Pitter Patter of Little Feet

4 of them!

We have a new family member. His name is Jedi and he is about 4 months old. Here's how it happened...

A few months ago, my husband started mentioning how the boys might need a kitten. I was pretty shocked considering Dave doesn't particularly like cats (or so he says). My old cat, Oscar, died a couple of years ago - he was 13 and I'd had him for 10 years. He was super cool. He thought he was a dog! He'd wrestle with my husband like a dog and he'd growl when strangers came to the door. Dave said he didn't like cats but Oscar was cool.

Dave was making noises about getting the boys a kitten for Xmas. I said it wasn't a great idea because think of the logistics of it! Where would we hide the thing until Xmas morning? In the basement? No, the boys would hear it meowing. Rachel's house? No, her daughter would be heartbroken when it had to leave their house.

So we waited until after Xmas and we took the boys to the Dumb Friends League. Amazing place! It's Denver's version of an animal shelter but it seems like a giant pet store! It's very clean, they have viewing rooms and a pet shop where you can buy toys, food, leashes, etc. We looked at all the cats and kittens and small animals (rabbits, hamsters, etc.) and all the dogs. (My favorite dog was an ugly little beastie. He had the head, ears, and bulgy eyes of a chihuahua, but was about twice the size of a big chihuahua. His coloring was that of an Australian cattle dog and he was missing one of his back legs. His name was Splinter! I would've named him Tripod.) I gotta say, they grow 'em BIG out here when it comes to cats and rabbits. There were so many enormous cats and rabbits! Not just fat, either - I'm talking 2 feet tall, softball head things. Must be all that mountain air.

We couldn't find anything that really spoke to Dave and I was leaving the choosing up to him. So we went home and the next day (Sunday, Dec. 30) we went to the Dumb Friends League in Castle Rock. We looked at 3 kittens there - the first was a brown tabby and he was sort of timid and went you picked him up, he'd rag doll and if you sat him in your lap, he'd stay there until you moved him. I looked at Dave and said, "I don't think he'd survive the boys."

So the next one was an all-black male and he was a nut job. He kept attacking my legs when the boys were playing with him!

Then the third one came - he was right in between the other two. Playful but willing to sit and be petted as well. He's black and white and the shelter had named him Roger (for the Jolly Roger?) but we renamed him Jedi (the boys are really into the Lego Star Wars Xbox game). He's got these really beautiful eyes. They're blue around the pupil, going to green, going to yellow at the edges.

Well, turns out he's a little crazier then we thought. He will come rocketing across the room, leap onto your body, fly up your chest and head butt you! He loves to rub his head against your face and lick and nibble at you! We should've named him Ricochet.

He also thinks he's a parrot...

It's nice to have a pet again, Ruth!

Need Some Paper?

I love notebooks. Can't get enough of 'em. Little ones in my purse, medium ones by my computer, big ones here and there. I don't think I've ever completely finished one notebook. So I've decided to host my first swap over at Swap-bot. I put it up on Monday or Tuesday and there's already 18 participants. Pretty excited about that!

I've talked about Swap-bot before because I'm completely addicted to it. There's even a Knitting category over there! I've put my swap under the categories "Paper", "Books", and "Miscellaneous". I named my swap "Never Without A Notebook". If you want to join my swap it's here. If you don't already have a swap-bot account, you'll have to sign up for that first, it's free.

Dreaming of Back to School Shopping, Ruth!

Bonus Post

I was the first commenter (commentor?) on the Yarn Harlot today!

Only knitters would know how stupidly cool that feels!

Feelin' Stupidly Cool, Ruth!

P. S. Spell check says, "commenter".

Do I Look Any Different?

OK. Big week. Big news. Let's see...

I got a haircut and color yesterday. It's the first one I've had since January, so I was pretty excited about it. Love the cut but the color seems too dark to me. As I was leaving, the hairdresser said, "Now it's more like your natural color." WTF? If I wanted my natural color, I wouldn't dye it! Just sayin'. It's not bad, just darker then I'm used to. Need to get used to it.

But that's not the big news.

Trevor is "off-track" which is what they call vacation when your kid goes to a year-round school. It'll be nice having him around to entertain Davis and help his little brother learn to read.

But that's not the big news.

Quit Target. So. Happy! Wait, I already told y'all that.

But that's not the big news.

Oh! Today is my husband's 38th birthday! I got him an omelet pan. He makes breakfast on Saturday mornings. Kind of a tradition here in our house. Usually he makes breakfast burritos but has taken to trying to perfect his omelet skills. We don't have a pan where he can flip his omelette's so I bought him a specialized pan.

But that's not the big news.

You are now hanging out with the owner of a new business! Or, rather, the new owner of an already established and making damn good money business. (Which means I did NOT buy the Yarn store for sale in Parker. sigh. no biggee.)

When we first moved here, the biz broker (Mark) that was hired by the man who sold us the FedEx route (Paul) called me. Mark said he had a man who may be interested in selling his business and were we interested in something for me. (As though, like cars, every household should have a business for each adult in the house.) We sort of were (although we had no clue where we'd come up with the money for it!). The man ended up deciding his wife could run the business and we didn't hear any more about it. Until about a month ago.

The wife decided she didn't want to run the business and also, she has some health issues that are making it difficult for her to be really effective at it. So they are selling for sure now. And we bought it!

Dave's parents were kind enough to lend us their entire savings to do so. The biz is a headhunter biz. It's matching up resumes with companies and getting paid to do so. It's run from the home and the seller spends about 20 hours a week on it and makes around $65K/yr. The business itself is called Omniquest and has been around for over 20 years. The companies they place people with are mainly medical equipment sales positions and it's all very complicated and not complicated at the same time. The seller (John) is the third owner. The original owner had it for about 15 years, wanted to retire, sold it to her office manager who sold it to John after about 2.5 years (she also had health issues and couldn't maintain it).

It's primarily emails and over the phone. I started my training with John about an hour after we closed and will be training with him for a couple of weeks.

When we bought the FedEx route, it was all scary and stressful but at least it was only our money we were messing with. Now with this loan from Dave's parents, it's not just our money. In fact, it's none of our money. It's his parents money. And his two much-older brother's money as it's just as much their inheritance as Dave's should anything happen to their parents. So. You know. As long as there's no pressure.

Dave's been so stressed out since we moved here because he became the sole breadwinner and everything's been lying on his shoulders. Lots of pressure. Now I get my own pressure. What fun, right?

I'm nervous and excited and worried and scared and, and, and....

Someone throw me some hand-dyed sock yarn! I need a woobee!

When I'm anxious, I chew my lip. I have quite a lovely split in my bottom lip that won't heal right because I keep chewing it.

Wish me luck, Ruth!