A Little Yarn On The Side

Not surprisingly, my first approach to dealing with Google Reader's impending doom on July 1--just ignoring it and hope something will change--has failed.  It's one of my favorite methods, though to be honest, I can't think of a single time when it's actually worked.  So, it's time for plan B:  choosing a new reader. Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts earlier.  I have narrowed it down to two choices ( The Old Reader and Comma Feed ), and last night I set up both of them.  So far, I don't like either of them simply because I don't want to change.  I had already changed once TO Google Reader, so I'm still grumpy about having to switch to something new.  So I'm giving them both a test run to see which seems least likely to make me switch yet again. It might seem odd that someone who keeps a blog is so hostile to technology, but it really isn't odd at all.  I'm 42, so depending on what one defines as the "computer age beginnin...

What the heck have I been doing with myself?  Oh yes: *  sucking up to a cat who has spent a great part of the last two weeks drugged and/or caged *  following a cat around to make sure he's drinking and peeing (and is now avoiding the obsessed crazy lady) *  weeding *  cursing myself for the half-hearted mulching job two weeks ago *  getting back into my pt routine and gym schedule *  learning about stomach ulcers and how they can be caused by extended use of the pain medication I've been on for the better part of a year and a half *  researching stomach ulcer-friendly diets in case my stomach doesn't start healing immediately now that I have stopped taking all pain medication *  inventing crazy new ways to "enjoy" hot cereal for breakfast every single morning *  being thankful that the healing process is only slightly slower than my speed at reaching satiation on the Bland Food diet *  doing extra exercises (...

..but making him drink is going to result in bloodshed. The good news is, Theo has been in absolutely no pain all weekend.  The bad news is, in addition to being insanely groggy, he refused to eat or drink anything.  Now I can understand this, as I've had more than my fair share of pain medication, and it all makes me sick in one way or another, but when one is trying to make sure one's male cat HASN'T developed a urinary tract infection, one really needs that cat to take in liquid.  All forms of bribery failed--beef broth, canned kitty food, begging--so we resorted to the syringe method.  I thought I had gotten pretty good at giving Theo liquid medications during his leg saga, but I've gotten rusty or he's gotten smarter.  I am sure some of the water ended up in the cat, but not half as much as ended up on the OUTSIDE of the cat.  It seems to have worked--this morning the medication has finally worn off, he's regained his appetite, and though we haven't...

So, you know that buy-nothing goal of mine?  Um, yeah...... Out of morbid curiosity, I often browse Ebay looking to see how many embroidery machines like mine are up for sale.  If I can get parts for mine, I think mine could  last another 10 years or more--but the problem is that there's no telling how long they'll be available.  So, I keep an eye out for the embroidery cards and/or the reader/writer I use to transfer designs to my machine.  The last writable card I bought was in a clearance basket (though still insanely expensive considering how little support the old machines get), so you can see why I worry.  So, before we left for Indiana, there were several cards on Ebay.  Usually I don't bother with the ones with designs already on them, because they're still REALLY expensive and I'm not interested enough in the designs.  But there was an unused writable card which wasn't going for much, and a lace card with maybe a $10 bid.  I thou...

Thursday night I had some spare time, so I thought I'd get a head start on Finishing Friday with three new icicles,   and three new patchwork ornaments, trying some new methods of tracing the pattern onto the felt, none of which worked any better, and I seem to have not photographed the third one.  Oh well,  it's a heart--pretty much like the last one.  I think we can now say that THREE strips of fabric was maybe an over-estimation of how long my interest in these would last.  They are a great way to catch up on my ornament tally, and I do like them, but I am now counting the days until I can buy fusible webbing and new marking pens. I like the hand-stitched look on ornaments, so both to solve the tracing problem AND try a new look, I made a stocking which I could cut out first, THEN stitch.  It worked reasonably well, though I need to practice a bit to get my stitching a bit more even, and it's hard to see in spots, but I thought it turne...

Look what a friend sent me while we were gone! Isn't he cute?????  She knows about the ornament project and sent him along with the directions for how to make several ornaments she's made (him included).  Isn't that great? 

It may not look like it, but this is a cat with stress issues.  We flew out to Indiana for Andy's family reunion obscenely early on Thursday morning.  Because it's such a busy time of year for our friends, how much I would worry about fires with the drought this year, and because I wanted to poison the little vole-monsters who have been plaguing the garden all spring, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to board the cats while we were gone.  Because of our travel times, the cats were due to check in the day before we left and get picked up the day after we arrived.  I made the reservations well in advance, made a copy of their immunization records, and thought I was really pretty clever for coming up with this whole idea in the first place. STILL feeling like I was planning ahead, we dug out the suitcases Tuesday night.  I have joked many times about Theo getting upset when he sees suitcases come out because he hates change so much, but I always thou...