Happy Spring! And, An Introduction.

I was originally planning to write this post this morning, while it was still winter, but now Spring Has Sprung!

I have already noticed some buds on some trees and flowers, so hopefully we won't get a freeze that kills them off, because they look so happy! And I have all kinds of plans for what I would like to try and do with plants and flowers this year. So maybe at least one of those ideas will actually happen. 😊

*****

Now I must introduce you to the newest member of our family. A couple of months ago, The Tim said we should get another dog. No argument from me! He said that he wished we could get another Golden Retriever or a mix, because those are his favorites. Well, as you might be able to imagine, those are few and far between in rescues, especially around here.

So after I spent a LOT of time looking for that kind of dog, he casually mentioned one day that we should instead look for a smaller dog, Towards the end of both Dug's and Hamlet's lives, they had trouble with the steps, and The Tim would have to sometimes carry them up and down. He said that he thinks he couldn't really handle that anymore. OK, so I was on the hunt for a smaller dog. Trying to find a dog who was good with cats proved to be extremely difficult. But one day I was perusing one of the rescues I had been checking (having expanded my area for looking out of just the city), and I saw this photo:

Now really, when you see a face like that, you have to fill out an application, right?  Well, the description said he was approximately 7 years old, was part Schnauzer, and weighed 18 pounds. It also said he was good with cats. So I applied to adopt him, and we had a meet and greet with his foster, and on March 6, we brought him home!

His name at the rescue was Paper Boy, but we changed it to Angus Podgorny, which was the name of a character from an old Monty Python sketch that we always wanted to use for a pet.

Angus looks a bit different now - when he got to the rescue and was vetted, it was discovered that he needed several teeth pulled, and that his fur was so matted that he had to be surgically shaved (as opposed to shaved to look like a Schnauzer, I guess). So now he looks like this:

 

Get a load of the ears! I freaking love dogs with weird ears, and his have two entirely different lives!

He is very sweet, but also quite crazy and completely ridiculous. We do not know what cats he was tested with, but he's sure not calm around our cats, which we're hoping with time and training will no longer be an issue (the cats, I'm sure have already alerted PETA to their plight). But he's catching on, and already understands a few commands. It's only been two weeks today, so he gets some grace, you know? 

And he kinda sorta does look like a Schnauzer until you see him next to the purebred Schnauzer across the street! Then it's clear that there's something else going on, but he remains a man of mystery regarding that part of his heritage. 

Considering everything is still new to him, he's doing better each day. I have plans to hire someone to help me train him, just so he becomes a better member of society - people and animal-wise. The rescue said they had no idea how long he had been a stray, but they guessed quite a while from his condition when he was brought in to them. 

Next week we have a visit with a vet, because I wanted to establish a relationship before he would get sick or need care urgently. When I called, the woman on the phone asked me his name, and I said, "Well, we call him Angus, but his complete name is Angus Podgorny," and she responded, "Oh I LOVE a good Monty Python reference!" so I think we'll do OK there. 

So hello from Angus, who I'm sure you'll see here somewhat regularly. 

*****

Our plans for this weekend are to start cleaning up the garden, and also do some shopping. The weather is supposed to be agreeable for the most part, so hopefully we can start to make some progress on moving biggish pieces of trees that ended up there after storms out of the way. Also, we had a crazy couple of extremely windy days, so a lot of paper stuff flew into the garden one way or another and we'll clean that up too. 

And that's the news from here. I hope that Springtime will bring some light and happiness to all of us, and that whatever you decide to do (or not do), that you 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!

Birthdays, Train Trips, and Weekends

Hello! I just wanted to check in before we leave our house to walk to 30th Street Station here in Philadelphia for our overnight trip to New York. I didn't mean to be gone for so long, but this week brought more things going on than I had originally planned, and this was my first chance to write a post.

Milo the Koodle had a wonderful birthday on Monday - and has loved being spoiled a bit extra all week long. He is my Birthday Buddy, and it's fun to celebrate with him.

