jwg

I ended up making a Costco trip yesterday. They now have this little graphic on my digital card that says, rather loudly, 34 years! And when you beep in, the little lady says "34 years?! Wow and thank you!" They are, clearly, counting the Price Club years which is kind of funny. Google confirms that the Costco/Price Club deal was in 1993. Anyway, I needed coffee and chicken wings and I also got some eggwiches. 3 things. I always consider it a win when I can carry out my Costco purchases in a normal grocery bag. They moved the self service area to the complete other side of the checkout so that you cannot even see it and assume they killed it. I was in line and griped about their removing it when a chipper Costocoian piped up, oh it's just over there! Bite me, lady, I'm already to the front of this line.

It is really ridiculous for me to pay for a Costco membership and I think this may be the last time. 34 years is enough.

I got up this morning and had coffee and an eggwich and was internetting and thinking about not going swimming when I just stopped and put on my suit and went before the not going thought could fully form. It was a very good swim. I've increased my time a little so that I am now swimming at least 1/2 mile without stopping.

My Peacock subscription is running out at the end of this month. I paid $60 for a year which I'd gladly do again except now they want $170. And, honestly, there isn't enough shit there to justify. I like Law and Order and Jeopardy. Are they worth $14 a month? Nope. If their baseball coverage didn't suck so much, I might even consider it but nope. So at least for now, it's buhbuh Peacock. I did resub to Netflix. I haven't had it for nearly a year so I have a lot of lovely catch-up to do.

My cell plan ran out of data yesterday which means once I leave the lovely confines of wifi, I've got a dead phone... until tomorrow when it rejuices. I think I can make it. No plans to go anywhere today.

fauxklore

Books:
I read 11 books this quarter, which is not quite the pace I need to reach my goal of 80 for the year.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick (reread). I’m not sure if this counts, since I’ve read it several times. I went to my third Moby Dick marathon (my second in New Bedford; the other was in San Francisco.) It’s an amazing book, with a mix of adventure, social commentary, and humor. If you haven’t read it, you should in order to understand why so many people consider this THE Great American Novel.
Sujata Massey, Girl in a Box. The title refers to a young woman who is overly protected, mostly by her family, Re Shimura is undercover at a Japanese department store, investigating financial malfeasance. The issues she stumble upon involve the yakuza, money laundering, and, unfortunately, murder. There are a lot of interesting details regarding Japanese culture, e.g. a funeral for old sewing needles. While the ending is abrupt and implausible, I still enjoyed this for the most part.
Christopher Buckley, Supreme Courtship. Buckley has long been the master of humor about Washington, D.C. and this is no exception. The story has to do with a TV judge who gets appointed to the Supreme Court, largely as revenge against the Senate Judiciary Committee, after they reject two perfect candidates. She’s hardly an intellectual, but she’s plain spoken and able to use her common sense. The things that happen are wild - and wildly funny. Overall, this is a delightful romp.
Jasper Fforde, Red Side Story. This is the sequel to Shades of Grey. It started out rather slowly , but picked up as soon as Eddie and Jane set out on a mission to search for spoons in Crimsonalia. The world building is superb and the ending is extremely satisfying. Lots of fun.
J. J. Marric, Gideon’s Power. Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard is dealing with a strong of power outages that appear to be sabotage. And there have also been cases of children kidnapped, molested, and murdered. I didn’t find all of it particularly plausible, but I think it was a reasonably good read as procedurals go.
Terry Pratchett, Making Money. I’ve always found Pratchett to be amusing, but inconsistent, and this book is no exception. Moist van Lipwick (whose name I find very off-putting) was a crook who was saved from hanging and put in charge of the post office, which he made successful. Now he’s put in charge of the bank and the mint. But all the gold has vanished. There’s some funny stuff, but, overall, I didn’t find this book very satisfying.
Boris Kester, The Long Road to Cullaville. I read this for the Travelers’ Century Club Book Club. Kester is one of many people who has been to every UN country. His stories cover some of his travels, including places like Yemen, Cuba, and Equatorial Guinea. The roughest story involves a near-fatal auto accident in South Africa. The writing (which was his own translation of the original Dutch) wasn’t brilliant, but it was still reasonably interesting.
Susan Branch, The Summer Book. I was given several of Branch’s books by one of my mother’s neighbors. This is a mix of household tips, recipes, and such. It’s hard to read because of the fonts, which are meant to resemble handwriting. While I did save a few recipes, overall, I found this (and other books by her) eminently skippable.
Rona Jaffe, Family Secrets. This lengthy novel traces three generations of a Jewish family. The patriarch builds a real estate empire. His children marry, have careers and children, and live in a large compound he’s built. One granddaughter is clearly based on Jaffe herself, who went to Radcliffe and had a successful writing career, starting with her first novel. An okay read, but dated.
Annie Hartnett, The Road to Tender Hearts. I read this for Crones and Tomes and enjoyed it a lot more than I’d expected to. It’s the story of a road trip taken by an alcoholic older man, who has never recovered from the death of his older daughter, his younger daughter (who does the driving), and the two children of his estranged older brother, who he has become the guardian of There’s also a cat, who frequently steals the show. The premise sounds depressing, but there is surprising charm and humor throughout. Highly recommended.
Graham Greene, Journey Without Maps. This was another TCC Book Club selection. In the late 1930’s, Greene set out to cross Liberia on foot. Because maps were not available he consistently got conflicting information about the distances to towns along the way. He didn’t really know much about the people and, in general, didn’t seem to like them. There were also weird digressions, e.g. one abut an Estonian woman in Riga and another about his youthful episodes of depression. I thought, overall, it was fairly interesting, but a bit of a slog to get through. I wish it had been edited by someone neutral.

