#HOPE THAT TAYLOR MIGHT ACTUALLY GIVE REGULAR UPDATES FROM NOW ON

[quinnhayden]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

[got-to-love-a-badboy]

Sinking

Billy Hargrove x Female reader

Chapter one

Summer had just started in Hawkins, everybody was going on vacation, partying and enjoying their break before college begins. Amy Myers on the other hand didn't know what she wanted to do now she had officially left school, the first few days were bliss! Sleeping in until 11am, taking a drive into town for lunch, coming home and working out in her garage, usually running, skipping, yoga and dancing.

On this day Amy walked downstairs at 10am, because it was the weekend her parents were home, she walked down and plonked herself at the table and began pouring some cereal into a bowl.

"Morning sweetie" her mother Rachel said, "hey mom" Amy replied whilst searching for a glass for her orange, her father Tom slid one over to her with a smile but never taking he's gaze off the newspaper in he's hands.

"You have any plans for today honey?" Mrs Myers asked Amy who had just finished pouring a glass of orange, "uh yeah actually, I'm going in to town to see if there any any jobs available" Amy said this quiet as she knew not going to  college wasn't what her parents planned but she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life and taking a year to decide that seemed the best option for her, even though her grades were a high standard.

"Oh that sounds nice, we'll hopefully you will find something, I mean even if not I'm sure you could get a last minute place at a local college?" Mrs Myers said looking at Amy with a smirk that said a job wasn't going to be long term.

After breakfast Amy headed up to her room to get dressed, she looked through her closet and decided on a pair of black shorts a red vest and her red Chuck Taylor high tops, she didn't have to do much with her long dark wavy hair as it always fell into its own place, she just ran a comb through it and brushed it to one side.

Amy headed downstairs and shouted to her parents "see you later guys", "bye honey!" they both called from the kitchen. Once outside she got in to her Ford Mustang, she loved her car, it was her dads old car but he gifted it to her because of her good grades when he got a new one, which she was very happy about. She backed out of her drive on Maple street, a well respected neighbourhood of Hawkins and headed for town.

When she pulled up she rolled her eyes at the amount of kids around town, she was confident and popular girl who knew everyone but had a small group of friends and tried her best to keep it that way by keeping out of everyone's business. Her circle consisted of her childhood friends Jenny Grey, Jonathan Byers and Nancy Wheeler. Amy spent more time with Jenny over the last year since Jonathan and Nancy became a thing, they were always together on dates or what ever, Amy didn't want to be jealous but she longed for someone to look at her like Jonathan looked at Nancy, she hoped this summer would change that.

Amy stepped out of her car and looked around as the stores wondering where she could find a job, the first place she spotted was Melvalds general store, she knew Jonathan's mom worked there and hopefully could pull some strings.

She walked in and it was like a ghost town, walking up and down the isles looking for Joyce or anyone for that matter!, she heard a rustling from behind the counter, leaning over she saw Joyce sat on the floor eating potato chips! "Good morning Mrs Byers" she looked down smiling at her, Joyce shot up from the floor looking flustered, "oh I'm so sorry Amy I didn't hear you come in! .. how can I help you dear?" Amy chucked "its ok ... I was actually hoping you might have a job vacancy you know with everybody going off to college, I thought you may need a hand?" Looking around instantly realising that probably wants going to be the case, Joyce thinking the same she looked around and put her hands out "I wish I could help you out honey, Jonathan told me your plan to take a break from school, but as you can see I'm not exactly needed around here mysef" Amy smiled at her "not to worry Mrs Byers thank you for you're time" and she headed for the door, "Amy? Call me Joyce honey it's been what 17 years! Good luck with the job search!" Joyce shouted to her, she blew Joyce a kiss and went out of the door.

Amy went in to a few stores, the arcade even the dry cleaners but nothing! She was realising she left it a little late to find a job, all of the drop outs snatched them up knowing they were going nowhere.

She slumped into her car and laid her head back ready to give up, she looked at herself in the rear view mirror and noticed someone walking behind the car in a Hawkins pool shirt, "the pool!" She thought, starting up the car she pulled out of the parking spot and headed for the pool.

It was a 5 minute drive from town until she pulled up outside the pool. It was busy today because the weather was nice, she thought to herself "summer in Hawkins, more people at the pool equals more staff?" practicing what to say as to why she should get a job here.

She got out of the car and headed for the little office behind a glass window where a little spotty teen sat, "oh hi...." Amy said to him looking down at he's name badge and smiling "...Josh is it possible to speak to your manager?" The teen looked shocked just staring at her, no reply, Amy coughed and smiled again, "oh uh yeah 2 seconds" Josh said running to a room behind him" Amy sighed at him.

The manager came out, he was a fairly old guy, "hello? I'm the manager here how can I be of assistance" he said kindly. Amy stepped forward giving him her winning bright white teethy smiling, "good afternoon sir, I was hoping I could speak to you about a job? You see I left Hawkins high last week but I'm unsure what I want to do as of yet and I got thinking, what do I love doing? exercise and looking after others came way up the list and I thought you know what Hawkins pool is the place for me! What do you say?... John" Amy said looking at he's name badge. She watched he's face for a whole, second guessing her all or nothing speech, "you know what we have a few of our regulars asking wether we do yoga classes, is that something you can help with if so I can help you out!" Amy's eyes lit up, "you're kidding me! I am the yoga queen John!" She couldn't believe her luck she was expecting to get shot down, cool off in the pool and go home for dinner. "Brilliant you can start tomorrow! 10am" with that he walked back in to the office.

Thank you for reading my firsth chapter, let me know if I should update the next part

[thirstinmore-blog]

Best Albums of 2018

BEST ALBUMS 2018

20. Noname: Room 25

19. Jeremih & Ty Dolla $ign: Mih-Ty

18. Tierra Whack: Whack World

17. Parks Burton: Pare

16. Oneohtrix Point Never: Age Of

15. Angelique Kidjo: Remain in Light

14. Shannon Shaw: Shannon in Nashville

13. Curren$y & Freddie Gibbs: Fetti

12. Ariana Grande: Sweetener

11. Vince Staples: FM!

10. DJ Koze: Knock Knock

9. Mariah Carey: Caution

8. Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel

7. The Carters: Everything is Love

6. Snail Mail: Lush

5. Shannon & the Clams: Onion

4. Teyana Taylor: K.T.S.E.

3. Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour

2. Blood Orange: Negro Swan

1. Dirty Projectors: Lamp Lit Prose

(Spotify playlist)

(Capsule reviews of Top 10 below) 

10. DJ Koze: Knock Knock.  The music writing trope of “a sounds like b + c” is as lazy as it is played, but sometimes you hear a record and those type of comparisons spring to mind, like when I first heard Saint Pepsi’s Hit Vibes and instantly thought of J Dilla making a disco record.  That was also my response to Knock Knock, which sounds like the Avalanches making a more patient update of Since I Left You for 2018 ears.  The record is long and lush, and draws from roughly nine billion different aesthetics, but its particular mélange still manages to sound fresh.  As with SILY, the album is best experienced as a complete piece of music (though several tracks, such as “Lord Knows” and “Scratch That” would sound great in a mix or DJ set).  Knock Knock takes the listener through ambling pathways that wrap around and revisit each other, like an evening stroll through the spacious Joshua Tree National Park depicted on its cover.  It’s nearly a two-hour journey, but it’s well worth the price of admission.

9. Mariah Carey: Caution.  Mariah got a dirty mouth and I’m here for it.  As mother, a twice-divorcée, a woman nearing 50, her work and her image are all her own; if she wants to include the word “fuck” in a bunch of songs on her new album (“GTFO,” “With You,” “The Distance”), then who the fuck are we to tell her no?   It’s a refreshing twist from someone whose public persona is often so curated, but I’m burying the lede.  The real story here is that Caution is a batch of excellent R&B songs from one of the genre’s all-time greats.  It’s not overwrought – by contrast, the album’s sultry blue cover art is indicative of the moods within.  The Ty Dolla $ign-featuring “The Distance” is laid extremely deep in the cut, assisted by some subtle production from Poo Bear, Lido and—holy shit, Skrillex?  Yup, and like Mariah herself, everyone involved uses an even hand and measured patience to let each song breathe.  

A personal highlight for me is “A No No,” which flips the Lil Kim/Lil Cease classic “Crush On You” on its head.  Here, where Biggie intones “he’s a slut, he’s a hoe, he’s a freak/got a different girl every day of the week,” there is no irony intended.  She gauges her suitors’ intent and responds simply: “that’s a no-no.”  In fact, the word “no” accounts for easily half the song’s lyrics, but it’s still a blast on subsequent listens.  But don’t get it twisted – highlights abound herein, from aforementioned singles “GTFO” and “The Distance” to the thoughtful, expansive, Dev Hynes-helmed “Giving Me Life,” which begins as a downtempo club hit and morphs into a surrealist dream.  Mariah Carey is one of the artists who’s been in my life the longest – I’m so happy she’s still killing it.

8. Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel.  Courtney Barnett is what I was raised to believe an indie rock star should be: an unassuming, smart slacker with regular clothes and the ability to unleash earthbound poetry and atmosphere-puncturing solos with equal aplomb.  That effortless cool permeates every facet of her work, from her casual half-singing style to her loose but proficient playing, a mighty guitar god in the body of a humble 31-year-old.  (That she recorded a collaborative record with renowned cool guy Kurt Vile should surprise no-one.)  But what’s really striking about Barnett’s work is her wryly observant lyrics; whether she’s describing the banalities of urban life (“City Looks Pretty”) or eviscerating toxic masculinity (“Nameless, Faceless”), her keen eye and incisive wit pervade every line.  Tell Me is the sound of a strong artist getting stronger.

7. The Carters: Everything is Love.  I often say that as I get older, my favorite elements of songwriting are editing and restraint.  That’s why I tend to hate double albums and love EPs.  I just believe that most double albums would be better if distilled down to one really strong record.  EPs, on the other hand, leave the listener wanting more.  Such is the case with Everything is Love, which reads like a Beyonce trap record with a number of guest verses from Jay. Regardless of speculation on who did the lion’s share of the writing on the record, both are in top form.  Bey’s signature vocal virtuosity is on display as ever, but the real delight is in her capable delivery as a rapper.  She glides effortlessly through triplets like “Poppin, I’m poppin, my bitches are poppin, we go to the dealer and cop it all.”  Big Sean could never.  Meanwhile, Jay turns in a few of my favorite bars of the year (and also a very slick Drake diss) on “Boss:”

“You not a boss, you got a boss. N*ggas gettin’ jerked, that shit hurts, I take it personaly.  N*ggas’d rather work for the man than to work for me.  Just so they can pretend they on my level, that shit is irkin’ to me.  Pride always goeth before the fall, almost certainly.  It’s disturbing what I gross.  Survey says: you not even close.  Everybody’s bosses till the time to pay for the office, till them invoices separate the men from the boys. Over here we measure success by how many people successful next to you.  Here, we say you broke if everybody is broke except for you. BAWSE.”

I don’t know if they intend to release more records as The Carters, but Everything is Love is a fun, successful experiment.

6. Snail Mail: Lush.  There’s no reason for a debut LP to be this good.  The record, from solo project-turnt-band of 19-year-old Lindsay Jordan is focused, clever, and sophisticated.  Every component of these songs appears exactly as it should.  Jordan’s songwriting is clean and incisive (“I hope whoever it is holds their breath around you/’cause I know I did,” she sings on album standout “Heat Wave”).  The arrangements are smartly simple; seldom do they deviate from the four-person rock lineup, so the embellishments that are included (the French horn on “Deep Sea,” the layered keys on “Speaking Terms”) really leap out.  The playing throughout is lovely, with Jordan’s beautiful guitar technique front and center (the finger-picking on “Let’s Find an Out” is a particular delight). Everything in its right place – only where Radiohead’s inward gaze can be mopey and self-indulgent, the core strength of Lush is its efficiency.  There’s no filler here – just the exact amount of support that each piece requires.  The drumming feels especially strong in this regard – there’s an economic directness in Ray Brown’s playing that prioritizes the backbeat over everything, including his ego. The fills that he does include are modest and workmanlike.

It’s right that the record would be released by Matador, because these songs are drenched in the influences of the 90s slacker rock of Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney and Sebadoh.  And as with each of those bands, Snail Mail’s songs are buoyed by excellent lyrics.  Jordan doesn’t just sound wise beyond her years, she actually seems to have lived more in her 19 years than many folks twice her age.  There’s a subtext of sobriety in some of the songs (“It just feels like the same party every weekend, doesn’t it?” on “Pristine,” or “I’m so tired of moving on/spending every weekend so far gone” on “Heat Wave”).  Perhaps the self-reflection that’s required in recovery has helped to distill her worldview.  

And look, I don’t mean to be patronizing here – this album would be a major achievement from any person of any age.  But to hear an artistic vision this crystal clear and laser-focused from a 19-year-old is something truly special.  I can’t wait to hear what she does next.

