Unraveled Wednesday October 20, 2021

 Good (Chilly) Morning!

There is a nip in the air and I confess to putting the heat on in various rooms this morning (we have electric heat and each room in our house has its own thermostat).  A few days ago I came downstairs and it felt fine and then I realized that Fletch had left the heat on (as low as possible) in our downstairs bathroom.  That was enough to take the chill off.  But this morning - nothing!  So I cranked it on in the living room, kitchen and downstairs bathroom.  I put it on briefly in the office room (where I am sitting now), but I turned it off soon.  Coffee going down the throat is warming me as I sit here typing.

I woke up this morning to this little sweetie walking across the bed.  I guess she is getting used to us!  LOL  She is a very talkative little thing.  Yesterday she sat in front of the sliding door to the patio talking up a storm to the various birds out there.  There are times when she almost coos like a dove.  She could be a bird whisperer - HA!

Well, today is Wednesday which means Unraveled Wednesday.  As usual, I am linking up with Kat and other Merry Unravelers to talk about making and reading.  Peggy's sock doesn't look all that different from last week, but it's true that a few (very few) rows have been added.

For some reason other things have been occupying my time.  Not a single stitch or row was added to my second French Market Bag.  Furthermore, there has been no start on the cowl I want to make for Mailing's Mom or the scarf I want to make for her Dad.  I'd best get cranking!

On the reading side of things, I finished one book the other night:  The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker (thanks Kat for the reminder of this series).  This is book #2 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series that takes place in the French countryside.  Last night I started another book in the Linda Castillo series that takes place in the Ohio Amish countryside.  I also picked up a couple more books from the library - Malibu Rising finally came in (I had been on the wait list forever!!) as well as Life in a Day by Doris Grumbach which Jane had mentioned on her blog.  I had not heard of Grumbach, but the description of her book reminded me of May Sarton's journals which I devoured decades ago.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I will be heading to the office today.  But, I don't intend to go in till maybe 10 a.m.  I'll stop at the liquor store to pick up some wine...also champagne for Colin & Mailing (we completely forgot their 1st anniversary!!) and also Trader Joe's for a couple of things.  I'm hoping for a peaceful afternoon filled with some knitting!  And perhaps a bit of kitten cuddling!

(Picture taken this morning as I was waiting for the coffee to finish perking - she is laying on the kitchen floor in front of the sink.)

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 Good Morning!

Another evening has passed with nothing destroyed in the house - at least that I am aware of....Mabel is definitely a kitten and she has been racing around the house and up and down the steps.  I was up at 4:30 this morning (to pee if you must know) and when I opened the door of the bathroom to go back to bed, there she was at the top of the steps.  She has been up on her hind legs pawing at the sliding door to the patio.  It is still pitch dark out there, so I can't see what she sees (if anything).  Last night she was on the sofa with Fletch and attempted to jump to a chair and missed.  Fletch said she looked embarrassed after that!  LOL

Well, it is TNT, or Tiny Needle Tuesday.  Between work and Mabel, I don't have much to show on the Pomegranate Bird Sampler, but here it is.

I'm working on the darker pink on the head of the first bird.  It will be pretty when finished, but I am not there yet.  Oh well, no rush.

I'm planning to go to the office tomorrow.  We are having a virtual lunch meeting and those are easier to do at my office than at home.  Yesterday the UPS guy brought an envelope with a Wawa gift card ($50) (so I could pick up a hoagie or something for lunch...that's a lot of lunch...most likely I will give the card to Colin & Mailing), a raffle ticket (there will be give-aways at the lunch) and a $200 gift certificate I can use to either get Mastercards or restaurant vouchers, or anything from numerous stores.  As Fletch says, my company tends to throw money at employees...which is fine with me.  I say Keep Throwing!!

Well, time to get to work.  Here is the sweet girl this morning:

She is a fast and strong little thing!  Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Weekending Excitement!

 Good Morning!

I really hadn't intended to disappear last week.  However, Thursday and Friday were crammed full of work - basically 15 hour days at the computer looking at/reviewing/verifying spreadsheets.  No wonder my eyes were blurry!  I did get away Friday afternoon for an eye doctor appointment and now have a prescription for glasses (but haven't found the time to go order some).  Our eye doctor is a real cat lover (in fact one of her cats is named Fletcher!!).  This is hanging on the wall in the hallway of the office:

I love this!  Sorry for the glare, but it was the best I could do with office lights and my cell phone.

Anyway, I was pretty worn out both days and did not sleep well - kept waking up thinking about work (I hate when that happens).

