OK Here Is Some News For You

Hello again. I'm sitting here on a so-far rainy day that is supposed to turn into a 5-day heat/humidity wave which annoys me greatly. Yes, I know we have been lucky enough here in Philadelphia to have a nice long string of lovely days and perfect nights. But that only makes the prospect of having to go back to ick weather even more depressing.  

I've decided I'm done with this summer. I know there is still plenty left, and things to do, enjoy, etc., but it's all been a lot, personally and in the universe, as it were. I'm sure we'll all survive, but you have to admit, this whole universe part of things is more than exhausting, right?

Anyway, on to better things and some news I think you'll enjoy. 😉

Say hello to Katie (aka Katie Potatey)! Even shortly after we had to return Angus to the rescue where we got him, The Tim said he thought we should still try to get a dog. After a bit of thought, I figured it was worth another try, though I am still heartbroken. But as he pointed out, you don't want to close yourself off just because of one bad experience, when there could be other good ones waiting. So we thought that we would look for another dog to add to our family this fall, when the weather would be nicer, and our house - whose a/c is questionable at best - would be more comfortable.  

Then a friend who knew the story of what had happened, mentioned that an acquaintance of hers told her about a great dog who had been at a rescue about an hour out of Philadelphia* and was looking for a family. The owner of said dog had to give her up because they had a terminal illness, and no longer had the strength or the finances to care for her. 

Well, we certainly understand how hard it is/was to give up an animal, even when you are in good health; I told The Tim and we decided it was worth looking into. I filled out an adoption application for the dog, and the woman at the rescue called me first thing the next day to tell me that a) we'd been approved, and b) to talk to me about the dog. So as the Magic 8-Ball might say, All Signs Pointed To Yes.

That was all on a Tuesday morning. Since the dog was far enough away to be a bit of a drive for us, I asked the woman if we could wait until the weekend to come to meet her, since it would work better for us. She said that was fine. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Katie is 6 years old, half Wheaten Terrier and half Golden Retriever. She is pretty well-behaved - unless she sees a squirrel and then good luck to anyone with her - and she is also quite ridiculous.  Milo loves her - we haven't seen him so happy since before Pip died. You may remember that we got him for our first dog, Dug. So Milo has always had and loved having a dog buddy. And after Pip died, he was kind of bereft, since they were buddies. And even though he gets along with Alfie and Esme, they are pretty much glued to each other most of the time. Katie is not 100 percent sure what to do about Milo's friendship, but she is fine with it. 😊 Alfie, who used to love dogs, growled at Katie first thing. So she is afraid of him, and Alfie takes full advantage of that, 24/7. Esme would clearly like to get in One.Good.Sniff of Katie, but of course is too afraid to even really try. So cat-wise, things seem to be working out fine. We always tell any dog who joins the family that there are only two rules in our house:

1. The kitties were here first.

2. You have to be nice to the kitties.

Katie is doing fine on this front.

She is unexpectedly cute - I mean, her face is cute enough, but she is kind of a low-rider, which is amusing in itself:

The woman at the rescue told me that she LIVES to play ball! And she wasn't kidding! Other than squirrels, Katie's philosophy is that Ball. Is. Life. Her favorite kind of ball is the kind with spikes on it, but any ball is a good one.  The woman at the rescue also told me that she carried around one ball all of the time, and the woman said she thought it was an Emotional Support Ball. 😃 

It's true - Emotional Support Ball (aka ESB) is a constant now in our household. The Tim mentioned that ESB was looking a bit worse for the wear, so we'd best make sure we knew where we could find another one. I took a picture and asked Google Lens where we could get one, and fortunately they are $3.99 at PetSmart! So when this one heads to the great ball pit in the sky, we can easily have another on hand - phew!

(ESB in its current condition)

Katie hasn't been here very long, but she seems to be a real keeper. She weighs about 35 pounds, so she is not very big, and we've had some success getting her to obey some basic commands. I suspect she already knew them, but during the time she was at the rescue, had a large field to be outside in, and so didn't need to understand walking on a leash anymore. One thing interesting about her is that she is not really food-motivated, which has never ever been the case with any of our other dogs. Not that that's a bad thing! 

