Mom just called.  She was in NYC for a meeting and was supposed to fly in tonight, then she has to be in St. Louis on Thursday.  Well, Mom's Curse of the Airlines stuck again.  Her flight was cancelled because of high winds and she doesn't know what's going on.  She said the airline offered to check her luggage.  Ha!  They can't get her home and they want her luggage?  Even better--since she was only going for overnight she only took one pair of shoes and one broke.  Now she's stranded with broken shoes. 

Personally, I'd be looking into Greyhound from now on.

Went to Hobby Lobby last night.  I ate dinner at Steak 'n Shake before and by the time I got to the crochet books I had to go to the bathroom and I mean now.  Of course, our Hobby Lobby only has one set of bathrooms and they're ALL the way across the store.  I get my cart and trot past the fabric, the baskets, the candlemaking supplies, the scrapbook supplies, the Fimo clay, the bandanas, the beads, the jewelry findings, the painting supplies...and...whew!  Made it!  I grabbed my purse and bolted into the bathroom and almost ran into a guy at the urinal.

Whoops.   

I don't think he saw me--his back was to the door--but I hid out in the women's bathroom for 10 minutes to be sure.   

I did get some nice yarn and patterns. 

BPAL:  Queen Mab (black orchid, sandalwood, night-blooming jasmine, osmanthus, Somalian rose, and Chinese musk)  Nice.  Flowery but not too sweet.  It's all about the sandalwood on the drydown.  I've been through a major body chemistry shift lately.  All of my favorites have been smelling "perfumey" for lack of a better term.  It's nice to have something that just smelled nice for a change.

Hair--keeps growing.  Can't make a French twist or any semblace of one anymore.  I've....I've...I've OUTGROWN MY FICCARES!!!  I've only had them for a few months!!!!  The hair's transitioning.  I can only wear rose buns for the moment.  Even the Modified Gibson is too heavy and my hair's been too slippery to stay in anything anyway.  Groan.  Change is constant, I know, but I'm getting bored here, hair!  Better behave before I amuse myself all over you, ya hear me?   8)

At least you have a bit of an excuse, Angel Spun.  

I will admit, though, that the men's bathroom was cleaner than I expected.   8)

Mom made it back to her home state.  She made it to Dulles last night; all of the hotels were full and she hadn't anything to eat all day.  She managed to snag a day-old sandwich but she had to sleep on the floor of the airport.  They didn't even give her a blanket or anything.  And she gets to leave again tomorrow.  

The brother and the nephew were watching El Dorado and when John Wayne rode onto the screen, nephew said  "Pa-Pa...with a hat!"  He has cemented his place in the will and is making great strides toward getting that car when he's 16.  I'd be surprised if Dad had make it back to earth in time to go to work today.  

Hair:  Rose bun.  Woohoo.  Held with my new titanium hairfork/giant hair pin which works very well and decorated with my Montana Blue Shadowstix.

BPAL:  Dorian (A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea.)  I'm usually not a vanilla fan but this is wonderful--sweet and creamy but not overpowering.  I've got a big bottle on order.  Mmmmm.  

You can never, ever watch too much CSI

ahem.

tap, tap, tap

IS THIS THING ON??

Sorry, sorry.  Volume trouble, let me get this thing....

Ok.  Can everyone hear me?  Oh, good.

Well, I have an announcement, and I think it's a rather exciting one.  I've finished my Christmas shopping!!!!!

I've finished my Christmas Shopping!  I've finished my Christmas shopping!!  I've finished my Christmas shopping!!!

Thank you, Amazon, and thank you Chico's. 

Whee!  Every year they start Christmas earlier and earlier and every year I get terminally sick of Christmas  earlier and earlier.  This year I began to growl at the stacks of red and green garlands sharing shelf space with the Halloween decorations at Big Lots.   For the past few years I've realized that Christmas isn't fun anymore, it's just an 8-week slog of imminent bankruptcy and tinny renditions of "Silver Bells".  Well, this year I'm done early and we'll see if I can enjoy myself now. 

I had a hairstick orgy this weekend.  I made 2 pairs and mixed up too much adhesive, so I ran upstairs and repaired a broken hairstick; but I still had lots of glue.  I had a couple of fimo beads hanging around waiting to be made into hairtoys so I put them together quickly and...the glue was too dry.  The sticks were all done but the gluing so I figured, what the hey?  I'll just throw together a few more pairs I've been meaning to get around to and I'll try out these fine, double-pointed knitting needles I got for hairsticks (they hold well, but don't put too much torque on them or they'll bend!) and by the time I was done I had 11 pairs of sticks and a hairfork done.

Good thing the hair is growing.  I'm up to 31(!) inches now.  That's a 6 inch gain since February, which is very impressive considering I had that 3 month resting phase at the beginning of summer.  I was aiming at waist length (37") but I'm curious to see just how #$$% my hair has to be to make a figure-8 bun.  My braid does now fall solidly over my shoulder but it's stubby and basically just curls lovingly around my neck. 

I tried a chopstick twist today but the hair decided that it'd rather not.  So it's a...bababum!!!...rose bun with my Jonquil Fire and Vixen sticks.  I slid a headband comb on before making the bun then slid it off afterwards.  When done correctly, this gives just a little fullness to the front hair without letting it droop pitifully over the ears.  I must be part beagle because I usually have ear droop.  Not today though.

BPAL:  All Saints again.  This time the flowers showed up much sooner and the whole thing was much better blended--a resiny incense floral.  It doesn't last too long, but I really like it so I don't mind re-applying.

Quote:


LOL!

Anyway, he jumped up on my back and tried to climb me!  The little %^$#@%!!!!  He dug his claws deeply into my back and I screamed; it felt so good, I screamed again.  And again.  And again.