5. Shannon & the Clams: Onion.  Upon first listen, Onion struck me as the best record the Clams have released to date.  Now, admittedly, I’m a sucker for keyboards, and the inclusion of organist Will Sprott is pure Patrick-bait.  But beyond my own tastes, the organ both fills out and anchors the Clams’ garage doo-wop sound.  There’s a welcome succinctness to Onion: the songwriting is tight, the guitar playing is melodic and utilitarian, and the vocal performances from both Cody and Shannon are more technically refined than in any of their previous outings.  One wonders if Shannon’s work on her own solo album (the very good, Dan Auerbach-produced Shannon in Nashville, which also came out this year) pushed her to improve her technique.  And don’t get it fucked up – this is still a Clams record.  It’s still shaggy and loud and rambunctious – but they’ve worked hard to reign in their wildest tendencies.  Some might say that it’s layered, just like-- *an oversized cane hooks around my throat and drags me offstage* ….Well…..let’s just say it’s good.

4. Teyana Taylor: KTSE.  Of all the seven-song mini-albums Kanye produced in Wyoming this year, KTSE is both the best and the least talked-about.  She arrives seemingly out of the blue, a fully-formed artist who knows her strengths exactly.  She has bars when she feels like spitting them, a beautiful husky alto when she feels like crooning, and a profound connection to multiple styles of club music that’s borne of her history as a dancer.  It’s become a bit trendy to nod to vogue & ballroom culture in the last few years, but while Drake’s Big Freedia feature on “Nice for What” feels a little forced, Taylor can walk it like she talks it.  A dancer by trade, her comfort in the ballroom is palpable. 

Ye keeps it simple, remaining comfortably in his wheelhouse and flipping excellent soul samples such as Billy Stewart’s “I Do Love You” (which he repurposes into a nostalgic 4/4 slapper on “Hold On”) and The Stylistics’ “Because I Love You, Girl” (which he expands into a melancholy mediation on the horn section of the original).  It’s a welcome return to form.

3. Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour.  In her SNL performance earlier this year, Kacey Musgraves appeared as a flat-ironed, longhair disco queen.  As she slayed Golden Hour’s catchy lead single “High Horse,” I was reminded of Dolly Parton.  I’ve been spending a lot of time with Dolly’s mid-70s and early-80s catalogue this past year, having purchased vinyl copies of All I Can Do, New Harvest…First Gathering, and Dolly, Dolly, Dolly.  Parton is one of those artists whose discographies are so gigantic as to seem practically impenetrable, so I’ve been trying to hear as much as I can.  Dolly, Dolly, Dolly is an especially interesting entry: released in 1980, it was her 23rd album, and it represents a pretty clear swing for crossover success.  A handful of the tracks are straight-up disco, and these are what Musgraves called to mind.  I was thrilled – Dolly’s disco experiments were widely panned, but I think there’s a lot of good there, maybe Golden Hour would be an attempt to vindicate Parton’s vision?

Unfortunately or not, I was incorrect.  In total, Golden Hour bears more resemblance to Dolly’s friend & frequent collaborator Emmylou Harris (Kacey’s hair should’ve tipped me off, SMH).  It’s a beautiful, understated, and thoughtful set of songs that could fit as well on a folk radio station as a country one.  Like Harris, Musgraves has an innate sense of how to let a great song be great, hanging back in both arrangement and vocal performance.  She’s emotive when she needs to be (“Rainbow”), and contemplative as needed (“Golden Hour”), always letting her writing breathe.  Also, she has the confidence to bury the lead single so deep on Side B that you almost forget it’s there (and are thrilled when it is).  As a person who prefers the full album experience to that of a shuffled playlist, this is one of my very favorite tricks.

Quite simply: great songs + great arrangements = a surprising list-topper for me.

2. Blood Orange: Negro Swan.  For years, the roles of sexuality and gender in black identity have been foci of Dev Hynes’ work as Blood Orange.  He spent time with drag queens and sex workers while writing his debut album Coastal Grooves, and has often cited transgender icon Octavia St. Laurent as one of his primary influences.  But while these interests have colored his previous albums, on Negro Swan they’re the bedrock.  In a press release preceding the album, Hynes described the album as “an exploration into my own and many types of black depression, an honest look at the corners of black existence, and the ongoing anxieties of queer/people of color.  A reach back into childhood and modern traumas, and the things we do to get through it all.  The underlying thread through each piece on the album is the idea of hope, and the lights we can try to turn on within ourselves with a hopefully positive outcome of helping others out of their darkness.”

These ideas are fundamental to the songwriting, and they’re reinforced by snippets of conversations with Janet Mock and Kai the Black Angel (who adorns the cover in a durag and angel wings) peppered throughout the album’s 49 minutes.  On “Family,” Mock defines community as “the spaces where you don’t have to shrink yourself, where you don’t have to pretend or to perform, you can fully show up and be vulnerable in silence, completely empty, and that’s completely enough.”  That search for community, the desire to be seen and loved and supported as your whole self informs each of these beautiful songs.  Already a competent producer, Hynes continues to grow, selecting beautiful flourishes like the jangly, perfectly out-of-tune guitar on “Charcoal Baby” or the soft, echoing snare drum on “Dagenham Dream” to characterize the thematic content of each piece.  Negro Swan is a powerful and complete work of art.  It sounds like he’s finally found some answers to the questions he’s been asking. 

1. Dirty Projectors: Lamp Lit Prose.  On Lamp Lit Prose, David Longstreth appears to be having more fun making music than he has in years, probably because almost 100% of his band has turned over (kudos to longtime bassist Nat Baldwin, whose playing tethers him to his own beginnings).  Beyond the new Projectors themselves, Longstreth spent the months during the writing of the album making new friends in the LA music scene, and bringing them around the studio to record various parts.  Members of Haim contribute to album standout “That’s a Lifestyle,” Syd (of The Internet) anchors the refrain in “Right Now,” and Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold and Vampire Weekend alumnus Rostam Batmanglij stack harmonies onto the swirling ballad “You’re The One.”

I see LLP as the second half of a diptych begun by the self-titled Dirty Projectors, released last year.  While that record wallowed in the pain of a broken relationship with former Projector Amber Coffman, LLP reveals a healed and newly in love protagonist.  Both records feature David Longstreth at his most vocally competent: he’s now able to truly execute the melismatic R&B runs he lovingly wrote and charmingly attempted in his earliest work, his diaphragm now supports his every leap and bound, and his croon is sweeter than ever before.  But furthermore, both albums expand on ideas that have popped up throughout his illustrious and impressive body of work.  Whether he’s reviving the Rise Above era blasts of noisy guitars on “Zombie Conqueror” or revisiting the orchestral ambitions of The Getty Address on the stunningly soulful “I Wanna Feel It All,” Longstreth sounds like a worker with a complete toolbox and a detailed blueprint.  He’s been working at honing his craft for years.

I saw the Projectors in June, at a time when only “Break-Thru” and “That’s a Lifestyle” had leaked.  I didn’t know what to expect, being among the seemingly small minority of fans who liked their previous record.  But their set was staggering.  Flanked by his group of mostly-new faces, Longstreth was bouncing all over the place, proudly showcasing each instrumentalist & vocalist (seemingly everyone had at least one moment in the spotlight), visibly excited about playing with this group of people.  And that makes sense: LLP is Longstreth relishing the fundamental glee of musical collaboration.  The joy is positively bubbling over in tracks like “Right Now,” “I Feel Energy,” and “I Found it in You.”  To see him play these songs live is to wonder if he’s talking about the act of musicmaking itself when he sings: “Ask now, I’m in love for the first time ever.”

[jedifighterpilot2727]

Caan you do that as a one shot of Taylor doing exactly that. Leaving tiny drawings on Lexi's home door, her locker, her desk, the library table she studies at (like the nerd she is), etc.... and Lexi just can't help but fall more in love with Taylor

I know I haven’t been updating as much as usual, but I’ve been busy working my #Taylington book!! Look for a title drop tomorrow on my Insta!!

Artwork and Roses        

It started out as a classroom doodle, one she’d slipped into Lexi’s book bag to let her know she was thinking about her.

Of course then Lexi had found it, and returned the favor with a single flower -  blue salvia - the accompanying note had identified it.

 “Thinking of you.”

Was the only other thing the note said - that’s  how it always was, just a single flower and a note with the name and meaning of the flower.

They started out fairly simple, declarations of thoughts and feelings that were easy to decipher. As time went on, however; well, Taylor never would have guessed that flowers could have such specific meanings. She had even ordered a book about flower meanings off Amazon to make sure that Lexi wasn’t making some of them up.

She wasn’t, all of the meanings were legit, and Taylor found herself in awe of her girlfriend. Even if Lexi was looking up all of the flowers beforehand, it was still impressive. Not to mention romantic.

Definitely the most romantic act that Taylor had ever been on the receiving end of.

(Lexi claimed that the flowers paled in comparison to Taylor’s sketches, but Taylor felt like she was just being modest.

As time went on and the flowers had gotten more specific, the delivery method had changed too, the first had been delivered with a shy smile and fidgeting hands -

 “Umm, so. I got you this, because umm, well, you said you were thinking about me; and that’s what blue salvia means - thinking of you. ‘Cause I do, think about you. Like all the time! Not - not inappropriately! Or in an obsessed way, or anything - just, you know, a normal amount. For one girl to think about another. In a gay way.”

 As cute as the rambling is, Taylor doesn’t have the heart to let her keep going

 ”Lex, thank you, it’s perfect.”  

 And just like that, the nervous grimace is gone, replaced by a wide smile that seems to make Lexi’s blue eyes sparkle.

 “I’ll text you tonight?”

 Taylor nods as she feels a dopey grin spread across her face, and Lexi’s smile grows impossibly wider as she leans in to place a quick kiss to Taylor’s lips.

 Lexi’s eyes study her for a moment longer before she’s gone, jogging off in the direction of the astronomy building - leaving Taylor to stare after her, dopey smile still firmly in place.

After that first time, the two of them swapping sketches and flowers became a regular occurrence, the delivery getting more and more sneaky as time went on.

Lexi preferred to just leave the flowers where Taylor would stumble across them, occasionally enlisting the help of Mandy or other friends to deliver them personally.

Taylor had resorted to tucking her sketches between the pages of whatever book Lexi was currently engrossed in.

It worked out rather well, and she really hadn’t seen a reason to switch up her M.O.

Until now.

Because now, she has something that won’t really fit between the pages of a book.

It’s a 2’x3’  canvas of  watercolor interpretation of ‘Le Bracelet’ by Erte that she had worked on for a re-imagined art project, one that Lexi had ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ over as Taylor had worked on it. Of course, Lexi always had good things to say about Taylor’s projects -except for the ‘Mud on Canvas’, that one was a disaster - but there was something different about this one. Something about the way that Lexi had studied the piece made Taylor want to give it to her.

But she couldn’t just hand it over -

 “Hey, umm, I saw you staring at this and I thought you might want it.”

No, that wouldn’t work.

And that’s exactly how she finds herself outside Lexi’s apartment door, twisting the key in her hands.

Lexi had given her the key a month ago, to use when Lexi’s astrophysics class inevitably ran over and Taylor was left waiting around until she got out.

It made sense, and she had used it a couple of times since. The first time she had spent the time awkwardly sitting around the living room, waiting until Lexi showed up. As time went by, she had slowly grown more comfortable being there by herself, but still - nothing like this.

She had never used the key to sneak in, hang up artwork, and sneak out without Lexi knowing.

Mandy had assured her that the romanticism outweighed the creepiness, but still.

She was going to get in and get out, that was her goal.

She had even arranged to meet Lexi in half an hour to ensure that the other girl wouldn’t try and go back to her apartment between classes and catch her in the act.

All she has to do is go in, hang the picture, and leave.

Taking a deep breath, she steels herself, glancing down the hall before turning the key in the lock.

It slides open easily, a fact that Taylor always finds slightly astonishing, (her girlfriend gave her a key to her apartment and hasn’t changed the locks yet!), but she brushes it aside, stepping into the apartment and angling the painting so it won’t hit the doorway. The room is dark, except for the long windows, sunlight streaking through to bathe the opposite wall in a kaleidoscope of fractured light.

She loves Lexi’s apartment, always has, and she takes a moment to soak in the feel of it before moving forward.

It smells like Lexi, in that indescribable way that makes her heart race and simultaneously feel like she’s home.

It’s a feeling that she still hasn’t gotten used to.

She makes her way towards the hallway and the blank section of wall that she’d scoped out previously. It’s obvious enough to be noticed, but enough out of the way to not be too much of an inconvenience if Lexi absolutely hates it.

She really hopes Lexi doesn’t hate it.

On the downside, she hasn’t really put up much in the way of wall art. Her dorm room is decorated with posters and her dad had always taken care of hanging the decorations in the flip houses.

Still, she reasons, it shouldn’t be THAT hard.

She has a hardware store bag of picture hanging supplies - she had pretty much walked through the store and grabbed anything that sounded easy to use and didn’t require any extra tools - so theoretically, she shouldn’t have any trouble.

Easy enough.

Only when she holds up the painting to measure the space out, she quickly realizes that it needs to be higher than she can reach.

Frowning, she ventures into the kitchen, picks up one of the barstools and drags it back with her. Kneeling on the stool gives her just the right height, and she laughs gleefully before digging in her bag for the hanging supplies.

Sticky sided velcro looks to be her best option, and she carefully reads the instructions before pressing the velcro to the painting. The problem comes when she presses the velcro to the wall.

“What’re you doing?”

Lexi’s voice startles her, and she jerks back from the wall, only to lose her balance and find herself falling from the chair.

