99catsaway

Good evening! I just finished my first quilting project and wanted to share the results. I'm super excited about it! :)

So, I used the idea located here for a Quilted Rainbow Sleeping Pillow for Cats.

It turned out really well for me. Take a look!



( Doing it all for my kittyCollapse )

Over the last few years, I've developed the habit of summarizing my Year in Books.

Various events this year led my concentration to totally get shot to hell. I also discovered a podcast that I really liked which took up a huge amount of time on my commutes and helped entertain me while I had no concentration. So, I only really made a good attempt at 23 books and completed about 20. Also, I had a bunch of re-reads, as that was one of the only strategies that worked to get my concentration back up! In fact, I'm currently craving a re-read of the Silmarillion. Good idea? y/y

Anyway, here are the notable books for this year. I'm not including the just "eh" ones.


Re-Reads (all three of them excellent):
- Sum: 40 Tales of the Afterlives (David Eagleman)
- Atonement (Ian McEwan)
- The History of Love (Nicole Krauss)

Best Book of the Year (Re-reads not eligible for the award):
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer)

Honorable Mentions:
- The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Leonard Mlodinow)
- Infidel (Ayaan Hirsi Ali)
- The Selfish Gene (the great Richard Dawkins)

Unexpected Gems (happen to both be about North Korea):
- Nothing to Envy (Barbara Demick)
- Pyongyang (my first and only graphic novel to ever read)

Disappointments (there was no Utter Dreck this year):
- Superfreakonomics . . . the chapters just weren't that good this time around.


How was your year in books?

HOLIDAY CARDS. Who wants 'em?

Comments screened so you can give me your address.

So I was about to cross the street yesterday, and I did that thing where I leaned forward, about to step into the street, but noticed that cars were coming, so I leaned back. I didn't have the light to cross.

And this guy who was standing right next to me just started walking across the street in front of cars, against the light. But I hung back because - again - I didn't have the light to cross.

So the guy started walking and the oncoming cars all had to slow down and stop in that intersection so that he could get across. Meanwhile, I was just hanging out on the sidewalk.

So the guy turned around while walking and started talking to me from the intersection.

"Come on!"

I said, "No."

And he just stopped and stood there in the intersection. And he says, "Miss, come on - they've stopped." And held his hands up to the cars like he's a traffic cop.

I said, "No thanks - I'll wait."

And he started yelling at me.

"MISS! The cars are stopped! Come on!"

And I started yelling back, "NO! I DON'T HAVE THE LIGHT!" It got pretty heated!

He screamed, "It's a crosswalk and you're supposed to be able to cross here!!" Like I was an idiot who didn't know how crosswalks worked.

Keep in mind, during this entire "conversation," CARS WERE STILL STOPPED in the middle of an intersection for him.

I start walking away from him, screaming, "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" and he kept screaming at me.

Eventually, he gave up and just walked across. But, OH MY GOD - it was an intense fight! We were both screaming at each other! He had to cross another street right after that where there was an old lady waiting at a crosswalk. He did the same thing where he held up his hands to oncoming traffic to "help" her across. Who the fuck does this guy think he is?

Today was trash day on my block, but for the last 2 days, there has been this SUPER creepy thing that my neighbors left out for pick-up a little early. Did you ever watch the television show Are You Afraid of the Dark? Because the thing they left out looks like one of the props used in the opening credits of the show.

( Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the scariest fkn thingCollapse )

I don't believe in heaven for people, but I can't bear the thought that my past pets aren't looking down on me. Today was Mellie's last. That cat brought me so much joy and comfort despite her 18 year moody spell. Well, after 18 years the title of World's Most Amazing Cat is back up for grabs. I love you, Mellie.




"My friendship with Mitzi was like the friendship that many children have with their pets. My mother and father thought it was "good for me" to have a dog for a companion. Well it was good for me, but it was only many years after she died that I began to understand how good it was, and why."

(Fred Rogers)

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_sneeze_reflex

While I'm sharing pictures, here's our newest "rental cat," Miles. Let me know if the link to my Picasa doesn't work. I'm a little new at Picasa.


Anyway, isn't he a pretty boy?

Miles

Loved this image... it's kind of in the same vein as "Abandoned Clown Car Remembers You".

( Read more...Collapse )

I was supposed to do a presentation to a group of 40 at my workplace today, but it got canceled, and I'll have to do it another week.

It's too bad, though. Because I was totally going to throw this on a slide at the end of my Powerpoint show: