Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

First: It’s snowing. In October. In SE Pennsylvania. This is absurd and wonderful. I thought the storm-mongers were being alarmist as usual, but it’s really snowing. Maine Girl says it’s really snowing – been going steady for half an hour. It started as big, wet flakes and now it’s a steadier, smaller snow that seems dead set on accumulating. If we’d had a hard frost (or any frost at all), the snow might have a shot. But as it is now, it’ll be lucking to hang out on fallen leaves for a few hours. The weather folks say less than an inch of accumulation which seems reasonable now that I’m seeing it come down. According to WHYY, this is the first snow forecast for Philadelphia in October in 30 years.

Second: It was 58 degrees in the house and snowing outside when I got up this morning so I did turn on the heat. I’ll probably turn it off again when it warms up outside later next week. The basement was nice and warm when I went down to make sure the furnace came on. And I’m enjoying living in a house that actually retains heat rather than leaking it in every direction. But it’s been cold overnight all week and it’s 36 degrees out right now, so I caved for the sake of my marriage. Plus we got a propane delivery yesterday, so my last excuse disappeared.

Third: Ever notice that “yippee” and “yipes” have some significant overlap?

1 full-time and a nebulous number of part-time days left until D-Day.

Work is crazy. Insane. Non-stop zoom. My lovely, well-behaved, STABLE processes are tossing me bugs left and right. People are coming out of the woodwork to give me “quick” things to get done before I leave. My own to-do list was not insignificant either… At least I’m running in some sort of exhausted zen state that gives me logic superpowers so the bugs are getting handled with relative expediency.

It could be worse. I could have been put on bed rest last month.

Despite work being busy, and me being totally exhausted, things are going well. If I went into labor right this moment, things are ready enough for the kid. Especially since I wouldn’t tell the Fop I was in labor until after I finished packing the bag for the hospital. (Yes, I’ve been putting it off all month. Are you surprised?)

The past week or so, it has almost looked like real Fall outside. Now snow. In fact it’s still snowing and things are starting to turn white. (I might need to take more pictures.) I win.

I’m making a feeble attempt to post more than just Monster Cat. Which means you get pictures of light up flamingos and ramblings about silliness.

Friday I visited the chiropractor. After some serious adjustment to my neck, I think we’ve resolved my headache problems. My hip problems have at least another 6 weeks to wait, but he did do some manipulation that appears to have helped a lot. I also got a home blood pressure cuff. My blood pressure is pleasantly low at home (like 100/70) so it really is the traffic and the parking garage at the hospital that are driving up my pressure before I see my doctor. I’ll take my little machine tomorrow to compare it to the in-office reading. Should be entertaining. And reassuring. Low blood pressure means fewer tests… or at least a lower risk of various interventions. So hurray for 2 major annoyances being mitigated!

Why, yes, I do feel taller now that my neck isn’t so jammed that it took 2 really good cracks to get back into shape.

Saturday, I did NOT buy the flamingo pictured here. Note the lovely scarf! And the Halloween decor on the wall behind it. That’s right, the real horror is that xmas crap is available so early they haven’t taken down the Halloween stuff yet. Soon the seasonal backdrop for xmas crap will be stars, stripes and fireworks.

Of course, I have already “decorated” for Halloween… which is to say that my terracotta jack-o-lanterns are hanging out around the house. There are apples in the kitchen which will soon be pies and sauce. Last night, there was hot and spicy sausage pasta sauce. Tonight there will be the attempting of pre-made turkey and beef pot pies. Even though it’s 80° F (27° C) outside, I can effectively pretend that it’s Autumn.

And… I’m learning just how horrible the stink bug infestation is in the new area. I just vacuumed up a ton of them (and emptied the canister outside into a bag, sealed the bag and tossed it in the outside trash) and I already feel like my efforts are in vain.

Northern Vermont was gorgeous.

Lake Champlain looked chilly.

The trees were amazing.

And the full moon was fabulous.

And I slept really well.

The North Hero In was comfy, cozy and lovely.

It was a great trip with friends in the car, friends at the Inn, and friends at the event.

Eight hours driving up.

Eight hours driving back.

It was a great weekend.

autumn, lake champlain, photography, travel, vermont

So, in addition to an idyllic weekend in Massachusetts on top of a mountain out of technology’s reach, we also went to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival. We wandered around for 6 hours, had some warm cider and cider donuts, and generally enjoyed all the awesome sights to be had on a gorgeous autumn day. There was also kettle corn (which sustained us as we tried to get out of the parking lot) and maple cotton candy (which is an amazing invention). I came home with a couple skeins of fun yarn and lofty project plans, of course, as well as some local wine and super-tasty hot sauces.