She seems to be happy to be with us, especially The Tim, who if you have not intuited before, is always the Good Cop. She enjoys going to the dog park, not for the other dogs, but to play ball of course! And we took her to the vet who said her previous owner clearly took good care of her. 

I recently sent the woman at the rescue a text with the picture of Katie above, telling her that she seems to have settled in well and that we are loving having her. I said I wished her former owner could know that - not that it would make things better, but that maybe it would be some small comfort. The woman said she was going to forward the message, so I hope it was some comfort to the person who had to give her up, and who seems to have more than enough on her plate. 

One thing funny to us is that Katie is from Scranton, PA - home of both Joe Biden, and Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company in "The Office." The Tim says he just hopes she didn't live before with a character like Dwight K. Schrute. 😂

So that is the latest news from here, and the story of Katie joining the family. 

I will never stop loving Angus, and I still cry missing him more than words will ever be able to express (I'm crying now), but she is a wonderful distraction. ❤️ And I hope with every part of my being that Angus is as lucky now as she is. 

*An hour outside of Philadelphia = The Wilds/Terra Incognita to us! 🤣🤣

Some Happy in the Midst of the Sad - A Birthday!

Today, in the midst of the sad, we have something happy to smile about and celebrate - Esmeralda is four years old!

This sweet, beautiful, and shy girl is one of the joys of our lives. She is still very skittish, but she has made a lot of progress in the past years. She does not immediately run away if you enter a room, and she will sometimes allow you to pet her. She loves to be talked to, and especially loves when you sing to her (even me, whose singing is more enthusiastic than in tune). 

Later we'll have some treats for the kitties, and if we are lucky, she'll even stay in the room for the festivities ... 😉

Today is also our sweet boy Hamlet's birthday in heaven. We thought he would be just fine with sharing his birthday with Esme.💕 Hamlet and Milo are the only pets we've ever had whose actual birthdays we know, the others are based on when we adopted them, or on other special days. The year we adopted Esme, it was right around this time, and like I said, we thought Hammy would be pleased to think a kitty shared his day. 

Also, Happy Cinco de Mayo! You can bet your sweet life that we are *definitely* having a margarita this evening, this year more than ever. 

*****

A couple of you have reached out directly through e-mail to send messages of love and support. And I want you to know that I appreciate it very much, but may not be able to respond anytime soon. I'm managing, and like I said, today has something happy to think of, which is helping and I'm doing the best I can, but it will just be a bit before I can get back to you. 

I absolutely know that even though I turned off the comments on yesterday's post, that a lot of love was sent my way - I can feel it. So thank you.

But today, please have a celebratory treat, drink, whatever to celebrate our shy girl. 🎂

The Good, The Bad, The Stupid of This Past Week

What can I say, some weeks just do whatever they want to and you just have to live with it, right? This past week was like that, but the good news is that obviously we have all survived.

I have photos of The Good.

First of all, the other day, Miss Esme decided that a) she would come up to the third floor (rare), and then also sit on my lap for about half an hour (even rarer!). She sat there and purred her sweet little head off.

I was also amused at the position of her tail. I was sitting next to a large pillow on the end of the couch, and she placed her tail straight up!

She can be a goofball when she lets herself be brave.

Another good:

These are the buttons I ordered for my completed cardigan, aren't they fantastic? I ordered them from Wooden Heart Buttons, and they are just perfect for what I wanted. 

Getting them was a challenge to say the least. Since the shop is in Canada, there was the whole thing with it being a "foreign package." I kept getting notices that it was being held in U.S. Customs to make sure there were no "contraband" ingredients. (Do lots of things get smuggled into the country with wooden buttons?) Then they were alledgedly delivered, but of course were not in the mailbox. I checked with the seller, and they had been mailed in an envelope, so I didn't think there was any way they could have been porch-pirated. Then after a week and a half, a whole s**tload of mail was sudeenly in our mailbox, and there they were! So I don't know what actually happened, but I have them, they are on the sweater, and someday I can hopefully get a photo to show you the whole shebang.

The Bad.

Take your pick. God knows there's plenty of choices. 

The Stupid.

