Shocking scientific announcement!

Yes, you're reading it here! All the astronomers, cosmologists and theologists can stop their looking. I have discovered the center of the universe, and it can be found right here!

Are you ready?

Here it is:

Yes indeed, that is the center of the universe, sleeping on my kitchen table.

In other news, Pixel decided it was time to come back into the house. It's been getting into the mid-60's F at night, and that must be too chilly for her. Also, I don't give her any canned kitty food or half and half when she's outside. She demanded her half and half right after she polished off some yummy catfood this morning.

I realized I've been remiss on my charitable donations so far this year (with having all the vet bills). No vet bills in August, so I can make a donation or two. If I send in some $$ to PBS now, do you think it have any affect on shortening the pledge drive? I guess I'd have to send in some big bucks, and that won't happen unless I win the Mega Millions.

The temperatures will be comfortable enough for me to resume some TNR pretty soon too. I didn't want to have Mr. Chubbikins trying to recover when the heat was so terrible. I'll get the trap and get him fixed in the next few weeks.

I'll tackle my red scarf again tonight. Right now it's just a ball of red yarn waiting to go. Since it's much thicker than I normally use, it should go pretty quickly. I think I've posted a link if you want to check it out and maybe let an orphan know that he or she is not forgotten.

Only 16 more days until fall is officially here. We'll have to look quickly to see any autumnal color. With the drought here the leaves will probably go from green to brown, then fall off overnight.

Have a great Sunday, everyone. I'll be tackling some of the weedy overgrowth in the yard while trying to avoid getting poison ivy for the 3rd time this year.

The waiting is the hardest part

When I came home from work tonight, the furry devils were all demanding immediate feeding as usual. All except for Brownie, whom I didn't see. I checked her sleep spot, at which point she awoke and joined the feeding frenzy.

I find I've reached sort of an odd state of low level, constant anxiety. It's barely there, but when I see Aunt Bev has called my first thought is "I hope nothing's happened to Grandma." Sometimes when Keith calls I wonder "Is Brownie ok?"

Honestly, since I turned 30 several long years ago, I've been mostly ok with aging. Ok, I'm seeing the loss of elasticity in my post 40 jawline, and I am starting to wonder just how much plastic surgery would cost. The worst part about aging is that you don't do it alone, and those you've known and love start to pass away. I'm very lucky that I still have grandmothers, but one has had multiple strokes and the other has Alzheimer's. One still knows who I am, the other does not. I have 3 aging cats. Brownie is the only one who is really enfeebled, but Scooter is much less mobile than he once was, and Pixel is more neurotic and odd. In fact, Pixel once again is outside. She complains about it when she shows up for feeding, but she keeps her distance so that I can't grab her and bring her back in.

Keith has a cousin who is a few years older than we are. Nearly 2 years ago he was diagnosed with liver cancer. In the meantime he continued to travel and live life to the fullest while they tried to reduce the size of the tumor in order to operate. We heard tonight that the cancer has spread, and he's been in and out of the hospital recently. We plan to go visit next week, if he's up to having visitors.

On a much lighter note, Alien vs. Predator 2 is scheduled to be released in December. Yes, the first one is really funny to me (it's not supposed to be). Be ready for cheesy sci-fi.

Speaking of which, I've been watching season one of War of the Worlds, the Fox tv series from the 80's. Keith and I really enjoyed it when it came out then. It's not always easy to knit to since I do have to watch it. Fun special effects that include aliens dissolving into piles of smoking goo. It was (and still can be) kind of creepy, but for someone who stayed up late on weekends watching 50's sci-fi and The Nightstalker, it's must see TV.

As for the knitting, I've set everything aside so I can work on the red scarf. My cable didn't work very well on the acrylic yarn. It was too big and made the yarn misbehave too much. I'm thinking now of a basketweave so I won't be totally bored, and the scarf will mostly lie flat. Not much progress on Keith's sweater.

Here's a random picture of Scooter dozing in the sun this past spring.

