A Little Yarn On The Side

 And I might even be slightly forgiven.  Not last night, of course.  That was the last dose and after that, Theo hid under the forsythia bush and had nothing to do with me the rest of the night.  But today I've been out picking cucumbers in the garden, which is ALWAYS really interesting in Kittyland, and when I moved into the sewing room, he first hung out right outside the door, then hopped up on the window, then:  which is, of course, right on top of the table runner I had just prepped for binding.  Oh well.  If you had been having to torture a cat twice a day, could you make this sweet little face move?  Or at least not until after I've made pickles, at any rate..................  

The stubbed toe is healing, the carpal tunnel issues are improving, the first round of scratches are scabbed over.......so Wednesday night when I gave Theo his dose of sticky, awful meds, he got one claw deeply embedded in my left hand--right between the second and third knuckles, and it took me FOREVER (probably 30 seconds) to wrestle a wiggling and ticked-off 18-pound cat into a position where I could remove his claw without ripping my hand wide open, all the while trying not to scream in pain because a frightened wiggling and ticked-off 18-pound cat is more than I can handle.  He left a nice puncture mark that didn't bleed much, but hurt like crazy.  After my father's ordeal with the staph infection, we're probably maniacs about infections, but I immediately washed my hands twice with lots of soap, then applied antibiotic cream and a bandage, and took an Aleve for pain. Yesterday my hand was still throbbing, and most tragically of all, I couldn't knit.  Not even a...

There was a brief moment of horror last night when I cleaned out my purse and discovered that the notes on the vet receipt said the antibiotic needed to be given for 14 days.  The bottle says 10, and today is day number 7 and while Theo still has a little congestion, an 18-pound cat feeling better and who knows what is coming is spectacularly hard to medicate.  In terror, I called the vet first thing this morning to verify that we only had to endure this torture for 10 days, not 14.  Luckily, it is 10 days--I think I would still be sobbing if it were 14. Theo is feeling better, and was even chipper enough to hang out with me until he discovered that I wasn't going to stop giving him the goo, so now he is staying as far away from me as he can: and even though I know this is for his own good, the guilt is overwhelming.  I can't say that I blame him--I wouldn't be thrilled with me either--but since he caught cat flu because I boarded him, I am actually respo...

*  It is easier to catch a sick cat than a healthy one *  Medications for a cat's own good are not an accepted concept in the feline world *  Cat flu cannot be passed along to humans, but stress and lack of sleep CAUSED by the cat will make the human nice and susceptible to circulating human cold viruses *  No matter how many times I lose this battle, my little toe and the bedpost insist on having regular rematches *  Two humans and a towel are no match for a cat who really, really, REALLY doesn't want bubble-gum flavored goo shoved down his throat.

If one woman is left alone with two cats and has to take one of those cats to the vet twice in three days AND has to get 2 doses of sticky drugs down this cat every day for 10 days, at what time is it socially acceptable for said woman to pour a glass of wine?

...and the bleeding has stopped.  Mine, not Theo's.  To be fair, in all the years we've been together and all the drugs I have given Theo, last night was the first time he scratched me, and he had had a pretty rotten day.  I mean, if someone had stuck a thermometer up my backside, I'd have been pretty crabby too, and he really wasn't feeling good and had thrown up on the carpet about an hour before, so I can't really blame him.  He wasn't even trying to hurt me--he was just trying to push the horrible bubble-gum goo away from him.  Unfortunately, one bleeds the same whether it was intentional or not.  But today we've had both doses and even a little togetherness in the sewing room, albeit, barely in the sewing room and not close enough for any petting.  One does not forgive bubble-gum flavored sticky goo being shot down one's throat THAT easily....But I did need some supervision: More quilting!  I'm doing another one with different design...

Yep, back at the vet.  Although, for a fun twist, I had a dentist appointment this morning to just round out the fun.  My poor little sidekick, started sneezing Sunday morning, and I kept an eye on him for a couple days because he does have asthma, the house hadn't been vacuumed in a week, and the sneezing wasn't accompanied by any other symptoms.  But by last night he was really uncomfortable--very clogged up and not able to smell food so wasn't eating very much.  He was so clogged up that I got out Vicks Vaporizer that we've used when I've had bronchitis to help him get a bit of relief.  I actually felt sorry for our vet's office when we walked in, because frankly, all of us had been feeling just a little bit smug about Theo being able to pee while he was boarded.  The vets had checked on him a couple times, everything seemed good, and everyone was pretty happy.  But apparently pride goeth before a respiratory infection....... They're a good...

