Kitten stikes again!

I can remember a cat we had when I was little..Gino. When he wanted fed, he meowed. When he wanted out in the morning, he jumped on my Dad's bed and said "Me-out" (at least it sounded like that). Kit does not seem to have developed the voice to ask me to get up and feed her. The only time I hear her is if she looks around and can't find me and walks around panic-stricken meowing till I call her. Then she jumps up, purrs and promptly starts chewing on my arm.

I would like to tell you now about how she woke me this morning. I felt her jumping on the bed, heard her jump off, felt her jump on again and try to scrambled under the covers on DH's side. Groaning, I grabbed her and put her off the bed. That was when I felt the yarn. Digging under the covers, I recovered my skein and realized it was one I used to start a watch cap for DH. I got up, picked up the skein, and started winding.... around the bed post, around the dresser, out into the hall, around the humidifier, down the steps...half asleep I was amazed when I got to the bottom and realized the yarn went back up! Winding... back up the steps to the landing, around the box of books, back down the stairs, around the corner, around the desk chair and...WooHoo... there were the needles in the kitchen doorway! Surprisingly, this time she hadn't chewed all the way thru! Ah, what we put up with to have a cute, cuddly pet in the house!

Finished my Koolhaas! Haven't worked on my SSS..sigh.

In the RoD, I have taken off the first layer of wallpaper half way up the 2nd wall. Got 7 bins of yarn and banner trims out to the garage. I need to rearrange my pantry shelves in the basement so that I can still get to the cans. Then I will be placing more of the craft item bins from RoD down there so that I can remove the shelves from the wall and do the top half. Mostly I feel that I am just moving things around in there, altho I did find several skeins of yarn to donate to another Wednesday night knitter. She has been making small toys and things for kids in our local Children's Hospital. I have seen several ideas on Ravelry about how to organize my yarn and have great visions of how I want it to look when I am done. I think, when I honestly take a look at the amount of yarn I own, that taking down the walls and installing doors, and using the yarn as removable insulation is my best bet right now....lol. But, since this would be another 'out of sight..out of mind' ploy, I guess I should forget it.

goals

Goal is a four letter word, but one that I am learning slowly. I need to set realistic goals this year and stick with them. Some will become habits, and some will be just jobs done. In the housekeeping department, FlyLday is helping me create habits that make life a lot easier around here while keeping up with chores. Other goals will be things like the Room of Doom in the previous post and knitting of course. Getting projects finished in reasonable times and not starting new till others are finished. As a free creative spirit, schedules have always been seen as counter-productive and nasty. I am beginning to realize that they are actually my friends. Schedules can be freeing as it allows me to get things done and still have play time. So...I am exploring ways this pc of mine can help instead of hindering. I spend far too much time web surfing and playing games, then wondering where the time has gone.

All this goes hand and hand with another 4 letter word (in my book at least) called discipline. Not having much in my growing up years and not having done it for myself as an adult has severely effected the way I raised my children. You cannot pass on something you haven't learned yourself. Now I see the effects in my grand kids. Dh came from a heavily disciplined family and so we are at odds on the subject at times. Its not that I don't see the need, but rather the method. I want to instill in bg a self discipline she will enjoy for years to come. There's is much for me to learn this year.

New Year, New Projects

Wish I could report that the Nagini socks are finished, but, alas, I have not worked on them since the last post. I started the SpringShawlSurprise KAL and am on row 38 of clue 1. Clue 2 is out and clue 3 will be due soon, so really need to sit down in a quiet, no distraction place and just knit. (Yeah, like that exists around here!) Also OTN..well, currently ripped out and ready to restart...is my 6 inch afghan square for my Ravelry group, Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild. We are making squares based on things from Terry Pratchett's Discworld books and the squares will be assembled into a Pratchgan as a gift to TP. I am doing a lifetimer/hourglass and have already changed the pattern for 4 stitches less per row to get it to the 6 inches. I had knit it thru the center of the hourglass and realized it would be too long. Now I am going thru the chart and finding rows that I can skip and still have it look like its supposed to. Need to lose almost 2 inches of knitting at this point. I think I can do it.

New kitten is such a joy! She has presented me with several balls of yarn this week. She finds them where they are stashed and brings them as a gift to my bed. One of them happened to be the gold from the illusion knitting I was doing, and as I wound the 40+ feet of yarn back on the ball, I saw that she had eaten thru the black contrasting yarn...grrrr. So illusion knitting project has been ripped out. I wasn't extemely happy with the design and was not sure whether to continue. I guess kitten decided for me. I never told you her name, did I? Officially, her name is Ode...Hebrew for 'yet, again, another' as in..another cat in the house. But we have toyed with other names: TSD (Tazmanian she-devil), Pest, Rodent, Vampiress (as she loves to leave teeth marks and draw blood). Mostly she just gets Kit.

DH informs me that he is signing up for another 3 weeks of training with the army which will happen late February or early March. This is in anticipation of earning his E6. Also, summer 'camp' will be longer again this year as they are scheduled to deploy late '08 or early '09.


I am really hoping to buckle down and get a lot of housecleaning
done while he is gone. Aside from regular chores, I am planning on switching the master bedroom and the spare/craft/storage room. This was my 2007 resolution, but it didn't happen. So I guess it's the 08 resolution now. As you can see, there is much work to be done, stripping wallpaper, repainting, sanding and refinishing the floors. (Yes, that really is floral wallpaper from the 50s in there!) The reason for the switch? WALL SPACE! The current master bedroom is slightly bigger, but not one wall of the room is solid wall. There are windows, a fireplace and built in bookshelves, doors and closets. I cannot rearrange in any way and the outlets are in inconvenient places, so we use a lot of extension cords and power bars. Ah, the joys of owning an older home!
The MB will become the spare/craft/computer room and I will still keep my clothes in the closets here.

Also, in the near future, I will be helping DD#2 pack and move into her new home. They are in contract, inspection has been done, loan 'approved' but not final, and just waiting for closing to take place. I am so happy for her. This was the first house they looked at in person and its darn near perfect for them. Price was great, too. She will be leaving a 3 bedroom townhouse with galley kitchen and 1 bath for a 4 bedroom bungalow with 3 full baths and a huge country kitchen! There will even be room for DS-i-l to have a real office for his internet work.
http://www.shawnolson.net/ (shamelessly plugging his site)

Not much else right now. I wil try to be more faithful in my blogging this year...but that's not a promise..lol