A week ago today, I woke up and my right eye was swollen shut with dried blood all over it. It hurt slightly, but was more uncomfortable than anything else. So off to the emergency room - because obviously I haven't been there a while and we can't have that! - to see what was going on. It turns out that I scratched my lower eyelid while sleeping apparently, and so I had two stitches put into the area and even got an eye patch to wear for four days (this was the up side, I must say, matey!). And no, it was me, the drs agreed that it was in no way a cat scratch. As of today, my lower eyelid is slightly red, but there are no other indications that anything happened. And though it was kinda fun to look like a pirate for a few days, it messed with my perspective so I was happy to not wear it any more. Even more stupid: did we think to get a picture? Of course not.

The main thing that was an issue is that last Friday, I had made plans with my friend Louise to meet for lunch, and I had to cancel. We had made plans to do it last time we met, and at the time I didn't realize that it would be Lent; now that I know it's Lent, I'm gonna wait until after Easter to reschedule. Usually during Lent, I give up buying myself a coffee/tea/pastry/lunch during the week, and at the end of it, donate the equivalent (usually plus some) to a local food organization. Not that I buy something to eat or drink every single day, but it's not unusual to do so two or maybe even three times a week, so it does add up. So Louise, if you are reading this (and I know she sometimes does), let's plan for after Easter to get together again!

*****

No plans for this weekend, as far as I know, which is fine with me. Next week, I have things I have to attend to every day except Friday, so a no-plan weekend sounds good to me. 

I've been knitting and reading away, and have almost finished the second sock of my February yarn from Farmer's Daughter Fibers. Of course there is a story related to that, which I'll tell you in the FO post.

Have a good weekend. And be careful not to injure yourself in your sleep! 🙄

Well, I'm Back

I didn't really mean to not post for so long, but I got involved with finishing a couple of books that were coming due at the library, knitting away on a pair of socks, and trying to keep my mental health on keel. But I'm here now, so I'll give you a little peek from while I was gone.

Here we have an upset, scared, betrayed, and angry Miss Esmeralda at the vet's office. It only took three years, one new carrier, and an hour and a half of chasing her to make this appointment happen. But it did, and she was declared in perfect health - even good teeth! - and we came home where she hid for 2 complete days until we saw her again.

As I've mentioned, she is really afraid of everything. So any time before that we tried to get her to the vet's office, it was unsuccessful. I wasn't too worried, because she never goes outside, and she lives with two healthy cats. But we have been thinking of adding to the family, and we realized that there is no way that would happen if she wasn't up to date on her shots.

The whole thing was traumatic for both of us, and I felt so awful, betraying the trust she had finally given to me. Now we're back to baby steps, but I am glad to know she is as healthy as I suspected. And unless she suddenly shows signs of being sick, we don't need to repeat the experience any time soon.

I did finish the first sock of the yarn from the February installment of the Farmer's Daughter Fibers subscription, and I am well into the second. The yarn is a slightly brighter red than this photo shows, with the wine-colored mini, which is just a lovely combination.

I've also added to my Cozy Comfort Throw, but even though it is a good chunk of work, it looks nearly the same. I'll probably only start showing progress on this when there's a substantial amount to show, since it will take me a while, and moves along kind of slowly.

But I do like how it's turning out, and it's using up a lot of scraps, which is a good feeling.

So that's what has been happening around here. We had a nice Valentine's Day, going out to breakfast at one of our fave places, and had a yummy Chinese noodle dinner last night for the Lunar New Year. 

And of course I have spent A LOT of time watching the Olympics, as I'm sure a lot of you have. Not being athletic at all, I am constantly amazed at how accomplished the athletes are - even those who don't win a medal. Think of how good you have to be to simply make the team in the first place!

So now you know what I've been up to and how things are going. Time to hit "publish" on this, and get ready for a trip to the dermatologist. Since I had that basal cell carcinoma removed from my back this past August, I was supposed to return in 6 months instead of a year. Hopefully this time the appointment will be completely uneventful. 

I hope the rest of your day today and rest of the week go well. I'm hoping I'll be back again before another week goes by, but just in case, take care!

And A Good Time Was Had By All

How and why is tomorrow the twelfth day of Christmas? Why does it have to go so quickly? Yes, I ask myself this every year, but I never have a good answer, because the answer that time goes on is just unsatisfactory in this case. 

But we've had a good time this Christmastime.

As expected, Santa came and brought the kitties a lot of good stuff!

Milo in particular was *very* excited.

It was hard to convince him to wait for the others.

