Here's how Hercules gets down from his favorite chair.
I can't tell if he's lazy or just really strong and showing off!
Showing posts with label Hercules. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hercules. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Thanks, Herc!
Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father; prepare to die.Yeah...so, Thursday into Friday morning, Hercules decided that some ghost of Thanksgiving past wanted him dead. Since he sleeps in-between Todd and I, his quickest path to make a panicked exit was via MY FACE. He missed gouging out my right eye by about 1/4 inch. I don't know if you can see the little puncture marks around my eye. But he did manage to give me a loverly slice on my right cheek. Awesome.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Happy Birthday(s)
So yesterday was Todd's birthday (June 30). He is 37 years young. We took the day off from our respective jobs and spent the day doing a whole lot of nothing, which is a nice way to spend a day off. Although we did manage to get in a little cleaning, so we're not entirely derelict.
Today is Hercules' birthday. He's 4 years old. It seems like yesterday when we picked up off the street a scrawny, 6-month-old kitty on a bitterly freezing morning in January 2005. I think he's much happier with us and the rest of the Waters brood. He loves Todd best of all, too. It's kind of cute.
Also, Marsha, you will be happy (and amazed) to know that I remembered to say "rabbit, rabbit" today when I woke up! Woot!
I sent off my package to my Dishcloth Pal on Thursday. And in an amazing feat (the planets must have aligned), she got the package on Saturday! SCHWING! So I can tell you that my downstream Dishcloth Pal (my spoilee) was Michelle F.! I really had a blast this time around. It was great spoiling Michelle and getting to know her better. And now I have another knitting bud. :-D
Oh and! I finished my Grrr washcloth! I'll get a picture up here soon! It turned out really well. It's SO cute!
Today is Hercules' birthday. He's 4 years old. It seems like yesterday when we picked up off the street a scrawny, 6-month-old kitty on a bitterly freezing morning in January 2005. I think he's much happier with us and the rest of the Waters brood. He loves Todd best of all, too. It's kind of cute.
Also, Marsha, you will be happy (and amazed) to know that I remembered to say "rabbit, rabbit" today when I woke up! Woot!
I sent off my package to my Dishcloth Pal on Thursday. And in an amazing feat (the planets must have aligned), she got the package on Saturday! SCHWING! So I can tell you that my downstream Dishcloth Pal (my spoilee) was Michelle F.! I really had a blast this time around. It was great spoiling Michelle and getting to know her better. And now I have another knitting bud. :-D
Oh and! I finished my Grrr washcloth! I'll get a picture up here soon! It turned out really well. It's SO cute!
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
If I Were To Ask You...
...How many cats are on this bed?
First you'd say, "Um...too many?" Then, you'd say, "Three." From top clockwise: Hercules, Sophie (near my pillow, GORRAMIT), and Ophelia.
Good answer!
But WRONG:
Yes, that's Titus holed-up in there. (Love Fi-Fi's surprised/concerned look there, too.)
Come out of there, you goofy Squinty McFootball Head!
Here's Mr. Chesterfield poking around. He's really found his way around the house well. He's a lovely cat and super smart too.
And now, some close-ups:
First you'd say, "Um...too many?" Then, you'd say, "Three." From top clockwise: Hercules, Sophie (near my pillow, GORRAMIT), and Ophelia.
Good answer!
But WRONG:
Yes, that's Titus holed-up in there. (Love Fi-Fi's surprised/concerned look there, too.)
Come out of there, you goofy Squinty McFootball Head!
Here's Mr. Chesterfield poking around. He's really found his way around the house well. He's a lovely cat and super smart too.
And now, some close-ups:
Ophelia, looking very, very concerned (as usual):
Hercules, looking very, very confused (as usual):
And Luna, looking positively evil (as usual):
What's wrong with this photo?:
If you said that it has obscene amounts of yarn in it, then you are only partially correct.
Keep looking...
...see it yet?
This next picture will help....
Yup, Titus again. He just thinks everything is for him, you know?
Cats, OY!
What's wrong with this photo?:
If you said that it has obscene amounts of yarn in it, then you are only partially correct.
...see it yet?
This next picture will help....
Yup, Titus again. He just thinks everything is for him, you know?
