I'm a workin'. Yes indeed...

So over the weekend, I didn't get a damn thing done knitting-wise. Nope. I played games all weekend instead. :) Eric was home on Saturday night and on Sunday he decided that it would be our Valentine's Day since he'll be out and about, winging his way across the eastern seaboard on the 14th. We went out and had some Indian food (I love Lamb Saag!) and then we decided to get some munchies (e.g. Nutty bars!) and a few computer games that we could play together. Yup, that's romance in chez urbanpagan. Ain't it grand? ;) I had a great time. :)

So when I got to work today, of course, knitting was on my mind because I got my copy of Interweave Knits Spring 2007. I love the entrelac sock pattern then have in there. Oh and just when I thought I might have the number of knitting projects under control... I see those socks.

Must.

Knit.

Them.

In Red. Or maybe blue. Hell, some nice green would work too... Ooooo! Or some purple...

Dammit! *shakes fist at Interweave Knits!*

So I started working on the socks I carry to work. Mainly because, I had to get working on my knitting resolution and it's February and I'm already one month behind! Also, because, I so want to just start on those entrelac socks, that I -had- to knit something. So here's the progress so far:



This past Friday, I stopped at Maura's house ( a non-knitting, muggle, girlfriend of mine.)

I love you Maura! :P

Anyhoo, she has this great kitty named Duncan. And he loves boxes. So much so that if you pick him up in said box, he won't move!



and a close up:



He's such a nice kitty. He smiles like that all the time. Oh and by the way, Maura's eyes aren't closed in the first pic. He's a heavy boy (17 pounds) so she wanted to make sure she wouldn't drop him and was looking at the box the whole time. :)

I call Maura a muggle because when we were chatting, we heard her neighbor, Joyce, downstairs, come home. She's got a little dog that is a bit of the yappy sort but she herself is a knitter and works at Yarns Etc in Carborro, not too far from where I work. Joyce I knew, could do some lovely work as I had seen some of her proejcts at the store and some of her patterns that she had for sale. But I had never seen any of her personal works. Oh my goodness! She has made some truly beautiful sweaters over the years! She uses the pattern for all her sweaters out of Knitting From the Top. And every single one of them is just gorgeous! I wish I had thought to go grab my camera and snap some pics so you could see them. The best part is that almost every single one of them is made with multiple types of yarn and/or crap yarns. They are just so lovely. And she told me that all you need to worry about is measuring your guage. After taht, it's all a series of calculations to see how many stitches you need to cast on. I may have to look for this book. :)

Well off I go to do some more knitting on those socks and contemplating what yarn in my stash I have that would be perfect for those entrelac socks. :P

Traffic court does great things for your knitting. :)

I had to go to traffic court today. When I was in that fender bender back in December, I found out that I was driving with a revoked license! :O See the reason this was is because of a speeding ticket I got in June of 2005. Well what happened was... I owed the county a fine and well, didn't know I did, thus my license was revoked in January of 2006.

*blink*

*blink*

Now I begin to wonder, how exactly it was that I was able to register not one but both cars in 2006 (online even) without one mention of the fact that hey, you ain't got no license chica? *shrugs* So $280 later ($120 fine plus $50 late fee plus $110 to the DMV for the replacement license) and I'm legal again. No matter what though, I still had to go to court today.

So when I got in the building, I saw a lot and I mean a lot, of people in line. I got in line and started working on my socks. As time went on, a woman came in and announced that there were 1,400 people on the docket this morning and we probably wouldn't get out of there until at least 11:30. (Did I mention I was supposed to be there are 9am?) So I settled in and knit.

About 45 minutes into my wait, one of the Assistant DA's stopped by to see if she could get some folks out of the line by offering plea bargains. Me, I got my case dismissed. :) I won't getmy $280 back but at least I didn't have to deal with any other fines and be in that line for any longer either.

