Dave bought me a purple Alienware Aurora computer for Christmas. It is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. I am very impatiently waiting, the poor Fedex guy is not going to know what hit him. I'm sure when Dave gets home tomorrow, I will be up to my eyeballs in packing material.

Thanksgiving was pretty nice. Wednesday we went to Austin to spend the night at Dave's brother Steve's new house. It is a nice house, hasn't been updated since the 70's, brown shag carpets and wood paneling abound, so there's work to be done, but it's in really nice shape.

We got some pictures of their cats. Flash really, really wants to know what is at the bottom of this cup:

While Ming just wants to be worshipped:


Thursday we drove to Llano to spend the day with Dave's parents and other assorted family members. This is where we got Elmo. Dave's mom managed to catch all the female cats to have them spayed, now she's working on getting all the males fixed also. So hopefully the fourteen that they have will be all. This is one of Elmo's brothers having a snooze:


Zedd is unimpressed with all the other cats, although he did give me a good sniffing when we got home.

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week: "Hand-dyed fabrics - love 'em or hate 'em? If you love them, what kind/colours do you have?"

Well, I just don't feel that strongly about hand dyed fabrics. It's not a case of love or hate. I've got a couple of projects that I'm stitching on them, and a couple more pieces in the stash. I like the way they look for some things, and find them too busy for others. How about that for decisiveness?

Earlier this year I learned that I had periodontitis, there are so many reasons why genetics, smoking, lack of calcium, that we couldn't figure out a single cause. My dentist tried a couple of things, he did a deep cleaning procedure and injected some antibiotics below the gumline. It helped, but not enough, so I had a referral to a periodontist.

Because of that, yesterday I had gum surgery. Today my face aches, tylenol with codeine is my best friend, and I have what looks and feel like playdoh covering most of my gumline. I'd take a picture, but I don't want to scare anyone. The worst part is I am only allowed to eat soft foods until the 29th, when he takes the dressing off. So no Thanksgiving feast for me. I can probably have mashed potatoes and candied yams, and stuffing, but unless we put the turkey in the blender, no turkey for me.

I did manage to score a couple of days off from work to recover, so I've put in a bunch of crafting time. I'm currently working on the last gazebo from part 6 of Mystery 6. Only 6 more parts to go, which is unfortunate since it will never be done on time. I bought the kit for Mystery 8 and am all ready to start on Jan 1st. I wonder if having two mysteries on the go will make me crazy (crazier?). I'm also tempted by Martina's latest design, the first Mystery Sampler. I want to see the color theme first before I decide 100%, but I'm betting that will be added to my rotation also.

I finished the Mobius scarf that I was working on, it's done in a Peruvian Baby Alpaca and Silk Blend that I got from Elann. Here's a closeup of the stitch pattern,

I have to get Dave to take a picture of me modeling to show it to best advantage. Ok, to show it to it's best advantage, I'd probably have to hire a thinner, more well groomed model type, but I'll do the best I can.

Elmo isn't the smartest, but he sure is the cutest:

Dave has to remember to be very careful when he's moving his chair around.

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week:

"Do you find that having another distraction (music, movies, people to talk to) while stitching helps you make progress or make mistakes?"

It depends on how much I'm trying to pay attention to the other thing. Music, books on tape, most TV or movies are background noise to me. It doesn't hinder my stitching, and while I'm alone in the house I enjoy the "company". Having someone to talk to takes a little bit more of my attention. If the conversation gets good, I'll put down the crafting. Dave playing video games usually puts a cramp in my stitching. I find myself paying so much attention to what he's doing on the screen, that I end up putting down the cross stitch. Knitting on the other hand, I can knit and read, so I can knit and watch Dave play without too much trouble.

Just Finished: Fatal Error Night Cage

Finished my Raspberry Lace socks:


These are the ones that I modified the pattern from the pattern treasury from flat to round. I'm pretty happy with them, except that since it's not an even repeat there is a little odd section on the other side of the sock where the patterning isn't perfect. I tried to get a close up of the lace section, but it looked pretty crappy. Neither my scanner, nor my camera wanted to pick up the detail. I'm probably going to have to knit a swatch in some plain light colored yarn to get it to show up properly. Coming soon...

Just Finished:

:rant mode on:

I hate my neighbors (ok, hate is a little strong but...), when I got home this afternoon, two of the neighborhood kids were prying up the storm drain by the side of the house. I clearly saw them as my driveway is less than 10 feet from the drain cover.

I parked the car, and came went out to ask them to stop. Only one of the kids with his bike was still on my sidewalk. I told him to quit it, and explained that someone could get hurt, and that if I find the drain cover removed we would have to call the cops to talk to his parents. He of course, blamed it on the other kid.

His mother is sitting on a lawn chair in front of their house watching. She saw what he was doing didn't tell him to quit it. Didn't seem the least bit interested that I was talking to her kid. She also refuses to tell her kids that our driveway is probably not the best place to play. These kids leave their toys on our lawn, bang on our downstairs windows if the cats are sitting in them, leave mud all over the driveway which gets tracked into the house, and other assorted stuff. I know kids will be kids, but can't they be kids at their own houses or their friends houses? There's a perfectly good storm drain to pry the lid off of on the other side of the street.

:rant mode off: