On Cat Love:

I am on the lookout for a knitting pattern of a full sized sleeping cat.

You see back around Halloween I found a black cat at the animal shelter that I just fell in love with. His name was Grim and we hit it off right away.

The shelter doesn’t adopt out black cats anywhere near Halloween, so I waited.

When the time came for him to find a new home, our new dog Sir Laidback was sick and we couldn’t bring a new animal into the house and maintain the care needed for the dog. Grim when to a new family and I was left empty handed.

I have not found another black cat, or any other kind of cat for that matter, that I have had the same instant and complete relationship with.

So, since I can’t have Grim, I’d like to make a reasonable facsimile to cuddle and stroke. He will live on my bed where the dogs can’t get to him and I may even put a vibrator inside him so he can purr to my petting to his hearts content.

Why do some animals make such a big impression on us? I’m wanting my Grim back, even thought we were never really together.

On Surprise Finds:

On days we get wood in from the outside wood pile and bring it in to warm up inside I generally hide from the cold in the family room from the door being opened repeatedly and the cold wood.

I usually hide under the covers, once we have brought all the wood in, and read a good book even if it is a re-read. Today it was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I’ve been re-reading this one every few years or so since I was a teenager.

I like to read allegory over again because you get so many life lessons from stories like this one. I track my progress in learning the lessons well. Not to mention we could all use a visit from the princess’s ‘Rhyme’ and ‘Reason’ a bit more.















Back to the wood, we usually get a few things out of the wood pile that we didn’t put into it and this time was no different. The difference was in the amount of things. We got a good haul this time.

From the top center clockwise.
A live stink bug, feathers from a Blue jay, a dead wool bear caterpillar, a large buckshot pellet, and a piece of snake skin.

The stink bug did not get feed to the Venus Flytrap. They stink far too much. And the caterpillar was already dead and dried up.

The Phantom Tollbooth is now tucked away in my head again and I feel a bit more ready to face the world and what life has to bring me.

Surprise, I’m not as bad off as I thought I was in the brains department with my bad memory troubles since the chemo. I remembered a lot more of the book then I thought I did.

On Yes, I Did It Again:

Okay, I’ll admit it straight from the top. I went back on my word.

I tried, I really did. I was not going to get sucked into the money pit of the world of Sims. ‘Expansion packs’ and all that good ‘Stuff.’

Sims 2 was riddled with problems. Patches were far too long in coming. Months of play time was left fallow while we waited for the fix to come in.

I, along with others, screamed and ranted about lax policies at EA Games. How the money grubbers there didn’t care about the consumer. How we would never give them another dime so long as we lived.

I broke down and bought Sims 3.

I know, I know. I’m not worth the air I breath.

In my defense I did wait until the patch was out before I bought it. I did my research before plunking my money down.

A large change for me from counting the days and standing on line waiting for the store to open just to get my hands on the next installment.

The patch for this new game took almost as long to download as the game did, but I’m up and running. And it is good. Very different in play, I must say, than the first two go rounds, but strangely familiar.

I watch my Sims walk to the neighbor’s house to visit, an impossibility before. They interact more like humans do and learn in different ways then the old Sims do.

My Sims can bring their guitar to the park to play. They can walk or drive to a place of business to find a job. They can have part or full time jobs and work on odd jobs on the side.

You know right away how another Sims feels about your Sim in words as well as symbols. And you can play multiple versions of the same game from a point you pick in play, like a big ‘What if I turned left instead of right‘, life puzzle. One Sims can marry different other Sims and you can see which life choice worked out the best.

You can give them longer or shorter life spans. Their lives are more complex, in a good way. No longer are they fairly cardboard and repetitive in life patterns. They even have favorite colors.

I’m in love all over again with the Sims.

On Carnivorous Plant Time Again:

It is February and that means a girl heart turns to things that eat other things. Carnivorous Plants will be for sale again in the Northern Hemisphere. I will be trolling the highways and byways looking for some new plants that eat things.















My Venus Flytraps have just come out of hibernation recently so they are not looking too good in the picture, but I see a few babies getting started so I’m stoked.















And in the other jar is two Pitcher Plants with a few Sundews round the sides. I do need to move them to a better place that is not as crowded.

I’ll have to be on the look out for a new terrarium for them. I do like my extra large apothecary/cookie jars. But I can’t fit another on the window sill. It just wouldn’t take the weight.















Not to leave the others out, Mortimer the Cactus is doing well. Spike his brother met with the floor one day and expired that afternoon. I still don’t know what kind of cactus Mortimer is yet, but he is showing the signs of arms. Once the days get a bit longer he should start to grow a bit faster.

(Mort was grown from seed in a mixed seed package so I know he is one of seven different kinds, I just don’t know which yet.)

Mort needs a new home also and I’m thinking of starting some more cactus from the left over seeds. So I will wait to move him until I have just the right spot and pot.

Hopefully I’ll find some nice Butterwarts or something else to fill out my little carnivorous and sharp families out a bit more this year.

On Silent Poetry Reading for 2010

Today is the Silent Poetry reading. More info here.

This is my offering:

At the Window Watching

By Lady Euphoria Deathwatch 01-30-10

He stood in shadow
Moonlight pouring over his arm.
I heard his breathing
Melding with the night time breeze.

I smelled his aroma
On the sheets and pillow next to mine.
I sensed his restlessness
As he looked out over the moonlit world.

My lover, my man, my heart.
Why do you need more?

His hair moved softly
As a breath of air came through the window.
He shifted his weight
And leaned against the window frame.

I wished he would look
At me with such intensity and longing.
I felt forgotten and alone
In a room full of our wedding bed.

My lover, my man, my soul.
Why do you look away from me?

He sighed and shivered
Naked in his body and his thoughts.
I daren’t disturb him
Wrapped up in his own privet view.

He coughed and sniffled
Wiping what could only be a tear.
He turns towards me
a smile curls his lips, yet still a tear remains.

My lover, my man, my breath.
What has pierced your heart?

“Oh, You’re awake,
I thought you sleeping.
I woke and found
the moonlight calling me away.”

“I had to look
And see the ‘tween world.
But it did not have
Its former charm to me, My Love.

“My lover, my woman, my life.
You have replaced all wonders in my heart.”

On Watch Your Mouth:

It was just another day at my house. My computer mouse was acting up so we went off to shop for another.

On our way we stopped at our local dollar discount store and passed a father with his son by the door. The boy was on the ground having a quite sit down tantrum and the father was discussed and out of sorts.

It was obvious that the child had some developmental problems and I felt sorry for the father. This boy was not small and could not just be picked up and put in the car.

We went in the store and looked around. Bought a few things and my husband, Mountain Man, went to the car with my package while I went into the store next door.

I came out with my fix of Sudoku puzzle books to find the father hands up at the back of his car and another man the same at the back of his own vehicle. A Police Officer was standing a few feet away, gun drawn.

My husband is sitting in our car, just to the side, and a few feet from all this.

Other police cars came racing into the parking lot lights flashing.

The other man had seen the father shoving his boy into the car and went to see if it was a kidnapping of a child. Words were exchanged. (Not nice words either.) And tempers flared.

The father explained to the police that his boy was Autistic, but by this time the poor man had been having a hard time with his son for over an hour that I had seen. This had not give him license to use foul racially derogatory language before the police got there.

He had hoped to get away with his indiscretion, but Mountain Man had seen it all.

The man who had tried to step in and help the child was black, the father and son were not. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the police station while Mountain Man waited his turn to make his statement.

We don’t care what kind of a day you’ve been having, Don’t use the ‘N’ word and try to get away with it. It’s just not right.

On Tea Parties:

Last year I started something. A Thankfulness Tea Party here on the web. Last years blog about it can be found here.

I have been doing this at my home for some time, around the third week in February each year.

I picked that time of year because most of us in the Northern hemisphere are reaching our limit with the winter blahs. I noticed that my friends and I needed a pick me up and a new outlook. A freshen-upper.

To all those that are interested in joining us:
You are invited to join Ms. Mousie at Knotty Mouse and Little Black Crow at her knitting blog or her more often used arts blog, my co-hosts this year, and myself Lady Euphoria, to a Thankfulness Tea Party.

It will be held on the weekend of February 20-21, 2010. (I will be having my tea on the 21 st, but I leave it open to the twentieth for those of you who’s lives fit this day better.)

The rules are as follows:
You invite anyone you like to your party, if you want to. (Some of my best Thankfulness Teas have been held alone.)
You serve the Tea and Goodies of your choice. Other drinks are aloud as long as they are served in tea cups in keeping with the theme.
You have nice/pretty paper or a blank book and a pen or other writing implement for each member of the party. (I paste small pictures in the corner of each page of small note books for each participant. Often tying it up with a ribbon.)
You dress up in your finery. (I dress in my Victorian gowns.) You can dress as you like, but you should look your best, this is a party.
You are to play thoughtful music (I use classical, but what you want to listen to is up to you.)
You and your guests, if any, enjoy your tea and write down the things you are thankful for as they come to you.
It is to be an uplifting experience. Talk and have fun, but spend some time looking inward and finding your thankful self.

I would love to hear about your tea party plans or experience. So please feel free to comment.

I will remind you again before the weekend arrives, but I did want to give you time to get your Thankfulness Tea Party things together.

I’m looking forward to having fun with you all. Lady Euphoria