It was raining a little when we went to bed last night. I woke up in the wee hours to the sound of raining pounding down — I closed the bedroom window and crawled back into bed, where the rain lulled me back to sleep. Woke up later to clear blue skies, bright sun, gorgeous weather. So, we decided to go run some errands and enjoy the sun… except that, by the time I got out of the shower, it was cloudy again, and chilly enough that I grabbed a sweater when we left. By the time we got to Target, there were huge fat raindrops falling. It poured for a while, then the sun peeked through again, then more rain, then thunderstorms (which delayed the Red Sox game for over two hours) and now it seems to have stopped. The storms went on for ages, though.

It was a fujn shopping trip though — Jeff had a Target gift card, a birthday gift from his parents, and he also had a $25 gift check (a bonus from his work) so we got some necessities (hay for the guinea pigs, gooshy food for the cat, nail polish and nail polish remover for me), and he picked out an espresso/ cappuccino machine as his birthday present. The total was over 70 bucks, but we paid something around $23 for it all.

I stopped off at Michael’s and got a bag to organize my many knitting projects:

Yeah, I’m a dork, I took pictures after I got it all filled up. If you want to fully experience my dorkitude, click through to the Flickr version, and you can see that I put in notes describing the contents!

I usually catch the bus to the Orange Line at 7:30. This morning, there were no buses at all until 7:50, when one extremely full bus passed my stop, followed by a nearly-empty bus right behind it. Then, the Orange Line was running with delays, which must have been contagious, because the Red Line was also messed up. A trifecta of T fucked-upness!

Do the dumb things I gotta do. Touch the puppet head.

Jeff and I saw They Might Be Giants on Friday night, and it was excellent! Smallish venue (the Somerville Theater), great crowd, really good seats — it was a great show.

Look, a blurry cell-phone camera shot!

I’ve seen them… oh, at least a half-dozen times since college, and they’re always fun.

The weekend was spent recuperating. I’m old, and going to shows makes me tired and achy! We intended to get up for church on Sunday, but… well, I never even heard te alarm go off, and slept like a log until 11:30. Jeff got up a bit earlier.

My laptop broke last week — I was using it Wednesday night, then closed it for an hour or so, and when I went back to it, it was dead. The AC adapter plug looks odd, like the tip came off or something, and it doesn’t seem to fit into the jack securely. Jeff’s got a similar laptop (they’re both HP Pavilions) and his adapter won’t plug into my computer at all. I’m sending it to HP — Jeff dealt with the purgatory that is their tech support — and hopefully they can fix it. (I have an impending sense of doom, for no real reason except… I love my computer! I can’t afford a new one! I only bought this one back in September!) It’s very frustrating, not having a computer at home. I borrow Jeff’s whenever I can wrest it away from him, but… I miss mine.

Smoke and Cesar, having a moment. (Jeff took this with his cell phone.)

Nap time!

It’s rough being Smoke, I tell you.

I am, once again, wishing I could do anything at all to keep from going back to work tomorrow. I have been in this job for ten years now — when will my boss stop calling me in to her office to tell me off for being a quiet/ shy person? Honestly, it’s making me crazy. I’m not THAT shy, I do talk, but once or twice a year, I get called into my boss’s office and reamed out for not talking enough. And I have no fucking clue how to fix it.

And really, how the hell is the getting chewed out supposed to make me more confident? It just makes me want to never go back to work. I end up crying every night when i get home, because I feel like such a mutant at work, such a freak that everyone around me just despises me. And I have no idea how to fix it. What do I do? I’ve spent ten years trying to force myself to fit in, and it just doesn’t work. Maybe I should just give up, and be the asshole people think I am.

I was looking at my site stats and there are a huge number of hits lately from this site… which, having looked at it, I’m baffled. Hello, you new people — what’s up?

Just try to keep your eyes open…

Jeff needed a new hat…

so I knitted up a watch cap for him out of some yarn in my stash. (It’s dark green — hard to see in the picture. And you can’t really see the cool swirl formed by the crown shaping.)