I had my birthday party (just us and the kitties, as usual) last night, and we had a good time. I also had a lovely day, since it was much warmer than March 14 usually is, so I was able to get outside and have an extra enjoyable walk. I was also doing some things in preparation for today and the weekend, but it was all stuff I wanted to do, and I was not on a tight schedule, so it was a lovely, quiet, pretty day.

Once we arrive in NYC later this morning, we are planning to visit the American Museum of Natural History for a couple of hours, since we can't check in to our hotel until 4 p.m. So we'll spend some time there, and then have a late lunch/early dinner, check in to our hotel and freshen up, and then head to the theater to see "Merrily We Roll Along." Talk about a full day! Then tomorrow, we plan to just head out for a nice long walk wherever our noses take us before making our way back to the Moynihan station to come home.

Of course, the combination of a change to our usual routines, and walking around outside for longer than usual will mean that we will need the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday to recover, LOL! But Sunday we will celebrate St. Patrick's Day altogether, without anyone having to be at work, so that will be the best. 

I hope your weekend is a good one, whether you are traveling, staying home, or even just staying in the house being cozy. I can't believe that Spring starts on Tuesday! After days of 60s-70s (F) degree weather, they are saying here that the first day of spring should have a high temperature of 45 degrees (F) - so I'm sure a lot of people will have a shock to their system. (Face it, we all know people who think that once the first day of spring shows up, they can put away all of their winter gear. As if.)

So enjoy, and hopefully I'll have some tales to tell about our trip the next time I show up here.

And Now I'm Kind Of Obsessed

Hello and Happy Monday! (I don't know if that's a thing. But I hope your day goes well, in any case.) 

We had a good weekend, nothing big, but everyone was in a decent mood, and yesterday especially the weather was lovely. It was busy at the yarn shop, but not crazy, so that was good.

Today I'm getting my hair cut, and I'm looking forward to it. It's time to go super short for the summer, so even though it's already what most people think of as short hair, a lot of it is getting cut off. 😀

Then I have a couple of small things I want to do, before I sit down to knit for a while. Right now, I'm working on a summer top and I must admit to being kind of obsessed with knitting it. I'm almost at the point where it will be joined in the front to make a V-neck:

I'm loving this so far! I did have to do a lot of ripping back and re-doing with the increases on the sleeves, but at last I'm on track. The stripes are making me happy, and I like these two yarns together. The coral-ish is some really deep stash yarn from MadelineTosh called Pink Grapefruit, and the lighter shade is a new acquisition, Fiberstory Fave Sock in the Barely colorway. I really didn't have enough of the Pink Grapefruit to do a whole top, and I didn't like anything else I had with it, so I could justify buying the other yarn in order to get some stashbusting accomplished. 

I'm knitting the Rock It Tee, and skipping the mohair for the alternating stripes because a) I want to be able to wear this in warmer weather, and b) because I'm just not that much of a mohair person. I like my version much better, LOL!

I started a couple of other things, but right now this is the one I want to work on all of the time. Which is fine, because maybe I'll actually finish it and be able to wear it in the time of year it is supposed to be made to wear! Of course, I'm also seeing this as something that would be fine under a blazer, a sweater, etc. in cooler weather. So I think it will be something really useful in my wardrobe.

And that's it from here for right now. I hope you have a project that is making you happy, and that the week treats us all well.

Good Signs in the Garden

This morning as I am writing this, it is really sunny and quite pleasant. I just returned from a walk, and went out into the garden to see how things are going there. You may recall that last year, I bought some plants and put them into large pots outside, and they seemed quite happy. Well, due to an unforseen series of events over last fall, I failed to look into the best ways to prune and/or fertilize them so that they would show up in some semblance of themselves this year.

So after my walk, Alfie and I went out into the garden to fill the birdfeeder and take stock of things.

I was thrilled to see that even though it probably should have been pruned, my forsythia has new blooms on it - when I bought it last year, the blooming period was already over and it was green, but that was it. I'm thrilled to say that there are quite a few little yellow blossoms!

