We got Rayne because we thought Revan wasn't getting enough activity but all these kittens do is sleep, LOOK!

Revan

Rayne

Revan & Rayne

Revan's trying to wake up, Rayne decides against it.

To be fair Revan was sick this week, I had to take him to the emergency room Monday night. They don't know exactly what was wrong but seemed pretty certain it had to do with bringing a new kitten into the house. Especially, since Rayne was a rescue and was stuffed in a kennel with other cats around. Who know what germies lurked in our baby girl.

Reven seems to have made a fun recovery, he was playing, wrestling, eating, and drinking last night so I'm relieved. Although Rayne turned up with this huge gash on her head and a patch of hair slightly larger than a dime missing. The weird thing is that the skin where the gash is looks like it already scabbed over but there is NO WAY we missed this thing on her head! It is simply too huge, so it must have happened yesterday. Maybe from running under a piece of furniture too fast or something. It doesn't seem to bother her if you touch it. But when we sort of stretched it out to make sure it was a cut she didn't like it. These kittens are going to drive me to drink with worry. Revan sick, Rayne injured, now if Tristan (hubby) falls down or something I'm done for.

A Summary of a Few Things

I failed to take pictures of my "Knit2gether" this Saturday but I think it was mostly a success. Okay, so two people didn't show but the two ladies that did came well prepared with a number of projects and yarn and conversation and knitted flowed like wine at a wedding? I don't know where wine flows, I don't drink it. Hopefully, next time, I have one of these thingies I will remember to take pictures. I proved to be a sorry excuse for a Japanese Tourist Syndrome sufferers this weekend, I didn't even come close to taking even a 100 pictures of our new kitten Rayne this weekend.

See my nose is red cause of the failure.

No actually my nose is red because we have had one of our freakish freezes in Austin, and I had just gotten home from a brisk walk to my apartment from the parking lot. I wrote a blog about this "Austin Freeze" last year because I thought it was bizarre. When there is a drop in weather Texans close down shop, everyone gets sent home from work and school, and you hunker down until the frost goes away. Now I agree I never expected cold weather in Texas when we moved here a year and a half ago BUT the closing down town thing is really odd. At least this frost came just in time for me to hang out with my kittens since they hadn't been left alone yet since we got them. In case you don't believe me it was cold Austin here are so photos from outside my apartment.

In other news, I still have not received my damn KNIT PICKS SWISH YARN I bought like nearly two weeks ago. What is the deal? I am trying not to be impatient but I really really really want to get started on my best friends scarf (what ever I decide to knit with it).

Oh, well my newest kitten just came to sit on my keyboard so I guess it is time to wrap up cause she is tenaciously getting in the way right now. More tomorrow cause I am sure I'll still be home b/c of the freeze.

Goodnight my babies.

Finally Friends...I think

After their first weekend together, they weren't exactly two peas in a pod. Revan cut back on the hissing a bit but was still chasing her around the house making odd/aggressive noises at her. It had gotten a bit too quiet for comfort so I went looking all over the house for them. I finally found them snuggled up together on the top level of the cat gym thing. I just so relieved that I didn't come home from work today to a kitten blood bath.

Look at how cute they are together...

After my blogging rant yesterday about Revan needing a playmate, we went out and adopted Rayne from Petsmart. We didn't go to Petsmart with the intention of getting Rayne but she was there and so cute. As soon as I put Revan up to the window to see her, she put her paw against the window. She was ready for loving right away. Revan on the other hand was not, he was not happy to see her come home with us. He won't stop hissing at her, but she could care less if he hisses (we have a glimpse of who is the dominate one already). After a few days they'll get used to each other but it is still sad to see my baby boy all upset that she is in his house. I'll post more later I just wanted to drop this picture in real fast to announce her adoption to the world.

P.S. I spoke to the vet today and he said that Revan is only doing the whole potty in the tub thing because he hasn't been fixed yet. His appointment is for January 31st. It will be a sad day for me cause I want him to father kittens BUT Rayne came to us fixed so we might as well get Revan done before he starts spraying.

Kitten Related Worries

I am sad to report little Revan, made his first 3 messes outside his little box. My good little pre-potty trained boy after 3 months with us decided to punish us for not letting him play outside by going to the potty in the shower. Don't get me wrong I'm glad it was the shower and not the carpet but either way it was a horrible experience.