Ziggy did that to me shortly after we first got him.  I scared the crap out of him when I hollared and he's never done it again.  Man, that really hurts!  And then when the claw marks are healing, they itch.  Sheesh!  What the "F" was he thinking?

Hope you're OK!

Remember the opening scene in Jurassic Park where the ‘raptor is in the big crate and he’s not only very unhappy about it, but is also not shy about letting everyone know his feelings on the matter?  That’s what Gorey is like in the cat carrier, only noisier with fewer human fatalities.  I don’t think he’s ever been in a carrier before because he didn’t lose his mind until I closed the door; he lunged violently about the carrier at first—I was afraid he’d break the thing for a minute—then decided to sit at the door and complain about his shoddy treatment at my hands.  And complain he did; loudly, enthusiastically, and constantly.  All the way to the vet he cried; he cried in the waiting room, he cried in the exam room, he cried while waiting for the test results (and scared the #@$$ out of a little Yorkie), he cried all the way home, and he cried under the porch until I gave him some food. 

I took him to the vet, as you may recall, because he wouldn’t put weight on his right front leg and was limping around like the most pitiful cat in the world.  The vet examined him. “Which leg is it?”

“Right front”

She palpated both front legs.  He just stared at her.

“His left elbow’s a bit sore.  Are you sure it’s the right?”

I clawed at the air, reproducing Gorey’s position when he was in my lap with his poor injured leg.  “Yep, it’s the right one.”

She put a leash on him and let him wander around the exam room for a bit.  “Well, he’s not showing any problems with either of them now.”

The little faker!  Lying little weasel!  And I was feeling bad about stuffing him in the carrier.  I should just leave him in there forever, the little malingerer.

The vet says that Gorey’s an older cat, so he’s looking for a retirement home.  I guess that makes me Florida.  His eyes are goopy from conjunctivitis, not allergies as I’d hoped.  That means eye ointment and oral antibiotics.  NOOOOOOO!!!!  Believe me, cat, you don’t hate getting meds any more than I hate giving them to you.

She says he’s a beautiful, big, solid, muscular tomcat, which I already knew.   He also has ear mites which I suspected—his bloody, bloody head tipped me off (the assistant told me he had a sore behind his ear.  I told her she had no idea.)  He’s not neutered, as I suspected, but that’ll be taken care of in 3 weeks when he gets his boosters.

He is also…bomp, bomp, bomp…completely disease free. No feline leukemia, no FIV, no parasites, nothing but ear mites and conjunctivitis.  How he managed to avoid feline leukemia after hanging out with Agatha P. for nearly a year I’ll never know.  So he got his first round of shots and this morning I can tell he feels crappy.  Ha.  Serves the little faker right.  8)

Anyway, this means that he could come inside.  I’m thinking about it.  I need a backup plan, because if he doesn’t fit in  (aka:  he’s mean to Bogie.  Rumpole gets along with other cats ok; Bogie, however, thinks he’s macho, macho cat [ha] and Gorey, should he decide to, would eat Bogie alive.)  I couldn’t just put him back outside.  I’m trying to sweet talk my mom into taking him IF things don’t work out.  We’ll start slowly, though.  I won’t change clothes to go out and pet on Gorey; that way the boys can get used to his smell and vice versa.  They already sniff at each other through the crack in the door.

This leaves poor Agatha all alone in the Kitty Suite.  She grooms obsessively and has created some bare patches on her skin.  I asked the vet about it but all she can offer is some kitty Paxil.  I love Agatha but I’m not sure I want to wrestle medicine down her throat every day.  I strongly suspect that I’d need Paxil myself after a few weeks of that.

Juri got her gift!  Yay!  That's pretty good timing; from OH to HI in less than a week, especially during Christmas season, the most horrible season of all for the Post Office. 

Gorey disappeared for 36 hours after our fun trip to the vet.  He showed up yesterday afternoon, but wouldn't come up on the porch.  He sat out in the snow, holding up his right leg(!!!), and MEOWED for food.  I put out the canned food but refused to leave and since he's a black fuzzy pig he came up and ate anyway.  We made up for now, but tonight we start the medication for his eyes.  Sigh.

I also let Bogie smell Gorey's scent on me.  He sniffed my hand and stomped down the stairs, his tail spelling out  "w-h-o-r-e" in cat semaphore.  Oh, this is going to be fun.   

I think I've found a cleaning lady!  I just need to straighten up the house first.  I don't clean.  I cook and wash dishes, I iron, I mend, I do laundry, I feed the cats and clean their litter boxes, I check my oil and change the furnace filter, but I will not clean.  Call me eccentric, call me a slob, I don't care.    

Scarf bun with a new red/pink oblong scarf sprinkled with poinsettias tied around it.  Mom got me the scarf as an early Christmas present on Black Friday.  It looks nice.  I do like a scarf bun, and the scarf keeps the Amish hair pins from popping out too much.

My hair has been dry and tangly recently.  I've started washing the ends with CV Cucumber Yogurt soap.  The regular CV soap is too much for my hair, leaving it limp, but the ends appreciate a little extra moisture.  I'm also working the red palm oil.

I was almost finished with my second Red Scarf Project scarf (one strand purple polarspun yarn with one strand varigated blue/purple eyelash; hdc mesh with 6 spaces across.  Makes a nice warm scarf and is easier to crochet with eyelash in a mesh pattern) and was adding a few last rows last night when I noticed it looked a bit odd.  I counted and sure enough, I had 5 mesh spaces across instead of 6.  I had to frog almost a third of the scarf and eyelash doesn't frog easily.  I'd found a few balls of Peppermint varigated cotton yarn I wanted to make a Chrismas boa to wear this month and now I have to put it off till I finish the scarf which would have been done yesterday if I weren't such a spaz.  Oh well.