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

Alice the poetry cat

As a librarian you won't need the attribution of the poetry included with the cat cards. Just let me know if you get stuck...
Love,
Nancy

Cat cards

Hi Mary,

Abigail wants me to start a trend. She thought a series of Yoga Cats would be interesting. This is the first one of the series of poetry cat cards. As they say in the restaurant biz, 'enjoy'.

Love,

Nancy

17,100 points in Hand and Foot!!!

Hi Mary,

Just thought we needed photo verification of the Hand and Foot game played the evening of February 19th. On the last hand (150 points) we had 17,100 points just in the piles. Jim and Maggie and I all had wild piles. Dad had over 900 points, I had 7 hundred and some and Mom was way high too. Jim, who had a wild pile, four cleans and two dirties and some red three's claimed to only have 475 in points.

Dad was so disturbed by this he had to count Jim's hand himself. He came up with 575 points so we figure Jim lost 100 somehow while counting. It was quite a hand and we were all relieved when someone (ME!!!) could finally go out.

Love,

Your sister,

Nancy

Alice is jealous

Hi Mary,

Alice wants her own yoga post. Anything Fatty Kitty can do she can do better. It is a female thing.

Now if I only knew anything about Yoga I could tell you the name of these poses. Something about the sun I think. But that could be the influence of the sunny stripes on the bed.

Alice rests her case. Alton and Abbie had no interest whatsoever. They are too young for Yoga.

By the way, I am registered for Sally Melville's talk on Creativity hosted by Needlework Unlimited on April 10th up on France Avenue. I am looking forward to it. Have you had time for any knitting lately? I haven't.

love,

Nancy

I thought I saw a birdie

Dear Mary,

I did!

It was a goose. It was just here. It was WEARING CLOTHES!!!

I swear!

Abbiethekitty (tired but vigilant)

Food. You have just posted about Food...

...and you did it at one of the few times I am not hungry - at 11:30 at night after finishing writing a book review for my 520 class which has a long name, longer than I can remember (but not as long as this sentence.) Well, I may have to change it a little tomorrow. (The review, not the sentence.) But I'm not reading it again tonight.

Actually, it was a review of this book, which I found was surprisingly useful. Do you know why they call ripping back a sweater "frogging?" I didn't. Now I do. Yawwwn. Spose I'd better go to bed now.

Tomorrow: the St. Charles Catholic Church Pie Social review. Love, Mary

Food and Quilts

Hi Mary,
I went to a quilt show with my friend Anne. It was all 'art' quilts and the theme was the Mississippi River. Very interesting. Before we went we had lunch at an Asian Fusion restaurant.
It was yummy!
What I could taste of it anyway. They had the rice in three little hills. Sort of like they molded it in a little Chinese tea cup and turned it upside down. Then they put different sauces on each one. My favorite was the coconut one. I passed on the peanut sauce because peanuts taste icky to me. The other one was steamed shallots which was OK. I had chicken (you could have tofu instead) in a sweet and sour sauce. It wasn't the thick jelly-like sauce you get in most Chinese restaurants. It was light and tart and a little sweet and just a tiny bit hot. Not so it felt hot, but more like it dreamed of hotness. They had the sauce in a tiny bowl and you could put as much on as you wanted. I used it ALL up. It also had a nice lettuce salad with a very interesting dressing. I couldn't describe it but it was perfect. I would go there again. And it only cost $10.00.
I had never heard of this restaurant but it is only about 8 blocks away from my parents. It is called Rice Paper. Cute name.
Ah the joys of the city.
The quilt show was fun too. It was in an old building up North on the Mississippi. It is now on the historical register. It used to be a bar and a post office and a family house. It has all sorts of additions going out every which way. There are two stairways up to the second story and you have to go around in funny ways to see it all. Some of the rooms on the upper level are higher than other rooms too.
It is on a hill over looking the river. Unfortunately now there is a 4 lane highway between the river and the house but it must have been a wonderful site when it was Indian Territory still.
The quilt show was all the kinds of quilts that my friend Karen gets so annoyed with at the Fargo Show. Lots of machine quilting, lots of beading and tulle and embroidery and painting on fabric. I should have taken my camera. It was just the right size show. About 25 quilts. Enough to be interesting but not so many you got bored.
It is nice here today. Warmer and no wind. I will take it.
Love,
Nancy