Day of Randomness

I woke up this morning all excited because my headache was much improved (stupid 3 day headache), my back was feeling better and I didn't really care that I still hurt a bit thanks to the valium my doctor prescribed to me. But, it all went downhill from there. I went to pet my cat, Castiel, and he decided to show me the new trick he had learned. Let's just say that I shall be calling the vet on Monday morning because someone has definitely come into his manhood.

This:



has become this:


in 5 short months.

Sigh. And when Castiel goes in I better take Madeline since they're the same age.

BTW: Here's Madeline so she won't feel left out.


Gang. The Pigeon is going to be poor. Very very poor after next week.

Spring in Louisiana

Tax Season hasn't really been tax season this year. With many of my clients being charities the due date for returns is in May and the others don't have December year ends. Therefore I have spent the last few months working on large non-tax projects, playing gigs and working around the house. It has been wonderful. I would love to have a few more clients, but so far I can't complain.

I know the accounting stuff is boring so here goes on the yard stuff. I installed a clothesline and until my car turned yellow I was using it for all of my drying needs. Unfortunately I have year round allergies and when the pollen gets so bad that the cars turn yellow I just can't deal with drying my stuff outside. I also planted a huge garden. I've got kale, spinach, collards, bell peppers, banana peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, several varieties of beans, squash, cantaloupe, peppermint, lavender, rosemary, blueberries, blackberries, grapes and potatoes. The surprise so far is that potatoes have sprouted out of the compost pile I buried at the end of last year. I've used all the compost, but having a sense that those plants had grown out of the compost pile rather than just being weeds I made sure to leave them. Woohoo feral potatoes!!!!

The gardening thing is new to me. My parents gardened when I was little, but that was mostly me wandering around helping them pick the bounty instead of actually doing anything productive in the growing stages. It's been hard work, but just being able to eat the kale that survived my winter gardening attempt has been wonderful. I can't describe the taste of kale from my backyard as compared to the expensive store bought stuff. And I have more coming! My back and knees, however, aren't so excited.

I've also been doing a lot of knitting and sticking to my cold sheeping ways. It's so easy to do now that I've got my yarn somewhat organized and have a chest of drawer solely devoted to projects that should come next. Now if I can only get started on quilting and work that stash down.

My biggest failure over the past few months has been in keeping my house clean and making curtains for my backroom. I desperately need curtains back there and really need to make curtain liners for the other rooms. Summer is coming and we've already had many days over 80 degrees. It's Louisiana, therefore it will be hot. I purchased 3 shade trees for my house and hopefully that will help things next summer, but for this summer I need to focus on making my window coverings tight. When I ever get to it I will make sure to post pictures.

I  think my next big project is going to be learning to spin since my sister just acquired several angora bunnies and learning to make soap. My family has recently started working towards being more self-sufficient and not relying on grocery stores and electricity as much as we have in the past. It's not an easy road and we're making baby steps, but the biggest thing has been the gardens and recycling my business shred to the bunnies and the bunnied up papers into my garden. I feel like I've started my own little eco system in nowhere Lousiana.

What have you been doing to become more self sufficient? I'd love to have new ideas.

December Runneth Me Over

I'm not really sure where December went. I have a vague memory of Christmas parties, Board Meetings, Nursing Home concerts and Church Concerts, and brand new and very sick kitten. There was also a lovely stomach virus and computer explosion thrown in there somewhere. I now have a brand new computer and an upgraded internet service so all seems to be better.

Midnight Services were particularly interesting this year when a sudden and violent stomach virus invaded my body. I'm so very lucky that this Church is nice and had no problems with me running out during Communion and never returning. They even fetched my cello from the Altar area and helped me get everything packed up. Although, it might just have been that they took one look at me and just really really wanted me out of there. :)-

I'm gearing up for Tax Season now. Part of me hopes that I'm so busy that I tear my hair out, but the other part just wants me to make enough to pay my bills including the new computer setup. I think I'm going to aim for somewhere in between. Being self-employed has been wonderful yet frightening so far. I have a feeling that this is how it's always going to be, though. At least I get to work with a cat on my lap and music playing the background that's a definite upgrade.

I have yet again failed to take pictures of the baby blanket I finished last month, but here's a picture of another one I made last summer. Just imagine this blanket sans the cat and in teal. I really like this pattern. It's simple enough that I don't cry when the baby tears it up and since I always make it out of cotton the Momma can bleach it to her heart's contect and I still don't cry. I've seen a few of these being carried around by 5 year olds and they do seem to hold together even after being tortured.



Now I'm working on a simple prayer shawl for my neighbor. My forever project, a blanket for my sister, has been temporarily put away but will be returning after we've spent some time apart learning from our past mistakes. It's about double this size now after some late nights, but is still only half-way finished. I really need to think these things out better.

4 am Collie Frolicking

Yet again I started the day at 4am, 5am, 6am and finally 7:30 when I dragged myself out of bed. Rita Mae, my elderly collie has decided that cold frosty mornings are the best thing ever and insists on going outside for hours at a time. Of course, at her age when you wake up you must immediately use the bathroom so she knows that I'm going to put her out no matter how many times she asks. But watching a happy if slightly frosty collie come in is worth it all. Well, my sleep o'meter begs to differ, but most of me thinks it's good.

