The Last Day in 2008

The Clampetts are at it again! We went to Ziggy's former humans' house last night and they sent us home with this scratching post that they forgot to bring when they brought Ziggy. It was holding a plant at their house!This is the spot in the office, and quite possibly the only spot in the house where there is room to put the scratching post.Here's the scratching post in its new spot, complete with black Ziggy fur.
Mowry thinks this is very interesting.
Hmmm, this smells funny!

And there's even a place to hide inside!

The brown sweater is finished. I'll wear it tonight to our friends' for a small gathering of dinner 'n dominoes.

Mowry is on the chair in the living room. I think he is looking to run from me and the camera. Can you see Alex in the back by the window on the floor?

Here's Alex.

I used to take pictures of everything I made, but I've been a little remiss. I made this scarf and mitts for my hairdresser. She loved them!

HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR to all!

Tuesday

This morning we woke up to fog! Look at the slush in Durango! What did I do for entertainment before there were web cams? I guess it all turns to slush when it's 30 degrees. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It's 50 at home!

Sunbeams don't photograph well, but they sure are nice. I had to put Alex in this sunbeam. He was in the dark bedroom.

Ziggy is a sunbeam seeker. He found this one in the office by himself.

Before he went to the sunbeam, he was sleeping on his back behind Will's monitor.

And before that he was walking on Will's keyboard.
Last night Will had two cats on his lap. OK, on the blanket on his lap! That's Alex and Mowry. You can tell because they are touching. Ziggy hasn't touched the other cats, except maybe by accident!

There's a lot on the errand list today. AND a client who was supposed to get back to me last week about a project just got back to me today. It's all good!

Beard update - it looks better in person!

We're going to Ziggy's former humans to review video games and have dinner. I hope I can get in some knitting time since I'm not that good at games.

Happy New Year to all and to all a Happy New Year!

Monday

Today is the last Monday of 2008. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were entering 2000, does it? It was 9 years ago!


This is what cats do when we are sleeping.

And this is what they do while we are awake!


Ziggy found a new place to hide since we cleared out much of the sideboard and put the books that were in it on the new bookcase.

Ziggy still likes to hide behind the Crow's Nest scratching post! We both just love this bookcase.

Mowry loves the banana!

This is Joan's "drawer of shame" where I keep receipts, mostly. We also keep Advantage for Fleas there so we can find it. That reminds me, I need to order some more Advantage!
This is Will's "drawer of shame". He named them. I'm not ashamed of mine. Will is busily looking for a dongle for his computer that he safely stashed away somewhere. The operative word is "somewhere". And what is a dongle, you ask? Don't. It's something for his computer. That's all I know after a few explanations. But if you really care.....go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle

If he can't find it, guess what that means? Back to Fry's. I think he secretly likes going there. Maybe not even secretly!

We're going to Ziggy's original humans' house on Tuesday for "Game Night". They have Rock Band which, for those of you who don't know, is a simulated band on the computer. Will already knows he won't like that one since he's in a real rock band, but they have other games he may like. We'll go to visit and have fun!

Pictures on Sunday

We went to the Farmers' Market at the mall in Newark where we saw Lorne and Darlene. We went into the mall to a shoe repair shop and the guy was alking about what's going on in the Middle East. It is terrible, but when he said "it is terrible what those Jews are doing" I looked at Will and said "let's go" and we walked out. He said "what did I say?" Stupid man. I wasn't going to leave when I found out he was Palistinian, but when he thought we cared that he thinks it's the Jews' fault that the Palestinians have attacked Israel, we just left.


Then I found a Jamba Juice in the mall. Darlene brought me one when I first had the gum surgery, and I really like the blueberry, strawberry, yogurt, soy milk breakfast something or other with bananas instead of strawberries. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I keep forgetting to tell my Mom that I found more of this yarn, so I can add more to the bottom when we come to visit in March. Mom reads this blog.

THANK YOU so much to Gale and Tom for this wonderful bookcase. Just when we thought we had maxed out and couldn't fit one more piece of furniture in our house, they offered us this bookcase. We put it behind the loveseat in the TV room. It's perfect there. Will originally thought it would go in the entry - straight ahead when you walk in the house, but this is much better.

