Hello, Blogosphere? It's me, Faren.

Hi guys, Dana was wondering how I was doing, so I thought I would let you all know that I was still alive.  Last time I posted was in September, time sure does fly, doesn't it?  Still reading all your blogs, just don't have the brainpower to string words together to comment.  

At the end of September I was approved for Disability, so in October I went to Chicago to the Diamond Headache Clinic to see if they could help with these damn headaches. I stayed in the hospital for a week.  Had a great view of the lake.  They doped me up with Methadone (which Heroin addicts use to get off it), still had the headache, but didn't really care that I had one. I was totally out of it though.  Techpriest said we had the same conversion three times, once by phone, then by email, then once again by phone just to make sure he was really bored.  The doctor put me on new meds, which helped some.  Went back in January and tried Botox, it helps some people with headache, but not me.  Overall it was a crapshoot.  Medicare did pay for most of the hospital stay, but we were still out a heck of a lot of money for not much of nothing.

There for awhile I wasn't going to knit night, just didn't feel up to driving 30 min each way.  Haven't really been knitting much either.  I have been spinning a lot though.  Managed to spin some sock yarn so I started knitting some socks for me.  This is the first yarn I've kept for myself since the first yarn I spun so long ago (blogged about two posts ago!) I've made much improvement.  Check out my flickr if you want to look at them.  A lot of my yarn I've swapped on Craftster, I've gotten a lot of great stuff that way.  Last Wednesday I did manage to go to knit night, because I wanted to drop off a bunch of yarn for them to sell! Well, hopefully it will sell.  We will see. 

On the animal front, before we went to Chicago our upstairs neighbors abandoned they two cats on the porch.  One was a kitten and one was full grown.  So we decided it would be much easier to find homes for the two kittens and just keep Zoey and Lady, which is short for old lady she acted so old.  She wouldn't jump on anything, wouldn't play at all.  She is much better now so we have to wonder if it was abandonment issues.  

Well, that seems like all my brain can string together, so I better get out of here.  Take care everyone!

New Jersey Bound

Headed to New Jersey to see hubby's family so I thought I would make a quick post to get caught up.  
Charity afghan squares for the Dr Who group on Ravelry, profits to go to Doctors without Borders, made with scrap sock yarn.

Chain Chomp Hat (rav link), made for Danny (pictured).  Chain chomp is from the Mario video games, basically a big ball and chain with eyes and teeth that tries to eat you.  

My first hand spun yarn all dyed up!  Joined Karen at her guild dye day and had loads of fun!  Was a very poor blogger and forgot to take my camera.  I used acid wash dyes, but most of the ladies used natural dyes, I learned so much.  Met many great ladies, I will probably join that guild, I want to repeat the experience.  I only dyed 2 skeins, but wanted to show all the colors off, that is why there are so many pictures.





Guess who wanted to be in the pictures too?


New member of the family.  He is supposed to keep Zoey company, to bad Zoey is afraid of him. No, Dana, he name isn't Wash, but trust me, if he had been an orange cat, he would have been. As he isn't I let Techpriest name him.  So, of course, his name is Japanese.   Takun (Tock coon), from FLCL(fooly cooly) an anime show.   

I'm going to post an email hubby sent to his Dad, it is so true.

Zoey is opera.  When she is given food she looks at it and walks away.  She comes back to it later and eats it, just to be polite.  She sharpens her claws on the cardbox we gave her, she was not taught that, she just knew.  When we let her out she watches nature and when we call, she comes back in.

Takun, Tock for short, is heavy hetal.  When given food he eats it as fast as he can, growling the whole time.  He sharpens his claws on the furniture.  I am afraid when he is old enough to let out he will rob a liquor store.

While typing this I have my shirt off because it is a little warm in here.  Tock just jumped off another chair and landed on my back, dug in his claws and bit my head.

Faren had a dream that I wanted to take him back.  I told her it wasn't me, it was Zoey whispering in her ear while she was asleep.  "Send it back.  Send it back."

The last few days have been quite something, let me tell you!  Well, I'm going to go for now, I'll be back in a week, hopefully I'll have some new yarn porn to show you all.

More pictures than you can shake a stick at!

Hello, everybody!  Today's post is all about pictures.  There has been a lot of pictures I wanted to post so now their are all going in the same post before I forget about them.  

First up, pictures from the guys' birthday party.   Bryan  was the king and Nathan was the prince, but the little prince would not keep his crown on!!



Yummy cake, isn't it?


The ballpit now resides in Mom and Dad's living room, but I hear Nathan has discovered how fun it is to throw the balls out of the pit, so it might go away soon.  Miranda, I burnt a cd of the birthday pictures for you, hopefully tomorrow I'll drop them off at Moms, I keep forgetting!

Around Valentine's Day Yarns had a big sale so of course I had to help them out, but trust me, not as much as some people did!  It was on a Friday Knit Night, so I got home late and the bag of yarn didn't get any farther than the living room.   Well, at least I didn't take any farther than the living room.   The cat on the other hand......

This is what we woke up to, starting in the bedroom with two balls of yarn on a pile of clothes, leading into the kitchen....


where there is a big ol huge mess!  The door straight ahead in this shot is the bedroom door, see the yarn coming out the door?  Zoey must have ran in circles in the kitchen with the yarn! Then it heads out into the living room (door on the right).


You can see the yarn better in this picture.  There are two different yarns here, see the ball of sock yarn up there?


And in the living room she must have ran around the end table!  No, I didn't kill her.

Here are pictures of Zoey's scars.  
Scar from her hernia operation. 


I was trying to get a picture of both here, there is only about 1 inch of fur between the two.  You can kinda see the bald patch on her tummy, but she was NOT helping!


See?  Not helping at all!!!

This just might be the cutest picture of Nathan ever!  And there are a lot of cute pictures of Nathan, let me tell ya!  Miranda sent this in an email, it sure cheered me up!

Time Out

It looks so innocent, just lying there. Pretty even. But I'm here to tell you that this sock is evil, evil I say! This is the Damn sock, otherwise known as Miranda's socks. I finished the heel, thought it looked funny so tried it on. No go. So, I'm gonna put it in time out till after Christmas.
Miranda, you are NOT getting this for Christmas, at least not this year. Maybe next year if you are lucky.

See? That heel looks funny, doesn't it? Pattern is a modified version of the Monkey socks from Knitting Sutra.



Zoey loves the reflections on Star Wars poster. Isn't the new afghan pretty? It is smaller than the first one so it went together very quickly!

"What does this square smell like?" Seemed like she smelled each and every one.

Just had to take a picture of this pose. And here is a fun little video of Zoey and me playing.

Why yes, we did buy a new camera.

Why do you ask?
Here is the afghan, Zoey thinks it is comfy.


So pretty!


It is kinda hard to see the basketweave, but it sure is pretty, though the 8 ends I had to weave in sure wasn't!


Love this one too.


Zoey was holding the afghan down for me, she is such a helper!


The back side, you can clearly see the whip stitch.


Front side, doesn't look to bad I think.


Weasley sweater ornaments, this one is for Dad. I plan on making 20 of the little suckers, good thing they are so quick!


Mom's ornament.


Left to right: my brother(Nathan's Daddy), our Dad, our Mom, and she is holding Nathan of course.


Mom and Nathan. Miranda had a party for her mother's 50th birthday. We all had lots of fun and chocolate cake.





Chewing on the camera strap.


Techpriest found a cat website, that is a little bat flying around.


Who threw out a perfectly good kitty?

Answers to Comments

I think Zoey must have been mistreated. Besides what the vet said, I've seen evidence of it too. While playing with her I clapped my hands and she freaked. Seeing how confident she is now compared to when we got her says a lot. She knows we won't leave her, won't drop her,etc.
She is small, that is a women's 8 1/2 shoe, but I think she is a little bigger than she was. Yeah, we've had rats with tumors, senile ferrets and now a cat with a hernia, the vet sure does know us!

Isn't the Harlot fast? She seemed even faster when she propped that needle under her arm, if you can believe that! Don't worry, Dana, I'm slow compared to her too!

No matter how good a writer they get to finish off Robert Jordan's next book, it won't be him, so it won't be the same story. Feels like the death of that world too.