Movies:
I only saw one movie this quarter.

The Choral: This movie is set in 1916 and involves the choral society in a small community in Yorkshire. They’re putting on a production of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius but, because of World War I, there are not enough men available, so they make some changes in the story. Ralph Fiennes puts on an excellent performance as the chorus master. The stories involve the various members of the choral society, and touch on several topics, including sexual relationships. The music throughout is exquisite. Recommended.

Goals:

I’ve got solid plans for one long distance train trip. In May. In Australia. The Ghan. I have an idea about another one.
I’ve got tentative plans for 2 minor league baseball games.
I’ve got solid plans for 2 new to me TCC countries / territories.
I have ideas about national parks, but haven’t acted on them.
I don’t feel like I am making much progress on reading Hangul.
I am way behind on shredding household paperwork.
I’ve read 12 books so far this year (the 11 discussed above plus one more in April) and should finish at least 2 more this month. So I am behind where I should be.
Finished one crafts project (a needle felted penguin.) I am getting close to finishing my Tunisian crochet afghan.
I have done nothing about getting rid of LP records.
I have been keeping up with the Stafford Challenge.

In short, I am doing reasonably well on goals so far this year.

susandennis

All my Thursday stuff is done.

It didn't flash with me until I opened the fridge this morning. My doctor put in the new Wegovy prescription and NovoCare (the pharmacy I use for it) sent me their text. They send a link for me to use to pay and tell them when to deliver it. I've always picked the first available date and did that yesterday. This morning, when I took out the next pen, I realized that next week, I'll get 4 more pens and there are still 4 pens in the fridge. I think part of my mind believes shortage - like when Spiffikins had to work so hard to find Mounjaro. There is currently no Wegovy shortage and I don't really need to bank 8 weeks! Next time, I need to pay better attention.

The Mariners will be safe from another loss today only because they do not play. I am not happy about the game play but I'm actually enjoying the new broadcast. They gave up their own network at the end of the season and now have all their games on MLB.TV which has a feature that is great and works great. You can watch the TV broadcast and, simultaneously, listen to the radio broadcast and easily flip back and forth. It makes the games so much more palatable.

Nothing much going on today. I'm falling behind in my chicken making. The demand is outpacing the production. So there will be chicken making.

susandennis

I had my appointment with my doctor yesterday. When last we met, she said that the Medicare coverage of Wegovy was looking like April. Almost immediately that changed to July and now she's saying maybe Januaray and it's based on your BMI. BUT, they are planning on using your BMI as it was when you first started on the drug so if/when it ever happens, I'll be qualified. $350 to $50 will be a nice change but until then, I'm thinking of it like a car payment.

I can get a faster car for the same payment so she's going to increase the dosage for the next go round. I'm still several weeks away from the next go round so I thought I'd go back to tracking my calories for a while. Apparently she has lots of Wegovy patients. During our call, once we decided on dosage, my phone text beeped. Without thinking, I looked down. She said "Oh, that will be me - or my prescription rather." and it was. She said she's done enough of this that she now has a rhythm to how it all goes. I do like that she has good experience with the whole experience! She wants me to exercise more which I assured her was not going to happen. We'll meet again in July.

