Nice start to the new year...

First of all, I had the most perfect sleep last night. I slept on my side with Zoey under the blanket curled up in my spoon bowl. I woke up once to pee about 3 am and then again at 5:59.

There were very few swimmers at the pool. There are two schools between my house and the pool. Getting there is rarely a problem, but I leave the pool usually about 7:45 and hit kid and car traffic at both. These past two weeks have been gloriously school traffic free. This morning there was so little of any kind of traffic, it was really nice.

Once home I discovered that Home Free (acapella group) will be here in concert the week of my birthday. $40 a ticket after more than $10 of taxes and fees (wtf?), but it's on a Sunday which is the best parking/traffic wise near the venue and I really want to see them, so... ok. I bought a ticket.

And when I went to email to double check the receipt, there were two new emails ... one was the receipt and the other was a notice from Amazon that my tablet had sold $225! Nice. It is all boxed up and ready so a trip to the Post Office this morning is now on the agenda.

I am totally ok with 2015 so far.

My yarn order should arrive today. This is the fine and fancy yarn I ordered last week. It's the first really good yarn I've bought in decades. It's for two projects. One an afghan and one a vest or something like that. The latter is really a pattern I found that is so complicated, I had to try it. It's for a shawl but I have no use for a shawl so I think, maybe, vest. We'll see.

Time now to hang up my suit and towel, get some breakfast and get this day started!

Today's Basket

Previous basket photos

Friendzy, 2015 edition.

solteronita is starting off the new year with a Friendzy!

And it's not one of those with a lot of requirements :)

I may burn in hell... I may burn in this condo

I moved into this condo at the end of December 1991.  I had lived here a couple of years the first time the fire alarm went off. I grabbed my coat and shoes and purse and headed for the stairway. I got to the street and found my neighbors. I was not terribly chummy with any of them and that night they landed on me with claws out. "Don't you have cats????" "Where are your cats????"  "What if this is a real fire??!!!"

A couple of years later the fire alarm went off again one night when my Mother happened to be here. Again we go for the stairs and get outside and there are the neighbors. I pull Mom off to the side and explain about the cat attack probability.

The alarm goes off every couple of years for one reason or another.  I do not bother getting out the cat carriers and digging cats who are freaked by the alarm out from under beds or the backs of closets. I just ride out the noise until it stops.

Plus it takes them way too long to turn the elevators back on and then you have to fight the hoards to get one. I can no longer climb the stairs to get here even though I'm only on the 4th floor.

Tonight was another alarm night. It's fucking freezing out... heck, it's none too toasty in here!  I waited until I heard the fire engine. I checked the hallway for smoke. I cleaned up the kitchen until the noise stopped.  One day it may be a real fine and I may go out as a crispy critter.  Whatever.

The one time we really did have a raging - see the flames from across the street - fire in the building, the alarm didn't even go off.  It was a contained fire upstairs and on the other side and other end of the building but still....

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Tonight I found another way to cast on the stitches for bear feet. All the thousands of these teddy bears I've made, I'm impressed I can still learn ways to make them better/easier to make!

My fancy yarn package go hung between FedEx Smart  Post and USPS so it didn't get here today which is fine. It will be here tomorrow or Monday. If it were a new gadget, I'd be chomping at the bit, but I can wait on the yarn. I need to get as many bears done as I can before I get distracted with different projects.