Day 10 in Tucson

What about days 8 & 9? You ask. Well, it was the weekend, nothing really happend. Then again nothing really happens during the week either, or even today. Are you going to name every single post day whatever in Tucson? I may. I've said in the past I'm bad about titles. It's substance of the post I think that matters. This weekend I picked up a book that had a great title and cover but when I started read, it was yuck, fizzled out on me in the first paragraph.

I will try to give substance and failing that cute bunny pictures. Today, however, is for the birds. Mr. Bird says, "Everyday should be for the birds."



That is Mr. Bird, resident good sport. I mean, he would have to be living in a home with 4 cats.



For years I've talking about getting a parakeet. Except, I was always talked out of it, because I have all these. It's amazing what family will smile and nod at, when you're depressed out of their minds. So this past March, I bought Mr. Bird. He started out as just Bird, while we waited for him to show his true personality. As time went, Mr. Bird just seemed to fit.

I had ideas of teaching him to talk like the parakeet of my childhood. Who would call my grandfather when he heard him moving around in the morning. I did succeed at teaching Mr. Bird "Pretty Bird".

One night, a gust of wind blew in and knocked Mr. Bird's cage from his ceiling hook. Mr. Bird had been on his swing, fell to the bottom and broke his wing. I called the different bird vets in area and each wanted any where from $79 to $100 just to look at him. He was eating and drinking ok, so we just let it heal on it's own. Duane said, "I'm sorry, I really Mr. Bird too, but I can buy you 5 birds for that price." It's not like he will need to fly in his cage. Even though the cats leave the birds alone, we're not going to let them out to fly around.

While he was eating and drinking ok, for three days he wouldn't chirp. I found You Tube videos of other birds to try to get him to chirp. Nothing until about the fourth or fifth day. Then he went nuts everytime he heard the other birds. Duane decided he was lonely. His lonliness was obvious with the romance he was having with his plastic perch bird buddy. Then came Huey.

I remembered that the top part of the beak is blue for boys, but I forgot what my grandmother told me for girls. So, when I saw this pretty bird that white with a bit of black on top and bright sky blue on the bottom, the top of the beak was a pinkish lavender, I thought maybe girl. Makes sense if blue is for boys then pink has to be for girls.

After we bought the bird and a second bigger cage, did I bother to look it up online. Blue and lavender is boys, brown or sometimes whitish is girls. The white however could turn blue if it's a young bird. The only true way to tell is to have bird in question DNA tested. Um no. We found out for ourselves when we put them together and they each tried to get atop the other. Male birds are also chattier than girl birds.

It took several phonecalls to various pet shops before I got a definate, let me look, yes, we two females. Yet, another bigger cage.




A month before we moved, I bought a third female bird, all yellow, which I named Emily. The white one in the back, we named Ladybird.



Then from left to right is Myrtle, Huey and of course Mr. Bird. His one wing hangs a bit lower than the other.



The line up.



Duane is amazed at how they have unique personalities, being they are such primitive life forms with tiny pea sized brains. I knew otherwise.

Mr. Bird, all around happy guy, is a gigolo. He hangs with all the ladies, Huey and loves sit at the front of the cage, hang on the little bell broom, shake it while wiggling his bottom on the perch. The other birds get upset with him for his broom fetish. Sometimes we sing, "I'm just a birdolo" to him. (For those who didn't get the reference to I'm Just a Gigolo)

Mr. Bird tweets and warbles from the time the sun rises, until late at night when we cover his cage. We forgot once and when Duane got up at 3am, Mr. Bird was sitting there chattering away. He even chirps while he is napping with his head in his feathers.

Huey is all around cage bully and can't figure out why the girls avoid him and sometimes Mr. Bird does as well. He likes to push the birds off their perches, and somehow gets Mr. Bird to hang upside on the bottom of the perch, Huey then takes his foot and steps on Mr. Birds stomach. Mr. Bird squacks and I come running to give Huey a squirt with the water bottle. Then I give him a long lecture on playing nice.

Ladybird, the all white one, is quite refined. Since getting Emily, she has now decided to take up with Huey occassionally. She is guard of the broom, and has her set distance of personal space. She will make a rasping noise if another bird gets too close. She occasionally likes to back warble for the boys.

Myrtle is green and yellow with a teal botton. Her butt, around the base of her tail is dark teal, I kid you not. Myrtle is for the most part quiet. She has a distinct squak when she is upset. It sounds like the car horns on the kiddy ride at the fair. You know the one that is like a small merry go round with cars. We call Myrtle and Ladybird biker chicks, because nobody messes with them. They will whip around and give the offending bird a good hard peck if they get out of line.