Cats, OY!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Babies, Cats, and Knitting
Hey, everyone. So I just returned from visiting my sister and my new baby niece, Aubrey, in North Carolina. Oh my DOG, she is so cute. I took TONS of pictures. Here are a couple of my favorites.
Here's Aubrey having a "chat" with her mom. She is so alert and really wants to communicate with all of us. She is only 3 weeks old, but she really wants to talk to us!
YAAAAAAAWN...
Awwwww.
Yeah, so, my sister recently got a pure-bred Siamese (the cute, apple-head, non-cross-eyed kind). They named him Neko, which is the Japanese word for cat. I think he's about 5-6 months old now. He is awfully cute, and a very sweet cat too. And he has THE bluest eyes I've ever seen. Just magnificent. He also...well...really loves the baby....
He would periodically sneak in there with her whenever we weren't looking!
Here are my sister's 2 other cats:
Mitzy
Hercules
Titus
Here's Aubrey having a "chat" with her mom. She is so alert and really wants to communicate with all of us. She is only 3 weeks old, but she really wants to talk to us!
YAAAAAAAWN...
Awwwww.
Here she is with the hat I made her as part of that kimono/hat/booties matching ensemble. It fits her perfectly! Now I am going to make her more hats. Because, hey, babies with hats are like over-the-top cute:
Yeah, so, my sister recently got a pure-bred Siamese (the cute, apple-head, non-cross-eyed kind). They named him Neko, which is the Japanese word for cat. I think he's about 5-6 months old now. He is awfully cute, and a very sweet cat too. And he has THE bluest eyes I've ever seen. Just magnificent. He also...well...really loves the baby....
He would periodically sneak in there with her whenever we weren't looking!
Here are my sister's 2 other cats:
Molly
Mitzy
(who is actually a boy, but, well, it's a long story....)
And here is the baby blanket that I had been working on for the last few months. I finished it and did a semi-block on it the day before I left. Overall, I am very pleased with how it turned out. I think my sister really liked it, too.
While I was in North Carolina, I made a dishcloth to match my sister's kitchen. I happened to have with me the cotton yarn that my Dishcloth Swap spoiler from the last round gave me! The dishcloth is actually the same pattern as the blanket above. I absolutely love that pattern. It was a free one from the Dishcloth Boutique website.
I also managed to finish one sock out while there! I switched to Addi Turbo needles (size 2 on 12" cables) and it was infinitely easier. Like, WHOA. Now I am working on the gusset portion of the second sock in this pair. So it looks like I will actually finish my first pair of socks ever! And I DO see more sock knitting in my future. Thank you, Addi Turbos!!! My only beef with the sock is that I made the foot portion too long for me by about 3/4 to 1 inch. But, hey, for the first pair ever? I think that's ok! :-)
And I leave you now with pictures of a couple of my cats being very, very silly:
Sophie
And here is the baby blanket that I had been working on for the last few months. I finished it and did a semi-block on it the day before I left. Overall, I am very pleased with how it turned out. I think my sister really liked it, too.
While I was in North Carolina, I made a dishcloth to match my sister's kitchen. I happened to have with me the cotton yarn that my Dishcloth Swap spoiler from the last round gave me! The dishcloth is actually the same pattern as the blanket above. I absolutely love that pattern. It was a free one from the Dishcloth Boutique website.
I also managed to finish one sock out while there! I switched to Addi Turbo needles (size 2 on 12" cables) and it was infinitely easier. Like, WHOA. Now I am working on the gusset portion of the second sock in this pair. So it looks like I will actually finish my first pair of socks ever! And I DO see more sock knitting in my future. Thank you, Addi Turbos!!! My only beef with the sock is that I made the foot portion too long for me by about 3/4 to 1 inch. But, hey, for the first pair ever? I think that's ok! :-)
And I leave you now with pictures of a couple of my cats being very, very silly:
Sophie
Hercules
Titus
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Wrongfully Accused
Do you remember when this happened?
I do. Very well, thank you.
Recall, if you will, that I automatically assumed that it was Titus. I made this assumption based on his prior atrocities, such as this and this.
