It's a bit blurry because I didn't have the greatest light, but she's pretty just the same! This is my new Majacraft and I love it. I've had it a couple of weeks now. It took me a few days of fiddling and getting to know the wheel but now it's worked in smoothly and I like it more than my Lendrum. Eventually I plan on selling the Lendrum and replacing it with a Little Gem, because I love the way the Majacraft wheels have interchangeable parts and bobbins.

This is one of my latest handspun yarns. It's superwash merino roving, hand dyed by me and spun to a fingering weight of about 1800 ypp. I'm not sure of the exact specs because I can't find where I wrote them down. This yarn was spun on the Lendrum and plied in record time on the Rose.

I did complete another skein of yarn, this time in some hand dyed corriedale, but I forgot to take a picture. This yarn I spun and plied entirely on the Rose, and it's my finest yet, at 2000 ypp. I've already started knitting with it: I'm making Evelyn Clark's Flower Basket Shawl. I dyed 8 ounces of the fibre, and I'm in the middle of spinning the remaining 4 ounces now.

Now, have some kitties:

Continue reading "New Addition"

Jeremy's got the week off right now so we've decided to take care of a few things. First, I'm very happy to finally have light fixtures in the bedrooms instead of bare bulbs hanging from wires. We have planted our front garden and put some plants on the deck. Tonight we're going to secure the new shelf we mounted above our television so that we can actually put stuff on it. Also, I've got plans tonight to touch up the ceilings in the bedrooms so it no longer looks like a kindergartner painted our house. I would have also painted some of the trim but I'm totally sluggish from being drunk last night. Margaritas.

The other day, our across-the-yard neighbour's tree decided to break and fall into our yard. It didn't damage anything, but it's sitting on top of our fire pit. No storm, it just fell. Scary! The neighbour is a totally good sort who understands it's his tree and that he's responsible for clearing it off of our property. He's going to chop it up so we can use it for firewood.

Tomorrow is going to be a hard day. Cuba's going in to the vet to get some teeth removed. The cats were in for their yearly checkups and the vet found a lot of damage. We had no idea because she's always been a happy piggy who has had no problem crunching up her food. Her front teeth are a mess and have to go, but she'll keep her molars and fangs.

Knitting-wise, I've started a new project, Grow With Me from Knitty. There is errata. Apparently the editors accidentally edited away the stitch pattern for the bodice. The missing information can be found on the Knitty message boards here (you have to be registered to follow the link). I'm using Cotton-Ease. It needs to be washable and I just can't justify the cost of Rowan Denim.

I don't have much else to share since I've been spending time working on a project I can't discuss, as well as sporadic spinning and dyeing. Mostly I've been sweating and praying for rain. Just not on Sunday night, please. It's triple-feature at the drive-in, starting off with the new Die Hard movie, and Jeremy and I are going to try to sit through the whole thing.

I haven't posted about the cats in a while. Here's Cuba, being particularly photogenic. Unfortunately I don't have a good one of Pippa at the moment.

Jonah hasn't been feeling well. It's hard to know when Jonah's sick because it takes a whole lot to take the spring out of his step. On Monday we noticed that Jonah wasn't being his usual ass in the morning (he wakes us up by swiping our stuff off our dresser and night tables each day) and that he slept a lot more than usual. And he was drooling a lot when he slept. Jeremy took him to the vet yesterday and we got the bad news. His poor teeth are rotting and there is very little we can do about it.

We've known about his teeth for a while, and we've been giving him special food and gel to clean them and we even did a bottled water experiment, and nothing's worked. The vet said it's unfortunate since he's not even two years old, but it seems to be a genetic problem for him (our other cats are just fine).

Jonah has already lost two of his teeny front teeth. The vet gave us steroids and antibiotics for his inflammation and infection, and said he should be feeling less pain rather quickly. We put out an extra water bowl because she said the medication is going to make him thirsty, as well.

