Christmas Interlude

I still have a big whole in my yard. It is supposed to be getting filled in on Monday. Dad figured he'd better leave it open for the weekend to make sure everything was running okay. I've done a lot of laundry, and there have been several baths and stuff, so far so good. He has to go away to work tomorrow or Monday, so when he gets back we are going to cement in the drain in the rec room. (That's a big, square drain. Man, when we hauled the top off that it was just like something from a horror movie -- I'd never subject my readers to looking at pictures of it. I would have liked to have gotten my camera, though, and video Hubs gagging as he tried to clean it out. He has a weak stomach, it was quite amusing. That is, til it was my turn.) Dad says to do the other drain as well, we'll see. If we do that, and I have another problem with the sewer then I may not know til the toilet overflows. (Personally I'd rather have some backup in the back room of the basement rather than all over my bathroom floor.)

Off of the gross subject of the past couple of days...

I forgot, but last Saturday it was the local fire department kids Christmas party. (For kids in current members and honorary members families.) The Littlest One was running around too much to get many pictures. They have tables set up for cookie decorating, ornament making, and coloring. They also have hot dogs, ice cream, chocolate and white milk, and pop. Here's the Oldest One making a cookie.

They like sprinkles. :)

The Littlest One did stop long enough to make a couple of icings and sprinkles with a touch of cookie.

The Oldest One making an ornament.

Look how red and sweaty the Littlest One got from all that running around!

The Oldest One asked for an XBox. I said I thought he wanted a Wii. He was like, "oops". He's not getting an XBox!

I let the boys have the cookie decorating kit that came with my Christmas hampers. Yummy gingerbread. Jewel, the big gut, was looking for hers, of course. I'm sure Maggie wasn't too far away.

These were done by the Littlest One.

These were the Oldest One's. I thought mine was the middle one with all the icing. I was mistaken. I got the snowman.

I do have a couple of FOs, but they are still a little wet from blocking. Pictures to follow next post.

Happy knitting!

Sigh

Warning! Picture heavy post.

I guess the pictures mostly speak for themselves. I think I've mentioned it on the blog before, not sure, but I've had trouble with our sewer in the past. We have a really strange hookup for being located right in town. (Our house and the one next door were never hooked up to town sewer way back when. All the other houses around them were, so about 5-6 years ago the Region hooked us both up with holding tanks that pump the sewage up to the main line when the level gets deep enough to make the pump kick in. Before that our sewers drained into the brook out back and out into the river that flows into the harbour. Nice, eh? We had no knowledge of this when we bought the house, found out a couple of years later.) I know the Knit Nite girls have heard about my problems. Well, all was well this morning til I opened the basement door after the kids went to school to wash and block a couple of finished Irish Hiking scarves, and the stench hit me in the face.

This is the back room where normally it's the only place the septic backs up -- the round, dark spot on the left is the drain. It has only back up close to this much once before. This was the worst time ever.

It has never come out under the wall around my furnace and hot water tank before.

The rec room. The old carpet has got to go.

The only thing that survived in my garden are some lilies in the corner closest to my steps.

This was NOT the pipe Dad was looking for. This is some kinda drainage pipe that goes around the house (I am not a construction person, so it's beyond me.) It was totally full of sewer water (you shoulda seen the junk that came out of that). The sewer pipe coming from the house wasn't in the logical place that it should have been. More stuff got dug up than what had to.

This is my queer little holding tank. The bottom green pipe is the line from the house, the top green pipe is the overflow, and the pump is attached to the white and black pipe. At some point the sewer line got broken by the backhoe, but it was just as well cuz it helped drain the muddy water into the holding tank where the pump kicked in and pumped it up to the main line. There was too much water where they were digging, they couldn't see.

This is where it stands now. That white line going from the house to the hedge is the power line they ran from my panel to the pump. Why they ever put it over top of the sewer line is beyond me. Obviously it would be in the way someday if the line had to be dug up. Duh. See that small kink in it? The bucket got caught on it and bent it, but luckily it didn't seem to do any damage. Dad yelled as soon as he saw it hook, so the guy in the backhoe stopped. The pipe by Dad's feet is one of the pipes, there is another beside it. One is the sewer line, one has something to do with the overflow.

