Caturday

Aw, the kitties are so cute when they get along! This is in sharp contrast to last night, when they were running around beating the crap out of each other. The fur was literally flying. All three of them were getting into it.

Today I am going to a wedding. I am "Plus One," so I'll know approximately 3 of the attendees and none of the wedding party. Oh, well. A party's a party, right?

Winter Wonderland

Okay, so it wasn't quite the "mini" ice storm I thought it was--there were plenty of downed trees and limbs, and it took me 30 minutes to chisel my car out of the 3/4" shell it had this morning. The roads are decent, though, which is why I had to chisel my car out and come to work. Everything looks beautiful all covered in silvery ice.

And I would like to take a moment to say, "Hooray for wool gloves!" As we all know, wool can absorb 30% of its weight in water and still not feel wet and cold, which I was very grateful for this morning. It's hard to chisel effectively with frozen hands, and my hands stayed toasty warm in my handknit gloves, even as they got wet and snowy. I'm so glad I didn't have to go anywhere yesterday. My walkway and sidewalk even got cleared, with no effort on my part! The guy across the street knocked on my door and offered to clear them for $5, and I counter-offered: would he do it for beer? Gladly! So I hauled the almost-full case of cans and the 5-out-of-six-pack of bottles out to the porch, and ta-da! Clear sidewalk, and no more beer that I won't drink taking up room in my house. Hooray!

I hope everyone has a lovely, safe, warm Thursday.

Snow Day!

This is something I haven't experienced since high school: a snow day! I've had weather delays, in college and in my working life, but never a whole day off. We had a partial snow day yesterday, because we had a mini ice storm. (I say "mini" because it didn't reach the epic proportions of the one six years ago in Lexington, where most of the city's power was out for a week, and because I didn't see a single downed tree.) It continued to rain/snow overnight, and the temperature is hovering right around freezing, and it's snowing--it's the perfect recipe for ice over snow over ice, so the university's president (in all his wisdom) closed the whole shebang for the day. Yeehaw!

It's currently ten minutes to noon and I'm still in my pjs.

I think I'll spend the day watching bad movies and knitting. I might get wild and crazy and make myself a hot toddy--just to ward off the chill, you understand.

Happy New Year!

Sorry about the lack of Caturday, folks--I had to celebrate the Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is actually today, but I decided to have my dinner party on Saturday. So I spent all day preparing for that. I made wontons, then cleaned the house, then got started on the main dishes: vegetable fried rice, roast chicken Chinese style, firecracker beef, and beef with hoisin sauce. I had about a dozen guests. I think the party went really well. I handed out lucky money and we did a little craft--I got little dragon cutouts, which were covered in black scratch-off stuff, and the paper underneath was multicolored, so you scratch off the black stuff in pretty patterns and it looks really cool. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I was seriously exhausted by the end of the day, though, and unfortunately, I had not fully recovered by the time my Sunday guests arrived.


It's Natalie, Aaron's sister! This is about as close as Eve would let her get. I think she was still traumatized from all the people the night before.


George had no such qualms. She loves Natalie, and came right to her.

George was also very interested in Mary, Aaron and Natalie's mother.

Pippin didn't really join us; I think that, like Eve, he was ready to go back to normal! I did drag him out for some pettings, but he ran away again before I could snag a picture.

Mary and Natalie brought me some very tasty cookies. After we sat and chatted and pet cats for a while, we went to the mall for lunch and some shopping. Natalie got her favorite steak and cheese sandwich, Mary got something extremely tasty-looking from the Great Steak Company (or whatever it's called), and I got gyros. Yum!

After we ate, we did a little shopping. I got Natalie a Christmas present from Limited Too, and we also went to Hot Topic, where I found a cute top on clearance and Natalie got a skull-covered bandana. We did a little browsing at New York & Co., since I'm going to a wedding on Saturday, but I didn't find anything. After that we headed back to the house, chatted some more and pet the cats some more, and then Natalie and Mary set off back to West Virginia. It was very nice to see them--I'm really glad they came for a visit.

This weekend I'll be sure to post Caturday on time, wedding notwithstanding!

Cerebral

I've been very in-my-head this week, so really I have nothing to show The Blog. I do have one or two things to say, though.

For one thing, we have a new president. Watching Obama's inauguration address, I was struck by what a compelling speaker he is. Putting aside the question of what he said and whether or not you agree with him, the man is amazing. He has incredible presence and delivery. A man who can speak like that is a man who can lead. Whether he'll lead us somewhere good remains to be seen. Fingers crossed. (Slate magazine has a new feature that I enjoy; they report on what the president has done that day, and give him points or take them away, and track it with a silly little graphic. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.)

Thinking about Obama's speech brought me to two other lines of thought: One, it reminded me of how disillusioned I was when I learned that presidents have speechwriters. Who's to say if the man speaking really means everything he's saying, when they're someone else's words? How can we ever really know what the president's true feelings on a matter are, when he's giving a speech that someone else wrote? It makes those off-the-cuff moments seem really important.

