Happy New Year's Eve

Still cold. Ordinarily, during the winter, Finn makes repeated requests to go out, only to want back in after about 30 seconds; then he goes to another door, as if the weather is going to be different there. Yesterday I made him stay out with me while I shoveled snow. Today he is not even asking to go out.

• I made a deal with myself this morning that if I took the dogs on longish walks today, I can skip dog-walking the next two days. That's if the dangerous wind chill factor forecasts pan out. There's a full moon and a clear sky, so I'm expecting they will.
• Last night I was so physically tired I felt almost ill. Turned out the lights shortly after 9. When I think of how many decades I was basically inert because of my job and single parenting and general laziness, it amazes me.
• My SO and I decided to celebrate the New Year today, during the day, while we are still awake and alert. While the sense of a new beginning each new year brings is exciting to me, I don't feel the need to torture myself into staying awake until midnight.
• When I came home, around supper time, I was so famished I felt shaky. That is a rare thing, but when you reach seniorhood, every little quirk in one's physical or mental well being feels like the beginning of the end. One day, you are perfectly fine, the next day you're not.
• Usually I make at least a few resolutions this time of year, but I'm coming up blank for 2018. I could still lose weight and exercise more and keep house better and etc., but I am fairly content with where I am right now.
• Finished watching season 2 of Happy Valley. Will there be more? What should I watch next? River? Broadchurch? I'll check my Netflix queue.
• Good-bye, 2017. Don't let the screen door hit you on the way out.

Plain old Saturday

Even though I am retired, Saturday still feels like Saturday.

• Morning routine: Temps and wind chill tolerable. The neighbor with the snow blower who usually helps me clear the driveway is distracted from his neighborly duties by his new girl friend, so I had to shovel snow after breakfast.
• Saturday routine: laundry, vacuuming.
• Weaving: blogged about the last swatch, now that it is blocked and all.
• Entertainment: Ordered tickets for Red, which is being staged by the First Presbyterian Theater. We've seen it before, in another local venue. Should be interesting to contrast and compare. Also, two more episodes of Happy Valley are under my belt.
• Pets: Beau climbed to the top of a free-standing cabinet. I could hear him knocking things about but could not figure out where he was. Look up, ya idiot!
• House: While contemplating my old, old "colonial blue" insulating bedroom curtains, which I bought when Indiana took leave of its senses and joined the DST madness and I needed something to block the daylight at 10pm (I'm not still upset, really I'm not), I remembered I had purchased a pair of the same style curtains but in "navy". They were for another bedroom but were never hung. I'm just glad they never made it to the Goodwill bag. I ordered another pair for my other bedroom window, from Plow and Hearth.

More winter advisory weather

This is getting a bit boring for me. You?

• Dog-walking/step-counting: Took the dogs on individual walks, medium length. More snow fell yesterday, enough to hide the ice beneath. Almost fell once. Despite walking nearly every aisle at Costco, my step count is coming up short.
• Dog training: Clio seems totally confused today about all commands. Watson gets it.
• Fiber: The usual 8 rows on the baby blanket. By my estimate, I have 20 more pattern repeats to do, plus the border. That will take 10-14 days. This project is beginning to feel interminable. I finished up swatch #4, so I am free from that self-imposed task.
• Eating: The pot roast is gone. The pears are gone. There were no 5-oz packages of greens at the Co-op today, so I bought baby spinach, which means I also bought mushrooms and feta cheese so I can make omelets.
• Entertainment: Finished In the Watershed and returned it to the library. More Happy Valley - I'm addicted. Could not figure out why one of the second season characters looks so familiar - he was Mr. Molesley on Downton Abbey.
• Health: Not feeling 100% today. Because of the inoculations? The result is a total lack of patience. If I ever get a serious illness, I will be a whiny bitch on wheels, not the sweet old lady who puts up a brave front. 
• Weather: After all my complaining about mild winters, I am now really tired of having to bundle up me and the dogs in order to go for a walk. The neighbor who usually blows my driveway is distracted by a new girl friend, so I've had to shovel. Not that I mind shoveling a little snow - it's part of my exercise routine - it's the long underwear that chafes (figuratively speaking).
• Shopping: I have been contemplating my spendthrift ways. Need a moratorium from Amazon.