My heart hurts for him. He has such magnificent fangs and I'm just so sad that he is going to lose them. Poor Jonah. I love you.

I guess we got a decent amount of kids this year. Not so many you'd go crazy from getting up to answer the door, but we bought way too much candy and now I have to eat it. Also, Alex brought home more loot than we gave out.

So...want pictures of the cats?

Continue reading "Halloween 2006 (and Kitties)"

School started today! Alex is now in grade seven. Even though it's been over twelve years, sometimes I look at Alex and think, I have a kid? It's still a mindfuck. And now he's in grade seven and wears giant, size-11 shoes.

I spent most of Sunday knitting swatches for an afghan. I have to work from stash, and I've got twelve balls of Patons Classic Wool in natural. At first I thought I'd knit a big Cozy, but I couldn't make the stitch pattern look good. Then I tried about seven different stitch patterns that I found online and hated them all. I don't know if it was because I was frustrated or because the Patons just knits up like shit. Maybe I just need to go down a needle size or two. I'm going to try again this afternoon.

I've also been working on some plain stockinette Fleece Artist socks. I just finished the gusset on the second sock. The second same sock in a row! I'll have a new pair of socks with a photo soon.

Remember Starsky? I'm almost finished. All I have left to knit before blocking and seaming are the sleevecaps for each sleeve. Because I couldn't get proper row gauge and because I needed to widen the tops of the sleeves, I have to redesign the caps to fit properly. Afterward, I'll just have the collar and belt to go. I may run out of yarn. Hopefully I can finish the collar with what I've got and will only need to use a different dyelot for the belt.

I haven't posted a picture of the cats lately. Here is Pippa. I took this a few weeks ago. This is how she likes to sleep.

I had a full memory card of photos to deal with, and while I managed to get them on the computer today, I just couldn't be arsed to organize and upload them. So in the meantime, here's what I've knit over the past three days: Sophie.

I knit Sophie a couple of years ago but I recently threw it out. It wasn't great. When Freakgirl was here last weekend, I loved hers and had the urge to knit it again. The yellow bag on the right is my full-sized Sophie, knit from one skein of Patons Classic Wool. I felted it in my front-loader, the first time I've used it for felting; it took a little bit longer than my mom's top-loader but it felted just fine. I ran it through a short hot wash twice with three pairs of jeans.

The little red bag is for a special little friend of mine. I know her favourite colour is red, and I'm hoping the burgundy of the bag will be good enough because I didn't have enough bright red. Anyway, I pretty much made the bag at about 75% of the original size, and it used up just over half of a skein of the Classic Wool.

The modifications I made were pretty straightforward. I cast on 29 stitches instead of 39, and I knit for 25 rows to create the garter stitch bottom. I picked up 12 stitches on the sides and 29 on the long end. I made my decreases every 8th row instead of every 10th, and I only decreased 4 times instead of 5. Then I knit 5 rounds even before casting off. With the smaller bag, you'll end up with only 4 stitches at each side where the straps are to be knit, so I increased 2 stitches at each end during the bind-off row. I knit the straps to about 18 inches in length, then grafted them to the other side as in the pattern.

The finished mini-Sophie is 6" wide at the base, 5" wide at the opening, 4.5" from top to bottom, 2.5" deep at the base, and the handle is 6.5" from the opening of the bag upward.

Now, look at my cats. Jeremy took this the other day.

I woke up today to find my kitten has gone insane. See the crazy lines coming off the cat here? Those lines are radiating from Pippa now. Because she crazy! She turned 10 weeks old yesterday and all her kitten energy exploded this morning. I don't think she understands our laws of physics because she's running horizontally across vertical surfaces. Also, I'm astounded to see how much she's grown in the two weeks she's been with us. At first she was so fine and delicate but now she's gained weight; she's sturdy and very, very fast.

