They were very yellow and not orange at all. It has been a few weeks but they are starting to become ready to eat. They told my mom not to eat the skin because they think it is too bitter. I tried it and I think they are fine. I am so happy with the ones I've had so far. Nice and sweet and full of flavor. I want a million more!
It seems The Hubby has the whole week "off" from work. I say that because he went in to work yesterday and keeps getting calls to fix things today. This makes it hard for me to steal his hand again so I will just have to wing the length of the thumb on the Manly Mitts.
Mother Nature is getting annoyed with me, I can tell. It starts to get cold and I freak out that I'm not making enough warm things. It then gets warmer out but I don't up my production. Since I'm not working faster it gets cold out again. This will be about the third time that it has warmed for a few days before getting super cold again. I was almost too warm in a hoodie yesterday and there is talk of snow on Wednesday. I'm sorry Mother Nature, I only have so many hands to work with and too many ideas to work with.
No pictures of knitting right now. I am hoping to get the first mitt done before The Hubby heads out of town for Turkey Day, but at the rate I'm going at, it won't happen. Don't be all sad for me, I have other plans. I was also invited to go with him, but we didn't think it would be fun to go from New York and drive for at least five hours to get me back home for work on Black Friday early the next morning. This means that we will be having some of the stuff he doesn't like when I go to my parents' house. Hello shrimp cocktail!
One of the guys is back and is painting the front porch thing. It also seems that who ever did the painting before of the main structure didn't do a good enough job for this guy. He has his music playing and is painting the whole thing.
So, not counting today, I have a very mini chunk of time off. I have both Wednesday and Thursday off. I know, it sounds more like a weekend and one of the days is a major holiday anyway, but let me have the little things.
I feel like there are so many things I need to get done that can't be done multitasking style. I can do laundry and other stuff at the same time because the laundry does its own thing for a while. I am hoping to get more caught up on NaNoWriMo, make a crochet bangle, make a hand woven bracelet to see which I like making more, make some Kukui nut bracelets, work on the Manly Mitts, find some good beads to make some crochet Poinsettia earrings, try a new way to make fabric flowers to see if I can make a Poinsettia, and unclog one of my sinks. I also want to play video games with The Hubby, but I can resist that somewhat. All those things require my attention and doing things for a while. I also want to keep track of how long it takes me to make the bracelets so I can figure in all of that for my Etsy shop. I feel like I could use an assistant that works for free.
It also seems I am becoming more and more sensitive to my job. I don't mean in the emotional way, though sometimes that is the case too. It is more in the physical way. A few years ago I helped to put all the glittery Valentine's Day stuff out. A lot of the glitter was jumping ship off these things and at the end I noticed that I had some pink marks on the inside of my arm. Then as time goes by I notice that I sometimes get some pink marks after putting away some of the glitter fabrics. The other day I was tucking in the ends of some of the cotton fabrics right before heading home. I figured my knuckles were kind of burning a little and itchy because it was cold out, my skin was dry, and I had forgotten my gloves. I got home and put my usual lotion on and noticed the burning got a bit worse. I wash my hands and notice that both sets of knuckles are bright pink and I have a lot of bright pink spots all over the back of my hands.
After some posting on Facebook with some people who used to work with me it seems I might be developing a sensitivity to formaldehyde. I didn't know it was used in so much stuff in craft stores. Looks like I can't be an embalmer when I grow up. Though they probably wear gloves anyway.
It is also interesting how many people are encouraging me to quit my day job and be able to dedicate more time to my Etsy shop, my engraving, and my charity stuff. I have been told that I'm a natural with one of those little hammers and an engraving tool. Though I know I would be super nervous to work on something that belonged to someone, I think that making small things would be fun. I also need to order a book I saw when I took the class the first time. It has some super beautiful initials in there. I just need to find the name of the book again and order it.
I'm a bit nervous to do that because I have not had the best luck in the past with my Etsy shop. I have stayed at my day job to fund my Etsy shop. Like I'm my own business investor. This cuts back on usable time, especially since I live about forty minutes away from the place. I also don't work too many hours per week so I spend almost one quarter of my paycheck just getting to work and home again. Though if my car could drive itself I would be able to get some stuff done during that time.
