Catsup? Ketchup? Or ...

Catch up?  (For the record, I'm a "ketchup" person when it comes to the name of the condiment.  Because you needed to know that.)

Anyway, let's have a little bit of a Friday catch up.

Here's one of the reasons that I find my weekly work department Zoom meetings draining.  Yesterday, we were discussing projects to work on when we return to work.  Our archivist suggested that it might be interesting to work on an exhibit where we not just display the portraits we have of founders and other significant people in our institution's history, but look into their lives such as did they own slaves, did they find other people than whites to be lesser, etc.  Our boss agreed that was a good idea, and then one of the others in the dept (the one who went HR because I kept saying "Good morning" to her every day and she didn't want me to talk to her), said, "Well, as long as only myself, ___, and ___ work on it.  Anyone over 40 can't possibly understand the issues here, and can only be racist."  And of course the boss said nothing, because he is extremely fond of this person, and will do ANYTHING to avoid any level of conflict at all.  [screams into void]

The other morning, Hamlet really really really needed to go out for his early morning bathroom walk before our curfew expired.  So I was getting dressed, and Hamlet went over to The Tim for some attention.  The Tim said, "Be careful, Hammy, 'cause it's still curfew.  If they start shooting rubber bullets, be sure to stand behind your ma so you won't get hit."  Again, he is a regular laff riot.

We are both excited because we ordered a new portable grill for use in the garden.  A few years back, we had a small one that used propane gas, but neither of us were very comfortable with it.  Now that our garden is fixed up again (well, OK it's a mess now, but we can still use a good part of it), we wanted to find another one.  We ended up ordering this one, and it should arrive today or tomorrow.  It uses charcoal, but frankly not a lot, and we just could not afford one that used bio-pellets, which are better for the environment.  Anyway, we already have more plans of what we'll grill than what is likely to actually happen!

Today Philadelphia and the surrounding counties move into the Yellow phase of the Covid-19 recovery.  Not much is likely to change for us right away, but at least it comes with the ability to do some things a bit more freely, and hopefully some businesses can begin to start to open again.  I just hope that people will still be safe - too many seem to think that since thousands aren't dying every day, that the whole thing is over and there's no reason to be cautious anymore.

Today marks one year since we had to say goodbye to our baby Jack.

It was and still is one of the worst days ever, and very often, it still feels like it was just a few minutes ago.  We have decided that Jack is probably ready for us to expand the family, so will be on the lookout for a kitty who needs us.  I'm sure all of you will be among the first to know if anything changes.  😊  In the meantime, hug and kiss your family - furry and otherwise - and if you think to do it, give a thought or prayer for our Jack today, and/or drink a toast to him.  He truly was the sweetest and the best.  Love you baby boy, forever.  💕

I follow the Awkward Family Photos account on Facebook and today there was one of the best photos ever.  The caption said, "This is our daughter's preschool picture.  I think the photographer thought the addition of a flower would make it look innocent and sweet."  Um ...

The Tim and I both laughed until we cried!  This is one of the funniest preschool pictures ever.  And I'm glad that the person submitting it thought so too. 

That's it for now.  I hope all of you are doing well, and that you have the best weekend you can.  See you next week!

After An Unravelling ...

Hello and thank you for your kind comments and wishes yesterday for my nephew Chad.  He is really a good guy and I do wish I could see him more often.  Fortunately, I get pretty current reports about him and his family, as I talk to his mom nearly every weekend.

Today I'm joining up with Kat and others for Unraveled Wednesday.  You may remember a few weeks ago, when I mentioned that I did actually have to unravel a portion of my Pabaig, when I realized I had misread the pattern.  Well that was annoying, but it was also my own mistake, and fortunately I discovered it when ripping back was not as traumatic as it could have been!

Long story short, it didn't take long to get back on track, and now I'm really close to being finished!

The shoulders are joined together, and I'm working on the funnel neck.  Once that is knit, just the sleeves and weaving in ends will be left to do before blocking it.  Theoretically, it will be finished and wearable during this fall, which was the original plan.  But as I mentioned to Valerie, fall comes every year, so it will be worn at some point.

