Scheduled Caturday #2

Just like last Caturday, I'm writing this in Lexington, but it will be posted the Saturday after Christmas. I hope everyone's holiday was magical!


Eve has been sleeping next to me some nights. It's very sweet.


George is very interested in cribbage.


And Pippin likes getting the love, even if he has to sit on a lap to get it!

Vacation Knitting Roundup: Day 10

First, I have to show you how tough Wisconsin sparrows are. It's very, very cold in the picture below, and you'll notice that the sparrows are nonetheless eagerly bathing in the only-thawed-because-it's-slightly-heated birdbath. Also, I understand that I have witnessed history in the making. With the snow we got last night, Green Bay has broken its all-time December snow record--our 39.7 inches beat 1887's 36.4 inches. And there are still 5 days of December left! Whee!


Now, the knitting. On the first day of my vacation, last Wednesday, I didn't knit; I drove, and drove, and drove. Since then, here's what I have accomplished.

I knit a hat. (See previous entry.)

I finished my last sweater piece. (Ditto.)

I finished the first half of my lilac silk scarf
If this looks way off, color-wise, I apologize--my parents' monitor is darker than I'm used to, so it looks funny to me, too, but I didn't want to mess with it too much.

I finished the first skein of the yarn I'm using to knit my latest pair of socks. One and a half socks from one skein!


I knit as far as I could on the second half of Anne's Christmas present.

Notice the trailing yarn on the last three photos. I have more to do on each of these, but no yarn handy to do it. What's a girl to do?

Start a new sock!

And maybe two more, for good measure.

I had no idea I could knit this much this quickly. I haven't even spent all my time knitting--I've managed to be sociable, bake, have family dinners, make 5 billion tiny meatballs for the Italian wedding soup, visit with friends, have family Christmas, read, sleep, and bathe, too!

Bloggity-blog

I have lost all ability to be creative with entry titles. Sorry about that.

But look! Knitting!

Because I am home with the folks and far from responsibilities, I have been knitting up a storm. Last night I finished the last piece of the sweater I cast on in February!

Check it out--two sleeves! They're even the same size! I would love to say that I would be spending today blocking the pieces and assembling the sweater, but as it happens, I left the front and the back in Lexington. Not a lot of foresight, here.

I also made a hat the other day.

It's all nice and warm. Which is good, because it is freaking cold here. When I got up this morning, the actual temperature was -3, with a wind chill of something ridiculous like -22. Gah! Good thing I packed every pair of wool socks I own!

I've also been working on my silk scarf.

Mmm, shiny and soft. I'm nearing the end of the first skein. Where is the second skein? Why, it's in Lexington!

I've also worked a bit on a sock that's been riding around in my purse for a while. I haven't worked a ton on it, because it's a second sock, and there's not enough yarn left from the first skein to finish it. Where's that second skein? Lexington! Are you seeing a pattern here?

Luckily, I have the second half of one of Anne's presents here as well. I plan to work my little keister off on that and finish it by January 5, when I go back to work. Of course, I might run out of the main color before I leave Green Bay, because I left Skein Two... all together now!... in Lexington! I'm so freaking smart. Actually, I choose to believe that I didn't pack any more sweater pieces or second skeins because I truly didn't believe I would need them. It looks like, for once, I may have actually underestimated the amount of knitting I would be doing! Crazy.

Scheduled Caturday #1

As you're reading this, I am in Green Bay getting ready for Christmas with my parents. I'm writing it before I leave town--ooh, blog magic! I hope everyone's preparations are going well!


Eve looks seriously evil in this one. Basement cat lives at my house!


Pippin is not evil.


George likes to climb on my lap while I'm at my computer.

Caturday!

Here are the kitties!


And as a special bonus, here's a picture of the girl I took to the theater and her little brother, posted with their Dad's permission.

It's completely adorable how much Violet loves her little brother.

Blogginess!

Check it out--knitting!