In a great, loud disturbance that I had yesterday morning at 5:30 am, it was revealed to me that I had, indeed, wrongfully accused Titus and that it was actually Hercules that managed to knock everything off my dresser and onto the floor. Yes. Hercules. Allow me to divulge the full epiphany on you:
Despite the fact that our house has central air-conditioning, for the last several months, we have had a window-unit air conditioner in our bedroom window. Why? Because the central air just does not make it upstairs. And I can't take heat, especially when I am trying to sleep. So we popped a window-unit in there. It's great. Well, apparently, the neighborhood birds think so too, but probably for a different reason. They love to come tuck themselves under the thing or on the side, or build a little nest in the corner of the window outside, using the air conditioner as a supporting wall. Plus there is a big tree in our front yard, and its branches do touch the master-bedroom window---the very same window with the air conditioner. These birds make quite a ruckus. And the birds, in conjunction with the tree make for some interesting moving shadows all around the bedroom.
What does this have to do with anything at all ever in the history of time? I'm getting there. Bear with me.
Ever since we picked up Hercules off the street (literally) he has been intrigued by sunbeams, and shadows and how they drift and change around the room. Why, I recall many a day when he sat on the steps in the living room (at our old house), absolutely rapt, for hours watching as the sun would move in the sky and change the shadows that it cast on the stairwell wall. And, indeed, nearly every early am since we've had that air conditioner in our bedroom window, there's been Hercules jumping around from dresser, to chest-of-drawers, to lingerie chest, trying to catch the shadows.
Usually we are aware of what he's doing, and manage to hit him with the water in the "NO, NO, BAD CAT" spray bottle that we keep on the nightstand. He'll scurry away, only knocking off one or two things. Well...yesterday at 5:30ish am there was an ear-drum-shattering CRASH across the room, which came from the chest-of-drawers. Hercules had miscalculated his trajectory and managed to drag down the table runner (WHEN WILL I LEARN: 5 CATS = 0 TABLE RUNNERS) and with it every freakin' thing on the chest of drawers. I knew it was Hercules because:
a) only he jumps around in the morning on the bedroom furniture.
b) only he chases shadows and sunbeams and
c) Titus, the usual suspect, was nestled in the elbow pit on my arm, licking away, as is his custom every morning.
Shut up. I know they are spoiled. And Titus seriously thinks I'm his mother. It's...kind of cute.
I did not take pictures because I just did not have the emotional energy to do it. So later that morning (I was off yesterday; I am recovering from tonsillitis), I started picking everything up. And Titus was right there at my elbow, completely intrigued by the mess and how I was cleaning it up.
BAM.
Epiphany.
Hercules jumps around on the tops of my bedroom furniture. Hercules chases shadows and sunbeams and has been doing so for 3 years. So it was Hercules that actually spawned my "I can't have nice things" post, NOT Titus.
So, my dear Squinty Fuzzimous Sean Connery Football Head McGoo, even though you can't read (I assume), this apology goes out to you.
I do. Very well, thank you.
Recall, if you will, that I automatically assumed that it was Titus. I made this assumption based on his prior atrocities, such as this and this.
In a great, loud disturbance that I had yesterday morning at 5:30 am, it was revealed to me that I had, indeed, wrongfully accused Titus and that it was actually Hercules that managed to knock everything off my dresser and onto the floor. Yes. Hercules. Allow me to divulge the full epiphany on you:
Despite the fact that our house has central air-conditioning, for the last several months, we have had a window-unit air conditioner in our bedroom window. Why? Because the central air just does not make it upstairs. And I can't take heat, especially when I am trying to sleep. So we popped a window-unit in there. It's great. Well, apparently, the neighborhood birds think so too, but probably for a different reason. They love to come tuck themselves under the thing or on the side, or build a little nest in the corner of the window outside, using the air conditioner as a supporting wall. Plus there is a big tree in our front yard, and its branches do touch the master-bedroom window---the very same window with the air conditioner. These birds make quite a ruckus. And the birds, in conjunction with the tree make for some interesting moving shadows all around the bedroom.
What does this have to do with anything at all ever in the history of time? I'm getting there. Bear with me.
Ever since we picked up Hercules off the street (literally) he has been intrigued by sunbeams, and shadows and how they drift and change around the room. Why, I recall many a day when he sat on the steps in the living room (at our old house), absolutely rapt, for hours watching as the sun would move in the sky and change the shadows that it cast on the stairwell wall. And, indeed, nearly every early am since we've had that air conditioner in our bedroom window, there's been Hercules jumping around from dresser, to chest-of-drawers, to lingerie chest, trying to catch the shadows.