But Saturday Fletch and I took off for the SPCA in hopes of finding a cat.  And we did!  We lucked out as another couple were looking at the same cat, but they weren't sure and didn't make up their minds, so we made up ours.

Her name from the SPCA is Mabel which I love.  Fletch is not quite sold on the name, but I told him he had to decide quickly...we can't call her Mabel for a few weeks and then change her name.

She is sweet and very, very shy and wary of us.  She is a tiny thing and, according to the papers we got she is 10 months old.  She was just spayed last week and has had all of her shots.  She had been a stray who was taken in by someone and then they decided they had too many cats, so she was turned in to the SPCA.  She is also micro-chipped.

I joke that she is part Lynx - she has little tufts at the top of her ears and she has spots on her back and also on her front legs.  Hopefully she will grow accustomed to us sooner rather than later.  For now we are keeping her inside (at least for a few weeks), but she will end up being an indoor/outdoor cat like all the other ones we have had.  I need to make an appointment with the vet just to have her checked over.

I  love this picture of her - look at the spots on her legs.  So precious!

So that was our exciting weekend!  I hope you all had a good one too.

Unraveled Wednesday October 13, 2021

 Good Morning!

How are you on this mid-week day in the middle of October?  (I'm not sure how we got to the [almost] middle of October already!)  Yesterday was a study in frustration in so many ways.  Fletch and I headed out around 10:30.  We stopped at a local farm stand and got some pumpkins for our front step.  Then we headed to the Acme (grocery store) where we had seen signs over the weekend for booster and flu shots.  Turns out we can't get the booster until after October 20th (our last vaccine was April 20th and you have to wait a full 6 months).  OK, no problem, we'll take the flu shot and come back for the booster.  Turns out that Acme is not an accepted provider for our insurance (BC/BS of NC).  OK, we'll head over to CVS where we get our prescriptions filled.  No appointment and it could have been a 30 minute wait, so we decided to skip that.  I called them later in the day to make an appointment and was told you have to book on line.  Went on line, no appointments available.  Grrrrr.  Called them back and was told you can just come in, the wait is never half an hour - at most 15 minutes.  We will give it a try tomorrow.

Work was crazy too.  As I mentioned, it is bonus calculation time.  Bonus payments are funded by excess profit at the unit level.  So if you beat your budget by $10K, you have $10K for bonus payments.  Requested bonus payments cannot exceed available funding.  One of my RDOs sent in his bonus calcs for his region yesterday and...you guessed it...the first one I checked showed payments in excess of funding.

This is the type of thing that makes me crazy and ultimately makes more work for me.  I don't know if he didn't check, or didn't care, or forgot, or what.  But it sure is annoying.

However, it is Unraveled Wednesday and I am linking up with Kat and all the Merry Unravelers to talk about knitting and reading.  A little bit of knitting has been accomplished.  First up we have the first sock for Peggy.

The heel flap has been knitted and the heel has been turned.  Only 2-3 rows after that however as work email exploded and yesterday afternoon and evening were busy.

There was also a bit of knitting on the 2nd French Market bag.

I'm loving these colors together.  Especially the grey and the green.  I think the purple just adds a nice pop of color, but the primary tones will be grey and green.  I'll keep going round and round on this as I definitely want it to be larger than the first one I made.

On the reading side of things, I finished When We Were Young and Brave by Hazel Gaynor.  It was good, but not what I would call compelling.  It was easy enough to put down.  I think I'm just tired of books set in the time of the 2nd World War.  I've started The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker - the second book featuring Bruno, Chief of Police in a little sleepy (maybe not so much) French village.  An enjoyable read.

Well, I've got a very busy day ahead at the office and it is now time to pour another cup of coffee and get dressed and ready to head in.  Wishing you all a marvelous Wednesday!

Tiny Needle Tuesday October 12, 2021

 Good Morning!

Last night I could not keep my eyes open after dinner.  I tried knitting and reading - nothing worked, so I finally went to bed around 9:30.  Friends...I slept until after 7:30 this morning!  It was wonderful, but I haven't fully woken up yet.  Waiting for the coffee to kick in.

My morning in the office yesterday was productive, but I had gone in specifically so that Bruce and I could meet and he never showed up.  Frustrating.  So tomorrow when I go in, I need to find time (individually) with Bill, Kevin, Bruce, Lisa and Mike.  But meanwhile, they are in a management committee meeting all day!  Guess I'll be catching them on bathroom breaks - LOL.