Dana, I haven't read the Golden Compass, but my husband has. I keep planning on reading it, just hasn't happened yet.

Random Wednesday

• Robert Jordan (fantasy author of The Wheel of Time series) has passed away. Those of his fans that have actually made it through all eleven of his books and are fiendishly awaiting the last one will be glad to know that he has it made plans for others to finish the story. So we might find out what happens to Rand, Perrin, Mat, et al, but it won't be the same. No one could tell the story like Jordan. Or not tell it, since didn't it seem like sometimes the plot wasn't moving at all? I still enjoyed it though. I wonder what the series would have been like if he hadn't have gotten sick? Seems like there is a lot to wrap up in one book.
  
• Here is a comic about it. And here is an essay for why you shouldn't be offended by it. For the two people that reads this blog that might be interested. :)
  
• For the knitters: A demonstration of Stephanie knitting Irish Cottage style. Very interesting.
  
• Back to fantasy authors, Madeleine Le'Engle passed away earlier this month, the Times has a good article. Her fantasy books are classics, The Wind Through the Door was the first I read that had a teenage girl as the hero, at the time I needed that.
• Apparently knitting needles are dangerous to public safety.

• Zoey went to the vet yesterday. For her weepy eyes she has drops until they are better. I already see a difference. She has a parasite so she gets antibiotics for 10 days. She also has a fairly big hernia that will need surgery. In two months she should be big enough to handle the anesthesia. Most hernias, specially one this big in this young of cat, are caused by blows to the kitten. Sounds like it was a good thing they did get dumped, better than them living with the people that did that.
  
• The McPherson Scottish Festival is this weekend! If you are in the area you might check it out, should be lots of fun!
  
• That it all I can think of for right now, but it seems like there was something else I wanted to mention...

How funny

Saw this over at Twosheep and thought I needed to post it. I've been wanting to figure out how to post youtube videos anyway. I might just have to go grab a couple of Nathan videos from Miranda's blog.





These two are the funny ones, the ones you just had to see.

Edited to Add:

Dana successfully showed off two youtube videos also! If you are into knitting go check them out! In the comments Marianne asked how she did that, so I thought it might be a good idea to put some instructions up.

If the video plays on the blog: after it is finished there will be a button that says embed, click on it and a new button will come up that says copy to clipboard. Click on that button, then paste into your blog post. ctrl+v is the easiest way to paste.

If it takes you to the youtube website: after it is done playing to the right of the video in the top box it will say embed. You need to highlight the words next to it(make sure you get them all) and copy them. The easiest way to copy is to hit ctrl+c. Then just paste it into your blog post by hitting ctrl +v (don't ask me why it isn't ctrl +p, that makes more sense to me too)

Hope this helps, any questions or advice is welcome!

New Member of the Family

It is all Karla's fault. Techpriest and I headed to Hutch today to go to the state fair, but he had to work on someone's webpage before that so I dropped by to see Karla. She had had 5 kittens basically just dropped off at her place. They really are to young to be separated from momma, about 3 weeks we think, but they should manage. They were just to cute to resist. We had been talking about getting a cat, but were thinking about getting an adult cat. Less work and you can tell their personality.

This little lady has been very vocal today, I hope tomorrow she will have calmed down a bit. She has played with us though, as you can see she likes yarn. Techpriest is training her into a yarn attack cat. We have been trying to come up with a name based on Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Zoey from both Firefly and Eureka, Fiona or Fi from Burn Notice(no, it isn't sci-fi, but both the character and the cat are crazy, so it fits), Susannah from Stephen King's the Dark Tower series. And of course, Techpriest really thinks we should name her Cheezburger, from I can has Cheezburger. So, which name do you prefer? Do NOT tell me Cheezburger, I beg of you. Or can you think of any good ones? Dana, any ideas?

The weekend book 7 came out

I picked up my book yesterday at 10:30. I had to finish up a load of laundry, so that ate into my reading time. Why yesterday and not my usual laundry day(Tuesday)? Because Raffles has not been doing good. He had gotten so weak that he couldn't make it out of the bedding without help, then it got so bad we just changed the bedding instead of stressing him. At this point he hadn't eaten in 4 or 5 days either and wasn't drinking much. So we were running out of bedding.

