I can’t believe I’ve gone this long without blogging! I’ve hardly been knitting either. That’s why you get to see a picture from my garden. This is one of my favorite daylilies. I don’t know the variety. I love the way that the yellow centers just glow from inside the maroonish petals. The blossoms last for only a day or two, but the plant has so many that it’s in bloom for most of the summer.

Instead of knitting I have been spending my time buried in the mundane world of work, which has taken nearly all of my time for the last month. 24 x 7 until we’re done. Should be just another couple of weeks. It’s taken so much of my time that #1 Son had been home from the tour for three days before I saw him as anything other than a mysterious lump in his bed. (The first morning I did make him wake up long enough to give me a hug. But I’m not sure he was really conscious, having come home in the wee hours of the morning, and I leaving not too long after. I talked to him on the phone, but it’s not the same.)

#1 Son was not too happy when he came home because he computer wouldn’t boot. You remember his computer? That lovely box cobbled together out of hand-me-down parts that I barely kept running long enough to get my own back together after the great WinXP auto-upgrade debacle? That wonderful, stable computing machine that worked great as long as nobody turned it off?

I turned it off.

I had good intentions. Just wanted to save a couple of $$ on the old electric bill, y’know. #1 Son was off on tour and not using it.

He came home and wanted to use it and it wouldn’t boot. And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, and all the tricks that his mom knows, couldn’t get #1 Son’s computer to boot successfully all the way and stay there again. I had to face the possibility that #1 Son’s computer had reached the end of it’s useful lifespan. And, while he could use mine for checking email, etc., there were some things he could do only on his own computer because he has different software loaded than I do. After working all weekend, I managed to wrangle yesterday and today off. I spent Monday assembling a new computer for #1 Son as a slightly-early birthday present. Well… not entirely new. I reused a bunch of stuff. But a new power supply, motherboard, CPU, video card, RAM and disk drives. Everything else was reused, but that’s still a new computer in my book.

So I put stuff together Monday morning. I took a short break to have lunch with M. But I was so tired and coming-down-with-cold feeling that I could barely eat, let alone carry on a conversation. I had planned to go knit at Tangle for awhile, but decided that sleeping on the Tangle sofa might not be that attractive to store shoppers. So I went home and set the old drives to cloning over to the new drives and took a nap. The rest of the day went: check progress, nap, check progress, nap, start next drive clone, nap, check progress, nap, start reinstalling WinXP, nap… you get the idea. By 10:00 PM the new computer was booting as smooth as silk and everything installed worked, and I was ready for bed. And that should be the last of the computer woes for awhile, knock on wood, because I’m not planning on any more computer builds until Vista is at least to SR1.

I feel better today. I even knit a little. Only a little though. This picture shows my entire knitting output over the last week. That’s it. About 4″ on a pair of sock toes. That’s Sock Candy in Lapis. I’m enjoying knitting with this yarn (when I get to). It’s nice and stretchy for a cotton, but not as stretchy as Fixation. These socks will be nice to wear. If I ever get them finished. I did’n’t make too much of an effort to start them at the same place in the color repeat, and so they are very fraternal. But I like them.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. One of my neighbors is barbecuing something wonderful that’s heavy on the garlic. It smells sooooo good! I love July 4th, but it’s tough on my fur kids. Last night all three cats tried to sit on my lap at the same time. Since all three are fairly good-sized cats, and since I already take up a goodly portion of the chair, we all just didn’t fit. But I ended up with Moo Cow on one side and Captain Kidd on the other. Phoebe had to be content with cuddling as close to the chair as she could get. I reached down and petted her frequently. Just now Moo jumped up and planted her butt smack-dab on the keyboard. I finally convinced her that it made it very hard for me to type. I love the 4th. But I’ll be glad for their sakes when it’s over.