Usually we are aware of what he's doing, and manage to hit him with the water in the "NO, NO, BAD CAT" spray bottle that we keep on the nightstand. He'll scurry away, only knocking off one or two things. Well...yesterday at 5:30ish am there was an ear-drum-shattering CRASH across the room, which came from the chest-of-drawers. Hercules had miscalculated his trajectory and managed to drag down the table runner (WHEN WILL I LEARN: 5 CATS = 0 TABLE RUNNERS) and with it every freakin' thing on the chest of drawers. I knew it was Hercules because:
a) only he jumps around in the morning on the bedroom furniture.
b) only he chases shadows and sunbeams and
c) Titus, the usual suspect, was nestled in the elbow pit on my arm, licking away, as is his custom every morning.
Shut up. I know they are spoiled. And Titus seriously thinks I'm his mother. It's...kind of cute.
I did not take pictures because I just did not have the emotional energy to do it. So later that morning (I was off yesterday; I am recovering from tonsillitis), I started picking everything up. And Titus was right there at my elbow, completely intrigued by the mess and how I was cleaning it up.
BAM.
Epiphany.
Hercules jumps around on the tops of my bedroom furniture. Hercules chases shadows and sunbeams and has been doing so for 3 years. So it was Hercules that actually spawned my "I can't have nice things" post, NOT Titus.
So, my dear Squinty Fuzzimous Sean Connery Football Head McGoo, even though you can't read (I assume), this apology goes out to you.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Caption The Cat: #4
Caption The Cat #4
Hmm...wha-? Oh, hey, thanks for letting me crash here last night, man.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Four Out of Five Cats Prefer the Window
Well actually, they all like the window. It's just that Sophie won't get up there if there are more than two of her siblings already there. We got this cool bench from Ikea that opens up for storage. It's the perfect dimensions for a window seat for our front windows. The cats love it:
So from left to right it's: The Fuzzimous Sean Connery Squintified McFootball Head (Titus), Hercules, Ophelia (notice how LARGE her posterior is), and Luna.
I only wish it would provide enough entertainment to keep them from horribly scratching the furniture up. I swear, we bought a sectional about a year ago and it's already like shredded to pieces. RAGE.
So from left to right it's: The Fuzzimous Sean Connery Squintified McFootball Head (Titus), Hercules, Ophelia (notice how LARGE her posterior is), and Luna. I only wish it would provide enough entertainment to keep them from horribly scratching the furniture up. I swear, we bought a sectional about a year ago and it's already like shredded to pieces. RAGE.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
All My Children
Here they are, all in one place at the same time --- a rare event, to be sure. They are all looking out the back door into my yard. Oh, actually, I should write it as: "yard." Yes, in Philadelphia, your backyard is in actuality an 18' x 10' concrete rectangle, which contains your central air-conditioning unit, a trash can, and a few weeds and is enclosed by a chain-link fence.
I have no earthly idea why these animals (the boys in particular) are so intrigued by the yard. Todd has let them out there a few times. The girls choose to stay inside. Thus proving that girls are smarter even in the animal kingdom. But Titus and Hercules can't wait to run out there, especially Hercules. Sometimes, he cries and paws at the back door when it's closed because he wants to go out there.
One of us is usually there to supervise when they go out. We have to, because of Titus. See, the cold fact is that Titus is smarter than Hercules. When Titus goes out there, he scopes out the confines of the yard and examines the perimeter for any weaknesses he can exploit. Yeah. One time, he tried to jump the fence. I caught him, though, before he could do it. Hercules just wanders around sniffing the air. When we go over to him to pick him up and bring him back in, he runs over to us, tail all up, happy to see us. When we go over to Titus to pick him up and bring him in, it's another story entirely. He wriggles out of your grasp and out of reach, then he flips himself over onto the ground, completely stretches out, and stiffens up so that you can't pick him up without like jamming your fingers into his soft belly, which he KNOWS I won't do because I don't want to hurt him. See? Smart(er). Yet, as smart as he is, Titus is still too dumb to realize how good a life he has in my house. I let him get away with murder, seriously.
This morning, in fact, I discovered that sometime in the middle of the night he stole one of my nice earrings. I have no idea where he put it. He probably ate it. Sigh...I guess I have to keep an eye on the contents of the litter boxes during the next couple of days. Swell.
