MarQ1

You might ask just that.

Going way back, I slipped into vacation mode a little early, right after that last post. I considered posting that weekend, but put it off until the 4^th. The Fourth was going to be a hot one, so I went out early on my bike. Twenty minutes into the ride, I had to hit the brakes real hard to avoid hitting a school bus that had the right-of-way—who rides a school bus on the 4^th of July!?—and the front brake caught before the back and I just avoided going over the handlebars into the path of the bus, wrenching my back out. I spent the 4^th and the 5^th on my back or on my stomach with ice on my butt or propped up rigidly in a straight-back dining room chair to knit. No posting possible.

It is not possible for me to knit Feather & Fan lying down.

That gave me one twelve-hour workday to get everything done at work before taking off. Too pooped to post.

Friday, the seventh, I had every intent to post, but ran out of time what with taking the car to the carwash—they had to run it through twice—doing laundry, cleaning out the fridge, packing, deciding what knitting to take, moving the plants from the front to the back terrace, loading the car and picking J up by 5:00. Sorry.

I over optimistically took the Rowan Kid Silk Haze to work on Birch, which Mom said she would like. I didn’t even get this far:

I made it only through row 32 in PTown, knitting on the deck while waiting for other people to wake up. That’s not the best yarn to be knitting in a breeze. I also knit after dinner while J napped before going out to the bars at night. This is now my office knitting. That’s my disgusting office chair underneath it. I got 8 more rows done during Thursday’s and Friday’s conference calls.

Vacation

Right off the bat, let me say that while I packed the camera I never unpacked it. No pictures.

After picking J up, the drive was pretty easy all the way up. We had dinner in Milford and pretty much drove straight through getting in at 12:05am.

Saturday

We planned to go to the beach, but at breakfast we both realized we forgot to pack beach hats. So we had to go shopping. Four pairs of shorts, four shirts, three hats, three bars of soap a bottle of body wash, a book and a pair of cufflinks later it was after 1 o’clock, so we decided to skip the beach. Took a nap. Showered. Had dinner at Fanizzi’s, a good long walk to the other end of town. Walked back. Rested, read or napped. Went out to the bars at 11:30. Stood outside Spiritus with everyone else after the bars closed at 1. Went back to the house and slept.

Sunday

Slept late for me: 8-ish. Knit on deck while having my coffee; walked to the beach (2 miles?); beach, i.e., watching guys, reading and or napping; walked from the beach; showered; napped; had dinner at the Mews, which was very good; rested read or napped; went to the bars; stood outside Spiritus Pizza; went to an after hours party; went back to the house and slept.

Monday

Awoke aroung 7am. Read. Knit on deck while having my coffee; walked to the beach (2 miles?); beach; walked from the beach; showered; napped; had dinner at the Fanizzi’s again, really early with the old people; rested read or napped; went to the bars; stood outside Spiritus Pizza; went back to the house and slept.

Mike and Tom’s cat, Andre, got out and ran off for the first time ever.

Tuesday

See Monday, except dinner at Edwige at Night. The sweet pea falafel was wonderful as was the blueberry cobbler. And we didn’t go to the bars, since neither of us managed to wake up from our evening nap.

Andre came home.

Wednesday

Overcast with a threat of showers, so we skipped the beach. Shopped. Read. Knit. Napped.

That night we saw Ryan Landry’s Cleopatra. It stank utterly. It was boring. Aphrodite as Cleopatra was boring. Ryan Landry didn’t even do drag. The only bright spots were Olive Another as Caesar’s wife, Chlamydia, and Penny Champagne as Octavia and our cute bar waiter whose pants got lower and lower everytime he came by with the overpriced drinks. Between the tickets and the three rounds of drinks—a necessity for this show—this was a $100+ tab. The tush was cute, but not that cute.

We’ve seen the Ryan Landry production every year we can remember—and a few we can’t. This was the first flop. It was also the first time the room wasn’t standing room only.

The evening was such a downer, we didn’t even think about hitting the bars. The three rounds also influenced our decision.

Thursday

Rain in the morning, clearing up too late to go to the beach, which would have been too damp to be fun anyway. More shopping, napping, reading and knitting. Cocktails on the deck. We had dinner with Mike & Tom at Edwige at Night. Yes, this restaurant is worth hitting twice in one trip. J is still raving about the tuna. Though I wish I had gotten the falafel again. That was so good. Slightly spicy with a salad with feta and nuts and other stuff.

Too stuffed to go out late. Went shopping earlier instead.

