Then...and now

Sunday evening, we got home after four hours in the ER. Jacey settled happily on the sofa. Sam came along and, after some whining and some squeezing between Jacey and me, found his niche on the sofa.

And on his patient sister.




Today, Sam was sleeping on the sofa. And off it.*



Then he woke up.




*SEGA bloggers: Does this remind you of anything? How 'bout Ella's photo here? Sam's just found a bed that's tall enough I don't have to move the floor.

I surrendered

I got off work early today (a bit slow at work), and was home by about 5:30. But dinner-with-antibiotics for Sam was scheduled for 8:30.

There's no way I was enduring the evil eye from two dogs for three hours. And I didn't want to delay my own dinner that late. And--eating dinner in front of two starving dogs? Not even a consideration.

So I had dinner at 6, and the dogs had 2/3s of what they normally would have had for dinner. And at 8:30, they had the same amount again--with pills, this time. That puts them up about half a cup of kibble for the day. They'll survive.

And things are much pleasanter around here when starving hounds have been fed.

I'm off work tomorrow. I have no idea when I'm going to feed the dogs, but I think I need to shift the schedule a bit later so that Saturday's schedule won't be so out of whack. I get up at 10:30 on Saturday, work 12:30-9, and won't get home much before 10 pm, when Sam gets his last pill. I don't want to have to get up early on Saturday to give Sam a pill on schedule, but I don't want him a couple of hours late for the last pill, either. (It probably doesn't matter how close to "every 12 hours" he gets his pill as long as he gets it with food, but I'm a bit OCD. Humor me on this.) So on Friday I'll shift his morning pill a bit later (which means I can sleep later), then shift his evening pill even later. But I'll have to hold out for 12 hours tomorrow under reproachful stares.

I can do it. I'll show them who's boss.

Or maybe I'll go shopping around dinner time...

Unhappy dogs

The dogs are ticked off with me.

I got off work at 5:30, home from the grocery store at 6:30. But the dogs can't have their dinner until 8:30, because that's 12 hours after breakfast, and Sam's supposed to take his pills every 12 hours with food. And I've ratcheted the time schedule earlier and earlier for a few days, but if I ratchet it back another hour tonight, I'll have to get up way too early to feed them tomorrow. And by the end of the week, we'll be all out of whack because I have to work 12:30-9 pm on Saturday, and I won't be home to do odd-hours feedings, so I actually want to move the meal schedule to later than 8:30 over the next few days.

So the dogs are giving me the evil eye. And I'm hungry, because I'm not going to sit and eat dinner in front of them. Dinner soon, guys--okay?

Doggie update

The vet's office called today. They said the ER had been very thorough, and the best use of my time and money now would be waiting until a few days after Sam's finished the antibiotics, then bringing him in for an exam and (probably) lab work to make sure the infection has cleared up. So I booked an appointment for next Tuesday afternoon (pills run out Saturday night) for both dogs. Jacey will get her thyroid-consult that day, too. In the meantime, I'm going to feed her normally. She won't gain that much weight between now and then, and she's so miserable when I cut her food back a lot. Sam feels well and acts silly. The hardest part, now, is making the dogs wait for their dinners. They're used to eating when I get home, but the antibiotics have to go down with food, so that sometimes means waiting a while for dinner. Right now, we're at 8:30 for meals.

And in knitting projects: I totally brain-farted on one project. Picked a lovely pattern, picked lovely yarn. Then couldn't figure out why the swatch wouldn't come out right. Um, two totally different yarn weights. So I kept the yarn I wanted to use, and I've started another Baby Surprise Jacket / fuzzy amoeba. I'm more than halfway through it, and I love the way it's coming out. I'm going to have to get my camera fixed, though, so photos of the jacket will show the colors correctly: bright light green, turquoise, and dark purple.

Dog Stuff

I took both dogs to the vet's to have them there when the place opened. I was hoping against hope for a no-show, a cancellation, something.

Nope. Although the on-line schedule for the clinic says 8-6 on Monday, the only vet on the premises today wouldn't be in until 10. There already were four dogs waiting for him by 8:10 this morning, and he's booked solid for the day. And he's Sam and Jacey's regular vet.

They said I could leave Sam for the vet's recheck of what the ER did. I'm not comfortable leaving my dogs to hang out all day while they wait for someone to get around to them. So I left the x-rays and urine sample (the ER had faxed over lab results), and brought the guys home. Sam repaid me for that unnecessary car ride with a bout of diarrhea about 60 seconds after I got him out of the car. (Thanks, Sam. I owe you for hanging on.) I sent an email to the vet (via his receptionist, who says that he's bad about emails if she doesn't nag him), detailing my concerns for both dogs and giving my work schedule for the rest of the week. Maybe they'll just need the dogs long enough to draw blood samples; if so, I can run them by before or after work sometime. Then they could see one of the vets (although not their regular one) on Friday. Maybe. We'll see what I hear back from them. But I missed a day of work with what could justifiably be called an emergency with Sam. I can't be taking off for non-emergencies, and I work Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday this week. (And Sam's vet bill for Sunday was just about what I made last week. There's insurance, which will pay part, but not all.)

While we were at the vet's, I weighed the dogs. In March 2007 (which is the only paperwork I can find easily)--before Jacey started having thyroid issues, Sam weighed 66 pounds; Jacey weighed 55. Today? Sam weighed 66.1 pounds; Jacey weighed 61.3. Ouch, Porky! Six pounds may not sound like a lot, but it's an increase of more than 11% of her body weight. Her excess poundage was really obvious on Sunday when we were in the waiting room at the emergency vet. She was lying on the floor, and even lying down, the ribs were invisible, and she looked pudgy. So in my email to the vet today, I told him her weight (as reported on his scales), and also sent him a link to a photo from today showing hair loss on her butt. He'll have to take my word for the missing hip bones and ribs.

I'm a little worried about Sam because he's not drinking as much as he often likes to drink--or as much as I want him to drink. That might be a good sign, since excessive thirst would be a symptom of kidney trouble. He's eating fine, and he feels well enough to try to steal my food. And we're all on a goofy schedule. We skipped breakfast Sunday to get to the ER, so we had our first meal of the day at 2 pm. But 2 pm/2 am is a rotten schedule for trying to give pills, so I'm shifting the schedule back by an hour each time so I can get us onto a decent schedule before I go to work Tuesday. Supper was at 1 am; breakfast today was at noon. Dinner tonight will be 11 pm, so that breakfast tomorrow can be 9:30, as I run out the door for work. (And Sam might go with me, depending on how much he's drinking and peeing by then. And depending on whether I've heard from the vet.)

ETA: I just hollered, "Hey, Porky!" ... and Jacey turned around to see what I wanted! We've got to get her thyroid regulated. And I've got to stop calling her names.

Sam isn't drinking as much as I'd like. Anyone know? Are flavored waters okay for dogs?

No word from the vet, and it's after 5:30 here.

I've frogged a doily

I needed to redo some of this doily to fix a stitch error. (There's a batch of tr where there should be dc.) But I'm not happy with my color choice for the leaves and background. I like the colors individually, but there's not enough contrast for them when paired up. So I'm changing the colors.

One suggestion I've received is to use ecru for the background (lighter than the "linen" neutral I used here), and to use the Christmas green (the darkest green in the picture below) for the leaves. I suspect I'll go with that. I've frogged the background, but left the leaves for now. Feel free to comment with your own suggestions.

Sam gives me a sleepless night and a long day

A friend's greyhound is very ill. When he first got sick, his mom was hoping it was a urinary tract infection. Although less common in boy dogs than girls, a UTI is generally an easy-to-treat problem. Several people were sending UTI vibes to Travis.

Well, Travis doesn't have a UTI. But the vibes bounced.



Sam had me up every 90 minutes or so last night, to take him out to pee. This is uncommon in a boy who likes his sleep as much as Sam does. (And, like a bad mommy, I was swearing at him every time he woke me up.) By this morning, there was enough light to see what was going on. He was peeing a bit. Then he was straining to pee, and there was some blood in the urine.

4+ hours (and lots of dollars) later: Sam has a UTI. He's on Clavamox, and I have orders to get as much water into him as I possibly can, and to take him out to pee frequently. They took x-rays to make sure there weren't any stones or other obstructions (the possibility that had me going to the ER rather than waiting until the vet opens on Monday). The x-rays look fine: no stones, suspicious masses, etc. (Sam's such a long dog, the x-rays are in three parts.) Tomorrow, I need to get him to his regular vet, who can draw blood to get other tests made; we need to make sure there's not some sort of kidney trouble going on.