Still brrr

I guess much of the northern part of the country is stuck with sub-freezing temps for a while. I'll have to get used to it. At least we don't have five feet of snow.

Today:

• Dog walking/step counting: Actually took the dogs on two walks today, abbreviated individual dog walks in the morning, together in the afternoon. While P was at Meier's, he picked up a couple of water buffalo horn chew "toys" for them. They are cheaper than elk antler but I don't think they will last long. No one has urped them up... so far.
• Dog training: More indoor work. When P came over, "place" was a medium FAIL.
• House cleaning: I started carpet cleaning with the remnants. Unfortunately, I dropped the canister so now it has a big, leaky crack in it. I hope I can fix it with Gorilla Glue. Sometimes I think it would be easier to replace the carpets instead of clean them.
• Fiber: Achieved my daily row count on the baby blanket. Started a new weaving swatch: 4x1 twill in two shades of gray.
• Eating: Almost all the pot roast is gone. That is one dish I think it is impossible to ruin. Down to my last Harry and David pear.
• Entertainment: Finished season one of Happy Valley.

Am I tired of this yet?

Today:

• Lousy night's sleep. I kept waking up because my shoulders hurt from yesterday's injections.
• I did not walk the dogs in the morning, as the temp was -6 (NEGATIVE 6) and the wind chill factor unacceptable. I can bundle up in layers and put jackets on the dogs, but it is still a bit much to expect out of them.
• More knitting on the baby blanket.
• Dusted my bedroom. Later found the cat had upset a glass of water on the nightstand. At least I assume it was Beau the Feline Destroyer of all Things Nice. Since I had a handwoven cotton runner on the nightstand, most of the damage was contained. At least he did not knock over the lamp. I hate broken glass in my bed.
• Since it was so cold out, I worked on the dogs inside: come, sit, place, heel (off leash). In the afternoon, when it had warmed up to 10 with little wind, I took them both out together. They did good. My new boots did good, too.
• Finishing up In the Watershed, as it is due back at the library and I can't renew it because of holds. One more chapter to go. This is a small, thoughtfully written book by a local fellow, about a local river, the Maumee.
• Finished weaving the checks swatch. Even blocked it. Next one is twill, so I researched how to do that on the swatch maker.
• Leafed through some seed catalogs and updated my yardening spreadsheet a bit.
• My tablet is back from being repaired. They wiped it, so nothing is installed anymore. Also the SD card is missing. While the tablet has been on vacation, I have been using my laptop, which I think I like better than the tablet. At least it has a real keyboard.
• Watched two more episodes of Happy Valley. Gritty.

Brrrr!

Dear sister-I-never-had:

• This morning it was 2 degrees out but little wind. To walk the dogs or not walk the dogs? The walks are actually for me, but the dogs are the motivators. Decided not to. The dogs were confused.
• A first: my Welcome to Medicare exam. This was not with my GP but at the Welcome Clinic. A nursing assistant did the BP, temp, pulse, etc. A social worker made sure I wasn't sitting on a couch in my pjs all day, watching TV and getting depressed. An LPN did the actual exam. I declined a mammogram, got a script for a dexa scan, received a flu shot and a pneumonia shot, got a script for a massage for my shoulders, and got a referral for a new gyno, as mine retired. All in all, a successful and pleasant experience. And I didn't have to take off my clothes.
• After having to return the LL Bean boots, I decided to try to find some locally. First, went to Roberts Shoes but the women's boots were more for fashion than walking in snow. Then corralled P into coming with me to the mall. I tried on a half dozen pairs at one store, all of them men's sizes as they didn't have any women's in my size, but while they fit in the toe, my heel kept slipping around. Felt bad for the young guy schlepping boxes but I said pass. P talked me into looking in Shoe Encore and lo and behold, there was a pair of Timberlands in a women's 11 AND they fit!!! And they were on sale!!!
• Our mall experience included once around the whole place, then we bopped over to Panera for lunch. We were going to stop at Best Buy so P could show me a keyboard for my tablet (which is still at Samsung being repaired) but the line of cars just to get into the shopping center was too long. We'll go another day. I did stop at Pet Supplies Plus for kitty litter, though. Did NOT stop at JoAnn even though their coupons are burning a hole through my purse.
• More knitting on the baby blanket. I'm almost 2/3 done, but I think I will need another ball of yarn.
• More weaving on the swatch. The design is checks. Still having trouble with the selvages.
• Put away some of the xmas decorations.
• Started watching Happy Valley.