One of the packages had catnip toys with silverine in them, which apparently made them even more irresistable than if they had only had catnip. Milo got things started, but Alfie helped out, and so soon the package was nearly unwrapped.

Once everything was opened, it was time to chill for a while. 

Alfie was particularly interested in one of the packages I opened that had a LOT of ribbon on it!

Esme split her time between watching us open things and looking at the squirrel on the chair right outside the window into the garden (if you look over her right shoulder, you can see the squirrel's butt).

Christmas Day was lovely, and all of us had a good time. We just enjoyed being together, and had treats, listened to music, and then later in the day headed upstairs to watch a couple of holiday shows we had recorded.

We have been enjoying the season so much, just being able to be together, but also having nothing really demanding to fill our time. We had a very quiet New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and if you ignore certain activities of certain people who think they are going to rule the world, you could say it was all perfect.

Two more wonderful things: on both Tuesdays before Christmas and before New Year's, there was only one kitty left to be adopted where I volunteer. They were each especially sweet, and I was sincerely hoping that they wouldnt have to spend Christmas Day and New Year's Day alone. Well, they each got adopted - one on Christmas Eve by a woman who stopped by when I was there on Tuesday and was in love with the one kitty left - and one on New Year's Eve - adopted by another volunteer, who had a cat who had died over the summer, and didn't want her other cat to keep being lonely. I have to tell you, those two adoptions just made my holiday season! And it also seemed like a wonderful way to end the year. 

I sincerely hope that your holiday season contained even just a few moments of joy and happiness. The world is on fire, so it's more important than ever to find good things wherever and whenever we can.

Sometimes It's Just Dumb Stuff ... and, A Birthday!

Hello and Happy May! I hope the month has been good to you so far, and that if you ventured to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival this past weekend, that you enjoyed yourself.

I've been away longer than I had planned to be, but fortunately, I should be able to keep up with things going forward. My unintended absence was due to just dumb things - you know, things that crop up unexpectedly and take up your time and then all of a sudden you realize that you have not come up for air, and it's for no really good reason? Granted, I was sick for about three days with an intestinal bug, which was unpleasant, but also nothing I could do anything about. But the rest of the time, I was putting out little fires everywhere, or having to do projects that I had not planned or expected to do right now. 

Annoying, but in the past, so that's definitely a good thing!

Anyway, I've been reading, and planning my knitting, after taking way too long to decide on anything. I think when I'm in the midst of Dumb Stuff, I shouldn't try to plan anything. I also decided on a stitching project, and got the materials together, so all I have to do is get started. I also swatched for a knitting project, and actually after I'm finished with this post, I need to measure my swatches (2 of them) to see what needle size works better. 

The kitties are fine. Milo the Koodle has been on a real tear lately against Esme. He always chases her, but he's been going out of his way to do so in the past few days. And then when you tell him NO, he hisses at you. Jerk.

However, today is a special day because it is Hamlet's heavenly birthday, and Esme's third birthday! When we decided to adopt her, we decided since we were picking her up from her foster home on May 6, that we would just say that May 5 was her birthday. We knew that our sweet boy Hamlet would think it was a good thing for a kitty to have his birthday, too.

I'm making some brownies for The Tim and to have as part of our celebration later, and the kitties will have some special food for dinner. Later we'll have treats, sing Happy Birthday, and Esme will get her gift, which is a catnip taco (seemed appropriate for Cinco de Mayo!).  We are so lucky that even though she still thinks we are trying to kill her 90% of the time, she has improved from thinking it was 100% of the time. Now she will cuddle for a few minutes, and let you pet her without having a heart attack and running away. Baby steps, but good ones.

So that's the latest from here. I hope this week is a good one, and Happy Cinco de Mayo from everyone at our house!

Slightly Thrown Off But No Problem

Hello and yes I'm still here! No big issues, but you know how sometimes you get slightly off track and it's no big deal, but suddenly you are completely off track? Well that was me the past couple of days. Sadly, it was just a change in my routine and because I am such a creature of habit (and old), it just started a series of small dumb things that threw me for a bit of a loop. But now I'm back on track. At least for today. Or even for the next few hours ... 

If you follow me on Instagram, you already saw this photo, but I'm sharing it here anyway. On my way to my volunteer gig yesterday, I saw this house and I had to stop and take a picture!

