No Update:

Thankfully, I have no further mice to report. I finished MIL's hat, but failed to take a picture of it to show you. Moodles threw her first temper-tantrum and was rewarded with an early bed time. Much to her chagrin, she is still not allowed to play with Mommy's Laptop. When she woke up two hours later, Daddy showed her how to play a dumbek. This was fun until the drum tipped over and bonked her on the head. Then it was Bed Time: Part II.

So in this absence of funny things to share with you, I shall instead redirect you to someone else who does have a warm-fuzzy for you... Go read about pre-schoolers at Miss Chelsea's Blog. Then say it with me: Awwwwwww.

More of Everything: (hats, mice, whatever)

My latest knitting project was a hat for Ethel, who will be retiring at the end of this year. I love Ethel because she bribes me into good behavior with cookies. How can you not love that? Also, she adores the things I knit her, which means that I knit her more things. It's a self-perpetuating sort of relationship. This hat is based on the Meret pattern by Wooly Wormhead. I made it with the "slouchy" variation, and it seems to fit Ethel really well. I will miss Ethel's naughty rebelious streak and kindness after she's gone. She has handed off her torch to me, and I now posses the Cookie Tin of Good Behavior. I shall do my very best to keep it stocked, but we'll see how that pans out. I probably won't bribe people into good behavior... I'll likely end up giving them out as "consolation prizes."

"Pandora.com isn't working on your computer? Say it's not so! I have two other computers here that don't work at all, and guess what? Pandora Radio isn't a mission critical application and I have no sympathy for your plight. Go listen to music on your ipod. Have a cookie."

I know. I'm mean.

Then there's the update I know you're all really here for... The mice. You wanted to know if I'm sure yet... Obviously, based on the picture, I'm not. There was nothing in the trap when I got home from work yesterday, but there were mouse droppings next to it. I think it got set off and literally scared the crap out of another mouse. I set it up again, and then went out for Thai food with Eithni and Moodles*. We really weren't gone long, but by the time I got back, I had a second gray mouse. I named her Helena. And then we sexed the mice. Paris and Helena (both grey) are girls, Hector is a boy. Fan-freakin'-tastic.

Of course, I set up the trap a fourth time, because I still want to be sure that I've got the full set. Then I cast on another hat, this time for my MIL. Moodles slept restlessly because the teething continues, so I didn't get much done. Can I tell you, my kid has developed her first annoying habit? She grinds her teeth when she's awake. Which is impressive, really, because she's only got 4 of them... The top two aren't even all the way in yet. GAH. The tooth-grinding sound is like nails on a chalkboard to me. This habit will be strongly discouraged, though I'm not really sure how. Hopefully, she'll stop doing it once she's gotten used to her new oral appendages.

Anyway, I checked the trap before bed, and there was no activity. I almost started to relax. Then, at 4:00 in the morning, Husband came into the bedroom, his mirth barely contained. His giggling sounded a little nervous, like he was afraid I might snap and go on a massive rodent killing spree or something.

"What do you want to name the new mouse?"

"Glaaaarghh. Murble."

"There was fourth mouse in the trap when I got home."

"Ajax. Duh."

"What if it's a girl?"

"It's a mouse. I don't think it cares. Harumph."

... So I'm still not sure. The trap is reset. Please, God, don't make me come up with another epic mouse-name...


*Eithni and I are systematically working on building up the kid's tolerance to spicy food. We both ordered our food hot, and then gave bits to the kiddo to try. We did wipe all the sauce off before laying out the potatoes and baby corn for her to nibble, but there was definitely some remnant heat. She ate them all with little complaint. Honestly, the biggest complaint was about the hand-washing afterward. I didn't want her to get pepper juice in her eyes after dinner, so Eithni took her to wash while I tried to scarf the rest of my dinner. THAT was where the fit ensued. Spicy food is no problem, but do not get the bebe wet. Apparently, she will melt if you do.

My Pet Vermine:

If you were wondering about the secret of my Mouse Catching Success, it's partly experience with rodents from my youth (Mom conceded on her "no pet rule," and allowed a few gerbils over the years.) and partly the awesome tip-traps that I borrowed (permanently) from Eithni. These traps are quiet, safe for the dogs and the bebe, and super-easy to use... The only drawbacks are that you need to be vigilant after you set them, and check them several times a day, or they won't be humane, live traps anymore*, AND... Once you've caught a live mouse in the middle of winter... What do you do with it???

I'll show you what I did with the one I caught... I went out and bought it a Critter Keeper, a water bottle, some bedding, and proper rodent feed. That's what I did. Because I'm a big, fat softie. Well that, and having caught three four mice in the last two winters, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to need a place to keep all the critters I catch in the future. Honestly, I'm sick of rigging biscuit tins to stay closed, without hermetically sealing and suffocating the mouse within. Last winter, my attempt to contain but not kill a mouse, resulted in an escapee that I then had to trap a second time. Took me a week to lull that wiser, more cautious mouse into a false sense of security...