Oh… and in case anyone was wondering… I delivered the red Fixation socks to their designated recipient. They fit perfectly, she loves them, and they actually went with the outfit she was wearing that day. It’s funny how often that happens. I give someone a hand-knit gift and whatever they’re wearing that day just happens to be a perfect match. Coincidence? Or do I have some sort of odd fashion ESP. Yeah… It’s probably coincidence. 😉

I just found 1/2 of a bar of chocolate in my drawer. It was a present from one of the women I spent the weekend at the coast with a couple of weeks ago. I’d forgotten (really) that I stuck it in my drawer at work, just in case I needed it some day. Like right now. Oh my goodness… it tastes sooooo good.

Almost I can get back that wonderful calm energy I felt all that long weekend. Lazy shopping trips, long beach walks, talking, eating, knitting. It was all so nice.

It took no time for that to just fade away when I returned to the city.

I’m still here at work, finishing up a couple of things after most have left. The walls are being repainted, and a crew is here with ladders and such. They’ve turned a radio to a country station and are singing along to the music. 🙂 A little different atmosphere than the usual work-a-day world.

If I close my eyes and taste that chocolate, I can almost transport myself back to the beach.

Stressed is desserts spelled backwards…

The green basket weave socks are just past the point where I could legitimately make them anklets so I must admit publicly I will not wimp out. I will finish them. But they are not yet to the point where they go back to being mindless destressing knitting. I must finish them soon because I must start on the Sockapaloooza socks, Alice’s socks, the samples for the sock class, and several other socks ideas that are tumbling around in my head willy-nilly. It appears that 2006 will be the year of the sock, any other plans I may have made to the contrary.

Thank you to those who have asked after Kidd. He is doing better.

I have finally found a food that he likes. Fancy Feast Gourmet Gold with Ocean Fish and Salmon. Dry food. Kibbles. [shrug] I’ve been tempting him with all of the moist food, as close to Gerber baby meat as I can get and still be cat food — expensive little cans full of bits of yummy things with gravy poured over. He turns his nose up at them.

I filled a little bowl with the FFGGOFS kibbles and he spent a solid hour in the kitchen crunching away. Go figure.

Cats are strange.

Yesterday morning I took Kidd to the specialist that my regular vet had referred him to. It was a busy and bustling office, but the staff were warm and friendly. A nice tech took Kidd’s history and then spirited him away for a few minutes for mundane things like temperature and weight while I knit rapidly and mindlessly. (Temp, normal / weight, way low)

When returned, Kidd cuddled up close to me and stuck his head up my sweater sleeve. He knows that if his head is hidden, nobody can see him and he’s safe. The original ostrich. I sat quietly holding Kidd and listening to the soothing sound of water running in this kitschy little Christmas village fountain. I’m not sure why it’s still Christmas here, but the sound was calming so maybe that’s the point. For all I know, it’s been Christmas here for years.

After a short wait, Dr. Specialist came in for the exam. He looked Kidd over from stem to stern and discussed his history with me. His suggestion was to start with x-rays to see if that would show anything, although most of the possible diagnoses would probably not be x-rayable.

The nice tech fetched Kidd again and whisked him away to parts unknown. I sat and again mindlessly and swiftly knit away on the basketweave socks. I hadn’t decided whether to go with a short-row heel (more “basket” looking) or a gusset-and-flap heel (more comfortable). At some point during the wait, I must have unconsciously decided to go with a short-row heel because I mindlessly and swiftly knit way past the point I should have started a gusset. I began to like the Christmas display.

Between the mindless knitting and the babbling Christmas fountain, I kept my cool pretty well, I think.

The x-rays were inconclusive. Except Kidd’s stomach appears distended for no visible reason. Certainly it’s not from eating. Dr. Specialist suggested as a next step an endoscopy, to see what’s really going on inside there. I have to drop Kidd off on Monday morning. The procedure will be done on Tuesday. The concern now, of course, is keeping Kidd alive until then.

Dr. Specialist handed me his card so I’d have his office number.

If you get in there and it’s really bad… I started to say, meaning to add please don’t let him wake up. But I couldn’t get that far.

Dr. Specialist said, In that case I’ll call you right away. I think he knew what I was trying to say. He took his card back from me, wrote on it, and then returned it. There’s my home number, he said. Call me directly if he gets into trouble over the weekend.