I was supposed to work today, but I called out. Actually, I called and said I'd be late, called again to say I'd be later, then even later. When we got home and I fed Sam and started him on his antibiotics, I could have made it to work to do my last two dogs, but coworkers said they had them covered. This is nice, since I'd have had to bring Sam with me, then take him outside frequently, etc. So I missed work today, and I'm off tomorrow, too. By Tuesday, I hope Sam will no longer be peeing his brains out. ;)

I'll have to go back to the ER later with paperwork for the vet insurance claim; I'll need to get signatures on stuff.

ETA: I have a vial of "sterile urine" in my fridge right now. Eeeeww! I'm supposed to take it to Sam's vet tomorrow. "Sterile urine" is urine drawn from the bladder with a needle rather than obtained in other, more traditional ways. "Pee in the cup, Sam" isn't always effective.

Chub-ette

Jacey, on her first day at my place, 8 April 2006. (She's got more white in that face, now.)


Jacey has weight issues.

When I first adopted her, her ribs and hipbones were invisible--hidden under the extra flesh she put on at the SEGA kennel at Lake City, where she was very much overfed. (She raced at 56-57 pounds. When I got her, she weighed 63 pounds on Lake City's scales.) I brought her home, put her on 3 cups of kibble a day--same as Sam and the same as Jacey's predecessor, Oreo. Jacey lost weight on 3 cups of kibble a day.

Her weight stayed very stable through the first year she lived here--54-55 pounds.

Then she suddenly put on weight--and lost hair on her butt. The vet ran a T4, and her numbers were a bit low. He didn't want to put her on thyroid meds just because of cosmetic issues; the thyroid numbers weren't low enough to justify it, and the weight gain wasn't extreme. But for six months or so, Jacey's food was cut back to just 2 cups of kibble a day. She didn't lose weight, but at least the weight gain stopped.

In the fall, we put her on thyroid meds--one .8 mg pill a day. Two months later, there'd been no change in her weight, her hair, or her T4 results. We upped the dosage by 50%. Within two weeks, she dropped the extra weight, and the missing hair showed up. Once her hipbones came back into view, I put her on 3 cups of kibble a day, and her weight stayed steady.

Two months ago, her weight went up a bit, but she looked okay and I didn't worry about it. But Friday, I had her and Sam outside. She and I stood there while Sam made up his mind which blade of grass to pee on, and I took a good look at her.

Good golly! No ribs! No hipbones! And it's not just that they're not visible. They aren't even palpable! I don't know what she weighs, but she may weigh nearly as much as Sam, who normally weighs 64-65 pounds.

I haven't been overfeeding her. She and Sam eat the same amount of stuff at the same time, and Sam's ribs and hip bones are right where they're supposed to be. Jacey has always been stocky, but you usually can see her hipbones, even if the ribs aren't terribly obvious.



I cut back her food last night and all day today to two-thirds of what she usually eats. She's taken to following me forlornly from room to room, looking pitiful, and drinking every drop of water she can get as if to fill up the empty corners of her belly. For now, I'm going to go back to the 3 cups a day and just get her into the vet's office as soon as I can. I don't know if we need to up her thyroid meds again. I hope not; I don't like the idea that she's gone from "nothing" to a large dose of thyroxine in less than a year. (She currently takes 1.5 pills a day; Sam, who's been on thyroxine for six years or so, takes 2.5 pills a day.) I'm going to ask the vet about additional tests to confirm that she really needs more thyroxine. I'll also ask him about her diet. I know she's not starving--and I ruthlessly cut her food last year for more than six months and she survived--but it's not fair that she has to go without a "normal" food supply because we can't get her thyroid meds right. Poor baby.

Meanwhile, I make fun of her and call her names. I'm so cruel. Poor starving dog. Poor baby.

Poor Porky.

Lazy day

I went out to the mailbox for a minute and came back to find Sam playing with a ball of crochet thread. He did not--as Jacey once did--take thread attached to a current project and walk off, unraveling my work. And he didn't even steal the good thread; he picked up some fuzzy cheap cotton that I use for running lifelines in knitting, use to make stitch markers, stuff like that. Smart boy.

Balls of crochet thread make such fun dog toys: since they're not truly round, they roll and bounce in funny directions. And sometimes they're just fun to chew. I'm glad I wasn't outside for a longer time.


I've been to the post office and gotten packages out in the mail. Ireland: 6-10 days. Missouri: 2-3 days, I think.