I held him most of the day while Techpriest was at work. For the 12th day in a row by the way. I knew from Tika's passing that Techpriest would have to realize that it was time to put him to sleep. As a former CNA(nurse aide) at a nursing home, I have seen death a lot more than he has. Makes it easier to realize when the time has come. By the time Techpriest came home Raffles was twitching, shuddering, when ever he breathed. He knew it was time to say goodbye then. I did fairly well, Techpriest was a mess.


We will bury him beside Tika. Just like what happens to many married couples, these two life long companions passed away very close together. Of the two, Raffles was always the more sedate one, relatively speaking of course. He was more likely to stop to sniff something or let you hold him while he napped. For more pictures and stories about Raffles visit ourlair.



I was hoping for more time to get used to the idea of not having any pets. We are thinking about finding a new place and that is so much easier without pets, but we have both had pets for most of our lives. The last time I did not have a pet was about 8 years ago for 2-3 months between moving out of chelle and Dan's place and moving in with Techpriest. That is also the only time I've lived alone in all my life. Boy was I lonely.

Anyway, last night about 11 I decided to not stay up all night reading, so I did get a good nights sleep, but got up today and stayed in my jammies until I finished reading Deathly Hallows. Didn't even brush my teeth or shower till then. I do have my priorities straight, don't I? Called chelle, she was done too, so we dissected the book for awhile. Called Karla, she wasn't done, so I got off the phone before I let something slip. I doubt Miranda is done so I'll leave her alone for now. And all I'm saying here is that I enjoyed the book.

Since I had been ignoring the dishes for almost 2 straight days I thought maybe I should tackle them before they got to out of hand. Then I started picking up ferret stuff. It was hard to look at, but even harder to deal with. I kept coming across something else. They had several different boxes to hide stuff in, a couple of napping spots plus the cage and accessories, supplements and health stuff. Plus, lots and lots of bedding(we had started adding old tshirts).Oh, and the clear dryer hose. Techpriest was out auto cross racing, so I spent all day alone with no weasels to keep me company, the first of many.

I am doing ok, just a little sad.

Warning: Random Post Ahead

Hello, I know it has been a while, but there hasn't been a whole lot going on. Last Saturday we celebrated DH's 34th birthday with his mom and nephew(she is his guardian) by eating at Cracker Barrel, good food. We had fun.

Earlier we had bought me and her new cell phones. I had been using an old brick that was a few years old. DH is a computer tech and is fairly savvy about any electronic gadgets so mil wanted his help too. We both ended up getting a motorazr, so we can use it as an mp3 player as well. Pretty neat phone, I spent all of an evening downloading pictures and adding them to everyone's contact info. Haven't quite worked out how to convert songs into ringtones, but working on it.

Speaking of DH, I'll probably start calling him by his online handle, Techpriest, because he fixes it and prays it works. He has been going by that now for longer than I've know him. Actually, I've been going by Faren online for longer than I've known him too. While reading Robert Jordan's Eye of the World I came across the mention of a farmer who had my last name (maiden), his first name was Faren, loved the sound of it and decided it use it.

The place seems quieter without Tika around, even though she hadn't been able to get into trouble in quite a while. Raffles is doing good, still sleeping all the time, just wakes up to eat and poop seems like. It will be really quiet when he is gone.

Marianne had asked a couple of days ago whether it had rained much here lately. I told her no. It seems as soon as I said that it started raining. Yesterday it poured down. Hard enough to flood the apartment. Again. This has apparently been the wettest spring in thirteen years here. All the rivers are still very high from the last series of rains. Everyone's basements have flooded, I just happen to live in one. Hutchinson has flooded even worse, two of my friends have had two and four feet of water in their basement. Both lost their water heater and one lost the blower to the central heating unit, which means no air conditioning. So I suppose I could have had it much worse, but it is hard to remember that when all the rooms in the apt. have water in them and you have to keep going from one to the other to keep up with it. Yesterday I was ready to move, but we really can't. The rent is cheap, we are in a good neighborhood, the neighbors in the other apartments are nice, and we can keep Raffles here. It is a pain to find somewhere that will let you keep pets. And we are hoping next spring isn't quite so bad.

