Needles clicking furiously
As I write this the little weatherbug that I have installed on my computer is telling me that it's actually a balmy 11 degrees with a wind chill that is making it feel like 7 degrees. It's getting to be downright toasty! I have all the drapes drawn against the cold, and I have the feeling that this might be what it feels like to live in a crack den. Or a funeral parlor.

It's really been brutal here for the last week or so, if you saw any of that nail-biter-of-a-football-game last night (Patriots vs. Titans) you know what it's like here, I live about 20 miles from the stadium. I, of course, watch the games from the comfort of home. One hand over my eyes and the other on the clicker in case it gets so tense that I can't watch. Actually, I've taken up knitting this week and that's what I was doing during the game. It's all very Madam Defarge - the Patriots are in trouble and the needles click faster. I've almost finished my third scarf since I started on Tuesday night. If I'd started at the beginning of the season I'd be buried in scarves by now!

I have no idea where this sudden urge to knit has come from, that's never been one of my talents. I was wandering through the yarn department in a craft store and was seduced by the colors and textures of the different yarns and fibers. Suddenly I had a basketful of skeins, and I keep going out to find more. My mother taught me to knit when I was little (actually it was on the day that John Glenn first went into space, and I was home with one of those childhood illnesses - a strangely vivid memory) but I was never any good at it. Suddenly I'm going at it so fast and furiously that I'm thinking to start a cottage industry. I'm naming it Defarge Inc.

But the scarves are really pretty. I'm using short eyelash yarn, long eyelash yarn, varigated wool and some solids. So far I've made one that's sort of plummy in color, then I've make one that's black with electric blue eyelashes, and the one that I'm almost done with has sort of pastel aqua and purples and yellows.

I have enough yarn here to make several more. I have no idea what I'm actually going to do with all of them. I may have to take a class so I can learn to make other things.

But for now it's all about scarves.

Vacation's end


I always find it hard to believe that vacation flies by so quickly when work drags away. But it's happened again and the Christmas break has come to an end.

I got more done during this break than I usually do, so I should be happy, but I didn't get as much done as I might have liked. I am never happy, but I'm not terribly motivated either.

I have finally gone through all the clothing and bedding and have gotten rid of a ton of stuff. The things that I've kept are all organized and in the proper places. This is really unusual for me, so it's a good thing. Of course who knows how long I can maintain this.

I still haven't put up a couple of knick-knack shelves and a few pictures, and I'm not sure why, seeing that those a relatively simple tasks. Maybe before the night is over I'll get that done. Ha.

I have also been working on a couple of altered book projects. I finished one and got it into the mail and am almost done with the one that is here at the moment. It's part of the angels round robin, and I've been having a tough time coming up with designs that I like. I'd like to get this done and in the mail this week, seeing there's another due in soon.

I'm also gathering stuff for an altered ancestors book, so I'm trying to pull together old family pictures and information to send along with the book. I have to do a few pages myself as well. I have so little from my father's side of the family that I'm scrambling to see what I can locate. I'd like this one to be special.

But it's back to work tomorrow and there goes the time to goof around.

I'll have to check to see when I have my next time off.

Blood on the floor
I have white tiles that run from the front door thru the kitchen and stop at the entrance to the living room. I hate them, they look really pretty and make the place look really bright, but they are a pain to keep clean.

The other morning I got out of bed and followed my usual routine of going to the kitchen to feed the cats, put on the coffee and then go to check the email. When the coffee was ready I headed to the kitchen and noticed a trail of blood smudges on the tiles.

I, of course, panicked convinced that one of the cats was dying of an intestinal disease or was bleeding from a wounded paw or other body part. So I tracked them down and checked them over, but couldn't find any wounds or blood. I then went back to the kitchen and tried to follow the trail to see if I could figure it out. The trail went to the sink, the fridge, and the coffee maker.

Hmmm.

I was the one who was bleeding.

The heel of my right foot is so dry that it had cracked and started to bleed. I knew that the heel was bugging me a bit, but it never dawned on me that it was as bad as that. So it's time to test out the Burt's Bees foot treatment that I got for Christmas. I have to fix this before I go back to school and am on my feet all day.

But I'm very relieved that it wasn't one of the cats!

Caterwauling
I have now lived through the meaning of this word.

Main Entry: cat?er?waul
Pronunciation: 'ka-t&r-"wol
Function: intransitive verb
Etymology: Middle English caterwawen
Date: 14th century1 : to make a harsh cry
2 : to quarrel noisily

I had to give the cat a bath. Broadway, the big guy ( I think he weighs about 15 pounds) has long hair and the poop was getting caught in the back end. He stunk. He needed a bath.

It wasn't pretty.

I filled the bathroom sink with water and shampoo, grabbed the cat, shut the door and attempted to dunk his rear end.

And only his rear end. The yowls were deafening. You'd have thought that I was pulling his teeth out. His yowls led to Bravo coming on the run and sitting outside the bathroom door, also yowling. Broadway would yell inside, Bravo would answer. I have no idea how well insulated this place is for sound, but I was waiting for the ASPCA to come pounding down the door, handcuffs at the ready.

So I dipped the cat, then grabbed a washcloth to try to scrub those hairs a bit. He'd then wrestle out of my arms - leaving scratches along the way - and try to get out. The door was closed, so he was trapped (and the bathroom is really small)and I'd try to get a hold on him to scrub the backend a bit more.

He'd yowl. Bravo would answer.

Bravo was also sticking his paw under the door, in an attempt to open it I assume, so he could rescue his brother.

This scene continued to replay itself for about fifteen minutes, during which time I also tried to dry him off a bit. This was fruitless, though as he didn't want to have anything to do with me, and the floor was so wet that he just kept getting wetter after I dried him off.

