Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

So, while I was home in Maine my little brother grinned with glee, took my camera and scampered (yes, scampered) to the attic of Dad’s garage with the comment, “Oh you’ve got to have a picture of this!” And this is how I ended up with the Shag King on my camera. The Shag King is, naturally, a vacuum attachment for the 30+ year old Kirby vacuum cleaner in my parents’ house. Presumably, if it were attached to said Kirby and pointed at some shag carpet, the Shag King would indeed voraciously devour all dirt in its shaggy path.

I have redrafted the pattern for Fop Pants and cut out a pair. I have more fabric in the dryer. Apparently I’m still procrastinating my Viking apron dresses. I’ve got plenty of pre-Pennsic projects to do it with too.

tags: attachment, dad’s attic, kirby, random, sewing, shag king, vacuum cleaner

For those keeping score at home, this is the 75th episode of Monster Cat!

It was a terribly hot weekend. Saturday the cats were left alone to be lumps around the house. They were very glad to see us when we got home. Since their food dishes weren’t empty, I have to assume their happiness was due to the fact that our thumbs would soon turn some AC. They did look a little wilted in their little fur coats. Sunday we did very little. I organized some sewing stuff and poked around at bits of my desk. I’m achieving greater organization but slowly. Tennyson spent the day finding the best angle on the Vornado fan. I am happy to report that it circulates air very well, even with a large, gray cat in the way!

More comics at: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

tags: cats, comics, heat, monster cat, organization, silly, tennyson, weaterh, weekend

It’s the day of green, hurray!

I have doubled my coffee consumption this month so far… which isn’t horrifying. I don’t drink that much coffee (at least when I’m not traveling) but doubling is still doubling. I got a couple things done that I really wanted to get done at work today so that was more than a small comfort for a Monday. I still can’t wait for this month to be over. I’d like to be less fried.

Weekendness happened and was lovely. I toddled over to a St. Patrick’s day party on Saturday and had fabulous potato soup created by the lovely ownedbytwins. And cake balls, which are tasty little bite-sized balls of cake mixed with frosting - these happened to be decorated somewhat suggestively as well. And adorable little children and great company. Oh, and Pampered Chefness, because I might as well admit that I’m a bit of an addict.

Sunday was totally thrown off by the fact that the Fop got stuck in New Orleans the night before. Suddenly all of my keen plans for Sunday were less interesting because I wouldn’t be picking him up until 4 pm. Ah well. It was a good weekend for tidying and general organization tasks at least. The laundry was all done in for the briefest of moments (and narrowest of definitions). My desk is down to two and a half piles. I actually did Monster Cat last night instead of at lunch or after work today.

Today I booked my (free!) plane tickets for Chicago (Bernina event in April) and made sure I had the hotel room for an additional night so I could stay an extra day for sight-seeing. I’ve never been to Chicago! This evening involved dinner out with friends as well - always a good thing.

So a lot of little things got done that made me feel like I’m neglecting my personal life a little less in the face of Too Much Work[tm]. This is a relief since towards the end of last week I thought I was going to be chained to my work laptop forever. It’s a ThinkPad, so that’s not a very appealing thought… maybe if it were a new MacBook Pro I wouldn’t feel the pain so acutely… Um… no, forget I said that.

tags: coffee, getting things done, green, house, socializing, soup, st. patrick’s day, stress, travel, work

La Befana is apparently still not making trans-atlantic flights. My socks were empty this morning. Of course, I didn’t leave any wine out to entice La Befana to come fill my socks, but she could have helped herself to anything on the wine rack!

Epiphany’s Eve was marked, for me, by a lack of parking last night when we got home from dinner (from a fabulous Chinese restaurant, staple of the holiday season). The churchies were dutifully attending Epiphany services or something. Yesterday 2 chilly people under-dressed for the wind took down the church’s pretty white Christmas lights. I should check to see if the manger setup is gone yet.

Personally, I prefer my mom’s tradition (which may be a “Maine thing”) of leaving the Christmas wreath up until Easter… This is more a practical thing than religious thing. Usually by Easter the snow has melted enough that you can get to the wreath to take it down. As opposed to here where I’ll be lucky if I see more than two snowflakes at once this year. This week’s forecast puts us into the mid-60s - aka far to warm for winter, even for the January thaw.

My office has a new rug! Hurray! Now I need to clean my desk so that my cat can have his spot back.

tags: cleaning, epiphany, holiday musings, rain, random, warm, weather

Desks, desktops and pretty flowers
I briefly succeeded in finding space on my desk for my hypothetical new scanner. Since then my pile of magazines has encroached upon the space - easy to clear again at least. Someday I’ll have a neat and uncluttered desk. Really! I think I need to break down and get a file cabinet, honestly, but I don’t want one. They’re a pain to move (either within the house or to a new house) and just make me feel old. But… yeah, I need one. Maybe a dainty one. Maybe I’ll paint it or cover it with stickers. My next goal on my desk is to condense 2 cubbies of clutter into one. Babysteps, right?

Speaking of desktops, this columbine photo is currently my desktop picture. (If you want a copy, click here for the gargantuan version.) I am indeed a sucker for flowers.