It is also very cool down here, I've seen it be 10 degrees cooler than it is outside. But sometimes I swear everything is just slightly damp it is so humid. That has been getting on my nerves too, but Techpriest borrowed a dehumidifier today and it has already made such a huge difference! I'm amazed. So yeah, I feel better about the place than I did yesterday, what a difference a day makes. There really are many pluses to this place.

Sunday I cleaned off the sewing cabinet, one set of crafting shelves, the computer room closet, and a set of shelves in the kitchen. These spots just collect junk that don't belong there. So I got them under control for a while.

Techpriest bought me a couple of Red Dwarf books, so I've been reading them. They are good, but I think I like the TV show better. If anyone is interested, let my know and I'll let you have them for what he paid for them.

Not much knitting going on. I finished using the leftover yarn from Nathan's sweater for squares for Greensburg, and I just haven't moved on to anything else. I found some different instructions for short row heels, but just haven't sat down and got it done. I'm going to have to really pay attention, and all I've really wanted was mindless knitting while watching tv. I plan on doing it tomorrow, but we shall see.

Gratuitous Nathan Picture of the Day!

I love this picture of Nathan with his Daddy(my big brother)

Tika

Tika just passed away. I thought she was going to go sometime in the night, but she was still here when DH got up at 5 to check on her. She was still hanging on before he left for work at 8:30. After I finally talk him into putting her to sleep, she is gone when I check on her before calling the vet.

I feel guilty because I wasn't holding her, but I was getting ready to take her to the vet. Yesterday she wasn't eating or drinking at all, she would move her head away from it. When we got back from the circus, she had somehow managed to crawl on top of the blankets(without disturbing them at all, I found it very strange) and was so cold and unresponsive. If we had been gone a little longer she might have died then. She finally warmed by after using the rice pack over and over. We did hold her all last evening. She was so unresponsive DH thought she was in a coma, she might have been. He figured if she wasn't in pain not to put her to sleep, but I just hated to see her that way.

We certainly will miss her. To see more pictures and read more stories about her go here.

Weasels

Here is the promised post about the ferrets. A month or so after we moved to Nickerson (so after Feb. '01) we bought the two ferrets from a women in Enid, OK. She had just had a baby and having the ferrets run off with diapers(clean, I think) and other supplies was driving her crazy. She said they were two years old.

We renamed them Tika(me) for a frying pan wielding barmaid in the Dragonlance Chronicles, and Raffles(DH) for a gentleman thief. I'll have to ask him the author, I have seen the BBC series though.


Tika(female) is the first picture, Raffles(male) the second. Ferrets are a lot like kittens, they play constantly when they are awake and sleep like the dead when they aren't. And they don't grow out of it. Not until they are so old they can't move like they used to.

Sleeping like the dead.

Playing hard.
They are 8 years old now, ferrets usually live about 6 to 7 years. These guys are old. I don't have a current picture of Raffles(and I don't feel like taking one), but he looks the same as Tika.

Yeah, ewww, huh? You get used to it. But then again, we had a hairless rat too, looked just about the same. They are both hairless, losing control of their back legs, have arthritis in their jaws(they squeak) and Tika is also blind. And just in case any of you do know anything about ferrets, yes, we did have the adrenal surgery done on Tika. Her hair came back for about a year, then gone again. They have gotten even worse here lately. Raffles occasionally has trouble breathing and Tika's body temperature is low. She always has gotten cold easily, but now you pick her up and she feels cold to the touch. So, we started putting rice packs in bed with her. Never too hot, and we put a towel between it and her. She only comes out of the box to go to the bathroom anymore. I've started bringing food and water to her in bed, is she spoiled or what? I think she will be the first to go. But they have been good pets, and they have had a full life.

Here are some pictures of them in Miranda's afghan she made us for Christmas and the ferrets took over. I really don't think we could have enjoyed it any more than they have.



Yes, that is Tika's nose you see, that is her usual spot, she buries herself as much as she can.