So basically now I have no facilities. The kids and I are bunking at Ma and Pa's for the night. He's coming to finish the job tomorrow. The Region people came today, and they were like, "Oh, we put this system in when D owned the house." I was like, "No, you didn't. I've been here for 8.5 years, you did this 5-6 years ago." Two or three of the fellas that worked on it also said that the new pipe was only about 1-1.5' from the holding tank, and they attached it to an old tar paper pipe. Well, no, they didn't. That's all new pipe they laid from the house out to the holding tank. What the problems seems to be is that they put a 90 degree angle join on the pipes, which according to Dad, is way too sharp. It should have been no more than 45 degrees. So that's where everything keeps clogging up on me, thus causing the stinking, filthy, disgusting mess in my basement.

So now my garden and lawn is a shambles. My peonies that took five years to bloom are gone. I'll have replanting and grass seed sowing to do in the spring. Sigh. Dad is good friends with the backhoe owner, so I won't get a bill til after New Years, and I hope he gives a cut on it. I think the way Dad talked he will pay it, then I'll pay him back. Add it to the tab I already owe him.

Oh, yeah -- my roof had leaked in the kitchen down through one of my light fixtures when it rained really hard. Dad went up to see if he could find the leak but couldn't, so he just put some tar in the general area. That was fine for a couple of months, til the other day when we had heavy rains, then it leaked again. So the roof needs to be done, too, very soon. (The shingles are probably 20 years old or so.) The garage also has to be done, that leaks like a seive. And the big truck needs steer tires, and the clutch brake isn't working right, and it needs windshields, and a whole bunch of other things...

OKAY -- I'll stop bitching.

One good thing that happened today was I got two of my Chrisco (the Littlest One calls the Disco) hampers today. There are four altogether that weren't supposed to arrive til tomorrow. But the two dry hampers came today, the frozen stuff comes tomorrow. Jewel had to check it out.

You can see Maggie's nose snooping here, too.

I hid this for now. This kids will like it -- they always throw a couple of surprises in the box. Last year there was a knife set and a nice cake plate and server. I think the only thing in these two boxes, though, was this cookie decorating set.

Nala had to check out what was in the box.

And so did Pumba.

I started this post earlier today, so I gotta go cuz it's really like something to eleven now, and I have to go back up to Ma's. Popped home to let the dogs out. Poor Maggie will have to be kenneled for the night. I'll run home first thing in the morning to let them out again. Hubs will be home tomorrow, and we've got some big time cleaning to do in the basement. All this aggravation is cutting into my knitting time as well. Not good since I am running out of time and still have too much to make! I owe Dad a ton of wool socks and probably a sweater after having to deal with all that crap - literally - today!

Happy knitting!

It's Snowing

We are getting the first storm of the year, but it's supposed to change to rain (so a slushy, icy mess). The Oldest One was supposed to have his school Christmas concert tonight, but it was cancelled. I thought they'd do it tomorrow night, but unfortunately they changed it to next Wednesday, right at the same time that we were to have our Knit Nite Christmas party. Grrr!! So it looks like if I get out at all it will be at the end of the party long enough to do our little cookie/treats exchange we planned. (There are two of us who have kids in this concert.)

Maggie loved the snow. I don't know how much she remembers from last winter cuz she was just little.


Jewel wouldn't co-operate for a picture, and it got windier so the camera focused on the snow, not her.


She's got some snow on her back. I keep an old towel by the door to wipe them down and clean their feet. The snow seems to stick to Maggie's fur a lot more than Jewel's.

Tonight we weren't having Knit Nite anyways, we were on hiatus. So now I'm going to go do my dishes and then sit and knit, knit, knit! Running out of time here...

Happy knitting!

PS I was told that some more colors of the James C Brett Marble Chunky have arrived at the store. I was off today and didn't get a chance to see just what arrived.

Hat & Mitts

Finished this awhile back, it's a hat and mittens set for my nephew's second birthday. Started November 25, finished the 29th, I used an old Patons mitten pattern that is no longer in print and the hat from this pattern but smaller needles. (3.5mm and 4mm) The yarn is Kertzer Accent Worsted in brown fleck. Ravelry details here.


I am plunking along on Christmas gifts. Got a scarf about 3/4 done, need to do another scarf just like it in another color, and I've got two ladies pairs of socks and three or four pairs of mens socks. Bonus for the mens socks is I want to make Thujas, and they're worsted weight, so they'll go faster. Plus there are a couple of little things to make as well.

There's been a contest in certain boxes of popcorn. The boys were lucky and each won a 2L Fanta pop. They also got this dvd pack. It's the old Scooby Doo, the one hour specials that had people like the Harlem Globetrotters, Dick Van Dyke, etc, in it.


