Monday Knitting and Cats, What Else?

It's Monday. I was supposed to go to a client in San Mateo (read: far, traffic, 25 miles) but since I still have this cold (but it's getting better) I convinced them they didn't need me in their office to be able to help them. So with the miracles of modern technology (read: email) I was able to help them, will bill them for far less time, I didn't have to drive to get there, they won't catch my cold, and I got to stay home.


I don't believe in all that cold medicine stuff that everyone else swears by, but I'm a sucker for Cold-Eze. I found little white pill things that you suck on that I swear have made my colds short, but then how do you really know - was it just a long cold? Or did it take longer to go away because I was out of Cold-Eze? I can't find those little white disks, but I know that Big Lots (formerly MacFrugal's and formerly Pic 'N Save) has cold lozenges called Cold-Eze, so I had time to go today since I used up my last ones last week. I also had to return a scarf thing to go over the curtain rods in the TV room. I bought 2 and 1 will probably be enough. So we spent $28 but got a $10 refund for the curtain thing.


I looked at the shelf 3 times, and even asked an employee, but on the 3rd try I saw the Cold-Eze! Then I had to agonize over Sugar Free (read: other crap added) or regular. I got the regular. It's not candy, I just suck on a few now and then, and I hopefully won't need them again for a long time, but I wanted to have them for next time. I also found Ricola cough drops, pink flamingo lights (do we have enough lights in the sunroom? Apparently not yet). Our favorite lights are the ones we've found at garage sales for $1, but sometimes you just have to splurge when they are 30% off (like today) and buy a strand, especially when they are pink flamingoes. Everyone needs pink flamingoes.


I also found some cheap yarn ($1 a skein). Big Lots often has yarn, and I've resisted, but I couldn't resist black. It's the fun fur stuff that is annoying to knit with, but they make fun short scarves to wear with sweaters and blouses (not the long coat kind of scarf) in winter. The blue one below is finished with yarn from Big Lots - it will go with jeans which I wear almost every day. Maybe it will even dress up my jeans a bit!
I just looked and one of the three skeins has a different dye lot. It's black yarn and I'm going to assume it won't matter. I know, real knitters are freaking out when I say that, but I am NOT a perfectionist, and part of it will be behind my hair in the back, so it should be fine!


Will tried to check out the bird's nest with the mirror on a stick thing when momma bird was away - he didn't see any eggs and he thinks he saw a little bird (or more?) but it was hard to tell what he was looking at and he didn't want to disturb the birds or the nest. Momma came back and is sitting on the nest, but as you can see, she looks like she's doing something, not just sitting.

Mowry loves the new $15 chair and the $1 scratching post. As long as he doesn't confuse the two, we'll be in great shape.

And last, but not least, the reason I wasn't able to send both of the fingerless gloves for my niece for her shower was that one was a disaster and had to be re-done! Guess which one is the good one! Since I sent one ahead, I'm hoping the "re-knitted one" matches! I traced the good one, so it should be fine.

Sunday

I must stop coughing soon. I hate colds. It's progressing, and at least I can sleep, but the minute I sit up everything drains. Yuck. TMI? (Too much information?) then keep reading. Today is about CATS! We love 'em but they can be BAD kitties.

This pose lasted for about one second but I captured it on film! Only one was planted. Can you guess which one? Left is Mowry. He was NOT sitting here but I picked him up and put him here so I could have a picture of all 3 cats! He blends in with EVERYTHING - the carpet in the sunroom, the linoleum in the TV room and kitchen, and now, as you can see, the corduroy pillows on the couch in the sunroom. Cinders is in the middle and she wouldn't look up at me. Alex is BIG and you can see his white paws and some of his whiskers. Not a great picture, but amazing to capture them all at once.

Cinders has always thought the dinner table was for her.
Today she was a very bad kitty - sitting on top of the portable dishwasher. We figured she'd jump off when it was moved over to the sink, but not much fazes this old bat. Because this is also a knitting blog, I chose the picture where you can see the yellow dish towel that I knitted!

We've been watching the bird and her nest because Kandyman next door has also been watching her. He sits on the ground looking up. She's safe as long as she doesn't go on the ground. She usually flies up to a tree or antenna when she sees us, but occasionally we see her on the ground. Today we used canned air to chase Kandyman away. It scares him, but doesn't hurt him. It's also kind of fun. I use it to clean my keyboard. It's funky how the can gets cold when you use it. According to one website about sparrows, which we think this is, the gestation is 11 days, so we should be close to hatching.