What a nice man, eh? I don’t think I’ve ever had a vet give me their home number before. Even my regular vet, who I love and who has taken care of my animals for 20 years, suggests Dove Lewis in an emergency.

I shook Dr. Specialist’s hand, thanked him sincerely, and said I’d have Kidd in first thing on Monday.

On the way home from work, I stopped at the store and stocked up on all of the Gerber baby meats I could find: Turkey, chicken, veal, beef, lamb… As far as I’m concerned, if that’s what Kidd wants to eat for the next two days, then that’s what he gets.

The pic is from happier times, last November. When I’m doing “computer stuff” at home, Kidd likes to either curl up under my desk at my feet or sit next to me on my bookshelf. Sometimes he lays on my desk, and runs his tail back and forth over the touch-pad I use instead of a mouse. The distance from the shelf he is sitting on to the shelf behind his head is 15″, so that gives you an idea of his size. He has to crouch to fit. He’s the tallest of my three cats, but not of course the heaviest. That distinction goes to Moo Cow.

Part 6: MGM Grand (redux)

Tuesday got off to a late start, but I did manage to squeeze a little gambling and a cup of coffee in before noon. When #1 Son got up, he looked out the window and said, It’s really raining hard, Mom. You’re going to get wet going down to MGM Grand.

I dithered about whether to do the focus group or not. But… $50 is $50 and I’m not so wealthy that it isn’t a meaningful sum of cash. I was due down there at 2:15, so I started out about 1:00. I decided to be “smart” and take the monorail so I wouldn’t have to walk so far. I knew the closest monorail stop was a Bally’s. For some reason I thought that I had to walk up to the corner and take the people-mover conveyor belt thingy into the casino. By the time I walked up the street, I was soaked. And, once in the casino, I realized that I could have walked through Paris and gotten there virtually dry.

And my foot really hurt, now. I could tell it was starting to blister on the bottom.

Since it was raining there were quite a few people waiting for the monorail, but I managed to get on to the second train that came. At MGM Grand, I hobbled down to Television City for the focus group. We were asked to watch snips from several shows that were simulcast on both HD-TV and regular TV and notice the differences. Then we were led to a room where we were asked lots of questions about how much we would be willing to pay for on-demand TV shows (zero, in my case), if we would pay $7 to see a movie 0n-demand with no commercials and available for 24 hours (no, since I currently pay around $3), if we would rather have $1500 cash or $2500 in electronic equipment (probably cash), and what equipment were we planning on buying in the next year (none). There was some debate about whether my computer counted like a Tivo, since I do have cable running to it and can record TV shows for later viewing.

After receiving my hard-earned (hardly earned?) $50, I hobbled out to the monorail station. The line for the monorail was now all the way out to the casino. I waited for a long, long, time. I would have risked the rain and walked, but by now my foot was killing me and the blister on the bottom felt like it was the size of Mt. Hood. So I waited. Back at Bally’s, I turned left and walked through Paris. I only got a little wet between Paris and the Aladdin. I bought some band-aids and hobbled upstairs to tape my foot up. I told #1 Son that I had to have some different shoes, so we needed to go shopping. I was also pretty hungry, as I hadn’t eaten. The litter in the room announced that #1 Son had gone for take-out sushi, but there wasn’t even a crumb left.

Part 7: The Aladdin (redux)

While in the room, I called Aladdin engineering and told them that I was having problems with the mouse, that I’d called Sprint, and that nobody had ever come by or called. The guy I talked to said that he’d call me back right away. I never heard from him.

The Desert Passage mall at The Aladdin has 104 shops. It’s not quite as upscale as The Forum at Caesar’s or the mall at Paris, but there are a lot of cool shops to look in. There was, of course, a shoe store. And they had shoes in European sizing, which fit me much better than American sizes. I bought two pairs — a pair of red casual shoes and a pair of black dress shoes — and wore the red ones out of the store. My foot started to feel better immediately, as did my spirit. There’s nothing like a new pair of shoes. Mama used to say that when you’re down you should go buy a new hat to lift your spirit. I look sucky in hats, so I buy shoes. 😀

We also stopped in a souvenir shop to buy umbrellas and gifts for some of #1 Son ‘s friends. He picked up a t-shirt and two souvenir lighters. We also ate passable but totally uninspired enchiladas at a Mexican restaurant that also boasted (go figure) bad coffee.

