With any crochet project, I like to gauge the recipient’s response. While the temperature blanket is not done, it has reached the point where it’s a usable lap blanket, which I ended up doing a couple days ago while reading on the sofa. Almost immediately after pulling the blanket off the back of the sofa, Arwen joined me. Not that she’s the intended recipient, I am actually making it for myself. The cats do enjoy the various crocheted blankets around the house though.
It’s not just Arwen… give the choice of three spots on the sofa, Diane will fairly consistently choose the one with the crocheted blanket… unless her favorite lap human is also on the sofa. (That’s not me, I move around too much when I’m awake. She curls up next to me during the night instead.)
At some point, the blanket will be extended across the entire sofa, at which point it’s possible that Arwen and Diane will both be on it at the same time. Much cuteness will ensue.
Progress continues on my temperature blanket, with over a hundred squares already connected. That’s more than a quarter of the blanket completed! We are stuck in a bit of a weather rut recently, though Sunday’s forecast offers the possibility of a color change after two weeks in the red (85-94) range. It looks like I’ll get to sneak a couple orange squares in soon.
Even with gardening, I’ve never watched the forecast this closely. For the garden, once it’s planted, I mostly need to know when to expect rain, both to know if I need to water (this summer, the answer to that is mostly yes) and plan my outside time. With overnight temperatures dropping to the high 60s and low 70s, the early mornings are perfect for weeding and mulching on days when it’s not raining. Those overnight drops are why I’m contemplating doing a lows and highs blanket the next time I make a temperature blanket, to really showcase the quirks to our Midwest weather.
As luck would have it, we scheduled our day of wandering around downtown Portland, Oregon to coincide with opening day of the Portland Aquarium. To be clear, this is actually an art-quarium rather than live animals, all drawn by the delightfully talented Mike Bennett.
As part of your admission, you receive a compendium that documents the five biomes you’ll explore and some of the over a hundred cartoon species you’ll encounter in those rooms. Each species includes both a photo and a drawing, along with information about the species and their geography. Some species include side comments, like the Giant Pacific Octopus (pictured below) has a note that reads “My favorite animal without a backbone!” And, conveniently, there’s a checkbox by each one so you can track which creatures you’ve found. (Yes, my compendium is unmarked; our group collaborated on one checklist.)
The inside cover of the compendium includes instructions for exploring Bennett’s Bay – among other things, don’t go backwards! This is a one-way trip through the various biomes, with the compendium organized in the order you’ll encounter them. And while most animals get a sixth or eighth of a page, sea otters and the effort to bring them back to Oregon have a full page spread.
Presumably because it was opening day, we were offered free star(fish)-shaped doughnuts as we moved from the aquarium into the gift shop. While I was tempted by various animals – such as a snail or turtle – holding a “slow down” message, the yard sign that came home with us was a rainbow, which seems appropriate during Pride Month. I’m delighted that stickers have made a comeback, especially since the fit shop had stickers from both this exhibit and some previous ones.
Two minor things to take into account when you visit the Portland Aquarium: keep an eye out for a missing goldfish named Gilly (she makes appearance in several places) and definitely use the bathroom while you’re in the gift shop.
It’s been a weirdly busy week, including a physical therapy appointment this morning, and I suddenly realized it’s Thursday evening and I haven’t written a blog post yet. I did make art, a couple versions, over the last couple days, but I’m not ready to share them. Zuko left a scratch on my leg Monday when he launched himself at Arwen, Arwen fell off the bed Wednesday morning and hooked into my left elbow to catch herself, and I appear to have encountered poison ivy last weekend, at least according to my right wrist.
That’s the long-winded way of saying I’m taking this week off.
It’s been a weird start to our growing season, between our travel and a cooler than normal spring. Because of our travel, anything that was supposed to be started indoors for our client – typically in March or thereabouts – was started early May in our house. That accounts for the eggplant (complete failure this year, none of them started), two varieties of broccoli, and two varieties of large tomatoes. They moved outside last week and are still small enough in their garden beds that they didn’t photograph well. Fortunately, we have some vegetables that are proceeding nicely… not the okra though, where only three plants have appeared so far.
