Are we DONE yet?

Noob is 25 weeks 4 Days

As you can see, the timer (known to the uninitiated as a belly button) now sticks out. Shouldn't this mean this bird is ready to fly?

Nightmares

Ever since I read The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, I've had a desire to see Newfoundland. So, when I ran across some mention of Screech and discovered it was connected to the island, I was intrigued. Apparently, there was an exchange back in the day between ships journeying south to the Caribbean with loads of salted cod and returning with barrels of molasses and rum. A thick sediment of sugary stuff would collect in these barrels over time, so it would be heated up, fermented, and distilled to create a form of rum unique to Newfoundland. It's still bottled and sold today, though I hear the very best (and most potent) stuff is home brewed on the sly.

What really intrigues me is the fairly recent practice of holding Screech-Ins. Custom dictates that visitors are made honorary Newfies by doing a shot of Screech, kissing a cod, and reciting some Newfie verses or sayings. I thought this would be fun until I read the middle step. Anyone who knows me knows I'm deathly phobic about fish. I hear that some even like to single out a few people and insist they tounge the fish. I'll be having some nightmares tonight. Dude-would you put your tounge in this mouth?

Furoshiki

I've been inspired! I just watched the neatest video on Furoshiki-the Japanese art of cloth folding. Before the advent of the plastic shopping bag, it was quite common in Japan to see a large cloth skillfully folded around an object or gift. The practice has died out in more recent times, but seems to be making a come back, in part due to the Japanese ministry of culture which has begun to advocate it as a more green practice. It makes me want to wrap all my Christmas presents this way. I've always taken special care to wrap my gifts-I am always in love with the ribbons and the bows. Well, until the end, when I'm out of the special gew gaws and sick unto death of wrapping yet another item. Check out this poster, which has guidelines for creating everything from beautiful wraps for bottles, (as pictured above) to handbags. Wouldn't you love your knitting in one of those? I wonder if you could wrap a baby in those bags to make a sling? I'd have to figure out what to do with the knots...

Perkins

We have a new occupant of the household. Perkins was found in the parking lot of the Mitchell Perkins restaurant Thanksgiving weekend. He put some seriously lovey moves on Lizzie and I when we discovered him. At first I felt bad, but hardened my heart-we can NOT keep 4 cats, one dog, one five year old, and a baby in a 16x 80 single wide trailer house. It simply cannot be done! But oh how he loved on Lizzie …cats don’t like little kids THAT well, no matter how well behaved the child is. Lizzie was so charmed with him! He was so scrawny. It was so cold! It was about to get even COLDER.

We gave him some of the chicken we had left over from lunch. He horked it down. I opened the door to the van to let out the dog for a pee… The cat jumped in the van. I scooped him out.

Josh put Lizzie in the carseat and strapped her in. The cat got in AGAIN. Josh looked at me. I sighed in disgust and said- "OH just close the damn door!" “Perkins” laid in my lap and purred and nuzzled me for the WHOLE 6 hours home and never cried once about being in the car or showed any fear of riding. We let him out twice at rest stops to potty (the cat farts-SERIOUSLY.) He made sure to say DAMN close so we couldn't leave him. It’s weird to have a cat you can let out at rest stops, eh?

He's so GREATFUL to be with us. The vet agrees with me that he’s under a year- but he’s close to it-he was probably an early spring kitten. He needs neutered and has been in some scuffles-a torn ear, various small scabs about the body and a big scratch across the nose. But he is the most PERSONABLE little man-cat I've met in quite some time.

We’ve finally been allowing him out of the bathroom where we kept him until we could make sure he was free of any communicable diseases. He’s a whole six pounds. He’s still got about half the house to explore. He’s been really cautious about leaving his safe places. Simon takes special joy in beating the ever living CRAP out of him-or at least rushing him. This shouldn't be so bad- since my poor little white cat is the biggest dufus on the planet and couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. BUT, Simon outwieghs Perkins by a good....12 lbs probably, and I'm not sensing a lot of fight in the poor kid. So, for now, he tends to stay in "high places" around the house, where he can see Simon coming, like the back of the couch, the windowsills, and the top of the litter box bench. Meanwhile, Simon lurks under the furniture and in dark hidey holes and delights in ambushing Perkins. He doesn't even really have to unsheath his claws-just give the poor scrawny thing a good scare and Perkins is howling and spitting as he hies it back into the bathroom to his "safe place" - the space between the toilet and the bathtub where his bed is.

It's like some feline soap opera I tell ya.