I picked up a few skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, and was compelled to immediately cast on. It's the same leaf lace pattern that I'm using for the black wrap I started a little while ago, but narrower and more scarf-like. This thing is gorgeous. The yarn is incredibly soft and has a beautiful sheen to it. I wish the color were more vibrant, but I love lilacs, and this color reminds me of them, so it still makes me very happy. Click to biggify--it's worth it!


I also snagged a holiday meme for your viewing pleasure.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Both, but I definitely prefer wrapping paper. I find unwrapping much more satisfying that pulling things out of bags, and I try to let other people have that same pleasure.

2. Real tree or artificial?
We always had real trees when I was growing up, and only recently have my parents gone the artificial route--honestly, there are advantages to both. I haven't really had my own tree as an adult; still rocking the folks' place at Christmas, so it doesn't make sense for me to put up a tree and abandon it.

3. Why are you willing to answer these questions?
Fun, and blog filler.

4. When do you take the tree down?
See above, re. no tree.

5. Do you like eggnog?
I do.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
My parents might be bitterly disappointed, because I'm sure there were plenty of amazing gifts that they put a lot more thought into than this one, but the one that really sticks out in my mind was a desk set. It came with stuff like a plastic inbox tray and message pads. I loved that thing.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
My dad, paradoxically. He always wants the same things, which should make it easy--but I want to get him some other, extra things as well, and that's always a struggle.

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Probably my mother. I always have tons of ideas for her.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
I think I technically do, in the same sense I have a set of silver--that they're earmarked for me come inheritance time, which is slightly macabre, but my family has never been deterred by the macabre.

10. Do you send your card by mail or e-mail?
I don't do cards; I think they're a waste of time and resources.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I honestly can't really remember any that made me cringe. Oh, wait! Yes I can. When I worked at the car rental place, the store manager made gift bags for all the employees. The men got work gloves, box cutters, and measuring tapes, and the women got cookie-making kits and his church's cookbook. He had no shame regarding his appalling gender bias. Also, who brings 9 box cutters into an airport? Seriously, people.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Charlie Brown Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
It depends. This year I started ridiculously early, and I still probably won't be done on time.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Not that I recall, except in White Elephant exchanges.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Spritz cookies!

16. Lights on the tree?
Yep. But I prefer all one color lights, not the multicolored strings.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
I love sacred carols, despite not being religious. Musically they blow the secular ones out of the water. At the moment, the winner is probably Adeste Fideles.

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Travel. To home. 600 miles--whee!

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s?
I sure can.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
When I was a kid, we always did Christmas Eve at Grandma's, then Christmas morning at home--at Grandma's we got extended family presents, and at home we got immediate family presents. Best of all, we could open our stockings--which always contained small presents--as soon as we woke up on Christmas morning, without waiting for Mom and Dad. These days, it's pretty much all Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
The fact that it starts earlier and earlier every year.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
I do love the silver and white themes, and I also love the underwater theme on my parents' tree.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Several kinds of soups!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Um... sleep?

Much Belated Caturday

Sorry, sorry--I really meant to schedule a Caturday post before I left town for the weekend, but somehow "packing" came first.

This is what most of my pictures of Pippin look like. No matter how many times you try to coax him to look at the camera, he always seems to look away at just the wrong moment.

Not so George. George loves the camera.

And Eve has a bag. This is Eve's Bag. Woe betide anyone who tries to take it from her!

Thanksgiving and Caturday

Today's Caturday is a little different than before; for one thing, it's on time! For another, I managed to grab a shot of all three cats coexisting peacefully together.

Awww!


I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Mine started on Wednesday, with a little baking.

I'm glad I took a half day on Wednesday, because I still had another batch of onion bread to make when these were done. I've learned that I'm not good at sharing onion bread, so it's really better for me to make more and not be grouchy on Thanksgiving when I realize there isn't enough bread left for sandwiches and toast. So, Anne gets two loaves and I get two loaves.

We really had a ridiculous amount of food for just two people.