The hydrangea looks like it is giving serious thought to joining us again as well:

And there are leaves and buds on one of the parts of the lilac bush, which thrills me!

My clematis that returned from the great beyond last year, has lots of green on it already:

And the one I bought last year, which seems to be more of a ground cover version, is also coming up! Once I can get out there and clear the silver beacon  around it, I'm hoping it will make itself at home.

And of course, the magnolia tree is quite pleased with itself (it usually is). 

This was so encouraging to me! Now if it will just stop raining for a while, I can get out there and clean things up, refresh some of the soil in the pots, and find out how to best take care of everything (if anyone has suggestions/info, please feel free to share!).  Then I'll be closer to having the pretty, flowerful garden I have been wanting to create, and at least until the *!!!^)^%$$# mosquitoes return, we can sit out there and enjoy it all. 

Alfie and I can't wait.

Spring!

Hello, everyone! First of all, thank you so very much for all of the kind birthday wishes. I had a wonderful day, and The Tim and the kitties made sure the evening was just perfect. 

So today is the first full day of spring here in the northern hemisphere, and for now at least the sun is out and the day promises to be a bright one. Which is nice, because I think the rest of the week is predicted to be rainy, ugh.

I saw these lovely daffodils on my walk the other day:

I love daffodils - not just because they are my birth month flower, but because they always look happy to me. I know I posted a photo in February of our daffodils coming up, which was disturbing because it was way too early for them. But these guys had the right idea, and waited to show up, and I just had to stop and take a picture.

So what are your plans for spring? I don't have any specific plans, aka a list, but I do want to start working on cleaning up our garden and making sure the plants are doing OK. I want to plan the next few knitting projects, since I am very close to finishing the cardigan that has taken forever! But I am not casting on another thing until it's completely done - I don't want a shiny thing to distract me when I'm so close. I know there are some other things rattling around in my brain for springtime, but the ones mentioned are those at the front of the brain.

And the aforementioned cardigan? Well, both sleeves are done, and yesterday I started the neckline/button bands (thankfully it doesn't actually have buttons), so really and truly, I'm close to the end. My hard deadline I've given myself is to have it completed by the end of March, but I may even have it before then. It will be nice to have it ready for the fall.

Yesterday Alfie had his first visit with our vet. It was just a wellness check so they could meet him and get an idea of any issues, etc. before we have to take him in at the end of May/beginning of June for his shots. He was not overly pleased about the carrier, but once out of it in the exam room, he was very busy looking around, and trying to get both the vet and the tech to cuddle him. He has to lose 1.5 pounds, but otherwise the vet was pleased with how well he seems to be. Fortunately when we got home, he seemed to forget about the indignity of the carrier altogether. 😉

So enjoy your first day of spring, and I hope you find something that will make you smile.

Reader, I Did Finish the Sleeves

I hope you had a good weekend, whatever you did or did not do.  Ours was quiet, but with some smallish things done around the house, so it was not all laziness!

As I mentioned in a post last week, I was hoping that by the end of the week, I could get the sleeves knit on the sweater I've been making.  BTW, I was amused by some comments about my "purple" sweater - I know it looked purple in the photos, but that is my lack of photographic ability.  It's actually a dark navy blue, which is incredibly difficult to capture when you are a point and shoot impatient person like me.  

Anyway, I had worked on the second sleeve and got to the point where I was so close to finishing, that I told myself I couldn't work on any other project until the sleeve was an entire sleeve, including being bound off.   So Saturday morning I got started, and by Saturday afternoon (there were several interruptions and breaks), I had accomplished my goal.

(and see - here it looks like it's a black sweater!)

I am so pleased with this project!  It's taken me a lot longer that I would have liked, with interruptions for holiday knitting, and just plain ignoring it off and on, but I have tried it on several times along the way, and it fits just the way I was hoping it would.  