… I married the most wonderful man in the world.

I love you so much, Jeff. You’re my best friend, the center of my world, and every day you just amaze me. And I am so, so lucky to have you as my husband.

I was totally going to write more often! But it got hot, and there’s no air conditioning in the living room, where my dinosaur of a computer currently resides,* and so I spent a lot of time hiding out with my knitting in the air-conditioned bedroom. And I’m lazy. But you knew that.

*The dinosaur will be gone soon, when the shiny new laptop I ordered arrives. If it ever arrives. I have been haunting the Dell website, obsessively checking my order status, since last week. I want my new computer!

Two important things: see that banner up there above this post? The one about the ALS Walk? Jeff and I are trying to raise as much money as is humanly possible to help find a cure for ALS — aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease, aka Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It’s an immensely important cause to us, because ALS has cut a swath through Jeff’s family. It’s an absolutely horrible disease, and it scares me to death, so if you can spare a little money and sponsor Team Carter Gilson, we’d be very happy. Or, if you’re in the area, you can join our team and help us raise money that way! The walk is a lovely 3 1/2 or so mile around a pretty lake, in October. We’ve done it before, and it’s a good time.

The second announcement: I’ve started blogging on Jeff’s site, with my very first post there today. Go check it out, along with Jeff’s very funny and smart blog posts and podcasts!

When I have been online recently, it’s been to play around on Ravelry — it’s a lovely new community for knitters and crocheters. It’s seriously cool, and I’m loving it. It’s still in beta, and invitation-only, but there is a waiting list for new members!

On the knitting front: the Clapotis, she is finished!

Man, did that take forever. And it got very, very boring to knit. I have a short attention span. This is why I like knitting socks. But it is very soft, and very pretty, and I adore the colors.

I started a cute scarf:

It has a cute little ruffle on each end! The pattern was written by the lovely Sean, owner of my favorite local yarn shop. The yarn is gorgeous, too — it’s a silk/ merino blend, very soft and fluffy. The color is a much darker plum than it appears in the photo — the flash did neither the yarn or my pasty white hand any favors.

As for the attempt at gardening… my tomatoes were coming along quite nicely, with one huge tomato just about ready for picking — I was so excited about that tomato, and had plans for a lovely tomato sandwich once it was ready… note the past tense? Yeah. There was this cute little squirrel that liked to hang out on the deck. It had never bothered the grape tomatoes, so I wasn’t worried about it. Ha. I got home on the day I was going to pick my beloved tomato, and it was gone. Well, partly. The little furry bastard squirrel had pulled it off the vine and eaten a huge hole it it, along with the half-ripe tomato that was growing near it. I was so pissed, I nearly cried. (Yes, over a tomato. I was proud of that tomato!)

So, one trip to Home Depot later, Jeff built the Tomato Fortress:

It’s chicken wire, closed on all sides. The clothes pins hold the little door closed. There are two green bell pepper plants in between the tomatoes. And the vegetables are now safe from rotten, thieving squirrels!

Other than that, not much is going on. Life is good. Oh, but a funny story: yesterday, I borrowed Jeff’s iPod to amuse me on my commute. (We both have iPods, but his is a video one, while mine is a wee Nano. Thus, I steal his sometimes.) I was heading home, waiting for the Orange Line train, and happily watching an episode of Doctor Who. (David Tennant is my favorite Doctor ever. Also, he’s pretty.) The train comes, it’s packed with people, and I’m all gross and sweaty from standing on the sauna-like platform. I found a seat, though, which made me happy because my back was killing me. I was worried that I was squashing, or possibly sweating on, the woman engrossed in her book next to me. So, when she tapped me on the arm a minute or so later, I thought she was going to tell me to move my sweaty self elsewhere… but instead it was Jen! Which was hilarious, because we were both so deep into our commuting entertainment that neither of us noticed when I sat down right next to her. We are observant!

