ponder fodder...

I saw this quote at the end of an email today. I don't know much about the fellow who wrote it, but this little bit was worth thinking about.

"I look upon what is whole in you, not what seems to be lacking, and when
you learn to do the same, then the lack will disappear on its own. No
effort is required to dispel an illusion, but it takes great effort
indeed to deny what is and has always been true. This is why you are so
tired, because you have used the power of creation to deny the power of
creation."
-James Twyman

I have named the fireplace squirrel "Ralphie." He hangs his head down from the hole in the flue like a periscope to keep a watch for fresh sunflower seeds. I need to take a picture of the cats...they sit in front of the fireplace like they are watching television.

Dreary, chilly, foggy and rainy today.

see you after the holiday...

millan.net

you just can't make this stuff up...

If you read the previous post, you are aware of our new pet friend...uh, visitor.

He really does peek through the old worn-out flue. As soon as I shone the flashlight in the fireplace, his head poked right out and I attempted to take a picture through the glass. Not top quality, but this critter has been caught in the act. Click on the photo for a big view.

Darling Klaralund does NOT want to be upstaged. She is finished. She doesn't really make me look quite so skinny, but she's lovely nevertheless.

knock, knock...

...who's there?
Flying squirrels.
Flying squirrels who?
Flying squirrels visiting through your fireplace.

Again.

Yes, we have more visitors...or maybe just one more. He peeks his head through the flue when we shine the flashlight in the fireplace.

Who's that? he says.
Curious humans, we say.
*blink, blink*

Curious humans invite total infestation by placing water and gerbil food in the fireplace.

What's that? he says.
Food and water, we say.

As soon as the food was placed in the fireplace, his velvety nose popped through the hole wiggling and twitching.

A buffet? he says. For me? he wonders.
Yes, for you, just in case you need it.

He promptly followed his nose to the feeding trough and began eating to his heart's content. You could clearly hear the crunching and munching through the closed glass doors.

Cool! How cute! the Curious Humans thought.
Mmmm! Delicious the squirrel thought.

He dragged the little plastic lid toward him, sat among the tasty morsels and commenced to more serious munching.The sunflower seeds were his favorite and disappeared first.

We are such suckers, we thought.
They are such suckers, he thought.

***********

I have about 10 more inches of seaming to do on Klaralund and I'm finished. I plan to wear it tomorrow because that's what you do when you finish something--you wear it immediately...pronto...post haste...with self-aggrandizing glee.

There's so much to say, but only so much room. I'll post of pic of Klara when she is fit to be fitted and such.

I am SO ready for a day off.

hope.

I hope for this to become more than a piece of paper. It's been so disturbing to go about my daily business while lives were being snuffed out by the millions. I still wonder if the general public was quite so complacent during the Holocaust or if it was different then; if people were more involved in bringing aid to those who suffered. I don't know.

A spitwad. A nerd. And a little bit of lightning...

Well, I've not been my usual obsessive bloggy self lately. I'm not sure why. I have been having some serious energy problems lately...there's seems to be a blackout in the frontal and neocortex areas. All power lines have been shut down and limbic generators have been chugging me through the countryside. Usually this is caused by a special kind of lightning from hormonal clouds, known by its scientific name "Zitbloatskrieg." If you feel the hair in your DNA prickle up you'd better hit the ground and don the tin foil cap post haste.

Anyway, we saw "The Incredibles" with the nieces over the weekend. It was a great movie. Even if you don't have short people to go with, go see it. It's really clever and amazing. Knitters will appreciate the faithful reproduction of stockinette stitch in sweaters thanks to the miracles of computer generated graphics. (How nerdy is it that I noticed such a thing? I deserve a spitwad between the eyes.)

I am hoping to finish out two custom hats this week. I wanted to have them done by now, but my energy/irritation levels have been extremely low and extremely high respectively. What to do? Knit and chill. Wait for systems to return to normal.

So, I have finished all of the pieces of Klaralund. No shit. I kid you not. I'm not lying. By the turtlehead invested in me I hereby say she is ready to block and seam. Can she do it? Can she finish a knitted piece? You'll have to tune in later to find out.

I've casted on for Lara, but only four inches of lovely rust ribbing can attest to my activity. I'm using Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran instead of Alpaca Silk. It was cheaper--thank God for Elann during lean days.

told ya...

Ah, she comes through, late like Amelie, but with pictures like she said...
Klaralund sleeves in #213...obviously I was not trying to match the striping. I couldn't care less about that, so c'est la vie on that one.

Some purple wool and mohair roving I've been spinning up. The score was made at SAFF of course. I bought some other roving in a brown/olive color combo as well.

And something luscious, Kid Hollow hand-dyed mohair (almost 1000 yards!). Mmm, mmm, MMM! I have special plans for this baby and I ain't tellin'. I dread winding it up though!

I did some "pre-felt" pieces tonight to be felted into other pieces of felt later, but those are hardly exciting to show. So, that's all for today folks.

potholes...

Feelin' kinda low this week. Not because of the squirrel, although that was a sad moment, but a variety of other things. All will be fine, but I despise "dips" in the road of life. Sometimes there are too many potholes to fix at once.

Thanks for all the sweet messages about the flying squirrel. One person commented about rabies, but the Southern Flying Squirrel is wonderfully notorious for being practically disease and parasite-free. They are really beautiful little creatures and have been kept as "pocket pets" for hundreds of years. You could never tame an adult, but if you bond with a baby then you'd be happily stuck with a friendly squirrel for about 10-15 years!

