With M&M

Tuesday, I flew back to greater Vancouver. The trip was relatively uneventful, except for the two screaming children who sat across the aisle from me. They took turns being unhappy at the top of their lungs, so the three hours seemed very long.

Then there was the wind Tuesday night flying into Vancouver. It added the stomach-sinking feel of a roller coaster ride to the landing all wrapped into the price of the ticket.

There was a big problem with the times of my flights. I must talk to my travel agent; oh, that would be me. The flight out of Minneapolis to Seattle left at 4:50 pm. This is a great time which allows for fully cleaning the condo before departure. Not a bad idea, if I do say so myself. I got up at 6 am to start and was comfortably ready to depart the condo to catch the Light Rail train at 2 pm. Now 6 am Central Day Light Savings time is 4 am Pacific time. All went well on that flight sans the kids with an on-time arrival of 6:30 pm Pacific time. Then I sat around until my flight to Vancouver left at 11:10 pm putting me into Vancouver about 12:30 am and getting me home at 1:30 am. Which if you work backwards is 3:30 am in the Central time zone. So I was up pretty much a 22 hour day, one that can be avoided if I simply pay a bit more for a flight. Paul agrees adding this change would be much appreciated by hime since he was the poor sole who picked me up at YVR.

As I walked in the door of our house Tuesday night or more accurately, early Wednesday morning to two sleepy-eyed cats greeting me. They have grown to the point where the moniker of kitten no longer holds. The Marvelous Miss Mara weighs 8.5 pounds and Mighty Mr. Mike tips the scales at 11 pounds. At 11 pounds Mike has reached adult weight. Mike to me has slimmed down and lengthen as most teenagers do, where Mara has merely filled in. As I try to type this the two of them take turns being held and petted. I had hoped they would remember me and that seems to be the case.

Paul did a good job with them while I was gone. He has trained them to sleep in their bed rather than the couches, stay off the island in the kitchen and most remarkably, he has them trained to be relatively cooperative when their nails are being cut. Not bad for only six weeks. Here are a few shots of the "kids" to get you up-to-date with them.

The two of them together. Note how dark Mara (on the right) is getting

Mara in a rather menacing pose

Mike playing hard to get with regard to a decent photo

In addition to growing in weight Mara is growing darker. She is approaching a light gray colour. Both are also growing more mature in decision making; there are no attempts to jump a span that cannot be jumped. They have changed all in good ways.

I know the photos above don't really tell you much about their size so below is a photo of them at about five months old. You can see all the extra space in that bed. Now compare it to the amount of space available on the photo taken yesterday at the top. The two of them fill it with Mara's back spilling over the back.

A older photo from December 2016

We have reconnected; I would like to think they remember me. Perhaps they just like the fact I spend hours giving them attention. At any rate, it is great to be back and great to see all this sunshine, to boot!

More knitting news later this week.

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms. (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while. But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf . I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you? It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank. (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo. Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left. Easy to find, right! Sure but what about the remaining 4

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With M&M

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Ode to the Cat

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