And so today I start the tracking - new app - Journable. This one really only tracks what you eat. It also can track exercise and weight but it's easy to ignore those bits. Very simple, and easy. The photograph nailed my breakfast.

I noticed yesterday that the Google Play Store has a new feature - AI ask a question about this app. I've been asking "how much does using this app in the US cost?" - it's a lot better than downloading, installing and then digging around for what happens when the trial is done or your xx free times are over, etc. Also it tells you if there is a way around the stupid video ads. Quite nice.

I put the laundry in before I went to swim. And now between swimming, breakfasting, cutting Biggie's nails and generally futzing around, I have 13 minutes til it's time to hang and fold.

The baseball game is at 11 today. The Mariners have lost way more than they have won so far this year. Not pretty. The Food and Beverage meeting is at 2.

susandennis

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.

fauxklore

The official blog post (written by me) wrapping up the Women’s Storytelling Festival is available now on the Better Said Than Done website blog. Here are a few additional comments.

First of all, you can still get a festival pass until April 8th, which will give you access to the recordings through April 28th. It’s definitely worth it for the amazing mix of stories by some incredibly talented tellers.
In addition to writing blog posts (the one linked here, as well as earlier ones about the tellers and the emcees), I also coordinated volunteers. This was a little stressful, but everybody who volunteered showed up on time and worked cheerfully. On Friday night, I learned how useless I was in figuring out how the support framework for the banner worked, but, fortunately, there were other people who were able to figure it out better than I could. I also did a shift at the ticket desk (on Saturday night), but there weren’t any last minute arrivals to deal with.
The other thing I did was emceeing the story swap. I felt a bit less organized about that than I usually do. What you can’t tell from the video is that I got my steps in by walking up and down the steps to the stage. That enabled me to sit in the front row of the audience, so the tellers could see my time cues, but it did slow things down a little. Despite which, we finished pretty much exactly on time. Everyone who wanted to tell was able to do, and other than not being able to decipher the handwriting of someone I know well, I didn’t badly manage people’s names. (But, really, Jane needs to learn how to write the letter “n”!) I also really appreciated Nina for including a pronunciation guide on her index card.
While I was familiar with many of the tellers, there were some I had never heard before. I knew I was going to be blown away by Megan Wells and Jennifer Munro, for example, but I hadn’t heard the extraordinarily funny Regina Stoops before. I was also reminded that I never mind hearing a good story more than once.
I want to blow my own horn just a tiny bit, since I had suggested we try to get an official government proclamation (at one of our committee meetings). Bonnie did a lot of the heavy lifting in facilitating that, however.
I really shouldn’t have to say this, but if you haven’t noticed, I love everything about this festival, which I’ve been involved with since it started. The first year was rough - 2020, need I say more? But we’ve worked well together and it’s something I’ve been proud to be a part of. I can’t express how grateful I am to Jessica for starting this and pulling together one of the best groups of people I’ve ever met to make it reality.

fauxklore

I'm sorry for not having written in a few weeks, but I was fairly swamped with the Women's Storytelling Festival, after which I took a trip up to New York City for a theatre binge. I have managed to get through about a quarter of my to-do list, so should be able to do some catching up here.

I've written a blog post about the festival for the Better Said Than Done website and will post a slightly edited version of that here in a little while. Other things I need to write about are:

the theatre binge
my quarterly run-down on books, movies, and goals
Stafford Challenge update
various articles I've clipped (and some other news items, e.g. the ever popular celebrity death watch)
general kvetching

See you soon!

susandennis

I am not going to the pool today. I am taking the day off. For no good reason.

A few months ago, Jim Down The Hall had a weird experience. His apartment is very large and has two full bathrooms but he rarely uses most of it. His housecleaner was working in there one day and came to him and asked "what do you want me to do about the bathroom?" Completely confused, he went to the bathroom she was talking about - his second one that he never uses - and saw that the glass shower door had completely shattered all over everywhere. Weird and Wild.

Yesterday, Bonny came in and said "come see my shower door"... ??? ok. And, yep, it had shattered, but mostly in place. She said she called security as soon as she noticed it and the security guy came up immediately. There was a towel hanging over the door and as soon as he touched the towel to move it, some of the glass fell out so he stopped. So mostly it was all in the door. On a Sunday. Easter. But, maintenance was up there getting ready to at least make it safe to go in. Wild and grateful for quick responses.

