Always, always, ALWAYS wear gloves when spraying/applying bitter spray.
We caught the cats chewing on our laptop's AC adapter recently. I bought some Fooey! Ultra Bitter Spray, and holy shit- they don't mess around. I sprayed it on a cotton ball and wiped down all our electrical cords, then spritzed our houseplants just in case. I washed my hands afterward, cleaned the litter box, washed my hands again. Some time later, I stuck a finger in my mouth. Blech! Bitter! Figuring that perhaps the spray contained an oil that lingers, I washed my hands again- this time with dish soap. Tasted my finger again. Nope, still bitter. Ok, so I'll just be more careful about putting my fingers in my mouth. I'm an adult. I can manage that, right? Well sort of. It turns out that my oral fixation (I used to smoke) compels me to touch my mouth. A lot. Now the entire area around my mouth is bitter.
Fantastic.
Know what else is fantastic? It's allergy season and I have itchy eyes...
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Still Angry
I was sitting at the dining room table when I suddenly realized I had been deep in thought for nearly half an hour. Apparently I was still very angry about my Jeep window, because I was thinking about all the horrible things I would do to the vandal if I ever found him. I needed to get rid of all this anger, but how?
The answer: a cake. An anger cake. Luckily, I am the sort of person that keeps cake mix and frosting handy in case of such an emergency. As I mixed up the batter, I thought of all the reasons I hate that person. I plotted ways to make his life miserable. I dreamed of ways to booby trap the Jeep with things like mustard gas and hypodermic needles filled with snake venom. As the cake baked and rose in the hot oven, I imagined all those thoughts and ideas growing and bubbling up inside my cake. Once out of the oven and cool, I decorated my cake with profanity. Unfortunately, the little Betty Crocker frosting tubes I had left from the last cake had dried up. I had to make due with sprinkles, but I think my message was still clear.
Fuck you, you filthy thief.
I hope you die of Plague.
Now I'm going to eat that cake. Piece by piece I will consume my own rage... Tasting it... Digesting it slowly in an acid bath, sucking out what little nutritive substance it contains. Then over the next few days, I will poop it out and flush it away, never to be seen again. Goodbye, rage.
The answer: a cake. An anger cake. Luckily, I am the sort of person that keeps cake mix and frosting handy in case of such an emergency. As I mixed up the batter, I thought of all the reasons I hate that person. I plotted ways to make his life miserable. I dreamed of ways to booby trap the Jeep with things like mustard gas and hypodermic needles filled with snake venom. As the cake baked and rose in the hot oven, I imagined all those thoughts and ideas growing and bubbling up inside my cake. Once out of the oven and cool, I decorated my cake with profanity. Unfortunately, the little Betty Crocker frosting tubes I had left from the last cake had dried up. I had to make due with sprinkles, but I think my message was still clear.
Fuck you, you filthy thief.
I hope you die of Plague.
Now I'm going to eat that cake. Piece by piece I will consume my own rage... Tasting it... Digesting it slowly in an acid bath, sucking out what little nutritive substance it contains. Then over the next few days, I will poop it out and flush it away, never to be seen again. Goodbye, rage.
A Very Hectic Week
First the big news: I am officially a Nufern employee. As of last Tuesday, Nufern bought the Electro-Optics department from Optelecom-NKF. My coworker and I signed contracts with Optelecom a couple of weeks ago, which transferred over to Nufern in the sale. My boss absolutely refused to sign one or work for Nufern, and nobody except him really knows why. Whatever his reasons, we'll miss him.
Nufern is located in CT, and the plan is to move the facility up there over the next two years. They would like us to move too, but in my case it's unlikely... Scott makes 3x what I do, so it wouldn't make financial sense. But Nufern and Optelecom gave me a nice, fat raise to stay and help with the transfer, so I'm willing to help out however they want until then. Nufern seems like a great company, and we've received a warm welcome. My coworker and I will travel up there on the 30th (just for the day) to see their ginormous facility. But I keep having what you might call a waking nightmare, in which my flight back home is delayed and I miss Sheep and Wool entirely. It's horrific. Also horrific: the obscene quantity of email I've had to keep up with. There is a lot going on, and I fell behind my winding schedule a bit. I'm hoping things will calm down soon.