Clockwise from the bottom, we have butter (I was going to skip that one, but I didn't want people asking what it was. It's not like we were taking spoonfuls and eating them.), a plate of onion bread, fresh broccoli, duchess potatoes, roast beast, and cranberry goo. In the center are glazed carrots, and up above the potatoes is the dish of mock hollandaise for the broccoli. Oh, and we had sparkling apple cider and sparkling grape juice, too, plus dessert--pumpkin pie and Who pudding.

The Who pudding is essentially tapioca flavored with orange zest and topped with homemade fruit topping. This was the first time I've made pudding from scratch, and it turned out wonderfully. This is some tasty pudding.

For the curious, here's a close up of the duchess potatoes.

You mash potatoes, add an egg, pipe onto a cookie sheet, drizzle with melted butter, and bake. We also added some fresh rosemary to our mashed potatoes, and these were freaking fantastic.

And the roast beast?

I violated a chicken and shoved whole cloves of garlic and sprigs of rosemary and sage under its skin, rubbed it with olive oil, and baked. Again, fan-freaking-tastic.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the mock hollandaise was terrifically bad. Not because of any error in the cooking; it was the combination of a tablespoon of sugar and two tablespoons of vinegar that really made it... interesting. I think in the future I'll make hollandaise from a little packet I buy in the grocery.

All things considered, it was a lovely day. We cooked (Anne prefers to do sous chef stuff, which suits me fine--I like to be in the thick of things!), feasted, played some cribbage, and generally had a very quiet day. Lovely.


Yesterday, I fired up my sewing machine, which I have named Monty. A few yards of fabric and the better part of a bag of fiberfill later, this is what I had.

Things to keep the draft from freezing my feet in the kitchen! Hooray! I'm curious about how long it will be before the cats decide these are Fun Toys that need to be liberated from under the cupboards. We'll see.

Also yesterday, the Universe decided that I needed a lesson in deprivation, following Thursday's excesses. I woke up to discover my freezer wide open--and everything inside seriously thawed. Meat, veggies, ice cream, the whole shebang--into the Herbie Curbie they went. Damn. Oh, well. That'll teach me to somehow not notice that the freezer isn't closed... though I admit, I suspect supernatural forces. How would I not notice an open freezer? I'll live, though. And now my freezer is all clean and shiny.

And today, I am going to borrow my friend Kirsten's daughter, Violet, and take her to lunch and a show. We will be seeing the world premiere of If You Take a Mouse to the Movies. I also have an in to get Miss Violet backstage to meet Mouse and Boy, and sit in the giant set furniture. It should be pretty awesome. I'm seriously loving this 4-day-weekend thing.

Gah!

A few nights ago, I had a nightmare. I was in the house I grew up in, in a sort of futuristic world--think The Net. For some reason, the bad guys wanted to make me disappear. So I grabbed a few small things and ran next door, asking for a place to sit for a few hours until I figured things out. Spying from the porch, I saw someone approach my house, then relaxed--it was just a mail carrier. "Strange," the neighbor said, "our mail hasn't come yet." I looked again, and there was another person dressed as a mail carrier, and they had a huge mail truck into which they were loading the contents of my house. So there I am, in mortal danger from an unknown enemy who is doing their best to make it seem like I never existed, and what goes through my mind? I start to scheme about how I can sneak back into the house and save my yarn. Sick.


Tonight I was thinking about what to take to Stitch 'n' Bitch, and every project I was working on just sounded boring. Deadly, mind-numbingly boring. And I was seized by the desire to knit something new--something different--something for myself. So I searched and found the pattern for the Woodland Shawl. Fingering weight yarn, 460 yards, size 6 needles, and some lace. Perfect. I dug through the stash and found something appropriate in the appropriate yardage, and hit the print button. Turns out I'm out of printer ink. So I did what any self-respecting knitter would do: I wrote the pattern out by hand so I could knit and watch TV at the same time.

Of course, I left a YO out of the first pattern row, and had to go back and find the problem. Luckily I only had to tink 2 rows, and then I was off and running. That's one pattern repeat in the photo above. The pattern calls for 12 repeats, but that just doesn't seem like enough to me; I guess we'll see!

