Weaver's Web

The Mariners lost... again. Volleyball was good. It's house cleaner day - yeah! Another lovely day at the cult.

Yesterday was the first morning that daylight hit my bedroom before 7. The next few or really few plus months will require sleeping with a blindfold which is annoying but it does the job. I think, today, I'll switch out my comforter to the one that's not quite so thick.

Our wifi, last night, was wonky. I finally had to abandon the library book I was listening to and pick up the audible one. Most of the library books I want to read cannot be downloaded so wonky wifi means wonky listening or no listening. And due to the power outage a few weeks ago, I'm running perilously close to my cell plan data limit. It gets revived on Thursday so I don't really want to pony up the $10 needed to get more data. The plan is for 5 GB. Usually, I use way less than 2. I had already downloaded the Audible book so I just listened to it.

I miss Jim Across The Hall. It's still weird to open my front door and know he's not even there. Not a peep from anyone about his stuff or when they will start moving it. They only have a couple of weeks. They may be able to 'buy' extra time. I don't know.

I have three different yarn projects going. The toys - currently chickens but I could go back to monsters at any time. An afghan - knitted in very large mitered squares and a vest with a funky waffle pattern - crochet. I'm enjoying the diversity. My plan is to do two toys every day and then pick up which ever one of the others I feel like. Both are pretty good for TV watching - I can do them mostly by feel. When I hit a spot on any of them that needs eye, I just turn the TV off and turn the book on.

One Easter tradition around here is kids. Little ones and big ones. We get a few every weekend but on Easter, it's like a kid convention. There were clearly a bunch in the pool yesterday - it wasn't as bad as I've seen it but clearly... No big deal, just different. The other person there this morning was walking to help loosen up her back "I have very small grandchildren coming today and I want to be able to move." And, also, as I pointed out yesterday, around here, mentioning very young grandchildren is a way to brag about how young you are!

They are having a massive Easter brunch and I walked by the dining rooms on my way back this morning. All the tables are set and ready and they each have a napkin folded into a bunny. Very cute.

Last night's baseball game had a feature... The Angels have an outfielder who is good at the bat but very meh on defense. During the early innings, he caught a fly ball that would have surely been a home run. He leaped up and grabbed it as it went over the fence. Very impressive and he was, of course, delighted. And then later in the game, he did it again!! Now this is a 1-0 game. And the 1 was not ours. We needed those fucking home runs. But, 2 catches like that in a game, ya gotta respect. As we got to the end of the game, our shortstop him a ball out of the park - this time over a low fence with spectators sitting there, but this same outfielder ran and reached and went completely over the wall into the lap of one of those spectators and disappeared from view... and then, rose up... with the ball and a grin that had zero stoppage.

I hate that we lost the game - especially that way - but ya just gotta love that one human, and one who has not had a lot of success, has a night like that. I hope he celebrated so hard that he cannot fucking walk today.

And speaking of walking, I would like to note that my foot - the one that needed two more steroid shots recently - is now enjoying a bout of painlessness. It's such a joy to put on shoes and not have shooting pain. It took longer for the shots to work their magic this time but magic it is. woot!

Time to watch my Sunday Morning TV. Game this afternoon. More hens to make.

Thursday - volleyball, Timber Ridge Times distribution, Wegovy. Done. Done. Done.

I have thought a lot about but not written too much about the Wegovy "journey". I'm not sure why but now it is beginning to feel like the elephant in the room and has there been a more/less apt metaphor?? In the old days, when I would go on a diet - aka reduce the number of calories I consumed, I'd starve myself and dream of the day when I was thin and could eat all of the stuff I was denying myself. This time is different. For two reasons. I am really not starving and I have every intention of taking some sort of GLp-1 drug for the rest of my life. It's been a bit of a learning curve. I've learned to eat when I am hungry. Even just a snack. And not eat when I am not. This latter takes a little more learning but I'm getting there.

