Knitting Cats

I miss knitting. Nothing lifts the spirits like picking up needles and yarn. My least favorite part of knitting is finding an interesting pattern AND the yarn/needles required. It seems I don't buy sufficient quantities when building my stash, so the 1 or 2 skeins I have are not enough. Gyah. But it's so expensive to buy all the delicious yarn without a project in mind! And of course, if I have four skeins, the project requires 6. I can't bring myself to knit a toy or doll using luxury yarn. Oh the cost! Oh the waste! Ah, such is the angst of a cheapskate knitter.

The kitties are doing well. Davis loves to snuggle on my projects if I am knitting. Cara is responding to her name when it suits her. She even knows "Okie" is her. Cara-Okie purrs for me and is starting to let me hold her. Angel has trained her daddy to brush her every night. She sits on the side of the tub and cries, whines, and begs until daddy brushes her to her satisfaction. If he stops before she's ready, she will let him know. Hilarious. Angel turns 10 on September 1. I still have not planned her birthday party. What a terrible mom!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was so good I am reading it again. All the tiny nuances and details that seemed insignificant the first time are so glaringly obvious now!

Pot(ter) Head

I did not camp out until 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning to get my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I did, however reserve my copy at Borders in advance and picked it up Saturday morning. The store opened one hour early in anticipation of the demand. It was a good thing I ordered a copy because they did not have a single copy available unless it was reserved. I think this didn't necessarily mean they sold out, but were saving all copies for pre-orders and releasing any excess to the general public. How nice, yes?

I agonized about going Friday night in hopes of getting the 3-foot poster Borders had "while supplies last" but decided it wasn't worth it to spend several hours in a confined store infested with kids of all ages. I'm sure most of the kids were fine, but there are always a handful of mongrels who would run, scream and otherwise forget stores were not playgrounds. So instead, we picked up my book the following morning. And there were still posters available! Yay! They probably had about 50 left, so us early birds got the goods!

I finished the book in about 12 hours including breaks and distractions such as eating and the loo. :) Oh wow. The book was so much better than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams. There were quite a few deaths, as expected. This book was definitely for a more mature audience, as Ms. Rowling had noted that she expected her audience to have grown up with Harry. Hallows explained so much about the previous books, even when we thought each book had wrapped up nicely. I think I will read it again just for kicks, now that I know how the story ends.

Hopefully Idaho Girl got the book over the weekend so we can be Potterheads together and dish about the book. I never properly introduced him, so here goes. Yes, HIM. IG is a guy at work and we are the sole pathetic souls trapped in our windowless prison cells. Everyone else at work has a window office except us, even though there are at least two vacant window offices available. IG is Idaho Girl because he's cool like that. hahahaha Actually, his friend is away for the summer and let him use her car. Her license plate is Idaho Girl and that's what I've been calling him since. :)

Speechless

On a Washington Post chat--couldn't have said it better myself:

There's no call for anyone to be cruel to animals, but there's a higher duty to care for our fellow man first. : Difference: animals are largely helpless in where and how they end up in bad situations. Man, who has free will, is often directly responsible for where they end up. Sure, someone may be born dirt poor and into an abusive family, but there comes in the factor which make humans superior: free will and the ability to reason. I'd rather help animals.

Idaho Girl

Ok, I am lame and crazy according to the cheeriest person I know. Idaho Girl (link to come) thinks I'm nuts for already planning our kitties' arrangements when we visit piglet later this year. The thing is, I am already having separation anxiety. I KNOW they will manage and live through the drama. But what if I can't handle being apart from them??? Sure, we are getting them the largest cages ("suites") available, but they are still cages. What if the cages brings back bad memories for Davis and Cara? My sensitive boy is neurotic and paranoid enough as it is. Additional stress and trauma will probably result in an upper respiratory infection.

On a different note, Davis spent much of the night claiming me as his very own. QE decided to be funny and started headbutting me and laying on my shoulder/chest the way Davis does. Our buddy had big eyes as he watched. "What are you doing to my mom, Dad? She's mine!" After QE left, Davis promptly came over to snuggle on me. He was doing circles around me on the sofa and would lay down if I even thought of picking up my knitting.

Before It's Too Late

And laughter is my soul's release
But we're not smiling anymore
Can't we try to win this peace
'Cause we're never gonna win
Never gonna win this war
(Can't Let It Go)

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
(Iris)

You've been hiding in the shadows 
Have you forgotten how we used to dream
(Become)

Cause all the dreams you never thought you'd lose 
Got tossed along the way 
...
Scars are souvenirs you never lose
The past is never far 
(Name)

Well, I didn't intend for this post to sound so darn depressing, but sometimes I guess happy things can make you reflect on "the worst of times" and be thankful for your many blessings. I definitely have much to be thankful for. It's easy to forget that when I'm caught up in the rat race known as life. And who knew John Rzeznik had such eloquence in his lyrics? (well, I did, but probably not many others) I thought it was time for the severely under-appreciated Goo Goo Dolls to get recognized for their music. After all, they were the inspiration for my blog title.