Alex's birthday on Tuesday was a big success. As it turned out he loves his new mattress. He also loves his new bike, which is blue. Unfortunately the weather around here has sucked so we haven't gone for a ride yet, but I'm hopeful today will remain clear. He scored some other loot, too, like games and headphones for his DS, a book he's been waiting for and a hefty gift certificate for Amazon.ca and can't wait to shop online.

About a week ago I started knitting the Pomatomus socks. Clever pattern, that. Not particularly difficult although it's very easy to make a mistake if you're not paying attention. I've been alternating working on sock number one with the baby blanket I should have finished 2 months ago, so neither is growing very quickly. I've just finished the gusset on the sock and neared the halfway point on the blanket. I'm still not feeling the knitting, so when I do knit it's slower than I'd like. What I really need is something absorbing to put in the dvd player. Pictures to come; I've gotten very lazy about unloading the camera.

The forecast for this weekend was originally supposed to be 72 hours of straight rain, but since I first checked it has shifted. Right now we've got rain scheduled only for tomorrow, but I have faith that will clear up, too. That's because Jeremy miraculously has the weekend off and I've declared it to be Gardening Weekend. We are finally going to try to tame our abysmal front garden. I've done nothing but complain about it to anyone who will listen for weeks, and tomorrow we're finally going to do something about it. It's horrifying; there are more weeds than anything else and these aren't your typical weeds. These are huge, man-eating dandelions. There are other weeds too, and they look equally mutated and frightening. The constant rain has done nothing but fortify these things and I'm sure the neighbours think our place is an eyesore. More importantly, I think our place is an eyesore, so much so that I'm rather ashamed of it. We don't have much to spend and we don't really know what we're doing, but tomorrow we're going to the nearby garden centre and throwing ourselves at their mercy.

Alex turns twelve on Tuesday. Natalie is coming over today to bring his birthday gift from her and my mom. It's a big one, she's got to tie it to her car to bring it over. When he sees it he could be extremely excited or very confused. Hopefully he won't be disappointed.

It's a mattress. What twelve-year-old kid doesn't want a mattress for his birthday?

Personally, I think it's a great gift because it means I don't have to go out and buy him a mattress. He needs one pretty badly, the old one is just awful.

We're getting him a bike. This will be Alex's third bike. The first one he grew out of before he learned to ride it. Alex has short tendons in the backs of his calves and this combined with the fact that he is a little clumsy and has trouble compensating for balance means it takes longer for him to learn. His second bike was stolen from my parents' garage, in the middle of the day, just as he was getting the hang of it and could glide without help. That was frustrating. Now we're trying again, we have a shed in which to store the bike, and I have a good feeling he'll be riding around all summer long. The only problem is that with Jeremy's hours the way they are right now, I have no idea when we'll be able to pick up the bike. I'm hoping we'll be able to get it by Tuesday, but it might have to wait until next weekend. In the meantime he can enjoy his exciting! new! birthday! mattress!

In kitty cat news, the house is upside-down. Up until now, Cuba and Jonah co-existed without a definite pecking order. They deferred to each other, sometimes Cuba would dominate, sometimes Jonah. Now with Pippa in the mix, Cuba and Jonah seem to want to redefine their relationship. At first they bonded against Pippa. They ignored her and stuck together like glue. Now I think they realize that Pippa is here to stay so they're constantly tussling and taking their frustrations out on each other. I don't mind except that they've gotten a bit rougher than what I'm used to. No one's drawn blood yet and hair is not flying around in a whirlwind, so I'm sure it's all fine and normal.

I do worry a little when they go after Pippa, however. Although watching her right now with Cuba, she's holding her own and I really don't think she has any clue how small she is. She's ballsy. Also, with Pippa I think it's partly about keeping her in her place and partly just good fun. Cuba has taken to grooming her. It's the cutest thing.

This afternoon Astra is coming over with her kids to hang out and meet Pippa. Does anyone remember this baby blanket? It's for Astra's son. I had to rip it down a whole bunch, but now I'm pretty much back to where it was in the photo. I am really going to finish it soon, my hands have actually felt a little like knitting lately.

