Zen Cat Art

Cures for Laryngitis...

Phil has laryngitis, he can barely talk.  It would be funny if he didn't feel so bad.  He has a sore throat and aches all over.  He has all the flu symptoms mixed with a couple of upper respiratory thrown in to boot.  As you know, if you have ever had a sick husband, they don't take it very well.  Orange juice, hot tea, Aleve, chicken soup, tissues, sympathy, more chicken soup, etc.  But nothing works as good as a snug from your favorite kitty.  Within minutes they were both sound asleep.

Washing fabric with Sammy...

I'm making an effort to rearrange my stash and wash all of my fabric so that it is ready to go! 
"Fold fabric?  Why would you want to fold the fabric?  I just got it arranged to my exacting specifications and I'm comfortable."

You can't really see the two bottom shelves but you get the idea.  And of course, there are several piles that haven't been integrated yet and a few (maybe 8) boxes (large storage containers) in the basement.  Some of it falls under "what was I thinking when I bought that?"

Hawaiian shirts?  I do love bright colors!

And some will be quilt backs or get dyed and painted on or donated.
There is also the boxes of civil war and historical reproduction fabric for repairing older quilts.  And a large box of silks for repairing vintage crazy quilts.  I'm working on a stunning one now that is almost finished.  More on that soon.

For now I'm just putting a load of fabric in the washer with some "color catchers" and keeping Sammy in nesting material. 

Oil Burners and the mystery of mechanics

Way back in the 1950s when my parents bought a Levitt house on Long Island my father, who was a mechanic, took a course in fixing oil burners.  The first night of the class, the teacher told a joke.  He said that there was a guy who jumped out of an airplane and found out on the way down that his parachute didn't work.  Pretty soon he saw a guy coming up from the ground toward him.  As the guy got near he yelled out, "Know anything about parachutes?"  As the guy from the ground whizzed past him he yelled back, "No.  Know anything about oil burners?"  

So pretty much since then I have left oil burners to the experts.  Dad is not around now but I some mechanical guys in my life who and be consulted when needed.  Since some of them (Richard) have moved to Florida, I'm resorting to a blog consultation.  Here goes...

All this is attached to the oil burner as you probably know (she said hopefully).  Water is dripping out of the opening that is labeled #1.  I think it is is the overflow "vent."  The number 2 is pointing to a little handle that will toggle back and forth.  When I toggle it the right a bit of air comes out of the opening - #1.  I left it open for a bit until it seemed like the air had stopped and nothing was happening.  Number three has an arrow that points to the left and the handle (#2) as been left in that position.  Number 4 - for clarification has "j flow" written on it in black magic marker.  The pipe itself does not figure into the overflow (or whatever the stuff in the foreground is called). 

It has dripped periodically, but not a lot and I put a 5 gal bucket underneath and mostly it never had more than a half inch of water.  Today the bucket was full and some water was on the floor.
Got any ideas? 

Wednesday Update:  There is no water in the bucket.  Either moving the toggle did something, left some pressure off (would have been slight) or the Smith's (my Dad) Law of Mystery Mechanics is in operation.  Pop's Law states that if you don't know what is wrong with something, take it apart.  If you can't see what is wrong with any of the parts, just put them back together and see what happens.  Sometimes, for no obvious reason that fixes it and it works again.   Of course, he never said it was magic.  He just shrugged his shoulders and smiled.  But I know better. 

Eli Rocks...

Nothing else to say. 

Super Bowl - pre-game stuff...

Giant balloon.  Check.

Pre-game nap.  Check.

Pre-game quiche.  Check.


Game snacks ready to go.  Check.

Chili simmering on the stove.  Check. 

Cell phones charged for texting.  Check.  Soda and beer cold in the fridge.  Check. 

READY.  SET.  GO GIANTS!!

 

Staples basket...

You may well wonder what a Staples basket is doing in my living room.  Phil makes a lot of copies for his English classes and we go through a great deal of HP ink.  They should give teachers a discount all year through.  But when he went out last Saturday for more ink, he was thinking about the Super Bowl.  He paid for the ink but walked out with the basket.  (I'll bring it back next week...after the cats are done.)

Good thing Phil wasn't in Petco.  We could be the proud owners of a fish tank full of guppies...   

Lemon Owls...

I sliced some lemons for a "ladies tea" last Friday and there were a few slices left over.  I thought I would make iced tea out of the tea left in the pot.  So the ice tea never happened and they sat in their dish for another day until it was time for them to go.  But I was reluctant, they were so thin and yellow and cheerful looking.  As I held this little guy up against the light, it looked like a little owl face to me.  And anyone who knows me will tell you that if you put two eyes on a paper bag, I will name it.  So I propped him up on the cactus that sits on the window over my sink.  And there he is, making me smile while I do dishes.  Not a bad thing.  Really.

His name is Kabosu.  (Japanese for lemon)

Cutting the lemon
the knife
leaves a little cathedral:
alcoves unguessed by the eye
that open acidulous glass
to the light; topazes
riding the droplets,
altars,
aromatic facades.
~from A Lemon by Pablo Neruda

UConn

This is Janson's History of Art.  It weighs 57 pounds (almost) and I have to carry it to class.  Isn't that wonderful!  You may think that that was a facetious remark but it's not!  I love school!  I applied to UConn to take two classes this semester.  Art History and Tracing Your Roots.

The class is grand fun and lets me relive the hours spent in art museums here and in Italy & France.  I am so lucky to have been to see some of the art in person.  I wanted to go to school for art, but my parents insisted on something more practical so I got a degree in Dental Hygiene and Public Health.  I went back to school in the 90's and got a (finally) a BFA from CW Post/Long Island University in Painting and Photography.
The Tracing Your Roots class is going to be very interesting and I think lots of fun.  This is a picture of me and my grand-parents at our summer house in Mattatuck on the North Fork of Long Island.  I must have been around five or six.  I knew my grandfather's father came from Ireland and I knew that my grandmother was Irish and German and although the german side wasn't mentioned very often, I just found out that my great-great-grandmother's name was Emma and she was born around 1800.  Emma, in 1800.  How amazing is that!

~"The Earth without Art is just eh!"