Well, I am sure

that some of you may stop by today to see if there are new pictures of Oribel and a WoW post. Well, there was one planned, but I wound up having to spend the time I had planned on that for something else. The something else being: stuffing Someone into the bathroom and closing the door, catching and releasing the bird Someone chased into the house, and vacuuming up a bunch of feathers all over the floor. Of course, now Someone is pacing all over looking for her prize and is rather upset me because I won't let her go back outside. Silly Someone, thinking she gets to go back out.

 

Last week I made another pair of baby socks (to go with the Baby Cousin Hat for Chan). Though there is only one in the picture, I promise there is a pair of socks, bringing me to 7 of 12. Yeah, I know, it is beginning to look like I am going to go past twelve pairs of socks for the year. Of course, I might just wind up making some socks out of yarn I bought this year, so then they wouldn't be part of the "Stash Sock Club" count.

(I'll see about getting you some new Oribel pictures tonight or tomorrow, provided she stays out of trouble so I have time.)

Dearest DTE,

Did you really need to tell me that one of my favorite flavors in the world was now the most awesome ice cream? You're right, we would be much better off if they made it in the single serve size.
Love,
Mom

(For those of you that haven't tasted this, yes it is good enough to have deserved such a formal portrait sitting. Really.)

Random stuff and obligatory cat picture,

(but not necessarily in that order). (Mr.) Cat matches Dad's sofa quite well, though there are chairs he would prefer to sleep in for the post part. The other day I was sitting in his favorite one, Dad was in his second favorite, so he decided to sleep in the newspaper recycling box next to me. Apparently that was the first time he had ever done that. (It was really so that he would be ready to hop right into the chair when I got out.)

 

When someone has told you all about their cool vacuum food saver device they have (that they learned about from your own mom, but she never told you about), and they let you play with it and seal up rolls,

 

you remember that some things aren't meant to be vacuum packed (but you also learn that it does pretty much preform just as promised, removing all air).

 

This one is for our DT's, since I promised them a picture if we were ever able to snag a Bag 'O Crap Beer at the local store, (and anyone else that hangs out at Woot enough to care).

 

Time to be off again, I head home tomorrow, so you might get new pictures of my animals soon. (If I get it together enough, I have the pictures I just need to post them. Especially since I have promised some to DTE.)

Still kicking

and knitting, as well as other random stuff. I have finished a pair of socks, which brings me to 6 of 12, for those of you that might be wondering, or keeping track. I still have half of another pair done; well half plus a little of the second half.
I have also made a few dishcloths lately, which brings me to eight for the year so far. (I think it is eight, maybe I lost track of one or two. Not so many dishcloths happening due to socks being my new "go to project.")

 

Here is an "in progress" picture of an apron I finished before I left home,

 

and here it is finished. (For those of you that had said you wanted to see what I was sewing.) I will definitely be making more aprons when I get home. However, I might try to do the cutting out part while Oribel is outside so as to not get too much help.

Dad and I are at the library this afternoon, and I am thinking they are going to be closing soon. Hanging out here to do Internet stuff/email check works well as there are all sorts of things to keep dad entertained. (He does OK in the coffee shop for awhile as they have newspapers and books there too, but as one can imagine, there is way more here to entertain him! Oh, and of course he just ran into someone that recognized him from somewhere, so they got to chat for a few minutes!) So I am going to hit publish now, but you might get lucky and get another post soon!

I have only sort of fallen off

of the face of the earth. I am currently in the land of my childhood, attending to some family matters. So, posts here will be spotty, and probably not full of witty life happenings. But I am getting some things accomplished, so it isn't really a vacation. Maybe in a few days I'll have some fun stuff to dazzle you all with.
Well, tomorrow might be a brief vacate in the midst of work, I get to go to a quilt show for a couple of hours!

Meet "Meadow Bag"

My downstream partner for the Dumpling Bag Swap has received her bag safely, So I can now introduce you to the one I made. My partner's name means “meadow where the beaver dwells,” so I was inspired to make her a Meadow Bag. Here it is in its pre-felted state,

 

with a close up of some of the cattails that seem to love growing near ponds and meadows.

 

This is what it looked like after it was all felted and dry.

 

It wasn't until after I was back inside and had it all packaged up to mail off that I realized I had forgotten a picture of the felted pond as well as the small stuffed beaver that had happily taken up residence inside his new meadow home. Oh well, the important thing is that PoMOGolightly loves it! Which she has told me she does and I am guessing she will put up a post about it soon. (She is busy teaching college freshman all about Freshman Composition, which is not an easy job.)

Staying hidden (or maybe not).

When you are an orange cat, on an almost orange deck, on a sunny day, it is very important to make yourself small, flat, and hidden.

 

 

Just because you never know who might wander about on your deck,

 

and need to be watched very closely.

 

Of course, there are always the ones that wander into your yard,

 

and walk around to see if there is anything to eat,

 

Sometimes, you just have to take your chances on being seen to be able to look at what is going on in the yard.

 

Don't forget to check out Whiskers on Wednesday.

