There is a perfectly sound and reasonable explanation for my lack of blog posting.  Typing is now extremely difficult because webs have grown between my fingers and toes. 

The girls show every sign of sprouting gills behind their ears as well.  Yes, this is western Washington and rain is notorious for this region, but this is ridiculous!  The wind, rain and generally crappy weather have kept everyone inside. Perpetual clouds transform even midday to dreary darkness.  My girls and tired and grumpy, the people (both big and small) who I work with seem to drag and everyone just wants to sleep.  

Last night the girls and I agreed that a sleepy evening at home would be perfect.  I made French toast stuffed with cream cheese, bacon and sausage for dinner then we all gathered together and watched “Up”.  My DH even came in and joined us. The movie made me cry and laugh, then cry again. It was delightful. The two youngest are watching it again this morning before we return it.

Roxie and Bonny still haven’t bonded.  They’ve come to understand that the other exists and isn’t leaving though. It’s a start. Roxie is about half of Bonny’s size, yet Bonny shies away from her as though she were a bobcat.  The irony of this is that Bonny took great delight in terrorizing Tasha for four years. Hopefully that won’t be the case here though.

Sorry for the picture quality, but I’m still using the camera on my phone.  She looks annoyed in this picture because I stopped petting her long enough to take the picture.  Bonny flat-out refused to be photographed this morning.

The muffler/scarf knitted from this summer’s handspun is finally finished.  It’s much brighter and crisper looking in person.  For some reason this took an unreasonable amount of time in comparison to the completed size.  Perhaps it’s because I’m used to knitting lace and the holes make projects “grow” faster.

Other WIPs include making new slippers to felt for my DH and trying to applique some more quilt squares for Christmas wall-hangings.  Next week we’re driving to my mom and dad’s for Thanksgiving. Everyone is looking forward to the holiday. Grandpa Porgy, Great Auntie Ruth, my Sister and BIL and perhaps others will all be there.  My brother works on Thanksgiving so he and his family can’t make it.  From what I understand his oldest daughter, from a previous marriage, is expecting another baby soon. 

Hopey’all are staying dry and warm. Cheers!

Last week I knitted my modified version of “Pretty Thing” by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I  used  just over half a skein of Woolybuns (Chris’) gorgeous hand dyed yarn, featuring her own bunny hair as part of the blend. It’s very soft!  Pattern modifications included adding another repeat in the round to make it wider and doubling the length so it could be pulled up to serve as a hood too.

One cool “Thing” about making “Pretty Thing” is that there’s enough of this delightful yarn left to make another “Pretty Thing”. Next  time  I’ll follow the actual instructions though. 

Another cool “Thing” I discovered was that the bright sunlight over-exposed the pictures, thus masking out  my wrinkles!  Yee and haw! 

A surprising “Thing” at our house is that we’ve all grown quite fond of this rather large spider who lives outside out kitchen window.  We enjoy watching her (we’re guessing at the sex) eat breakfast and repair her web. 

It’s hard to tell from the picture, but she’s really BIG.  She also has a “Ghetto Booty”.   Gotta love that!  Of course, if this monstrosity appeared inside the house the girls and I would scream bloody murder until my DH fulfilled his duty… which in this case would consist of removing the creepy crawly.

Roxie and Bonny continue doing the avoidance “Thing”.  There haven’t been any all-out wars though and we’re still hopeful that they’ll become the best of friends. In the meantime everyone is making extra efforts to give Bonny special attention.

Hope everyone did their own “Thing” to celebrate Veteran’s Day.  Thank you to everyone who’s ever served. Because of your sacrifice we were able to stay home and do nothing today.  Seriously… not everyone gets to enjoy such luxuries.  Cheers!

By bedtime on Friday my DH had decided that enough was enough. The entire household was in a subdued state, bordering on depression, following Tasha’s burial. In order to end the moping and to liven the place up he decided we needed a new cat.
Holy cow! My Dh doesn’t dislike animals, but he’s proclaimed on many occasions that absolutely no more pets are allowed. Ever. They’re expensive, messy and demanding (just like the kids), and he didn’t want any more critters to deal with. So for him to make this statement surprised the heck out of me. For about 3 seconds I considered taking advantage of his generosity to ask for a boob job, but the thought left quickly.

Saturday afternoon we all piled into the van and hydroplaned our way down to the Humane Society. Overwhelming doesn’t even begin to describe the feeling when you see all of the kitties waiting to be adopted. On the suggestion of a dear friend we decided to limit our search to middle-aged, neutered male cats in hopes of improving the chances that Bonny and a new kitty would like each other.

Of course the girls all flocked to the kittens, and each proclaimed a different animal to be “the one”. All of the cats were heart-wrenching to see and the ones curled up in apathy near the back of the kennels appealed to me just as much as the ones reaching their paws out the cage bars as we walked by. We spent about 40 minutes walking around just looking. Finally I told my DH that I didn’t want to get a new kitty just yet.

The girls begged and pleaded to at least take one into a room for a personal meeting. We took a handsome young kitten named Raphael into the private acquaintance room and he proceeded to charm all of us. He also tried to climb the walls, jump out the window and chew on anything available. As adorable as he was I told the girls that he’d have no trouble finding a home, but that he wasn’t right for us.

