Just for fun....

...here's a picture of the first "home" I ever owned, with co-owners: man, dog, and cat.

Circa 1979-80, I would say. You can barely see Frisbee the cat (so named because we used to throw him out of the bed) in my lap, and Kasta the German Shepherd, and Jim with a hat his Dad gave him that he liked even though I think someone had sat upon it once. Oh, and check out the knee high moccasins. I still have those, but that skirt, I loved, and it got stolen in Mexico. Well, it wouldn't fit me now anyway.
I remember giving the most successful dinner party I ever had there. I forget exactly what was eaten, but the high point was making whole wheat sopapillas in my wok that turned out perfectly! We were all impressed, because of course, there was no gas, electricity or running water.
I believe I could live again without the electricity, but lord, give me indoor plumbing!

Closing Day

The Ol' Bear and I visited Missoula last weekend, and spent Easter with Christy, Ben, and his fiancee, Amanda. It was a good thing.

We got to see the house that Christy moved into late last year, where she lives with 2 roommates:















We were treated to dinner at Amanda and Ben's, and it was just as good as Mother's Day was last year. I can't wait until their wedding. Wait until you meet Amanda, she's super (and I hope she doesn't mind me posting a picture of her loading up a ziplock of her superior chocolate-mint glazed brownies.)



Argh! I wish they weren't all gone -
but it's just as well! Here's a picture of a bunch
of friends hanging around the table at Amanda and Ben's after dinner:

Unfortunately, we had to leave so as to get back
to Whitefish. I worked at 8:30 Monday morning.
But it was grand to see them, and meet Christy's friend Karissa and walk dogs along the river, and just generally hang out. Didn't get to play cards,but maybe another time.

Omigod, I almost forgot:

Today we bought a house.

And that's about it for now. I've got school in Seattle next week, and Montana Library Association the week after. Ol' Bear left for Alaska to work today, so things are definitely going to be quieter. Except for PJ. He's very anxious to keep me posted as to life in kittyworld. Now I think I'll check in on the Caring Bridge site and see how Mom's doing. Love, Mary

A Snowy Spring Morning

Hey Mary,
Guess What? Spring started yesterday!


Really!

And then,

this morning,

it stopped!

Love,
Nancy

I made Mom a caring bridge site.

Hi Mary,
I made Mom a caring bridge site tonight. Here is the link.
www.caringbridge.org/visit/maggiedrew
Love,
Nancy

Officially Spring Break

Most recent random thought: what happened to that CD Nancy made for us of "Moody Bluegrass?"

Now that it's officially Spring Break (since this morning at 12:16 a.m. when I posted my final project, the Knitter's Stash Database), I'm trying to forget all the things I said I was going to do on Spring Break. I woke up this morning, feeling all luxurious with time...time...time. No work until tomorrow, nothing to do today, la la laaaaa, etc. Luckily I managed to be showered and dressed when there was a knock on the door. Oops. I'd forgotten that the house inspector was to show up today to tell us what was up with the little old house we might buy.

This old house was built in 1919 (just like Mom) and after inspection, the inspector told us that the house was actually pretty good, considering. The foundation has a few cracks, but after 88 years, it's not going anywhere. Every thing he mentioned, we pretty much already knew. So, now, all we have to do is wait for somebody from Ol' Bear's work to verify his employment.

But I digress...ohhhhh, it's so lovely to be on Spring Break. This was a good quarter, considering. I had great partners for projects which required partners, interesting subjects, and I like databases. See my process model?


Okay, it's a little small, and probably wouldn't make much sense anyway, but I like the colors hee hee. And, I populated some of the tables (lingo, eh?) and created a query and it worked! I set "1 Fine" as the criteria, and up came every laceweight yarn that was entered into the database in a handy little report with pictures. Of course there were only two entered, but just wait! Except, right, I'm trying to forget that I was going to do anything during Spring Break so that I can continue to do nothing as long as possible. That is my goal for the next hmmm...?...10 days or so. And with that in mind, I am going, going, gone. Love you, Mary

I beg to disagree

I beg to disagree. Alice has a rather domineering temperment. Yoga is a wonderful exercise for those with a more sedentary view of life. A good stretch is a wonderful thing for many cats.
Eat my dust Alice,
Abbiethekitty

Alice says...Yoga? Why not paint?

Hi Mary, Alice says Yoga is really not good for cats. Massage yes, Yoga no. However she is very much in favor of cats that paint. Alice thinks the color blue has many wonderful permutations that can only be explored by smearing it on the wall.

She says you have got to expand your horizons dear FattyKitty. Paint is the way to go!

Here is the book.

Alice says try it, you might like it. Although your monochromatic work in the shower stall was a good start. Talk to your librarian. She should be able to get you a copy of the book so you can study what cats have done in this line in the past. Alice may not be fat but she sure can spread the paint.

The only difficult part is the cleanup. But there is always some spillage when you are in an artistic frenzy.

Love,

Nancy

(for Alice, who finds typing tedious.)