Emily, she was a baby when I bought her. One of the cashiers had hand raised a batch and just brought them in that night. She was so thrilled I was buying one of her birds. It was the pet store across the street, and I kinda hung out there over the summer. You know to talk to the animals and keep them company while waiting for homes. Just because some of the sales people started hiding when they saw come in doesn't mean anything. They probably had something to do. I'm betting they miss me now.

So back to little Emily. She's a sweetie. Poor thing, her first night Huey was the first to say Hello by knocking her off the perch. After a day of that, Myrtle and Ladybird got after him. Emily is now Mr. Bird's girlfriend, when he's not occassionally chatting up Myrtle or riding his broom. They are so sweet together, preening eachother and sometimes pretend they have babies in the nesting box. Mr. Bird sits on top of the box, Emily in front of hole, Mr. Bird feeds Emily and she pretends to feed babies in the box. It's empty, the box, I checked.

So, now I've bored you to death about my birds. If you're still here I'll tell you why the birds are important to day 10 in Tucson. When I lived here 7 years ago, I noticed the first week that I never heard birds outside. They are there, I've found out. They are just hard to hear over the traffic, the area has been so urbanized.

Like the song says, You don't know what you got till it's gone. One of things I missed most about NY was the birds chirping. There are other things I miss too. This time around on day 10, I hear the birds chirping from sunrise until I put towel over the cage and say good night Mr. Bird, Huey, Ladybird, Myrtle and Emily.

In the next day or two, I'll make a video for You Tube and post on here, so you can see and hear them in action.

Seventh Day In Tucson

Wow, it's been almost 11 months to the day since I last posted. What a wild time it's been those months. It started with bitter cold weather that made my pelvic and muscle pain sky rocket. Most of the winter was spent in bed on a heating pad that my mother mercifully bought for me. I couldn't concentrate on my needlework, so I went back to much reading. Many hours, many days, weeks, etc. equals many books read. I should make a list sometime.

The spring didn't get any better. On my birthday, my mom had a minor heart attack and my Happy Birthday phonecall was from step-father to tell me my mother was in the hospital. It was good thing I didn't have any plans to celebrate. Later that evening my beloved bunny Lexi passed away. It was expected, she was eating and hopping less and less. The finale was when MY kitty Bright Eyes comes up on the bed to console me, turns around and she has a good size lesion on her bottom. I flipped out thinking she had colon cancer. It was fitting due to age of 9 years and the way the day was progressing.



We'll miss you, Lexie.

Luckily, a trip to the vet and crisis everted. She had only blown out her rectal gland. A frequent occurance according to our vet, and just required a good wound cleaning. I've had cats and known people with cats all my life and never heard of such. Well, you learn something new everyday.

Dammit bunny went into a deep depression after Lexi died. He ate less and less and moped around. Very un-Dammit like. After two weeks I was sent on mission to find him a baby female bunny. I surprised how hard it was being late spring. None of local pet shops had young bunnies. An internet search brought up a breeder in Syracuse, Snow Shoe Bunnies. At first she e-mailed back that she didn't have any available, then after some thought she e-mailed the next night she had a bunny she was going to use as a breeder we could buy. So after several e-mails later we met up on a the thruway exit near me at a truck stop while she was on her way to a bunny show that weekend. Thus Nippit entered our lives and hearts.

Mom named her Missy, I wanted to call her Honey and Duane said Ginger. However, when on day 3, she shot across the room and took a large chunk of fur out Dammit's but as he was hopping away. We realized she was Nippit.




Sad little Dammit getting a snuggle from his Pop.




Baby Nippit, day 1. Looks so precious.


We did bunny dates on our bed, however they weren't going very well. So, I bought ferret harnesses and we took them out in the courtyard. One good thing about the complex management being cheap. They won't pay for weed killer sprays.





A few seconds of nice. Immediately after, Dammit goosed Nippit and then she pounced him.



I am Nippit, who are you looking at? She's such a pugnacious little being.



Luckily, they became friends just in time. A group of guys the owner hired to replace the roof, came along. They ripped off all the old shingles and tar paper. Left the roof to bare plywood during several days of this.



Which led to this.



This is section that landed on my head on that Friday evening. Duane was carrying my dinner out of the kitchen. I heard water suddenly dripping next to me. He yelled move, as the ceiling came down.



