Still Life, With Cats

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You have no idea how often this conversation occurs

Posted on 10 December, 2024 9:12 am by Jennifer Comment

This morning, as I was puttering around filling food bowls and scooping litter boxes, I heard the telltale sound of a cat getting into something they shouldn’t. I turned around to find a cat (Timmie) on the dining room table, industriously pawing at the open doors on Richard’s dinosaur advent calendar.

Me: Um, excuse me. What are you doing?

Cat: Treasures!

Me: No, those are not things for cats!

Cat: If not for cats then why shaped like fun?

Me: Hey, come back here!

Cat, scurrying off with tiny dinosaur in mouth: Ith friend thaped!

Me, hastily rescuing the tiny plastic dinosaur: No, it’s a choking hazard!

Cat, stomping off in a sulk, because humans are SO MEAN.

* * * * *

Uh oh, I know how *this* movie ends.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



The pitter patter of 28 little feet

Posted on 8 December, 2024 9:13 pm by Jennifer 1 Comment

Aside from Cartwheel, who is a special case, we’ve been foster-kitten-free for nearly an entire month. The last batch went to the center and were adopted in early November. Since we were traveling for Thanksgiving, we knew that, aside from any emergency short-term care, it didn’t make sense for us to take on a new litter, since the rescue would then have to find someone else to keep them while we were gone. So the morning after we got home, I texted the foster coordinator and said “Bring on the kittens!”

Say hello to Winter and her six babies: Christmas, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Solstice, Hanukkah, and Yule.

Foster cat Winter, momma to the #WinterHolidayKittens
Christmas and Kwanzaa
Solstice
From front: Diwali, Hanukkah, and Solstice
Christmas and Yule

Momma was taken in by a very kind person, who looked after her while she gave birth, while simultaneously working hard to find a rescue group who could take them in. She did a fantastic job of keeping momma and babies happy and healthy, so now it’s our turn to finish up their journey before they’re ready to be adopted (likely in January).

* * * * *

Is it wrong that I am finding Santa’s dark side of gift giving highly amusing?

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Wooly

Posted on 7 December, 2024 8:17 pm by Jennifer 1 Comment

Today we had a whole lot of chores we really ought to have been doing. But instead I hurriedly finished my second Clapoti, because I needed to have it blocked before my main blocking space is no longer available.

I started this at the airport while we were waiting for our flight up to my sister’s place for Thanksgiving, because I knew I needed a knitting project that required very minimal thought, and this pattern definitely fits the bill.

We also binged the entire first season of Human vs Hamster. It is a ridiculously silly little competition show, pitting humans against hamsters in species-scaled mazes and obstacle course (including eating contests), interspersed with educational facts about hamsters.

If you’re looking for something fun and fluffy to take your mind off the impending doomscape of a second shitbiggon administration, I highly recommend this. It is an absolute delight.

* * * * *

This puzzle is very silly, but I admit my first thought is ‘How does a creature with only hooves put a hat on their head’, and that probably says a lot more about how my brain works than you wanted to know, but there we are.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Uncertain, and yet…

Posted on 6 December, 2024 8:03 pm by Jennifer Comment

This is Cartwheel, one of our foster kittens. She’s about 7 months old, and ridiculously sweet, plus a serious lovebug (she adores cuddles). We got her and her two brothers Tumble and Somersault back in May. Her brothers were neutered and have long since been adopted, but the spay/neuter clinic refused to spay Cartwheel because she has a very serious heart murmur (a 5 of 6, for those of you who have any knowledge about such things, which we definitely did not until this).

She’s been checked a couple times since then, since I guess in some cases, heart murmurs can resolve themselves as the kitten grows. But the last check, there was no change, and the only way we would get any additional information was to have an echocardiogram done.

That kind of procedure is expensive, so to offset, I ran my very first GoFundMe campaign to raise the money. Once that was done, we scheduled the appointment. The first one available was going to be in January.

Except last night I got a call – they’d had a last minute cancellation and could we get her in today?