Kitty on Lap

Howdy Mary,

Yes, kitty on lap. See the tummy? (The cat's tummy not the lap tummy.)

And if that isn't enough proof that AbbietheKitty is the cat pictured in the previous post book cover look at this!

A younger and svelter Abbie. Alice is obviously amazed at Abbie's wonderful yoga pose. I rest my case. And me too, as I am going to bed now. Love, Nancy

Kitty on lap, prepare to do homework (not)

Hi Nancy! I just decided to browse through recent photos and put up a few and talk about them. Basically, what's been going on in my life, blah blah blah.
This picture is of "Red Square" at the University of Washington. There's a webcam of this square, which I think is called Red Square because of the red brick. It's not square, so, must be the brick, huh? I always think of Red Square as somewhere in the U.S.S.R. Anyway, the really cool building that the webcam points at is the Suzzallo Library (SUH-za-low), which is to my right in this picture.

And here's one of my student friends, Steph:

We're at Pike Place Market in Seattle for this picture, and Steph is making some kind of "Isn't this FABulous?" remark. And it is fabulous, and so is Steph. She's one of those people that you meet and feel like you've known forever right away. I laugh as much with her as I do with my sisters, and that's saying a lot.

Ooooo, look: the Ol' Bear's building a boat. This here is in our basement. You might have to screw your head around to look at it properly.

It will be a Greenland Kayak when it's done, which means it will have a wooden frame, with canvas stretched over it, and I suppose it will be varnished or something to make the canvas watertight. (I'm sure I've been told but I don't remember it as well as I remember, say, a knitting technique.)

And last - here's the book I put on hold. When will it get here? And who will read it? Maybe Fatty Kitty can write a review. He's going to be bored now that Library 2.0 is over.


By the way, tell abbiethekitty that Fatty Kitty says, "Hi." (in a deep, melodious voice, hee hee!)

Did'ja Notice?

Did'ja huh? I put up about 24 more pictures in my flickr fireworks set and now my little badge is much more interesting. Yummy in fact. I went for different colored fireworks and not all the silvery/gold ones.

Both Jon and I are going to see Mom today even if she doesn't want visitors. I expect we will take Dad along. I will report later,

Love,

Nancy

I've got a Cover Boy!

You know how sometimes the mail is nothing but junk, or even worse, bills? It can be so bad that we have a saying in this house: No mail is good mail!

Yesterday was a first in the annals of mail history (around here anyway); yesterday that fascinating magazine Sea Technology arrived. And guess who is on the cover? The OL' BEAR!


Actually, we knew it was coming 'cuz one of his old coworkers told him about it. Apparently there is some flack about safety standards not being up to par in this picture. Oops. Too bad we won't be able to go around and buy up any more copies, being the rather exclusive mag that it is. So Ol' Bear will just have to autograph your cocktail napkin, or your arm or Tshirt instead.

Love, Mary

Finally, a poem for Alton

Hi Mary,
I have been brooding over Alton's poetry card. I finally decided that since he was so clingy a cat he needed something with a little more oomph than A.A. Milne or Ogden Nash. I came up with this Robert Browning poem. I think it fits our strange relationship perfectly. Thank goodness for PoemHunter.com!
Jim and I have been at the Winter Bluegrass Festival this weekend. It was lots of fun although it kept me up way too late both nights. One of the new bands we liked was comprised of youngsters. Sawtooth Bluegrass is a really good band and I don't think they have anyone over 16 in the group. They are going to be at Dulono's Pizza in early April and we will have to go see them.
Carry on with your classes dear Sister, I am learning alot!


Love,
Nancy

Long time, no blog

Howdy Nancy, and cats:

I've been spending a lot of time on Fatty Kitty's blog lately, trying to catch up with the rest of the librarians in our experiment/challenge to learn all we can about social software. Actually, as I sit here typing, PJ is sitting on my lap, watching the letters make their way across the screen.
I've spent most of this Saturday evening learning about podcasts, embedding a YouTube video into that blog, and signing up for Del.icio.us. (I think I'm really going to like that - I already have this blog tagged and one of the tags is ncdrew - pretty soon I'll have a whole set of things tagged with ncdrew.)

If you are interested in any of the (very brief) tutorials on all this Web 2.0 (that means the second generation of internet interactivity), check out the Montana Library Wiki on it.

Meanwhile, to comfort myself while I'm doing homework, I have bought myself a new cup:
Wow, that is definitely a "Mary" color, isn't it?

For some knitting news, you'll be interested to know (a funny phrase - you might not be interested at all!) that I'm building a knitting database. Supposedly, in this database I'll have tables with patterns, and the source of the patterns (book or pamphlet, etc), and the yarn I have, and needles, and projects. Heh heh. I might be delusional about this, but we'll see. I'm interested in just seeing if it will work with a few sets of data in it - don't know if I'll ever get it up to the full amount of knitting detritus laying about the house....anyway, I should go to bed now. I've got red eyeballs. Love, Mary