Booooo?

Poor neglected Blogger. :(

I  have been really sick lately though. *cough*hack*cough*

Though I feel MORE bad for the husband than for me. Poor guy. Ended up spending our 22nd anniversary in the hospital - for me. (Where no food was served. Worst anniversary dinner ever. lol)

It wasn't all bad that day though because, in addition to some other things, he gave me a trio of worry warts as a gifts:

Photo credit to Blobhouse because, really, I can't promote her stuff any better than this. It's PERFECT.

How prophetic! Ha! We had laughed and laughed over Blobhouse's whole Etsy shop a while back but especially the worry warts. Those faces SLAY me. (I love EVERYTHING in that shop though. Seriously.) But I hadn't forgotten about them since then so I really did love being surprised with my own warts. 

And then the day after the hospital (which came with some new meds and more doctor appointments to line up) I started to come down with a vicious head cold that, two weeks later, I'm still dealing with. Duh, right? OF COURSE ALL THE SICK PEOPLE ARE AT THE HOSPITAL. IT'S PAR FOR THE COURSE YOU WILL CATCH THE PLAGUE THERE. Cue even MORE ferrying about to doctor appointments and more testing and it's all so MUCH FUN, I can't even. (Nothing definitive yet but beta blockers seem to be helping even without knowing the cause of my heart issues and I have some nifty tranquilizers that scare the crap out me that could be helpful but, honestly, I'm too scared of them to take them.) 

Oh hey, did I mention he was on vacation this whole time too??? I brought down our anniversary AND his vacation. Go me? Heh.

In between me snotting and coughing (and being passed out from sipping from a Nyquil bottle 24/7 because it's the only thing that WORKS now that the meth-heads have stolen the good cold medicine from us) we did manage to get out a couple times though. Once to New London to see an art installation at an American art museum on Louis Tiffany. No pics (see: sick) but it was definitely worth the trip. (This state has more bloody "New" cities than it can shake a stick at though. I think it was New London? Hell, it could have been New Britain. I WAS SICK. AND NOT PAYING ATTENTION. Also, there are a million city and towns here that start with 'New'. lol)

But the real prize was a trip to.....

The Bronx Zoo.

YOU CAN JUST DRIVE THERE? It never occurred to me before but.......YOU TOTALLY CAN.

The impetus for this was an ad I saw in the paper here for a bus trip back in July. That date didn't work for me but it got me thinking....YOU CAN DRIVE THERE FROM HERE. So we did. 

2 1/2 hours down and pretty much traffic free - no complaints at all!

(We will not talk about the drive back because the 95 once you get BACK into Connecticut is the most miserable stretch of epically awful traffic every_single_time_we_do_it_no_matter_the_time_of_day and GAH! Why is it so bad? It's like a 25 mile stretch of HELL. It's literally like falling into a wormhole and coming out into HELL. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Man, I am *so* glad I don't live anywhere near that end of the state.)

Anyhoo - BRONX ZOO. YAY. Totally a bucket list thing for me. It's one of the world's biggest zoos, in operation since 1899 with some of the original buildings from wayyyy back still in use. (The architecture alone is beautiful.) If you love zoos, how could you not want to go? 

Verdict? It was awesome. And big. So so so so so big. We used up every last minute of the 7 hours the zoo is open to see everything. And we had to HUSTLE at the end, I tell you. For real. You can not overstate how big this zoo this. (My Fitbit recorded us walking SEVEN MILES while we were there. No joke!)

The favorite was the lowland gorillas. They have a really BIG enclosure that wraps around and around (and even over you) but a lot of them like to spend their time up right against the glass. I've seen gorillas before but never so close and at eye level. You could literally sit right NEXT to them, with just a slip of glass between you. Even hold your hand up against their hand, if you want. (And they do interact with you at times.) They stare at you AND through at the same time. It's uncomfortable, to be honest, and makes you think about a lot of.......stuff. (Also? Very humbling.) I would go back just for this. 

Worth the trip if you can make it. :)

I felt pretty good while we were there, magically (?), and then my face blew up on the drive home for some reason and I was a drippy, swollen, cherry red eyed sad sack of a mess by the time we got home. I have no idea why it waited until we were finished with the zoo part of the day but I was so thankful it held off like that. WHEW.

Wish we could have gotten out more but........you know. Stuff happens. 

Also good that week:

HONEY HONEY HONEY HONEY. 

HONEY WAS HARVESTED.

This year's stuff is the darker colored honey. What a difference from last year, huh??

Funny how that works out. 

Now have almost 65 bottles of new honey so this year was a success. THANK YOU.

Kind of nice after both hives collapsing last year. 

Fingers crossed they live through the winter now! :)

More stitchy stuff to update now that *light cough* I'm starting to feel better but I'll save it for a post of it's own. :)

Back to work Monday!

 Had last week off for vacation........or a staycation as it were. Weather was still a little chilly but it was sunny out all week so we got to do some outdoor things and he got this lawn situated for summer while I did some spring cleaning, etc. (And there may have been some indulgent shopping and eating in there too.)