I weigh myself the first thing every morning. Last month, I got really bummed out because I was not losing enough and not fast enough. Initially, the goal was just to be able to move and walk more comfortably. My years of watching the numbers was a muscle memory and not having them go down quickly was depressing. But now I have remembered my original goal and I'm on track again.

I'm very comfortable with what I can eat when I can eat it and enjoy food. And my weight loss trend is downward so that's fine, too. Plus, I've learned that if I use my big ole fat belly for shots, I can barely feel them going in.

I have a check in appointment with my doctor next Tuesday and I'll be interested in hearing what she has to say about it all. I am grateful to her for suggesting it in the first place. I would have never considered it otherwise.

In other news... I get headline alerts from the Seattle Times and the New York Times. And I have a Google news feed that scrolls on my phone. And none of that even hinted at the strong (nearly 4.6) earthquake in northern California early this morning - near lots and lots of people. I read that here on Dreamwidth thanks to Spiffikins. Yes, I know Trump is a racist, rude idiot and is doing unconstitutional things and random judges are trying to stop him. I do not need that particular headline 5 times a day. I would like to know things about shit flying off shelves south of here. Thank goodness I have Spiffikins!

I do think I'm going to FedEx today to do that Amazon return.

Oh and speaking of returns... The cats won the food fight. $85 worth of food that they will NOT eat. I was looking on Chewy to see if they had some kind of 'my cats hate this food' policy and they do!! But, apparently, not for this prescription food. But, I hopped onto chat to see if there was some kind of something. Chewy chat is either the best AI in the world or real people who are sitting there waiting to talk to me. I've only used it a few times and never had to wait more than a minute. Last night was no different. I explained that my cats hated the new food and he immediately gave me a total refund and told me to keep the stuff or give it away - no return needed. Every once in a while, I feel like ordering their food from Amazon would be better, easier, more efficient. I get a discount on Chewy which matches the discount I get on my visa from Amazon orders so the price is the same to the penny. And while I love Amazon, Chewy wins the customer service award. Every time.

I found the complete Season 9 of the Canadian Bake Off yesterday on YouTube and have been wallowing in it. I do like the judges on the Canadian version. And it's great crochet TV.

I have enough chickens now for Elbow Coffee on Saturday. Everyone else always brings food to elbow coffee - everyone but Ingrid. When she comes, which is, thankfully, not often, she just brings complaints. I bring Krispy Kreme donuts once a year. And I supply all the paper plates and napkins. But this Saturday, I'll bring a platter of hens. And then, once everyone on this floor has what they and their grandchildren want, I'll start putting them on the shelf.

I spent all of yesterday tending to my flock. Trying this and then trying that and then, finally, I think I have a pattern I'm happy with.

One issue was the eyes. They end up needing to go into where there is a hole in the crochet. Summersgate said she's been sewing over that hole and I tried that and it kind of works. Another issue is that there was still too many holes and the stuffing shows through. So I dropped a size in my crochet hook but then the chicken was too small. Then I added a row and then the chicken was too big.

So I had a think. And changed my granny square to a granny round square with a special corner for the eye. I like the results a lot. There will be a lot more chickens, I believe.



Here's what I'm doing.

1. 12 double crochet (12)
2. 2 DC in each stitch (24)
3. 2 DC, then 1 DC, then 2 DC, etc (36)
Then I make a square
4. 2 DC, ch 1, 2 DC in 3 corners, [2 hdc, 4 sc, 2 hdc] on 4 sides. In the 4th corner, 5 DC's.
5. 1 DC in every stitch and 2 DC, ch 1, 2 DC in 3 corners and fill in (1 or 2 DC's) in that one corner.

That one corner becomes a nice, stable area for the eye.

I put an eye on each square and then put them wrong sides together and do a single crochet around the three edges leaving the one opposite the eye open.