“Whoah!” Strong arms wrap catch her under the knees and shoulders,  and she feels her heart rate accelerate - both from the fall and the unexpected presence. “Close call!”

“Lexi?”

“Sorry, you were falling, and, well …” Lexi shrugs, causing Taylor to shift in her arms.

“No, no, thank you for catching me.”  Taylor assures her.

Their eyes lock for a long moment before Lexi clears her throat, gaze flickering to the half hung painting.

“Sorry for breaking in to your apartment.” Taylor mutters, fingers playing with the collar of Lexi’s shirt.

“Mmm, are you sorry for breaking in or sorry for getting caught?”

Taylor’s mouth works, studying the side of Lexi’s face until the other girl turns, one eyebrow raised and Taylor realizes that she’s been had.

“I gave you the key to use, you know. I just didn’t expect to come home and find you redecorating.” Lexi lowers her to the ground but keeps an arm around her waist as they both look at the painting.

“Oh, well, it was supposed to be a surprise.”

“Oh, you were surprised alright.” Lexi quirks, and Taylor lets the back of her hand smack lightly against her shoulder.

“It’s a little crooked.” She laments, tilting her head to the side.

“Why’d you put it in the hallway, anyway?”

“Well, in case you hated it, I figured you wouldn’t have to look at it that much in here.”

Lexi looks back to her, eyes rolling.

“Really?”

“What? It made sense in my head!”

“Ok, well first, we’re going go eat lunch, and then we’re going to come back here and I’ll show you how to hang a straight painting - in the living room, where you can actually see it.”

Lexi’s hand presses at her back, and she lets herself get guided towards the door, unable to resist -

“Well, the painting isn’t exactly straight …“

If you like this chapter, please be sure to like, comment and reblog! It features my original characters which I plan on turning into a full length novel so any feedback I get is like gold! (plus it helps gauge interest -  i don't want to write a book no one wants to read!)

[adtwixt]