Even if it was completely ready to go today, I'm not going to be wearing it when it is 96 degrees and humid like it is supposed to be in Philadelphia.  Except for the fact that it sounds like this is the last terrible day, I would be really upset.  

So that's the knitting.  :-)

Reading-wise, I'm about halfway through this one:

This is the third book in the series, and I like it much better than the second one.  I feel like I know these characters so well at this point, sometimes I want to call them and say, "Well WHY would you do/say that??"  I'm curious to find out where this one leaves off.

*****

Today is also bittersweet, as three years ago today, we adopted our Jack.

Since I had missed celebrating his estimated birthday earlier this year due to so many other [stupid] things going on, I was planning to celebrate today, the anniversary of when he joined the family.  As you know, that won't be happening, at least not the way it was supposed to happen.  And I feel terrible about that, but there isn't a thing I can do to change it.  I feel cheated that we didn't even get to have three whole years with him, and I still miss him like crazy, but I'm glad he isn't suffering, and he was such a wonderful, joyous boy and added so much love and happiness to our lives, that I am grateful he was here at all.  Tonight we will have a celebratory brownie topped with ice cream to celebrate his short time here on earth, and send him even more love.  Please remember to hug and kiss your loved ones in honor of Jack today.  You'll be glad you did.  :-)

Friday FO

I am happy to report an FO - these were actually finished a week ago tomorrow (Saturday), but I didn't have them blocked and photographed until now.  These are the socks I knit for a friend's husband who is having a kidney transplant this coming summer.

You may recall they started out like this:

The first sock went pretty quickly, and soon I'd started the second.

The second sock zipped along - mainly due to the fact that I needed something to occupy my mind over the past week, and knitting fit the bill.  Since these were just plain vanilla socks, they were a perfect project.  And I think the finished pair look great.

Project:  Socks for Brian

Pattern:  Classic Socks for the Family, with a 2 x 2 rib on the cuff, 3 x 1 rib on the leg, and an  Eye of Partridge heel

Yarn:  fiberstory FAVE sock, in the colorway Tranquil; the toes are Knitted Wit Gumball in the Cranberry Bog colorway

Needles:  US size 1

Modifications:  None

Notes:  This turned out to be a wonderful project on several levels.  I actually bought this yarn, because since I don't know Brian that well, I wasn't sure if he would like bright or wild socks, and that is most of the sock yarn I own.  When I saw this color, I not only liked it, but the name of the colorway - Tranquil - seemed perfect for him, since hopefully his life and health will be more tranquil once the transplant happens.

The yarn is so lovely - tonal, and so incredibly lofty and soft to work with.  It takes a pattern really well, and I can imagine that a textured pattern would look great using this.  I was a little bit nervous that I would not have enough yarn for both socks, since the yardage is slightly less than I'm used to, so I decided to jazz them up with a different color toe.  The Knitted Wit Gumball in Cranberry Bog seemed like a good combination, and I love the way they turned out.  (As it turns out, I would have had enough of the other yarn, but I didn't want to agonize since these were a gift, and I wanted them to be an enjoyable project for me).

I took these with me when we went home over the Memorial Day weekend, to add in some extra good juju.  While we were there, I showed my niece Amanda and her husband Patrick how they were coming along, since they are the ones who are really good friends with Brian and his wife Nancy.   Then I had the brilliant idea to have them knit a few stitches, for even better juju.  So Amanda knit about five stitches, and Pat did three stitches.  They were both nervous and worried that they would mess them up, but both of them did just fine, and I think they were surprised that it "worked."  There are some thoughts and prayers of Jack included as well.

I figure with all the goodwill and good thoughts in these socks, Brian's recovery should be smooth and hopefully without issues.  :-)

******

If you are reading this, you've made it through another week.  We don't have any plans for the weekend, which is fine, since we are still taking it one day at a time.  I hope that whatever you have planned - or however you decide to just relax - makes your weekend a good one!

A Quiet Weekend

Why does Monday mean you have to go back to work?  Sigh.  I know the answer, but still ...

How was your weekend?  Ours, as you might expect, was quiet.  I'm grateful that I did not have anything I absolutely had to do, and could just feel, and be, and do whatever.  We are all still having a rough time, so it was nice to stay put and be together.