Merry Monday!

Dear diary:

• This is a rare white xmas. I was afraid the new guy who plows our addition thought he had the day off, but he finally showed up. (This is my concern because I am the treasurer of the HOA and I hired him. If anyone complains, they will become the new treasurer.)
• Besides snow, it is really cold out. Abbreviated dog walks - Clio actually sat down a block and a half from the house and refused to go further. It is supposed to get even colder this week. I finished shoveling the driveway.
• Pot roast for xmas dinner, the easiest homemade meal ever. My son and his new girl friend stopped by and helped eat it. P's pumpkin pie (his secret ingredient is eggnog in place of condensed milk) lasted through two meals.
• Like little kids, the dogs were overly excited about the holiday. Clio even piddled when my son arrived, then later out-and-out peed on the dining room carpet. WTH?
• I am peopled out, ready to hibernate and have some alone time.
• Also: xmas is over, folks. Time to return to our regularly scheduled program, including two more repeats on the baby blanket and the start of a weaving swatch.

Winter weather advisory

Dear diary (you need a more interesting name):

• I slept in a bit this morning even though there were THINGS TO DO
• Finn was out all night. I hate it when he does that in winter, but the temps were near 30 and he has a straw-filled dog house to hunker down in. At least he was waiting by the patio door this morning, but oddly voiceless. Usually he talks to me when he comes in. Silent treatment?
• Quick run to the grocery store: chuck roast for tomorrow (it's easy to cook) and a few sundries. 8am is a good time to go, at least on a Sunday.
• The new paper carrier missed me for the second Sunday in a row. I think she is putting my paper in my neighbor's box (who I think no longer subscribes) but I didn't want to presume.
• More cleaning - the ground is frozen enough to make mopping the kitchen floor worthwhile -  plus washed the dog bedding because it STINKS. My life is very dog-centric these days.
• The Lagom book is not bound very well, as the pages are starting to fall out even though it is brand new. I dread returning it to the library because I will feel guilty about the damage even though it is NOT my fault. BYW, I did not read-read it but skimmed through.
• My daughter and family came bearing Mexican food from the nearby Cebolla's. Not cooking was a great gift! Gave me time to shovel snow before they arrived.
• I love listening to seven-year-old Nora explain things. She has really made leaps and bounds in her vocabulary and her comprehension and her ability to explain things. 
• Peace to all!

Definitely a stay-at-home day

Dear diary:

• A regular night's sleep - ahh!
• Regular morning routine. It looked slick out because of crap falling from the sky, but it was ok.
• More cleaning - the house looks kinda nice (for a change). Also laundry. When I was working, I got into the habit of doing all the laundry on the weekend; that way everyone had clean clothes for the week. When I retired, I tried to break that habit, to no avail.
• Knit more on the baby blanket.
• Homemade soup and a homemade Egg McMuffin for lunch, salad and popcorn for supper.
• Wrapped presents. I occasionally donate money to NWF. They send me calendars and wrapping paper and lots of requests for more money. Does any of my donation actually help wildlife?
• Winter weather advisory for tomorrow, from 10am to 10pm. I need to go to the grocery store. Maybe around 7am? Before the dogs get up?
• Finished season 3 of Last Tango in Halifax. Started reading Lagom.

