A pair of very small completed objects

We saw the sun on Saturday! It’s been really dreary and rainy around here for the past week, so sunshine was a cause for much rejoicing – especially since I’m now allowed to go on short walks! Saturday was around the block, Sunday (cloudy and damp) was around two blocks, and today… 🙂

Over the weekend I started and finished a pair of toddler socks. The yarn is some Kona superwash that I dyed a few months ago.

“What the heck?! These are tiny! They are of no use to me as a kitty bed!” -Mayhem

“Hmph. I feel ripped off.” -Mayhem

“I told you so!”

Leave Jodi a comment by October 13 letting her know that you’re a sock knitter, and you could win some bright hand-dyed sock yarn!

Darlene’s having a contest to win a skein of STR, and if she gets 50 comments, she’ll give away a second skein (mysteriously described as being her favorite sock yarn). Leave her a comment about your favorite sock yarn and sock pattern to participate.

Reading Update
Fantasy Lover, Night Pleasures, and Night Embrace by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Yes, yes, finally reading some of the Dark Hunter novels! I liked the first two (Fantasy Lover and Night Pleasures) quite a bit more than Night Embrace. I’ll have to see how the next few compare…
Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander. I recently found used copies of some books I read as a kid and plan to reread them. This had to be the first, since there’s a black cat on the cover. 🙂
The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, and The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde. It was definitely time to reread the Thursday Next novels. I must admit, after suffering through Wuthering Heights, I got a lot more out of the WH character rage counseling session in The Well of Lost Plots. Hee hee. Here’s a favorite quote from that book:

I kicked off my shoes and flopped on the sofa next to Gran, who had fallen asleep over the sock she was knitting. It was already a good twelve feet long because, she said, she had “yet to build up enough courage to turn the heel.”

What sock knitter hasn’t been there, eh?

Ok, that’s it for today. I kinda overdid it yesterday on the computer and am definitely a bit worn out! Maybe I’m not quite ready to whittle away those unread blog entries yet…

“I told you so, Mom! You need to take more naps!” -Chaos

Second knitted holiday present finished!

MrsPao has been posting about our visit to the Minnesota State Fair!

Jeanne’s posted about her visit on Saturday – complete with some pictures of me… Deb blogged about our lunch together on Monday – she got some great kitty pictures and even one of me. Gosh, I like this metablogging stuff – I’ll just blog about people blogging about me. 🙂

You all realize that I’m going to get way, way behind in my blog reading, right? If you’d like me to mention a contest, please send me an email!

Ok, on to some knitting. Been a while since we talked about that stuff. 😉 Before my surgery, I finished the baby cable socks, which will be a holiday present. That brings my total completed knitted holiday presents to two! (Not sure how many knitted presents I’m doing – just winging it at this point.)

“You all can just wait to look at the socks.” -Chaos

“What do we have here? New socks? Cool! Move over, big kitty!” -Mayhem

“Hey!” -Chaos

“Mayhemmmmmmmmmmm. I was here first! I’m the big kitty!” -Chaos

*innocent whistling* -Mayhem

“Hmph!” -Chaos

“Neener neener neener, big kitty!” -Mayhem

“The taste of victory is sweet! Bwa-ha-ha!” -Mayhem

And now I am home

Thanks for all the wonderful comments last week – I’m sure I’ll manage to reply to them all eventually! 🙂 I am convinced that all of the positive energy you’ve been sending my way helped everything go well.

Many thanks to guest blogger Jeanne, who did a great job (especially with the two minute Stumbling Over Chaos blogging tutorial she received). And I would particularly like to thank my brother and SIL, who have been absolutely amazing throughout all of this.

I suspect you won’t be getting the most profound or coherent narratives from me until I’m off the meds (please do not leave medication names in the comments – they’ll draw spam comments, alas). I’ll be using the WordPress timed publish feature these next few weeks, as I’ll be sleeping in and recuperating.

My surgery last Wednesday went very well and was laproscopic – doctors won’t guarantee that it will be laproscopic, because if there are complications, they may need to make an abdominal incision… so you never exactly know until you wake up! I was pretty miserable (whole lotta puking going on) for the next 20 hours or so, until the anesthetic was out of my system and they switched me off the particular medication I wasn’t reacting well to. But by midday Thursday, I was feeling pretty good and was starting to go out for short walks.

Later Thursday afternoon, Deb came to visit and chat and knit. Then my brother and SIL stopped by for a few minutes. After they left, Jeanne arrived and presented me with a gorgeous yarn bouquet from she and Deb! Aw, you guys. 😀

You can see a floral bouquet peeking out from behind – that was from my brother and SIL and contains cat-safe flowers and ornamental peppers. More on that later. *insert ominous foreshadowing music*

Friday I felt wonderful and my doctor said I could go home that afternoon. My brother gave me a ride home, stocked my freezer with homemade gluten-free meals, cleaned the litterbox, and left me to have a quiet evening and wonderful night’s sleep in my own bed. Ahhhhhh… The only downside was Chaos – he was extremely upset that I smelled like the “vet” and spent much of the evening acting out.

Saturday morning I woke up to a bit of a mess. Chaos really liked the flowers and ornamental peppers and felt he needed to knock them over. Fortunately, my dad stopped by later to vacuum and leave a small hand-vac for me. But hey – at least I must’ve finally smelled like me again, because Chaos has been back to normal since early Saturday.

“What dirt on the floor? I don’t see any dirt.” -Chaos

Saturday afternoon, Jeanne came over with a stack of DVDs and some get-well gifts from MrsPao. More on those in a different post, but do you think May liked the gift for she and Chaos?

