Remember the Cat(s)…

As mentioned in June, I did end up making a memorial to my cats.  This is for both my departed cats, as only appropriate, since they were litter-mates, if not always great friends. One cat was Scooter who ran away despite his leash, many years ago (he definitely followed the beat of a different drummer).  The other, of course, was my dear recently deceased kitty Caper.  They were very different kitties – Scotter was big and wild and a hunter, very aggressive.  Caper was just the opposite, sweet and timid and delicate and lovely.

It was difficult to take a picture of, but it’s got pictures from all phases of their lives, plus 2 amigurumi cats (one bigger than the other).  It has Caper’s clay paw impression and some favorite kitty things.  A box like the ones they slept in, plants they loved to nibble, a paper ball they liked to play “cat baseball” with.

I miss my kitties.  It’s nice to have something to remember them by, but it would be better if there were still kitties.

Swap!

I’m excited because it’s almost September. I just realized I sidestepped mentioning my birthday back in July. I feel like birthdays are really weird now – I just can’t seem to wrap my head around the idea that I’m in my thirties – 33, in fact. I seemed to have a concept of what this age would be like in my head, and I’ve realized that age really isn’t what I made it out to be when I was younger. Like I’m settling down – ha! Sometimes I feel like I’ve just recently grown into myself enough to start really being nuts.

SO – I’m all ready to get out the fall stuff. The days are getting shorter, the temps are only in the nineties and I’m doing a swap! It’s called the Very Vintage Halloween swap. I do not really know what “vintage” Halloween means, but the idea somehow still appeals to me.

If any of you have any ideas about what might count as vintage-y Halloween items, I’d appreciate hearing them. Seriously. I mean, Halloween to me is spooky things and cauldrons and black cats and witches in red-and-white striped stockings! Carved pumpkins! Hasn’t it always been that way? One thing I did suggest to my swap partner, the lovely Claudia of The Knitting Blog by Mr. Puffy the Dog (isn’t that an awesome name?) was Dia de los Muertos. That’s sort of retro … to me. The catrinas of Dia de los Muertos and The Nightmare Before Christmas always struck me as having a similar vibe, too. I love those things.

Meanwhile, I seem to have gotten my crocheting vibe back. I’m working on both my blankets again, and possibly a third if I can just manage to decide on the pattern I want to do. One of the blankets is a revisit to the very first thing I learned crocheting on. It’s going to be four very large granny squares (that’s a pic of one there to the right). I’ve decided to finish one large square per year, and I’m on #2. I would finish it faster, but I’ve found that it’s interesting working on this project over time. I can tell how much better I am at crocheting now than the last time I worked on it. I’m interested to come back in a year and see if I can tell a difference in my skill then. One thing I will say is that Red Heart Super Saver is very rough yarn. I mean, I can see starting out with it, learning and stuff, and I use it for stuffed animals still. But … wow. I do believe I may be exfoliating my fingers with this stuff.

I have to say that I’ve been pretty amused today because my cat Callie is very, very high. It’s nothing big, just pain medicine, but she’s being very loopy and her pupils are dilated and she’s kinda crossing her eyes. Dilated pupils must be rough for a cat, since they have such light-sensitive eyes. Poor kitty. She was spayed yesterday. When Jeff went to get her, he got the usual finger-shaking-in-our-face from the vet about her – about how she’s violent, and she wouldn’t eat, and she wouldn’t let them give her pain meds last night.

Honestly, I’m not terribly sympathetic. This is a veterinary practice, yet they’re lecturing me because my cat was defensive about being terrified, in pain and locked in a cage away from everything she knows? Pardon? This doesn’t seem right to me. I’m not arguing that the cat isn’t a handful, she is, but surely if you’re a vet you have a few tricks up your sleeve for handling terrified, defensive animals, right? Surely instinctive defensive behavior isn’t a shocker, either.

Off to investigate my bed. I’ve spent a bunch of time working on Photoshop and HTML today, and my brain is BEAT. I’ve been Twittering things today like “there’s nothing like a computer to make you feel like you’re being ignored.” Ain’t that the truth.

Greetings, earthlings

First on my list today is a birthday wish to my Grandma, who turns 82 today.  Happy birthday Grandma!

Second, Shelly asked me what a mayhaw is, since I mentioned one in reference to jam.  Eh voila:

Yon mayhaw is a berry from a type of hawthorne tree that fruits in May (May + haw, get it?) So mayhaw.net tells me.  As far as what it tastes like … well, it tastes like a mayhaw. You should try it.  It’s a southern treat, as mayhaw trees flower early on in the year.  Consequently the trees grow best mostly in Louisiana but also in  Mississippi and east Texas.  My neighbor who made mayhaw jelly was from Louisiana (Looozeeeana) and I grew up in east Tejas, so I guess that explains my familiarity.

Y’all want me to break out in an east Texas twang, now?  Hahahahaha.  That would be the day.

Speaking of jelly, tomorrow I venture out in a westerly direction where there are a number of fruit tree farms between here and Fredericksburg – peach trees to be precise.  I’m going to see if I can procure some of those tasty things and do some more canning with them.  I’m quite positive that some obliging farm folks will have recipes I can try at the farm stands.  Each year I’ve been out there when fruit is in season I’ve come back with pages of dessert recipes.

I meant to write a post yesterday but honestly, I was being quite weepy.  Quite. I’m not normally a weepy person, but … well, I picked up Caper’s ashes yesterday.  The folks who do this did one extra thing I wasn’t at all prepared for.  They made a clay impression of his paw.  That’s right, it did me in.  I cried and cried. *sigh* I miss my cat.  His food bowls are still out.  I can’t help it, I’m not ready yet.

If that wasn’t enough, I went to Shelly’s blog to read her account of delivering the Share A Square blankets (sniffle), and then read the account at Yellow Rose’s Garden (Sherry and her daughter went) (sniff), and then went and looked at the pictures Shelly posted on Flickr (sniff) … and then I cried some more.  Then I remembered Shelly gave me an Arte y Pico award earlier this week (that was sweet of her, wasn’t it?) and there was yet more sniffling.

And then I realized I really just had to get off the internet before I became a weeping puddle of goo and go read or something.  So I did, and so I will do now, because I’m not yet done with my book.