A couple of weeks ago Jeremy had left for work without noticing we wouldn't have enough cat food for overnight. Right now the cats are on a prescription diet that we can only get from the vet, which would be closed by the time he got home. He called them and they suggested he go into a vet near his work and have them call to authorize the food, and he could buy it that way. So he did. The vet downtown happened to have kittens for adoption, and Jeremy stupidly told me that.

The next day I sent him back to the vet with our camera. That's where this photo came from. The next day Jeremy went in to adopt her, and she came home on Thursday. She's 8 weeks old.

Meet Pippa.

Continue reading "Meet Pippa"

We did our taxes this week and without going into financial details I'll just say that the words taxed and fucked are synonymous. Fucked. Taxed. Taxed. Fucked. FUCKED. Wheeee! To say we were unprepared for the results would be putting it mildly. FUCKED! Whoooo! Taxed. Fuck.

Continue reading "We've Been Taxed!"

This weekend Jeremy and I cleaned out the closet in the office, finally unpacking the last of the boxes from when we moved last June. We threw out a bunch of stuff we decided we could live without, set aside some books and toys to be donated (we still have more books to go through) and repacked the rest of the stuff we want to keep but don't know what the hell to do with. We painted the inside of the closet and covered the shelves so they're nice and clean. I also took advantage of the fact that Alex is staying at his grandparents to prime and paint some of the trim in his bedroom.

While I was at it I painted some trim in the laundry room but since that's where we keep the litterbox, I couldn't lock the cats out. I used really thin coats in the hopes that there would be no cat hair/paint transfer. Good thing I did, because 10 minutes after I finished Jonah decided he needed to sit on the window ledge. I chased him away but the paint was dry to the touch so no harm done.

This home renovation stuff is starting to drive me mad. We've been here 10 months now and there is still so much to do, like proper baseboard trim, installing new doors in the hallway, lowering the top of the doorways in the living room so we can add crown molding, painting the trim in our bedroom, getting a whole bunch of light fixtures, redoing the entire bathroom...I could go on but I won't because it's giving me a headache.

Tonight we're heading over to my parents' for Easter dinner. Since we celebrate Easter twice every year, we'll be doing the same next weekend, too. This week is what my family calls, Canadian Easter and we have dinner together and eat chocolate bunnies and stuff like that. My family is Macedonian Orthodox, so for our Easter my mom and sister will dye some eggs during the week, my mom will make a raisin bread called, kusinyak and on Sunday when eggs are given out we play an egg-breaking game. You choose your victim, tap the pointy end of your egg to the pointy end of theirs and if you break their egg while yours remains intact, you are the King of the World and get to wear a bra on your head. I'm kidding, you just win their egg.

We're pretty secular. My grandmother was the religious one in our family. While my parents and sister do believe in the religion somewhat (I don't), we all enjoy the traditions of our culture.

Want to see some cats?

Continue reading "Long Weekend"

Here we have Cuba posing underneath my latest pair of socks, which I finished on Sunday. This picture is from a few weeks ago. I have one of the completed pair, but I've been too lazy to dump my camera. Maybe tomorrow. The yarn is Ja Woll, a cotton and wool blend, and the socks are very, very comfy. This is only my third pair of the year and we're already into April!

Things around here have been pretty ho-hum and I'm in a kind of slump, knitting-wise. I'm uninspired and bored. The truth is that I have just too many projects on the go which is rather overwhelming. I'm going to sit down tonight and try to get some stuff done.

The cats seem to be doing much, much better. When I last posted we were about to try a second variation of special food for them in the hopes that their insides would start working properly. They hated the new food and only ate when they were very hungry and the diarrhea didn't clear up by the time the vet had hoped. Luckily, the vet allowed us to return the opened bag of food. Apparently that brand comes with a money-back guarantee which was great since they barely made a dent in the bag. The next step is bloodwork for both cats, but we have to wait on that because it's expensive. In the meantime we went back to the special food they liked and the good news is that over the past few days we have achieved solid poop! Unfortunately it's not all solid poop, but I'll take what I can get.

