The Cat and Other Tales

Oh, hello there.

I was looking at my calendar and realized I hadn’t posted in three weeks.

It’s not you, it’s me. I haven’t been online much lately. I made disparaging comments on Twitter about having to avoid BART demonstrators, but that’s about it. There are many things going on at work, for one thing. The semester started, and I work at a college, plus I’ve been studying exciting things like XML and XSLT and command line field mapping in my spare time instead of crafting. Oh, and going to museums. Those of you who fancy yourselves creative types might find this video I found via SFMOMA interesting. Pretty much a long winded version of Edison’s “1% inspiration, 99%perspiration” saying.

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Let’s catch up:

–  Spent a weekend in Reno helping my brother move into his new house. I may have cried when he moved out of my house 2 weeks ago. My dog still looks for him (they were good buddies). He’s going on to do much more interesting things in graduate school, though – environmental planning and research. Now my husband and I only have each other to harass. And the cat.

–  A certain demonic cat got into my new quilt and wrecked it. She must have had quite a time in there, and probably got poked by some pins. She pulled out 90% of the pins that are holding the quilt together, the fabrics were in total disarray, even the backing paper was wrinkled up. Miriam was not a happy camper, and did not speak to her cat for a while. It took many hours to put it back the way it was, and as I continue to work I still have problems with spacing. Tell me again why I have a cat?

–  After Jeremy moved out, Jeff and I went on a serious cleaning binge, and also a getting-rid-of-stuff binge. We’re really getting minimalist at this point. I’ve also removed all my craft stuff from its storage and reorganized it, and gotten rid of things I didn’t want. We never really did put much effort into our spare/craft room after we moved in because Jeremy was living there, so now I’m attacking it with great enthusiasm. Also, the cat isn’t allowed in there anymore (she never really was).

–  Streetcolor yarnbombed my local library .  Sadly, I missed the event.

–  I did my very first tie-dye project, pictures forthcoming. I also considered wrapping a few rubber bands around the cat’s fur and seeing how she looked when tie-dyed.

That’s about everything that’s currently safe for public consumption.

Back to XML.

The Observer

My demon cat, Callie, doesn’t like anyone but Jeff and me. For whatever reason, she loves me and indeed, will let me flip her over and scratch her tummy (most of the time). In fact, she follows me around watching me when I do things. I don’t know what I did right with her (aside from eternal benevolent patience), but this is a frequent sight when I’m doing things. I was just looking through my most recent batch of Ah Kimono fabrics from my fabric club, and I looked down and there she was.

And the fabrics are rather amazing too, right?

Can I tell you how FRUSTRATING it is to be literally a week away from finishing two big projects using my kimono silks, and yet be unable to finish because I cannot get out my sewing equipment yet? GARGGHHHHHH. For real.

Out to lunch

My lunch breaks often look like this:

Where I attempt to solve whatever riddle has lately been plaguing me about things I do not know how to do. In this case: Tunisian crochet, i.e. afghan stitch. I have done more than it looks like, because the whole thing just loves to curl up on itself. It was supposed to be 2 inches longer, but I will make do. If I make it through this process, it will be a fluffy thing made from some bulky leftover yarn from my brother’s hat. A cozy, in fact, something to put my phone in to prevent scratching, though I’ve never understood why electronics need to be cozy anyway.

I have remembered, however, that one thing I hate about knitting is that you have to try to work with the &*$%&* needle while it has yarn on it, and this technique, while promising, suffers from that same irritating problem. So. $&*(&^%#$%^.

In other news, Wesley is out to lunch in a different way, just being himself. First he ate my yogurt. Then my tomato and mushroom sauce and noodles. Then he ate a Sharpie pen – blue (non-toxic and water-based, luckily). He’s all ready for Halloween!

Nota bene, btw: tomatoes, mushrooms and grapes are toxic to dogs, esp. grapes. They damage their kidneys. Just FYI, now that I’ve smacked my own forehead over it.

This dog does not know boundaries. The blue is actually more pronounced in person, although he appears to have been wearing it off gradually. The other side of his face looks like he’s drooling blue ink. Charming, I promise. Also, the floor is spotted blue. That was my favorite part. *sigh* He’s lucky he’s cute. Do you suppose parents say that about their children when the children wreak havoc?

Going to be having adventures for the next couple of days. Hopefully I can let loose some info about recent developments soon. Not quite time yet!