So this morning I drove her out to the vet clinic, then drove back out at lunchtime to bring her home. And this afternoon we got the verdict.

Her heart murmur is caused by a pretty serious heart defect – something she was born with.

There is some good news. She’s otherwise a completely healthy little cat. She doesn’t need any medications. And best of all, they *can* spay her, although it will be a more involved procedure.

We don’t know what the future looks like for this little girl. She very likely isn’t going to be adoptable, not without someone clearly understanding the medical issues she has, and the potential things she could face. It’s possible she will only live for a few years. They want to do another scan in 9 months time to see how things are progressing.

In the meantime, she has a home with us for however long she needs. She has no idea she’s ‘broken’. So we’ll do our best to give her the best life, because it’s nothing less than what she deserves.

* * * * *

This jigsaw puzzle advent calendar is starting to get a little dark – this is the second one where the gift has not only shattered the window, but wreaked havoc once inside. Perhaps this is what happens when you outsource to drones?

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Marking time

Posted on 5 December, 2024 8:58 pm by Jennifer Comment

Today was a mostly usual day – work, chores, etc. – but then i got two different phone calls with much anticipated news. More on those in the next few days.

In the meantime, I feel like today’s jigsaw is an accurate representation of us attempting to decorate a Christmas tree, except instead of having a present hurled in from the window, we just have extremely excitable cats.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Fromage

Posted on 4 December, 2024 9:08 pm by Jennifer Comment

We had tentative plans to put up the tree today, but instead, after work, we camped out on the sofa and watched holiday baking competitions and the latest episode of Mistletoe Murders. Which, while not as productive as planned, was still a nice way to end a day.

* * * * *

Much like these mice, I, too, would be very excited to receive a giant box of cheese.

A small jigsaw puzzle showing a bunch of mice very excitedly opening a giant box of cheese.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Stitches, dropped

Posted on 3 December, 2024 9:27 pm by Jennifer Comment

A couple months ago Knitty.com re-released one of their earliest patterns: Clapotis, for its 25th anniversary.

I’ve made a couple of these over the years, since it’s fun way to use up variegated yarn, and the pattern is simple enough that you can do it almost anywhere, without having to constantly refer to charts or text.

I have no idea where this yarn in my stash came from, but when I saw they had re-released the pattern, I decided it would be perfect for making a couple more of these simple shawls.

I finished this one in late November. I started this long before the election, back when we all had hope that our fellow Americans were smart enough to vote for the obvious better choice, but the aftermath of that have rather tainted this, due to the color (let’s just say that I certainly did NOT vote for the orange shitgibbon and his facist compatriots). But I am trying to keep my distaste from all things GOP separate from my joy over having a new finished object. So here it is in all its (unfortunately red) glory.

Sherman was absolutely determined to ‘help’ me with photographing this, as evidenced by the grey blur at the bottom of the second picture.

* * * * *

The expression on the cat’s face in today’s jigsaw puzzle is everything.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



A cruel thing to do to caramel

Posted on 2 December, 2024 8:05 pm by Jennifer Comment

I mentioned earlier that we traveled for the holidays. It was my younger sister’s turn to host, so while we were actually in the same place (instead of doing it in our own kitchens) we decided to tackle one of the Great British Bake Off challenge recipes together (yes, at this point we’re both a little behind on those).

For the 70’s week, the challenges were three things that were apparently a big deal in that decade: profiterole stacks (aka croquembouche), banoffee pie, and gateau cake. Of those, both of us have done profiteroles multiple times before (they are actually not as difficult as they are often made out to be, but maybe that’s because I’ve been making them for as long as I can remember, and they weren’t ever that big a deal, who knows), and the gateaux cake was a bit more than either of us wanted to handle.

Originally, I was going to swap out the banana for some cooked apple discs in mine, because I eat approximately one banana a year, usually only when offered as a dipper for chocolate fondue, and otherwise avoid them because the smell is *obnoxious*. But since this was going to be for the whole family we decided to do follow Paul Hollywood’s recipe (it was the Technical bake), and just see what happened.