Want to see a couple of photos from my birthday? I got an awesome tripod from my awesome friends.

Continue reading "Socks, Cats and Birthday Crap"

This morning at the vet went okay. We are trying another 24-hour fast and introducing a different gastrointestinal food for a few days, combined with some digestive enzyme paste and an antibiotic. If their poop doesn't firm up by Tuesday, the vet wants to do bloodwork and look for something more serious than a simple dietary problem. Jonah also has some excessive gingivitis, which the vet doesn't want to treat until we figure out what's going on with their digestive systems.

She told us not to worry right now but if the diarrhea doesn't clear up we are going to need to look into the possiblity of more serious conditions. She doesn't think it's likely because they are happy and gaining weight, but you never know. I must have looked stricken because she was quick to assure me that the cats don't show any sign of serious illness.

I didn't realize how upset I was about this until after we got home. I told myself I wouldn't worry until I was given a reason to worry, but I can't help it.

It's my birthday tomorrow. I will be 31. I've got the place mostly cleaned up and ready for company tomorrow so I've got nothing to do today except spend some time knitting. I'm going back to Starsky and getting those damn sleeves done! Also, a big happy birthday to my friend Ivon, he's an April Fool just like me.

We talked to Jeremy's carpenter friend and it looks like we can make a deal. He's free in a couple of weeks and I can certainly live with the door in its current state until then. Ah, relief. Depending on what he's willing to charge for his time and expertise, I'm sure we'll call him for help with a bunch of things around the house in the future. He's willing to work out friend prices as long as we share some of the labour, which is how we'd like to do it anyway.

On the kitty front, we've still got problems with runny poop. While the giardia has been confirmed to be cleared up, something else is bothering the kitties and we don't know what. On the vet's advice we've tried a few things but they don't seem to be working so we're just going to have to take the cats in tomorrow morning. Jonah enjoyed himself at the vet last time, but Cuba was scared. Maybe if they both go together it won't be so bad for her. Wish us luck, cat diarrhea is so frustrating! At least Jonah is not messing himself as much anymore and I don't have to chase him with wet paper towels before he sits down. In any case, the cats seem healthy. They're happy and active, well hydrated and maintaining their weight.

The back of Starsky isn't much to look at yet because the pattern draws in a lot and needs to be blocked out. I'll do that when the fronts are done so I can block them at the same time to get it as even as possible.

Continue reading "Starsky Photos"

The cats have discovered bugs.

Last fall Jeremy and I discovered these weird black and red bugs that liked to bake in the sun on the front of the house, near the ground. When it started getting cold, they worked their way into our crawl space for warmth. We know this because on particularly cold days they crawl into the ducts and pop out of the vent in the kitchen, looking for a warm area. These bugs aren't particularly nasty, they're slow and easy to kill and while I don't like them at all, they don't freak me the hell out.

This past week was really cold here, and the bugs came up to visit. Jonah and Cuba welcomed them. At first I thought it was hysterical to watch them stalking these little bugs, pawing them, nosing them around, until I noticed that they'd crawl up Jonah's leg to get away from him. Then I starting getting worried that they'd crawl in his ear, so when I saw them playing, I'd kill the bug and take it away. Jonah has since taken to picking them up in his mouth and running away from me because he knows I'm going to ruin his fun. The final straw was when he ran under my bed with one of the bugs. He came out and I got it, but now I'm all freaked out wondering where else he's deposited these things.