Ahh. I feel better.

Crap, I Forgot Caturday!

I have no excuse today-I just forgot.

Here are cats!

Eve is trying to take over Pippin's lair.

Thus, Pippin looks sad.

George needs no lair--the whole house is her lair!

Sunday!

I had a fantastic day yesterday. I had a meeting in the morning, which went well, and then I ran an errand, and then I shirked a minor responsibility and went home.

On my way to the front door, I saw this little guy.

This is a cold, wet, out of season, living caterpillar. I felt for it--it's pretty much doomed. But the last time I brought a caterpillar inside, it made a cocoon in a jar and stayed there forever--it didn't survive to hatch. So I decided, regretfully, to let nature take its course.

I watched DVDs, petted kitties, made dinner, baked a cake, and worked on my Special Olympics scarf.

Here the scarf is modeled by the storage ottoman I picked up for about 8 bucks on the last day my second work discount was active, and by Mr. Pointy, my trusty US 20 knitting needle.

And this morning, I looked out my window and saw something surprising.

See that white stuff on my windshield? That would be snow. See, Samara and Aaron, Alaska isn't so different from home!

So, I think that this morning I might try to put plastic on some of the windows. There is a definite draft coming in. I'm sure that for the rest of the winter I'll be playing "Don't scratch that!" with the cats, since I'm only planning to go outside for a few of the windows, but hey--a little protection is better than none, right?

And then I'll go to Stitch 'n' Bitch. Yay! I haven't been to a Sunday SnB in ages. I'm looking forward to it.

Caturday and Minor Content

Hi, everybody! ("Hi, Dr. Nick!") It's that time again--time for Caturday!

Pippin has discovered a new lair. He's hanging out in a wire storage cube, on top of one of my sweatshirts. That's what happens when you don't put your clean clothes away immediately! It's so cute, though, I can't bear to take it away from him by filling the cube up again.

George did not do this to herself, but she was strangely content to hang out in the crate. Cats.

And here's Eve, in one of her friendly moments. Eve has a new friend--a stray cat that likes to hang out on my front porch. This leads to Eve sitting on my nightstand (a habit I have given up trying to break her of) and looking out the window, meowing and scratching, mostly while I'm trying to sleep. When it's really bad, I give her catnip until she's too stoned to care about her new friend. At this point she might be keeping me up just to get the drugs. Addict.


After my exhibit last weekend, I had to haul a bunch of crap to my car. And rather than taking two trips, this is what I did:

Ambition: I has it. I did manage to make it out without any catastrophes, though, which only reinforces my crazy desire to get everything hauled out at once. Sometimes I'm a little nuts.

I was a bit nuts last night, too. I was feeling restless and bored, so I made a little shopping trip and picked up some henna. (Sorry, Samara, I didn't get your e-mail until after I sent the last package. The next one will have henna in it, like you requested.) Of course, I picked some up for myself, too, and went to town. I couldn't do my hands, because I have yet another work event this afternoon. But here's what I did do:

You might have to click to see it. I could only stand the cold for about two hours before I had to wash off the henna paste and put on long pants, so it's kind of faint. Basically, I made vines and leaves climb all over my leg and foot. I like it. I did something similar to the other leg. And then I felt better.


Right now, all of my crafting is of the secret variety, which is frustrating. I'd love to be able to post pictures of the things I'm making, but I guess that'll happen soon enough. Assuming I can manage to finish everything. In the meantime, please admire the granny square afghan that my leg is resting on in the above photo; I made that.

Scheduled Caturday!

Through the Magic of Blogger, I am writing this on Thursday, and in theory it will show up on Saturday. Whoooo! Spooky magic!

I'm doing a fancy scheduled post because I will once again be off on a work trip this weekend. (I mean, as you read this, I am on a work trip. Ooooh! Magic!) I should get back Sunday evening, and I'll try to catch up with the family phone calls then. Unless the booth is dead, in which case I might call from the exhibit.

So, cats! Some cats are easier to photograph than others.

For instance, George will sit on anything you put down. Bandanna=George's.

