The "Cat" Days of Summer

Happy August! I decided to take a summer day off yesterday to celebrate the last day of July by roasting myself under the sun with an occasional dip in the pool. Then I got home to this:



Apparently, that's what Kashi prefers to do while I am at work. I should start giving her chores, like doing a bit of laundry and cleaning up the kitchen. She's already pretty good at catching the occasional bug.

By the way, I am attaching my first ever public photo of my finished product: a hooded sweater from the book The Yarn Girls' Guide To Simple Knits. It is knitted with Malabrigo merino:



The entire sweater was done with stockinette stitch, so it went by relatively quickly. Plus I took this with me to Hilton Head for a week and that was all I did (in addition to going to the beach and drinking and eating)

And finally, what will a complete blog entry be without dessert? These are the Valencia Chocolate Chip Cookies I baked yesterday so the Husband can take with him to work, since he will be on call and it's always nice to bribe your co-workers to do some nasty work for you, let you sleep the whole night without having to wake up to give an epidural to a 15-year-old who is having her 4th baby, and tend to the twentieth gunshot victim of the night in exchange for a few of MY cookies. Don't mind me bragging, but pictures just don't do them justice:



Don't you just want to lick the screen right now?

Muffins For Stud Muffins

So here is the real picture of the stud muffin who saved me from the evil possessed elevator. And I did deliver the blueberry muffins I promised last night:



These are cinnamon blueberry muffins I made from scratch, following a recipe from Gourmet Magazine.

He couldn't believe I actually baked the muffins for them.

So now I have to bake another dozen for my stud husband so he doesn't get jealous.

The Hunk Who Rescued Me

(Not the actual Hunk. Picture of actual Hunk pending after I delivered the muffins)


It was a nice Wednesday afternoon. The wind was blowing, and the temperature finally became more tolerable. It was after 6:30 pm, and I decided to go home. I was in a pleasant mood. I passed by the produce store, got a few boxes of blueberries thinking the Husband, who was still at work, will certainly appreciate my effort and my good mood.

Got into my apartment building, saw that someone posted a big note to say all elevators are out of service. A prank, I thought to myself. This has never happened before. My stomach groaned. The security people didn't say anything. I pressed the button, and elevator #1 opened its (now I consider sinister) mouth/door to graciously accept its willing prey. Another girl/prey came in, pressed 16 while I pressed 22. The ride was smooth and as usual, the girl and I stared at the door. Then ...and the elevator came to a stop, which I figured to be somewhere between the 15th and 16th floor. Crap, are you freaking kidding me? My worst nightmare was to be stuck in an elevator. Usually when this happens, I'd perform the following sequence: press the door open button --->press the door close button--->press on the button of my floor. Usually the elevator will start moving again in a few seconds. But what I saw instead was quite fascinating...all the buttons on the panel started to flash in a random pattern, almost like the elevator was possessed by some ungodly being. Never saw this before.

I called the lobby with my cell, they said they are getting help. Help Schmelp. Bored (and possibly a bit anxious), I started to press the alarm button which let out a clear, clean riiiiiinnnnnngggg. For some reason, it's soooo comforting to hear that ring. Then that got boring too...so I called 911 to see what would happen. You know, it's one of those numbers that your fingers always itch to dial (esp. when I was a kid), but you don't because oftentimes it's not the appropriate situation. This time, I dialed. 9-1-1. YEAHHHHHH! "This is 911 what is your emergency?" "I am STUCK IN A FREAKIN' ELEVATOR ON THE 16TH FLOOR PLEASE COME SAVE US NOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!" (Almost wanted to throw in the idea that I also suffer from hypertension, high cholesterol, on Plavix, perhaps throw in diabetes, manic-depressive and suicidal to see if that will make this even more of a priority---for the record, of course I don't have any of those.)

After a few minutes, I heard sirens. We live just a few blocks from the fire station and we hear sirens all the time. Annoying we always think of those noises. But now, they are possibly be the sweetest sound I've ever heard in my life. WEE WOO WEE WOO...there are two of them. THEY ARE SENDING TWO FIRE ENGINES TO RESCUE US!!! Speaking of fire engines, you can't help but think of the fire fighters. Now, calmed down quite a bit with the thought, I started to fantasize about my rescuer. Will he look like Hasselhoff? Or that guy from Law & Order SVU? Now what about that Fabio-looking dude...Then someone brought me out of my daydreaming (yes, in a hot stuffy elevator I can daydream too). They were yelling "Anyone there?" THE HUNKS...ugh...THE FIREFIGHTERS ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!