It took over an hour for their so called emergency maintenance to show up. One of them said I should call an ambulance because I was acting dazed. Well, duh, a 3 X 4 section of wet dry wall hit me on the head. Duane said he didn't realize I was hit, because he was moving stuff and pets out of the way. Nippit and Dammit had to live in the big cage together for several days.

I sustained whiplash and a cucussion, was pretty out of it the three days we put up in a hotel. The ceiling had come down in all four upstairs apartments. Tuesday, they moved us back in to the mess, ceiling still not fixed, until that Wednesday morning. All they did was put up drywall and left it like that. Very ghetto looking. The maintenance broke my spinning wheel when they rammed Duane's recliner into it. My children's father fixed it for me days before we moved to Tucson. Three months later, I still have periods of neck pain and severe head aches.

We couldn't find a lawyer to take the case, I'm already disabled so no lost wages and my neck wasn't broke or paralyzed. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. They went into receivership and then forclosure for 400,000.00 to the bank. So, if we went to court and won, I would have to wait a very long time to see a dime.

I spent the summer in a deep depression. September, while visiting the pet store we came across a little black bunny they claimed was purebred Netherland dwarf. To my surprise, he bought her for me. We named her Betty. After much thought we realized she really looks like a Shmoo. So here is Betty Shmoo.



We took Betty with us to the vet, when we took Nippit in for her spay. The vet agreed Betty does indeed look to be a mix breed. Possibly mixed with a mini Rex. She has very large feet compared to Nippit, and the longest toes. The vet was even surprised at her feet.


Duane came into a small inheritence which he used to move us Tucson when our lease ended in October. We made the decision on the fact that last winter was so hard on me. Duane, who made fun of me for having a blog, started his own. You can read his blog for posts about our trip. He is a professional writer, so much better to read. He also has many interesting stories about the bunnehs.

Tuesday morning I woke up and thought day 4 in Tucson and wished I kept a diary some week prior. There wasn't much time, if I had tried. So here I sit, day 7 of my new life in Tucson.

Happy Birthday Mr. Jimmy Page

We here at Chez Knitting Kitties are all enthusiastic fans of Mr. Page of Led Zeppelin. We hope he has a wonderful 65th birthday, doing what he most enjoys. May you have many more to come.

Yet Another New Year

I haven't celebrated New Years for quite a few years and must be getting cynical with age as I'm no longer optimistic about changing calenders be full of promise. I just get new pictures to change to every month.

No New Year's resolutions here. The very last New Year's resolution I made is the only one I've been able to keep and that is; No more New Year's resolutions. I find that resolutions are easier to keep when the need and urgency is at it's strongest. Like Scarlett, in Gone With Wind, swearing her oath, in the garden, on her return to Tara.

A review of the past few weeks since my last post. I dyed 10 skeins of merino/silk fingering yarn for the shop. I just need to upload them. There is still over a pound of BFL combed top to dye, however, the dying came to a stand still with Christmas candy making, then the storms after Christmas. If you've been reading this blog lately, you know what weather changes do to me. Time to force myself to get back at it.

I made 15 pounds of chocolate fudge, 5 pounds of maple walnut fudge and 2 1/2 pounds of peanut brittle. Believe it or not, that is tiny compared to what I usually make and had planned. Lots of supplies left over. I would say Valentine's Day candy, but the supplies will get munched up as snacks by various persons. No, not me, really. I can eat just one M&M and make a bag last for months. Go ahead, hate me.

The fudge this year was the best ever, very creamy. I follow the ingredients on the back of the large container of Fluff. Older containers call for 12oz, 3/4 of 16oz jar, this years tub said to use the whole container. Yes, I still had a container from last year to refer to. But that small difference was not the reason for the creamier taste, I don't believe.

Who knew bad legs could be benefit? I believe the creamier texture was because I was unable to babysit the pot, standing over the stove, due back and leg pain. So, I put the first five ingredients in the pot, set in on med low, then sat down, checking on it occasionally and giving it a stir. I use a candy thermometer, so when it was about 10 degrees to soft ball stage, is when I turned it up to medium and babysat til it reached proper temp. I believe it was the very slow cooking that made it creamier. No, it didn't stick to the pot with the infrequent stirring.

For maple walnut fudge, I replace the chocolate chips with white chocolate ones, add one teaspoon of maple extract along with the vanilla. You can make any flavor of fudge using the white chocolate with a teaspoon of whatever flavor extract you want. I have also cut different flavors of fudge into inch squares, set on a wire rack over a cookie sheet and drizzled with chocolate ganache for a chocolate coating. I was going to take a picture, please forgive me for being lazy.