Speaking of cats, today Mowry is going to a clinic to get his shots. He doesn't go out, so we're not sure he really needs a rabies shot, but the city of Fremont gets notified from the vet so we have to do it and then license him. He HATES the car. When we moved, we had 3 cat carriers in the back seat of the van all lined up. One was borrowed. It was quite a site. I doubt we'll ever have the 3 cats in the car at the same time again, so I wanted to take a picture, but it never happened. The loudest? 6 month old Mowry meowed the entire 2.6 miles. So today he'll probably be quite vocal and horrified, but what can you do? Since he went to the vet about 9 months ago, and he's a healthy one year old cat, we figured that a clinic for shots would be fine. If he has any health problems, or when he gets older, he'll get a full exam, which he'll really hate.

Saturday Photos

Since my niece reads my blog, I didn't want to post these pictures until after her shower today! Hi niece! I hope you had a good time, and sorry I had a cold and didn't fly down for the shower, but we'll see you in two weeks at your wedding! Here is the blanket I made her for her shower:
















I also made this scarf and fingerless gloves (for dexterity) since it gets cold in Colorado where she and her new husband will be living, but I was only able to finish one glove before I sent out the package, so I'll bring the other one when I see her. I think they all look better in person! I hope she likes them.

Good thing I was home this weekend because on the way to Trader Joe's for weekly grocery shopping we spotted a garage sale. We weren't doing our usual Saturday garage sales what with me and this cold, but we couldn't resist a sign that said "Block sale" even if it was a small cul-de-sac. I have always liked the tapestry-looking fabric and the chair was in perfect shape, small, light and $20 but before we could think about bargaining, one of the kids said $15, so we bought it. I don't like it next to the nubby chair we got for free off something called "Fremont-Freecycle" which is exactly like it sounds, but the nubby chair that was confused by at least two of three cats for a scratching post (can you blame them?) has to go. Maybe we'll put it out front with a "Free" sign on it when we do our garage sale in a few weeks. Niles has a big antique fair on the last Sunday in August, and on Saturday and Sunday of that weekend, neighbors have garage sales. It could work with a cover, or for someone who has cats. Only the back is wrecked.














So the Clampetts were at it again coming home with a piece of furniture bungee-corded to the trunk of the small Saturn! If I hadn't been home, Will would not have stopped at the garage sale. In fact, he probably wouldn't have even gone to Trader Joe's but I was supposed to come home tonight, but since it wasn't until 8:30 pm, he probably would have eaten a bowl of cereal for dinner. Which, I might add, he would have been perfectly happy with, but since there is nothing green in cereal, I would not have been happy, but I am home, and he will eat a good dinner, and we got this chair, but I missed seeing the family (including Aunt Mary for whom this blog is named) and the shower.










I got pretty far on this sock but then I realized the needles I was using were way too big, so it's all ripped out (AGAIN) and I'm now using size 1's and it's tighter and will be much better. Not only would they stretch to fit Will (but in a bad way), they probably wouldn't last too long (I'm told by my knitting expert friend, Diann) so I'm now about 1/3 of where you see in the picture above on sock #1, but with the smaller needles.

Last but not least, the bird is in her next, only flying away when something scares her - she isn't too fond of us, but we try to be quiet when we go outside. The cats look at her from the window, and she doesn't understand the window protects her, but it does, and for that we are grateful because Mowry gets very alert when he notices her.

Friday pictures but not the ones I wanted to post...

Today is Friday. I was supposed to be going to Los Angeles for my niece's wedding shower, but I have a cold. I rarely get colds, and this may be a quick one, but I wouldn't want to be sitting next to someone with a cold on an airplane, so didn't want to be that person. Plus I didn't want to give my parents a cold (although people don't generally get my colds), but it just seemed the right thing to do. So yesterday after getting away from my client early, I packed up the shower favors (which I was going to mail a week ago but decided to schlep down with me instead), and the presents. I was going to spend this afternoon with my long-time friend Sandy, who even took off work, but at least she has tons of vacation time and is getting laid off by her company toward the end of the year (the 2000s way of doing business by layoff) so now she has an extra day off. I can't post pictures of the presents yet because my niece, Lauren, is one of the few people who actually reads this blog, but after tomorrow I will post them.


