(such a) Fickle Stitcher

DH brought lots of wonderful things home: Gibble’s Cheese Puffys, Swetzel’s Spice Wafers, a down comforter & duvet from his mom which went straight on #2Son’s bed (we are having an unseasonable cold snap here in South Mississippi). But the one he could not wait until morning to show me was this:

I decided to bring him to work so I could enjoy (& benefit from) him more, but I also plan to create a bead mala for him to wear. He’s not quite 3-inches wide and tall, perhaps a little less purple-looking than the photos, and made by Gary Steinborn of Venice Clay (Buddha Cats). Since he is blue, however, he will serve well as my Sangye Menla buddha, the medicine buddha (of whom I wrote a paper for my Buddhism class several years ago).

There is some interesting folklore about cats and Buddhism, no doubt more than I have heard/read! One holds that monastery cats are bad monks reincarnated as cats for punishment. Personally, I believe that one is told by cat-haters/dog-lovers. I prefer the belief that cats are good monks on their last incarnation prior to achieving nirvana.

There is some interesting cat lore here, and a delightful book by an author I met last year, Gerald Hausman, The Metaphysical Cat (excerpt).

And here’s the lastest (and maybe best) photo of my boy, Brickle:

as in:

• I’ve been awake off and on since midnight . . .
• .
• I’ve been on the couch nursing something gastrointestinal most of the day . . .
• .
• I’ve got great males (two- and four-legged) around to take care of me when I’m sick . . .
• .
• I’ve spent a little of the evening with my sister who’s leaving tomorrow . . .
• .
• I’ve finished knitting the first ball of yarn for the black/grey/white entrelac scarf . . .
• .
• I’ve found lots of things on Ravelry to add to my queue . . .
• .
• I’ve not gone to bed yet . . .

my true love showed his true colors — he cut 3 pounds of candied fruit for me to make fruitcake cookies for my father!

Here’s our jolly crew:

Today, I slept til 10am then lazed around much of the day. Got all the gifts ready for the mail — yup, I’m late again after all — piddled around with some miscellaneous (ya’ll don’t faint) housekeeping chores. Some laundry, reorganizing a couple of the pantry shelves, putting away Christmas gifts. Several of them were knitting and stitching related, but did no actual stitching today or yesterday. And would have made the cookies, but I am out of brown sugar. Would have made spaghetti for supper, but had no ground meat. While I don’t mind simple marinara, DH wants it with meat.

The beautiful shawl pin did not show up well (it is tied in the red bow to the left of the HHDL book), but my sister also was the giver of the angel pin on the white cotton, and the floral case. as well as the book. The ribbon & dragonfly bookmark was sent to by one of my stepdaughters. It, too, is really beautiful. My sister also gave me a copy of At Knit’s End by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka Yarn Harlot). I spent a little time with both books today, cozied up with my favorite cat. He got into the spirit, though not willingly, yesterday, too:

Such a dashing fellow!

my true love and I also spent the day together . . .

early grocery shopping, then scrumptious breakfast out, then scrounging for treat/bargains in the store where the salvage store send their unsellables! We had a ball! And brought home a bag of catnip — don’t let people tell you that neutered/spayed adult cat are unaffected . . . witness just a bit of the ‘madness’

(1st time for this embedded youtube.com thing; here’s the direct link)

Late in the afternoon, my eyes gave out and I had to take a nap (Brickle joined me, of course). When I awoke, the local PBS station was playing an old Christmas episode of The Lawrence Welk Show (episode #857, season 21, aired 12/20/1975). What a blast from the past. I was amazed that I could recall so many of the singers’ names. Lawrence Welk was a regular Saturday night event at our house during the late fifties and sixties.

The end is in sight on the entrelac scarf. Photo tomorrow when it is finished.