*bite bite bite bite bite* -Mayhem

Jeanne and I spent a lovely afternoon knitting, chatting, and eating Chipotle that Jeanne picked up for us. On Sunday, my friend Wendy stopped by with a gorgeous bouquet of yellow roses – I was a bit nervous about their fate, but the cats don’t seem interested in the roses at all. Now I’m wondering if it’s because the other bouquet is red flowers and the purple peppers – you know how Chaos is about those red mice… Wendy returned a few library books for me – yay!! Later my friend Lisa stopped by with some groceries I needed, plus Thai takeout. Yum! We had a great time chatting, too. I am going to be so spoiled when real life resumes…

Update 2 from Jeanne

I did visit Chris last night, and she is very much back to her old self. I took a picture, which I assure you she is very excited about all of you seeing:

I think this a pretty good photo, under the circumstances. Notice the knitting off to her right. She is managing to keep herself amused, and expects to go home either Friday evening, or Saturday morning.

Sorry the picture is wonky. I don’t know what magic Chris performs to get her pictures in the way she normally does them. The two minute Stumbling Over Chaos blogging tutorial I got before she went in did not cover adding pictures. Perhaps she was trying to avoid this very thing?

Update from Jeanne

Hi everyone…

I just wanted to let everyone know that I just heard from Chris’s family, and she came through surgery this morning just fine. I plan on visiting her tomorrow, so perhaps I’ll post another update then.

“I’m going to keep worrying until she’s back home!” -Chaos

Tuesday is for tidying things up

*yawn* Yes, another switch upgrade last night – but the upside is that I won’t have to work very much today!

Kristi’s having a contest – the first person to knit a pair of socks from her new Siren Socks pattern will win a skein of Fleece Artist Sea Wool.

MrsPao has finally reached Minnesota in her vacation recap! She has a great shot of Mayhem, as well as more shots of Chaos’s Baleful Stare of Death.

So, after reading Jenn’s post and discovering that new Lana Grossa (aka Meilenweit) colors were out… I was helpless.

“My foot is much nicer than this sock yarn.” -Chaos

I’ve had some contest luck lately. I won a $10 gift certificate to Aija’s etsy shop, zer0 Markers – thanks, Aija! I also won some Lorna’s Laces from Kat (top left, below). Thanks, Kat! On the top right is a lovely skein of Great Adirondack sock yarn, which was a gift from MrsPao – thank you!

“Just passing through, nothing to see here.” -Mayhem

I participated in the swap-bot handdyed sock yarn swap and got a gorgeous skein of yarn from monochromaticgirl – thanks!

“Hey, big kitty, didn’t we tell Mom no more yarn? Well, there seems to be quite a lot of it today…” -Mayhem

I also participated in the swap-bot indie coffee swap. My swap pal Mrrranda went above and beyond my expectations! She sent a two-disc indie music mix, coffee from RoosRoast Free Speech Coffee, chocolate after-coffee mints, some bumper stickers, and two extremely cool t-shirts! I particularly adore that mix-tape t-shirt. Thanks, Mrrranda!

“May, I thought you said there was yarn out here? I don’t see any yarn.” -Chaos

Elspeth sent me some great mix cds, wool wash, body cream, black cat stationery, some candy, and a puzzle card – thank you, E!

“Hmm, maybe she’s up to something, because there isn’t any yarn here, either.” -Mayhem

“May, are you sure you didn’t just imagine the yarn?” -Chaos

I also ordered a new Posy Sock Bag from Nana Sadie Rose.

“Hello, small flat kitty. Have you seen any yarn out here?” -Mayhem

“Hmph, well, be that way then.” -Mayhem

Catch you all in a few days or so! Thanks for all your wonderful comments – they’ve meant a lot to me. Think healthy lucky thoughts toward the Twin Cities Wednesday at 7:30 am CDT!! 🙂

Monday meanderings

Reading Update
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater. I remember loving this book as a child. When I found it in the library’s sale bin for $0.25, it was obviously time for a reread.
Dead Copy: A Cauley MacKinnon Novel by Kit Frazier. Found this Austin, Texas, mystery in the library’s “New Books” section and enjoyed the read enough that I’m sad I didn’t read the first book before this one. I’ll get over it. 🙂
Scoop: A Cauley MacKinnon Novel by Kit Frazier. The first book that I read second… Cauley writes obituaries for an Austin, Texas, newspaper and is looking for a big story to help her move up the ranks at the paper. Of course, she gets a bit more than she bargained for when she finds that story…
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much by Donna Andrews. Penguins and llamas and hyenas, oh my! The latest Meg Langslow mystery is another madcap read.
My Sister Is a Werewolf by Kathy Love. Apparently this is the most recent book in a series about three brothers who are vampires. This book focuses on their werewolf sister and the veterinarian she falls for.
Accidentally Engaged by Mary Carter. A wonderfully fun romance about psychic Clare Ivers – this was completely madcap and unpredictable. I’ll definitely read more by Mary Carter!
Hot Wheels and High Heels by Jane Graves. Very trashy – but I read the whole thing, so…
Thunder Bay: A Cork O’Connor Mystery by William Kent Krueger. The latest book in this northern Minnesota mystery series focuses on Cork’s old friend Henry Meloux’s surprising past. I enjoyed this book more than I have the last few in the series.
A Charmed Death (Bewitching Mystery, Book 2) by Madelyn Alt. I swear I read the first book in this series (The Trouble with Magic), but either I missed it in my blog updates, or I read it before I started tracking my reading through the blog. This light paranormal mystery about Indiana witch Maggie O’Neill should not be confused with Charmed to Death, which is about Iowa witch Ophelia Jensen!

Knitting Update
I finished my Los Monos Locos on Saturday!

*sniff sniff sniff* -Mayhem

“These are acceptable.” -Mayhem

Art journaling, reading, knitting, and cat parenting. It's a wild life.