Stay-at-home day - almost

Dear diary:

• Last night I did not sleep well, which is unusual. I use audio books as a sleep aid, but even that did not help. I blame the chocolate I ate at the spin-in.
• I followed my usual morning routine, except is sounded like one of the dogs threw up A LOT in the crate. My water bill is going up from washing dog bedding. However, this time it was all noise with no results. 
• Even though I did not want to leave the house, I ran a couple of errands, one to deposit a rather large withdrawal from an IRA account. I didn't want that check laying around the house where it could get pitched with the wrapping paper. I also dropped off the LL Bean boots for return. I let the dogs ride along, so they get used to riding in the car when there is no fun activity in the offing.
• Some cleaning happened, too! I vacuumed up cobwebs and other detritus usually missed with the regular vacuuming, concentrating on the living and dining rooms. I also dusted.
• Pasta and homemade marinara sauce for lunch, a loaded baked potato for supper. Now I feel loaded.
• I knit two more pattern repeats on the baby blanket. I'm itching to do some weaving, though. And spinning. And dyeing. And wool scouring. And even sewing. What happens is I get caught up in all those lovely activities, letting things like housework, errands, etc. slide. 
• More Last Tango in Halifax. I'm into season three.

Happy Solstice

Calvin and Hobbes:

• I was able to follow my morning routine uninterrupted as the phone and Internet are back. Yay!
• Today's color is pink-ish. Sewed a button back on cherry red parka, then washed it - it looks much better.
• The xmas eve celebration will be at my house, so I'm starting to panic a bit about cleaning. Not actually doing much about it.
• I reluctantly boxed up boots to return to LL Bean. SO disappointed they are too small. I may have to give up on trying to buy footwear online.
• I knit two more repeats on the baby blanket. This is for P's daughter and hubby who are adopting a baby in February. If I stick with the plan, the blanket should be done by then.
• The dogs continue to drag in way too much dirt. Instead of letting them just run loose in the backyard, I am chaperoning them, in hopes of teaching them to stay out of the flower beds and to stop digging holes. I also worked on re-teaching them DOWN, but it did not go well; I need to work with them separately. The mental workout did seem to tire them out, though.
• My son-in-law showed up to pick up Nora... except she was not here. A rare mix-up.
• Since I wanted to buy some more chartreuse and turquoise roving, I attended the spin-in at Little Shop of Spinning, but I didn't take my wheel. Worked on a face mask I could have used yesterday. The colors I wanted were not available, so no purchases. Listened to a handful of sad stories; didn't share my own. 
• Two more episodes of Last Tango in Halifax. More family secrets are revealed.

Testing 3

Today I...

• followed my usual routine of coffee and news, blah, blah, blah. Got a bit stuck on the NYT crossword puzzle.
• walked the dogs. I was supposed to take one of them to a group training session this afternoon, but I rescheduled that for after the holidays.
• ate breakfast - more of the usual.
• showered. Today's clothes color is brown, so I fixed the button holes on my brown faux sherpa coat.
• picked up dog poop while it was still cold out. The temps won't stay down this month, so the ground is not frozen, so the dogs keep tracking mud into the house. I try to clean them up with foot baths but they hate it, resulting in much struggling and swearing.
• vacuumed (damn dogs).
• set out the mowers to be picked up for servicing. I think the man picking them up was the same one who delivered the zero-turn Toro last summer and "trained" me in how to use it. The training mostly consisted of my dragging information out of him; his answers implied I was an ignorant slut.
• had lunch with P. at Qdoba - rice and beans for me. We were going to walk the mall but it was too crowded, settled for coffee at the Starbucks across the street, where I could use a gift card (I can't use it at the B&N cafe).
• I was supposed to pick up Nora, but her dad called and said he would, as his training ended early. That freed up the rest of my day.
• Did not knit two more repeats on the baby blanket because I was distracted by my telephone and Internet being down. Called Frontier customer service who forwarded me to someone else who forwarded me to someone else who was finally able to tell me there was an outage in my area. While I was distracted by that minor emergency, Clio dug a hole in the backyard and Watson got into the trash in the living room. Damn dogs.
• supper = the cookies I took to the guild meeting last night.
• suffered Last Tango in Halifax withdrawal. Finished reading a NYer from the library, made progress on In the Watershed, neither of which can be renewed.