The other thing I started thinking about is how media has affected presidential elections. There are articles and probably books about how television changed the election process, claiming that many of our finest leaders would never have been elected if they had had to appear on television. It seems plausible to me. It just makes me wonder where things will go from here. And I wonder how the last five or ten elections would have turned out if they hadn't been televised. I'm not really trying to make a statement here, just pondering.

So that's what's been occupying my thoughts this week. Well, that and planning for my Epic Dinner Party on Saturday. Chinese New Year is on Monday, so in keeping with family tradition, I will be cooking a lovely meal for my friends. Of course, I still need to clean like the wind... and do some day-before food prep, like making rice for the fried rice... and check my recipes and see if I can cook any of the meat ahead, to save time... oh, and I need to go to the bank for the lucky money. Good thing I have the morning free to get ready before the party!

Caturday, and Minor Content

I wonder which cat has been messing with the vase of flowers on my counter?

Eve is hiding under my pillow--very suspicious behavior.


George refuses to talk, despite the bright light necessary for a proper interrogation.

Um, Pippin... what's that on your head? Is it... pollen? Sigh. It's always the quiet ones.

Sadly, Mary and Natalie (Aaron's mom and sister) won't be making it for the visit we planned for tomorrow--they're predicting snow and ice, which don't make for good driving conditions. Maybe next weekend.

In knitting news, I have been knitting--just not photographing or blogging. I cast on my Creatures of the Reef shawl, and I'm about 16 rows into it--and at more than 500 stitches per row, that's a lot! I'm glad they'll only get shorter from here! If you follow the link and look at the picture, it starts from the bottom; I just knit the first row of the bubble edging--that's the line between the scallops on the very outside and the crabs and seahorses.

I'm working on a Charade sock, in some yarn I bought in Green Bay. I love the way it's turning out--very squishy and nice. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy, in the colorway Gothic Rose. I'm so glad I spent a ridiculous amount of money for it!

And I cast on another pair of socks, doing 2 at once using magic loop. I'm not very far on these, but I'm excited to be trying this; I've never completed 2 at once before.

That's about it, on the knitting front. I woke up this morning to frozen pipes, thanks to the sub-zero temperatures we've been having, but that magically resolved itself about 10 minutes after I finally got to speak to a water company representative after spending half an hour on hold. Because I am a good person, I then called back and spent some more time on hold before I canceled the service call. No sense in wasting their time when they're so busy with other people having frozen pipe issues. My faucets are now dripping merrily, and they will stay that way until it warms up.

Caturday

Pippin's in the laundry basket because he feels kind of dirty. Why does Pippin feel dirty?


Because he ate Eve's feet! Oh, no!

Run for your life, George! Pippin is a feet-eating fool!

Success!

I would like to present my first sweater!

Yes, there are lines on the front because I had it folded. Ignore those, please, and focus on the pretty! The sleeves fit me! The length is reasonable! It goes around my torso exactly once! All of the pieces are attached to the other pieces! It's warm and fuzzy and cute and I made it!

I might have to wear this every day for the next year or so, just so you know.


Now, on to other matters.

I resist making New Year's Resolutions because it just seems like making them would be setting myself up for failure. However, I have been thinking about making some goals for myself, and this seems like a good opportunity to record them for posterity. (Goals are nice because, if you're not doing so well, you can redouble your efforts without feeling too guilty. Not like a resolution--those are much firmer and more serious, and breaking them leads to serious guilt and self-recrimination, which are no fun unless you're Catholic. [Just kidding, Mom!])

1. Knit more from my stash rather than buying new yarn. A large subset of this goal is to whittle down the sock yarn stash. I can do this by knitting more socks, and by making things like scarves and wraps from the sock yarn I already have. Added benefit: more handknits to wear!
   
2. Eat out for dinner no more than once a week. This will be good for my pocketbook as well as my waistline, with the added benefit of making me feel more settled. I will have leftovers to take to work for lunch this way, too, which will be nice.
3. Try to keep my house tidier.
4. Be more social. Go to SnB at least once a week, and hang out with the non-profit crowd more. Host a dinner party.
5. Try to be more active. Deliberately exercise, even if it's only for a few minutes every day. Work up to longer time periods and a habitual workout.
6. Increase savings so I have a comfortable cushion, just in case.

That about covers it, I think. Nothing too onerous, but a several of them involve breaking habits or forming new ones, which is always a challenge. But hey, if I can make a whole sweater, I can do anything!

Scheduled Caturday #3

By the time you're reading this, I'm back in Lexington, but I thought I'd set it up just in case I got forgetful!

Pippin sometimes sits on top of the scratcher I bought the cats. He's not scratching--just sitting.


George is... not doing anything remarkable here.


And here's a super close shot of Eve to round things out. Happy 2009!