Note to readers: I apologize for recent technical errors with the site. I am working with my hosting provider to resolve the problem.
Welcome to the weekend! Let’s stay warm together with this sleek house panther from reader Tara O., who says: “It’s a lovely snow day here in Philadelphia and I’ve spent the day in bed with Jacques who is keeping my feet nice and toasty while I’m knitting socks.”
What a beautiful house panther! He looks very comfy and content on that pretty quilt!
No worries about the glitches, Mike. I think we all understand that technology is great, except when it isn’t!
I just finished up my first week of work with no snow days since the middle of January. Working 5 days a week is exhausting! Have a great weekend, everybody!
Thank you Amyliz for both compliments. My sister made the quilt and I love it too.
The fabrics are so nice – as is your lovely puss. My eyes had to adjust to tell which end was which!
Ha! Thanks Murray C. Yup – he’s hard to photograph. 🙂
All my black cat photos = Rorschach tests. 🙂 Very pretty kitty!
Love that house panther and I’d love to have him warming my feet. It ‘s a cool and rainy day here in SoCal. I wish I could stay home but errands await so I’ll be out in it trying to stay dry. And I know how you feel Amyliz, I felt that way the first week back after the Christmas/New Year Holidays. I felt like a two-year old, NOOOOO. I don’t want to work all day. I don’t want to be on a schedule. I wanna do it my way!!!
Thank you AJ! He is a very good foot warmer.
Beautiful kitkat, and your socks look great too, Tara. Give Jacques a big kiss from me.
Mike, no need for apologies. Though it was scary to see the site unworking!
Happy Caturday to everybody! We got a little snow here last night, because I got the car washed on Wednesday. It’s a little-known secret that I control the weather in Colorado. Wish I didn’t have to run errands and get it all dirty again.
After a busy and stressful week, it will be nice to unwind with painting the bathroom, baking some macarons and cookies, and making a batch of vegetarian chili. I do so love to spend a few days in the kitchen with a great audiobook.
Hugs to you all.
What kind of things do you listen to DebG? I have become a huge fan of audio books this school year. It helps the 30 minute commute fly by. I listen to crime/mystery and would love to hear/share recommendations with other Cutetropolitans!
Note: Iditarod starts today. Anyone else as excited as I am?!!!
Lots of my fave sci fi authors, plus well-written histories. I had an Audible account for years and collected literally hundreds of audiobooks, so I’m trying to work through them all.
Fave authors/readers:
Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books, read by James Marsters
John Scalzi, anything, read by William Dufris, Wil Wheaton, and others
Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody mysteries, read by various people
David Sedaris, anything
All the Harry Potter books
Urula Le Guin, anything, though not all the readers are great
I just finished the most recent in the Commissaire Adamsberg series by Fred (Frederique) Vargas, a French author and archaeologist. And I really enjoyed The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne (also entitled “Home”) set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Thank you DebG! The socks are the Skew pattern – have you ever made them? They are terrific fun to knit!
The socks are wonderful, Tara. Are they for your own use, or do you
sell them, perchance,on Etsy? I would be a customer. And, your kitty
reminds me of my Ben-Him. Black cats are the best.
Aw thanks Phred’s Mom! These are for me – for once. I’m so busy knitting for family and friends there is not time for economic gain! 🙂
I have not made them. I enjoy making socks but then never wear them, thanks to my toenails of death which destroy them very quickly. Will look at this pattern and think about finding tougher yarn or better-fitting shoes!
If you like a challenge with construction (the heel involves a kitchener stitch!) you will enjoy knitting these. And – I can’t believe you don’t wear your own socks living in wintery CO! Home made socks are the best. Send them to me and I’ll knit you a new toe when you need it! 😉
My feet wish they had a pair of knit socks on right now. I have no fun plans for the weekend. We have to go to infusion therapy at the hospital every day for my husband to get IV antibiotics. He was back in the hospital Monday thru Friday, because one of the pins in his wrist got infected. He had to reschedule his interview for his disability application, so that’s another month added to the no income for us total. Although I hate this cold weather, quite frankly, I am grateful for it, because of the cold weather rule. For those that don’t know, the cold weather rule prevents the Gas and Electric companies from shutting anyone off for non-payment as long as the forecast calls for less than 35 degree weather for at least 2 days. They actually have the cold weather rule in effect from November to March, even if we have a nice week here and there, they won’t shut it off until the end of March. I have hit a wall with applying for any kind of programs that will help. “We need proof of income for the last 3 months” There is no proof of income because we have had no income, been living on savings and early withdrawal from a 401K, and those are both about gone.
