And that’s just one day.
Well, Bad Behavior seems to be catching most of the spammers, but I have had to block an IP range in Russia. If any of your Russian drug-pushing friends complain that they miss me, let me know and I’ll figure out a work-around.
I should adjust the visitor count, shouldn’t I? Eight to ten percent? 50%?
Lately, my life’s been dull as…
Since our office moved to Manhattan, I’ve been leaving for work an hour or more earlier than usual—to avoid the rush on the subway. It works. Not many people go to Wall St at 7:30. I’ve also been trying to catch up on my work, with little effect. Every hour in meetings adds three hours of real work. Let’s say I’m in eight hours of meetings in my now fifty-two-hour week. Ugh. I’ve not been leaving the office until 6:00 or later since the move. Been missing the rush then too.
Makes me a dull boy.
Yesterday, that is. I put in just under two hours, riding too far and too fast on the way out, and struggling on the way in. The 18mph WSW wind didn’t help. I headed out through Williamsburgh and Greenpoint into Long Island City and over the Roosevelt Island Bridge (36th Ave, Queens). The bridge has a tight circular ramp taking you down to street level—not bad on the way in, a bit of an effort on the way out. Roosevelt Island could be a nice place to live, now that it has a subway stop. I would think that the winter winds coming off the East River would be brutal though. No pics. Forgot the camera.
Totally trashed my legs on the bike. An hour after returning, I could barely walk. I could barely sit at dinner¹, but a cocktail helped, as did a glass of wine.
I didn’t go out today. I was about to when an overrated line of thunderstorms came through. A few drops. No lightning. No thunder.
Before noon, J & I went to the new Fairway grocery at the end of Van Brunt in Red Hook. I think it just opened on Thursday. This store is wonderful. It has a good selection of gourmet and run of the mill groceries. The fresh fruits and vegetables are better than I’ve seen anywhere in NYC, Long Island or New Jersey. And, remarkably for Brooklyn the staff is polite, friendly and helpful. I can’t tell you what we spent. No more driving to Wegman’s in Woodbridge.
Dinner tonight—all components acquired at Fairway—was tuna steak, caprese salad and celeriac remoulade. The tuna was fresh, no fishy smell at all. The beefsteak tomatoes in the caprese actually had flavor. The basil was potent and not, for once, wilted. The celeriac was huge and tasty.
I’ve gotten tired of screening and moderating spam. In the last week I’ve started to get trackback spam, which WordPress doesn’t filter through its moderation and blacklist functions. Now I’m trying the Bad Behavior plug-in. Rather than filtering on words, it looks for characteristics of the spam message to deny access to spammers. So far so good; three spam comments and seven spam trackbacks blocked so far.
The sock progresses slowly. Nothing to show.
¹ Dinner was at Coco Roco, a new Peruvian restaurant on Smith St. The food was flavorful and memorable, much better than the Peruvian place that was in the same spot before. A good size crowd, too.
I finally finished reading it. It was an enjoyable read, but it would have gone faster had I not seen the PBS series. The next book I read will be much shorter.
Knitting content two days running. A quasi-finished object in fact.
This is the first of two of the Gentleman’s Socks in Railway Stitch from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks.
Have to go. Have to cast on 81 st and knit a few rounds before going to bed.
It fits J better than it fits me, btw.
I had a (personal) record seven straight conference calls Friday, sandwiched between a staff meeting and an impromptu meeting in the department head’s office. Needless to say, I got little real work accomplished on Friday. I did manage to finish this:
When I left for work I was only about 60% done.
This is one hank of Malabrigo Merino in Sunset, knit entirely in a brioche stitch (CO 18st.). I finished up with a warm, soft scarf with great visual texture, about 4 in. wide and 4½ ft. long. I have a recipient in mind.
My laceweight arrived Friday, but I’ve had no time for it or for my sock.
I went to work yesterday (and today, for that matter). It was unavoidable. I had to check the results of the monthly processing. I haven’t quite caught up from my vacation and the office move to Manhattan, so I had work to do anyway. On arriving on my floor I found there were no lights and less a/c than usual. I worked by the light of my monitor and my desklamp for an hour or so then stumbled upon a maintenance worker who turned the lights on for me. I never really cooled off though.
When I left the office I went over to J&R to buy a cradle for my PDA and to look at telephone headsets. And I bought a vacuum cleaner.
I’ve been mulling this over in my head awhile; it wasn’t a total impulse purchase. Then again, it’s not like I use a vacuum that often myself, but the old one was getting old and it’s attachments had pretty much all run away from home. We both had visions of the housekeeper¹ cleaning the sofa with the floor attachment, the only viable attachment left.
This is the ultimate guy’s vacuum cleaner. It’s bright for one thing—it coordinates with the bedroom walls. It is very powerful. It is very complex. It’s an über-gadget. Lots and lots of buttons and removable parts. I just hope the housekeeper has the patience to learn how to use it.
[Insert boring story about the horrors of trying to get back to Brooklyn with a forty-pound vacuum in an unwieldy box and no train service to any useful part of Brooklyn because of weekend trackwork or equipment malfunctions and no cabs available because everyone who was on one of the five lines not running out of West 4th was trying to hail one.]
¹ I’ve stated elsewhere that a biweekly housekeeper visit is a reasonable expense. We never fight about whose turn it is to clean what.
Not getting a bike ride in this weekend because of work and the dreary weather, I walked home over the Brooklyn Bridge, in under 45 min. It would have been less had I not been stopped by a traffic signal at Atlantic Ave. Geez, the tourists on the bridge.
Dilemma: I’ve tried on the Gentleman’s Sock in Railway Stitch. The ankle’s a bit loose, but not baggy. The calf fits comfortably and could be only marginally narrower. The foot circumference is near perfect. Do I go into the toe earlier and make the sock for myself, risking that the ankle will slouch (like most of my store-bought socks) or do I continue to remain faithful to the pattern and end up with a longer sock I have to give away?
We moved offices last Friday. The current cubicle—I can’t call it the new cubicle, because it certainly isn’t—is dark and claustrophobic. The whole floor is dark and claustrophobic. The furnishings were sticky and/or dusty when I moved in. I’ve cleaned them and now they are just sticky. They need Pine-sol, not Windex.
My chair is disgusting and it’s the best of what’s available. It has a high back and when I lean back my head touches the fabric where someone else’s head has so clearly rested. Maybe clearly
isn’t quite the word.
I’m tempted to knit an antimacassar.
Maybe a whole seatcover.