Fun on TCM, today. It's the birthday of Ginger Rogers. Roberta's on now. Gay Divorcee and Swing Time coming up.

Finish-itis

Knitters and crocheters like what they do--the knitting and crocheting part, at least. They often are not so thrilled with the finishing work: the seams, buttons, weaving in ends, etc. Well, yesterday I was hit by a bout of finish-itis, and I've finished off four baby sweaters and a doily in less than 24 hours. It helped that I was running back-up software on my laptop and had to close all other applications. Since I couldn't surf Web sites, hang out in chat rooms, or follow on-line or PDF patterns (my next two projects have pattern instructions on Web sites), it seemed that finishing some WIPs was a good idea. Here's the finished BSJ, now with shoulder seams sewn, neck-opening crocheted, and buttons added:



Trina had an ultrasound yesterday, and she's having a boy. The yarn is Omega Sinfonia, a washable and dryable cotton.

This doily doesn't have a pretty name. It's just called "#2":



It's a house-warming gift for Erin, a Ravelry buddy who moved into a new house in the spring. The next doily I make (probably will start it tonight) will be for Briana, a Live-Journaling, BookCrossing, new house owner. Oddly enough, both these doily/housewarming gifts will be heading for Columbus, Ohio.

For Alrescate's twins I made matching red sweaters. The sweaters fasten at the shoulders (with snap tape), and have a "for-show" button: a cardinal, giving the boys a head start as St Louis Cardinal fans.





The yarn is CotLin, by Knit Picks: a machine washable and dryable blend of cotton and linen.


And for Sirroy and Yokospungeon's baby, this crocheted sweater, with pearl buttons and a flower, will be headed for Ireland:





The yarn is CotLin, by Knit Picks: a machine washable and dryable blend of cotton and linen.

All the in-the-mail stuff is likely to happen on Wednesday of next week. (Wednesday is my next day off.) The next baby sweater I work on will be for my cousin, Shari, who's due in January. I have some bright, pretty cotton yarn:

and


After I got all the craft stuff finished, I went up to change the sheets on the bed. Usually, when I'm busy upstairs, Jacey gets on my bed to watch whatever I'm doing, making it tough for me to change the sheets. Today, though, she settled on the dog bed in the floor:



Sam, on the other hand:



I worked around him as long as I could, pulling off sheets or pillowcases, and dropping the dirty linen on the floor. I finally snatched the last pillow out from under his butt, and he condescended to move for me:



Yeah. Onto the sheets I'd dropped in the floor. Mr Helpful.


After I got the sheets changed, it started raining, with some "nice" thunder and lightning. (The "nice" kind is just distant enough not to make the lights flicker.) I took the dogs, and we went out to sit in the carport and watch the rain. We're tucked back into a corner where we don't get wet:



And we have a nice view out to the rain:



I usually sit and knit or crochet or read. Sam generally falls asleep. Jacey often lies with her chin on the floor, but she keeps her eyes open and her ears swivel like directional antennae as she tracks the thunder.


It's been a nicely lazy day, today: didn't have to work too hard at anything, but I feel like I got some things accomplished. Tomorrow I'm working the closing shift, and I won't have to get up until 10:30. The other day, I treated myself to a three-DVD set: Anchors Aweigh (1945), On the Town (1949), and Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949). Sinatra was in his early 30s, Gene Kelly was 3 years older, and they're both at the peak of their looks and their skills, I think. It's fun music, nice dancing (Kelly taught Sinatra to dance, the beginning of a fifty-year friendship between them); there's gorgeous color and some classic scenes (Kelly dances with Jerry the mouse in Anchors Aweigh). I think I'll stay up late tonight, watching movies, cleaning up my laptop's hard drive, and doing some knitting or crocheting.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a...

...fuzzy manta ray?



The knitting portion of the Baby Surprise Jacket for Trina's due-in-November baby has been finished. See the colored stitch markers in the jacket?



Just match up the colored markers to get this:



There are only two seams to sew: from green markers to pink ones, from blue markers to orange ones. After that, add a round of single crochet around the neck and a set of tiny buttons down the front. Then block it and ... Voilà! The Baby Surprise Jacket, designed by knitting (or engineering?) genius Elizabeth Zimmermann.

A meme

1. Were you named after anyone? My mother and I share the same middle name (Joyce). And my first name is from my grandfather's favorite song, "I'll take you home again, Kathleen."
   