I’ve heard people gushing over banoffee pie for years, and….okay? It’s a pie crust filled with caramel, topped with banana slices, then a layer of whipped cream. It’s….not that exciting, actually. Maybe my distaste for bananas makes me miss the point?

Anyway. The caramel layer was quite tasty, and the crust was perfectly flakey. I might still try it with apples instead, or else maybe make just the caramel and eat that directly out of the pan using apples as a spoon, since that would be quicker anyway.

* * * * *

We were very pleased that we needed no extra clues to figure out today’s Escape Room advent calendar puzzle, and today’s tiny jigsaw puzzle made me giggle.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Hitting the ground singing

Posted on 1 December, 2024 9:13 am by Jennifer 4 Comments

Welcome to December, wherein I try to update this (sadly neglected) blog every day for a whole month! And happy 25th anniversary to Holidailies!

Today has been a very long day. We flew back Washington pretty late last night, after spending several days at my younger sister’s house, with all the family, for Thanksgiving. I don’t sleep well in the best of times, even in my own bed, and traveling makes it even worse, so I was pretty wiped out by the time we headed home, and the cats were very needy after being all alone* for years and years**.

(* We have a fantastic pet sitting service, so they were well taken care of.
** It was only 3 days, despite all the tales of sadness and woe they told me in the wee hours of the morning.)

Today was Richard’s family’s Thanksgiving celebration, so we assembled a veggie casserole for him to take, plus a big pot of potato cheese soup, since it’s definitely soup weather. I, however, could not attend, since today was also recording day for our upcoming concert, so he headed off alone and I instead went and sang for several hours straight.

But at least there was some time this morning to kick off the month with some new advent calendars. This year we each got one of our own, plus one to share. We had such fun with the Escape Room calendar last year that we decided to try another one.

Exit brand Advent Calendar: The Search for the Golden Book

Sadly, we were both completely confused and had to end up looking at the clues for today’s. I am telling myself that that is because we were both still so tired this morning. Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll have better luck with our guesses. Ha.

My individual advent calendar is another jigsaw puzzle one, although this time instead of all the days combining into one big picture, each day is its own little surprise scene, which is definitely more my style.

Jigsaw puzzle advent calendar

Here is Day One. I’m definitely going to enjoy these.

A small jigsaw puzzle showing two cartoon donkeys, holding a hot water bottle between their rumps.

‘Tis the season for Holidailies.



Play on light and shadow

Posted on 15 February, 2024 9:14 pm by Jennifer Comment

Let’s veer back to some knitting, shall we?

I started this shawl because I was actively avoiding working on some unfinished socks and I knew if I just knit *something*, eventually my brain would decide that those pesky socks weren’t so bad and I’d be able to finish them. Plus, this pattern has been in my queue for an inordinately long time.

This is not the best yarn to use for this project, and so chances are pretty high I’m going to dye it at some point in the near future (perhaps a dull green, or a dusky blue, or even a milk chocolate color) – something that will let the full effect of the pattern itself come through, but it was what I had in the stash that was the right size, and so I was happy to find a way to use some of it up.

This is the Photography Shawl, and it is a deceptively simple pattern, in that all the really fun patterning comes about from just knits and purls. The widest section also includes some decreases, to switch it up from columns to waves, but otherwise, still knits and purls and the regular decreases.

Here’s a close-up of the ending section, which is my favorite part of the pattern.

I know it looks a little discombobulated in the pictures, but that’s because technically you’re not supposed to block it. Normally I’d pin something like this out to a proper shape, to even up the edges, except that the whole point of this pattern is to embrace the texture created by the knits and the purls, and so pinning it out would ruin that entire effect. So instead I gave it a wash and then laid it out on some blocking mats outside, and tried to pat it into some sort of rough shape, without losing the texture, and this is the result.

Making a thing a day for Thingadailies.




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