Bluejays & More

Today we start with a pair of bluejays that came to have drinks at the birdbath.  As happy as I was to see the sunshine when I opened the curtains I was less happy to see that it was all of 10 degrees at 8 o'clock.


Knowing that the temps were in the teens and a sharp cold wind was blowing made me unenthusiastic about going to the Y but I finally dragged myself out the door around 1 o'clock to run a couple errands and end up at the Y using the weight machines and one of the aerobic machines.  I saw where to hook the resistance band (a geezer was using an I-beam that holds up the roof the other day) and saw a band so I did a few torso twists and used the half-ball to work on my balance.  The downside was that my leggings just about froze to my legs (I got a little sweaty) when I went out to go home.  Maybe I should have waited to re-donate that longer coat... nah, it wasn't warm at all.

Tonight I had a bowl of the Veggie & Farro Stew that I over-kaled last weekend for supper.  The lemon juice, salt, and green Sriracha that I stirred into it before portioning it out and the week of flavor melding did wonders for it.  I will still leave out the kale if (and it's a big IF) I ever make it again but it's edible so I'm not tossing it.  Yet.





Last night at knitting guild I almost finished the Sunset Garter dishcloth so I sat myself down when I got home from exercising and finished it.  After weaving in the starting and ending tails I had about 7" of yarn left.  Waste not, want not.


 

And tonight at Friday Night Knitting I frogged back the leg of the sock, managed to pick up the ribbing stitches (only a couple with the wrong "leg" forward), and knit up the yarn again, this time in a plain pattern so that the yarn dyeing shows off.  I'll cast on another sock in the Campfire pattern that I like so much later.

18 January--Tropical Obsession. 

It was a face out of prehistory, a scaly cold face with amber eyes set under bony brow ridges and ragged spikes trailing haphazardly down its back. Jack blinked and the iguana, for that is what it was, gulped at him as if contemplating a particularly juicy smear of road kill. The steady gaze of the lizard and the pigeon-toed confidence of its pale blue stance got him moving out of his stupor and swaying onto his feet. The weakness he felt must have been evident even to an animal as primitive as the iguana because it didn't shy away didn't even move a muscle as he grunted and shoved himself upright. He stood trying to keep his balance on the suddenly tilting planet and the lizard looked up at him as if to say, I could have eaten you if I had wanted to.

Note: on the piece that was on here the other night about the guy coming to at the lighthouse I mistakenly changed "he" to "Manning" but Manning is the bad guy and Jack is the one who is the victim of all of this.  Sorry.  Putting these pieces on here like this is helping me get it organized in my head.  Thank you for your patience.

I stopped into Best Buy because the small stylus I have makes a too wide and nearly illegible line on my manuscript on the iPad so I needed to find a more pen-like one.  Happily my iPad is too old to work with the fancy-schmancy $139 Apple one, I can make do with the $49.99 bamboo Bluetooth one.  The clerk explained that it has a small static charge, like a finger does, which is what makes it work on a touch screen.  They were out of stock but will ship it to me free. So, as I said to the young men who waited on me, I just spent fifty bucks on a bamboo finger.  I trust it isn't a middle finger.  They thought I was funny.  I rationalized the purchase because it will let me make final changes to the manuscript without having to print it out and use up nearly that much money in ink.  It's cold.  I'm going to bed.
--Barbara