However, it was a lovely weekend, weather-wise, and though I couldn't find it in myself to go out into the garden other than to water the clematis I planted a couple of weeks ago (and which seems to be happy, which is a nice thing), it was nice to have the windows open, and to take Hamlet for walks that didn't completely exhaust both of us from heat and/or humidity.  That really helped overall.

Did you participate on Saturday in World Wide Knit In Public Day?  I really didn't do anything in public this weekend, but it looked like a lot of my Instagram friends were enjoying the event, and I hope it made others at least smile, if not think that maybe they might want to learn.  Having said that, I did do a lot of knitting and also some cross-stitching, which was good because it kept my mind occupied, and I felt like I was doing something useful.

Besides that, it was also a big weekend here in Philadelphia for other reasons.  Yesterday especially, when at one side of town there was the Pride Parade, and on our side of town, was the Odunde Festival.  So people were everywhere, celebrating and having fun, and being lucky with the weather for a change.  In the morning when I took Hamlet for his walk, we walked along the main route of the Festival, where the vendors and food tents were setting up.  Hamlet thought it was great, because nearly every person spoke to and/or petted him and made a fuss.  I think he would have happily spent the day there, just soaking up attention.  I love seeing the colorful things for sale, and even though I am a vegetarian, the smells of the grills still say summertime to me.

Here are a few photos - that I did not take, but were published in the newspaper, etc. - showing the events and crowds.

From the Parade:

Gritty, the mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers (who is both ridiculous AND awesome), attended:

 From the Festival (this is seriously right around the corner from our house):

This morning, it's rainy and cool, and so very quiet in the neighborhood, it's almost impossible to think that all of this was just yesterday.

But I'm glad it was a good day for so many people, because life should be about enjoying yourself, instead of only about work and worry.  Sometimes you just have to swallow hard and keep going, but that's the way it works.  And for everyone at these events, seeing their happiness and joy makes you feel that maybe the world has something going for it after all.

*****

Finally, I want to thank each and every person who read my last post about our sweet Jack, and also those who wrote such heartfelt and lovely comments.  Most of you are people I have never met, or probably never will meet, but just the same, your thoughts and prayers made a huge difference for me.  For those whose e-mail addresses I had, I am pretty sure I responded (I hope I did!), and if I dont' have your e-mail address to respond, please know that I appreciate that you took the time to write something.  I generally don't respond in the comments, because a) I completely forget to do that, and b) a lot of the time - as in this case - I am not quite ready to revisit the post anytime soon.  Nonetheless, thanks to all of you, from us and from Jack.  xoxoxo

Sweet Baby Jack the Kitten

That sweet face!

Jack the Kitten

Born:  early May 2016  Adopted:  October 2, 2016   Died:  June 5, 2019

No one wants to write this kind of post, and no one wants to read this kind of post, especially leading into a weekend.  But I wanted to do it before much more time passed because you should know.

The photo I had originally planned to post on Wednesday, with Jack inspecting

my latest knitting project that I was going to discuss.

The day before yesterday - Wednesday of this week - we lost our Jack.  It was quick, unexpected, and we are all still reeling.

Always on the move

As you know, in my previous post, I showed photos and told about how he had been helping me in the garden on Sunday.  And of course, since then, he'd been his usual happy, active, funny self.  When I left for work on Wednesday morning, he was there as usual, saying goodbye as we did each day when I left for work (we have a whole little ritual in our house).

His photo on the adoption site, The Philly Kitty

Wednesday was The Tim's day off, and he left in the morning to do a grocery shop.  He was gone no more than an hour, and when he got home, he said he could hear Jack crying, but he couldn't figure out where he was.  After looking, he saw him at the foot of the basement steps.  When he went down to investigate, Pip was with Jack and very concerned.  Jack was unable to put weight on his back legs.  The Tim thought maybe he had been running and jumping around and fell or something like that, and had hurt or broken something.  So he called our vet, who had no appts available until sometime next week (WTF?), and then decided to take him to the VSEC here in town, where we had taken Dug for his specialty tests and diagnosis when he was failing.  He called me at work and said to leave, take a cab, and get there ASAP.