The hour sitting in the parking lot was spent calling stores looking for pumpkin Woodchuck cider. We eventually caved and reserved some at a store that was not on the way home. Pumpkin Woodchuck is very yummy but not what I’d expected. It’s fruity and bright and lacks the cinnamon and other spices of the pumpkin beers. Yum!

autumn, ny, photographs, rhinebeck sheep and wool, travel

Last weekend I visited autumn, the season not the person, and J & t up on their mountain in Mt. Washington, Massachusetts. Autumn is my favorite season to begin with so I was giddy to get up into New England in mid-October. There are some pictures of pretty colors and trees here. The colors and trees aren’t as spectacular as they could be since a blustery storm came through Thursday evening and Friday before I arrived. And the colors aren’t quite as spectacular as the colors in the photos my mother keeps sending me from Maine.

Driving up the mountain, my driving lights on the Mini paid for themselves once again. Fog lights, headlights on high beams, and driving lights make for a much easier drive when you’re heading up an unfamiliar mountain on unlit roads late at night. With all the lights on, I can light up the tops of the trees in front of me and half the planet in front of me!

J & T have a great house, no cell coverage and no high speed internet. It was an ideal spot to spend a weekend AND they cooked me dinner and breakfast all weekend. Pancakes! Two mornings in a row!!! It was a glorious weekend!

autumn, colors, fall, photographs, travel

My spooky and fun Halloween poppets have gathered together to make my desk more festive. They’re really quite friendly, I promise.

I got the bulbs planted today – lots of daffodils and crocus, some tulips and alliums, the irises that will replace the dead bush at the corner of the house, and 3 poppy plants. My hands hurt and tomorrow I’m likely to be more sore. But the front garden will be amazing next spring and summer! I also put some daffodils in along the hedge separating our driveway from the neighbor’s. We’ll see if those come up. There are a few more out back. I got all but a handful of the 100 daffodil bulbs planted. I have approximately the same number of mosquito bites for my efforts.

Of course, I’m sitting here procrastinating. Work has been busy and life-sapping lately so this weekend needs to be productive. So far, so good… can’t lose momentum now… Zoom!

bulbs, daffodils, gardening, halloween, poppets, weekend

“We shall tear this toy to shreds!” declares Abby. “Shreds, I say!!!”

Or rather, the roses are still blooming. Through rain and gray and temperatures in the 50s, the rose bush out front carries on as if it were still August while the climbing rose out back is starting to peter out. We are getting a proper autumn here this year! YAY!

This week has been really busy… work is in a whirlwind, kittens are little tornadoes of energy and my brain hurts quite literally. Oh, and laundry is on-going. Why is laundry *always* on-going? And did I mention we’re going away next week? Tadcaster Cruise. I’ll be working on vacation again, which doesn’t bother me too much as it beats coming home to a huge mess. Plus it gives me the excuse to bring my laptop so I can start working on my Nanowrimo project.

The messages from the cat planet were strong today. Quite strong. Today’s kitten “toys” included: a post-it note of unknown origin, Tennyson, a bottle cap, sister’s tail and my slipper. I also had to defend myself while eating my lunch. The girls have figured out the telltale signs of eating cereal with milk and swarmed me. Tennyson, of course, took a stoic yet expectant pose by my elbow. The little fuzzy ones, though, climbed all over my keyboard and arms in an attempt to get into my bowl. I had to use one hand to defend my cereal and the other to eat.

There are a few more kitten photos up over in their Flickr set.

In the interest of completely random, UserFriendly’s link of the day was an amusing site: Cheese or Font? Dreda, I thought of you immediately.

In other news, NASA would like to reassure us that the world won’t be ending in 2012. [Giggle alert: the linked article uses the phrase "fictional fiction" - you have been warned.] From the article: “People are very gullible,” he added. “It a sad testimonial that you need NASA to tell you the world’s not going to end.” Sad, yes, and media-hyped to a frightening degree. We are also the country where the media went to NORAD to ask about their planned course of action when they thought some little kid had taken off in a balloon the other week.

“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr,” growls Tasha.
“GRRRrrrrRRRRrrrrrrrr…” she adds more emphatically.
autumn, bengals, kittens, random, roses

“You will submit to my authority as a fierce kitten, you ridiculous excuse for a toy,” snarls Tasha.

Kittens grow. Abby’s growth has out-paced Tasha’s. We think Abby is more likely to become the solid, 14 pound tiger while Tasha maintains a more lithe runner’s build like a cheetah. We’re finally starting to see some more social-with-thumb-monkey’s behavior as well. Mostly, though, Tenny is their first true love. Of course.

