Friday Photos

Well, I haven't taken any new photos this week, so I'll post a couple older ones. And I'll share some random thoughts.

Cheesecake is not birthday cake. Maybe for someone else, not for me.

If you are going to wear tight white jeans, you need to choose your underwear carefully.

I love my Yankees, but a car with Yankees pinstripes on it? Don't think I'll be driving that one.

UCONN dumped its cheerleaders for a "spirit squad". Seriously. Bring back the cheerleaders. They added to the football games. They were good. They got the crowd cheering. A "spirit squad"? Seriously?

I found the spot on Boomer that when you rub it makes his little leg go like he's trying to scratch. It's fun.

I hate my scale

I'm blaming the scale. I don't get it. Since we got back from vacation, I've been very good about my eating. And I have nothing to show for it. I start looking like I'm going down a bit and then wham - the scale goes back up. I've been trying to walk at least once a day. I'm watching my weight watchers points and nothing. I don't get it. I feel like right now I'm not going to lose weight unless I get sick and can't eat for several days. Add that to some stuff my body is pulling on me right now and I'm just generally not happy with it.

The joy of lifelines...and the agony of frogging

If you knit lace, you know what I'm talking about. Last night, I was working on my Shetland Shawl. It's usually my lunch time project, but I'm not making fast enough progress on it when I only work on it for 30 minutes (at most) a day. So, I brought it home and was zipping along. Then the dog needed to go out. No worries - I was on a purl row, so didn't have to be concerned about where I left off. I just put some point protectors on the end and took the dog out. When I came back to pick up my knitting, it had gotten wedged in the seat cushion - must have been some evil knitting witch that did it. Thing is - I didn't realize it, just went to pick it up and off came the point protector and several stitches. The yarn is so thin and the stitches so small that, despite my best efforts, I couldn't put them back on the needle and be assured that they were all there. I could have cried. Okay I did a little. Now was the time to pray that this lifeline thing I had read about worked. A lifeline is where you string something through a good row so that if you need to frog (undo your knitting) those stitches will be sitting pretty on that string. I had begun to wonder if the pain of putting the lifeline in and then the annoyance of it when I'm knitting the next row (the string sometimes tries to work it's way into the next row sometimes) was worth it. Let me tell you friends, it was. I was able to go back to that lifeline and pick up all my stitches and start back up. I lost a few rows of knitting, but thankfully no more than that.
BTW - it is very cool to see the shawl take form. I've never knit with such thing yarn - and there is thinner stuff than what I am using. When I go from working on the shawl using fingering weight yarn, to working on my current blanket, which is worsted weight -it makes the worsted feel HUGE! May I also say that I love both yarns I'm using right now. The color of the shawl is a baby blue - just lovely. And the yarn for the blanket is vibrant and soft, so soft. I think I would use the worsted yarn for everything if it weren't just a little on the expensive side.

Happiness is...

....seeing that nasty, weaving, speeding, tailgating driver pulled over by the cops. Well - it would be if I saw it. Someday - someday - please let me see that! Today's driver was in a red Mercedes SUV thing that can only be described as fugly. Seriously - a fugly Benz? I didn't think that was possible - but there is was and it was red. With a black top. Ugh. I'm so disappointed. On some of those days when I'm really struggling with the infertility thing, I try to make myself happier by thinking - "well we can afford some things that we wouldn't be able to have if we had kids". Trust me, it's very little comfort, but it's some. Anyway - a Benz is one of those things that is on my list. When A's truck is paid off in 2 years, my current lease will be up and the theory is that I can get any car I want. A Benz, a BMW, a bigger Infiniti, an Audit - whatever floats my boat. And it won't be fugly.

Having one of those moments...

...You know - the moments when I get all weepy and sad because I can't have kids. Sometimes the trigger kind of surprises me.  And I get all teary wanting a baby of my own. I'm finding that I can be happy for people I care about that get pregnant, but I'm not over the fact that I can't. I don't think I ever will be, I think that I'll just learn to live with it. I've knit several blankets and have a couple more planned and I like that - but that's also partly about the challenge of choosing a pattern and colors and the thrill of completing something and saying "I did that." I don't get sometimes why certain things hit my heart more than others. Strangely, I feel more longing for a baby when I see pictures of 6-12 month old kids than seeing newborns. It's kind of weird how somethings affect me and others don't. I wonder why that is - if it's some kind of memory thing. Well, in the end - it is what it is. Life is what it is and I just need to keep slogging through and focus on the bright and happy in my life. Problem is - I can do that all I want, but it doesn't make the sad stuff go away, just holds it a bay for a while.

Friday Photos

These are some photos from our vacation on the cape. The dog is my sister's, the flowers are a neighbors. The bunny - well - see what he's doing! Bad bunny.

What I did on my summer vacation

I biked. A lot. We (A & I) rode the Cape Cod rail trail almost every day. We also rode the Cape Cod Canal trail one day. We did 17.5 miles the first day, skipped a day, then did 12 miles, 21 miles, 13 miles and 25 miles. The 13 miler may have been the hardest. That was on the Canal trail and the second half of the ride was into a serious headwind. We had been going 15-17 mph out, but struggled to do 13 mph coming back. It was excellent exercise. But, as with road driving, I found a few pet peeves. One - if you are passing someone, you should announce yourself - say something like "On your left". It's not only polite - it's smart. You don't let me know you are coming up from behind, I may for some reason move out to my left and then you'll go boom. Another pet peeve - people riding two or more across the bike path. Okay - if the other bikers are skilled, you should be safe, there should be enough room. But trust me - a lot of those bikers riding several across are not skilled. 3rd pet peeve - if you need to stop on the trail for some reason, pull off to the side. You make life a little difficult (the word little should be read with sarcasm) when you don't. In one instance, I was forced to come to a complete stop because some teenagers just stopped in the middle of the path. One thing I noticed is that kids wander - particularly those who are at that age where they've outgrown training wheels, but haven't really mastered biking. I don't have a problem with that. I don't think they can control it - but you have to watch out for them.
Anyway - riding was fun. I plan to keep it up. I like riding on the trail and plan to make use of the one in Westchester. Oh - and I took pictures while on the Cape, so those will be coming soon.