I am halfway through the last sleeve of Klaralund, but I dread blocking it because I really don't have a good place to block. No carpet, dog and cat fur everywhere, not enough table space, etc. I'm sure I'll figure out a way to solve it. I am (really) going to post some pics tonight.

I have to work some this weekend, but man am I glad it's Friday!

need alternate ending...

I haven't posted about the flying squirrel, because I just couldn't. The first thing I did was go to the fireplace after work and I saw the apple hadn't even been nibbled. Just beyond the apple, I saw a little tail. I touched it and nothing happened. I let out an "Oh, no!" and ran to get a little cotton washcloth. I pulled the poor little thing out by the tail and it seemed dead. Since it was still warm and pliable, I decided to massage its chest and blow in its nose (from a distance). After a couple of minutes I saw a little twitch. It was still alive.

Meanwhile, my husband walked in and immediately asked how the squirrel was. My answer was dismal. I kept giving it little chest massages and DH gave it a little water with a dropper every few minutes. She got more and more agitated, started to breathe regularly and squirmed, so we were hopeful she (I'm assuming it was a female from the rows of nipples on the underbelly) was just dehydrated. We took turns cradling the little thing in our warm hands. Finally she opened her eyes and make a squeak. More squeaks. We were happy. But after a few minutes the squeaks seemed more like cries and she let out a couple of tremendous coughs, sticking out her little pink velvet tongue like a child would. A couple of loud cries followed. We thought she might be frightened by us now that she had her eyes open, so we put her in a dark vented box lined with cotton washcloths. Neither one of us could stand it for more than five minutes, so we lifted the lid to see how she was doing and she had died. Apparently the coughs and cries were her last moments. I rubbed her chest again for a while, but she was really gone this time. I gently closed her eyes.

It took me two days to muster up the courage to write this stupid entry. Sucks to be me.

critter magnet...

Last night I was on the couch thumbing through a knitting magazine while my husband was lamenting about his fantasy football loss to a friend on the phone and out of the corner of my eye I saw something move in the fireplace. I put down my magazine and went to look behind the glass doors along with the cats who had seen the same movement.

Another Southern Flying Squirrel. We know we have families of them in the attic, but since they are practically disease-free critters, we don't see any reason to oust them from their warm little suburbs. This little guy must have fallen down the chimney and crawled through the flue. We don't burn our fireplace because of structural damage in our chimney--thank goodness for him (We have ventless gas logs, but they stink!).

The cats were going nuts, trying to paw right through the glass, so we put the kitties away in other rooms while we opened the doors to attempt capturing the little fellow. Then, poof! he was gone. He jumped straight up through a little hole in the flue. We started to wonder if he was really trapped or just playing, but a few minutes later, plop! he parachuted back down onto the gas logs, just standing there looking at me.

I could hear the kitties tapping on the glass from time to time throughout the night, fascinated by the little snack on the other side.

We decided to see if he was still around today to make a better judgement call on his state of freedom. DH stopped by and saw that he was still there--asleep in the fake ashes, so DH cut up a little apple for him. He was so sound asleep (they are noctural animals) that, not only did he not notice the door was being opened, but DH actually nudged him with the apple and all he did was turn over and curl right back up. Talk about a heavy sleeper! We don't want to put him out during the day when he's so groggy, so we'll attempt to help him escape to freedom tonight. I'd like to take a picture of him but I don't know if that will happen, plus it would probably blind his little noctural eyes. The picture linked in the second paragraph is from the big escapee incident from the storage room--the lights were on then so I snapped a pic. Whee! Boy can they get around in a hurry! It was like a circus. Tickets are on sale for tonight!

persimmon power-pucker

For the truly anal-retentive, a linguistic analysis of the Kerry-Bush debates. It's kind of interesting. Not that I am anal--I poo far too often to earn such a moniker.

more fiber, please

No, I'm not going to pontificate on scat, feces, poo--as it were. I'm looking forward to this weekend so I can do some felting. I have a pulled muscle in my back and a sinus infection that's going to give me grief, but I say we'll work it out--literally.

The front and back of Klaralund is done and I've started on a sleeve. I was going to do the sleeves at the same time, but I didn't have a circular in the same size and I wasn't in the mood to squish that many stitches on my trusty bamboos. I really like Silk Garden, although some of the skeins have giant silk zits. That add something sometimes and then other times, it's just too zitty and I have to poke...it's always something. I've run into at least four knots so far. I do NOT take kindly to knots. I just don't.

I got a ton of hair chopped off last night. I have bangs for the first time in about 10 years. I kind of look like a deranged mushroom...but I do like mushrooms. Have a good Thursday...we're almost there!

stay the course...

...straight into the New Vietmam (even 81 year-old Walter Cronkite will tell you that and he covered the war); straight into more economic unrest; straight into cuts for social programming and money for research and sound environmental practice. I just hope it can all be fixed when he leaves.

That's all I'm going to say.

the joy of poo...

I can't believe I have so many friends in the "must poo because I'm in my favorite store" category. Okay, some of you poo because you're on the phone, but a lot of you are poo-enhanced shoppers. Whodathunkit? Not me. No wonder it smells so bad in there. If you are a real poo-enhanced shopper, however, you know to perform procedure 3B (that would be the trusty Courtesy Flush). I'm going to get a bumper sticker that says "I'm proud to poo in public." I suppose I've said enough here.

I just can't get into the bloggy thing over the past couple of weeks. Don't know why. I've finished the back of Klaralund and have begun the front. I have custom hat orders to work on this weekend. Woo-hoo, felting fun.

Gotta run. No pun intended! ;-P