Kitten-Slaughter

The mess was everywhere. As I entered the living room, I could see the first indications that someone had suffered an ignoble end. Two steps in, it was clear.

Yarn Ball was dead.

His innards were strewn across the room. His tail was caught in the Velcro of my laptop charger. Poor Yarn Ball.

As we know from The Princess Bride, though, there is a difference between dead dead and just mostly dead. Would true love bring him back?

I went about fixing him. I rerolled him faster, stronger.

Obi seemed happy. Then, about an hour later, The Boy walked into the room. “Oh noes,” he said. “The yarn ball isn’t a ball anymore.”

It was true.

I looked at Obi. Suspicious. Suddenly, what is assumed was kitten-slaughter seemed more like murder.

The Boy started trying to fix Yarn Ball. After realizing he’d never rolled a ball of yarn in his life and that it’s not as easy as he thought, he handed Yarn Blob to me.

With a kiss to the ears, I set the brown suspect free and tossed Yarn Ball to the floor.

We’ll see how this story unravels in coming days.

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Working Hard for a Living

On the second day back to work, Oliver continues to love the cozy. My fleece pajamas and fuzzy robe are his favorite. And if he can find a cozy spot on my lap? All the better.

He just wishes I’d stop clicking right by his ear.

***
I did have to get up and get dressed because I’m kitteh sitting for a friend this week.

I came home and sat down briefly to send an email.

Obi was there in second to make sure I didn’t move again. We’ll have none of that leaving stuff when there’s snuggling to do.

***

I was allowed off the couch, briefly, when The Boy came home. I used the opportunity to restart our Roku to see if the TV quality would improve. The opening sequence is the letters r-o-k-u falling onto the screen.

Obi’s eyes got wide. Do it again.

It reminded me that there is a channel for cats on Roku. We looked and found a free channel that looks really lame. The one we wanted is a dollar a month. That’s too much.

Obi knew there was a limit to my love.

***

Then we watched a show he heard me call Downton Tabby. He watched the whole time and never saw a cat. In fact, those people have a dog!

Obi’s life is full of disappointment.

***

I talked about blocking my squares of yarn the other day. The instructions told me to use a block of foam covered in batting but I just used some pieces of foam core that The Boy saved from recycling at work. A friend asked me if it seemed to be working and I mentioned the batting might have been important because the blocks weren’t drying as quickly as I expected.

You know what helps yarn dry more quickly?

Your grey kitten not peeing on them, that’s what.

So now I need directions for washing my squares.

***

WordPress says this is my forth bloggiversary. Thanks to those of you who have been here all along and welcome to our new friends!

Blocking

As you know, Kitten Thunder is very helpful. They love to knit. But sometimes our squares don’t end up, well, square and we need to block them.

Obi was helping me by hiding under the foam board to make sure I didn’t stick any pins all the way through.

Oliver came into the living room and discovered me working. He thought I was unsupervised and immediately rectified the situation.

As he stomped up my foam board, though, it squeaked. It squeaked the squeak of a squashed brown kitten.

Oliver high fived Obi in the face for a job well done.

Man’s Work

It is still raining. You’ve probably seen on the news about Colorado, this is one of those times that I’m happy that “the other square state” isn’t getting national attention. We’re getting all the rain and much less flooding. So we’re free to send our focus, our support and our troops and firemen to our friends to the south.

But we’re sick of the rain.

While we are expecting warmer weather to return, nine days without sun has gotten us thinking about winter. A second blanket has come out so we can keep the window open at night. Kitten Thunder is back to sleeping with us all night – Obi sleeps elsewhere all summer.

And The Boy decided to take some measures to see if my office can be slightly warmer than the North Pole this winter. Kitten Thunder had been catching up on television shows we missed this week, but then they heard noises in the basement.

Man stuff.

Both kittens went down to supervise The Boy. He came up briefly for something or another and verified that is where they were. He told me he was taking the humidifier off our furnace. This could be leaking a lot of warm air that should be going upstairs.

There was clunking and banging and the sound of sawing.

Man noises.

Then I heard The Boy’s voice from directly below the couch – traveling through the ductwork. “Obi!”

I grabbed the camera in case there was something that needed to be blogged going on. Oliver met me at the bottom of the stairs to tattle. He had a big story to tell. As I turned the corner from the stairs, The Boy turned the corner from the train room.

“Obi,” he said. “Is in the furnace ducts.” The Boy was gesturing at the ceiling. “I don’t know if he can’t get out or if he just doesn’t want to.”

I strolled into the utility room. Camera forgotten. There was my brown kitten, staring at me from the furnace. “How did you get up there?” I asked Obi, he was well above eye level.

Climbed. Obviously.

I reached for him and couldn’t find anything to grab before he backed away. He came back to the opening and I reached again. He backed away. I stuck my head in, looking straight down into the dark cavern of furnace. He came back to the opening to look with me.

Maybe he did need help. He let me grab him.

The Boy needed things from Home Depot and headed off on his second trip to the store. He closed the utility door behind us as I carried the brown kitten upstairs.

Obi decided to help me with my afternoon project – knitting a scarf with pockets at the end, just in case the temperatures are still polar in my office.

Mom stuff.

Yarn

It was only in the 80s today. Inspired by the cool temperatures, I decided to break out the loom and knit a scarf. It happened in small steps. I got the loom. I got the yarn. I removed the foot of peach scarf that I started, oh, 15 years ago.

There were no cats to be seen.

Finally, I started to knit.

As I wove the first row onto the nails, Obi appeared. He watched. He snuggled. He chewed on yarn as it came free from the roll.

He left as I tried to take his picture.

Oliver arrived. He allowed me to drape completed scarf over him as I worked because he wanted my lap. He also chewed on the yarn on its way to the loom.

He left as I picked up the camera.

My thumb nail hurts. As a kid, I used this loom all day and never had an issue. I think it make be time to grow up and buy a hook. I put the yarn and loom in a big bag for the night and tied it shut.

Why? Because I’m not an idiot.

Both cats have been by to try to get some yarn. They’ve worked at the bag for several minutes each before giving up on the knot. And they’ve fixed me with a glare.

Stupid Girl and her stupid thumbs.