Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Lazy weekend. Picked up yarn for a small scarf for the house, and to make a gift scarf for a niece who just started college (in the green of her new school’s colors). It’s dangerous having a yarn store in walking distance from home.

At the moment I’m listening to the husband wailing in the bedroom as he tortures his poor calves with our massage gun. And I’m quietly giggling at the drama. He went out dancing Friday with friends and is paying the price for jumping around a lot more than he’s used to. I suggested the massage gun, which he initially balked at, but he relented so I got him started. I know the feeling – that sucker really does work your calves, and if they’re sore, it’s quite the change. But he’ll feel a hell of a lot better after. I know I always do.

Haircuts and a trip to BJ’s warehouse for the morning, then a quiet day at home, mostly catching up on comics for me.

What I intended to do while the husband was out was to look at my yarn, see if I had any that would make a good chicken, see what else I needed to knit one, print the pattern, walk to the local yarn/sewing shop for said supplies, and dig in.

What actually happened was I dug out the yarn to finish a Santa hat I started last fall but ran out of yarn for, then waited months to get the same yarn from the local place I got the first batch from, and then never got around to finishing. So I finished that, had some lunch, then walked over to the local yarn store. Got the extra bits, even managing to find it all without help, but then I also spotted two cross stitch kits that were to fun to pass up. Bought it all, brought it home, and immediately dug into one of the two cross stitch kits, because it was very simple and I wanted to surprise the husband with it. Almost had it done by the time he got home – just some extra backstitching I added to make the stars pop. Got it set in the hoop and zipped upstairs to show him the finished pattern, which was five gold stars on the top, with the words “Great place for a shit” underneath.

(here’s where I should explain that we have a half bath on the 2nd floor where we hang all of my cross stitch; I think this new one is going to go right above the cat’s litter box)

Never did start the chicken. Did frog the yarn I’m going to use, which was partially done up in a scarf that I wasn’t loving. The pattern I love, but not necessarily with that yarn.

The other motive for walking over to the yarn shop was just that – walking. Wanted to see how I did on a short (quarter mile/400 meter) walk with no crutch, and it went well, though I think I was paying way more attention than normal to how I was walking. Survived it, so now I need to do more of that.

This morning was the latest check-in with the orthopedist. He’s quite pleased with the progress. The numbness I still have around the bottom of the kneecap, though it’s been receding, is normal. Twelve weeks is this guy’s mantra for recovery, so we power on through PT. Physical therapy is more like a workout now than earlier on, progressively heavier weights as we strengthen the quads. Whee!

But it’s nice to have some external validation that the recovery work is humming right along on schedule.

Past that I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that my small gubm’nt agency keeps humming along. The latest draft budget out of the House wasn’t nearly as much of a cut as 47 proposed, just $2B less than the current budget, as opposed to $5.1B less. We expect the Senate to be even less enthused with his request, but none of this is final until it’s final, so I’m just keeping going as long as they’ll let me.

We did some random out of the house shopping this past weekend. Tried a new (to us) used bookstore, where I found some fun stuff. Tried to go to a thrift store, but the parking lot was full, with more cars in the aisle. Luckily we were able to turn around and get out without getting trapped. Ikea for some shelves for Legos, lunch at some point in there, and home to nap. Did walk a bit too much without the one crutch that I’m using out of the house, but that’s another thing I’m trying to stretch.

My physical therapist definitely upped the weights in our session today, and my quads are complaining about it. Which is all good, because it means the knee is getting stronger. Also the swelling is going down and I can see the normal dimples coming back, so yay.

I did some minimal shopping for prime days, mostly needed upgrades for stuff that was on its last legs, like the toaster oven that has crossed wires somewhere behind the buttons so sometimes the start button turns it on, sometimes it changes the convection settings. Always an adventure with the current one, so out it goes when the new one arrives.

Teleworking after the last few months of return-to-office mandates has been odd, since I’m typically the only person not there in person, and it always has to start with a recitation of having had knee surgery that I’m recovering from. Not that I regret either the surgery or the telework, it’s just an odd situation.

Had to pick up some dress shirts, and a new suit for the proceedings this upcoming week. Got neighbors to check in on the cats. Then we ran off to see the anniversary re-showing-in-theaters of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. How anyone can watch that, listen to the dialog, and think it is anything other than a children’s movie is beyond me. I had forgotten how cheesy the dialog was, and how badly they made the actors perform it. Oof.

Some more progress on the shawl. Almost done with the second set (of 3.5) of repeat rows in the last bit. Not a had pattern, just longer and longer as it grows toward the end. And almost done with skein #1, probably of 2 total, but I have more just in case. And just in time for the next Maryland Sheep & Wool festival, which is next weekend (3rd & 4th). Will have to see what in the queue I’m dying to get wool for.

