Black Cat Wishes

Happy Halloween!

Hope it's frightful.


Love, Tabi

Silky Kitties and Scarves

Tabi informed me today that it's been far too long since we've had a post of gratuitous kitty photos. Two here, but you can see a handful of new Tabi shots in the Tabi Photo Gallery. Enjoy! In other news, I finished a new scarf today. I cast on Tuesday evening, finished the knitting last night, and blocked it this morning. I liked knitting this scarf overall, but the fringes got a bit tedious and fiddly. I think if I knit this again, I'll just put a ruffle along the bottom edge instead of fringe.

Pattern: Lala Scarf from Greetings from Knit Cafe
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze in color 640 "glacier" and Kidsilk Night 608 "moonlight" (way less than 2 skeins needed - I could knit 1-2 more of these)
Needles: size 10.5 homemade wooden needles - not good for mohair!

Unseemly Behavior

Tabi is not what you would call the world's most dignified cat.

Case in point:

Tabi Assembles a Chair

I decided I wanted a comfortable chair to use for reading, knitting, etc. It would also be nice to have an extra seat when we have people over. So I trekked out to Ikea with Matt today (boy was it a trek...we forgot to take directions with us, and Ikea is new enough that it's not on the maps) to look for a chair.

As usually happens with places like Ikea, I found a chair and several other things I wasn't aware that I needed. A large wok for cooking stir fry because the small frying pan we have always overflows. A bag of frozen swedish meatballs. A sheepskin rug for Tabi (really, don't ask).

When we got home, Tabi declared that the new chair was actually hers and that we could take the sheepskin for ourselves.

In fact, she claimed it before it was even completely assembled.


Those people at Ikea are smart folks. Right next to the chairs, we found a big bin of 99 cent fleece "chair protectors" in a rainbow of colors. We chose a Tabi colored one to protect the chair from fur when humans aren't using it (which is frequently, if Tabi has her way).


Finally, Tabi deigned to sit on the rug we chose just for her. In real life, this sits at the feet of the new bouncy rocking chair for tired feet (and kittens).

Proof that I'm Alive

It seems that every time I travel, the blog lapses for much longer than the duration of my travel time as I get everything back together upon my return.

Since we last spoke, I've finished my finals (and thus, the semester), thrown a Hanukkah/End of Semester party at my apartment, visited Texas, gone back to work after vacationing, finished Matt's ChristmaHanukkah present (see below), and hosted my friend and former roommate Eric from undergrad for a few days. Oh, and played with the kitten. She was pretty mad that I went to Texas for a week without her.

Hopefully we'll be back to a more regular schedule sometime in the near future.

Matt's Apple Socks (of which I am quite proud...they actually look like socks!)

Tabi loves playing with the cat DVD my roommate's mom sent. Here she's chasing a digital moth around...

Look! A kitten!

I haven't been around much to update. I've been in New Hampshire, Somerville, Cambridge, on campus, in New York, and all manner of places that are not "sitting at the computer writing blog entries." So, just a note: I'm still alive!

On the downside, the next two weeks are going to be busier than ever. I have two problem sets due Friday, a problem set and a final exam next Tuesday, and another final and a final project due the week after that. So, things are going to stay pretty busy for awhile.

In the meantime, what kind of mom would I be if I didn't post boring videos of my kitten? So, as a distraction from the lack of posts lately, I present: Tabi and the Feather.

Edited my entry Thursday morning to add: The feather on a stick in this video is one of Tabi's favorite toys. (I think her favorite color is neon pink, because all of her favorite toys are that color!) Mom sent it to us, and at the time it was much fluffier even than it is in the video. As of now, it's beginning to look very bedraggled because she likes to drag it all over the house with her...feather in mouth, stick trailing behind as she trots down the hall. This morning I even woke up to find that in the middle of the night, somebody had left the feather on a stick on my bed.

What greater gift than the love of a cat?

~Charles Dickens

Tabi was being particularly loving the other day, so I decided to snap a few photos using the time honored "hold the camera at arm's length and hope you're centered" technique.

Seriously, this cat thinks she's an article of clothing. Her favorite place to be is draped around your shoulders while you're trying to get things done. These photos are less on shoulder than some, because once I got the camera out she kept wanting to launch herself at the camera instead.


She also really enjoys giving kitten kisses! :)

Tabitha

Just a quick note to say that I've got internet access at home again, so updates and replies to email should return on a regular basis.

In the meantime, my kitten finally has a name. After so much debate, this one just popped into my head and felt right, so I ran with it.

Tabitha likes to help me at the computer.

She also enjoys lounging in bed when I have to get up for work.

Name That Baby

Now that I have a reasonably stable job and know that I won't be moving every 4-6 months for awhile, I decided that it was finally time to add a member to my family of one. Sunday afternoon, I took the bus into the city and found my way to a small but friendly animal shelter. An hour later, I walked out with an unnamed but very chatty bundle of fur, whiskers and really long legs.


Life is already noticibly more exciting at home. Kitty loves to be picked up and will run up to you and demand to be allowed to sit on your shoulder and purr. She chases catnip mice with a vengeance, but settles right down for a scratch behind the ear or a chin rub.

The only problem is...she doesn't have a name. I've been trying to think of some, but feel free to comment with suggestions. I think she's going to need a somewhat sophisticated name, because it appears that she's going to grow up to be a sleek, beautiful girl once she grows out of the gangly kitten era.

Rook - as in the chess piece
Tonks - after a character in Harry Potter
Serengeti - Sere for short
Cricket - for her buzzing purr

Japanese names:
Koorogi - Japanese for Cricket
Kage - Japanese for "shadow"...since she "shadows" me aroud
kumori - also means shadow
Kagemusha - shadow warrior
Yuumei - dark and light
Reiji - midnight