This article about cats watch the NYC Hawk Cam, visible via the NY Times on this link. A red tailed hawk family is nesting on a tall building off Central Park, and people are excited about seeing the hatching. People and their cats, that is. The article give the names and ages of the cats shown. Heh.
None of my catties have seen the web cam yet. If they do, I'll share.
Cats like other things too.
This kitty likes the dolphins at a water park. Pretty cute.
Not as cute, alnost scary - the Center for Disease Control (here in Hotlanta) issued a bulletin about preparedness for the zombie apocalypse. The CDC's thinking is that a zombie preparedness kit would be really similar to what a family needs to prepare for a natural disaster, sans the baseball bat. (What?! You don't know that you do a zombie in by smashing his head in? What's wrong with you?) I found this pretty funny, especially since the CDC is featured prominently in a current American TV series on zombies.
Larry loves to discuss (tongue firmly in cheek) what location would be the best place to survive a zombie attack. He used to work at a pet superstore in a shopping center, and he had scoped out all the exits and where to find food. He had a plan for surviving in the store. All things he had learned from reading his now dog-eared survival guide.
You want to see tatting? I don't have much to show you.
I'm finishing round 7 of the Pineapple Heaven doily. Has anyone else made this? There seems to be a big error in round 8, at least if the picture is right.I'm going to continue the way the picture seems to be made.
Today is my blog's one year anniversary. I'm going to do a giveaway - but I'm going to wait until AFTER Palmetto Tat Days, as I'll give away something I'll get there. So you who can't go to Tat Days - watch this blog for something cool!
Some miscellaneous stuff:
Do you see those family stick figure stickers on the back of minivans and SUVs? You see them a lot here in the States. I find them pretty silly, obnoxious even. (I just found this one on Amazon - hee.) Well, driving home the other day, I saw an Alien stick figurefamily. I laughed and laughed. (FYI - the vendor mentions living in Roswell - which co-incidentally is the name of a suburb of Hotlanta. Not THAT Roswell, though.)
We are currently sitting in a hot house. My air conditioning is not working at the moment, and we've called someone to service it. I'm hoping I'll only have to service it and not have to *GASP* replace one or both units. (We have a big house, hence two units. One is not working.) AC units only last so long, and several of my neighbors have replaced theirs. We are very very short on cash right now, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And it needs to get fixed quick - it's 91 F outside (that's almost 33 for you Celsius folks). In other words, it's the same dreadful temperature it's been since late May. I need my AC!
Tat Days 2009 participants - and yes, I'm in this.
I'm really getting excited about Palmetto Tat Days 2010. For those who can come and haven't signed up yet, it's not too late. It is such a blast! I blogged about it last year - look for Tat Days 2009 in my search.
Here is Jane Eberol at last year's Tat Days. Check out her purse - it's covered in tatting! While Jane won't be there this year, you'll be able to meet folks like Georgia Seitz, who is just wonderful. I can't wait.
For those who need their fix of bad kitten (and you know who you are), here is Vader standing on the long suffering Cisco (on the bottom) Cisco is really the top cat in our house and he knows Vader is just a kitten, so he puts up with it. A second later, Vader was biting Cisco's neck.
I was out perusing the 'net, and came across this lovely collection of beaded beauty. It's a fundraiser for curing colorectal cancer. Really beautiful and inspiring.
I am working on knitting caps. My church is sponsoring a local elementary school, the poorest in our county, and we are determined to make a cap for every child there. (We're doing more tangible things too - like providing school supplies and mentors and backpacks full of food for kids to take home on the weekend. These are very, very poor kids.) It's good to for the kids have something warm that just theirs, not a hand-me-down or a cast-off. And it makes ME feel good to help.
Three recent viewings of weird hair and no good pictures to speak of. First viewing - African-American woman with a very elaborate braided 'do. Said 'do was braided close to the head and two toned, with stripes of auburn and black hair (4 braids per stripe) swirling over her head. Must have cost her a bundle. I couldn't look away.
