The Cat Puke Alarm Clock

Okay, no--this entire post isn't about cat vomit. In fact, it's not really at ALL about cat vomit, but the nasty stuff IS the reason that I'm up early enough to post something, Gussie being the lovely animal that she is and further being inclined to seek me out and howl as though having her spleen removed with a grapefruit spoon on the rare occasions when she does upchuck. Which are always around 4:00am. I think that just adds to the wonderfulness of it all.

BUT. We got back later than anticipated Sunday night (dorking around had much to do with this) and I have Knit for Life on Monday nights and there is the dreadful annoyance of having to WORK for a living in between (some poet once referred to work as "the great toad that squats upon my life" and, while I like my work quite a bit, it does sort of get in the way of the important stuff like blogging and knitting), so only now can I tell you that I was in....

Portland. By the airport, as it happens...the one called PDX. Does that tell you who I got to spend the day with?

Yep, it's MonicaPDX (which my husband once misread while I was typing and wondered aloud who this "Monica POX" was I was writing to...and why she was named for a disease) of Animorphia fame and she is every bit as delightful and funny as you would think. She is at least as smart and insightful as you would think, and we had a splendid time. Mr. K was at a knife show most of the day (he makes knives for a hobby) so Monica and I had nothing to do at all but yarn crawl and chat and giggle and have a wonderful, wonderful time. I know--sounds awful, huh? = )

Because I have been set on "spaz" for some time now (I'm starting to think that particular knob is broken because I've not managed to find the "my shit is together" setting for some time), I forgot my spindle, did not bring her the yarn I was planning to, and gifted her with nothing more than some truffle brownies and, eventually, the recipe. She, on the other hand, had all of her stuff together and brought me:

I wish I had photographed it more successfully--it's a stunning blue stone with traces of green and she made it into a necklace for me and I love it love it love it. If you look at the picture of the two of us, you can kinda see how perfectly it hangs. She also brought me:

Is this not yarn kryptonite (so pretty you get weak when you look at it)? I keep stroking it, which Mr. K thinks may be some sort of offence in some areas of the country. When the miners blankets are done, this is going straight on the needles and becoming sock kryptonite. And, of course, I completely heart the cow tape measure. You pull its TAIL to measure with it which, of course, tickles me to death. I'm a simple creature.

Thank you again, Monica. You rock beyond words. We went all over the place and did some stash enhancing (thank goodness, since neither of us had any yarn) that I'll show you tomorrow. We also went to the International Rose Test Gardens which really defy both description and photographing--it's impossible to describe the impact of all those acres of roses--but I pretended to know my ass from a hole in the ground about photography and did get these to show you:

The color is true here--it really is orange and yellow splattered and looks like it was painted. Then this:

which just took my breath away in person. Kind of like Monica herself.

I have some blanket square photos, too, but I think blogger may just climb out of the computer and smack me a good one if I try to upload any more photos today. It was threatening a bit with these last two. I'll try to get those in tomorrow, too.

Now, I have to pry Gussie from my lap where she is happily purring (perhaps she is a blog fan and that's why she woke me up so early...and now she's happy because it worked and she has a new post to read? You can bet I'll be checking the screen for nose prints later) and exercise before going to work. But, in Gussie's honor, have you ever noticed that there are certain questions to which there are going to be no good answers? For instance, "What did I just step in?" is never followed by anything like "Mmm...warm massage lotion". I think there may be an entire post in the future on this very subject.