by Kat | May 8, 2023 | General, In This Moment
The vacation was… interesting. There was a significant amount of rain and the beginning was very cold. However, I am very happy to report that my Handspun sweater and newly stitched sweatshirts were PERFECT in every way!
One of us had plenty of things to occupy their time on a rainy day (or days)… reading, knitting, stitching… and one of us did not. So if you are reading between the lines here… I think you get the picture of how some of the week went.
I did more knitting on a vacation than I have done in a long time… (I finished that first sock and am almost done with the second sock…so yeah, a lot of knitting! Ha!) I’d have read more if someone had not been complaining so much… sigh.
I think the rainy days provided some of the most amazing skies! And the unseasonably cold weather that kept the trees from all leafing out made it so easy to find and see birds! And see birds I did! We saw Bald Eagles every day but one… so many eagles! We also saw so many ospreys! Going a week later than we usually go also meant warblers… so many different warblers! I saw 21 *new* birds last week. I saw Baltimore Orioles and Orchard Orioles! Rain or shine, I simply love quietly walking through the woods listening to the birdsong. And PT is a wonder, I was able to do the hike out to Gull Point twice! And walking with walking sticks provides a pretty good workout! (although perhaps that is a sad state of affairs to confess… but gosh I was just so happy to be mobile!)
Despite the weather, I also channeled Vera because I saw so many turtles and although they were not at all easy to catch with my phone camera… I did manage to get one!
One small brave little turtle!
The other very good thing was the “Treat Dispenser” that is now Icing on the Lake… and the cocktails at Cork! (And the food was not bad either!)
All in all, it was a good week… even with the rain! But the Mondayist Monday on earth is Re-entry Monday! See you all back here on Wednesday with some raveling!
P.S. Today my youngest turns 31… how is that even possible?! Happy birthday, Sam!
by Kat | Jan 23, 2023 | General, In This Moment
Brings the dreaded long awaited doctors appointment.
Yes, I am a bit nervous. A new doctor. A new office. A new system…although if the pre-check in text that I got on Friday is a hint, it might be easier!
AND… 20 minutes before my appointment I will get another text with a link to click when I am in the building. Perhaps there is less to be nervous about that I thought… but then, last night, I dreamed that the office was filled with a very C3PO-like staff. Creepy. Very creepy.
Anyways, I am expecting a score of tests and perhaps an idea or two for something “different” to do (not take) for my painful left hip, and Saturday I got my “annual mammogram reminder” so yeah… all.the.things!
After the doctor visit, I am heading to the grocery store… which is conveniently located near my new doctor…a place that is a Bot-Free Shopping Zone! Haha!
See you all back here on Wednesday with some Unraveling!
by Kat | Oct 10, 2022 | General, In This Moment
Brings an adjusted To-do List…
I stumbled across this quote over the weekend and have not stopped thinking about it.
Yes, it absolutely does!
This weekend I really needed to focus on sewing but instead I did lots of procrasti-knitting, procrasti-painting, and procrasti-reading.
So here it is Monday morning and I still have sewing to do. Although I do have the sweetest completed Autumn Gnome, I’d really like to have a pair of completed tunics and a new pair of pants!
So I created a very short and sweet Stop-Doing List… it has one thing on it… stop procrastinating.
Now, I am not sure that putting something on a “stop-doing list” is somehow magic and you just stop doing it. Ha! I know that is not true at all, but I am hoping that by identifying my procrastination tactics… I will curb those moments to a more manageable amount of procrastination!
My To-Do List remains the same!
I hope your Monday is full of good things… and no procrastination!
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | May 2, 2022 | General, In This Moment
Greetings!
In the Weekend From Hell Category, I (we?) scored a ten. Although perhaps that should be a negative ten…because hell. Ha!
We have “been on the lookout” for a sofa for some time now….but most sofa’s are too big for our living room. So when we discovered the perfect sized sofa while in Erie last month. Steve did some research and found that.exact.sofa. at Wayfair.