More on Supernova

After I posted earlier today, I did a search on Supernova. Apparently only 2 seasons (12 episodes) have been made. The reviewer I stumbled across said something about the show being cute, but that science and scientists aren't that funny. Actually, they are pretty funny, but they're so out there in the way they think that probably most people don't understand them. Of course, I spend my Tuesday nights watching Nova on PBS, so I've seen some pretty funny astrophysicists and microbiologists. The truth is that scientific humor is not for everyone.

If you get a chance, watch it and decide for yourself.

Finished CTH sock #1

For those of you who are not sock knitters, I've finished the first sock of a pair knitted in Cherry Tree Hill yarn. Who knows what I've done with the label. It's probably in the big bin of sock yarn. And here it is....

The lighting isn't what it should be, but the colors are very close to reality. This one was knitted toe up, and I used a variation of Wendy's Russian bind-off. I realized that I was knitting 2 together through the back loop, and I decided I liked the way it looked.

On to the sweater...It's knit in Galway Wool by Plymouth. It's a tweedy charcoal grey. The pattern calls for black, but I liked this a lot better. After all, one must enjoy what she's knitting. As you can see, I've almost finished with the first ball of yarn. You must also remember that one round has 238 stitches, so when I do 6 rounds, I've knit 1428 stitches. I worked on this for awhile last night, but finally put is aside to finish the sock. Sock # 2 is already started.

The fall sweater drive is still going on at work. I helped steer a woman away from the acrylic to the Silky Wool, which is a lovely blend of wool and silk. I recently purchased 7 balls of it myself for a raglan cardigan knit from the neck down. I think her husband will be happier with the pattern and the yarn I suggested instead of beige acrylic.

We collect community service knitting at the store. Since I've been there we've been working with first Chemochic and now Chemoflage. We knit and collect chemo caps for women. Of the many other charities out there is one called the Red Scarf Project. Scarves are knitted for young adults who are orphans. They are distributed at Valentine's Day. I've seen other bloggers who are involved with this, so I'm somewhat familiar with it. I've not participated before since most of my charity knitting last year was for Chemoflage ( I knitted 7 hats last year) or for the Atlanta Knitting Guild (I knitted some parts for the teddy bear sweaters.) I have in the past sent items to Afghans for Afghans also. This will be the first time I've been involved in the Red Scarf Project. I think it's a great thing to do - I just really dislike knitting scarves. They are soooo boring. I shall be spending some time looking for an interesting pattern so I don't mind knitting 5 feet of bulky yarn. I'll probably do a cable, a pattern I've not done before so I can learn something new. If you want to check out the charity, here's the link... Red Scarf Project

That's all the news. Ok, one more bit. Some of you know that I spend Saturday nights watching the Britcoms and knitting. (Both of these drive Keith crazy sometimes.) GPTV has changed the lineup once again and added something called Supernova. It's about Australian astrophysicists in the bush at the Royal Australian Observatory. It is hilarious, and quite honestly when I was in college I seriously thought about astronomy instead of biology as a major. That's why I love this man almost as much as I loved Carl Sagan.

Gotta go. The belt on the dryer broke yesterday, and there are halfway dried clothes in there. I've got to hang them on the drying rack outside before they get sour.

It's here!

September, that is. The days are getting shorter, and boy! People are buying wool in mass quantities again. I was all alone at work yesterday, my co-worker having to attend a funeral, and people are in sweater knitting mode again. I helped with the makin's of 4 sweaters yesterday. Sure, there were sockknitters too, but like I said, sweater knitters buy in mass quantities. You have to when making a sweater. (We won't talk about the 12 balls of Plymouth Galway for Keith's sweater or the 12 balls of Silk Garden languishing in the closet for me to make the sweater on the back of Cornelia's book from this past winter.)

Anyway, we've had rain almost every day this week and cooler temps. Thank goodness the dog days of August are over.