   
2. When was the last time you cried? Thursday. (By the way, Travis is doing much better right now. Miracle, maybe?)
   
   
3. Do you like your handwriting? When I can read it. Sometimes, though...
   
   
4. What is your favourite lunch meat? Pastrami.
   
   
5. Do you have kids? Two well-behaved furry ones.
   
   
6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? I think so.
   
   
7. Do you use sarcasm a lot? In writing, some. Not much in person.
   
   
8. Do you still have your tonsils? Yep.
   
   
9. Would you bungee jump? No.
   
   
10. What is your favourite cereal? I'm more of a bacon-and-eggs person. With hash browns. And biscuits.
    
    
11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Yes.
    
    
12. Do you think you are strong? So-so. Strong about some things.
    
    
13. What is your favourite ice cream? B&J's Vermonty Python. Or Mayfield's Birthday Cake.
    
    
14. What is the first thing you notice about people? Facial expression. Smiles help.
    
    
15. Red or pink? Red.
    
    
16. What is your least favourite thing about yourself?
    
    
17. Who do you miss the most? My grandparents. (Why wasn't I interested in their stories when they were around?)
    
    
18. Do you want everyone to send this back to you? I'll read the blogs.
    
    
19. What colour pants and shoes are you wearing? Red shorts, black Crocs.
    
    
20. What was the last thing you ate? Peanut butter sandwich.
    
    
21. What are you listening to right now? 1776 on TCM.
    
    
22. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? Olive green or asparagus. (They make an asparagus crayon? I want one!)
    
    
23. Favourite smells? Vanilla. Fresh-washed dogs.
    
    
24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? I don't remember. Probably a customer at work.
    
    
25. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I'm sure I do...although I don't remember who I stole this from.
    
    
26. Favourite sport to watch? Ice skating, I guess. I don't watch sports.
    
    
27. Hair colour? Brown-with-gray.
    
    
28. Eye colour? Green.
    
    
29. Do you wear contacts? No.
    
    
30. Favourite food? Pasta.
    
    
31. Scary movies or happy endings? Happy.
    
    
32. Last movie you watched? Just watched the end of The Music Man; currently watching 1776.
    
    
33. What colour shirt are you wearing? Gray with a red-white-and-blue flag made of running greyhounds.
    
    
    
    
34. Summer or winter? Winter--if I can't have fall.
    
    
35. Hugs or kisses? Hugs.
    
    
36. Favourite dessert? Cheesecake.
    
    
37. Most likely to respond? Lots of folks.
    
    
38. Least likely to respond? Don't know.
    
    
39. What book are you reading right now? Pride and Prejudice at bedtime. Just finished Garrison Keillor's Leaving Home as my lunchtime reading.
    
    
40. What is on your mousepad? No mousepad.
    
    
41. What did you watch on TV last night? An episode of Ken Burns's Civil War on PBS.
    
    
42. Favourite sound? Rain with thunder.
    
    
43. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Beatles.
    
    
44. What is the furthest you've been from home? Anaheim, California (when we lived in Miami).
    
    
45. Do you have a special talent? Does stubbornness count?
    
    
46. Where were you born? Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
    
    
47. Whose answers are you looking forward to reading? Everyone's.
    

Letting sleeping dogs, um, ...

It's been a lovely day off.

I had a proofreading job to do, so I stayed up late last night doing part of it, napped on the sofa for a bit, then finished the job and emailed it off this morning. Between Wednesday and Thursday nights, I picked up an extra $200 proofreading.

I napped a bit more after I sent out the email, but I didn't sleep the day away. I've been watching Sense and Sensibility on DVD while I knit a baby sweater for a coworker who's due in November.





The pattern is the Baby Surprise Jacket, designed by knitting wizard Elizabeth Zimmermann. Knitting a BSJ is a work of faith. You knit what appears to be a fuzzy manta ray, stitch up two minor seams, and wind up with a baby jacket. Probably.

The yarn is Omega Sinfonia, a shiny (mercerized) cotton yarn; the photos are pretty color-accurate. I'm not a particularly fast knitter, which is why I'm only 34 rows into this 114-row pattern. But it's going well, I think (you never know with this pattern), and I'm enjoying working on it. It's a nice watching-TV project. Since I don't go in tomorrow until the late shift, I can stay up tonight, knitting and watching TCM's tribute to Cyd Charisse (Singin' in the Rain, The Band Wagon, and Silk Stockings).