In the keyhole bed, the kale sits as a giant above the chard and next to the spindly scallions. At the far edge of the bed, carrots have volunteered next to the peas. Outside the bed in the keyhole opening, a tall garlic has caught up to the peas in the bed.
Hiding in the just mulched (this morning!) bed are two hills of watermelon seedlings and two of cantaloupe seedlings. I should absolutely thin these out more. Yes, more, I’ve already killed off about half of the seedlings on each hill.
One the left, clearly visible, are the Coco Black Bush Beans surrounded by mulch; they’ll get either cages or trellises to climb soon. On the right, fairly hidden because of the fresh mulch (also this morning!) are several short rows of corn.
The North Georgia Candy Roaster, a variety of squash, is coming in nicely in most of the divided bed, except for the squares that had leftover mustard greens from last year. The greens have now flowered and will presumably be reseeding themselves.
Three hills of tromboncino seedlings in pairs with some small catnip near the front and a tall catnip in the back just waiting to be harvested and dried.
Though not pictured, it is also strawberry season, which will be joined soon by raspberry and mulberry season. That said, I’m stepping outside to plant more okra, three plants just doesn’t cut it.
As I mentioned in my previous post about Puerto de la Cruz, there’s a plethora of activities in walking distance of the Apartamentos Casablanca. We arrived on a Thursday, exhausted after a sleepless night on an overnight flight to Madrid with a nap on the shorter flight to Tenerife North, grabbed a takeout pizza at the on-site restaurant, and settled in for more napping. When it became clear that Cassandra was taking a longer nap, I wandered the nearby area, discovering some touristy shops, restaurants, and a small grocery store, all within a couple blocks of the hotel. We did a similar wander later, picking one of the nearby restaurants as our dinner spot, and scoping out potential breakfast items at the grocery store.
While there were a number of items on our potential plans, we only booked one ahead of time: a Teide by Night tour that involved driving to the nearby national park – named for its prominent (dormant!) volcano, Teide, including dinner and stargazing. The overcast day had me a bit concerned until I realized we were driving through and then above the clouds.
Part of the Agatha Christie stairs, with each stair painted a different color with the name of one of her books
A view of the ocean after climbing the Agatha Christie stairs
A photo of me wearing a phoenix t-shirt with the volcano Teide in the background
A nighttime photo of mountain and several visible stars during the Teide by night tour
The volcano Teide at sunset
A pigeon on a railing by a pond in one of many city parks
A rambling of trees and plants at the local botanical gardens
El Drago de Icod, a tree that’s estimated to be over 800 years old
Me standing by an orca statue at Loro Parque
A variety of orchids at the Orchid Garden in Puerto de la Cruz
A view of Puerto de la Cruz from a high point of the city.
Before that late afternoon and evening excursion, scheduled for our first full day to preempt my inevitable shift back to being a morning person, we wandered up the nearby Agatha Christie stairs, peeking into some tourist shops and a scenic view of the coastline before finding lunch. We enjoyed an amazing sunset and an even more amazing view of the stars – above the cloud cover – in an area with minimal light pollution.
The next day involved walking to the nearby botanical gardens, lingering there for an extended period in lovely weather, then wandering back a slightly different route, which allowed us to discover a larger grocery store. Our plan for Sunday was to seek out a craft market that was advertised in the lobby, and while it turned out to be quite small, our return wanderings took us through the Taoro Garden, a public park with a several distinct areas including a sunken garden, playgrounds, dog park, and ponds… and, luckily for us, a restaurant.
