Short-haired black cat curled into the corner of the couch. One front leg is resting on the arm of the couch. He has green eyes that are looking off into the distance. He would like his person to stop taking pictures and resume petting him.

I have a visitor again! Ceelo is visiting with me for an undetermined amount of time. His mama brought a new kitty (a stray from outside) into the household and ALL the other cats are getting along except for my sweet man here who, according to his mother, is being "an asshole" towards his new brother. If the new kitty hides behind the washer, then Ceelo is right there, blocking him from getting out. If there's a ruckus in the middle of the night then it's most likely Ceelo going after the new cat. His mama thinks that if the new kitty could just get a break from Ceelo's attentions, then maybe he'll chill out. Right now he's not very trusting of my friend - she's always had a way with cats and he'll hardly even let her pet him, much less pick him up and snuggle him, which she is desperate to do. Hopefully not having to deal with stalking and midnight ambushses will put him more at ease.

I am having a blast with my houseguest - he's just the greatest kitty! He loves to play, he snuggles with me at night, we hang out on the couch and watch TV. The only complaint I could possibly come up with is that he does get needy for attention because at home he's one of many but here he's the only child.

Last week I had said my next cross stitch project was going to be another video game cat pattern. I thought I had bought fabric for this project but I guess I didn't because I couldn't find the color I needed in my stash. I decided that instead I was going to do Medieval Cats. It didn't really matter what color fabric I used for this one because it's a full coverage piece so I dug through my stash and found some Loops & Threads 14 count off-white/ecru fabric. I guess I didn't really look at it closely at the store but when I pulled it out of the packaging, I thought the holes were awfully large! But I really wanted to start stitching and I told myself it would be fine. And I kept telling myself that. But, man, these holes were so large I'd push my needle through from the back and reach my hand around to pull it up from the front but before I could do that the needle would fall back through the hole! It was so stupid! But I kept going and telling myself it would work out and I really felt like this meme:

Dog wearing a hat sitting at a table with a coffee cup on it. There are flames all around and the caption

I was caught in that sunk cost fallacy. I hadn't stitched that much but I'm such a slow stitcher that I didn't want to start over again and lose what little I had. So I kept going until I did what I always do and realized I had made a mistake and was a whole row off. And I didn't find out immediately after I had done it so there was going to be a lot of unstitching! I think the cross stitch gods were giving me a break because I realized then that if I had to undo so much, I might as well start over with some decent fabric. I found another piece of fabric in my stash and I am MUCH HAPPIER with it! Here's a picture of what I was dealing with - fabric on the left is what I'm using now, fabric on the right was what I was using and they are both 14 count. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THOSE HOLES!

Picture of 2 different types of Aida cross stitch fabric. The one on the left is 14 count light gray fabric, the one on the right is also 14 count but in an off-white/ivory/ecru color and the holes are ridiculously huge.

Other than cross stitch adventures and kitty guests, not much else happened during the week. I did meet a friend at a new-to-us restaurant for brunch and it was fabulous. I had a bacon, sausage, egg, home fries and pancake breakfast while my friend had Nutella-stuffed French toast. The coffee was exceptionally good! It had a lot more body than restaurant coffee usually does. And Best Son and I checked out a new coffee place and it was also really good! I had a drink called the Y'Vonne which was an almond, French vanilla latte topped with caramel and I chose to have it hot. Delicious - I will be going to both of those places again!

Listening

Some podcasts I listened to this week:

This was the first In Our Time episode I listened to with the new host, Misha Glenny. I didn't think anyone could replace Melvyn Bragg but Misha has a lovely interview style, very reminiscent of Melvyn's.

Reading

A while ago I bought a trilogy of historical romances and this week I read the last of them, Lord of a Thousand Nights by Madeline Hunter. I really liked it! The female main character was quite spicy and equally spicy main female characters from the other books in the trilogy showed up and it was a fun read! All the husbands were somewhat harried.

I have a lot of different books on my library wishlist and wasn't really sure what I was feeling like reading so I went with a tried and true option and chose the next one in the Elizabeth Peters series I'm rereading, Seeing a Large Cat. These are the books set in Victorian times (although I think this one is in 1903 so they are about to be set in Edwardian times) and which follow the adventures of Amelia Peabody Emerson, her family and her trustworthy, steel-tipped umbrella that accepts nonsense from no one.

Watching

I doled out another episode of Royal Flying Doctor Service and caught up with some Graham Norton Show episodes.

As much of a cat person as I am, you'd think I watch more animal and, more specifically, cat-related stuff on YouTube but my history channels outnumber my animal channels!

Link Lagniappe

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