S T A C Y V E R B

Local shout-out: LifeLine Animal Project

As regular Stacyverb readers know, our humble home attracts stray kitties like nobody's business.  We joke about it, but the fact is, the stray critter population is out of control in many places, our neighborhood included.  In the nine years we've lived in this house, SIXTEEN cats or kittens have shown up at our house needing help.  (For the record, we have only kept three of them!)

LifeLine Animal Project understands this problem.  Located in Avondale Estates, LAP is a non-profit organization that provides many animal services for the community.  Among other things, LAP offers low-cost spay/neuter services for feral cats.  In the past two weeks, Adverb and I have caught the two stray females that have been hanging around our house (one is the mama cat of the foster kittens, and the other is her older daughter) and taken them to LAP to be spayed.  We then released them back into our neighborhood.  (If we can't tame them and adopt them out, at least we can, shall we say, close down the kitten factory.)  Total cost?  Forty bucks...yes, that was for both kitties, and included rabies shots.

For those of you who aren't cat magnets and might actually have to seek out your next furry friend, LAP also has animals in their no-kill shelter who are waiting to be adopted!  Take a look here at some of the wonderful kitties who need permanent homes.  And yes, they have dogs, too!

I can't say enough good things about LAP and the important work they're doing.  Please explore their web site and support their services if you can.

Sperber exhibit in Knoxville

Last weekend, Adverb and I headed to Knoxville, TN, for an early Thanksgiving with his family.  While there, we paid a visit to the Knoxville Musuem of Art (valuable tip: the museum offers free admission on Sundays).

It was a lovely, warm, autumn day to be out and about in downtown K-ville.

Here's a nice shot of the Sunsphere in World's Fair Park, as seen from the upper level of the museum.  Some of you may know it as the Wigsphere. Heh.

The current exhibition at the KMA is Threads Of Perception by artist Devorah Sperber.  She has scanned famous works of art, converted them into low-resolution versions and then found spools of thread to correspond to the color of each pixel.  The results are then suspended from the lengths of chain, with the overall image inverted, like this:

(Image courtesy of Knoxville Museum of Art web site)

The KMA web site explains the presentation this way: "The thread spools works are hung upside down in reference to the fact that the lens of the eye projects an inverted image of the world onto the retina, which is corrected by the brain. A clear acrylic sphere, positioned in front of each work, functions like the human eye and brain, not only inverting but also focusing the image so that it appears as a sharp, faithful, right-side-up reproduction of the famous painting."

This exhibition was so fascinating to me.  What was most interesting was that even from across the room, even though these masterpieces had been greatly simplified, produced in an entirely different medium, and turned upside-down, you could still recognize them immediately.  It made me think a lot about how little information our minds and eyes actually need in order to understand an image, and about how some images are so prevalent that they are basically branded onto our brains.

Props to the KAM--for a smaller museum, they do quite a good job of bringing thought-provoking exhibitions to their patrons.  Threads of Perception runs through January 24, 2010.

Day trip to Amicalola Falls

On Monday we took advantage of both having the day off and drove up to north Georgia to enjoy a perfect autumn day.

Here I am, admiring the scenery at beautiful Amicalola Falls State Park.  (I should have had my shades on, so I wouldn't look so squinty.) 

We had a delicious lunch at the restaurant in the park lodge.  In the lobby of the lodge, a huge plush bear greeted visitors.  I wanted to get a picture of Adverb with it.  There was a sign posted that read, "Do not climb on the bear," but Adverb found another way to get an action shot with the beast.

That's my husband, ladies and gentleman.  Never a dull moment with this guy.  :)

The park had a couple of nice wheelchair-friendly trails to the falls.   Above, the view from the top of the falls.

And here we are at the bottom.  The falls are 729 feet high--a bit of trivia I learned during our visit.  Also, Amicalola means "tumbling waters" in Cherokee. 

As we meandered along the scenic route back to Atlanta, we stopped at an orchard to get some apples and admire other harvesty sights.  I hope you all are having a lovely autumn, wherever you may be!

Adoption day for foster kittens

As you know, for the past month, we've had a pair of adorable kittens lodging with us.  We've had great fun helping them make friends with humans, and watching them grow, play, and learn to eat solid food.  With all these skills in place, it was time for them to leave the proverbial nest.

Here they are, about 7 weeks old, posing for one final pic with their proud foster people.  And then...

...the happy transfer to adoptive mom, Molly, and her boyfriend, Will.  Baby girl kitten (with Will) now goes by the name Jessie and baby boy kitten (in all his fluffy glory) is now named Sulley. 

It was a bittersweet moment.  We'll miss these little cuties, but are so happy we could find them a good home with someone we know, and that they will be together.

Bon voyage, foster kittens!