I had meant to mention a month ago when Bobby (the CEO) sent out an email and then I forgot.  But October at my office is Socktober!  I don't think anyone will be handknitting socks to donate (certainly not me with the way my knitting is so slow these days).  This is the email that came out yesterday:

You'll have to click to enlarge if you like.  Basically we are collecting socks to donate to a shelter at the end of the month.  When I arrived at the office yesterday, I saw two large boxes (decorated) in the lobby for collecting the donations.  A great and thoughtful idea.

And look what I spotted on my drive to the office yesterday:

A chiroprator's office with a skeleton by their sign.  How appropriate!

Well, it is TNT (Tiny Needle Tuesday) and all I have to show is a very tiny start on one of the Pomegranate Birds.

I started to stitch on the bird (lower left of the urn) on Sunday afternoon and then Fletch and I went over to see our neighbors.  By the time we got back, it was time to start prepping for dinner and I never got back to stitching.  Hopefully I'll do more this week.

Yesterday Dee posted about the forecast for the coming winter.  Apparently the Farmers' Almanac says we are in for a doozy of a winter this year.  Dee also posted pictures of her black walnut tree (bare of leaves) and her winterberry bush - so full.  So, I thought I would show you our winterberry as well:

Certainly more berries than last year.  Could the Almanac be right?  If it is, I'm prepared with plenty of stitching and knitting options!

I can see that work emails are flying in like crazy, so I'd best pour a second cup of coffee and get cranking.  Hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

Weekending

 Good Morning!

How are you?  And how was your weekend?  Mine was lovely.  I met up with Dee Saturday morning at the Lansdale Farmers' Market (be sure to check out her blog as she has some fabulous pictures and the first one is from the Farmers' Market).  The Kimberton CSA booth that is pictured in the website for the Farmers' Market is the CSA that Colin and Mailing belong to.  It is run by a high school buddy of theirs.  I bought some wonderful bakery items and some great fruit spreads (a sour cherry and a lavender).  After that we headed over to Backyard Beans for some coffee, knitting and catching up.  And then we had lunch at Stove & Tap.  All in all, a wonderful Saturday morning/lunch.

Sunday dawned wet and grey.  It didn't rain hard at any time, but it never cleared.  Fletch and I went grocery shopping.

Apples and clementines and winter squash were all on sale.  I'm thinking we are pretty set for now.  We also discovered that our grocery store has the booster shot as well as flu shots, so we will be going back for those (separately even though they say you can get them together...I don't really want to do that).

I managed to carve out some time for knitting and stitching and reading.  I also had to do some work...not as much as I had thought I would (and I'll be making up for that today), but all in all it was a nicely balanced weekend.  

My messy kitchen table with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from my bosses!

I'm heading to the office later this morning - hoping to have a little time with Bruce, but hoping to get out of there before lunch.  I'll be back at the office Wednesday when ALL of my bosses will be in for a management meeting.  That will be a longer day, but hopefully not too bad.

My eyes continue to be good.  Today is my last day on the steroid drops and then my follow up with the doctor is this Friday.

Here's to a good week ahead - enjoy!

TGIF

 Hello Again,

Thank you all for the well wishes.  My follow up eye surgery went well.  I was able to drive myself to and from which was a huge plus for Fletch - he was still in bed when I left for the surgery center.  Time was consumed by having drops put in my eyes and waiting for them to kick in (both numbing drops and dilating drops).  The actual laser surgery took literally one minute...if that!  Whoosh and it was over.  I could immediately see (ha!) a difference.  Amazing.  My doctor said I might have a lot of floaters that day and blurriness, but I didn't and the blurriness wore off quickly.  I have steroid drops (again) to put in that eye four times a day through Monday.  My follow up with the doctor is next Friday afternoon.  Modern Medicine!!!

The balance of the day was taken up with work.  Still so busy!  More initiatives came out last night, so the craziness continues.  I did manage to get another load of laundry done and the afternoon was nice enough I could hang jeans on the line to dry outside.

The grilled sausages were delicious.  As usual, Fletch grilled a lot of extra which I have now frozen and will use the next time I make sauce for pasta.  Yum!  It was so nice to see Colin again and it was a beautiful night to have a fire!

So now it is Friday and TGIF.  I have two conference calls this morning and then I plan to take it easy during the afternoon.  I have not picked up my knitting in several days which is unacceptable.  Nor have I put a single stitch on the Pomegranate Birds.  

I'm glad you all enjoyed the skeleton riding in the pick up truck.  I have noticed more skeletons on display this year than ever before.  And, they are not cheap!  I need/want to take a walk along the canal path and see if the skeleton on the bench is still there.  Maybe this weekend.

Cheers to the end of the work week and wishing you all a wonderful weekend - enjoy!