Random life stuff, again

Don't you just love hearing about our random life around here? (I guess if you don't, you know how to move on to another page/window of your computer.)
Some of you may have been hanging out here at Casa Coffee Yarn to remember me telling you about Oribel's love of bubble wrap. (If not, you might want to go read it, but only if you like stories about her.) Anyway, she also happens to like playing with tissue paper. Balled up tissue paper is really great for batting across the room and chasing, and of course flat tissue paper is one of the best things for pouncing on and hiding underneath, not to mention biting and ripping. Saturday I got a package in the mail and as usual, Miss O laid claim to the tissue paper that was used for protection and stuffing in the package. No, no pictures of her and her precious tissue paper, but I can show you what I got in the mail.
I had signed up for a Dumpling Bag Swap and mine came, complete with tissue. (What is a Dumpling Bag? See here and here.)
(Bloggless) DiverJan was my upstream partner and has a great sounding day job as marine biologist/ecologist and I told her I loved the Squid bags she had made and would be more than thrilled with whatever she decided she wanted to make.
Well, I got a super-cool Squid Bag of my very own! I love how the squid wraps all the way around the bag and has cool beads in select spots.

 

She also sent along some treats from Florida, even though no extras were expected or required! (I'll show you the one I made after my downstream partner gets it, if you all have any desire to see what it looks like.)

 

I have been doing some sewing lately, but haven't taken any pictures of that. Maybe I'll try to remember to get some later this week. I have had this weird desire to make aprons, and fortunately DTE has been rather accommodating in that regard. She asked me if I could make one for a friend of hers, and of course I was happy to say yes. She also was wondering if I would be willing to make a different one for her and again, "Yes" was the happy answer. I should really make a couple for myself I think. I don't usually wear an apron when I cook (DTE pretty much always wears one when cooking is involved), and it becomes rather obvious when flour has been involved with a quick look at my jeans. Several aprons around to wear and throw in the laundry would make more sense than having to hunt up a clean pair of jeans to go out. 'Cause maybe I cook a lot, and it often involves flour or other messy stuff.
My car started making a funny noise a few weeks back, so today we dropped it off to be looked at. For some weird reason it needs a new wheel bearing; I say weird because it had two new wheel bearings in January of 2008. The guys at the shop are going to submit the info to the proper place, even though the warranty was for 12mo/12,000 miles and it has (obviously) been over 12 months and I have at least 20,000 miles since they were put in. He said they might give a partial refund and it never hurts to ask. (Yes, that is 20K in about 14 or 15 months. What can I say? We live miles out of town, drive 400+ miles north and back several times a year, to the Big Cities 90 miles north, and such.Yes my car gets to do most of the driving, rather than the truck. Well, and the truck didn't get used last winter at all since it didn't get its snowshoes out of the shed in time. But there is a reason we have an all-wheel drive car. Because we knew we needed to drive a lot in the snow/winter/ick. It has a job to do and it does it well, what more can I ask? OK, maybe to have a wheel bearing last a little longer, but oh well.

FYI, for you non-sewers out there; sewing patterns are quite often printed on tissue paper.

Weekend Visitors

We had several weekend visitors, starting with this guy. He stayed there, looking at tormenting Oribel, not even noticing me taking his picture. (Nope, no pictures of the cat going crazy.) Later on she got to go outside and give some torment back. She went out and hung around on the deck, and then down onto the patio for a good roll and who knows what else. Somewhere along the line I noticed a squirrel working its way toward the deck, not paying any attention to possible dangers lurking about. I, however, did happen to see one of its potential dangers holding very, very still in the grass. All of a sudden, that little guy was making a very fast run for the tree, with an orange monster very close on its tail. Both of them went racing up the tree trunk, but the squirrel managed to stay just ahead of her, and then get above her enough that it felt safe in giving her a major scolding. Not that she really seemed to care what it had to say to her, she just stayed in the tree with her eye on it for awhile, and then hung out under the tree, just to remind it who was really Queen of the Yard.

 

These guys also came wandering through the yard, but I think Oribel was glad she was on the inside of the glass that time around. She kept a close eye on them, stood up against the door to see, got into the kitchen window for a better view, but she never asked to go out. (Seriously, she really doesn't say much very often, except when she wants someone to open the door to the deck for her. Then she is all about trying to scratch it down and "crying" at us.)
These four (or maybe it was five at some point) guys kept trying to let everyone know just how fancy they were, and were more than happy to let everyone know what wonderful voices they had,

 

but their intended audience really didn't care in the least.

 

 

The weekend snowstorm turned out to be a bust, at least around here. Our "two to five inches" turned out to be just a dusting.
On the plus side of things, DTE found out she got her dream job for the summer, she is going to be paid to work in the theater at school this summer and it also includes housing. DTY is also very excited to have gotten the job of "Assistant Training Supervisor" at the reactor, but I am not entirely clear on if that includes the summer, or if it is her job for next school year. Either way, she is planning on staying in Portland for the summer.

Lake Superior and drive south, March 20

The Lake










The drive south (after returning DTE back to school)

Drive north and Lake Superior, March 14

The drive north (to pick DTE up for Spring Break)

 

Stuff at the Lake Walk

 

The Lake

 

Stuff on the beach

 

Stuff in the lake










(All the plaques with descriptions have been removed, for renovation I suppose. Thus I don't know what the concrete structure is, or anything about the "Hands and Dove" sculpture.)