One of us is usually there to supervise when they go out. We have to, because of Titus. See, the cold fact is that Titus is smarter than Hercules. When Titus goes out there, he scopes out the confines of the yard and examines the perimeter for any weaknesses he can exploit. Yeah. One time, he tried to jump the fence. I caught him, though, before he could do it. Hercules just wanders around sniffing the air. When we go over to him to pick him up and bring him back in, he runs over to us, tail all up, happy to see us. When we go over to Titus to pick him up and bring him in, it's another story entirely. He wriggles out of your grasp and out of reach, then he flips himself over onto the ground, completely stretches out, and stiffens up so that you can't pick him up without like jamming your fingers into his soft belly, which he KNOWS I won't do because I don't want to hurt him. See? Smart(er). Yet, as smart as he is, Titus is still too dumb to realize how good a life he has in my house. I let him get away with murder, seriously.
This morning, in fact, I discovered that sometime in the middle of the night he stole one of my nice earrings. I have no idea where he put it. He probably ate it. Sigh...I guess I have to keep an eye on the contents of the litter boxes during the next couple of days. Swell.
Monday, October 16, 2006
More Work for Mother...
Sigh...look what Hercules learned to do:
And what's even worse? Look who was very intently watching him do it:
That's right, Sean "McSquinty Head" Connery (Titus). And you know they learn the BAD habits from each other. Never the good ones. Wait, actually, mine don't even have any good habits. I just know I am going to come home from work one day and find them both up there wrestling for the position of King of the Refrigerator. Kind of like Highlander.
"THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE! ...Cat on top of the refrigerator."
Oh yeah, and? Herc decided that it was his civic duty as a cat to try to destroy every magnet I have on there:
It's a big fridge. I have a lot of magnets. He's doing a real good job, though...already broke 2. Thanks, Herc!
And what's even worse? Look who was very intently watching him do it:
That's right, Sean "McSquinty Head" Connery (Titus). And you know they learn the BAD habits from each other. Never the good ones. Wait, actually, mine don't even have any good habits. I just know I am going to come home from work one day and find them both up there wrestling for the position of King of the Refrigerator. Kind of like Highlander.
"THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE! ...Cat on top of the refrigerator."
Oh yeah, and? Herc decided that it was his civic duty as a cat to try to destroy every magnet I have on there:
It's a big fridge. I have a lot of magnets. He's doing a real good job, though...already broke 2. Thanks, Herc!
Monday, September 25, 2006
LUCKY
They are SO LUCKY that they are SOOO CUTE:
I took this picture with my cell phone one day a couple of weeks ago. I was coming home from Trader Joe's and the three of them happened to all be in the front window looking at me! Some people have trouble telling Hercules and Titus apart. Just remember: football head = Titus.
I took this picture with my cell phone one day a couple of weeks ago. I was coming home from Trader Joe's and the three of them happened to all be in the front window looking at me! Some people have trouble telling Hercules and Titus apart. Just remember: football head = Titus.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
The Tragedy Of the Bully Woolies
Now that you've met my animals, as cute and fuzzy as they are, it's time to present you with their dark side. It's story time, boys and girls! And now the epic drama known as The Tragedy of the Bully Woolies.
My birthday was in May. And this year my friends Jan (who taught me how to crochet) and Marsha (who taught me how to knit) gave me, among other things, this cute kit that makes knitted mice cat toys filled with catnip. The kit is called Bully Woolies. And I highly recommend it---very easy to do. And a good introduction to felting. In fact, this is my first felting project! I have not felted the mice yet, but when I do I'll take pictures and post them on here. Actually, I had fully intended on having them DONE by now, but the animals had other ideas....
So anyhow, I opened the kit up right away and was like a kid in a candy shop! I found myself lost in oohing and aahing over the little plastic box's contents. Suddenly I was snapped back into reality by an odd scraping sound. It was Titus' tongue licking something. He had smelled the bag of catnip in the kit and actually licked a HOLE through the cardboard insert that had the knitting directions on it! RAGE. Seething, I just gathered everything up and put it away for a while. Luckily, upon closer inspection of those instructions, I determined that he did not utterly destroy them. I could still figure out what to do.