How your cat sees the world. (aka, lots of cat stories)
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| We get to talk about Mr. Jag for a while! Yay! |
Proper waking of the humans is very important to Mr. Jag. Meowing is the best way to start because you can do it from far away to ease them into the morning, they also can no roll away from this. If that doesn't work and they don't roll over it is important to go sniff near their nose and mouth area to make sure they are still alive. If they are still alive you can take two different paths to help get them up. A cold nose to the eyelid is a good one, but also licking their armpits will work.
I'm convinced that Mr. Jag doesn't seem to notice that he gets food around the same times every day. It doesn't help that the days become longer and shorter or that we go and change our silly human-time devices. I think that Mr. Jag feels like he needs to meow for some predetermined amount of time before I decide to be nice and feed the poor starving kitty. I say this because he will try and start meowing for his dinner sooner and sooner each afternoon. He gets his shot and dinner around 8pm, but he will start meowing for it at 5pm some days. That is three hours of very determined meowing. He knows that if he can just get enough out I will give him dinner. This is also applicable for breakfast and his midnight snack.
Mr. Jag was always raised as an indoor cat and has always had an owner. I've been told that he liked to climb into the shower when he was younger and also had a completely white tummy. I've noticed that if cats have had a home their whole lives the aren't as used to eating random food and won't be quite as interested in people food as one who had to fend for themselves. He is very picky about what people food he likes, though he is always convinced that I am eating the good stuff when I have food in front of me. He likes cheese and cheese grease the most. Some of his other likes are soups of all kinds (especially spicy gumbo), mashed potatoes, bacon, frosting, and sometimes chicken. He doesn't like cold cuts or steak oddly enough.
The outside is a scary place filled with weird animals and even weirder noises. Sometimes the outside is 'broken' going out one of the doors. I've had Mr. Jag try and go out the front door but when he finds that is it raining outside of that door he will want to try another one. When that one is broken too he looks at me like he is asking why the outdoors is broken and when will I fix it for him?
There was one time when he was sniffing around on the front porch while I was getting the mail. When I was walking back to the door I saw he was starting wide eyed at something in the small wooded area by the house. I looked over not knowing what to expect and saw a deer standing there staring back at Mr. Jag. They both looked like they had no idea what to make of the other one. It was pretty funny.
Within the last few months he has found a nice new source of water. A few times when he first came here I caught him drinking out of the toilet, so now we keep all the lids down. Since we took away his unconventional water source it was only a matter of time before he found a new one. A few months ago he started hanging out in the bathtub of the hallway bathroom on the upper floor. I thought that was odd but he was having fun so I let him do it. One morning when he came in to hang out while I did my morning thing he started sniffing and licking at the faucet in the bathtub. I turned the water on a little so it trickled out to see what he would do. He tried to sniff at the stream of water and got his nose nice and wet. After trying to put his head through the stream at first he got the notion to lick the stream of water. It is now part of our usual routine in the morning that he gets some of his fresh tub water.
I love and have always been around cats who love sitting on laps. Mr. Jag would like it if I could explain it to him. I can't speak fluent cat, so it doesn't work out very well. He has this idea that if someone puts him some place, it is a bad place and he needs to get away from it. It could even be the exact same bed that he spends all day napping on. If he is placed there it is a bad place to be. I have tried to pick him up and put him on my lap but then he is determined to get off. I also try and get him to stand on my lap to see how warm it is, but once I stop petting him he gets off. The closest we have gotten is that he will lean on my leg. Once he even wrapped his front legs around my leg and hugged it for a while. He likes getting in and cuddling but hasn't gotten the hang of putting all of himself on my lap.
Most cats don't really like having the top of their head kissed. My mom's cat will even go into all kinds of interesting contortion shapes to get away from me trying to kiss her. Mr. Jag does like them, but only at certain times. When he is feeling lovey he will even lean in when I make a kissy face near his head. He doesn't like it when we are at the vets at all. I will kiss his head while we are in the little patent room and he will give me his short, slightly annoyed meow. I'm embarrassing him in front of the lady vet! He will also duck his head out of the way if I'm getting him food because he doesn't want me to get distracted and get to dishing out the food faster.
My mom's cat isn't too picky about her water. As long as it is fresh then it it fine. Mr. Jag is more picky with his water. He is not hip and does not like flavored water. If a bit of his dry kitty food gets into the water he will not drink it. He will also not eat dry food if it has become wet, even after it has dried again.