In other news, I took the cats to the vet last weekend. Sam is in perfect health. Marlowe's health is not so perfect, but his ailments are all minor- an infection that caused a weird lump, bacteria in his ears, and swollen feet that it turns out may not really be swollen... After contacting his foster mom, I learned that a large male stray living near where he was found (who may be his father) also has huge feet. Apparently the big male had been brought to the vet at one time, and they couldn't find a reason for his huge feet. So what the vet thought was swelling in Marlowe's hind feet, might just be a weird genetic trait (no cause was found for Marlowe's big feet either).
The cats were amazingly well behaved at the vet. And Marlowe continues to be really good when I clean out his ears or give him ear drops. The worst I've gotten is a dirty look- no scratching or biting. Awesome. I wish Spencer was so easy! They also continue to be well behaved in general. Mostly. I do catch them sinking their nails into the couch once in a while, so I think it might be a good idea to get a second scratching post for downstairs. And they recently discovered how much fun my table centerpiece is- currently a bowl of yarn. I sort of knew it was only a matter of time before it had to go, though. Sam continues to hate Spencer, and will take a swipe at him anytime he's within reach. But Sam's getting braver, and venturing downstairs more often. Marlowe and Spencer are getting along pretty well! Marlowe is incredibly tolerant, and puts up with all the chasing and creepy staring and stinky breath.
I can't figure out if it's Scott's mere presence, or just the time of day he happens to be home, but all three are absolutely crazy when he's here. It's like as soon as he walks in the door, the dog is barking and chasing the cats, the cats are running around like they're on fire, and it's totally out of control. Whereas most of the time I'm home with them, they're pretty subdued.
In typing that, it seems I've temped the fates: Sam just nearly turned on one of the burners on the stove. As I leaped up to turn it off, the dog got excited with all of the commotion and started barking, the startled cats bolted up the stairs, and the dog chased them as they ran. Spencer went right back to sleep, but the cats are now fighting upstairs, making quite a ruckus.
Yesterday was sort of crazy day... I was going to meet a friend, and wanted to vacuum and rinse off the Jeep. As I'm halfway down the block, I notice that it feels a little breezier that usual. Glancing to my left, I see a huge, jagged v-shaped slice in my vinyl window. Motherfucker. Some douchebag cut open my window hoping for a few bucks in change or maybe some CDs. The worst part is that I always leave my doors unlocked. Always. Specifically so that some asshole thief doesn't need to slice through my windows. I was, and still am, livid. And I'm seriously contemplating booby trapping the Jeep in deadly, deadly was. Like with nerve gas. Or cobras. Anyway, I continued to the car wash, took great care not to spray too close to the gash in the window, and went back home. I filed a police report over the phone, and got ready for my play date.
Scott has a good friend named Joe (you may remember him as the recipient of the Socks of Doom). Joe has a girlfriend, named Maria, who is also a knitter. One day Scott mentions this, and says that she is interested in felting, but as a vegetarian with vegan tendencies, and being concerned for the sheepies, it might be difficult. It is, honestly, pretty impossible to know for sure whether a commercial yarn is spun with fiber from humanely raised animals. However, I had an idea! There is a local woman with a small spinner's flock, and she spins, dyes, and sells their wool. And it just so happens that she is part of the Countryside Artisans tour this weekend. After some facebooking, it was determined that we would go together, after a stop at the delicious Crepes-a-Go-Go (Maria's fantastic idea).