A few days later, I opened up the kit again. I attempted to knit one of the mice---a deep plum-colored one.
Instructions: "Cast on 3 stitches"
Me: "la, la, la, casting on 3 stitches, ta teetle-tee tum"
Instructions: "Purl rows 1, 3, 5, 7, 9"
Me: "...hmmm...uh...ok...so...I put the needle...here? No. Wait. Uh...in the front...and the yarn goes...here? No, that's not right! Argh. Let's see now...over the...top? No, no, no. ---The hell?
To my absolute horror, I FORGOT HOW TO PURL. I was incredulous. And none of the 1758960 knitting books I own seemed to be able to explain the purl stitch to me in a manner that my brain could comprehend. Maybe it was because I was super distracted by three of my four cats swarming all over me, either for the yarn, the catnip (indeed, Ophelia actually got her little jaws on the packet of catnip and attempted to abscond with it), the needles or some combination of all three. SIGH. I put the kit away again.
Fast forward to August. I unearthed the little plastic cube again and tried knitting them again. Now I'm not sure what happened in my brain between May and August, but I was able to purl, no problem. Crazy, right? I knit up one mouse. Easy as pie. And SO CUTE. I was so happy. I starting knitting the second, then got distracted by someone or some animal. So I put it away again. Thankfully, we were just about to go on vacation to Vermont, sans cats. Which meant that I could have a week of uninterrupted knitting and crocheting. I finished all but one of the cat toys because I had put that particular little ball of yarn in a different spot (the deep-plum one). I even managed to use the scraps of remaining yarn from the others to make a striped one! They are really adorable. Here they are, pre-felted:
So I get home from vacation and find the other ball of yarn. Two days later, I had to bring my car in for an oil change, so I brought the yarn with me to knit the last mouse in the waiting room of the car dealership. I could have knit about 56 afghans; that's how long I was there, but I digress. I left the plastic box home, which now contained: the 5 completed mice, the finishing yarn, bells, and the catnip. I thought I had zipped my knitting bag up, but I guess I didn't zip it all the way. When I got home I found...well...a picture is worth a thousand words, so have a gander at these:
Titus (asleep) with catnip all over his back.
Herc sniffing and rolling in catnip (Fi Fi, too).
All three caught in the act.
Ophelia looking stoned (and guilty)!
Ophelia reveling in catnip.
THE EVIDENCE: not one leaf of catnip left!
That's right, dear reader. They were covered in catnip, particularly Titus and Ophelia. I'd bet that Fi Fi got it out of my knitting bag. Clever girl. And that Titus did the honors of chewing up the catnip bag. I found 2 of the mice scattered around. But everything else remained in the knitting bag and in the box. I actually made the lame attempt of getting the dustbuster to vacuum up the remaining catnip, but there was NOTHING to vacuum up! All the catnip was either on them or in them at this point. Notice how Sophie is not in any of these pictures? Yeah. She's the "good" one.
So tonight I am going to felt these poor mice and get it done with! I think I have some more catnip stashed away in a hermetically sealed container somewhere. But these animals are so bad, they don't even deserve the fruits of my labor. Oy.
My birthday was in May. And this year my friends Jan (who taught me how to crochet) and Marsha (who taught me how to knit) gave me, among other things, this cute kit that makes knitted mice cat toys filled with catnip. The kit is called Bully Woolies. And I highly recommend it---very easy to do. And a good introduction to felting. In fact, this is my first felting project! I have not felted the mice yet, but when I do I'll take pictures and post them on here. Actually, I had fully intended on having them DONE by now, but the animals had other ideas....
So anyhow, I opened the kit up right away and was like a kid in a candy shop! I found myself lost in oohing and aahing over the little plastic box's contents. Suddenly I was snapped back into reality by an odd scraping sound. It was Titus' tongue licking something. He had smelled the bag of catnip in the kit and actually licked a HOLE through the cardboard insert that had the knitting directions on it! RAGE. Seething, I just gathered everything up and put it away for a while. Luckily, upon closer inspection of those instructions, I determined that he did not utterly destroy them. I could still figure out what to do.
A few days later, I opened up the kit again. I attempted to knit one of the mice---a deep plum-colored one.
