Missy

There are moments in one's life where you are just bumping along doing your normal things and a speed bump gets thrown into the road to remind you to be aware. You try to get your bearings and return to what you're doing but things have changed. The normal is just slightly tweaked where you have to shift your perspective.

Over the course of the last couple of years, Maisie had been losing weight. She used to be a chunky 11 pounds but shrank down to 8. I didn't pay much mind to it because she was too heavy for her frame but when I took her in last September her vet was concerned. Her lab work showed no signs of problems. Then a couple of weeks ago I noticed she was not eating much and would stand by the water bowl. This was unusual, so I took her in. It turned out bad: her

kidneys had failed and she was dying. It was a sudden blow that took me completely by surprise. I decided to euthanise her so that she wouldn't suffer anymore.

Miss Maisie was the duchess of the house. The other cats paid her much respect because she could be fickle in her moods. Her size was no hindrance to her maintaining rule at Chez Runamuck. Even Buster, who outweighed her by a couple of pounds, kept his distance. But she was a loving cat. She didn't like to be held but she loved sitting on my lap or sleeping next to my pillow at night. She loved burrowing in the blankets to snooze. And her fur was the softest I had ever felt.

Goodbye, duchess. Mazola. MissMiss. You are missed here at Chez Runamuck.

I'm here

If you're wondering where I have been, don't worry if you think it's health related. I'm fine. January's an insane month at work and as there wasn't much to report outside of being really tired and braindead I figured it was best to not post. The insanity is done and the normal brouhaha is now gearing up.

There was one event in January I attended: the Snohomish Yarn Train and Crawl. This is its seventh year of sending folks down from Seattle to Portland to partake of Portland's bounty of yarn shops. Someone I met on a Ravelry forum came down and joined me and MonicaPDX on a personal tour. Aeranthes had a delightful time and the three of us cackled and snortled the afternoon away. Less ebullient folk looked at us askance like we had somehow managed to escape our keepers, for we were like teenage girls who had stayed up too long. It was a sad

moment when we had to drop off Aeranthes at the train station, but she promised to come back. I promised to put her up for Oregon Flock and Fiber so I have until September to get the house ready.

The sidewalk has been poured and is curing as we speak. There was some finagling and what had been expected changed (there will be no solid slab of concrete for the driveway skirt as it wasn't required after all). The weather while cold and windy some days has been dry enough for the contractor to get it all done. I will be glad when it's all over.

I took a break from knitting but restarted again with a lace project. Cindy at Urban Fiber Arts received a shipment of Abstract Fiber's Picasso, which is a DK weight baby alpaca yarn. I offered to make her a shop sample and made for her the Eleanor cowl. It was a little tricky to knit but I finished the knitting last week. I finally got around to blocking it today so you can see the lacework. Once it's seamed you can only see it if it's on someone's neck. My neck's too short to show it off -- not like Linda Evangelista.