Bayerische socks

Yesterday I finished a project I've been working on since (according to my notes) August 20.  If I may brag, I think these socks are possibly the most gorgeous thing I've ever knit.  They are certainly the most complicated. 

I can't take credit for the beauty of the yarn (Miss Babs Yummy Sock in color French Marigold) or the pattern (Bayerische by Eunny Jang), but I will gladly take full credit for the stick-to-it-ness of knitting intricately cabled socks on 96 stitches on a size 0 needle (that's 2 mm, folks).  

Were there times when I was so sick of looking at this project that I thought about stuffing it in the closet and forgetting about it?  Oh, yes.  But did I?  Nope.  Am I glad I stuck it out and finished these beauties?  Absolutely.  I'm triple-pleased because they're tiny little works of art, because I had the skills to make them, and because they are useful objects that will keep my feet warm.

Monica visits from Raleigh

This week one of my bestest buds was in town for a work-related thingie and we got to spend some time together.  Monica and I met in college 20 (yikes) years ago and she currently lives in Raleigh, NC.  Saturday night, Monica and Christy and I gathered at my house for an evening of fun.

Monica brought a bottle of this wine, which I hadn't tried before but now definitely recommend.

Christy spent some quality time with boy foster kitten and my official party mascot from our college days, Eager Beaver.

As you can see, girl foster kitten felt very comfortable hanging out with Monica!  Good friends and a cute kitten...hmmm, what's missing from this picture?  Oh, I know...

...a second cute kitten! :)  They are such social little creatures* already, and really enjoy climbing on people.

We had a great evening playing board games, drinking wine, and ordering Chinese food.  As often happens when I'm with Monica and Christy, I laughed until I cried.  I laughed until my face hurt.  And isn't that the best sign of a good visit?  Yo, Slick...come back soon!

*FOSTER KITTEN UPDATE: One of Adverb's co-workers wants to adopt both of them together!  They should be weaned in another couple of weeks and ready to go to their permanent home.  Hurray! 

Sporty style

Last year I received two yards of this Steelers fabric as a gift (thank you, Carrie!) and wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do with it.  I thought about pillows, something comfy for lounging around on game day.  I also considered making pajamas. 

Ultimately, I decided what I really wanted to do was make a kind of girly-shaped tailored top out of it.  It would be unexpected, and fun, and quite wearable for the early part of the season when it's not yet cold enough here in the ATL to wear my Steelers sweatshirt.  So, recently I got around to tackling (har har) this project, and here are the results.

I'm very pleased with this.  I love the feminine shape of it and the peplum that ties at the waist--it's girly without being frilly.  Cute with jeans or black pants or a casual black skirt.

PROJECT DETAILS

Pattern: Vogue 8078 (now out of print), View B

Fabric: 100% cotton print; not sure who makes it but there's some online here.

Fun with foster kittens

Yes, that's right, KITTENS, plural.  Later the same day I posted about the baby kitten who had appeared at my house, I saw the mama cat (yes, this mama cat) carry a second baby up the driveway and deposit it in the rosemary bush with the other kitten.

The good news is, the mother is hanging around and taking care of the little cuties.  The bad news is, there is a family of "stray" felines living on our porch (again).  The other good news is, they're really damn cute.  Witness...

Soggy kittens snuggling on a blankie after a rain storm.

Baby girl kitten cuddling Adverb's arm.

Nap time!  Boy kitten (first to arrive) on left, girl kitten on right.

We took many shots to get this one picture.  They were being wiggly.

Baby girl kitten belly!

We estimate they are about four weeks old now.  In a few more weeks they'll be able to be weaned and to get adopted.  Since we've been petting them since they arrived, they should never fear people, so that is already one step up from their mother.  (Although I have to say, she has been very generous in letting us handle and play with them--hasn't hissed or growled about it at all.)

Sigh.  I'm sad that there are more "stray" kittens in the world, but glad they found us so we can help them.

Happy anniversary to us!

Today Adverb and I are celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary.  At left is the earliest known photo of us ever taken together.  It was snapped at Manuel's Tavern in early 1996.  What is more hilarious about this picture--the crazy giant glasses we're both wearing?  The face he's making?  The fact that I appear totally oblivious that I'm being attacked by a little soldier guy on a stick?  Or that this bizarre mating ritual apparently worked on me?  You be the judge.

Happy anniversary, sweetie! xoxoxoxoxo

We already have plenty of these, thanks

You know how sometimes you're in your living room on a beautiful Saturday, and the windows are open, and you hear a noise outside that sounds like a kitten, but then you say to yourself, "No, that's not a kitten, that's just a bird that sounds like a kitten."  Yeah, well...

...at my house, all too often, it really is a kitten.  Sigh.  Seriously, what am I supposed to do with this?