It was still raining. It rained hard enough to overflow the Bellagio fountain.

After shopping we hung around the room (mom with foot propped up) until it was time to hobble down to The Flamingo for:

Part 8: George Wallace at The Flamingo

Finally a good show! Both George Wallace and the comedian who did the warm up were hysterically funny. We were sitting right by the stage, so #1 Son got teased about his hair. 😉 I thought of it as turnabout’s fair play since last year I was teased soundly by the magician at V.

On the way back to The Aladdin, it was still raining like crazy. But, we were dry under our umbrellas. We turned in right after the show because we had to get up early for:

Part 9: Hummer Gold Rish Adventure Tour

Last year we took a Hummer tour to the Grand Canyon and it was lots of fun. So this year I booked the Hummer Gold Rush Adventure Tour, that takes you out to a gold mine and a ghost town. We had to be out at the pick-up point at 8:00 AM in order to catch the Hummer for the tour. The Hummer showed up about 8:20, and the driver said that the tour had to be cancelled.

Water and deserts don’t mix. The electricity at the mine and the ghost town was out and the roads were closed because of flash floods.

We were offered $10 off on the Valley Of Fire tour, but since I happen to know that tour is quite a bit less than $10 off of the gold mine tour price, I declined. Instead we trooped back in to the concierge desk to get a refund and find out if any other tours were still open. Well, said the nice lady at the concierge desk. I could probably book you on:

Part 10: Annie Bananie’s Wild West Vally Of Fire & Lake Mead tour

OK. It’s a hokey name meant to grap the attention of Japanese tourists. But, hey… what the heck. It was either Annie Bananie or boredom.

While the concierge lady got our tour booked, I took the opportunity to discuss with the manager the situation with our mouse. She not only promised to have it fixed by the time we got back, but also comped our internet usage. 🙂

For the tour, we were picked up by “Sierra Sam” in a 12-seat mini-van. Sam was a Texan who’d been doing the tour for many years, and he was a hoot. He had a story about everything, including the Las Vegas sign. I don’t know how many stories were tall tales, but he was entertaining. Along the way to Lake Meade he told us about the rock formations, the history of Las Vegas and pointed out the homes of famous people. Our first stop was at an area of rock formations where we got out and took pictures. We were up high enough to get some great views of the valley.

From there we travelled to Lake Meade. I was surprised to see that in many place there was dirt and gravel on the pavement where the water from flash floods had gone over the road. Many of the normally-dry gullies now contained fast-running streams. Sam said he couldn’t recall seeing it quite like that ever before.

At Lake Meade we ate lunch at a little restaurant. Food was good. Coffee was bad. It was too windy and cold to walk around much. But we did look out over the lake for a bit before retreating to the van.

Our next stop was Roger’s Spring. We looked at it from the van but didn’t get out because Sam had heard some of the roads ahead were bad and more bad weather was coming. He wanted to make sure we saw the Valley of Fire before the bad weather hit again.

We stopped at several spots in The Valley Of Fire, including the Visitor’s Center.

One stop was at some stone cabins built in the ’30’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps There are petroglyphs on the rocks behind the cabins. This picture was taken looking out of the window of the middle cabin. (click on the pic to embiggen)

As you can see, there was a great view, but the accomodations left something to be desired. The room is about 10′ x 10′, with a small fireplace and chimney in the corner opposite the door. The floor is dirt. There is no door or window. I doubt that anyone leaves a chocolate on your pillow. But, if you climb down the rocks in front of the cabins, there’s a pool and the swimming looked good.

Our last stop was at an arch formation. While there, it started to rain, and then hail. I was glad we’d seen everything because it was obviously time to call it quits.

All-in-all, the tour was a lot of fun. Sam was an awesome guide and the sights were well worth seeing. I’d recommend the tour to anyone. I’d even take it again myself. (But next year I’d really like to do the ghost town and gold mine!)

