A little worried (just a little)

Over the weekend, I took the felines in for their annual checkup/vaccinations/etc.  Since they are now FIVE years old, the vet suggested some baseline bloodwork so we can start monitoring kidney function etc.  Fine.  The problem started when the cats were weighed.  My cats are big...Bear weighs a little over 17 pounds but even his vet says that he's just a big cat and his weight is ok.  But little Daisy gained over a pound!  I had noticed that she seemed a little heftier than usual.  The vet gave me the usual speech about weight and female cats being at higher risk for diabetes so I went home and immediately started putting less food in the bowl at each feeding.  The only reason I haven't done this before is because I was afraid that Daisy would eat more than her fair share and poor Bear would go hungry (she's really food-focused).  Anyway...the vet called this morning saying that they wanted to do a fructosamine test on Daisy as well based on some results from her bloodwork.  So I looked it up online and it turns out that this is a test for diabetes.  Needless to say I was a little thrown off by the whole thing.  Daisy's my little companion...my shadow.  She is almost always the last thing that I see at night before I fall asleep and the first thing that I see when I wake up in the morning (mostly because she was the one who woke me up but that's another story).  I love Bear but he is much more independent than Daisy - he sleeps in his current favorite-spot-of-the-day (it changes) and there are many mornings where I am the one who wakes HIM up.

So fingers crossed for little Daisy (and me too - I have a feeling that things are not going to be very pleasant around my house if I have to start giving that cat insulin shots!)

The Shelter Cats

I volunteer for an animal rescue organization called Save the Animals Rescue Team II (START II).  We have a shelter but we also run the adoption centers in several Petsmart stores.  I volunteer at the adoption center in Nanuet, NY.  Once a week, I go up to the store in the evening after work and clean cages, socialize with the cats, medicate when needed, and speak to potential adopters (we only do adoptions on Saturday and Sunday but I try and at least get them interested enough to come back the next day).  I've been doing this for 3 years now and I really love it.  Sometimes it's hard (like the days when it seems like ALL the cats have stomach problems) and sometimes it's sad.  But most of the time, it's like it was last night.  We're coming on kitten season now and we currently have five 8-10 week old kittens (3 in one litter, 2 in another).  I love letting the kittens out and watching them run around and practice all their little kitten tricks.  I especially love the smaller ones who are still a little awkward - they're just so cute!  And most of the women that I volunteer with are just the loveliest, caring, amazing people I have ever met.  I only give one night of my week for this...many of them give much, much more.  Even though I cover my evening by myself, Friday nights are nice because some of the ladies stop by and visit.  I need to remember to start bringing my camera so I can post some pictures!

Before I started volunteering, I never considered adopting an older cat.  My mother was always adamant that you had to get them while they were kittens or they wouldn't bond with you.  I got my two cats when they were kittens - I picked Daisy out when she was 7 days old and then went back and picked Bear out the next week.  Then I spent the next 6 weeks visiting them at the animal hospital where they were born until they were old enough to come home with me.  That was a great experience and a lot of fun and I wouldn't change it for the world.  But kittens are WORK...every time I see them running around like lunatics in the adoption center and climbing everything that won't move (and some things that will), I think about how glad I am that my cats (well Daisy, at least) are finally beyond that stage.  And I've really come to appreciate the older animals - they're the ones who really need me.  Thankfully, I've been able to resist bringing another one home - two is enough in my small apartment, at least for now.  I have considered getting a dog, but I definitely only want to adopt an adult dog over the age of 3.  But then I see some poor schnook walking their dog in the rain and I re-think the whole dog thing...perhaps I'm more of a cat person :-)

We have some really lovely older cats in the adoption center who need good homes.  Trixie is a beautiful calico who is really, really sweet.  When you pet her, she puts her tail straight up and the tip quivers - so cute!  And Rudy is a really BIG black and white tuxedo - he was so depressed when he first came to us but he's starting to come out of it a little bit now.  He loves to be petted and brushed and is just a mush.  There are more - we usually have anywhere between 10 and 18 cats in the adoption center at any time (right now, we have 17, what with all the kittens) and they all have their quirks and their baggage but are a right match for someone out there with a good home to give (even Rosa, who hates me - I'm sure there's someone out there who can win her over!)