- Right size: check
- Right color: check (the requisite grey…don’t ask)
- And the right price: check… it was on sale…although perhaps the on sale bit should have given us a heads up but I digress
The perfect sofa! And we knew it was comfortable having “test-seated” it for 10 days! We ordered it! (mistake #1…)
I no longer thought about said sofa until Steve got an email letting us know delivery would be Saturday… and as the week progressed, they refined that time to “10am-2pm” on Saturday. Then came a most reassuring email… I suppose… of their “strict COVID policy for No Contact Deliveries” The email had a list of things that we must do to “keep their employees safe”…things like Masking, Distancing, etc.
And so on Friday we disassembled our old sofa… yep, disassembled and removed from the house. (in hindsight, this was our second big mistake…)
Saturday… I’d truly like a do-over please! Heck, I’d like an entire weekend rewind… sigh! LOL Anyways, that 10-2 delivery window soon became 12-4pm… and 4 pm came and went with no hint of a delivery and by this time Steve was off the charts angry… and I am just keeping my mouth shut in our now sofa-less living room.
When the delivery people (boys? Seriously, I wonder if either of them were old enough to drive) finally arrived after 7PM… maskless, by the way… they wrangled 2 boxes from their truck and in the wrangling, they rolled the largest box into our front light post. The angle of it this morning is most lovely… really… if you live in the Crooked House, on the Crooked Lane! And before they were done, they had broken our front storm door… So now we have a Crooked Light and a Broken Storm Door!
And in case you are thinking that… whew… at least you have a damned sofa to sit on. Well, that might be right if those boxes had contained the correct back pieces to attach to said sofa.
And Customer Service closed at 8PM on Saturday (because, of course it did!) and Sunday’s Customer Service was… well… exactly like the sofa they delivered…it was missing the important parts (like actual customer service!)
The moral of the story is if you buy a sofa on the internet, you may need a new light, a new door, and perhaps another sofa.
Happy Monday from my Sofa-less Corner of the World!
P.S. The photo has nothing to do with a sofa and everything to do with a lovely little African Violet I got from TJ’s last week…a bright spot for any Monday!
P.P.S. I am thinking Wayfair’s new jingle should be “you don’t got what I need.”
by Kat | Apr 11, 2022 | General, In This Moment
Is for lists of things… good and not so great. I would ask you if you want the good or the not so great first, but since you are not here… I will get the not so great out of the way. If your Monday is Monday enough without any more not so great, please skip ahead to Thing Three!
Thing One… today is my sister’s 58th birthday and it has been 3 months since I have heard a word from her. I am holding on to the thought that no one has contacted me with bad news… Still, it was so easy to get used to talking again…however brief… and even though it was simply because she had hit the bottoms bottom… I miss talking to her… even it if it just to listen to her version of truth.
Thing Two… (as if Thing One was not depressing enough) 100 days into 2022 and Pittsburgh has had 4-whole-days-of-sunshine. 4-freaking-days. I am more than ready for some prolonged moments (days? weeks?) of sunshine. Also… I am going to remind myself of this in August when it is 90-gazillion degrees and we need rain.
The remainder of my list is for your ears… things to listen to while you work on your Monday list.
Thing Three… This morning Season Five of Poetry Unbound began! Ahhhh…and this morning’s episode was exactly what I needed (“I put myself back into the trance…weather, gossip, news”)… because of course poetry helps all things…and even more Pádraig’s commentary… it helped me make sense of my void.
Thing Four…Thankfully, Jon Meacham has returned with another podcast offering. I have listened to several installments… they are short… and so lovely. If you like history, then I think you will enjoy Reflections of History.
Thing Five… Ocean Vuong. His latest book of poetry, Time is a Mother, was released on the 5th. You can listen to a beautiful interview here from NPR’s Book of the Day podcast. I found myself nodding with so much of what Ocean shared with Rachel Martin.
I hope your Monday is gentle… see you all back here on Wednesday.