I'm going to try to get the collar added so that I can weave in the ends, block it, and have a finished sweater happily waiting for me when it gets cold again next fall and winter.  In theory, I would do it right away, and it would be completed, but I've set so many goals for this project that I've either missed or ignored, I'm just going to say it will be finished whenever I show you that it's finished ... 😊

******

I also worked on a pair of socks that I've started, but otherwise did some reading, and managed to put some things away (finally) that have been sitting around "to get to next weekend" for about 4 months (!)  

The Tim has been working hard on replacing some rotted wood planks on our deck, so I tried to work indoors, to make sure I was out of the way.  It's getting to the time when I want to start cleaning out the garden, so I want to plan that out.  I had this grand plan that we could get ourselves a small, portable fire pit for the garden.  I thought it would be nice, since we could then enjoy the garden longer in the year, and it would also help to destroy my nemeses, mosquitoes.  The Tim was on board, but then he did a check to see if fire pits were permitted in the city.  And they are, but they have to be at LEAST 16 feet away from any structure.  When you live in a rowhouse in the city, and the garden is only the size of a rowhouse, it's not 16 feet away from anything!  So that plan fell through.  

OK, I'll admit that a lot of the appeal was getting rid of mosquitoes, so back to the drawing board there.

To be honest, I'm still wrapping my head around it being the last week of April - I'm not dreading May or anything, but I just feel like April has a ways to go.  I do have to say that I completely approve of April's weather - it's been truly spring-like, with cool days, warm days, rainy days, and just plain nice days and nights - you know, like spring used to be.  I hope it will last for a while before the ick of summertime arrives, but I'm not in control of any of that, so I'll just enjoy it while I can.

Nothing else to report.  Here's hoping this end of April week will treat us well.

Staying Healthy by Staying Home

Hello friends - I hope you are all doing OK, and remaining healthy during this dangerous and uncertain time.  I am at home as we learned last Friday that we would all be home through the end of March at least, and perhaps even longer.  We are of course supposed to work at home.  My job does not make that possible, so my sick and vacation time is being used.  Sadly it's out of my control.  I just hope that I have enough of both so that I don't get to the point of not getting paid at all.  YIKES!

None of it is under my control at least not at this point, so I just decided to do what I can when I can and go on with things.  So I had a lovely birthday last Saturday, and it was also a pretty day here, so that was good.  The Tim and I went to breakfast at our favorite diner, which was not yet closed but was not very crowded at all, very unlike any other Saturday morning ever!  And we had cake, presents, and a birthday dinner with the critters at home that afternoon and evening.  It was a good birthday, even if an exceptionally quiet one.  Thank you for your kind wishes!

The Tim still has to go to work, though I'm not sure how much longer that will be the case.  He said on Tuesday that rentals were down more than 50%, and they were starting to lay off people.  On the one hand, I would prefer that he could stay home and [theoretically] be 100% safe, but if he is laid off, we'll be on extra thin ice otherwise.  Again, though, out of my control, so we'll just see what happens.

I do have to say though that the only family member who is struggling with social distancing is Hamlet!  When we go outside for walks, he can't quite figure out where all of the people are, and also why the few we do see don't want to see him.  The Tim, the cats, and I are doing much better, as we are all fine with not having to be around people.  When I went to see my therapist on Monday, she asked how I was doing, and I told her that I don't like being lonely, but I don't mind at all being alone.  She smiled, leaned forward, and said, "Me too." 

Spoiler alert:  I've been knitting!  Not 24/7 of course, as I've been trying to stay on a fairly regular schedule, but certainly more than I normally am able to do it.  On Sunday, I finished a few more blocks on my blanket.

I really need to stop working on this row and fill in some rows on top, but since there is no real deadline for this, I'm not worried about getting it all done. 

And I've made a lot of progress on the first of my socks that I've been knitting.  The last time I showed them, I had knit this much:

And this time, I actually have memorized the pattern and so have not had to do any more ripping out.  Now I'm past the heel and working on the foot.