So now I have money is my Southwest account. They make it easy to change and cancel flights, but this business where the money stays in your account is maddening. Maybe we'll go to visit a very long-time friend of Will's in Tucson in the next few months.

Here's a picture of the same roses from the last post, only it's from the inside and they've opened! Thank you to Elsie who lived here before (for 51 years!) for planting such lovely roses!

This picture is from the TV room window looking outside at the bird in her nest. She's there all the time now, except she sometimes flies away when I go outside, so that's why I took it from inside.

This is a good picture of Cinders in her favorite basket, that in most offices would be an in or out basket, but in our office is Cinders' basket. It's quite useful since we don't want cats in the office when we aren't there, so instead of fighting the cat that attacks when you do something she doesn't want you to do, Will can pick up the basket and move it with her in it to the other room! And it was his idea - just proves men come up with good ideas, too!














Everything lines up how I want it when I create this, but when it's posted, it does whatever it wants to with words on the side of the picture instead of below it!

Sunday

It's an overcast Sunday, but that's good! We wanted to hang out in the sunroom yesterday afternoon, but it was too hot in there! It was perfect this morning so we had our coffee and cereal out there. These yellow roses are on the side of the house and we can see them when we look out of the spare bedroom.

I'm working on a fingerless mitt (read: gloves without fingers - allows the dexterity necessary to do things). I was close to finishing but I tried it on and it was too small, so I ripped it out, much to the chagrin of a patron at open mic on Weds who watched me in horror. It's okay - it's small, and doesnt' take a lot of time to knit. I'm halfway done with the new one already, but no pictures!

The Clampetts were at it again last week - we found a fireplace screen (not pictured) and a nice rocking chair all for $10 at a garage sale.

Will thinks we need to get a small truck when we replace my Saturn, but I don't think so! Do we have any more room for large things in our house? Hmmm, we didn't think we had any more room a long time ago but that hasn't stopped us. No, I'm still thinking Hybrid, but who knows.

A rare moment of Cinders and Mowry sharing the dining area window. You can almost see the rattiness on Cinders, who won't let us brush her. Mowry has cool short patterned fur, and he's now about the same size as Cinders. She is usually afraid of him, but at this point whatever had their attention outside was more interesting than each other.

The bird is still in the nest out back - she's there all the time now, except if we walk outside she flies away, but she comes back quickly. It's strategically high up so we can't see inside. Nature and instinct are incredible.

Sunday and Saturday

It's Sunday and it's quiet here! A few birds, cats, and an occasional neighbor sound. The pictures are all from Saturday.















Saturday we went to the flea market at the local college and found a few things. The real find was from a garage sale before the flea market where we found a cat post for $1. It's used, and in a few spots the carpet is very worn, even down to the wood in one place, but we couldn't resist. Why we go to garage sales in our little Saturn instead of our van is a wonder, but it uses less gas and we never EXPECT to find big things, although we often do! So here we are with the cat post on the little car! We keep rope in the car, but bunjee cords might be better! When I tried to get in the passenger side of the car, I foundout that my door had been inadvertently tied shut to hold the cat post, so I had to climb in thru the driver's side door over the console to my seat!


So like the Clampetts of Beverly Hillibillies fame, off we were with our cat post tied to the car. You'd think drivers would laugh or give the thumbs up, or some acknowledgement of how silly we looked, but nothing. We got home and Killer/Kandyman came right over to investigate, not even waiting until the post was off the car!



















Then after lunch with Ken and Diann, they came over to help us assemble the swing. By this I mean Ken helped Will, and Diann and I did some knitting! And Kandyman came over to check them out after everything was done.














This is a typical cat picture - I could barely capture himin the picture!

And last, but not least, Mowry and Alex liked the new cat post that is now in the sunroom. Another typical cat picture - Alex moved so he's a little blurry. Alex is the lazy cat on top, and Mowry is the active kitten who thinks this is the greatest thing (at least today - who knows, by tomorrow he may be tired of it). You can see where the carpet is shredded, but where it's in tact, it's in excellent shape.

TGIF - and not the restaurant!

It's been a slow work week (by choice) but I've got one new contract for next week, and a possible second depending on what comes up after they review their project. So that is why I've taken it slow this week. That is a favorite saying of my 84 year old father - "Take it slow".