Now I can truly appreciate the beauty of subtle and elegant Christmas decorations, I can. They really do look lovely and so quietly celebratory. But I have to admit that decorations that scream WE ARE CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS make my heart happy! As I said on Instagram, my inner Clark Griswold rejoiced when I saw this.

My biggest worry is that I sure hope they have that inflatable anchored well on to the roof, because one strong wind, and that sucker could end up in New Jersey ... 

Anyway, over the weekend we finished our tree and decorations. So now I want to clean up everything so we look nice and shiny going forward to Christmas Day. I had planned to do part of it - a *really* small part - yesterday afternoon. I mean it's the easiest part of my cleaning routine, and takes less than half an hour. But due to the fact that I had an appt in the afternoon, I was completely thrown off from my usual routine (see: creature of habit, old), and could not face the effort of extra energy. So that will be the first thing I get out of the way today, and then the rest will follow. I will be thrilled once it is finished, and that is my motivation to do it all TODAY.

On Sunday afternoon, we were finishing up decorating the tree, and between the fact that it was noisy with opening boxes and things, and the fact that The Tim was also doing it and he is so LOUD, Esme escaped upstairs because it was all too much for her. She decided to hang out with other Christmas characters in the guest room.

I guess sometimes you just need some friends who know how to keep quiet. 💞

Cats, Fall Decorations, and Workers

Well, I'm glad you all seemed to enjoy my post about my volunteer job - I'm enjoying it, and that is really the most important thing.  Yesterday there was only one kitty, a 4-month-old calico, called Gabby.

Unfortunately, Gabby had a pretty bad kitty cold, so in the afternoon she returned to the main clinic to get some medicine and TLC. She was so cuddly and sweet while I was with her. She *loved* all the stupid songs I made up to sing to her. ❤

Over this past weekend, when the weather was still lovely, I was folding some laundry and saw something I had never witnessed before:

Will you look at that! Miss Esme enjoying sitting in the sunshine in the guest bedroom window! Maybe she does it a lot when I don't see her, but this was the first time I'd ever seen it happen. Of course, the Koodle chased her out of the window and downstairs within about 10 minutes, because he is a brat. But she seemed to enjoy it while it lasted ... 

Even though she is still pretty much scared of everything and everyone, she has made a LOT of progress compared to the kitty who came home with us originally. I'm hoping the progress will continue as she sees that we have not yet beat up or killed any of the other cats who live here (and trust me, the Koodle challenges us 24/7 on that front).

For specific reasons that currently escape me, last week I decided that we needed some nice and new fall and Halloween decorations. So I was poking around and found some at Target online, and even better they were on sale. So I ordered two Halloween decorations and a fall wreath. Since Target is good about returning things, I figured if they didn't live up to their online appearance, I would return them.

When I opened the box, I was happily surprised! All three things were exactly what I was hoping they would be, especially the fall wreath - as a matter of fact, it might even be nicer than I was expecting! Here it is still in the box, since it's not time to display it yet. But isn't it pretty?

The Halloween things are tucked away, but I'll try to remember to show them to you when I get them out to decorate.

As I am writing this, there is a work crew in front of our house, demolishing the brick planter that partially collapsed about a month ago. Two different people gave me estimates, and both agreed that rather than fix it, it would make more sense to remove it and cement over where it had been. Apparently when it was first added, it was not connected to the house - so it would only fall apart again down the road. I liked it well enough, but it had started looking sad over the past couple of years, and then the collapse was just the end. We're just planning to buy some nice planters to fill with flowers, etc. next spring. Quite a few people around here do that, and it looks really lovely, and still gives some outside the house pretties to see.

The guy who is heading the crew doing the work looks like he would be the son of "The Sopranos" character called Paulie Walnuts. 

So I've been calling him Paulie Walnuts, Jr. (obviously not to his face, his actual name is Joe). He's really nice, but he embodies the whole Italian-American stereotype, and it cracks me up. Also, from the get-go he called me "Bridge," and it amuses me so much when people I either don't know at all, or barely know, call me that. No one in my family or among my close friends has ever called me that, but so many random people go there automatically! 😂

But you know what? God bless them for doing the work on a day like today, when the temperatures are supposed to be 97 degrees Fahrenheit with the ever-popular "feels like" temperature being 107 degrees. I would already be passed out, so I am thankful for anyone who does outside physical hard work when it feels like you've entered the gates of hell when you step outside.