Then I add the top comb. With the eye on the top left hand corner, I count 8 stitches over from that corner and start - 1 sc, 3 DC, 1 sc, [1 DC, 1 TR], [1 TR, 1 DC], 1 sc, 3 DC, slp the last stitch.

Then round the eye corner I skip one stitch from the comb and start the beak. 1 DC, ch 2, 1 DC in the first of those 2 chains, 1 DC and then a slip stitch to end.

Then I stuff her and close up the bottom and add the chicken feet: [ch 3, TR] 3 times in the middle of the bottom.

DONE!

It's so foggy here this morning that the end of the part of the building across the drive is no longer visible. It feels like we are in a cocoon. In the pool this morning, it was just like swimming with the shades down. Cozy.

No news on Jim Across The Hall and there may never be. It occurred to me that they may have moved him to the same place where his sister lives which is about 45 miles north of here. They apparently never got along at all when they had marbles but their disorder is genetic so now that they neither one have any marbles left, maybe they will be friends. At least it would be easier on the family. We will know when his stuff is moved out but that may end up being the only news we ever get. Bonny comes back on Friday and she's a good dirt digger so maybe she'll unearth something.

If you are weary of my bitching and moaning about baseball broadcasters, I have some seriously bad news for you. I have found a group - an entire group - that is way way way worse than our own Mariner broadcast team. The guys (and on field chick) that Peacock sets up to run their games are just hilariously worse. In every possible way. They spent most of the game bitching about how cold it was. Apparently, they confused Seattle with Miami when they were packing for the trip. They tripped over each other all game long. And, they had clearly only met a day or two ago and had no plans whatsoever. It was pretty excruciating except the Mariners were winning. I hope we don't have any more of Peacockium.

I did end up going to Safeway yesterday and laying in some snacks and some zero gaterade which is now my go to thirst quencher. So today have no errands which is fine by me.

I made some little chicks like summersgate has been making but I couldn't finish because I didn't have any eyes. I could have embroidered some on but Amazon is bringing me eyes today so I'll finish up. I played around with different granny squares and found one that I really like so there may well be a whole lotta chicks this Spring.

Volleyball was good and elbow coffee was not as bad as it could have been but now it's all done and the rest of the day is mine. There will be TV and knitting and crocheting and baseball and no doing anything I don't want to do.

I was sitting here playing a daily challenge on my phone and I heard all this yelling. I could see see where it was coming from. On a hunch, I went down to Bonny's apartment. Here's is on the very end of the building and overlooks a play field for the middle school that is just below Timber Ridge. She's always talking about the stuff going on on that field and, yep, today there is a wild lacrosse game going on with a fair number of sideline cheerers. Fun and nice to have the mystery solved.

Baseball slashes my normal book reading time. And I have a good one just checked out from the library so I think that may be the start of my afternoon. But first some lunch.

Not long ago, I bought a very large tablet for two main uses - taking notes (it has a stylus attached) and watching baseball. I gave away my bedroom TV and only need to watch TV in there when the baseball game goes past my bedtime.

The tablet is really too big but after some trial and error, I found it works very nicely for taking notes. I use it to record the Food and Beverage meetings and it's excellent for that.

And, last night, I learned that it's an AMAZING bed TV. It is really too big but the too big comes in very handy when you are watching baseball. It's actually a much nicer watching experience than the giant TV in the living room.

Of course, last night, the first game of the year, I got to watch them lose which wasn't wonderful but it was nice to have baseball back.

I stayed up late so I slept in late-ish and then piddled around and didn't get to the pool until nearly 8:30. And then I swam extra long so now here it is nearly 10 am and I'm still naked in my swim robe and haven't even gotten the day started. And I don't care!

Retirement rocks.

Today's big ticket item is to revive my ohsovery old Acer tiny Chromebook. It's just a lovely size for having next to the couch but it is too old for chrome updates so won't sync with my other stuff. BUT I can install Chrome flex which will give it new life. So that's today's project.

But, first, I think I'll get un naked.