Category Archives: Those Cats

Contests, Reading, Those Cats

Tuesday, but it’s Wednesday, really…

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…since I only work 3 days this week! So tomorrow is actually Friday…

Valerie is having a contest to celebrate her one year knitting anniversary. If you leave her a comment before midnight, Sunday, November 26, about how you came to be knitting or about the person who taught you to knit, you could win a skein of Fleece Artist sock yarn.

Don’t forget that you have until 7 pm CST, Wednesday, November 22, to leave some words of wisdom for me as I embark on a new decade of my life! (This would be a real-time deadline, not a Chris interpretive time deadline…)

Reading Update
Smoke and Shadows, Smoke and Mirrors, and Smoke and Ashes by Tanya Huff. These three books take up where the Blood series left off, sort of… Wizardry, vampires, and other things that go bump in the night, but in Vancouver instead of Toronto. In one of my favorite bits, the main character muses how peculiarly Canadian it was that he was taking public transportation on his way to save the world…
The Dead Cat Bounce by Sarah Graves. I think this is the first book from the Home Repair is Homicide mystery series… Having read the series utterly out of order, it was interesting to go back to this one and see how things began.
Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. This is the first book in a mystery series featuring Cincinnati witch Rachel Morgan, her roommate (the “living” vampire Ivy), a family of pixies, and more… I already have the rest of the books on hold at the library!

Knitting Update
I’m in the midst of the gusset increases on my second black and hot pink stripey sock. The first sock is done to just above the heel and I’m knitting the second sock from the other end of the ball. Why, you might ask? Well, I apparently had some sort of mathematical meltdown when I was winding off yarn to dye and let’s just say that it’s going to be very exciting to see how tall these end up. I’m hoping for short ankle socks at this point!

Feline Update
Chaos has been, well, chaotic lately. More on that tomorrow. Here he was in an unguarded moment last night:

“If you’d named me Meditative Trance, you’d have a leg to stand on here, Mom.”

Mayhem could not be reached for comment, since she was hiding.

“I am an invisible jungle kitten, hiding in the foliage!”
Contests, Those Cats

In which there are acrobatics

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Kristin is having a first knitting anniversary contest. Leave her a comment about how you learned to knit by noon CST, Wednesday, November 22.

Danielle is having an unusual vegetable contest (yup, you read that right). You have until Wednesday, November 29, to complete your unusual vegetable mission!

Lucia (Rhymes with Fuscia) is having a contest – answer her question and support your answer and you could win some sock yarn.

Last night I went over to Jeanne’s house to knit and was surprised to find Deb there – and presents! An offer from Jeanne to knit the fingers and thumbs of a pair of gloves for me (my dislike of knitting thumbs, particularly the 10 “thumbs” required for gloves, is well known)! Flourless chocolate cake! Candles! Pinot noir! Cats! And even a tricky package from MrsPao and Pao, all the way from the UK! I will share more details (and pictures) of the wonderful things next week, after I’ve had time to actually take some pictures. My heartfelt thanks to all of them for starting my birthday two days early! 🙂

Work has definitely calmed down. Whew! Also, on Monday, the locksmith (who was cute!) replaced the lock guts and no kitties missed their feeding time. I was glad to find out that it wouldn’t have helped if I’d put graphite in the lock, which I’d been meaning to do for weeks…

Ok, I know you’re all waiting for the acrobatics… I’ve mentioned that May fetches and catches toys. Yesterday, for the first time, I got pictures of some of those feline acrobatics. Go, May!!

Contests, Reading, Those Cats

Chaos Oblique

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Not an Artist is having a contest to name one of her knitting creations. Submit your idea by Saturday, November 18, midnight EST.

My work fun continues, but hopefully things will settle down later this week. My week isn’t starting off too well – my front door lock jammed as I was leaving this morning and I had to leave the key sticking out of the lock. No cats will be fed until the locksmith comes, since I can’t get into my condo!

Reading Update
Shakespeare’s Counselor and Shakespeare’s Christmas by Charlaine Harris. Two more Lily Bard mysteries, completely out of order.
Vanishing Point by Marcia Muller. The latest mystery about San Francisco PI Sharon McCone is a solid, enjoyable read that kept me guessing (wrong) for a long time.

Some of you have been wondering if Chaos is hiding from the blog. Whatever gave you that idea?! He’s fine, BTW – I think he’s just kind of stunned about how much energy May has. 🙂

Knitting, Reading, Those Cats

Woot woot – it stripes!

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For the readers among us, check out the From the Stacks Winter Challenge – read five books from your shelves by January 30. If you submit your book list by November 15, you’re entered in a drawing, and if you submit five reviews by January 30, you’ll be in another drawing for an amazon.com gift certificate. Here’s my list:

Lambs of God by Marele Day
The Chemistry of Joy: A Three-Step Program for Overcoming Depression through Western Science and Eastern Wisdom by Henry Emmons, MD, with Rachel Kranz
The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez Reverte
Like the Red Panda by Andrea Seigel
Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180 by Mike Magnuson

I’m knitting self-striping sock yarn that I dyed myself and feeling very thrilled that… it actually stripes. Who woulda thunk it?? (Check it out – Frarochvia is knitting socks from some sportweight that I dyed at the same time!)

“Forget the yarn – it’s more fun to play with sharp pointy toys!”

“Really, Mom, you’re such a worrier. I’m sure it’ll be fun even after someone pokes an eye out – especially if it isn’t me.”

“Well, ok… Hey, with my tongue out, do I match the yarn?!”
Those Cats

Mays just wanna play fetch!

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I got nothin’ but cats and work, alas. The cats are obviously more fun. Oh yeah – please send help. My throwing arm is breaking off. Thanks! 🙂

“Va-va-va-voom!”
“Dum de dum de dum de dum…”
“…de dum!”
“You don’t wanna know where its tail went.”
“Trust me on the tail thing.”
Contests, Randonymity, Those Cats

Yup, I “buggered my blog”

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Sorry to worry anyone who tried to access my blog over the last 18 hours. I managed to clobber it after upgrading WordPress yesterday afternoon. Whoops! Many thanks to Pao, who provided both the title of today’s post and the key information I needed to resolve the problem. Also thanks to Jeanne for reassurance and to MrsPao, for getting Pao on the case.

Of course, now that it’s fixed, I’m utterly unprepared to post today. Um…….

Deb of Chappysmom might have a contest – take a picture of your November calendar page, post it to your blog, and let her know. If enough people play, it’ll be a contest. If not, it’ll stay a meme. Deadline is November 15.

V’s daughter, Little A, dressed up as Mayhem for Halloween! So very, very cute – and I love her jack o’ lanterns, too.

Ok, back to cat pictures….

“Ha! Now I have you where I want you, big kitty! You won’t escape my paws now.”

“Look, May! A mouse!”

“Hee hee, she sure is easy to distract – and I don’t like that color anyway.”
Randonymity, Reading, Those Cats

Randumb

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Hope no one’s got a Halloween sugar hangover this morning! I did wear the black cat ears last night (but not the tail – maybe next year). Interesting reactions included a woman in a crosswalk who looked through my car window and got the giggles, a dog that growled at me while his owner apologized profusely, and my brother’s cats poofing and hissing and creeping carefully back away from me. The block party was sort of a bust, since it was about 30F. Brrrr! Alas, I have not a single picture – we were too busy shivering and hopping around to stay warm.

Reading Update
Obsidian Butterfly, Narcissus in Chains, and Cerulean Dreams (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) by Laurell K. Hamilton. Ok, I now know where the psychotic break was in this series. Obsidian Butterfly, perhaps because it took place in New Mexico, far from St. Louis and “the boys,” was the last book where, as Beadslut so succinctly put it, Anita spent more time on a case than in bed. After that, we have Micah and the ardeur and a glacially slow storyline and lots and lots and lots of sex.
Running in Heels by Anne Maxted. I couldn’t remember if I’d already read this, although I wondered if I had the entire time I read it. Maxted delivers damn good chick lit, whichever.
The Trouble with Witches by Shirley Damsgaard, an Ophelia and Abby mystery. This is the most recent book in the cozy series about a librarian witch and her grandmother living in Iowa.
Blood Price by Tanya Huff. Vampires in Toronto! Finally enough people recommend this series to me that I simply couldn’t resist anymore. The first book was very good, and the next is already on reserve.
Shakespeare’s Landlord by Charlaine Harris. This is the first Lily Bard mystery and since I enjoyed Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse mysteries so much (and since Peeve recommended this series, too), I figured I’d give ’em a try. The first one is a good basic mystery (no paranormal romance!), set in Shakespeare, Arkansas.