Easy Fountain Pen Adventures
My eternal obsession with pens has been quite fruitful of late. I made a small order (really, it was small! 2 pens!) from Colorado Pen Direct and got a free purple Pilot Varisity fountain pen. They’re offered individually, in boxes of 12 and in a rainbow pack of 5. If you have been looking for an inexpensive way to play with a fountain pen,
$4.25 will get you an individual Pilot Varisity and $18 will get you a set of 5 in fun colors. The pen has a Medium nib and writes fairly smoothly. It feels like a ‘normal’ pen in your hand though it’s a little fatter than a typical ballpoint it seems to be a little smaller than a Sharpie. It’s also a very light pen which is nice. It’s a disposable pen so the ink is completely contained in the barrel - no refill options but also a limited risk for mess. In short, there’s not really much intimidating about this fountain pen if you’ve never used one before and want to try one out with very little commitment.

Work Saunters On
Work is going well. My boss is on vacation next week and somehow I’m point person for a couple of things while she’s gone. I’m not worried, per se, but I am hoping nothing goes wrong. It’s easier that way. My perpetually stalled project is still stalled but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. If it’s not a light, it’s a train and I’m going to pretend it’s the end of the tunnel anyway so I can die with optimisim in my heart.

tags: , columbine, disposable pens, fountain pens, pens, pilot varsity, work

Monster Cat (aka Tennyson) continues to be a very unhappy camper. We went to the vet this morning for his follow-up. The good news is the bandage is off. The bad news is that he’s stuck in the cone head for another week. It sucks to be the cat. A lot. He whined less painfully in the car today though! Probably because he’s so hoarse from whining so much in general this week. The biopsy came back on the growth - still sarcoma cells, this time a little more aggressive than the cells removed in December. The edges are clean though, so it shouldn’t come back. His foot looks a little funny since he’s now missing a toe, but the vet says it’ll be barely noticeable when the fur grows back. So it’s good he got surgery this week even though the Fop and I are leaving tomorrow. The ever wonderful Mark will be taking care of Tenny for his 2nd week of cone-headedness. I’m optiistic that, now that the bandage is off, Tenny will be a little more active and pay closer attention to his food and water. Evil Cat has been observing all of this with aloof amusement.

The week has been pretty productive. Work has been good. I finally did my expense reports. I started clearing out the bathroom for the rennovation that should start by the end of the month. Laundry is almost done. I had excellent retail karma this week and acquired a summer wardrobe. I went to the post office three times to send things out to various people. I went back to the eye doctor and ended up getting yet another prescription for allergies.

So apparently I have allergies. Over the winter my base congestion got bad enough I went to my doctor for it. My primary doctor put me on Caritin and Flonase. It has helped a lot. In revisiting my eye doctor, she said part of the problem I’m having with contacts right now might be that my eyes have some serious allergy action going on. Now I have Patanol drops too. Likely I’ll be able to stop using them when the worst of the pollen is gone. I may end up going back to dailies for allergy season… not that I know when allergy season is. I’ve never really paid attention other than to note when my coworkers with allergies would get red and puffy eyes. That’s harder to do working from home! Maybe I could just have one of my friends with horrible allergies give me updates. I’m terrible. ;)

Here begins Carla’s Complaining about the Weather
Over the last couple weeks I’ve had to remind myself that it’s still Spring. It feels like the middle of summer. I know I’m from “up North” but 90 degrees seems a little warm for May. It’s only in the 70s today, but still. May should be a pleasant, breezy, sunny month. What is up with this hot, humid ickiness??? Monster Cat is not impressed nor is his person! (As an aside, it’s highly entertaining to watch a cat with a cone on his head try to negotiate a position lying in front of the fan.)

Monster Cat Update: Tenny is too clever for his own good. He realized he could hook the pad on his longest toe around the edge of the elizabethan collar and lick clean his wounded foot. My new favorite vet assistant/tech said he’d need a new bandage. Poor Monster Cat. So back to the vet we went. And he’ll get to go again on Monday for a bandage change with Mark. Thank you, Mark! You are the best!!!

tags: allergies, cat, elizabethan collar, random, shopping, spring, summer, tennyson, weather, work

In an unscientific poll of some people over on LJ, I discovered I’m not alone. That’s right, other people keep stashes of clothes that don’t fit in hopes that they will someday fit!

What prompted this was a fairly major purge of my closet over break. I ruthlessly went through my stash and only kept a few things. Really! Some things had been in the pile for 5+ years which means I probably moved them twice without wearing them. Large piles are destined for new homes and getting the heck out of my closet.

This poll was comforting in many ways. First, pants were revealed as the most common thing in all our stashes. I purged an embarrassing number of pairs of pants and jeans from my stash. So embarrassing I’m not even going to tell you because I was too scared to count. Really. Now all that’s left in my pile is a couple of shirts that are the Right Color Green and Too Soft To Part With and several (okay, 6) pairs of pants and jeans. I didn’t ask any questions about the volume of people’s stashes - that’s way too personal.

Second, for some reason I didn’t expect guys to keep stashes too. Stashing clothes fits so well with the female psyche that I didn’t expect it also in the male psyche. In fact, of the guys who answered the poll, most of them kept stashes too. I guess it’s human nature to hang onto something that’s still perfectly serviceable but that only a few pounds or pesky trends in fashion are keeping us from wearing. Of course, that stash grows as a few pounds becomes a few more pounds and fresh “just a few pounds” items get added.

If you’re a procrastinator (like I am), that means eventually you end up with a stash of epic proportions that really just isn’t worth cluttering your closet with. I do in fact still have a beautiful green chamois shirt that’s just waiting for me to shrink a little and for embroidered yokes to come back in. I really should send it on, but I love it so. (Triple whammy: “just a few pounds”, waiting for it to come back into style, and emotional attachment. I’m doomed to keep this shirt forever.)

It’s nice to have a large chunk of the shelf space in my closet back. For my next trick maybe I’ll cull my shoes.

tags: cleaning, closets, clothing, stashing