Hurray for Presents!

A few months ago, I asked Lita to crochet a pair of mittens for me. I'd been wanting a simple pair of black mittens, but apparently mittens are hopelessly out of fashion. I couldn't find any that weren't those waterproof insulated kind. I told Lita what I was looking for and she jumped right on it. I guess she had a black sweater she unraveled or something, because she had the black yarn on hand already. And here they are!



You will note that the picture is entitled "Black Mambas". That's because Lita worked on these while she was substituting high school something or other, and the teenage boys thought the mittens were super awesome. In fact, teenage boys had a lot to do with the making of these mittens. One boy borrowed a mitten to smack another boy in the head (something of which I mightily approve, because smacking teenage boys in the head with mittens is always good). Another boy wanted to know if Lita was going to put an idiot string on them, just like his little sister has. He even demonstrated how he pulled on one mitten so his sister could smack herself in the head with the other mitten. I thought the string was an awesome idea -- the possibility of someone making me smack myself in the head notwithstanding -- because I would be so upset if I lost one of Lita's mittens on the subway or something. So I asked Lita for the string, and with some adjustments it works out perfectly. And finally, at least one teenage boy thought the best name in the world for these mittens would be the Black Mambas, and I liked that so much that I've continued to call them that: "Hon, have you seen the Black Mambas?" So I guess the lesson we can learn from all of this is that teenage boys are completely captivated by crocheted mittens, and if you have the means to make a ton of them you could potentially rule the world.

Then PM, knowing how much I love to make snotty remarks about fundamentalist Christian tracts on my other blog, thought that a Lenten present would be just the thing for me. And I think so, too! I especially like the keyfob, which I have hung up on a nail by my door. Almost a mezzuzah; it's at least in that spirit.



Also completely awesome was the comic he sent to me with his note. He drew a picture of Onil swiping my present and me chasing him. Look how big my boobs are! OH YEAH!



So to thank Lita and PM, I made them a few things. I sent Lita a copy of the heron bookmark she liked so much and this set of thank you and birthday cards in four different colors:





PM received three bookmarks, which I finally got around to sending last week. Sheesh, I'm late. (CD are PM's initials.)

KITTY!

Putting pictures of your cat in your blog is the thing to do these days. Everyone's doing it. Rimmi did it. Twice. So did Torrk. Lita did it too, although she doesn't want you to look at her cat for fear that he will go missing.

I'm going to do one better. May I present, KITTY in all her slide show glory! Enjoy.

The Intrepid Is on the Move!

I know this is really a card blog, but I'm so excited about these pictures that I just can't resist posting a few here. The Intrepid, after being entrenched in the mud of the Hudson River for decades, is finally on her way to a makeover in New Jersey. They tried to move her a month or so ago and they weren't able to budge her. After several weeks of having 40 cubic tons of mud dug out around her, she was finally ready to go. I took these pictures from the window of my department which overlooks the Hudson, and the final two pictures were taken from my office window.

Taking a Break from the Card Action....

To bring you this exciting news! My goldfish plant that I entered in the Manheim Farm Show won first place in its category! I'm elated! Here's a picture of my little prize-winner:



Also, just for fun, here are a couple of pictures of Amy and Onil hamming it up. First up we have Amy gazing at a plateful of lima beans:



Also, Amy giving the thumbs up to Spider-Man:



Finally, we have Onil being a grumpy lamb: