Long overdue

I am feeling like a total slacker right now when it comes to blogging. It seems like I've been on the go since before the holidays and things really haven't slowed down that much.

In the crafty world, more of my knit samples have been popping up on the Plymouth Yarn website, which is proving to be something I'm increasingly proud of. The sample knitting has been quite time consuming as essentially, it is my second job, but I've been very happy with it and seeing the end result really gives me the encouragement to carry on. If you see these in your local yarn store, perhaps you'll think of me!In the meantime, my parents have been out visiting from England. They got some crazy snow out there before they left, and then came out here to some highly uncharacteristic Southern California storms. Considering it's 70 degrees and sunny most of the time, Californians are really quite useless when heavy storms hit, meaning we've spent quite a good amount of time sequestered in the house while the rest of the country probably points, laughs, and says we're all "weak" at our inability to handle weather changes! I am lucky that my parents visit often enough that they don't need to go see the sights, which have mostly been encompassed by a layer of fog, mist and rain.

Around the house, while trying to stay dry, we've also been lucky to have our little Deuce kitty to entertain us. He's quite the character and based on the number of toys around the house, anybody would think we've got a toddler living with us. Given that he's coming up on 5 months old and will play with anything put in front of him, we practically do! I have pages and pages of stories that I could share and may have to start the Daily Deuce. For now, enjoy his attempts at DJing - just like his father.

What the Deuce?

December/January is always a crazy time in our household. In the space of 3 weeks we have Hanukkah, wedding anniversary, Christmas, New Year's, then my husband's birthday. It gets a little whacky and the hunt for the perfect gifts for the husband in particular can get a little stressful. This year, in that he's unemployed, we decided not to go crazy on the gift exchanges and when contemplating anniversary gifts for each other, we decided that we should add to our family and adopt a kitteh!

Being the prepared parents that we are, we did a trip to Target last weekend and bought food, litter, bowls etc. Then Tuesday on my lunch break, took a trip over to the local shelter where they had lots of little kittens as well as older cats. Husband always claimed to not be much of a cat person (something to do with cats lacking personality....ha!) Having said that, when we walked into the cattery at the shelter, he spotted one in the litter who was later to come home with us. He had an identical twin brother in there with him but his brother was a little too much to handle - lots of tail chasing, hopping around on his hind legs and smacking the other kittens to try and get them to react. Our little guy just sat there looking at him with the contemptuous "what the hell are you doing dude?" look on his face. We tried looking for markings to distinguish them from each other and found none - it was all in the personality with these two. As much as I would have loved to take both, there was also some concern that we'd come home to find the more boisterous one swinging from a ceiling fan or 5 feet up the bedroom drapes.

His name is Deuce in honor of being our second anniversary cat. He's about 3 months old and the sweetest little bundle of joy. Husband picked him up from the vet yesterday and brought him home where he cowered in the corner of his crate for several hours before coming out and cowering behind the toilet (which is where he was when I came home). I can't blame him after what must have been an incredibly traumatizing 24 hours - being separated from the litter, traveling to the vet, losing his manhood, then waking up and not knowing where he (or his balls) are. A little love and cuddles helped though and by later last night he was exploring the staircase and finding new spots to hide in the bookcase.

Husband seems to be adapting well, leaving me a post-it note on the bathroom mirror this morning with instructions on how to heat up his food with his post-op antibiotics into it. I have a feeling his "I'm not really a cat person" days have come to an end after catching him late last night playing with the cat and a balled-up piece of paper. I had a very proud parent moment this morning when I discovered he used the litter tray last night while we were asleep and I caught him cleaning his paws too.The one thing we do need to teach Deuce is how to retract his claws. He's got a tendency to get stuck on clothing/carpeting because he can't figure out how to pull his claws out! He also doesn't know why he can't pick up his toy when he's standing on the other side of it with his back paws. He's a smart one though and I'm quite sure he'll figure it out! ;)

Winter Wonderland

When I was a kid back in England, I always loved it when it snowed. We had a little sled that my brother and I would use, and the snowman thing was always fun too. I remember my dad dumping a 3ft icicle in my bathtub once when I was really small - something I'm glad has only ever happened to me once.

I haven't seen snow at my parents house for a long time and have never seen anything like this before. They're in the south of England (about 30 minutes out of London) and my dad just sent me these pictures of what the house looks like right now. Naturally, I had to share! My mom said it's fun except they're not prepared for this kind of snow down there so there's no slow plows or anything like that and they're essentially trapped in the house given the depth of the snow on the street. She also said she couldn't put the cat down because she would disappear!