The remodeling project at work has been a bit messy and noisy. Things are supposed to be back to more-or-less normal for Saturday; certainly, by the time I go in at 12:30 they should have worked out whatever kinks the builders leave after their shift tonight. Then I work Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before I get another day off. I'm off Wednesday, work Thursday, then am off Friday, the 4th. On the 4th we're having a family get-together at my parents', and the dogs are going up with me.

I sent out two packages on Monday. I know they both reached their destinations, which is reassuring. If the folks at my post office ran the whole postal service, there'd be no problems. The local folks are bright, knowledgeable, efficient, and well-mannered. I knew my packages would get out okay; I just wasn't sure about the destination-end. And on Monday I also delivered the 30th anniversary doily I made my sister and her husband. I got sort of efficient on Monday. It happens occasionally.

Back to work on the sweater...

The Flower Hotpad

I saw this pattern today and made it. It works up quickly, although I'm not thrilled with the way it finished. I may need to play around with the final folding and stitching a bit.

Modifications:

1. There's not much I dislike as much as stitching into individual chain stitches. Row 1 of this pattern calls for stitching 175 single-crochet stitches into 161 chains. I changed this: stitched the first 11 single-crochet stitches in each petal's loop, then stitched three single-crochet stitches into the middle chain of the 23-chain loop (to make the tip of each petal), then stitched the next 11 single-crochet stitches into the loop. This is much easier to do, and it means it's not critical if the chain gets twisted on the previous step.

2. Rather than stitch each petal to the next in the finishing stage--and create all those ends that would need weaving in--I just joined the petals as I was stitching the final round.


The instructions for folding the loops nearly drove me crazy. I figured it out and decided I'd better document the steps here so I wouldn't run into the problem again. And the photos might help someone else, too.



In this photo, the first few petals are stretched out. The piece is right-side-up; you're looking at the front of the stitches.



Here, that petal has been flopped over to the left. You're now looking (mostly) at the back of the petal.

You just do the same thing on all the petals. It's not nearly as confusing as it seemed to me earlier. I think the problem I had was looking at photos of finished pieces--where I could see the fronts of stitches on the petal tips--and not being able to see the fronts of the stitches when I was doing the folding. When you fold the petals, you'll see the backs of the stitches until you flip the whole thing over. What was the "right side" will become the "wrong side" of the finished piece.

Edited to add: I may rip the border and redo the folding* just for my own satisfaction, but I'm not impressed with this design. It's cute, but not very practical. Do people really need lumpy hot pads? Won't any dish placed on this hot pad wobble? A lot? I've read lots of posts about people making these as gifts; I wonder how many of those crafters have actually made the hot pad and used it themselves.

*What I did wrong: I made the folded part too horizontal. Each petal's folded part should be on more of an angle--the left side high, the right side low.

Flowers and crocheting and yarn

My father's birthday is tomorrow. I went up to the farm today to see my parents and have an early-birthday/belated-father's-day celebration. We went out for BBQ at a place where the owners know my parents by name. (They holler out from the front counter when your order is ready--and they didn't have to ask what name to holler.)

I took lots of pictures of my mother's flowers on the back deck.



(The flowers are purple--not blue. The camera isn't good with purple. And the unusual flower in the lower picture is an African daisy. Or--so says my father. But when I Google "African Daisy" I don't get anything that looks like this.)

While I was there, we had some bird visitors:



(There are more Cardinal photos--plus a Wren and a Chickadee--and lots more flower photos on Flickr.)

The family is planning a 4th of July get-together at my parents', and I actually managed to get off work on that day. (The manager often gives me Friday off--and the 4th falls on Friday.) I'm planning to take Sam and Jacey with me that day.


I finished a doily for a birthday swap with other helpers on the Ravelry site. The woman I'm swapping with likes purple, so I made a purple doily and got her purple yarn:



The camera got the purple totally wrong, so I've faked it in Corel Paintshop to approximate the actual thread color, which is pretty accurately indicated by that color chip. I swear, I'm going to take this camera and a skein of purple yarn to Best Buy (where I bought the camera) and tell them I want the camera to get that color right. The camera is so far off--in every light, with every background color and every camera setting--and it's ridiculous. (Really, those blue flowers up there should be about the color of the color chip. And the correct color doesn't even show in the window before you snap the photo; it's obvious it's going to be wrong.)

