Cinco

It seems that I'm celebrating NABLOPOMO by, uh, not posting at all. Lack of bloggy inspiration and today's press deadlines (which were at 3 PM and I am still waiting for a file so I can upload the whole shebang to the printer, oh my God) means no blogging. Heck, I've barely left the house since Tuesday! Outside air? What's that?

What dragged me back to the keyboard is that five years ago today I started this blog. Five years of nonsense! Five years of Rufus pictures! Five years of occasional crafty endeavors! Truthfully, I've wondered lately if this blog has run it's course, I think I would miss it if I stopped. I like writing here and I like knowing that all of you are reading it, so thank you.

PS Hey, guess what? The rechargable batteries are dead again! This time they took 10 pictures and lasted a week and a half. Lithium batteries are on my shopping list.

PPS You guys are really serious about handbags.

PPS Seriously, where the hell is my file???? AAAHHHHHH.

Maybe cargo pants are the answer

I have never been good at being a typical "girly girl." I'm ridiculously un-stylish and shopping for shoes is my nightmare. I'm not a big fan of jewelry and as for makeup? Special occasions. Maybe. If I feel like it. My hair is wash and air dry and I carry a purse solely because I eventually started carrying stuff that it didn't fit in my pockets anymore.

Lately, though, I've had the urge to get a new purse (I've also been getting the urge to buy new nail polish. Did I get hit on the head recently?) I'm trying to remember if I got hit on the head recently). Holiday sales are starting, so I should be able to get a good deal, right?

My criteria are simple:

1. A little bigger than what I have but not ridiculously gigantic. If it's too big, I'll carry too much stuff, but big enough to hold my calendar would be nice.
2. Brown or black.
   
3. No clutches. No cross body styles.
4. I do not want it to cost more than our monthly electric bill. (for reference, my current purse cost me $10 and is in fine shape)

Should be simple, right? We were out looking for a winter coat for The MWP tonight and I started browsing. I found bright pink purses (who the hell am I, Barbie?), stupidly large purses, plaid flannel purses (for female lumberjacks?), hobo bags (who the hell am I, a hobo?) plain bags, patterned bags...

I have a headache. And no new purse. I suppose I can always use a grocery store bag, right?

A teal tube

This photo is brought to you by today's terrible lighting conditions, the macro setting that I realized that our camera has after 7 years of ownership and the Jaywalker sock pattern.



On a side note, rechargeable batteries, specifically the ones made by the company that has that cute little bunny as a mascot? Rubbish. I charged them 10 days ago, took less than 10 pictures, let the camea sit a week and 3 days ago? Dead as a doornail. This does not seem to be the best use of the electricity it takes to charge them. I took two pictures today and how much do you want to be that by this weekend, I'll have to charge the batteries again? Grrr.

In a bottle

I wish that I could bottle up the last two days and keep them in a jar for dreary days in February. They have been everything I love about fall and nothing I hate (except that it's dark at 7 PM now and let's not even go there because in a few weeks it will be dark at 6 PM). The crunchy leaves, the warm air, that fall smell...

I guess this will have to do.



(Taken last weekend before The MWP's office ate him alive. Believe me, he doesn't want to bottle the last two days.)

A purple tube

When it comes to knitting, the one thing I don't like doing is stockinette stitch in the round. Plain old knitting, in a tube, forever and ever and ever. So why do I keep picking patterns that use it? Am I just a glutton for punishment?

Maybe, but at least the end result is usually worth it. Meet Margot, from the new issue of Knitty.



It hasn't reached the state where it's awkward to haul around, so Margot will be attending knitting night with me, where I will probably knit for a few rounds, get bored with it and be distracted by shiny things.

Pint-sized dose of cute

We have been wanting to get another critter for a while now, but I wanted to try to find something at an animal shelter. The local shelters always have lots of rabbits, but if you recall, Rufus thinks rabbits = lunch. (or dinner. He isn't picky.) And we've always had hamsters, we have all the stuff for hamsters, but hamsters never show up at animal shelters. But! A few weeks before we went on vacation, what should appear at a local shelter but two hamsters, surrendered because their owner "didn't have time for them." We decided to wait to adopt one until we got back from vacation, and I checked the listings only to find that a local shelter had forty hamsters for adoption. Forty.

They were rescued from a neglectful situation, someone had been breeding them and had hamsters everywhere. The shelter took 15 hamsters, didn't realize they could breed so young and next thing you know...forty hamsters.

We only adopted one. Internet, meet Ham-wich.



Ham-wich is a Campbell's Dwarf Hamster. (In case you were wondering, we didn't choose the name) We aren't even sure if Ham-Wich is a boy or a girl, as she (or he) is a little too young to tell for sure. We may change the name later, but for now, Ham-Wich it is.

We haven't owned a dwarf hamster for a quite a while and I forgot how much they like to tunnel. It's kind of like having an ant farm, or a 1/1,000,000 scale furry version of the Loch Ness Monster. We'll see the bedding moving around wherever she (or he) goes and all of the sudden, a head pops up and then goes back down. Hamsters are weird.



Weird, but cute.

Mr. December

The Four Footed Friends calendar is out!



Rufus looks rather smashing, but then again I am biased.