Yarn and books and cats, oh my!

TGIF… *yawn* If you suffer through this epic post, there’s a special treat at the end – one of the funniest birthday cards I’ve ever received (and it features a kitty and yarn)!

It amazes me how long it takes a package to travel between Minnesota and Ontario… and it isn’t just anticipation. But this package from Brigitte and friends was definitely worth the wait. 🙂 From the top, a cute wooden black kitty and Crazy Cat Lady Magnetic Sculpture from Lorraine – thank you! That sculpture is already on my desk at work. Below that is a lovely skein of Colinette Jitterbug (Velvet Bilberry) and a Knit Happens magnet from Rachel H – many, many thanks, Rachel!

The rest of the package was from Brigitte, who is possibly my long lost sibling. We need to talk to our parents some more about the possible details. 😉 From the upper left, a gorgeous skein of Lisa Souza sock yarn in Black Purple, a black kitty Webkinz (with a kinked tail, even!), three books I haven’t read before, a black cat “snow” globe, some very tasty “Kick Ass” coffee from Kicking Horse, Halloween pencils, catnip toys, two tiny black kitty beads, and a book of ChocoCat stickers. Thank you, Brigitte!

Actually, the catnip toys were from Atticus, Mae, and Gandalf for Chaos and May:

The kitties had to check out the nip right away.

“Big kitty! These are from that hottie, Gandalf! Oh! This is too cool!” -Mayhem

“Now, now, Mayhem, these are also from Atticus and the other Mae, not just from Gandalf.” -Chaos

“Whatever. Mmmm… Gandalf….” -Mayhem

Marsha was my Coffee Swap III partner and she sent some great goodies. Gluten-free snickerdoodles, a coffee mug with coffee beans all over the side and coffee-colored yarn in it, Regia Strato (you know how I love stripes), a funny magnet (not pictured, whoops), and enough espresso roast coffee from Porto Rico in NYC to keep me awake for quite a while. Thanks, Marsh!

“I don’t care what anyone says – I have a waist, dammit!” -Chaos

Wednesday night, Jeanne and Deb had a little knitterly birthday party for me (I turn 41 tomorrow – eeep!). Jeanne made our favorite extraordinarily simple flourless chocolate cake and there were presents! New Pathways for Sock Knitters and the 2008 SnB calendar from Jeanne, and The Knitter’s Book of Yarn and two skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in my beloved Black Purl colorway (please use your imagination to picture some black, purple, and grey yarn in the picture) from Deb. Aw, you guys. *sniff* Thank you! (Jeanne has a very, um, interesting picture of me from Wednesday night…)

“Hmm, I detect essence of Pudd, Kreature, Bugman, and Greta.” -Mayhem

“Wait, that can’t be right – I’m sure I smell Tig and Holly. How can this be?!” -Chaos

Mayhem apparently can’t resist napping on everything I put on the floor.

“A cat nappin’ on a Cat. Zzzzz…” -Mayhem

And if you’ve made it this far, here’s the wonderful card Deb gave me – you definitely want to embiggen this one! I can picture Mayhem in the role of the cat and Chaos in the role of the dog…

On the inside, it says “Hope you get all that you wish for” and has this very cute picture:

Thanks again to everyone! Have a great weekend, all.

62 thoughts on “Yarn and books and cats, oh my!”

  1. It was so fun to get an actual gut-busting belly laught out of you!!

    Kathryn wants to know if you need WebKinz lessons on the computer – she’s a pro and can teach you all the tricks.

    Happy, happy, birthday dear friend – from all of us over here!!

  2. Oh, so cool! Mayhem noticed me!!! *sigh*… (so says Gandalf)

    I’m so glad you guys liked all the stuff! Heh heh, I knew you’d like the coffee, I hope it’s strong enough!

    BTW, the kitty toys are from the Annex Cat Rescue (Gandalf’s foster home), and they are BANNED from this household! One little black kitty usually goes on a pretty funky trip!

    Happy Birthday!!!!!!! What’s a number?!

  3. I’m glad the package arrived safely! (Not that there was much doubt–the USPS is pretty good. But sometimes…) And I’m glad you liked everything. If you’re ever in the Village in NYC, do stop by Porto Rico–it’s a great shop. On Saturday mornings, the line (just for beans and ground coffee) goes out the door, and people will wait half an hour or more without complaint. Well, without much complaint. 🙂

    And happy happy birthday!

  4. Happy almost birthday! That’s a great card.

    And thanks for the recipe–it looks much simpler than the ones I’ve used in the past, especially since I don’t have an electric mixer.

  5. Happy Birthday! If you were here you could celebrate with yarn and another birthday at Full Thread Ahead (.com – it’s Hollis’ birthday weekend/sale). I meant to tell you to check out this week’s Cavemen – it’s all about the evils of gluten!

  6. Happy Birthday, Infant.

    Let us know what you think of Cat’s new book. La Harlot’s commentary was slightly scary. Does Cat really seem to make everything harder?

  7. That is a great card! Happy almost birthday, and have a wonderful weekend.

    (I love my Black Purl yarn, too. So much so that I haven’t been able to bring myself to knit with it yet. Someday.)

  8. Wow, that’s a lot of nice packages. (And you MUST be on really good terms with your Postal worker!) I can only imagine what he/she thinks with the constant cat nip fragrances wafting out of the parcels.

  9. When I was in my 20s, all the coolest people I knew were in their 30’s. Now that I’m in my 30’s, many of the coolest women I know are in their 40’s. This means one of two things… Either fabulous women get even better as they get older, or there is just an extraordinarily cool group of women that was born about 10 years before me! 🙂

  10. Happy early birthday!!! Tell Chaos that he does indeed have a waist. My Pepper’s loosing her waist. We’re not dieting but there may be a little less gravy with her wet food…

  11. Wow! It looks like you’ve already got a great start on the birthday celebration! Thanks for sharing the card and those wonder photos of May and Chaos.

    Happy Birthday!

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