I received a wonderful phone call today. Maybe I'm not the idiot quasimodo that deserves to be stuck in a prison cell after all. I don't think the call will release me, but it's still nice to know someone thinks I have potential and talent. Like the Goos, I may underappreciated, but it doesn't mean we don't kick ass! :) Rock and Roll!!!

A Spicy Affair

We had Chipotle for lunch. It was so good, I still can't stop thinking about it. Pathetic, but true. We decided to live on the wild side and got a side of chips and guac. Those chips are so darn good. Thick but lime and salt crusted. Quite different from Baja Fresh, which has very good chips that are thin. Both are great, just in different ways. Baja's guac wins most of the time though. It would be the clear winner if it nixed the tomatoes. Chipotle's guac is infested with cilantro and, this time at least, a bit on the mushy/slimy side.

In other news, it appears my brother and his wife have finally come to their senses and decided to birth their baby "at home" instead of her home country. Not sure why they finally came to that conclusion, but I am thrilled. It makes so much more sense (to me at least) and now we can go visit piglet! Who will care for our kids when we are gone??? It might be a few days, possibly up to a week. My poor little kitties will think I abandoned them. We might take them to a pet resort, but I have to say, their facilities aren't quite up to par in my book. Even the most expensive luxurious suite is still a glorified cage. I wonder if I could rent out the entire cat wing for our kitties. Unlikely. This would be a great opportunity for the amigos to bond with Cara, if that's ever possible. Maybe Cara can have her own suite next to the amigos. As much as I love Angel and Davis, I had no idea it was possible to squeeze more love out for Cara. But golly gee, if only those stubborn furry heads realized just how much I love them.

Sweet Reunion

QE turned on our cute Mac Mini Saturday morning and...nothing happened. The power was on but nobody was home. Oh dear...not again. Our Sony Vaio died about a year ago and the Mini was our replacement that was supposed to save us from most woes. I'm not much of a computer junkie and don't use a computer at home for more than surfing the web. But I felt this sense of loss and emptiness inside. I felt lonely and abandoned. I missed my Mini!

We packed up our precious bundle and visited the Apple Store only to find that you need to make an appointment to see the doctors at the Genius Bar. WTF!!! We drove all the way out only to be told by a crewcutted mullet wearing man (yup, he had a crew cut and a thick mullet reminiscent of Billy Ray Cyrus in the 80s) that we had to make an appointment. We were sad. We were convinced our Mini died and we lost everything on our hard drive. We made our appointment for this afternoon and braced ourselves for the bad news. Like a miracle worker, our Genius waved his magic fairy wand and voila! Our Mini was back with everything intact.

I LOVE APPLE.

In addition to healing our Mini, he didn't ask for proof of purchase, date of purchase or anything else. I was expecting to show Genius birth certificates, drivers licenses, blood tests and list our addresses for the last 10 years. Nope. No documentation was required.

In other news...well, in hooking our Mini back up, QE noticed that various electronic and computer wires have been chewed through by the one and only, eager beaver Cara. We went to Knit Happens yesterday to take advantage of their storewide 15% discount. I bought some cute buttons, another pair of turbo addis, and two skeins of yarn. Yum.

My Personal Porn

Mrs. Tea bought me yarn on her vacation/trip to visit Mr. Tea's family! YAY!!! She sent me a pic from her cell phone and I just have to say, it was so beautiful. Sure, the yarn is pretty, but the thought and gesture of Mrs. Tea thinking of me and feeding my personal porn stash of yarn was quite touching and even more beautiful than the item itself. sniff... She totally made my day. Possibly my weekend. Thank you Mrs. Tea!

Independence Day

July 4 is just another day on the calendar. But Independence Day is important and special, as it mark's our great nation's independence from British rule. Of course, most of us know that the Declaration of Independence was not signed by everyone on this date, but it's the day we choose to celebrate.

QE and I planned on watching a movie only to find it with limited showings and a victim of getting phased out for crap like Die Hard. We started our day at Starbucks (triple short americano!) and then went to Target. We migrated south to our "dream" shopping center and went to Borders and Michael's. I found Sugar n Cream yarn in 12-14 oz skeins for $5.99!!! The standard size is 2-2.5 oz for $1.49. What's interesting is that I found similar skeins in Beach Ball Blue at AC Moore, but with Bernat labels ($9.99). Could SnC (Lily) and Bernat be the same company? I think so, since that varigated blue was exclusive to Lily I thought. Whatever. I scored big hunks of yarn for a super awesome price!

Knit Happens is closing their online store. I'm not surprised. They are having a 15% discount storewide at their physical store beginning tomorrow. I just bought another pair of turbo addi in size 9 last week. This just means I need to go back and buy more! I have to say, I experimented and diversified my needle collection with a pair of Clover bamboo circulars and...well, they suck compared to addis. The joint is not even close to being as smooth as my beloved turbos. I still love bamboo straights and dpns though.

In other news, Davis took it upon himself to hop on the back of the sofa and headbutt my head. Sigh...he loves me. Angel slept by my legs as Davis gazed lovingly at me while I knitted. Cara slept on the leather chair for the most part and would occasionally stare at Davis. Which of course upset him even though she wasn't technically doing anything.