I've got to grab breakfast before heading to the wool mines. The Jojoland trunk show came yesterday. It has some luscious cashmere and a gorgeous lace shawl. Arlene is ordering the shawl pattern and perhaps more cashmere. The cashmere colors we have right now are either all pastels (yuck) or not-for-me jewel brights. I have lots of restocking to do also since 3 of the sweaters were sold after 4:00 p.m. yesterday.

Rain, rain

I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am. It is now our 4th or 5th day with temps below 90 F, and we've been having rain almost every afternoon. This is what summer in the south is supposed to be like. I remember the summer I went to Auburn to catch up on some classes since I changed my major, and it rained just about every afternoon around 3. Here the bottom drops out between 4:30 and 5, just in time for rush hour traffic. I'm not complaining. We have a rain deficit between 16 - 18 inches for the year. I would prefer not to make it all up with a hurricane or two since that leads to basement flooding.

I haven't had any desire to design much since I started knitting. I've been fine knitting other people's patterns and tweaking them some to make them more to my liking. That said, I had an idea for an intarsia and textured sweater this morning that I really want to make. No mentions of it here other than some of you may be asked to give opinions on some odd dishclothes over the next few months as I start to work on samples. Be prepared. I'll post things once I've finished, and since this is in the mere inkling stages, it will be awhile. And Beth, this won't have any skull motifs, but it still falls into the somewhat macabre category. For those of you who like Alice Cooper, I'll give you this hint. It was the subject of one of his songs. I hope that's no help!

Have a great evening. I'm off to make a tasty chicken salad for dinner.

Careless in Red

I know, it's cryptic. It's not meant to be. It's the title of the next book by Elizabeth George which I found on her site. This is what happens to Inspector Lynley and company after the tragic events of With No One As Witness.

Sure, it doesn't have the same sort of anticipation that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had, but I really can't wait to read it.

Tonight I got to knit on the big sock. A woman in England has started this giant sock that is going to knitting groups all over in an attempt for entry into the Guiness Book of World Records. Honestly, I could care less, but when I asked Keith he said when else would I have a chance to do anything like this? So I knitted with very plasticky acrylic yarn on this very large circle for some time tonight. Woohoo. (and why does this make me think of Bender saying "Bite my shiny metal ass?")

In other news I'm yearning for a vacation. A real vacation where we go away for rest and relaxation, preferably with a spa on the premises. I could use a pedicure, massage and waxing. Of course this isn't going to happen anytime soon. We've discussed what to do with old kitties, specifically Brownie. She doesn't leave the kitchen. She sleeps, eats and potties. Mostly sleeps. Most importantly, she needs her medicine. Looking at her is just so sad. She's a furry skeleton who doesn't even groom herself anymore. She feels brittle when I pet her (which isn't much since she rarely moves out from under the curio cabinet where she sleeps 23.5 hours/day). And Pixel has taken to staying out all the time. She was out for a little less than 48 hours earlier this week. I think she's too old to be sleeping out all night. She still seems spry and quite vocal when it comes to demanding some of my half and half in the morning, but she also seems thinner. I think it's time to get her in to get her thryroid tested too. Let's see, medicating two ancient kitties daily will limit my possible vacation escapes even more. Even so, I dread the day when I have to load Brownie and Pixel into the cat carriers for that final trip to the vet. As long as they are both eating and not in pain, I'll put off vacation. There's always the Natural Body Day Spa. Maybe half a day there will seem like a vacation.

Keith's sweater is slowly coming along. That's one thing I love about socks is that you can see progress. Knitting on a sweater you don't always see the progress, especially a man size sweater. Thankfully he's slim and not carrying a beer gut.

Back to vacation. It's really too bad that Keith didn't qualify for the trip to Switzerland again. The Badrutt's Palace had a spa downstairs near the pool area. I did get a pedicure and massage while there. Now that was a vacation. All of this has me thinking about what to do next year for our 20th wedding anniversary. My little grey cells are furiously working. I just don't know if I can give up buying yarn long enough for the idea I've been tossing about. I have much research to do.