It has a cool little plaque on the top left that says "Alameda County Schools" and a number 32-xxxx (don't remember what the x's are). It looks like it could be some sort of inventory marker.
We had to move the wine rack that Will's sister made and the drawer thingy that was on top of the wine rack next, over to the dinette area. It's crowded now with the bookcase, wine rack, cat food tray, and cat water, but I sit there, and I'm small, so it should work unless I knock over some wine or step in the cat food, which has been known to be done.

I started a baby blanket for a colleague of mine. She's hoping her boss will engage me to work for her while she's on maternity leave, but she's not due until March, so we haven't met to discuss details yet. I thought of making a sweater for a change, but decided to make my usual blanket gift.

I looked out the window and the pit bull across the street was going for a walk with a sweater on. A big, tough pit bull with a sweater! I know, they don't have much in the way of fur, but a big, tough pit bull with a sweater! It just looked like blog fodder to me!

And speaking of pets - the obligatory cat pictures....

This is one of my favorite pictures of Ziggy!

This is an old one of Mowry when he used to fit and sit under my monitor!

And a more recent picture where you can see Mow's pink lips!

Post #300 - cat posts on Saturday

My blog says this is the 300th post I've made! Who knew I had that much to say? Ha! Yesterday we bundled up and went for a walk. It wasn't quite 50 degrees, and that is cold for California.

I found this mistletoe on the ground. There was a lot of it growing in an oak tree a few houses down from us. The only other time I've seen it (other than packaged for sale) was off the side of the road coming from a ski trip many years ago.

Was Mowry stalking Ziggy, or just hanging out?

Alex was hanging out. I think he was en route from his bowl. As you can see, this one loves to eat. And from other pictures and posts, you know he also likes to sleep.

Ziggy found a new place to hang out. I would think the basket would be uncomfortable, but he looks comfortable to me. There might have been a sunbeam when he first settled here.

Two cats on the "Crow's Nest". Mowry could be looking to cause trouble, but Ziggy seemed okay, so I'd call this a minor breakthrough.

This was a major breakthrough! First Ziggy got on my lap, and then settled between us on the blankets on the loveseat, and then Alex got up onto his favorite spot - the blanket on Will's lap. (Actually, that would be Will's legs). I took this picture, so it's from my perspective.

This poor guy squints every time I take his picture!I was able to pull up two weather programs at once. It was 10:40 pm and warmer in Ocean Shores, WA. Hmmmmm, that's not good for us, but it is good for OS! Note that the low for the day in Fremont was 45. How exactly does that work? I do believe the current temperature was correct, though.

The pictures are from Friday, but this was updated Saturday.

I'm knitting a baby blanket for a colleague who is due in March, but I haven't taken any pictures of it yet.

Is it Christmas?

This is one of my favorite sayings, and yes, it was Christmas yesterday!



Ziggy is hiding less!He even jumped onto my lap. Of course it was right before we were leaving for Ken and Diann's. It was hard to go knowing I had a warm, loveable kitty on my lap.It's not like we didn't have a lot of cats at Ken and Diann's! Clawdette is their newest cat. Diann found her on Niles Blvd. darting in and out of traffic. She is lucky to have been rescued. She's the cutest cat, and tiny - she weighs about 7 lbs. - but she's a kooky one. She can be sweet or turn around and bite you. And this is Smokey sleeping on the ottoman by the chair where I was sitting and knitting.



We had a lovely dinner at their house. Diann made delicious Cioppino, and she didn't know cherry pie was Will's favorite when she served that with ice cream!


It's now the day after Christmas - Boxing Day in the UK, Canada, Australia, etc. etc. It was COLD again - see the frost covering the entire roof across the street? This is 8:15 am. The frost should be gone by now, shouldn't it?
I cannot get a good photograph of this Weatherbug program on my computer screen, but you can see enough - note the time and the temp.
It's warming up!

My cousin Traci sent more pictures of her street in Durango, CO:

Can I really complain about 35 degrees when I see this? It's absolutely gorgeous, but it looks COLD!

Will needs to go to Fry's today (see post from two days ago) and there is a Walmart right near there, so I may brave Walmart while he's at Fry's. I thought we'd throw on clothes and go when we woke up, but somehow it was hard to get going - you think at 35 degrees it's easy to get motivated to go outside? It was 49 INSIDE! We like our house cold when we sleep as long as we are warm with many blankets, including an electric blanket that we used to only use to warm up the bed when we got in, but now we sometimes leave on at low all night. Double controls - the only way to go! 49 is WAY too cold inside!