They wedged open the elevator door with their bare, strong and muscular arms (well, they also have tools I think but that's not the point here), and we soon realized we were in between floors. Awful...no...AWESOME! Now they will have to scoop me up to rescue me!!! (How boring to just WALK OUT of the elevator) I gave them my bags and my blueberries...gave them my hands...and in no time I was up standing on the 16th floor, with 5 hunks...ugh...firefighters!!! Although, my first reaction was...ugh..."Can I have my blueberries back?" Very much like how Hillary Swank forgot to thank her (now ex-) husband when she won the award. "Ugh...yeah...thank you so much really really."

Then we all proceeded to the freight elevator and they sent me off on the 22nd floor. One of the firefighter actually asked me where I got my tan! WOOT! Then the other, shorter, firefighter asked him, "So...how are your GRANDCHILDREN?" So I asked them if they want my blueberries as a token of appreciation, and one of them (the Hunk who saved me) said "No, but blueberry muffins would be nice."

So now, I am sitting here looking for blueberry muffin recipes. I hope I have enough ingredients, as I sure as hell am not going down the elevator again until tomorrow morning.

As for the other girl, she must think I am a freak.

Braving The Storm

I got home and saw this: Kashi lounging on my chair. I didn't stop and pet her, however, for I was about to embark on an adventure. To spice up my day a bit, I decided to go visited the Schuylkill River Park to see how bad the flooding was.

When I left, the sky was cloudy but you could see a peek of sunshine. All of a sudden, there was a roar of thunder, and I found myself walking, with no shelter nearby, in a huge thunderstorm. Huge, as in I was right underneath that red area on the Doppler radar. I struggled with my umbrella amidst the wind and rain, and finally was able to take shelter at the 30th Street Station. My jeans were soaked. When the rain finally stopped, I proceeded to the Schuylkill River bank. Here are just a few pictures of the really bad flooding that began when the river crested yesterday:

Bowling While Intoxicated

After work today, we had a farewell party for a co-worker. It was held at the Lucky Strike, a bar/bowling alley. It's a pretty new place, only been opened for three weeks. Reminded me of the Bowlmor Lanes in NYC. Now whenever I feel like bowling while intoxicated, I know where to go. It's a possibility that I might actually do better under the influence and get the ball rolling in the right direction.











Then just when I was about to head home, I saw this. Throughout the afternoon, my office was ringing with loud rock music and this explains it - they were setting up for a huge party. Right. A street party on the exact street where my office building is located. Apparently, this is part of the "Welcome America"celebration.

It's quite an experience to see all these people sitting in the middle of Broad Street (it's like Broadway in NYC), with chairs and tables. I am glad to observe that the audience is quite diverse.

As I walked along the street, I thought the only thing missing was an open bar.

Needless to say, I didn't do any knitting tonight.

Knitting With Cat Hair

This is usually what I see when I get home from work...the cat running out of the bedroom, displaying her butt and stretching. It is a leisurely life she is leading, as her mommy and daddy slave away.

I have also been knitting away on a cardi, in the "little lovely" colorway by Malabrigo. It is primarily a red/pink combination, but the effect is beauuuutiful. Picture of this will be up soon. Malabrigo is one of my favorite, as it is 100% merino and incredibly soft. The only excuse for me to keep buying yarn is my promise to the Husband that I will knit him either a merino wool or cashmere sweater for this winter. If I do, that will be all he's getting for Christmas...look at the price tag! I will probably need 8-10 of those babies!

The alternative is to start brushing the cat, collecting her fur, spinning it into yarn, and knitting a sweater with it.

Uh Oh

After I finished uploading the picture there in the profile, I proudly showed off the somewhat complete blog to the Husband when he got home from work. His reaction: "I don't think the cat will be very happy with you, putting such a revealing picture on the website." Well, I am not taking it down. If someone is turned on merely by looking at the picture, good for him, since prescription drugs can get expensive.

Rain Isn't An Excuse...Oh Yes It Is!

It's been raining like mad here and around Philadelphia. Although we didn't have any flooding and mudslides in Center City, I heard things were much worse out in the burbs and in Delaware. But who knows that rain not only causes flooding, but it can also cause Crackberry outage? I was told by our IT guy that a bunch of us didn't get emails on our Crackberry because of the rain. Apparently the towers that handle the signals can be affected by the rain. Sheesh, so much for technology.

Nature always wins.