Next up we took a 6 month old female, named Ballofur, into a room. Ballofur was sweet through the cage bars, but she turned into “Ballofury” in the room. The poor dear panicked and tried hurling herself through a window. As she ran around the room using the walls for a springboard one of my girls worked at signaling a staff member to retrieve the kitty. I managed to catch her long enough for the worker to open the door and come in without the kitty escaping, but she bit the crap out of my hand in the process. We decided Ballofur needed a different forever home. At this point I told my DH that while I truly appreciated his generosity that it was time to leave.

A different shelter worker approached us and asked questions about our family and about Bonny. She had one final suggestion for us that she felt might work out. The next thing we knew the girls and I were in a third acquaintance room being introduced to Florence. Florence was a year and half old spayed female who had been adopted out once, but then the family returned her. She didn’t get along with their small dog and scratched him. She did, however, get along fine with the cats and children that were in that home. Florence had been in the shelter since 08-03-09. No sooner had the worker set Florence down then she walked over to our eldest daughter and curled up in her lap. The rumbling purrs removed any traces of doubt that we had. Paperwork was filled out in record time, she was rechristened and brought home to join our family.

Meet Roxanna, or Roxie for short.

Since her arrival Roxie has explored about half of the house. She’s checking out some yarn in the above photo. She and Miss Bonny have met on several occasions. Both are leary and have yet to get within 3 feet of each other. There has been no hissing, etc. though. They might have had a more favorable first meeting and become more intimate had it not been for the fact that Roxie backed into A3’s guitar, knocking it over, making Roxie jump. Which in turn scared the crap out of Bonny so she ran away to a bedroom and hid for several hours.

The girls are delighted with their newest friend. I think she’s very sweet too. Her toes look like little black jelly beans against her white paws.

Maybe tomorrow while the house is quiet and free from human interference the two felines will have the chance to finally meet unhindered. We’ve crossed our paws and fingers that harmony will prevail. My DH rocks!

p.s. the birds are not amused

This morning I received a voicemail at work from my husband. While he was setting out the trash one of the neighbors approached him and said that Tasha’s body was rotting on her back porch. Ironically, this was the first place that my gut led me to when she disappeared. I asked the young man who answered the door if he’d check his back yard for her. He went into his house and came back several minutes later and said that he stood on his back porch and couldn’t see her any place in their yard but that he didn’t check under the bushes because it was wet and he didn’t want to walk down into the grass. Had he taken another 30 seconds and looked then we could have avoided the hours of searching, placing and checking ads on Craigslist, Humane Society visits, etc. It’s good to have closure and to know for certain that she isn’t wandering around cold or hungry. It’s also comforting to know that she wasn’t torn up or eaten by animals. The libel against raccoons was unwarranted on my part, but I still dislike them immensely and they’re still trespassing in our yard. I buried Tasha next to a large hydrangea bush in a warm and sunny spot. She loved the sun. I miss her.

“And the rain rain rain
came down down down
in rushing rising rivlets
’til the river rushed
out of it’s bed
and rushed right into Piglet’s”

Rain pounding on the roof woke me up at 4:00 this morning. Hopefully the wind blew itself out last night so we can use umbrellas. The elementary school I work at has issues with the playground field becoming a quagmire of mud and goo. As a result it becomes off limits to the students during heavy rains. In addition, if the rain’s too heavy they can’t even go to the equipment because it’s not covered. The result is that they’re forced to mill around under the covered walkway and basketball court. There isn’t enough room for them to do much so they don’t get to run off excess energy and unwind. One of the teachers I work with will sometimes put on music and let her kids dance. That might help cheer the kidlets up. Of course doubling up on Prozac or spiking my coffee with Kahlua may not be a bad idea either. Yes, I’m kidding.

Last night was Chess Club and we needed to make a run over to the Junior High School to make sure everyone had a ride home so knitting time was limited. A few more rows were added to my current WIP. There’s enough yarn that I can make a second, identical
“thing” as well.

Theoretically there are no school concerts, sporting events, birthday parties or other “outings” planned for this weekend. I’m typing this quietly for fear that the universe will throw several unexpected happenings our way.

Bonny seems to have come to terms with Tasha’s absence. She’s very clingy now though and insists on sleeping on top of our legs. New sets of raccoon footprints on and around our back porch mean we’ve pretty much resigned ourselves that the little jerks got my kitty. If so then I hope she got a few good bites or scratches in first and didn’t suffer.

Hope everyone enjoys a quiet weekend. Cheers!