My husband is a Ph.D grad student, which means he spends a lot of time working from home. AND he has been home on winter break for a little over a month now. You would think this means that Revan gets enough play time with papa all day long to keep him from getting into mischief BUT you would be wrong. Tristan has been playing our Xbox 360 for nearly 12 hours a day and has left Revan (Tristan's PRESENT) up to his own devices a lot of the time. Except on the random times that he has taken Revan outside to play for a few minutes (I am ALLERGIC to cats when they go outdoors) and so now the outside bug has bit my little boy and it is so sad. He sit on the window seal meowing and pawing at the window, he has even darted outside once when I was coming inside.

He was such a pansy about the front door before but now that he has had a few "field trips" he feels it is his right to be let outside. Not only am I allergic to cats once they go outside (who know what they mix with that becomes so deadly to me) my apartment has a strict policy of not allowing your pets to wander around outside unaccompanied. Frankly, I agree with this policy, I don't want to have to dodge cats and dogs in the parking lot on my way home everyday. You know?

So, Tristan and I talked about it last night, and we both feel guilty about the play time issue. We just can't tired him out enough all day, so we might be getting another kitten to keep Revan occupied. I don't want to turn into a crazy cat lady ESPECIALLY since I hated cats before we got Revan, but I think it is sort of unfair to a kitten as playful as Revan to be alone. And maybe we will manage to find a female kitten that isn't fixed so we can have bunches of beautiful Revan babies that we can play with during their kitten time and then give away (she says weeping...so much for not being a crazy cat woman huh?) Now we haven't fully decided yet because there is a lot of $ to get a kitten situated (thankfully we can recycle some of Revan's goods) but he is just too playful of a kitten to be an only child. If I had a human kid (which I will NEVER...gross humans) I would force it to be a single, but pets need pet siblings I think.

So, I have found a number of little cuties on the Internet, I had no idea it was such a complicated process to adopt a kitten from a shelter or rescue center. You have to apply and wait to be approved before you can even ask information about the kittens. But I think a rescue would be nice that way we are saving it from Euthanaisation (sp?) or worst sitting in a cage all day with very little human attention.

WOW! I really went off on a tangent there. I was initially posting about my concerns on how to stop him from going potty in the tub before this becomes a habit. I guess we have all learned that I have a secret desire for another kitten and am willing to pass it off as something for the good of my current kitten. =P Freud is a bitch sometimes.

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In knitting news, I have just found out a co-worker that I really likes birthday is coming up so I am shelving my other scarves at the moment to make her something. It turns out it also qualifies for my knitting from my stash since it is a turquoise yarn I had for over a year so I am not breaking any vows. It is a lace pattern which is a new thing for me but so far I'm liking it too. I'll post an in progress picture this weekend, along with my knitogether (a phrase stolen from Jennifer's comment on my last post, thanks Knit Wit Girly) tomorrow. Ooooooo I can't wait.

In an Attempt at Knitting from my Stash..

I have decided not to join the Knitting from Your Stash 2007 because I know there is no way I won't be able to avoid buying new yarn. But I have made a promise to myself that this year no matter what I am knitting I will ALWAYS HAVE SOME YARN FROM MY STASH on sticks. That way I can close my lid to the one medium sized Rubbermaid bin I keep my stash in. I know knitters, I must sound so pathetic only having one bin full of yarn but I'm doing the best I can. Anywho, since I haven't decide which of my knit-o-lutions I was going to start first I casted on 2 scarves that involve cables this weekend, they will just be stuff I work on casually until I decide what major project I want to tackle.

I know what your thinking, why the same cables?

I have just been so obsessed with the basic cable now that I know how to do it. I have tried more complicated cabling and twisting but I don't think I was using quite the right yarn for this pattern from Lion Brand yarns, so I frogged it. But it is so lovely I definitely plan on knitting that one for myself. I decided that since the basic cable scarf was such an easy stitch, I would cover my friends (and myself) in it for awhile and then move on to something else. I bought Cables Untangled and their are a number of beautiful patterns that I would love to try. Some well beyond my current skills. So if I master this here basic cable enough that you don't notice the occasional gap in the yarn or anything, then I will feel more confident to try some of what is in that book. But I also don't want to be bored with my cabling so I did try to mix it up a bit.

Revan posing with my knitting, he's a ham like his mamu.

You'll notice that in this UFO that I have done the right cable c6f and the left cable c6b. It created a slightly more interesting visual in the pattern. I also wanted to see if a cable would feel a bit stronger with garter stitches surrounding it rather than purl stitches and I have to say it really kind of does. I'm pretty happy with this pattern so far. I guess you can say I created it but it is a variation on all the patterns that involve the basic cable like my fav Irish Hiking Scarf. There is a bit more curling at the bottom/cast on area than I've seen on any other scarf I've cabled, that could be from the garter stitches or the yarn. I've never blocked anything I have knitted before so i may try that when I am done too.

