for the weekend.  Usually they come up here, but it was fun to see everyone there, and it had been a long time since we had headed south.

I have no particular reason for posting today, just felt like it.  So I decided to share some of my recent mind ramblings.  You may or may not find them worth reading.

Winter was stupid.  So many places got too much snow, and we barely got 1.5 inches all winter.  It was chilly a lot of the time, but mostly felt colder than it was due to the excessive amounts of rain we had instead of snow.  I was beginning to think I lived in Venice.

I really hope we have a nice, leisurely spring.  Sometimes we have what seems like two days of spring and then BAM! - summer heat.

I think having a gun is stupid.

Morally righteous and politically correct people bug me.

I have no desire to ever read any of the Twilight books, nor do I ever care to read Fifty Shades of Grey.

I'm tired of people redefining feminism to fit their needs, when they clearly have no idea what feminism is in the first place.

I'm really really really really really tired of the F word.

I'm really tired of people then using it in excess when they learn that about me. Ha ha.  Not.

I have been making a concerted effort to continue to practice my One Little Word, "kindness," since I couldn't agree with myself about a new word for this year.  However, I still need to remember to be kind a lot of the time, so though I am making progress, I still have some way to go.

I love animals.  I am suspicious of anyone who doesn't like them.  I am disgusted by people who mistreat them, and think they should receive harsher punishments than they usually do.

I have never, ever lived someplace (until I moved here) where so many vehicles regularly seem to run into houses and other buildings.

I am thrilled that baseball season has started.  I would like the Phillies and the Pirates to do well, as well as the Orioles, since my little great-nephew is a big fan.

I just got new glasses, and even though I have had trifocals forever, they are harder than usual to get used to wearing.  I am pleased with how they look, though.

I have some knitting FOs to share, as soon as I get some pictures taken - all completed in February and March!  After January was a lost cause from being sick.

"Game of Thrones" started last night, and we recorded it.  I am surprised at myself that I like it, since it is completely made up of things that usually annoy me.  Next Sunday the new season of "Mad Men" begins, and I'm looking forward to that as well.  Even though most of the characters are not that likable, I really enjoy the show.  The Tim and I have figured out that Sally Draper (my favorite character) is approximately if not exactly the age we were during the corresponding times.  Of course, neither of us had similar lives to hers, just the same events going on around us.

Having said all of that, my favorite show ever is still "Mr. Ed."  :-)

Resurrection!

The spirit of Easter is all about Hope, love, and joyful living.

-- Anonymous

Blessings to you and yours!

Easter Sunday