Temporary Setback = Time Out

Well.  It could be worse, but it's still annoying.

I mentioned that I was on the first sleeve of the sweater I have been knitting.  I had thought that I would do whatever I could to get that finished this week, because I really don't want the project to languish much longer.  So yesterday I was making progress - I even made it to the cuff! - when I took a look and thought, "Hm. That looks like it will be too much room around my lower arm/wrist area."  So I tried it on.  

The good news?  It will be the right size with the ease I was hoping for when it's finished!

The bad news?  1. Even though I was doing helical knitting (which I do not enjoy, sorry everyone who loves it!), it still flashed and pooled; not a big deal since I wasn't making it to be a "fancy" sweater, but if I'd known I would have just knitted it more straightforwardly; 2.  I was right about the sleeves.

So I put it in time out for now, and will rip back to a certain point and do the decreases more frequently to make it fit better.  I will also write down what I did so that the other sleeve will match (which should be obvious, but let's face it, I'm not always paying enough attention to even obvious things).  I'm glad I noticed it when I did, and not near the end of the second sleeve.  This way, it's annoying but not upsetting.  I didn't feel like thinking more about it/doing anything with it yesterday, so it can sit and rest for a while while my brain takes a break from it.  Honestly, I'm not upset about it at all, which is a good sign and also means that I *will* pick it up again and finish it.  Just a temporary setback.

Other than that, I am still deciding which yarn will be next for socks, and am working away on the other small project that has become a favorite.  I will try my best to remember to take a photo and share it with you soon.

***

Blog stuff:  First of all, thank you so much for continuing to read and comment!  You have no idea how it makes me happy.  I don't have a ton of friends in real life, and of course, like everyone else have not really hung out with anyone other than on Zoom for almost a year now.  So having blog friends is filling the void nicely.  

However, please be aware that I continue to have issues replying to comments.  I seem to be in yet another period where I send e-mail responses (when I have an e-mail address) and then 2-3 days later, I get the messages returned as "Undeliverable."  The other day, I decided to try responding in the comments to my latest post.  For reasons that I will never likely understand, Blogger would not accept/publish the responses!  After a while, I got tired of trying again and again and I gave up.  So I truly and sincerely apologize that my responses to comments seem at best infrequent and at worst, non-existent.  I even got The Tim to see if he could figure out anything since he is more technology savvy than I am, but he couldn't find anything that was clearly a problem.  

Please know that I do try to respond, and I realize that it's annoying to only get responses some of the time.  Trust me, I'm just as frustrated as you are.

And that's it for today.  I hope your crafting is agreeing with you, and that technology is treating you well - or at least not mistreating you!  😛

Pip and the Light-Up Ice Cubes

My niece Amanda is one of the best people I know.  She is funny, kind, and if she likes you even a little bit, you've got it made.

She also loves to share things - be it recipes, makeup tips, or items she finds along the way and decides that everyone needs one too.  The subject of this post falls into that last category.

A few weeks ago, she sent me a Facebook message that said, "OMG Pat and I just had drinks with some LED ice cubes I bought, and though he was puzzled at first, now we both love them!  Keep an eye on your mail."  And I thought to myself, OK, sure, but this is gonna puzzle The Tim to no end.  Almost immediately after that, I completely forgot the whole thing.

About a week after that, I got a package in the mail that contained what looked like small containers of many many many teeny tiny little beads.  Now, I admittedly have made some questionable online purchases in my day, but I was 99.999999% certain that I would never buy containers of small beads - and not so many, in any case!  Then I read the package insert, and it explained that they were the LED ice cubes, and how to use them.  

Fast forward, past weeks of The Tim asking me, "Why did she send those to us?" or "Why would she buy them in the first place?" or "I think they are dumb, we'll never use them," or variations of such questions approximately one hundred times.  Last Friday night, we decided to have a drink while re-watching a "Mad Men" episode  and The Tim decided to give them a try.  Before he brought them upstairs, he took a video, which has Pip sitting on the chair right next where he set the drinks, originally so he could take a photo to send to Amanda.  I could not easily figure out how to share that with you on Chromebook, other than the previous video link, but I have also tried putting it on YouTube, so this may work instead/as well - I mean, who knows? 

In case you can't see it, the video shows Pip taking a look to see what is happening.  But the funny thing in the video is that he looks for a couple of seconds, and then turns away as if to say, "Humans are so weird. That looks stupid."  He doesn't even have anything to say about it, which in his case, is quite amazing!