This allowed us to walk into town yesterday afternoon after I spent a miserable hour at the dentist's office getting my new crown - I'm royalty now with a crown, but I digress. There is going to be a new plaza n our town and yesterday at 4 pm was a groundbreaking ceremony and party. The speeches were the predictable boring speeches by city officials, but we had good food supplied by local restaurants, a cake and entertainment. There was our usual performance by Michael McNevin http://www.michaelmcnevin.com/, or as I call him "Mr. Niles" who is a talented guitarist and songwriter who writes songs about our town, and a performance by the California Repercussions - a fabulous marching band http://www.repercussions.com/.

The old bus used for the Niles Canyon Railway shuttle, the Niles Canyon Railway train and the Niles sign were all captured in this picture.

They even had a cake with the plan for the plaza on it.

The birds are busy with their nest in our backyard noted in a previous post - it's quite a masterpiece and fun to watch. Our cats are curious, and are all kept indoors, so the birds are not in any danger from our cats.

This morning was busy - we had a small cat fight in the office. Mowry was going up the "cat stairs" and Cinders was on the desk and if you look closely, you'll see she's got her ears pinned back and you can almost hear the hissing eminating from her little mouth. She hisses without much provocation, but an approaching cat, even one she knows, or maybe especially one she knows, is a sure catalyst. Sometimes they share space and there are no fights - notice Alex sitting upright, Cinders relaxed on a cat bed on top of the stereo, and Mowry peeking over the computer monitor.

Pictures of things around the house...

I usually take a book with me when I take BART to SF, but today I took my knitting. I'm working on the sock again, but I also had to do some ripping, so maybe I need to be at home concentrating more when I work on it!

Look at how the tomato plant has grown. The picture on the left (the tomato plant is the big one to the right of the small pot with the flowers) was taken today, and the one on the right was taken in April 2007. I'm yet to get an edible tomato, but some look good on there now. Hopefully more watering has solved the cracking bottom problem. You can see a tomato on the left toward the bottom on the left above the brick.

This is the cat next door. He LOVES us. He has brought us dead birds, which we discourage. Mice and other rodents are okay, but we like the birds, especially the songbirds. He is gray, adorable and greets us daily by first a meow and then his presence, sometimes running from wherever he hangs out across the street. He blends with the driveway, which is also gray, and he's yawning in the picture, not growling like it appears. Not a great picture, but the only one I have of him. His name is KandyMan - they named him Kandy when they thought he was a female, but then found out he was a male. Mom, Dad, the kid and animals all have names with K, so to keep with the tradition, we call him "Killer". The woman who owned our house before us did not like cats, so even though we don't feed him (he's the ideal pet - we don't feed him, have a litter box or take him to the vet because he's not ours!), he must be so happy we like him.

The birds have decided to build a nest outside our TV/family room out back above a bamboo shade we never pull down. The wire in the picture is the TV cable. I hope the birds are safe from Killer/KandyMan (see above).

Back to knitting. I have a few projects I need to finish! More about them soon.

Baseball, Opera and other things

We got invited by our neighbor to use two tickets that were going unused for a local production of Miss Saigon, and for a potluck dinner beforehand with friends from her church. She promised they weren't "real churchy". We met new people, and Will even met one of the founders of his fraternity there, ate good food, and the play was excellent! It was at an outside theater, but we didn't know that beforehand. Will keeps a big heavy denim blanket in his van that I keep asking why it's there, and that big blanket in the van kept three of us warm enough to stay through the whole production. I won't be asking why it's in the van any moer! We also found out how fast we could get ready including shower and dressing with so little warning since she called at 5 pm and we left here at 5:45 pm!

Today we went to an A's game (Oakland Athletics vs. Seattle Mariners). It was the 60th birthday of someone we know from when I get to take the train to Silicon Valley. A group has become friends and I am their honorary member since I only get to take the train when I have a client down there and the time is right. It's kind of like aligning the moon and stars, but I try to take the train whenever possible. We had a tailgate party with tons of food, all of it good. We were able to take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and let our friends who drove schlepp our chairs. It's too easy to take BART to drive, and if the A's do move to Fremont, our city would be STUPID to do it without direct BART access, but somehow I don't know that that will happen. There's some talk of a shuttle to/from the stadium to/from BART, but now we get off BART, walk down a special overpass and like magic, we're in the stadium. You've already got an example of what works, why wouldn't you do it and do it even better? But I digress.