Adtwixt - News: August Diary: Promises I'm Making Myself

Regular news updates from Adtwixt Saturday:  It's late in Shabat, just two hours more to have the full extent of the day of rest.  Today began early.  I stepped out on the porch to feed the pets and looked at the sun rising and sang "Shema".   That I remember the Hebrew after all these years away from synagogue, that these words come easily still at the sight of daybreak, astounds me: Shema, Israel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad. Hear O Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is One... It was a hurry up sort of morning, but the wonder of God was  there on the front porch this morning.  I felt reverent as I went about the rest of my morning preparations. Katie and I went to pick up Taylor.  Over the hills and through the woods and past meadows shining in the golden morning light and alongside fields of freshly mown hay with bales scattered here and there.  Over creeks flowing over rocks and rivers slowly moving along sandy beds.  And everywhere the golden rod standing high, the mallow stems heavy with buds, foxtail grass dancing in the air currents, and trees with autumn hues already tinging the leaves scattered amongst the pines.   My heart ached and swelled as each new sight came into view, singing a song of both joy and grief, as I see the signs of one season passing into another.  I have learned to find something lovely and beautiful in every season of the year rather than claim just one as my favorite.  And so I must grieve the loss of one and rejoice in the other. Bonus of this road trip today was being in near proximity to a well known peach shed which blissfully was packed with traffic, a sure sign they had peaches still.  I passed a little tent with a table laden with little yellow squash and red ripe tomatoes.  My mouth watered.   On our way back to the house, when time was not quite the premium thing it was on the trip up,  I stopped and bought a big basket of peaches. I didn't even ask the price.  I got heavy red ripe tomatoes big enough to fill my hand.  I filled a sack with tender little yellow summer squash.   I didn't care about my financial state just at that moment.  I cared about savoring the remaining days of summer and it's lovely fruitful state. And in the end, it's all part and parcel of the grocery budget which renews on Monday anyway.  I'll borrow now and cut back later. I asked how much longer they might have peaches.  "We hope we can stay open until next weekend."  One week...Just one week more and then we're done with peaches for the next 10 months.  I haven't eaten nearly enough of them.  I've made just one cobbler all summer long.  I promise that next year I shall eat my fill, I shall make cobblers galore, I will.... We came home and I cut up the squash with one of the last Vidalia onions into a frying pan and then added 1/4 cup of water, covered them and let them steam gently.  I made a salad with half a tomato diced finely over it.  "I've not even had a single fresh tomato sandwich..." I said, as I sprinkled those lovely red bits over the green lettuce.  "I promise I shall have at least one this week and next year..." Oh, next year! We had a lovely visit after dinner with Taylor and Katie.  Taylor wanted purple nails "with glitter...which we do NOT eat!"   Sometimes a child does hint at some corrected behavior don't they?  I imagined her with a mouth sparkled with glitter at her nursery school and a sparkling tongue and giggles before the teacher noticed... So I did her nails and then on a whim, I used the glittery polish to coat my own nails.  I'm too old for glitter...but I think it looks magical in the light.   Didn't I promise myself to do my fingernails more often?  Oh! one more promise I really need to keep! Taylor asked about the little cats on the bookshelf.  "One day," I told her, "they shall be yours...because my grandmother gave them to me and I would like to give them to you,  my granddaughter."   Not that Taylor's my only granddaughter, I have four more but somehow I know that Taylor is the one these cats belong to.   It feels odd to be thinking of little legacies such as this, but I told Katie and John, "Listen to me.  Be my witnesses. This is my promise:  these cats will be Taylor's and if I die before I gift them to her, be sure that she gets them...and the little girl with a book will be Hailey's." Taylor crawled into my lap and leaned on my shoulder.  "I love you..."  Oh my heart!  How blessed I am to know the very genuine love of these children of my children.  How very blessed! John took Katie and Taylor home to Katie's a little later.   I sat here in the quiet, with my thoughts whispering all about me.  Tired and happy and mindful of things I want to hold tight to and mindful that none of these endless days of housework, no matter how satisfying the work may be, will be the things I remember most.  It will indeed be the taste of a sun ripened peach grown in Georgia soil, the feel of a little girl's head on my shoulder, the way a good ripe tomato smells and summer squash tastes, and how lovely a meadow is in sunlight of a dewy morning.  It will be those things which I shall remember and it makes keeping these promises to myself imperative. John has stepped out on the 'verandah' as he chooses to call the front porch and the wind is blowing hot and heavy and ringing the old iron chimes.  Ting, ting, ting, ting...Deeper than most windchimes.   I confess I'm more fond of middle and deeper tones than the tinkly sorts of chimes.  These please me. It takes a real wind to stir those bells to life.  In the distance, coming ever nearer, thunder rumbles.   Summer's music...Please Lord, make me mindful of my promises to keep! Sunday:  There are sheets and towels on the line and peach cobbler cooling atop the stove.  Not for us that cobbler but for Taylor's daddy.  The house about me is clean and quiet just now.  Here in a little bit I shall head over to Katie's to visit with them for a little while before Taylor begins her journey home. I sent John off to work this morning and tackled housework right away though I was tired and thought longingly of going back to my bed.  But not today.  Today there are sheets to blow in the sunlight and a house to put to order and a child to spend time loving. I think John is feeling the pull of the seasonal change.  He's asked me to make a turkey pot pie this week and I've promised I shall.   He wants Roast beef hash, too...and he'll have that as well, but it amuses me that he's wanting these comforting cooler weather sorts of foods.  I've told you before that summer salads do pall for us after a bit.   We'll have a few more despite these longings of ours for cozy meals.   A chef salad will be a quick and easy meal after grocery shopping this week...and I find myself suddenly making up menus for the week ahead, something I'd let drop for a bit because I was just flat tired of planning.  However, between leftovers and requests I guess I've got this week pretty much covered...Now let's see how many of these meals I actually get to make.  The roast beef meal we had on Saturday and the enchiladas were thawed on Friday when John had said we'd skip the date then got that second wind in his sails and wanted to go out after all. The roast beef is in the fridge... Everything else is frozen at present or is fresh and ready to prepare. Roast Beef, Summer Squash and Onions, Tossed Salad, Matzoh Cracker Candy Chicken Verde Enchiladas, Yellow Rice and Peach Salsa Roast Beef Hash, Wedge Salads with Thousand Island Dressing on my own  out with Mama Chef's Salad, Homemade Croutons, Peach Cobbler (for us) Turkey Pot Pie, Cranberry Sauce, Pear Salads And there's my menu plan! Speaking of food: one of the frugal articles I read last week dealt with grocery spending.  She cited the USDA government site  where you can see what food costs were for the prior month and how much one following the thrifty or low cost plans might be spending.  And then she suggested that financial advisors suggest 6% of our annual income is what we ought to spend.  As nearly as I recall how to figure percentages our spending should be something like $61 a week for the two of us.  Now  that's only for food.  It does not include pet supplies, paper or cleaning products etc.   It is also a good deal less than the government's food plan figures for a thrifty diet.  According to their figures in June we would have been spending about $84/per week.  I actually think I came in right around there  with a few paper products and one or two pet items tossed in but those would not account for more than $11 so I'm still nowhere near the 6% mark.  It does give me food for thought.  I was so proud of trimming my budget to $300 a month...But could I possibly hit closer to $244?   I'm pretty sure my husband would rebel hard at that but I'm tempted to try it just the same.  And of course, once we do retire, our 6% would also be a good bit less than $244...so I feel I owe it to myself to try and trim things back a bit more.   I'll let you know! Now off I go to unload the dishwasher and finish my bit of housework. Monday:  More tired and weary than I'd thought I'd be today...I didn't plan a day of mostly rest, but there you are.  I realized this morning that I basically did the equivalent of a drive to Kingsland and back with a brief stay to visit...but 8 hours of driving!  I felt it this morning. Thankfully only light housework was needed and dinner was pretty much ready.  I am reheating Chicken Enchiladas and have a salad made.  I'd meant to have peach salsa  with this meal but it's more effort than I want to go to today. John and I have been watching an interesting series of videos where the YouTubers go to visit old graveyards along back roads here in Georgia, some of them which are severely neglected.  I think it's made us both aware of the graveyard back of our house.  It is not on my property but just over the fence line.  Granny and Granddaddy always maintained the graveyard and when my cousin bought the land, so did he.  However, when it fell into my brother's hands it was no longer kept up.  I'd asked to take it on with his permission and he agreed but then he wired all the entrances shut with barbed wire so that I couldn't get into the area.  Now that Sam owns the land, I think I can get to it once more, but ten years of neglect means that it's now snaky and heavily overgrown. It is my hope that we can reclaim the space and maintain it once more but both Sam and John feel the graveyard is just too far gone.  However, come cold weather I shall go there and begin to do what I might.  Another  of my 'small bites' projects.  I feel sure if I start it Sam and John will eventually have pity on me and join in... The graveyard was not a family ground.  It belonged to a huge old Federal house that sat on the hill before ours.  This land was likely part of that original land grant but I haven't yet researched it out to prove that fact.   Still, I do know the people buried near my home were once residents there.  I would like to do my part in preserving a little bit of history, especially since the house burned down 30 odd years ago. Another promise I shall make this week: reclaim the graveyard and give it it's proper care. Tuesday:  We didn't do much of anything at all yesterday.  I was just worn out.  Some days are just so.  John did a load of laundry and hung a few things to dry.  I made meals and kept those simple and easy. Today we played catch up.  Typically we'd drive down on payday to pick up John's check if he's not working  the Tuesday following.  Well he wasn't working today, but we didn't go down yesterday afternoon.  He wanted to cut Sam's grass since Sam's busy with renovations inside the house. John went over yesterday afternoon,  though why he waited until afternoon to do so is beyond me.  It was so terribly hot, with a heat index of 107f.  It's been that way all week long.  It's meant to end here this weekend, though. I lived without AC for years and years.  We had only window units we used occasionally.  The year Sam was born was one year when we used AC all summer long because it was miserably hot from May to September that year.  Real temperatures that year were near 110F.  Between the summer heat and the winter cold we spent much of the year living in just one or two rooms.  That's all we could heat or cool in those years. It was very expensive to run AC in the 1980's and '90s.  When John and I got together and were struggling so we simply could not afford to run the window units though they were brand new.  We ended up compromising.  We turned them on Friday evening when we came in from work and turned them off Sunday night when we went to bed (11pm). It cost us over $300 a month to run it 8 days.   We've never paid that much a month here in the worst of our summers.  We came near it this past autumn when it was freezing and we had to run the emergency heat after our motor went out on the unit.   But all in all, AC is much more affordable than it was 25 years ago and I am so grateful for that! Today we did the payday errands: banking, bills, and groceries.  Not as much work as it sounds  because I have the bills ready to go out days ahead and then I just take them to the mailbox as soon as we do the banking.   John had warned we'd have a shorter check.  We didn't.   It wasn't quite enough to meet all our needs this time around but I'd already planned ahead for that,  so it was easy enough to proceed as planned.  I'll be sure to tell him we're on a no spend from now until next pay period which should see us through this small slump. I did well enough on groceries.  I didn't buy any meat this time around.  I'd looked at chuck roasts but they were very fatty and the one I thought worth purchasing was over $20...Wowza!  I decided I'd just skip it.  I know we've plenty of meat on hand at present. As I put groceries away in the pantry, I suggested to John that we might skip a big grocery shop next pay period and get just dairy and produce as needed.  We have quite a deep pantry at the moment and I saw only two or three items that I wished to stock more heavily, like flour, cereal and coffee.   Again, good sales will  fill those needs. I was thinking this morning that over the years I've found lots of ways to save money. Our mobile phone service is quite reasonable. We pay roughly the same for two phones that we once paid for one landline and one prepaid phone.  At one point our mobile phone company bought out our satellite TV service.  We were able to combine bills and make a small savings.  However, I soon discovered the days of renegotiating our satellite service contract was an exercise in futility with the phone company as boss.  So much for twenty five years of good customer status! Our local phone service internet was abysmal.  It had gotten so that we had no internet service from Friday afternoon at 4pm until Monday morning at 9am.  No we didn't get any discounts for the lack of service.  The company denied there was any problem!  So we moved to a satellite service.  We paid a LOT for that service.  Double what we'd paid for the local service.  However,  it was reliable and we had service we could count on. When our current mobile phone service offered an unlimited data pan  we hopped right on, changed phone plans and got the newly available hot spot.  We dropped internet satellite and saved on new smart phones, buying older models that were heavily discounted, paying cash up front.  That kept our phone bills low.   Smart phones for the same price as a mobile/text service?  Please and thank you! When lightning ran in on our television last August, we bought a Fire TV and in January I finally convinced John to quit satellite.  We dropped the satellite TV service which meant we paid still less out of pocket.  I was already paying for Amazon Prime membership each month, well worth the savings in shipping alone.  We aren't big shoppers, but I guarantee I order something from Amazon every month that is cheaper than I can find it elsewhere and that is covered under the prime free shipping.  We watch pretty much all the television we want to watch with our hot spot.  We did subscribe to Netflix' basic plan.  I am still paying far less for the phone service with unlimited data, Amazon and Netflix than I previously paid for phones, internet and satellite tv services. But for all that some things change, others pretty much stay the same.  We've paid basically the same amount for gasoline each month for the past 20 years.  Some years we drive more and some we drive less.  Our average is always right around the same amount each month for costs though. Groceries is another area that remained fairly stable for a long number of years.  I stopped buying certain items and made more from scratch and yet it's only been in these past two years I've begun to see a significant savings in the grocery spending.   I might add that during this two year period of time I've fed more people and spent less, while previously we spent a good deal more and fed only two.   Now that we're basically feeding just the two of us once more, I've watched my budget amount drop to what is an all time low for us.   Still...I could perhaps save more and I am working on it! Being frugal is never a stagnant and finite thing.  As time goes on, some of those ways I saved are no longer valid.  Eating habits change, income changes, products and promotions leave the market or come on the market. Our needs change.  What is needed in this stage of life is not the same as what was needed previously and won't be the same in five years.  For every new thing that comes along there are new ways to save and manage. Being frugal has never been boring!  And for me, that's what keeps it fun. Thursday:  I had every intent of sharing with you all yesterday but by the time I was done with Mama, I was really and most sincerely done in every sense of the word.  Once Bess and the boys left (and what good medicine they were!), I hadn't even the energy to eat.  I drank a V8 and showered and went off to bed with a book on prayer and fell asleep and slept the bulk of all night long.  Wailing and gnashing of teeth might have occurred in moderation in between that V8 and the shower but it was in extreme moderation. Today is better.   Today I am mindful of my many blessings and mindful of my own ways and words.  As well I ought to be.  Difficult relationships sometimes never cease to be difficult.  But more on that another day and time, perhaps. This morning I greeted John with a proper big breakfast.  Funny thing, we are eating less these days.  I suppose it's partly due to the heat and partly due to the fact that so much of what we choose to eat is just good fresh foods and they fill us amply even when eaten in moderation.  Our 'big' breakfast consisted of Fried egg, grits, toast and turkey sausage.   It is a big breakfast but certainly not one of those mammoth restaurant 'big' sorts of breakfasts. After breakfast I started a loaf of bread.  I'd really meant to get one going yesterday morning when John left as I was sure it would be done by the time I was ready to leave for Mama's, but time slipped away from me as I got all out of routine and did things in far different time frames than usual...which all worked  lovely as I was practically dressed and fully made up by the time Bess and Isaac stopped in to start their laundry.  Quick prayers, everyone, that work on their utility room goes through this weekend and their washer and dryer are up and running once more.  It's hard work lugging loads and loads of clothes from there to here and back again... Mama, as I expected, wanted to go to the big peach packing shed just 20 minutes north of me.  It is a good hour or so from her house...But go we did and I bought a half peck of peaches.  For one thing I meant to share with Bess, and I did.   I will put some in the freezer.  And I want to savor the last of this seasonal fruit because I do love peaches! For some reason the morning flew past.  Quicker than usual.  I'm not real sure why.   Well I do too know why.  John and I had a lot to talk over this morning and to think about and come back to talk over one more time.  I was still finishing up Bible study while our dinner cooked today.  It was one of those lovely Bible study sessions in which each passage of scripture I read today was pertinent to my own thoughts about matters that we'd discussed.   Friday:  The end of another week...They do fly by these days, don't they?   John and I have a lot to consider these days.  There's a possibility that our plans for retirement will be pushed forward from next June to end of this year.  All my plans to save money and stash away all I might as far as non-perishable things will be more modest than I'd been shooting for.  I'm not worried, but it is a little disconcerting.   Still, nothing is yet set in stone and we are at the point where now is as good as later and we'll trust God's timing.  In the end, we must always let go of our plans and rely on Him anyway, as I've discovered more than once. My house is very nearly Shabat ready.   We've no plans for this weekend aside from going to church.  I will have turkey pot pie for tomorrow's dinner which I'll do my best to prep ahead.  I'm debating dessert options.  On the one hand, I think gelatin or pudding would be a nice counter to the hot pot pie, don't you?   I'd love to make a lemon meringue pie but not sure I really want to go to that much work this afternoon when the kitchen is pretty much cleaned for the weekend.  I'll have to think on this.   I  have a Chef Salad for our main meal today.   It was on my menu plan and I find between cheese, a few slivers of turkey and some hard boiled egg we've plenty of protein and fat to satisfy us all afternoon long.  And there's a lovely bit of leftover peach cobbler, though I did make a smaller one yesterday.    And that is my week, full of the expected, and the unexpected, full of the lovely and the difficult, full of promises to keep.   Frugal things: The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering up all the fragments, so nothing be lost  I mean fragments of time as well as materials...every member of a household should be employed either in earning or saving money. The American Frugal Housewife ~ Lydia Maria Francis Child It's quite hot and the AC is pretty much running non-stop until 10 pm every night and then coming on periodically all through the night and early mornings.  I turned the AC up to 78, not my favorite point as it tends to feel a bit more stuffy, but it at least is one way to save.  I've noted the AC cuts off earlier and stays off a wee bit longer. (This should end as of Tuesday evening this week...Milder temperatures are coming our way.  Hooray!) I'm also being very mindful of running water unnecessarily at present.   This is finally getting to be more and more a habit with me as I have always tended to be the sort who let the water run and run as I rinsed dishes for the dishwasher or brushed my teeth or washed my face.  However, electricity is money and so I am doing my best to be mindful that the pump must run if I must run water. Happily, all the heat keeps generating pop up rain showers so watering plants is not a chore I must attend to.  As for porch and house plants, it's easy enough to 'save' water from bits left in bottles or glasses or that is running while it's cold and I'm needing hot to catch up and use for those.  And if I'm quick, I can often pop a porch planter under the run off from the roof and water plants with rain water. I may be just longing to shop but I know my current season isn't going to be any less tight if I run up a credit card bill, so I'm deleting tempting emails full of sales and waiting a few days before even considering those few purchases that make it into a cart.  So far, nothing has made it from the cart to 'order' because I either forget it or I discover something I can use that I already have or I just make up my mind to go without. I ordered a new phone case and accessory ring  from eBay.  I bought the last case two years ago and it's falling apart.  I tried to remove the ring from the old case but it's a no go.  I even went to  YouTube and I discovered that they don't re-stick once removed.  The new ring  was pennies on the dollar  on eBay for the exact same one I bought for bigger bucks at the phone store last year.  I literally saved enough on the ring to cover the cost of the new case and keep change in my pocket.   In case you're wondering what a phone ring is, it's a ring that you stick to the back of your phone or phone case and  can slide a finger through and  allows you to hold the phone without dropping it.  Dropping my phone is an issue for me, so the ring isn't a vanity thing, it's purely a necessity.  Ditto for the phone case.  I get the shock absorbing sort of case.  Both items will be paid from my allowance. Sunday morning I did a full load of dishes right away after John left for work and then I ran a full load of laundry (sheets and towels).  Everything air dried. John and I combined errands when we went out to shop for groceries. I checked with John about how he liked the bread machine bread I've been making.  He thinks it's great...and so I suggested I make a couple loaves a week, and we supplement with the occasional loaf that we'll keep in the freezer.   Once at the store I decided to buy smaller sized loaves.  Same number of slices per loaf but just a smaller piece of bread overall.  The smaller sized loafs were about $1 cheaper.  With the homemade machine bread we've been eating  half slices. I've given in to buying cookies for John this summer.  It's not worth heating up the kitchen for any period of time to make them...but I told him as soon as it starts to cool off I mean to make more homemade cookies and forgo the bought ones until the Spekulaas cookies are in market once more.  In the meantime, Tammy has inspired me to make a batch of those yummy stovetop chocolate oatmeal cookies.  I'd forgotten those as an oven free option.  John loves those cookies. No meat purchased today, but only because I thought better of it when I priced the nicest chuck roast in the counter.  I had a fair idea of how much meat I had in the freezer at home (not to mention how much is in the fridge at present) and I felt we could by pass that purchase.  I'll watch for good sales on meat in the next few weeks and try to stock up then. I suggested to John it would be worthwhile to return to purchasing chicken breasts and ground beef on special at the organic market we used to visit.  I've noted that the price at the organic market is nearly $2/pound less so it's well worth driving there for the savings. Made a loaf of bread, a small peach cobbler and used up leftover roast beef and gravy to make hash. John hung most of a load of clothes to dry. I washed a full load of dishes in the dishwasher. I've downloaded a few free books for my Kindle.  Most are Christian non-fiction but one was a children's book (never know when that might come in handy!) and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen was free the other day.  I am not going nuts adding books.  I am trying to be thoughtful about what I might truly read and most will be deleted once I'm done but in time I will add books I really want to buy that are cheaper via Kindle and won't take up space on my filled bookcases...Not to say I am done buying hard cover books.  Some friends just deserve a full time home where I can hold them and love them as I read! I've started a 'stock up list'.   So far I've got tissues (for cold and flu season) and cold medicine (ditto from previous), pineapple juice (same), matches, toilet paper, flour, coffee (regular and decaf) and boxed cereal.   I may add more as time goes on but these are items I am very well aware we're very low or empty on.  Oh and candles!  We use them for our Shabats and typically two candles last us a couple or three months but they are awfully handy when power goes out as well so I like to stock up. I've started adding tissues and paper towels to our compost.  And this morning, I decided it was worth while to shred our weekly newspapers as well.  I've been adding shredded mail for quite a while but these are extra items I know I can compost.  I plan to 'grow my compost' so to speak, as I get more and more serious about my need for flowers and perhaps a few vegetables here and there. Meals: So I made my plans...how did that go?   Here's what we really ate this week Roast Beef, Squash, Tossed Salad McDonalds with Katie and Taylor Chicken Verde Enchiladas, Green Salad with Tomatoes and Green Onions Chicken Salad Sandwiches with fresh fruit (take out) Chicken Livers and Fries with Mama Roast Beef Hash, Sliced Tomato Salad with Basil, Peach Cobbler Chef's Salad, Oyster Crackers (something we often sub for croutons), Peach Cobbler (C) Terri Cheney For more information please click here

Adtwixt - News source https://adtwixt.com/blogs/news/august-diary-promises-im-making-myself

[thrashermaxey]

Injury Ward: Karlsson, Edler, Kadri, Letang, Hart, & Hall

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  Here’s the latest in the world of NHL injuries! Before you ask (and I know you were about to), the Jets haven’t provided us with a significant update on Dustin Byfuglien as this article is being written, so I recommend you follow me on Twitter @BrennanDeSouza to see his status as soon as it’s made publicly available.

  Ryan Miller – The 38-year-old goaltender was originally slated to start on Monday against the Canucks, but a lower-body ailment kept him out of the game. This injury isn’t expected to keep him out for too long.

  Ryan Getzlaf – The Ducks captain has been sidelined for the past three games with an upper-body injury. According to GM/coach Bob Murray, there’s no sign that Getzlaf is improving and his status for Wednesday’s game against the Blackhawks remains up in the air. Despite a disappointing 39 points in 54 games this season, Getzlaf still leads the team in scoring. That should give you an idea of how miserable this season has been for Anaheim.

  John Gibson – Anaheim’s top goaltender could be available on Wednesday when the team faces off against Chicago. He had his wisdom teeth removed during the Ducks’ most recent three-game road trip (February 19th to February 23rd). If he doesn’t start on Wednesday, I’d expect him to be an option on Friday against the Golden Knights. Whatever the case, he should be able to contribute to your fantasy hockey playoff matchup.  

