Half Things

I meant to write yesterday, which is the true halfway of the month, but I didn't.  And today is my half-birthday, so I suppose it's appropriate to do the midmonth report today.

Strawberries arrived at the local farmstand and I've eaten my share; the second week's crop was better, more ripe, than the first.  I think asparagus is finally done and I didn't get to try all the recipes I'd found, but I made quite a few and mostly ate it steamed or boiled (when the stems were thicker) with a bit of spice or just butter.

The farmstand has a festival on the first full weekend of August, and I am debating whether to participate as an arts and crafter.  I could offer handdyed yarn and such.  Most of what I've made lately is designated for charity but I could finish a few things in case people want made goods.  It's hard to think of warm things in the heat of August, I know.

In another update, my tax refund arrived.  Now I have to get off the stump and talk to contractors, if any are available, about re-doing the bathrooms.  It was a plan for last year that was postponed, of course.

Midmonth Resolutions Report

I am making progress on the biography of Mary, Queen of Scots.  I think Antonia Fraser needed a stronger editor.  No progress on UFOs but good progress on a sweater for the orphanage, mostly from some Kureyon that I like the colours but there's a limit to how many sweaters I can make for myself, especially when I seem to gravitate towards certain colourways.  This way somebody will enjoy wearing it - I hope!  And I have the fun of using it for knitting.  The tricky bit is getting the balls to blend so there's a bit of cut-and-tie when one ends, to keep the sequence flowing.

There and back again.

 I meant to write yesterday, the usual end-of-month wrapup, and I didn't.  So both today, a wrapup and a looking-forward.

Venturing out.

This weekend I did two excursions where I interacted with people, more than just picking up the mail or shopping at the farmstand, although I did those also.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to the Art Museum at the University of Saint Joseph to see "Ansel Adams: Early Works" which I definitely enjoyed.  I love his photography and like many people know mostly the later works.  Some of the early ones are quite stunning, and some we know primarily from later prints but the originals have additional depth.

Today (Sunday) I decided to join a friend who was taking a handful of people from New Haven on a bit of a walk around the city.  Kerri said it would be a pastry-centric walk, but only the first two stops focused on baked goods.  That isn't the key for either Story & Soil or Aurora's although they do have good options.  I bought three things at Aurora's, intending to hold two for later meals, and enjoyed the concha as we set out.  I was going to get one from the case but the server took my bag and added a fresh one from the kitchen.  I haven't had a concha in a long time, and while it's different from the Mexican style with which I am more familiar, it was thoroughly satisfactory.

After starters we walked down Columbia Street, which is a historical district, wandered through Pope Park, and down Park Street to the Parkville Market for lunch, after a brief tour of the public areas of the 1429 building.  None of those spaces were open, but we did some window-peeping.

The nifty thing about Parkville Market is that it is mostly a food hall, which does make it slightly problematic to decide on what to eat.  I usually choose things I don't make at home, and this time it was Vegetable Momos and Samosa Chaat from Bombay Market.  I love momos (Nepalese dumplings) and never had Samosa Chaat before, so they are good choices.  And I have a lot of leftovers.  We took one of the shaded outdoor tables, a perfect option on a breezy and warm day, and away from the crowds that were starting to fill the inside.  None of us were ready for crowds.

Because we were full, further pastry-hunting was postponed for other days.  The visitors loved my "Small State: Big Heart" t-shirt so I pointed them to Hartford Prints!, and they took the website for online ordering.

So.

Two outings in two days.  It felt odd, but good.  Yesterday I was mostly solo (the Art Museum limits the number of persons per hour, and I didn't go with anybody); today we agreed that re-entering society and learning to socialize might take some doing.  As I said to Kerri after the others left, I remember days when I would be out and about the Hartford area on a weekend, nonstop from yoga class in early morning to one or more social, arts, or other events in the evenings.  I still have the energy, but I'm not sure I'll ever do that much out-and-abouting again.  I guess we shall see.

May Mini-Resolution Status

I did get my taxes filed, and not just on time but early!  Now to await the refund.

More progress happened on the Omega Shawl, although mostly I focused on finishing this for my mother for Mother's Day:

It is just my usual pattern, done in a K3P3 garter rib, made from Lion Brand "Scarfie" because the colourway reminds me of my mother - she loves red, and wears red and black often.  She's already worn this on a couple of unseasonably cool days.

I also worked on the items I've committed to make for the next Mittens for Akkol delivery, and am trying to not commit to anything else until I have the last two items finished.

Books:  I have finally broken the block, and finished two books.  The Cowgirl Aunt of Harriet Bean by Alexander McCall Smith is a very slim one, written for children, but it counts!  It was the second book I finished this month.  I'd started The Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories by Raw Carson earlier this year, or last year?  It is three prequel novellas to a series I haven't read, and I hit a scary point in the first one and just couldn't go past.  Last week I picked it up and managed to get past, then quickly finished all three stories and enjoyed them.  I'm still slogging through Antonia Fraser's biography of Mary, Queen of Scots and while she is extremely knowledgeable, Ms. Fraser seems determined to show off everything she has learned, found, or determined.  She said she wanted to debunk some of the things that were said about Mary Stuart, and that is possibly why she includes so much.  I'm stubborn enough to finish it - and since the old paperback I have is falling apart, it will probably become a piece of book art, like this one:

That is one I created for the 2017 "Paper Possibilities" show by MakeHartford's Paper Arts Gathering.

"Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't..."

 

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence. -Honore de Balzac, novelist (20 May 1799-1850)

May Day

For many years, this was celebrated as the Workers' Day and in some places it still is.  It's interesting to look at some of the actions being taken today - lifting the minimum wage to $15, workers in the restaurant and performing arts industries illuminating the problems of racist and sexist behavior by leaders - and compare them to the platforms established a hundred or more years ago by the Wobblies and others.

Perspective

To be satisfied with the way something turned out,

knowing it was not *perfect* but to find it *good*.

That line is a quote from somebody else's blog post, and the whole thing is worth reading, then go watch the video that triggered the post.  I've seen it, and saw it before her post, and went back and watched it.  It's comforting, in a way, to see somebody that renowed confessing to thoughts of "not good enough" and then saying that there are times that "good" really is enough.

It's very helpful to remember.

May Mini-Resolution

Finish and file my taxes.  🙋😔

That was a quick month.

For some reason, April felt shorter than February did.

Weather-wise, it's been a bit of everything, including snow (most recently on April 22nd), thunderstorms, lots of rain, lots of sunshine, and high temperatures ranging from just above freezing to over 70(F).  Neither my sinuses or my throat are very happy.  Some of us joked while waiting for a work meeting to begin that we didn't know if ill feeling was from the vaccine or spring.

I'm still staying home, still enjoying lots of arts and lectures and virtual travel.  I hope that organizations continue to offer programming online even when we can be in person again, because it enables me to enjoy so many more things, as in one day I can be in Chicago, New York, and Buenos Aires, or in a 24-hour period attend events in Dallas, Connecticut, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Work is busy, although less so than in March.  It feels odd to work ten hours a day, instead of sixteen or twenty.  I've been able to avoid work at least one day a weekend also, which feels just as odd.

Mini-Resolution Report

Much the same as before.  I have finished some knitted items, but not my UFOs.  Although I wasn't going to do it, I pledged to make some items for charity, and those proceed.  I've put it aside to finish a gift that I hope to finish by midweek.  I guess we'll see.

Not So Taxing

I meant to post this yesterday, which would traditionally be Tax Day in the USA, the deadline to file our income tax returns.  Except that this year, like last, the IRS extended the deadline, and so did the states.

Otherwise, life continues much the same.  I took a couple days off work, once we got the Very Big Massive Deal signed, and during one received one part of my Pfizer vaccine:

I've read that the Pfizer CEO says that we'll need a booster shot in 6-12 months, and although I hate shots I am OK with it because that sounds like the regular influenza vaccine, with a booster against new strains every year.  With all the variants popping up in the last couple of months, I'm not surprised to hear we'll need the booster.

I took the days off partly as comp time and partly in case I had a reaction, which I didn't.  No side effects to report, other than a very sore arm for several days, and a horrible headache which could be from allergies as much as from the vaccine.  The weather was lovely those days and I went for walks.

In fact:

As you can see, I did a LOT of walking.  An unannounced goal of mine for this year - a mini-resolution, if you will - was to have a week where every day I:

• Walked at least 250 steps in each hour of the 9:00am-6:00pm timeperiod, when my FitBit is set to vibrate if I have not walked enough.
• Walk not only the 10,000 steps per day goal, but enough steps to walk at least 8km (for some reason, this is also a goal widget) daily, which for me is over 12,500 steps.
• Sleep at least 6.5 hours per night.  This is not easy for me even when I am not working on a Very Big Deal requiring 14-22 hour days.
• Walk or do something else, such as my Saturday yoga, to count as exercising for at least a half-hour every day.
• Not shown above: use the new meditation/mindfulness module every day.

Last week was the one where I accomplished these goals.  The exception was the mindfulness; I didn't use it on Saturday, thus only six of seven days (I have it set for three, so it was overachieving anyway) and since I did a yoga class on Saturday which includes meditation, I counted it as good enough.

All those steps on Sunday?  I participated in Foodshare's Virtual 5K Race Against Hunger, and that is the day I did my walking.  Of course I wore food-themed items:

I forgot to wear my race bib, but it didn't matter.  Donations from friends and family exceeded my goal, and together everybody raised plenty of money for the food banks.

April Mini-Resolution mid-month report

I started the DFW Fiber Fest top, and at this point am past the sleeve separation, so it's plain work on the body until the end.  I added the seed stitch borders when I did the separations; the pattern has you do it at the end, but I wanted to be sure I have enough yarn.

The Board posted on social media that this would have been the weekend for DFW Fiber Fest this year and encouraged people to post photos from past years.  Of course my social media feed has been full of class projects, stash enhancement, and yarnbombings from years past, as well as some of the theatre I attended on the non-speaker nights.  Here's looking forward to next year!