I’m so sorry for your stress. It must feel like you’re living in an alternate universe from the people around you who are not in crisis.Everything changes and I’m pulling for your world to change soon.
Patty, I’m so sorry for all your worries and stress. Sending good vibes to you and hubby.
Oh Patty, I’m so sorry for your troubles. Sending you good thoughts, sympathy, and hugs.
Patty, I am so sorry about your troubles; financial and health worries are the worst. I hope you have some relief soon.
Patty, go ahead and shout profanities at the ceiling. As loud
as possible. Punch pillows. I can only try to imagine your
stress. I, and the other Cutetropolitans here, wish you relief
stat, and send hugs from here on. ???? There must be
someone at the county level to send you in the right direction
for help with benefits. I hope.
Truly a difficult time for you Patty. That old saying “money isn’t everything” rings rather hollow when its in short supply. Hopefully you can get some government agency to listen and help. Warmest prayers to you.
Do a GoFundMe if possible. No?
I’d give something!
Me too.
Same here!!!
me three! – or 4! sorry, lost count.
Sending good thoughts to you both. You’ll get through this.
Patty, I don’t know where you live, so I don’t know if this will help. But when I was fighting for my disability benefits a while ago, I enlisted the help of my MLA. His assistant worked magic, and she got help for me within a week. Is this something that you could use?
We had help filling in all the paperwork from a group at the hospital that helps with those sorts of things. But, there is some issue with our tax forms from last year, which is the proof of income everyone seems to want. I sent off for a transcript of it, and received a reply that there is no record of us filing. I paid my taxes last year, I printed out a payment voucher to pay them, so I know I filed. I was hoping once he did the interview for disability, I would have something from them saying he had filed for disability, and that would count as proof of NO income. That had to be delayed because of the most recent hospital stay. I have considered a gofundme, but then I wonder if they would claim that was income, and disqualify us for anything. I intend to utilize the food bank for groceries this week, and the utilities will stay on until spring, no matter what. Fortunately, my house is paid for, so no worries about that. I just need to keep my cable bill paid, because the phone is included in that, and we need that for the phone interview for disability. I did get his Eliquis for free for 3 months, so I could figure out proof of income for them. The Entresto is an issue, that pharmaceutical company wasn’t as nice. His doctor did give us a bunch of free samples though, so we are good for a couple of months.
Patty, I have nothing to offer but sympathy—but that you can have in bucketsful. Or bucketfuls, whichever works better for you. I am so, so sorry that you and your husband are undergoing such tough times.
Good morning! It rained a lot last night (late, thankfully; I went to bed to the sound of it) but now it’s just cloudy. I will have to go out at some point but that point is not now.
Hmm…looks like uploading photos is one of the things Mike turned off? I had breakfast but I guess I’ll save it for next Caturday. Instead, moo-ow.
I’ve re-enabled embedding images in comments, and that’s a funny picture! 😀
Mike, not to worry. We know you’re doing all you can to get things back to normal. We gots faith in you!
Good Morning All, what a nice surprise to see my Schatzie featured on Caturday! Thank you Mr. Mike. And no worries about the website. We know we are in good hands with you.
I’ve had a rollercoaster week. My intern had a grand mal seizure on Tuesday, which rattled all of us. He is fine, but we are still recovering. They are terrifying. I’m teaching again this semester and my class is one of the best I’ve ever had. They are so excited by the course content and genuinely like each each other. That dynamic makes the 5.5 hour class go a lot faster. It is a book arts class for graphic designers and I always make them sew their course books together on the first day of class. (duh, right?) One of the students told me that when she told her brother he scoffed, “that is the most art-school thing I’ve ever heard of.” I’ve never thought about it that way!
Just cleaning today, knitting some more on my socks, hoping for enough snow tomorrow evening to get another snow day on Monday. Happy weekend everyone!
Tara, I think I’d like to be your student!
Me too. Hope your assistant recovers very quickly.