Window closeup

It turned out that it was not an injury from a fall or anything else, but rather related to a heart condition that Jack had that we did not know about.  (Which is ironic because he had the best heart of all!)  The vet said that we shouldn't feel bad, because in cats so young, it is not common to check for heart problems unless something manifests itself, and this is unpredictable at best.  Jack had suffered FATE - Feline Aortic Thromboemolism - and in his case, of the Saddle, which is of course the area that controls the back leg muscles.  It is sudden and painful, paralyzes the back legs, and though it can be treated, most treatments are not successful, and not for very long periods of time - as in, not even always a week or a month.  They gave him medicine to control the pain, but there was no way we wanted him to suffer at all or any longer, and especially not be able run and pop around like he did every waking moment.

Sunshine belly

They brought him to us, and we spent about half an hour talking and singing to him, and settling him down to the point where he was purring.  He was clearly comforted and glad we were there, and though it was awful, we felt the same.  Fortunately, the injections the vet did acted quickly, and he left quietly and peacefully to join St. Francis and so many loved ones that will take care of him and play with him and love him until we can all be together again.  He wanted to stay, I'm sure, but wouldn't have known how, and we could not bear the thought of him limited in any way.

Always ready to assist, and he loved knitting projects!

Jack was only three years old.  He should still be here, feisty and intrepid as always, still enjoying himself, still cuddling, playing, exploring, helping, making that little noise that only he made. We were talking about it yesterday, and he never ever did anything bad.  He would get in trouble for being stinker, but he didn't have the capacity to be a bad kitty.  When he joined our family, it was after we had lost Dug in the summer, and as The Tim said, he brought us some much needed joy.  We called him Jackie Joy most of the time, since it described him and how he looked at everything in his life.  (He was also known frequently as Jack Attack, or BooBoo, but mostly Jackie Joy.)

His first time in the garden

This is a huge loss for all of us, and the fact that it was quick and unexpected makes it all even harder.  We are glad for some of the small mercies:  1) that The Tim was off from work that day, 2) that even if he had the episode right after The Tim left the house, that it was only an hour or less until he could help him, 3)  that Pip stayed with him, 4) that we could be with him and help him even when we never ever wanted to let him go, and 5) that such a wonderful group of people exist in the world to help.  I can't say enough about the VSEC staff, who sadly for them often see people and their sweethearts at in the worst possible scenarios.  The kindness, empathetic, and immediate treatment of Jack and of our feelings makes them all heroes as far as I'm concerned.

The first time he got to hang out with his brothers on the bed

So we are sad, and it will take all of us a while to adjust, and as my mother used to say, you never get over it, you just get used to it.  To quote The Tim from Wednesday, "Life can turn on a dime, can't it?"

Exploring the goodies from Santa with Pip

But thank God (or whoever/whatever you believe in) that there are Jacks in this world and that they find us.  He truly saved us, and his everyday love and joy made it clear that he was a happy boy.  So yes, be sad that he is no longer with us here to cuddle, see, and laugh about.  But then try to live a joyful life however you can.  Whether it's chasing a bug, helping/assisting even if not asked, or just enjoying everyone and everything around you, try to find some joy every single day.

Always happy to lounge in the garden!

That is the main thing about Jack - he was joyful without even trying.  He lived a good life every day, and shared it all with us.  He was our baby, our shadow, our goofball.  Please give your family - any and all of them - lots of love, joy, and kisses for us and for Jack.  Now he really is an angel in every sense of the word.

Sleepy baby boy.  Things will never be the same.

I hope you are all able to have a good weekend, and that you will always remember to say I love you whenever you get the chance. Enjoy your life when you can, because we only get one chance.  Take care, and thanks for all of the wonderful, funny, and kind things you have always said about our sweet baby Jack the Kitten.  

Weekend Clean-Up

I hope all of you had a good weekend.  Ours was basically uneventful, but very nice, with the temperatures and humidity at a more bearable level, which helped overall. 