So Maria trekked out to our place, and we met for the first time. I was super relieved to find out that she is awesome, and a lot of fun to hang out with. We drove to the Kentlands and had some pretty amazing crepes. If you like crepes, that is the place to go... They have 74 (!) crepes on their menu, or you can build your own. Then we were off to get yarn! My favorite! We poked around, and Maria found some lovely handspun yarn. I got a skein of sock yarn, and a bar of Patchouli soap for Scott. As we were leaving, Maria pointed out that the sheep had wandered into view in one of the back fields. Back at home, I showed Maria my stash and spinning wheel, she met my boys, we chatted for a bit, and then she was on her way. All said and done, I'll chalk yesterday up as a good day, despite the window slashing. I hope we hang out again, perhaps at Sheep and Wool. Also, I may or may not intend to use Maria as a perfect excuse to go to Great Sage, the world's tastiest vegetarian restaurant.
Now I have to go find those child-proof knobs for the stove so the cats don't burn down the house.
Nufern is located in CT, and the plan is to move the facility up there over the next two years. They would like us to move too, but in my case it's unlikely... Scott makes 3x what I do, so it wouldn't make financial sense. But Nufern and Optelecom gave me a nice, fat raise to stay and help with the transfer, so I'm willing to help out however they want until then. Nufern seems like a great company, and we've received a warm welcome. My coworker and I will travel up there on the 30th (just for the day) to see their ginormous facility. But I keep having what you might call a waking nightmare, in which my flight back home is delayed and I miss Sheep and Wool entirely. It's horrific. Also horrific: the obscene quantity of email I've had to keep up with. There is a lot going on, and I fell behind my winding schedule a bit. I'm hoping things will calm down soon.
In other news, I took the cats to the vet last weekend. Sam is in perfect health. Marlowe's health is not so perfect, but his ailments are all minor- an infection that caused a weird lump, bacteria in his ears, and swollen feet that it turns out may not really be swollen... After contacting his foster mom, I learned that a large male stray living near where he was found (who may be his father) also has huge feet. Apparently the big male had been brought to the vet at one time, and they couldn't find a reason for his huge feet. So what the vet thought was swelling in Marlowe's hind feet, might just be a weird genetic trait (no cause was found for Marlowe's big feet either).
The cats were amazingly well behaved at the vet. And Marlowe continues to be really good when I clean out his ears or give him ear drops. The worst I've gotten is a dirty look- no scratching or biting. Awesome. I wish Spencer was so easy! They also continue to be well behaved in general. Mostly. I do catch them sinking their nails into the couch once in a while, so I think it might be a good idea to get a second scratching post for downstairs. And they recently discovered how much fun my table centerpiece is- currently a bowl of yarn. I sort of knew it was only a matter of time before it had to go, though. Sam continues to hate Spencer, and will take a swipe at him anytime he's within reach. But Sam's getting braver, and venturing downstairs more often. Marlowe and Spencer are getting along pretty well! Marlowe is incredibly tolerant, and puts up with all the chasing and creepy staring and stinky breath.
I can't figure out if it's Scott's mere presence, or just the time of day he happens to be home, but all three are absolutely crazy when he's here. It's like as soon as he walks in the door, the dog is barking and chasing the cats, the cats are running around like they're on fire, and it's totally out of control. Whereas most of the time I'm home with them, they're pretty subdued.
In typing that, it seems I've temped the fates: Sam just nearly turned on one of the burners on the stove. As I leaped up to turn it off, the dog got excited with all of the commotion and started barking, the startled cats bolted up the stairs, and the dog chased them as they ran. Spencer went right back to sleep, but the cats are now fighting upstairs, making quite a ruckus.
Yesterday was sort of crazy day... I was going to meet a friend, and wanted to vacuum and rinse off the Jeep. As I'm halfway down the block, I notice that it feels a little breezier that usual. Glancing to my left, I see a huge, jagged v-shaped slice in my vinyl window. Motherfucker. Some douchebag cut open my window hoping for a few bucks in change or maybe some CDs. The worst part is that I always leave my doors unlocked. Always. Specifically so that some asshole thief doesn't need to slice through my windows. I was, and still am, livid. And I'm seriously contemplating booby trapping the Jeep in deadly, deadly was. Like with nerve gas. Or cobras. Anyway, I continued to the car wash, took great care not to spray too close to the gash in the window, and went back home. I filed a police report over the phone, and got ready for my play date.