Andy is off on a business trip tomorrow, and aside from a dental appointment, physical therapy appointment, and a couple trips to the gym, I am planning to spend the next 3 days crafting.  YAY! And, with fabrics ironed and lightly starched and ready to go on the new kimono ornaments as an incentive, I am finishing up the 4 remaining spring table runners.  I walked 4 miles this morning and did a little gardening, so I'm taking a break to do a little quilting on number 4: this time alternating two stitches to see how it turns out.  I prepped all three last night,  so they were ready to go if I had some free time today. While I was at it, I also put together a practice piece to try my hand at stippling later.  I think I could really like it, and could use it on one of the table runners.   I'm repeating the same project over and over to get better at quilting and to practice techniques, so it would be the perfect time to try it if the practice g...

During our trip, Theo had to board with our vet because of his bladder issues.  He has to be given medication twice a day, and he's such a pill about it that so far even Andy can't do it--just me.  Luckily, our vet also has facilities for boarding, so that's where Theo spent a week. I picked him up yesterday morning almost as soon as they opened, and Theo didn't stop chastising us the entire day.  He finally forgave me enough for a little reassuring cuddle and toe-sucking (him, not me) in the early evening, and today he was willing to sew with me.  In fact, he is the reason you're not seeing a great picture of the second spring table runner.  What you would see underneath the big ticked-off kitty if you had that sort of vision is a binding attached with a decorative stitch rather than stitch-in-the-ditch.  I can't decide if I like the look or not, but the third one is ready to bind, so maybe I'll try it again with a different decorative stitch....

Was anyone else relieved to find out that everyone else is pretty well addicted to Pinterest or getting over an addiction to Pinterest?  I know I was.  :) We've been on vacation this week to Victoria, British Columbia.  Besides being one of the most beautiful cities one could ever visit, their August weather heat wave almost hit 80 degrees, so we thought it a fantastic place to go to escape the heat.  The trip was to celebrate Andy's 50th birthday, so we really wanted to do something special, and the best thing for my back would be short flights and lots and lots of walking, so Victoria fit perfectly.  We found a family-owned motel right on the water, which was sort of our back up plan because we both assumed that I would need to rest my hip/back....and eventually I did, but aside from the pain from the completely uncomfortable seats on Horizon Air, I didn't really hurt until the last night, and we walked EVERYWHERE.  Our hotel was a mile from downtow...

I have stopped hanging out on Ravelry so much, just in time to be sucked into Pinterest.  Have you checked it out yet?  On the one hand, I'm glad to have someplace to queue non-knitting projects , because while there are dozens of sewing and quilting Ravelry-wannabees, none of them are as good.  On the other hand, do I really need any more projects to make???????????  Didn't I have a big enough list without anyone helpng me?  Especially now that so much of my time is taken up by physical therapy and exercise--I have SO much less crafting time, and yet I can always kill 15-20 minutes browsing new projects I don't have time to make.  What is wrong with me????????????

and pickling and gardening and exercise and socializing which is why there hasn't been a lot of blogging.  It's so hot here that if I'm walking, I have to get up early to get my loop in--which it turns out is 4 miles rather than the 3.5 that I've been thinking for all these months, so I've not been slow and poky like I thought.  If I'm going to the pool, I go in the afternoon when it's crazy-hot because it's a perfect way too cool off, but that tends to mean I'm exhausted and ready to collapse by 4 every day.  If I could nap, I would have taken one every day this week.  As it is, I was only NOT in bed by 5 today by the great strength of willpower and the fact that with the windows open I didn't want the neighbors to see me in my jammies at 5:00 pm.  Like I'm probably NOT considered the crazy neighbor lady by everyone already--and they haven't even seen my stash!  Speaking of which, this is my new portable knitting project, and ...

It's been 21 months since I bought yarn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish that translated into a really noticeable dent in the stash, but last year's ornament challenge wasn't exactly a yardage burner, and I finished up my 27th ball of yarn for the year yesterday, but at least it hasn't grown in almost two years.