I finally gave up and let him out. He and Bravo found a place to go to commiserate.

Now I need to see if I can start brushing him to get out some of the mats.

It should take a couple of months at this rate! But at least he smells better!

Not Very Festive
This season is a real struggle for me.

I'm trying to participate in the obligatory parties and get togethers, but it's not easy. I have to force myself out of the house and paste a smile on my face, then stay only long enough to not look like a stinker. But I high-tail it out of there as soon as possible.

I'm sad. I miss my mother. I don't want to see decorations or sing songs, it's not the same. The rest of my family seems to be able to move on. I can't. I just want to forget it all and cry. I'm not putting up decorations or buying a tree or listening to carols. The plan is strictly to survive the two days (Christmas Eve and Day) and then put all signs of the holiday behind me.

I have done all the shopping I need to, and everyone who needs to be remembered or gifted in my life will be, but only because I have to, not because I want to.

I'm looking forward to having the time off from school and I plan to continue to work on getting this place put together. I've gotten some things done lately, it's a process, but it's slowly happening.

Then I'll have to survive New Year's Eve.

Keeping Up
I thought that having a blog would make it easier to continue writing each day - maybe even several times a day, but it's apparent that hasn't been the case.

I just don't seem to be able to keep up with anything in my life. I'm not sure where the time goes, but it flies by, and I feel as if I'm busy all the time. I multi-task and do a gazillion things each day, even if they're only little things.

Meanwhile, the laundry has hit mammoth proportions since the dead washing machine has yet to be replaced and is currently on back order. It's a dang good thing that I own so much underwear! I'm going to have to find time to swing by my mother's house to use the washer, and that is such a pain. One of the big selling points for this condo was ownership of my own washer and dryer.

I have done a bit more unpacking, and managed to put away the summer clothes and find some of the fallish, and winter clothes. Not that it makes sense to have done that today - it's currently 73 degrees out! In Boston! On November 1! I should go out and plant the bulbs that I bought a while back, so maybe I'll have them in before the snow flies.

Watch, it'll be freezing temps later this week. Last week we had snow that covered the ground. Fortunately it melted quickly, but we did get a couple of inches.

The list of things to do is a mile long. Too bad I only do little smidgens of things and never totally cross them off the list!

Baseball may kill me yet
I am a baseball fan - actually we can be very specific - I am a Red Sox fan.

A long suffering Red Sox fan.

And the playoffs are going to give me heart failure.

I thought that I was going to collapse from the tension as I watched game 5 of the playoffs against Oakland. I went to bed, but clutched the remote - clicking from the game to any other station, because the suspense was more than I could bear to watch. But I couldn't stand not watching, either, so I'd have to keep returning to the game. And when Johhny Damon got hurt I wanted to throw up - it was such an awful collision.

One run lead, bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, two out. I thought I'd freak I was so tense and ready to jump through the ceiling.

When D-Lowe threw that final strike I screamed and hollered. I'm sure I woke the upstairs neighbor, and know I freaked out the cats.

Then I couldn't get to sleep, because I was too excited.

But we are on to the next round - time once again to take on the Evil Empire. I hope we can take care of them this time.

I'd love to see a World Series that has my boys against the Cubs.

Malfunction Junction
The horrors of being a homeowner have begun to hit. Last night the washing machine broke. It stopped agitating in mid cycle. Of course I was plenty agitated when this happened. So I had a lump of very wet jeans and sweatshirts that had to go through the dryer about five times.

The dishwasher still isn't draining at the end of the cycle. I had someone in to look at it in July and they never got to the Home warranty people to resolve the issue.

Two burners on the stove aren't working.

If these things happen in threes I've hit my limit. I called the warranty place today and they called a repair place, so they'll be coming on Saturday. I hope this warranty thing is for real. It was part of my purchase and sales and it supposedly means that any appliance that breaks in the next year will be repaired or replaced for $50.

We'll see.

Meanwhile I can't do the laundry.

Tear it apart to put it together
.... or the craft room is too small for all my supplies.

It's that hunting and gathering instinct again. I have tons and tons of supplies and can't figure out where to put all of them.

I have spent the entire day hanging shelves on the walls and sorting craft things and trying to find places to put them without killing myself tripping over all that I've thrown (or has avalanched) onto the floor.

Sadly I don't feel as if I've made anywhere near enough progress - even though I've done a lot.

I have this feeling so often, don't I?

I think the deal with the craft stuff is that there is so much that is small - stamp pads, stamps, embossing powders, paints and inks, and tons of paper and ephemera - it's hard to figure out the best places to store everything and the best use of space.

I know one of the problems is that the room is very small and has funky angles, so nothing seems to fit as well as I would like. I'm actually going to end up blocking one of the windows so I can put stuff in front of it. But that's OK, because the screen is in need of repair and I'm afraid that bugs will get in or a cat will fall out. So keeping it closed and blocked will eliminate that problem.

I'll keep working at this for the rest of the weekend to see if I can find the light at the end of the tunnel.

As bedtime approaches
Well it didn't all get done. None of the shelves were put on the walls, and the books and stuffed animals are still in boxes. The things on the coffee table continue to be precariously perched, wating to slide into a heap on the floor.

But the laundry is put away, I ironed something to wear tomorrow, and I wrote the article for the newspaper.

So the day wasn't a total lost cause.

I also went outside to water my plants, which appear to be surviving quite nicely. I wasn't sure that they'd make it when I planted them last week, but they seem to be taking root and I even noticed blooms.

Now I need to go to bed and make sure that I have the alarm set correctly.

I have parent meetings every morning this week at 7:45.

Blech.