It wasn't all good because a quick trip to the vet's to get Mooshie some meds for his spring cold turned ugly rather quickly. He had another reaction to antibiotics (a different kind this time) and had a couple seizures a few hours after we got home. Very upsetting. And disturbing. I was 99% positive he was heading in that direction after we'd been home for a little while (pre-seizure activity is fairly easy to spot with him) so I dug his prescription of Valium out of the medicine cabinet to get ready but I would have rather not had to use them, you know? He only had the two seizures before it kicked in and stopped any more from happening, so that was good. His failing kidneys couldn't flush the Valium out of his system though and when he was still knocked out from them 13 hours later on HALF a pill, he ended up in hospital for a couple days while he got IV fluids round the clock to get him situated again. So. The last part of vacation wasn't much fun. :(

He seems fine now - for him anyway. (He's still suffering from late stage kidney disease, of course.) And there is one small upside in that the storm in his brain is making him really hungry so he's eating all the time vs. me having to cajole him to eat a tablespoon of food here and there. He ate a full can of food by himself every day the last two days which is AMAZING.

Needless to say, he's off all medications now for the rest of his life, as it's too risky. We thought he was allergic to one specific class of drug but it's obviously more complicated than that. Sigh. Poor little guy. :(

Anyhoooooo. I managed to knock off a bunch of projects with the time off. I rewatched all of season five of Mad Men in the early part of the week to get ready for the new season - thank you Netflix streaming - which was GREAT for making progress on things. (I was shocked how much I forgot about last season too. Was I dozing when I originally watched those episodes??) Must get pics of that stuff today. It's a crazy-inducing 64 degrees here today so maybe I'll even get to take pictures OUTSIDE for the first time in forever. :)

Home again!

Makes me equal parts sad/glad. 

I do so love being in a place where so much is within walking distance (downtown Arlington) and I love love love the novelty of the subway in DC. (I hate driving and rarely do it.) 

 (Don't always love the loooooooooooong escalators to get into some of the subway stations though. These epically long ones make me dizzy. And they take forever.)

But I miss my kitties and my stuff when I'm gone. If I ever 'happen' upon an extra half a million dollars or so (hahaha!) I know where I want to buy a condo in the sky. :)

Hotel view. Walk one block to the right for subway. Walk one block (or many blocks) to the left for lots and lots restaurants and markets like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, etc.

My Fitbit tells me I have walked 35 miles over the last six days, with 25 of those miles walked between Monday-Wednesday. (And Fitbit doesn't lie. He doesn't know how.) I am...................very tired. I think I need a week of an epic amount of sleep to get back to feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. (Also: I need to retire one of my beloved pairs of Merrells because walking 8+ miles one day in them has caused much heel pain in my right foot that does not want to go away.) 

So we are taking it easy for the rest of the weekend before getting back to work on Monday. Though everything is already unpacked, washed, put away and...........what was that about taking it easy?? Speaking of which...........

....my ridiculous candy colored new luggage I bought for this trip. My old luggage was falling apart at the seams and looking mighty shabby so I got a set of three of these COMPLETELY OVER THE TOP and OMG PURPLE (!!!) ones to replace them. So me. :)

I did work on some crafty projects at night in the hotel, getting up to the heels on a new pair of stripey goodness socks and the start of a little Queen Bee project. 

 The knitting created quite the kerfuffle though at the US Capital as I was refused entry by security specifically because of my knitting paraphernalia. Pfffftttttt! WEAPONS INDEED! I did not appreciate their suggestion to 'throw it out'. (I MIGHT BE A LITTLE BITTER over the whole thing because we never went back for a second go-round there. YOU DON'T DESERVE ME OR MY KNITTING US CAPITAL.)

Leave to me though to find a yarn store at any time and any place. *ahem*

I had taken brief note of a couple yarn stores in DC but had no particular urge to specifically hunt them down or anything. Fast forward to Wednesday when we were off looking for a textile museum (very interesting but WAY out of the way vs. the usual DC tourist trappings) and I noticed we were on Connecticut Ave. where I thought I remembered there was a store.........and I looked up and it was *literally* about 100 paces away. Hehehe. Too funny!

SO OF COURSE I HAD TO GO IN. It was meant to be! And I always love adding some new-to-me sock yarn brands to my stash. The drawstring bag is sooooooooooooooo soft. *pets*  I wouldn't take the saying too seriously though if you plan on going to the US Capital building. JUST SAYING.

Oh well, that's it for today. I have a lot of food shopping to catch up on because we cleaned this place out before we left. Nary a vegetable or can of Diet Coke up in the joint. MUST FIX IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!

OH MY!

 Sooooooooooooooooo busy lately. You can tell from my frazzled needs-to-be-dyed immediately and not-quite-red-anymore hair (hate that red washes out so quickly) and the number of mumbled-under-my-breath F bombs I'm dropping per day that things have been, well, busy. Vacation is coming in a week and I'm trying to keep on top of EVERYTHING (work/housework/shopping for a vacation that I have exactly ZERO clothes for) all at once so I don't end up 'last minute'ing everything and.............it has been a little crazy. *whew*

First up.........