My Nikon D80 auto-corrected the color so this is not representative of what the yarn actually looks like to the naked eye, but I wish it did. Don't you think that purple is beautiful? It would be nice. I don't even know what kind of yarn this is to be honest. This was another of the yarns my friends Johnnie and Jon brought me back from Italy in 2005 and I just haven't made anything with it yet. Its lovely but I think it if ever had a tag on it, it fell off a long time ago so I wouldn't be able to find it again unless by accident.

As for the grey one above, I wanted to do an Irish Hiking Scarf on the round when I first started the blue one way back in November, but 3 things got in the way. The first is that I couldn't afford the yarn it would have taken to be able to complete that sucker cause that was some pricey yarn. Second, it would have been too hard for me to start out on dpns and I didn't know how to do the 2 circular needle technique correctly yet. Finally, living in Austin I would never be able to wear it if it was doubly thick super-wash wool. As it is, on the rainy days when I have worn it, I'm sweating like I'm in a sauna with that thing wrapped around my neck. So, this one I is with Caron Simply Soft which is cheap and fun to work with. I'm not rushing to finish this one by any means. I just bring it to work to knit during my breaks or if it is a really slow day and I can hide it under my desk. ;P Maybe by next fall it will get done I'll keep ya posted.

I've been a sick little baby the last few days so I have barely done any knitting and of course no blogging. But I didn't want anyone to think I was slipping, it was just hard getting back into the swing of things last week, and then being under the weather didn't help much either.

I am happy to announce that I'm throwing my first little "knitting party" type thing at my house next weekend. This is not my first attempt. I tried this last year but all my guests kept trying to change the date and after 5 or 6 times of cancelling and rescheduling I just was like FORGET IT THEN! This time, I am inviting totally different people, some knitters, some wanting to learn, so hopefully it will be fun. I'll post pics and stuff when the time comes.

I don't know what to start working on for the New Year's Knit-o-lutions. I have a couple little experimental scarves on sticks. You know they are dedicated to anyone, just patterns I found and was curious about. I'm just debating if I should jump back into that hoodie from the SnB book or maybe just start it all over since it has been so long since I worked on it. Or maybe just work on some scarves and hats for awhile. Sad, I may have already lost the motivation to follow my knit-o-lutions. I'll still knit but who knows what I will work on.

I wanted to thank you folks for the compliments on my blog, its cool having folks that come back to read more. I'll try not to disappoint you by not leaving too much time between my bloggin'.

Back to Normal

The holidays are passed and everything goes back to normal. Yesterday was my hubby's birthday but he has been staying up in the middle of the night and so he pretty much slept through the entire thing. We finally got out to dinner around 8:30 PM but we filled up on bread and appetizers so by the time our dinner was ready to come out we couldn't eat anymore. The waiter was cracking up when we begged him to wrap up our food before he even brought it out to us. We felt pathetic but it was Tristan's birthday so we got some crab cakes in addition to our regular calamari appetizer. =)

I haven't taken any pictures in a few days and I am starting to get that itch, yesterday the sky outside my building at work when I was leaving was so beautiful I was disappointed I didn't have my camera on me. But there are a lot of theft issues at my job and while I would always like to have a camera on me, at Dell I just don't feel it would be safe unless it was in my hands all day. :( So, there is no new Revan PODs at the moment. Maybe I'll pull up and oldie but a goodie.

Speaking of Revan, I think my little boy has hit puberty. He has been humping his favorite blanket lately, and I didn't even realize he was doing that until he was finished and I noticed his "manhood" was showing. I didn't even know cat's did that, I thought it was a dog thing. Anywho, it is kind of hard for me to think he is already there, because he is only 4 months old and while I do want kittens from him, I am not ready for my 4 month old to be a papa. Its very stressful.

I don't know why the New Year makes me want to start new things. Like everyone I promised I would go back to the gym starting today but I am going to skip today and start tomorrow. =) But I also want to start keeping better track of our finances and start some investing for our future, all that adult crap that we have avoided until now. I just hope I actually stick to it so that Tristan and I have money to live off of when we are old and grey.

I guess I am just blabbering to get a post out, maybe I will post something worth a damn later today.

Happy Japanese New Year to you all!!!

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu !!!

Happy New Year Everyone!