Yards and yards of pinky goodness

I've been wanting to make a quilt for the guest room bed for a number of years now. (You would think I would want a new quilt for our bed since the one we have is the first quilt that I ever made and I didn't quite understand the need to back stitch or give proper seam allowances. This has lead to many holes in the quite faded quilt. But somehow, I haven't been ready to replace it. Maybe the reasons for replacing it are all actually reasons for not replacing it.) Anyway, now that we've decided that the bed will stay in the baby's room (at least for now) I really want to do something to make it a bit more girly. I've decided on pink and brown. I'm not quite sure yet what pattern I will do for the quilt, but the fabric was half off and only through this Sunday so I just had to get it now.

I'm not so sure that the bottom left fabric (close-up below) goes as well with the rest of the fabrics but I just couldn't resist the toile images of a mother and daughter that were perfectly brown on pink fabric. I will find something to do with this.

Stimulating the Economy

With all the talk about President Obama's Economic Stimulus Plan, I am continuously reminded of Zoe the cat's recommendation. Enjoy this video brought to us by our favorite cat-loving engineers. Her stimulus plan comes in at about 4:25.




If you haven't seen the original "Engineer's Guide to Cats," you really need to click here.

I think it has been at least 2 days since I've posted about my cats ... so you all are due. When we first got these sweet girls, I was really good about trimming their claws EVERY Sunday. They squirmed the first time but quickly learned to associate claw cutting with the treat they got afterwards. In fact, I have to cut Anabelle's claws second because as soon as we are done, she runs over to the drawer where the treats are kept. If I don't follow shortly, she gets quite impatient.

Lately, I have not been very good about the every Sunday aspect of the cutting of the nails. I think we went 3 weeks and it wasn't until I realized how often I was yelling at them to stop clawing the couch or some other inappropriate place that I realized that they probably needed their claws cut.

Well, I forgot again this last Sunday. I was reminded when I heard Arlo strongly urge them away from the couch (i.e. yell) for the third time this morning. Really, they were just a little bit crazy. They like the items that we bought them specifically to claw, but this morning it also felt good to give the couch a good swipe as they were racing pell mell around the room.

I cut Millie's claws first for two reasons. One was mentioned above and the other is that Anabelle is so jealous of any attention that anyone other than her receives (this will be interesting in a few weeks) that she comes and stands right next to me. This is quite convenienet in my pregnant state as I don't have to get up in order to take my next customer. My growing tummy has made this job a little more difficult than it used to be. I typically lay the cat on her back while she is on my lap in order to cut the front claws. Then, I sink her further into the hollow of my crossed legs in order to gain access to her back claws. Well, this hollow is fast disappearing. But we managed. And the rest of the day was couch clawing free.

We'll see about tomorrow.

Queen for an Evening

Hugs from Heaven, a new baby boutique in a higher end shopping plaza, had a pampering night for moms-to-be. We had foot baths, foot massages, and shoulder massages while they came around and gave us Mama-tinis and fed us nummy food and desserts. There door prizes were pretty fantastic as well. In addition to a little baby toy and a goody bag with coupons and such I won a 30 minute massage. I think I will wait until I get closer to my date to redeem that one. And for now, I'm going to take my relaxed self to bed.

Nine Months

Do you remember this movie with Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore? I didn't. Except I think I might have seen it. Either that, or the previews and commercials for the movie overlapped in such a way that I had seen the movie without ever having seen it.

Regardless, I thought this should be a nice funny movie to watch as I head into my 34th week of this pregnancy. There were parts that I found particularly funny based on my own personal experience. But mainly I thought "Wow! I can't believe I'm watching a movie with Tom Arnold. I remember now why I don't watch movies with Tom Arnold." and that it was almost, but not quite completely unlike, being pregnant. Although, I do understand everyone experiences pregnancy differently. But it is hard to be believable when your premise is that the "perfect relationship" is rocked to its core by pregnancy. I'm not buying a perfect relationship that has so little communication in it.

While I have told many people that I don't think I could have been a single pregnant woman, that Arlo's support has been imperative and so important to me, I wasn't sure I had told Arlo this (or at least not recently). So I took the opportunity to do so. And I'm doing so again, publicly.

Thank you so much for your love and support. I love you, Arlo and I think you will be as wonderful a father as you are a husband.

Crazy Kitties

Anabelle was sick earlier this week (Sunday and Monday mostly with some extra sleeping on Tuesday) and I don't think Millie knew what to do with herself. So she went exploring ... Not only can she open all ground level cabinets but she can also stand up on the bathroom counter and open the medicine cabinet in order to get at the plastic basket that holds my make-up. I'm sure she could reach Arlo's side if she wanted to .... but it does not seem that she does. Now that Anabelle is feeling better (we haven't heard a sneeze since Tuesday morning), Millie is showing her all of her new tricks. When I came home from my book club meeting yesterday, the house looked as if a tornado had gone through. No kitties met me at the door (as the ALWAYS do). Every cabinet was open. Every piece of paper that used to be on a surface (table, shelf, etc) was on the floor. Baskets were overturned, etc. The cords that tie up the kitchen windowblind were disheveled and one of my african violets sitting in the kitchen window was out of its pot and lying in the sink. The pot was nearby, luckily not broken. As I weaved my way through the destruction, I kept calling out for the girls ... no response. I thought that they might have just been hiding, knowing that they had done wrong. But no, they were sleeping the sleep of the innocent (extremely tired but still innocent) upstairs in the office (which was also in a shambles but it is hard to tell what they did vs. the mess it has been in ever since I tried to organize it).

Today was more of the same, except we were home. Therefore, we just kept yelling or distracting them from their path of destruction whenever possible. We dug out every milk ring and mousie that we could find (mostly from under the hutch where Anabelle keeps them banished) and they might have tired themselves out. We'll see.

I suppose this is good practice for having a two-year-old in a couple of years ...

A Taste of Childhood

When I was 8 or 9 years old, the Harlem Globetrotters came to Hawaii. Of course I knew the Harlem Globetrotters from Scooby Doo.



It seemed that all of my friends went to see them and it was all they talked about for weeks. I was so jealous.

So when I saw on t.v. that they were coming to the Joyce Center at Notre Dame ... I asked Arlo to see if he got a faculty discount. He did and so we went. I think we were among 10 people in the crowd that did not have kids with us. It was pretty campy and slapstick but I loved watching how much fun the kids were having. The basketball handling was fun to watch and there were a several antics that I found myself laughing out loud at.