The pigs are also fine. They’d say hi, but they are busy…

… at work. Feh. I’m covering a Saturday shift, and since it’s the summer, it’s deserted here. I’m also working with a student who I don’t think I like much — he’s a tad arrogant. But then, he’s also perfectly happy at the desk, which means I’m free to be in the back, goofing off and getting a little busywork done.

And since it’s been more than a month, let’s catch up, shall we?

First off, I have to say woooohoo, and thank you, Massachusetts legislators! (Actually, my first comment to Jeff was “Suck it, bigots!” Because I am very, very ladylike. Ahem.) So, yeah, the marriages of some of my dear friends are still happily intact, and discrimination won’t be written into my state’s constitution. Makes me proud, that does. Jeff wrote a very good podcast on the subject, go check it out!

The new apartment is still lovely, and is (mostly) unpacked. I am besotted with the place, honestly. It’s so peaceful, and quiet, and filled with light and nice breezes… here are a very few pictures, taken last night:

That’s my desk, in the corner of the living room. If you look closely, you can see my Librarian Action Figure! Also, I really need a new chair. That one is not only ugly and uncomfortable, it’s also getting very wobbly.

Random shot of one of the bookcases, and the DVD rack. Look, Simpsons PEZ dispensers on top of the DVD rack!

The back deck, with bonus grilling husband! I love the deck, even though it is very, very wobbly. The plants on the rack by the grill are some sad primroses, which refuse to stop looking half-dead, and some bell pepper plants that Jeff planted. They have teeny baby peppers! The flowers on the railing are some violas I planted right after we moved in. They were puny when I plated them — they were three sad tiny clumps of flowers, nowhere near big enough for the planter. They liked the potting soil or something, though, because they pretty much exploded, and are now threatening to take over the whole deck.

Seriously. Huge!!

The deck is too small to get a good picture of. The former tenant left this birdhouse behind, and Jeff strung up the icicle lights — he even bought an adapter that turns the outside light socket into an outlet, so the lights are controlled by a switch inside. He assured me that the socket will not burn the house down the next time it rains. I’m still dubious. But I like the lights! They’re festive!

We bought a couple of tomato plants last month, and look! Baby tomatoes! We got one Fresh Mountain tomato plant, and one grape tomato plant. So far, the Fresh Mountain one only has those three tomatoes. Lots of blossoms, though, but they don’t seem to be doing much. I’ve never grown tomatoes, though, so I don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing.

The grape tomato plant, however, is going nuts. There are two huge clusters of tomatoes already, with two or three more clusters of wee tiny baby tomatoes starting. And more blossoms. Yay, fresh tomatoes! The piggies and I will be happy. Jeff doesn’t like raw tomatoes, so he couldn’t care less.

Smoke is happy because there are many. many windowsills her her to snooze on. She’s finally figured out that the perch we bought is a comfy place to sleep! Here, as you can see, we were watching Bob Barker’s final episode of The Price is Right. (I teared up when it was over. It was always a huge treat to watch that show when I was a kid, and home sick from school.)

(That’s Wally on top of the TV. He lives there during baseball season, as a good-luck charm for our beloved Red Sox. The little couch actually came from a drug rep at my mom’s office. I think it originally held a notepad, but it’s the perfect size for Wally! And down at the corner of the TV is a Cootie.

Bob Barker: “Spin that wheel!” Smoke “Zzzzzzzz.”

And yes, there has been knitting. Socks! Both the finished pair and the sock-in-progress are knit from Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn, which I love so much, it’s a little disturbing. Jeff has to remind me to not gnaw on the yarn, it’s so soft and pretty. The colors are amazing, and there’s a wee bit of stretch to the yarn, so the socks fit perfectly. Love them. I have another sock-in-progress, in a different shade of Cherry Tree Hill, sitting on my desk right beside me. Too pretty.

We also went to the Stone Zoo recently, with Joanne and Alan. The llama did not approve of us. (It was damned HOT that day. Hot and muggy. Bleah. The animals shared that sentiment.)

“Snore.”

“It’s too bloody hot. Meh.”