Passed my 8k step goal today just from running around the office. Ended up staying later than I’d intended, but the husband and I still did comics and dinner out, albeit a late one. Almost forgot to grab my work shackle, er, iPhone, because it was sitting on the charger. Alas, I remembered it before I got out of the suite. I do appreciate being able to leave the computer at work now.

If I’m reading the budget resolution correctly (which is kind of a crap shoot, honestly) my agency might just be looking at a 4% reduction below the previous administration’s planned budget for this year. It’s hard to tell because those are written at a very high level (think “here’s the total amount for all national defense spending, by year, for the next decade”; or here’s the total amount for all energy spending, or all medical spending, etc. – no breakdown by agency or even by appropriations committee). I’ll try and quiz the budget office tomorrow to see what they’ve heard.

Went shopping for foodstuffs for the office, and I have to say that the canned soup selection at the local Wegman’s was sorely lacking (I have a lunch crock pot I like to use in the office). Five gazillion types of wine, but a distinctly soviet feel to the tiny little soup section. I was hoping not to have to cart cans down from home. I’ll try a couple and see if they’re viable, but I may still need to haul the occasional can down as well.

Giving into the clothing store conspiracy, the husband and I went clothes shopping today, after overdue haircuts. Got some dress pants and a couple shirts for myself, so I’ll have some fresh options as we careen toward full time in-the-office schedules. He’s already mostly in the office full time (he works at a local university, in a student facing position, so he has to be there to deal with the kids), so it’s business as usual for him.

Tried Raising Canes for the first time, at the husband’s recommendation. Not bad, I’ll go again. I appreciated that it was one of the simplest fast food menus in existence – how many chicken fingers did you want, and the sides depended on that number. Easy. Not a bad business model, either. I can see why they’re so popular.

We are expecting 4-8″ (10-20cm) of snow here in the Boston area overnight. We thought about leaving today, but then we would have been driving through the snow in the middle of the route, whereas it’s all supposed to be done by the morning, so hopefully the highways will have been well treated by then. Of course we managed to leave our ice scraper/snow brush at home, so I made a last minute trip to Walmart for that, some waterproof gloves, and some snack for tonight/tomorrow. And I spotted a relatively inexpensive gas station so I filled up as well.

Good last day visiting with the in-laws. We went candlepin bowling in the afternoon, which I had not tried before and quite enjoyed, then an early dinner before the snow started. Now we’re settled into the hotel for the night, packing what needs to be packed, and glad I remembered to pull the wipers out from the windows. Here’s hoping it’s a relatively easy drive tomorrow.

We will not be doing a late night tonight. The husband and I both expressed that we’d prefer to sleep at the normal time, so after finishing this past season of Only Murders in the Building (so good!) we both retired to our offices to wind down on daily tasks. I got my bullet journals for work and home set up for the new month (kept separate for work records reasons), and did a little reminiscing and planning in both. There are fireworks going off somewhere in the distance, little pops as the show goes on.

We also had a summer-like thunderstorm right around dinner time that set off a tornado warning south of us, and had hail to the east of us in Annapolis. The thunder and heavy rain was more than enough; glad we missed the more exciting stuff.

Got outside to walk today instead of the treadmill. Post-lunch walk with a stop into the local organic grocer at the end to pick up some sundries. Felt good to get out – high 50s, and the sun was nice. We’re about to get pummeled with cold by the end of this week, so I’m enjoying the pleasant outdoors time while I can.

So farewell to 2024, and here’s hoping 2025 is good for all of us.

We went out for the last haircuts of the year this morning, then hit the mother ship of our local comic store for stocking stuffers. On the way there the road was blocked so we decided to hit a Barnes & Noble and let the blockage situation work itself out. We were forcibly reminded of why we don’t hit physical stores the weekend before Xmas. It actually wasn’t that bad, and I’m glad they were busy as I hope that helps keep them afloat, but it reminds me of how devout church goers must feel when the CEOs (Christmas-Easter-Onlys) show up at the holidays. It also reminded me of working at a mall in graduate school, when they made us park off-site and shuttled us over, which I was initially annoyed at, but then grateful for when we could get out of the satellite parking a lot faster, even with the bus, than one could leave the garage.

Stocking stuff picked up. Finished the brim on an elf hat for the husband and started on the body. The green yarn pull ball for the body is behaving a lot better than the brim; the white brim yarn kept catching and was just a nightmare to pull out until I finally managed to pull the bit that was catching out of the middle and undo it.

The in-laws arrive tomorrow afternoon, so the husband was baking up a storm. Ginger cupcakes with gingerbread men and vanilla frosting. Sandwich cookies (chocolate with vanilla frosting inside). And I think he has more planed, but that’s all that got done over the last two days. Good stuff, but I’m finding that I have less of an appetite for a ton of sweets. I’m trying to steer him toward snacking size cakes when it’s just us (aka a single layer in an 8×8 pan) so we don’t have, say, an entire 9″ two-layer cake with frosting staring us down.

Two last things to wrap, and one last thing that’s to arrive Monday, then done.