The bugs only pop out of our vents in the front of the house, under the crawl space, because the vents in the back (that run through the basement) have been sealed with aluminum tape. The purpose of this was to keep hot air from escaping so we could hopefully save a few bucks in heating costs. The plan has been for Jeremy to get into the crawl space and do the same but he hasn't gotten around to it yet. And who can blame him, really? I certainly don't want to do it. But now, with these bugs...Jeremy will be enjoying his next day off, that's all I'm saying.

The vet finally got back to us and told us that they believe Cuba and Jonah are experiencing the side effects of the giardia meds. I was looking up everything I could find and read that side effects include lethargy, nausea and possible vomiting, and the vet confirmed it. The process of killing off the parasites creates antigens which can make the cats feel sick and weak. They told us to keep an eye on them, of course, but that there isn't a reason to bring either of them in until it's time for their boosters next week. I'm relieved. Live and learn. After tomorrow's dose we can hopefully put it all behind us and the cats can just be free to enjoy themselves.

Continue reading "Lookit"

Jeremy got a new gig working on a tv pilot, which means for the next two weeks I'll barely see him. He's got shifts at his day job to cover on the weekends as well as 12-hour days on the show. It's a good thing because this is what he loves to do and the money ain't bad (financially we are a bit behind so we need this) but it's long hours away from home and we won't be spending much time together. I've got lots to do in the meantime (spring cleaning - the excitement never ends) but I'll miss him.

I am a big liar to myself when it comes to knitting, which I'm sure you already know. I cast on for Starsky even though I said I wouldn't and am now six inches up the back. The cable pattern is surprisingly tricky! I thought it would be simple. Physically it is quite simple since you're only switching around two stitches at a time so there is no wrestling. But the pattern isn't easily memorizable so I have to actually read the damn chart. Now that I've passed a complete pattern repeat I can read my knitting (at least on the RS), so I can see what comes next and don't have to refer to the chart as often.

The kitties are doing well, but we're worried about Cuba. She caught Jonah's cold and was gagging/coughing. We got meds for her from the vet and she improved immediately. The meds are long finished and she was absolutely fine but late last night she started gagging again. What the hell? This time the gagging is different so I thought she might be ready to send out a hairball, but nothing's come out. We'll be calling the vet tomorrow to see what we should do. Both cats are due to go back at some point next week for boosters. It turned out Jonah had giardia (a parasite); the shelter obviously dropped the ball here because he should not have been adoption-ready. We got meds for both cats from the vet and they've got two doses to go before the giardia is cleared up. Once their poop is tested again and found clear, they'll get their boosters.

Now, I don't want to play games with the health of my kitties but we've already forked over a bunch in vet bills that we didn't expect and we're very tight with the money. I'm hoping we can wait until the booster visit to see about Cuba's gagging. Of course, if the vet thinks she needs to be seen we won't wait but in between the short gagging spells she is okay and active and happy. Maybe the giardia medication is causing it? The cats take pills very easily but this stuff is liquid and must taste so foul, they really struggle to get it down and are quite upset for a few minutes afterward. Only two more doses. I am scratched up, yo.

Tonight I am roasting a chicken and potatoes with lemon, garlic and rosemary. It's been a while since I roasted a whole chicken, I think this is my third? I originally wanted to do stuffing and gravy with it, but Natalie and my mom are coming over for dinner on Tuesday and I've got a turkey breast in the freezer. I'll save the stuffing and gravy for them. They're coming to take Alex for a couple of days during March Break. Because of Jeremy's hours I'll be alone most of those days, and I'm kind of looking forward to it. Quiet time with my knitting and the tv.

I finally finished the socks from my handpainted yarn! Now I can move on. I started a sock with the Ja Woll cotton, have most of the first Embossed Leaves sock done, and need a mate for my Knitpicks Simple Stripes sock. I'm sadly behind in 200Sox.

In kitty news, we took Cuba to the vet for the first time yesterday. She was very lethargic and seemed to be gagging or coughing. It turns out she has a cold and we got some meds for her. She's already done a 180 in terms of mood...she's playing and talking and affectionate again.