Friday

Woke up at 3am. Lay awake until 4:30. Too much napping. Went for a walk. Five other people out and about. Watched the sunrise. Took nap till 7:30. Read. Knit on deck while having my coffee; walked to the beach (2 miles?); beach; walked from the beach; showered.

Instead of dinner as usual, we joined Mike & Tom and other guest of the Grandview Inn on the Bay Lady II, a two-masted schooner, for a sunset picnic cruise out on Cape Code Bay. I loved this. The feel of a wind-driven vessel is exciting. The winds were still and the bay a bit choppy; on the return the waves were splashing over the bow. I loved it. It didn’t hurt that the crew was cute too.

Rested, read or napped; went to the bars; stood outside Spiritus Pizza; went back to the house and slept.

Saturday

The usual. J announced at dinner—Fanizzi’s again (a good burger, btw)—that he was coming down with something. So later only I went out the bar. Spiritus. Sleep.

Sunday

Coffee on the deck. Packed up. Left PTown around 10:30. Remarkably easy and fast trip back. Stomach a little queasy. J has head cold. Home a little after 5.

Monday

Laundry. Nine hours of it.

Since Vacation

Rambling. No real excuse for not posting. Just lazy at home and I’ve been reading and my stomach has been queasy all week. Too busy at work trying to catch up. I did finish off the practice F&F in PTown with a crocheted chain and blocked it Tuesday.

You can see the mistakes, but I’m pleased with the effect. I have avoided the mistakes the second time through.

I have yet to pick up F&F again. Been reading instead. It was a horrible book that I just couldn’t put down, but it’s done and has been tossed into the recycling bin.

Stomach’s better, but I’m getting J’s head cold.

Later.

AND I GAINED NO WEIGHT ON VACATION!

With great fortitude, and little else to do this muggy June weekend, I have successfully navigated Feather & Fan through round 52.

There were no serious errors. The minor ones have been fixed—fixed and not glossed over. I have only resorted to a crochet hook once.

I’ve managed 52 rounds and have used only a bit over one-half of a ball of yarn. Is this normal? The outer rounds must chew through yarn for this shawl to consume the reported yardage.

Gay Pride Recap

We participated peripherally in Gay Pride this year. It was raining after all. Our friend C— had a few friends over for pre-parade mimosas and bagels. It was a small group, so there were more mimosas per capita than usual. C—’s twenty-five-year-old, straight, cute, tall, thin and half-naked—baggy shorts and flip-flops—downstairs neighbor dropped in too. He was very nice and friendly, but I prefer my half-naked 25-year-olds at a distance. Having them seated next to you on the sofa is distracting at best. Not to mention the making-me-feel-old-and-dumpy thing.

J & then went to brunch at Mi Cocina, where we stopped at one margarita a piece. The best chilaquiles I’ve had. We then went off to find the subway on the other side of the parade. That way we could go home and see some of the parade and some of the boys. In the true spirit of Gay Pride, J stopped along the way and bought a nice shirt on sale. I couldn’t find anything I wanted in a small. We saw a cop, not in the parade, disco dancing alone in the middle of 4th St. Odd. We crossed the parade at 5th Ave and 9th in a break in the religious groups, I think. It was pretty well attended despite the rain.

It’s still wet and sticky. Did I say it rained all weekend?

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.

Perfect Biking Weather

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.

Red Hook Fairway Opens

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.

Shoulder of Pork and Ham

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.

And the sock is coming along nicely too.

Is it my imagination, or just me, but does drilling one tooth always make all the others ache in sympathy?
More Scotch, please.

Worst trip to the dentist ever.

And I’ve had the same dentist for sixteen years. I had to have a molar inlay replaced. After two syringes of whatever the only thing that’s fully numb is my uvula and my earlobe. The third syringe: my lip finally felt numb and I couldn’t spit or swallow, but that made me nauseated. Then I hyperventilated trying to fight off the nausea and the numbness began to fade. Mid-drill, the doc had to give me a fourth syringe. My nose hairs were numb, but not my tooth. I bore the remaining three-to-five minutes in varying degrees of pain, raising my hand when I needed him to stop so I could recoup a bit. One really can’t swear to one’s satisfaction with a mouthful of dental implements. By the time I left, maybe 30-45 minutes later, only the leftmost third of my tongue remained fully deadened.

I probably should have eaten lunch.

Btw, the new Madonna album is pretty good.

Even in tiny amounts, the keyboard might decide that your Option key is being held down continuously and typing will get you nowhere and your mouse will seem to be possessed and you just might have to go buy another one.

Keyboard, not gin.

Keyboards, fortunately, are relatively cheap.