Tricked II

This time we got tricked by the weather. My parents were scheduled to fly on Friday, but haven’t yet made it out of Denver due to the huge blizzard. Their flight was cancelled for Friday, and were finally lucky enough to get their flights changed, but not until Tuesday, so we’ll just have to celebrate Christmas late. My mom and I were lucky enough to get our library shifts covered on Saturday (thanks Mimi!), and get our flights changed, so we can extend our holiday a little bit and I can show them around south Florida. Neither my mom or Andrew has been to FL before and after all that snow, I’m sure they could use a little beachy weather.

While we are missing Loki, my inlaws got a mini white schnauzer named Gabe who is very cute. We’ll have to take lots of doggy photos. Actually he is still quite a bit of a puppy with all the hilarity that ensues from that. I brought my knitting project with me and after searching down a knitting store here for the right sized circulars, it is going pretty well. There is a lot of sports on this weekend, so it will be perfect to curl up in the same room and just knit.

Today we went to the beach, saw some dolphins and ate lunch at our favorite waterside restaurant. Tomorrow? Maybe a trip to Tim’s favorite…the Everglades.

Trickery

Tricked! I don’t think that it was allergies at all…but insead a cold that never left me feeling sick except for the…well…extreme congestion in my face and chest (I know you came here for phglem stories!). Still taking the claritin as a precautionary measure, but feeling much better.

I got the last of my holiday crafting done this morning…can’t put up photos until that gift is given, but I do have another holiday quilt on my flickr page that has been received and hopefully used already! After the New Year I am all set to sew Ashley’s quilt together as all the pieces are cut and ready to go (well except for I have to trim the framed blocks to 16 1/2 inches which I was all set to do the other night except for I remembered that they also needed ironing before I trimmed and the thought of plugging in the iron…was. just. too. much. after I had already ironed and trimmed 40 4 1/2 inch blocks for the inner border.). Thien also helped me start knitting a felted bed for Loki at our recent knit night at our local coffee shop/bar Ruta Maya downtown last week. That might be my project for the holidays to keep my fingers busy, though somehow, somewhere I need to track down size 11 24′ circular needles before I go too far.

The leaves on all the trees are just turning and falling, but at 80 degrees it doesn’t feel like Christmas yet!

Chez Acres North

Even though we adopted him from there, Loki is never happy to go back for his yearly visit. He is still a little mad at me for taking him to the vet, but he is getting over it treat by treat. The vet did say that he has a little tartar build up, and after hearing about Annie’s teeth (Loki’s long distance girlfriend) it sort of scared me. Should I be brushing his teeth? With one of those little rubber finger tip thingies? An actual toothbrush? I can do the nail clipping, but I don’t know about the teeth.

I love early Friday afternoons…the whole weekend stretching out before me. I might make some cheese sticks from a cookbook I have yet to cross off my list. Maybe do a little knitting as well. I found some yarn that I LOVE, and it is knitting up beautifully. And then maybe a movie tonight, curling up on the couch pretending under the fan and the a/c that it is turning fall (which it TOTALLY ISN’T).

Loki’s Treats

Things Loki likes to eat (in general order):

1. Salmon
2. Cheese
3. Peanut Butter
4. Organic Wheatgrass
5. Cheetos All Natural White Cheddar Puffs
6. Pounce Tartar Control Treats
7. an ice cube in a bowl
8. bamboo/spider plant
9. spider webs
10. anything else that is either an a)plant, or b)salty

Sarong Song

Loki is quickly earning nicknames. While we try to call him just ‘Loki’ as to not confuse him, he often ends up as ‘Loki-Kitty’. But sometimes he is ‘Crazy Kitty’, or ‘Rowdy Kitty’ and sometimes even ‘Oh-my-gosh-what-is-wrong-with-our-goofy-silly-crazy-hyped-up-Kitty’. Maybe we should have named him Tranquility or Serenity instead of Loki after the god of Mischief. And if you want to entertain him, wad up about a small piece of note paper and he will play with it for hours…until it is wet and disintegrating. He will pick it up in his mouth and carry it to different locations, drop it and attack it, diving, flipping, rolling. Repeat X 80.

Tim and I embarked on house improvement project “Peel Wallpaper”. There are several areas in the house with wallpaper, the breakfast area off the kitchen being one of them. There was some blue wallpaper on one side that peeled right off, just needed some clean up. But there was also some evil (what else could it be?)white and blue wallpaper that took blood, sweat and tears to remove. Tim said after we were finished that he is never buying a house with wallpaper again. And we still have more to look forward to in the kitchen! So we will have to repair some spackle around the windows and we can start painting! Yay!

It has been raining here recently, nice to have it cool down a little bit. Sunday afternoon we were invited to have lunch with the Marianist Sisters. Tim created the website for them, and they have in turn taken a liking to him. They were funny, and interesting (and highly educated, many of them have graduate degrees or PhDs!) and made it clear that they needed to check me out.

I am currently reading Atonement by Ian McEwan…I have never read any of his stuff before, but he has won the Booker prize previously, and I have had a string of luck with other Booker prize winners…and at least Atonement made the short list. For those of you who enjoy a jolly good Brit novel (or Canadian, or Australian…), check some of them out (turn the page on the website by clicking on the book — hey, it took me awhile).

Okay, time to catch some Monday Night Football.

xoxo,

Welcome Loki

For those of you who can’t wait…go right now and come back. Yes, there are pictures of our new kitty up in the pictures section. For my birthday Tim got me a 12 week old kitten who was abandoned at a vet’s office. He is tiny and goofy and we named him Loki, a Norse god of Mischief, which is proving to be very telling. He loves to explore the house, chase shadows, bat the kitchen rug fringe, attack the arrow cursor on the monitor (as he is doing right now) and chase a piece of gold ribbon…but he can also cuddle and has been known to nap in a warm lap.

With the addition of Loki, I had a wonderful birthday. I requested my birthday dinner be Vietnamese takeout (the Spring rolls were sooo good) and we just stayed in and played with the new kitty. It is always nice to hear from everyone on your birthday, either by phone, email or card. Thank you to all of you who sent birthday greetings my way. Tim also added to our home furnishings by getting me a beautiful teak garden bench. Right now it is in the front of the house, but we might move it in back, where I think that we would use it more. Speaking of home furnishings, within the pictures of the kitty there are also pictures of our new entertainment armoire. I love it, and we may be done for awhile on buying furniture. Next step? Painting!

When Tim and I bought the Blazer a few weeks ago, we scored some free tickets to Fiesta Texas so we went on Saturday. Neither of us had been on a rollercoaster in a very long time, and we rode a bunch on Saturday. We got there early to avoid the heat and crowds, but it really wasn’t that crowded. The best rollercoaster there, the Poltergeist, never had a line, so we rode it at least a few tmes. My favorite was the Scream. It the one that shoots you way up in the air, and you hang there for a few seconds and then basically free fall 200 feet, only to bounce up again. And yes, I screamed. I screamed on all the rides (okay, not the log ride). Some parts of the amusement part reminded me of the old Eliches and so it made me sorta nostalgic thinking about how we used to try to make Larissa taller by making her wear a baseball cap so she could ride the “big” rides, and of course the classic…when Amy did the twist with the singer in one of those musical shows (and how we told her that we were all going to wave at some boys when they came around on a ride and then nobody waved, only Amy…good thing she has forgiven us and laughs about it now).

All in all a good extended birthday celebration. Short work week and preparations for our first guests in the new house! My parents arrive on Thursday night and I am takking a couple of days off while they are here. This means that the guest room is all ready to go (hint hint) if you don’t mind the teddy bear stencils that are still there.

xoxo,