So if you don't already have a herd of cats, come on down to the adoption center at the Petsmart in Nanuet NY, or go to your local shelter and get one or three!

Things I Love

Cool Beans Coffee Pods - especially the Hazelnut and Mocha Cinnamon Swirl...yum.

Crazy Aunt Purl - she may be crazy, but I really admire the "living out loud".  I went back to the beginning and am reading all of her posts - I'm at June 2007 right now.  And I peeked ahead a bit, so I know about Roy, which was very poignant.  Every time I think about it I have to hug the felines (which doesn't please them at all).

The fact that we finally have some nice weather!

The thank you note that I got from my Tokyo users for helping them with all of their problems and getting on the phone with them at odd hours.

I'm not sure if this falls under the category of "Things I Love" but my SOCK is doing much better now.  I'm afraid to say I love it because I'm sure it will just disintegrate if I do, but I finished the cuff and am about 1/4 way through the leg (I haven't really been knitting that much due to the interference of unimportant things like "work" and "decluttering the house so that I won't have to move out because there's no room for me, two cats, and all of THEIR stuff".  I'll post a picture next time.

Cast on, Cast off

I am now on my 6th attempt to cast on the sock I ripped back a few days ago (the pattern is Classy Slip Up from Knit Socks!).  After the initial unraveling, I decided to change a few things in order to ensure success the second (or sixth) time around.  I actually made one specific change based on something that I have learned from implementing software over the past 13 years...when you have more hand-offs (interfaces) between systems, there is more of a chance that you will fuck something up.  So, I applied this principle to my sock, and went from a 5 dpn configuration to a 4 dpn configuration (less hand-offs, less room for error).  I was also inspired by Yarn Harlot to try a 2x2 rib instead of the 1x1 rib that the pattern called for (I actually figured that this might just be a little faster).

Each cast on brought a new problem challenge.  A few attempts resulted in dropped cast on stitches (I really don't know if there's even a way to fix those).  The most insulting was when I finally cast on successfully and started the first round, only to be stopped short after the first 20 stitches because I had been knitting with the tail instead of the working yarn.  AAAGH!

I don't want to get too cocky, but this last time is working out pretty well so far - I've actually finished knitting the first round.  I know that doesn't seem like a lot but trust me, after last night, I'm pretty darn proud.  Let's see if I can get through the second round without any drama!

You're so vain

I have curly hair that is currently in some sort of limbo-growing-out stage.  Yesterday, it rained.  A LOT.  And it was very, very windy.  This is not a good combination if you want to look your best, especially when your morning commute involves walking outside.  As it was, I couldn't really do much with my hair in the morning because of the humidity, but by the time I got to work, I was a frizzy mess.  To top it all off, I really need to get my roots done and the gray in my hair was ESPECIALLY noticeable yesterday.

Yesterday morning, I was in a training class with a bunch of people from my department.  There is one guy that I'm friendly with who is very attentive to details and has noticed changes in my hairstyle in the past.  So of course, he sat behind me in the training class.  And the whole time I was supposed to be learning about derivatives, the only thing I could think of is the fact that this guy is looking at the back of my head and my hair is A MESS (I had also made some unfortunate wardrobe choices that morning but let's not go into that).

So fast forward to today.  It was a beautiful, DRY day today.  I used a different combination of hair products this morning and had probably the best hair day I've had in a long while.  But the guy who notices my hair wasn't in the office today, which was disappointing because I really wanted the chance to redeem myself in the hair department.  I did talk to him during the day though, and somehow managed to work the fact that I was having a good hair day into the conversation (Yeah...today really sucked.  But at least I'm having a great hair day!)  This guy must think I'm a complete lunatic.

