Knit Wits

M-I-L and I are knitting away.

Handy likes to perform quality control and tell us if we've missed a stitch.

I am in charge of finishing and embellishments.

I put too much fringe on her scarf and had to take some off!

This boy has sure grown up. I call him The Padawan now. He desperately needed this new hat, so his mom could wash his old one!

We've got to get cracking. Only 8 months until Christmas!

The Oblivious Sentinel

Tiny was on yard duty. And doing a damn fine job, in her opinion.

Until her butt back was turned.

What Do I Want?

I've got a birthday coming up next month, the big 5-5. Handy asked me what I wanted. Besides not cooking going out to dinner, I couldn't really think of anything. I have enough stuff, I said. He is aware of my feeble attempts to declutter.

He was delighted with himself because he thought of the perfect thing that wouldn't take up any space. He would have my car detailed. Isn't that more of a him thing than a me thing?

I'm not too fussy, I mean I have been happy with new toilets (and here too) but we don't need any more of those.

He did accomplish a small home improvement task for me this weekend. Something that has been bugging me for years. Replace the moldy caulking around the sink. I have asked for this off and on with no response, but finally a piece of it came loose. No, I did not yank on it to make it worse. Much.

It's so beautiful now! I told him it could be an early birthday present. 

Hmmm...the house needs painting.  I wonder... 

Missed Call

It looks like I missed the call from Jesus. 

A Mom's Gotta Do...

...what a mom's gotta do.

Celebrate the birthday without the boy. 

He managed all right. 

A Life in Cakes, or Happy Birthday Ernest

Since Ernest won't be home for his birthday, I won't be making a cake. This makes me a little misty. I promise there will be a belated cake when he is back in May.

To tide me over, here are his birthday cakes back to before there were digital cameras number one.

Countdown!

18

17

16 The cake is not a lie.

15 (Three cakes! How lucky!)

14



13

12

11

10 Another three cake year! Well, two and a pie. Those candles got a workout.

9 The year of the Magic Show.

8 The masterpiece for the family party.

And for the big outdoor party, Looney Tunes.

7  I copied this cake from the Birthday Express Catalog.

6 The infamous Harry Potter cake.

5 Scooby-Doo

4 Nananana Batman!

3 Curious George celebrates #3.

2 A pretty cake for #2. Yes you can touch the frosting.

1 Not so fancy, but it was only the first birthday.

(Too) Hot and (Not) Sour Soup

I was craving Hot and Sour soup so I picked up a container at a local restaurant. As I was trying to pour it in a bowl, I splashed my finger. Yowtch! I dropped the container like a hot potato and was lucky it landed upright.

After seeing to my finger, I thought, "Damn! That soup seemed extra hot." So I took its temperature.

195°! OMG! And that was after the journey home and the finger cooling.  Does it have to be that hot? No. 

Here's our food safety lesson for the day. 

(Guidelines from Profoodsafety.com)

Heat to 165°, hold at 135°. 

 (Quote from Accurate Building Inspectors)

But what about 195°?

(Graph from Accurate Building Inspectors)

Pretty much instantly. I was very lucky. 

The funny thing is, when the soup had cooled enough to eat it, it wasn't even sour. I had to add some vinegar and soy sauce. 

If you're eating soup today, please be careful!

Call Me Frankie

The Physician's Assistant said it wasn't shingles. But I do not have much confidence there since I spied him checking a pocket-sized flip book. The spots were painful for much of the week but the smaller ones have dried and stopped hurting.

The Frankenstein Monster bolt on my neck continues to bother me, although the swelling has reduced in size, from a silver dollar to a dime. It continues to give me random stabby pains as does the spot on the back of my head. 

Frankie and I do not like going out in public, for fear the villagers will come at us with torches and pitchforks. 

Aaaaargh. 

Library Workers Day

Time to celebrate some of my favorite people.  Today is Library Workers Day. Where would I be without the library? Broke! And nowhere near my goodreads reading goal.

Homer Does Not Like Weekends

On a weekday Homer gets breakfast around 7:15. That's just fine with him. Often he's still busy on the night shift, i.e. sleeping on the couch. 

Weekends are tough though. Around 8 or 9 his internal alarm goes off and sad meows echo throughout the house. He often comes looking for me. 

However, the weekend still has a few advantages. The Levi's lap, for one. 

Laps seemed to be popular this weekend.

I really could have enjoyed the comfort of a lap myself but for me that would be lying on the couch and it was usually occupied. 

Could I at least cuddle with my favorite blanket? Guess not. 

What Is This?

[WARNING: Grossness alert! You may not want to look at the second picture.]

I woke up Thursday morning with a few red spots. I checked the bed for bugs and spiders. Nothing. I slept in a different bed that night. More spots the next morning. This was the biggest.

I had additional spots by Saturday, and all the other spots had spread. They are all running in a line from my hair, down my neck, across my shoulder and on to my upper arm. Seems like a pattern, there? Of course, I thought I probably had shingles! Because they hurt, not itch.

I was sleepless and hurty all weekend and fortunately got a doctor's appointment this morning. The P.A. thought the one on my arm did look a bit like shingles, but not the big nasty one on my neck. So he doesn't think it's shingles. But what? Well, maybe the biggun is infected. (I swear I never ever scratched it.) So I have some antibiotics and some vicodin because the ibuprofen is doing nothing.

The vicodin doesn't seem to be helping the pain but it's only been an hour.  Ouch ouch. I am just miserable right now.

All right, thanks for listening to me complain. In return, you're welcome to complain about anything that's bothering you.

April 1

I am not a big fan of April Fool's pranks, but this is cat related. 

Is there a button for: squirm out of the vet's grasp while getting one's shots? Fifi and Tiny would like to know as they squirmed their hardest but couldn't quite get away. Homer just lay there and took it like a man. Or more accurately, a marshmallow.