I've even made more progress since I took this photo.  At first, I wasn't going to continue the main cable pattern onto the foot, but then I decided that at least this time, I'd try my best to follow the pattern exactly as written.  

I hope at some point, I can get a good photo that shows how pretty the yarn actually is - it's a light green with washes of blues and purples every once in a while, and also has stellina.  It makes it fun to knit, that's for sure.

Also keeping me smiling during this project?  This guy:

BABY YODA!  Isn't he cute?  Someone I follow on Instagram showed a project of theirs with this progress keeper, and I decided that being the Baby Yoda devotee that I am, I deserved to have one of my very own.  He makes me smile whenever I work on this project.  That counts for a lot, particularly these days.

Yesterday, I also started (and restarted, and restarted, and then restarted again) a sweater.  So far I have the neck done and today will start on the yoke (already restarted once unsuccessfully, I might add).

My original plan was that I would be on vacation from Monday through yesterday of this week, so to be honest, I sorta treated those days as I would have anyway.  Today is my first day when I will try to spend at least a bit of time reading some articles related to my work, so I can feel that I'm making some kind of effort - and also maybe learn what some others are working on these days.  There will also of course be some walks with Hamlet, and an exercise workout.  

I am grateful that I am well and only inconvenienced right now, and I hope that will be the case going forward for all of us.  I will say that I blame the person currently living in the White House and his ilk for all of this.  In not-surprising news, it turned out not to be a "Democratic hoax," and by the time he was willing to do anything, it was already too late.  Every person's illness and any deaths are on his hands, as far as I'm concerned, and I hope that when November comes we will all remember why this ended up being the horrific mess that it is.

OK, I got that off of my chest.  So now I'll just say that I hope you are all taking time to make sure that you are keeping on and making things work the best that you can.  My suggestion would be to limit the amount of time you listen/read/absorb the news and other information, and take time to breathe, and do what you can for yourselves and your families.  Let me know what you are making, reading, cooking, or baking - we can share the happy things and lift spirits!  

And before I forget, today is the first day of Spring - the earliest it has been in 124 years!  Maybe the universe knew we would need it now.  This is proof that the world goes on, no matter what we are doing or feeling on any given day.  Our daffodils are already out, looking quite pleased with themselves, and the crocus are getting ready to do their part.  

Look for the pretty.  Look for the happy.  Trust me, if I can do it, so can you.  :-)

It Was One of the Good Weekends

Well, it's Monday again.  And time for another team-building meeting later today at work.  Ugh.  Whenever anyone says "team-building" I want to throw up.  But I'll save that for later, and instead tell you about my weekend.  Which was lovely.

Admittedly, there are very few times when I don't enjoy a weekend - I mean, any day not at work is a day well spent, if you ask me.  But you know how every once in a while, even if you weren't travelling, or counting money someone gave you, or eating massive amounts of chocolate that will have no negative affects on your person, it's still a standout weekend?  That was this past one.

Saturday we started out by making a trip across the bridge to New Jersey.   We generally go there because gasoline is cheaper (even though someone pumps it for you - how does that work out??), and if we have other places we want to stop (Target, Kohls, the liquor store,* etc.), it makes it a worthwhile trip.  This time, we wanted to go to Target, the liquor store, and I wanted to stop at the Cherry Hill Mall to return a gift that was the wrong size.  We got an early start, which made it all very pleasant, because we were able to avoid crowds.  And it was one of those outings where everything we wanted to get and do went smoothly.  So by noon we were home again and had the rest of the day to ourselves.  I walked over to Loop since it was Local Yarn Store Day, and boy was it busy!  Which made me very happy.  I did buy two skeins of Andorra yarn from Kelbourne Woolens, for the Adventura Shawl by Laura Nelkin.  I hadn't necessarily planned to buy anything, but they had the sample shawl(s) there and they were lovely, and since I had a store credit which would cover the cost and still leave some in the account, I figured I'd go ahead.  I purchased a skein if Kelly Green and Lavender. 