Testing 2

Today I...

* followed my morning routine of coffee and news and social media (if Twitter does not bring me joy, should I thank it and delete my accounts? What about IG? FB?); deleted one of my Twitter accounts, the one with my real name
* weighed myself - I think I lost 2 pounds. Of course, it depends on where one starts counting.
* walked the dogs
* ate breakfast (the usual yogurt-fruit-nuts)
* showered and washed my hair. Now that my hair is shorter, I may have to start washing it more often than twice a week
* ran (more) errands: dropped package at UPS (my Samsung Galaxy S2 Tab needs warranty repair - hope I followed the packaging instructions well enough - since I couldn't disable apps on the device itself, I changed as many passwords as I could think of via my laptop, hope none of my accounts get hacked), deposited a check (not for me, for the HOA) at the bank, strolled through Rekindle (looking for a frame of some sort for my kitchen window, something with a smaller footprint than a drying rack to air my handknit socks on, little chotchkies for the Hamilton printer tray that maybe someday will actually get hung on the wall, a wolf of some sort for Nora - it's her new favorite animal, ideas for storing weaving tools - came up empty; it looks like stuff there is not moving very fast), checked Goodwill for same items - no luck, picked up book on hold at library (Lagom).
* ate lunch: egg and cheese on English muffin, navel orange, popcorn, mocha coffee (soup wasn't thawed enough to get it out of the jar)
* knit two pattern repeats on the baby blanket
* worked a bit more on the optimistically named "fiber studio". I think it is coming together, bit by bit. It would help if I didn't have so much raw material.
* researched more solutions to the dogs turning the backyard into a mud pit. Gravel?
* answered the phone because for once it was not a robocall about medical insurance or my credit cards or the warranty on a car I no longer own
* received boots I ordered from LL Bean. I'm afraid they are too small. Have my feet gotten bigger? Or are shoe sizes shrinking?
* attended the xmas party for Flaxers and Fleecers, the local spinning guild. There was a gift exchange, which I chose to not participate in as this is my first time and was unsure what gifts were "appropriate". Turns out roving with cashmere is very popular, as are little replicas of objects like spinning wheels and knitting bags; books not so much. I took store-bakery cookies, brought most of them home because OMG all the cheesecake!
* watched another episode of Last Tango in Halifax with the dogs. I assumed this Halifax was in Nova Scotia, but then why is everyone driving on the left side of the road? Turns out it is not Nova Scotia but somewhere in the UK.

Testing

(I'm trying an experiment of using lists on this blog to describe my life. This is not a to-do list but a what-I-did list. Feel free to comment.)

Today I...

* Performed my morning routine: coffee, online comics and news and NYT crossword puzzle and social media and email.
* Walked the dogs
* Ate breakfast
* Took a shower
* Ran errands: dropped books at the library; paid my hair stylist (forgot my checkbook last week); mailed handknit socks to son's girl friend; went to Staples in search of a box, bought packing peanuts instead and a gift card for P; searched for an electric fence at Lowe's, Menards, TSC; bought a cabinet knob at Menards and a projecting xmas light; at TSC purchased a new pair of rubber boots; stopped at Krogers for bananas and cookies to take to xmas spinning guild meeting, also bought a pizza. Is that all? I think so, took all morning.
* Ate the WHOLE pizza for lunch.
* Picked up Nora.
* Fixed Nora hot chocolate; did hidden picture puzzles in Highlights for Children with her; played Uno and checkers with her, too. The Nook tablet remains "lost".
* Knit two pattern repeats on baby blanket.
* Skipped supper (see lunch above); tried one of the pears - not quite ripe yet.
* Washed dishes.
* Watched an episode of "Last Tango in Halifax" with the dogs.
* Ate bedtime snack - Cheerios, milk, banana, walnuts.
* Went to sleep after doing a crossword puzzle; still using Sherlock Holmes as a sleep aid.