I had a nice surprise on Christmas Eve, my youngest stopped by for a rare visit. He graduated this past June and is now working as an apprentice in a machine shop. I thought of knitting him a nice pair of wool socks to keep his feet warm while standing on cement floor at work.

His calf measures 18 inches and his foot is a size 11 1/2 EEE width. I knew better than to have him take his boot off for a foot measurement. If a Google search doesn't give me the measurements maybe a call to a shoe store will give me approximates. I thought about spinning the yarn for this endeavor until I took those measurements. It would probably take about 8 ounces for a pair. I can knit myself a small sweater with that much. Someone on Plurk said to use sport weight yarn. I have an 8 oz skein of SW merino sport weight, I bought awhile back, so I think I will go with that. He did say his boots are a little loose on him as they are size 12, the sport weight should work out.

Did you finish your Christmas knitting? What Christmas knitting??? I make Christmas candy. Go back, see above.

Here I was on Christmas eve with Mom's leg warmers, four inches. This is the first time I've used the two socks on circular needle method and I'm not a fan. The two needles not in use flopped around, got in the way and was just too fiddley for my tastes. Not to mention, hard it is to figure out where you left off if you don't finish knitting both the socks on the needle in use before you set it down.


I love the way the yarn changes colors like Kauni, only softer in texture. Strange thing happened with this fiber. I rinsed all the excess dye out before spinning, and had no problems while spinning the singles, but when it came to the plying my hands turned blue. Even with a thorough rinse when I set the twist, my hands turned slightly blue while knitting. I'm going to wash them and soak with cold water and bit of vinegar before I give them to her. Here's hoping she doesn't get blue legs. Here they are finally finished over the weekend. Bootsie is checking for errors.



I'm almost to the point of starting the sleeves for Mom's Kauni sweater. Just a couple more repeats left on the body before I attach the yet to be knitted sleeves. I've decided to part from the instructions and knit the sleeves as one unit, then, gasp, steek them. The purpose of this is to make them both matching. This will be a first time at steeking and I'm not afraid of it. It's just yarn, knitted yarn. Not at all like attempting surgery on say, one of my pets. (click for a bigger picture)



Christmas, we had a quiet dinner at my Mom's. Duane made lasagna with a side of Italian sausages in a bed roasted red peppers and onions. Mom was happy she only had to make a salad and I believe she got my step-father to do that.

I gave my step-father his yearly large container of peanut brittle. While he was crunching away, I told him that Wegmans was selling 3oz squares of peanut brittle for 3.99. Duane looked at him and said, "You have about 50 to 60 dollars worth of brittle there, and it's homemade." My step-father just looked considerately at the piece he was holding, grunted a hmmph, and continued crunching. Why do I feel he might have been more impressed if I had forked over $50.00 for store bought?

GD loves to run and sit in Duane's and mine chairs whenever we get up. So, Mom and I went in together to buy her, her own little recliner. She still steals my chair whenever she gets the chance, however, I now have retaliation as I fit more comfortably in her little one. Yes, I am tiny, go ahead hate me.

Bootsie believes it is really her chair.



Bootsie says, "What do you mean it's not my chair? harumph."




That was about three or four posts in one and I even left some stuff out for later. I really should blog more often. If I were the type to make New Year's resolutions, I guess blogging more often would be one.

I Guess I'm "It"

I don't like Meme's and I don't believe I have ever did one. I do like the blogger, Girl Meets Needle, who tagged me, so what the hell, here I go.

Here's how it works:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about Knitting Kitties.

1. I never wanted to be a nurse. I registered for nursing school because of a dare from a friend. The good thing was I ended up loving it. Bad thing I hurt my back at work nine years ago and haven't been able to work since.

2. My two middle toes are double jointed. As a child I could put my foot flat on the floor and wiggle my toes back and forth to gross out my mother. She said it looks like worms popping out of their holes.

3. We once had 18 pets all at the same time. 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 bunnies, 2 parakeets, 2 hamsters, 3 hermit crabs, 1 guinea pig, 1 turtle, 1 anole lizard and 1 gold fish. My youngest was in kindergarten at the time, his teacher loved us because we brought the caged animals in for show and tell. Yes, I ended being the cage cleaner so when they died they weren't replaced. "Mom, I'll take care of it, really, I will."