Anyway, after I set up Paris in his/her new digs, I reset the mouse trap in the same spot, just to be sure. Last year we had a pair of mice, so I wanted to be certain that I'd caught all our guests... This morning, I heard chewing coming from the kitchen and went to check my trap. Son of a biscuit. The brown mouse is Hector - now installed with Paris in the mouse environment that is suddenly too small. I haven't yet had a chance to sex those little suckers because I was trying to leave the house to catch my bus to work when Hector made his appearance. It's a good thing the stupid bus was late, because I then had to bait and set the trap a third time because now I'm really not sure.

I hope to god that I don't catch a third mouse**, because I'm fresh out of places to put them until the ground thaws a bit and I can drive them to a park somewhere and let them loose. Alinore has offered me a habitrail that she is no longer using... Apparently it'll be just the thing I deserve for 12th Night. I guess it'll solve the problem of where to put the little guys when I'm trying to clean their cage - I just haven't worked out what I'm going to do for cage-cleaning time until then. I'm pretty sure I'll need to clean out the mouse-house several times before the middle of January.

*Dude. Someone remind me to put the trap away before I leave for Pittsburgh for the holiday...
**If you're wondering, a third mouse would be either Ajax or Helena, depending on gender. What else do you name the victims of an epic mouse-catching spree?

Hunting and Dyeing...

This last weekend was very exciting, as far as Moodles was concerned. First of all, we spent the bulk of the weekend teething, and have FINALLY managed to produce two front teeth. The first day was done without any numbing agents for Moodles, because every time I get her a new tube of Orajel, the dogs seize it and eat it. No matter where I hide the stuff, they FIND it and they devour it... I have no idea why they crave Orajel and chapstik like steak, but they do. I have this mental picture of Maggie and Jasmine sitting on the couch, drooling everywhere, with their lips all slack and their tongues lolling out, pointing at each other and laughing like a couple of stoned idiots, each telling the other how ridiculous she looks. Do dogs do that? I can think of no other reason why they'd need a constant supply of Orajel.

Since Moodles is an only child, and bound to be somewhat spoiled, all she gets for Christmas will not be two front teeth. Though, those will certainly aid with the chewing. She still won't let me see the teeth, but I can feel them up there now when she bites my chin. (The chin biting is her version of a kiss... Adorable, yet painful.)

Through all the excitement of teething, I almost missed seeing the mouse that had taken up residence in my stove. However, I caught a glimpse of it on Sunday night, and borrowed a trap from my Mother-in-law. Because I am down with the rodent hunting, I managed to trap the little sucker with sunflower seeds inside of 45 minutes. The only problem now is... what the hell do I do with it? Wild mice don't make good pets, and if I let it go outside my house, it'll just come right back in. I have a feeling that I'm going to have to get Husband to drive it across town and release it in a park somewhere. It might get eaten by predators, or freeze to death, but at least then it won't be by my hand... And it also won't be in my cupboards, contaminating my foodstuffs. Moodles thinks that the mouse is awesome, because it's tiny and spastic, and fun to watch. She really wants to pick up the biscuit container that it's in and carry it around... Or maybe give it a good shake. Her fascination is duly noted, but I don't think she'll be permitted to have a rodent until she has mastered the concept of gentle.

Other things accomplished over the weekend, were the completion of the sweater I was knitting for Mom. I modified the original pattern to incorporate some picot edging for the cuffs and hem, and I opted to skip the sewn design and used a seemless shoulder pattern from Elizabeth Zimmermann's book Knitting Without Tears. The sweater looks really odd on me. Either Ms. Zimmermann was on crack when she worked out the ideal shoulder proportions for a sweater, or my shoulders are not right. I'm hoping that it'll still fit Mom OK, being as her shoulders are considerably smaller than mine, and she's probably not as pregnant in her proportions... (Gotta do something about this cursed baby-weight.) There's a Raglan Hybrid pattern in the book that I haven't tried yet, and I guess that'll be next. With any luck, it'll look slightly less stupid on me.

Last, but not least, I worked on an experimental dye technique that I used to decorate some t-shirts and onesies for Moodles and her cousin. I mixed black RIT dye with enough flour to make it into a pancake batter like consistency, and then I squeezed it onto cotton shirts with a fine nozzle cake decorating tool. (For the dragon, I used a stencil. The wording is hand done. My hand writing sucks...) After 24 hours, I flaked off the dried paste, and underneath was a nice permanent design, dyed through the fabric, with "acceptable" amounts of bleed. On the left, you can see one of the onesies that I made for Moodles, after it's been de-floured (Haha. Sorry.) and run through the washer and dryer once. The dye fades a little, but remains legible and friendly looking. One of these days, in my copious spare time, I want to do her up a couple of outfits that are covered in Mhendi art. This first run was limited, because I wasn't sure if my plan would work. Now that I know that it does, I have a ton of ideas... Also, I was trying to make outfits for Li'l G, and I'll admit... I was kind of at a loss for "manly" designs that I was capable of drawing. Most of my doodling is pretty feminine looking. I'll have to work at some tribal doodling for the little guy. Mhendi art would probably not appeal to his Papa's sense of appropriately masculine clothing.

