Frogs and Ravens

Weekend Photos

Since I was away over the weekend, and will be away for a few days, here's some pictures to tide you over.

First, I offer you a gratuitous coastal scene, complete with palm trees and bird rock:

A bit of meal-time whimsy inspired by my aunt's salad:

And, because you haven't seen her in a while, a picture of my neighbor's cat:

I apologize for the small size of the pictures; I accidentally told Typepad to make pop-ups using a pixel scale rather than a percentage scale, my usual practice. Click on them for larger views; be aware that the coastal scene is VERY large.

I Think We Need Some Kittens

I'd Rather Be Knitting (Something FUN, That Is)

After a lazy day off followed by an evening at the thea-tah with D., I am back in my little grey-green box, staring at a screen. Whoo-hoo. At least it is not a cubicle, and I can hide away in it for most of the day.

Spring is definitely here. TNC is shedding like crazy, which is slightly disconcerting. One nice thing about tuxedo cats is that they tend to have short, non-sheddy, non-floaty hair. I'd gotten spoiled. Now she comes in and a little cloud of hair wafts along behind her, and heaven help me if I accidently pat her while my hands are wet!

Knitting is at a standstill right now, alas. I'm waiting on a shipment of out-of-stock double-pointed needles that I must have before I can proceed on my green sweater. I _do_ have the yarn now to finish my dad's horrible cabled monster, but am I doing anything on it? No. Of course not. This is why it's been over a year since I started it! (I'm sure I will be proud of it when I'm done, but right now I am so, so sick of boring grey yarn with endless, I-can't-zone-out-and-just-knit cables!)

I've attempted to start a crocheting project so I'll have something to do while at the court house for jury duty, but all I've accomplished is to remind myself why I don't crochet much. I have limited skills and knowledge of fancier stitches, so I end up producing dense things with ugly square textures rather like those found on door mats. Bleah. I'm also now finding that I miss having more than one needle to help hold up the work and keep it tidy. The gatekeepers at the court house are cruel, I tell you, cruel!

Maybe it's time to start working on a shawl I've been thinking about (inspired in no small part by Stephanie's efforts -- not that I'm up to such an elegant shawatch!). The thought of that much lace is scary, though. What if it's like knitting the evil cables, only with fiddly skinny yarn added to the mix? Eeek.

More Kitty Pics

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Blah-di-blah-blah-blah

Not much to post about today. Survivor was very gratifying last night; it was nice to see people briefly step out of the game mentality and act like real people with real lives elsewhere for once. Rupert's cabin/pit was just laughably bad, the man-bites-shark story was hilarious, and I loved the rock garden.

I hate to say it, but seeing all the bug bites made me nostalgic. I've been on trips like that! (And, more fool me, I'm dreaming about going on another one.)

I turned in a book review last week; the editor said it was a "fine piece of work, like always."

My current craftiness is obsessing over some lovely soft sage/celery green wool that I think would be perfect for a simple sweater with a Nordic or Fair Isle border in tan. I'm very eager to begin, but I've been balked by the lack of time to visit the yarn store. Happily, D. and I will be going there this weekend.

I want this book.

The neighbor's cat continues to make an adorable pest of herself every morning and evening. Meow, meow, yowl, scratch, rattle the screen, lemme-in-lemme-in-lemme-in! It's a damn good thing she's cute.

Back to work...

Looking Up

Here she is again, MNC (My Neighbor's Cat). Sometimes she likes to tap me on the head when I walk under her like this.

My Neighbor's Cat

I'm still figuring out how to manipulate the images I post on Typepad; there's a fair amount of control at the first upload, but afterward it really depends on how well you can code the raw data. So consider this an experiment in sharing a large picture.



She is a black-and-white cat, but the white parts are all on the front and underneath. This picture shows her during one of her visits.0

Saturday Faux-Cat Blogging

In celebration of my new employment, I splurged on this "Balinese cradle angel." According to the woman in the store, cat-shaped angels are meant to bring peace and prosperity to the children they guard. In any case, it appealed to me, and now it is hanging over my own bed. Meow!