Second weird hair, seen on the train last week, a white woman whose hair must be originally solid gray. She had died her hair jet black. Nothing strange here - except that it had been a LONG time since she had done any touch up to the dye job, resulting in a 2 inch skunk stripe running down the middle of her head. (This is one reason I Do Not Dye. It requires much upkeep.)
the skunk haired lady is looking down in the middle
Third weird hair, seen in the waiting room of my internist's office. A white lady there who looked to be about my age and her hair appeared to be light gray, in a short cut appropriate to her age. Then I looked again. All the frontof her hair was gray. The back half was jet black. I'm not sure if she had a mega-version of the white patch that some folks had, but the division in hair color went over her head from ear to ear. It almost looked like she was wearing a furry black hat, perched on the back of her head.
(Curly thinks I am bad for noticing these things. I can't help it!)
I also saw another African American woman, young and cute with a sweet short haircut, who had dyed a lemon yellow swoosh of a stripe in her bangs. Why? People - if it's not a color known in nature, stay away from the dye bottle!
Since I've been crocheting, I got a wild hair and tried to do some crochet with tatting thread. Maybe it's my crochet hook, but I could not make a granny square with Lizbeth size 20 to save my neck.
Today I had to go to my dentist for a cleaning and checkup. I am semi-good, in that I do go regularly to my dentist. But I am not a good flosser. And my family has bad teeth. (My brother, who is 8 years younger and has always had regular dental care, has only one molar on the left side of his mouth.) My mouth has a gazillion crowns. Once a little dental receptionist was looking at my charts and said to me, "Wow. When you die, can I have your teeth?" Um, no.
So I went to my nice dentist. And he IS nice, a very pleasant guy with a sense of humor. He's an excellent dentist, always makes Hotlanta's Best Of Medical list. Bonus - he's not as expensive as most in Hotlanta.
The folks in the dentist's office like me. I'm cheerful and funny with them, and I make them laugh. One of my very best friends works there. Poor Mrs. V was sitting in reception today with dark sunglasses on, as she was suffering from a migraine. Like most of us, Mrs. V is not made of money, so she comes to work no matter how she feels. I tried not to make her laugh today. I knew her head would hurt too much.
And I went back and sat in The Chair and talked to the dental hygienist, who's sweet. She started checking my gums for periodontitis, jamming the little stick into my gums. Ugh. I hate this. (Bad teeth, remember?) She wasn't saying the numbers aloud, just typing them into the computer. "Tell me the numbers!" I said. So she did. "2, 1, 2 - 2, 3, 3." (These are the depth she can poke into my gums. 0 is perfect - 6 is BAD.) "3, 2, 2 - 2, 2, 4." And then I was bad. Every time she took her hands out of my mouth, I started mimicking her, but with random numbers. "3, 8, 52 - 1, 14, 237." She got tickled.
In the end, she said my gums were MUCH better than the last time they were checked. Whew.
Then I told her I was stressed and started telling funny stress things. Like, when I'm stressed, I have weird dreams. I don't know if you have vivid dreams - but boy howdy, I can have some strange ones. In full color. And (as you can tell), I remember lots about them. (Can you tell I kinda had diarrhea of the mouth there?)
The latest stress dream was related to shaving my legs. Why this is a stressor, I don't know, but you can't control what you dream. The dream was somehow triggered by a commercial we see here in the States for a cell phone company. In the commercial, the girl has armpit hair that must be 2 feet long, waving in the wind in her boyfriend’s face while they’re on a tandem bicycle, and she says “Is this wrong?”
In my dream, I don't have armpit hair. I have hairy ankles. I feel something on my ankles and look down to find that the hair on my feet and ankles is dragging on the ground, kinda like Shire horses. Long enough to trip on. Why? That’s all I can remember of the dream, just my hairy ankles. Is that so wrong?
I told the hygienist about the hairy ankles dream, and she roared. Then she got to work on my mouth. I had to stop and ask her about the hidden trophy case that I know all dental hygienists secretly have, the one with pieces of their clients’ gums in it. I told her not to add to the gum trophy case today, at least not MY gums. And then she had her hands in my mouth and I had to shut up. I’m sure she was grateful for the silence.
Finally my dentist came in and checked things out. No good for me. He said that I need at least 1 and probably 3 crowns replaced along with 2 fillings. I said, "I guess you're planning on going to Europe this summer?" He said, "Well I had planned to go to Spain, but there was the volcano.." "You miss my point. You're going to Europe courtesy of me?" He laughed. I made my next appointment.