  Antti Raanta – Has been skating as he continues to recover from knee surgery. While Raanta isn’t expected to play for the rest of the regular season, if you’re participating in a playoff pool and the Coyotes make the playoffs – he might be an option.

  David Pastrnak – Will be out for at least two more weeks as he needs to keep his thumb in a cast. After those two weeks, he’s probably going to need a short amount of time to get comfortable holding his stick and shooting the puck. Danton Heinen has been filling in for Pastrnak on the Bruins’ top line with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, he has nine points in his last 10 games.

  James Neal – Is currently week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He’s expected to be evaluated at some point this week, after which we’ll probably have a more concrete timetable for his return.

  Micheal Ferland – Left Tuesday’s game against LA with an upper-body injury. No further updates have been released as of right now.

  Justin Faulk – Left Tuesday’s game against the Kings with an upper-body injury. No further updates have been released as of right now. Did I just copy and paste Ferland’s update for Faulk? No. I changed ‘LA’ to ‘the Kings’. Okay?

  Ian Cole – Has been skating in a non-contact sweater. With that being said, he’s dealing with a broken orbital bone (a bone which surrounds your eye) so the fact that he’s skating doesn’t exactly mean he’s about to return.

  Ryan Murray – Is out week-to-week with an upper-body injury. The Blue Jackets did acquire Adam McQuaid at the trade deadline, so maybe that slightly offsets the loss of Murray? Very slightly? Not at all?

  Mats Zuccarello – Imagine what it’s like to put on a different jersey after nine seasons of being a Blueshirt. Imagine having an incredible debut with your new team, putting up a goal and an assist through 13 minutes of ice time. The next thing you know you’re doubled over after blocking a shot from Blackhawks’ defenseman Connor Murphy. Such is the life of Mats Zuccarello, who will be out for about four weeks with a broken arm. While he did have surgery on the arm, the purpose of the surgery was to hold the arm in place and speed up the healing process – this wasn’t some reconstructive surgery where he’ll need to learn how to hold a stick again.

  Jamie Benn – He left Sunday’s game against the Blackhawks with an upper-body injury, which also kept him out of the lineup on Tuesday against the Golden Knights. Fortunately, he’s expected to return to the lineup on Thursday when the Stars take on the Kings. Benn has struggled to produce offensively this season with just 41 points in 61 games.

  Thomas Vanek – Is expected to be out long term with a hip flexor injury. If you’re unfamiliar with the intricacies of the hip flexors (like I was until seconds ago), all you really need to know is that they allow the joint between your hip and your leg to bend. Since the injury is expected to keep Vanek out for a long time, it sounds like he’s dealing with a relatively large tear that’s going to significantly decrease his range of motion until it heals. Another important note – especially considering Vanek is 35 years old – is that you’re more likely to injure a hip flexor if you’ve injured it before. See how much fun this article can be when teams actually give us details on an injury? Three cheers for learning!

  Jesse Puljujarvi – The belief is that he requires surgery for a lower-body injury. What exactly is he dealing with? How long will he be out? Find out in next week’s episode of ‘Spoiled Oil’ (copyright pending).

  James Reimer – Looked like he tweaked something in his leg on Tuesday night against the Coyotes. No word yet on how long the injury will keep him sidelined.

  Mike Matheson – Hopeful to return from a lower-body injury on Thursday against the Golden Knights.

  Alec Martinez – Has been skating for the past few days as he gets closer and closer to a return. The team is hopeful to see him back in the lineup within the next week.

  Craig Smith – You know what my favourite kind of update is? No update! At this point, all we really know is that Smith is dealing with a lower-body injury. Nashville’s acquisition of Mikael Granlund and Wayne Simmonds at the Trade Deadline should relieve any pressure of rushing Smith back into the lineup.

  Will Butcher – Is day-to-day with a lower-body injury but he has been skating.

  Jesper Bratt – Is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and won’t be in the lineup against the Flames on Wednesday. The Devils have been absolutely decimated by injuries recently. If you can name a player in the lineup who isn’t Nico Hischier, I’ll give you a high five.

  Sami Vatanen – Will return from a concussion on Wednesday against the Flames.

  Kyle Palmieri – Out week-to-week with a lower-body injury.

  Taylor Hall – The Devils expect to find out sometime this week whether Hall is going to play again this season. Considering the team isn’t playoff-bound, there’s really no reason to rush Hall back into the lineup and risk his long-term health. GM Ray Shero made it clear that if Hall does return this season, it’s because the team’s medical staff is absolutely confident that his return won’t have any long-term impact on his well-being. While it’s easy to say Hall should be shut down for the rest of the season considering there’s nothing left to play for, he’s a hockey player. Hockey players want to play hockey.

  Carter Hart – The rookie goaltender is expected to be out for at least a week with an ankle injury. If everything goes well he’ll be back on the ice this weekend, with a return hopefully following soon after. Hart has been fantastic this season, sporting a .917 SV% and a 13-8-1 record.

  Brian Dumoulin – Suffered a concussion after this hit from Wayne Simmonds in an outdoor game with the Flyers. No timetable for his return is available at this time.

  {youtube}Y5xxUAwDpF8{/youtube}

  Kris Letang – If you watch the video above closely, you’ll notice that Kris Letang went after Wayne Simmonds following his hit on Brian Dumoulin. In an attempt to defend Simmonds, Shayne Gostisbehere came in and threw Letang to the ice. Letang suffered an upper-body injury following the takedown and is currently out on a day-to-day basis.

  Bryan Rust – Left Tuesday’s game against Columbus on crutches after this hit from new Blue Jacket Adam McQuaid. He’ll be evaluated on Wednesday and we’ll probably get a better idea of how severe the injury is.

  {youtube}TOG5fIlExVU{/youtube}

  Erik Karlsson – Left Tuesday’s game against the Bruins with an injury, but we don’t yet know if it’s related to the groin injury that caused him to miss significant time recently. What we do know is that he wasn’t able to put much pressure on his left leg. This clip from late in the second period shows Karlsson’s skating was not at 100 percent. He didn’t play in the third period.

  Alexander Steen – Missed Tuesday’s game against the Predators because he was sick. Don’t expect him to miss too much more time as a result of the illness.

  Brayden Schenn – Remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He’s expected to be back sooner rather than later. While we still don’t know exactly what the injury is and when he was injured, some believe it’s a concussion.

  David Perron – Has been skating but is still officially day-to-day. GM Doug Armstrong stated that he should be back sooner rather than later. I feel like I’ve been saying his return is just around the corner for a long time now, but maybe this time it’s true?

  Jake Gardiner – Has missed the team’s last couple of practices and won’t be in the lineup against the Oilers on Wednesday. Coach Mike Babcock has noticed Gardiner’s skating hasn’t been as good as it normally is. It’s possible he’s still dealing with back spasms that were bothering him earlier in the season.

  Nazem Kadri – Skated on Tuesday for the first time since suffering a concussion. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: concussions are unpredictable because everyone experiences symptoms differently, so there’s a lot of variation in recovery times.

  Alexander Edler – The Canucks begin a three-game road trip on Wednesday against the Avalanche and it’s still not clear whether or not Edler will be travelling with the team. While he has been skating, we still don’t know when exactly he’ll return from a concussion.

  Erik Haula – May start skating soon! While that’s great news considering he had knee surgery a couple of months ago, I don’t think he’ll be back in time to have an impact on your fantasy hockey playoff matchup.

  Josh Morrissey – Will be out of the lineup for the rest of February and the entirety of March with an upper-body injury. Once April rolls around we can start expecting a return.

    from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/injury-ward/injury-ward-karlsson-edler-kadri-letang-hart-hall/

[junker-town]

WMU will regress after losing P.J. Fleck, but the 2017 Broncos are still dangerous

This team will still be a MAC contender under another interesting head coach.

This preview originally published March 29 and has since been updated.

It is a fact of life in the MAC. The better you do, the faster you are looking for a new coach. You just hope to claim as many prizes as possible before he leaves.

Northern Illinois pulled this off a few years ago. The Huskies, two years removed from losing Jerry Kill to Minnesota, claimed an Orange Bowl berth before losing Dave Doeren to NC State. Bowling Green at least got conference titles out of Doeren (2013) and Dino Babers (2015) before losing them to Wake Forest and Syracuse, respectively.

Others have fallen short. Toledo has mastered playing like an elite MAC team without winning the MAC; the Rockets lost Tim Beckman to Illinois and Matt Campbell to Iowa State and got not even a division title to show for it. Ball State got a 12-0 start out of Brady Hoke but got upset in the MAC Championship and lost Hoke to San Diego State.

Western Michigan got its money’s worth when it hired a 32-year-old former Rutgers receivers coach in 2013. P.J. Fleck recruited circles around the rest of the conference and got his PhD in catchphrases.

He stripped the house to the studs in a 1-11 Year Zero reset, but after two slightly unsatisfying 8-5 seasons, his Broncos broke through in 2016, and he was still around to lead it.

WMU went 9-0 against the MAC and 2-1 against the Big Ten in 2016. The Broncos knocked off Northwestern and Illinois on the road early, trounced Georgia Southern in what was supposed to be a mid-major showcase, and then laid waste to conference foes: 49-10 over CMU, 41-0 over Akron, 52-20 over Ball State, 38-0 over Buffalo, 55-35 over Toledo.

With “Fleck to [Insert P5 School]?” rumors taking up more and more oxygen, the Broncos remained focused and welcomed ESPN College GameDay to Kalamazoo. (The signs were good, too.) Their reward: a trip to the Cotton Bowl and a competitive loss to Wisconsin.

Fleck left. That’s what happens. He’s at Minnesota, though from an WMU perspective, all that matters is what’s next.

After taking a flyer on a relative unknown last time, the school elected to go with a familiar face. At least, to WMU fans.

Lester threw for more than 11,000 yards in a Western Michigan uniform in the late-1990s and was inducted into the WMU athletics hall of fame. He played in both the XFL and Arena League, and after an unconventional playing career, he followed an even more unique coaching path:

2000-01: high school offensive coordinator

2002-03: Division III offensive coordinator (Elmhurst)

2004: Division II head coach (he went 7-4 at Saint Joseph’s)

2005-06: WMU quarterbacks coach

2007: Division III defensive coordinator (North Central)

2008-12: Division III head coach (33-19 at Elmhurst with a quarterfinal appearance)

2013-15: Syracuse quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator

2016: Purdue quarterbacks coach

Technically, WMU hired a former pro quarterback with six years of head coaching experience. But all of this experience happened on state roads instead of the interstate, so to speak.

If Lester’s up for this — and the fact that he had one losing season in six years at Saint Joseph’s and Elmhurst suggests he very well might be — then Fleck left plenty of toys in the toy box. The passing game has to be rebuilt following the loss of quarterback Zach Terrell and his top three receivers (including the incredible Corey Davis), but the run game could be dominant, and most of the defense returns.

So now we wait. Can Lester parlay D3 success into wins at a higher level? And if he does, will his hometown status lead to him staying a bit longer than the typical MAC coach?

(My guesses: 1. Yes, but not “13-1” level success. 2. No, probably not.)

2016 in review

2016 WMU statistical profile.

After a No. 53 S&P+ ranking in 2015, WMU headed into last fall with high expectations due to the combination of high-caliber recruiting and most of a potent offense returning. Still, it took both S&P+ and Vegas a little while to figure out just how impressive the Broncos were. You could make some money picking WMU early in the year.

Eventually, the markets adjusted. WMU improved (offensively, at least) as the season progressed, but both S&P+ and Vegas caught on. And after the big win over Toledo clinched an unbeaten regular season, the Broncos slipped a hair in the postseason. The Broncos still weren’t bad, but there was regression.

First 7 games (7-0) — Avg. percentile performance: 63% (~top 50) | Avg. yards per play: WMU 6.6, Opp 5.5 (plus-1.1) | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: plus-20.7 PPG

Next 5 games (5-0) — Avg. percentile performance: 68% (~top 40) | Avg. yards per play: WMU 7.3, Opp 6.3 (plus-1.0) | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: plus-5.2 PPG

Last 2 games (1-1) — Avg. percentile performance: 53% (~top 60) | Avg. yards per play: Opp 5.8, WMU 5.1 (minus-0.7) | Avg. performance vs. S&P+ projection: minus-5.2 PPG

WMU was steady, peaking a couple of times (at CMU and at Akron) but mostly establishing residence in around the 60th and 70th percentiles.

For all the talk about Fleck’s strange motivational techniques, they worked. WMU was one of the most consistent teams in FBS. Now we’ll see if Lester can row the boat.

Offense

Full advanced stats glossary.

Give Tom Flacco, Joe’s brother, this: he’s mastered small sample sizes. In 2015, backing up star Zach Terrell, he completed 10 of 12 passes for 188 yards and a touchdown (passer rating: 242.4) and rushed 28 times for 266 yards (9.5 per carry) and two scores.

Keep that up over a full season, and you’ll win the Heisman!

He won’t keep that up, obviously. But the younger brother of (much taller) Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe offered at least a few hints that there might be life after Terrell. Granted, Flacco will have to hold off three-star sophomore Jon Wassink, but one can assume decent quarterback play. [Update: Actually, Flacco has transferred to Rutgers.]

Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Tom Flacco

So that’s one concern WMU probably won’t have. Now Flacco/Wassink just need some players to catch their passes. In Corey Davis, Michael Henry, and Carrington Thompson, WMU must replace a trio responsible for 79 percent of last year’s targets. Only one returning wideout (sophomore slot D’Wayne Eskridge) caught more than 10 passes last year. Eskridge is an exciting efficiency option, running backs Jarvion Franklin and Jamauri Bogan combined to catch 30 of 33 passes, and tight end Donnie Ernsberger caught nine of 12. There might be a decent possession passing game in this bunch.

Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Jamauri Bogan

But who’s running routes downfield? There are plenty of former three-star recruits in the mix — sophomore Anton Curtis, redshirt freshmen Hunter Broersma and Rodney Graves, freshmen Luke Sanders and Tyron Arnett — but they have combined for zero career catches.

Luckily, new coordinator Kevin Johns will have a run game, and his history suggests he might know how to use it. In 2015, the Indiana coordinator had to replace his starting quarterback, running back, and three leading receivers. But with an emphasis on the run game and a rather extreme tempo, the Hoosiers improved from 63rd to 15th in Off. S&P+. Indiana ran slightly more than the national average on standard downs and quite a bit more than normal on passing downs, and they crafted an identity around power and pace.

Granted, a lot of gains came undone in 2016, when Indiana threw more and fell back to 67th in Off. S&P+. Still, Johns inherits not only Franklin (3,639 rushing yards in three years) and Bogan (1,974 in two), but also sophomore Davon Tucker, juniors LaVonte Bellamy and Leo Ekwoge, and redshirt freshman Matt Falcon, a one-time Michigan commit still working back from multiple knee injuries. And while the line does have to replace all-conference tackle Taylor Moton and two-year starting guard Jackson Day, two other all-conference linemen return (tackle Chukwuma Okorafor, center John Keenoy).

WMU’s offense was built around relentless efficiency; Davis and Thompson averaged 15.4 yards per catch, but this was otherwise an attack that pushed you around a few yards at a time.

Efficiency is good, but big plays allow you score without executing well for eight to 10 plays in a row. WMU’s 2016 offense was experienced enough to attack consistently and had a big-play option in Davis. The 2017 offense won’t be that lucky. A lack of big plays could result in duds, even if the run game is mostly awesome.

Defense

It only took Fleck until his second season to start getting the offense figured out. WMU improved from 121st in Off. S&P+ his first year to 42nd, 22nd, and 25th, respectively, over his final three years.

The defense, however, took longer. WMU ranked 93rd in Def. S&P+ in 2015, and while there was clear, definitive improvement last year despite turnover, the Broncos were still only 69th.

WMU was reasonably efficient on standard downs (37th in standard downs success rate) but played pretty passive, inefficient ball on passing downs; the Broncos’ sack rate was actually higher on standard downs (6.2 percent) than passing downs (5.3 percent), which isn’t supposed to happen. That resulted in quite a few second- or third-and-long bailouts.

If anything, under new coordinator Tim Daoust, we might be looking at the opposite problem.

A colleague of Lester’s at Syracuse, Daoust runs the type of defense that Lester hated facing as a quarterback.

The attack 4-3 defense quickly came to mind as it prompts defenders to attack the offense then react to changes as they occur instead of trying to read what an offense is doing before attacking.

The system, Lester said, is frustrating to throwing quarterbacks as they need to wait to read the defense after the play has started.

"When you're designing what you want your defense to look like as a head coach, you pretty much pick the defense you hated to go against the most and you say 'that's what I want to run,'" Lester said.

I always love that attitude — play the defense you hated to face.

An aggressive, confusing defense tends to pair well with an up-tempo offense in that it can force quick-change situations, wear opponents out, and create those deadly touchdown-turnover-touchdown situations that can turn a close game into a laugher.

Of course, if you aren’t good at the up-tempo offense or the aggressive defense, you’re creating identical disadvantages for yourself. We’ll see if the offense can play efficient ball, but I have fewer concerns about the defense. It could take pretty well to an aggressive approach.

Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Asantay Brown

WMU does have to replace its two most disruptive defenders in the front seven; rush end Keion Adams and weakside linebacker Robert Spillane combined for 28.5 tackles for loss, 10.5 sacks, five passes defensed, and five forced fumbles. They were a two-man havoc rate.

Still, ends Eric Assoua and Nathan Braster combined for 13.5 TFLs of their own, and linebackers Asantay Brown and Caleb Bailey combined for 17.5. It appears there’s plenty of attacking talent to go around, and that’s before mentioning the five three-star linebackers moving to Kalamazoo this fall.

There might be concern at tackle; WMU really only played two of them with regularity last year, and one (David Curle) is gone. Braster is big enough to move inside at times, and senior Andre Turner is back, but WMU will be relying on some green players on the interior.

If the run defense holds up, though, I like the odds of the pass defense improving. Corners Sam Beal, Darius Phillips, and Obbie Jackson combined for five interceptions and 21 breakups last year, and three-star youngsters like Dontre Boyd, Emmanuel Jackson, or K.J. Anderson could be ready to help sooner than later. The safety position is a bit more of an unknown with the loss of Justin Ferguson, but he missed four games last year, and sophomore Davontae Ginwright got his feet wet in his absence. Former star recruit Justin Tranquill, meanwhile, more than held his own as a freshman and is taking on a leadership role as a sophomore.

If the Broncos can force opponents to pass, the combination of Daoust’s aggression, a decent pass rush, and a better secondary could take advantage.

Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Darius Phillips

Special Teams

WMU has a couple of legs to replace. Punter James Coleman, who ranked 11th in punt success rate and allowed opponents to return just six punts all year, graduated. Meanwhile, after a sturdy freshman year as a place-kicker, sophomore-to-be Butch Hampton left Kalamazoo to pursue a soccer career. That’s quite a special teams reset.

Meanwhile, WMU’s return units were all-or-nothing in 2016 — Darius Phillips scored on a punt return and a kick return, but the Broncos ranks just 95th in kick return success rate and 58th on punts — and should continue to be so this fall.

2017 outlook

2017 Schedule & Projection Factors

Date Opponent Proj. S&P+ Rk Proj. Margin Win Probability 2-Sep at USC 7 -26.6 6% 9-Sep at Michigan State 44 -9.7 29% 16-Sep Idaho 119 14.4 80% 23-Sep Wagner NR 22.0 90% 30-Sep Ball State 90 7.5 67% 7-Oct at Buffalo 128 15.5 82% 14-Oct Akron 122 16.0 82% 21-Oct at Eastern Michigan 96 4.1 59% 1-Nov Central Michigan 97 9.2 70% 8-Nov Kent State 123 16.0 82% 15-Nov at Northern Illinois 86 1.8 54% 24-Nov at Toledo 59 -7.9 32%

Projected S&P+ Rk 74 Proj. Off. / Def. Rk 84 / 54 Projected wins 7.3 Five-Year S&P+ Rk 7.3 (35) 2- and 5-Year Recruiting Rk 73 / 76 2016 TO Margin / Adj. TO Margin* 18 / 2.9 2016 TO Luck/Game +5.4 Returning Production (Off. / Def.) 46% (15%, 78%) 2016 Second-order wins (difference) 11.4 (1.6)

A team that reaches an all-time peak and loses its head coach is guaranteed to regress. It applies to Western Kentucky. It is not the hottest of takes to suggest that the Broncos are not going to go 13-1 in 2017.

Still, Lester has quite a bit of experience and inherits exciting pieces from Fleck. The passing game will regress, but the run game might be strong enough to lean on. The run defense might get gashed, but the pass defense could be excellent.

WMU isn’t projected as the best team in the MAC — those honors go to perpetual bridesmaid Toledo — but the Broncos are still No. 2. They’ll probably win seven or eight games and bowl for the fourth year in a row. After season-opening road trips to USC and Michigan State, they could be favored in each of the next nine games.

It’s hard to move on from one of the country’s most unique coaches. But in Lester, WMU landed someone who is uniquely experienced and extremely Western Michigan.

Team preview stats

All preview data to date.

[adtwixt]