Since I basically have nothing else today, how about some cat pictures from a few weeks ago? (Cat pictures?! Wow, that’s a new one!)

“Oh, come on, May, I just want to wipe a little smudge off your face.”

“Let me return the favor, big kitty – with my teeth! Bwah-ha-ha!!!”
Contests, Those Cats

In which I blatantly try to distract you with the cute

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Karrie of Girl on the Rocks is having an interesting contest for knitters who didn’t go to Rhinebeck. Since those of us who didn’t go are probably going to feel awfully jealous reading about all the wonderful things people got at Rhinebeck, Karrie would like us to go stash diving and find some goodies. Post a picture of this loot (that you already own! and maybe forgot about!) along with a blurb about it and leave a comment for Karrie. Contest ends Friday, October 27. Karrie’s favorite will win some fun yarn (TBD).

Because I spent my blogging time last night trying to save a tipped over plant and vaccuuming up potting soil (not pointing fingers or anything, Mayhem), I got nothin’ this morning. Thus, in the best Miss Lulu Kitty fashion, let me distract you with these pictures of Mayhem, taken September 16 – over a month ago already! And look – she still had whiskers! According to Wikipedia, “When a kitten is cleaned by its mother, she may chew off some or all of the whiskers.” Mommy Chaos?! Well, there is the misguided nursing…

Anyway, I don’t even have any clever captions in me this morning! Yikes. *takes a big slug of soy mocha* So, caption amongst yourselves and have a wonderful day, everyone!


Contests, Randonymity, Those Cats

In which we find the sock monkey dress

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Last night, Jeanne and I stopped at Crafty Planet to scope out their bib yarn, um, I mean Sugar’n’Cream, and what did Jeanne spy in the window but one of the infamous Sock Monkey Dresses! (Hey, you can buy one for a mere $1,500US, MamaTulip!) Jeanne got a great picture of me with the dress, too.

The wonderful (but tragically blogless) RachelH sent me a very cool tin sign – thank you, Rachel! It will be perfect in my kitchen. (Plus it was a great thing to find waiting for me at work on my first day back.)

 

“The big kitty told me that flashing thing you keep pointing at me will make me go blind, Mom. I’m outta here!”

We haven’t had a Chaos and May size comparison for a while…

 

*sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff*

 

“I am Mayhem – hear me roar!”
Contests, Knitting, Reading, Those Cats

Monday, Monday

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Thanks to everyone who’s been asking about the Chaos Kitty. Here’s where things stand: Chaos is happy and active and is off antibiotics (for a skin infection – hence the shaved butt). He went back to the vet on Saturday and the consensus is that he’s having autoimmune issues. (Aw, he’s taking after me!) This last bout was triggered by him sneaking some of May’s food. May seems to be grain sensitive. (Aw, she’s taking after me, too!) She has trouble if she eats any of Chaos’ food. He has trouble if he eats any of her food. Ack. Cat feeding time around here is very intricate, let me tell you!

Brigitte is having a contest to name the sweater she’s working on. The contest deadline is 5 pm Eastern, Friday, October 20.

Rabbitch wants to put hats on as many of Vancouver’s 1300 homeless as she can and is offering prizes to those who knit hats. You can send your hats to this address. Deadline is December 1.

There’s still time to enter V’s contest by sending her some yarn for her blanket. She’ll draw for prizes on November 1.

Reading Update
The Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters. This was the very first Amelia Peabody mystery and interestingly enough, really the only one that I enjoy re-reading.
For Better, For Worse by Carole Matthews. Your basic chick lit – it was good enough that I finished reading it, but not good enough that I’ll recommend it or pass the book along to anyone. Your mileage may vary.
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton. After reading the Sookie Stackhouse books and thinking how much more I enjoyed them than I have the recent Anita Blake (Vampire Hunter) books, I decided to re-read the very first Anita Blake novel. It’s good. At what point did the series deteriorate? Guess I’ll have to re-read them in order to see if I can figure that out.

I have quite a few bibs to knit, since there’s a baby infestation bearing down upon us. You have been warned.

“Oh oh, I think the big kitty mentioned something about this…”

“What the…?”

“Hmph.”

*fight fight fight*
“Almost free – whew!”