Tuesday, February 26, 2008

BIRTHDAY SURPRISE IN THE BIG APPLE!

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Happy 40th, ARLENE!
Bently, Jenna, and I surprised Arlene with a trip to New York City for her 40th birthday!


All she knew was that she was going "somewhere" for 4 days, was told to pack warm clothes, and that was it. Bently told her she was going to NYC the day before they left! They flew into Laguardia, took a cab to The Hilton Midtown, and I was sitting in the lobby waiting for them. She thought that it was the 3 of them going "somewhere" and that it was a shame that I wouldn't be spending her birthday with her. Tee Hee Hee! Little did she know this was all planned months ago. I'll put more pictures up tomorrow but for now here are a few:
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A birthday toast!

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Arl and Jen shopping at FAO Schwartz

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Jenna the Snow Angel

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Arl, Bent & Jen in front of our hotel. There's nothing like Manhattan at night.

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Arl & Jen skating at Rockefeller Center

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Jenna ordered a "Yahoo". Ya see how technology has taken over?

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We ate our faces off at The Carnegie Deli. Now THIS is matzo ball soup!

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Myself and Jen (the other Jen) at The Rainbow Room

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Jenna packed a mean snowball for a Florida kid!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Knitters & The Mountain Meet!

This is the view from the deck at The Mountain in North Carolina where I spent 3 glorious days. The Atlanta Knitting Guild plans this trip every year and space is at a premium, as there are only 50 spots available. This 3 day weekend was: wonderful, beautiful, outstanding, hilarious, restful, non-stressful, etc. etc. etc.
I rode there with Claudia and on the way up we stopped at Sharon Grist's home for some of her homemade soup. Every year she opens her home to the knitters going to the retreat. Unbelievable. She had 6 different pots of soup, all delicious, and a very homey atmosphere. The weather was just beautiful when we got there on Friday and we were able to get in some knitting out on the deck before it got too cool. Look at that view!

From left to right: Brett, Lou, Stuart, Steve, Doug, and Rob.
These guys are such a fun and talented bunch. I wish I had 10% of their knitting skills and creativity.

Claudia working on her argyle socks. She makes stranding look so easy. I have enough trouble keeping track of a single strand.

Joni, our tour director, with fellow knitter.


Delicious sheep cake that Linda baked. I'm glad I got a picture of most of it before it was inhaled.

Look at THIS! A CAT afghan knitted by Joni. She brought several of these to curl up under. Do you believe the work in this? I love the knitted cats, and if you look closely you'll even see some knitted mice in there, along the border. Now I know why Joni is known as the intarsia queen.

This was a great weekend get-away. I'll be staying put for another month and then I'll be off to Florida the end of March to see my kids, Grandkid, Grandcats, and Granddogs.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Cat Knits BINGO


I WON Cat Knits Bingo!

The Cat Knits group on Ravelry had a bingo contest. The moderator of the group gave everyone a list of cat breeds to choose from, and we all picked out 25 numbers. Then each day, she picked out 5 winning numbers and posted them. When you had all 25 on your list you had to post , "BINGO" and the 1st person doing so won. I was waiting for just 1 more since yesterday and today it hit. It was the Marbled Cat that did it! There were several other "bingos" also, but I won because I posted 1st. Hey, ya gotta get up early and keep track of these things.

I have no idea what the prize is, but whatever it is I'll show ya'll when it arrives. This really was so much fun!

The Amber Room



I saw this video on Yahoo News today. Eileen, Jen and Winnie and I saw this when we toured St Catherine's Palace last summer when we were in Russia. It was absolutely amazing.

Monday, January 28, 2008

And The Winners Are............

When I started The Central Park Footie Contest I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. SO many adorable pictures of pet feet were entered that I literally took hours in the decision process. I did not use a random number generator which I thought would help with equally deserving entries. Instead, I enlisted the help of family members to help choose the winners in each category.

AND NOW, without further ado, are the winners:

THE CUTEST AWARD goes to both RICKY & PHOEBE, owned by Dotty!
Ricky's Mom writes, "Ricky is an 8 year old flame point ginger/siamese mix. He's a stray that we rescued from a local shelter. He's loud and loves to sniff the inside of people's shoes. He steals food whenever he can. I call him the "cat alarm" because he sits at the bottom of the stairs and meows loud enough to wake me up in the morning.

"Phoebe is 11 years old and she's a tortie complete with tortie-tude. She was also rescued from a local shelter. She's a med/long hair and has the tiniest mew. Her favourite way of waking me up in the morning is to sit on my pillow and purr really loudly. If that doesn't work, she leans over, sniffs my face, and licks my eyebrow."
CONGRATULATIONS, on the double win, Dotty!

THE NOT-SO CUTEST AWARD goes to MIA, owned by Megann!Mia is adorable and she won in this category because of her poor shaved paw. Megann writes, "Here's a picture of my cat's foot. Her name is Mia and she's 11 years old. She is currently going through a lot of medical issues right now and her leg is shaved where they keep having to put the IV in. She HATES the shaved part and shakes her leg around all the time and licks it. Sometimes she even stop walking and just stare at it like it's some weird growth...lol We call it her chicken leg for some reason. Please keep your fingers crossed that she will be ok. Tomorrow is x-ray, ultrasound and needle aspiration of her liver day.

Best wishes for a good prognosis and a speedy recovery, Mia!

