Picture Post

Wavy Scarf in Microfiber ribbon yarn from Tess’ Designer Yarns:

My little Lexie:

The Great Debate

I was recently shut down by someone on the Great Nameless Social Networking Site because my opinion differed from hers on a so-called “hot topic”. She happened to mention that she was having her cat declawed. I do happen to have a strong opinion on this subject, because when I got my first cat (a 4-5 year old stray, Taffy), I wanted her declawed. My other half at the time said it was OK with him, if I felt that strongly about it, but to research it first. So I did, and what I found changed my outlook.

Let’s get to the conversation first (I added in my thoughts in italics):

Me: Aw. Wish you weren’t declawing your kitty. It is so inhumane. They can be acclimated to nail trimming very easily.

Her: Not to be insensitive or rude, but I don’t really appreciate being called “inhumane.” He’s an indoor cat who never sees the outdoors and I’m only doing his front two. I love him, feed him, rescued him from a shelter and he lives a very happy life. I’d appreciate if you kept those types of opinions to yourself because you’re entitled to them, but I don’t share them.

Wow! Dial it down a bit, K? And if I have an opinion about something, I will share it, trying to do so in the nicest possible way so as not to hurt feelings. You took this the wrong way. Not my fault. Everyone has an opinion, and they are not required to be the same as yours. Yours will be a rough road through life if you assume differently.

Me (trying to clarify): ‎”It” being the amputation, not you. To each their own!

Girl A: please don’t declaw (cat)! L is right, nail clippers are you friend!

Whew! Someone has my back on this

Her: Again! Thanks for everyone’s opinions on the issue but he’s my cat so I am doing it. I’ve had cats before and all through my childhood and every one of them is declawed and lived a perfectly normal life. Keep you opinions on obviously controversial subjects to yourself.

It drives me crazy when someone tells me to shut up because I think differently. I grew up with that, and if I have researched my side and have a solid argument, at least have the decency to hear me out. Agree to disagree after that if need be. Actually, if she presented her side rationally, such as “I grew up with declawed cats and believe the practice is not inhumane, so we will have to agree to disagree on the subject”, fine. No problem. But telling me to keep quiet because I disagree on a controversial subject is ignorant.

Girl B: when I was growing up, my mom always had our indoor cats declawed. Didn’t seem like a big deal at all. You do what you want. Nobody should be telling you what to do. And your furniture/clothing won’t be all scratched up!!! LOVE YOU AND (CAT)!!

Um, not “seeming” like a big deal and “that’s the way it was always done in my family” are not valid reasons for anything. And if you take the time to train your cat and keep their nails trimmed, they will not scratch up your things. If you don’t want to take that chance and won’t take the time to work with the animal so you can peacefully co-exist, DON’T GET IT. Live animal-free. Also, I never told her what to do, did I? I simply stated that I wished she wouldn’t do that. Interesting how words get twisted.

Boy A: Our cat has been declawed for 8 yrs now she even goes out side. your cat will be fine.

This guy was thinking about getting a dog and asked me if it was wrong that he wanted to leave the dog outside 24/7. ‘Nuff said.

What I learned from researching declawing:

• cats are more aggressive afterward. Biting, punching, and spraying are more prevalent in declawed cats. There have been two declawed cats in my family, and both were very aggressive. They’d run up and bite/punch you for no reason and run away again.
• if your cat gets loose it can’t defend itself. Having its back claws allows it to still be able to shimmy up a tree, but in a head-to-head fight, it has no weapons except it’s teeth.
• there are many options out there to maintain a cat’s claws, from nail trimming to Soft Paws.
• between 50 and 80% of cats had one or more medical complications post-surgery.
• in one survey, 34.8% of 320 veterinarians surveyed reported long-term complications from declawing
• Behavior problems are a primary cause of cats being relinquished to shelters. In one study, when all factors were accounted for, overall odds of being relinquished to a shelter was almost double for declawed cats as intact cats. I have seen this too. I used to volunteer at an animal shelter, and many that were adopted were returned after the owners declawed them.
• Cities in the US are starting to ban declawing on the basis of animal cruelty. The US is the only country that regularly declaws cats, most other countries believe it is inhumane.

Would you cut off your kid’s fingers at the first joint to make your life a little easier? Would you be surprised if they resented you for it? Do you think that things like foot binding and clitoris removal are OK because that’s what’s always done in that culture? Do you blindly believe what others do is OK without looking into it first to see if it’s right for you? Right for us all? We are all connected, from the largest whale to the smallest rock. Animal, vegetable, mineral.

And if you think I’m completely wrong, tell me. I’d love to hear your point of view. You can even tell me if I’m ignorant No one’s perfect. Buddha knows I’m sure as hell not!

Phoenix Zoo

Yay! Another zoo trip!

Click on any photo to make bigger

I’m not a fan of lizards, but isn’t he cute sleeping?:

This photo cracks me up every time:

This is one of my favorite photos of the day. Just love the composition and the owl looking right at me:

Our first photo together! Only took 7 months:

Concert quilt and Spoke

I finally finished Dana’s quilt. Behold:

I also finished my sweater, Spoke. It turned out beautiful. I will get a picture of it on a real live person, but for now here it is being modeled by my blocking board:

The yarn is Deluxe Worsted Tones (100% wool) from Universal Yarn in Torini Blues. In finding a link, I see the tones are now discontinued.

I still have to figure out how I’m going to close the front of the sweater…..sew it down, or make it a cardigan and add buttons/buttonholes. It is a bit on the small side, so I’m leaning towards the cardigan idea.

Joshua Tree

A few weekends ago Dana and I went on a little road trip to Joshua Tree, California to the Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival. There was music. There was food. There was….camping.

Ugh. Camping.