A package in the mail...

I got a package today from SomeBunnysLove. She sent me 10 balls of size 10 crochet thread in blue (this Delft blue, I think).



Also included is a ball of size 40 (teeny stuff) in white, some size 10 red, and two balls of size 10 myrtle green.

And two smallish (but fat!) cones of a mauve cotton thread, very nearly this color:



The cones have a combined weight of about 14.5 ounces; a ball of 350 yards of thread is 2 ounces, so the cones probably total ~2500 yards.

Oooo, time to go pattern hunting...

The birthday swap survey.

1. What is your name? Kathy
   What is your favorite color? Khaki-like greens, tomato red
2. When is your birthdate (year optional)?
   30 November
3. Do you have any special birthday traditions? no
4. What is your favorite birthday memory?
   Nothing comes to mind
5. Any allergies we should know about?
   The seasonal types: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and some perfumes
6. What crafts do you do - knit, crochet, spin, dye, bead, quilt, etc. etc. ?
   Knit and crochet
7. Any sorts of fibers you particularly love or hate or are dying to work with?
   No particular dislikes; looking forward to knitting up some of the lovelies in my stash
8. What weight of yarn do you prefer?
   I seem to have lots of baby things to make, so I'm on the lookout for DK-weight cottons or linens
9. What are your favorite knitting accessories? (i.e.: stitch markers, row counters…)
   I have lots of split-ring markers (for crochet), but not many knitting markers for fine, tiny needles.
10. Do you subscribe to any crafty magazines? no
11. What do collect aside from fiber-related things? greyhounds *grin*
12. Favorite candy, chocolate (dark, white, or milk), tea, coffee, other treats?
    I'm not a tea fan...or coffee. Adore chocolate of any kind.
13. Do you enjoy handmade soap and body products?
    Not really. Sometimes they can make me itchy.
14. Are there any scents you love or hate?
    I'm not a fan of wearable scents (my strange body chemistry makes everything smell like melting plastic). But scented candles and sachets are fine...mostly in sweet scents like vanilla, sugar cookie, etc.
15. What is your favorite: flavor, flower, letter, number, film, artist?
    Flavor? Hmm, too many.
    Flower? Irises (love the colors).
    Letter? F Number? 5
    Film? Love most Jane Austen films.
    Artist? I'm not a visual-arts connoisseur. But in print? Austen was a bloody genius. And I do like the looks of Monet's art...lovely colors.
    
16. Anything we should *not* get for you?
    No bath products, please.
17. Do you have a blog and or wishlist that are not linked on Ravelry or listed in the GoogleDoc?
    There's an Amazon wishlist here.
18. Anything special you would like your partner to know?
    Feel free to get me something totally different from what's in my stash. You can challenge me...

Miscellany

Sam has been a bit better-behaved lately. He's raided the trash can, of course, and he sits and stares at me when I eat ice cream, but that's all normal.

When Oreo was the only dog I had, I bought a dog food container for her kibble. But then I acquired Sam, and we started going through 40-pound bags of kibble, which wouldn't fit in the storage bin I had. So I bought a new bin--one that holds more than 40 pounds at once--and put the old storage bin away. I've gotten it back out, though. The bin may be too small for storing dog food, but it's perfect for storing a bag of potatoes. Eat your heart out, Sam.


It's nice to have dogs that aren't thunder-phobic. I like to sit outside in a rainstorm and watch the rain, listen to the thunder. I sit in a sheltered corner of the carport and watch Nature's fireworks...and the dogs go out with me. They lie down, and Sam often falls asleep. We got to do that tonight, during a brief storm.


I've been yarn shopping, again.



That's a cotton self-striping yarn...probably going to be a baby jacket.



Those are cotton, too. Those are going to be the accent colors for a baby sweater, where the main color will be this:



That's a faked, severely color-adjusted photograph that really does come close to the yarn color. (The purple yarn photographs as if it's blue.) The sweater will be for my cousin Shari's baby (her seventh). I'm not sure when Shari's due; Mother just mentioned the pregnancy in a recent phone call. Meanwhile, I'm working on other baby sweaters, but there are no photos to show. :)


I finished a doily for my sister's 30th wedding anniversary:





Her dining room has this color on the wall below the chair rail. The doily measures about 13" square.