THE AWARD FOR THE LARGEST FOOT goes to CHIEF, an 80 lb. Dalmatian, whose owner is Marj.

THE AWARD FOR THE SMALLEST FOOT goes to GUS!


His Mom, Kate, writes,"Gus is a 5 year old leopard gecko. He is about 6-7 inches from nose to tail. As with most reptiles, Gus is fairly easy to care for. He gets fed live crickets 3 to 4 times a week, has his water changed every other day, and just lounges around in the "sun" the rest of the day since he is mostly a nocturnal animal. His "sun" is a special 75 watt spotlight and his "moon" is a 25 watt blacklight made especially for reptiles. Leopard geckos are different from other geckos in that they have movable eyelids instead of nictitating membranes over their eyes. They also do not have the ability to climb walls since they do not have the little suction cups on their toes. Every now and again, Gus gets to walk around outside his cage and people are always a little surprised when they feel his feet on their skin. He has tiny claws that pinch a little. He is quite fast too, and we have had a few escape attempts when he's out and about for a walk."

THE MOST UNUSUAL goes to FIZZGIG!
Fizzgig is a bearded dragon owned by Carry.

THE FURRIEST goes to TRIBBLE!

Tribble's Mom, Tanya, writes, "Tribble is a Jersey Wooly bunny who came to us from a confiscation of over 80 rabbits and in spite of such a poor start to life she has an amazing personality and just loves people. She is bonded to Tuxedo (13 y.o. male) and Sophie (~5 y.o. female) and spends most of her day snuggling with them or grooming them. Tribble earned her name because she is small and furry and she "talks". She coos and chatters while she grooms herself; she snores (very delicately, mind you); she sounds the alarm when she gets groomed.
Tribble came to us via the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society which can be viewed at MN.CompanionRabbit.org."

THE PUDGIEST goes to KEL!
Kel's Mom writes, "I took this when Kel was lying on my bed, keeping me company (I'm recovering from bronchitis) and luxuriously stretching his paws. He has such lovely furry paws with soft black underfur between each pad. He has such control over each toe they're almost like little thumbless hands.

THE MOST COLORFUL FOOT Award goes to TWINKLE TOES!
Her Mom writes," Twinkle Toes is a big beautiful old gal of 16 who is called “Aunt Tink” around the house because she is the surrogate Mom to all the other kitties. She nursed and never left the side of each kitty as they went through their final days of illness including both siblings before crossing over the rainbow bridge. She grooms her kitty friends and never leaves our side, keeping us during illness as well. She is a sweet, gentle and undemanding. Twinkle is the most special of cats and has stolen our hearts, always."

AN HONORABLE MENTION goes to PRINCESS, my Grandcat, owned by Jenna!
Jenna writes, "One day when I was 3 years old there was a park by my house. My mom pushed me in a stroller as she walked around the park. We saw a kitty, very cute, about my age. When we got back to my house we noticed the cat had followed us home. At the time we already had one cat so we had cat food. So my mom put a bowl of water and cat food outside for the kitty. We had two doors, a regular door and a screen door in the front. The regular door was already open so I opened the screen door and she flew rite in my house. Ever since that day we kept her and I named her Princess (I was only 3). Now I’m 11 and we still have her. All she does is sleep, eat, and hisses at our new 11 month old teacup/toy Pomeranian but that is what makes her her. I love her so much and if I could pick any cat in the world besides my other cat I would pick her. Remember when I said I named her Princess and I was only 3, well if I could pick a new name now I wouldn't change it."

It will be difficult to think up a prize for Jenna & Princess, but I’m sure I'll come up with something. : )

CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners and THANK YOU to everyone who entered their pets. I received pictures of over 60 pets and I wish I could give prizes to each of them.

I will be contacting the winners to make arrangements regarding sending your prize.

It's time for Sunny & Beauty Baby's evening brushing session, so I will now say Goodnight!

No, I Didn't Forget

The winners of the Central Park Footie Contest have been selected and will be announced tonight!

This project took much more time than I anticipated, between the choosing of winners to blogging all their pictures. Thank you to all who participated and also for your help to the ones who I had asked to send in some additional photos of your pet.

I would have finished yesterday but I spent the whole afternoon at Knitch with the most hilarious bunch of knitters you've ever shaken a needle at. Time well spent, believe me. I laughed my ass off for 5 hours + got a lot of knitting done. Cures what ails ya.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

I Won, I Won, I Won!

I am SO excited! I WON the contest given by The Knit Witch in celebration of her birthday. Everyone entering had to submit to her your funniest, stupidist or most embarrasing moment. Well, I WON! You can read all about it on her blog, but here was my entry:

My funniest story is about a knitted toy class I took at a LYS several years ago. We all made felted mouse puppets and mine was all knitted up. All I had to do was attach the tail and felt it. I was working away, in class, and proudly held up my mouse when I finished attaching the tail. It was aligned perfectly except for one thing: I attached the tail to the FRONT of the puppet instead of the back! You can imagine what it looked like! Everyone started to laugh and that's when I realized the mistake. My face turned SO red and we all had a good laughing session because of this!

The Knit Witch offered a choice of some lovely yarn OR one of her GORGEOUS ceramic Yarn Bowls. Of course I chose the Yarn Bowl. Yarn I have.....a handmade Yarn Bowl I did not.

Thank you, Knit Witch for having such a great contest to celebrate YOUR birthday!
Here is my prize. These beautiful bowls are available for purchase on her site, so go look!