This is how Sundays should be

I biked to the West End farmer's market this morning, and this is my haul. Clockwise from top left: snap peas, strawberries, asparagus, beets, new potatoes, zuchinni & summer squash, and Swiss chard. Apparently, Ben likes strawberries--he was licking one just before I took the photo.

Even though it's not the biggest farmer's market around, this one is by far the closest to me, and it's got a more relaxed atmosphere than some others. It certainly had everything I needed! Now I have no excuse not to cook at home and eat right this week.

Guard Cat

I was peacefully doing the breakfast dishes this morning, when suddenly I hear a growl--that deep, moaning growl that cats reserve for those they would like to banish to the deepest pits of hell. Now, Ivy and Ben have their tiffs and their daily wrestling matches, but they haven't growled at each other that way since the first week Ben arrived (a good beating and a puncture wound to his side taught him who was boss right away, and all he's done to Ivy since then is at most act like an annoying little brother). So I could not figure out what could be causing one of them to make the demon-growl.

That's when I remembered that I had left the living room window open for some fresh air, and so the cats could also smell and hear the birds they were watching at the feeder. And wouldn't you know, when I went to the window, there was a big black and white neighbor cat sitting on the outer windowsill serenely taunting Ben by his mere presence in Ben's Territory. That, and Ben was probably jealous because the other cat could, if he so chose, actually eat some of the birds at the feeder without having to scratch his way through a wire screen with declawed* front paws. So I got the spray bottle and sprayed the other cat through the screen, and he ran away. But Ben was so riled up that he continued yowling and pacing around the living room with his tail puffed up, and when Ivy walked in to see what was up, he turned on her. The she began her high-pitched scaredy-cat mewling and tried to retreat under the dining table. I was worried we were headed for a bloodbath, so I sprayed them again to distract them, and then tried to herd Ben into the basement so I could close the door. He was so keyed-up that he almost attacked me when I came near him, but I eventually got him in the basement, and after 10 minutes with the door shut and the cats separated, peace was restored, and all three of us were miraculously injury-free. Phew!

*Disclaimer: This is not a procedure that we put our cats through. Each of their former owners did, and since the first cat we got (Ivy) was declawed, we specifically sought out a second cat who had already been declawed so that neither one would have an unfair advantage. I am NOT a proponent of declawing, and would not myself choose to put an animal through such a painful and deforming procedure.

You don't know what you've got...til you drag of out of the closet and make a huge pile of it

This is my stash. Well, minus about 6 WIP's, but basically, this is my stash. I am in the process of readying the guest room for my summer subletter, and that means emptying out the closet. After dragging all the yarn out of the closet and piling it on the bed, I had only two thoughts: "it's more than I realized" and "but thank goodness I'm still hundreds of skeins away from SABLE.*" I decided it deserved a picture.

Ben very graciously offered to be in the picture to give a sense of scale. You'll notice he's perched atop a set of plastic drawers (full of yarn, of course). That's a little something I bought back when I thought my yarn obsession could be controlled by limiting "convenient" storage space. Don't laugh--I really thought that! Seeing all this makes me feel way better about being on a yarn diet until next April. I (might) not run out. Now I just have to get my act together to catalogue and photograph it all for Ravelry...

*Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy (coined by Stephanie, of course)

Long live the Queen

I don't know how I missed this, but thanks to Rabbitch, I just learned that yesterday was Freddy Mercury Day. The music of Queen and Freddy Mercury saw me through the best and the worst of my high school years, and it is some of the only music that I listened to then that I still blast and sing along to at the top of my lungs every time I hear it. And some interesting trivia: did you know he was a Parsi?

Look over there! Alpacas!

Lacking anything new to show you, and also still not having finished seaming the alpaca sweater for Taz, I offer you these two cuties I saw at MDSW two weeks ago (which I now realize I don't have as many pictures from as I thought I did).

There hasn't been much knitting, an there has been much stress, mainly about how many of us at work are still going to have jobs to go to a month from now. It recently occurred to me that if I were giving myself more knitting time, I would not be giving myself an ulcer (no, I don't really think I have one). Lesson learned: I'm taking tomorrow off!

Not ready to say goodbye

I love this yarn and this sweater sooo much, I almost don't want the joy to end (which might be why it's nearly 6 months late). I'm almost done seaming Taz's sweater. I might even finish it before his birthday on Cinco de Mayo, but he won't get it until my next visit to Spain--I'm not entrusting this to any postal or delivery service!

More soon on MDSW, including pics of my treasures and maybe some cute animals.