He knows when he is doing 'bad' things and when he is not. His previous owner had him de-clawed in the front so even if he tries to sharpen his claws on things nothing will happen. He doesn't seem to know this. Things he likes to paw at are door frames and the backs of chairs. I will catch him doing this and ask what he is doing in a sweet voice. He will look at me, freeze, and then go running off. He will then walk back to me like "oh hey, I didn't see you here in this room I wasn't just in." He will also try and bury poop or anything else that came out of him and then avoid the room if I am near him. If I didn't see him near the crime he obviously didn't do it. He ran into our tiny powder room once because I was coming down the stairs when he was trying to claw at it. After making his get away he calmly walked out of the closet sized room like he was surprised to see me there.
One thing he totally hates is the tiny box. I have a cat carrier that is on the larger size, but it is still too small for him. I learned from his past owner that he doesn't mind car rides as long as he doesn't have to be in a carrier. Since I like to make sure he is protected he will always have to travel in the evil tiny box when we go places. I have a video of him in there and he comes running to save the poor other kitty when I play it for people. He will search the room for that poor soul in distress.
He doesn't hate all small spaces though. "Kitty Caves" are one of his favorite things to do. To make one I just lift up the sheet and prop it up by balancing one leg on the knee of the other. He will climb in and find the perfect spot to lay down. Then he will just lay there and purr his little head off. I joined him in a kitty cave once and it was quite nice. It was warm and felt like you were hiding from the rest of the world. It felt like a spot where you just hung out in the moment and felt happy. I couldn't even explain why I felt happy in there, but I had a great time. I might have to encroach on his kitty cave time more often.
This has only happened a few times, but I am always amused. I will be laying in bed reading a book while I have The Hubby laying on one side of me and Mr. Jag (my boyfriend) on the other. I won't be paying attention to either really. The Hubby will be snoring because he is asleep and I noticed that when that happens Mr. Jag will start trying to purr really loudly. He will be giving it his all. I think that he believes at snoring is how people purr. He then wants all of my attention so he wants to prove that he is happier and out 'purr' The Hubby.
Along these lines, he is definitely a lady's man. If there are some ladies in the room he will head over to them for some pets and loving before he goes to the guys. He will sometimes ignore guys too. He will be all sweet and purring for all the ladies at the vet but will meow in a very annoyed fashion at any guys there.
Mr. Jag might be a lady's man but he also needs some bro time. Though it is secret bro time that I can no know about. We have a Lovesac that The Hubby likes to lounge in and read. Mr. Jag will be wondering through the house and hop onto it when Bill is in there and get some pets and 'scritchies.' Though since it is a secret I'm not supposed to know about it. If I walk into the room when this is happening Mr. Jag scurries off so I won't see him on there. I've had to very quietly walk from the computer room into the other room to see this. If he knows I am coming there is no way I will see it.
He is not a fan of being alone. It's not like he has any serious problems with it, but he likes the option to get some lovin' when he feels the need. Something he does when trying to local the humans that really annoys The Hubby is that he will yowl around the house. I figure he is going around yelling because we might be in another room and then we will hear him and let him know that we are there. Something he does that I find hilarious is that he will walk out of the room you were in to go do something else, then in a minute or two will realize that you aren't with him. He then worries that he won't be able to find you again and starts to call for you. He gets such a relieved look on his face when he finds you again, even if you haven't moved an inch. Even at bed tome where most of the house is dark he will still call out like he is worried that he will be alone forever.
When he gets super excited, usually around food time, his tail starts to twitch. The closest thing I could describe it as is when cats wiggle their tails sharply when they spray. I know he is not doing that though, it is just all of his excitement. He also has a very strong tail. I call it his Labrador tail. He will knock things off of tables onto himself when he is walking by with his tail. He scared himself when he does that.
If you are not giving him enough love then he will get it from you. He will rub his head against yours or he will even rub his head against your hand or elbow if he can reach them. If he thinks you can't reach him then he will sit up on his back legs to help you out. To me he looks like a little dancing bear when he sits up so I sometimes call him my Meowing Little Dancing Bear. He has a lot of nicknames.
This might have turned into more cat stories and my theories, but this was fun. I think I could probably write a whole novel just telling funny stories about the things he has done.
Today's count: 3,569
Monthly count: 41,006
Prompts used: 23
Words from titles: 125
Pattern words: 1,870
Other blog: 905
Pictures posted: 4 (counting only finished objects)
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