Yesterday was spent in another seminar. This one was a telecast of a panel of CPAs in Dallas talking about the changes in the tax law. Riveting. However, I did get about 5 inches of my sock cuff knit so at least something was accomplished. I do learn stuff at these conferences, but I really think they would be much more interesting if every so often something exploded or there were death defying acrobatics going on in the background. But the day ended well when a client took me out to dinner to discuss some tax issues. That's a definite perk of the job, although my waistline might not agree.

Today was spent running all over creation. I worked on a client's books, did my nursing home volunteering, shopped at Walmart (joy!), got a letter together to mail to the IRS, took a deposit across town for a client and met with another client in Bossier. I feel like I've spent most of the day in my car or talking to people. So now I'm relaxing with a cup of coffee, my knitting and Burn Notice. Not a bad way to end the day.

Here's Rita the Elderly Frost Loving Collie and my newish kitten, Castiel, enjoying dinner together a few days ago.

A Day for the Rearview Mirror

I made it to Carthage this morning and played for my friend's funeral. It was amazing. A full 60 piece choir, a string quartet, a pianist and an organist showed up to pay tribute. We played Handel's Hallelujah Chorus as the recessional. I've never played a harder "gig" or a more touching one. I started sobbing in the middle of our first piece and finally one of the choir members took pity on me and handed me a kleenex. But, I'm glad I was able to give something back to his family and help create such a wonderful tribute to the life he led.

I spent the rest of the day playing on Ravelry and dealing with the IRS.

Therefore, I have decided that the rest of this evening will be spent drinking hot tea and wearing my footie pajamas (it's freaking cold here). Now I just need to decide what I should watch while chilling out. Tough tough decision. I've got Burn Notice, Star Trek, Stargate and Stargate Atlantis on DVD or I could always look for the trashiest thing on tv and just veg out. No knitting has or will happen today.  I desperately need to finish up a baby blanket, but I have issues knitting on something that should be infused with happy feelings when I'm feeling this tired and depressed.

Tomorrow is another day and another seminar. Woohoo! The Annual Tax Update all as a webcast. So no interaction and lots of bored accountants sleeping, reading the paper, or (in my case) knitting.

I did do one fun thing today and stopped by the Jim Reeves Memorial just outside Carthage. There's not a lot to see, but I love stopping  there and walking over the guitar and saying hello to his statue. I almost feel like I've forgotten something when I don't get to do this. Here's a closeup of the guitar that makes up part of the sidewalk.

Seminars, Funerals and Knitting

'Tis the season for Christmas concerts. I played my first one last night for a large Baptist Church here in town. It went off pretty well except for the finding out that a dear friend had died just as I was going on stage. The conductor thought that I already knew and asked me if I knew when the funeral was. I had to ask him who had died. :( Totally not cool. I knew he was ill and in the hospital, but the last thing I had heard was encouraging. So, tomorrow, I will drive to Carthage, Texas and play his funeral along with other musicians that he performed with and students he taught. He was truly a wonderful man and I will miss him.

So, today I spent my time with the other profession I'm involved with...accountants. Whoo boy, are they a different breed of people. The topic today was "Small Business Accounting and Auditing Update". Isn't your pulse racing from just reading that title? The speaker was pretty good. In fact, no one fell asleep. Yay! Let's just say that the only reason I stayed awake was because of my knitting. I got a seat in the back and put my simple baby blanket under the desk and knit away. So, I learned lots of fun stuff about Engagement Letters and International GAAP Standards and.......  Hey! Are you still awake?? At least I should be able to finish the baby blanket for the baby that was born last week (whoops) if not tonight then tomorrow night.

Tonight I will be eating the Great Northern Beans I made in the crock pot yesterday and some cabbage and trying to get a good nights sleep before hitting the road in the morning. I'm trying to eat healthier and counting my calories. It's not terribly fun, but I've promised myself a season of Supernatural for each 10 pounds lost .Sadly I should be able to collect the entire series by the time I hit my goal weight. So, yay for Supernatural, boo for letting myself get so overweight. However, the chance to watch rather attractive men fight demons, etc is enough to make me turn down the cake and pick up the cabbage. It's a good thing that I'm rather easily bought.

Day Two of Stephie's Reign

I do believe this is a first with Laura's blog. I am blogging for her for the second day in a row. In case you missed yesterday's fascinating blog post I am Stephanie, the cat that owns Laura.

As promised I had pictures taken of all of her unfinished projects and the dirty quilt she dragged home from a yard sale. I must say that she has accomplished quite a bit on several of the projects but others are just shameful and only add to the clutter around the house. And, let me tell y'all, the Stephie Cat does not hold for clutter. My favorite thing to do is to move about the house and point out the areas that are mussy.

Anyway, here are the pictures. I had to enlist my Grandmother in the project so don't blame me if the pictures aren't up to your standards. I have no opposable thumbs, that makes picture taking difficult.

What you are seeing is a sock, the dark blue is the beginning of a rug, the red is an almost complete Christmas tree garland and the small blue thing is, I believe, the beginnings of a dishcloth. Please pardon the gratuitous dog picture. Grandmama just loves adding those little homey touches to her photography.

And finally here is a shot of the quilt. Laura keeps saying that she's going to wash it and make it pretty, but all I know is that she better hurry before I do something about it. My poor nose is still stuffed up from when I took it down to Grandmama's house. Again ignore the small furry creature she has snapped a picture of. I read somewhere that cat pictures can increase a blogs traffic, but still this is getting a little too much.

Ta ta 'til tomorrow.