She said the security guy was the new one and it was his first day. Welcome!!

I just got a text from Martha. Martha has a daughter I have never met but said daughter is always sharing cute little knitted and crocheted toys with me through Martha. The original bunny idea came from her and at least one other one. Anyway, Saturday, Martha took several of the chickens and took one to her daughter yesterday. When she got there, her daughter has a surprise for her, a chicken she had crocheted! hahaha

Tomorrow I have my first Wegovy checkup with my doctor. I'll be very interested to hear what she has to say.

Wednesday is a Food & Beverage Committee meeting - the agenda is very short. The current jihad is salt. Everyone knows what's best. And I don't care.

The Mariners are playing in Texas which means 3 days of early games which is lovely.

I finished Proof by Jon Cowan. It was a decent story not very well told. The audio book had this hilarious quirk. The reader was good except. One of the characters was a police woman from Scotland and he made her sound like she was from Cape May, New Jersey and had a speech impediment. It was very jarring.

I have the next of the five that the librarian recommended checked out and queued up.

Time to get this day started.

susandennis

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.

susandennis

People around here are really into Easter. About half are religiously into it and the other half are Easter dinner into it. I am so not into it. I like the spring pastel colors but that's as close as I get.

We had to cut volleyball short today - only by 30 minutes - because Wally had to go to his great grandson's baseball game. I took a poll this morning at Elbow coffee. "How many of you every met one of your great grand parents? Joan's last great died when she was 3. Same with Bonny. I had one that lasted until I was 6. And that was it. But, more than half have great grandchildren. And some are teenagers. Wally's oldest great grandson is 15. I just think that is all fascinating. And a bitch at Christmas.

Last night I was borrowing into my comforter when my finger slid into a hole! What?? It's a dark cotton fabric in a very busy pattern so I had not seen a hole and turns out there are several. I'm thinking cat claws. The good news is they are easy to mend and you can't even see the fixes. I like the comforter and I cannot find one that I like better so I need it to last.

Another Google fail - if I search for 100% cotton comforters twin size brightly colored print - I get a vast range of microfiber quilts for queen size beds in ugly muted colors. It's pretty hilarious. Also many many stores label their goods cotton but when you click on contents, it's like 4% cotton. So I patch.

Elbow coffee was good and volleyball was good and now I have nothing on my calendar until 6:30 when the baseball game starts.

susandennis

The other day, I was looking for some granny square chicken ideas. I googled and then clicked on images and fairly quickly found a viable candidate but, on the way, I also spied a very cool looking fish. Made with a granny square base with nose and tail added and then outlined in black. I thought it was an Etsy image but I could have been wrong about that. It was not a professional image. I noted my search terms and figured I'd go back and find it later. Only now, after two days of searching, I cannot find that sucker anywhere! I have googled the universe looking and nope. Nada. Nothing even close. I no longer care about the fucking fish but I am major bummed about my personal fail.

I just tried again and Google suggested I try Gemini. Fair suggestion. And an even bigger fail. Now I need to see if I can stop looking. It's obsessive.

I had the entire pool to myself this morning, not even the sun joined me. It was lovely.

Before I left, I loaded the laundry in and got it started. It's now got about 40 minutes til done.

I made Bonny a welcome home sign.

And that's about it so far today. No big plans - no little plans for that matter. But, probably I should get dressed anyway.

susandennis

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.

susandennis

The cats and I are having a food fight. They do not like the latest acquisition but 1. we have 24 5 oz cans of it that we are going to eat come hell or high water and 2. it's especially formulated to relieve stress. So they do not have to like it but they are going to eat it all up. It could be a long cat food month.

Amazon is ever increasing its options for returning stuff. I remember when my nephew first moved to his teeny tiny NW Iowa town, the first thing he told me about it was that the closest Amazon return site was an hour away in Nebraska. That's living off the grid in my book. Anyway, around here, they have now added Fed Ex. Like UPS, you just take your item in with a QR code and they provide the package and the label and the shipping. It's a schosh more convenient than UPS. So I thought I'd try it. I have one item to return but I also have 30 days so I'm in no hurry.

It probably won't be today. The Mariner game is an afternoon game today. Chicken TV!

