Opening Night

A nice night of theater, great company, and a chance to spend time with one of the actors:

If It's Not One Thing. . .

There's been another veterinary emergency with my son's cat.  He wasn't eating over the weekend, and had lost weight --- which he could not afford to do.  

On Monday, the vet tested kidneys, heart, thyroid, and ran another blood curve.  They couldn't find anything.  Relief on one hand, exasperation on the other.  He was given an appetite stimulant at the vet's, and apparently ate really well.  Since then, though, things have been all over the place.  Buddy's feeding and insulin times have now be moved to 10AM and 10PM.  Easier for Briton in the mornings.  This week, however, he's had rehearsal every night (his show opens tomorrow night), so I've gone over to do the night stuff.

This morning, Buddy wouldn't eat.   I got one of those near-panicky calls from Briton, as he needed to leave for work and didn't know what to do.  Mom goes back to The Hard Work.  I got some baby food turkey and chicken, mixed the turkey with the canned food, and got Buddy to eat.  Back to do the same tonight at 10.  He'll grow used to having good stuff in his food, and not eat it by itself, but, at this point, it's just about getting something in him.

Soapbox

There has been too much sadness lately for me to conjure up the willingnesss to blog.  My day-to-day life remains as constantly mundane as ever, so there hasn't been cause to write about that, either.

I will say this.  So many people seem to think that removing one flag from one building is going to put an end to all that has happened in the last week.  Or the last 150 years.  Lots of people are going to call it progress --- and it is --- but then they're going to let it go at that.  I'm a 55-year-old Southern white woman.  I've been to this dance before.  

The Confederate flag has always twisted my guts.  I've never seen any glory in it at all.  But moving it down is not going to move the real issue forward.  It's HATE that must be expunged

In progress

On the needles right now, I have the Classic Elite Geneva capelet.  

 in these colors:

Citrine, for the body,

Night Denim, for the stripe outlines, and

Orchid, for the inside of the stripes.

The yarn is "Riveting," from Classic Elite --- it's made from recycled denim.  This is a fun pattern.  It's all garter, which you can probably see, but the stripes come in often enough to keep things interesting.

On another pair of needles, I have South West Trading Company's

and

held together to make this:

The sequins on the String-Along are clear, which makes their sparkliness even stronger.  This isn't quite as much fun as the capelet, but if I need to knit without looking at my work, it's perfect.

*^#+!

The first time you hear your child swear, they're probably quite young, and it's all you can do to keep from giggling.

A few years later, they sort of understand what they're doing.  The tack I took with mine was to remind them how many words there are, and ask why they wanted to limit themselves to just 2 or 3?

Then, your children go to high school, and it flies completely out of your hands.

I was not allowed to even hint at swearing when I was growing up.  A "heck" or a "gah" would get me a firm smack on the cheek.  But, truth be told, my jawing gets a little pungent occasionally.  

So, this task spoke (!) to me.
Ten on Tuesday for this week:

10 Substitutes You Use for Swear Words

1.  "Dadgummit!'

2.  "Shoot."

4.  "Oh, maaaaaan!"

5.  "Crap!"

6.  "Flippin' "

7.  "Geez!"

8. "Oh, for crying out loud. . ."

9.  "Jeeminy!"

10.  "Dang!"

"DADGUMMIT" is my go-to non-cussing cuss.  "Dang" and "shoot" are tied at second.  Although, a lot of the time, I'll have the "sh" out and decide to just go for it.

Crazies

I thought my glorious gardenia bush had fallen victim to the hard colds we've been having in Winter;  in fact, I was going to have it cut down.  But a few branches here and there are blooming.  Gardenias make me crazy happy.

Over the weekend, I discovered the website Sad Animal Facts.  There is interesting and intriguing information there.  This particular panel made me chuckle.

This little guy isn't part of that site, but doesn't he look crazily glum?

This is Cuddly Cotton yarn.  This yarn has been giving me fits.  I've have cast on five different projects with it, and none of them were right.  The color changes are short, so there aren't any stripes.  It simply refuses to find a pattern that suits it.  Crazy-making!

Binge

Yes, I stayed up until 3 this morning watching my just-arrived DVDs of "Justified --- Season Six."  (Even though I had watched it on TV.)

 Because

A) it's a great, great show:

B) it has actors that I loved before watching and actors that I came to love while watching;

C) when you're chronically unemployed, you can engage in that kind of nonsense;

D) Walton Goggins and Walton Goggins' teeth

;

E) you can have laugh goosebumps and fear goosebumps and teary-eyed goosebumps, all in a single episode;

F) if you're a native Southerner, you recognize an awful lot of the character types;

G) 

Sam.

And, yes, you can knit while you watch, but I usually don't.  I become fixated.  I am able to knit again, as the hand begins to ease out of "hideous" and into "that nauseous yellow-y olive-y green color."

Sorry if that makes any of you wince.  Quick --- cut back to Sam!

There.  All better.

Ten on Tuesday

The first 10 songs played on my Spotify:

1.  "You Were Never Mine" / Delbert McClinton

2.  "Take It Easy" / Delbert McClinton

3.  "O, Death" / Gangstagrass

4.  "Girl Crush" / Little Big Town

5.  "Through the Morning, Through the Night" / Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

6.  "Am I The Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way)" / Maria McKee

7.  "Diamond in My Crown" / Patty Loveless

8.  "Getting Even With The Blues" / Terri Clark

9.  "You Can Close Your Eyes" / Carly Simon, Sally Taylor, Ben Taylor

10.  "I Hung My Head" / Sting