Tuesday

I don't have pictures today because I am at a client's office and my camera is at home. I wouldn't be typing this from a client's office, except I have nothing to do. Nothing, nada. I guess I'm here for moral support to someone who will be filing something later today with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), but she really needed me on Friday but I wasn't able to be here on Friday.

Our local library is only open on Tuesdays, so I'm hoping I can stop by on my way home. I reserved Sue Grafton's most recent book and it's in. My cousin was visiting many years ago and she left one of Sue Grafton's books. I never read mystery books, but I figured I would read it since I kept hearing these alphabet titles, so I thought I'd read one and see what all the fuss was about. I originally liked Sue Grafton's character, Kinsey Millhone, and the fact that whatever she calls the place, it's really Santa Barbara, but now I'm bored with the fact that she doesn't update, doesn't have a cell phone, and we know it's Santa B, so just say it!

Saturday January 12, 2008

Today the weather was gorgeous. Last weekend it poured and was cold, and we hibernated while I thought about where my camera could possibly be hiding, but today we had blue skies and weather warm enough to go to the flea market and then prune trees in the backyard, and lots of pictures to be taken to make up for that lost week.

When my neck and shoulders and arms hurt tomorrow, I can look here to remind myself why!

Every time we go to the flea market I am appalled to think that they are considering developing the land where these beautiful trees are.

It's particularly pretty in the winter after we've had some rain. Below is my favorite aisle at the flea market. It was pretty empty on this aisle today, but just the beauty is worth the price of admission, which actually, is $0, but that's besides the point since it's just a saying.

A week without my camera makes me want to take more and more pictures of EVERYTHING! On the way home with the car moving (not to worry, I was the passenger and not the driver!) I tried to capture the Niles sign and the cows on the green hills, but I could only get part of the sign. The black dots covering the hills are cows.

I tried to take a picture of something as we were driving down our street (I was still the passenger) but all I got was a picture of me taking the picture!

This seems like a good place to sleep when it's cold. They have so many blankets on this bed, maybe they won't find me. Well, they wouldn't have found me if my camera crazy human mom hadn't pulled back the blankies to expose me, but I'll pretend I'm still asleep and maybe she'll go away and leave me alone. Cinders used to be an outdoor kitty, but now she's much older (15? 17?) and since she stopped showing an interest in going outside before we moved here, she hasn't been allowed outside since we moved. We would try to get her to go outside when we had a open house in our townhouse, but she'd turn around and come back in. Since we moved, she often looks longingly at the front door, but we no longer let her out.

Today I was looking out the window that looks out front and who do I see outside? Cinders! I ran to the front door, opened it and yelled at Cinders to come in, and she did. She's the only one who answers to her name. Mowry may come several minutes later if we call him (from another room) but that is so we don't think he's responding to humans calling his name!

Needles and Things

Today's post is about cats and knitting.

I'm working on a sweater in the round (read: very little sewing together, and no seams on the side) but I can't quite tell yet if it is going to fit. The measurements tell me it will, but I tried to try it on and my circular needles got in the way. If there weren't 144 stitches, I might put them on a piece of yarn to allow me the flexibility to try it on, but that's too much work. Isn't knitting the sweater and finding out it doesn't fit too much work, you ask? Well, yes.

It's beautiful yarn I bought from someone on ebay at the urging of Diann. It's Plantation Unger cotton in a beautiful light green, and she's right - it's really nice to knit with! I just found some more Plantation Unger on ebay - this time 8 skeins of yellow. The one I bought had 8 skeins listed, but she realized she only had 7 and reduced the price for me, but I'm hoping I have enough to finish what I'm working on since 8 would have been better. It will probably be more of a shell or short sleeve sweater than a long sleeve sweater as I had hoped.

Alex looks a little ratty in this picture because while his fur doesn't mat, he's due for a brushing. He really has magnificent fur! Cinders is watching his and my every move from the back of the room. She mats but is soft and fluffy on those few spots without mats.

Mowry likes to check out birds and things from the window.

I belong to a group called "Fremont Freecyle" and people give away things in the most mature way of recycling. List it and someone will want it and come and get it. There's also a local Yahoo group for our neighborhood where this is done, but that also is an exchange for information. Sometimes it's good info, and sometimes people whine about local things.

Someone posted on Freecyle (is there one in your city?) for some leftover yarn and knitting needles. I wrote back, but didn't hear from her. Then a day or so later she emailed to tell me she lost contact with the first responder who didn't answer her second email string, so I can come pick them up. We went this morning on the way to the car dealer for a service issue (another story for another day maybe) and she hadn't left it out. I cut her some slack because she told me she has 4 kids and another due in April. We went back to her house after the dealer at around noon, and there was my bag hanging on her doorknob.



Very cool - the yarn is small quantities, but I may be able to use it. I made a baby blanket and one of the balls of yarn appears to be the same as one used in the baby blanket, so I can add a little more to the edges of my blankie.
It's the blue yarn above the green (looks yellow, but it's green) in the small ball that came out clear in the picture above.