Scott has a good friend named Joe (you may remember him as the recipient of the Socks of Doom). Joe has a girlfriend, named Maria, who is also a knitter. One day Scott mentions this, and says that she is interested in felting, but as a vegetarian with vegan tendencies, and being concerned for the sheepies, it might be difficult. It is, honestly, pretty impossible to know for sure whether a commercial yarn is spun with fiber from humanely raised animals. However, I had an idea! There is a local woman with a small spinner's flock, and she spins, dyes, and sells their wool. And it just so happens that she is part of the Countryside Artisans tour this weekend. After some facebooking, it was determined that we would go together, after a stop at the delicious Crepes-a-Go-Go (Maria's fantastic idea).
So Maria trekked out to our place, and we met for the first time. I was super relieved to find out that she is awesome, and a lot of fun to hang out with. We drove to the Kentlands and had some pretty amazing crepes. If you like crepes, that is the place to go... They have 74 (!) crepes on their menu, or you can build your own. Then we were off to get yarn! My favorite! We poked around, and Maria found some lovely handspun yarn. I got a skein of sock yarn, and a bar of Patchouli soap for Scott. As we were leaving, Maria pointed out that the sheep had wandered into view in one of the back fields. Back at home, I showed Maria my stash and spinning wheel, she met my boys, we chatted for a bit, and then she was on her way. All said and done, I'll chalk yesterday up as a good day, despite the window slashing. I hope we hang out again, perhaps at Sheep and Wool. Also, I may or may not intend to use Maria as a perfect excuse to go to Great Sage, the world's tastiest vegetarian restaurant.
Now I have to go find those child-proof knobs for the stove so the cats don't burn down the house.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Bandwagon
I give you: my Bandwagon Shawl
So named because it seems like everybody is knitting or designing triangular shawls in garter stitch with a lace border. I loves me some garter stitch, so that was a bandwagon I was happy to jump on. It's knit up with Shelby B's Designs sock yarn (100g), and the colorway is Bloody Baron. I got it at Maryland Sheep and Wool last year.
Here is what I did:
Gauge is not important. I used one skein of sock yarn and a size 6 needle (29" circular), but it could be done with any yarn and needles. It is knit starting from the top center.
Cast on 5 sts and knit in garter for half the skein as follows:
Row 1: k2, yo, pm, k1, yo, k2
Row 2: knit
Row 3: k2, yo, knit to marker, yo, slip marker, k1, yo, knit to last 2 sts, yo, k2
Row 4: knit
Repeat rows 3 &4 until you're about halfway through your yarn (I used a food scale to weigh the skein), ending with row 4.
Then I used this two row repeat for the lacy bit:
Row 1: k2, yo, *(k2tog, yo), repeat from * to 1 st before marker, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, **(yo, k2tog), repeat from ** to last 2 sts, yo, k2.
Row 2: knit
Repeat those 2 rows until you're nearly out of yarn, or it's as big as you want it. I bound off with a size 8 DPN, using this method:
K2. Slip these 2 sts back to the left needle purlwise and knit them together tbl. *K1, slip both sts back to left needle purlwise and knit them together tbl. Repeat from * to end. Break yarn, pull through last st.
ETA: Weave in ends and block.
So named because it seems like everybody is knitting or designing triangular shawls in garter stitch with a lace border. I loves me some garter stitch, so that was a bandwagon I was happy to jump on. It's knit up with Shelby B's Designs sock yarn (100g), and the colorway is Bloody Baron. I got it at Maryland Sheep and Wool last year.
Here is what I did:
Gauge is not important. I used one skein of sock yarn and a size 6 needle (29" circular), but it could be done with any yarn and needles. It is knit starting from the top center.
Cast on 5 sts and knit in garter for half the skein as follows:
Row 1: k2, yo, pm, k1, yo, k2
Row 2: knit
Row 3: k2, yo, knit to marker, yo, slip marker, k1, yo, knit to last 2 sts, yo, k2
Row 4: knit
Repeat rows 3 &4 until you're about halfway through your yarn (I used a food scale to weigh the skein), ending with row 4.
Then I used this two row repeat for the lacy bit:
Row 1: k2, yo, *(k2tog, yo), repeat from * to 1 st before marker, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, **(yo, k2tog), repeat from ** to last 2 sts, yo, k2.
Row 2: knit
Repeat those 2 rows until you're nearly out of yarn, or it's as big as you want it. I bound off with a size 8 DPN, using this method:
K2. Slip these 2 sts back to the left needle purlwise and knit them together tbl. *K1, slip both sts back to left needle purlwise and knit them together tbl. Repeat from * to end. Break yarn, pull through last st.
ETA: Weave in ends and block.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Meet Marlowe
Friday morning I got an email from the kitties' foster mom. She said that if I was interested, I could pick up Marlowe that afternoon. Of course I was interested! I drove out to her house at about 3pm. I was a great drive through local farms, and I even saw a few sheep along the way. At her house, we signed all the paperwork and I was on my way with my new cat after just a few minutes. He cried a little in the car, but not nearly as much as Sam.
Back at home, I put his carrier down for Spencer to sniff, then it was up the stairs to reunite Sam and Marlowe. When I opened the carrier door, I heard one of them hissing, but couldn't tell which one. Marlowe cautiously made his way out and about, and then I could tell that it was Sam doing all the hissing. I guess it doesn't take long for a cat get territorial. Poor Marlowe tried to explore the upper level, but Sam followed him around hissing everywhere he went. I think Marlowe thought he could get away by going downstairs. That's when he really met Spencer.
Spencer was a bit better with Marlowe, having gotten (somewhat) used to seeing a cat in the house. But he was still a little too up-close and personal for Marlowe's taste, so poor Marlowe was stuck between the angry cat upstairs and scary dog downstairs. I'll spare you the rather dull details of two cats getting to know each other, and just tell you that by the end of the evening the two were somewhere between civil and friendly (it's hard to tell with cats).
I will say this about Marlowe: he is brave. He comes downstairs a least a few times a day, and gets much closer to the dog than Sam will. Last night he even came down and sat on the arm of the couch with me for several minutes. Each time he comes down, he eventually gets chased back up the stairs by Spencer, but Marlowe keeps coming back for more.
I think Marlowe might end up doing a better job of training Spencer than I will. He is patient, and he's very consistent- if Spencer gets too close, he's gone. And he's never swatted at Spencer's face which makes me feel better. Maybe with a little luck the dog and cats will be friends in a matter of weeks instead of months!
Back at home, I put his carrier down for Spencer to sniff, then it was up the stairs to reunite Sam and Marlowe. When I opened the carrier door, I heard one of them hissing, but couldn't tell which one. Marlowe cautiously made his way out and about, and then I could tell that it was Sam doing all the hissing. I guess it doesn't take long for a cat get territorial. Poor Marlowe tried to explore the upper level, but Sam followed him around hissing everywhere he went. I think Marlowe thought he could get away by going downstairs. That's when he really met Spencer.
Spencer was a bit better with Marlowe, having gotten (somewhat) used to seeing a cat in the house. But he was still a little too up-close and personal for Marlowe's taste, so poor Marlowe was stuck between the angry cat upstairs and scary dog downstairs. I'll spare you the rather dull details of two cats getting to know each other, and just tell you that by the end of the evening the two were somewhere between civil and friendly (it's hard to tell with cats).
I will say this about Marlowe: he is brave. He comes downstairs a least a few times a day, and gets much closer to the dog than Sam will. Last night he even came down and sat on the arm of the couch with me for several minutes. Each time he comes down, he eventually gets chased back up the stairs by Spencer, but Marlowe keeps coming back for more.
I think Marlowe might end up doing a better job of training Spencer than I will. He is patient, and he's very consistent- if Spencer gets too close, he's gone. And he's never swatted at Spencer's face which makes me feel better. Maybe with a little luck the dog and cats will be friends in a matter of weeks instead of months!
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