The Littlest One had his school Christmas concert this week. I've been trying to upload one of the songs they sang, but it isn't co-operating with me right now. I'll keep trying. He decided that he needed a white shirt and a tie. I got these dirt cheap at a second hand store. The tie is clip on, as I was digging through the bin I just happened to come upon it, lucky find. (He wouldn't tuck the shirt in.)

Happy knitting!

FO Catch Up

I have been knitting, though right now even though I need to do Christmas stuff I feel unsettled with my knitting. I guess I keep thinking of what I need/want to knit and don't really want to work on my current project(s). This happens with me from time to time.

Anyhoo, last night at Knit Nite I finished my third Christmas gift. These are Olympian Socks for one of my SILs. Started November 1, finished the 25th. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill in spring frost, stuff I won from Heddy. I've never knit socks for either SIL, this Christmas will be the first. Details on these socks and more pictures found here on Ravelry.

I had a moment, we'll say, with these socks. I had the first sock done and on the fancy new sock blockers that I got NovaKnitter to order for me in her KnitPicks order. (I got medium and large!) Anyways, I got the first sock out to count the little mock cables to make sure I made the second sock the same length. I was done the gusset decreases and proceeding down the foot of the second sock when I noticed that all was not well with the second sock. After your twelve rows of ribbing for the cuff you're supposed to do a round of purl, a round of knit, and a round of purl again, then go into the pattern. Well, I forgot to do those three rounds before the pattern. I couldn't bring myself to rip all that work back, yet anyone that knows me knows that something like that drives me insane!! Then Hubs was like, "Who are they for?" and "You can't give her socks that have a mistake in them." Sooooooo, I finish the sock and tink backwards. I probably should have tinked back one more row, but it's close enough. Then I picked up my stitches and knit the cuff "bottom up" so to speak. Yes, I am incredibly anal, I can't help myself. If they had been mine I probably, probably would have left it. Probably.

The boys also got new felted clogs. The Littlest One's are Patons Classic Wool in leaf green and forest. His are the child extra large from this pattern. Started these on November 16, finished the 17th. Ravelry details here.

The Oldest One's are ladies medium (he won't be ten til January, and he has the same size foot as me!) in Patons Classic Wool too teal and leaf green, this pattern, of course. Started his November 13, finished the 15th. Ravelry details here.

And lastly I forgot in my mass of pictures from the last post to show some artwork that a friend of mine had done for me years ago. He went to my mother's to get a picture of Simba and Nala so he could do a charcoal drawing of them for me for Christmas one year. He must have done this over 10 years ago cuz I've been at the store for almost 11 years, and I know I had this framed when we were in our old spot on Main Street and J did the framing. I think next month is our 10 year anniversary in the spot where we are now. Anyways, the type of guy that he is he couldn't do anything serious! Simba is the smoker, Nala is the wino.

Then a few years later he did Pumba for me for Christmas. I know the pics aren't the greatest, I took them at night with no flash. It says, "So... how long have you had this.... EAR fetish?" Ever since Pumba was a baby he had a thing for sucking on my ears. He still tries to do it, crazy thing. He likes to sit in that position a lot, too.

Happy knitting!

Tribute to Simba in Pictures

*****Warning: Very picture heavy post!*****

First off, I want to send everyone a big thanks for your kind words and understanding with the loss of my Simba. I still have a snivel(s) every day. I think, though, where I've known now since the spring that he had cancer and wouldn't be here much longer it made it a tad easier. Just a tad. It was still probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. I had hoped to get up one morning and he'd, y'know... and not have to make that decision.

Unfortunately, last Saturday I did have to make that decision. I got up, and he was in the bathroom. He looked at me and gave a weak "meow", and there was all kinds of gooey weird stuff in the corner of his eye. It was almost like he said, "It's time." I immediately broke down and got Hubs to call the vet. We took him down a couple of hours later. Hubs stayed in the car with the boys, and I took him inside. I stayed with him while they did it, I couldn't leave him to go with strangers. He meowed maybe twice. The vet gave him the needle, I was absolutely bawling my heart out. I held his paw, and he stared at me the entire time, told him I loved him, and he was gone. The vet said the eye stuff was secondary, caused by the cancer. I did hear the vet tell the assistant that Simba had a huge cancerous lymph node tumor. (And it was HUGE. It was way bigger than a grapefruit, I should have had it done a month or two ago.) Anyways, I heard him say that he was skin and bones, the tumor was just eating away at him. I felt guilty for not doing it sooner, but he hadn't seemed to be in any major distress. (Since he's been gone I haven't filled the food dish nearly as often, so I guess he was eating more than I thought.) I figure this last go off if the tumor was removed he would have been lucky to weigh three-four pounds. Anyways, I always said as hard as it would be that I wouldn't let my animals suffer. So now I'm sure he's having a blast, back to the kitten days, no more tumors, no more pains. He'll be my cat again one day.