I'm now reading the second of the 5 books that the librarian offered up. Proof by Jon Cowan. It had a rough start - lazy plot development/writing but now I'm at the 50% mark and he's hit his stride. Interesting plot and I'm hooked. So far, of the 5, 1 was a huge success, 1 was a total fail and now we're on this one. I'm still on hold for the other two.

I was debating skipping the swim today but now I've changed my mind. I think I'll just suit up and head on over. Such a luxury to have such a lovely pool such an easy walk from here.

susandennis

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!

susandennis

I got the official word yesterday when the Director of Health Services replied to my email. Jim Across The Hall is no longer Across The Hall. He has been taken to a memory care facility "until we have room for him here". So he's history. Our memory facility really stays booked.They only have room for 20. They can't remember shit but still they live on. I got to thinking about it this morning and think that moving him will be/is so disconcerting for him. He won't know anything. BUT moving him out of Timber Ridge is probably his best bet. Nothing will be familiar. Moving him to our memory care unit might have been way more confusing. He'd be locked in and not able to wander about like he liked to do. But, not understanding why.

So now, his sons will need to clear out his apartment. That should be interesting. Also new blood in the hood!

Yesterday was chicken day and today will be, too. Except for when the house cleaner is here.

I'm not totally happy with my first crop. BUT I have plans for chicken improvement.

Maju, this morning, talked about various Easter traditions and it reminded me of ours growing up. Easter Sunday outfits. New clothes, new shoes, little girl hats and little girl purses and little boy suits for my brother and a fairly bad photo of all of us in front of the house. We did some Easter egg hunting but it was not a huge thing. We were really into the Easter Parade in New York City although I'm not sure how or why. We were a church going family but not that religious actually. But on Easter we were sure fancy.

I also remember we had this very modern strip mall. It was the first of it's kind. It meant that now you didn't have to get dressed up to go downtown if all you needed was a spool of thread. (You ALWAYS got dressed up when you went to town.) Anyway, this strip mall which we called a Shopping Center, had a very large Woolworths Dime Store and a really large grocery store. And both of those stores, every Easter, set out a large sales area outside stocked with chicks and bunnies. And the chicks were died Easter colors. And we always wanted one of each. Not every single year but most years, Mom relented and let us get a chick. Never a bunny. We kept them in cardboard boxes with grass. It was very exciting for about a week. They either died or Mom rehomed them.

ahhhh Easter!

susandennis

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.

susandennis

Jim Across The Hall was not across the hall all day yesterday. And he's not there today. I think they have re-homed him. I'm going to ask tomorrow. It's so weird to have him just disappear but there is no reason why they should tell us - his neighbors - except to say he's ok. Yesterday, during elbow coffee, the security guard who makes checks* was by and we asked him to check and he came back and said that Jim was fine. He did not, in retrospect, say Jim was there. IF Jim was on his list of People Not Home, then he would say Jim is fine.

Yesterday's and today's newspapers are outside his door and the door has not been opened since Friday.

*The doors have a sensor and if you do not open yours by 10 am, they are alerted and call you or come find your dead body.

I sent the head of Health Services a note just now asking about him. We may never find out a thing. Oh well. He was a nice neighbor to have.

The Mariners lost again last night. It's kind of nostalgic. Like the Mariners of old who rarely won a game.

Today's game is on Peacock which is weird. As basically a non-sports person, I see no reason to sprinkle sports shit on every single airwave. For real sports people, it must be a nightmare. For me, it's just annoying to have to wade through sports shit to get to real TV streaming on every single stream. Get off my lawn.

My Peacock account runs until the end of April and I haven't decided whether or not to renew. But, at least I have today's game. It will be interesting to see if they use local commentators or bring their own.

I do want to get a swim in. And I might want to go to Safeway, but there's nothing on my list that can't wait so I might hold off.

It looks like the sun might come out so I think I'll go swim before it does.

susandennis

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.

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jwg

January 2026

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Page generated Apr. 11th, 2026 01:33 am

Reading

Friday

First Quarter 2026 - Books, Movies, Goals

Thursday

Calorie-orama

Tuesday

The 2026 Women's Storytelling Festival

A Bit of a Placeholder

Slacker

Easter

Saturday

Google major fail

Thursday

Wednesday

Chicken details

Tuesday

A new week

I think Jim is gone

And the rest of the day is mine

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January 2026

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