Adtwixt - News: August Diary: Promises I'm Making Myself

Regular news updates from Adtwixt Saturday:  It's late in Shabat, just two hours more to have the full extent of the day of rest.  Today began early.  I stepped out on the porch to feed the pets and looked at the sun rising and sang "Shema".   That I remember the Hebrew after all these years away from synagogue, that these words come easily still at the sight of daybreak, astounds me: Shema, Israel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad. Hear O Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is One... It was a hurry up sort of morning, but the wonder of God was  there on the front porch this morning.  I felt reverent as I went about the rest of my morning preparations. Katie and I went to pick up Taylor.  Over the hills and through the woods and past meadows shining in the golden morning light and alongside fields of freshly mown hay with bales scattered here and there.  Over creeks flowing over rocks and rivers slowly moving along sandy beds.  And everywhere the golden rod standing high, the mallow stems heavy with buds, foxtail grass dancing in the air currents, and trees with autumn hues already tinging the leaves scattered amongst the pines.   My heart ached and swelled as each new sight came into view, singing a song of both joy and grief, as I see the signs of one season passing into another.  I have learned to find something lovely and beautiful in every season of the year rather than claim just one as my favorite.  And so I must grieve the loss of one and rejoice in the other. Bonus of this road trip today was being in near proximity to a well known peach shed which blissfully was packed with traffic, a sure sign they had peaches still.  I passed a little tent with a table laden with little yellow squash and red ripe tomatoes.  My mouth watered.   On our way back to the house, when time was not quite the premium thing it was on the trip up,  I stopped and bought a big basket of peaches. I didn't even ask the price.  I got heavy red ripe tomatoes big enough to fill my hand.  I filled a sack with tender little yellow summer squash.   I didn't care about my financial state just at that moment.  I cared about savoring the remaining days of summer and it's lovely fruitful state. And in the end, it's all part and parcel of the grocery budget which renews on Monday anyway.  I'll borrow now and cut back later. I asked how much longer they might have peaches.  "We hope we can stay open until next weekend."  One week...Just one week more and then we're done with peaches for the next 10 months.  I haven't eaten nearly enough of them.  I've made just one cobbler all summer long.  I promise that next year I shall eat my fill, I shall make cobblers galore, I will.... We came home and I cut up the squash with one of the last Vidalia onions into a frying pan and then added 1/4 cup of water, covered them and let them steam gently.  I made a salad with half a tomato diced finely over it.  "I've not even had a single fresh tomato sandwich..." I said, as I sprinkled those lovely red bits over the green lettuce.  "I promise I shall have at least one this week and next year..." Oh, next year! We had a lovely visit after dinner with Taylor and Katie.  Taylor wanted purple nails "with glitter...which we do NOT eat!"   Sometimes a child does hint at some corrected behavior don't they?  I imagined her with a mouth sparkled with glitter at her nursery school and a sparkling tongue and giggles before the teacher noticed... So I did her nails and then on a whim, I used the glittery polish to coat my own nails.  I'm too old for glitter...but I think it looks magical in the light.   Didn't I promise myself to do my fingernails more often?  Oh! one more promise I really need to keep! Taylor asked about the little cats on the bookshelf.  "One day," I told her, "they shall be yours...because my grandmother gave them to me and I would like to give them to you,  my granddaughter."   Not that Taylor's my only granddaughter, I have four more but somehow I know that Taylor is the one these cats belong to.   It feels odd to be thinking of little legacies such as this, but I told Katie and John, "Listen to me.  Be my witnesses. This is my promise:  these cats will be Taylor's and if I die before I gift them to her, be sure that she gets them...and the little girl with a book will be Hailey's." Taylor crawled into my lap and leaned on my shoulder.  "I love you..."  Oh my heart!  How blessed I am to know the very genuine love of these children of my children.  How very blessed! John took Katie and Taylor home to Katie's a little later.   I sat here in the quiet, with my thoughts whispering all about me.  Tired and happy and mindful of things I want to hold tight to and mindful that none of these endless days of housework, no matter how satisfying the work may be, will be the things I remember most.  It will indeed be the taste of a sun ripened peach grown in Georgia soil, the feel of a little girl's head on my shoulder, the way a good ripe tomato smells and summer squash tastes, and how lovely a meadow is in sunlight of a dewy morning.  It will be those things which I shall remember and it makes keeping these promises to myself imperative. John has stepped out on the 'verandah' as he chooses to call the front porch and the wind is blowing hot and heavy and ringing the old iron chimes.  Ting, ting, ting, ting...Deeper than most windchimes.   I confess I'm more fond of middle and deeper tones than the tinkly sorts of chimes.  These please me. It takes a real wind to stir those bells to life.  In the distance, coming ever nearer, thunder rumbles.   Summer's music...Please Lord, make me mindful of my promises to keep! Sunday:  There are sheets and towels on the line and peach cobbler cooling atop the stove.  Not for us that cobbler but for Taylor's daddy.  The house about me is clean and quiet just now.  Here in a little bit I shall head over to Katie's to visit with them for a little while before Taylor begins her journey home. I sent John off to work this morning and tackled housework right away though I was tired and thought longingly of going back to my bed.  But not today.  Today there are sheets to blow in the sunlight and a house to put to order and a child to spend time loving. I think John is feeling the pull of the seasonal change.  He's asked me to make a turkey pot pie this week and I've promised I shall.   He wants Roast beef hash, too...and he'll have that as well, but it amuses me that he's wanting these comforting cooler weather sorts of foods.  I've told you before that summer salads do pall for us after a bit.   We'll have a few more despite these longings of ours for cozy meals.   A chef salad will be a quick and easy meal after grocery shopping this week...and I find myself suddenly making up menus for the week ahead, something I'd let drop for a bit because I was just flat tired of planning.  However, between leftovers and requests I guess I've got this week pretty much covered...Now let's see how many of these meals I actually get to make.  The roast beef meal we had on Saturday and the enchiladas were thawed on Friday when John had said we'd skip the date then got that second wind in his sails and wanted to go out after all. The roast beef is in the fridge... Everything else is frozen at present or is fresh and ready to prepare. Roast Beef, Summer Squash and Onions, Tossed Salad, Matzoh Cracker Candy Chicken Verde Enchiladas, Yellow Rice and Peach Salsa Roast Beef Hash, Wedge Salads with Thousand Island Dressing on my own  out with Mama Chef's Salad, Homemade Croutons, Peach Cobbler (for us) Turkey Pot Pie, Cranberry Sauce, Pear Salads And there's my menu plan! Speaking of food: one of the frugal articles I read last week dealt with grocery spending.  She cited the USDA government site  where you can see what food costs were for the prior month and how much one following the thrifty or low cost plans might be spending.  And then she suggested that financial advisors suggest 6% of our annual income is what we ought to spend.  As nearly as I recall how to figure percentages our spending should be something like $61 a week for the two of us.  Now  that's only for food.  It does not include pet supplies, paper or cleaning products etc.   It is also a good deal less than the government's food plan figures for a thrifty diet.  According to their figures in June we would have been spending about $84/per week.  I actually think I came in right around there  with a few paper products and one or two pet items tossed in but those would not account for more than $11 so I'm still nowhere near the 6% mark.  It does give me food for thought.  I was so proud of trimming my budget to $300 a month...But could I possibly hit closer to $244?   I'm pretty sure my husband would rebel hard at that but I'm tempted to try it just the same.  And of course, once we do retire, our 6% would also be a good bit less than $244...so I feel I owe it to myself to try and trim things back a bit more.   I'll let you know! Now off I go to unload the dishwasher and finish my bit of housework. Monday:  More tired and weary than I'd thought I'd be today...I didn't plan a day of mostly rest, but there you are.  I realized this morning that I basically did the equivalent of a drive to Kingsland and back with a brief stay to visit...but 8 hours of driving!  I felt it this morning. Thankfully only light housework was needed and dinner was pretty much ready.  I am reheating Chicken Enchiladas and have a salad made.  I'd meant to have peach salsa  with this meal but it's more effort than I want to go to today. John and I have been watching an interesting series of videos where the YouTubers go to visit old graveyards along back roads here in Georgia, some of them which are severely neglected.  I think it's made us both aware of the graveyard back of our house.  It is not on my property but just over the fence line.  Granny and Granddaddy always maintained the graveyard and when my cousin bought the land, so did he.  However, when it fell into my brother's hands it was no longer kept up.  I'd asked to take it on with his permission and he agreed but then he wired all the entrances shut with barbed wire so that I couldn't get into the area.  Now that Sam owns the land, I think I can get to it once more, but ten years of neglect means that it's now snaky and heavily overgrown. It is my hope that we can reclaim the space and maintain it once more but both Sam and John feel the graveyard is just too far gone.  However, come cold weather I shall go there and begin to do what I might.  Another  of my 'small bites' projects.  I feel sure if I start it Sam and John will eventually have pity on me and join in... The graveyard was not a family ground.  It belonged to a huge old Federal house that sat on the hill before ours.  This land was likely part of that original land grant but I haven't yet researched it out to prove that fact.   Still, I do know the people buried near my home were once residents there.  I would like to do my part in preserving a little bit of history, especially since the house burned down 30 odd years ago. Another promise I shall make this week: reclaim the graveyard and give it it's proper care. Tuesday:  We didn't do much of anything at all yesterday.  I was just worn out.  Some days are just so.  John did a load of laundry and hung a few things to dry.  I made meals and kept those simple and easy. Today we played catch up.  Typically we'd drive down on payday to pick up John's check if he's not working  the Tuesday following.  Well he wasn't working today, but we didn't go down yesterday afternoon.  He wanted to cut Sam's grass since Sam's busy with renovations inside the house. John went over yesterday afternoon,  though why he waited until afternoon to do so is beyond me.  It was so terribly hot, with a heat index of 107f.  It's been that way all week long.  It's meant to end here this weekend, though. I lived without AC for years and years.  We had only window units we used occasionally.  The year Sam was born was one year when we used AC all summer long because it was miserably hot from May to September that year.  Real temperatures that year were near 110F.  Between the summer heat and the winter cold we spent much of the year living in just one or two rooms.  That's all we could heat or cool in those years. It was very expensive to run AC in the 1980's and '90s.  When John and I got together and were struggling so we simply could not afford to run the window units though they were brand new.  We ended up compromising.  We turned them on Friday evening when we came in from work and turned them off Sunday night when we went to bed (11pm). It cost us over $300 a month to run it 8 days.   We've never paid that much a month here in the worst of our summers.  We came near it this past autumn when it was freezing and we had to run the emergency heat after our motor went out on the unit.   But all in all, AC is much more affordable than it was 25 years ago and I am so grateful for that! Today we did the payday errands: banking, bills, and groceries.  Not as much work as it sounds  because I have the bills ready to go out days ahead and then I just take them to the mailbox as soon as we do the banking.   John had warned we'd have a shorter check.  We didn't.   It wasn't quite enough to meet all our needs this time around but I'd already planned ahead for that,  so it was easy enough to proceed as planned.  I'll be sure to tell him we're on a no spend from now until next pay period which should see us through this small slump. I did well enough on groceries.  I didn't buy any meat this time around.  I'd looked at chuck roasts but they were very fatty and the one I thought worth purchasing was over $20...Wowza!  I decided I'd just skip it.  I know we've plenty of meat on hand at present. As I put groceries away in the pantry, I suggested to John that we might skip a big grocery shop next pay period and get just dairy and produce as needed.  We have quite a deep pantry at the moment and I saw only two or three items that I wished to stock more heavily, like flour, cereal and coffee.   Again, good sales will  fill those needs. I was thinking this morning that over the years I've found lots of ways to save money. Our mobile phone service is quite reasonable. We pay roughly the same for two phones that we once paid for one landline and one prepaid phone.  At one point our mobile phone company bought out our satellite TV service.  We were able to combine bills and make a small savings.  However, I soon discovered the days of renegotiating our satellite service contract was an exercise in futility with the phone company as boss.  So much for twenty five years of good customer status! Our local phone service internet was abysmal.  It had gotten so that we had no internet service from Friday afternoon at 4pm until Monday morning at 9am.  No we didn't get any discounts for the lack of service.  The company denied there was any problem!  So we moved to a satellite service.  We paid a LOT for that service.  Double what we'd paid for the local service.  However,  it was reliable and we had service we could count on. When our current mobile phone service offered an unlimited data pan  we hopped right on, changed phone plans and got the newly available hot spot.  We dropped internet satellite and saved on new smart phones, buying older models that were heavily discounted, paying cash up front.  That kept our phone bills low.   Smart phones for the same price as a mobile/text service?  Please and thank you! When lightning ran in on our television last August, we bought a Fire TV and in January I finally convinced John to quit satellite.  We dropped the satellite TV service which meant we paid still less out of pocket.  I was already paying for Amazon Prime membership each month, well worth the savings in shipping alone.  We aren't big shoppers, but I guarantee I order something from Amazon every month that is cheaper than I can find it elsewhere and that is covered under the prime free shipping.  We watch pretty much all the television we want to watch with our hot spot.  We did subscribe to Netflix' basic plan.  I am still paying far less for the phone service with unlimited data, Amazon and Netflix than I previously paid for phones, internet and satellite tv services. But for all that some things change, others pretty much stay the same.  We've paid basically the same amount for gasoline each month for the past 20 years.  Some years we drive more and some we drive less.  Our average is always right around the same amount each month for costs though. Groceries is another area that remained fairly stable for a long number of years.  I stopped buying certain items and made more from scratch and yet it's only been in these past two years I've begun to see a significant savings in the grocery spending.   I might add that during this two year period of time I've fed more people and spent less, while previously we spent a good deal more and fed only two.   Now that we're basically feeding just the two of us once more, I've watched my budget amount drop to what is an all time low for us.   Still...I could perhaps save more and I am working on it! Being frugal is never a stagnant and finite thing.  As time goes on, some of those ways I saved are no longer valid.  Eating habits change, income changes, products and promotions leave the market or come on the market. Our needs change.  What is needed in this stage of life is not the same as what was needed previously and won't be the same in five years.  For every new thing that comes along there are new ways to save and manage. Being frugal has never been boring!  And for me, that's what keeps it fun. Thursday:  I had every intent of sharing with you all yesterday but by the time I was done with Mama, I was really and most sincerely done in every sense of the word.  Once Bess and the boys left (and what good medicine they were!), I hadn't even the energy to eat.  I drank a V8 and showered and went off to bed with a book on prayer and fell asleep and slept the bulk of all night long.  Wailing and gnashing of teeth might have occurred in moderation in between that V8 and the shower but it was in extreme moderation. Today is better.   Today I am mindful of my many blessings and mindful of my own ways and words.  As well I ought to be.  Difficult relationships sometimes never cease to be difficult.  But more on that another day and time, perhaps. This morning I greeted John with a proper big breakfast.  Funny thing, we are eating less these days.  I suppose it's partly due to the heat and partly due to the fact that so much of what we choose to eat is just good fresh foods and they fill us amply even when eaten in moderation.  Our 'big' breakfast consisted of Fried egg, grits, toast and turkey sausage.   It is a big breakfast but certainly not one of those mammoth restaurant 'big' sorts of breakfasts. After breakfast I started a loaf of bread.  I'd really meant to get one going yesterday morning when John left as I was sure it would be done by the time I was ready to leave for Mama's, but time slipped away from me as I got all out of routine and did things in far different time frames than usual...which all worked  lovely as I was practically dressed and fully made up by the time Bess and Isaac stopped in to start their laundry.  Quick prayers, everyone, that work on their utility room goes through this weekend and their washer and dryer are up and running once more.  It's hard work lugging loads and loads of clothes from there to here and back again... Mama, as I expected, wanted to go to the big peach packing shed just 20 minutes north of me.  It is a good hour or so from her house...But go we did and I bought a half peck of peaches.  For one thing I meant to share with Bess, and I did.   I will put some in the freezer.  And I want to savor the last of this seasonal fruit because I do love peaches! For some reason the morning flew past.  Quicker than usual.  I'm not real sure why.   Well I do too know why.  John and I had a lot to talk over this morning and to think about and come back to talk over one more time.  I was still finishing up Bible study while our dinner cooked today.  It was one of those lovely Bible study sessions in which each passage of scripture I read today was pertinent to my own thoughts about matters that we'd discussed.   Friday:  The end of another week...They do fly by these days, don't they?   John and I have a lot to consider these days.  There's a possibility that our plans for retirement will be pushed forward from next June to end of this year.  All my plans to save money and stash away all I might as far as non-perishable things will be more modest than I'd been shooting for.  I'm not worried, but it is a little disconcerting.   Still, nothing is yet set in stone and we are at the point where now is as good as later and we'll trust God's timing.  In the end, we must always let go of our plans and rely on Him anyway, as I've discovered more than once. My house is very nearly Shabat ready.   We've no plans for this weekend aside from going to church.  I will have turkey pot pie for tomorrow's dinner which I'll do my best to prep ahead.  I'm debating dessert options.  On the one hand, I think gelatin or pudding would be a nice counter to the hot pot pie, don't you?   I'd love to make a lemon meringue pie but not sure I really want to go to that much work this afternoon when the kitchen is pretty much cleaned for the weekend.  I'll have to think on this.   I  have a Chef Salad for our main meal today.   It was on my menu plan and I find between cheese, a few slivers of turkey and some hard boiled egg we've plenty of protein and fat to satisfy us all afternoon long.  And there's a lovely bit of leftover peach cobbler, though I did make a smaller one yesterday.    And that is my week, full of the expected, and the unexpected, full of the lovely and the difficult, full of promises to keep.   Frugal things: The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering up all the fragments, so nothing be lost  I mean fragments of time as well as materials...every member of a household should be employed either in earning or saving money. The American Frugal Housewife ~ Lydia Maria Francis Child It's quite hot and the AC is pretty much running non-stop until 10 pm every night and then coming on periodically all through the night and early mornings.  I turned the AC up to 78, not my favorite point as it tends to feel a bit more stuffy, but it at least is one way to save.  I've noted the AC cuts off earlier and stays off a wee bit longer. (This should end as of Tuesday evening this week...Milder temperatures are coming our way.  Hooray!) I'm also being very mindful of running water unnecessarily at present.   This is finally getting to be more and more a habit with me as I have always tended to be the sort who let the water run and run as I rinsed dishes for the dishwasher or brushed my teeth or washed my face.  However, electricity is money and so I am doing my best to be mindful that the pump must run if I must run water. Happily, all the heat keeps generating pop up rain showers so watering plants is not a chore I must attend to.  As for porch and house plants, it's easy enough to 'save' water from bits left in bottles or glasses or that is running while it's cold and I'm needing hot to catch up and use for those.  And if I'm quick, I can often pop a porch planter under the run off from the roof and water plants with rain water. I may be just longing to shop but I know my current season isn't going to be any less tight if I run up a credit card bill, so I'm deleting tempting emails full of sales and waiting a few days before even considering those few purchases that make it into a cart.  So far, nothing has made it from the cart to 'order' because I either forget it or I discover something I can use that I already have or I just make up my mind to go without. I ordered a new phone case and accessory ring  from eBay.  I bought the last case two years ago and it's falling apart.  I tried to remove the ring from the old case but it's a no go.  I even went to  YouTube and I discovered that they don't re-stick once removed.  The new ring  was pennies on the dollar  on eBay for the exact same one I bought for bigger bucks at the phone store last year.  I literally saved enough on the ring to cover the cost of the new case and keep change in my pocket.   In case you're wondering what a phone ring is, it's a ring that you stick to the back of your phone or phone case and  can slide a finger through and  allows you to hold the phone without dropping it.  Dropping my phone is an issue for me, so the ring isn't a vanity thing, it's purely a necessity.  Ditto for the phone case.  I get the shock absorbing sort of case.  Both items will be paid from my allowance. Sunday morning I did a full load of dishes right away after John left for work and then I ran a full load of laundry (sheets and towels).  Everything air dried. John and I combined errands when we went out to shop for groceries. I checked with John about how he liked the bread machine bread I've been making.  He thinks it's great...and so I suggested I make a couple loaves a week, and we supplement with the occasional loaf that we'll keep in the freezer.   Once at the store I decided to buy smaller sized loaves.  Same number of slices per loaf but just a smaller piece of bread overall.  The smaller sized loafs were about $1 cheaper.  With the homemade machine bread we've been eating  half slices. I've given in to buying cookies for John this summer.  It's not worth heating up the kitchen for any period of time to make them...but I told him as soon as it starts to cool off I mean to make more homemade cookies and forgo the bought ones until the Spekulaas cookies are in market once more.  In the meantime, Tammy has inspired me to make a batch of those yummy stovetop chocolate oatmeal cookies.  I'd forgotten those as an oven free option.  John loves those cookies. No meat purchased today, but only because I thought better of it when I priced the nicest chuck roast in the counter.  I had a fair idea of how much meat I had in the freezer at home (not to mention how much is in the fridge at present) and I felt we could by pass that purchase.  I'll watch for good sales on meat in the next few weeks and try to stock up then. I suggested to John it would be worthwhile to return to purchasing chicken breasts and ground beef on special at the organic market we used to visit.  I've noted that the price at the organic market is nearly $2/pound less so it's well worth driving there for the savings. Made a loaf of bread, a small peach cobbler and used up leftover roast beef and gravy to make hash. John hung most of a load of clothes to dry. I washed a full load of dishes in the dishwasher. I've downloaded a few free books for my Kindle.  Most are Christian non-fiction but one was a children's book (never know when that might come in handy!) and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen was free the other day.  I am not going nuts adding books.  I am trying to be thoughtful about what I might truly read and most will be deleted once I'm done but in time I will add books I really want to buy that are cheaper via Kindle and won't take up space on my filled bookcases...Not to say I am done buying hard cover books.  Some friends just deserve a full time home where I can hold them and love them as I read! I've started a 'stock up list'.   So far I've got tissues (for cold and flu season) and cold medicine (ditto from previous), pineapple juice (same), matches, toilet paper, flour, coffee (regular and decaf) and boxed cereal.   I may add more as time goes on but these are items I am very well aware we're very low or empty on.  Oh and candles!  We use them for our Shabats and typically two candles last us a couple or three months but they are awfully handy when power goes out as well so I like to stock up. I've started adding tissues and paper towels to our compost.  And this morning, I decided it was worth while to shred our weekly newspapers as well.  I've been adding shredded mail for quite a while but these are extra items I know I can compost.  I plan to 'grow my compost' so to speak, as I get more and more serious about my need for flowers and perhaps a few vegetables here and there. Meals: So I made my plans...how did that go?   Here's what we really ate this week Roast Beef, Squash, Tossed Salad McDonalds with Katie and Taylor Chicken Verde Enchiladas, Green Salad with Tomatoes and Green Onions Chicken Salad Sandwiches with fresh fruit (take out) Chicken Livers and Fries with Mama Roast Beef Hash, Sliced Tomato Salad with Basil, Peach Cobbler Chef's Salad, Oyster Crackers (something we often sub for croutons), Peach Cobbler (C) Terri Cheney For more information please click here