The needles are wonderful! I may post to give away crochet hooks (these and some I have that I don't use) but the circular needles are perfect - size 2, size 8 and size 13, and one more I don't remember. Sizes I don't have! The straight needles are a little bent, but I keep them in a tin for show.

Did I mention how happy I am that I found my camera?

I found it!!!!! Sunday, January 6, 2008

I found the camera! It was a fluke. Just when I was beginning to think these guys had hid it because they aren't too happy that I take so many pictures of them,

I was sitting on the recliner knitting another sock (my last blue/green sock has been put away indefinitely since the first one is smaller than the second one and I am completely frustrated, but I am trying ONE more pair of socks before I give up on socks), when I dropped two sock needles. While I was digging around trying to locate these tiny #1 double pointed needles in the chair, I found the camera! What a nice surprise!

Apparently I had it when I was sitting on the recliner last weekend. This recliner is not used very often because it's in the living room, but it's been cold, so we lit a fire in the fireplace and sat next to the fire. If I hadn't dropped the needles, who knows if or when I would have found the camera! I couldn't take a picture of the camera because I'd need the camera to take the picture, but here is where it was found - and I had to dig my little hand in to get it!

The sock is shorter up the calf than I have done before, but I tried it on and I like it and it appears that it is going to fit. I'm going to start the next one this week, so I don't forget what I did to make this one fit, so they will match. I wrote down notes on the instructions so I shouldn't have problems.

Thunder and Lightning and Rain, Oh My

It was thundering and lightning and raining quite heavily about a half hour ago. We were about to go grocery shopping, but apparently we are officially hibernating since Will just lit a fire. Mowry was on my lap when the loudest clap of thunder sounded. He sat up, looked around and jumped off my lap. Cats don't seem to get a lot of human comfort when their instincts kick in.

We dumped the recycle bin and I carefully put each piece of paper, cans, bottles, etc. (luckily mostly paper) back into the recycle bin, and no camera. I cannot find it. If it was a phone and it was on, I could call it, but that didn't work when Will lost his phone because it was either off, or on vibrate. He later found the found in the pocket of a jacket he hadn't worn in months. My camera is a little large for a pocket.

I'm running out of stock shots so this blog will become very boring very soon.

Someone just posted some yarn, knitting needles and crochet needles that she is giving away on a local Yahoo Email Group. I responded saying I can't resist, but I will want to wait until after the thunder and lightning. I wonder if I'll get these? There was someone who posted last week looking for yarn - I'd be happy to share! It's really the needles I'm after since someone's yarn leftovers don't usually work too well for me.

This photo is from the Durango Colorado website this morning. It looks cold and adorable. We had shutters in our townhouse, but the cats each learned to poke at them and open the bottom shutters. The shutters in the picture were on the sliding glass door and were opened so we could get light. Alex managed to get caught in shutter jail. We don't have shutters now, but to annoy us, both Alex and Mowry like to rattle the mirrored closet doors. Alex especially likes to do this when we are sleeping. This morning he probably forgot it was Saturday and thought we were late since it was 6:40 am. That, or he was just being incredibly annoying.

This was the Disneyland exhibit at the Oakland Museum in 2006. It was much warmer then!

Rain, Wind, NO Camera

I still haven't found my camera. I have no idea where it could be. The only possibility, and it is slim, is that it fell into the recycle receptacle we keep in the office that gets dumped into the recycle bin. We didn't put out our recycle bin for pickup this week because we will dump it and go thru it. It's the paper bin, so it isn't icky. If it's not there, I just don't know. We both feel like we've looked everywhere, but obviously we haven't.

It is raining cats and dogs out there. Not sure where THAT saying came from, but the wind is blowing the rain onto our windows that have an overhang and rarely get drips. I decided not to go to my client because taking the ACE train, a shuttle and walking a block to get there wet and possibly finding out they had no power wasn't my idea of necessary. I emailed them, and didn't hear from them until a few minutes before noon asking that I call because there were a few questions that couldn't wait until Tuesday, even though I'm betting they could wait. So I'm at home with an orange cat sleeping on my desk behind the monitor. This is an old picture. Read paragraph one!

Here is the rain at the Fremont/Centerville train station I would have gone to today had I taken the ACE train to Santa Clara.

It's wet, but at least it doesn't look like this:

Our favorite farm near where we used to live is closed for winter. Yesterday was one year since escrow closed on the sale of our townhouse. I'm knitting a sock, but I can't take a picture of it to post here. URGENT - I need by camera back. I don't need a new one. I need to find the camera I lost!

No pictures - no camera

Where is my camera? I have NO idea. The last time I remember having it was Saturday when I took pics of the drapes and posted. This is the stuff that obsesses me. I've looked everywhere. OK, NOT everywhere because it's somewhere I haven't yet looked.

We had a lovely relaxed New Years Eve with Ken and Diann and even had a rent-a-kitty on Will's lap at midnight - one of their kitties was kind enough to sit on his lap. You know how cats can be - I will only sit on my owner's lap. But LiveWire was happily purring on Will's lap.

We walked into town and got a little exercise. We are going to Darlene and Lorne's for dinner and dominoes. We have some leftover chocolate cake from Costco that was devine. My new year's resolution is to eat more chocolate!