Acceptable weekend
So the thing that threw my Monday awry was having a cat to take to the vet for his annual checkup. First I was late enough getting into the shower that I got out right about at the time I should have been arriving at the animal clinic -- but the real issue, and the reason I called to reschedule the appointment for later in the afternoon, was that Rupert had disappeared. I wasn't even sure if he was in the house or outside. So having that appointment as a deadline to get things wound up by kept me from wasting too much time when it came to cleaning the rabbit cage, but when I still hadn't found Rupert past 3pm I resorted to setting out a snack for Squeaky. Rupert remained a no-show for long enough that I decided he must be outside and resolved to call again to reschedule for another day -- but he turned up just ten minutes before his appointment. So he got stuffed into the carrier without even a chance to steal a bite of Squeaky's tuna, and I got home around 5pm with nothing left on my "to do" list but the vacuuming and getting my nails filed for today's manicure.
Today went pretty well, but I spent the morning knitting in front of the TV, and then reading a little bit, and it's the computerage and manicure that are once again keeping me up so late.
So I reached the ribbing this morning, and the goal for this week is to get that second sock finished. And now that it's plain ribbing rather than following three different charts, this is a thing I can take on my next visit to Grandma.
Inching up to the start of the pattern chart. I can get away with taking this to the gym tomorrow, but not I think the next gym session after that...
...so I'm going to try to get this toe past the increases by the weekend, giving me this as an option for knitting at the gym. At least until I get the first purple-and-turquoise sock finished, and the toe of the second sock done...
The full-sized rose bushes in the front yard are happy and healthy, and the pair in the back seem to be getting more sunlight now that I've trimmed back some more of the dead trees by the fence. The happy amaryllis produced more leaves, and the sickly amaryllis is perking up and starting to grow another pair of leaf spikes as well. My order of iris and lily bulbs arrived, so I hope to get those into the front flowerbed this week. The mini-roses are showing an outbreak of black spot, and another one of the new ones is shrivelling up in the heat. I want to get a few of them moved from the planter to the front yard soon, but I'm going to probably wait for the front hose spigot to be replaced. (Or possibly use the hose in the backyard for rinsing the roots of the paired plants loose from one another, if I can find an appropriate small basin to leave the roots soaking in while each plant waits its turn to go into the ground or back into the pot by itself.)
Simple but effective.
And there's my sun decal.
I'm thinking of either dialling back my ambitions on the manicure front, or else starting to really push my freehand game, because it's the stuff I can do sitting at my desk that wrecks my schedule the least. The striping-tape stuff is a real time-killer -- between the hour of drying time required before I can do anything requiring tape, and the time spent fiddling with the tape itself.
But the results look so good! Today was another striping-tape manicure, and the silver-star glitter I added at the end really was the perfect finishing touch for my Independence Day mani.
There's still a big pile of brush out in the yard. The problem is that the neighbor is parking too close to where I used to park my own car, and I'm having to park in front of the other side of the yard, which means I'm blocking the brush pile and the city trash truck can't pick it up. I'm pretty sure I slept through a pickup attempt last week -- the doorbell rang, and I was snoozing on the couch and decided, "Fuck it, it's probably someone trying to sell something or handing out flyers for their church," and didn't get up to answer it, and only later had the thought that it might have been someone wanting to ask me to move my car. So yesterday I made a point of parking my car on the other side of the yard -- which involved a lot of backing-and-forthing, trying to match the curve in the road without winding up more than a foot away from the curb or else running into it. I'm no good at parallel parking to begin with (it not being a skill I get much practice at, living in the suburbs where parking lots are plentiful), so I generally just leave a lot of room between my car and the nearest neighbor's car, without trying to reverse into what used to be my usual spot. But tomorrow I'm going to have to do it again, and keep doing it until the brush pile is picked up. (Should be tomorrow, I think. But it could be Thursday, since that's trash day in our neighborhood.)