4. I drove from NY to Tucson, AZ through an ice storm, one small blizard, and a huge blizzard in Missouri and Oklahoma in 60 hrs. We missed being in the middle of a 100 car pile up on the Oklahoma Turnpike by mere minutes because I had to use the restroom.

5. I've wanted to write a novel since I was 7 or 8, doesn't matter if gets published. Little House and Judy Blume's books held me captive back then.

6. I told my second grade teacher, "God made fast people and slow people. He made me a slow person. If you want me to move faster then you have to talk to God." When she told to speed it up and move faster. My mom got called in over that one.

That was harder than just writing a regular post. I'm going to break rules 4 and 5 and not tag anyone. If you want to do this go ahead.

We've been hit with storms from the west. My joints are hollering. I've been dying SW Merino, BFL fiber and merino/silk fingering wt yarn for a big shop update after Christmas.

The sock yarn God's ignore my prayers from the big for me order I placed before Rhinebeck. It's taking me awhile to get it all dyed up. So far, I've only sold one skein. I'm seriously considering just sticking to selling fiber. We'll see how it goes after the holidays.

I have ten sock blanks and dyed five for the shop. Fiddling about my stash, I found some winter camouflage fabric I bought long ago to make DS#1 pants. It reminded of the green camouflage yarn my exMIL bought and made DS#2 a hat. We were disappointed how stripey and not really like camo at all. So, I dyed up a couple blanks with a camouflage in winter and princess (for girls). I think I should dye one for myself and knit it to see how it really turns out.

Yes, I'm Still Here

Nano ended in perfect time. My pain levels have increased with a week spent in bed. I'm just not good about being online and social around the holidays. It's not that I'm anti-social, I just don't enjoy the holidays much for several years now. My son's don't even call me unless my daughter makes them. I realize I spent 20 years of my life on people who can forget me like yesterday's trash unless they want something from me. So, it's really hard to be cheerful and I really don't want to bring anyone else down with me.

The bunnies have only been coming out from under the desk long enough to eat and bathroom while I'm up. When I get up during the night they are sitting in the middle of the room. We have a cold draft that comes in the bottom of the door, is the reason I think they aren't hanging out in their usual spot. I do miss them sitting there gazing at me in the evenings.

I spent last week finishing my mom's Rhinebeck socks, finally. I finished the second sock in record time. Saturday morning, I just started the gusset decreases when she called and said she would pick me up to grocery shop in 2 hrs. I was one inch away from the toe decreases when she got here, so I took the socks with me. I knitted in the car, at the bank, in line and at the cash register. I received really odd looks at the stores. When we pulled in my parking lot, I was just finishing up the kitchener stitch. Mom kept telling to wait til next week, but I was determined to finish.

No picture of the finished pair, but here is a picture of the first sock with what was left of the skein.



Also a shot of the calf shaping and the gusset.



Mom called me later that evening and said they fit her perfectly. Yay!!

I'm now working on her requested leg warmers. I'm using the two socks on circulars method working from the inner and outer portion of a center pull ball. I can't say I'm all that impressed with the method, but it works for this project. No pictures yet.

I've been tagged, so I'll be back soon. Just don't mind the fact that I'm ignoring the seasonal celebrations, sort of. I'm baking cookies with GD this week, and there is my fudge and peanut brittle making for family gift giving. Which reminds me of a question I asked my mom while buying supplies.

Why is it when I buy an expensive cookie or candy tray from the store it feels like a nice gift, but I when I make it myself and give even more than on a store tray I feel like I'm being cheap? I don't have an answer.

The End Of NaNoBloPoMo

This is the last day of NaNoBloPoMo, and I made it. There were many nights when I really wanted to pack it in and give up.

So to sum up the month:

1. I proved to myself that if I set my mind to do something I could finish it, it's just determination, even when I really don't feel like it.

2. I could have put forth better self-discipline and less procrastination. I didn't write half the posts I wanted to because of this.

So, I'm thinking about trying it again, whether or not it will December, I'm not sure. Christmas is coming and I haven't enjoyed the holiday for several years now, for a variety of reasons. Usually, I go into hibernation about now.

I finished spinning and plying the second batch of CMF Avalon. Here it is resting before it's pre-soak. It's 8 ozs and 600 yards 3-ply. I'm really wondering what's up with my spinning lately as I usually get 110 to 120 yards to the ounce on 3ply.



I've been in the mood to play around with Sims 2 lately, so that's where I'm off to the rest of the evening. I haven't messed around with it for a few months.