The vet asked us how old she is; we told her what the shelter told us, 9 months. The vet disagreed and aged her at close to 2 years, according to Cuba's teeth. After looking at the papers from the shelter's vet, it indeed estimates Cuba's birthday to be January 2004. So she's a teeny, full-grown cat. Jeremy told me that one of the women at the shelter said she assumed the vet made a mistake because Cuba is so small. Why wouldn't they just believe the vet? I don't know. They also told us that Jonah was 6 months old but after looking at his papers we see that he's actually 8 months, which makes sense because he does have all his teeth. Not a big deal in the long run but it's good to know the truth. Also, Cuba's been eating kitten food all this time and I think she must have been missing out on adult nutrition, so we need to take care of that.

As soon as the cats decide it's time to nap, I'll be finishing the cardigan for Astra's baby. All I have to do is put it together, weave in the ends and lightly block it. I'm also almost finished the second of this pair of socks, and I hope to get that done later this evening. I've only finished one pair this year so far...sad sad sad.

For dinner tonight I'm making Jamaican Rice and Peas along with some fried plantain and roasted jerk-seasoned chicken legs. I haven't made the rice and peas in ages so I'm really looking forward to it. The beans have soaked and I need about two hours to cook it, so I guess I'll start around 3:30.

More kitty pictures? This way, please.

Continue reading "Waiting for Naptime"

Yesterday while Alex was at school we took Nicci's husband to the dentist to get drugged and butchered. While he was there, Nicci took us to breakfast (thank you!) then we checked out a couple of yarn shops I did not know were nearby.

On Yonge St. in Aurora we went to Needles and Knits which is a huge shop with lots of rooms and a huge selection. Not having much cash but being unable to leave empty-handed I got some sock yarn, Jawoll Cotton in colour 88173. The shop is in the same building as the York Region Knitting Guild, which I didn't even know existed. I'll definitely be back there. They had Garnstudio Silke Tweed in some really great colours, which I've been meaning to try.

The second shop we went to, Unwind, was on Main St. in Newmarket. Very small, but cute and the owner told us she was moving to a bigger shop with parking (very important!) in April. She has a Stitch 'N Bitch there on Wednesday nights from 7 to 9, which I'll have to check out. I couldn't leave there empty handed either, so more sock yarn. This time I got Opal (Owl colourway), which I've also been meaning to try. On sale for $13.75, can't go wrong with that.

We still had time before the dentist appointment was over so we hit Zellers for pyjama pants and we made all the Elmos in the toy section sing and dance at the same time. Coffee from Tim's, and the morning was over. After all of this I needed a nap before my usual SNB at 7. It was a lot of fun. Natalie was the only one there who hadn't given birth yet and I think our discussion pretty much ensured she never would. Graphic? Maybe a little. But hysterical! And speaking of childbirth, we may have a birthday today. Astra says she thinks today is the day for her son to finally make an appearance! Yay!

This morning Jeremy called Dell about our computer and solved the problem - the ram was loose. After tightening it up everything worked just fine. Guess who is going to spend the next couple of days organizing backups?

After sitting through all that, who wants to see kitty pictures from the weekend?

Continue reading "Okay, Now I'm Tired"

Last night I defrosted an assload of chicken breasts for today's dinner. I'm making roast chicken with stuffing and everything, I even have fresh sage, it's a whole big thing. However, I completely forgot that Alex was spending the weekend with my parents and Jeremy is working until late, so now it turns out that I will be enjoying a big family dinner for one. I decided to just prep everything and I'll cook in time to have it ready when Jeremy comes home at 11. Duh.

Otherwise, I had a really great day today. Astra and her daughter came over to meet my kitties! They brought us little valentine chocolates which was so very sweet, and a fantastic sisal scratching post which was so very needed. Thanks guys! Ingrid, who is three, loved the cats. She loved them fiercely and with every fibre of her being. She told them all of her secrets and was heartbroken when they decided to spend the rest of her visit hiding under the bed. She then moved on to Jeremy and Alex and bonded with them. Lots of running, laughing and catching. Then the poor thing was heartbroken again when Jeremy had to go to work and take Alex to my parents' house. She is so sweet and confident and bright. I adore her and the way she throws herself right into everything.