As you know, every year I try to work on cleaning up our garden so that in the rare occurrence of a day or evening with bearable temperatures, we can actually enjoy being out there.  A couple of weeks ago, I'd started with the back area, which is not that difficult, not being covered with as many leaves, twigs, etc.  Then last weekend we were gone, so yesterday I decided to get an early start and see what I could accomplish. 

I had my work cut out for me, because with all of the rain we had over the winter and recently, tons of leaves and twigs had been sitting there and in some cases, were "glued" to the cement or bricks.  Fortunately I had help - well, let's not get carried away, more like I had company in the garden, in the form of Hamlet and Jack.  Now Hamlet does fine, in that he just enjoys being where you are.  So he will just lie and provide his support.  Jack, though is a different story.  God forbid he not check out everything you do, play attack games, and take random "rests" in that piles of leaves you have created.

That's about 4 layers (smelly ones!) of leaves, etc.  

Inspector Jack begins his rounds.

It took me about 2 hours of work, but I managed to get things to the point where the occasional sweep will keep things cleaned up.  I had 4 huge bags of leaves and such that I collected!  I just hope that now we will have enough nice weather to take advantage of this lovely outdoor space.  It's so nice to sit there and read or knit or whatever - you're outside, but not on display. 

Everyone was quite worn out afterwards, which meant that the rest of the day was pretty quiet and calm.  At one point, I did look over and see Jack cuddled up with Hamlet, but I knew if I moved to take a photo, the moment would pass quickly.

And so now, we are as ready as we can be for summer.  I'm really hoping that it will be one where we can spend time in the garden more often than not. 

Jack hopes so, too.  I mean, there are all kinds of bugs to get up close and personal with ...

And nothing says "covered by random stuff" like a good roll around on the bricks.

You really can't pay for this kind of help.  (Thank God!)

In other news, today I am home because I have an appt for a chest x-ray in a while, to see if the continuing saga of my cold/allergies/whatever is something more serious.  I'm hoping that whatever is or is not found, I can get some help with this crud.  I haven't had a good nights' sleep in three weeks, and my cough is killing my vocal chords (which I think The Tim finds to be a relief in all honesty).  Here's hoping that soon I can return to my usual dulcet tones ... ;-)

Furball Friday

When it's a very cold Friday, and you are a small, one-eyed kitty, sometimes curling up for a nap is the best idea.

It also works well if you are a large, 80-pound Golden Retriever.

Here's hoping your weekend will be cozy and relaxing!

Scenes of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Oh what a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we had!  Of course, we are still celebrating, but I thought I'd share some photos I took while we were enjoying things.

First of all - The Tim had to work on Christmas Eve, which was not in and of itself weird, since while he was at the bookstore, that was always the case.  However, in past years, he worked until the store closed at 7 p.m., and would usually get home and we would eat dinner by 8 p.m.  Not a lot of evening left after that, which was always fine, but not as good as this year by a lot!  This year he worked until 3 in the afternoon, and was home by 3:30 - it was like we had the whole day together, and that was THE BEST.

Christmas Eve while we were setting the table, etc. for dinner, Milo the Koodle sat on the chair across from the tree the entire time, and later into the evening.  We decided he was either a) hoping to catch Santa visiting, or, b) making sure Santa saw what a good boy he is (ahem). 

(He had been nervous all day (and is still recovering) from an event earlier in the day, so this is as much as we saw him.  That's a story for another post.)

We were amused at our Surprise Dinner Guest:

Who could it be???

Even though we didn't do as much decorating as usual this year due to one of The Tim's projects, our tree still looks great.

And yes, there are two Rudolph's under the tree.  The one on the right lights up and is supposed to be outside, but The Tim doesn't "want the weather to ruin him," so he stays inside ...

Jack was the first kitty to come downstairs on Christmas morning, and was quite pleased to see that Santa had in fact visited our house!

Stockings and packages were opened, toys were played with, treats were eaten, and general hilarity was the tone of the day.

The Tim put this ribbon/garland/whatever on Pip - when he was busy with something else, it was fine, but when he'd remember he was wearing it, he'd go nuts!  We took it off after a few minutes after taking this picture.