An odd aside – I can make the sound of the dentist’s drill with my mouth at will. zzzzzZZZZzzzz It scares some people because it’s so realistic.
My dentist will be making the drilling sound – with the drill – on me in two weeks.
The sun was in my eyes in a BIG way as I drove to the train station this morning.
Ow. It's bright!
Oy! My windshield is filthy (I need to get my wipers fixed).
At least it's nice and sunny and not frigid any more.
A funny thing happened here in Hotlana yesterday afternoon. I had to leave early to go to a doctor's appointment, and I noticed from the train that the interstate heading south into town was more backed up than usual for that time of day. I didn't think much of it - until I got to my car and heard the news. And laughed.
(image from WSB-TV)
It seems that a zebra from the circus (Ringling Bros etc.) had decided to escape its downtown enclosure and make a break for freedom. In doing so, the zebra made its way along a number of streets and eventually onto the main downtown interstate highway. The poor zebra was paced along the highway by motorcycle cops (!!) until someone could jump out and grab him.
I am not making this up.
The story (and look at the map and stills too) is here and there is video of it as well. It backed up traffic for some time.
The zebra is now back in captivity, poor thing, but his hoofs are cut up from running on the rough pavement. Zebra hooves were designed for grass or dirt, not concrete or asphalt. He will receive a break from performing while he heals.
As I said, I was headed to the doctor during the zebra jam. I ended up running late as the train was delayed for some unknown (and un-circus related) issue. When I got to my car, I only had 15 minutes to make it to the doctor, and I was at least 30 minutes from his office. So I called the office to let them know I was running late.
This was my mistake.
Mind you, this is a doctor's office that functions like most - when you get there, you wait. Everytime I've gone there, I've waited at least 20 minutes. Doesn't matter if I'm early or late or on time for my appointment- it's at least 20 minutes.
But I am a courteous person, so I called. I knew I was the last appointment, and I didn't want them to close their doors on me. And the stupid secretary fussed at me and told me that if I was more than 10 minutes late, I'd have to re-schedule. But I'm coming as fast as I can, I wailed on my cell phone, going at breakneck speed. Traffic beyond my control, I said. She didn't care, and was adamant that I would need to re-schedule. She was MEAN. I got off the phone and continued on my reckless way towards the doctor's office.
I dashed up about 14 minutes late. I tried to look casual. No one said a contrary word to me when I signed in.
And - I waited 20 minutes before seeing the doctor. Who seemed unaware that I was late.
Gorgeous sky on Thursday night. And I only had my cellphone camera...
It got prettier.
And prettier.
But big weather was on the way. Here's the sunrise on Friday morning.
That's a big storm coming towards the sun, the same storm that dumped snow on OK and TN and lots of other places. No snow for me, thank heavens. Just cold rain.
(I know the answer, but do you - what Atlanta attraction is sticking up on either side of the sunrise?*)
And my favorite from the late, great, Mary Konior - her Large Cross from Tatting With Visual Patterns. Both are done in Lizbeth size 20.
It's been a quiet weekend after a lot of upheaval this week. I'm very grateful.
Moe was horsing around this evening and sat in this big bucket.
He couldn't get out without help. Hee. ("Mom, stop it! Get me out!" "Let me get my camera...")
There are wierd things in grocery stores these days. Larry clued me into this funky item.
Baconnaise - bacon flavored mayonaise. I found it next to the Grey Poupon mustard. Larry says he's going to get some. I just can't wrap my mind - or my mouth - around this.
And then I found this little item. Pretty ironic to find in a grocery store, huh? Someone could do the store some damage with this. I wouldn't - this is my regular good store. But the Stooges would love this, especially Moe.
Here's hoping that my week goes as well as this weekend. And yours too..
*Answer - some of the roller coasters from Six Flags Over Georgia.
This time it's a birthday giveaway. Heather, of The Tarnished Tatter, is having a birthday celebration of her 33rd birthday. Gosh. you're just a spring chick, Miss Heather.
She's giving away some cool stuff. Three prizes - two shuttles and a goodie bag. I'll bet the goodie bag has some of her pretty HDT in it - and I'm an HDT addict. Gots to have it!!
Do you want to win? Head over to Heather's place right now and enter!
On another note - I saw this gummie bear that you can purchase.
Something about it is very disturbing. Creepy. Makes me go ewww.