And now I'm off to congratulate myself for actually mailing Middle Sister's Mint Chocolate Chip sweater, and Li'l G's dragon shirt - before Christmas. Next task? Write Grandma a letter with color pictures of Moodles. Not being internet savvy (The legal blindness kinda makes that tricky.) she prefers to get really-real pictures that she can put on her refrigerator. I'm on it!

Moodles and Grandpa K

As promised, here are the pictures of Moodles and Grandpa K from the good camera. As you can see, Moodles comes by those blue eyes honestly. (I'll have to get a picture of her with Grandpa P in two weeks when we're in Pittsburgh, so you can see the blue-eyed donor from my side of the family tree.) I'm also tickled to point out that the hat on Grandpa K's head is the one I knit him for Christmas.

Moodles is slowly learning about "sharing," but that still doesn't stop her from stealing the bone right out of Maggie's mouth, while the poor dog is actively trying to chew it. I'm thankful that Maggie is so patient with Moodles, but I'm very concerned that Moodles will think that Jasmine will also let her get away with this sort of theft, when I'm not entirely sure that is the case. At any rate, Moodles is starting to tentatively offer people things that she thinks they will enjoy - in this case, the cap to her bottle, which she is fond of using as some form of trumpet or kazoo. She will also share the TV remote with me, in between bouts of chewing on the edges and drooling into all the buttons. She is now experimenting with imitating me, wherein she will point the remote at the TV with a look of deep concentration and wait for something to happen. Sometimes, if she hasn't already selected AUX on the universal remote, she manages to buttonmash enough to change the channel, or switch the input to COMPOSITE, which is very exciting.

SEKRET HANDSHAKE

Moodles' Cthulhu Face is rapidly becoming a sekret handshake of sorts around our house. Moodles is tickled with it, because it's something she can do that she knows Momma and Daddy will do back. These last two days, she has gone out of her way to look at me and then give me the Cthulhu-finger-waggle. She then looks inordinately pleased with herself when I respond in kind.

This is made more amusing to me because, for all our many repeated attempts to show her how, we still can't get her to wave goodbye or hi-five reliably... But she will now make the Cthulhu face very nearly on command.

The most recent variant on this theme is the "Kiss of Cthulhu," which has become highly popular at diaper changing time. When she tries to roll over on the changing table before her diaper is firmly affixed, I have only to palm her face and make kissing noises on the back of my hand while tickling her cheeks and ears with my finger tips, and she dissolves into gales of giggles. The giggling usually gives me enough time to get her dressed again without struggling or tears - if I'm quick!

In my 20's, I used to tell people that I wasn't going to have kids until I could get my pets right. To this day, most people will tell you that my dogs just ain't right... They are affectionate, and they mean well, but they ain't right.

... At least my results continue to be consistent...

Christmas Knitting is Knit...

Mint Chocolate Chip Hoody

Last night I finished up the sweater I was knitting for my sister... Just in time for her first Christmas in TEXAS. You'd think that someone who knits as fast as I do would be able to get this stuff knocked out in a timely manner, but no. I still finish a disappointingly large percentage of projects just in time for them to be mostly useless. Then again, with the current cold snap, and some of the overzealous air-conditioning I've experienced in the south, it's possible that the sweater might still come in handy. I'll text her and ask, but it'll ruin the surprise.

Look! Cables!

I'd give the sweater to my youngest sister who lives in Pittsburgh, but I picked out the colors for the sweater with my middle sister in mind, and the color choice would be a dead give-away as to what I did. (Youngest Sister is GAWTH, so things I pick out for her are primarily black-based, whereas Middle Sister is a vegetarian and dang-near a hippy, so I tend to pick out more earth-tony things for her.) I hate getting busted on re-purposing hand-made-procrastinated gifts, so I may as well just own up to it now. (Middle Sister has just sent back a txt stating rather emphatically that she can still use a sweater... So, Yay. Now I just have to finish up a gift for Moodles' cousin, Li'l G.)

All that aside, I'm still fairly pleased with how well this sweater knit up. It is (as usual) of my own design, and it seems to fit pretty well. The thing that I am the most pleased with is that I knit that thing top down (starting at the top of the hood) and managed to make it entirely seamless. I know how to do blanket stitching and kitchenering, but I hate it enough to spend hours designing my own patterns so that I never ever have to do it. The other thing I really hate is casting on, so I also do a fair amount of work making sure that I cast on the smallest number of stitches I possibly can for a given project. (Thus, the top down construction on all of my sweaters... you cast on far fewer stitches for a neck hole than you do a waist-line...)

Mint Sekanjabin

For all my student-minions, here at the office, I have whipped up and bottled a batch of mint sekanjabin syrup. Not being something that one typically encounters in modern America, I figured it might be something interesting for them to try. I mixed up a pitcher yesterday and left it in the office to see how it would be received, and they sucked it down like it had booze in it, so I imagine that the gift will be well received and a little different from the typical cakes, fudge, cookies, and candy one seems to accumulate in bulk during the holiday season. Plus, being mint flavored, it still seems to fit into the holiday theme without reminding me at all of drinking mouth-wash.