Instructions: "Cast on 3 stitches"
Me: "la, la, la, casting on 3 stitches, ta teetle-tee tum"
Instructions: "Purl rows 1, 3, 5, 7, 9"
Me: "...hmmm...uh...ok...so...I put the needle...here? No. Wait. Uh...in the front...and the yarn goes...here? No, that's not right! Argh. Let's see now...over the...top? No, no, no. ---The hell?
To my absolute horror, I FORGOT HOW TO PURL. I was incredulous. And none of the 1758960 knitting books I own seemed to be able to explain the purl stitch to me in a manner that my brain could comprehend. Maybe it was because I was super distracted by three of my four cats swarming all over me, either for the yarn, the catnip (indeed, Ophelia actually got her little jaws on the packet of catnip and attempted to abscond with it), the needles or some combination of all three. SIGH. I put the kit away again.
Fast forward to August. I unearthed the little plastic cube again and tried knitting them again. Now I'm not sure what happened in my brain between May and August, but I was able to purl, no problem. Crazy, right? I knit up one mouse. Easy as pie. And SO CUTE. I was so happy. I starting knitting the second, then got distracted by someone or some animal. So I put it away again. Thankfully, we were just about to go on vacation to Vermont, sans cats. Which meant that I could have a week of uninterrupted knitting and crocheting. I finished all but one of the cat toys because I had put that particular little ball of yarn in a different spot (the deep-plum one). I even managed to use the scraps of remaining yarn from the others to make a striped one! They are really adorable. Here they are, pre-felted:
So I get home from vacation and find the other ball of yarn. Two days later, I had to bring my car in for an oil change, so I brought the yarn with me to knit the last mouse in the waiting room of the car dealership. I could have knit about 56 afghans; that's how long I was there, but I digress. I left the plastic box home, which now contained: the 5 completed mice, the finishing yarn, bells, and the catnip. I thought I had zipped my knitting bag up, but I guess I didn't zip it all the way. When I got home I found...well...a picture is worth a thousand words, so have a gander at these:
Titus (asleep) with catnip all over his back.
Herc sniffing and rolling in catnip (Fi Fi, too).
All three caught in the act.
Ophelia looking stoned (and guilty)!
Ophelia reveling in catnip.
THE EVIDENCE: not one leaf of catnip left!
That's right, dear reader. They were covered in catnip, particularly Titus and Ophelia. I'd bet that Fi Fi got it out of my knitting bag. Clever girl. And that Titus did the honors of chewing up the catnip bag. I found 2 of the mice scattered around. But everything else remained in the knitting bag and in the box. I actually made the lame attempt of getting the dustbuster to vacuum up the remaining catnip, but there was NOTHING to vacuum up! All the catnip was either on them or in them at this point. Notice how Sophie is not in any of these pictures? Yeah. She's the "good" one.
So tonight I am going to felt these poor mice and get it done with! I think I have some more catnip stashed away in a hermetically sealed container somewhere. But these animals are so bad, they don't even deserve the fruits of my labor. Oy.
Monday, August 28, 2006
The Velvet Mafia
Well first off let me introduce you to my four furry, feline children, or as my husband Todd refers to them, "The velvet Mafia."
This is Sophie. She's our oldest at age 10. Sophie is a sweet cat and for a long time she enjoyed the privilege of being the only cat in our house. As with all our cats, Sophie was once a homeless stray. I believe very strongly in adopting homeless pets. My sister and her family actually adopted Sophie in November 1997. Sophie joined their family which had another cat already there named Claude. Claude did NOT like Sophie and was very mean to her. So Todd and I adopted her in October 2000. Anyway, now Sophie is --- ahem--- living large, so-to-speak, weighing in at about 18 pounds. I am actually VERY proud of Sophie because she used to tip the scales at around 22 pounds! She's my pretty one!
This is Hercules. Herc just turned 2 on July 1. He can be a handful, but he is probably the most lovable cat on the planet. Todd found Herc outside one bitterly cold, sub-freezing January morning in 2005. He was about 6 months old. Poor thing. We HAD to take him in. Hercules is a poor eater; he prefers drinking water from our bathroom sink. He actually really has taken to the bathroom sink; we find him in there practically every morning. He also likes to lay in-between Todd and I in our bed at night. One of his most favorite things in the world is the laser pointer. Hercules also likes to bug Sophie. Then she puts the smack-down on him and he wonders why....