Eve, however, does not care for photo sessions. Most of my pictures of her look like this one.

And Pippin is easily embarrassed, even though his fur looks adorable when you brush it up the wrong way. (He wasn't heading for the litter box, just hiding in the cat room. And he didn't mind the brushing--just the attention.)

So there are cats. Happy Caturday!

HOLY CRAP LIONS!

Oops, I mean, "Holy crap! Yarn!" Yep, I'm still knitting. And here's something that is in no way secret.

It's a sock, and a tiny part of a sock! There's nothing special about this sock. Plain ol' Regia sock yarn, US 2 needles, my standard 2x2 rib pattern. Except... there is something special about this sock.

Check it out--I got all clever and did the sole in reverse stockinette, so the flat side of the knitting is facing my foot. Now I just need to remember to do the same thing on the next sock, and I'll be all set!

Historic

Yesterday around 8 am, I drove past my polling place, and the line stretched through the parking lot to the sidewalk, even though they had opened two new polling places in my neighborhood. At 9:30, I drove back, and the line was almost as long--and I realized that I didn't have my knitting with me. So I made a quick loop and joined the line, knitting in hand. It was a beautiful day, and no one seemed to mind waiting very much. I know I didn't. For two hours, I slowly shuffled forward and knit half of a Calorimetry. I chatted with my neighbors and thought about democracy, and patriotism, and civic duty. I was happy to see so many people line up and wait to cast a vote to elect either a person of color to the Presidency, or a woman to the Vice-Presidency. (Later, someone would tell me that they had heard that 70% of registered voters had turned up to vote nationally. Amazing.) To be honest, I was moved. I was moved by the number of elderly and handicapped voters who stood in line, and moved by the number of able-bodied voters who ushered them to the front. I was moved by the blind man whose son helped him cast his vote and by the little girl in the big red-white-and-blue hat who sat so patiently waiting for her mother to cast her vote. And I was moved by the scores of busy people who took the time to stand in that line. And later, at the election party I went to, I was moved by the fervor of my peers--a generation largely regarded as selfish and apathetic. As CNN called states for McCain or Obama, some of us colored maps--an exercise in geography as much as it was an exercise in civics. The electoral college was discussed at length amid conversations about the mundane, songs were sung, snacks were eaten, and games were played--with occasional map-coloring breaks. And when the final results were announced, tears were shed, friends and family were called, and speeches were anxiously awaited. And again, I was moved, both by McCain's graciousness and call to set aside partisan rivalries for the good of the country, and by Obama's optimism and joy together with his fierce practicality. (I do wish that McCain's crowd hadn't booed his concession, but there's really no controlling a crowd like that--not everyone can be a gracious loser.) And even though some of the results that came out of yesterday's elections are disappointing to me, I'm still left with a depth of joyful, hopeful emotion that surprises me. It's the idealist in me coming out, I think, bolstered by the rhetoric of both presidential candidates. And it leaves me thinking that maybe the next four years will be different, on a lot of fronts, in a lot of good ways.

Thus endeth my touchy-feely stuff.

Belated Caturday, Plus More!

Sorry Caturday is late--I spent all day yesterday in Newport at the aquarium! The best part was a newish thing they're doing--the Penguin Encounter. Anne and I were lucky enough to be the only ones signed up, so we got 20 minutes alone with 4 penguins and their trainer.


We got to pet them!

Scratching your head is tricky, when you're a penguin.

That's Simon in front.

We fed some lorikeets.

And we saw a leopard shark.

It was a lot of fun to be able to tell Anne that I had seen one of those in the wild.

That was just the highlights--there were many hours of aquarium fun. It was an excellent day. It made up for snapping one of my wooden spoons making spaetzle the other night.

Oops!

And now, cats. I'm taking baby steps toward posting videos of them--I'm waiting to complete the process until I have something to show for each of them. Right now all I've got is George. So today we get stills.

George is the queen of the bookshelf.

As usual, Pippin plays it coy.

And Eve wants to go on a trip.