And that's it for today. I'm off to work on a few projects inside, so I can get them finished and check them off the to-do list. I hope your day is a good one!

FO Monday : Alpine Bloom Red

Hello and I hope your weekend was a good one! Mine was fine - nothing especially good, nothing especially bad. It was pretty rainy and cold, which was nice for staying inside, knitting, reading, and drinking tea. Plus, yesterday was one year since Miss Esme joined the family, so we had a little celebration for her - little, because although she has made huge progress, she's still not sure we're not trying to kill her ... it was also Hamlet's birthday, so we drank a special toast to him last night. We miss our Hammy so much!

Anyway, I'm starting this week with an FO which was a long time in the making. Partly because it was colorwork, which I am not well versed in, and partly because it was charted, which I have not really done too much. But it all worked out in the end.

Project: Alpine Bloom Red

Pattern: Alpine Bloom Hat, by Caitlin Hunter

Needles: US size 3/3.25 mm and US size 5/3.75 mm

Yarn: Barrett Wool Co. Wisconsin Woolen Spun Sport Weight; colorways Chestnut and Apple

Modifications: Are you kidding me?

Notes: This was part of a kit I purchased from Barrett Wool Co. at the beginning of 2024. I had decided that I wanted to give colorwork knitting a try, and thought a hat would be a good start.

I have not really knitted much from a chart, so that was also a challenge to me. Fortunately, the pattern was very well-written and very understandable. Though it required a lot of concentration on my part, and went quite slowly. I had to make sure that I was home by myself with no distractions whenever I worked on it! I started at the beginning of February, and finished around the middle of April, so it was a longer project (though of course it was interspersed with working on other things during the same time.)

This was also the first time I knit a pattern by Caitlin Hunter, and I have to say that it was really enjoyable. I can see why her patterns are so popular, if they are as well done as this one. (Who knows, maybe I'll try another one ...) 

The kit was good for me, because there were limited choices as far as colors go - otherwise I might still be deciding what colors I wanted to use. I like the yarn - it is cozy feeling and soft but still rustic. I think this will be a great hat to wear. The kit included a pompom option, and I like the hat both ways to be honest. Since the pompom is one of the removable kinds, I don't have to make a single decision about it, at least not right now.

Best of all, it fits my big head! I knit the Adult Small/Medium, because I figured that the Adult Large might be really large (which now I know it must be), and figured if it didn't fit me, I could always gift it to someone in my family. But too bad, everyone else, this one I'm keeping for myself! 😊

I only used about half of each of the colors of yarn, so I think this would be an excellent scrappy project. Down the road, I may look through my leftovers and make another, you never know.

*****

I hope your week goes well. I have two Dr appts on different days, but otherwise am hoping to work on some of my personal projects, in and out of the house. And I am one sock toe away from having completely empty needles - time to decide what projects are next!

Thanksgiving Friday

Esme decided yesterday that this turkey was not as scary as she originally thought, and was willing to let me take a picture of her next to it. She's making progress!

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving Friday, Black Friday, Finally Friday, whatever you call it. I hope for those of you in the U.S., that your Thanksgiving Day was a good one. The weather here was chilly, but very sunny, which was nice for those both marching in and going to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade.

It turned out that The Tim had to work yesterday, which was very disappointing, but we still managed to have a lovely late afternoon and evening, and a really yummy meal. And there's also plenty of leftovers, which is one of the best aspects of the holiday, if you ask me. The kitties got some special food, which they thought was a wonderful idea, so everyone at our house had a good day and evening.

Today I have been doing laundry, and finishing switching my winter clothes and summer clothes. Not the most fun day I've ever had, but a productive one. And I did manage to do some shopping for Christmas gifts online, finding a few things that were *exactly* what I wanted at a price that was reasonable to me. 

One of the things I was most excited to find is a gift for my great-nephew Parker who lives in San Francisco. He is about 11 years old, and completely obsessed with history. He wanted to dress up as Genghis Khan for Halloween, but his mother talked him into some other costume. So imagine how happy I was when I found this t-shirt to send him:

It cracked me up, and I have a feeling he will be quite seriously pleased with it. (He's a somewhat serious kiddo.) The right gift for the right person at the right price - win-win!

