Schrodinger's Kittie

It seems people using Vista were having issues with accessing the category drop down menu from above.  Any time the drop down would overlap the text in the sidebars or body of the page, they were unable to access the link.

Since I’m not superguru of coding by any stretch of the imagination, I moved Categories from the upper links and put them as a hierarchy on the left.  This, sadly, meant a removal of my widget that shared photos with you. However, this way, every visitor to the page can now access all the categories.

For those of you who liked the text quotes that rotated through with the pictures, you can now find them on my page “Quotes” from the drop down Main at the top of the page.

I went out a bit early, last night, to check out the lessons that they have at GCS. I have a friend who’s made noises about learning to dance and I wanted to see if this might be a good place for him to take lessons. I certainly can’t teach him. I think this would work.

The guy who instructs is very clear and explains why you are doing what you are doing. He walks you through each section of a dance step, including spins and turns, very carefully and without music. After you do it a few times without music, together, he then puts on some music and takes you through it a couple of times again. He was teaching a step I’m not too horribly keen on – I’d much rather one step to those types of songs for the most part.

I wound up dancing the jitterbug just about every time one got played. I love that dance, and adore Romero for teaching me. It’s just so fun. The last one we danced, I swear I was laughing through the whole thing.

I enjoyed the night so much, actually, that I was out until after 1am just dancing and talking and generally enjoying myself. Of course, I didn’t enjoy the alarm clock being obnoxious a few hours later – but, it was worth it.

Aside from just flat out loving to dance…I’m really coming to like and sincerely appreciate the group of people I get to hang out with and chat with on these nights. I think it’s a little ironic. I go from doing nothing but working and going home and playing my games/knitting/reading…to working and then being out 5 nights a week. When I decide to do something, I dive right in.

It was the same way with smoking (in an opposite sort of way). I decided to stop smoking – I stopped. Just like that, yes. I decided to keep a tight rein on my drinking – I keep a tight rein on my drinking. I finally decided to stop biting my nails – I stopped biting my nails.

I don’t know – it’s kind of like there is some little mental trigger, and when I finally reach a decision…that’s it. There’s no equivocating, no back and forth, no struggle…it’s just how it is. Period.

Of course, changing my mind after I make a decision is like an uphill battle in full plate armor with boiling oil pouring down on your head and bees inside your helm…but, that’s another story.

Edit: My friend Kate commented:

Don’t forget the hot lava flowing down the hill which burns you bit by bit. Until you realize that despite the fact that you started out to change [Kittie's] mind, you’ve now been worn down into a little stump of charred ash that agrees with her.

For those of you who have known me for a while, you know I started this really simple, really classic, comfy sweater about 8 months ago. From a site that was called The Garter Belt. Sadly, when I tried to go there, today, to link it – the site is no longer up. The beautiful thing about it is…I got far enough in the sweater that I can pretty much figure out how to finish it even without the pattern – though I’m going to have to design the edging for the neck, and that will be a first for me. Well, actually – with the exception of the arms, I’ll have to design the rest of it. However! I have the cast on, the gauge and the correct length and tapering (and number/type of decreases) that I want – which I’d already modified from the original anyway…I never can leave well enough alone.

The sweater was moving along amazingly fast for me – I’m a slow knitter. I had one sleeve done and was starting on the other when I realized I was about to run out of a skein and went to my closet stash to get more…and couldn’t find it. I turned my house upside down looking for that yarn. You know how stashes never stay in one place, right? Yeah, don’t look under/behind/around things – you never know when that ball of yarn will attack. Finally, I threw my hands up and figured it went to Tahiti without me; and, thus the sweater has been sitting in its WIP bowl on my table for the last 4 months while I try to figure out what to do with it.

I have lost the pattern, the site I bought it from is no longer up – so I either keep it as is and recreate with another yarn by careful reverse engineering…or I get mullheaded and stick it out because that hemp has to come home sometime…right? Did I mention it’s a discontinued, no label, no company information yarn? Yeah…all I know is from memory – it’s 100% hemp.

Well…I’m not a Tauren for nothing. I stuck it out. And guess what I discovered in my stash closet, right up front, where you couldn’t miss it? Snuggled in cozy as you please and looking more relaxed than I’d ever seen it? You got it in one. The hemp yarn had come home. No apologies for the abrupt disappearance. Not a word of pacification. Just a drowsy yawn and a languid wave. *sniffs* Worse yet…not even a souvenir. I’ll forgive it, though – because I can now finish this sweater…in the hemp yarn I started it in.

In other news…
(more…)