So now that I've got myself crying again, we'll get to the pictures. Most of my pictures of the cats are 35mm, so at work today I went through the baby books and scanned some pictures to share (I don't have a scanner).

This first one is him, Nala, and their three siblings with their Momma, Poopa. Nala is the light colored kitten on the top right, and Simba is right beside her. The other three kittens looked just like Simba only thing they had tails. Simba and Nala were the only two bobtails in that litter.

Simba at 6 weeks. They both had blue eyes at first, but they changed. Shortly after I got them I was getting ready for work one morning. I had on a long skirt, one of those broomstick skirts that were in style in the 90s. Anyways, all of a sudden I felt searing pain in my leg. I lifted the skirt up to see pretty much what you see in this picture -- Simba looking up at me with all 20 claws stuck in my bare leg! One of his back legs had slipped, so I had a cut about 12" long from those razor sharp kitty claws. I reached down, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and took him off my leg. When he was little if you weren't watching he'd climb up your leg if he wanted your attention and some loving. When he got older he would just sit at your feet, then you'd hear, "meow", and he'd jump from the floor to your shoulder. As soon as I'd hear his meow I'd bend over a bit so he'd have more room to land and not dig me if he slipped.

This picture is enlarged and framed in my hallway. I had a bath and came out to find them like this. Everyone said I must have posed them, but I didn't.

Christmas 1996

He loved to lay under the Christmas tree. Had to put unbreakables down low cuz he liked to play with them. You can see Nala in the back. In March of 1997 he nearly died. He had urinary tract disease. He had a couple of trips to the vet for needles and medicine, but he totally blocked off. I was working on a Sunday morning, and he hadn't peed all night though he had gone to the litter numerous times. I called the vet, and my parents took him down for me. When they went to get him at my apartment he was laying on the kitchen floor. When Ma picked him up it must have put enough pressure on his tract to dislodge some of the crystals, and he peed all over the floor. (The vet said that was a good thing and probably helped save his life.) He had emergency surgery to clear the crystals. He ended up hospitalized for over a week. I'll never forget when I went to visit. They had a collar around his head, but the little bugger got around it and was licking the catheter. So they cut an xray up and made a bigger one. Then the little bugger got his back foot up and started kicking the catheter, so they had to tie his feet together! He had a few flare ups after that major incident, I had to really watch what he ate. But the past few years he had no troubles at all.

Simba also like to watch tv. Here he's watching Coronation Street and exercising at the same time!

Whatca lookin' at?

All of these pictures so far were taken when I had my apartment. (Except the one with their Momma.)

Here he's watching Benji the Hunted. He was also fond of Theodore Tugboat, and he really liked the movie Babe.

None of the cats go outside. Back in the summer of 1997, Simba and Nala got to go on an adventure. First they had to go for a drive for about 10-15 minutes, then up a lake in a speedboat (they were in cat carriers, of course). Then they got to spend the day roaming around on a very small island where a friend and his brother were building a camp. Nala didn't care for her adventure. She mainly stayed under the camp (C was convinced he was going to have to tear the floor up to get her out, but she came out eventually on her own). Simba, however, loved it. Unfortunately my camera got wet, and half or more of my pictures didn't turn out.

This is from Christmas 1997 when I moved to my first house. He loved to play with those blue satin balls. I had a set of six that were especially put on the bottom for him to play with.

This would be from November 1998 when Pumba came along. "Come on, play, Lazy!"

"I'll get ya no matter if you want me to or not!"

He warmed up to Pumba a lot more quickly that Nala. Nala never really did care super loads for Pumba. She actually still hisses at him a lot, but she does seem to be a bit nicer this past week since her brother isn't here any more.

This is the last photo I took of Simba, back on September 18. The tumor was on his left side, so you can't see it.

And he came home on Thursday. The urn is just a small white ceramic one. I may find a really nice picture of him and make a label for on it or get a nicer urn, undecided yet.

My next post will have FOs and lots of knitting content, promise.

Happy knitting!

Simba

My dearest Simba, April 24, 1996-November 14, 2009:

I can't talk about it right now, my heart is broken. RIP, little boy, and hurt no more.