Adtwixt - News source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Adtwixt-News/~3/_ILY5TjGLIk/august-diary-promises-im-making-myself

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: First Day of Playoffs, First Vegas Playoff Win; Sam Bennett; Jesse Puljujarvi – April 12

I’m sure much of the hockey world was looking forward to the Flyers/Penguins series. Anyone following hockey for the last 10 years or so would vividly remember the 2012 series which featured goals and fights to the heart’s content.

Game 1 wasn’t so much a playoff game as it was a public execution.

Pittsburgh skated away with a 7-0 win on the back of a 24-save shutout from Matt Murray and a natural hat trick from Sidney Crosby. Brian Elliott was mercifully pulled after the fifth Pittsburgh goal and Petr Mrazek let in a couple more after that.

A lot of the focus for the fans and media will undoubtedly be Crosby, who scored a ridiculous bat-out-of-mid-air goal again. One thing that stood out to me: the Flyers didn’t get the memo to not make Evgeni Malkin mad. Not long after he took a hard hit that was blatant interference (he never had the puck and the play was about 30 feet away from him), he decided to go all Angry Geno on them:

Malkin and Crosby really out here playing anything you can do I can do better pic.twitter.com/ZHPyBRxUjn

— Filipovic Forsberg (@DimFilipovic) April 12, 2018

It didn’t lead to a goal – dang post – but Malkin was simply dominant at times in this game.

Pittsburgh continued their trend of using Justin Schultz on the power play which certainly raises questions for the next fantasy season. I wrote often last summer about the mix of him and Kris Letang making for a messy situation at draft time. They seem pretty committed to using Jultz on the top PP unit. Letang is clearly the superior player, but situation matters a lot. It will make for some interesting projections.

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Winnipeg took the first game of their series against Minnesota 3-2 but some bigger news was that Mathieu Perreault injured. He took a couple big hits – one a blatant interference – and eventually just left the game late in the second and did not return. It’s the playoffs so we won’t get any sort of specific update, and the team has depth to overcome it, but he’s a key piece to their forward group. Hopefully it’s nothing serious.

With Minnesota up 2-1, Patrik Laine did what Patrik Laine does:

.@PatrikLaine29 with a snipe. pic.twitter.com/HhI2gJOXTx

— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) April 12, 2018

He’s a guy whose ADP should be fascinating next year. Can he go in the first round? He’s probably already one of the top-3 goal scorers in the league and he’ll only be in his age-20 season. He was a second-round pick last season in most fantasy leagues. He’ll definitely find his way into the first round, right? How high would you be willing to draft him? Let me know in the comments.

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The first-ever Vegas playoff game was rather dull. I don’t mind low-scoring games, but outside of a couple very good saves from Jonathan Quick, there wasn’t much to speak of offensively in the Golden Knights’ 1-0 shutout win. I’m sure Vegas fans don’t really care about the manner of the win, however.

By the way, Shea Thedore was the lone goal scorer. There’s your trivia answer sometime in the future.

Most media members were wrapped up in the hits in this game – over 100 through two periods. Let me tell you, it didn’t lead to an exciting game.

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For those with subscriptions to The Athletic, I recommend this article by Corey Masisak on how the New Jersey Devils infused analytics into their organization.

I’m not going to go through the whole thing, but two things stuck out to me:

Taylor Hall is very much into advanced stats and tries to keep up on the research as much as possible. He was always a player who did the things on the ice necessary to help his team win, but it’s pretty cool to see he’s still trying to evolve his game.

The relative unimportance of players to “believe” in the use of non-traditional stats. And it makes sense. It’s not really that important that a player believes they shouldn’t dump the puck in all the time, eschewing entering the zone with control. It’s just important that the coach believes they shouldn’t, coaches that way, and that the players buy into doing exactly that. If all that happens, it doesn’t really matter what the players do or don’t believe.

Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting article. Give it a read if you can.

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Not to go on an Athletic binge, but the story by Aaron Portzline on Artemi Panarin and the hardships he endured growing up was something else. He’s a special person and a special player.

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We’ve gone from “Joe Thornton will not play game one” to “Joe Thornton hopes he can return in the first round” in the span of two days. Of course, the team knows this all along, they just don’t want to share the information. All the same, a return for the second round, should the Sharks get there, would be a huge boost.

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There is a cool fundraising effort going on started by Ian McLaren of the Score to raise money for the Humboldt Broncos. It’s a Money on the Board pledge wherein you decide how much you want to donate for a specific event in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Maybe you want to donate $5 for every goal scored by Nikita Kucherov, $10 for every Golden Knights win, or $1 for every penalty minute in the Penguins/Flyers series (might need to take out a loan for that one).

Please consider if you are able. Do not feel pressured if you can’t; money is tight for a lot of people. If you can, just follow this link.

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The news came out that Vladimir Tarasenko will be out 4-6 months recovering from shoulder surgery. That is, uh, pretty bad. Four months would leave him a month until training camp. Six months would have him return sometime after the regular season has started.

A couple weeks ago, I mused that Tarasenko’s ADP would probably fall from where it was in 2017-18 and that I would be a buyer. Now, I’m not so sure.

He’s clearly an elite talent and going into his age-27 season, I wouldn’t expect much in the way of a decline in skills. But I loathe drafting players coming off serious injuries like this. Injuries which don’t let players have a regular offseason. I suppose a shoulder surgery is better than a knee or a hip surgery, but it’s no small issue all the same. 

What say you Dobber heads? How concerned are you about Tarasenko for next year and what round would you take him if you knew he’d be in the lineup for game one of the 2018-19 campaign?

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There were just three games on the playoff schedule so I wanted to go back over the fantasy regular season a little bit. We have the whole summer to look ahead to next year so I’m going to spend some time looking back on 2017-18 to see what it can tell us about the season to come.

  Individual Expected Goals

Jesse Puljujarvi

Cam went over some left wingers and individual expected goals per 60 minutes from the Metro division. I recommend reading that.

Connor McDavid led the Oilers in individual expected goals scored for the season at 1.12, which was among the league leaders. Any guesses on second in Edmonton? Pretty easy to guess, right? It’s Jesse Puljujarvi.

Obviously, the 12 goals and 20 points in 65 games aren’t enough for fantasy. It’s hard to put up a big fantasy season with 13:22 in ice time per game, though. He also played just 12:21 over his final 30 games of the season. No one is going to produce being used as a fourth liner.

I watched enough Oilers games to feel pretty confident in saying that Puljujarvi didn’t play himself down the lineup. Was he a consistent presence game in and game out? No, but very few of their players were. The fact they cut down on his ice time as they were playing themselves out of the playoffs is lunacy. They should have been giving him 16-17 minutes a night to try to build him up for 2018-19.

Next season will be Puljujarvi’s third. They don’t have a better scoring winger on the roster (assuming you consider Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins centres and not wingers). His shot-share numbers were good, his production rates were good, and his shot rates were good. My bet is they go looking for a scoring winger this offseason (LOL) and that worries me for Puljujarvi’s usage next year. He’s good. He can probably be very good. You wouldn’t know it the way the Oilers treat him, though.

  Sam Bennett

It was a very up-and-down season for the 21-year-old Flames forward. He started the year with zero points in his first 15 games, went on a tear in the middle of the year that saw 13 points in 14 games from November 28th through December 28th, and registered one point over the final four weeks of the season. Even in leagues that count hits, that kind of inconsistent production made it hard to rely on him in fantasy.

Bennett also led the Flames in expected goals per 60 minutes. His mark of 0.92 was also top-25 league-wide among forwards with at least 500 minutes played. His problem was his shooting percentage, managing just over 7 percent at five-on-five after being close to 10 percent over his first two seasons.

Here’s the interesting thing for me: he barely shot while on the ice on the power play. Among the 214 forwards with at least 100 minutes of power play time, he was 209th in individual shot attempts per 60 minutes. The only players who shot less often were Nick Foligno, David Desharnais, Travis Zajac, and Zack Smith. Not only did he underperform his expected goals at five-on-five by a pretty significant margin, but there was no chance he’d make up the difference on the power play shooting as little as he did.

Over his first two seasons, Bennett’s expected goals scored per 60 minutes (0.62) wasn’t far off from his actual goals scored per 60 minutes (0.68). Last year was a huge deviation and under-performance. The 2018-19 campaign will be his fourth, and you know we love our fourth-year breakouts here. He’ll have a hard time being consistently productive in leagues that don’t count hits as he’ll likely be third line/second power-play unit, but don’t sleep on him in deeper leagues. A jump in shot rates on the PP could help get him close to 20 goals and 40 points.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-first-day-of-playoffs-first-vegas-playoff-win-sam-bennett-jesse-puljujarvi-april-12/