Sam dropped us off at The Aladdin in the afternoon. I was sorry to learn from him that the Aladdin is closing and will reopen as Planet Hollywood. I would have stayed at the Aladdin again. But Planet Hollywood… uh… no.

Part 11: The Aladdin (finale)
We debated where to eat dinner, and finally decided on Tremezzo, an Italian place in The Aladdin. #1 Son ordered a cup of coffee. Might as well give it one more shot. he said.

His coffee came in a French press. It smelled divine. I’ll have one of those, too. I told the waiter. Finally! Decent coffee!

After dinner it was pretty much just a little TV and then bed. We had to get up at 4:30 AM [groan] in order to get to the airport by 6:00, to catch an 8:00 AM flight. I always allow extra time for the trip back, because we always, always get stuck somewhere (usually in security).

Part 12: Homeward Bound

And we did get stuck in security. Not me this time, but #1 Son. At least the TSA in Las Vegas asked my permission before searching him. That was refreshing.

They confiscated one of the lighters that #1 Son had bought (just one of the pair, even though they were the same). And not because he had too many lighters (which he did), but because that one was deemed to be a “torch lighter,” whatever the heck that is. They also confiscated the 2″ pair of scissors that was in the little sewing kit I bought in the Aladdin sundries shop so that #1 Son could sew a button on his coat. The little scissors that could barely cut thread were deemed too dangerous.

The TSA offered to let us mail the lighter and the scissors back to ourselves for (get this) $8.00 apiece. That’s nuts. I could drop the scissors in a letter with a regular stamp and mail it at postage rates. We declined.

#1 Son was sorry to lose the lighter. But he bought another one at the gift shop in the terminal while we were waiting for our plane to board.

The ride to PDX was uneventful. Getting the car out of the parking lot was expensive, since we had to park in the garage. The fur kids were glad to see us when we picked them up. Captain Kidd had finally started eating a little Gerber turkey, Phoebe was happy since the staff had learned she likes to be scratched, and Moo Cow was queen of the world once the staff moved her into what she consideres “her room” (she whined and moaned until they did). And we were all glad to be back home.

Pics will be up on Mommymonster when I get around to it, which may not be any time soon.

1. When it appears that you have killed the monster, NEVER, EVER go check to see if it’s really dead.

2. Never read a book of demon summoning aloud, even just mumbling to yourself, if you can’t read silently you have no business with such a thing anyway!

3. Do not search the basement, especially if the power has gone out.

4. If your pets speak to you in Latin or any other language which they should not know, shoot them immediately. It will save you a lot of grief in the long run. However, it will probably take several rounds to kill them, so be prepared.

5. When you have the benefit of numbers, NEVER split up and go it alone or even pair off.

6. As a general rule, don’t try to solve puzzles that open portals to Hell.

7. Never stand in, on, or above a grave, tomb, or crypt. This would apply to any other house of the dead as well.

8. If you’re searching for something which caused a loud noise and find out that it’s just the cat, GET THE HELL OUT!

9. If appliances start operating by themselves, lights go on and off, a fire just appears in the hearth, or doors open and close by themselves – do not check for drafts, do not check for short circuits; just get out!

10. Why, why, why would you even think of sleeping in that house if that happened?

I hate heat. I’ve never tolerated it well. I like temperatures between 70 F and 75 F, mostly sunny with a few fleecy white clouds floating by on a nice breeze. Oh yeah! That’s my idea of a good time.

I do not like heat. 101. Blech. Take it away. NOW!

I know we only have to suffer through a few days of this a year. But, still, I don’t think we should have to suffer through any. I guess it makes us appreciate the great climate here the rest of the year.

There’s been a coon in the grapes a couple of nights. I’ve chased him away with a broom. I have no idea what he’s nibbling on up there. The grapes won’t be ripe for another month. Right now they are hard, sour little marbles. With my luck, the coon will be back while I’m away on vacation, the grapes will be ripe, and I’ll come home to stripped vines. It’s going to be war between those coons and I. 👿