Sadly, there are a lot more people out there who saw me with that hair.  It's going to take me a while to get to them all.

Will someone please save me from myself?

First of all...I have watched The Queen about 20 times in the past few weeks.  I really just can't seem to get enough of it.  My grandmother was from Scotland and she loved the royals, and she definitely passed that on to me.  I remember getting up very early in the morning with her to watch Charles and Diana's wedding.  And doing the same thing almost 20 years later for Diana's funeral.  So I guess it's no surprise that I would love this movie.

While I have been watching The Queen, I have been trying to knit my first sock (note that this says "sock" and not "socks").  I'm relatively new to knitting.  My grandmothers taught me to knit and crochet when I was very young, but I never really made anything.  I picked both knitting and crocheting back up a few years ago and basically taught myself everything I know (which isn't really a whole lot).  I've made many, many scarves, and am almost done with my second afghan.  I've also done two baby blankets and a couple of iPod holders.  I've been reading (and LOVING) The Yarn Harlot, and as a result became very inspired to try my hand at sock knitting.  I bought myself some fancy KnitPicks dpns, some KnitPicks Essentials sock yarn, and away I went.  I got through the entire cuff (not without a lot of teeny tiny dropped stitches) and through the first two repeats of the leg pattern.  And then...it happened.  I dropped a couple of stitches at the same time and I just couldn't fix them.  

Maybe I could have recovered from this, but I think I panicked.  I wanted to rip back a couple of rows to where the dropped stitches had landed.  I tried inserting my needle into the row the way they tell you in the book (demonstrated with stitches that are the size of my HEAD - these socks have teeny tiny stitches.)  I really couldn't figure it out.  I tried turning the sock inside out on the needles, thinking maybe I'd have a better angle from the other side.  This was the fatal mistake.  Somehow, I got the yarn wrapped around the sock so that it now came up from the middle of the needles, rather than from the top.  When I tried to fix it, I ended up wrapping the yarn completely around the sock and the needle.  I could not figure out how to undo the mess I made.  So the sock ended up going to frog heaven.  I was devastated.  All that hard work on those teeny tiny stitches!  The next day, I woke full of optimism and decided to try again.  I can't even get past the cast on anymore.  I've tried three times!

I think I may be doomed to knit only rectangular objects for the rest of my natural life...

My Life So Far

My Life So Far was the name of a project that I did in elementary school (which is lovingly framed and hanging in my parents' house).  It is a piece of oak tag with pictures of me at various ages, all in a circle.  There are also pictures of my various family members, and a sappy subtitle ("Love is All Around", or something like that).  When I first had the idea to start a blog, I thought about what to name it and almost immediately, this is the title that came into my head.  It seemed cheesy enough to be just the right thing so here we are.

Now...a little about my furry roommates.  I live with two cats.

This is Daisy, pulling the tail off one of her toy mice:

Isn't that just cute?  It has often occurred to me to wonder what exactly she would do with a real mouse (that would perhaps not be so cute).  Despite her penchant for dismembering toys, Daisy is a really sweet and loyal cat.  She gets into bed with me at night for a cuddle before I go to sleep, and in the morning she sits and stares at me and purrs until I wake up.  Very cute.

And this...is Bear.  I think his look says it all:

Bear weighs about 17 pounds but as he is a very tall and long cat this is not excessive.  His vet says that he is "big boned" :-)  He can be, at times, a very poorly mannered cat, despite my efforts to enforce the rules (there aren't many, but he breaks them all anyway).  But he is so handsome that I can't really stay mad at him for very long.  Actually...he reminds me a lot of just about every man I've ever dated.

Time for this chick to start thinking about sleep.  I have to go to the city tomorrow for a training class on Derivatives.  I'll hardly be able to shut my eyes for all the excitement.