In other city-services news, we got a phone call today from someone regarding a call Mom apparently made about not being able to shut off our water entirely and wanting the valve fixed by the city. The request evidently confused the water department, with someone calling to ask if we want them to come shut off our water or fix the meter or what. When I heard the voice coming from the answering machine suggesting that the city might come shut off our water, I got up and looked for the landline handset to break into the call and explain the spigot repair situation (at least the parts of it I was aware of, not having known there was an issue Mom had contacted the city about), but couldn't find it. Mom had me text her the number so she could call herself, which I presume she took care of.
And, yes. Time to post this and nap before work...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with
comments made.
Today went pretty well, but I spent the morning knitting in front of the TV, and then reading a little bit, and it's the computerage and manicure that are once again keeping me up so late.
So I reached the ribbing this morning, and the goal for this week is to get that second sock finished. And now that it's plain ribbing rather than following three different charts, this is a thing I can take on my next visit to Grandma.
Inching up to the start of the pattern chart. I can get away with taking this to the gym tomorrow, but not I think the next gym session after that...
...so I'm going to try to get this toe past the increases by the weekend, giving me this as an option for knitting at the gym. At least until I get the first purple-and-turquoise sock finished, and the toe of the second sock done...
The full-sized rose bushes in the front yard are happy and healthy, and the pair in the back seem to be getting more sunlight now that I've trimmed back some more of the dead trees by the fence. The happy amaryllis produced more leaves, and the sickly amaryllis is perking up and starting to grow another pair of leaf spikes as well. My order of iris and lily bulbs arrived, so I hope to get those into the front flowerbed this week. The mini-roses are showing an outbreak of black spot, and another one of the new ones is shrivelling up in the heat. I want to get a few of them moved from the planter to the front yard soon, but I'm going to probably wait for the front hose spigot to be replaced. (Or possibly use the hose in the backyard for rinsing the roots of the paired plants loose from one another, if I can find an appropriate small basin to leave the roots soaking in while each plant waits its turn to go into the ground or back into the pot by itself.)
Simple but effective.
And there's my sun decal.
I'm thinking of either dialling back my ambitions on the manicure front, or else starting to really push my freehand game, because it's the stuff I can do sitting at my desk that wrecks my schedule the least. The striping-tape stuff is a real time-killer -- between the hour of drying time required before I can do anything requiring tape, and the time spent fiddling with the tape itself.
But the results look so good! Today was another striping-tape manicure, and the silver-star glitter I added at the end really was the perfect finishing touch for my Independence Day mani.
There's still a big pile of brush out in the yard. The problem is that the neighbor is parking too close to where I used to park my own car, and I'm having to park in front of the other side of the yard, which means I'm blocking the brush pile and the city trash truck can't pick it up. I'm pretty sure I slept through a pickup attempt last week -- the doorbell rang, and I was snoozing on the couch and decided, "Fuck it, it's probably someone trying to sell something or handing out flyers for their church," and didn't get up to answer it, and only later had the thought that it might have been someone wanting to ask me to move my car. So yesterday I made a point of parking my car on the other side of the yard -- which involved a lot of backing-and-forthing, trying to match the curve in the road without winding up more than a foot away from the curb or else running into it. I'm no good at parallel parking to begin with (it not being a skill I get much practice at, living in the suburbs where parking lots are plentiful), so I generally just leave a lot of room between my car and the nearest neighbor's car, without trying to reverse into what used to be my usual spot. But tomorrow I'm going to have to do it again, and keep doing it until the brush pile is picked up. (Should be tomorrow, I think. But it could be Thursday, since that's trash day in our neighborhood.)
In other city-services news, we got a phone call today from someone regarding a call Mom apparently made about not being able to shut off our water entirely and wanting the valve fixed by the city. The request evidently confused the water department, with someone calling to ask if we want them to come shut off our water or fix the meter or what. When I heard the voice coming from the answering machine suggesting that the city might come shut off our water, I got up and looked for the landline handset to break into the call and explain the spigot repair situation (at least the parts of it I was aware of, not having known there was an issue Mom had contacted the city about), but couldn't find it. Mom had me text her the number so she could call herself, which I presume she took care of.
And, yes. Time to post this and nap before work...
Crossposted from Dreamwidth with
comments made.