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by the mailbox on my way to meet the kids at the bus stop. Low and behold, there was a package there from Roxy. Curiousity got the better of me and rather than wait until delivering the munchkins (inaccurate term considering that the boy who stays with us is taller than I am) home I opened the package. Before continuing some things must be clarified. First, I’m tired. Very tired. Both from worrying about and from waiting on A3 while she was down. Second, hormones are wreaking havoc with me right about now. Back to the narrative. Upon opening the package two amazing activity books fell out (I’m clumsy too) along with the dearest letter imaginable. Roxy said that she knows how long and boring recovery from illness can be and the books were to help A3 pass the time. Sniff. Right there in front of the other mommies retrieving their kids I felt my lip starting to quiver and my eyes began to sting. Of course the sane women at the bus stop assumed that dreadful news of a deceased relative had arrived so they rushed to consult me. To avoid full-on tears I chose to hand them the letter rather than attempt speech. They oohd and aahd over the thoughtfulness then proceeded to latch onto the activity books.
href=”http://heideho.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/booksfromroxy.jpg”>

The bus had arrived and the kids had all crossed the street by the time I was able to pry the books back from them. They are so cool! Both A2 and A3 spent the evening happily coloring, doing puzzles, etc. Thank you Roxy!

<a

Elsewhere, I’ve been plugging away on another knitting project. I don’t wish to say too much about it at this time, other than it’s enjoyable to work on. Happy Wednesday all!

A3 is much better and is heading to school today! She’s still very weak and thin. The doctor said she’ll need to take it easy for the next month and that she’ll still have coughing episodes. Halloween was wonderful and a good time was had by all. We left a bowl of candy by our front door with a sign that said, “Happy Halloween” then we loaded up the girls and drove to a more “condensed” neighborhood. A1 met a group of her friends there and the two younger girls Trick or Treated with us. A3 got tired pretty fast so the younger girls, my DH and I drove to a nearby restaurant for a late night meal and hot drinks. A1 chose to have an extra half an hour with her friends. Taking pictures with my phone didn’t work out because it was too dark. A1 dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and the two younger girls both chose to be cats. The candy is already mostly gone (I helped with the chocolate). When we got home there were still older kids out Trick or Treating in our neighborhood. Some of them had pillow cases that were over half full. How much candy does one child need? Craziness.
While home last week I knitted a man-sized sock and part of a sweater. The Sweater was The Eyelet Cardi and I used some alpaca purchased last year. I had gauge, but the sweater looked terrible. The crappy thing is that I knew the sweater looked “wrong” from the first row and yet I continued knitting on it until it was time to divide it for the body. Tenacity and perseverance are noble, but this was sheer stupidity. When something is ugly making more of the ugly doesn’t fix the problem. It’s been frogged.

 Sunday started out cold and foggy, but by the afternoon the fog burned off leaving a crisp, clear beautiful autumn day.  I raked leaves in the front yard and packed away the Halloween decorations.

A3 kept me company, but she couldn’t stay outside very long because it was still a little cold.  The jack-o-lanterns were tossed unceremoniously on top of the compost heap with the leaves and the pumpkin guts. Maybe pumpkins will grow there next year.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week. I’m so glad it’s November.

Sorry for the lack of posting, but we’ve been quite preoccupied. A3’s flu has developed into pneumonia and the poor little kidlet isn’t feel well at all. There are still no signs of Tasha. We believe that she either fell asleep under the bushes in someone’s yard and never woke up or that the coyotes or raccoons got her. Hopefully the former is true and she’ll be located soon so we can have some closure. Not much else, other than to say that October has been crazy and we’re glad that it’s almost over.

Hey there, time for the gloom and doom report! Just kidding, although that’s all it seems to be any more. A3 was confirmed with H1N1 at the doctor’s office and the poor little kidlet is very sick. My DH has been staying home with her in the day time and I’ve been watching her during the nights. There are lots of students and teachers out with a variety of illnesses at school too. Strep is making the rounds in the forms of strep throat and at least one case of Scarlet Fever. In addition two cases of Viral Meningitis have also been confirmed. I carry a huge container of Lysol wipes everywhere for opening door handles, etc. Yuck!

I finished knitting a hat for a co-worker’s birthday, but alas, no picture. This afternoon if A3 sleeps then some Christmas gift knitting will be worked on too.

A2 and I put flyers up all around our neighborhood and searched the local shelter for Tasha, but we’ve had no luck in locating her yet. The shelter is so full of cats now that they’re forced into euthanizing the really sick animals coming in. I can’t help but feel that she’s somewhere still in the neighborhood though, perhaps in someone’s back yard bushes. Bonny seems quite sullen. I think it’s because Tasha is gone, but my DH thinks she’s just being a cat.

Hope everyone is doing well. If the afternoon allows I’d like to catch up on blog reading to see what everyone is up to. Cheers!

Just a quick post to update y’all on some changes. We’ve cancelled our land-line phone service and will be only using our cell phones from now on. If you need the new numbers please email me. We also cancelled our cable, much to the horror and dismay of my daughters. They spent this last weekend soaking up as much televised crap as their little brains could soak in. The past several days we’ve been searching for Tasha, but hope is dwindling that we’ll find her alive. Not only was her health spiraling downward, but during these last few months she’d taken to wandering about and not coming home without help. We tried keeping her inside, but she has an uncanny ability of slipping out. A2 is taking this especially hard and she cried herself to sleep last night. I hate not knowing where she is in case she’s some place hurt, cold or hungry. A1 and A3 are staying home from school today because they’re sick. My Dh will stay and take care of them. No new knitting, etc.