A few years ago, a friend sent our cats at that time a catnip-filled Newt Gingrich toy, and they really hated that sucker - they would attack it and tear at it, and it was hilarious.  This year, that same friend sent a catnip-stuffed version of our current Eejit in Chief, and he got a LOT of attacks, etc.  Which pleased us immensely.

Good boy, Jack.  Resist.

Furball Friday

We have two of these igloos, where the cats like to be when the weather is cool.  (You can see part of one to the right in this photo.)  However, when you are Jack, and you just LOVE Pip, it apparently means that you really *need* to try and be right where he is.

Happy Friday the 13th!  Please kiss any black kitties in your families for me.

And have a good weekend!

Saturday Mystery and Sunday at Home

Well, here it is, Monday once again.  How does that happen?  

Overall, we had a good weekend, and though I didn't get any of the things around the house accomplished that I had hoped to do, it will still be waiting for me.

Saturday started on sad news.  We took Jetsam back to the vet for his follow-up after his mega-dentistry procedure.  The vet informed us that he has cancer in his jaw, poor sweetie.  Apparently it's pretty fast-moving, and there are treatments though the prognosis is not promising.  So we will just keep an eye on him and keep him comfortable.   For the moment, he is his usual happy, purring, sweet self, so that is good.  As long as he can be happy, we will enjoy every second we can.  But I would like to ask you to keep a good thought for him if you are so inclined.

After that, we headed home to eat breakfast, and decided that since he wasn't letting it ruin his day, we weren't going to let it ruin ours!  We went on the "mystery trip" that The Tim had been talking about for a couple of weeks.  Where did we go, you ask?  Well, we drove to Riverton, NJ, a small town along the Delaware River, only about 1/2 hour from our house.  They were having "Treasure Day," which is basically a town-wide yard sale.  The stores on the main street have sidewalk sales, and nearly everyone in town has a yard sale.  

It was such a nice time!  The town is very walkable, and we saw some absolutely beautiful old houses - the kind with wraparound porches, big yards, and amazing architectural detail.  It was such fun to walk around, look at the houses and do some people-watching, as well as get to pet some cats and dogs!  

We walked along the river, and saw the Riverton Yacht Club:

And of course, as is the case everywhere in this area, yet another street/building/place named for the Lippincott family:

We walked around for about an hour and a half, then headed home.  On the way, The Tim wanted to stop at a Target for some things, which was fine with me.  Especially when I looked in the cheapo bins in the front, and found a patriotic project bag for $3.00!  It's just the right size for a sock project.  :-)

The called it a cosmetic bag ... but, whatever.  Potato, potahto.

We spent the rest of the day indoors, watching stuff we'd recorded and cuddling kit kats.  I also finished my Mojito Socks, which you will see later in a post of their own.

Sunday, The Tim had to work, and I had some stuff I wanted to do.  First up, was to sweep in the garden.  There wasn't a lot there, since I've been working on it the past few weekends, but it took me about twice as long because I had helpers:

Jack and Jetsam inspecting things, 

while Pip sits inside and wonders why Milo the Koodle went upstairs to hide. 

(So much for being a badass.)

Jetsam takes his inspection work quite seriously.

Pip finally gathered his courage to come out and join us ...

and then immediately regretted the decision.

Jetsam thought if he sat in front of the car, near the carport door, that it might magically open and he could explore things in the neighborhood.  (Spoiler alert: Didn't happen.)

Jack was convinced that if he was lounging, I wouldn't be able to pick him up to come inside.

(Spoiler alert: I could, and did.)

Jetsam was willing to come in, but not until he and Pip had hissed at each other through the screen after Pip went back inside the house.

Eventually I corralled everyone and we went back inside where they all got some treats.  So as far as they were concerned, it had all been successful.  And it was, I got a lot of dead leaves, etc. swept up and bagged.  Now I need to plant some flowers and do some more cosmetic things and we'll be in good shape.

At this point, I was feeling tired and decided to call it a day.  We were out there longer than I'd expected to be, and I actually got a lot more done than I'd expected, so I didn't feel too bad changing clothes and starting to organize dinner.  Dinner turned out pretty well (something I made up, that doesn't always work), and it was a relaxing evening.

So it ended up being quite nice.  But as usual, much too short!