Having taken the time to adjust to the time zone, Monday was an all-day adventure at Loro Parque, starting by catching their free train (tram, really) in Puerto de la Cruz and arriving just after opening. We stayed the entire day, catching the last train back after seeing almost every part of the zoo. The following day, we caught a bus to nearby Icod to visit the “Drago de Icod” – a tree that’s estimated to be between 800 and 1000 years old, a nearby butterfly house, and a banana museum that details the introduction of bananas to the Canary Islands and the resulting industry. That was the only day we really used our raincoats.
Wednesday turned into our big walking day – over 7 miles – starting a couple blocks away at the Orchid Garden, then wandering down towards the coastline for the Fishing Museum (which was primarily about fishing and other seaworthy vessels), the Archaeological Museum, and generally admiring the coastline and variety of shops. The next day, our last full day on the island, we headed up the Agatha Christie stairs again and kept going along a scenic path that gave us some great views of the city and the ocean. As with other areas in town, we found public gardens and a delightful restaurant before returning to pack and rest before a long travel day home.
Last weekend, Peter David, a writer of “stuff” – comic books, TV shows, novels, and such – passed away. He was only 68, which in the United States is around retirement age (unless you’re in Congress). Since I saw the news, I’ve been reflecting on the unusual impact Peter David had on my fandom. Picture a geeky butterfly flapping its wings somewhere.
In grad school, a friend and I decided to drive up to Orlando for MegaCon, which was primarily a comic book convention at the time. He wanted to hear Peter David speak; being a Babylon 5 (B5) fan, I wanted to hear J. Michael Straczynski. They were scheduled back-to-back, so we sat down for both. I came out of Peter David’s talk with an awareness that he had written some B5 episodes, a book called Howling Mad, and some funny “But I Digress” columns about Star Wars. I was working in Interlibrary Loan on campus at the time and set some challenges for my co-worker when I asked her to find those for me. (I have since acquired my own copy of Howling Mad.) I followed with my own research into Peter David and discovered that he was listed as a guest at DragonCon that summer.
If you recall my past discussion of DragonCon, it was my first exposure to Out of the Box Publishing and John Kovalic’s work (actually the 2nd year I attended). A few years later, that familiarity with both John and Out of the Box Publishing saw me hanging out at their GenCon booth playing Shipwrecked with a couple who were involved in the now-defunct Chicago Gamers Conclave, a Thanksgiving weekend gaming convention. Attending that convention brought Capricon to my attention, along with a reintroduction to some gamers I had met at Wizard World over a year before, and an invitation to a tabletop role-playing group, where I met my ex-husband.
The ripple effects of that geeky butterfly include exposure to John Kovalic’s work and as a result, my subsequent involvement in Dorkstock; meeting the father of my favorite human child (don’t worry, she knows she ranks above the cats too); and my introduction to Chicago’s fan-run conventions (one of which I co-chaired this year). That’s a pretty big impact for listening to a guy talk about Skippy, the Jedi droid; the “Bear”bylon 5 incident, and a wolf that got bitten by a werewolf.
Continuing our adventures from sitting through a timeshare talk in January, we explored the available locations from the RCI resort directory for an 8-day/7-night stay and decided to visit Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. And by “we,” I mean that Cassandra did all of the research and I booked the flights. Yay for a live-in travel planner! (The Margaritaville cruise we took in March was also a reward for attending the talk. If you’re counting, that’s 3 nights in Virginia, a 2-night cruise, and 7 nights in Tenerife in exchange for our attendance.)
Having selected the Canary Islands as our destination, and narrowed it down to Tenerife (the largest of the Canary Islands), selecting which of the available resorts to stay at was probably the easy part – Club Casablanca (as named on the RCI website) or Apartamentos Casablanca (as noted on local signage) is in easy walking or transit distance of many attractions on the north end of the island, including Loro Parque, a world-famous zoo.
We had an amazing time at the Apartamentos Casablanca, from the smooth check-in process through our departure a week later. No, I take that back, it began when I e-mailed about extending our stay by arriving one day earlier, asking for pricing. We received a reply within a day, and the cost of the extra night was less than the airfare savings that prompted the request. Every staff member was friendly, and everyone whose responsibilities included regular interactions with guests was at least bilingual – probably more, given that signage around town was usually in English, Spanish, and German, with some restaurants featuring additional (usually European) languages.