In any case, at least the thumbnail image above gives you an idea of the whole thing.  😀

In Which I Decide Technology Is Out to Get Me

As you may recall, earlier this year - right when the pandemic and quarantine got underway - my laptop died.  As in it was DECEASED.  No transfer of things from the old hard drive (RIP photos and documents), no saving of anything at all.  Which was excellent, because it was also when Zoom for work meetings and such became a requirement, and when The Tim was laid off, and all of the buckets of money we previously had (OK not even one full bucket) were pretty well dried up.  Timing, I tell you!

Enter our Discover card to save the day.  The Tim and I poked around, and because I trust his knowledge of such topics, we decided on a Chromebook for me, and purchased one.  (He actually enjoys looking into these things, whereas I would rather even go to the dentist.  And I HATE going to the dentist.  Anyway.)  Said Chromebook arrived, and I have been using it since.  My take thus far is that it's just close enough to a Windows machine to make you feel confident.  Until you go to do something where you discover it has NOTHING AT ALL IN COMMON with a Windows machine.  I have decided it was created to keep me humble.  Which as far as techmology is concerned, does not take much - someone should have warned it.

Anyhoo, we have been getting along well enough.  Not a love affair, at least not yet, but a good enough relationship to enjoy a cup of tea together once in a while, if you know what I mean.  And I think we'll become good friends down the road.

Then there's Blogger and e-mail.  Now *those two* are really and truly out to get me.  The latest thing, which has happened a bit on and off, but now seems somewhat regular, has to do with responding to comments.  I get e-mail notifications, as well as having to approve comments.  Mostly because I got tired of dumb spam that needed to be dealt with, and that was not even amusing spam.  In the past couple of weeks, when I have thought I reponded to comments where I had an e-mail address, days later I'll get an e-mail notification that the message couldn't be delivered for various reasons: the person doesn't exist, the mailbox was full, the address didn't exist, I failed to prove I was not a robot - you know, any number of what I now think of as "excuses."  So I actually started to take the time to respond in the comments.  I would write a response, it would accept it ... and then nothing would show up.  Rinse, lather, repeat.

Sigh.  It would be one thing if this happened on a regular, predicatable basis, but no, it just happens without any rhyme or reason.  Which I feel is legitimate proof that technology is out to get me.  Clearly the gods/goddesses/leaders of technology are messing with me and they don't just laugh when I have issues - nope, I'm 99.999999% sure that they guffaw for a minimum of ten minutes.  (I'm also not paranoid, clearly.)

Not to be outdone, I shall continue the best I can to communicate with those who leave comments, but I have to apologize in advance if you seem to hear from me just fine sometimes, and not at all other times.  I do promise that I read and enjoy comments, and when I can, I love to send a response. I'm not ignoring you/blowing you off, just suffering at the hands of the robot overlords and their creators ...

I swear, sometimes I feel like this guy:

So that's it for now.  I need to go and yell at some kids to get off my lawn. 😜

Just Go Along With This for Now

This was one of those busy weekends when I actually did a lot of stuff not just for myself, but around the house, and none of it is noticeable.  You know what I mean - you put things away, or spend some time on an ongoing project, and you're happy that it was done, but no one else would ever know?  Oh well, I know and that counts!

One thing I did "accomplish" that I can share with you is a couple of photos.  On my previous laptop, I used Irfanview to edit photos, and it was fairly straightforward and we got along very well.  Turns out that Irfanview doesn't work with Chromebook (of course it doesn't why should it, right?), so I had to find something else to try.  So after a ton of trial and error, I have these two photos to share, and though they are fine, I'm not completely happy with either of them, based on how I could have done them before.  I'm sure I'm the only one it bothers, though.

First up, do you remember the counted cross-stitch of the honeybee I finished last fall?  We got a frame for it, and nothing happened with that right away, and once the holidays arrived, forget it.  I finally got myself together enough to frame it a few weeks ago, and early last week The Tim hung it for me.

The reason this photo is at an angle, is because it is hanging above the stairwell where you go from the second floor down to the first floor, and this was as good a shot as I could get.  The closest that this comes to the actual gold shade of the frame is near the top left corner.  But I love the way it all turned out, and it makes me happy to see it whenever I'm heading downstairs.

Next up is one of the photos from Hamlet's birthday party.  One of his gifts was a new bed (the one we had belonged to Dug, and between the two dogs using it as well as the cats, a new one was in order).  As you can see, it was quite a hit.