I just hope I get lucky with the rest of my ideas.

*****

This is my last Gratitude Friday for this year, and as some of you who have read along for a while may recall, today is also the anniversary of my father's death. My dad and the holidays are inextricably linked for me, and I decided that my gratitude for today is for my parents. I truly think that I was lucky to grow up with them as my mother and father. They were - as is most of the family - batshit crazy in their own way, but they were also good people who did the best they could with circumstances that were not always the best. But oh did we always have fun! It was truly one of those cases where we were a family with very little money at all, but we had each other, and seldom were surrounded by any real kind of sadness. So many of our family stories are ridiculous and/or hilarious, rather than full of woe. And I know that is lucky, because I have met and know so many people who seemed to grow up with so little joy in their lives. I truly believe that my dad would enjoy the way we "do" holidays, and would join right in if he could.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, finishing off Thanksgiving and all that surrounds it. I have a few small things to do tomorrow, and also have to clean the bathrooms (I ran out of energy today), but most of the day is mine to do what I like. Sunday is a work day, and I'm sure we'll be busy since there is a special promotion going on (a holiday project bag) that seems to bring people out of the woodwork, both in person and online. That's sure to make the day fly by!

Take care, and I'll see you next week.😊

And Now It's November

November came to Philadelphia feeling like November should! It's been cold and sunny and that's fine with me. 😊

This past week has gotten away from me. I've been kind of out of it, and though for the most part, I was able to do what I needed to do, I just felt exhausted as a result. Then on Wednesday, I got my RSV vaccine, and I didn't sleep well that night because of chills, and yesterday I just felt awful. Which is not surprising, but it meant it was kind of a lost day. I managed to get one load of laundry done, and it felt like I'd done it on a washboard down by the river, I was so wiped out! 

This year we had zero trick-or-treaters. Zero. Sigh.

Alfie and Esme are pleased though, since we put out two new cardboard scratchers. Alfie likes the wavy kind, and destroys them big-time. He was thrilled with a new one! I got a box-style one for Esme, because I thought it might make her feel safer. I think it worked.

Don't get me wrong, the others use these and enjoy them too, but the photo above is from about 10 minutes after I opened them. 

Alfie is also quite pleased because he discovered the basket cat bed that is very near the heater on the third floor. He *just* fits into it - when others have used it, there's always been plenty of room ... just saying ...

Knitting-wise, I'm busy trying to finish The Tim's Christmas socks, since his birthday is 15 days from now. I think I'll make it, since yesterday I finished the heel and got onto the body of sock #2, but that's what I've been prioritizing at the moment, so nothing else has any progress to report.

And then in just a few weeks, it will be American Thanksgiving - whaaattt??? Don't get me wrong, I adore Thanksgiving, as it is the coziest and homiest of holidays in my opinion. But I just keep being surprised that it's well on the way to being here!

Which leads me to a Gratitude Friday, which I've decided to try and do for each week in November. And of course, I'm grateful for all of the things that I have, including just for my life, but that's kind of what we should all be grateful for, right? So I'm going to try and go beyond that level and find other things.

On this Friday, I'm grateful for a good (if twisted) sense of humor. I have to tell you, I'm not sure I would have made it to this point in one piece if I didn't have humor to keep me company. Granted, I often find things funny that shouldn't be funny, but that has its own beauty too. Being able to laugh about something, or find something funny to distract myself has helped me through some serious sad times and major lows in my life. I think having grown up in a family where everyone had a good sense of humor helped too, because no matter how awful things were, there was always something that could make all of us laugh until we cried. And then I was lucky enough to find The Tim, whose sense of humor is so ridiculously similar, it's almost scary. (His sister: "No one thinks you two are as funny as you do.")

So I hope you can find something to laugh about, or that at least makes you smile as you go about your day. And I hope your weekend has a good dose of laughter in it. I know ours will, since we are going to Baltimore after The Tim gets home from work tonight for an overnight visit, and visiting my niece and her husband is always a blast.

So happy November to all of us!

I've Just Got This For You Today

I've got nothing today except this - a photo I took the other day of Esme bathing Alfie's paw. Honestly, these two are such besties, it's kind of ridiculous.