The resort buildings essentially filled a city block, enclosing the restaurant, patio, and pool area. (The outside-facing ground floor had businesses around half the block.) The pool photo I shared above was the only one I could take in nice weather without people; there were almost always people at the pool when it was open, even if the weather was a bit chilly by my standards on several days. (Yes, low 60s is chilly for the pool. Yes, I checked my temperature blanket spreadsheet to see what the highs were while we were there.) There’s a game room (pool, air hockey, ping pong, an arcade game, and a play area for younger kids) and laundry room (coin-operated – the front desk will make change) open through late evening hours.
Our apartment had a balcony facing the street, which meant we could see the ocean and hear the nightly live music from the hotel across the street. The restaurant at our hotel also featured nightly live music, which we mostly heard in passing as we headed to our room, though we made a point of attending a flamenco performance one evening. We had a small kitchen, so ate breakfast in the apartment most days, usually eating lunch and dinner elsewhere – there were plenty of good options in walking distance. (That’s a later post!)
We would be delighted to stay at the Apartamentos Casablanca if we’re in Puerto de la Cruz again. That said, there are areas to explore in the northeast and south sides of the islands as well, and points of interest on the other islands. Hopefully we’ll have future opportunities for adventures in the Canary Islands.
Near the end of April, we flew to Tenerife North Airport in the Canary Islands, spending just over a week at a resort in Puerto de la Cruz. It was fabulous and I have some lovely photos to share here… but not today.
The day after we returned, we had ten yards of mulch delivered shortly before we left to see Cats. On principle, I immediately grabbed a couple buckets, so I could say I had started it on it the same day it arrived. One of our neighbors immediately popped out to offer a loan of his wheelbarrow, because our neighbors are awesome that way. I assured him I had one, and sure enough, by the time he stepped out for his newspaper the next morning, I had made a significant dent in the pile using our garden cart. By the following Sunday – Mother’s Day in the United States – the pile was down to about half of its original size.
And that’s about where it’s still at today. We spent a good chunk of Mother’s Day helping out in someone else’s garden – enough that even with sunscreen and a hat, my face was a bit pink in a photo taken the following evening. The fact that I wasn’t near home for that photo added to my tiredness – I flew out Monday morning to attend a conference in Washington, DC, and flew back Wednesday afternoon. Alas, there was no time to be a tourist on this trip, unlike last year’s visit for the same conference, and the conference was just as full an experience as it was last year, ranging from breakfast hours to team dinners.
I took this morning “off” to recover – which really just means I didn’t launch straight into early morning mulching again, opting instead to deal with unpacking and laundry. And since my weather app says it’s 94 degrees Fahrenheit outside (the forecast was for 88 with some rain, and it hasn’t rained), I will certainly not be moving mulch this evening. Especially since I am still, not surprisingly, tired.
I was surprised when the Paramount Theatre announced that Cats was in this Broadway season; Cats was part of the first Paramount season we subscribed to (2014-15?), and we’ve been season ticket holders since then. In fact, it was the first show of the season and the smoke effects set off the fire alarm that fall afternoon. The decision made more sense once they announced that it was a different interpretation – the classic music from Cats combined with a Cirque du Soleil style presentation created “Le Cirque du Chat.”
Your typical Cats performers are already more flexible than the average person, with assorted flips and balancing acts across the stage stretching the imagination as to the trouble cats can get into. Le Cirque du Chat adds gravity-defying acrobatics to the mix, with various characters twisting precariously above the stage, sometimes cavorting in pairs in displays of both trust and skill.
This is, of course, in addition to the singing and dancing on the stage; it is, after all, a Broadway show. As always, the Paramount shines in their selection of talented cast members; this would have been a fabulous show even without the circus re-imagining. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend seeing this distinctive rendition of Cats at the Paramount.