Hamlet has even had the chance to use it once or twice since then ... actually for about the first week, he was only lucky to get next to it.  We keep telling him that he doesn't have to do the cats' bidding, that his head is bigger than both of their bodies put together, but nonetheless, here we are.

(Both of these photos took HOURS to get to look like this.  Sigh.  Good thing I have a lot of time to spend these days!)

I also spent some time starting to wash my winter sweaters to put away.  Though we have had some cool nights and early mornings, and there were a couple of days last week where the mornings in the high 30s/low 40s, I've decided that since this coming weekend is Memorial Day weekend, we're not likely to get many more - if any - of those.

This week I hope to get to work getting the garden more cleaned up.  The Tim got started with some of the big stuff, but I want to finish and we want to get some plants for there and the planters in front of our house.  That's the big thing I'd like to accomplish, but there are also a bunch of smaller things that are on my mental list as well.  Needless to say, we won't be traveling this year for Memorial Day, but I'm hoping that if we have some nice weather that we could have a little picnic in the garden if things are enough in order.

That's really about it.  My knitting projects continue, a bit slower than before since one of them in particular makes my one elbow uncomfortable, so I don't spend as much time knitting.  I'm hoping once that project is finished, the discomfort will also be gone.  I've done some reading, and am also catching up on some movies and TV shoes that we have had hanging around but never got around to watching yet.

I hope your weekend was OK, even if not exciting.  Don't forget to wash your hands, wear a mask, and stay home!

Well It Was Nice to Have Hope For a While

Again, I am not claiming my life is more difficult or tragic than people with real problems, so don't even bother to make those kinds of comments, because you know what?  I'll just delete them, so you've wasted your time and mine.

Looks like the hard drive from my old computer is really and truly dead.  So a lot of documents and photos are just plain gone.  And I have to tell you that it breaks my heart, because since I don't have a photo printer, it's not like I have printouts of the ones that mean the most to me.  True, some of them are on the blog or Instagram, etc., but that's not the same.  Some of them were of people and pets I will never have a chance to see again that I did not print out and were there long before social media or my blog existed.  Some of the documents were things I used regularly to help with paying bills, or knowing who to contact when issues came up both financially, or with repairs, etc.  You may say, well why didn't I back them up.  I did, but that drive died a few months ago and I had not been able to get a new one yet, I thought due to finances but finances mean nothing now when no one has any extra money anyway.

OK, so my pity party is over (at least here).  I have my memories, I have a few old printed photos that are now more valuable than ever, and hopefully I can recreate some of the documents if I can find the info all over again.  Life goes on and I will too.

In news about my Chromebook, I did get photos loaded from my camera into my Google Drive cloud or whatever.  However, I have not yet figured out how to edit anything, and sadly, nothing is "automatically" sorted the way it was (or that it was set up for me) on my old computer, so I know some of what I will be doing this weekend!

I do appreciate that so many of you agreed that The Tim and Hamlet were the ones to be blamed for my previous laptop's demise.  Because let's face it, the world is better when you can blame someone other than yourself, right?  😉

I hope all of you are hanging in there OK.  I particularly hope that none of you are part of the groups ignoring social distancing and showing up places where you shouldn't be without masks!  Someone on Twitter posted "If it's 'weak' to wear a mask, do these same people not use a potholder when taking something out of a hot oven?"  Good one, no?

Finally, here is a cartoon that a friend posted on Facebook that I thought all of you might find amusing - I know it pleased me when I saw it, both the words and the illustration.

Have the best weekend you can, and I'll see you next week, maybe even having figured out how to edit some photos so I can share them!

FIguring It Out All Over Again

Hello all - did any of you miss me?  I'm guessing probably not, and that's a good thing! 

Last Thursday, I had one of my [too] many Zoom meetings for work.  I was in the middle of it, when The Tim walked through the room and tripped over the cord connecting my laptop to the power source (I was in a different space so that he could do his stuff without interruption).  Well, the laptop crashed on the floor, disconnected, etc.  So I had to get reconnected, rejoin the meeting, etc.

All of that might have been fine, except that about two hours later, when I was in my usual spot, reading some blogs, Hamlet came over, and jumped on me, causing me to drop the laptop.  After which I could turn it on, but it just beeped and beeped and beeped.  So I passed it along to The Tim (our local IT dept), and he determined that the laptop had finally succumbed. 

Because of course.  Just when we are rolling in money, and I actually need to use it for work stuff.  So he got me set up on his computer, which was very nice of him, but which also meant that I had limited access since we were sharing.  Which is fine, but when I needed to go to the [too] many Zoom meetings, it meant he had no chance to use the computer.  He ordered an enclosure for the hard drive of my laptop, to see if he could at least get the files (all of my documents and photos).  That arrived, and he as able to download those, so at least that is something.