It was my first time. I was a bit apprehensive, to say the least. But I mustered up my best “I’m totally fine with the fact it’s dirty and bugs are everywhere and I have to go without a shower and pee in a stinky port-a-potty! Yay camping!” face. And Dana told me on the way home that I was a trooper. Heck yeah.

Our tent, that I helped put up:

Yes, there are air mattresses in the tent. We are not barbarians!

Dana setting up his recording equipment:

A market area with all kinds of cool stuff to buy:

View of one of the stages:

Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time! It was so laid-back and all the people were so nice. The only downside was all the smoking, cigarette and pot, it got a little hard to breathe by nightfall. And I was mucho crabby by then, having been up since 5:30 in the A.M. We didn’t get to bed until after midnight. Ugh. We ended up leaving earlier than intended on Sunday, going home, taking showers, and collapsing on the couch.

Good times.

Bullies and other stories from my youth

So I’ve been reading a lot about bullies lately on the internet, so I decided to pen (or type as it were) a few stories of what made me the person I am today.

I had two bullies in my childhood that I remember. The worse one of the two was Andrea. She bullied me a whole year over a jelly bracelet. I found it on the bus, she claimed it was hers, I told her I found it so it was therefore mine, and she pestered me endlessly about it. I did try to give it back to her to shut her up, but she decided the bullying was more fun. After a year, she went to another school so I didn’t have to deal with her again.

The other bully was Debbie. She was a girl you were friends with just so she wouldn’t be mean to you, but she always found a way to make your life miserable. She would talk you into doing something she knew you weren’t supposed to do so you’d get yelled at, borrow stuff and never return it, or outright steal things from you. I had to deal with her from grade school all the way through high school.

I never stood out in school. I had a few friends, one good friend I actually did stuff with, but other than that I was a good student that tried to get along with everybody and for the most part just disappear into the background. I was on good terms with the popular kids so they never picked on me, didn’t participate in any extracurriculars except French Club (I tried out for the badminton team and made it, but my Mom refused to drive me to meets or practice, so I quit. Girls on the volleyball team would beg me to try out when we played in gym class, but with no support at home, I never bothered), I never even went to prom.

My sisters made my home life miserable. They are twins, two years younger than me, and they’d usually spend all their time together and exclude me. My parents for the most part just wanted peace and quiet in the house and for us kids to do our own thing, so I was always lonely. It did get bad enough that I considered suicide a number of times, and came very close to throwing myself in front of a car one evening, but I was always able to pull myself back from it. I never told anyone of my angst….I actually didn’t talk much at all at home. It didn’t seem like anyone cared what I had to say. All they cared about was what my trouble-making sisters were going to do next. I was the good girl, the B student. No one had to worry about Lori.

I think the real turning point for me was going to massage school, finding a career and being around like-minded people. I liked that I could work with people all day and not be required to say much to them. Dating helped my self-esteem (I didn’t start dating until after high school), and once my sisters moved away I got more attention from my parents and things got better for me at home.

I still have trouble getting close to people. One slight from someone and I give up on them, push them out of my life. It may not always be the right thing to do, but it’s how I deal with things. I thought things were pretty OK with me and my sisters now, but when I went back to Illinois in August for a visit, my one sister couldn’t be bothered to take any time to visit me…she went out drinking instead. She is planning this elaborate fun-filled week for her twin who is visiting this week, but I couldn’t even get a few hours of her time. I decided she’s not worth the pain anymore.

Life is full of ups and downs. Enjoy the ups, and learn from the downs. Don’t make any rash decisions in the downs you can’t come back from. Cherish the people in your life who cherish you, and let the others go. You’re worth it.

Illinois & Stitches Midwest

Last weekend I hopped on a plane and jetted to the fabulous Midwest…Illinois to be specific…for Stitches Midwest. I go for the market, not the classes, so it was just shopping shopping shopping!

I arrived in Rockford, got my rental car (a Dodge Caliber), and headed to O’Hare airport to pick up my friend Linda, who arrived from Oklahoma. We then headed to our hotel, the Radisson, a stone’s throw from the convention center and about half the price too. Here’s a view of the convention center from the hotel room:

I can still hear the yarn calling to me….

The Radisson had Sleep Number beds, which I must say are AMAZING. I didn’t go one day with a sore back, which I almost always do on a hotel bed. My sleep number is 45, by the way. For the one person that’s going to ask.

I of course dragged Linda to all the good eateries in the area. Uno’s for pizza the first night, Richard Walker’s for breakfast (their apple pancake is to die for!), Portillo’s the last night.

We met up with our friends Eileen, Heather, and Becky at the market, and boy did we shop til we dropped! We spent about 6 hours there, and I know I was absolutely beat by the time we were done.

The yarn I acquired. I also bought the book Entree to Entrelac and a few little doodads.

We all headed over to Maggiano’s for dinner, then hung out knitting and talking in the hotel room. We all went to breakfast the next morning, then I took off to visit my Grandma for a few hours. There’s a story in that visit for another post, another day.

Linda looking fabulous as usual, me…not such a great pic.

The rental car we had was absolutely terrible. We called it the Grumpy Old Grandpa the whole weekend because anytime I stepped on the gas it groaned and grumbled and didn’t want to go, and it was a brand new car! I was so glad to get home to my beautiful Subaru:

Where was I?? Oh yeah, vacation! It was so much fun to be back there again with my friends and family. Wish I could’ve stayed a little longer, but it was nice to get home. I am almost done knitting the back piece of Spoke, and am getting ready to sew the quilt squares together for Dana’s quilt. In the wings: a knitted scarf from ribbon yarn, and some jar cozies. Dana likes to drink out of canning jars, and I’m tired of them sweating everywhere. So I’m knitting up some cozies for them!

Eventually.

It’s on the list.