So the fruit of that wait is here:



I highly recommend court for knitting time. It was very productive. *laugh*

With regards to her Highness, Princess Piddles, Fang is doing well with her anti-biotics. Although she's not too happy about the syringe down the throat twice a day but she's getting used to it I think. She's not had any other accidents and is actually drinking lots of water on her own now. That makes me feel a lot better! Thanks for all the advice you folks gave me on the knittyboard and here. She's one of my babies. I couldn't stand not knowing what to do for her and not realizing she was sick. I think that was the worst part. She's forgiven me though for not realizing it. She fianlly snuggled with me last night while I was on the computer. :)

In response to comments:

Molly said: I hope piddles is feeling better. She surely does know how to get her message across!

That's true. Nothing says "I gotta go to the vet" like soaking a few blankets! :)

Molly also said: Your view from your office is lovely. Do you work at a university?

Yes I do. I work for UNC Chapel Hill.

Stephanie said: Please MAKE the vet do an ultrasound to take a peek at the bladder if not already done. trank the cat if necessary to get a good picture. Our cat suffered needlessly for a year b/c the first vet to look at her wouldn't trank her to do a proper ultraound. Turns out she had these nasty *spiny* stones that had to be removed.

Oh your poor kitty! Thanks for that head's up! I have already scheduled the follow-up appointment. I'll talk to Dr. Beagle about getting an ultrasound done on Fang.

LaBean said: How DO you bind off socks? Do you use the EZ sewn bind off? If not, check it out, it might be what you need.

I do use a version on the EZ sewn bind off but I just wasn't sure it would look right. But then, looking at the top of the sweater where I cast on the front 52 stitches... screw it. I'll do what I'm used to. It'll look the same. :)

Sweater progress and Her Highness, Princess Piddles

We weathered the snow pretty well here in North Carolina. I did end up going to work for the entire day. Hell, no matter what, I was going out in that rental minivan. If there was enough snow in the parking lot... I was gonna go turn some donuts!

What? *insert innocent look here*

It's a rental. *insert devilish grin here*

But this is all we got while I was at work:



That was about the worst of it. By noon, most of my office was gone. When I left at 5pm, there wasn't any snow left on the ground and it was raining. The only bad part of the day was that night. Whoo! It was -cold- in the house. I didn't do anything but sit near the heater, snuggling with my kitties, wrapped in the comforters that we leave on the couch.

I didn't get much work done on Tubey, but here's the work I did get done:



The reason I didn't get much work done is because of Her Highness, the newly crowned (by Eric) Princess Piddles. Here she is, resting on her kitty bed, throne:



Yup, it was about 10pm, Eric and I went downstairs to get into bed and when I turned down the bedding, there was a big puddle of pee in the middle of the bed... right near the pillows. *sigh* She went through both comforters, the heating blanket, the sheets, and into the pillow top of the bed. All day Sunday was spent washing -everything-. The heating blanket had to be done by hand (that took quite some time!) and then put into the machine through a partial cycle. Then hung to dry. The bed couldn't be flipped once we had cleaned it because it's a pillow top so we had to turn it and put towels on it (now near our feet) for the rest of the night.

Of course this seems so odd for Fang. She has never done anything like this before. To make it worse, we had only just started letting them sleep on the bed with us so that they could stay warmer at night. Now it's all kitties banned from the bedroom, all the time until, we could figure out what was wrong and if it was indeed Fang that was the culprit. It made us both ponder all the rest of that night and the next day, if she might have a Urinary tract or bladder, infection. So while I was at work today, Eric took her to the vet. He even warmed a blanket up for her to put in her carrier by throwing it into the dryer before he put it, and her, in the carrier. (He's so sweet!) $100 later and yup, she's got something. Dr. Beagle (great name for a vet!) couldn't find any crystals in her urine but the protein count high and she's got blood her urine. So my poor Fang has to have anti-biotics twice a day and then go back in two weeks to have all that poking and prodding done to her all over again. Eric said she was a good girl while at the vet too. Didn't cry, growl, fight or anything. Even when they took her temperature. I -knew- that means she is sick because she normally fights, growls, and yells (in a most unlady-like fashion) when at the vet.

My poor kitty.