All packed and ready to go

I'm flying to visit family today and am declaring myself packed now. I would pack more yarn and books, but the bag wouldn't close when I tried it. I'll just have to content myself with enough laceweight to make a shawl, random scraps of worsted that could make a hat or two, a pair of socks in progress, and maybe another ball or two of sock yarn. (I'll probably shove one more ball in my carryon just before I leave.

Anyway, here I am, done packing (more or less), with about an hour to spare until the taxi is scheduled to arrive. If I'm not careful, I may start cleaning or something.

The cat knows something is up. He's pretty cranky and annoyed that I'm not letting him outside, but it is getting close enough to go time that I don't want to have to track him down in the neighbor's yard while the taxi is waiting. If past trips are any indication, he'll be completely stir crazy by the time we get back after Christmas. I tried bribing him with a half can of gooshy food, but even that didn't appease him.

Sam just headbutted my shin as I sit here typing. Forget picking up the packing chaos, I'm going to cuddle my kitty until it is time to go.

Kitten eating broccoli

Mmm.... turkey tamales

This year for Thanksgiving it was only the two of us, so we just cooked a couple little Cornish hens along with stuffing, potatoes, etc. However, the day after Thanksgiving, we noticed turkeys were still on sale, and we did recently purchase a chest freezer...

We bought three.

Two turkeys immediately went in the chest freezer. The third was cooked yesterday. This evening we have been making turkey tamales. This is only the second time we have made tamales, and is the first time we've made them without someone around who actually knows how to do it. Between the recipe on the back of the package of masa, a couple recipes in our cookbooks, and what we remember from the previous tamale-making experience, I think we've come up with something pretty tasty. By the time we are done, it looks like we'll have about six dozen tamales.

Let's hear it for the chest freezer.

Kitten with remote-controlled mouse.

(Found via Out of Ambit)

What happened to Dapper Dan?

My niece is going to be three in about a month, so I've been trying to decide what to give her for her birthday. In a flash of inspiration, I remembered the Dapper Dan doll I had as a child. Practice buttoning, zipping, tying on a doll, perfect! Sadly, it appears Dapper Dan has been redesigned in the past few decades. Maybe it's the hat, but there is something about the modern Dan that just seems wrong and even a bit creepy. I should see if my parents still have the old doll stored somewhere. I'm sure my niece would like it. Of course, that still doesn't help me with my gift. *sigh*

I would be much more interested in political conventions if this sort of thing really happened.

If you don't get the song reference, more information is available here.

I'm still here.

It's been quite a while since I made a blog post. Perhaps I should at least write something to let you all know I'm still alive.

I love this video

My first Jott post

I just got an account on Jott. I'm trying out this voice posting thing. It's pretty windy so this may not come through after all. I'll have to try again later. listen

Powered by Jott

Later: Not bad. I wouldn't want to use it for something long and/or complicated, but I see how it could be useful.

Overheard from the kitchen

"Don't look at me like that. Cashews are not kitty food!"

Women in Art Video

Have you seen this video yet?

Myst games with Wine

I just finished playing Myst III: Exile this evening. I knew the villain looked familiar, so I looked up the actor. Turns out that Brad Dourif has been on The X-Files, Babylon 5, and The Lord of the Rings. No wonder I recognized him!

My computer runs Linux, but I was able to play the game just fine using Wine. It all went so smoothly, that I tried installing Myst IV: Revelation so I could start playing it immediately. No luck there, unfortunately. The installation went fine, but when I try to run it, I just get a splash screen and it dies. *sigh* I'm not the only one with that problem, at least, but it doesn't help me play my game right now. I guess I'll try again later, either fiddling with my configuration, or (*gasp*) booting into Windows for the first time in ages. It's probably for the best; I still need to go to work in the morning and it wouldn't do to get drawn in to another game tonight.

Umlauts are funny, right?

We have a cat. We have a digital camera and internet access. It was only a matter of time before we made him into a lolcat.


moar funny pictures

I'm so not a morning person

Didn't sleep well last night, what with the clock confusion and all, so I was pretty tired by the end of the day. On the plus side, my new job is only a few miles away from my house, so it would be feasible for me to come home for a nice hot lunch tomorrow.

Chicken chili cooking in the kitchen. Smells very tasty. Probably will have some leftovers for that nice lunch tomorrow. On the down side, chile and onion fumes are making my eyes water a little.

Going to sit in my comfy clothes, eat chili, and watch an episode of Highlander before turning in for the night. Yay, long-haired dude with a sword!

Kitty!

I know my niece loves to watch kitten videos on YouTube, so I've found one she might enjoy.

Once again, gainfully employed

Today was my first day at my new job. I still have no idea what a typical workday will be like until next week, since the whole day was spent filling out forms and reading paperwork. To add to the general confusion, my first "real" workday will be just after DST strikes again.

Would "just knit properly" be too glib?

I've knit most of my swatches for the Master Knitter Level 1 program, so I sat down in attempt to start answering the questions. Okay, can't answer the questions about my swatch gauge until I actually block them, so skip ahead a bit. How many rows make a garter ridge? Oh, that one is easy! How would you solve these tension problems? (Followed by five or size bullet points of different problems.) A couple of the issues I've encountered, but I'm not sure how you would ever run into some of the others. Maybe I should start reading some novice knitter forums just to see what sort of strange issues they are having, since I'm not entirely sure what you would have to be doing to result in some of the problems in that list. Anyway, that soured me on the questions for today, so I spent the rest of the afternoon playing around on the internet instead. :)

Something in the air tonight

Due to some inattention while cooking, our red curry boiled over and spilled all over the stove. At least it smells nice. Too bad the meal won't be done cooking for a while yet. I'm getting hungry from smell of the sauce cooked on the side of the pan.

Oozing cat is icky

Last weekend, Sam started acting rather sluggish, sleeping all the time and moving slowly. Also, he was rather stinky. Yesterday, I brushed him and discovered a big abscess on the back of his neck full of nasty yellow-green pus which erupted when I disturbed the mat that had been covering it. Eww!

We took him to the vet this morning, so now he has a shaved spot surrounding the cleaned wound. He seems to feel better already, now that the gunk has drained out. He's still kind of oozing though. Eww!

I guess he got in a fight sometime last week and had an infected puncture wound. Darn cat needs to retire from fighting and go sell nonstick grills or something, like George Foreman. He's pretty miffed that we are keeping him under house arrest until the hole in his neck heals.

I'd take a picture, but trust me, this isn't something you need to see.