Thursday, October 02, 2008

Fall is definitely here...

I can't believe how quickly the weather turned to fall! This time of year seems almost magical to me - the crisp cool air, the beautiful fall colors, the crunching of leaves underfoot, the romance of a dark evening, hay rides and apple cider, snuggling up in a nice soft warm sweater... I could ALMOST come to love fall. But to me, fall simply means the end of summer and the beginning of 4+ months of being cold, of it being too dark to go for walks before work or after dinner, of shoveling snow and scraping windshields. If we could go directly from October to April and skip the 5 months in the middle, I would love this time of year!

In anticipation of the cold weather, I have started knitting again. I'm hoping to get enough things done by the middle of November that I'm able to add these to my sale, along with the jewelry and purses that I've already created. Here is a picture of my barely-started second knitting project of the season - a scarf with a fairly detailed stitch:



I'm thinking I might try tackling a sweater as my next project. :)

Monday, September 29, 2008

New Family Member?

We live in a neighborhood with a LOT of cats wandering around.  In fact, the other day, Paul and I sat in our living room and watched one of the neighborhood cats through the window - we were very amused.  The cat was walking down the street and came upon a car parked there.  It got curious and started investigating.  Low and behold, the drivers window was totally down.  Guess what kitty did?  She jumped up onto the ledge of the window, hung out there for a few minutes, then jumped inside.  For the next 10 minutes or so, kitty investigated the inside of the car - climbing on the backs of the seats, climbing into the windshield and the rear windshield...  I was half hoping that the owner of the car would come out and start to get in with the cat in there!  That would have been enough to keep me amused for the rest of the day, I think!!!  (remind me not to leave my car windows down if my car isn't in the garage!)

Most of these neighborhood cats belong to, or are at least fed by the people who live across the street.  I was once invited into their back yard and saw at LEAST 25 cats in and around the house.  I'm sure there were plenty more that I wasn't able to see!  They tell me they do cat rescue, but most cat rescue places try to find new homes for their cats...I don't think they do this part of it.  One of their cats, called Buttons by them and Thumbs by Paul and me (you'll understand our name if you ever meet him), comes to visit us regularly.  He's the sweetest thing ever (next to our Mia, of course!).  He'll stare in the windows and meow, waiting for me to come out and pet him.  When I get home from work and he sees my car, he'll follow me up the driveway, he'll even go nose to nose with Mia at one of the screens trying to make friends.  She used to get VERY upset and make the worst noises ever and puff up into a huge furry hairball.  Now she just lays there and stares back at him (thinking evil thoughts in his direction I'm sure).  Yesterday I sat out on the front porch with him for about 20 minutes.  He climbed into my lap and just purrrrred away, completely content.  I always feel bad when I get up to go inside because he always tries to follow me in and looks really sad when I don't let him.  He's one of those cats who THRIVES on attention, but his owners have so many cats I can't imagine they're able to give him as much as he wants.  

What I'd love to do is talk to his owners and see if we can adopt Thumbs.  I think he'd love to live with us - he'd get the attention and companionship.  I think Mia would get used to him and befriend him...eventually.  I even think he'd probably convert to an indoor cat ok.  All he ever seems to want to do is eat and be pet.  He can do these two things inside, right?  So do I ask the neighbors?  Will they be offended that I'm asking for one of their cats or will they be happy that he's going to a good home?  Also, I had to do a lot of begging to get Paul to allow Mia to move in with us.  He was an avid hater of cats.  But he absolutely ADORES her now (except when she walks across his head in the middle of the night), but I'm not sure that I'd be able to convince him to allow another cat into our home.  He'd probably be concerned about the cost of another mouth to feed, but really - cats aren't that expensive.  The most costly part of it would be the vet visit he'd have to have before moving in.  We'd need to make sure that he doesn't have anything that might get Mia sick.

Friday, September 26, 2008

My slow drive to work

So I was actually out the door on time this morning on my way to work. I thought I was doing good! I should have gotten here about 10 minutes early! Very good for this late in the week! But as I pulled out onto Pontiac Trail, I noticed lots of police flashers a ways ahead of me...and then traffic slowed...and we didn't go above 5 mph for the next 40 minutes. I suppose I could have turned around and taken back roads in, but I assumed it was an accident and that eventually we'd get around it and be traveling fine - and backtracking seemed like it might be more of a time waster... Then we went around a curve in the road and I was able to see what was really happening ahead of me. There was some guy dressed in black - running and 6 police motor cycles encircling him. Behind this entourage was a motorhome with police flashers (ever been pulled over by a motorhome??) and a banner on the back. There were also police cars at every single intersection we came to, stopping traffic to keep whoever this runner was from getting run over or needing to stop. The thought that went through my mind was that this must be some politician or something - maybe someone running for office who felt that they needed to be protected when out for a run (though I have no idea why one would be in South Lyon) - and if that was the case, they'd certainly lost MY vote!! :) So eventually I get close enough to be able to see the banner on the back of the motorhome - it's the torch runner for the Special Olympics! Seeing how I've got nothing better to do and haven't had to even use the gas pedal basically since I got on the road, I google it to see if I can find their route - to make sure they're not going to be going past where I work because I really don't want to follow them the entire way... no such luck, but I did find out that it wasn't a competitor from the special Olympics who was running - Law enforcement offices from around the country do that running. That would explain the massive police presence! But yes, I eventually made it into work...40 minutes late (pretty bad when it normally takes me 12 minutes to get to work!) I don't think anyone really even noticed, though. At least nobody who will get me in trouble! It's times like this that being salaried is a good thing!