This is Titus ---the cat of 1000 nicknames. Such as: Squinty, Titus McSquintleface, Sean Connery, Fuzzimus, Mr. T., Football Head, and Tituclees to name a few. He is probably our cutest cat. He really has the most adorable face and very interesting fur markings. It's a good thing too because he's BAD. He loves to chew on our mail and any packages we get. Often, we notice that our mail has "the Titus seal of approval," which means that it looks like Dracula got to our mail before we did. He also likes popcorn and the plastic bottle-cap wraps that you get from bottles of Snapple. If you so much as pick up a bottle of Snapple, he'll come from wherever he is and stand there, waiting for you to open it up and give him the plastic seal. We got Titus from PACCA in February 2005 to keep Hercules company and away from Sophie. He'll be 2 in November.
And last but not least, this is Ophelia, or Fi Fi for short. She just turned 1 in April. We noticed her on the way to work one morning in May of 2005; she was a just little gray puff. In fact, I had mistaken her for a dirty pair of lost rolled-up tube socks! Then the socks looked up at me! We couldn't spare the time to stop and get her in the morning. So we went after work to look for her. We were very doubtful that we would find her. But Todd spotted her in the parking lot of a firehouse. She was difficult to "capture," but thankfully, we finally did. We took her to our vet and she weighed less than a pound! We had to keep her separated from the rest of the cats for a few weeks because she was not old enough to be tested for those nasty feline diseases. Once she got a clean bill of health, we let them all interact. Now she is a vibrant, playful cutie who loves attention.
This is Sophie. She's our oldest at age 10. Sophie is a sweet cat and for a long time she enjoyed the privilege of being the only cat in our house. As with all our cats, Sophie was once a homeless stray. I believe very strongly in adopting homeless pets. My sister and her family actually adopted Sophie in November 1997. Sophie joined their family which had another cat already there named Claude. Claude did NOT like Sophie and was very mean to her. So Todd and I adopted her in October 2000. Anyway, now Sophie is --- ahem--- living large, so-to-speak, weighing in at about 18 pounds. I am actually VERY proud of Sophie because she used to tip the scales at around 22 pounds! She's my pretty one!
This is Hercules. Herc just turned 2 on July 1. He can be a handful, but he is probably the most lovable cat on the planet. Todd found Herc outside one bitterly cold, sub-freezing January morning in 2005. He was about 6 months old. Poor thing. We HAD to take him in. Hercules is a poor eater; he prefers drinking water from our bathroom sink. He actually really has taken to the bathroom sink; we find him in there practically every morning. He also likes to lay in-between Todd and I in our bed at night. One of his most favorite things in the world is the laser pointer. Hercules also likes to bug Sophie. Then she puts the smack-down on him and he wonders why....
This is Titus ---the cat of 1000 nicknames. Such as: Squinty, Titus McSquintleface, Sean Connery, Fuzzimus, Mr. T., Football Head, and Tituclees to name a few. He is probably our cutest cat. He really has the most adorable face and very interesting fur markings. It's a good thing too because he's BAD. He loves to chew on our mail and any packages we get. Often, we notice that our mail has "the Titus seal of approval," which means that it looks like Dracula got to our mail before we did. He also likes popcorn and the plastic bottle-cap wraps that you get from bottles of Snapple. If you so much as pick up a bottle of Snapple, he'll come from wherever he is and stand there, waiting for you to open it up and give him the plastic seal. We got Titus from PACCA in February 2005 to keep Hercules company and away from Sophie. He'll be 2 in November.
And last but not least, this is Ophelia, or Fi Fi for short. She just turned 1 in April. We noticed her on the way to work one morning in May of 2005; she was a just little gray puff. In fact, I had mistaken her for a dirty pair of lost rolled-up tube socks! Then the socks looked up at me! We couldn't spare the time to stop and get her in the morning. So we went after work to look for her. We were very doubtful that we would find her. But Todd spotted her in the parking lot of a firehouse. She was difficult to "capture," but thankfully, we finally did. We took her to our vet and she weighed less than a pound! We had to keep her separated from the rest of the cats for a few weeks because she was not old enough to be tested for those nasty feline diseases. Once she got a clean bill of health, we let them all interact. Now she is a vibrant, playful cutie who loves attention.
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