Autumn has come early down here it seems. A pair of nor’easters are swinging through this weekend and the weather is a positively delightful bright gray with temperatures in the 40s. It’s going to warm up the end of next week but I may not be picking roses on Thanksgiving this year like I was last year. The roses are still going, especially the one out front… sometimes I think no one told my roses when they’re supposed to stop blooming. But if temperatures stay lower in the coming weeks, they’ll stop being so enthusiastic. I’m okay with that. It’s terribly pleasant to have some fall weather and some bright gray to set of what little foliage show we get down here. The Almanac promises a harsh winter. I’m perhaps a little too enthusiastic about that.

This week felt productive. I’m chasing a few things, working on some projects and generally getting things done. I also had a minor incident with a book mid-week that kept me up all night. I really shouldn’t read in bed. On the Edge (The Edge, Book 1) was the perpetrator this week – I got reading and just couldn’t talk myself into stopping until I’d finished the book… at 5:30 a.m. Yes, my name is Carla and I have a book problem.

“Why yes, I have grown since those first pictures, and you can tell, but isn’t it impolite to comment on a lady’s size? I’m a delicate flower of beauty and grace,” Abby protests around the strands of toy.

autumn, bengals, books, kittens, photographs, weather

Shameless self-promotion: I have an article up at Internet Evolution about simple tools that can be used to build teams across vast geographical divides.

Lesson learned for the week: Migrating data from one computer to another over wireless is rather foolish as it will take forever. I knew it would take forever, I knew I should just set up a spare ethernet hub… but, instead, I spent a day getting to know my laptop again. However, Apple’s Migration Assistant is an awesome thing. The new Mac Pro is laid out exactly like the old PowerMac G5 now! This is both good and bad… Good because I have almost everything on the new machine and that’s lovely. Bad because, well, now my new machine is as cluttered and busy as my old machine. The new computer would have devolved to that point sooner or later anyway, so I guess I’m efficient. Right? The new machine is zippy and happy.

Hand-woven, natural fibers: Could I do an update without mentioning the kittens? Okay, probably I could, but not this one. The girls clearly enjoy hand-woven fabrics. Their original perch and nap zone was atop a handwoven wool blanket. Now they’re snuggled in behind my sewing machine on a pile of scarves, the top most of which is super-fine merino. Good thing I have a steady source of hand-woven goods to keep the kittens happy, right Mom? At least there’s no doubt that they have excellent taste.

AUTUMN! Tis the season to wear sweaters! Fa-la-la-la-la! The-Fall-is-here! Don we now our warm apparel! Fa-la-la, fa-la-la, FALL IS HERE! Ahem. I might be a little excited about the cooler weather and impending darker months. Just a little. It’s about time. We did have a fairly mild summer, so I didn’t have to complain as loudly or as frequently about heat and humidity. I’ve made applesauce once already and have apples and pears downstairs for more cooking. YUM!

autumn, internet evolution, kittens, lessons learned, mac, migration, random, teams, weather

I made pumpkin pie and applesauce Saturday and started some hot peppers in the dehydrator. The applesauce came out very tasty, if I do say so myself… and I do. Not bad for my first applesauce! I used a little less sugar than the recipe called for which turned out just right. Later this week there will be beef stew. Grocery shopping was quick and productive. And the house still smells marvelous from the cooking earlier. Of course, I’ll have to get more apples at the farm stand this week so that I can make more applesauce to freeze… we kinda hit the batch I made today hard. Oh shucks. Yum.

Sunday was less productive. The chill of autumn has set in so I had a fuzzy-slippered, wool-socked and sweatered day. I know that I need to eventually turn on the heat, but I really like the house this cold. (I’ll probably have to turn the heat on when the Fop gets back from his business trip this week.) Sure, it was very, very difficult to get out of bed this morning, but it being Monday had a lot to do with that as well. Something about this weather just makes me gleeful. Now if only I got the bright foliage colors to go along with it.

Of course, now that the weather has turned cold, a certain little gray cat is insisting on being in my pocket. This is fine when I’m on a conference call just following along with an on-screen presentation. It’s less convenient when I’m trying to work. He has been in and out of my lap a dozen times this morning. Currently he has blocked my trackball with himself and is pressing his forehead into my right forearm. Purring. But I know what he’s really trying to do is get me to lift my arm so he can get in closer to me and get more attention. It’s hard being Monster Cat’s thumb-monkey.

apples, baking, cooking, weekend, autumn, weather, tennyson, cats