Thanks DebG – we met up last night to touch base among other things. He’s fine and we made a game plan about how to approach all staff on Monday. I think things are fine. I’m lucky and work with a wonderful group of people.
Aw thanks! and backatcha N. Fritz! I love hearing about your students.
No need to apologize about the site glitches, Mike. These things happen. Wish me luck, everyone: having surgery this coming week and then I’m off work for 6 weeks recovery. I have never had surgery before though I have faith in my doctors and I’m looking forward to feeling better in the coming weeks. I am sure I will be kicking around this cute town as I recover at home.
Good luck!
Good Luck Birdcage, and in six weeks time, Spring will almost be here– something to look forward to. 🙂
Good luck with the surgery, Birdcage, and I hope your recovery goes smoothly!
Sending healing vibes and best wishes, Birdcage.
Best of luck and heaps of pawsitive vibes. Just think, you’re going to be a brand-new Birdcage at the end of 6 weeks! Keep us posted.
Sending lotsa good healing thoughts your way Birdcage. Hoping everything goes well for you!
Best of luck, Birdcage!
Moi aussi, best wishes for your surgery.
Sending gentle, feathered hugs to everyone today.
Another polar vortex has struck our area. And I am going back to bed. Unfortunately, unlike Tara, I do not have a beautiful furred foot warmer, so I will have to do without. Have a great weekend, all.
Sorry Duckie, sending you warm thoughts!
Tara, your house panther is beautiful (and practical!). My own prefers to keep me warm from under the covers, which is fine with me in the winter; not so much in summer, though.
It’s hubby’s birthday today, so I’m waiting for him to get off the phone with his sister so I can give him his gift. Later we’re going to dinner and then to the Seattle Sounders soccer game. It’s sunny here, but supposed to get down to 27 tonight, so I’ll be wearing plenty of layers and walking around feeling like the Michelin man all night.
I don’t even need plenty of layers for that, it seems I am a natural born Michelin woman – at least in winter 🙂
Thanks Soccersue and yes – he has his uses! Unlike yours he is only around for wintertime warm. Summer time he is MIA.
What a beautiful, shiny house panther you have, Tara!
I wish lots of luck to Birdcage and Patty.
I am also sending out some positive degrees to those still dealing with winter as it is surprisingly warm here.
Thanks Ems!
Happy weekend, folks. I’ve turned some functions back on, including thumbs up/down and adding images to posts. I’m not convinced they were ever at fault, and in fact I’m not at all sure what was at fault. Oh, well.
Some news about Ani, my rabbit. A few weeks ago, she was shaking her head, and not in the “whee, I’m having fun!” way that rabbits do, but more in a “I’ve got something in my ears” sort of way.
So I took her to the vet and learned that indeed there were mites in her ears, and she was trying to shake them out. The doc gave me some Advantage flea medicine, the kind you pour on the skin, and that seems to have cleared the problem up.
Poor sweetie! I hope she’s feeling better now. We’d love to see more pictures of her, Mike (hint hint).
I’m glad the flea medicine worked. I remember my Minkette had an itchy ear once that she couldn’t leave alone. The vet tried and tried and finally said I can’t think of anything else – try a dermatologist. I did and she tried and tried but still the ear was itchy. Finally, the dermatologist brought in a neurologist for a consult – I remember this so well because I thought it was hilarious that my cat had finer and more elaborate medical care than I did (I had insurance for her). I don’t remember now what the solution was but it worked.
That’s good news! On that subject, my* cat Shorty has a chronic skin problem that leaves his skin scaly. His other owner, my neighbor, took him to the vet where he got a steroid shot that cleared it up temporarily. But the condition is back again, so he’s going in for another shot soon.
I’m glad Ani is doing better already, and I hope Shorty will be shortly. (Say that five times fast.)
Bibi is going for her first dental visit on Tuesday. I’m always much more concerned about the anesthesia than anything else, but she seems to be in excellent health, and not a senior doggo yet, so I feel pretty optimistic. I have work to do all day with someone else, which should keep me well distracted while Bibi is undergoing her care.
Have we seen pictures of Bibi yet? How do we know she exists? Link to a thread if you already posted pics please, Ricky’s Mom!
Be careful with steroid shots for your kitty Shorty. They can cause feline diabetes.