(Images from Kelbourne Woolens site)

Then I came home and spent the rest of the day and evening hanging out with The Tim and the kitties, and knitting on a couple of already underway projects.  All in all, a lovely day.

Sunday I was inspired to go to the gym and work out first thing (I know!).  Then after breakfast, I decided before I took a shower, I'd do some cleaning (Again - I know!).  I have to say I was quite pleased with myself to have both things completely finished well before noon.  After then cleaning up mine own self, I headed out to get a few items we needed that are not available at places like Target.  Then I spent the rest of the afternoon knitting, watching a couple of podcasts, and watching the Penguins/Flyers hockey playoff game (the Flyers lost, but they gave the Penguins a good run).  

Besides the niceness of the weekend, I can also report that last Tuesday, my new great-nephew was born!  (You may recall I made this sweater for him.)

Introducing Oden Cassidy Groff:

Here he is with his big sister Penn - I think this picture is so adorable!

But my *very* favorite one is this one, where Penn first visited her mom Julie and new brother in the hospital.

From all reports, everyone is doing well, and Julie and Oden left the hospital to go home on Friday.  I'm sure they have many adventures ahead.

They had narrowed down the name choices to Rowan or Oden (which of course we assumed was "Odin" but it's none of our beeswax how they spell it.  As The Tim pointed out, at least they didn't do the celebrity thing and give the kid a name like Doorknob or Paper Clip), and I'm guessing Oden was chosen in the end because it's less common these days.  Anyhoo, he has arrived and is healthy, so that is the ideal.

I hope your weekend was a good one as well.  The weather is supposed to be more spring-like here this coming week, so hopefully that will be the case.  After all, we deserve spring weather, not only because it IS spring, but because of having to endure the aforementioned team-building ... ;-)

*technically, we are breaking the law buying liquor in New Jersey and bringing it across the state line to Pennsylvania.  So if I ever mysteriously disappear, you'll know we were busted.

This First Day of Spring Is Being Brought to You by Yet Another Nor'Easter

I know it's wrong, but it amuses me that we are expecting yet another nor'easter to hit today.  Not because I enjoy shoveling snow and slogging around in resulting slush once it starts melting, but because people always seem surprised when the first day of Spring does not arrive and turn out to be a day that is 60 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny.  Everyone always seems so shocked, and it just seems that this year, Mother Nature is saying, tough luck suckers!

I am sad that it might mark the end of our daffodils that started to bloom.  But they bloomed for my birthday, and that was good enough for me, if they can't hang around for a while after today.  I love daffodils, and consider them my birthday flower.  I take it very personally if none have shown up by then.

Anyway, I am somewhat disorganized at the moment, but wanted to post something, so I decided to borrow Nance's Monday Meme, called Love/Hate Relationships.  (Yes, it's Tuesday.  So sue me.)

1. What kind of song/kind of music always makes you feel good/irritated?

I like most music in general, but I will say that songs by The Beatles make me feel good.  "Modern" music (for example, Philip Glass) makes me irritated.  Big time.

2.  What are among your best/worst traits?

Best:  Self-discipline, loyalty, empathy
Worst:  Impatience, quick judgement, bad temper

3.  What food did you used to like but now you don't?

Marsala veggie burgers from Trader Joe's.  The Tim still really likes them, but I can't stand them anymore. 

4.  What book did everyone else love but you didn't?

The Girl on the Train.  I could not stand any of the characters, and would not have been upset had said train crashed on page 4 or so.

5.  Fill in the blanks:  I love my _________, but I hate (its/their/the) __________.

I love my house, but I hate to clean it (though once I get started, it's fine, and I'm always happy with the result).
I love my country, but I hate the current administration and their ilk.

OK, that was fun.   And it meant I had a legit post for today.  Feel free to answer in the comments, at Nance's original post, or on your own blog. 

Stay warm and safe if you are in the path of the crazy weather!

Random Things on a Rainy Friday

Well, Spring is not sprung-ing today in Philadelphia, that's for sure.  Right now, it's about 38 degrees and POURING!  Gah.  It's that kind of damp that makes you cold even once you are inside.

Anyway, this is your occasional post of random things from my brain.  Feel free to look away.

You may have read about our Vice-President saying at one point that he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife.  Which I find terribly weird, but I also think it's creepy that he calls his wife "Mother."  In any event, this picture of Mike Pence and the expression on his face, along with the headline from the Onion made me laugh out loud.  He does look rather concerned ...

I'm doing something new (to me) with the pair of socks I'm knitting - I'm going to attempt an Afterthought Heel.  I don't know how well it will turn out, nor do I know if I'll want to do it after this pair of socks - it feels like it's making the knitting of even just one a long slog, since there's no "progression."  I think I like the feeling of cuff, leg, heel flap, heel, gusset, foot, toe - they are all progress markers for me, and it starts to look like a sock.  But who knows, I may feel differently once I actually install the heels on the socks.

Have you watched "The Detour"?  They are on season two, and it is the most ridiculous show (gross sometimes, too), and we laugh ourselves silly watching it.

Apologies to the blogger who mentioned this, since I cannot remember where I read it, but they recommended the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast.  I've listened to the first two chapters' episodes and the teaser, and so far am really enjoying it.  It's not preachy, it just looks at the books from a whole different perspective.

Since it was raining so hard, I put on my rain boots to go to work.  It was the first time I've worn something other than the cast or my walking shoes on my right foot since January 11th, when I broke my ankle.  It was extremely uncomfortable, to say the least.  At least once I make my way home today, I won't have to go out again.

OK, this falls into the category of Blowing My Own Horn, but ... last Sunday, I went out to take a little walk around the block, and I saw a couple walking their little doggie.  I asked if I could pet the dog, and they said that it was the last walk for her, and they were on their way to the vet for the last time.  The young woman was sobbing, so I gave her a hug, because I know only too well how she was feeling.  Then  on Monday, I got a notification of a post on the Nextdoor site for our neighborhood, and when I opened it, this is what I saw:

"To the stranger who saw me crying in the street this morning as I walked my dog one last time before I had to let her go- who hugged me and told me everything was going to be okay- thank you."

My Monday was a little better because of it. :-)

I saw this picture on Facebook this week, and ... well, let's just say that I think we can all guess how this would go over ...

OK, that's it for now.  I'm glad the weekend is just a matter of hours now.  I'll probably watch the Final Four games of March Madness, and do the usual weekend things, but so far I have no specific plans.  Which is fine, since some busy weekends are coming up.  I hope yours is a good one!

I saw this the other day.  I think it's worth keeping in mind, for the weekend and every day.  :-)

Ending May

Today is the second-to last day of May.  This year May actually contained a true springtime here in Philadelphia.  Instead of the two-days-of-spring-let's-go-right-to-awful-summer, we had actual spring temperatures and the real feeling of moving from winter to spring.  It was sometimes too rainy all at once, but I have really enjoyed this spring.  

Anyway, there are still things I want to tell you about that happened in May and are long overdue: Maryland Sheep and Wool, a finished knitting project, our trip home for the Memorial Day weekend, and probably other things that don't immediately come to mind.  And I'll get there ... :-)

Reading some of the other blogs I usually do, it seems that there are some others who had a mishmash of things going on in May, and to be honest, it made me feel better, because even though it was a good month, I felt somewhat all over the place with everything.  

In any case, I still have all kinds of projects - knitting and otherwise - in my head that I want to do/work on, and I also hope to take some of my vacation time, even if just to enjoy not being at work.  (Of course, the problem is being allowed to take the time, but I will not bore you with the annoying saga of that whole thing!)

So in the event that you wondered what had become of me, the answer is, I've just been going along, and have either not had the time or the ambition to sit down and check in.  In that way, I hope June will be a little bit more amenable to me doing the things that *I* want to do.

Have a lovely weekend, I'll be back soon!