The A's lost. There was a fight with both benches unloading, the A's pitcher getting ejected, but no information for the crowd, so we'll have to watch the news tonight to find out what we saw. The umpires couldn't decide on how to call the controversial play but in the end, it was in the Seattle Mariners' favor and while they umps were deciding, a few Seattle Mariners started fighting amongst themselves. Security was quick on the draw to line up along the field in case the crowd misbehaved, but it was the players misbehaving. Silly overpaid little boys setting bad examples for the children in the crowd and watching the game on TV. This picture was from my camera phone that I emailed to myself and it's the fight. It's small and I can't make it bigger, but this is the first time I've emailed myself a picture from my camera phone, so that's cool. I just hope Cingular (who sucks by the way) doesn't charge me body parts (as in an arm and a leg) to do this! I brought my knitting (the sock a few posts ago that I got to the heal but had to rip it, so I'm back to just the cuff part) but I didn't open my knitting either at the potluck tailgate or at the game).

The plum tree drops MANY plums daily. I picked up over 100 one day. I brought some to the game today! As I was standing to take this picture, several fell down. Standing under the plum tree this time of year is not a good idea.

We responded to an ad for a two-person swing set that someone nearby was giving away because they got new patio furniture and their homeowners' association was giving them grief about this swing (I remember those days, but I was usually the board member giving the person grief for not conforming to simple association rules, but I digress again). Will called and they said it was still available so we went and got it. It's disassembled, as you can see, but we're hoping Will can put it together, possibly with the help of this picture from http://www.lowes.com/ and maybe a friend's help.


Before (large picture with parts standing on its side)
and After (Small picture from the lowes website)

Fourth of July - Independence Day

It's the 4th of July. This year it takes on new meaning with a war in Iraq and my niece having served there. This year it was our town's turn to host our city's parade. I'm not sure if I've ever been to a July 4th parade, but we were able to walk to this one, so it was a must. We got there early and staked out a spot in the shade two blocks away - the parade actually started on our street, but two blocks down. The streets were soon packed. We found out later that some of the balloons couldn't go down the street we were on because of power lines, so they caught up later and we missed them, including the balloons our friend helped carry.

There were floats and balloons and old cars like this one that the Mayor rode in. I'm told it's a 1956 Oldsmobile! Will has taught me to appreciate 1950s cars. What incredible colors!

Our town used to have many biker bars and antique stores,

but they are down to only a few bars, and few antique stores, but still quite a few. The Harley riders gathered and started the parade.

Watching the older vets were particularly touching.

I am an editor at heart - I can find a typo ANYWHERE, except, of course, in my own work. Someone actually made a typo writing their sign. Can you see the typo? It's a little blurry, but "Your Healh Matters" is probably supposed to be "Your Health Matters". SHEESH!

The pooper scoopers who followed the horses got a big applause from the crowd!

The mini-bus from AC Transit was one of my favorites, even if it
is an advertisement! Look at the people peering over the top to
see the size!

This was a fun parade! It got hot later in the day, but it was perfect in the shade! All the colors, enthusiasm, etc. was wonderful!

Sunday - Trains and Knitting and Cleaning

This Sunday is cleaning day. Yuck, but it's gotta be done. I'm stalling. I gave my neighbor plums from our tree and she returned the dish with cookies! What a gem! She lives by herself and tomorrow is her 91st birthday! She broke her hip dancing last year and she's done so well recovering! What an inspiration!

We volunteered for the Niles Canyon Railway and it was sunny, but even with a hat, the sun wipes me out! Adorable kids all excited about the train! We even got to see one long Amtrak with a special dome car, and two freight trains go by. This is why people can't cross the tracks, though some that aren't very smart, try. We don't know when the other trains are coming by.

Yesterday I took some cat pics - look how BIG Alex is! He takes up much of the treadmill! And Mowry blends with the carpet. The carpet used to be throughout the house, but we took it out and had the wood floors below the carpet refinished. The carpet is now in the sunroom. Mowry is hiding under the green cart left by the former owner - it's retro and holds the stereo in the sunroom.

My heirloom tomato plant is out of control. We're watering it more now so hopefully we'll get tomatoes we can eat. The earlier tomatoes were cracking and weren't edible. The first picture of the tomato plant was taken on June 9th, and the one with me in it was taken today, July 1st - much bigger in just under one month!