As Sunny As Yesterday Was...

... is how cloudy, rainy, and dreary today was.  *sigh*  They're threatening us with sunshine or partly sunny for the next three or four days.  They'd better be right.  It wasn't too rainy to keep the squirrels from systematically emptying the peanut wreath or chasing Mourning Doves off the spilled seed.


I had my session with T the Trainer at 10:30, stopped at Kwik Trip for bananas, at ALDI for some canned goods to donate to a food pantry, then came home for a much-needed shower.  T put together a series of exercises first to work my leg and then my arms.  He's a very nice young man with a soft way of directing me to work hard.  I don't want to be a wimp so I do what he tells me.  Right now I don't feel like I worked too hard but 'long about 2am my arms or legs or both will try to rise up in rebellion.  That means I'll be having a couple Tylenol for a bedtime snack.  As achy as I get every week it makes me feel so good I'm not quitting.  In fact I've slacked off on going other days.  I need to start up again.



After lunch I whipped up a double batch of Cocoa Almond Smoothies (in my new food processor) and portioned it out into half-cup servings.  It's a WW recipe, but instead of drinking it like a smoothie, I freeze it and eat it like ice cream.  Yum. (I'm working really hard to stick to WW this week. I was very proud of myself for not buying any candy bars or other treats while shopping today. Those habits are tough to break.)

Then I sat myself down and cast on and knitted a few rows of Car Knitting Warshrag #16.  Tonight was the knitting guild meeting and yarn swap so I took the warshrag to knit on during the meeting but will put it into the pocket in the driver's door tomorrow so it's there when a bridge goes up or I need waiting room knitting.  I got rid of about half of the yarn I took to the swap/giveaway and the only thing I brought home that I didn't take is a box of cards with simple knitting patterns on them.  I'm a sucker for boxes of little cards like that.

21 November--Barbara Malcolm, Spies Don't Retire. 

Sonia drove to the restaurant where the Literary Roundtable met.  She dragged her feet going in, hoping for a group to walk in with and maybe sit with, unless of course it was a pack of Irina’s groupies.  She wished that Irina were scheduled to read her dreary incomprehensible poetry next week.  Next week Harriet would be here and Sonia would have an excuse to miss the meeting.

She stood in the parking lot under the blazing sun feeling a bit woozy from the heat.  When she saw Irina pull into the lot in her rattletrap of a third-hand Toyota and beyond all reason pull into the parking place right next to hers she felt trapped.  Irina’s eyes never left hers as she gathered up her purse and pile of books, and got out of her car.  The two women, natural adversaries, stared at each other over the top of Sonia’s little yellow Morris Mini Cooper, the only one on the island.

“Are you coming in?” Irina asked with a smirk.

“I haven’t decided,” Sonia said.  “Are you planning to read many of your poems?”

“As many as time will allow.  You look a bit pale.  Do you not feel up to the intellectual challenge today?”

That little verbal jab made up Sonia’s mind for her.  No matter if she fainted from the heat, she would be damned if she would let that Russian harpy think she had chased her away.  “I would not want to miss the opportunity to hear your lovely poems, Irina.  They are so thought-provoking and insightful.  Too bad they are so out of style.”

The women bared their teeth at each other in grimaces that passed for smiles, turned, and to the amazement of the assembled women, walked into the Literary Roundtable meeting together.

Saturday is the holiday parade downtown and I'm hoping for good weather.  I think it's supposed to be close to 40 degrees and a little sunny.  Fingers crossed.  I want to see Santa!
--Barbara