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.