Time to say BUH-BYE to the snowmen for the year. It's back to being cold out here but it's time to, sniff, put these away for spring. Loaded them all up and onto (and under............and around.....) the coffee table and packed them away into their bins. It hurts a little because I picture them going "Oh nooooooooooooooo!" in a Mr. Bill voice as I do it. lol (I probably just dated myself with the Mr. Bill reference too. Heh.)

Hey! How crazy is this?

Apparently if you write a polite letter to Patons telling them you are disappointed in their lack of dye lot know-how (see: multiple pairs of non-matching socks done with the FX yarn line) they send you a box of free YARN. That's pretty cool of them, right? Aside from the non-matching dye lots in this FX stuff, it is good sturdy yarn and will make very wearable socks. I do appreciate the effort because I wasn't looking for replacement yarn, to be honest. Free yarn = always awesome.

I threw out the shall-not-be-named stitchy that was giving me grief. Yes, threw it out. It was too far gone to do anything else, to be honest, and keeping it around would have assured I continued to stay butt hurt over it so.......................a quick flash of the scissors to free the linen that was used up and off to the trash it went. I went back to trying to finish the LHN design pictured above and all was right in my world again. (I could *possibly* finish this one this week if I stay monogamous with it and don't start side eyeing the 823423234 other things on tap.)

Does anybody else Lolo Fit? I know fitness posts are uber-boring but I started using their treadmill app last week and it's pretty durn cool and figured it might punch up someone else's treadmill routine too. You set how long you want to walk, load your own music set from your iPod if you wish, and it gives you a walking (or running if you do that..........I don't because OW. OW. OW.) plan that goes through intervals and different inclines to keep you interested. Changes it up every few minutes or sometimes even every 30 seconds. The trainer voice speaks over your music when it is time to change the speed and, surprisingly enough, I haven't wanted to strangle and/or kill her yet. lol It sounds simple but it really does make the hour go by MUCH faster somehow. IT'S TRICKSY LIKE THAT. Gotta love something that makes exercise a TEENSY bit better, ya know? Now I just need an app that magically makes pizza and tortilla chips look like a pile of poo and I will be all set for life!!!! :)

Boo hoo, vacation is over.

Wait, was it not apparent I was on 'vacation' last week? Well I was......sort of. I still worked an awful lot but we managed to get out and do a few things outdoors too before the weather gets totally frigid.

He worked on painting the window sills for a couple days, another day we headed down to the RI coast to walk the Cliff Walk in Newport with my mother. I haven't been on the Walk in quite a few years so that was a treat.

It's a walkway on the edge of the cliff that runs parallel to the backyards of all those spiffy, old skool, multi-gazillion dollar mansions from days gone by. (We didn't go back through on the street though where you can see the mansions from the front because if you've seen them once, there ain't much else to see. /shrug) I just like the walking by the ocean part. Oh, and these signs that are posted everywhere:

 OH NOES! DON'T JUMP CARTOON MAN! 

The whole thing is 3.5 miles long (though you have to COME BACK so it's really 7 miles if you start at the beginning) and we did maybe 2 miles. (Which was kind of needed because OMG WHOA vacation eating!)

My 'new' threads came the other day so I sat on the deck for a couple hours and got that organized and put to rights and reorganized my WIP's, etc.

(There might have been some new-new stashing too. *ahem*)

So today is back to the normal schedule, normal eating plan (*cough*) and mentally preparing for fall because, wow, is it chilly already! :(

I'm insanely excited for the new tv season starting this week but my love is mostly limited to two shows: my beloved Fringe and.......

Downton Abbey.

OH YEAH PEOPLES. Can I get a wut-wut for the start of the second season?

How much did I enjoy this series last year? Enough to download the UK version (longer/uncut) and obsess over every last detail. I might have entire scenes memorized. Maybe. *cough*

Well the UK version started yesterday* and I might have already downloaded the episode. And peeked at it. Maybe. Just a LITTLE. (Who is this new maid sassing my Anna???) The hubby wants me to wait to watch it with him but.........I don't know if I can do that. I would have to wait until WEDNESDAY in that case to watch it and I don't know if I can resist the voice in my head going "watch me.........watch the precioussssss............watch me......." until then. *twitch*  

And yes, I got him hooked on it too. Mr. I only watch Pawn Stars/Top Gear/NASCAR and Ice Road Truckers when left to his own devices. Hooked. On a period drama. THAT IS THE POWER OF MAGGIE SMITH aka Cousin Violet. :)

I heard they won a bunch of Emmys last night too, including best miniseries/tv movie so yayyy!

(I couldn't get past the opening of the Emmys to watch the rest of the show. Wow. Painful. As in painfully unfunny.)

*If you're download-averse, the PBS version starts in January. I love you PBS but I can't wait that long. And I don't like that you cut it down to 'fit' some predetermined notion you have of how long an episode 'should' be vs. how long IT ACTUALLY WAS. Pfffttttt!