The Story of a Shy Girl

Once upon a time, there was a year-old kitty who had already had a litter of kittens who ended up in a rescue called Project MEOW Philadelphia. She lived in a foster home for quite a few months with other kitties, and two sisters who loved her and took amazing care of her.

Then in early May 2023, two people came to visit those sisters and seemed very interested in this little girl kitty, whose name was Beatrice Pemberton - Beatrice because it was a name someone really liked, and Pemberton because she was found with her kittens on Pemberton Street in West Philadelphia. Beatrice was pretty shy, but she let the two people play the fishing lure game with her, and allowed the lady to get kind of close to give her a treat. Then she went on with her kitty life in her foster home.

Except - two weeks later, her foster mother put her in a carrier (the HORROR) with only her SpiderMan sheet that she loved and then she was in a car, and when they got someplace else and she was let out of the carrier, she was in a house she didn't know, with strange smells, and the two people who had visited weeks before. Beatrice was not happy! She hid and wanted absolutely nothing to do with those two.

But - she could smell and hear other kitties! That seemed like something worth investigating. So even though she still didn't really like the people, she figured out that by letting them see her, she could eventually leave the room and meet those other cats. There were three of them!

One, a stripey orange kitty named Pip, was just so friendly and sweet, and wanted to cuddle with her and sometimes give her a bath, like her mommy kitty had so long ago. Beatrice liked Pip. It turned out that Pip only had three legs, but that never stopped him. It actually made Beatrice think things would be OK, because she only had one eye.

There was also Milo, another orange stripey kitty, who was called The Koodle, but not necessarily for good reasons. She heard Milo called "a brat," and he did seem to do things that got him into trouble a lot. Also, sometimes he peed outside the litter box, and Beatrice knew that you just don't do that. He started out growling at her and chasing her, but then the two people and the other kitties would intervene and he would get in trouble, so he decided to just let her do her thing.

But the BEST other kitty was a really big, really fluffy gray and white cat named Alfie. Alfie also only had three legs, but he almost immediately became Beatrice's very best friend ever. 

Beatrice still didn't want anything to do with the people, but they were nice to her. They fed her, gave her water, made sure she had a clean litterbox, and let her go wherever she wanted in the whole house. One of her most favorite things was to go into the guest bedroom, where the other kitties said the best sunspots were, and where they would sleep on the bed sometimes. Beatrice liked to lounge on the windowsill when the windows were open.

Now, Beatrice knew that her name was not the name she was born with, as all kitties know. But of course she also knew that there was no way people knew kitty cats' true names. The man in the house where she was living kept calling her Esmeralda, which she kind of liked, because she thought it sounded really fancy. And so that became her new name, "Esme" for short. That seemed fine. 

She also noticed that the other kitties seemed to really like the two people. They cuddled with them, and slept with them, and the two people actually turned out to be pretty nice. But Esme decided she still needed to be careful.

One day, the lady in the house was opening a big box and putting something together (don't worry - Esme watched from far away), and then she put it in front of the window that looked out on the garden and said, "That's for you, pretty girl." 

Esme did know that she was the only girl in the house, and everyone told her she was pretty, so it must be for her, right? Her very own place to sleep, look out the window, and observe goings on safely out of reach. She decided she would use it every single day.

Though she also realized that the bed in the guest bedroom that the other kitties told her about was pretty nice too.

So Esme decided she would settle in, because she thinks she might have found her forever family! She is still very cautiously keeping a distance from the man and the lady, though they are nothing but nice to her and tell her they love her all the time, which is nice to hear. And she is letting them get a little bit closer all of the time. 

Alfie and the others keep telling her not to be afraid of them, but she spent too much time on her own with her kittens and no home at all to feel to confident yet. She's hoping she'll get brave enough to be around them more, because the other kitties seem to get lots of pets, kisses, and cuddles, and Esme thinks she would probably like that.

She *is* glad that they are letting her take her own time. In the meanwhile she is enjoying playing with her new siblings, especially goofy Alfie, and watching the birds and squirrels in the garden. She hopes her kittens are having good lives as well. 

Esme has decided it will all work out, and when she worries it won't be, she takes a nap in the kitty bed with her SpiderMan sheet to make sure it's all OK. 

(Who knows, one day she might actually let the lady and/or the man take a photo of her to show people without having to use the zoom-in feature on their phones ...)