I showed Astra my secret projects, which no longer need be secret because they are for her and her new baby who is almost here. I suppose I could have waited until they were done and wrapped them up all gift-like, but I couldn't wait. The blue project is a teeny hooded cardigan which is missing only its sleeves, and the ivory one will be a baby blanket, knit in a knit/purl checkerboard pattern. She said she loved them and I'm so happy; I hope they keep him (the baby) very warm. During Astra's first visit I deftly swung the conversation over to colours of baby clothing and lured her into telling me she didn't like the traditional pastels (neither do I) which gave me a starting point for the cardigan. I am sneaky like that.

He Whose Name is Pending's name pends no longer! I woke up yesterday morning humming My Name is Jonah by Weezer and realized that Jonah, in fact, was his name.

Who's hand is that? That is my father's hand. What is he doing? Yep. He's playing with a CAT. I no longer understand my world.

Continue reading "Hell Hath Frozen Over, Dudes"

As I was saying to a friend in email, my mom thinks Valentine's Day is a family holiday so the fam is coming over for dinner tonight after work. I think she just misses us a lot so she's inventing holidays and excuses to see us. I told my mom and sister about the cats last night, but they've opted not to tell my dad in case he decides not to come. My dad is very anti-pet. He loves animals, but even after a million years he still hasn't gotten over losing his dog back in the old country and refuses to get attached to any animal. He sneers and snorts and pretends he thinks we're all stupid for loving the pets. But I know the truth...he's just too much of a softie.

The kitties are doing well. Cuba has been getting braver and even hopped up on the couch with me for a while today. She's much more feral than No Name. She was found a couple of months ago at a worksite (I'm guessing a construction site?) and has only been with the shelter for two months. This could mean that she has been on her own and fending for herself for seven. She's skittish and plays differently than No Name...she's more gentle with the toys because she's timid with humans, but watching her play with her buddy is a different story entirely. She really looks like she's hunting, whereas No Name is like, "Duh, what's that? Whee!"

I'm so happy they like the litterbox. However, and I'm sure cat owners everywhere will laugh at me, we tried using a plastic liner in the box. That got torn up in a matter of minutes, so that's the end of that.

Knitting is much more difficult. If I'm already going it's okay, but if they see me pull out the needles and yarn they think it's play time.

Speaking of knitting, I finished Cardamom on Sunday and have already worn it. I didn't have a chance to take any pictures yet, but I will tonight. At Family Valentine Holiday Dinner. Also, secret project #1 is reaching the home stretch. A few good hours of knitting and I'll be ready to seam.

God, No Name really needs a name, poor thing.

We've been planning on getting a cat for a long time. First we couldn't because we lived with my mom and she wouldn't have it. We waited until we bought our house, but with renovations and carpenter ants...we thought it would be a good idea to wait until we were done with most of it. Today we went to the shelter and got two!

Cuba is a girl and she's nine months old. She's very shy and spent most of the evening behind the washing machine. She startles easily and panics at the slightest thing. But she's loosened up a bit, and now comes out of the laundry room to see us. She gets along very well with her friend, No Name.

This is No Name, playing with his catnip thingy. He's six months old and very outgoing. He's watching tv with us on the couch right now. He's still a bit uncomfortable here, but he loves us and likes to try to climb into my sweater. His name is actually, Playful. Yes, finish vomiting...I'll wait. We haven't come up with a replacement that fits him yet, so we've been calling him a million different idiotic things. Cuba's name seems to suit her and we're going to keep it even though I had planned to name her Vendetta from this cartoon.

Sandra, I'll be taking that covered litterbox, please!