The Tim said that he had no problem sharing his computer, but he felt it was really necessary for each of us to have one.  So he shopped around and now I am writing this post on an HP Chromebook. 

So to recap:

• I have my own laptop again.
• So far, none of my files have been transferred, nor do we know if they will be able to be.
• The Tim has his computer to himself again.
• I am trying to figure out WTF is going on with this thing, because on the one hand, it is fooling me into a sense of knowing how to use it, and then WHAM something is different and I'm starting over again.
• Our credit card bill will now be even more.  Sigh.

In the grand scheme of things, I know that I am incredibly fortunate that we have a credit card to purchase a new laptop, and that I am privileged in so many ways.  My old laptop was approximately 10 years old, so it had served admirably for longer than expected, when you get down to it.  We're both still alive and kicking, and have food, a place to live, etc.  I know that in all sense of the word, this was no big deal.

But it sure was annoying and upsetting.  And I wasn't ready to have to start figuring all of this out on top of everything else going on these days.

Most importantly, the thing we all need to remember is:  The Tim and Hamlet are the ones at fault here.  Right?????

Hope to see you again soon, hopefully with more figured out.  😊

Up and Running Again

Well, after a lot of fiddling and finally making a purchase of a teeny little wi-fi attachment, my laptop is back among the living.  This is pleasing, mainly because if it died, I was out of luck, since we are not even close to having available funds to purchase a new laptop.  But we were able to spend under $20 for the little attachment.  Phew!

You know what I missed the most?  Not being able to easily post here or read blogs, or do it in a leisurely way.  And not being able to watch or listen to the podcasts I enjoy.  Don't get me wrong, I do check social media regularly, but not being able to check it wasn't what bothered me the most.  Granted, I was also not overly upset about not being able to read blogs or the whole podcast thing, but I did miss it.  I did realize that I clearly spend a lot less time online than most people I know, so that was interesting.  Who knew?

Over the weekend, I did actually finish the knitting and the weaving in of ends on my Neverender!  You can sorta/kinda see it here (along with a bonus shot of Jack's butt ...).  You may remember that I mentioned finishing my Tart shawl as well, about ten days/two weeks ago.  Well, since then, I have been looking everywhere for my blocking stuff.  And I have had no success.  I'd gotten to the point where I figured I must have put it someplace weird where I would only find it after I'd broken down and bought new stuff.  I mentioned it yesterday at work, and one of my knitting co-workers said, "Oh my God - I have it!  You loaned it to me a few months ago, when I finished a shawl.  Now that I think I'm becoming a 'real' knitter, I bought my own stuff, and keep forgetting to bring it back to you!"  She felt bad, but I was just relieved that I hadn't put it all somewhere weird.  :-)  Of course, I will have to wait until next week to do anything even if she brings it to me today, because we are having guests for Easter weekend.  But soon I should be able to share some "official" FO pictures.

My next knitting project will be a special pair of socks.  A friend of mine's husband has been on dialysis for years, and has been going downhill quickly over the past couple of years.  She put out a call on Facebook for kidney donors, and though there were no matches as a result of that, a ton of people did get tested, etc. and put on the registry as potential donors, once it was shared, etc.  So that's good.  But even better is that a few months ago, they found a donor for a kidney transplant!!!  Sadly, they couldn't do anything then, because Brian was recovering from pneumonia.  But right now, the surgery is planned for May.  I have been feeling bad because other than sharing the Facebook post, I couldn't do anything to help.  But now that he will be able to get the transplant, I wanted to do something to celebrate.  So I found some lovely yarn and have decided to knit him a pair of socks.  He'll be housebound for at least 2 months after the surgery, and I know from experience that after surgery, even in the summertime, sometimes you can have cold feet.  So my next project will be to cast on socks for Brian.

(Of course, I may have something else going too, but those will be my primary project until they are finished.  I mean, everyone needs *some* variety, right???  ;-)  )

I am going to use a pattern that was just released today, the Red Brick Socks pattern from The Crimson Stitchery.

I am so thrilled that this pattern was finally released just in time for me to start Brian's socks!  (BTW, you can get a discount on the pattern by using the coupon code THANKYOU on Ravelry.  The code is good through April 25.)

So, I am indeed up and running again, and should be able to post regularly.  Technology is always good, until it isn't, right???